Page:A Topographical Description of the State of Ohio, Indiana Territory, and Louisiana.djvu/184

174 at the falls of Saint Anthony, or from traders: and also for horses, mules, dried meat, and other articles. Their principal customers are the Sioux, the Chein Indians, Watapahatoes, Gens-dis-vatch, Kite, and Dotame, the most of whom, except the Sioux, reside on the river Chein. This nation was once very numerous, and consisted of ten tribes of the Panis, who reside on the river La Plate, and whose tongue they speak in somewhat of different accent. They have now not much over five hundred warriors; having been reduced from five thousand warriors, to their present number, in less than thirty years, by the small pox and attacks of their enemies; particularly by the Sioux, who have got them so far under subjection, that they dare not offend them, and are frequently robbed, plundered, and even murdered, without daring to resent it. This information was given me by an old chief of the lower villages.

Above the Sioux river, and between that and the River Sacque, is a small hill, destitute of timber, which the natives say is inhabited by spirits, in shape of human beings, of a very diminutive size, not being, according to their description, more than six or eight inches high. Respecting these bodily spirits they have a number of ridiculous fancies. An old chief told me, with great gravity, that the occasion of their coming and living on this hill, was, because the Indians, a great many winters ago, were so wicked