Page:A Topographical Description of the State of Ohio, Indiana Territory, and Louisiana.djvu/191

181, which is above the great bend of the Missouri, is situated on a pleasant interval, covered with cotton wood and cedar. Is built and fortified in the same manner as those of the Rus.

Here a sight, new to me, and exceedingly disagreeable, arrested my attention as soon as I came in view of the village. This was their manner of depositing the bodies of the dead. Immediately after my arrival I had an opportunity of witnessing the funeral ceremonies practised by these people, which was in the following manner. A dead body was brought out of a hut, and laid on the ground before it, dressed in its best apparel, and wrapped in a buffaloe robe. The relations and principal part of the people in the village, assembled around it. A fire was then made, and the sacred stem, or pipe, was brought and lighted. The deceased having been a warrior, an eulogy of considerable length was pronounced by his brother, in which he impressed on their minds, the great importance which the deceased man had been to their nation; rehearsed his war exploits, and concluded by urging all to follow his example, and to become of equal usefulness to their tribe. Then they would be sure of following and becoming companions of him, and all the other great warriors, which had died before, in the world of spirits. After this address was closed, provisions were brought out, consisting of boiled dog's flesh, of which the company just 16