Page:A Topographical Description of the State of Ohio, Indiana Territory, and Louisiana.djvu/193

183 and beautiful appearance. The lodge of the head chief was sixty feet in diameter, elegantly lined with furs, and the seats, which are also used as beds, were covered with the grizzly bear and buffaloe skins. These people keep their lodges and buildings in a state of great neatness. They cultivate the same kind of produce with the Rus, and carry on a trade with the roving Indians, who occasionally visit them. The Mandans and Gross-Ventres live in great friendship, although they speak different languages; and it is necessary they should, for their villages are not more than six miles apart. The Mandans speak the same tongue of the Osage, but have a different accent, and dialect. They were once a numerous, warlike people, but have been reduced by the small pox, and by their enemies, the Sioux, to less than four hundred warriors.

On the the 13th, we left the Mandans, and arrived at the Gross-Ventres village, which is on the lower side of Batteau river, and is called the Meniture village. Another village, called Meni-tar-u-miti-ha-tah, is situated on the upper side of Batteau river. These villages are larger than the Mandans, built in the same manner, and containing about six hundred warriors, and about twenty-five hundred inhabitants. They were formerly more numerous, but the small pox has made its ravages among them. These people deposit their dead in the same manner as the Mandans, but at a greater distance from their