Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (1907 Volume 6).djvu/143

 train of dogs were employed in dragging their baggage, tent poles, &c. On the great hunting parties, the women are employed in preserving the hides, drying the meat, and making provisions to serve them during winter. Very {178} little of the buffaloe is lost, for after taking the marrow, they pound the bones, boil them, and extract the oil. We stopped with them some time, made them a few presents of tobacco and knives, and then proceeded. This evening, the Mandan chief She-he-ke, who had accompanied Lewis and Clark to the United States, came to us with his wife and son, a small boy. He is a fine looking Indian, and very intelligent—his complexion fair, very little different from that of a white man much exposed to the sun. His wife had also accompanied him—has a good complexion and agreeable features. They had returned home loaded with presents, but have since fallen into disrepute from the extravagant tales which they related as to what they had witnessed; for the Mandans treat with ridicule the idea of there being a greater or more numerous people than themselves. He is a man of a mild and gentle disposition—expressed a wish to come and live amongst the whites, and spoke sensibly of the insecurity, the ferocity of manners, and the ignorance, of the state of society in which he was placed. He is rather inclining to corpulency, a little talkative, which is regarded {179} amongst the Indians as a great defect; add to this, his not being much celebrated as a warrior; such celebrity can alone confer authority and importance, or be regarded meritorious in this state of society. Encamped this evening on a beautiful meadow, the soil extremely rich. Immediately beyond it, there are some high hills, and on the points detached masses of granite and pebbles.

Wednesday 26th. Continued our voyage through a beautiful country, on both sides of the river. In the afternoon passed by all five of the Mandan villages, which are situ