Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 V13.djvu/265

 These feather mantles were, within the recollection of the oldest men, once used by the Cherokees, as I learnt whilst among them. There is, {194} therefore, nothing extraordinary in the discovery of these garments around the bodies which had been interred in the nitre caves of Kentucky. Presents of these "mantels" as they are called by Purchas, now superceded by European blankets, were perpetually offered to Soto, throughout the course of his expedition, and are still made use of by the natives of the north-west coast. Nor is there any thing in this invention beyond the common ingenuity of man, guarding himself against the inclemencies of climate. To assert that all men were of the same race, because they had all invented a somewhat similar clothing, is quite as futile, as the same conclusion would be in consideration of their all being born naked.[201]

The principal food of the present Indians, who inhabit the west side of the Mississippi, is the bison, which they prepare in a very commodious way, without the use of salt, by cutting it up into broad and thin slices, which are dried on a scaffold over a slow fire, and afterwards folded up in the manner of peltries, so as to be equally portable. The tallow is rendered into skins or cases, like the utriculi, or leathern bottles of the ancients, the whole animal being skinned through the aperture of the neck. In this way, they also collect with convenience the honey and bear's oil, which is the produce of their forests.

From the general absence of religious ceremony, and the unostentatious character of devotion among the