From the teamsters Bartlett learned that the horsemen were Missouris--a branch of the Sioux--and accordingly he stood up in the waggon and began hesitatingly to address the foremost in what he had already mastered of the Siouan dialect. The effect should have been flattering; they didn't give him "three cheers," their education in that form of enthusiasm being as yet imperfect; but they smiled encouragingly and turned their spears points downwards, while the more demonstrative pressed up to him, patted his shoulders, his ribs, and his leggings, telling him that he was a great man, a wise chief, and a "good medicine"--whatever that might mean. Three men who appeared, from their more ornate dress, to be rulers among the tribe, now turned and gave some directions to those who were coming up behind them; and, as these rode forward, Bartlett noticed that every man of the division that had stayed to cut up the carcases carried one or more semi-globular lumps of bison-beef on his saddle-bow; and it was to bestow some of these lumps on the stranger that the chief had called them. In a couple of minutes the footboard was like a butcher's stall, for meat enough lay there to feed the four occupants of the waggon for about a month. On Bartlett's asking where was the best place to cross the river, a chief told him there was a ferry fourteen miles farther, to which the troop would have great pleasure in escorting him. [Illustration: A BISON SURROUND The Indians would surround a herd of bison and wantonly kill every member of it. They would cut off the hump only, leaving the rest of the carcase for wolves and coyotes.] "We have finished our hunting for the day, and are going home to our camp, which is a few miles this side of the river," he said. "Finished?" reiterated Bartlett. "Then who is going to carry the game home?" He pointed to the carcase-crowded valley. "Oh, _those_ are for the coyotes and wolves," said the oldest chief contemptuously. "Then why kill so many?" The chief pointed to one of the blocks of meat. "That is all that we care to eat; and just now we have no need of hides or hoofs, so we can afford to leave those." The meat that had been cut away was just the "hump" of the animal; the raised portion of the withers. In his old age, Mr. Bartlett was not surprised to hear naturalists and sportsmen bewailing the scarcity of bisons after what he saw that day, and on many subsequent occasions. The Indians had surrounded and slain a whole herd, with the wanton love of destruction that the child and the savage usually display. They were in the habit of using the horns for spear-heads, and the hoofs to make the glue with which they fixed their arrow-points; but here were enough horns and glue to equip a dozen regiments of Indians--and all left to waste and rot. The ferry was reached before dark; the Indians were rewarded with bits of finery, and a plug or two of tobacco, and went on their way.