Some individual will usually offer his bison to the medicine, either voluntarily, or at the request of a chief, and on the succeeding day it is cooked, and all the distinguished men are invited to partake of the feast. In the operation of butchering, a considerable knowledge of the anatomical structure of the animal is exhibited, in laying open the muscles properly, and extending them out into the widest and most entire surfaces, by a judicious dissection. If they are much pressed by hunger, they in the first place open the flank in order to obtain the kidneys, which are then eaten without waiting for the tardy process of culinary preparation. A hunter who has been unsuccessful, assists some one in skinning and cutting up, after which he thrusts his knife in the part he wishes for his own share, and it is given to him. If the squaws should arrive, the knife is resigned to them, whilst the men retire a short distance from the scene, to smoke and rest themselves. The slaughtered animals are chiefly, and almost exclusively, cows selected from the herd; the bulls being eatable only in the months of May and June. Every eatable part of the animal is carried to the camp and preserved, excepting the feet and the head; but the brains are taken from the skull for the purpose of dressing the skin, or converting it into Indian leather. Those skins which are obtained during this season are known by the name _Summer skins_, and {193} are used in the construction of their skin lodges, and for their personal cloathing for summer wear. Three squaws will transport all the pieces of the carcass of a bison, excepting the skin, to the camp, if the latter is at any moderate distance; and it is their province to prepare the meat, &c. for keeping. The vertebræ are comminuted by means of stone-axes, similar to those which are not unfrequently ploughed up out of the earth in the Atlantic states; the fragments are then boiled, and the rich fat or medulla which rises, is carefully skimmed off and put up in bladders for future use. The muscular coating of the stomach is dried; the smaller intestines are cleaned and inverted, so as to include the fat that had covered their exterior surface, and then dried; the larger intestines, after being cleaned, are stuffed with meat, and cooked for present eating. The meat, with the exception of that of the shoulders, or hump, as it is called, is then dissected with much skill into large thin slices, and dried in the sun, or jerked over a slow fire on a low scaffold. The bones of the thighs, to which a small quantity of flesh is left adhering, are placed before the fire until the meat is sufficiently roasted, when they are broken, and the meat and marrow afford a most delicious repast. These, together with the tongue and hump, are esteemed the best parts of the animals.