It is remarked by hunters, and appears to be an established fact, that the odour of a white man is more terrifying to wild animals, particularly the bison, than that of an Indian. This animal, in the course of its periodic migrations, comes into the immediate {168} neighbourhood of the permanent Indian villages, on the Missouri and the Platte. One was seen by our hunters within six miles of the Grand Pawnee village, and immediately about the towns we saw many heads and skeletons of such as had been killed there the preceding spring. They had come in while the Pawnees were absent on their winter's hunt, and at their return, we were informed, they found the bisons immediately about their villages. They disappeared invariably from the neighbourhood of the white settlements within a few years. We are aware that another cause may be found for this than the frightful scent of the white man, which is, the impolitic exterminating war which he wages against all unsubdued animals within his reach. It would be highly desirable that some law for the preservation of game might be extended to, and rigidly enforced in the country where the bison is still met with; that the wanton destruction of these valuable animals, by the white hunters, might be checked or prevented. It is common for hunters to attack large herds of these animals, and having slaughtered as many as they are able, from mere wantonness and love of this barbarous sport, to leave the carcasses to be devoured by the wolves and birds of prey; thousands are slaughtered yearly, of which no part is saved except the tongues. This inconsiderate and cruel practice is undoubtedly the principal reason why the bison flies so far and so soon from the neighbourhood of our frontier settlements. It is well known to those in the least degree conversant with the Indians, that the odour which their bodies exhale, though very strong and peculiar, is by no means unpleasant,[117] at least to most persons. A negro in the employment of the Missouri Fur Company, and living at Fort Lisa, was often heard to complain of the intolerable scent of the squaws; in like manner, the Indians find the odour of a white man extremely offensive. In the language of the {169} Peruvian Indians, are three words to express their idea of the smell of the European, the aboriginal American, and the negro. They call the first _Pezuna_, the second _Posco_, and the third _Grajo_.[118] [117] We may add on this subject the testimony of Lawson, the early historian of North Carolina. After describing the huts of the native inhabitants, he adds, "These dwellings are as hot as stoves, where the Indians sleep and sweat all night; yet I never felt any ill unsavory smell in their cabins, whereas should we live in our houses as they do, we should be poisoned with our own nastiness; which confirms the Indians to be, as they really are, some of the sweetest people in the world." New Voyage to Carolina, p. 177. London, 4to. 1709.—JAMES.