[14] There are two streams in the Minitaree country now bearing the names respectively of Knife River and Little Knife River. The former flows from the west and debouches in Mercer County, North Dakota, just above Lewis and Clark's camp (Fort Mandan) in the winter of 1804-05. Little Knife River flows from the northeast; its mouth is at the northern line of the Fort Berthold Indian reservation.—ED. A person one day walking near the other mount, fancied he observed upon the top of it, two very small children. Thinking they had strayed from the village, he ran towards them to induce them to return home; but they immediately fled from him, nor could his utmost speed overtake them, and in a short time they eluded his sight. Returning to the village, the relation of his story excited much interest, and an Indian set out next day, mounted on a fleet horse, to take the little strangers. On the approach of this individual to the mount, he also saw the children, who ran away as before, and although he endeavoured to overtake them by lashing the horse into {254} his utmost swiftness, the children left him far behind. But these children are no longer to be seen, and the hill once of singular efficacy in rendering the human species prolific, has lost this remarkable property—A change, which the magi attribute to the moral degeneracy of the present generation of the _Gros ventres_. Thus, like many of the asserted supernatural occurrences in the civilized world, these are referred back, in their obscure tradition, "out of harm's way." Lewis and Clark, however, inform us, that the Sioux have a belief somewhat similar, respecting a hill near Whitestone River,[15] which they fable to be at present occupied by a small and dangerous race of people, about eighteen inches high, and with remarkably large heads, who, having killed three Omawhaws a few years since, have inspired all the neighbouring Indians with a superstitious dread. Although these intrepid travellers visited the haunted hill, they were happy enough to escape the vengeance of its Lilliputian inhabitants. [15] The present Vermillion River, of Clay County, South Dakota.—ED. With this absurd, but somewhat poetical fable, may be classed the asserted discovery of Lilliputian skeletons of men on the banks of the Merameg river, and the osteological acumen of the discoverers of those relics, may derive all the support which their theory is susceptible of receiving, from the story of these visionary beings.