The Kaskaia and Kiaway languages are very difficult to acquire a knowledge of. Our interpreter, who had lived several years with them, could only make himself understood by the language of signs, with the aid of a very few words of the Crow language, which many of them appeared to understand. Indeed many of the individuals of these different nations seemed to be ignorant of each other's language; for when they met, they would communicate by means of signs, with now and then an oral interjection, and would thus maintain a conversation, apparently without the least difficulty or misapprehension. These nations are at war with all the Missouri Indians, as far down as the Osages, who are also included amongst their enemies; and it was rumoured that hostilities had recently commenced between them and the Shiennes, upon the river of the same name. {246} Their implements of war consist of the bow and arrow, the lance, war-club, and shield. They usually fight on horseback, and as horsemen display great skill and activity. Their habitations are leather lodges, which serve them as tents on the march, and dwellings at the places of their encampment. Widely diffused as these Indians are, and never embodied, it is impracticable even to conjecture their numbers with any degree of probable accuracy. They rove not only throughout the section above specified, but extensively within the range of the Rocky Mountains. The foregoing remarks concerning the Indians of this part of the country have been made for the most part agreeably to the suggestions of Mr. Say, whose attention was particularly directed to researches of this nature. But having been robbed of his notes upon the customs, manners, traditions, &c. of the western Indians, by the men who deserted from Captain Bell's party, he could give no farther account of them than what his recollection could supply. Of the Konzas, Otoes, Pawnees, and other Indians near the Council Bluff, his notes are considerably extensive; but the vessel on board of which they, with other articles, were shipped from New Orleans, having been obstructed in her passage up the Delaware by ice, we have not yet received them. _Observations embracing several traits of character common to the Indians of the western country_