Professor Keating, in his interesting work on the expedition to Peter's River, states that he and a party of American officers were regaled in a large pavilion on buffalo meat, and 'tepsia', a vegetable boiled in buffalo grease, and the flesh of three dogs kept for the occasion, and without any salt. They partook of the flesh of the dogs with a mixture of curiosity and reluctance, and found it to be remarkably fat, sweet, and palatable, divested of any strong taste, and resembling the finest Welsh mutton, but of a darker colour. So strongly rooted, however, are the prejudices of education, that few of them could be induced to eat much of it. The feast being over, great care was taken to replace the bones in their proper places in the dish, after which they were carefully washed and buried, as a token of respect to the animals generally, and because there was the belief among them that at some future time they would return again to life. Well-fattened puppies are frequently sold; and an invitation to a feast of dog's meat is the greatest distinction that can be offered to a stranger by any of the Indian nations east of the Rocky Mountains. [Notwithstanding the Indians occasionally eat their dogs either through necessity or when they wish to pay a marked tribute of respect to their gods, or prepare a feast of friendship with strangers, they value them very highly, and do not by any means consider their flesh superior to that of the buffaloes or other animals of the chase. Mr. Catlin remarks, that "the dog, amongst all Indian tribes, is more esteemed and more valued than amongst any part of the civilized world: the Indian, who has more time to devote to his company, and whose untutored mind more nearly assimilates to that of his faithful domestic, keeps him closer company and draws him nearer his heart: they hunt together and are equal sharers in the chase--their bed is one; and on the rocks and on their coats of arms they carve his image as the symbol of fidelity." (Vol. I., p. 230.) On visiting the Sioux, they prepared for this gentleman as a token of regard a dog feast, previous to partaking of which they addressed him in a manner that plainly exhibits the veneration in which they held these faithful animals, at the same time forcibly demonstrating the peculiar circumstances under which they alone are willing to destroy them: "My father, I hope you will have pity upon us; we are very poor. We offer you to-day not the best we have got; for we have a plenty of good buffalo hump and marrow; but we give you our hearts in this feast, we have killed our faithful dogs to feed you, and the Great Spirit will seal our friendship. I have no more to say." (Vol. I., p. 229.)--L.]