Travels in North America, From Modern Writers: With Remarks and Observations; Exhibiting a Connected View of the Geography and Present State of that Quarter of the GlobeBingley, William
History
Travels in North America, From Modern Writers: With Remarks and Observations; Exhibiting a Connected View of the Geography and Present State of that Quarter of the Globe
Bingley, William
Canada -- Description and travel; Mexico -- Description and travel; United States -- Description and travel
voyagers retired on board their vessels, accompanied by four of the
chiefs.
In their persons these Indians were rather ugly and ill made, their legs
and arms being peculiarly slender, their cheek-bones high, and their
eyes projecting. The females, with the same character of form, were
somewhat more handsome. Both sexes appeared cheerful and sprightly, but
afforded many indications of being both cunning and vicious. The men
shave the hair off their heads, except a small tuft on the top, which
they suffer to grow, so as to wear it in plats over the shoulders. In
full dress, the principal chiefs wear a hawk's feather, worked with
porcupine-quills, and fastened to the top of the head. Their face and
body are generally painted with a mixture of grease and coal. The hair
of the women is suffered to grow long, and is parted from the forehead,
across the head; at the back of which it is either collected into a kind
of bag, or hangs down over the shoulders. This people seem fond of
finery. Their lodges are very neatly constructed: they consist of about
one hundred cabins, made of white buffalo hides, supported on poles
fifteen or twenty feet high; and, having a larger cabin in the centre,
for councils and for dances. These lodges may be taken to pieces, packed
up, and carried from place to place. The beasts of burden are dogs. Some
of these Indians had their heads shaved, and others had arrows stuck
through their flesh above and below the elbow: these were indications of
mourning.
On Friday the 28th of September, Captains Lewis and Clarke pursued their
voyage up the river; and on the ensuing day, they passed a spot where a
band of _Ricara Indians_ had had a village, about five years before: but
there were now no remains of it, except a mound which encircled the
town.
Beyond this, the country, on the north side of the river, presented an
extensive range of low prairie, covered with timber: on the south were
high and barren hills; but, afterwards, the land assumed the same
character as that on the opposite side. A great number of Indians were
discovered on the hills at a distance: they approached the river, and
proved to be _Tetons_, belonging to the band which the voyagers had just
left. In the course of this day the navigation was much impeded by logs
and sand-bars. The weather was now very cold. The voyagers next passed
the _Chayenne river_, which flowed from the south-west, and the mouth of
which was four hundred yards wide. On both sides of the Missouri, near
this river, are richly timbered lowlands, with naked hills behind them.
In this part of the country the hunters observed a great numbers of
goats, white bears, prairie-cocks or grouse; and a species of quadrupeds
described to resemble a small elk, but to have large, circular horns.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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