(3) The Dahcotah race punish an adultress by cutting off
her nose, or scarring it; or by taking away a part of her
scalp.

(4) The tents or lodges of the Dahcotah race are made of
half dressed buffalo skins, and may therefore be cut to pieces.
It is common to destroy these dwellings, and to shoot horses
or dogs, to revenge an injury. This is a matter of course.
The party within always sit still while their tent is destroyed,
and retaliate in kind afterwards.

(5) Winktah. A winktah is a man who dresses in feminine
garb, and performs all female avocations. A winktah is
often married like a woman, and is held in the utmost contempt.
A Dahcotah may bear the terms of dog, coward, and
old woman, or receive a stab, without showing resentment;
but the name of Winktah he never forgives.

(6) Medicine Dance. The healing art is so blended
with magic in Indian minds, that one word expresses both.
Their medicines are exhibited with prayers and incantations,
and physic is, in their opinion, something supernatural. A
medicine dance, as mentioned in the text, is simply a religious
ceremony.

(7) Soldier's Lodge. In large Dahcotah camps, a lodge
called the soldier's lodge is set apart for councils, and the
reception of strangers. The women supply it with wood and
water, &c, but are not permitted to enter. The Soldiers are
a kind of police, appointed to maintain order, and enforce the
regulations.

(8) A mistake; it should be (8) Indians seldom refuse a
child anything. In cases where the avenger of blood is implacable,
a child is taught to plead for the guilty person.

(9) The Indians reckon it more honorable to strike on the
body of an enemy than to kill him. In Indian battles, a
warrior frequently falls at the flash of his opponent's gun, as
if dead; and when he comes to take the scalp, rises and kills
him. Therefore they say, that a coward may shoot a man
at a distance, but that it reqshes a brave man to touch him.
To strike on a fortified place, as in the text, is the same as
striking on an enemy. So far is this opinion carried, that
many accompany war parties without weapons, merely to
achieve this feat. The first, second, and third, who strike,
share the honor among them.

[figure description] Page 282.[end figure description]

(1) A tribute to the Great Spirit. Indians worship
at rocks, remarkable for their size or form. They leave
offerings to the supreme being upon them; usually tobacco,
or worn out clothing, but seldom anything of value. The
rocks themselves are addressed by the title of grandfather,
and with great respect.

(2) Master of Life, Master of Breath, and Great Spirit,
are the Indian titles of the supreme being.

(3) When the dog was devoured. Indians believe
that brutes have souls as well as men. They burn the bones
of dogs, bears, and some other animals, fearing that the spirits
of the deceased brutes will be angered by any disrespect or
insult that might be casually offered to their remains.

(4) I will throw away my body. Nothing is more
common among the Northwestern aborigines, than to imagine
themselves doomed to sorrow and dool. A run of bad luck
in hunting, or two or three successive failures, are sufficient
to produce this effect. On such occasions they perform
voluntary penance, which frequently extends to the loss of
life.

(5) The Dahcotahs sometimes bury their dead, but more
frequently expose them on scaffolds, or in the branches of
trees. In the latter case, it is said that the bones are afterwards
interred; we believe without truth, never having witnessed
it. The arms, &c, of a warrior, are buried or exposed
with him: formerly, a horse was sacrificed, that the deceased
might reach his future place of abode on horseback.
In old times, prisoners were put to death also, that the departed
might not want slaves in the next world. The Winnebagoes
have observed this rite within the remembrance of
many persons now living. When the corpse of a female is
disposed of, her implements of labor accompany it. The

[figure description] Page 283.[end figure description]

men mourn for their dead relations by wounding their arms,
blackening their faces, &c. The women cut their limbs
with flints and knives. We have known mortification to
take place in consequence of the severity of these self-imposed
afflictions. In one instance we have seen death ensue.
The demonstration of grief is never so energetic as when stimulated
by the use of ardent spirits. The mourning is renewed
at every recurrence of intoxication, and they often
beg for whiskey `to make them cry.'

(1) Struck the post. Previous to the departure of a
war party, a post is set up, on which the warriors strike
alternately, and sing the deeds they have done, or mean to
do. It is often done too, in profound peace. The post is not
indispensable, and they often perform the ceremony without
taking the trouble to plant it, but it is nevertheless called
`striking the post.'

(2) He had lighted his match, &c. This is explained
in note (4) to The Captive.

(3) It is the duty of an Indian wife, when her husband
returns from the chase, to take off his moccasins and leggins;
to dry, and mend them if they require it.

(4) Usually, when an Indian kills a deer, or other animal,
he leaves it on the ground, and sends the women to bring it
home. He considers any labor beneath the dignity of his
sex.

(5) Which he had stolen, &c. Horse stealing is
considered honorable by all the prairie Indians. In their
lodges it is matter of pride and boast.

(6) The earthen utensil. Before the aborigines
became acquainted with the whites, they boiled their food in
pots of earthen ware. Such are still used by the more
remote Dahcotahs, and the tribes on the Upper Missouri.

[figure description] Page 284.[end figure description]

We have seen some, that evinced considerable taste and
skill in the makers.

(7) I wear ten feathers, &c. For every enemy
slain or struck in battle, the Dahcotahs wear a feather of the
war eagle. The full dress of a Siou is a history of his life;
every part expressing some action or relation.

(8) Kodah. This is a singular connection. An Indian
considers the blood relatives of his Kodah his own. Thus,
his father and brethren are in the same relation to his Kodah;
and so on to the remotest degree of consanguinity. Kodah
frequently exchange wives, temporarily or permanently, at
their option; and it excites no scandal.

(1) In the Indian trade, he who is entrusted with an outfit
is called a clerk, whether he can write or read, or not.

(2) Brigade of canoes. In the northwest a large
number of canoes is called a brigade.

(3) Lyed corn and grease. Lyed corn is maize,
boiled in strong lye to get the hulls off. A quart of lyed
corn and a gill of tallow, or grease of any kind, is the daily
ration of the engagés.

(4) I was at my fort. In the Indian country every
trading house is called a fort.

(5) I have hold on your heart. One of the few
figurative expressions the Indians use, meaning `I love you.'

(6) His face painted black. A black face signifies
grief, or an intention of revenge.

(7) Drew his blanket over his head. An Indian
considers it essential to his reputation to be at all times ready
to die. Endurance, in his opinion, is more honorable than
resistance.

[figure description] Page 285.[end figure description]

[Note Extra.] There being no accented capitals
in this Printing Office, the word brulé has been printed
throughout without the final acute é.

(1) Bois Brules, is the name given to the half-breeds,
in the Indian country.

(2) Pemican is thus made. The flesh of the deer or
buffalo is cut into very thin slices, and hung in the smoke of
a lodge till perfectly exsicated. It is then beaten to powder
in a wooden mortar, and mixed in equal parts with tallow, or
what is better, marrow-fat. It is a nutritious food, and when
well made will keep two years.

(3) Blackbirds abound all over the country west of the
Mississippi and north of the Missouri. Wherever grain is
sown they assemble in incredible numbers, and destroy it
in the milk.

(4) Allume. The voyageurs stop at the end of every
league to rest and smoke. A league is, in their diction, a
pipe. Their admeasurement commonly exceeds the truth,
by a third. We have read in the journal of a sapient English
traveller, that `a pipe' is the distance a man may walk
while a pipe is being smoked.

(5) Lamed by the weight of their snow shoes.
Every one who has travelled an hundred miles on snow
shoes will understand this.

(6) Such conduct as is attributed to La Verdure in the
text is not unfrequently seen in the Northwest. We could
bring proofs that our narrative is literally true, with the exception
only of names.

(7) The children of the very remote Indians are often as
much alarmed at the first sight of a white, as our infants
might be at seeing an Indian.

[figure description] Page 286.[end figure description]

(8) Dog sledges are the most approved and common vehicles
of draught and transportation, in the region of prairie.
Three dogs will draw the carcass of a buffalo.

(9) The enormities detailed in the text were actually
committed. If any person doubts, let him refer to Lord
Selkirk's book.

(10) This is fact.

(11) The Red River is very crooked. A man may, by
intersecting the points, walk farther in one hour than a boat
can go in three.

(12) Whiskey is the ultimate argument with all Indians
that have once tasted it. With ardent spirits they can be
bribed to commit any villany. It is thus that Indian traders
use it, to their moral destruction. The remote tribes get too
little to do them any physical harm.

(13) The buffaloes emigrated. No living can be
more precarious than that which depends on hunting the
buffalo. They are constantly migrating.

(14) To avoid being scented, &c. The scent of the
buffalo is very acute. He is not much alarmed at the sight
of a human being at a distance, but if a man gets to windward
of him he takes to flight immediately.

(15) The speed of a cabri. The animal called by the
voyaguers the cabri, is found only in the prairies. It is of the
goat kind, smaller than a deer, and so swift that neither horse
nor dog can overtake it.

(16) The Indian whose medal, &c. Indian agents
for the British and American governments confer silver
medals on the chiefs, which, as they cannot add much to
their importance, are little esteemed. The British medal
has on one side the arms of the United Kingdoms, and on
the other the head of his Majesty. The American medal
bears the effigy of the President for the time being, and a
pipe and tomahawk crossed.

(17) To prevent the iron head from coming off.
Arrow heads are barbed, and are fastened to their shafts with
sinews, and a kind of glue, which is apt to dissolve at a moderate
temperature.

(18) Anything lost in a Yankton camp, may be recovered
by hiring a soldier to cry the loss, as described in the text.

[figure description] Page 287.[end figure description]

Indian dogs are never fed, and therefore devour all the moccasins,
saddles, &c. they can get at.

(19) The lodge of the Grand Medicine. The
Grand Medicine of the Dahcotahs is an institution in some
respects like Free Masonry. Its rites are celebrated in
secret, and it has its signs and insignia by which its members
are known to each other. It differs from Free Masonry, in
that women are among the initiated.

If the reader should think, that the depravity exhibited
by some of the characters in the Bois Brule unnatural,
we assure him that the incidents are mainly true. The outline
is consistent with the history of the Northwest; the embellishments
and filling up, are our own.

(1) A rabid wolf. In the dog days, hydrophobia sometimes
occurs among the canine tenants of the prairies. In
such cases, the fox and wolf forget their natural timidity,
without losing their instinctive sagacity.

(2) Thou hast driven me to wish for the approach
of death, as for the coming winter. Winter
is the Indian season of enjoyment. It is in winter that
the aborigines hunt.

(1) See note (5) to The Devoted.

(2) After two sleeps. The Indians compute time and
distance (in travelling) by the number of times they sleep.

(3) Firing across a boat (with ball) is the Indian way of
bringing her to.

[figure description] Page 288.[end figure description]

(4) Set it on fire. The summer, or permanent villages
of the northwestern aborigines, are built of bark, and
may, therefore, be easily fired.

(1) Pipe, or league. See note (4) to the Bois Brulé.

(2) Two guns on each shoulder. Tradition says,
four.

(3) Natooessies signifies, in the Chippeway tongue, the
enemy. As the Dahcotahs and Chippeways have been at
war from time immemorial, the term is natural.

(4) The great medicine bag. Every Indian has his
medicine bag, which contains articles which he considers sacred.
The medicine bag in the text belonged to the institution
of the Grand Medicine.

(5) By right of having taken the first scalp.
Among the Chippeways, he (of a war party) who has been
the first to take a scalp, returns at the head of all, and has
the first honor.

(6) This anecdote is well authenticated, or we should have
hardly ventured to record it.

(1) The oldest child of a Dahcotah family is called, if a
boy, Cheskay, if a girl, Weenoona; the second, if a boy,
Haypon, if a girl, Habpahn, &c, as far as the fifth child. Besides
these names, which only serve to mark the family relation,
they have others.

(2) The Indians chew their bullets, to make them cut a
bigger hole. When one of them lodges in any animal, the
pain and irritation is much greater than that caused by a
smooth ball.

[figure description] Blank Page.[end figure description]

[figure description] Blank Page.[end figure description]