The men of my nation, the Minnitarees, believed that the bones of the
bison, which they had slain and divested of their flesh, rose again,
clothed with renewed flesh, and quickened with life, and became fat and
fit for slaughter in the succeeding hot month. To us it appeared
incomprehensible that thousands should be slaughtered every year by the
many tribes of red men that roam over the country of the bisons, yet
that they should increase yearly. When we asked our priests about this,
they replied that they did not die, but rose again from the plains and
the _prairies_, the same in flesh and form as when they were slaughtered
and stripped by us. For a long time, very few of us believed the words
of the priests, they had lied to us so often.
Once upon a time a party of the people of our nation, who were out upon
a hunting-excursion, lost one of their number, a boy, and returned to
the village lamenting his loss. Believing him to have been killed or
taken prisoner by the cruel Sioux, with whom they were then at war, and
who had been seen prowling about their village they assembled a
war-party, and set out to avenge his death. They had marched a weary
way, and were just entering the country of the Sioux, when they espied a
herd of bisons, one of which they succeeded in killing. Guess their
astonishment, when, on opening the belly of the animal, they found the
long-lost boy, alive, well, sleek, and hearty, after having been
imprisoned there one entire year. Relieved from his captivity in the
belly of the bison, the boy told us how it happened.
He said that when he left his hunting, companions, he proceeded onward a
considerable distance in search of game, till he found a bison, which he
was so fortunate as to kill. He removed the flesh from one side of the
animal, but had not time to remove that from the other side, when night
came on, and a great rain set in. Finding that he could not reach his
village that night, and it being in the middle of a prairie, where no
bark or branches could be had with which to form a hut, he was for some
time at a loss to know what he should do to avoid the pelting of the
storm which raged in the skies. At last, he bethought himself of a
method, which was, to remove the entrails from the bison, and creep into
the hollow space: he did so. But, during the night, and while he slept,
the flesh of the bison that he had cut off grew over the side again. In
the morning when he awoke he found himself in darkness. For many nights
there was no motion of the animal. At last the various intestines and
viscera began to grow. He felt from time to time with his hands to learn
their increase, rightly judging that, when they had arrived at full
size, the animal would return to life. That period at length arrived.
His residence began to grow warm, at first moderately so, but increasing
in heat till respiration became difficult. At length he began to feel
with his hand a pulsation in the heart of the animal, and to hear the
sound of wind in its veins, its arteries, and its intestines. Soon he
found himself rocking about as a canoe is tossed on the waves of the
great water; and then he knew the animal had returned to the full
enjoyment of life.