31st. We had a heavy shower last night, a perfect deluge, but it was
needed, for the country was very dry. We have passed several Indian
villages to-day, belonging to the Yanktaw Sioux. One village had about
forty lodges in it. The Sioux are a noble race and very friendly, and
appear to be as much civilized as their neighbors near the settlement,
that is they know how to beg to perfection. They lately had a fight
with the Pawnees, in which they were victorious, and took a great many
ponies, which are now feeding around the wigwams. One of them came in
with a pony loaded with buffalo meat while I was in their wigwam. I saw
some Indian burials, to-day. They bury on a platform raised from the
ground, on poles about eight feet high. The poles are set up in the
form of a pyramid, and are fastened together at the top, where also is
hung the medicine bag of the chief. The body is wrapped in buffalo
robes, and a cloth made of bark, enclosing also a quantity of buffalo
meat, and other provisions to last him on his journey to the spirit
land, and his arrows to shoot with on the way. When all the preparation
is complete, the body is laid upon the platform, to moulder or dry up
as may be, in the sun, until the robes get off when the ravens may
finish it. This one that I went to see to-day, smelt so bad that I
could not approach very near to it without holding my nose, and then it
was very offensive. It was a chief who had been killed in the recent
fight with the Pawnees.
_June 1st._ We had more rain last night. Passed several springs to-day,
and saw some scattering trees on the bluffs. We now find great
quantities of lizards; they are small, being about three inches long,
and very sprightly and active little things, and the boys have much fun
in chasing them. We passed some more Sioux and Chienes wigwams to-day;
or as the Indians themselves pronounce it, Siuk. We had a heavy
wind-squall in the afternoon, with some rain. Country still barren,
with but little grass. We camped at night in sight of the famous
Chimney Rock; this rock is quite a curiosity. It is composed of soft
sand stone. It is about one hundred and twenty paces around it at the
base, and about as high as Bunker's Hill monument, and looks very much
like it at a distance. It can be seen at a distance of thirty or forty
miles. We travelled one day and a half after we came in sight of it,
before we came opposite to it. It is said by the French traders to have
been much higher than at present, but is wearing away every year by the
action of the elements. The Court House and county buildings are also
in sight from our camping ground to-night. They are a group of
sandstone bluffs, resembling the objects which they are named from, and
are curiosities worth seeing. They are about twenty miles from us,
perhaps more, but they look as if they were not three miles distant.
All distances here are deceptive, the eye readily taking in objects at
a distance of twenty or thirty miles, the atmosphere being so clear.