178 EXrEDITlON TO THE 



lage, dei?ignated by the name of Wa-kt'sa. (little bend,) 

 from its situation at one of the bends of the Kishwake. It 

 consisted of four lodges, the population of which was com- 

 puted to amount to at least sixty persons, as there were 

 many crowded into one lodge ; the village is chiefly inha- 

 bited by Menomones, with a few Potawatomis who have in- 

 termarried with them. We stopped at the lodge of the 

 chief, whose name is K'i-k'&-k^'-sh'a, (Crow.) He, toge- 

 ther with many of his people, was engaged in his corn- 

 fields; on seeing the strangers, they gave the dog- whoop, 

 and collected at the house at which we had stopped. 

 They were all tall and muscular men, well built, and bet- 

 ter looking than the Potawatomis generally are; their 

 countenance was agreeable, and denoted none of that seve- 

 rity about the mouth which Volney ascribes to those whom 

 he saw. The chief is a very old man and quite bald ; at 

 the time he approached us he had a child-board on his 

 back, in which he carried his little grandson. Although 

 advanced in years, Kakakesha had none of the decrepitude 

 of old age ; there was much dignity in his manner. The 

 women were all very ugly, and the children looked like 

 little imps, in whose countenance, and apparently deformed 

 bodies, we could scarcely discover the embryo of men as 

 tall and elegant as those who stood before us. Most of their 

 youth had gone out on a hunting excursion. The men whom 

 we saw were almost naked, having no other garment than 

 the breech-cloth, but as we drew near them they gathered 

 up their blankets ; the women had a sort of short-gown and 

 a blanket ; the children ran about naked, with no other ap- 

 pendage than a belt round their loins. It is curious to ob- 

 serve that all Indians, whether old or young, wear a belt, 

 even when they have nothing to attach to it ; and the chil- 

 dren, who seldom assume the breech-cloth until they at- 



