•373 EXPEDITIOM TO Till; 



would be prepossessing. Among the many Dacotas with 

 whom we have met, few present any remarkable expression 

 of cunning, still less those dreadful looks which distin- 

 guished the Potawatomi partizan, Metea. Their faces are 

 faithful indices to the equanimity of their souls; yet the 

 action of the muscles and the bones of the face are not 

 concealed, as they often are in the white man, by a load of 

 flesh. This, together with his deep sunk eye, renders the 

 Indian capable, on great provocation, of assuming and ex- 

 hibiting the most terrific passion. On the right of the chief 

 sate one who is held in high veneration by his tribe, being 

 the greatest medicine or magic man among them. His 

 cures are considered as miraculous •, they are wrought by 

 spells as well as by herbs, with which he is considered to 

 be very conversant. In his countenance it was not difficult 

 to discover a mixed expression of knavery and h)'pocrisy. 

 Soon after our arrival at the lodge, an Indian entered it, 

 whom it required but little skill in physiognomy, to mark 

 out immediately as a stranger ; his complexion was at least 

 one shade darker than that of the Dacotas ; his features 

 differed materially ; his face was rounder and shorter ; his 

 mouth was wider ; his eyes had more of the European 

 than native American character; he appeared to be very 

 old ; his locks were hoary ; his face bore perhaps the cha- 

 racter of an old Frenchman, more than of any other nation. 

 We were informed that he was an Assiniboin, who had 

 been made a prisoner many years since. He seemed to be 

 kindly treated, though a sort of butt for the jokes of the 

 Dacotas, whether men, women, or children. After the 

 customary preliminaries of shaking of hands, smoking the 

 pipe of peace, &c. we proceeded to the feast, which was 

 found excellent. The buffalo meat had been selected with 

 Care, the fat and lean judiciously portioned out, the whole 



