AN INDIAN ORGIE. 371 



On a carpet of verdure the cloth was speedily laid ; and 

 while the women washed the entrails of the bisons in the 

 waters of the lake, the men dug a series of holes in the 

 ground, and placed in each hole a layer of stones, which 

 they covered with burning wood and crackling boughs. 

 As soon as the stones were thoroughly heated, they swept 

 out this new kind of oven until it was as clean as a baker's ; 

 then they threw in the pieces of meat, which, placed one 

 upon another, and covered with red-hot pebbles and burn- 

 ing turf, cooked slowly and gently, retaining all their 

 savour and juices. 



While waiting until the joints were ready, the Sioux, 

 as a prelude to the joys of the banquet, devoured what, 

 in the American wilderness, is called the pudding ; that 

 is, the half-cleansed entrails of bisons freshly slain. 



My attention and that of my companions was soon 

 arrested by the gluttony of two Indians, who crouched 

 opposite one another, separated only by a mass of pudding, 

 partly grilled in the embers, and heaped upon a stone, 

 looking for all the world like the coil of an enormous 

 serpent. They had seized upon the two ends of the still 

 smoking entrails, which they swallowed without masticat- 

 ing, as a Neapolitan does a dish .of macaroni. Curious, 

 in truth, was the spectacle of these savages hastening 

 to devour the nauseous food, thrusting it down their 

 throats with their fingers, and scarcely stopping to make 

 one another promise that no unfair haste should be em- 

 ployed ! 



If one of them perceived that the other was advancing 

 too rapidly, he snatched from his mouth the half-chewed 

 end of the pudding and hastened to swallow an equal 

 quantity, not losing a moment in apologizing for a rude- 



