96 SPORTING ADVENTURES IN THE FAR WEST. 



the heads and hides of the animals slain by us during the 

 day, and to suggest that we could have all the antlers we 

 wished if they were of any use to us. His offer was ac- 

 cepted with thanks, and by nightfall the door of our tent 

 was surrounded by piles of skins and the heads of bears 

 and deer. 



The animals, bereft of their outer covering, were put 

 into pots and boiled ; but some, and especially the young 

 bears, were placed in pits in which fires had been burning 

 all day, and were covered with red-hot stones and earth 

 and grass, so that none of the heat should escape. While 

 the large game was being prepared for the feast in pits 

 and pots, the feathered game was being cooked before the 

 blazing wood-fires by the squaws, and the fish fizzled and 

 steamed amidst heaps of hot ashes. Every feminine mem- 

 ber of the encampment seemed to be busy in cooking for 

 the great occasion; and while some baked unleavened 

 cakes of flour or camas before the fire, others attended 

 to the cooking of the wapato or wild -potato, and the 

 boiling of certain herbs, which might be called greens in 

 the general sense of the term, though, to be literal, they 

 ought to be called thin grasses. When the grand dinner 

 was ready, all hands " set to," as they say in Scotland, 

 and were soon devouring the dainties with all the vigor 

 that a keen appetite and a capacious maw could impart. 

 Scarcely a word was spoken by old or young during the 

 meal, they being too busily engaged in filling the stomach 

 to devote any time to the pleasures of conversation. No 

 person used a knife or fork, and plates were exceedingly 

 scarce, for I only saw two among the entire lot, and these 

 were used by the chiefs. 



We roamed about among the various clusters, yet no 

 person asked us to join in the festival, and we received 

 no more attention than wandering spectres. We did not 

 care for this, however, as we did not wish to accept their 

 hospitality, our taste being too dainty to enjoy the gross 

 food which they gulped down like so many wild animals. 

 The novelty of the affair was highly appreciated, however, 



