420 INDIANS. 



bound hand and foot, lying near the ground. One of the 

 Tonka ways got up, walked to the wounded man, took 

 out a knife, coolly and quietly cut a piece of flesh out 

 of his thigh and placed it on the coals to broil. Another 

 and another followed, cutting slices. When the flesh 

 was sufficiently cooked, each man ate his slice, talking 

 at the same time to the Comanche, and complimenting 

 him on the excellence and tenderness of his flesh. The 

 Comanche retorted by hoping that he would disagree 

 with them, wishing that his flesh was poison, &c. When 

 an artery or large vein was cut, the flow of blood was 

 arrested by searing with a firebrand. This horrible 

 feast was continued far into the night, by which time 

 nearly all the flesh of the thighs and loins had been 

 consumed. The Comanche then began his death song, 

 and his life and the feast ended together. The other 

 captive, stimulated by the prospect before him, made, 

 after all were asleep, a successful effort to free himself, 

 and escaped. 



The Tonkaways have always had the reputation of 

 being cannibals. Some six or eight were employed as 

 scouts at Fort Martin Scott, Texas, and did good service 

 against the Comanches. I once asked a sub-chief if the 

 tribe ate men. He denied it ; but said their fathers ate 

 their enemies, not to satisfy hunger but to gratify 

 revenge. I believe it is the only tribe in North Ame- 

 rica that practises or did practise cannibalism. 



A few years ago I met a gentleman who told me that 

 he was one of a party that went to the front after 

 the terrible Minnesota massacres of 1862. There was 

 no fighting, the Indians having retired, and the party 

 devoted itself to burying the dead and relieving the 

 necessities of those whites who, hiding in thickets and 

 ravines, had escaped the fury of the savages. He said 

 that no words could express the horror of the scenes 

 that must have been enacted. Scalped and mutilated 

 corpses of men and women, and of babes whose brains had 



