228 AUDUBON THE NATURALIST. 



of the Indians, that were going up with us, ask 

 for certain portions of the entrails, which they 

 devoured with the greatest voracity. This glut* 

 tony excited our curiosity, and being always 

 willing to ascertain the quality of any sort of 

 meat, we tasted some of this sort of tripe, and 

 found it very good, although at first its appear- 

 ance was rather revolting. 



The Indians sometimes eat the carcasses of 

 buffaloes that have been drowned, and some of 

 those on board the Omega one day asked the 

 captain most earnestly to allow them to land and 

 get at the bodies of three buffaloes which we 

 passed, that had lodged among the drift-logs and 

 were probably half putrid. In this extraordinary 

 request some of the squaws joined. That, when 

 stimulated by the gnawiiigs of hunger, Indians, 

 or even whites, should feed upon carrion, is not 

 to be wondered at, since we have mau}^ instances 

 of cannibalism and other horrors, when men are 

 in a state of starvation, but these Indians wei'e 

 in the midst of plenty of wholesome food, and we 

 are inclined to think their hankering after this 

 disgusting flesh must be attributed to a natural 

 taste for it, probably acquired when young, as 

 they are no doubt sometimes obliged, in their 

 wanderings over the prairies in winter, to devour 

 carrion, and even bones and hides, to preserve 

 their lives. 



