12 



AUDUBON 



: I 



it along. I sincerely hope so. Seeing a remarkably fine 

 skin of a large Cross Fox ^ which I wished to buy, it was 

 handed over to me. After this, Mr. Chardon asked one of 

 the Indians to take us into the village, and particularly to 

 show us the " Medicine Lodge." We followed our guide 

 through mud and mire, even into the Lodge. We found 

 this to be, in general terms, like all the other lodges, only 

 larger, measuring twenty-three yards in diameter, with a 

 large squarish aperture in the centre of the roof, some six 

 or seven feet long by about four wide. We had entered 

 this curiosity shop by pushing aside a wet Elk skin stretched 

 on four sticks. Looking around, I saw a number of cala- 

 bashes, eight or ten Otter skulls, two ve;ry large Buffalo 

 skulls with the horns on, evidently of great age, and some 

 sticks and other magical implements with which none but 

 a " Great Medicine Man " is acquainted. During my sur- 

 vey there sat, crouched down on his haunches, an Indian 

 wrapped in a dirty blanket, with only his filthy head peeping 

 out. Our guide spoke to him ; but he stirred not. Again, 

 at the foot of one of the posts that support the central por- 

 tion of this great room, lay a pr^.rcel that I took for a bun- 

 dle of Buffalo robes; but it ii.oved presently, and from 

 beneath it half arose the emaciated body of a poor blind 

 Indian, whose skin was quite shrivelled ; and our guide 

 made us signs that he was about to die. We all shook 

 both hands with him ; and he pressed our hands closely and 

 with evident satisfaction. He had his pipe and tobacco 

 pouch by him, and soon lay down again. We left this 

 abode of mysteries, as I was anxious to see the interior of 

 one of the common huts around; and again our guide led 

 us through mud and mire to his own lodge, which we 

 entered in the same way as we had done the other. All 



1 This Fox was probably the cross variety of the Long-tailed Prairie 

 Fox, Vulpea macrourus of Baird, Stansbury's Exped. Great Salt Lake, June, 

 1852, p. 309; Vulpes Utah of Aud. and Bach. Quad. N. Am. iii., 1853, p. 255, 

 pi. 151 (originally published by them in Proc. Acad. Philad., July, 1852, 

 p. 114). — E. C. 



