deniq] 



THE ASSINIBOIN 509 



The number of meals they have in each 24 hours depends altogether 

 on the supply of meat on hand. If plenty, each lodge cooks regu- 

 larly three times per day — at daybreak, midday, and dark. But in 

 addition to this pieces are kept roasting by the fire by the women 

 and children nearly all the time. 



Feasting is also common. In all those ways in times of plenty most 

 of the men eat six, eight, ten, and as high as twenty times during a 

 day and night. In times of comparative scarcity but two meals are 

 had, morning and night. When meat is very nearly exhausted one 

 meal must suffice, and for the rest the women and children are sent 

 to dig roots or gather berries as the season and place afford. Feasts 

 would then be desirable, but there is no one to make them, all being 

 in want. Some who have nothing at all to eat in their lodge will send 

 their children to watch when cooking is going on in another lodge, 

 who report to their parents, and the man happens to drop in at the 

 right time. No Indian eats before guests without offering them a 

 share, even if it is the last portion they possess. 



When no meat can be found they eat up their reserve of dried 

 berries, pomme blanche and other roots, then boil the scrapings of 

 rawhide with the buds of the wild rase, collect old bones on the 

 prairie, pound them and extract the grease by boiling. A still 

 greater want produces the necessity of killing their dogs and horses 

 for food, but this is the last resort and approach of actual famine, 

 for by this they are destroying their means of traveling and hunting. 

 One thing is remarkable, be they ever so much in want of food, the 

 grown persons never murmur nor complain, though the children 

 sometimes cry. 



Their appetites are capricious. It would seem that they are always 

 hungry. The quantity of meat an Indian can eat is incredible, and 

 after eating at six or eight feasts in succession his appetite appears 

 fully as good for the tenth or even the twentieth as at the first. 

 Their power in this respect as actually witnessed by us on many 

 occasions would not be credited if related. It is useless to endeavor 

 to impress upon the minds of persons not accustomed to this even an 

 approach to the truth. It can not be realized. A lean, lank Indian 

 will eat from 3 to 10 hours nearly all the time and grow gradually 

 larger from his breast downward until in the end he presents some- 

 what the appearance of the letter " 8," and all this without any 

 apparent inconvenience. At other times they are from eight to fifteen 

 i lays without eating anything, and often one or two months with 

 barely enough to support life. After being deprived of food for a 

 great length of time, and arriving suddenly on an abundance of 

 game, they will feast again as observed and no evil effects follow. 



