310 ON THE ETHNOGRAPHY AND PHILOLOGY OF THE 
writer can testify from personal experience that they make a most palatable dish to the 
hungry traveller. 
The plum, Prunus Americana, kun'-ta of the Dakotas, grows very abundantly along the 
Niobrara and White Rivers. ‘The.fruit is ripened usually in October, and is much sought 
after by the Indians. 
The choke-cherry, Prunus Virginiana, éay'-pa, and the bullberry, grain de beuf of the 
voyageurs, mash-tin’-pu-ta of the Dakotas, grow in the greatest quantities all over the coun- 
try. ‘These fruits, with the plums, form, in their season, the principal food of the bears and 
wolves. Both of these fruits are dried, the former pounded with the seed and cooked in 
various ways, sometimes made into soup, but more often mixed with dried buffalo-meat 
and marrow-grease, This is called pemican among the voyageurs, and is very convenient 
in travelling, on account of its nutritious and concentrated character. The grain de boeuf 
is a small red berry, with an acid taste, and when dried is often made into soup, or takes 
the place of cherries in the composition of pemican. 
A few service-berries, Amelanchier Canadensis, and here and there a patch of wild 
strawberries, are found, but not in sufficient quantity to be relied upon as a means of sup- 
port. The Indians are very fond of fruit of any kind, and seem to prefer that grown and 
preserved in their own country to the dried fruits introduced from the States by the 
traders. It is impossible, except from actual observation, to form an idea of the immense 
quantities of cherries and other kinds of fruit eaten by them in their season, and these, 
with certain edible roots, constitute a most important resource to a people dependent upon 
the chase for their subsistence. They can be easily preserved, packed, and conveyed from 
point to point, and they are of special service to their children when meat is not to be ob- 
tained. The fruits of the wild rose, which are very plenty and remain on the bush during 
the winter, are eaten both raw and boiled, but are quite indigestible, as are also the red 
thorn-apples, called tas’-pan by the Dakotas. 
Some of the dishes prepared by the Indians in the yet undeveloped condition of their 
culinary science are not enticing even to the eye of the hungry traveller, and are by no 
means adapted to delicate stomachs or fastidious palates. In this class may be placed a 
favorite dish of theirs, made of blood boiled with brains, rosebuds,* and the scrapings of 
rawhide, until the whole assumes the consistency of warm glue. Pounded cherries boiled 
with meat, sugar, and grease, are esteemed a rare dainty, and are eaten with great relish. 
The prairie turnip boiled with the dried stomach of the buffalo, or the Dakota peas ab- 
stracted from a mouse’s nest and cooked with dried beaver’s tail or a fat dog, are dishes 
much admired and regarded fit to set before soldiers, chiefs, and distinguished visitors. 
A great variety of roots, leaves, barks, and plants are used by these Indians, in common 
* The seed-vessels of the Rose, which remain on the bushes during the winter, and often supply a scanty nou- 
rishment to the famishing voyageur, are called by the Indians and traders ‘rose-buds.” 
