218 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



assortment of Indian goods; he applied to Black-Bird for liberty to trade, who 

 ordered that he should first bring all his goods in his lodge, which order was 

 obeyed. Black-Bird commanded that all the packages should be opened in his 

 presence, and from them he selected what goods he thought proper, amounting to 

 nearly the fourth part of the whole; he caused them to be placed in a part of the 

 lodge distinct from the rest, and addressed the trader to this effect : ' Now, my 

 son, the goods which I have chosen are mine, and those in your possession are 

 your own. Don't cry, my son, my people shall trade with you for your goods 

 at your oiim price. ^ He then spoke to his herald, who ascended to the top of the 

 lodge, and commanded in the name of the chief, that the Mahas should bring all 

 their beaver, bear, otter, muskrat, and other skins to his lodge, and on no ac- 

 count to dispute the terms of exchange with the trader, who declared, on his 

 return to St. Louis, that it was the most profitable voyage he had ever made. 

 Mr. Tellier, a gentleman of respectabiUty, who resided near St. Louis, and who 

 had formerly been Indian agent there, informed me that Black-Bird obtained his 

 influence over his nation by means of arsenic, a quantity of that article having 

 been sold to him by a trader, who instructed him in the use of it. If afterward 

 any of his nation dared to oppose him in his arbitrary measures, he prophesied 

 their death within a certain period, and took good care that his predictions should 

 be verified. He died about the time that Louisiana was added to the United 

 States; having previously made choice of a cave for his sepulchre, on the top of 

 a hill near the Missouri, about eighteen miles below the Maha village. By his 

 order his body was placed on the back of his favorite horse, which was driven 

 into the cave, the mouth of which was then closed up with stones. A large heap 

 was afterwards raised on the summit of the hill." 



In another place is the following entry: " In the forenoon of this day (A. 

 D. 1809,) Mr. Hunt was waited upon by two chiefs, who were contending for 

 the sanction of the Government of the United States, to determine their claim to 

 kingly power. Mr. Hunt declined interfering, not being vested with the power 

 to act. The names of these two chiefs were Big Elk and White Cow, the former 

 of whom ultimately succeeded." 



At that time the range of the hunting grounds of the Mahas was from their 

 village to V Eau qui Court, and along that river. 



Bradbury was a scientific botanist, made a voyage up the Missouri with 

 Hunt and Liza in 1809, visited the Omaha village, and on his return spent the 

 winter of 1809-10 in St. Louis. The occurrences of which he speaks were then 

 so very recent as to be quite fresh in memory, and of public notoriety, and some 

 persons at least, it may be assumed, had personal knowledge of the facts they 

 imparted to the English naturalist; for this reason I am inclined to receive his 

 account of Black-Bird's death and burial as trustworthy, and especially the 

 approximate date given. Of course, if the topographical conformation of the 

 bluff at the entrance to the cave is such that a horse could be led into the cavern, 

 the chief was probably not entombed riding on his steed ; but if the lay of the 



