THE OSAGES, 



199 



PLATE XLL 



OSAGE. 



The Osages, Minetaris, Mandans, Assinaboins, and many cognate tribes, are 

 more or less connected with the great Sioux nation, although they are often 

 inveterate enemies to each other. The Osages are now chiefly found in the western 

 part of Arkansas, and are yet a powerful tribe. " They are so tall and robust," says 

 a late traveller, " as almost to warrant the application of the term gigantic ; few 

 of them appear to be under six feet, and many are above it."* Among the Osages 

 who visited Boston some years ago. Dr. Warren remarked some very fine looking 

 men : he particularises two, of whom he says that their heads could not be 

 distinguished from those of Europeans.f It is said of these people, that they are 

 fond of war without being remarkable for bravery. They consider horse-stealing a 

 meritorious achievement, and at one time scarcely left a horse to turn a mill in 

 the town of St. Genevieve. They are credited with one virtue, however, which is 

 rare among savages, and that is mercy; for they rarely take the lives of those who 

 fall into their hands."J 



The annexed drawing is derived from the skull of a young warrior named 



* Bradbury, Trav. p. 42. t Compar. View of Nervous System, &c., p. 93. 



t Breckenridge, Views of Louisiana, p. 147.— -On this subject Mr. Gallatin makes the follow- 

 ing remarks: "Whether erratic or agricultural, there is a marked diiference between the habits and 

 character of all the Indians who dwelt amidst the dense forest which extends from the Atlantic to the 

 Mississippi, and those of the inhabitants of the western prairie. These last are every where less 

 ferocious than those of the eastern side of the Mississippi. Like all savages they put to death the 

 prisoners taken in battle; but the horrid practice of inflicting on them the most excruciating torture 

 for days together, does not appear to have prevailed anywhere beyond the Mississippi.'^ — *J^rchasolog. 

 Jlmer. II, p. 129. 



