A MBDIOmE LODGE. 357 



;plus ultra of thieves, and that most of the women are destitute 

 of virtue. 



" At the request of the interpreter, one of the Indians took 

 me into the village to see the medicine lodge. I followed my 

 guide through mud and mire to a large hut, built like all the 

 rest, but measuring twenty-three yards in diameter, with a 

 large square opening in the centre of the roof six feet long by 

 four feet in width. We entered this curiosity-shop by pushing 

 aside an elk-skin stretched on four sticks. Among the medicines 

 I saw a number of calabooses, eight or ten skulls of otters, two 

 large buffalo-skulls with the horns on, some sticks, and other 

 magical implements, with the use of which no one but a great 

 medicine is acquainted. There lay crouched on the floor a lousy 

 Indian, wrapped in a dirty blanket, with nothing but his head 

 sticking out : the guide spoke to him, but he made no reply. 

 At the foot of one of the props that support this large house 

 lay a parcel, which I took for a bundle of buffalo-robes, but 

 directly it moved, and the emaciated body of a poor blind 

 Indian crept out of it ; he was shrivelled, and the guide made 

 signs that he was about to die. We shook hands with him, and 

 he pressed mine, as if glad of the sympathy of even a stranger ; 

 he had a pipe and tobacco-box, and soon lay down again. As 

 we left this abode of mysteries, I told the guide I was anxious 

 to see the inside of one of their common dwellings, and he led 

 us tlirough the mud to his own Iodg«, which had an entrance 

 like the other. All the Idges have a sort of portico that 

 leads to the door, and on the top of most of them I observed 

 skulls of buffaloes. This lodge contained the wife and children 

 of the guide and another man, whom I took for his son-in-law ; 

 all these, except the man, were in the outer lodge, squatting on 

 the ground, and the children skulked out of the way as we 

 approached. Nearly equi-distant from each other were kind 

 of berths, raised two feet above the ground, made of leather, 

 and with square apertures for the sleepers. The man of whom 

 I have spoken was lying down in one of these. I walked up to 

 him, and after disturbing his seemingly happy slumbers, shook 

 his hand, and he made signs for me to sit down. I did so, and 

 he arose, and squatted himself near us; and taking a large 

 spoon made of a buffalo's horn, banded it to a young girl, who 



