, OLD MISSOURI DAYS 177 



mud and mire, even into the lodge. We found this, in gen- 

 eral terms, like all other lodges, only larger, measuring 

 twenty-three yards in diameter, with a large, squarish 

 aperture in the center of the roof, some six or seven feet 

 long by about four wide. We had entered this curiosity- 

 shop by pushing aside a wet elk-skin stretched on four 

 sticks. Looking around I saw a number of calabashes, 

 eight or ten otter skulls, two very large buffalo skulls with 

 the horns on, evidently of great age, and some sticks and 

 other magical implements with which none but a ' great 

 medicine-man ' is acquainted. During my survey there 

 sat, crouched down on his haunches, an Indian wrapped in 

 a dirty blanket, with only his filthy head peeping out. Our 

 guide spoke to him, but he stirred not. Again, at the foot 

 of one of the posts that support the central portion of this 

 great room lay a parcel that I took for a bundle of buffalo 

 robes; but it moved presently, and from beneath it half 

 arose the emaciated body of a poor blind Indian, whose 

 skin was quite shriveled, and our guide made us signs that 

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

 he pressed "our hands closely and with evident satisfaction." 

 One dreary day Mr. Audubon asked Mr. Chardon, of 

 old Fort Clarke, for a story, and was rewarded by a narra- 

 tive that was so remarkable that he makes note of it in his 

 journals. 



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