46 AUDUBON 



ening with the disease, began to talk of the dreadful death 

 that awaited them, and resolved not to wait for the nat- 

 ural close of the malady, the effects of which they had 

 seen among their friends and relatiyes. One said the 

 knife was the surest and swiftest weapon to carry into 

 effect their proposed self-destruction ; the other contended 

 that placing an arrow in the throat and forcing it into the 

 lungs was preferable. After a long debate they calmly 

 rose, and each adopted his own method; in an instant the 

 knife was driven into the heart of one, the arrow into the 

 throat of the other, and they fell dead almost at the same 

 instant. Another story was of an extremely handsome 

 and powerful Indian who lost an only son, a beautiful boy, 

 upon whom all his hopes and affections were placed. The 

 loss proved too much for him ; he called his wife, and, 

 after telling her what a faithful husband he had been, said 

 to her, " Why should we live t all we cared for is taken 

 from us, and why not at once join our child in the land of 

 the Great Spirit.'" She consented; in an instant he shot 

 her dead on the spot, reloaded his gun, put the muzzle in 

 his mouth, touched the trigger, and fell back dead. On 

 the same day another curious incident occurred ; a young 

 man, covered with the eruption, and apparently on the eve 

 of death, managed to get to a deep puddle of mire or mud, 

 threw himself in it, and rolled over and over as a Buffalo 

 is wont to do. The sun was scorching hot, and the poor 

 fellow got out of the mire covered with a coating of clay 

 fully half an inch thick and laid himself down; the sun's 

 heat soon dried the clay, so as to render it like unburnt 

 bricks, and as he walked or crawled along towards the 

 village, the mud drying and falling from him, taking the 

 skin with it, and leaving the flesh raw and bleeding, he 

 was in agony, and besought those who passed to kill him; 

 but, strange to say, after enduring tortures, the fever 

 left him, he recovered, and is still living, though badly 

 scarred. Many ran to the river, in the delirium of the 



