228 AUDUBON THE NATURALIST. 
of the Indians, that were going up with us, ask 
for certain portions of the entrails, which they 
devoured with the greatest voracity. This glut 
tony excited our curiosity, and being always 
willing to ascertain the quality of any sort of 
meat, we tasted some of this sort of tripe, and 
found it very good, although at first its appear- 
ance was rather revolting. 
The Indians sometimes eat the carcasses of 
buffaloes that have been drowned, and some of 
those on board the Omega one day asked the 
captain most earnestly to allow them to land and 
get at the bodies of three buffaloes which we 
passed, that had lodged among the drift-logs and 
were probably half putrid. In this extraordinary 
request some of the squaws joined. That, when 
stimulated by the gnawings of hunger, Indians, 
or even whites, should feed upon carrion, is not 
to be wondered at, since we have many instances 
of cannibalism and other horrors, when men are 
in a state of starvation, but these Indians were 
in the midst of plenty of wholesome food, and we 
are inclined to think their hankering after this 
disgusting flesh must be attributed to a natural 
taste for it, probably acquired when young, as 
they are no doubt sometimes obliged, in- their 
wanderings over the prairies in winter, to devour 
carrion, and even bones and hides, to preserve 
their lives. 
