122 Expedition to the 



dians they ate four or five times each day, invariably supply- 

 ing us with the best pieces, or choice parts, before they 

 attempted to taste the food themselves. 



" They commonly placed before us a sort of soup, compos- 

 ed of maize of the present season, of that description which, 

 having undergone a certain preparation, is appropriately 

 named sweet corn, boiled in water, and enriched with a few 

 slices of bison meat, grease, and some beans, and to suit it 

 to our palates, it was generally seasoned with rock salt, 

 which is procured near the Arkansa river, 



"This mixture constituted an agreeable food ; it was serv- 

 ed up to us in large wooden bowls, which were placed on 

 bison robes or mats, on the ground ; as many of us as could 

 conveniently eat from one bowl sat round it, each in as ea- 

 sy a position as he could contrive, and in common we par- 

 took of its contents by means of large spoons made of bison 

 horn. We were sometimes supplied with uncooked dried 

 meat of the bison, also a very agreeable food, and to our 

 taste and reminiscence, far preferable to the flesh of the do- 

 mestic ox. Another very acceptable dish was called leyed 

 corn; this is maize of the preceding season shelled from the 

 cob, and first boiled for a short time in a lej' of wood ashes 

 until the hard skin, which invests the grains, is separated from 

 them ; the whole is then poured into a basket, which is re- 

 peatedly dipped into clean water until the ley and skins are 

 removed ; the remainder is then boiled in water until so soft 

 as to be edible. They also make much use of maize roasted 

 on the cob, of boiled pumpkins, of muskmelons, and water- 

 melons, but the latter are generally pulled from the vine 

 before they are completely ripe. 



" Ca-ega-wa-tan-ninga, or the Fool Chief, is the here- 

 ditary principal chief, but he possesses nothing like monar- 

 chical authority, maintaining his distinction only by his brave- 

 ry and good conduct. There are ten or twelve inferior chief- 

 tains, or persons who aspire to such dignity, but these do 



