256 Expedition to the 



that he had lived so long in the world, and to so little pur- 

 pose. 



Old age amongst the Omawhaws is generally loquacious, 

 but it does not seem to be distinguished as in civilized life, 

 by an accumulation of maladies. Aged Indians, whether male 

 or female, generally continue in apparent good health to the 

 last, and the visitation of death is most frequently sudden and 

 unexpected; an instance of this has already been related 

 which occurred to old Loutre an individual of the Missouri 

 nation. 



They become bowed and very much wrinkled with age, 

 and their joints become less flexible. But their hair does not 

 so generally change to gray as that of men in a state of civi- 

 lization. The hair of the sides of the head, which is so fre- 

 quently shorn or extracted, often assumes the gray appear- 

 ance, at a comparatively early age, and is almost universally 

 of that tint in aged persons, whilst that of the top and back 

 of the head, which is always permitted to attain a moderate 

 length, is simply interspersed with a few gray hairs. Many 

 aged squaws preserve the hair of the usual youthful colour ; 

 in others we observe an intermixture of gray, and it may be 

 remarked that the aged of this sex are more frequently gray- 

 haired than the men. 



• We saw a middle aged woman whose hair had pretty ge- 

 nerally changed to gray ; but this appearance, at her age was 

 so unusual, that the Indians attributed it to her having in- 

 fracted the injunctions of her medicine, by eating forbidden 

 food,* 



* Humboldt observes of the natives of New Spain, that " their head ne- 

 ver becomes gray. It is infinitely more rare to find an Indian than a negro 

 with gray hairs, and the want of a beard gives the former a continual air of 

 youth. The skin of Indians is also less subject to wrinkles." In this latter 

 character, at least, it will be perceived, that our observations on the Mis- 

 souri Indians, do not coincide with those of the Baron, respecting the na- 

 tives he describes. Ulloa informs us that the symptoms of old age are a 

 beard and gray hairs. But the natives of the region oftheMissouri have cer- 

 tainly no greater density of beard, when advanced in age, than during their 



