290 Expedition to the 



the nations on the lower part of the Missouri, being substi- 

 tuted by brass kettles, which they procure from the traders 

 in exchange for their peltries. The Pawnees, however, whose 

 intercourse with the whites has been less considerable, than 

 that of the nations bordering more closely on the Missouri, 

 still employ earthen vessels, and yet continue tbe limited 

 manufacture of them. These vessels are not glazed, and re- 

 semble in composition the antique fragments of Indian earth- 

 enware, found in various parts of the United States; the me- 

 mentos of a numerous people, that have been destroyed by ob- 

 scure causes, as well as by the avaricious policy, and cruel- 

 ly unjust and barbarous encroachments of a people, profes- 

 sing the mild doctrines of " peace on earth and good will to 

 men." 



Food is served up in wooden bowls, of a very wide and 

 simple form, and of various sizes, generally carved, with 

 much patient application, out of a large knot or protuberance 

 of the side of a tree. The spoon is made of bison horn, and 

 is of a large size; the handle, variously ornamented by notch- 

 ing, and other rude carving, is elevated into an angle of fifty 

 or sixty degrees with its bowl, which is about three inches 

 wide, by about five in length; a size, which, in civilized life, 

 would be inadmissible. 



The only implement of husbandry is the hoe; if they 

 have not an iron one, they substitute the scapula of a bison, 

 attached to a stick in such a manner, as to present the same 

 form. The traders supply them with axes of iron. 



The weapons used in hunting are bows and arrows, and 

 guns. The bow is about four feet long, of a simple form, 

 composed of hickory, or hop-horn beam wood, (ostrya vir- 

 ginica,) or bow-wood, fmaclura aurantiaca of Nuttall,) the 

 latter being greatly preferred. The cord is of twisted bison, 

 or elk sinew. The hunting arrow is generally made of arrow- 

 wood (viburnum), about two feet in length, of the usual cy- 

 lindric form, and armed with an elongate-triangular spear 



