Rocky Mountains. 113 



a fine athletic frame, had his neck covered with scrofulous 

 ulcers. While he was with us, he was constantly endeavour- 

 ing to conceal with his robe this afflicting spectacle. He re- 

 mained but a short time amongst us, and did not make his 

 second appearance. 



An old man came frequently to us with a diseased leg, in- 

 forming us by signs that it had repeatedly formed large 

 abscesses, which had discharged much matter, and afterwards 

 healed. His frequent applications to us were made with the 

 hope that we would do something for his relief. 



The men of this band wear the hair long, and suffer it to 

 hang negligently about the shoulders. Some of them have a 

 braid behind which is garnished with bits of red cloth, small 

 pieces of tin, &c., and descends nearly to the ground, being 

 sometimes eked out with the hair of a horse's tail. Among 

 the old men, were several who had suffered a number of 

 scattering hairs on the face to become of considerable length, 

 a violation of good manners, and a neglect of personal neat- 

 ness, not often met with among the Indians, and excusable 

 only in the old. In their conduct towards us they were guilty 

 of more rudeness and incivility than we had been accustom- 

 ed to meet with among the savages of the Missouri. 



Though we saw much to admire among this people, we 

 cannot but think them among the most degraded and miser- 

 able of the uncivilized Indians on this side of the Rocky 

 Mountains. Their wandering and precarious manner of life, 

 as well as the inhospitable character of the country they in- 

 habit, precludes the possibility of advancement from the pro- 

 foundest barbarism. As is common among other of the wes- 

 tern tribes, they were persevering in offering us their women, 

 but this appeared to be done from mere beastliness and the 

 hope of reward, rather than any motive of hospitality or a 



numerous among us. We saw, among- the Indians of the Mississippi, se- 

 veral instances of deformiiy. Shawiskanan, a Sioux, who was exhibit- 

 ed at New York and Philadelphia in 1822, is more deformed thaa any 

 white man we remember to have seen. 



VOL. II. 15 



