I Hi; CHRONOLOGH OF PLAINS CI LT1 RE I 19 



rhey have better figures, are better warriors, and are more feared 

 They travel like the Arabs, with their tents and troops of doge Loaded 



with poles and having Moorish pack saddles with girths. When tin- 

 load gets disarranged, the dogs howl, calling some one to ti\ them right. 

 These people eat raw flesh and drink blood. They do not eat human 

 flesh. They are a kind people and not cruel. They are faithful friends 

 They are able to make themselves very well understood by menus of 

 signs. They dry the flesh in the sim, cutting it thin like a leaf, and when 

 dry they grind it like meal to keep it and make a sort of sea soup of it to 

 eat. A handful thrown into a pot swells up so as to increase very much 

 They season it with fat, which they always try to secure when they kill a 

 cow. They empty a large gut and fill it with blood, and carry this around 

 t he neck to drink when t hey are thirsty. When they open the belly of* a 

 cow, they squeeze out the chewed grass and drink the juice that re- 

 mains behind, because they say that this contains the essence of the 

 stomach. They cut the hide open at the back and pull it off at the 

 joints, using a flint as large as a finger, tied in a little stick, with as much 

 ease as if working with a good iron tool. They give it an edge with 

 their own teeth. The quickness with which they do this is something 

 worth seeing and noting. (Winship, Coronado, 111-112). 

 . . . They do not live in houses, but have some sets of poles which 

 they carry with them to make some huts at the places where they stop, 

 which serve them for houses. They tie these poles together at the top 

 and stick the bottoms into the ground, covering them with some cow- 

 skins which they carry around, and which, as I have said, serve them 

 for houses. From what was learned of these Indians, all their human 

 needs are supplied by these cows, for they are fed and clothed and shod 

 from these. They are a people who wander around here and there, 

 wherever seems to them best. (Winship, Coronado, 230). 



It was more than a hundred years later that the 

 French and English first came in contact with the 

 northern part of the Plains area, and made similar 

 observations which may be consulted in the books 

 treating of Hennepin, Radisson, Perrot, and La Salle. 

 From all these accounts we learn that Plains culture 

 in 1600 was very much like what could have been 

 observed in 1800, if we ignore horses, guns, and all 

 other trade articles. Hence, we can safely say that the 



