The governinent of the Osages is oligarchical, but still partakes of the nature of a republic; for although the power is nominally vested in a small number of chiefs, yet they never undertake any matter of importance without first assembling the warriors, and proposing the subject in council, there to be discussed and decided on by a majority. Their chiefs are hereditary in most instances, but there are many men who have risen to more influence than those of illustrious ancestry, by their activity and boldness in war. Although there is no code of laws, yet there is a tacit acknowledgment of the right which some - have to command on certain occasions; whilst others are bound to obey, and even to submit to corporal punishment, as was instanced in the affair related in my diary of the 29th of July, when Has-ha-ke-da-tungar (or the Big Soldier) whom I had made a partizan to regulate the movements of the Indians, flogged a young Indian with arms in his hands. On the whole, the government may be termed an oligarchical republic, where the chiefs propose, and the people decide on all public acts.

The manners of the Osage are different from those of any nation I ever saw (except those beforementioned of the same origin), having their people divided into classes, all the bulk of the nation being warriors and hunters, the terms being almost synonymous with them; the rest are divided into two classes, cooks and doctors, the latter of whom likewise, exercise the functions of priests or magicians, and have great

influence on the councils of the nation, by their pretended divinations, interpretation of dreams, and magical performances, an illustration of which will be better given by the following incident, which took place during my stay. Having had all the doctors, or magicians, assembled in the lodge of Ca-ha-ga-tonga, (or Cheveu Blanc) and about five hundred spectators, they had two rows of fires prepared, around the spot where the sacred band was stationed. They commenced the tragic comedy, by putting a large butcher's knife down their throats, the blood appearing to run during the operation very naturally. The scene was continued by putting sticks through their nose, swallowing bones, and taking them out of the nostrils, &c.; at length one fellow demanded of me what I would give if he would run a stick through his tongue, and let another person cut off the piece? I replied, a shirt: he then apparently performed his promise seemingly with great pain, forcing a stick through his tongue, and then giving a knife to a byestander, who appeared to cut off the piece which he held to the light for the satisfaction of the audience, then joined it to his tongue, and by a magical charm, healed the wound immediately. On demanding of me what I thought of the performance? I replied, I would give him twenty shirts, if he would let me cut off the piece from his tongue. This disconcerted him a great deal, and I was sorry I made the observation.

The cooks are either for the general use, or attached particu

larly to the family of some great man; and what is the more singular is, that frequently persons who have been great warriors, and brave men, having lost all their families by disease or in war, and themselves becoming old and infirm, frequently take up the profession of a cook, in which they do not carry arms, and are supported by the public, or by their particular patron. They likewise exercise the functions of town criers, calling the chiefs to council, or to feasts; and if any particular person is wanted, you employ a crier, who goes through the village calling his name, and informing him he is wanted at such a lodge.

When received into the Osage village, you immediately present yourself at the lodge of the chief, who receives you as his guest, where you generally eat first, after the old patriarchal style; you are then invited to a feast by all the great men of the village, and it would be a great insult not to comply, at least so far as to taste of their victuals. In one instance I was obliged to taste of fifteen different entertainments in the same afternoon. You will hear the cooks crying, Come and eat, such a one gives a feast, come and eat of his bounty. Their dishes were generally boiled, sweet corn in buffalo grease, or boiled meat and pumpkins; but Sans Oreille (or Tetohan) treated me with some tea in a wooden dish, new horn spoons, boiled meat and crullers; he had been in the United States.

Their towns hold more people in the same space of ground than any place I ever saw; their lodges

being posted with scarcely any regularity, each individual building in the manner, direction and dimensions that suit him best; by which means they frequently leave only room for a single man to squeeze between them. Added to this, they have pens for their horses, all within the village, into which they always drive them at night, in case they think there is any reason to believe an enemy to be lurking in the vicinity. The Osage lodges are generally constructed with upright posts, put firmly in the ground, about twenty feet in height, with a crotch at the top. They are generally about twelve feet distant from each other. In the crotch of these posts are put the ridge poles, over which are bent small poles, the ends of which are brought down and fastened to a row of stakes, of about five feet in height; these are fastened together with three horizontal bars, and form the flank walls of the lodge. The gable ends are generally broad slabs, and rounded off to the ridge pole. The whole of the building and sides is covered with matting made of rushes of two or three feet in length, and four feet in width, which are joined together, and entirely exclude the rain. The doors are in the side of the building, and there is generally one on each side: the fires are made in holes in the centre of the lodge, the smoke ascending through appertures left in the roof for the purpose. At one end of the dwelling is a raised platform, about three feet from the ground, which is covered with bear skins, and generally holds all the little choice furniture of the master, and on

this repose his honourable guests. In fact, with neatness and a pleasing companion, they compose a very comfortable and pleasant summer habitation; but they are left in the winter for the woods: they vary in length from thirtysix to one hundred feet.

The Osagenation is divided into three villages, and in a few years you may say nations, viz. the Grand Osage, the Little Osage, and those of the Arkansaw. The Little separated from the Grand Osage about two years since; and their chiefs, on obtaining permission to lead forth a colony from the grand council of the nation, moved on to the Missouri; but after some years, finding themselves too hard pressed by their enemies, they again obtained leave to return and put themselves under the protection of the Grand Village, and settled down about six miles off. The Arkansaw schism was effected by Mr. Pierre Chouteau, ten or twelve years ago, in revenge of M. Manuel de Liza, who had obtained from the Spanish government the exclusive trade of the Osage nation by the way of the Osage river, after it had been in the hands of M. Chouteau for nearly twenty years; the latter leaving the trade of the Arkansaw, thereby nearly rendered abortive, the exclusive privilege of his rival. He has been vainly promising to the government, that he would bring them back to join the Grand Village, but his reception at the Arkansaw village must have nearly cured him of that idea. And in fact every reason induces a belief, that the other villages are much more likely to join the Arkansaw, which is daily

becoming more powerful, than the latter return to its ancient residence; for the Grand and Little Osage are both obliged to proceed to the Arkansaw every winter to kill the summer provision: all the nations with whom they are now at war are besides situated to the westward of that river, from whence they get all their horses. These inducements are such, that the young, the bold, and the enterprising are daily emigrating from the Osage village to the Arkansaw village. In fact, it would become the interest of our government to encourage that emigration, if they intended to promote the extension of the settlement of Upper Louisiana; but their true policy is to use every method to prevent their elongation from the Missouri.

They are considered by the nations to the south and west of them, as a brave and warlike people, but are by no means a match for the northern nations, who make use of the rifle, and can combat them two for one, whilst they again may fight those armed with bows, arrows, and lances, at the same disproportion. The humane policy which the United States have held forth to the Indians of accommodating their differences, and acting as mediators between them, has succeeded to a miracle with the Osage of the Grand Village and the Little Osage. They have by this means become a nation of quakers, as it respects the nations to the north and east of them, the same time that they continue to make war on the naked and defenceless savages of the west. An instance of their forbearance was

exhibited by an attack made on a hunting party of the Little Osage some time since, on the grand river of the Osage, by a party of Potowatomies, who crossed the river Missouri by the Saline, and found the women and children alone and defenceless. The men, fifty or sixty in number, having found plenty of deer the day before, had encamped out all night. The enemy struck the camp about ten o'clock in the morning, killed all the women and boys who made resistance, also some infants, the whole numberamounting to thirtyfour, and led into captivity near sixty, forty-six of whom were afterwards recovered by the United States, and sent under my protection to the village. When the men returned to the camp, they found their families all destroyed or taken prisoners; my narrator had his wife and four children killed on the spot! and yet, in obedience to the injunction of their "Great Father," they forbore to revenge the blow!

The Pawnees are a numerous nation of Indians, residing on the rivers Plate and Kanses. They are divided into three distinct nations, two of them being now at war; but their manners, language, customs, and improvements, are in the same degree of advancement. On the La Plate reside the Grand Pawnee village, and the Pawnee Loups on one of its branches, with whom the Pawnee republicans are at war. Their language is guttural, and approaches nearer to that of the Sioux than the Osage; their figure is slim, and their high cheek bones clearly indicate their Asiatic origin; but their emigration south, and the ease with VOL. LIII.

which they live on the buffalo plains, have probably been the cause of a degeneracy of manners; for they are neither so brave nor so honest as their more northern neighbours. Their government is the same as that of the Osage, an hereditary aristocracy; the father handing his dignity of chieftain down to his own son: but their power is extremely limited, notwithstanding the long life they have to establish their authority and influence; they merely recommend and give counsel in the great assemblage of the nation. They are not so cleanly, neither do they carry their internal policy so far, as the Osage; but out of the bounds of the village, it appeared to me that they exceeded them, as I have frequently seen two young soldiers come out to my camp, and by the strokes of long whips instantly disperse a hundred persons, who were assembled there to trade with my men. In regard to the cultivation of the soil, they are about equal to the Osage, raising a sufficiency of corn and pumpkins to afford a little thickening to their soup during the year. Their pumpkins they cut into thin slices, and dry in the sun, which reduces them to a small size, and not more than a tenth of their original weight. With respect to raising horses, the Pawnees are far superior to the Osage, having vast numbers of excellent cattle, which they are daily increasing by their attention to their breeding mares, which they never use for labour; and in addition, they frequently purchase some from the Spaniards. Their houses are a perfect circle, excepting where 2 G