ace, with feasting and returning thanks to the Great Spirit for giving
us Corn.

I will has relate the manner in which corn first came. According to
tradition handed down to our people, a beautiful woman was seen to
descend from the clouds, and alight upon the earth, by two of our
ancestors who had killed a deer, and were sitting by a fire roasting
a part of it to eat. They were astonished at seeing her, and concluded
that she was hungry and had smelt the meat. They immediately went to
her, taking with them a piece of the roasted venison. They presented
it to her, she ate it, telling them to return to the spot where she was
sitting at the end of one year, and they would find a reward for
their kindness and generosity. She then ascended to the clouds and
disappeared. The men returned to their village, and explained to the
tribe what they had seen, done ad heard, but were laughed at by their
people. When the period had arrived for them to visit this consecrated
ground, where they were to find a reward for their attention to the
beautiful woman of the clouds, they went with a large party, and found
where her right hand had rested on the ground corn growing, where the
left hand had rested beans, and immediately where she had been seated,
tobacco.

The two first have ever since been cultivated by our people as our
principal provisions, and the last is used for smoking. The white people
have since found out the latter, and seem to it relish it as much as we
do, as they use it in different ways: Smoking, snuffing and chewing.

We thank the Great Spirit for all the good he has conferred upon us.
For myself, I never take a drink of water from a spring without being
mindful of his goodness.

We next have our great ball play, from three to five hundred on a side
play this game. We play for guns, lead, homes and blankets, or any other
kind of property we may have. The successful party takes the stakes,
and all return to our lodges with peace and friendship. We next commence
horse racing, and continue on, sport and feasting until the corn is
secured. We then prepare to leave our village for our hunting grounds.

The traders arrive and give us credit for guns, flints, powder, shot
and lead, and such articles as we want to clothe our families with
and enable us to hunt. We first, however, hold a council with them, to
ascertain the price they will give for our skins, and then they will
charge us for the goods. We inform them where