iles back from the Missouri there are two
stones resembling human figures, and a third like a dog; all which are
objects of great veneration among the Ricaras. Their history would adorn
the metamorphoses of Ovid. A young man was deeply enamoured with a girl
whose parents refused their consent to the marriage. The youth went out
into the fields to mourn his misfortunes; a sympathy of feeling led the
lady to the same spot, and the faithful dog would not cease to follow
his master. After wandering together and having nothing but grapes to
subsist on, they were at last converted into stone, which beginning at
the feet gradually invaded the nobler parts leaving nothing unchanged
but a bunch of grapes which the female holds in her hands to this day.
Whenever the Ricaras pass these sacred stones, they stop to make some
offering of dress to propitiate these deities. Such is the account given
by the Ricara chief which we had no mode of examining, except that we
found one part of the story very agreeably confirmed; for on the river
near where the event is said to have occurred, we found a greater
abundance of fine grapes than we had yet seen. Above this is a small
creek four and a half miles from Stoneidol creek, which is fifteen yards
wide, comes in from the south, and received from us the name of Pocasse
or Hay creek, in honour of the chief of the second village. Above the
Ricara island, the Missouri becomes narrow and deeper, the sandbars
being generally confined to the points; the current too is much more
gentle; the timber on the lowlands is also in much greater quantities,
though the high grounds are still naked. We proceeded on under a fine
breeze from the southeast, and after making eighteen miles encamped on
the north near a timbered low plain, after which we had some rain and
the evening was cold. The hunters killed one deer only.

Sunday, 14th. We set out in the rain which continued during the day. At
five miles we came to a creek on the south, about fifteen yards wide,
and named by us Piaheto or Eagle's Feather, in honour of the third chief
of the Ricaras. After dinner we stopped on a sandbar, and executed the
sentence of a court martial which inflicted corporal punishment on one
of the soldiers. This operation affected the Indian chief very sensibly,
for he cried aloud during the punishment: we explained the offence and
the reasons of it. He acknowledged that examples were necessary, and
that he himself had given them