the mercury being 28 degrees
above 0: but towards evening the wind changed to northwest, and the
weather became cold. We sent some hunters down the river, but they
killed only one buffaloe and a wolf. We received the visit of Kagohami
who is very friendly, and to whom we gave a hankerchief and two files.

Saturday 5. We had high and boisterous winds last night and this
morning: the Indians continue to purchase repairs with grain of
different kinds. In the first village there has been a buffaloe dance
for the last three nights, which has put them all into commotion, and
the description which we received from those of the party who visited
the village and from other sources, is not a little ludicrous: the
buffaloe dance is an institution originally intended for the benefit of
the old men, and practised at their suggestion. When buffaloe becomes
scarce they send a man to harangue the village, declaring that the game
is far off and that a feast is necessary to bring it back, and if the
village be disposed a day and place is named for the celebration of it.
At the appointed hour the old men arrive, and seat themselves
crosslegged on skins round a fire in the middle of the lodge with a sort
of doll or small image, dressed like a female, placed before them. The
young men bring with them a platter of provisions, a pipe of tobacco,
and their wives, whose dress on the occasion is only a robe or mantle
loosely thrown round the body. On their arrival each youth selects the
old man whom he means to distinguish by his favour, and spreads before
him the provisions, after which he presents the pipe and smokes with
him. Mox senex vir simulacrum parvae puellae ostensit. Tune egrediens
eaetu, jecit effigium solo et superincumbens, senili ardore veneris
complexit. Hoc est signum. Denique uxor e turba recessit, et jactu
corporis, fovet amplexus viri solo recubante. Maritus appropinquans
senex vir dejecto vultu, et honorem et dignitatem ejus conservare
amplexu uxoris illum oravit. Forsitan imprimis ille refellit; dehine,
maritus multis precibus, multis lachrymis, et multis donis vehementer
intercessit. Tune senex amator perculsus miserecordia, tot precibus, tot
lachrymis, et tot donis, conjugali amplexu submisit. Multum ille
jactatus est, sed debilis et effoetus senectute, frustra jactatus est.
Maritus interdum stans juxta guadit multum honore, et ejus dignitati sic
conservata. Unus nostrum sodalium multum alacrior et potentior
juventute, ha