Indians eat a great deal of green corn, pemican, and
marrow fat. The pemican is buffalo meat, dried hard, and pounded in a
wooden mortar. Marrow fat is what is boiled out of buffalo bones; it
is usually kept in bladders. They eat, also, the flesh of the deer and
other animals: that of the dog is reserved for feasts and especial
occasions. They have, also, beans and peas, peaches, melons and
strawberries, pears, pumpkins, chinkapins, walnuts and chestnuts.
These things they can get when settled in their villages; but when
wandering, or on their war parties, they take up with what they can
find. They never eat salt with their food.

_Basil._ And what kind of clothes do they wear?

_Hunter._ Principally skins, unless they trade with the whites, in
which case they buy clothes of different kinds. Some wear long hair,
some cut their hair off and shave the head. Some dress themselves
with very few ornaments, but others have very many. Shall I describe
to you the full dress of _Mah-to-toh-pa_, "the four bears."

_Austin._ Oh, yes; every thing belonging to him.

_Hunter._ You must imagine, then, that he is standing up before you,
while I describe him, and that he is not a little proud of his costly
attire.

_Austin._ I fancy that I can see him now.

_Hunter._ His robe was the soft skin of a young buffalo bull. On one
side was the fur; on the other, were pictured the victories he had
won. His shirt, or tunic, was made of the skins of mountain sheep,
ornamented with porcupine quills and paintings of his battles. From
the edge of his shoulder-band hung the long black locks that he had
taken with his own hand from his enemies. His head-dress was of
war-eagle quills, falling down his back to his very feet; on the top
of his head stood a pair of buffalo horns, shaven thin, and polished
beautifully.

_Brian._ What a figure he must have made!

_Hunter._ His leggings were tight, decorated with porcupine quills and
scalp-locks: they were made of the finest deer skins, and fastened to
a belt round the waist. His mocassins, or shoes, were buckskin,
embroidered in the richest manner; and his necklace, the skin of an
otter, having on it fifty huge claws, or rather talons, of the grizzly
bear.

_Austin._ What a desperate fellow! Bold as a lion, I will be bound for
it. Had he no weapons about him?

_Hunter._ Oh, yes! He held in his left hand a two-edged spear of
polished steel, with a shaft of tough ash, and ornamented with tufts