Mr. Say (accompanied by an interpreter), who made a short visit to the small group of lodges near us, was kindly received, though hooted by the children, and of course snarled and snapped at by the dogs. The skin lodges of these wandering people are very similar to those of the Missouri tribes, but in those to which he was introduced, he experienced the oppression of an almost suffocating heat, certainly many degrees above the temperature of the very sultry exterior atmosphere. A very portly old man, whose features were distinguished by a remarkably wide mouth and lengthened chin, invited him to a small ragged lodge, to see the riches it contained. These consisted of habiliments of red and blue cloth, profusely garnished with blue and white beads, the product of the industry and ingenuity of his squaw, from materials obtained last winter from some white traders, who made their appearance on Red river. The present members of this family were the old man, one wife, and four children, the latter as usual in a state of nudity. The baggage was piled around the lodge, serving for seats and beds; and a pile of jerked meat near the door served also for a seat, and was occasionally visited by the dirty feet of the children. A boy was amusing himself with that primitive weapon, the sling, of an ordinary form, which he used with considerable dexterity; the effect of which he appeared disposed to try upon the stranger, and was not readily turned from his purpose by a harsh rebuke and menacing gesture.
He was informed, that the party of traders who had last winter ascended Red river to their country, were { 50} _Tabbyboos_ (a name which they also applied to us, and which appears to be the same word which, according to Lewis and Clarke, in the language of the Snake Indians, means white men; but it was here applied particularly to the Americans). These traders offered various articles, such as coarse cloths, beads, vermillion, kettles, knives, guns, powder, lead, &c. in exchange for horses and mules, bison-robes, and parchment or parfleche. Such was the anxiety to obtain the merchandize thus displayed before them, that those enterprising warriors, whose stock of horses was but small, crossed the mountains into Mexico, and returned with a plentiful supply of those animals for exchange, captured from the Spanish inhabitants of that country. This illicit trade in horses was conducted so extensively by that party of traders, that he was told of a single Indian who sold them fifty mules, besides a considerable number of horses from his own stock.