spent the evening in rejoicing; while several females who had lost a relation, retired to the hills behind the village, where they continued to cry the whole afternoon.
In the evening they usually collect on the tops of the lodges, where they sit and converse: every now and then the attention of all is attracted by some old man who rises up and declaims aloud, so as to be heard all over the village. There is something in this like a quaker meeting. Adair labors to prove the Indian tribes to be descended from the Jews,[43] I might here adduce this as an argument in favor of these people being a colony of quakers. The object of this harangue was to urge the people to treat the strangers well. To have such amongst them, is regarded as a matter of pride and exultation amongst the Indian nations, and often gives rise to jealousies. {149} There is hardly such invidious distinction as that of natives and foreigners. If a man brings any thing useful to the society in which he happens to be, he is thought to confer a favour on it—he is thought to increase the wealth or safety of the tribe.
Monday 17th. This day arrived a deputation from the Chienne nation, to announce that those people were on their march to Arikara, and would be here in fifteen days. I sometimes amused myself with the idea of forming a gazette of the daily occurrences. We here see an independent nation, with all the interests and anxieties of the largest; how little would its history differ from that of one of the Grecian states! A war, a treaty, deputations sent and received, warlike excursions, national mourning or rejoicing, and a thousand other particulars, which constitute the chronicle of the most celebrated people.
In the evening, about sundown, the women cease from
