The Grasshopper Hunt.
The principal portion of the Soshoco territory is covered with wormwood, and other species of artemisia, in which the grasshoppers swarm by myriads ; these parts are consequently most frequented by this tribe. When they are suffi
ciently numerous, they hunt together. They begin by digging a hole, ten or twelve feet in diameter by four or five deep; then, armed with long branches of artemisia, they surround a field of four or five acres, more or less, according
to the number of persons who are engaged in it. They stand about twenty feet apart, and their whole work is to beat the ground, so as to frighten up the grasshoppers and make them bound forward. They chase them toward the centre by degrees - that is, into the hole prepared for their recep
tion. Their number is so considerable that frequently three or four acres furnish grasshoppers sufficient to fill the reservoir or hole.
The Soshocos stay in that place as long as this sort of provision lasts. They, as well as other mortals, have their tastes. Some eat the grasshoppers in soup, or boiled; others crush them, and make a kind of paste from them, which they dry in the sun or before the fire: others eat them en appalas -that is, they take pointed rods and string the largest ones on them; afterward these rods are fixed in the ground before the fire, and, as they become roasted, the poor Soshocos regale themselves until the whole are devoured.
As they rove from place to place, they sometimes meet with a few rabbits, and take some grouse, but seldom kill deer or other large animals.
The contrast between the Indian of the plain and the destitute Soshoco is very striking; but poor as he is, like the Hottentot, he loves devotedly his native soil.
I shall soon leave Cincinnati for Louisville, in Kentucky, and then for St. Louis; from thence, in order to comply with your request, I shall continue my Indian memoirs. Among other things, I will give you the description of the