from their hunt; then you embrace and part friends. To refuse to come, when you are on their premises and they call you, would irritate them and expose you to great dangers. After this we continue our way in peace, and camp for the night at the mouth of Knife river. Here a real and grave danger awaited us, from which we came off nicely. We made a big fire, for it was cold in the open air, and it was discovered by a band of Indians, armed to the teeth; they had come close to us, under cover of the darkness, without our perceiving them. Fortunately the chief recognized my cross and black robe by the firelight; he ran to me, threw away his hatchet, embraced and hugged me, crying "Ah ! how near you were to starting for the spirit land! We thought you were far away; we took you for an enemy." Then they all put their two hands over their mouths, an expressive token of their great astonishment. All this was done in less time than it takes to write it. I thanked them from the bottom of my heart; we passed the evening agreeably enough; the calumet was presented and bound the knots of friendship yet more closely; afterward a cup of wellsweetened coffee, with buffalo hump and tongues roasted on the spit, put all these warriors in such an excessively good humor that they honored us with a song and dance. They belonged to the tribe of the Aricaras, a meeting with whom in the desert is always dreaded by the white men; for they are thieves and murderers. They promised me solemnly at leaving that in future they would always greet the whites calumet in hand. Next day we breakfasted at Fort Madison or Mandan, with the amiable Mr. Des Autels.
Some hours after we started on again, we passed under a scalp, tied to the end of a long pole, swinging over the river. It was probably a sacrifice to the sun, to obtain other scalps or a good hunt. Soon we came in front of the winter quarters of the Aricaras, encamped and fortified in a fair grove of poplars on the river bank. A great number of Indians all together, with shouts and gestures, invited us to come over. We made a great showing of zeal with our paddles,