friends. Some of the
pipes of the Indians are beautiful. The bowls are all of the red stone
from Pipe-stone Quarry, cut into all manner of fantastic forms; while
the stems, three or four feet long, are ornamented with braids of
porcupine's quills, beaks of birds, feathers and red hair. The
calumet, or, as it is called, "the peace-pipe," is indeed, as I have
before said, great medicine. It is highly adorned with quills of the
war-eagle, and never used on any other occasion than that of making
and solemnizing peace, when it is passed round to the chiefs. It is
regarded as altogether a sacred utensil. An Indian's pipe is his
friend through the pains and pleasures of life; and when his tomahawk
and his medicine bag are placed beside his poor, pallid remains, his
pipe is not forgotten.

_Austin._ When an Indian dies, how do they bury him?

_Hunter._ According to the custom of his tribe. Some Indians are
buried under the sod; some are left in cots, or cradles, on the water;
and others are placed on frames raised to support them. You remember
that I told you of Blackbird's grave.

_Austin._ Ay! he was buried on horseback, on the top of a high bluff,
sitting on his horse. He was covered all over with sods.

_Hunter._ And I told you of the Chinock children floating on the
solitary pool.

_Basil._ Yes, I remember them very well.

_Hunter._ Grown-up Chinocks are left floating in cradles, just in the
same manner; though oftener they are tied up in skins, and laid in
canoes, with paddles, pipes and provisions, and then hoisted up into a
tree, and left there to decay. In the Mandan burial place, the dead
were ranged in rows, on high slender frames, out of the way of the
wolf, dressed in their best robes, and wrapped in a fresh buffalo
skin, with all their arms, pipes, and every necessary provision and
comfort to supply their wants in their journey to the hunting-grounds
of their fathers. In our burial grounds, there are generally some
monuments grander than the rest, to set forth the wealth, the station,
or the talents of those who slumber below; and, as human nature is the
same everywhere, so in the resting place of the Indians. Here and
there are spread out a few yards of red or blue cloth, to signify that
beneath it a chief, or a superior brave, is sleeping. The Mandan dead
occupied a spot on the prairie. Here they mouldered, warrior lying by
the side of warrior, till they fell to the ground from their frames,
when the bo