At once the scent of the hunters is communicated among the frightened and routed animals, which attempt to escape in every direction. Then those on foot appear. The bisons, finding themselves surrounded and inclosed on all sides, except the single opening into the circular pen before them, low and bellow in the most frightful manner, and plunge
into it with the speed of fear and desperation. The lines of hunters close in gradually; and space becomes less necessary as the mass of bisons and the groups of hunters become more and more compact. Then the Indians commence firing their guns, drawing their arrows and flinging their lances. Many animals fall under the blows before gaining the pen
the greater number, however, enter. They discover, only too late, the snare that has been laid for them. Those in front try to return, but the terrified crowd that follow force them to go forward, and they cast themselves in confusion into the inclosure, amid the hurrahs and joyful shouts of the whole tribe, intermingled with the firing of guns.
As soon as all are penned, the buffalo are killed with arrows, lances and knives. Men, women and children, in an excitement of joy, take part in the general butchery and the flaying and cutting up of the animals. To look at them without disgust in this operation, one must have been a little habituated to their customs and manners. While men cut and slash the flesh, the women, and children in particular, devour the meat still warm with life - the livers, kidneys, brains, etc., seems irresistible attractions: they smear their faces, hair, arms and legs with the blood of the bisons; confused cries, clamorous shouts, and here and there quar
rels, fill up the scene. It is a picturesque and savage scene, a very pandemonium - a sight very difficult to depict by
words or to recount in minute details. In the hunt which I have just described, and at which I was present, Goo bison were taken.
After the butchery, the skins and the flesh are separated into piles, and these piles are divided among the families, in proportion to the number of which they are composed. The