La Salle and the discovery of the great West - North Central ...

1680.] THE CAPTIVE FRIAR. 255the belief that he had been doomed to death, andthat they were charitably bemoaning his fate. 1One night, the captives were, for some reason,unable to bivouac near their protector, and wereforced to make their fire at the end of the camp.Here they were soon beset by a crowd of Indians,who told them that Aquipaguetin had at lengthresolved to tomahawk them. The malcontents weregathered in a knot at a littledistance, and Hennepinhastened to appease them by another gift of knivesand tobacco. This was but one of the devices of theold chief to deprive them of their goods withoutrobbing them outright. He had with him the bonesof a deceased relative, which he was carrying homewrapped in skins prepared with smoke after theIndian fashion, and gayly decorated with bands ofdyed porcupine quills. He would summon his warriors,and placing these relics in the midst of theassembly, call on all present to smoke in their honor;after which, Hennepin was required to offer a moresubstantial tribute in the shape of cloth, beads,hatchets, tobacco, and the like, to be laid upon thebundle of bones.The gifts thus acquired were then,in the name of the deceased, distributed among thepersons present.1This weeping and wailing over Hennepin once seemed to mean anomaly in his account of Sioux manners, as I am not awarethat such practices are to be found among them at present. Theyare mentioned, however, by other early writers. Le Sueur, whowas among them in 1699-1700, was wept over no less than Hennepin.See the abstract of his journal in La Harpe.