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

452 THE INNOCENT AND THE GUILTY. [1687.On the twenty-third, they approached a village, theinhabitants of which, regarding them as curiositiesof the first order, came out in a body to see them;and, eager todo them honor, they required them tomount on their backs, and thus make their entrancein procession. Joutel, being large and heavy,weighed down hisbearer, insomuch that two of hiscountrymen were forced to sustain him, one on eachBide. On arriving, an old chief washed their faceswith warm water from an earthen pan, and theninvited them to mount on a scaffold of canes, wherethey sat in the hot sun listening to four successivespeeches of welcome, of which they understood not aword. lAt the village of another tribe, farther on theirway, they met with a welcome still more oppressive.Cavelier, the unworthy successor of his brother,being represented as the chief of the party, becamethe principal victim of their attentions. Theydanced the calumet before him; while an Indian,taking him, with an air of great respect, by theshoulders as he sat, shook him in cadence with thethumping of the drum. They then placed two girlsclose beside him, as his wives; while, at the sametime, an old chief tied a painted feather in his hair.These proceedings so scandalized him that, pretend-1These Indians were a portion of the Cadodaquis, or Caddoes,then living on Red River. The travellers afterwards visited othervillages of the same people. Tonty was here two years afterwardsand mentions the curious custom of washing the faces of guests.