All this being adjusted, they were conducted to the main building or
council house of the village, where an ample repast, or rather banquet,
was spread, which seemed to realize all the gastronomical dreams that
had tantalized them during their long starvation; for here they beheld
not merely fish and roots in abundance, but the flesh of deer and elk,
and the choicest pieces of buffalo meat. It is needless to say
how vigorously they acquitted themselves on this occasion, and how
unnecessary it was for their hosts to practice the usual cramming
principle of Indian hospitality.
When the repast was over, a long talk ensued. The chief showed the
same curiosity evinced by his tribe generally, to obtain information
concerning the United States, of which they knew little but what they
derived through their cousins, the Upper Nez Perces; as their traffic is
almost exclusively with the British traders of the Hudson's Bay Company.
Captain Bonneville did his best to set forth the merits of his nation,
and the importance of their friendship to the red men, in which he was
ably seconded by his worthy friend, the old chief with the hard name,
who did all that he could to glorify the Big Hearts of the East.
The chief, and all present, listened with profound attention, and
evidently with great interest; nor were the important facts thus
set forth, confined to the audience in the lodge; for sentence after
sentence was loudly repeated by a crier for the benefit of the whole
village.
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