hv_coatesi_account_1798_025

English. The Chief presently asked if we wouldlike to see his people in general Council. We let him know we would as soon as wasconvenient. Ten o'clock tomorrow was therefore fixupon, and runners dispatched immediately to givenotice. It was about two o'clock when we arrivedand some time after the conference Cornplantercame into our apartment, and asked if we couldeat in the Indian way. We replied we expectedwe could; and presently he brought in some dinnerin a bark bowl and a tin kettle. The bowl wasplaced on a seat beside us, and the kettle on theground before us, and we unvited to eat. What was in the bowl or kettle we knew not, orwhether they were to be eaten together or separate. The bowl contained a number of roundlumps of something tied in corn husks, witha string at each end, and one in the middle. At length after some interrogations amongour selves, we let them know that our ignorancewas such, we did not know how to begin, whichset some of the young Indians laughing. The Chief took out his knife, for they had set neither, knives, forks, nor spoons, and taking upa dumpling he cut it in two; then strippingup the husk, he cut off a piece, and dipping itin the kettle, which we found contained bear's oil