October 10, 1804
Arikara Village
Private Hugh Hall writing.
Today we were in the Arikara village. The Indians here are much impressed with me, and keep wanting to touch me and rub dirt to see if my blackness will come off. They were so interested, and thought me to be so great that I decided I could play something of a trick on them. Private Hall thought it to be extremely funny, which is why he offered to write it down for me to remember it and tell everyone else the story when we get back east.
It was a fun bit of play-acting, and I got a whole bunch of the natives to sit around while I told them my story. As I told them, I lunged in their faces like a good storyteller would do, making moves with my hands to describe what I was saying.
I told them that before Master Clark caught me, I was something terribly wild, and that I lived off people, and that little children were very good eating. Some of the men, like myself and Private Hall, thought this to be something very funny, and had a good laugh. The Indians were mightily scared, and flinched away whenever I lunged to add to the story. But I think that Master Clark thought that I went a little too far, and gave me some disapproving glances as I finished up my tale. He doesn’t always find my little jokes to be so funny. But the Indian men are very pleased with me, and the women love to touch the white men.
(And the best part is that this shit actually happened.)
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