{373} Numank-Machana, the first man, ordered the Numangkake to

celebrate this medicine feast every year.[292] When the village has

fixed the time for this festivity, they choose a man of distinction,

in whom confidence can be placed, who must put himself at the head,

and direct the solemnities. In the year 1834 Mato-Topé was chosen. He

is called Kani-Sachka. This man then causes the medicine lodge to be

prepared and cleaned before the appointed time, and wood and other

necessaries to be provided.

FIRST DAY OF THE OKIPPE.--At sunset the Kani-Sachka goes into the

lodge, and begins the fast, which continues four days. With him are

six men, who are to strike what is called the tortoise, a vessel or

sack made of parchment, and filled with water.[293] Three of the men

must strike in the direction of the river downwards, and three in the

direction upwards. They strike the tortoise during the whole night.

Before sunrise a man representing the Numank-Machana, or the first man,

arrives. He dresses himself in the medicine lodge in the following

manner: round his body he fastens a wolf's skin, on his head, raven's

feathers, in his arms he carries the medicine pipe, and in his robe a

portion of pemmican. His face is painted red, and on the small of the

back he binds a piece of wood, to which the tail of a buffalo cow is

fastened. Dressed in this manner, he goes early in the morning of the

first day of the festival, and sings on the open space in the centre.

All kinds of valuable articles, such as guns, robes, blankets, &c., are

thrown towards him, of which he afterwards takes possession,[294] while

on his part he distributes pemmican among the people. He then returns

to the medicine lodge, but is not at that time permitted to speak a

word. The most eminent men of the nation now come to the lodge, address

the first man as their uncle, and say, "Well, uncle, how did you fare

in the villages? How did you find them? Were you well received?" To

which he replies, "Very well, nephew. I have not once lowered my pipe

to the ground." By which he means to say that he has received ample

presents, and offerings of all kinds have been hung upon his pipe. He

then says, "I have seen a great many buffaloes feeding in the prairie

and drinking at the river; they are very abundant everywhere." These

were the horses; but he means to intimate that, by the medicine of

this day, the buffaloes will be attracted in great numbers. All those

who intend to submit their bodies to a penance or certain tortures, in

order to render themselves acceptable to the lord of life and the first

man, come to the medicine lodge early in the morning. Their number

is, of course, uncertain; sometimes many present themselves, at other

times only a few. They are smeared all over with white clay, with no

other covering besides their robes, with the hairy side outwards, and

drawn over their heads, so that the face is covered, and they are quite

wrapped up in them. In the medicine lodge they lay aside their robes.

On the first day of the feast they go four times, wrapped up as before

described, and dance around the ark, which stands in the centre of the

open space. The Kani-Sachka remains during all this time moaning and

leaning against the ark. All {374} this is done in the forenoon. In the

afternoon all is silent, and neither dance nor procession takes place.

SECOND DAY OF THE OKIPPE.--On the second day, early in the morning,

eight men appear, who represent buffalo bulls. They are naked, wearing

only an apron of blue and white striped woollen cloth. Their body is

painted black in front, with two red perpendicular stripes like the

facings of a military uniform, and with several white transverse

stripes looking like lace or bands. The fore arm and ankles are

alternately striped white and red. In their hands they carry a fan

of green willow twigs, and on their back a buffalo robe, the head of

which, with the long hair on the forehead, hangs over the face. To the

middle of the robe a single buffalo horn is fastened, while at the

head and loins green willow branches are appended. The eight buffalo

bulls put on this fantastic dress in the lodge, and, when this is

done, march out two abreast in an inclined posture, extending their

robes with outspread hands, and holding the willow fans upright. In

this manner they dance up to the ark, where they divide, four going

to the left and four to the right round the space. They again join

opposite the medicine lodge, and then return as before to the ark,

where they continue to dance. When they are opposite to each other

they stand upright and imitate the roaring of the buffalo. As soon as

this dance begins, the six tortoise strikers bring their instrument

from the centre of the lodge, and place it near the ark in an easterly

direction, striking it, and singing a certain song which is said to be

a prayer. The Kani-Sachka stands, with his head bowed, leaning on the

ark, directly opposite the tortoise, and moans without ceasing. He is

quite naked except an apron of buffalo skin. His whole body is bedaubed

with yellow, and on his forehead he has a wreath of bleached buffalo

hair or wool hanging over the eyes. The eight buffalo bulls form a ring

and dance round him, covering him with their robes; they dance in like

manner to the tortoise, and next go to the door of the medicine lodge,

where they make a kind of covered way with their robes, beneath which

the tortoise is conveyed into the lodge. The whole ceremony is repeated

eight times on this day, four times in the morning and four times in

the afternoon.[295]

THIRD DAY OF THE OKIPPE.--The same masks as yesterday dance on this

day twelve times, and are prohibited from either eating or drinking. A

number of other masks join them. 1. Two men, dressed like women, who

dance in this costume, keeping by the side of the eight buffalo bulls.

They wear clothes of bighorn leather, women's leggins (mitasses), the

robes having the hair outwards. Their cheeks are painted red, their

chins tattooed, and their heads adorned with glass beads, as is the

custom among the women. 2. Two other men represent a couple of swans;

they are naked, carry a swan's tail in their hand, are painted all

over white, only the nose, mouth (representing the bill), and the

lower part of the legs and feet, black. 3. A couple of rattlesnakes;

the back is painted with black transverse stripes, in imitation of

those {375} animals, the front of the body yellowish; a black line is

drawn from each eye down the cheeks, and in each hand they carry a

bunch of wormwood.[296] 4. One man represents the evil spirit; he is

conducted by two men of the village to the river, where he is dressed

and painted; his entire body is painted black, and, as soon as this is

done, he is not permitted to speak a word. They put on his head a cap,

with a black cock's-comb; he likewise wears a mask, with white wooden

rings left for the opening round the eyes. They then make for him large

teeth of cotton yarn, paint the sun upon his stomach, the crescent

upon his back, and on each joint of the arms and legs, a white circle;

they then put on a buffalo's tail, and place a small stick in his

hand, with a ball, made of skin, at the end, to which a scalp, painted

red on the under side, is fastened. The ball represents the head of

an enemy.[297] When this monster is completed, they let him loose,

and he runs, like one possessed, about the prairie, comes into the

village, gets upon the huts, one after the other, and prys into every

corner, while the inhabitants throw out to him all kinds of valuable

articles as presents. As soon as he perceives this he turns towards

the sun, and intimates to it, by signs, how well he is treated, and

that it is foolish of it (the sun) to keep at so great a distance. He

goes about and looks on the people's heads for vermin, and, if he finds

any, he pretends to be very happy, and runs about with great rapidity.

The Indians are very much afraid of the devil, for which reason this

part cannot be assigned to anybody; but he who wishes to perform it

must offer himself. My informant added that this medicine feast was

once celebrated on the banks of Heart River, where the Mandans then

resided, and the man who had undertaken this part was conducted into

the river. When his clothes were taken off, in order to paint and dress

him, he appeared very uneasy, and required to be let loose; and when

this was done he seemed as one possessed by the evil spirit, and ran,

with the velocity of an arrow, on the hills and about the plain. His

two attendants were alarmed, and pursued him to the village, but the

new demon darted past them, leaped over the high fence of the village,

jumped down into the huts, and again made his egress, and then ran

to the river; this now convinced them that he was possessed. It cost

the inhabitants much trouble to catch and wash him, but he trembled

like an aspen leaf, wrapped himself in his robe, and continued in

this condition for the remainder of his life without ever speaking a

word.[298]

While the devil is walking about, the other masks continue dancing,

and {376} act in conformity with their parts, endeavouring to imitate

the natural attitudes of the animals they represent. 5. Two men,

representing white-headed eagles, are painted of a dark brown colour;

the head, neck, fore arm and hands, and the lower part of the legs,

are white; they carry a stick in their hands, and their business is to

pursue the antelopes. 6. Are two beavers; they wear the robe with the

hairy side outwards, have a piece of parchment, resembling a beaver's

tail, fastened to their girdle, and are painted brown.[299] 7. Are

two birds of prey; their shoulders are blue, the breast yellowish and

spotted; they have feathers on their heads, and the feet of birds

of prey in their hands. 8. Are two or four bears (mato), wrapped in

bears' skins, with the head and claws, which cover their head and

their whole body; they generally walk in a stooping attitude about

the dancers, and growl like those animals. 9. Two men represent the

dried meat, which is cut in small strips. They wear a cap of white

hare skin; their body is painted with zig-zag stripes; round the waist

they have a girdle of green boughs, and they dance with the others.

10. Forty or fifty Indians of different ages perform the part of

antelopes; they are painted red on the back, the rest of the body and

limbs are white, the nose and mouth black; they carry small sticks,

and run about very swiftly. 11. Two men personate the night; they are

naked, painted quite black, with white stars; on their backs they have

the setting moon, and on their breast the rising sun; they are not

allowed to sit, during the whole day, till the sun has set: they then

sit down and must not rise till the next morning.[300] 12. Are one or

two wolves; they are painted white, wear a wolf's skin, and pursue

the antelopes, which fly before them: if they catch one, the bears

come and take it from them and devour it. All these animals imitate

the originals to the best of their power. 13. Two prairie wolves; the

tops of their heads are painted white, their faces yellowish-brown;

they wear dry herbs in their hair, and carry in their hands a stick,

painted with reddish-brown stripes, and run in the prairie before the

other animals when they leave the village. Almost all these animals are

said to have different songs, with words, which the uninitiated do not

understand; they sometimes practise these songs for a whole summer, and

are frequently obliged to pay a high price for instruction. Originally

there were only ten masks at this festival. The white-headed eagles,

the beavers, and the prairie wolves, are a modern addition, and no part

of the true ancient observances of it. When all these animals come

together they fight with each other, and perform all sorts of antics.

Every animal acts according to its natural character; the beavers

strike with their tails, making a loud clapping noise; the buffaloes

roll and wallow in the sand; the bears strike with their paws, &c.

During all these masquerade dances, the penitents have remained

three entire days in the medicine lodge, where they have fasted and

thirsted, sitting perfectly still and quiet. On the afternoon of that

day, the persons of the ten masks also meet in the medicine lodge, and

all together then leave this place. The penitents lie down on their

bellies, in a circle round the ark, at some distance from it; the masks

dance among them and over them, to the sound of {377} the schischikué.

Some already begin to suffer the tortures: they give a gun, a blanket,

or some other article of value, to an eminent person, to inflict the

tortures on them. During this time the Kani-Sachka has been moaning,

and leaning on the ark. The tortures of the penitents now begin. In

many of them strips of skin and flesh are cut from the breast, or the

arms, and on the back, but in such a manner that they remain fast at

both ends. A strap is then passed under them, and the sufferers are

thrown over the declivity of the bank, where they remain suspended in

the air; others have a strap drawn through the wound, to which the

head of a buffalo is fastened, and they are obliged to drag this heavy

weight about; others have themselves suspended by the muscles of the

back; others have joints of their fingers cut off; others, again, are

lifted up by the flesh, which is cut across the stomach, or have some

heavy body suspended to the muscles, which have been cut and loosened,

and other similar tortures. Those who have been tortured on this day

return directly to their huts; but those who can bear to fast longer do

not submit themselves to the torture till the fourth day.

FOURTH DAY OF THE OKIPPE.--All those who have endured fasting for

four days are now assembled in the medicine lodge. Such as feel

themselves faint beg that the dancing may begin early. Accordingly, the

masquerade, and the dances performed yesterday, begin at daybreak. They

dance on this day sixteen times--eight times in the morning, and eight

times in the afternoon. The candidates for the torture are out about

two o'clock in the afternoon; and when they have suffered to the utmost

of their power, a large circle is formed; two men, who have no part

in the festival, take one of the penitents between them, hold him by

the hand, and the whole circle moves round with the greatest rapidity.

The Kani-Sachka is likewise treated in this manner. The famished and

tortured penitents, for the most part, soon fall down, and many faint

away, but no regard is paid to this; they are dragged and pulled about

as long as they can possibly bear it; they are then let loose, and

remain stretched on the ground as if dead. The eight buffalo bulls now

come forward to execute their last dance. Meantime, Numank-Machana (the

first man) stands on one side of the place, and invites the inhabitants

to assemble. The men come on foot and on horseback, with their bows and

arrows: the arrows are adorned with green leaves at the wooden points;

and, when the eight buffaloes have approached, dancing, the first

man, and been repulsed by him, they are shot at from all sides, fall,

roll on the ground, and then lie still as if dead. The first man then

invites the inhabitants to take the flesh of the buffaloes. The latter,

whose robes have already fallen off, rise, and retire into the medicine

lodge. Then the dancers divide into two parties, extend their arms

and legs, strike themselves on the stomach, exclaiming that they feel

themselves strong; some, that they will kill enemies; others, that they

will slay many buffaloes, &c. They then retire, take food, and rest

themselves, and the festival is concluded.

The wounds that have been inflicted on this occasion are now healed,

but they remain visible {378} during the whole life, like thick swollen

weals.[301] This is to be observed in a much higher degree among the

Manitaries than among the Mandans; the former seem to submit to much

more severe tortures. The buffalo skulls, which these Indians have

dragged about with much pain, are preserved in their huts, where they

are everywhere to be seen, to be handed down from the father to the

children. Many such heads are looked upon by them as medicine; they are

kept in the huts, and sometimes the Indians stroke them over the nose,

and set food before them. In general, the buffalo is a medicine animal,

and more or less sacred.

Another very remarkable medicine festival is that for attracting the

herds of buffaloes, which is usually celebrated in the autumn, or

winter. I shall describe this festival, as an eye-witness among the

Manitaries, where it is observed precisely in the same manner as among

the Mandans. At this festival they leave their wives to the older men,

and individual Indians do the same on certain occasions, when they

desire to ask good wishes for the attainment of some object they have

in view. A man, in such a case, goes, with his pipe, and accompanied

by his wife, who wears no clothes except her buffalo robe, to another

hut. The wife carries a dish of boiled maize, which she sets down

before a third person, and the man does the same with his pipe. The

woman then passes the palm of her hand down the whole arm of the person

favoured in this manner, takes him by the hand, and he must follow her

to a retired spot, generally to the forest surrounding the huts in the

winter time; after which she returns and repeats the same process,

often with eight or ten men. As soon as the man so favoured has resumed

his seat, the person who asks his good wishes presents his pipe to

him that he may smoke; whereupon he expresses his best wishes for the

success of the undertaking or project in hand. By way of returning

thanks, his arm is again stroked.[302]

A third medicine feast is that described by Say, by the name of the

corn dance of the Manitaries. He is pretty correct in his account of

it, and it is used as well among the Mandans as the Manitaries. It is

a consecration of the grain to be sown, and is called the corn dance

feast of the women.[303] The old woman who never dies sends, in the

spring, the water-fowl, swans, geese, and ducks, as symbols of the

kinds of grain cultivated by the Indians. The wild goose signifies

maize; the swan, the gourd; and the duck, beans. It is the old woman

that causes these plants to grow, and, therefore, she sends these

birds as her signs and representatives. It is very seldom that eleven

wild geese are found together in the spring; but, if it happens, this

is a sign that the crop of maize will be remarkably fine. The Indians

keep a large quantity of dried flesh in readiness for the time in the

spring when the birds arrive, that they may immediately celebrate the

corn feast of the women. They hang the meat, before the village, on

long stages made of poles, three or four rows, one above another, and

this, with various articles of value, is considered as an offering to

the old woman. The elderly females, as representatives of the old woman

who never dies, assemble on a certain day about the stages, carrying

a stick in their hands, to one {379} end of which a head of maize is

fastened. Sitting down in a circle, they plant their sticks in the

ground before them, and then dance round the stages. Some old men

beat the drum, and rattle the schischikué. The maize is not wetted or

sprinkled, as many believe, but, on the contrary, it is supposed that

such a practice would be injurious. While the old women are performing

these ceremonies, the younger ones come and put some dry pulverized

meat into their mouths, for which each of them receives, in return, a

grain of the consecrated maize, which she eats. Three or four grains

are put into their dish, and are afterwards carefully mixed with the

seed to be sown, in order to make it thrive and yield an abundant crop.

The dried flesh on the stages is the perquisite of the aged females,

as the representatives of the old woman who never dies. During the

ceremony, it is not unusual for some men of the band of dogs to come

and pull a large piece of flesh from the poles and carry it off. As

members of this band, and being men of distinction, no opposition can

be offered.

A similar corn feast is repeated in the autumn, but at that season it

is held for the purpose of attracting the herds of buffaloes, and of

obtaining a large supply of meat. Each woman then has not a stick with

a head of maize, as in the former instance, but a whole plant of that

grain, pulled up by the roots. They designate the maize as well as the

birds, which are the symbols of the fruits of the earth, by the name

of the old woman who never dies, and call upon them in the autumn,

saying--"Mother, have pity on us; do not send the severe cold too soon,

so that we may have a sufficient supply of meat; do not permit all the

game to go away, so that we may have something for the winter."

In autumn, when the birds emigrate to the south, or, as the Indians

express it, return to the old woman, they believe that they take with

them the presents--especially the dried flesh--that were hung up at

the entrance of the village, for the giver and protectress of the

crop. They further imagine that the old woman partakes of the flesh.

Some poor females among these Indians, who are not able to offer flesh

or any valuable gift, take a piece of parchment, in which they wrap

the foot of a buffalo, and suspend it to one of the poles as their

offering. The birds on their return, go to the old woman, each bringing

something from the Indians; but, towards the end, one approaches, and

says--"I have very little to give you, for I have received only a very

mean gift." To this, the old woman, on receiving the buffalo's foot

from the poor women, or widows, says--"This is just what I love; this

poor offering is more dear to me than all the other presents, however

costly." Upon this she boils a piece of the foot with some maize, and

eats it with much satisfaction.

The old woman who never dies has very extensive plantations of maize,

the keepers of which are the great stag and the white-tailed stag. She

has, likewise, many blackbirds, which help to guard her property. When

she intends to feed these keepers, she summons them, and they fall with

avidity upon the maize fields. As these plantations are very large,

she requires many {380} labourers, and the mouse, the mole, and the

before-mentioned stags, perform the work. The birds, which fly from the

sea-shore in the spring, represent the old woman, who then travels to

the north to visit "the old man who never dies," and who always resides

in that quarter. She does not, however, stop there long, but generally

returns in three or four days. In former times, the old woman's hut was

near the little Missouri, where the Indians often went to visit her.

One day, twelve Manitaries came to her, and she set before them a pot

of maize, which was so small, that it was not sufficient to satisfy

even one; but she invited them to eat, and, as soon as the pot was

empty, it was instantly refilled, and all the twelve men had enough.

This occurred several times while the old woman resided in that spot.

Serpents, especially the rattlesnakes, are in a greater or less degree

"medicine" for these people, who kill them, and cut off the rattles,

which they regard as an effectual remedy in many diseases.[304] They

chew one of the joints, and wet various parts of the body of the

patient with the saliva. They likewise believe in the existence of

a colossal medicine serpent, which lives in a lake three or four

days' journey from this place, and to which they make offerings. The

following is their tradition of this monster:--Two young men were

strolling along the bank of the river, and observed a cavern, through

which curiosity led them to go. On reaching the further end, they were

surprised at beholding a picturesque country, wholly unknown to them,

where numerous herds of buffaloes were grazing. Suddenly, however, an

immense giant stood before them, who demanded--"Who are you, you little

people? I am afraid if I were to lay hold of you, I should crush you!"

He then lifted them in his hands very carefully, and carried them into

the village, which was inhabited by giants like himself. Accompanied by

the two Mandans, they went out to hunt buffaloes. The giants killed the

buffaloes by throwing stones, but the Mandans destroyed many with their

arrows, which greatly delighted the giants. At that time the giants

were at war with the eagles, which were very numerous, and which they

slew by flinging stones. The Mandans, however, shot them with arrows,

so that they speedily procured a large quantity of eagles' feathers.

They then took leave of the giants, and were permitted to depart with

all their valuable feathers. On their return they found the cave

blocked up by a colossal serpent. At first they were at a loss how to

make a passage, but they soon collected a large pile of wood and burnt

the monster. One of them tasted the roasted flesh of the serpent, and,

finding it palatable, partook of more. They proceeded on their way,

when the head of the Mandan who had tasted the serpent's flesh began

to swell prodigiously, and an intolerable itching came to his face. He

begged his friend not to leave him, but to take him home. On the second

day he continued to swell, increased in length, felt an irritation all

over, and was soon afterwards transformed into a serpent, upon which

he begged his companion to take him to the Missouri, which the latter

accomplished in three days. As soon as the serpent reached the water,

he dived, but speedily rose to the surface, and said, "There are many

like me below, but {381} they hate me, therefore carry me to the long

water, three days' journey from the Missouri." This, too, was done,

but the serpent not liking his new abode, his comrade was obliged to

carry him to a second lake, called Histoppa-Numangka (the place of the

tattooed countenance), when the serpent was satisfied, and resolved

to remain. He commissioned the young man to bring him four things,

viz. a white wolf, a polecat, some pounded maize, and eagles' tails:

after this he was to go to war four times, and kill an enemy in each

combat. All this accordingly took place. The serpent then added that

he would always remain in this lake, never die, be medicine, and, when

the Mandans desired anything, they might come hither, do penance, or

make offerings, that is to say, hang robes, eagles' tails, and other

articles of value, on poles on the banks of the lake, which the Indians

sometimes do even to this day.

Another curiosity of a similar nature is the Medicine Stone, which

is mentioned by Lewis and Clarke, and which the Manitaries likewise

reverence.[305] This stone is between two and three days' journey

from the villages on Cannon-ball River, and about 100 paces from its

banks. I was assured that it was on a tolerably high hill, and in the

form of a flat slab, probably of sand-stone. The stone is described as

being marked with impressions of the footsteps of men, and animals of

various descriptions, also of sledges with dogs. The Indians use this

stone as an oracle, and make offerings of value to it, such as kettles,

blankets, cloth, guns, knives, hatchets, medicine pipes, &c., which are

found deposited close to it. The war parties of both nations, when they

take the field, generally go to this place, and consult the oracle as

to the issue of their enterprise. Lamenting and howling, they approach

the hill, smoke their medicine pipes, and pass the night near the spot.

On the following morning they copy the figures on the stone upon a

piece of parchment or skin, which they take to the village, where the

old men give the interpretations. New figures are undoubtedly drawn

from time to time on this stone, near to which the celebrated ark, in

which part of the nation was saved in the great deluge, formerly stood.

The Mandans have many other medicine establishments in the vicinity

of their villages, all of which are dedicated to the superior

powers. Mr. Bodmer has made very accurate drawings of those near

Mih-Tutta-Hang-Kush, one of which consists of four poles placed in the

form of a square; the two foremost have a heap of earth and green turf

thrown up round them, and four buffalo skulls laid in a line between

them, while twenty-six human skulls are placed in a row from one of the

stakes at the back to the other; some of these skulls are painted with

a red stripe. Behind the whole a couple of knives are stuck into the

ground, and a bundle of twigs is fastened at the top of the poles with

a kind of comb, or the teeth of a rake, painted red.[306] The Indians

repair to such places when they desire to make offerings or put up

petitions; they howl, lament, and make loud entreaties, often for many

days together, to the lord of life, which the French Canadians call

weeping, though no tears are shed. A similar medicine establishment is

represented,[307] where a couple of human figures, very clumsily made

of skins, {382} were fixed upon poles, representing, as we were told,

the sun and moon, probably the lord of life and the old woman who never

dies. Wormwood, of which they generally fasten a bunch to the poles, is

a sacred medicine herb, to which they ascribe various effects.

Dreams, as I have before said, afford the usual motives for such

actions, and for the penances which they impose upon themselves, and

they believe all that appears in their dreams to be true. They were

not yet acquainted with fire-arms, when one of the Indians dreamt of a

weapon with which they could kill their enemies at a great distance,

and soon afterwards the white men brought them the first gun. In the

same manner they dreamt of horses before they obtained any. Even the

Whites who live among them are infected with this belief in dreams, and

other superstitions. They frequently promise, on undertaking anything,

the joint of a finger, which they cut off at once, and keep in a

handful of wormwood; this I myself saw among the Blackfeet, where, at

that time, it was a sign of mourning. It is also done at the time of

the Okippe in May and June. Almost all the Mandans and Manitaries have

lost one or two joints of the fingers, and several of them more. There

are numerous superstitious ideas and prejudices among these Indians.

Thus, they believe that a person to whom they wish ill must die, if

they make a figure of wood or clay, substituting for the heart, a

needle, an awl, or a porcupine quill, and bury the image at the foot of

one of their medicine poles. When a child is born, the father must not

bridle a horse, that is to say, he is not to fasten the halter to the

lower jaw, otherwise the child would die in convulsions. If the wife

be pregnant, this circumstance is often the cause of much ill fortune

to the husband, and he is frequently unsuccessful in hunting. If an

Indian, in such cases, wounds a buffalo, without being able to kill it

quickly, he endeavours to carry the heart of a buffalo home, and makes

his wife discharge an arrow at it; he then again feels confidence in

his weapons, that they will speedily kill. The Indians affirm that a

pregnant woman is very lucky at a game called billiards. Many consider

it a bad omen when a woman, while several Mandans are smoking together,

passes between them. If a woman is lying on the ground between the

men who are smoking, a piece of wood is laid across her, to serve as

a communication between the men. The strongest man now living among

the Mandans, who has been the victor in several wrestling matches with

the Whites, always takes hold of his pipe by the head, for, were he

to touch it in another part, the blood would suddenly rush from his

nostrils. As soon as he bleeds in this manner, he instantly empties his

pipe, and throws the contents into the fire, where it explodes like

gunpowder, and the bleeding immediately stops. Nobody, they say, can

touch this man's face, without at once bleeding at the nose and mouth.

A certain Indian affirms that, whenever another offers him a pipe to

smoke, out of civility, he immediately has his mouth full of worms,

handfuls of which he throws into the fire. The medicine of another man

consists in making a snow-ball, which he rolls a long time between

his hands, so that it at length becomes hard, and is converted into

a white stone, which, when {383} struck, emits fire. Many persons,

even Whites, pretended they had seen this, and it is utterly useless

to attempt convincing them to the contrary. The same man pretends

that, during a dance, he plucked white feathers from a certain small

bird, which he rolled between his hands, and formed of them, in a

short time, a similar white stone. Sometimes an Indian takes it into

his head to make his gun medicine, or to consecrate it, which he does

not dare afterwards to part with. With this view he generally makes

a yearly feast in the spring. The crier (kettle-tender, or marmiton)

must invite a certain number of guests, and receive an equal number

of small sticks, which he delivers to them, as a sign of their being

invited; nay, now, European playing cards are actually sent round for

this purpose. The guests appear, lay their guns aside, and take their

places, on which the drum and schischikué go round, and every guest

sings, and plays the drum and rattle. While this music is going on,

they eat the food which has been dressed, nor are they allowed to

leave any of it. The host then takes his gun, cuts a piece of flesh,

and with it rubs the barrel, and flings the meat into the fire; this is

repeated thrice. He then takes up some of the water in which the meat

was boiled, rubs the whole length of the barrel with it, pours the rest

of the broth into the fire; and, lastly, takes fat, with which he rubs

the whole of his gun, and then throws the remainder into the fire.

A great many Mandans and Manitaries believe that they have wild animals

in their body; one, for instance, affirmed he had a buffalo calf, the

kicking of which he often felt; others said they had tortoises, frogs,

lizards, birds, and so forth. Among the Manitaries we saw medicine

dances of the women, where one pretended that she had a head of maize

in her body, which she cast out by dancing, and then ate, after it had

been mixed with wormwood. Another discharged blood, but of this we

shall speak in the sequel. Similar feats are seen among the Mandans

also. They likewise relate a number of foolish stories of miraculous

and supernatural events. Thus, a girl refused to marry, and had no

intercourse with the other sex. One night, while she was asleep, a

man lay down by her side, on which she awoke, and saw him go away in

a white buffalo robe. As he returned on the two succeeding nights,

she resolved to mark him, and stained her hand with red. He appeared,

and she gave him a blow, with her hand, on his back, not being able

to hold him. On the following day she examined all the robes in the

whole village, but could not find the mark of her hand, till at length

she discovered it on the back of a large white dog. Some months after,

as the Indians are fully persuaded, she was delivered of seven young

dogs. The people consider owls as medicine birds, and pretend to hold

conversations with them, and to understand their attitudes and voices;

often, indeed, they keep these animals alive in their huts, and look

upon them as soothsayers. I shall, subsequently, have occasion to speak

of the manner in which they catch all kinds of birds of prey, which

feed on the flesh of dead animals, particularly eagles, which they

sometimes preserve alive. They frequently look upon them as medicine.

{384} Many instruments used by the Whites, especially mathematical,

are a great medicine, or charm, in their eyes, because they do not

comprehend the use of them. Thus, the Indian women were frequently

embarrassed when we looked at them through a telescope, because they

believed that we had the power of penetrating their inmost thoughts,

and of discovering their past and future actions.

The division of time, especially that of the year into months, is

pretty conformable to nature; they count the years by winters, and

say so many winters have passed since such an event. They are able to

reckon the winters either by numbers, or on their fingers, for their

numerals are very complete.

1. The month of the seven cold days, answering to our January.

2. The pairing month--February.

3. The month of weak eyes--March.

4. The month of game. Some call it the month of the wild geese.

It is likewise often called the month of the breaking-up of the

ice--April.

5. The month in which maize is sown, or the month of

flowers--May.

6. The month of ripe service berries.

7. The month of ripe cherries.

8. The month of ripe plums.

9. The month of ripe maize.

10. The month of the falling leaves.

11. The month in which the rivers freeze.

12. The month of slight frost.[308]

Here and there other names are given to the months, but the above are

the most common.

The chief occupations of the Indians, besides adorning and painting

their persons, looking in the glass, smoking, eating, and sleeping,

are the chase and war, and these fill up a great part of their time.

The principal beast of chase is the buffalo, or, rather, the buffalo

cow. The men generally go hunting in a body, on horseback, in order

to be the more secure against a superior force of their enemies. The

equipments of their horses are much like those of the Blackfeet, and

their saddle resembles the Hungarian; though, now, they sometimes

obtain saddles from the Whites, which they line and ornament with red

and blue cloth. In riding, they never leave hold of their whip, the

handle of which is made of wood, and not of elk's horn, as among the

more western nations. They never wear spurs. In the summer time, if the

herds of buffaloes are dispersed to great distances in the prairie,

the chase, of course, requires more time and exertion; but in winter,

when they approach the Missouri, and seek shelter in the woods, a great

number are {385} often killed in a short time.[309] On these hunting

excursions the Indians often spend eight or ten days; generally they

return on foot, while the horses are laden with the spoil.[310] The

buffaloes are usually shot with arrows, the hunters riding within ten

or twelve paces of them. If it is very cold, and the buffaloes keep at

a distance in the prairie (which happened in the winter of 1833-34),

they hunt but little, and would rather suffer hunger, or live only on

maize and beans, than use any exertion; and when, towards spring, many

drowned buffaloes float down the river with the ice, the Indians swim

or leap with great dexterity over the flakes of ice, draw the animals

to land, and eat the half putrid flesh, without manifesting any signs

of disgust. It is remarkable how instantly their famished dogs know

and take advantage of the hunting excursions of their masters. When

the horses return laden with the spoils of the chase, the children in

the village utter a cry of joy, of which the dogs seem perfectly to

understand the import, for they simultaneously set up a loud howl,

run towards the prairie, the scene of the chase, and partake, with

their relations, the wolves, of what the hunters have left behind.

When a hunter has killed an animal, he generally eats the liver, the

kidneys, and the marrow of the large thigh bones, raw. If an Indian has

procured some game he usually shares it with others. The entrails and

skin always belong to the person who shot the animal. If an eminent

man, who has performed some exploit, comes up when the animal has

been just killed, and demands the tongue, or some other good part, it

cannot be refused him. Dogs are not employed in hunting by the Mandans

and Manitaries. They shoot deer and elks in the forests, antelopes

and bighorns in the prairies, the Black Hills, and the neighbouring

mountains. They make parks, as they are called, to catch antelopes,

but not buffaloes. Brackenridge says, that the Indians drive the

antelopes into the water and kill them with clubs;[311] but this can

only have happened in isolated places when some accident gave them the

opportunity. The Manitaries make these cabri parks more frequently

than the Mandans. They choose a valley, between two hills, which ends

in a steep declivity. On the summit of the hills, two converging

lines, one or two miles in length, are marked out with brushwood.

Below the declivity they erect a kind of fence, fifteen or twenty

paces in length, composed of poles, covered and filled up with hay and

brushwood. A number of horsemen then drive the cabris between the ends

of the lines marked out by the brushwood, which are very distant from

each other, and ride rapidly towards them. The terrified animals hasten

down the hollow, and at length leap into the enclosure, where they are

killed with clubs, or taken alive.[312] There are not many bears in

this country; and the Indians are not fond of hunting them, because

it is often dangerous, and the flesh, when roasted, is not very good.

Brackenridge is mistaken when he says, that these Indians always shout

before they enter the forest, in order to frighten the bears.[313] If

they did so they would, at the same time, frighten all other kinds of

animals, and we see at once, from this statement, that that traveller

was no sportsman.

{386} The wolf and the fox are sometimes shot with a gun, as well as

the white hare, in the winter time, or they are caught in traps. They

set for the wolves very strong traps. The prairie wolf is not easily

caught, being very cautious. Foxes are caught in small traps, which are

covered with brushwood and buffaloes' skulls, to conceal them. Many

such traps are seen everywhere in the prairies, which are surrounded

with small stakes, that the animals may not enter them sideways.

Beavers are now caught, in great numbers, in iron traps, which they

procure from the Whites. Small animals, such as the ermine, are caught

with horse-hair springes, set before their burrows. The manner in which

birds of prey are caught is said to be very remarkable. The birdcatcher

lies down at full length in a narrow pit made on purpose, and exactly

large enough to hold him. As soon as he has lain down, the pit is

covered with brushwood and hay, pieces of meat are laid upon it, and a

crow, or some such bird, fastened to it. The eagle, or other bird of

prey, is said to descend, and to sit down, in order to eat, on which

the birdcatcher seizes it by the legs. I would not believe this had not

men worthy of credit given me their word for it. In this manner they

catch the eagle, called, by the English, the war-eagle, and the golden

eagle (_Aquila chrysaetos_), the Quiliou, or _oiseau de medicine_, of

the Canadians, which I was not so fortunate as to meet with, and which

they highly value, as I have already stated.[314]

Next to the chase, war is the chief employment of the Indians, and

military glory the highest object of their ambition. It is well known

that Indian bravery is very different from that of the Whites; for

wilfully to expose themselves to the enemy's fire would, in their

eyes, not be bravery, but folly. Cunning and stratagem give them the

advantage over the enemy; their strength lies in concealing their

march, and surprises at daybreak. He who kills many enemies without

sustaining any loss is the best warrior.

When a young man desires to establish his reputation in the field, he

fasts for four or seven days, as long as his strength permits him, goes

alone to the hills, complains and cries to the lord of life, calls

incessantly to the higher powers for their aid, and only goes home,

sometimes, in the evening, to sleep. A dream suggests his medicine to

him. If the lord of life makes him dream of a piece of cherry-tree

wood, or of an animal, it is a good omen. The young men who take the

field with him have then confidence in his medicine. If he can perform

an exploit his reputation is established. But whatever exploits he may

perform, he acquires no respect if he does not make valuable presents;

and they say of him, "He has indeed performed many exploits, but yet

he is as much to be pitied as those whom he has killed." A man may

have performed many exploits, and yet not be allowed to wear tufts of

hair on his clothes, unless he carries a medicine pipe, and has been

the leader of a war party. When a young man, who has never performed

an exploit, is the first to kill an enemy on a warlike expedition, he

paints a spiral line round his arm, of whatever colour he pleases,

and he may then wear a whole wolf's tail at the ankle or heel of one

foot. If he has first killed and touched the {387} enemy he paints

a line running obliquely round the arms and another crossing it in

the opposite direction, with three transverse stripes. On killing

the second enemy he paints his left leg (that is, the leggin) of a

reddish-brown. If he kills the second enemy before another is killed

by his comrades, he may wear two entire wolves' tails at his heels.

On his third exploit he paints two longitudinal stripes on his arms,

and three transverse stripes. This is the exploit that is esteemed the

highest; after the third exploit no more marks are made. If he kills an

enemy after others of the party have done the same, he may wear on his

heel one wolf's tail, the tip of which is cut off. In every numerous

war party there are four leaders (partisans, karokkanakah), sometimes,

seven, but only four are reckoned as the real partisans; the others are

called bad partisans (karokkanakah-chakohosch, literally, _partisans

galeux_).[315] All partisans carry on their backs a medicine pipe in a

case, which other warriors dare not have. To become a chief (Numakschi)

a man must have been a partisan, and then kill an enemy when he is

not a partisan. If he follows another partisan for the second time,

he must have first discovered the enemy, have killed one, and then

possessed the hide of a white buffalo cow complete, with the horns, to

pretend to the title of chief (Numakschi). Dipauch, who related these

particulars, had himself done all these, and was an eminent man among

his people, but had never assumed that title. He had given five horses

for his white buffalo hide. All the warriors wear small war pipes round

their necks, which are often very elegantly ornamented with porcupine

quills.[316]

As soon as they advance to attack the enemy every one sounds his pipe,

and all together utter the war whoop, a shrill cry, which they render

tremulous by repeatedly and suddenly striking the mouth with the hand.

Those who fast and dream, in order to perform an exploit, are entitled

to wear a wolf's skin. A warrior has a right to wear as many eagles'

feathers as he has performed exploits. All Indians, on their military

expeditions, erect, in the evening, a sort of fort, in which they

are, in some measure, secure against a sudden attack. In Major Long's

expedition to the Rocky Mountains, it is stated, that they often make

_caches_ (hiding-places) in these forts; but we did not observe any

such on the Missouri.[317] The Indians, on their expeditions, always

set a watch by night as soon as they are near the enemy, and often

send out scouts to considerable distances. At such a post the Indians

are very vigilant and active; after an engagement they do not bury the

dead, but, if they have not time to carry them away, leave them on

the spot where they fell. The scalps, called, by the Canadians, _les

chevelures_, are often preserved for a long time stretched upon small

hoops, and the hair is afterwards used as an ornament to the dress of

the men. The skin of the scalp is generally painted red. The Mandans,

Manitaries, and Crows, never torture their prisoners like the Pawnees

and the eastern nations. When a prisoner has arrived at the village,

and eaten maize, he is considered as one of their own nation, and no

person ever thinks of molesting him. Often, however, the women hasten

out to meet {388} the prisoners ere they reach the village, and kill

them; this is especially an act of revenge for their husbands or sons

who may have fallen in the battle.

When a young man desires to become a leader, or partisan, he first

gains, by gifts, the favour of the other young men, and then dedicates

a medicine pipe, which is a plain, unornamented tube. This ceremony is

accomplished by a four days' fast, and supplications for assistance

to the lord of life, the first man, &c. &c., and other supernatural

beings. He then addresses the young men, and calls upon them to give

him their support in his undertakings. If a sufficient number testify

their readiness to accompany him in a warlike expedition, and such an

expedition is determined upon, they dance and feast in the medicine

lodge for several successive nights, from whence, too, they generally

march off by night.

The women never accompany these expeditions. On setting out the men

are badly clothed, and not painted. They do not depart in a body,

but, for the most part, singly, or in small detached parties. At a

certain distance from the village they halt upon an isolated hill, open

their medicine bags, and, after the men have sat down in a circle,

the partisan produces his medicine pipe, which all present smoke; the

person who smokes last, then spreads his medicines on the ground, or

hangs them up, and from them foretells the fate of the expedition. The

Indians manifest much gravity and decorum on solemn occasions like

these.

When the warriors return from their expedition, the scalps are carried

on in advance, on high poles: if they have performed any exploits,

they paint their faces black; very frequently the whole body is thus

disfigured. The women and children go out to meet them, and they enter

the village performing the scalp dance. This dance is then repeated

four successive nights in the medicine lodge, and is subsequently

danced in the open space, in the centre of the village. If the campaign

took place in the spring, it is danced, at intervals, till the fall

of the leaf in autumn; if in the autumn, it is danced till spring,

but should any of the nation be killed in the interim all festivities

immediately cease. In the scalp dance the Indians paint themselves in

various ways, form a semicircle, advance, and retreat amid the din of

singing, the beating of the drum and schischikué. The wives of those

men who have obtained the scalps carry them on long rods.[318]

All the distinguished deeds performed by a war party are placed to the

account of the partisan. All the scalps that are taken belong to him,

and also the horses that they have captured. He who has killed an enemy

is a brave man, and reckons one exploit; but the partisan rises the

highest on that account, even though he had not seen any of the enemies

who have been slain. When he returns home, the old men and women meet,

and sing the scalp song, on which he must make them all presents of

value. He gives away all the captured horses, and valuable articles,

and is afterwards a poor man, but his reputation is great. Successful

partisans afterwards become chiefs, and are highly respected by their

nation. The Indian youths go to war when they are only fourteen or

fifteen years of age. Sometimes they make excursions on horseback in

the winter.

{389} The Mandans and Manitaries make excursions as far as the Rocky

Mountains, against their enemies, the Blackfeet, and against the

Chippeways, to the country of Pembina.[319] Their other enemies are the

Sioux, the Arikkaras, the Assiniboins, and the Chayennes (spelt, by

the English, Shiennes). They are at peace with the Crows.

The weapons of the Mandans and Manitaries are, first, the bow and

arrow. The bows are made of elm or ash, there being no other suitable

kinds of wood in their country. In form and size they resemble those

of the other nations; the string is made of the sinews of animals

twisted. They are frequently ornamented. A piece of red cloth, four

or five inches long, is wound round each end of the bow, and adorned

with glass beads, dyed porcupine quills, and strips of white ermine. A

tuft of horse-hair, dyed yellow, is usually fastened to one end of the

bow. Pehriska-Ruhpa has such a weapon in his hand.[320] The quiver, to

which the bow-case is fastened, is made of panther or buffalo skin; in

the first case, with the hair outwards, the long tail hanging down,

and, as among the Blackfeet, lined with red cloth, and embroidered in

various figures with white beads. Their handsome quivers are made of

otter skin, which are much esteemed. A very beautifully ornamented one,

belonging to the Crows, is represented.[321] Narrow strips of skin

hang down at both ends of the quiver. The arrows of the Mandans and

Manitaries are neatly made; the best wood is said to be that of the

service berry (_Amelanchier sanguinea_). The arrows of all the Missouri

nations are much alike,[322] with long, triangular, very sharp, iron

heads, which they themselves make out of old iron: it is but slightly

glued to the shaft of the arrow, which is rather short, and generally

remains in the body of the wounded animal. They know nothing of

poisoning their arrows. The arrow-heads were formerly made of sharp

stones: when Charbonneau first came to the Missouri, some made of

flint were in use, and in the villages they are still met with, and in

all those parts of the United States where the expelled or extirpated

aborigines formerly dwelt. We were told that, in the prairie, near the

Manitari villages, there is a sand hill, where the wind has uncovered

a great number of such stone arrow-heads. Almost all the Mandans and

Manitaries now have guns, which they ornament with bits of red cloth,

on the brass rings of the ramrod, and at the butt-end {390} with brass

nails. Besides the ramrod belonging to the gun, the Indians always

carry another long ramrod in their hands, which they generally use.

The pouch is made of leather, or cloth, often beautifully ornamented

with beads, or porcupine quills, and is hung on the back by a piece

of skin, or a broad strip of cloth of some lively colour. Their clubs

and tomahawks are of various kinds. Many have a thick egg-shaped stone

fastened to a handle, covered with leather, or without leather.[323]

Others have small iron tomahawks,[324] but not tomahawks with pipes

fixed to them. The large club with the broad iron point[325] is called

manha-okatanha, or mauna-schicha. A simple, knotty, wooden club is

called mauna-panischa.[326]

[Illustration: Stone club, with handle]

[Illustration: A knotted wooden club]

[Illustration: Arikkara bird-cage gourds]

Many Mandans likewise carry lances, and I was told that they had a

remarkably handsome one, of which, however, I did not obtain a sight.

These Indians have shields, which do not differ from those of the

tribes already mentioned. They all wear, in their girdle, behind, their

large knife, which is indispensable to them in hunting and in war. Some

use, for the handle of the knife, the lower jaw of a bear, with the

hair and teeth remaining.[327] The bow and arrows are, even now, much

esteemed by all the nations living on the Missouri, while those that

have been entirely driven from that river (the Osages) greatly prefer

the gun; the former, therefore, are capital archers, which cannot

be affirmed of the Osages. The Mandans and Manitaries are said to

fight well in their manner, and there have been frequent instances of

individual bravery. One of their most distinguished warriors, at this

time, is Mato-Topé, of whom we shall often have to speak in the sequel.

He has killed more than five chiefs of other nations. The father of

Mato-Topé, whose name was Suck-Schih (the handsome child), behaved

exactly {391} in the same manner as the Manitari chief, Kokoahkis,

mentioned by Say.[328] He went, one evening, wrapped up in his robe,

into a hut of the hostile Arikkaras, as the young men of the village

often do, ate with his face covered, so that he was taken for a young

Arikkara; then laid himself down by the side of a woman, and afterwards

cut off a lock of her hair, with which he retired. He might have killed

the woman, as Kokoahkis did, but refrained from doing so.

Wounds appear to be healed with remarkable ease. In cases of arrow

wounds, they like to force the arrow quite through, that the iron

head may not remain in the wound. Men and women are often scalped, in

battle, who afterwards come to themselves, and are cured. Such a large

wound on the head is rubbed with fat; the medicine man fumigates it,

singing at the same time. Disorders are not uncommon among the Indians.

The Mandans and Manitaries often suffer from diseases in the eyes;

many are one-eyed, or have a tunicle over one eye. In inflammation of

the eye they have a custom of scratching the inner eye with the leaf

of a kind of grass, resembling a saw, which causes them to bleed very

much, and this may often occasion the loss of the eye. Rheumatism,

coughs, and the like, are frequent, because they go half naked in

the severest cold, and plunge into ice water. Much benefit is often

derived from their steam-baths, in a well closed hut, where a thick

steam is produced by pouring water on hot stones. They then immediately

go into the cold, roll themselves in the snow, or plunge into a river

covered with drifting ice, but do not return to a warm hut, as the

Russians do. Many Indians are said to have died on the spot by trying

this remedy. Some suffer from gout; but all who survive these violent

remedies are stronger and more hardy. Another remedy is trampling on

the whole body, especially the stomach, as is practised also among the

Brazilians. This operation is performed with such violence, as often to

occasion hard swellings in the intestines, or ulcers, especially in the

liver. The steam-bath is used as a remedy in all kinds of disorders.

Vaccination, the application of which met with no difficulties among

several nations on the great lakes, especially the Chippeways, is not

yet practised among the Mandans and Manitaries. Spitting of blood is

said to be frequent, but not pulmonary consumption. Gonorrhoea is very

common; they affirm that all venereal disorders come to them from the

Crows beyond the Rocky Mountains. For such disorders they often seat

themselves over a heated pot, but very frequently burn themselves.

They cut open buboes, lengthwise, with a knife, and then run for a

couple of miles as fast as they can. The jaundice is said not to occur

among them. It appears that they are not acquainted with emetics, but,

if they feel anything wrong in the stomach, they thrust a feather down

the throat, and thus produce vomiting. Their purgatives are obtained

from the vegetable kingdom. The poison-vine often produces swellings,

especially in children. As rattlesnakes are rare in the vicinity of

the villages, it is, of course, seldom that any one is bitten by them;

these Indians are said, however, to have very good remedies against the

bite. Frozen limbs are rubbed with snow. {392} When blindness arises

from the dazzling brightness of the snow, which it very frequently does

in March, they bathe the eyes with a solution of gunpowder and water.

They often have recourse to bleeding, which they perform with a sharp

flint, or a knife. They often apply to the Whites for medicine, and

willingly follow their prescriptions. These Indians have also various

remedies for their horses; thus, when a horse has the strangury, they

give it a piece of a wasp's nest.

When a Mandan or Manitari dies, they do not let the corpse remain long

in the village; but convey it to the distance of 200 paces, and lay it

on a narrow stage, about six feet long, resting on four stakes about

ten feet high, the body being first laced up in buffalo robes and a

blanket.[329] The face, painted red, is turned towards the east. A

number of such stages are seen about their villages, and, although

they themselves say that this custom is injurious to the health of the

villages, they do not renounce it. On many of these stages there are

small boxes, containing the bodies of children wrapped in cloth or

skins. Ravens are usually seen sitting on these stages, and the Indians

dislike that bird, because it feeds on the flesh of their relations.

If you ask a Mandan why they do not deposit their dead in the ground,

he answers--"The lord of life has, indeed, told us that we came from

the ground, and should return to it again; yet we have lately begun to

lay the bodies of the dead on stages, because we love them, and would

weep at the sight of them." They believe that every person has several

spirits dwelling in him; one of these spirits is black, another brown,

and another light-coloured, the latter of which alone returns to the

lord of life. They think that after death they go to the south, to

several villages which are often visited by the gods; that the brave

and most eminent go to the village of the good, but the wicked into a

different one; that they there live in the same manner as they do here,

carry on occupations, eat the same food, have wives, and enjoy the

pleasures of the chase and war. Those who are kind-hearted are supposed

to make many presents and do good, find everything in abundance, and

their existence there is dependent on their course of life while in the

world.[330] Some of the inhabitants of the Mandan villages are said

not to believe all these particulars, and suppose that after death they

will live in the sun or in a certain star.

They mourn for the dead a whole year; cut off their hair, cover their

body and head with white or grey clay, and often, with a knife or sharp

flint, make incisions in their arms and legs in parallel lines, in

their whole length, so that they are covered with blood. For some days

after death the relations make a loud lament and bewailing. Often a

relative, or some other friend, covers the dead, as they express it:

he brings one or two woollen cloths, of a red, blue, white, or green

colour, and, as soon as the body is laid on the stage, mounts upon the

scaffolding, and conceals the body beneath the covering. A friend who

will do this is, in token of respect, presented, by the family of the

deceased, with a horse. If it is known beforehand that a person intends

doing this honour to the dead, a horse is at once tied near the stage,

and the friend, having performed {393} this last office, unties the

animal and leads it away. If a Mandan or Manitari falls in battle, and

the news of his death reaches the family, who are unable to recover

the body, a buffalo skin is rolled up and carried to the village. All

those who desire to lament the deceased assemble, and many articles

of value are distributed among them. The mourners cut off their hair,

wound themselves with knives, and make loud lamentations. Joints of the

fingers are not cut off here, as among the Blackfeet, as a token of

mourning, but as signs of penance and offering to the lord of life and

the first man.[331]

[Illustration: Map of neighborhood of Fort Clark

_a._ Scaffolds for the dead, and poles with offerings. Plates

14 and 25 (see accompanying atlas, our volume xxv).

_b._ The Mandan village--Mih-Tutta-Hang-Kush.

_c._ The open space in the centre of the village.

_d._ The ark of the first man.

_e._ The stream in which the dishes are washed.]

The English and French find the pronunciation of the Mandan language

extremely difficult; while to a German, or a Dutchman, it is

considerably easier, because it contains very many gutturals, like

_ach_, _och_, _uch_, in German. The nasal sounds, on the contrary,

are few, but they frequently speak in a very indistinct way, having

the mouth scarcely opened. The vowels are often softened, and much

depends on the way in which the accent falls. The vowels _a_ and _u_

are often only half pronounced, but occur very frequently. I collected

many words, as specimens of the language, and wrote down phrases,

and made an attempt to compile a grammar of the Mandan language, but

the completion of it was, unfortunately, hindered by unfavourable

circumstances.[332] Several old persons assured me that they perfectly

remembered that, in their youth, many resemblances between the Mandan

and Manitari languages did not then exist, which have since gradually

crept in; the two languages being then quite different, which, indeed,

they are still, in the main. As nations and allies, however, they

have reciprocally adopted many words and expressions, and hence there

is a better understanding among them now than heretofore, and their

intercourse is greatly facilitated. Time will, undoubtedly, produce a

still closer approximation.[333] It is a remarkable fact, and proves

how easily the separation of single tribes, and even villages, of one

and the same nation, leads to changes in the language, and transitions

into other dialects. An example of this kind was presented in the two

Mandan villages, where many diversities of language had already taken

place. I collected several specimens of this kind, and, to me, it

was highly interesting. The Mandans are more apt in learning foreign

languages than many other nations. Thus, the majority of them speak

the Manitari language, whereas but few of the latter understand the

Mandan language. Most of the American nations, at least, those on the

Missouri, are said to have no maledictory words or terms of abuse; the

Mandans have nothing of the kind but the expression--"bad people." The

article is wanting in the Mandan language, and there is no distinction

of gender, except in addressing a man or a woman. For my observations

on the Mandan language, I am chiefly indebted to the kindness and

patience of Mr. Kipp, who had lived eleven years among that people,

had married an Indian wife, and had attained a perfect knowledge of

the language. The Mandan names always have a signification, and are

often equivalent to whole sentences: all surrounding objects are made

use of in giving {394} names. I subjoin a few singular specimens: "The

bear which is a spirit;" "The bull which is a spirit;" "I hear somebody

coming;" "There are seven of them married to old women," &c.

In conclusion I would say that some have affirmed that they have found,

in North America, Indians who spoke the Gaelic language; this has been

said of the Mandans; but it has long been ascertained that this notion

is unfounded, as well as the assertion that the Mandans had a fairer

complexion than the other Indians.[334]

FOOTNOTES:

[207] Maximilian must have been misinformed in regard to the

Canadian-French form for the name of this tribe. Probably the earliest

account is that of La Vérendrye, who visited them in 1738-39. See

Douglas Brymner, _Canadian Archives_, 1889, pp. 2-29, for the journal

of this expedition. La Vérendrye had been informed by the Assiniboin,

that the Mandan, whom he called "Mantannes," were a different race from

the Indians; he was therefore disappointed when upon meeting them he

discovered their similarity to other known tribesmen. He was conducted

in much state to their villages, of which there were five along the

Missouri, and remained among them several weeks, reaching his fort on

the Assiniboin January 10, 1739, upon the return journey.--ED.

[208] There is evidence both from the number of deserted Mandan

villages on the Missouri, and from the accounts of the early

travellers--and this accords with Mandan tradition--that the numbers of

the tribe had formerly been larger and their villages more numerous;

Bougainville, in his _Mémoire sur la Nouvelle France_ (1757), cited

in _Northern and Western Boundaries Ontario_ (Toronto, 1878), p. 83,

speaks of seven fortified villages; and David Thompson, who visited

them in 1797-98, found the same number. Lewis and Clark reported that

forty years before their visit, there had been nine, and that the

population had wasted before the attacks of the Sioux and the ravages

of smallpox.--ED.

[209] La Vérendrye (_Canadian Archives_, 1889, p. 5) gives their

aboriginal name as Ouachipouanne.--ED.

[210] Warden is mistaken when he says (Vol. III. p. 559), that the

Mandans are descended from the Crows; for this is applicable to the

Manitaries, of whom we shall speak afterward.--MAXIMILIAN.

[211] For Heart River see our volume v, p. 148, note 91. The modern

North Dakota town of Mandan takes its name from the traditional Mandan

village near its site.--ED.

[212] Lewis and Clarke write this name Rooptahee, which is incorrect.

(See Account of their Journey, Vol. I. p. 120.) These celebrated

travellers passed the winter among the Mandans, and give many

particulars respecting them, which, on the whole, are correct; but

their proper names and words from the Mandan and Manitari languages

are, in general, inaccurately understood and written. It is said,

they derived their information from a person named Jessáume, who

spoke the language very imperfectly, as we were assured everywhere on

the Missouri. Of this kind are many of the names mentioned by those

travellers, which neither the Indians nor the Whites were able to

understand; for instance, Ahnahaways (Vol. I. p. 115), a people who are

said to have formerly dwelt between the Mandans and the Manitaries;

likewise Mahawha, where the Arwacahwas lived (_ibid._); the fourth

village is said to have been called Metaharta, and to have been

inhabited by Manitaries (_ibid._); of all these names, except, perhaps,

Mahawha, which ought probably to be Machaha, nobody could give us

the slightest information, not even Charbonneau, though he has lived

here so many years. It is necessary to be much on your guard against

bad interpreters, and I acted in this respect with much caution. All

the information given by me, respecting Indian words and names, was

carefully written down from the statements of sensible, well-informed

men of these nations. I have endeavoured to write down their language

exactly, according to its real pronunciation, in doing which, the

German guttural sounds were of great assistance to me, as it is that of

the Missouri Indians. Mr. Kipp and Charbonneau, with some of the others

who have lived long among these Indians, daily assisted me, during a

long winter, with much patience and kindness, in this work.--MAXIMILIAN.

[213] See Dr. Morse's Report, p. 252. He speaks (p. 349) of the

Mandans, Blackfeet, Rapid (Fall) Indians, and Assiniboins. His

tables of the Indian population of the United States are in page

362.--MAXIMILIAN.

[214] Say, who, in general, gives a very accurate description of the

North American Indians (see Major Long's Travels), lays too much

stress, as it appears to me, on the character of the receding of

the forehead; for, by a comparison of a great many skulls, I have

fully convinced myself of the contrary. Say affirmed, also, that the

facial angle is not so small as Professor Blumenbach supposes. The

Indian features, as far as my experience reaches, cannot be called

either Mongol or Malay, the latter of which is more perceptible in

the Brazilians, notwithstanding the manifest affinity with the North

Americans. The learned traveller, Augustus de St. Hilaire, even

attributes to the Brazilians a conformation of the skull, according to

which those people are endowed with inferior intellectual faculties.

(See Voyages dans les Districts de Diamande). The missionary, Parker,

in his Travels to the Columbia River, p. 155, expresses himself, in

this respect, entirely in accordance with my views; and D'Orbigny

confirms them in respect to the South Americans, in the conformation of

whose skulls he found considerable diversities.--MAXIMILIAN.

[215] La Vérendrye (_Canadian Archives_, 1889, p. 21) says, "This

nation is mixed white and black. The women are fairly good-looking,

especially the white, many with blond and fair hair." All later

travellers, also, note the presence of grey eyes and hair among the

Mandan. If this arose from admixture with Caucasians, it probably was

due to French _coureurs des bois_, who ranged far among the Western

tribes. See, however, on this subject, Matthews, _Hidatsa_, pp. 43-45,

who thinks fairness of skin but a variation of the usual Indian

type.--ED.

[216] François le Vaillant (1753-1824) was born in Dutch Guiana, where

his father held an official position. Returned to Holland at the age

of ten, he completed his education in Paris, and embarked (1780) for

the exploration of Africa. His two journeys lasted five years, but

their results were more valuable to the other natural sciences than

to geographic discovery. He published _Voyages dans l'interior de

l'Afrique_ (Paris, 1790-96).

François Péron (1775-1810), a younger naturalist, served first in the

Revolutionary armies (1792-95). In 1800-04 he accompanied Baudin on his

voyage to Southern lands and waters, publishing the results as _Voyage

de découvertes aux terres australes_ (Paris, 1811-16). His collections

of natural history, both plants and animals, were noted.--ED.

[217] Haec deformitas a viris ipsis ut dicunt, tractibus sæpe repetitis

producitur. In nonnullis labia externa in orbem tres ad quatuor digitis

transversos prominent; in aliis labia interna valde pendent; immo

virorum ars in partibus ipsis figuras artificiose fictas format.

Foemina hac raritate curens parvi oestimata, et neglecta est.

Moris est in Mandans, Moennitarris, et in Crows, magis autem in

Moennitarris; in Mandans, a mulieribus dissolutis, magis quam ab

uxoribus hic mos perversus adhibitur.--MAXIMILIAN.

[218] Volney has many inaccuracies in what he says of the colour of

the Indians (Vol. II. p. 435). According to him, the children are born

quite white like the Europeans; that the women are white on the thighs,

hips, and lower parts of the body, where the skin is covered by the

clothing; that it is wholly erroneous to suppose that the copper colour

is natural to them, &c. Mr. Von Humboldt has long since refuted all

these assertions.--MAXIMILIAN.

[219] See p. 267 for plan of hand looking-glass.--ED.

[220] See Plate 50, in the accompanying atlas, our volume xxv.--ED.

[221] Such feathers are represented in Plate 54, figures 13, 14, in the

accompanying atlas, our volume xxv.--ED.

[222] See Plate 46, in the accompanying atlas, our volume xxv, "which,"

Maximilian says, "is the best representation hitherto given of it."--ED.

[223] See his portrait, Plate 47, in the accompanying atlas, our volume

xxv.--ED.

[224] See journal of La Vérendrye, _Canadian Archives_, 1889, p. 13: "I

acknowledged that I was surprised [upon meeting the Mandan], expecting

to see a different people from the other Indians, especially after the

account given me. There is no difference from the Assiniboines; they

are naked, covered only with a buffalo robe, worn carelessly without a

breech clout."--ED.

[225] There is a print of such a robe in Major Long's Expedition to

the Rocky Mountains, and another in Plate 54, Fig. 1., of my atlas

[See our volume xxv]. The original was painted by Mato-Topé himself,

and the figures on it represent some of his principal exploits,

in which he killed, with his own hand, five chiefs of different

nations.--MAXIMILIAN.

_Comment by Ed._ See James's _Long's Expedition_, in our volume xiv,

p. 202. See also group of painted robes in Catlin, _North American

Indians_, ii, pp. 240-249; on the entire subject see Garrick Mallery,

"Picture Writing of American Indians," in Bureau of Ethnology _Report_,

1888-89.

[226] For description of this ornament see our volume xiv, p. 235.--ED.

[227] See our volume xv, p. 71.--ED.

[228] The early travellers speak of the fortifications of the Mandan

villages. La Vérendrye (_Canadian Archives_, 1889, p. 17) mentions

"ramparts" and "trenches." Bougainville (_Northern and Western

Boundaries of Ontario_, p. 83) says the villages are surrounded by

staked earthworks with a moat; Catlin (_North American Indians_, i, p.

81) describes this village as picketed upon one side only--that exposed

to the prairie.--ED.

[229] See p. 267 for illustration of this peculiar cylinder of planks,

used as a religious emblem. Catlin, _North American Indians_, i, p. 88,

says it was called the "Big Canoe."--ED.

[230] See p. 267 for illustration of Mandan huts. Alexander Henry

(_Henry-Thompson Journals_, i, pp. 337-339) gives an account of the

process of building these huts. The Mandan houses were the most

elaborate Indian dwellings north of New Mexico, and characterized the

tribal stage of industrial development. The energy required to cut

and prepare the timbers with the rude implements in vogue, indicates

an advance upon the industry of the wandering prairie tribes. See

L. H. Morgan, "Houses and House Life of American Aborigines," in

Geographical and Geological Survey of the Territories, _Contributions

to Ethnology_, 1881, iv, pp. 125-130. A few of these huts may still be

seen on the Fort Berthold reservation, North Dakota. See O. D. Wheeler,

"Last of the Mandans," in _Wonderland_, 1903, who suggests that these

Mandan dwellings were the forerunners of the sod-houses of the early

settlers.--ED.

[231] See Bodmer's drawing of the interior of the hut of Dipauch, Plate

52, in the accompanying atlas, our volume xxv.--ED.

[232] See p. 285 for illustration of a Mandan bed. La Vérendrye

(_Canadian Archives_, 1889, p. 21) speaks of these beds as "made like

tombs surrounded with skins." Catlin gave a more detailed description,

in _North American Indians_, i, pp. 82, 83. A buffalo skin stretched

upon the poles, with the fur side uppermost, made a comfortable

reclining place. The curtains were frequently adorned with Indian

embroidery or picture writing.--ED.

[233] See our volume xiv, pp. 188-190, 208.--ED.

[234] It was into these caches, which he speaks of as "caves," that

La Vérendrye's bag of Indian presents disappeared upon his first

visit to their villages in 1738-39; _Canadian Archives_, 1889, p. 17.

Furthermore he says (p. 21), "Their fort is full of caves, in which

are stored such articles as grain, food, fat, dressed robes, bear

skins."--ED.

[235] For such a sledge drawn by dogs see Plate 29, in the accompanying

atlas, our volume xxv.--ED.

[236] See Plate 54, figure 4, in the accompanying atlas, our volume

xxv.--ED.

[237] See p. 247 for drawing of head of this animal.--ED.

[238] See p. 105 for illustration of a horn drinking-cup or spoon.--ED.

[239] I brought to Europe specimens of the several kinds of maize grown

among the Mandans; these have been sown, but only the early species

were ripe in September, 1835. The heads have by no means attained the

same size, on the Rhine, as in their native country. There the plant

attains a height of five or six feet, and the colours of the grains are

very various, bright, and beautiful: while, on the Rhine, the plant

grew to the height of four or four and a half feet. The later sorts

grew to the height of ten feet, and were not quite ripe at the end of

October. (See Bradbury, [our volume v, p. 158, note 96], for an account

of the maize of the Mandans.)

According to Tanner (page 180), an Ottowa Indian first introduced

the cultivation of maize on the Red River, among the Ojibuas, or

Chippeways.--MAXIMILIAN.

[240] La Vérendrye presumably first introduced the tobacco of the

whites to these people. Upon first meeting the Mandan chief, he

"presented me with a gift of Indian corn in the ear, and of their

tobacco in rolls, which is not good, as they do not know how to cure

it like us. It is very like ours, with this difference, that it is not

cultivated and is cut green, everything being turned to account, the

stalks and leaves together. I gave him some of mine, which he thought

very good."--ED.

[241] For a good description of pemmican see Franchère's _Narrative_,

our volume vi, p. 380, note 197.--ED.

[242] The only form of cannibalism practiced among the North American

Indians, after they were known to the whites, was the custom of eating

the heart or the flesh of a brave enemy, in order to acquire the

victim's courage or other desirable qualities. As torture of prisoners

was more common among Eastern than Western tribes, this practice may be

the one referred to by Maximilian. Consult Livingston Farrand, _Basis

of American History_ (New York, 1904), pp. 226, 243.--ED.

[243] Catlin (_North American Indians_, i, pp. 118-120) finds apologies

for the custom of polygamy, which he says is chiefly confined to the

chiefs and medicine men of the tribe.--ED.

[244] Lewis and Clark describe this process of primitive bead-making,

related to them by Garreau, the Arikkara interpreter, in _Original

Journals_, i, pp. 272-274; see also Catlin, _North American Indians_,

ii, p. 261. If the Mandan acquired this art from the Snake Indians, as

tradition avers, their pounded glass was probably obsidian from the

cliffs of the upper Yellowstone. See also Matthews, _Hidatsa Indians_,

pp. 22, 23.--ED.

[245] The Mandan art of ceramics, with its similarity to the

productions found in the mounds of the Eastern states, has been

frequently noted. Compare _Henry-Thompson Journals_, i, p. 328;

Catlin, _North American Indians_, i, p. 116; ii, pp. 260, 261; and

W. H. Holmes, "Aboriginal Pottery of the Eastern United States," in

United States Bureau of Ethnology _Report_, 1898-99, pp. 197-201, with

illustrations.--ED.

[246] See Plate 48, with buffalo boats in the foreground, in the

accompanying atlas, our volume xxv. For a description of the process of

making these bull-boats, see _Original Journals of the Lewis and Clark

Expedition_, v, pp. 325, 326; for a vivid account of the manner of

navigating them, see _Henry-Thompson Journals_, i, pp. 331, 332.--ED.

[247] Consult on the subject of courtship and marriage, Catlin, _North

American Indians_, i, pp. 120, 121. Matthews, _Hidatsa Indians_, pp.

52-54, claims that the custom of the more reputable families is not

mere wife-purchase, but is based upon mutual respect, and the ability

of the husband as a hunter and provider.--ED.

[248] Matthews, _Hidatsa Indians_, p. 15, criticises Maximilian

for this statement, saying "Why boast of a deed which was no great

achievement?" Catlin likewise extols the chastity of girls in

respectable families. The evidence of Alexander Henry is in the

opposite direction. Consult also Bradbury, in our volume v, p. 166.--ED.

[249] See Plate 54, figure 6, in the accompanying atlas, our volume

xxv.--ED.

[250] Consult Matthews, _Hidatsa Indians_, pp. 54-57. Communication

with the mother-in-law was formerly considered improper.--ED.

[251] The berdash was noted by most early travellers among Western

Indians. Marquette found them among the Illinois (Thwaites, _Jesuit

Relations_, lix, p. 129). See also _Henry-Thompson Journals_, i, pp.

53, 348.

For Mc Kenzie see Franchère's _Narrative_, in our volume vi, p. 185,

note 4. Tanner is noted in our volume xxii, p. 390, note 367. George

Henry, Baron von Langsdorff (1774-1852), was a German scientist and

traveller who entered Russian service, making several journeys in

the interest of that power. In 1803-07, he visited Kamschatka and

Russian America as far as California, returning overland through

Siberia. Maximilian here refers to his description of this journey,

published first as _Bemerkungen auf einer Reise um die Welt in 1803-07_

(Frankfort, 1812), and translated as _Voyages and Travels in various

parts of the World during the years 1803-07_ (London, 1813-14).

Langsdorff later visited Brazil under the auspices of the Russian

government.--ED.

[252] For these two savants see our volume xxii, notes 27 and 87

respectively.--ED.

[253] See Plate 55, in the accompanying atlas, our volume xxv, and p.

285 for illustration of Mandan letter in hieroglyphics.--ED.

[254] The dentalium shells were by intertribal exchange brought from

the Pacific Ocean; the Mandan prized them so highly that white traders

began to import them, and Matthews reports (_Hidatsa_, p. 28) that ten

of these shells would buy a superior buffalo robe.--ED.

[255] See the amusing description by Catlin (_North American Indians_,

i, pp. 197, 198) of a horse-race in which he participated.--ED.

[256] The following account by Maximilian of the societies or bands

among the Mandan is the most complete description by any early

traveller, of these peculiar social organizations. J. O. Dorsey, "Omaha

Sociology," in United States Bureau of Ethnology _Report_, 1881-82,

pp. 342-355, classifies these societies or corporations according to

their purpose--as those organized for sacred ends, for bravery or war,

or simply for social pleasure. According to Maximilian's account these

purposes would appear to be commingled, and several of the bands to

have been organized for general police and governmental purposes.--ED.

[257] See our volume xxiv.--ED.

[258] See p. 113 for badge of Raven band.--ED.

[259] See Plate 56, in the accompanying atlas, our volume xxv.--ED.

[260] See Plate 51, in the accompanying atlas, our volume xxv.--ED.

[261] See account of buffalo dance of the Omaha (Dorsey, _op. cit._,

in note 256, pp. 347, 348), also in James's _Long's Expedition_, our

volume xv, p. 127. This is not the same ceremony as that intended to

attract the buffalo, or the buffalo-medicine dance, for which see

_post_.--ED.

[262] A similar dance was practiced among the Omaha, by whom it was

known as the grizzly bear dance. See Dorsey, _op. cit._, p. 349.--ED.

[263] The bow-lance is a large bow, to one end of which the iron point

of a lance is fastened. It serves only for show, and is never used in

serious combat. It is very handsomely adorned with eagle's feathers,

frequently with red cloth also, and, when completely decorated, is

worth from 100 to 250 florins. It descends from father to son, and

cannot be obtained except at a high price. Sometimes a horse or more

must be given for it.--MAXIMILIAN.

[264] For a representation of this dance see Plate 28, in the

accompanying atlas, our volume xxv.--ED.

[265] See our volume xxii, p. 361, for illustrations of Mandan

pipes.--ED.

[266] For Indian music compare Bradbury's _Travels_, in our volume v,

p. 116, and accompanying note.--ED.

[267] See Dorsey's description of this game, _op. cit._, pp. 337,

338; Catlin also speaks of it as "Tchung-kee," and remarks upon the

grace and agility developed by it. For a description of this game as

practiced among the Pawnee, see our volume xv, pp. 214, 215.--ED.

[268] See Plate 81, figure 14, in the accompanying atlas, our volume

xxv.--ED.

[269] See p. 285 for illustration of a child's dart of stag-horn.--ED.

[270] The hoop and the stick are represented in Plate 81, figure 15, in

the accompanying atlas, our volume xxv.--ED.

[271] The North American Indians are conceded to have been in that

state of religious or superstitious development known as "animism;"

consult Farrand, _Basis of American History_, pp. 248-250; and E. B.

Tylor, _Primitive Culture_ (New York, 1871). For the primitive cults of

the Mandan and Minitaree, Maximilian is an approved authority; consult

on this subject, J. O. Dorsey, "Study of Siouan Cults," in United

States Bureau of Ethnology _Report_, 1889-90, particularly chapter

vi.--ED.

[272] This conjecture is adopted by Dr. Edwin James, the learned author

of Tanner's Life among the Indians, p. 357 of that work. I refer to

this interesting book for the remarkable hieroglyphics of the people of

the Algonquin tribe.--MAXIMILIAN.

[273] Alcide Dessalines D'Orbigny (1802-57), a French naturalist and

palæontologist. In 1826 he was sent to South America, where for eight

years he travelled and made observations, which were embodied in his

_Voyages dans l'Amérique méridionale_ (1834-47); he also published

_L'Homme Américain consideré sous ses rapports physiologique et

moreaux_ (Paris, 1839). In 1853 he was appointed to the chair of

palæontology in the Jardin des Plantes, Paris.

Felix d'Azare (1746-1811), a Spanish soldier, traveller, and

naturalist, spent twenty years (1781-1801) in South America. His

published work was _Voyage dans l'Amérique méridionale_ (1809). Tylor

calls attention to D'Orbigny's strictures on Azare's statements.--ED.

[274] Dipauch is a very distinguished man, and might have been a

chief long ago if he had pleased, as he possesses all the necessary

qualifications. His father was shot by the Sioux during Lewis and

Clarke's winter residence among these Indians. Those travellers offered

to assist the Mandans against their enemies, and to take the field with

them, to which, however, they would not consent.--MAXIMILIAN.

_Comment by Ed_. See _Original Journals of the Lewis and Clark

Expedition_, i, pp. 229-232. It is somewhat misleading to say that the

Mandan would not accept the aid of the explorers. The snow was too

deep, and the cold too severe to permit pursuit of the Sioux.

[275] Brackenridge, p. 71, is very much mistaken in believing that the

Mandans and Manitaries worship only buffalo heads, for, if the latter

are medicine, it is incontrovertibly true that they believe in a number

of superior beings who make a figure in their mythology.--MAXIMILIAN.

_Comment by Ed._ Our author is citing Brackenridge, _Views of

Louisiana_ (Pittsburgh, 1814).

[276] Catlin calls this spirit Okeeheedee, and identifies him as the

devil. It is he who creates the great disturbance on the third day of

the Okippe; see _post_.--ED.

[277] Catlin gives a variant of this legend, in _North American

Indians_, i, pp. 179-180.--ED.

[278] Numank-Machana autem, partis naturalis loco cauda vacuna usus

erat: incolæ loci, valde stupefacti præstantes et assiduas primi

hominis vires admirarunt.--MAXIMILIAN.

[279] Deluge-myths are very widespread among the American aborigines.

D.G. Brinton, _Myths of the New World_ (Philadelphia, 3rd ed., 1896),

pp. 234-249, finds over thirty-four tribes among whom distinct traces

of deluge myths were prevalent.--ED.

[280] See variants of this tradition in _Original Journals of the

Lewis and Clark Expedition_, v, pp. 346, 347; Catlin, _North American

Indians_, i, pp. 178, 179.--ED.

[281] This is not White Earth River of North Dakota, but the one in

South Dakota now usually known as White River; see our volume xxii, p.

302, note 259. For Moreau River consult Bradbury's _Travels_, in our

volume v, p. 127, note 82.--ED.

[282] The Minitaree had a creation-myth similar to that of the Mandan,

by which they were represented as climbing from a lake when a tree

broke, the remainder of the tribe being left below.--ED.

[283] See Plate 49, in the accompanying atlas, our volume xxv, for a

view of Mih-Tutta-Hang-Kush, of which the ground plan is found on p.

363, _ante_.--ED.

[284] This belief in the influence of dreams and in a guardian spirit

was widespread among the aborigines of North America; consult J. Long's

_Voyages_, in our volume ii, pp. 123-126; also J. O. Dorsey, "Siouan

Cults," p. 475.--ED.

[285] See Plate 54, figure 3, in the accompanying atlas, our volume

xxv.--ED.

[286] For sacred pipes among the Omaha, see Dorsey, "Omaha Sociology,"

pp. 221-224.--ED.

[287] The ceremony of adoption was frequent among North American

Indians. It was of vast service in preserving the lives of white

captives, and in promoting intercourse between whites and Indians. For

typical instances consult Lewis H. Morgan, _League of the Iroquois_

(Rochester, 1851), pp. 341-346; J. Long's _Voyages_, in our volume ii,

pp. 82-86; and _Henry-Thompson Journals_, i, pp. 388-390.--ED.

[288] Consult on this subject, Brinton, _Myths of the New World_, pp.

304-334.--ED.

[289] See Catlin's description of the purchase of a white buffalo robe

from the Blackfeet--a matter of public concern to the entire tribe--and

its dedication to the Great Spirit, in _North American Indians_, i, pp.

133, 134.--ED.

[290] These are represented in Plate 58, in the accompanying atlas, our

volume xxv.--ED.

[291] The author refers to a letter on this subject, written by Mr.

Catlin, and published in a New York paper; but this is by no means so

complete as that given in his valuable work published last year.--H.

EVANS LLOYD.

_Comment by Ed._ Catlin's letter, dated at the Mandan village, August

12, 1832, was published in the _New York Spectator_, and a German

translation incorporated in the first edition of Maximilian's work

published at Coblentz in 1841 (ii, pp. 658-667). Upon the issue of

Catlin's _North American Indians_, (1841), the fuller account of

Okippe therein given caused Maximilian's English translator to omit

from his work Catlin's first description. Catlin's veracity in this

description was impugned both by Schoolcraft and David D. Mitchell, and

their criticism was embodied in an authorized government publication.

Catlin thereupon (1866) appealed both to Kipp and Maximilian, who

both unhesitatingly endorsed his account as correct. See evidence in

Smithsonian Institution _Report_, 1885, part ii, pp. 368-383. Catlin

then published _O-kee-pa_ (London, 1867), with colored illustrations of

the ceremony.

[292] The ceremony of Okippe was for many years celebrated annually;

but as the numbers of the tribe decreased it occurred less frequently,

and has now with the progress of missionary work become extinct. See,

however, description of the celebration in Henry A. Boller, _Among

the Indians, Eight Years in the Far West_ (Philadelphia, 1868), pp.

100-111.--ED.

[293] According to Catlin these drums were supposed to be filled with

water enclosed in them at the time of the deluge, and thus were objects

of much veneration. For one of them he offered goods to the amount of

one hundred dollars, but was refused, they being deemed "medicine" or

mystery objects. Captain Maynardier, who witnessed this ceremony in

1860, and thought he was the first to describe it (see _Senate Ex.

Docs._, 40 Cong., 1 sess., No. 77, pp. 149-151), also testifies that

the drums were supposed to be filled with water; but he believed they

were stuffed with hair.--ED.

[294] According to Catlin, "the first man" collects an edged tool from

each lodge, since the "big canoe" was made therewith, and in another

deluge these would be needed.--ED.

[295] That is, they dance twice to each of the four quarters of the

globe, four being a sacred number. See plates of the costume in Catlin,

_O-kee-pa_, nos. v, vi.--ED.

[296] See _O-kee-pa_, plate viii, for the rattlesnake man.--ED.

[297] An exact description of the representation by Catlin, _op. cit._,

plate ix. According to the painter, this evil spirit does not appear

until the fourth day of the ceremony.--ED.

[298] When these Indians fast for three or four days together, they

dream very frequently of the devil, and, in this case, they believe

that they have not long to live. The narrator had once fasted for a

long time at this festival, and suffered himself to be hung up by

the back. During the night he dreamed of the devil, who appeared far

more frightful and taller than he could ever be represented. His

plume of feathers reached to the clouds, and he ran about as quick

as lightning. On several other occasions he dreamed of this devil,

but now he is resolved not to fast any more, that he might not die

prematurely. He added, that he had often looked without apprehension,

and with pleasure, on the mask representing the devil; but he now

regarded the matter in a different light, for, the more he thought

of him, the taller and the more frightful did he appear to him, and,

under these circumstances, the spirit had been very near him, and,

if he had but once touched him, he certainly should have been dead

already.--MAXIMILIAN.

[299] See _O-kee-pa_, plate viii, for a representation of the masker

imitating the beaver.--ED.

[300] Represented in _O-kee-pa_, plate vii; also another, intended to

symbolize the dawn, or the rays of the morning.--ED.

[301] Catlin's account of the tortures is more detailed than that

of Maximilian, but presents similar features. Upon inquiry, the

former learned that but one young man was known to have died from the

exhaustion consequent thereupon. Consult also the _Henry-Thompson

Journals_, i, pp. 364, 365.--ED.

[302] Compare _Original Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition_,

i, p. 245; and James's _Long's Expedition_, in our volume xv, pp. 129,

130.--ED.

[303] See our volume xiv, pp. 127, 128.--ED.

[304] Compare _Original Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition_, i,

pp. 257, 258, on the use of rattlesnake joints as medicine.--ED.

[305] For the mention by Lewis and Clark see _Original Journals_, i, p.

264; also our volume xv, pp. 57-59.--ED.

[306] See Plate 14, in the accompanying atlas, our volume xxv.--ED.

[307] See Plate 58, in the accompanying atlas, our volume xxv.--ED.

[308] Matthews, _Hidatsa Indians_, pp. 71, 72, takes exception to this

list, and from his own observation thinks that the Mandan and Minitaree

have no formal names for the lunar periods, and that they are aware

that twelve do not quite complete the year.--ED.

[309] For representation of a buffalo hunt, see Plate 64, in the

accompanying atlas,' our volume xxv.--ED.

[310] The economy of the buffalo in the life of the plains Indians is

well known; its flesh was the staple for food, its skin for shelter,

dress, and utensils of many sorts, its horn for implements, and its

sinews for strings and thread. The sedentary aborigines of the Missouri

were scarcely less dependent upon this animal than their plains

kinsmen, their agricultural products forming but a small supplement

to the food supply. Hunting the buffalo was thus the chief employment

of the male Indians. For this purpose guns were but little used, they

being reserved for war or occasional encounters with grizzly bears.

Compare descriptions of Mandan buffalo hunts in _Original Journals

of the Lewis and Clark Expedition_, i, pp. 234, 278; _Henry-Thompson

Journals_, i, pp. 336, 337; Palliser, _Solitary Rambles_ (London,

1853), pp. 111-114; and Boller, _Among the Indians_, pp. 78-80.--ED.

[311] H. M. Brackenridge, _Views of Louisiana_, p. 56.--ED.

[312] For this method of taking antelope compare _Original Journals of

the Lewis and Clark Expedition_ i, pp. 313, 314; and H. M. Chittenden

and A. T. Richardson, _Life, Letters, and Travels of Father De Smet_,

iv, pp. 1396, 1397. Frequently Indians pursued the antelope on swift

horses, driving them in zig-zags until they were exhausted. See

_Original Journals_, ii, pp. 345, 346.--ED.

[313] _Op. cit._, in note 311, p. 56.--ED.

[314] See Matthews, _Hidatsa Indians_, p. 58. This is the eagle

sometimes known as _Aquila canadensis_, although it has a wide range

of habitat. It is the royal or calumet eagle of Lewis and Clark--one

of the two North American eagles, the other being the bald-headed

(_Haliætus leucocephalus_).--ED.

[315] See a good description of war-parties led by partisans in our

volume xv, pp. 78-85.--ED.

[316] See Plate 54, figure 9, and Plate 81, figure 14, in the

accompanying atlas, our volume xxv.--ED.

[317] See our volume xv, p. 92. These hiding places are described as

prepared by the squaws in case of an unexpected attack, warriors only

retreating thereto if hard-pressed.--ED.

[318] Brackenridge (1811) witnessed the return of an Arikkara war-party

and the subsequent scalp-dance, which he vividly describes in volume vi

of our series, pp. 142-145.--ED.

[319] Pembina is said to mean the fruit of the high-bush cranberry. The

river of that name, an affluent of Red River from the west, disembogues

near the British-American boundary line, its mouth being the site of

several early trading-posts and settlements. Between 1790 and 1796

Peter Grant, a Nor' Wester, built a trading-post opposite the mouth

of the river, near the site of the present St. Vincent, Minnesota.

Charles Chaboillez, another trader for the same company, wintered

(1797-98) at the mouth of Pembina River on the south-west side. Four

years later Alexander Henry built a post in the north-west angle,

the site of the modern town of Pembina, North Dakota, where he made

his headquarters until 1808, and whence (1806) he visited the Mandan

villages. In 1812 Lord Selkirk had a post built at this site, which

from one of his titles was named Fort Daer. This being on the verge

of the timber-land, and hence convenient to buffalo herds, was the

wintering place of his Red River colonists. The North West Company

had a rival post in the near vicinity. After the troubles of the Red

River colonists with the North West employés (1814-16), a company of

troops, guided by John Tanner, was sent (1817) by Selkirk to avenge his

settlers. These captured the North West fort at Pembina, and restored

Fort Daer, which was maintained until 1823; when, on being found to

be south of the international boundary, it was dismantled and removed

some miles farther north. Meanwhile a small settlement of métis had

grown up on the site; Long (1823) found here about sixty log-cabins,

and three hundred and fifty people. Communication was maintained both

with Fort Garry, lower down on Red River, and with Fort Snelling, at

St. Paul. About 1842 the agents of the American Fur Company established

a cart-route to Pembina, where in 1870 the United States government

erected a fort, but the place is no longer occupied by troops.--ED.

[320] See his portrait in Plate 56, in the accompanying atlas, our

volume xxv.--ED.

[321] See Plate 81, figure 16, in the accompanying atlas, our volume

xxv.--ED.

[322] Though all their arrows appear, at first sight, to be perfectly

alike, there is a great difference in the manner in which they are

made. Of all the tribes of the Missouri the Mandans are said to make

the neatest and most solid arrows. The iron heads are thick and solid,

the feathers glued on, and the part just below the head, and the lower

end, are wound round with very even, extremely thin sinews of animals.

They all have, in their whole length, a spiral line, either carved

or painted red, which is to represent the lightning. The Manitaries

make the iron heads thinner, and not so well. They do not glue on the

feathers, but only tie them on at both ends, like the Brazilians.

The Assiniboins frequently have very thin and indifferent heads to

their arrows, made of iron-plate. Mr. Say (Major Long's Expedition)

says, that the arrow-wood (_viburnum_) is used for their arrows by

the Indians on the Lower Missouri and the neighbouring prairies. I

conjecture that this shrub is the alistier (_Cratægus torminalis_) of

the Upper Missouri, which is sometimes used for bows, but very seldom

for arrows.--MAXIMILIAN.

[323] See p. 355 for illustration of stone club, with handle.--ED.

[324] See portrait of Mato-Topé, Plate 47, in the accompanying atlas,

our volume xxv.--ED.

[325] _Ibid._, Plate 81, figure 4.--ED.

[326] See p. 355 for illustration of a knotted wooden club.--ED.

[327] See p. 105 for illustration of a Grosventre dagger.--ED.

[328] Concerning Mato-Topé see our volume xxii, p. 345, note 318. For

this incident see our volume xv, p. 97. Kakoakis was Le Borgne, for

whom see our volume v, p. 162, note 98.--ED.

[329] These burial scaffolds were noted by most travellers on the

Missouri, and Catlin gives a drawing of a Mandan cemetery, in _North

American Indians_, i, pp. 89-92. Bradbury, in our volume v, p.

160, describes a scaffold in detail. According to James's _Long's

Expedition_, our volume xv, pp. 66, 67, the Omaha buried their dead.

The burial customs of all the Dakotan tribes would appear to have been

fluctuating, inclining to aerial sepulture. Of late years, on the

Fort Berthold reservation, this method is declining; and during the

smallpox epidemic of 1838 the Mandan buried their dead; see Audubon's

_Journals_, ii, pp. 14, 15. On the entire subject consult H. C. Yarrow,

_Introduction to Study of Mortuary Customs among the North American

Indians_ (Washington, 1880); and "Further Contributions to the study of

Mortuary Customs among the North American Indians," in United States

Bureau of Ethnology _Report_, 1879-80, pp. 87-203.--ED.

[330] The belief in the plurality of souls appears to have been

widespread among Dakotan tribes. Matthews (_Hidatsa_, p. 50) says that

the Minitaree believe in four for each person, and that he has heard

this faith disputed with the Assiniboin, who believe in but one. The

Teton Sioux think one spirit is of the body and dies with it; the

second remaining with or near the body--hence the offering of food to

the deceased; the third goes to the spirit home in the south; and the

fourth abides with the lock of hair cut from the head of the corpse--if

this is thrown into an enemy's camp, the ghost harasses the hostiles

in time of war. See Dorsey, "Siouan Cults," p. 484. The belief in a

home of spirits is indefinite and ill-defined--most Dakotan people

think of an ancestral home to which spirits return, but the distinction

between abodes for the good and the wicked appears imported, not

indigenous.--See _Original Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition_,

v, p. 347.--ED.

[331] Compare the accounts of mourning in James's _Long's Expedition_,

our volume xv, pp. 66-68, and Boller, _Among the Indians_, p. 70.

Mutilation was practiced by many tribes as a sign of mourning; see

Yarrow, "Further Contributions to the Study of Mortuary Customs."--ED.

[332] See Indian Vocabularies, in our volume xxiv.--ED.

[333] Compare on this point Matthews, _Hidatsa_, pp. 18, 84, who

claims that on the Fort Berthold reservation there appears no tendency

to coalescence, and that Mandan, Minitaree, and Arikkara are still

linguistically distinct.--ED.

[334] A tradition of white-bearded Indians living far to the westward

was rife among the French traders and explorers in the early eighteenth

century, and when he visited the Mandan in 1738 La Vérendrye sought

"that nation of whites so much spoken of." The variation in color of

complexion, hair, and eyes among the Mandan (see note 215, _ante_)

led to various theories of their origin. Among these that of Welsh

derivation gained much currency. The alleged American adventure in the

twelfth century of Prince Madoc from Wales, and the consequent blending

of his followers with the aborigines was a current theory among English

ethnographers in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century.

Catlin enthusiastically adopted it to account for Mandan peculiarities;

see his _North American Indians_, i, pp. 205-207; ii, pp. 259-261.

For a bibliography of this theory, which Maximilian's scientific

sense rejected, see Justin Winsor, _Narrative and Critical History of

America_ (Boston, 1889), i, pp. 109-111; see also B. F. Bowen, _Welsh

in North America_ (Philadelphia, 1876), especially chapter xi.--ED.