MYSTERY OBJECTS AND PLACES OF THE MANDAN AND HIDATSA.
§ 329. The mystery rock of the Mandan and Hidatsa is thus described by Lewis and Clarke:[239]
This medicine stone is the great oracle of the Mandans, and whatever it announces is believed with implicit confidence. Every spring and, on some occasions during the summer, a deputation visits the sacred spot, where there is a thick, porous stone 20 feet in circumference, with a smooth surface. Having reached the place, the ceremony of smoking to it is performed by the deputies, who alternately take a whiff themselves, and then present the pipe to the stone; after which they retire to an adjoining wood for the night, during which it may be safely presumed that all the embassy do not sleep. In the morning they read the destinies of the nation in the white marks on the stone, which those who made them are at no loss to decipher.
The same stone, as worshiped by the Hidatsa, is thus described by James:[240]
The Me-ma-ho-pa or medicine stone * * * is a large, naked, and insulated rock situated in the midst of a small prairie, about a two days’ journey southwest of the village of that nation. In shape it resembles the steep roof of a house. The Minnetarees resort to it for the purpose of propitiating their Man-ho-pa or Great Spirit by presents, by fasting and lamentation, during the space of from three to five days. An individual who intends to perform this ceremony takes some presents with him, * * * and also provides a smooth skin upon which hieroglyphics may be drawn, and repairs to the rock accompanied by his friends and the magi. On his arrival he deposits the presents there, and, after smoking to the rock, he washes a portion of its face clean, and retires with his fellow devotees to a specified distance. During the principal part of his stay, he cries aloud to his god to have pity on him, to grant him success in war and hunting, to favor his endeavors to take prisoners, horses, and scalps from the enemy. When the time for his * * * prayer has elapsed he returns to the rock; his presents are no longer there, and he believes them to have been accepted and carried off by the Man-ho-pa himself. Upon the part of the rock which he had washed he finds certain hieroglyphics traced with white clay, of which he can generally interpret the meaning, particularly when assisted by some of the magi, who are no doubt privy to the whole transaction. These representations are supposed to relate to his future fortune, or to that of his family or nation; he copies them off * * * upon the skin which he brought with him for that purpose, and returns home to read from them to the people the destiny of himself or them. If a bear be represented with its head directed toward the village, the approach of a war-party or the visitation of some evil is apprehended. If, on the contrary, the tail of the bear be toward the village, nothing but good is anticipated, and they rejoice. They say that an Indian on his return from the rock exhibited * * * on his * * * chart the representation of a strange building, as erected near the village. They were all much surprised and did not perfectly comprehend its meaning; but four months afterward the prediction was, as it happened, verified, and a stockade trading house was erected there by the French trader Jessaume.
Matthews refers thus to this “oracle” of the Hidatsa and Mandan:[241]
The famous holy stone or medicine rock (Mihopaś, or Mandan, Mihopiniś) * * * was some two or three days’ journey from their residence. The Hidatsa now seldom refer to it, and I do not think they ever visit it.
§ 330. According to Maximilian:[242]
The Mandans have many other medicine establishments in the vicinity of their villages, all of which are dedicated to the superior powers. * * * Of those near Mitutahankuś, one 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 rear poles to the other, and on some of these skulls are painted single red stripes. Behind the whole two 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 rake, painted red. The Indians repair to such places when they desire to make offerings or petitions; they howl, lament, and make loud entreaties, often for many days together, to the Omahank-Numakshi. Another “medicine establishment” consisted of a couple of human figures, very clumsily made of skins, fixed on poles, and representing, as was told to Maximilian, the sun and moon, but in his opinion, probably the Omahank-Numakshi and the Old Woman that Never Dies.
§ 331. If a Mandan possesses a “medicine pipe” (i. e., what the Omaha and Ponka call a niniba weawaⁿ) he sometimes decides to adopt a “medicine son.” The young man whom he is to choose appears to him in a dream; but it is necessary that he should be of a good family, or have performed some exploit.[243]
DREAMS.
§ 332. Dreams afford the motives for many of their actions, even for the penances which they impose on themselves. They think that all which appears in their dreams must be true. Before they became acquainted with firearms, a Mandan dreamed of a weapon with which they could kill their enemies at a great distance, and soon after the white men brought them the first gun. In like manner they dreamed of horses before they obtained any. In many cases the guardian spirit is revealed to the fasting youth in a dream. If the Lord of Life makes him dream of a piece of cherry wood or of an animal, it is a good omen. The young men who follow such a dreamer to the battle have great confidence in his guardian spirit or “medicine.”[244]
ORACLES.
§ 333. The Mandan and Hidatsa consider the large gray owl a mystery bird, with whom they pretend to converse and to understand its attitudes and voice. Such owls are often kept alive in lodges, being regarded as soothsayers. They have a similar opinion of eagles.[245]
FETICHES.
§ 334. The skin of a white buffalo cow is an eminent fetich in the estimation of the Mandan and Hidatsa. The hide must be that of a young cow not over 2 years old, and be taken off complete, and tanned, with horns, nose, hoofs, and tail. It is worn on rare occasions.
When the owner wishes to sacrifice such a skin to the Omahank-Numakshi or to the Numank-Machana, he rolls it up, after adding some artemisia or an ear of corn, and then the skin remains suspended on a pole until it decays.[246]
Besides the white buffalo skins hung on tall poles as sacrifices, there were other strange objects hung on tall poles near the villages of the Mandan and Hidatsa. These figures were composed of skin, grass, and twigs, which seemed to represent the sun, moon, and perhaps the Omahank-Numakshi and the Numank-Machana. The Indians resorted to them when they wished to petition for anything, and sometimes howled for days and weeks together.[247]
For a reference to trees and stones, see § 348.
“Charata-Numakshi (the Chief of Wolves),” a Mandan, had a painted buffalo dress, which was his fetich. He valued it highly as a souvenir of his brother, who had been shot by the enemy.[248]
FOLK-LORE.
§ 335. When a child is born the father must not bridle a horse, that is, he must not fasten a lariat to the horse’s lower jaw, otherwise the infant would die in convulsions. Should the wife be enceinte when the husband bridled the horse ill luck would be sure to follow, frequently in the form of a failure to kill any game. If an Indian in such cases wounds a buffalo without being able to kill it quickly, he tries to take the buffalo’s heart home and makes his wife shoot an arrow through it; then again he feels confidence in his weapons that they will kill speedily.
The Indians affirm that a pregnant woman is very lucky at a game resembling billiards. If a woman passes between several Mandan who are smoking together it is a bad omen. Should a woman recline on the ground between men who are smoking a piece of wood is laid across her to serve as a means of communication between the men.
The strongest man now living among the Mandan, who has been the victor in several wrestling matches with the white people, always takes hold of his pipe by the head, for were he to touch another part of it the blood would suddenly rush from his nostrils. As soon as he bleeds in this manner he empties his pipe, throwing the contents into the fire, where it explodes like gunpowder, and the bleeding stops immediately. They say that nobody can touch this man’s face without bleeding at nose and mouth.
A certain Mandan affirms that whenever another offers him a pipe to smoke, out of civility, his mouth becomes full of worms, which he throws into the fire by handfuls.
Among the Hidatsa, when a certain man smoked very slowly no person in the lodge was allowed to speak nor to move a single limb, except to grasp the pipe. Neither women, children, nor dogs were allowed to remain in the hut while the man was smoking, and some one was always placed as a guard at the entrance. If, however, there were just seven persons present to smoke none of these precautions were observed. When the particular man cleared his pipe and shook the ashes into the fire it blazed up, perhaps because he had put into the pipe some gunpowder or similar combustible. When any person had a painful or diseased place this same man put his pipe upon it and smoked. On such occasions he did not swallow the smoke, as is the Indian custom, but he affirmed that he could extract the disease by his smoking, and he pretended to seize it in his hand and to throw into the fire.[249]