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.
Fœmina hac raritate curens parvi œstimata, et neglecta est.
Moris est in Mandans, Mœnnitarris, et in Crows, magis autem in Mœnnitarris; 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.
CHAPTER XXVI
OBSERVATIONS ON THE TRIBE OF THE MANITARIES, OR GROS VENTRES
The name, Manitaries, by which this tribe is now generally known, was given by the Mandans, and signifies, "those who came over the water." The French give them the singular designation of Gros Ventres, which is no more appropriate to them than to any other of the Indian tribes: the Anglo-Americans also frequently use this name.[335] This people was formerly a part of the nation of the Crows, from which it is said they separated, in consequence of a dispute about a buffalo that had been killed, and removed to the Missouri.[336] They are near neighbours, and have been for many years allies of the Mandans. They have long resided in three villages on the Knife River, two on the left bank, and the third, which is much the largest, on the right bank.[337] Much confusion and misunderstanding have been occasioned by the variety of names given to these villages by the inhabitants, as well as by other tribes. At present the Manitaries live constantly in their villages, and do not roam about as they formerly did, when, like the Pawnees and other nations, they went in pursuit of the herds of buffaloes as soon as their fields were sown, returned in the autumn for the harvest, after which they again went into the prairie. In these wanderings they made use of leather tents, some of which are still standing by the side of their permanent dwellings. The more considerable part of the nation, the Crows, are still exclusively a people of hunters, who cultivate no kind of useful plants: even tobacco is now seldom planted, because they prefer that which they obtain from the traders. They still, however, preserve their own species of this plant for the purpose I have before mentioned.
The Manitaries do not much differ in their personal appearance from the Mandans; but it strikes a stranger that they are, in general, taller. Most of them are well-formed and stout; many are very tall, broad-shouldered, and muscular; the latter may, indeed, be said of the greater proportion of the men. Their noses are more or less arched, and sometimes quite straight. I also met with several whose countenances perfectly resembled those of the Botocudos.[338] The women {396} are much like the Mandans; many are tall and stout, but most of them are short and corpulent. There are some pretty faces among them, which, according to the Indian standard of beauty, may be called handsome. As they have long lived in close connexion with the Mandans, the two nations have adopted the same costume, though there is, at the same time, a greater attention to neatness and adornment among the Manitaries than their neighbours. Their necklaces of bears' claws, for which they often give a high price, are very large and well finished: they often contain forty claws, are attached to each shoulder, and form a semicircle across the breast. Their lock of hair on the temples is often long and curiously entwined with ornaments, and fringed at the point with small red feathers, or strips of ermine. They wear their hair in long flat braids, hanging down upon the back like the Mandans; sometimes it is plastered over with clay, and not unfrequently lengthened by gluing false locks to it. The flat ornament in the shape of the rule hanging from the back, which I have mentioned in speaking of the Mandans, is often very tastefully ornamented with porcupine quills, set in neat patterns. They seldom wear leather shirts, like the Crows and Blackfeet, but, generally speaking, have nothing under the buffalo robe: frequently their arms and whole body are variously painted. Their leggins do not differ from those of the Mandans. The breechcloth generally consists of a piece of white woollen cloth with dark blue stripes. Their leather shoes are ornamented in various ways, sometimes with a long stripe, or a rosette of dyed porcupine quills. The girdle is of leather, into which the knife and sheath are stuck at the back. They often wear narrow bright steel bracelets at the wrists, which they purchase from the Company. Much taste and extravagance are lavished on the buffalo robe, the main article of their attire. The style in which they are painted is similar to that of the Mandans, and very high prices are paid for these robes. Many of the men are tattooed, especially on one side of the body only, for instance, the right half of the breast, and the right arm, sometimes down to the wrist; nay, the old chief, Addih-Hiddish, had the whole of his right hand tattooed in stripes.[339] They paint their body in the same manner as the Mandans.
The Manitari villages are similarly arranged as those of the Mandans, except that they have no ark placed in the central space, and the figure of Ochkih-Hadda is not there. In the principal village, however, is the figure of a woman placed on a long pole, doubtless representing the grandmother, who presented them with the pots, of which I shall speak more hereafter. A bundle of brushwood is hung on this pole, to which are attached the leathern dress and leggins of a woman. The head is made of wormwood, and has a cap with feathers. The interior of their huts is arranged as among the Mandans: like them the Manitaries go, in winter, into the forests on both banks of the Missouri, where they find fuel, and, at the same time, protection against the inclement weather. Their winter villages are in the thickest of the forest, and the huts are built near to each other, promiscuously, and without any attempt at order or regularity.[340] {397} They have about 250 or 300 horses in their three villages, and a considerable number of dogs.
When a Manitari invites his friends to a feast which is especially devoted to the table, each guest brings a dish, which is filled, and which he is expected to empty; if he is unable to do this, he passes it on to his neighbour, and, as a sort of reward, gives him some tobacco. If his neighbour accepts it, he undertakes thereby the often not pleasant task of emptying the dish. At a war feast each guest is obliged to eat whatever is placed before him.[341] When a child is to be named they proceed as follows: the father first sets out on a buffalo hunt, and returns with a good deal of game. He loads himself with ten or twelve large pieces of meat, at the top of which he places the child. Stooping and panting under the burden, he proceeds to the hut of the medicine man who is to give the name, and to whom he delivers the meat as a present or fee.
Like the Mandans, the Manitaries have their bands, or unions, which are distinguished by their songs, dances, and badges. Of these bands there are eleven among the men and three among the women.
Besides these bands, they have two distinct dances:—1st. The dance of the old men, which is executed only by those who are far advanced in years, and no longer take the field. 2nd. The scalp dance; this is danced by the women, who carry the scalps upon poles.[342] In their hands they likewise bear guns, hatchets, clubs, &c. Some among the men beat the drum and rattle the schischikué; the warriors, meanwhile, sitting in a row, and beating time with their feet.
Their games, too, are like those of the Mandans, for if there were any with which they were not originally acquainted they have since adopted them. These people likewise set a high value on the hide of a white buffalo cow, for which they often give fifteen horses, guns, cloth, blankets, robes, and other articles of considerable value.[343] The owner having proclaimed, from the top of his hut, to the whole assembled village, that he has obtained such a robe, keeps it for about four years. The members of the family sometimes wear it on state occasions, and narrow strips are cut off and used as ornaments, especially as head bands. When this time is elapsed the hide is offered to one of the divinities, a medicine man being hired to perform the necessary ceremonies. During {398} the four years, valuable articles of all kinds, such as those before-mentioned, have been collected and are kept in readiness. A hut is built, to be used as a sudatory (as will be related below). A large quantity of food is distributed among the spectators; a bundle of brushwood is fastened to the top of a long pole, and the beautiful white hide is wrapped round it. It is then set up in some spot chosen by the owner, and there left to rot. The medicine man who performs the ceremonies receives, for his trouble, the valuables which have been mentioned—sometimes 150 robes, and other things, part of which he distributes among the persons present. Sometimes they ride, with the white hide, into the prairie, spread on the ground a blue or red blanket, and lay the hide upon it. If it is intended to offer a horse at the same time, they bind his feet together, put a muzzle on his mouth, and leave all together in this situation. If another Indian were to steal the horse, they would say he is a fool for robbing the lord of life. Other mysteries (medicines) and superstitions of the Manitaries are so interwoven with their early traditions and legends, that it is necessary to premise something on the subject.
Formerly there existed water only, and no earth: a large bird, with a red eye, dived. The man who does not die, or the lord of life (Ehsicka-Wahaddish, literally the first man),[344] who lives in the Rocky Mountains, had made all, and sent the great bird to fetch up earth. Another being, worthy of veneration, is the old woman whom they call grandmother, and who roams about all over the earth. She, too, has some share in the creation, though an inferior one, for she created the sand-rat and the toad. She gave the Manitaries a couple of pots, which they still preserve as a sacred treasure, and employ as medicines, or charms, on certain occasions. She directed the ancestors of these Indians to preserve the pots, and to remember the great waters, from which all animals came cheerful, or, as my old narrator expressed it, dancing. The red-shouldered oriole (Psaracolius phoeniceus) came, at that time, out of the water, as well as all the other birds which still sing on the banks of the rivers. The Manitaries, therefore, look on all these birds as medicine for their plantations of maize, and attend to their song. At the time when these birds sing, they were directed by the old woman to fill these pots with water, to be merry, to dance and bathe, in order to put them in mind of the great flood. When their fields are threatened with a great drought they are to celebrate a medicine feast with the old grandmother's pots, in order to beg for rain: this is, properly, the destination of the pots. The medicine men are still paid, on such occasions, to sing for four days together in the huts, while the pots remain filled with water.
The sun, or, as they call it, "the sun of the day," is likewise considered as a great medicine. They do not know what it really is, but that it serves to sustain and to warm the earth. When they are about to undertake some enterprise, they make offerings to it, as well as to the moon, which they call "the sun of the night." The morning star, Venus, they consider the child of the moon, and account it likewise a special medicine. They affirm that it was originally a {399} Manitari, and is the grandson of the old woman who never dies. The "great bear" is said to be an ermine, the several stars of that constellation indicating, in their opinion, the burrow, the head, the feet, and the tail of that animal. They likewise call the "milky way" the ashy way; and, like the Mandans, believe that thunder is occasioned by the flapping of the wings of the large bird, which causes rain, and that the lightning is the glance of his eye, in search of prey. The rainbow is called by the Manitaries "the cap of the water," or "the cap of the rain." Once, say they, an Indian caught, in the autumn, a red bird, which mocked him; this gave offence to the man, who bound the feet of his prisoner together with a fish line, and then let him fly. The bird of prey saw a hare and pounced upon it, but the hare crept into the skull of a buffalo which was lying in the prairie, and as the line, hanging from the claws of the bird, formed a semicircle, they imagine that the rainbow is still thus caused.
The old chief, Addih-Hiddish, gave me the following account of the situation of men after death:—There are two villages, one large and the other smaller, whither the Manitaries go when they die. The wicked, or cowardly, go to the small village; the good, or brave, to the larger one.[345] A party of Manitaries once went to war, and one of their number, a chief, was killed by the enemy; he was buried and his grave covered with large trunks of trees. After his death he went to the large village, from whence a great many men came to meet him and to escort him into it. He was alarmed when he saw them coming towards him, and turned back, wounded as he was. A white man had given him, in that country, a paper, by means of which he was enabled to return to his own village on earth, and live there many years; but my informant was quite unable to tell me the contents of this paper. After this, when he played at what they call billiards, he rubbed his hands with the talisman, and nobody could ever win a game from him; he was always called by his fellows "the dead man."
When the Manitaries were created by the first man they formed one nation with the Crows. A medicine woman among them had three sons, each of whom built a village. The eldest went, with his people, down the Missouri, and it is not known what became of them. The second went to the mountains, and founded the village now inhabited by the Crows. The third established the tribe now called Manitaries by the Mandans, which tribe subsequently erected the three villages now existing. At that time their total number was only 1000 men.
The Manitaries are as superstitious, and have as much faith in their medicines, or charms, as the Mandans. Among these medicines are included every kind of wolf and fox, especially the former; and, therefore, when they go to war, they always wear the stripe off the back of a wolf's skin, with the tail hanging down over their shoulders. They make a slit in the skin, through which they put their head, so that the skin of the wolf's head hangs down upon their breast. Buffaloes' heads are likewise medicine. In one of their villages they preserve the neck bones of a buffalo, as the Crows also are said to do; and this is done with a view to prevent the buffalo herds {400} from removing to too great a distance from them. At times they perform the following ceremony with these bones: they take a potsherd with live coals, throw sweet-smelling grass upon it, and fumigate the bones with the smoke. They have medicine stones and medicine trees, like the Mandans, and offer to the heavenly powers at such places red cloth, red paint, and other things. Like the Mandans, too, they also offer articles of value, wail, moan, do penance to conciliate their favour, and to ask their aid to obtain certain wishes and objects. Say relates that the wolf chief of the Manitaries sat for five days together on an isolated rock, without taking any food.[346] This was done on the Prairie Hill, to which the Mandans also resort in similar cases. They hold out till their strength fails them, and creep by night into a neighbouring cave, where they sleep and dream. Among the original traditions of this people is that of the two children, which Say relates. A party going to war saw two children sitting on two isolated hills, who vanished when they endeavoured to approach them. These two hills, which are near together, are called the Children's Hills; they are not on Knife River, as Say says, but on Heart River. The women go to one of these hills to do penance and lament when they desire to have children.[347]
Mr. Say relates another tradition very correctly, of a boy who lived and grew in the belly of a buffalo. They also assert that the bones of the buffaloes in the prairie sometimes come to life again.[348] Say likewise describes the corn dance, or rather the corn feast, for the consecration of the crops. They adopted it from the Mandans, and now celebrate it in the same manner.[349] The great medicine feast for attracting the herds of buffaloes will be described in the next chapter, as well as some of the incantations of the women. They likewise celebrate the Okippe (which they call Akupehri), but with several deviations. Thus, instead of the so-called ark, a kind of high pole, with a fork on the summit, is planted in the centre of the open circle. When the partisans of the war parties intend to go on some enterprise in May or June, the preparations are combined with the Okippe of several young men, who wish to obtain the rank of the brave, or men. A large medicine lodge is erected, open above, with a division in the middle, in which the candidates take their places. Two pits are usually dug in the middle for the partisans, who lie in them four days and four nights, with only a piece of leather about the waist. The first partisan usually chooses the second, who undergoes the ceremony with him. There are always young people enough ready to submit their bodies to torture, in order to display their courage and firm resolve. They fast four days and nights, which leaves them faint and weak. Many of them begin the tortures on the third day; but the fourth day is that properly set apart for them. To the forked pole of the medicine lodge is fastened a long piece of buffalo hide, with the head hanging down, and to this a strap is fastened. An old man is then chosen, who is to see to the torturing of the candidates, which is executed precisely in the same manner as among the Mandans. The sufferers often faint; they are then taken by the hands, lifted up, and encouraged, and they begin afresh. When they have dragged about the buffalo skull long enough, hanging to their flesh and skin, a large circle is formed, as among {401} the Mandans, in which they are made to run round till they drop down exhausted, when they are taken to the medicine lodge. The medicine man receives from one of the spectators the knife with which the operation is to be performed. He has called out to "have compassion with him, and to give him a knife," on which one of the persons standing round throws one at his feet. The partisan is bound to build the medicine lodge. During the ceremony the spectators eat and smoke; the candidates take nothing, and, like the partisans, are covered all over with white clay. The latter, when they dance during the ceremony, remain near their pits, and then move on the same spot, holding in their hands their medicines, a buffalo's tail, a feather, or the like. None but the candidates dance, and the only music is striking a dried buffalo's hide with willow rods. There have been instances of fathers subjecting their children, only six or seven years of age, to these tortures. We ourselves saw one suspended by the muscles of the back, after having been compelled to fast four days. No application whatever is subsequently made for the cure of the wounds, which leave large swollen weals, and are much more conspicuous among the Manitaries than the Mandans. Most of the Manitaries have three or four of these weals, in parallel semicircular lines, almost an inch thick, which cover the entire breast. Similar transverse and longitudinal lines, arising from the same cause, are seen upon the arms, nay, the whole length of the limb is often disfigured by them.[350] The medicine stone has already been mentioned, when treating of the Mandans. Lewis and Clarke also speak of it, saying that "the Manitaries have a stone of a similar kind;" but this is not quite correct, for it is the self-same stone to which the two people have recourse, and make use of similar ceremonies with it.
Another very remarkable institution of the Manitaries is the sudatory. When a man intends to undertake anything, and to implore by medicine the aid of the higher powers, he builds a small sudatory of twigs, which is covered all over with buffalo hides. Before the entrance is a straight path, forty feet long and one broad, from which the turf is taken off and piled up in a heap at one end opposite the hut. Near this heap a fire is kindled, in which large stones are made red hot. Two rows of shoes, sometimes thirty or forty pair, are placed along the path. As soon as the stones are hot, they are borne into the hut, where a hearth has been dug, on which the hot stones are laid. The whole population sit as spectators on either side of the path, where are placed a number of dishes with provisions, such as boiled maize, beans, meat, &c. An old medicine man is appointed to conduct the ceremonies. He walks from the heap of turf over the shoes, taking care always to set his feet upon them, to the sudatory. The young man, for whom the ceremony is performed, stands with only his breechcloth at the entrance of the sudatory, where for some time he wails and laments. The medicine man comes out of the hut, with a knife or arrow head, and cuts off a joint of his finger, which he throws away, as an offering to the lord of life, or to some other object of superstition, in which the young man has placed his confidence. After this operation the magician takes a willow twig, goes to the dishes containing {402} the provisions, dips the twig in each, and throws a portion of the contents in the direction of the four cardinal points, for the lord of life, the fire, and the divers supernatural powers, of which he makes open proclamation. The provisions are then distributed among the men, women, and children who are present. The older men go into the sudatory, the women carefully cover it, and water is sprinkled with bunches of wormwood, from vessels standing ready without upon the hot stones, which throws the persons present into a profuse perspiration; the men, meanwhile, all singing at once to the rattling of the schischikué. When they are satisfied they call to the women on the outside to remove the hides. After this, a buffalo head, with the snout foremost, is carried over the row of shoes to the heap of turfs, where it is placed in the same direction. The ceremony is now complete. The robes with which the hut was covered, often sixty or eighty in number, are given by the young man to the magician for his trouble, who distributes some of them among the spectators. The persons who have submitted to the operation put on their robes, and remain in the open air till their bodies are dry, this medicine being generally performed in the summer. In the winter they prepare such steam baths in their own huts, but at that season they are not medicine, and the men and women assemble together. The grand ceremony just described is instituted especially when they wish to ask success for a military expedition, or for some other important enterprise. They then purchase a red blanket or a piece of blue cloth, which they offer to the divinity, hanging it on a pole behind the sudatory, where it is left to be destroyed by the wind and weather.
The Manitaries likewise make offerings at times to the great serpent which lives in the Missouri, by placing in the river poles, to which robes or coloured blankets are attached.[351] This practice is founded on a story like that which is current among the Mandans, but with some differences. A war party was on its way to the Upper Missouri to meet the enemy: when they had proceeded a considerable distance two young men turned back, and found, at a certain spot, a large serpent coiled up. After looking at the animal for some time, one of them kindled a fire, in which they burnt the serpent. The man who had made the fire took up the remains, smelt them, and affirmed that the smell was so inviting, he could not refrain from eating a part, and, though his comrade dissuaded him, he ate a small portion of the roasted flesh. In the evening, when they were going to lie down to rest for the night, he took off his shoes, and, to his great astonishment, found that his feet were striped like the serpent which they had killed. He told his friend, and said, "This is delightful; when I go home, I will pull off my shoes, and everybody will look at my feet." On the following day his legs were striped up to the knees. He said, laughing, "This is admirable; I shall no longer have occasion to mark my exploits by stripes, for nature herself furnishes me with them." On the third day he was striped up to his hips. They slept on the evening of that day, and on the fourth day he was completely converted into a serpent. "Be not afraid of me," said he to his friend, "I have neither arms nor legs, and cannot move from the spot; carry me {403} to the river." His friend dragged him to the Missouri, being unable to carry him on account of his length and weight. The serpent immediately swam, dived below the surface, and called to his friend, who was mourning on the bank, "Weep not, my friend; be comforted and go home in peace; four things, however, I must beg of you to bring me; first, bring me a white wolf; secondly, a polecat; thirdly, another painted red; and fourthly, a black pipe." His friend went home, and after some time returned with the objects required, and lamented a whole day on the bank of the river. The serpent then appeared: "It is well that you have kept your word," said he; "you will go to war and kill as many enemies as you have brought objects to me. But first come here and lament, for I am medicine for all futurity." The Indian went out the same day and killed an enemy; but the serpent had previously told him that its head would be at the old Mandan village, and its tail reach to the mouth of the Yellow Stone River; that with one ear it would be able to hear to the distance of the Maison du Chien, a hill in the prairie two days' journey from the north bank of the Missouri, and with the other to the Crête Côte, likewise two days' journey from the other bank. The friend went four times to war, and each time killed an enemy. The Manitaries, who firmly believe this story, still go to the river when the fancy strikes them, and set up an offering. They relate that a man once went to the river to see the serpent; he lamented for a long time, at length it appeared, on which he called it his father. But the serpent said, "You are not my son; I have only one son, whose name is——, he who has no arms; but you are the son of him who shall be chief of the village to which I have destined him. When you ride out to hunt the buffalo you will kill your enemies, and some of your people will likewise be killed."
In cases of difficult parturition, which, however, seldom occur, they are accustomed to give the medicine man one, two, or even four horses. He comes to the hut of the lying-in woman, smokes with her husband, then takes a fox or wolf skin cap, and strokes the woman with it on the back, or some other part of the body, singing, and rattling the schischikué. Often he touches or rubs her with a tortoise shell, as the Botocudos in Brazil do, often merely with a feather.
Like the Mandans they sometimes keep owls in their huts, which they consider as soothsayers, and whose notes they pretend to understand. This is the large grey owl, without doubt the Strix Virginiana. The war eagle (Aquila chrysactos) is likewise kept alive for the sake of the tail feathers, which they so highly prize. Some individuals among them have strange superstitious ideas and practices; thus, a certain man smokes very slowly, no person is allowed to speak nor to move a single limb of his body, except to take hold of the pipe. Neither women, children, nor dogs, are suffered to remain in the hut while he is smoking, and some one is always stationed to keep the door. If, however, there are exactly seven persons present to smoke, all these precautionary measures are done away with, and they may smoke as quickly as they please. {404} When he clears his pipe and shakes the ashes into the fire, it blazes up, doubtless because he puts some gunpowder, or similar combustible, into the pipe. When any person has a painful or a diseased place, the same man puts his pipe upon it and smokes. On these occasions he does not swallow the smoke, as is the Indian custom, but affirms that he can extract the disorder by his smoking, which he pretends to seize with his hand, and to throw into the fire.
The division of the year into months is not very dissimilar from that of the Mandans, though I have never been able to obtain two accounts which precisely correspond. But little is to be said of the hunting and war of the Manitaries which has not been already related of the Mandans. They are reported as being very skilful in making the cabri parks, which, in the month of April, they can do in half a day, though they have not made any such for some time past. The skin of the cabri is used for shoes.
The Manitaries are at present friendly towards the Whites in the vicinity of the Missouri; but, if a white man happens to encounter one of their war parties in the prairie, he is generally plundered. In the north, on the Red River, they often act in a hostile manner to the Whites and Half-breeds residing there. Their enemies properly so called are the Blackfeet, the Assiniboins, the Sioux, the Pawnees, the Arikkaras, the Shiennes or Chayennes, the Crees, and the Arrapahos; their allies are the Mandans and the Crows.
All these Indians treat the bodies of their slain enemies in the most barbarous manner. Charbonneau remembers that the Manitaries, for several months, kept the body of an Assiniboin, who was killed in the winter, which they daily used as a mark to shoot at. Mutilation is very common among them. Want of feeling towards their prisoners is common to all uncivilized people; the nations of hunters especially do not regard the tortures of living creatures; and the Brazilian savage does not in this respect differ from the North American, and the Gaucho in the south of this continent, or, indeed, from man in a state of nature in every part of the habitable globe.
The Manitaries appear to have but a very slight acquaintance with medicine; they mostly have recourse to the drum, the schischikué, and the singing of the medicine men, for the cure of diseases. As a remedy for wounds they burn scented grass (Anthoxanthum odoratum), hold their hands in the smoke, and then, at some distance, over the wound, after which they lay tallow upon it. The cure of some men who recovered after being scalped, and many large scars on the bodies of these Indians, are proofs of the natural vigour of their constitutions. The medicine men have a particular song, without words, which is employed as the last resource to recover a person at the point of death. The magician alone then sings, accompanied by his schischikué.
The Manitaries always lay their dead upon stages or scaffolds. As the lord of life is displeased when they quarrel and kill each other, those who do so are buried in the earth, that they {405} may be no longer seen. In this case a buffalo's head is laid upon the grave, in order that the buffalo herds may not keep away, for, if they were to smell the wicked, they might remove and never return. The good are laid upon stages, that they may be seen by the lord of life.
The language of the Manitaries is very different from that of the Mandans, and is far more difficult to pronounce correctly. Like that, it has many gutturals, especially the ch, as in Dutch and German. The difficulty of the pronunciation lies chiefly in the accent. What may in German be expressed in a few words, requires several; a proof of the poverty of the language. Lewis and Clarke say—"the dialect of the Mandans differs widely from those of the Arikkaras and Manitaries; but their long residence near each other has insensibly blended their manners, and occasioned some approximation in language, especially in objects of daily occurrence." This is correct, for I was assured by both nations that, when they first lived together, their languages were totally different, and respectively unintelligible to each other.