472. Camanchees giving the Arrows to the Medicine Rock.
A curious superstition of the Camanchees: going to war, they have no faith in their success, unless they pass a celebrated painted rock, where they appease the spirit of war (who resides there), by riding by it at full gallop, and sacrificing their best arrow by throwing it against the side of the ledge.
473. “Bàtiste, Bogard, and I” approaching Buffalo, on the Missouri.
474. Wi-jun-jon (an Assinneboin Chief), going to and returning from Washington.
This man was taken to that city in 1832, in a beautiful Indian dress, by Major Sanford, the Indian agent, and returned to his country the next spring, in a Colonel’s uniform. He lectured a while to his people on the customs of the whites, when he was denounced by them for telling lies, which he had learned of the whites, and was, by his own people, put to death at the mouth of the Yellow Stone.
475. “Butte de Mort,” Upper Missouri, a great burial-place of the Sioux, called by the French “Butte de Mort,” Hill of Death.
Regarded by the Indians with great dread and superstition. There are several thousand buffalo and human skulls, perfectly bleached and curiously arranged about it.
476. “Rain-making,” amongst the Mandans, a very curious custom. Medicine-men performing their mysteries inside of the lodge, and young men volunteer to stand upon the lodge from sunrise until sundown, in turn, commanding it to rain.
Each one has to hazard the disgrace which attaches (when he descends at sundown) to a fruitless attempt; and he who succeeds acquires a lasting reputation as a Mystery or Medicine man. They never fail to make it rain! as this ceremony continues from day to day until rain comes.
477. “Smoking the Shield.” A young warrior, making his shield, invites his friends to a carouse and a feast, who dance around his shield as it is smoking and hardening over a fire built in the ground.