So much for scalps and scalping, of which I shall yet say more, unless I should unluckily lose one before I get out of the country.
68
101½
[12] This celebrated knife is now in my Indian Museum, and there is no doubt, from its authentic history, that it has been several times plunged to the hearts of his enemies by the hand of Mah-to-toh-pa, who wielded it. Several years after I left that country, and one year after the destruction of the Mandans, I received the following letter from Mr. M‘Kenzie, accompanying the knife and other things sent to me by him from that country: Extract—“The poor Mandans are gone, and amongst them your old friend, Mah-to-toh-pa. I have been able to send you but a very few things, as the Riccarees immediately took possession of everything they had. Amongst the articles I have been able to procure, I send you the war-knife of Mah-to-toh-pa, which is now looked upon as the greatest medicine in this country; and as you will recollect it, it will be highly appreciated by you.”
LETTER—No. 30.
MOUTH OF TETON RIVER, UPPER MISSOURI.
In the last letter I gave an account of many of the weapons and other manufactures of these wild folks; and as this has been a day of packing and casing a great many of these things, which I have obtained of the Indians, to add to my Musée Indienne, I will name a few more, which I have just been handling over; some description of which may be necessary for the reader in endeavouring to appreciate some of their strange customs and amusements, which I am soon to unfold. In [plate 101½], letters a and b, will be seen the quiver made of the fawn’s skin, and the Sioux shield made of the skin of the buffalo’s neck, hardened with the glue extracted from the hoofs and joints of the same animal. The process of “smoking the shield” is a very curious, as well as an important one, in their estimation. For this purpose a young man about to construct him a shield, digs a hole of two feet in depth, in the ground, and as large in diameter as he designs to make his shield. In this he builds a fire, and over it, a few inches higher than the ground, he stretches the raw hide horizontally over the fire, with little pegs driven through holes made near the edges of the skin. This skin is at first, twice as large as the size of the required shield; but having got his particular and best friends (who are invited on the occasion,) into a ring, to dance and sing around it, and solicit the Great Spirit to instil into it the power to protect him harmless against his enemies, he spreads over it the glue, which is rubbed and dried in, as the skin is heated; and a second busily drives other and other pegs, inside of those in the ground, as they are gradually giving way and being pulled up by the contraction of the skin. By this curious process, which is most dexterously done, the skin is kept tight whilst it contracts to one-half of its size, taking up the glue and increasing in thickness until it is rendered as thick and hard as required (and his friends have pleaded long enough to make it arrow, and almost ball proof), when the dance ceases, and the fire is put out. When it is cooled and cut into the shape that he desires, it is often painted with his medicine or totem upon it, the figure of an eagle, an owl, a buffalo or other animal, as the case may be, which he trusts will guard and protect him from harm; it is then fringed with eagles’ quills, or other ornaments he may have chosen, and slung with a broad leather strap that crosses his breast. These shields are carried by all the warriors in these regions, for their protection in battles, which are almost invariably fought from their horses’ backs.
Of pipes, and the custom of smoking, I have already spoken; and I then said, that the Indians use several substitutes for tobacco, which they call K’nick K’neck. For the carrying of this delicious weed or bark, and preserving its flavour, the women construct very curious pouches of otter, or beaver, or other skins (letters c, c, c,), which are ingeniously ornamented with porcupine quills and beads, and generally carried hanging across the left arm, containing a quantity of the precious narcotic, with flint and steel, and spunk, for lighting the pipe.