When the dance of the half-shorn head was sold by its Mandan possessors, they received in part payment the temporary use of the wives of the purchasers, each woman having the right to choose her consort.[230]
Lewis and Clarke have given accounts of two of the Mandan dances, the buffalo dance and the medicine dance, at the conclusion of which were rites that astonished the travelers, but they were told that in the medicine dance only virgins or young unmarried females took part.[231]
ABSAROKA FEAR OF A WHITE BUFFALO COW.
§ 321. The Absaroka or Crow Nation have a superstitious fear of a white buffalo cow. When a Crow meets one, he addresses the sun in the following words: “I will give her (i. e., the cow) to you.” He then endeavors to kill the animal, but leaves it untouched, and then says to the sun, “Take her, she is yours.” They never use the skin of such a cow, as the Mandan do.[232]
MANDAN CULTS.
MANDAN DIVINITIES.
§ 322. According to one of Maximilian’s informants, the Mandan believe in several superior beings. (1) The first is Ohmahank-Numakshi, the Lord of Life. He is the most powerful. He created the earth, man, and every existing object. They believe that he has a tail, and appears sometimes in the form of an aged man and, at others, in that of a young man. (2) Numank-Machana, the First Man, holds the second rank; he was created by the Lord of Life, but is likewise of a divine nature. He resembles Nanabush or Manabozho of the Ojibwa and cognate tribes. (3) Ohmahank-Ohika, the Lord of Evil, is a malignant spirit, who has much influence over men; but he is not as powerful as Ohmahank-Numakshi and Numank-Machana. (4) Rohanka-Tauibanka, who dwells in the planet Venus, protects mankind on earth. The name of the fifth power has not been gained, but he is ever moving, walking over the earth in human form. They call him, “The Lying Prairie Wolf.” (6) Ochkih-Hadda[233] is a spirit that it is difficult to class. They believe that one who dreams of him is sure to die very soon thereafter. This spirit is said to have come once into their villages and taught them many things, but since then he has not appeared. They fear him, offer him sacrifice, and in their villages they have a hideous image representing him.
§ 323. The sun is thought to be the residence of the Lord of Life. In the moon dwells, as they say, the Old Woman who Never Dies. They do not know much about her, but they sacrifice to her as well as to the other spirits. She has six children, three sons and three daughters, who inhabit certain stars. The eldest son is the Day, the second is the Sun, the third is the Night. The eldest daughter is the star that rises in the east, the Morning Star, called, “The Woman Who Wears a Plume.” The second daughter, called “The Striped Gourd,” is a star which revolves the polar star. The third daughter is the Evening Star, which is near the setting sun.[234]
§ 324. The Old Woman who Never Dies.—The cult of this spirit is observed in what Say calls “the corn dance of the Manitaries.” Maximilian declares that Say is quite correct in his account of it, and that the Mandan practice it as well as the Hidatsa.