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]