DREAMS.
§ 332. Dreams afford the motives for many of their actions, even for the penances which they impose on themselves. They think that all which appears in their dreams must be true. Before they became acquainted with firearms, a Mandan dreamed of a weapon with which they could kill their enemies at a great distance, and soon after the white men brought them the first gun. In like manner they dreamed of horses before they obtained any. In many cases the guardian spirit is revealed to the fasting youth in a dream. If the Lord of Life makes him dream of a piece of cherry wood or of an animal, it is a good omen. The young men who follow such a dreamer to the battle have great confidence in his guardian spirit or “medicine.”[244]
ORACLES.
§ 333. The Mandan and Hidatsa consider the large gray owl a mystery bird, with whom they pretend to converse and to understand its attitudes and voice. Such owls are often kept alive in lodges, being regarded as soothsayers. They have a similar opinion of eagles.[245]
FETICHES.
§ 334. The skin of a white buffalo cow is an eminent fetich in the estimation of the Mandan and Hidatsa. The hide must be that of a young cow not over 2 years old, and be taken off complete, and tanned, with horns, nose, hoofs, and tail. It is worn on rare occasions.
When the owner wishes to sacrifice such a skin to the Omahank-Numakshi or to the Numank-Machana, he rolls it up, after adding some artemisia or an ear of corn, and then the skin remains suspended on a pole until it decays.[246]
Besides the white buffalo skins hung on tall poles as sacrifices, there were other strange objects hung on tall poles near the villages of the Mandan and Hidatsa. These figures were composed of skin, grass, and twigs, which seemed to represent the sun, moon, and perhaps the Omahank-Numakshi and the Numank-Machana. The Indians resorted to them when they wished to petition for anything, and sometimes howled for days and weeks together.[247]
For a reference to trees and stones, see § 348.