Sunday, 30th. The weather was cold, and the thermometer 20° below 0. We killed one deer, and yesterday one of the men shot a wolf. The Indians brought corn, beans, and squashes, which they very readily gave for getting their axes and kettles mended. In their general conduct during these visits they are honest, but will occasionally pilfer any small article.
Monday, 31. During the night there was a high wind which covered the ice with hillocks of mixed sand and snow: the day was however fine, and the Indians came in great numbers for the purpose of having their utensils repaired.
Tuesday, January 1, 1805. The new year was welcomed by two shot from the swivel and a round of small arms. The weather was cloudy but moderate; the mercury which at sunrise was at 18°, in the course of the day rose to 34° above 0: towards evening it began to rain, and at night we had snow, the temperature for which is about 0. In the morning we permitted sixteen men with their music to go up to the first village, where they delighted the whole tribe with their dances, particularly with the movements of one of the Frenchmen who danced on his head. In return they presented the dancers with several buffaloe robes and quantities of corn. We were desirous of showing this attention to the village, because they had received an impression that we had been wanting in regard for them, and they had in consequence circulated invidious comparisons between us and the northern traders: all these however they declared to captain Clarke, who visited them in the course of the morning, were made in jest. As captain Clarke was about leaving the village, two of their chiefs returned from a mission to the Grosventres or wandering Minnetarees. These people were encamped about ten miles above, and while there one of the Ahnahaways had stolen a Minnetaree girl: the whole nation immediately espoused the quarrel, and one hundred and fifty of their warriors were marching down to revenge the insult on the Ahnahaways. The chief of that nation took the girl from the ravisher, and giving her to the Mandans requested their intercession. The messengers went out to meet the warriors, and delivered the young damsel into the hands of her countrymen, smoked the pipe of peace with them, and were fortunate enough to avert their indignation and induce them to return. In the evening some of the men came to the fort and the rest slept in the village. Pocapsahe also visited us and brought some meat on his wife's back.
Wednesday, January 2. It snowed last night, and during this day the same scene of gayety was renewed at the second village, and all the men returned in the evening.
Thursday 3. Last night it became very cold, and this morning we had some snow: our hunters were sent out for buffaloe, but the game had been frightened from the river by the Indians, so that they obtained only one: they however killed a hare and a wolf. Among the Indians who visited us was a Minnetaree who came to seek his wife: she had been much abused and came here for protection, but returned with him; as we had no authority to separate those whom even the Mandan rites had united.
Friday 4. The morning was cloudy and warm, the mercury being 28° above 0: but towards evening the wind changed to northwest, and the weather became cold. We sent some hunters down the river, but they killed only one buffaloe and a wolf. We received the visit of Kagohami who is very friendly, and to whom we gave a hankerchief and two files.
Saturday 5. We had high and boisterous winds last night and this morning: the Indians continue to purchase repairs with grain of different kinds. In the first village there has been a buffaloe dance for the last three nights, which has put them all into commotion, and the description which we received from those of the party who visited the village and from other sources, is not a little ludicrous: the buffaloe dance is an institution originally intended for the benefit of the old men, and practised at their suggestion. When buffaloe becomes scarce they send a man to harangue the village, declaring that the game is far off and that a feast is necessary to bring it back, and if the village be disposed a day and place is named for the celebration of it. At the appointed hour the old men arrive, and seat themselves crosslegged on skins round a fire in the middle of the lodge with a sort of doll or small image, dressed like a female, placed before them. The young men bring with them a platter of provisions, a pipe of tobacco, and their wives, whose dress on the occasion is only a robe or mantle loosely thrown round the body. On their arrival each youth selects the old man whom he means to distinguish by his favour, and spreads before him the provisions, after which he presents the pipe and smokes with him. Mox senex vir simulacrum parvæ puellæ ostensit. Tune egrediens eætu, jecit effigium solo et superincumbens, senili ardore veneris complexit. Hoc est signum. Denique uxor e turba recessit, et jactu corporis, fovet amplexus viri solo recubante. Maritus appropinquans senex vir dejecto vultu, et honorem et dignitatem ejus conservare amplexu uxoris illum oravit. Forsitan imprimis ille refellit; dehine, maritus multis precibus, multis lachrymis, et multis donis vehementer intercessit. Tune senex amator perculsus miserecordia, tot precibus, tot lachrymis, et tot donis, conjugali amplexu submisit. Multum ille jactatus est, sed debilis et effoetus senectute, frustra jactatus est. Maritus interdum stans juxta guadit multum honore, et ejus dignitati sic conservata. Unus nostrum sodalium multum alacrior et potentior juventute, hac nocte honorem quartour maritorum custodivit.
Sunday 6. A clear cold morning with high wind: we caught in a trap a large gray wolf, and last night obtained in the same way a fox who had for some time infested the neighbourhood of the fort. Only a few Indians visited us to-day.
Monday 7. The weather was again clear and cold with a high northwest wind, and the thermometer at sunrise 22° below 0; the river fell an inch. Shahaka the Big White chief dined with us, and gave a connected sketch of the country as far as the mountains.
Tuesday 8. The wind was still from the northwest, the day cold, and we received few Indians at the fort. Besides the buffaloe dance we have just described, there is another called medicine dance, an entertainment given by any person desirous of doing honour to his medicine or genius. He announces, that on such a day he will sacrifice his horses, or other property, and invites the young females of the village to assist in rendering homage to his medicine; all the inhabitants may join in the solemnity, which is performed in the open plain and by daylight, but the dance is reserved for the virgins or at least the unmarried females, who disdain the incumbrance or the ornament of dress. The feast is opened by devoting the goods of the master of the feast to his medicine, which is represented by a head of the animal itself, or by a medicine bag if the deity be an invisible being. The young women then begin the dance, in the intervals of which each will prostrate herself before the assembly to challenge or reward the boldness of the youth, who are often tempted by feeling or the hopes of distinction to achieve the adventure.