When a young man desires to become a leader, or partisan, he first gains, by gifts, the favour of the other young men, and then dedicates a medicine pipe, which is a plain, unornamented tube. This ceremony is accomplished by a four days' fast, and supplications for assistance to the lord of life, the first man, &c. &c., and other supernatural beings. He then addresses the young men, and calls upon them to give him their support in his undertakings. If a sufficient number testify their readiness to accompany him in a warlike expedition, and such an expedition is determined upon, they dance and feast in the medicine lodge for several successive nights, from whence, too, they generally march off by night.
The women never accompany these expeditions. On setting out the men are badly clothed, and not painted. They do not depart in a body, but, for the most part, singly, or in small detached parties. At a certain distance from the village they halt upon an isolated hill, open their medicine bags, and, after the men have sat down in a circle, the partisan produces his medicine pipe, which all present smoke; the person who smokes last, then spreads his medicines on the ground, or hangs them up, and from them foretells the fate of the expedition. The Indians manifest much gravity and decorum on solemn occasions like these.
When the warriors return from their expedition, the scalps are carried on in advance, on high poles: if they have performed any exploits, they paint their faces black; very frequently the whole body is thus disfigured. The women and children go out to meet them, and they enter the village performing the scalp dance. This dance is then repeated four successive nights in the medicine lodge, and is subsequently danced in the open space, in the centre of the village. If the campaign took place in the spring, it is danced, at intervals, till the fall of the leaf in autumn; if in the autumn, it is danced till spring, but should any of the nation be killed in the interim all festivities immediately cease. In the scalp dance the Indians paint themselves in various ways, form a semicircle, advance, and retreat amid the din of singing, the beating of the drum and schischikué. The wives of those men who have obtained the scalps carry them on long rods.[318]
All the distinguished deeds performed by a war party are placed to the account of the partisan. All the scalps that are taken belong to him, and also the horses that they have captured. He who has killed an enemy is a brave man, and reckons one exploit; but the partisan rises the highest on that account, even though he had not seen any of the enemies who have been slain. When he returns home, the old men and women meet, and sing the scalp song, on which he must make them all presents of value. He gives away all the captured horses, and valuable articles, and is afterwards a poor man, but his reputation is great. Successful partisans afterwards become chiefs, and are highly respected by their nation. The Indian youths go to war when they are only fourteen or fifteen years of age. Sometimes they make excursions on horseback in the winter.
{389} The Mandans and Manitaries make excursions as far as the Rocky Mountains, against their enemies, the Blackfeet, and against the Chippeways, to the country of Pembina.[319] Their other enemies are the Sioux, the Arikkaras, the Assiniboins, and the Chayennes (spelt, by the English, Shiennes). They are at peace with the Crows.
The weapons of the Mandans and Manitaries are, first, the bow and arrow. The bows are made of elm or ash, there being no other suitable kinds of wood in their country. In form and size they resemble those of the other nations; the string is made of the sinews of animals twisted. They are frequently ornamented. A piece of red cloth, four or five inches long, is wound round each end of the bow, and adorned with glass beads, dyed porcupine quills, and strips of white ermine. A tuft of horse-hair, dyed yellow, is usually fastened to one end of the bow. Pehriska-Ruhpa has such a weapon in his hand.[320] The quiver, to which the bow-case is fastened, is made of panther or buffalo skin; in the first case, with the hair outwards, the long tail hanging down, and, as among the Blackfeet, lined with red cloth, and embroidered in various figures with white beads. Their handsome quivers are made of otter skin, which are much esteemed. A very beautifully ornamented one, belonging to the Crows, is represented.[321] Narrow strips of skin hang down at both ends of the quiver. The arrows of the Mandans and Manitaries are neatly made; the best wood is said to be that of the service berry (Amelanchier sanguinea). The arrows of all the Missouri nations are much alike,[322] with long, triangular, very sharp, iron heads, which they themselves make out of old iron: it is but slightly glued to the shaft of the arrow, which is rather short, and generally remains in the body of the wounded animal. They know nothing of poisoning their arrows. The arrow-heads were formerly made of sharp stones: when Charbonneau first came to the Missouri, some made of flint were in use, and in the villages they are still met with, and in all those parts of the United States where the expelled or extirpated aborigines formerly dwelt. We were told that, in the prairie, near the Manitari villages, there is a sand hill, where the wind has uncovered a great number of such stone arrow-heads. Almost all the Mandans and Manitaries now have guns, which they ornament with bits of red cloth, on the brass rings of the ramrod, and at the butt-end {390} with brass nails. Besides the ramrod belonging to the gun, the Indians always carry another long ramrod in their hands, which they generally use. The pouch is made of leather, or cloth, often beautifully ornamented with beads, or porcupine quills, and is hung on the back by a piece of skin, or a broad strip of cloth of some lively colour. Their clubs and tomahawks are of various kinds. Many have a thick egg-shaped stone fastened to a handle, covered with leather, or without leather.[323] Others have small iron tomahawks,[324] but not tomahawks with pipes fixed to them. The large club with the broad iron point[325] is called manha-okatanha, or mauna-schicha. A simple, knotty, wooden club is called mauna-panischa.[326]
Stone club, with handle