[235] For such a sledge drawn by dogs see Plate 29, in the accompanying atlas, our volume xxv.—Ed.
[236] See Plate 54, figure 4, in the accompanying atlas, our volume xxv.—Ed.
[237] See p. [247] for drawing of head of this animal.—Ed.
[238] See p. [105] for illustration of a horn drinking-cup or spoon.—Ed.
[239] I brought to Europe specimens of the several kinds of maize grown among the Mandans; these have been sown, but only the early species were ripe in September, 1835. The heads have by no means attained the same size, on the Rhine, as in their native country. There the plant attains a height of five or six feet, and the colours of the grains are very various, bright, and beautiful: while, on the Rhine, the plant grew to the height of four or four and a half feet. The later sorts grew to the height of ten feet, and were not quite ripe at the end of October. (See Bradbury, [our volume v, p. 158, note 96], for an account of the maize of the Mandans.)
According to Tanner (page 180), an Ottowa Indian first introduced the cultivation of maize on the Red River, among the Ojibuas, or Chippeways.—Maximilian.
[240] La Vérendrye presumably first introduced the tobacco of the whites to these people. Upon first meeting the Mandan chief, he "presented me with a gift of Indian corn in the ear, and of their tobacco in rolls, which is not good, as they do not know how to cure it like us. It is very like ours, with this difference, that it is not cultivated and is cut green, everything being turned to account, the stalks and leaves together. I gave him some of mine, which he thought very good."—Ed.
[241] For a good description of pemmican see Franchère's Narrative, our volume vi, p. 380, note 197.—Ed.
[242] The only form of cannibalism practiced among the North American Indians, after they were known to the whites, was the custom of eating the heart or the flesh of a brave enemy, in order to acquire the victim's courage or other desirable qualities. As torture of prisoners was more common among Eastern than Western tribes, this practice may be the one referred to by Maximilian. Consult Livingston Farrand, Basis of American History (New York, 1904), pp. 226, 243.—Ed.
[243] Catlin (North American Indians, i, pp. 118-120) finds apologies for the custom of polygamy, which he says is chiefly confined to the chiefs and medicine men of the tribe.—Ed.