[290] These are represented in Plate 58, in the accompanying atlas, our volume xxv.—Ed.
[291] The author refers to a letter on this subject, written by Mr. Catlin, and published in a New York paper; but this is by no means so complete as that given in his valuable work published last year.—H. Evans Lloyd.
Comment by Ed. Catlin's letter, dated at the Mandan village, August 12, 1832, was published in the New York Spectator, and a German translation incorporated in the first edition of Maximilian's work published at Coblentz in 1841 (ii, pp. 658-667). Upon the issue of Catlin's North American Indians, (1841), the fuller account of Okippe therein given caused Maximilian's English translator to omit from his work Catlin's first description. Catlin's veracity in this description was impugned both by Schoolcraft and David D. Mitchell, and their criticism was embodied in an authorized government publication. Catlin thereupon (1866) appealed both to Kipp and Maximilian, who both unhesitatingly endorsed his account as correct. See evidence in Smithsonian Institution Report, 1885, part ii, pp. 368-383. Catlin then published O-kee-pa (London, 1867), with colored illustrations of the ceremony.
[292] The ceremony of Okippe was for many years celebrated annually; but as the numbers of the tribe decreased it occurred less frequently, and has now with the progress of missionary work become extinct. See, however, description of the celebration in Henry A. Boller, Among the Indians, Eight Years in the Far West (Philadelphia, 1868), pp. 100-111.—Ed.
[293] According to Catlin these drums were supposed to be filled with water enclosed in them at the time of the deluge, and thus were objects of much veneration. For one of them he offered goods to the amount of one hundred dollars, but was refused, they being deemed "medicine" or mystery objects. Captain Maynardier, who witnessed this ceremony in 1860, and thought he was the first to describe it (see Senate Ex. Docs., 40 Cong., 1 sess., No. 77, pp. 149-151), also testifies that the drums were supposed to be filled with water; but he believed they were stuffed with hair.—Ed.
[294] According to Catlin, "the first man" collects an edged tool from each lodge, since the "big canoe" was made therewith, and in another deluge these would be needed.—Ed.
[295] That is, they dance twice to each of the four quarters of the globe, four being a sacred number. See plates of the costume in Catlin, O-kee-pa, nos. v, vi.—Ed.
[296] See O-kee-pa, plate viii, for the rattlesnake man.—Ed.
[297] An exact description of the representation by Catlin, op. cit., plate ix. According to the painter, this evil spirit does not appear until the fourth day of the ceremony.—Ed.
[298] When these Indians fast for three or four days together, they dream very frequently of the devil, and, in this case, they believe that they have not long to live. The narrator had once fasted for a long time at this festival, and suffered himself to be hung up by the back. During the night he dreamed of the devil, who appeared far more frightful and taller than he could ever be represented. His plume of feathers reached to the clouds, and he ran about as quick as lightning. On several other occasions he dreamed of this devil, but now he is resolved not to fast any more, that he might not die prematurely. He added, that he had often looked without apprehension, and with pleasure, on the mask representing the devil; but he now regarded the matter in a different light, for, the more he thought of him, the taller and the more frightful did he appear to him, and, under these circumstances, the spirit had been very near him, and, if he had but once touched him, he certainly should have been dead already.—Maximilian.