[341] La Vérendrye (Canadian Archives, 1889, p. 21), speaking of these feasts, says: "They are for the most part great eaters; are eager for feasts. They brought me every day more than twenty dishes of wheat, beans, and pumpkins, all cooked. Mr. de la Marque, who did not hate feasts, went to them continually with my children."—Ed.
[342] See Plate 60, in the accompanying atlas, our volume xxv.—Ed.
[343] The Mandans affirm, that the Manitaries adopted from them their veneration for the white buffalo cow, and attribute the origin of this custom to the following circumstance:—When the Manitaries, after crossing the river, first met with them, the Mandan chief exclaimed, "I am chief, and my name is the Buffalo Robe with the Beautiful Hair!" to which the Manitari chief replied, "That is likewise my name," for they both wore white robes. The numerous Indians now proceeded in a body to hunt the buffalo. When the Manitari asked, "Will the Mandans follow their chief?" the Mandan replied, "As a sign that I speak the truth, all my people shall go over the summit of yonder hill." Hereupon he spread out his robe on the top of the hill, the whole nation passed over it, and each man took away a tuft of the hair. Two very old men came last, and, when they approached the two chiefs, one of them said, "All who have preceded us have taken some of the hair of the robe, but we will take the robe itself." So saying, he threw it over his shoulders, and since that time the white buffalo skin is highly valued among the Manitaries.—Maximilian.
[344] Compare Matthews, Hidatsa, pp. 47, 48, where the object of greatest reverence is said to be the "First Made," or "Old Man Immortal." See also Henry's account of the Minitaree creation myth in Henry-Thompson Journals, i, pp. 351, 352.—Ed.
[345] Compare with this account of the future state that given in James's Long's Expedition, our volume xv, p. 65.—Ed.
[346] See our volume xv, p. 63. The Wolf chief is noted in Bradbury's Travels, our volume v, p. 163, note 99.—Ed.
[347] Related in our volume xv, pp. 59, 60. Heart River, as the original Mandan home and probably the site of the Minitaree's settling among them, acquired something of a sacred character in the eyes of both tribes; see Original Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, i, p. 201. The present sacred seat is near Knife River, being a cavern rather than a hill, and known as the "House of the Infants." Matthews, Hidatsa, p. 51.—Ed.
[348] These myths are related in our volume xv, pp. 63, 64.—Ed.
[349] The corn dance is described in our volume xv, pp. 127, 128. It is not analogous to the celebrated green-corn dance of the Creek Indians, for which see A. S. Gatschet, Migration Legend of the Creek Indians (Philadelphia, 1884), pp. 181, 182. The latter is, in essence, a thanksgiving for the first fruits, the former a ceremony to secure the fertilization of seed-corn. Catlin (North American Indians pp. 188-190), describes another Minitaree dance upon the harvest of the corn, which he thinks bears resemblance to that of the Creeks.—Ed.
[350] See the description of this festival in our volume xv, pp. 61-63. Matthews (Hidatsa, pp. 45-47) thinks that Maximilian is here describing the Dahkipe (or Nahkipe), a ceremony analogous in its tortures to the Okippe of the Mandan, but in allegory radically different, that of the Minitaree being a preparation for bravery in war. Scarcely a Minitaree is to be seen without the wales made by some form of self-torture; see Henry-Thompson Journals, i, pp. 363-365.—Ed.