Salt-licks, or saline springs, used to be very common in the early days of the pioneers, and many of the histories of those times make mention of them. Even in the African wilderness certain animals will come many miles just to get a chance to lick up the salt at a certain place. The same is true of numerous places in our Wild West of to-day. Deer, in particular, are fond of coming to a “lick.” The craving for a taste of salt seems to induce them to cover vast distances. Hunters, knowing this love for salt on the part of game, often hide in ambush near such a magnet, and shoot down wild animals with the greatest of ease. Indeed, in some States the practice of lying in wait at such a place is looked upon as unsportsmanlike, and frowned down upon, even to the extent of making laws for the protection of salt-hungry game.
[Note 7] ([page 290])
As the two boys, Dick and Roger, discovered for themselves, when fortune allowed them to spend some time in a Mandan village, these Indians had many ways in common with other tribes, even while in certain traits they differed greatly from the Blackfeet, the Sioux, the Shoshones, and the Pawnees. One of these consisted of the customary medicine-man, who was supposed to be in direct communication with Manitou, or the Great Spirit. When a storm came along, and the thunder roared, this old humbug would pretend to be talking with the Great Father above; and, of course, would interpret as he pleased what the Spirit was supposed to say in reply to his questions. He always dressed in a hideous costume, and looked as much like the Evil One as any person could imagine, with his paint, his buffalo tails, his fanciful adornments, and often the horns which he assumed for occasions. His principal office as the “doctor,” or medicine-man, is to frighten away the devils that are supposed to be afflicting sick people. He would go through with a tremendous amount of nonsense, and, if the sick person got well, he had the credit of working a miracle; whereas, if he or she died, it was the will of the Great Spirit! Nor is the medicine-man confined to the Indian tribes of North America; for the same species of charlatan has been discovered in the heart of blackest Africa, among the negro nations inhabiting that region.
[Note 8] ([page 293])
The Mandans had many strange habits, some of which must have come down to them from remote ancestors; while others were doubtless the result of their living in the country where wolves and coyotes abounded, and had to be guarded against, even in the disposal of the bodies of their dead. When a warrior died his body was wrapped in several buffalo skins, and the last one was tightly secured with thongs. Then the funeral cortege took up its line of march for the Indian cemetery, where, with fitting ceremonies, the body was secured to a platform erected on four posts, and usually some five or six feet from the ground. Here the widow would repair day after day, communing with the spirit of the departed one, and leaving a bowl of hot succotash, a mixture of corn and beans. This was intended as food to sustain the brave on his long journey to the Land of Shades. The steam arising and disappearing was believed to be inhaled by the unseen spirit; and, of course, when the bowl was found empty in the morning, having been cleaned out by wandering animals, the Indians chose to think that the dead warrior had in some way devoured its contents during the still hours of the night.
[Note 9] ([page 324])
It was not for many years after the exploring expedition of Lewis and Clark passed through the country of the fierce and warlike Sioux tribe, that these Indians learned how to handle firearms. At that day they depended almost solely upon their bows and arrows, spears, tomahawks and knives, to bring down game, and fight their battles with other tribes with whom they might chance to be at war. They gave the early settlers great trouble, and many an uprising was followed by massacres. As late as the seventies they were a power to be reckoned with by the United States Government; and the memory of the massacre of General Custer’s gallant command will always be one of the saddest records of border warfare. At that time it is said that there were several thousand Sioux warriors under Sitting Bull, which fact is sufficient to explain why the Sioux have always been held in such fear along the frontier of the Great Northwest.
[Note 10] ([page 332])
This ceremony of smoking the pipe at their councils has always been a leading characteristic of Indian nature. When a stranger visits a tribe, and is to be treated as a friend, he is invited to smoke the peace pipe; and this really consists in puffing smoke in the direction of the north, east, south, and west. There is some sort of meaning to it, of course, and it is understood to stand for the promise on the part of the participants that they will remain friends for all time, whether the wind blows from one quarter of the compass or the other. It signifies complete concord between them. Besides, this is a very sacred institution; and like the breaking of bread among other peoples, or the passing of salt with the Bedouins, or Arabs of the desert, goes to signify that the bonds between those assembled must not be severed lightly. In the case of the council convened to settle the fate of the white prisoners, possibly some other meaning might have been attached to this puffing of the smoke toward the four quarters.