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+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
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+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #68768 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/68768)
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-The Project Gutenberg eBook of Illustrations of the manners, customs,
-& condition of the North American Indians, Vol. I (of 2), by George
-Catlin
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
-most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
-whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
-of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
-www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you
-will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before
-using this eBook.
-
-Title: Illustrations of the manners, customs, & condition of the North
-       American Indians, Vol. I (of 2)
-       With letters and notes, written during eight years of travel and
-       adventure among the wildest and most remarkable tribes now
-       existing
-
-Author: George Catlin
-
-Release Date: August 16, 2022 [eBook #68768]
-[Most recently updated: August 23, 2023]
-
-Language: English
-
-Produced by: Richard Hulse, Robert Tonsing and the Online Distributed
-             Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was
-             produced from images generously made available by The
-             Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
-
-*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE MANNERS,
-CUSTOMS, & CONDITION OF THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS, VOL. I (OF 2) ***
-
-
-
-[Illustration: _G. Catlin_
-
-  _The Author painting a Chief at the base of the Rocky Mountains._]
-
-
-
-
-                             ILLUSTRATIONS
-                                 OF THE
-                    _MANNERS, CUSTOMS, & CONDITION_
-                                 OF THE
-                        NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS.
-
-                       =With Letters and Notes=,
-
-     +Written during Eight Years of Travel and Adventure among the
-           Wildest and most Remarkable Tribes now Existing+.
-
-                          +By+ GEORGE CATLIN.
-
-                                  WITH
-             _THREE HUNDRED AND SIXTY COLOURED ENGRAVINGS_
-                 FROM THE AUTHOR’S ORIGINAL PAINTINGS.
-
-                             [Illustration]
-
-                        IN TWO VOLUMES.—VOL. I.
-
-                               =London:=
-                      CHATTO & WINDUS, PICCADILLY.
-                                 1876.
-
-
-                                LONDON:
-                      PRINTED BY J. OGDEN AND CO.,
-                       172, ST. JOHN STREET, E.C.
-
-
-
-
-                                CONTENTS
-                                   OF
-                           THE FIRST VOLUME.
-
-
-+Frontispiece+:—_The Author painting a Chief in an Indian Village._
-
-+Map+ _of_ +Indian Localities+ _embraced within the Author’s Travels_.
-
-
-                             LETTER—No. 1.
-
-Wyöming, birth-place of the Author, p. 2.—His former Profession—First
-  cause of his Travels to the Indian Country—Delegation of Indians in
-  Philadelphia—First start to the Far West, in 1832, p. 3.—Design of
-  forming a National Gallery—Numbers of Tribes visited, and number of
-  Paintings and other things collected, p. 4.—Probable extinction of
-  the Indians, p. 5.—Former and present numbers of—The proper mode of
-  approaching them, and estimating their character, p. 5–10.
-
-+Certificates+ _of Government Officers, Indian Agents and others, as to
-  the fidelity of the Portraits and other Paintings_, p. 11–13.
-
-
-                             LETTER—No. 2.
-
-Mouth of Yellow Stone, p. 14, pl. 3.—Distance from St.
-  Louis—Difficulties of the Missouri—Politeness of Mr. Chouteau and
-  Major Sanford—Fur Company’s Fort—Indian Epicures—New and true School
-  for the Arts—Beautiful Models, p. 14–16.
-
-
-                 LETTER—+No. 3, Mouth of Yellow Stone+.
-
-Character of Missouri River, p. 18, pl. 4.—Beautiful prairie shores, p.
-  19, pl. 5.—Picturesque clay bluffs, p. 19, pl. 6.—First appearance of
-  a steamer at the Yellow Stone, and curious conjectures of the Indians
-  about it, p. 20.—Fur Company’s Establishment at the mouth of Yellow
-  Stone—M‘Kenzie—His table and politeness, p. 21.—Indian tribes in this
-  vicinity, p. 22.
-
-
-                 LETTER—+No. 4, Mouth of Yellow Stone+.
-
-Upper Missouri Indians—General character, p. 23.—Buffaloes—Description
-  of, p. 24, pls. 7, 8.—Modes of killing them—Buffalo-hunt, p.
-  25.—Chardon’s Leap, p. 26, pl. 9.—Wounded bull, p. 26, pl.
-  10.—Extraordinary feat of Mr. M‘Kenzie, p. 27.—Return from the chase,
-  p. 28.
-
-
-                 LETTER—+No. 5, Mouth of Yellow Stone+.
-
-Author’s painting-room, and characters in it, p. 29.—Blackfoot
-  chief, p. 29, pl. 11.—Other Blackfoot chiefs, and their costumes,
-  p. 30.—Blackfoot woman and child, p. 30, pls. 12, 13;—Scalps,
-  and objects for which taken—red pipes, and pipe-stone quarry, p.
-  31.—Blackfoot bows, shields, arrows and lances, p. 32, 33, pl.
-  18.—Several distinguished Blackfeet, p. 34, pls. 14, 15, 16, 17.
-
-
-                 LETTER—+No. 6, Mouth of Yellow Stone+.
-
-Medicines or mysteries—medicine-bag—origin of the word medicine,
-  p. 35.—Mode of forming the medicine-bag, p. 36.—Value of the
-  medicine-bag to the Indian, and materials for their construction,
-  p. 37, pl. 18.—Blackfoot doctor or medicine-man—his mode of curing
-  the sick, p. 39, pl. 19.—Different offices and importance of
-  medicine-men, p. 41.
-
-
-                 LETTER—+No. 7, Mouth of Yellow Stone+.
-
-Crews and Blackfeet—General character and appearance, p. 42.—Killing
-  and drying meat, p. 43, pl. 22.—Crow lodge or wigwam, p. 43, pl.
-  20.—Striking their tents and encampment moving, p. 44, pl. 21.—Mode
-  of dressing and smoking skins, p. 45.—Crows—Beauty of their
-  dresses—Horse-stealing or capturing—Reasons why they are called
-  rogues and robbers of the first order, &c. p. 46.
-
-
-                 LETTER—+No. 8, Mouth of Yellow Stone+.
-
-Further remarks on the Crows—Extraordinary length of hair, p.
-  49.—Peculiarities of the Crow head, and several portraits, p. 50,
-  pls. 24, 25, 26, 27.—Crow and Blackfeet women—Their modes of dressing
-  and painting, p. 51.—Differences between the Crow and Blackfoot
-  languages, p. 51.—Different hands—Different languages, and numbers
-  of the Blackfeet, p. 52.—Knisteneaux—Assinneboins, and Ojibbeways,
-  p. 53.—Assinneboins a part of the Sioux—Their mode of boiling meat,
-  p. 54.—Pipe-dance, p. 55, pl. 52.—Wi-jun-jon (a chief) and wife,
-  pls. 28, 29.—His visit to Washington, p. 56.—Dresses of women
-  and children of the Assinneboins, p. 57, pl. 34.—Knisteneaux (or
-  Crees)—character and numbers, and several portraits, p. 57, pls. 30,
-  31.—Ojibbeways—Chief and wife, p. 58, pls. 35, 36.
-
-
-                 LETTER—+No. 9, Mouth of Yellow Stone+.
-
-Contemplations of the Great Far West and its customs, p. 59.—Old
-  acquaintance, p. 60.—March and effects of civilization, p. 60.—The
-  “Far West”—The Author in search of it, p. 62.—Meeting with
-  “Ba’tiste,” a free trapper, p. 63, 64.
-
-
-            LETTER—+No. 10, Mandan Village, Upper Missouri+.
-
-A strange place—Voyage from Mouth of Yellow Stone down the river to
-  Mandans—Commencement—Leave M‘Kenzie’s Fort, p. 66.—Assinneboins
-  encamped on the river Wi-jun-jon lecturing on the customs of white
-  people—Mountain-sheep, p. 67,—War-eagles—Grizzly bears, p. 68.—Clay
-  bluffs, “brick-kilns,” volcanic remains, p. 69, pls. 37, 38.—Red
-  pumice stone—A wild stroll—Mountaineer’s sleep, p. 70.—Grizzly bear
-  and cubs—Courageous attack—Canoe robbed, p. 71.—Eating our meals
-  on a pile of drift-wood—Encamping in the night—Voluptuous scene of
-  wild flowers, buffalo bush and berries, p. 72.—Adventure after an
-  elk—War-party discovered, p. 74.—Magnificent scenery in the “Grand
-  Détour”—Stupendous clay bluffs—Table land, p. 75, pl. 39.—Antelope
-  shooting, p. 76, pl. 40.—“Grand Dome”—Prairie dogs—Village—Fruitless
-  endeavours to shoot them, p. 77, pl. 42.—Pictured bluff and the Three
-  Domes, p. 78, pls. 43, 44.—Arrival at the Mandan village, p. 79.
-
-
-                    LETTER—+No. 11, Mandan Village+.
-
-Location—Village, p. 80, pl. 45.—Former locations fortification of
-  their village—Description of village and mode of constructing their
-  wigwams, p. 81, 82.—Description of interior—Beds—Weapons—Family
-  groups, p. 82, 83, pl. 46.—Indian garrulity—Jokes—Fire-side fun and
-  story-telling, p. 84.—Causes of Indian taciturnity in civilized
-  society, p. 85.
-
-
-                    LETTER—+No. 12, Mandan Village+.
-
-Bird’s-eye view of the village, p. 87, pl. 47.—The “big
-  canoe”—Medicine-lodge—A strange medley, p. 88.—Mode of depositing
-  the dead on scaffolds, p. 89.—Respect to the dead—Visiting the
-  dead—Feeding the dead—Converse with the dead—Bones of the dead, p.
-  90, pl. 48.
-
-
-                    LETTER—+No. 13, Mandan Village+.
-
-The wolf-chief—Head-chief of the tribe, p. 92, pl.
-  49.—Several portraits, p. 92, pls. 50, 51, 52, 53.—Personal
-  appearance—Peculiarities—Complexion, p. 93.—“Cheveux gris,” p.
-  94.—Hair of the men—Hair of the women, p. 95, pl. 54.—Bathing and
-  swimming, p. 96.—Mode of swimming—Sudatories or vapour-baths, p.
-  97–8, pl. 71.
-
-
-                    LETTER—+No. 14, Mandan Village+.
-
-Costumes of the Mandans—High value set upon them—Two horses for
-  a head-dress—Made of war-eagles’ quills and ermine, p. 100,
-  101.—Head-dresses with horns, p. 103.—A Jewish custom, p. 104.
-
-
-                    LETTER—+No. 15, Mandan Village+.
-
-Astonishment of the Mandans at the operation of the Author’s
-  brush, p. 105.—The Author installed medicine or medicine-man,
-  p. 106.—Crowds around the Author—Curiosity to see and to touch
-  him, p. 107.—Superstitious fears for those who were painted, p.
-  168.—Objections raised to being painted, p. 109.—The Author’s
-  operations opposed by a Mandan doctor, or medicine-man, and how
-  brought over, p. 110, pl. 55.
-
-
-                    LETTER—+No. 16, Mandan Village+.
-
-An Indian beau or dandy, p. 112.—A fruitless endeavour to paint one, p.
-  113.—Mah-to-toh-pa (the four bears), second chief of the tribe—The
-  Author feasted in his wigwam, p. 114, pl. 62.—Viands of the feast, p.
-  115.—Pemican and marrow-fat—Mandan pottery—Robe presented, p. 116.
-
-
-                    LETTER—+No. 17, Mandan Village+.
-
-Polygamy—Reasons and excuses for it, p. 118.—Marriages, how
-  contracted—Wives bought and sold, p. 120.—Paternal and filial
-  affection—Virtue and modesty of women—Early marriages—Slavish lives
-  and occupations of the Indian women, p. 121.—Pomme blanche—Dried
-  meat—Caches—Modes of cooking, and times of eating—Attitudes in
-  eating, p. 122.—Separation of males and females in eating—the Indians
-  moderate eaters—Some exceptions, p. 123.—Curing meat in the sun,
-  without smoke or salt—The wild Indians eat no salt, p. 124.
-
-
-                    LETTER—+No. 18. Mandan Village+.
-
-Indian dancing—“Buffalo dance,” p. 127, pl. 56.—Discovery of
-  buffaloes—Preparations for the chase—Start—A decoy—A retreat—Death
-  and scalping, p. 129.
-
-
-                    LETTER—+No. 19, Mandan Village+.
-
-Sham fight and sham scalp dance of the Mandan boys, p. 131, pl.
-  57.—Game of Tchung-kee, p. 132, pl. 59.—Feasting—Fasting and
-  sacrificing—White buffalo robe—Its value p. 133, pl. 47.—Rain makers
-  and rain stoppers, p. 131.—Rain making, p. 135, pl. 58.—“The thunder
-  boat”—The big double medicine, p. 140.
-
-
-                    LETTER—+No. 20, Mandan Village+.
-
-Mandan archery—“Game of the arrow,” p. 141, pl. 60.—Wild
-  horses—Horse-racing, p. 142, pl. 61.—Foot war-party in council, p.
-  143, pl. 63.
-
-
-            LETTER—+No. 21, Mandan Village, Upper Missouri+.
-
-Mah-to-toh-pa, (the Four Bears)—His costume and his portrait, p. 145,
-  pl. 64.—The robe of Mah-to-toh-pa, with all the battles of his life
-  painted on it, p. 148, pl. 65.
-
-
-                    LETTER—+No. 22, Mandan Village+.
-
-Mandan religious ceremonies—Mandan religious creed, p. 156.—Three
-  objects of the ceremony, p. 157.—Place of holding the ceremony—Big
-  canoe—Season of commencing—and manner, p. 158.—Opening the medicine
-  lodge—Sacrifices to the water, p. 159.—Fasting scene for four
-  days and nights, p. 161, pl. 66.—Bei-lohck-nah-pick, (the bull
-  dance), p. 164, pl. 67.—Pohk-hong (the cutting or torturing scene),
-  p. 169, pl. 68.—Ah-ke-nah-ka-nah-pick, (the last race) p. 173,
-  pl. 69.—Extraordinary instances of cruelty in self-torture, p.
-  175.—Sacrificing to the water, p. 176.—Certificates of the Mandan
-  ceremonies—Inferences drawn from these horrible cruelties, with
-  traditions, p. 177.—Tradition of O-kee-hee-de (the Evil Spirit), p.
-  179.—Mandans can be civilized, p. 183.
-
-
-                  LETTER—+No. 23, Minataree Village+.
-
-Location and numbers—Origin, p. 185.—Principal village, pl. 70.—Vapour
-  baths, pl. 71.—Old chief, Black Moccasin, p. 186, pl. 72.—Two
-  portraits, man and woman, pls. 73, 74.—Green corn dance, p. 189, pl.
-  75.
-
-
-                  LETTER—+No. 24, Minataree Village+.
-
-Crows, in the Minataree village, p. 191.—Crow chief on horseback,
-  in full dress, p. 192, pl. 76.—Peculiarities of the Crows—Long
-  hair—Semi-lunar faces, p. 193, pls. 77, 78.—Rats in the Minataree
-  village, p. 195.—Crossing Knife River in “bull boat”—Swimming of
-  Minataree girls, p. 196.—Horse-racing—A banter—Riding a “naked horse,”
-  p. 197.—Grand buffalo surround, p. 199, pl. 79.—Cutting up and
-  carrying in meat, p. 201.
-
-
-        LETTER—+No. 25, Little Mandan Village, Upper Missouri+.
-
-An Indian offering himself for a pillow, p. 203.—Portraits of
-  Riccarees, p. 204, pls. 83, 84, 82, 81.—Riccaree village, p. 204, pl.
-  80.—Origin of the Mandans—Welsh colony—Expedition of Madoc, p. 206–7.
-
-
-                 LETTER—+No. 26, Mouth of Teton River+.
-
-Sioux or (Dah-co-ta), p. 208.—Fort Pierre, pl. 85.—Mississippi
-  and Missouri Sioux, p. 209.—Ha-wan-je-tah (chief), p. 211, pl.
-  86.—Puncahs, Shoo-de-ga-cha (chief) and wife, p. 212, pls. 87,
-  88.—Four wives taken at once, p. 213, pl. 90.—Portrait of one of the
-  wives, p. 214, pl. 89.—Early marriages—Causes of, p. 215.
-
-
-                 LETTER—+No. 27, Mouth of Teton River+.
-
-Custom of exposing the aged, p. 216.—A tedious march on foot, p.
-  218.—Level prairies—“Out of sight of land”—Mirage—Looming of the
-  prairies, p. 218.—Turning the toes in—Bijou hills—Salt meadows,
-  p. 219.—Arrive at Fort Pierre—Great assemblage of Sioux—Paint the
-  portrait of the chief—Superstitious objections—Opposed by the
-  doctors, p. 220.—Difficulty settled—Death of Ha-wan-je-tah (the
-  chief)—Mode of, p. 221.—Portraits of other Sioux chiefs—Wampum,
-  p. 222–3, pls. 91, 92.—Beautiful Sioux women—Daughter of Black
-  Rock—Chardon, his Indian wife, p. 224–5, pls. 94, 95.
-
-
-                 LETTER—+No. 28, Mouth of Teton River+.
-
-Difficulty of painting Indian women, p. 226.—Indian vanity—Watching
-  their portraits—Arrival of the first steamer amongst the Sioux, p.
-  227.—Dog-feast, p. 228, pl. 96.
-
-
-                 LETTER—+No. 29, Mouth of Teton River.+
-
-Voluntary torture, “looking at the sun,” p. 232, pl. 97.—Religious
-  ceremony, p. 233.—Smoking “k’nick-k’neck”—Pipes, p. 234. pl.
-  98.—Calumets or pipes of peace, p. 235.—Tomahawks and scalping knives,
-  p. 235–6, pl. 99.—Dance of the chiefs, p. 237, pl. 100.—Scalps—Mode
-  of taking, and object, p. 238–9.—Modes of carrying and using the
-  scalps, p. 240, pl. 101.
-
-
-                 LETTER—+No. 30, Mouth of Teton River+.
-
-Indian weapons and instruments of music, p. 241, pl.
-  101½.—Quiver and shield—Smoking the shield, p. 241.—Tobacco
-  pouches—Drums—Rattles—Whistles—Lutes, p. 242, pl. 101½.—Bear dance,
-  p. 244, pl. 102.—Beggars’ dance—Scalp dance, p. 245, pls. 103, 104.
-
-
-                 LETTER—+No. 31, Mouth of Teton River+.
-
-Bisons (or buffaloes) description of, p. 247.—Habits of, p. 248.—Bulls’
-  fighting—Buffalo wallows—Fairy circles, p. 249, pls. 105,
-  106.—Running the buffaloes, and throwing the arrow, p. 251, pl.
-  107.—Buffalo chase—Use of the laso, p. 253, pls. 108, 109.—Hunting
-  under masque of white wolfskins, p. 254, pl. 110.—Horses destroyed
-  in buffalo hunting, p. 255, pl. 111.—Buffalo calf—Mode of catching
-  and bringing in, p. 255, pl. 112.—Immense and wanton destruction of
-  buffaloes—1,400 killed, p. 256.—White wolves attacking buffaloes, p.
-  257–8, pls. 113, 114.—Contemplations on the probable extinction of
-  buffaloes and Indians, p. 258, 264.
-
-
-
-[Illustration:
-
-                              OUTLINE MAP
-                                  _OF_
-                           INDIAN LOCALITIES
-                               _in 1833_.
-
-                         In Vol. 2. see Map of
-                          _LOCALITIES in 1840,
-                       since all the tribes have
-                     been removed from the States,
-                         W. of the Mississippi_
-]
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-                              LETTER—No. 1.
-
-
-As the following pages have been hastily compiled, at the urgent
-request of a number of my friends, from a series of Letters and Notes
-written by myself during several years’ residence and travel amongst
-a number of the wildest and most remote tribes of the North American
-Indians, I have thought it best to make this page the beginning of my
-book; dispensing with Preface, and even with Dedication, other than
-that which I hereby make of it, with all my heart, to those who will
-take the pains to read it.
-
-If it be necessary to render any apology for beginning thus
-unceremoniously my readers will understand that I had no space in
-these, my first volumes, to throw away; nor much time at my disposal,
-which I could, in justice, use for introducing myself and my works to
-the world.
-
-Having commenced thus abruptly then, I will venture to take upon myself
-the sin of calling this one of the series of Letters of which I have
-spoken; although I am writing it several years later, and placing it
-at the beginning of my book; by which means I will be enabled briefly
-to introduce myself to my readers (who, as yet, know little or nothing
-of me), and also the subjects of the following epistles, with such
-explanations of the customs described in them, as will serve for a
-key or glossary to the same, and prepare the reader’s mind for the
-information they contain.
-
-Amidst the multiplicity of books which are, in this enlightened age,
-flooding the world, I feel it my duty, as early as possible, to beg
-pardon for making a book at all; and in the next (if my readers should
-become so much interested in my narrations, as to censure me for the
-brevity of the work) to take some considerable credit for not having
-trespassed too long upon their time and patience.
-
-Leaving my readers, therefore, to find out what is in the book, without
-promising them anything, I proceed to say—of _myself_, that I was born
-in Wyöming, in North America, some thirty or forty years since, of
-parents who entered that beautiful and famed valley soon after the
-close of the revolutionary war, and the disastrous event of the “Indian
-massacre.”
-
-The early part of my life was whiled away, apparently, somewhat
-in vain, with books reluctantly held in one hand, and a rifle or
-fishing-pole firmly and affectionately grasped in the other.
-
-At the urgent request of my father, who was a practising lawyer,
-I was prevailed upon to abandon these favourite themes, and also
-my occasional dabblings with the brush, which had secured already
-a corner in my affections; and I commenced reading the law for a
-profession, under the direction of Reeve and Gould, of Connecticut.
-I attended the lectures of these learned judges for two years—was
-admitted to the bar—and practised the law, as a sort of _Nimrodical_
-lawyer, in my native land, for the term of two or three years; when
-I very deliberately sold my law library and all (save my rifle and
-fishing-tackle), and converting their proceeds into brushes and paint
-pots; I commenced the art of painting in Philadelphia, without teacher
-or adviser.
-
-I there closely applied my hand to the labours of the art for several
-years; during which time my mind was continually reaching for some
-branch or enterprise of the art, on which to devote a whole life-time
-of enthusiasm; when a delegation of some ten or fifteen noble and
-dignified-looking Indians, from the wilds of the “Far West,” suddenly
-arrived in the city, arrayed and equipped in all their classic
-beauty,—with shield and helmet,—with tunic and manteau,—tinted and
-tasselled off, exactly for the painter’s palette!
-
-In silent and stoic dignity, these lords of the forest strutted about
-the city for a few days, wrapped in their pictured robes, with their
-brows plumed with the quills of the war-eagle, attracting the gaze
-and admiration of all who beheld them. After this, they took their
-leave for Washington City, and I was left to reflect and regret, which
-I did long and deeply, until I came to the following deductions and
-conclusions.
-
-Black and blue cloth and civilization are destined, not only to
-veil, but to obliterate the grace and beauty of Nature. Man, in the
-simplicity and loftiness of his nature, unrestrained and unfettered
-by the disguises of art, is surely the most beautiful model for the
-painter,—and the country from which he hails is unquestionably the best
-study or school of the arts in the world: such I am sure, from the
-models I have seen, is the wilderness of North America. And the history
-and customs of such a people, preserved by pictorial illustrations,
-are themes worthy the life-time of one man, and nothing short of the
-loss of my life, shall prevent me from visiting their country, and of
-becoming their historian.
-
-There was something inexpressibly delightful in the above resolve,
-which was to bring me amidst such living models for my brush: and at
-the same time to place in my hands again, for my living and protection,
-the objects of my heart above-named; which had long been laid by to
-rust and decay in the city, without the remotest prospect of again
-contributing to my amusement.
-
-I had fully resolved—I opened my views to my friends and relations,
-but got not one advocate or abettor. I tried fairly and faithfully,
-but it was in vain to reason with those whose anxieties were ready to
-fabricate every difficulty and danger that could be imagined, without
-being able to understand or appreciate the extent or importance of
-my designs, and I broke from them all,—from my wife and my aged
-parents,—myself my only adviser and protector.
-
-With these views firmly fixed—armed, equipped, and supplied, I started
-out in the year 1832, and penetrated the vast and pathless wilds
-which are familiarly denominated the great “Far West” of the North
-American Continent, with a light heart, inspired with an enthusiastic
-hope and reliance that I could meet and overcome all the hazards
-and privations of a life devoted to the production of a literal and
-graphic delineation of the living manners, customs, and character of an
-interesting race of people, who are rapidly passing away from the face
-of the earth—lending a hand to a dying nation, who have no historians
-or biographers of their own to pourtray with fidelity their native
-looks and history; thus snatching from a hasty oblivion what could be
-saved for the benefit of posterity, and perpetuating it, as a fair and
-just monument, to the memory of a truly lofty and noble race.
-
-I have spent about eight years already in the pursuit above-named,
-having been for the most of that time immersed in the Indian country,
-mingling with red men, and identifying myself with them as much as
-possible, in their games and amusements; in order the better to
-familiarize myself with their superstitions and mysteries, which are
-the keys to Indian life and character.
-
-It was during the several years of my life just mentioned, and whilst I
-was in familiar participation with them in their sports and amusements,
-that I penned the following series of epistles; describing only such
-glowing or curious scenes and events as passed under my immediate
-observation; leaving their early history, and many of their traditions,
-language, &c. for a subsequent and much more elaborate work, for which
-I have procured the materials, and which I may eventually publish.
-
-I set out on my arduous and perilous undertaking with the determination
-of reaching, ultimately, every tribe of Indians on the Continent
-of North America, and of bringing home faithful portraits of their
-principal personages, both men and women, from each tribe; views of
-their villages, games, &c. and full notes on their character and
-history. I designed, also, to procure their costumes, and a complete
-collection of their manufactures and weapons, and to perpetuate them in
-a _Gallery unique_, for the use and instruction of future ages.
-
-I claim whatever merit there may have been in the originality of such
-a design, as I was undoubtedly the first artist who ever set out upon
-such a work, designing to carry his canvass to the Rocky Mountains;
-and a considerable part of the following Letters were written and
-published in the New York Papers, as early as the years 1832 and 1833;
-long before the Tours of Washington Irving, and several others, whose
-interesting narratives are before the world.
-
-I have, as yet, by no means visited _all_ the tribes; but I have
-progressed a very great way with the enterprise, and with far greater
-and more complete success than I expected.
-
-I have visited forty-eight different tribes, the greater part of which
-I found speaking different languages, and containing in all 400,000
-souls. I have brought home safe, and in good order, 310 portraits in
-oil, all painted in their native dress, and in their own wigwams;
-and also 200 other paintings in oil, containing views of their
-villages—their wigwams—their games and religious ceremonies—their
-dances—their ball plays—their buffalo hunting, and other amusements
-(containing in all, over 3000 full-length figures); and the landscapes
-of the country they live in, as well as a very extensive and curious
-collection of their costumes, and all their other manufactures, from
-the size of a wigwam down to the size of a quill or a rattle.
-
-A considerable part of the above-named paintings, and Indian
-manufactures, will be found amongst the very numerous illustrations
-in the following pages; having been, in every instance, faithfully
-copied and reduced by my own hand, for the engraver, from my original
-paintings; and the reader of this book who will take the pains to step
-in to “+Catlin’s North American Indian Gallery+,” will find nearly
-every scene and custom which is described in this work, as well as many
-others, carefully and correctly delineated, and displayed upon the
-walls, and every weapon (and every “Sachem” and every “Sagamore” who
-has wielded them) according to the tenor of the tales herein recited.
-
-So much of _myself_ and of my _works_, which is all that I wish to say
-at present.
-
-Of the +Indians+, I have much more to say, and to the following
-delineations of them, and their character and customs, I shall make no
-further apology for requesting the attention of my readers.
-
-The Indians (as I shall call them), the savages or red men of the
-forests and prairies of North America, are at this time a subject of
-great interest and some importance to the civilized world; rendered
-more particularly so in this age, from their relative position to, and
-their rapid declension from, the civilized nations of the earth. A
-numerous nation of human beings, whose origin is beyond the reach of
-human investigation,—whose early history is lost—whose term of national
-existence is nearly expired—three-fourths of whose country has fallen
-into the possession of civilized man within the short space of 250
-years—twelve millions of whose bodies have fattened the soil in the
-mean time; who have fallen victims to whiskey, the small-pox, and the
-bayonet; leaving at this time but a meagre proportion to live a short
-time longer, in the certain apprehension of soon sharing a similar fate.
-
-The writer who would undertake to embody the whole history of such a
-people, with all their misfortunes and calamities, must needs have
-much more space than I have allotted to this epitome; and he must
-needs begin also (as I am doing) with those who are _living_, or he
-would be very apt to dwell upon the preamble of his work, until the
-present living remnants of the race should have passed away; and their
-existence and customs, like those of ages gone bye, become subjects of
-doubt and incredulity to the world for whom his book was preparing.
-Such an historian also, to do them justice, must needs correct many
-theories and opinions which have, either ignorantly or maliciously,
-gone forth to the world in indelible characters; and gather and arrange
-a vast deal which has been but imperfectly recorded, or placed to
-the credit of a people who have not had the means of recording it
-themselves; but have entrusted it, from necessity, to the honesty and
-punctuality of their enemies.
-
-In such an history should be embodied, also, a correct account of their
-treatment, and the causes which have led to their rapid destruction;
-and a plain and systematical prophecy as to the time and manner of
-their final extinction, based upon the causes and the ratio of their
-former and present declension.
-
-So Herculean a task may fall to my lot at a future period, or it
-may not: but I send forth these volumes at this time, fresh and
-full of their living deeds and customs, as a familiar and unstudied
-introduction (at least) to them and their native character; which I
-confidently hope will repay the readers who read for information and
-historical facts, as well as those who read but for amusement.
-
-The world know generally, that the Indians of North America are
-copper-coloured; that their eyes and their hair are black, &c.; that
-they are mostly uncivilized, and consequently unchristianized; that
-they are nevertheless human beings, with features, thoughts, reason,
-and sympathies like our own; but few yet know how they _live_, how they
-_dress_, how they _worship_, what are their actions, their customs,
-their religion, their amusements, &c. as they practise them in the
-uncivilized regions of their uninvaded country, which it is the main
-object of this work, clearly and distinctly to set forth.
-
-It would be impossible at the same time, in a book of these dimensions,
-to explain _all_ the manners and customs of these people; but as far
-as they are narrated, they have been described by my pen, upon the
-spot, as I have seen them transacted; and if some few of my narrations
-should seem a _little too highly coloured_, I trust the world will be
-ready to extend to me that pardon which it is customary to yield to all
-artists whose main faults exist in the vividness of their colouring,
-rather than in the drawing of their pictures; but there is nothing else
-in them, I think, that I should ask pardon for, even though some of
-them should stagger credulity, and incur for me the censure of those
-critics, who sometimes, unthinkingly or unmercifully, sit at home at
-their desks, enjoying the luxury of wine and a good cigar, over the
-simple narration of the honest and weather-worn traveller (who shortens
-his half-starved life in catering for the world), to condemn him and
-his work to oblivion, and his wife and his little children to poverty
-and starvation; merely because he describes scenes which they have not
-beheld, and which, consequently, they are unable to believe.
-
-The Indians of North America, as I have before said, are
-copper-coloured, with long black hair, black eyes, tall, straight, and
-elastic forms—are less than two millions in number—were originally
-the undisputed owners of the soil, and got their title to their lands
-from the Great Spirit who created them on it,—were once a happy and
-flourishing people, enjoying all the comforts and luxuries of life
-which they knew of, and consequently cared for:—were sixteen millions
-in numbers, and sent that number of daily prayers to the Almighty,
-and thanks for his goodness and protection. Their country was entered
-by white men, but a few hundred years since; and thirty millions of
-these are now scuffling for the goods and luxuries of life, over
-the bones and ashes of twelve millions of red men; six millions of
-whom have fallen victims to the small-pox, and the remainder to the
-sword, the bayonet, and whiskey; all of which means of their death and
-destruction have been introduced and visited upon them by acquisitive
-white men; and by white men, also, whose forefathers were welcomed
-and embraced in the land where the poor Indian met and fed them with
-“ears of green corn and with pemican.” Of the two millions remaining
-alive at this time, about 1,400,000, are already the miserable living
-victims and dupes of white man’s cupidity, degraded, discouraged and
-lost in the bewildering maze that is produced by the use of whiskey and
-its concomitant vices; and the remaining number are yet unroused and
-unenticed from their wild haunts or their primitive modes, by the dread
-or love of white man and his allurements.
-
-It has been with these, mostly, that I have spent my time, and of
-these, chiefly, and their customs, that the following Letters treat.
-Their habits (and their’s alone) as we can see them transacted, are
-native, and such as I have wished to fix and preserve for future ages.
-
-Of the dead, and of those who are dying, of those who have suffered
-death, and of those who are now trodden and kicked through it, I may
-speak more fully in some deductions at the close of this book; or at
-some future time, when I may find more leisure, and may be able to
-speak of these scenes without giving offence to the world, or to any
-body in it.
-
-Such a portrait then as I have set forth in the following pages (taken
-by myself from the free and vivid realities of life, instead of the
-vague and uncertain imagery of recollection, or from the haggard
-deformities and distortions of disease and death), I offer to the world
-for their amusement, as well as for their information; and I trust they
-will pardon me, if it should be thought that I have over-estimated the
-Indian character, or at other times descended too much into the details
-and minutiæ of Indian mysteries and absurdities.
-
-The reader, then, to understand me rightly, and draw from these Letters
-the information which they are intended to give, must follow me a vast
-way from the civilized world; he must needs wend his way from the city
-of New York, over the Alleghany, and far beyond the mighty Missouri,
-and even to the base and summit of the Rocky Mountains, some two or
-three thousand miles from the Atlantic coast. He should forget many
-theories he has read in the books of Indian barbarities, of wanton
-butcheries and murders; and divest himself, as far as possible of the
-deadly prejudices which he has carried from his childhood, against this
-most unfortunate and most abused part of the race of his fellow-man.
-
-He should consider, that if he has seen the savages of North America
-without making such a tour, he has fixed his eyes upon and drawn his
-conclusions (in all probability) only from those who inhabit the
-frontier; whose habits have been changed—whose pride has been cut
-down—whose country has been ransacked—whose wives and daughters have
-been shamefully abused—whose lands have been wrested from them—whose
-limbs have become enervated and naked by the excessive use of
-whiskey—whose friends and relations have been prematurely thrown into
-their graves—whose native pride and dignity have at last given way to
-the unnatural vices which civilized cupidity has engrafted upon them,
-to be silently nurtured and magnified by a burning sense of injury and
-injustice, and ready for that cruel vengeance which often falls from
-the hand that is palsied by refined abuses, and yet unrestrained by the
-glorious influences of refined and moral cultivation.—That if he has
-laid up what he considers well-founded knowledge of these people, from
-books which he has read, and from newspapers only, he should pause at
-least, and withhold his sentence before he passes it upon the character
-of a people, who are dying at the hands of their enemies, without the
-means of recording their own annals—struggling in their nakedness with
-their simple weapons, against guns and gunpowder—against whiskey and
-steel, and disease, and mailed warriors who are continually trampling
-them to the earth, and at last exultingly promulgating from the very
-soil which they have wrested from the poor savage, the history of his
-cruelties and barbarities, whilst his bones are quietly resting under
-the very furrows which their ploughs are turning.
-
-So great and unfortunate are the disparities between savage and civil,
-in numbers—in weapons and defences—in enterprise, in craft, and in
-education, that the former is almost universally the sufferer either in
-peace or in war; and not less so after his pipe and his tomahawk have
-retired to the grave with him, and his character is left to be entered
-upon the pages of history, and that justice done to his memory which
-from necessity, he has intrusted to his enemy.
-
-Amongst the numerous historians, however, of these strange people, they
-have had some friends who have done them justice; yet as a part of all
-systems of justice whenever it is meted to the poor Indian, it comes
-invariably too late, or is administered at an ineffectual distance; and
-that too when his enemies are continually about him, and effectually
-applying the means of his destruction.
-
-Some writers, I have been grieved to see, have written down the
-character of the North American Indian, as dark, relentless, cruel and
-murderous in the last degree; with scarce a quality to stamp their
-existence of a higher order than that of the brutes:—whilst others
-have given them a high rank, as I feel myself authorized to do, as
-honourable and highly-intellectual beings; and others, both friends and
-foes to the red men, have spoken of them as an “anomaly in nature!”
-
-In this place I have no time or inclination to reply to so
-unaccountable an assertion as this; contenting myself with the belief,
-that the term would be far more correctly applied to that part of the
-human family who have strayed farthest from nature, than it could be to
-those who are simply moving in, and filling the sphere for which they
-were designed by the Great Spirit who made them.
-
-From what I have seen of these people I feel authorized to say, that
-there is nothing very strange or unaccountable in their character; but
-that it is a simple one, and easy to be learned and understood, if the
-right means be taken to familiarize ourselves with it. Although it has
-its dark spots, yet there is much in it to be applauded, and much to
-recommend it to the admiration of the enlightened world. And I trust
-that the reader, who looks through these volumes with care, will be
-disposed to join me in the conclusion that the North American Indian in
-his native state, is an honest, hospitable, faithful, brave, warlike,
-cruel, revengeful, relentless,—yet honourable, contemplative and
-religious being.
-
-If such be the case, I am sure there is enough in it to recommend it
-to the fair perusal of the world, and charity enough in all civilized
-countries, in this enlightened age, to extend a helping hand to a
-dying race; provided that prejudice and fear can be removed, which
-have heretofore constantly held the civilized portions in dread of the
-savage—and away from that familiar and friendly embrace, in which alone
-his true native character can be justly appreciated.
-
-I am fully convinced, from a long familiarity with these people, that
-the Indian’s misfortune has consisted chiefly in our ignorance of their
-true native character and disposition, which has always held us at a
-distrustful distance from them; inducing us to look upon them in no
-other light than that of a hostile foe, and worthy only of that system
-of continued warfare and abuse that has been for ever waged against
-them.
-
-There is no difficulty in approaching the Indian and getting acquainted
-with him in his wild and unsophisticated state, and finding him an
-honest and honourable man; with feelings to meet feelings, if the above
-prejudice and dread can be laid aside, and any one will take the pains,
-as I have done, to go and see him in the simplicity of his native
-state, smoking his pipe under his own humble roof, with his wife and
-children around him, and his faithful dogs and horses hanging about his
-hospitable tenement.—So the world _may_ see him and smoke his friendly
-pipe, which will be invariably extended to them; and share, with a
-hearty welcome, the best that his wigwam affords for the appetite,
-which is always set out to a stranger the next moment after he enters.
-
-But so the mass of the world, most assuredly, will _not_ see these
-people; for they are too far off, and approachable to those only whose
-avarice or cupidity alone lead them to those remote regions, and whose
-shame prevents them from publishing to the world the virtues which they
-have thrown down and trampled under foot.
-
-The very use of the word savage, as it is applied in its general sense,
-I am inclined to believe is an abuse of the word, and the people to
-whom it is applied. The word, in its true definition, means no more
-than _wild_, or _wild man_; and a wild man may have been endowed by his
-Maker with all the humane and noble traits that inhabit the heart of a
-tame man. Our ignorance and dread or fear of these people, therefore,
-have given a new definition to the adjective; and nearly the whole
-civilized world apply the word _savage_, as expressive of the most
-ferocious, cruel, and murderous character that can be described.
-
-The grizzly bear is called savage, because he is blood-thirsty,
-ravenous and cruel; and so is the tiger, and they, like the poor red
-man, have been feared and dreaded (from the distance at which ignorance
-and prejudice have kept us from them, or from resented abuses which we
-have practised when we have come in close contact with them), until Van
-Amburgh shewed the world, that even these ferocious and unreasoning
-animals wanted only the friendship and close embrace of their master,
-to respect and to love him.
-
-As evidence of the hospitality of these ignorant and benighted people,
-and also of their honesty and honour, there will be found recorded
-many striking instances in the following pages. And also, as an offset
-to these, many evidences of the dark and cruel, as well as ignorant
-and disgusting excesses of passions, unrestrained by the salutary
-influences of laws and Christianity.
-
-I have roamed about from time to time during seven or eight years,
-visiting and associating with some three or four hundred thousand of
-these people, under an almost infinite variety of circumstances; and
-from the very many and decided voluntary acts of their hospitality
-and kindness, I feel bound to pronounce them, by nature, a kind and
-hospitable people. I have been welcomed generally in their country,
-and treated to the best that they could give me, without any charges
-made for my board; they have often escorted me through their enemies’
-country at some hazard to their own lives, and aided me in passing
-mountains and rivers with my awkward baggage; and under all of these
-circumstances of exposure, no Indian ever betrayed me, struck me a
-blow, or stole from me a shilling’s worth of my property that I am
-aware of.
-
-This is saying a great deal, (and proving it too, if the reader will
-believe me) in favour of the virtues of these people; when it is borne
-in mind, as it should be, that there is no law in their land to punish
-a man for theft—that locks and keys are not known in their country—that
-the commandments have never been divulged amongst them; nor can any
-human retribution fall upon the head of a thief, save the disgrace
-which attaches as a stigma to his character, in the eyes of his people
-about him.
-
-And thus in these little communities, strange as it may seem, in the
-absence of all systems of jurisprudence, I have often beheld peace
-and happiness, and quiet, reigning supreme, for which even kings and
-emperors might envy them. I have seen rights and virtue protected,
-and wrongs redressed; and I have seen conjugal, filial and paternal
-affection in the simplicity and contentedness of nature. I have
-unavoidably, formed warm and enduring attachments to some of these
-men which I do not wish to forget—who have brought me near to their
-hearts, and in our final separation have embraced me in their arms, and
-commended me and my affairs to the keeping of the Great Spirit.
-
-For the above reasons, the reader will be disposed to forgive me for
-dwelling so long and so strong on the justness of the claims of these
-people; and for my occasional expressions of sadness, when my heart
-bleeds for the fate that awaits the remainder of their unlucky race;
-which is long to be outlived by the rocks, by the beasts, and even
-birds and reptiles of the country they live in;—set upon by their
-fellow-man, whose cupidity, it is feared, will fix no bounds to the
-Indian’s earthly calamity, short of the grave.
-
-I cannot help but repeat, before I close this Letter, that the tribes
-of the red men of North America, as a nation of human beings, are on
-their wane; that (to use their own very beautiful figure) “they are
-fast travelling to the shades of their fathers, towards the setting
-sun;” and that the traveller who would see these people in their native
-simplicity and beauty, must needs be hastily on his way to the prairies
-and Rocky Mountains, or he will see them only as they are now seen on
-the frontiers, as a basket of _dead game_,—harassed, chased, bleeding
-and dead; with their plumage and colours despoiled; to be gazed
-amongst in vain for some system or moral, or for some scale by which
-to estimate their true native character, other than that which has too
-often recorded them but a dark and unintelligible mass of cruelty and
-barbarity.
-
-Without further comments I close this Letter, introducing my readers
-at once to the heart of the Indian country, only asking their
-forgiveness for having made it so long, and their patience whilst
-travelling through the following pages (as I journeyed through those
-remote realms) in search of information and rational amusement; in
-tracing out the true character of that “_strange anomaly_” of man in
-the simple elements of his nature, undissolved or compounded into the
-mysteries of enlightened and fashionable life.
-
-
-                             ————————————
-
-                                 NOTE.
-
-_As the singular manners of the Country set forth in the following
-pages, and the extraordinary scenes represented in the very numerous
-illustrations, are of such a character as to require all possible aids
-for the satisfaction of the readers; I hope they will excuse me for
-intruding in this place the numerous Certificates which follow, and
-which have been voluntarily furnished me by men whose lives, it will
-be seen, have been spent, in great part, in the Indian Country, and in
-familiarity with the men and manners set forth in the work_:
-
-
-                             CERTIFICATES.
-
-“I hereby certify, that the persons whose signatures are affixed to the
-certificates here below, by Mr. +Catlin+, are officers in the service
-of the United States, as herein set forth; and that their opinions
-of the accuracy of the likenesses, and correctness of the views, &c.
-exhibited by him in his ‘+Indian Gallery+,’ are entitled to full credit.
-
-                       “J. R. POINSETT, _Secretary of War, Washington_.”
-
-                             ————————————
-
-“With regard to the gentlemen whose names are affixed to certificates
-below, I am fully warranted in saying, that no individuals have had
-better opportunities of acquiring a knowledge of the persons, habits,
-costumes, and sports of the Indian tribes, or possess stronger claims
-upon the public confidence in the statements they make, respecting the
-correctness of delineations, &c. of Mr. +Catlin’s Indian Gallery+; and
-I may add my own testimony, with regard to many of those Indians whom
-I have seen, and whose likenesses are in the collection, and sketched
-with fidelity and correctness.
-
-           “C. A. HARRIS, _Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Washington_.”
-
-                             ————————————
-
-“I have seen Mr. +Catlin’s+ Collection of Portraits of Indians,
-east of the Rocky Mountains many of which were familiar to me, and
-painted in my presence: and as far as they have included Indians of
-my acquaintance, the _likenesses_ are easily recognized, bearing
-the most striking resemblance to the originals, as well as faithful
-representations of their costumes.
-
-              “W. CLARK, _Superintendent of Indian Affairs, St. Louis_.”
-
-                             ————————————
-
-“I have examined Mr. +Catlin’s+ Collection of the Upper Missouri
-Indians to the Rocky Mountains, all of which I am acquainted with;
-and indeed most of them were painted when I was present, and I do
-not hesitate to pronounce them correct likenesses, and readily to be
-recognized. And I consider the _costumes_, as painted by him, to be the
-_only correct representations_ I have ever seen.
-
-                            “JOHN F. A. SANFORD,
-               “_U. SS. Indian Agent for Mandans, Rickarees, Minatarees,
-                    Crows, Knisteneaux, Assinneboins, Blackfeet, &c._”
-
-                             ————————————
-
-“We have seen Mr. +Catlin’s+ Portraits of Indians east of the Rocky
-Mountains, many of which are familiar to us; the likenesses are easily
-recognized, bearing a strong resemblance to the originals, as well as a
-faithful representation of their costumes.
-
-                                         “J. DOUGHERTY, _Indian Agent_.
-  “_November 27th, 1837._                 J. GANTT.”
-
-                             ————————————
-
-“We hereby certify, that the Portraits of the Grand Pawnees, Republican
-Pawnees, Pawnee Loups, Tappage Pawnees, Otoes, Omahaws, and Missouries,
-which are in Mr. +Catlin’s Indian Gallery+, were painted from life by
-Mr. +Geo. Catlin+, and that the individuals sat to him in the costumes
-precisely in which they are painted.
-
-                “J. DOUGHERTY, _I. A. for Pawnees, Omahaws, and Otoes_.
-  “_New York, 1837._    J. GANTT.”
-
-                             ————————————
-
-“I have seen Mr. +Catlin’s+ Collection of Indian Portraits, many
-of which were familiar to me, and painted in my presence at their
-own villages. I have spent the greater part of my life amongst the
-tribes and individuals he has represented, and I do not hesitate to
-pronounce them correct likenesses, and easily recognized: also his
-sketches of their _manners_ and _customs_, I think, are excellent; and
-the _landscape views_ on the Missouri and Mississippi, are correct
-representations.
-
-              “K. M‘KENZIE, _of the Am. Fur Co. Mouth of Yellow Stone_.”
-
-                             ————————————
-
-“We hereby certify, that the Portraits of Seminoles and Euchees, in
-Mr. +Catlin’s Gallery+, were painted by him, from the life, at Fort
-Moultrie; that the Indians sat or stood in the costumes precisely in
-which they are painted, and that the likenesses are remarkably good.
-
-  “P. MORRISON, Capt. 4th Inft.          H. WHARTON, 2d. Lieut. 6th Inft.
-   J. S. HATHAWAY, 2d Lieut. 1st Art.    F. WEEDON, Assistant Surgeon.
-  _Fort Moultrie, Jan. 26, 1838._”
-
-                             ————————————
-
-“Having examined Mr. +Catlin’s+ Collection of Portraits of Indians
-of the Missouri to the Rocky Mountains, I have no hesitation in
-pronouncing them, so far as I am acquainted with the Individuals,
-to be the best I have ever seen, both as regards the expression of
-countenance, and the exact and complete manner in which the costume has
-been painted by him.
-
-                            “J. L. BEAN, _S. Agent for Indian Affairs_.”
-
-                             ————————————
-
-“I have been for many years past in familiar acquaintance with the
-Indian tribes of the Upper Missouri to the Rocky Mountains, and also
-with the landscape and other scenes represented in Mr. +Catlin’s+
-Collection; and it gives me great pleasure to assure the world, that on
-looking them over, I found the likenesses of my old friends easily to
-be recognized; and his sketches of Manners and Customs to be pourtrayed
-with singular truth and correctness.
-
-                       “J. PILCHER, _Agent for Upper Missouri Indians_.”
-
-                             ————————————
-
-“It gives me great pleasure in being enabled to add my name to the list
-of those who have spontaneously expressed their approbation of Mr.
-+Catlin’s+ Collection of Indian Paintings. His Collection of materials
-place it in his power to throw much light on the Indian character,
-and his portraits, so far as I have seen them, are drawn with great
-fidelity as to character and likeness.
-
-               “H. SCHOOLCRAFT, _Indian Agent for Wisconsin Territory_.”
-
-“Having lived and dealt with the Black Feet Indians for five years
-past, I was enabled to recognize _every one_ of the Portraits of
-those people, and of the Crows also, which Mr. +Catlin+ has in his
-Collection, from the faithful likenesses they bore to the originals.
-
-  “_St. Louis, 1835._ “J. E. BRAZEAU.”
-
-                             ————————————
-
-“Having spent sixteen years in the continual acquaintance with the
-Indians of the several tribes of the Missouri, represented in Mr.
-+Catlin’s+ Gallery of Indian Paintings, I was enabled to judge of the
-correctness of the likenesses, and I _instantly recognized every one of
-them_, when I looked them over, from the striking resemblance they bore
-to the originals—so also, of the Landscapes on the Missouri.
-
-                                                       “HONORE PICOTTE.”
-
-                             ————————————
-
-“The Portraits, in the possession of Mr. +Catlin+, of Pawnee Picts,
-Kioways, Camanches, Wecos, and Osages, were painted by him _from life_,
-when on a tour to their country, with the United States Dragoons. The
-_likenesses_ are good, very easily to be recognized, and the _costumes_
-faithfully represented.
-
-  “HENRY DODGE, Col. of Drag.        D. PERKINS. Capt. of Drag.
-   R. H. MASON, Major of Ditto.      M. DUNCAN,     Ditto.
-   D. HUNTER, Capt.      Ditto.      T. B. WHEELOCK, Lieut. Drag.”
-
-                             ————————————
-
-“The Landscapes, Buffalo-Hunting scenes, &c. above-mentioned, I have
-seen, and although it has been thirty years since I travelled over that
-country; yet a considerable number of them I recognized as faithful
-representations, and the remainder of them are so much in the peculiar
-character of that country as to seem entirely familiar to me.
-
-                        “WM. CLARK, _Superintendent of Indian Affairs_.”
-
-                             ————————————
-
-“The Landscape Views on the Missouri, Buffalo Hunts, and other scenes,
-taken by my friend Mr. +Catlin+, are correct delineations of the scenes
-they profess to represent, as I am perfectly well acquainted with the
-country, having passed through it more than a dozen times. And further,
-I know, that they were taken on the spot, from nature, as I was present
-when Mr. +Catlin+ visited that country.
-
-                            “JOHN F. A. SANFORD, _U. SS. Indian Agent_.”
-
-                             ————————————
-
-“It gives me great pleasure to be able to pronounce the Landscape
-Views, Views of Hunting, and other scenes, taken on the Upper Missouri
-by Mr. +Catlin+, to be correct delineations of the scenery they profess
-to represent; and although I was not present when they were taken in
-the field, I was able to identify almost every one between St. Louis
-and the grand bend of the Missouri.
-
-                             “J. L. BEAN, _S. Agent of Indian Affairs_.”
-
-                             ————————————
-
-“I have examined a series of paintings by Mr. +Catlin+, representing
-_Indian Buffalo Hunts, Landscapes, &c._, and from an acquaintance
-of twenty-seven years with such scenes as are represented, I feel
-qualified to judge them, and do unhesitatingly pronounce them good and
-unexaggerated representations.
-
-      “JNO. DOUGHERTY, _Indian Agent for Pawnees, Omahaws, and Otoes_.”
-
-
-
-
-                             LETTER—No. 2.
-
-             MOUTH OF YELLOW STONE, _UPPER MISSOURI_, 1832.
-
-
-I arrived at this place yesterday in the steamer “Yellow Stone,”
-after a voyage of nearly three months from St. Louis, a distance of
-two thousand miles, the greater part of which has never before been
-navigated by steam; and the almost insurmountable difficulties which
-continually oppose the _voyageur_ on this turbid stream, have been
-by degrees overcome by the indefatigable zeal of Mr. Chouteau, a
-gentleman of great perseverance, and part proprietor of the boat. To
-the politeness of this gentleman I am indebted for my passage from St.
-Louis to this place, and I had also the pleasure of his _company_, with
-that of Major Sanford, the government agent for the Missouri Indians.
-
-The American Fur Company have erected here, for their protection
-against the savages, a very substantial Fort, 300 feet square, with
-bastions armed with ordnance (+plate+ 3); and our approach to it under
-the continued roar of cannon for half an hour, and the shrill yells of
-the half-affrighted savages who lined the shores, presented a scene
-of the most thrilling and picturesque appearance. A voyage so full of
-incident, and furnishing so many novel scenes of the picturesque and
-romantic, as we have passed the numerous villages of the “astonished
-natives,” saluting them with the puffing of steam and the thunder of
-artillery, would afford subject for many epistles; and I cannot deny
-myself the pleasure of occasionally giving you some little sketches of
-scenes that I have witnessed, and _am witnessing_; and of the singular
-feelings that are excited in the breast of the stranger travelling
-through this interesting country. Interesting (as I have said) and
-_luxurious_, for this is truly the land of Epicures; we are invited by
-the savages to feasts of _dog’s meat_, as the most honourable food that
-can be presented to a stranger, and glutted with the more delicious
-food of beavers’ tails, and buffaloes’ tongues. You will, no doubt, be
-somewhat surprised on the receipt of a Letter from me, so far strayed
-into the Western World; and still more startled, when I tell you that I
-am here in the full enthusiasm and practice of my art. That enthusiasm
-alone has brought me into this remote region, 3500 miles from my native
-soil; the last 2000 of which have furnished me with almost unlimited
-models, both in landscape and the human figure, exactly suited to
-my feelings. I am now in the full possession and enjoyments of
-those conditions, on which alone I was induced to pursue the art as a
-profession; and in anticipation of which alone, my admiration for the
-art could ever have been kindled into a pure flame. I mean the free use
-of nature’s undisguised models, with the privilege of selecting for
-myself. If I am here losing the benefit of the fleeting fashions of the
-day, and neglecting that elegant polish, which the world say an artist
-should draw from a continual intercourse with the polite world; yet
-have I this consolation, that in this country, I am entirely divested
-of those dangerous steps and allurements which beset an artist in
-fashionable life; and have little to steal my thoughts away from the
-contemplation of the beautiful models that are about me. If, also, I
-have not here the benefit of that feeling of emulation, which is the
-life and spur to the arts, where artists are associates together; yet
-am I surrounded by living models of such elegance and beauty, that I
-feel an unceasing excitement of a much higher order—the certainty that
-I am drawing knowledge from the true source. My enthusiastic admiration
-of man in the honest and elegant simplicity of nature, has always fed
-the warmest feelings of my bosom, and shut half the avenues to my
-heart against the specious refinements of the accomplished world. This
-feeling, together with the desire to study my art, independently of the
-embarrassments which the ridiculous fashions of civilized society have
-thrown in its way, has led me to the wilderness for a while, as the
-true school of the arts.
-
-[Illustration: 3]
-
-[Illustration: 4]
-
-I have for a long time been of opinion, that the wilderness of our
-country afforded models equal to those from which the Grecian sculptors
-transferred to the marble such inimitable grace and beauty; and I am
-now more confirmed in this opinion, since I have immersed myself in
-the midst of thousands and tens of thousands of these knights of the
-forest; whose whole lives are lives of chivalry, and whose daily feats,
-with their naked limbs, might vie with those of the Grecian youths in
-the beautiful rivalry of the Olympian games.
-
-No man’s imagination, with all the aids of description that can be
-given to it, can ever picture the beauty and wildness of scenes that
-may be daily witnessed in this romantic country; of hundreds of these
-graceful youths, without a care to wrinkle, or a fear to disturb
-the full expression of pleasure and enjoyment that beams upon their
-faces—their long black hair mingling with their horses’ tails, floating
-in the wind, while they are flying over the carpeted prairie, and
-dealing death with their spears and arrows, to a band of infuriated
-buffaloes; or their splendid procession in a war-parade, arrayed in all
-their gorgeous colours and trappings, moving with most exquisite grace
-and manly beauty, added to that bold defiance which man carries on his
-front, who acknowledges no superior on earth, and who is amenable to no
-laws except the laws of God and honour.
-
-In addition to the knowledge of human nature and of my art, which I
-hope to acquire by this toilsome and expensive undertaking, I have
-another in view, which, if it should not be of equal service to me,
-will be of no less interest and value to posterity. I have, for many
-years past, contemplated the noble races of red men who are now spread
-over these trackless forests and boundless prairies, melting away
-at the approach of civilization. Their rights invaded, their morals
-corrupted, their lands wrested from them, their customs changed, and
-therefore lost to the world; and they at last sunk into the earth,
-and the ploughshare turning the sod over their graves, and I have
-flown to their rescue—not of their lives or of their race (for they
-are “_doomed_” and must perish), but to the rescue of their looks and
-their modes, at which the acquisitive world may hurl their poison and
-every besom of destruction, and trample them down and crush them to
-death; yet, phœnix-like, they may rise from the “stain on a painter’s
-palette,” and live again upon canvass, and stand forth for centuries
-yet to come, the living monuments of a noble race. For this purpose,
-I have designed to visit every tribe of Indians on the Continent, if
-my life should be spared; for the purpose of procuring portraits of
-distinguished Indians, of both sexes in each tribe, painted in their
-native costume; accompanied with pictures of their villages, domestic
-habits, games, mysteries, religious ceremonies, &c. with anecdotes,
-traditions, and history of their respective nations.
-
-If I should live to accomplish my design, the result of my labours will
-doubtless be interesting to future ages; who will have little else left
-from which to judge of the original inhabitants of this simple race of
-beings, who require but a few years more of the march of civilization
-and death, to deprive them of all their native customs and character.
-I have been kindly supplied by the Commander-in-Chief of the Army and
-the Secretary of War, with letters to the commander of every military
-post, and every Indian agent on the Western Frontier, with instructions
-to render me all the facilities in their power, which will be of great
-service to me in so arduous an undertaking. The opportunity afforded me
-by familiarity with so many tribes of human beings in the simplicity of
-nature, devoid of the deformities of art; of drawing fair conclusions
-in the interesting sciences of physiognomy and phrenology; of manners
-and customs, rites, ceremonies, &c.; and the opportunity of examining
-the geology and mineralogy of this western, and yet unexplored
-country, will enable me occasionally to entertain you with much new
-and interesting information, which I shall take equal pleasure in
-communicating by an occasional Letter in my clumsy way.
-
-
-
-
-                             LETTER—No. 3.
-
-                MOUTH OF YELLOW STONE, _UPPER MISSOURI_.
-
-
-Since the date of my former Letter, I have been so much engaged in
-the amusements of the country, and the use of my brush, that I have
-scarcely been able to drop you a line until the present moment.
-
-Before I let you into the amusements and customs of this delightful
-country however, (and which, as yet, are secrets to most of the world),
-I must hastily travel with you over the tedious journey of 2000 miles,
-from St. Louis to this place; over which distance one is obliged to
-pass, before he can reach this wild and lovely spot.
-
-The Missouri is, perhaps, different in appearance and character
-from all other rivers in the world; there is a terror in its manner
-which is sensibly felt, the moment we enter its muddy waters from
-the Mississippi. From the mouth of the Yellow Stone River, which is
-the place from whence I am now writing, to its junction with the
-Mississippi, a distance of 2000 miles, the Missouri, with its boiling,
-turbid waters, sweeps off, in one unceasing current; and in the whole
-distance there is scarcely an eddy or resting-place for a canoe. Owing
-to the continual falling in of its rich alluvial banks, its water is
-always turbid and opaque; having, at all seasons of the year, the
-colour of a cup of chocolate or coffee, with sugar and cream stirred
-into it. To give a better definition of its density and opacity, I
-have tried a number of simple experiments with it at this place, and
-at other points below, at the results of which I was exceedingly
-surprised. By placing a piece of silver (and afterwards a piece of
-shell, which is a much whiter substance) in a tumbler of its water,
-and looking through the side of the glass, I ascertained that those
-substances could not be seen through the eighth part of an inch; this,
-however, is in the spring of the year, when the freshet is upon the
-river, rendering the water, undoubtedly, much more turbid than it would
-be at other seasons; though it is always muddy and yellow, and from its
-boiling and wild character and uncommon colour, a stranger would think,
-even in its lowest state, that there was a freshet upon it.
-
-For the distance of 1000 miles above St. Louis, the shores of this
-river (and, in many places, the whole bed of the stream) are filled
-with snags and raft, formed of trees of the largest size, which have
-been undermined by the falling banks and cast into the stream;
-their roots becoming fastened in the bottom of the river, with their
-tops floating on the surface of the water, and pointing down the
-stream, forming the most frightful and discouraging prospect for the
-adventurous voyageur. (See +plate+ 4.)
-
-Almost every island and sand-bar is covered with huge piles of these
-floating trees, and when the river is flooded, its surface is almost
-literally covered with floating raft and drift wood which bid positive
-defiance to keel-boats and steamers, on their way up the river.
-
-With what propriety this “Hell of waters” might he denominated the
-“River Styx,” I will not undertake to decide; but nothing could be more
-appropriate or innocent than to call it the River _of Sticks_.
-
-The scene is not, however, all so dreary; there is a redeeming beauty
-in the green and carpeted shores, which hem in this huge and terrible
-deformity of waters. There is much of the way though, where the mighty
-forests of stately cotton wood stand, and frown in horrid dark and
-coolness over the filthy abyss below; into which they are ready to
-plunge headlong, when the mud and soil in which they were germed and
-reared have been washed out from underneath them, and with the rolling
-current are mixed, and on their way to the ocean.
-
-The greater part of the shores of this river, however, are without
-timber, where the eye is delightfully relieved by wandering over the
-beautiful prairies; most of the way gracefully sloping down to the
-water’s edge, carpeted with the deepest green, and, in distance,
-softening into velvet of the richest hues, entirely beyond the reach
-of the artist’s pencil. Such is the character of the upper part of the
-river especially; and as one advances towards its source, and through
-its upper half, it becomes more pleasing to the eye, for snags and raft
-are no longer to be seen; yet the current holds its stiff and onward
-turbid character.
-
-It has been, heretofore, very erroneously represented to the world,
-that the scenery on this river was monotonous, and wanting in
-picturesque beauty. This intelligence is surely incorrect, and that
-because it has been brought perhaps, by men who are not the best
-judges in the world, of Nature’s beautiful works; and if they were,
-they always pass them by, in pain or desperate distress, in toil and
-trembling fear for the safety of their furs and peltries, or for their
-lives, which are at the mercy of the yelling savages who inhabit this
-delightful country.
-
-One thousand miles or more of the upper part of the river, was, to
-my eye, like fairy-land; and during our transit through that part of
-our voyage, I was most of the time rivetted to the deck of the boat,
-indulging my eyes in the boundless and tireless pleasure of roaming
-over the thousand hills, and bluffs, and dales, and ravines; where the
-astonished herds of buffaloes, of elks, and antelopes, and sneaking
-wolves, and mountain-goats, were to be seen bounding up and down and
-over the green fields; each one and each tribe, band, and gang, taking
-their own way, and using their own means to the greatest advantage
-possible, to leave the sight and sound of the puffing of our boat;
-which was, for the first time, saluting the green and wild shores of
-the Missouri with the din of mighty steam.
-
-From St. Louis to the falls of the Missouri, a distance of 2600 miles,
-is one continued prairie; with the exception of a few of the bottoms
-formed along the bank of the river, and the streams which are falling
-into it, which are often covered with the most luxuriant growth of
-forest timber.
-
-The summit level of the great prairies stretching off to the west and
-the east from the river, to an almost boundless extent, is from two to
-three hundred feet above the level of the river; which has formed a bed
-or valley for its course, varying in width from two to twenty miles.
-This channel or valley has been evidently produced by the force of the
-current, which has gradually excavated, in its floods and gorges, this
-immense space, and sent its débris into the ocean. By the continual
-overflowing of the river, its deposits have been lodged and left with a
-horizontal surface, spreading the deepest and richest alluvion over the
-surface of its meadows on either side; through which the river winds
-its serpentine course, alternately running from one bluff to the other,
-which present themselves to its shores in all the most picturesque
-and beautiful shapes and colours imaginable—some with their green
-sides gracefully slope down in the most lovely groups to the water’s
-edge (+plate+ 5); whilst others, divested of their verdure, present
-themselves in immense masses of clay of different colours, which arrest
-the eye of the traveller, with the most curious views in the world.
-
-These strange and picturesque appearances have been produced by the
-rains and frosts, which are continually changing the dimensions, and
-varying the thousand shapes of these denuded hills, by washing down
-their sides and carrying them into the river.
-
-Amongst these groups may be seen tens and hundreds of thousands of
-different forms and figures, of the sublime and the picturesque; in
-many places for miles together, as the boat glides along, there is
-one continued appearance, before and behind us, of some ancient and
-boundless city in ruins—ramparts, terraces, domes, towers, citadels and
-castles may be seen,—cupolas, and magnificent porticos, and here and
-there a solitary column and crumbling pedestal, and even spires of clay
-which stand alone—and glistening in distance, as the sun’s rays are
-refracted back by the thousand crystals of gypsum which are imbedded in
-the clay of which they are formed (+plate+ 6). Over and through these
-groups of domes and battlements (as one is compelled to imagine them),
-the sun sends his long and gilding rays, at morn or in the evening;
-giving life and light, by aid of shadows cast, to the different glowing
-colours of these clay-built ruins; shedding a glory over the solitude
-of this wild and pictured country, which no one can realize unless he
-travels here and looks upon it.
-
-It is amidst these wild and quiet haunts that the mountain-sheep, and
-the fleet-bounding antelope sport and live in herds, secure from their
-enemies, to whom the sides and slopes of these bluffs (around which
-they fearlessly bound) are nearly inaccessible.
-
-The grizzly bear also has chosen these places for his abode; he
-sullenly sneaks through the gulphs and chasms, and ravines, and frowns
-away the lurking Indian; whilst the mountain-sheep and antelope are
-bounding over and around the hill tops, safe and free from harm of man
-and beast.
-
-Such is a hasty sketch of the river scenes and scenery for 2000 miles,
-over which we tugged, and puffed, and blowed, and toiled for three
-months, before we reached this place. Since we arrived here, the
-steamer has returned and left me here to explore the country and visit
-the tribes in this vicinity, and then descend the river from this place
-to St. Louis; which Tour, if I live through it, will furnish material
-for many a story and curious incident, which I may give you in detail
-in future epistles, and when I have more leisure than I have at the
-present moment. I will then undertake to tell how we astonished the
-natives, in many an instance, which I can in this Letter but just
-hint at and say adieu. If anything did ever literally and completely
-“astonish (and astound) the natives,” it was the appearance of our
-steamer, puffing and blowing, and paddling and rushing by their
-villages which were on the banks of the river.
-
-These poor and ignorant people for the distance of 2000 miles, had
-never before seen or heard of a steam-boat, and in some places they
-seemed at a loss to know what to do, or how to act; they could not,
-as the Dutch did at Newburgh, on the Hudson River, take it to be a
-“_floating saw-mill_”—and they had no name for it—so it was, like
-every thing else (with them), which is mysterious and unaccountable,
-called _medicine_ (mystery). We had on board one twelve-pound cannon
-and three or four eight-pound swivels, which we were taking up to
-arm the Fur Company’s Fort at the mouth of Yellow Stone, and at the
-approach to every village they were all discharged several times in
-rapid succession, which threw the inhabitants into utter confusion and
-amazement—some of them laid their faces to the ground, and cried to
-the Great Spirit—some shot their horses and dogs, and sacrificed them
-to appease the Great Spirit, whom they conceived was offended—some
-deserted their villages and ran to the tops of the bluffs some miles
-distant; and others, in some places, as the boat landed in front of
-their villages, came with great caution, and peeped over the bank of
-the river to see the fate of their chiefs whose duty it was (from the
-nature of their office) to approach us, whether friends or foes, and
-to go on board. Sometimes, in this plight, they were instantly thrown
-‘neck and heels’ over each other’s heads and shoulders—men, women
-and children, and dogs—sage, sachem, old and young—all in a mass, at
-the frightful discharge of the steam from the escape-pipe, which the
-captain of the boat let loose upon them for his own fun and amusement.
-
-There were many curious conjectures amongst their wise men, with regard
-to the nature and powers of the steam-boat. Amongst the Mandans, some
-called it the “big thunder canoe;” for when in distance below the
-village, they saw the lightning flash from its sides, and heard the
-thunder come from it; others called it the “big medicine canoe with
-eyes;” it was _medicine_ (mystery) because they could not understand
-it; and it must have eyes, for said they, “it sees its own way, and
-takes the deep water in the middle of the channel.”
-
-[Illustration: 5]
-
-[Illustration: 6]
-
-They had no idea of the boat being steered by the man at the wheel, and
-well they might have been astonished at its taking the deepest water. I
-may (if I do not forget it) hereafter give you an account of some other
-curious incidents of this kind, which we met with in this voyage; for
-we met many, and some of them were really laughable.
-
-The Fort in which I am residing was built by Mr. M‘Kenzie, who now
-occupies it. It is the largest and best-built establishment of the kind
-on the river, being the great or principal head-quarters and depôt
-of the Fur Company’s business in this region. A vast stock of goods
-is kept on hand at this place; and at certain times of the year the
-numerous out-posts concentrate here with the returns of their season’s
-trade, and refit out with a fresh supply of goods to trade with the
-Indians.
-
-The site for the Fort is well selected, being a beautiful prairie
-on the bank near the junction of the Missouri with the Yellow Stone
-rivers; and its inmates and its stores well protected from Indian
-assaults.
-
-Mr. M‘Kenzie is a kind-hearted and high-minded Scotchman; and seems to
-have charge of all the Fur Companies’ business in this region, and from
-this to the Rocky Mountains. He lives in good and comfortable style,
-inside of the Fort, which contains some eight or ten log-houses and
-stores, and has generally forty or fifty men, and one hundred and fifty
-horses about him.
-
-He has, with the same spirit of liberality and politeness with
-which Mons. Pierre Chouteau treated me on my passage up the river,
-pronounced me welcome at his table, which groans under the luxuries of
-the country; with buffalo meat and tongues, with beavers’ tails and
-marrow-fat; but _sans_ coffee, _sans_ bread and butter. Good cheer and
-good living we get at it however, and good wine also; for a bottle of
-Madeira and one of excellent Port are set in a pail of ice every day,
-and exhausted at dinner.
-
-At the hospitable board of this gentleman I found also another, who
-forms a happy companion for _mine host_; and whose intellectual and
-polished society has added not a little to _my_ pleasure and amusement
-since I arrived here.
-
-The gentleman of whom I am speaking is an Englishman, by the name
-of Hamilton, of the most pleasing and entertaining conversation,
-whose mind seems to be a complete store-house of ancient and modern
-literature and art; and whose free and familiar acquaintance with the
-manners and men of his country gives him the stamp of a gentleman, who
-has had the curiosity to bring the embellishments of the enlightened
-world, to contrast with the rude and the wild of these remote regions.
-
-We three _bons vivants_ form the group about the dinner-table, of which
-I have before spoken, and crack our jokes and fun over the bottles of
-Port and Madeira, which I have named; and a considerable part of which,
-this gentleman has brought with great and precious care from his own
-country.
-
-This post is the general rendezvous of a great number of Indian tribes
-in these regions, who are continually concentrating here for the
-purpose of trade; sometimes coming, the whole tribe together, in a
-mass. There are now here, and encamped about the Fort, a great many,
-and I am continually at work with my brush; we have around us at this
-time the Knisteneaux, Crows, Assinneboins and Blackfeet, and in a few
-days are to have large accessions.
-
-The finest specimens of Indians on the Continent are in these regions;
-and before I leave these parts, I shall make excursions into their
-respective countries, to their own native fire-sides; and there study
-their looks and peculiar customs; enabling me to drop you now and then
-an interesting Letter. The tribes which I shall be enabled to see and
-study by my visit to this region, are the Ojibbeways, the Assinneboins,
-Knisteneaux, Blackfeet, Crows, Shiennes, Grosventres, Mandans, and
-others; of whom and their customs, their history, traditions, costumes,
-&c., I shall in due season, give you further and minute accounts.
-
-
-
-
-                             LETTER—No. 4.
-
-                         MOUTH OF YELLOW STONE.
-
-
-The several tribes of Indians inhabiting the regions of the Upper
-Missouri, and of whom I spoke in my last Letter, are undoubtedly the
-finest looking, best equipped, and most beautifully costumed of any on
-the Continent. They live in a country well-stocked with buffaloes and
-wild horses, which furnish them an excellent and easy living; their
-atmosphere is pure, which produces good health and long life; and they
-are the most independent and the happiest races of Indians I have met
-with: they are all entirely in a state of primitive wildness, and
-consequently are picturesque and handsome, almost beyond description.
-Nothing in the world, of its kind, can possibly surpass in beauty and
-grace, some of their games and amusements—their gambols and parades, of
-which I shall speak and paint hereafter.
-
-As far as my travels have yet led me into the Indian country, I have
-more than realized my former predictions that those Indians who could
-be found most entirely in a state of nature, with the least knowledge
-of civilized society, would be found to be the most cleanly in their
-persons, elegant in their dress and manners, and enjoying life to the
-greatest perfection. Of such tribes, perhaps the Crows and Blackfeet
-stand first; and no one would be able to appreciate the richness and
-elegance (and even taste too), with which some of these people dress,
-without seeing them in their own country. I will do all I can, however,
-to make their looks as well as customs known to the world; I will paint
-with my brush and scribble with my pen, and bring their plumes and
-plumage, dresses, weapons, &c., and every thing but the Indian himself,
-to prove to the world the assertions which I have made above.
-
-Every one of these red sons of the forest (or rather of the prairie)
-is a knight and lord—his squaws are his slaves; the only things which
-he deems worthy of his exertions are to mount his snorting steed, with
-his bow and quiver slung, his arrow-shield upon his arm, and his long
-lance glistening in the war-parade; or, divested of all his plumes and
-trappings, armed with a simple bow and quiver, to plunge his steed
-amongst the flying herds of buffaloes, and with his sinewy bow, which
-he seldom bends in vain, to drive deep to life’s fountain the whizzing
-arrow.
-
-The buffalo herds, which graze in almost countless numbers on these
-beautiful prairies, afford them an abundance of meat; and so much is
-it preferred to all other, that the deer, the elk, and the antelope
-sport upon the prairies in herds in the greatest security; as the
-Indians seldom kill them, unless they want their skins for a dress.
-The buffalo (or more correctly speaking bison) is a noble animal,
-that roams over the vast prairies, from the borders of Mexico on the
-south, to Hudson’s Bay on the north. Their size is somewhat above
-that of our common bullock, and their flesh of a delicious flavour,
-resembling and equalling that of fat beef. Their flesh which is easily
-procured, furnishes the savages of these vast regions the means of a
-wholesome and good subsistence, and they live almost exclusively upon
-it—converting the skins, horns, hoofs and bones, to the construction
-of dresses, shields, bows, &c. The buffalo bull is one of the most
-formidable and frightful looking animals in the world when excited to
-resistance; his long shaggy mane hangs in great profusion over his neck
-and shoulders and often extends quite down to the ground (+plate+ 7).
-The cow is less in stature, and less ferocious; though not much less
-wild and frightful in her appearance (+plate+ 8).
-
-The mode in which these Indians kill this noble animal is spirited and
-thrilling in the extreme; and I must in a future epistle, give you
-a minute account of it. I have almost daily accompanied parties of
-Indians to see the fun, and have often shared in it myself; but much
-oftener ran my horse by their sides, to see how the thing was done—to
-study the modes and expressions of these splendid scenes, which I am
-industriously putting upon the canvass.
-
-They are all (or nearly so) killed with arrows and the lance, while at
-full speed; and the reader may easily imagine, that these scenes afford
-the most spirited and picturesque views of the sporting kind that can
-possibly be seen.
-
-At present, I will give a little sketch of a bit of fun I joined in
-yesterday, with Mr. M‘Kenzie and a number of his men, without the
-company or aid of Indians.
-
-I mentioned the other day, that M‘Kenzie’s table from day to day
-groans under the weight of buffalo tongues and beavers’ tails, and
-other luxuries of this western land. He has within his Fort a spacious
-ice-house, in which he preserves his meat fresh for any length of time
-required; and sometimes, when his larder runs low. he starts out,
-rallying some five or six of his best hunters (not to hunt, but to “go
-for meat”). He leads the party, mounted on his favourite buffalo horse
-(_i. e._ the horse amongst his whole group which is best trained to run
-the buffalo), trailing a light and short gun in his hand, such an one
-as he can most easily reload whilst his horse is at full speed.
-
-Such was the condition of the ice-house yesterday morning, which caused
-these self-catering gentlemen to cast their eyes with a wishful look
-over the prairies; and such was the plight in which our host took
-the lead, and I, and then Mons. Chardon, and Ba’tiste Défonde and
-Tullock (who is a trader amongst the Crows, and is here at this time,
-with a large party of that tribe), and there were several others whose
-names I do not know.
-
-[Illustration: 7]
-
-[Illustration: 8]
-
-As we were mounted and ready to start, M‘Kenzie called up some four
-or five of his men, and told them to follow immediately on our trail,
-with as many one-horse carts, which they were to harness up, to bring
-home the meat; “ferry them across the river in the scow,” said he,
-“and following our trail through the bottom, you will find us on the
-plain yonder, between the Yellow Stone and the Missouri rivers, with
-meat enough to load you home. My watch on yonder bluff has just told
-us by his signals, that there are cattle a plenty on that spot, and
-we are going there as fast as possible.” We all crossed the river,
-and galloped away a couple of miles or so, when we mounted the bluff;
-and to be sure, as was said, there was in full view of us a fine herd
-of some four or five hundred buffaloes, perfectly at rest, and in
-their own estimation (probably) perfectly secure. Some were grazing,
-and others were lying down and sleeping; we advanced within a mile or
-so of them in full view, and came to a halt. Mons. Chardon “tossed
-the feather” (a custom always observed, to try the course of the
-wind), and we commenced “stripping” as it is termed (_i. e._ every
-man strips himself and his horse of every extraneous and unnecessary
-appendage of dress, &c. that might be an incumbrance in running): hats
-are laid off, and coats—and bullet pouches; sleeves are rolled up,
-a handkerchief tied tightly around the head, and another around the
-waist—cartridges are prepared and placed in the waistcoat pocket, or
-a half dozen bullets “throwed into the mouth,” &c., &c., all of which
-takes up some ten or fifteen minutes, and is not, in appearance or in
-effect, unlike a council of war. Our leader lays the whole plan of the
-chase, and preliminaries all fixed, guns charged and ramrods in our
-hands, we mount and start for the onset. The horses are all trained for
-this business, and seem to enter into it with as much enthusiasm, and
-with as restless a spirit as the riders themselves. While “stripping”
-and mounting, they exhibit the most restless impatience; and when
-“approaching”—(which is, all of us abreast, upon a slow walk, and
-in a straight line towards the herd, until they discover us and
-run), they all seem to have caught entirely the spirit of the chase,
-for the laziest nag amongst them prances with an elasticity in his
-step—champing his bit—his ears erect—his eyes strained out of his head,
-and fixed upon the game before him, whilst he trembles under the saddle
-of his rider. In this way we carefully and silently marched, until
-within some forty or fifty rods; when the herd discovering us, wheeled
-and laid their course in a mass. At this instant we started! (and
-all _must_ start, for no one could check the fury of those steeds at
-that moment of excitement,) and away all sailed, and over the prairie
-flew, in a cloud of dust which was raised by their trampling hoofs.
-M‘Kenzie was foremost in the throng, and soon dashed off amidst the
-dust and was out of sight—he was after the fattest and the fastest. I
-had discovered a huge bull whose shoulders towered above the whole
-band, and I picked my way through the crowd to get alongside of him. I
-went not for “meat,” but for a _trophy_; I wanted his head and horns. I
-dashed along through the thundering mass, as they swept away over the
-plain, scarcely able to tell whether I was on a buffalo’s back or my
-horse—hit, and hooked, and jostled about, till at length I found myself
-alongside of my game, when I gave him a shot, as I passed him. I saw
-guns flash in several directions about me, but I heard them not. Amidst
-the trampling throng, Mons. Chardon had wounded a stately bull, and at
-this moment was passing him again with his piece levelled for another
-shot; they were both at full speed and I also, within the reach of the
-muzzle of my gun, when the bull instantly turned and receiving the
-horse upon his horns, and the ground received poor Chardon, who made a
-frog’s leap of some twenty feet or more over the bull’s back (+plate+
-9), and almost under my horse’s heels. I wheeled my horse as soon as
-possible and rode back, where lay poor Chardon, gasping to start his
-breath again; and within a few paces of him his huge victim, with his
-heels high in the air, and the horse lying across him. I dismounted
-instantly, but Chardon was raising himself on his hands, with his eyes
-and mouth full of dirt, and feeling for his gun, which lay about thirty
-feet in advance of him. “Heaven spare you! are you hurt, Chardon?”
-“hi—hic——hic———hic————hic—————hic——————no,——hic———no——no, I believe
-not. Oh! this is not much, Mons. Cataline—this is nothing new—but this
-is a d——d hard piece of ground here—hic—oh! hic!” At this the poor
-fellow fainted, but in a few moments arose, picked up his gun, took his
-horse by the bit; which then opened _its_ eyes, and with a _hic_ and a
-_ugh_—+UGHK+! sprang upon its feet—shook off the dirt—and here we were,
-all upon our legs again, save the bull, whose fate had been more sad
-than that of either.
-
-I turned my eyes in the direction where the herd had gone, and
-our companions in pursuit, and nothing could be seen of them, nor
-indication, except the cloud of dust which they left behind them.
-At a little distance on the right, however, I beheld my huge victim
-endeavouring to make as much head-way as he possibly could, from this
-dangerous ground, upon three legs. I galloped off to him, and at my
-approach he wheeled around—and bristled up for battle; he seemed to
-know perfectly well that he could not escape from me, and resolved to
-meet his enemy and death as bravely as possible.
-
-I found that my shot had entered him a little too far forward, breaking
-one of his shoulders, and lodging in his breast, and from his very
-great weight it was impossible for him to make much advance upon me.
-As I rode up within a few paces of him, he would bristle up with fury
-enough in his _looks_ alone, almost to annihilate me (+plate+ 10); and
-making one lunge at me, would fall upon his neck and nose, so that I
-found the sagacity of my horse alone enough to keep me out of reach of
-danger: and I drew from my pocket my sketch-book, laid my gun across
-my lap, and commenced taking his likeness. He stood stiffened up, and
-swelling with awful vengeance, which was sublime for a picture, but
-which he could not vent upon me. I rode around him and sketched him
-in numerous attitudes, sometimes he would lie down, and I would then
-sketch him; then throw my cap at him, and rousing him on his legs,
-rally a new expression, and sketch him again.
-
-[Illustration: 9]
-
-[Illustration: 10]
-
-In this way I added to my sketch-book some invaluable sketches of
-this grim-visaged monster, who knew not that he was standing for his
-likeness.
-
-No man on earth can imagine what is the look and expression of such a
-subject before him as this was. I defy the world to produce another
-animal than can look so frightful as a huge buffalo bull, when wounded
-as he was, turned around for battle, and swelling with rage;—his eyes
-bloodshot, and his long shaggy mane hanging to the ground,—his mouth
-open, and his horrid rage hissing in streams of smoke and blood from
-his mouth and through his nostrils, as he is bending forward to spring
-upon his assailant.
-
-After I had had the requisite time and opportunity for using my pencil,
-M‘Kenzie and his companions came walking their exhausted horses back
-from the chase, and in our rear came four or five carts to carry home
-the meat. The party met from all quarters around me and my buffalo
-bull, whom I then shot in the head and finished. And being seated
-together for a few minutes, each one took a smoke of the pipe, and
-recited his exploits, and his “coups” or deaths; when all parties had
-a hearty laugh at me, as a novice, for having aimed at an old bull,
-whose flesh was not suitable for food, and the carts were escorted on
-the trail, to bring away the meat. I rode back with Mr. M‘Kenzie, who
-pointed out five cows which he had killed, and all of them selected
-as the fattest and slickest of the herd. This astonishing feat was
-all performed within the distance of one mile—all were killed at full
-speed, and every one shot through the heart. In the short space of time
-required for a horse under “full whip,” to run the distance of one
-mile, he had discharged his gun five, and loaded it four times—selected
-his animals, and killed at every shot! There were six or eight others
-killed at the same time, which altogether furnished, as will be seen,
-abundance of freight for the carts; which returned, as well as several
-packhorses, loaded with the choicest parts which were cut from the
-animals, and the remainder of the carcasses left a prey for the wolves.
-
-Such is the mode by which white men live in this country—such the way
-in which they get their food, and such is one of their delightful
-amusements—at the hazard of every bone in one’s body, to feel the fine
-and thrilling exhilaration of the chase for a moment, and then as often
-to upbraid and blame himself for his folly and imprudence.
-
-From this scene we commenced leisurely wending our way back; and
-dismounting at the place where we had stripped, each man dressed
-himself again, or slung his extra articles of dress, &c. across
-his saddle, astride of which he sat; and we rode back to the Fort,
-reciting as we rode, and for twenty-four hours afterwards, deeds of
-chivalry and chase, and hair’s-breadth escapes which each and either
-had fought and run on former occasions. M‘Kenzie, with all the true
-character and dignity of a leader, was silent on these subjects; but
-smiled, while those in his train were reciting for him the astonishing
-and almost incredible deeds of his sinewy arms, which they had
-witnessed in similar scenes; from which I learned (as well as from
-my own observations), that he was reputed (and actually _was_) the
-most distinguished of all the white men who have flourished in these
-regions, in the pursuit and death of the buffalo.
-
-On our return to the Fort, a bottle or two of wine were set forth
-upon the table, and around them a half dozen parched throats were
-soon moistened, and good cheer ensued. Ba’tiste Défonde, Chardon,
-&c., retired to their quarters, enlarging smoothly upon the events
-of our morning’s work; which they were reciting to their wives and
-sweethearts; when about this time the gate of the Fort was thrown open,
-and the procession of carts and packhorses laden with buffalo meat made
-its entrée; gladdening the hearts of a hundred women and children,
-and tickling the noses of as many hungry dogs and puppies, who were
-stealing in and smelling at the tail of the procession. The door of the
-ice-house was thrown open, the meat was discharged into it, and I being
-fatigued, went to sleep.
-
-[Illustration: 11]
-
-
-
-
-                             LETTER—No. 5.
-
-                MOUTH OF YELLOW STONE, _UPPER MISSOURI_.
-
-
-In my former epistle I told you there were encamped about the Fort
-a host of wild, incongruous spirits—chiefs and sachems—warriors,
-braves, and women and children of different tribes—of Crows and
-Blackfeet—Ojibbeways—Assinneboins—and Crees or Knisteneaux. Amongst
-and in the midst of them am I, with my paint pots and canvass, snugly
-ensconced in one of the bastions of the Fort, which I occupy as a
-painting-room. My easel stands before me, and the cool breech of a
-twelve-pounder makes me a comfortable seat, whilst her muzzle is
-looking out at one of the port-holes. The operations of my brush are
-_mysteries_ of the highest order to these red sons of the prairie, and
-my room the earliest and latest place of concentration of these wild
-and jealous spirits, who all meet here to be amused and pay me signal
-honours; but gaze upon each other, sending their sidelong looks of
-deep-rooted hatred and revenge around the group. However, whilst in the
-Fort, their weapons are placed within the arsenal, and naught but looks
-and thoughts can be breathed here; but death and grim destruction will
-visit back those looks upon each other, when these wild spirits again
-are loose and free to breathe and act upon the plains.
-
-I have this day been painting a portrait of the head chief of the
-Blackfoot nation; he is a good-looking and dignified Indian, about
-fifty years of age, and superbly dressed (+plate+ 11); whilst sitting
-for his picture he has been surrounded by his own braves and warriors,
-and also gazed at by his enemies, the Crows and the Knisteneaux,
-Assinneboins and Ojibbeways; a number of distinguished personages of
-each of which tribes, have laid all day around the sides of my room;
-reciting to each other the battles they have fought, and pointing to
-the scalp-locks, worn as proofs of their victories, and attached to
-the seams of their shirts and leggings. This is a curious scene to
-witness, when one sits in the midst of such inflammable and combustible
-materials, brought together, unarmed, for the first time in their
-lives; peaceably and calmly recounting over the deeds of their lives,
-and smoking their pipes upon it, when a few weeks or days will bring
-them on the plains again, where the war-cry will be raised, and their
-deadly bows will again be drawn on each other.
-
-The name of this dignitary, of whom I have just spoken, is
-Stu-mick-o-sucks (the buffalo’s back fat), _i. e._ the “hump” or
-“fleece,” the most delicious part of the buffalo’s flesh. I have
-also painted, of the Blackfeet, Pe-toh-pee-kiss (the eagle ribs),
-and Mix-ke-mote-skin-na (the iron horn), and Wun-nes-tou (the
-white buffalo), and Tcha-aes-sa-ko-mah-pee (the bear’s child), and
-In-ne-o-cose (the buffalo’s child), and half-a-dozen others, and all in
-rich and costly dresses.
-
-There is no tribe, perhaps, on the Continent, who dress more
-comfortably, and more gaudily, than the Blackfeet, unless it be
-the tribe of Crows. There is no great difference, however, in the
-costliness or elegance of their costumes; nor in the materials of which
-they are formed; though there is a distinctive mode in each tribe, of
-stitching or ornamenting with the porcupine quills, which constitute
-one of the principal ornaments to all their fine dresses; and which
-can be easily recognized, by any one a little familiar with their
-modes, as belonging to such or such a tribe. The dress, for instance of
-the chief whom I have just mentioned, and whose portrait I have just
-painted, consists of a shirt or tunic, made of two deer skins finely
-dressed, and so placed together with the necks of the skins downwards,
-and the skins of the hind legs stitched together, the seams running
-down on each arm, from the neck to the knuckles of the hand; this
-seam is covered with a band of two inches in width, of very beautiful
-embroidery of porcupine quills, and suspended from the under edge of
-this, from the shoulders to the hands, is a fringe of the locks of
-black hair, which he has taken from the heads of victims slain by his
-own hand in battle. The leggings are made also of the same material;
-and down the outer side of the leg, from the hip to the feet, extends
-also a similar band or belt of the same width; and wrought in the same
-manner, with porcupine quills, and fringed with scalp locks. These
-locks of hair are procured from scalps, and worn as trophies.
-
-The wife (or squaw) of this dignitary Eeh-nis-kin (the crystal stone),
-I have also placed upon my canvass (+plate+ 13); her countenance is
-rather pleasing, which is an uncommon thing amongst the Blackfeet—her
-dress is made of skins, and being the youngest of a bevy of six or
-eight, and the last one taken under his guardianship, was smiled upon
-with great satisfaction, whilst he exempted her from the drudgeries of
-the camp; and keeping her continually in the halo of his own person,
-watched and guarded her as the apple of his eye. The grandson also
-of this sachem, a boy of six years of age, and too young as yet to
-have acquired a name, has stood forth like a tried warrior; and I
-have painted him at full length (+plate+ 12), with his bow and quiver
-slung, and his robe made of a racoon skin. The history of this child is
-somewhat curious and interesting; his father is dead, and in case of
-the death of the chief, of whom I have spoken, he becomes hereditary
-chief of the tribe. This boy has been twice stolen away by the Crows
-by ingenious stratagems, and twice re-captured by the Blackfeet, at
-considerable sacrifice of life, and at present he is lodged with Mr.
-M‘Kenzie, for safe keeping and protection, until he shall arrive at the
-proper age to take the office to which he is to succeed, and able to
-protect himself.
-
-[Illustration: 13]
-
-[Illustration: 12]
-
-The scalp of which I spoke above, is procured by cutting out a piece
-of the skin of the head, the size of the palm of the hand or less,
-containing the very centre or crown of the head, the place where the
-hair radiates from a point, and exactly over what the phrenologists
-call self-esteem. This patch then is kept and dried with great care, as
-proof positive of the death of an enemy, and evidence of a man’s claims
-as a warrior; and after having been formally “danced,” as the saying
-is, (_i. e._ after it has been stuck up upon a pole or held up by an
-“old woman,” and the warriors have danced around it for two or three
-weeks at intervals,) it is fastened to the handle of a lance, or the
-end of a war-club, or divided into a great many small locks and used
-to fringe and ornament the victor’s dress. When these dresses are seen
-bearing such trophies, it is of course a difficult matter to purchase
-them of the Indian, for they often hold them above all price. I shall
-hereafter take occasion to speak of the scalp-dance; describing it in
-all its parts, and giving a long Letter, at the same time on scalps
-and scalping, an interesting and general custom amongst all the North
-American Indians.
-
-In the chief’s dress, which I am describing, there are his moccasins,
-made also of buckskin, and ornamented in a corresponding manner. And
-over all, his robe, made of the skin of a young buffalo bull, with
-the hair remaining on; and on the inner or flesh side, beautifully
-garnished with porcupine quills, and the battles of his life very
-ingeniously, though rudely, pourtrayed in pictorial representations.
-In his hand he holds a very beautiful pipe, the stem of which is four
-or five feet long, and two inches wide, curiously wound with braids
-of the porcupine quills of various colours; and the bowl of the pipe
-ingeniously carved by himself from a piece of red steatite of an
-interesting character, and which they all tell me is procured somewhere
-between this place and the Falls of St. Anthony, on the head waters of
-the Mississippi.
-
-This curious stone has many peculiar qualities, and has, undoubtedly,
-but one origin in this country, and perhaps in the world. It is found
-but in the hands of the savage, and every tribe, and nearly every
-individual in the tribe has his pipe made of it. I consider this stone
-a subject of great interest, and curiosity to the world; and I shall
-most assuredly make it a point, during my Indian rambles, to visit the
-place from whence it is brought. I have already got a number of most
-remarkable traditions and stories relating to the “sacred quarry;”
-of pilgrimages performed there to procure the stone, and of curious
-transactions that have taken place on that ground. It seems, from all
-I can learn, that all the tribes in these regions, and also of the
-Mississippi and the Lakes, have been in the habit of going to that
-place, and meeting their enemies there, whom they are obliged to treat
-as friends, under an injunction of the Great Spirit.
-
-So then is this sachem (the buffalo’s back fat) dressed; and in a
-very similar manner, and almost the same, is each of the others above
-named; and all are armed with bow and quiver, lance and shield. These
-north-western tribes are all armed with the bow and lance, and
-protected with the shield or arrow fender, which is carried outside of
-the left arm, exactly as the Roman and Grecian shield was carried, and
-for the same purpose.
-
-There is an appearance purely classic in the plight and equipment of
-these warriors and “knights of the lance.” They are almost literally
-always on their horses’ backs, and they wield these weapons with
-desperate effect upon the open plains; where they kill their game
-while at full speed, and contend in like manner in battles with their
-enemy. There is one prevailing custom in these respects, amongst all
-the tribes who inhabit the great plains or prairies of these western
-regions. These plains afford them an abundance of wild and fleet
-horses, which are easily procured; and on their backs at full speed,
-they can come alongside of any animal, which they easily destroy.
-
-The bow with which they are armed is small, and apparently an
-insignificant weapon, though one of great and almost incredible power
-in the hands of its owner, whose sinews have been from childhood
-habituated to its use and service. The length of these bows is
-generally about three feet, and sometimes not more than two and a half
-(+plate+ 18 _a_). They have, no doubt, studied to get the requisite
-power in the smallest compass possible, as it is more easily and
-handily used on horseback than one of greater length. The greater
-number of these bows are made of ash, or of “bois d’arc” (as the
-French call it), and lined on the back with layers of buffalo or
-deer’s sinews, which are inseparably attached to them, and give them
-great elasticity. There are very many also (amongst the Blackfeet
-and the Crows) which are made of bone, and others of the horn of the
-mountain-sheep. Those made of bone are decidedly the most valuable, and
-cannot in this country be procured of a good quality short of the price
-of one or two horses. About these there is a mystery yet to be solved,
-and I advance my opinion against all theories that I have heard in the
-country where they are used and made. I have procured several very fine
-specimens, and when purchasing them have inquired of the Indians, what
-bone they were made of? and in every instance, the answer was, “That’s
-medicine,” meaning that it was a mystery to them, or that they did not
-wish to be questioned about them. The bone of which they are made is
-certainly not the bone of any animal now grazing on the prairies, or
-in the mountains between this place and the Pacific Ocean; for some
-of these bows are three feet in length, of a solid piece of bone, and
-that as close-grained—as hard—as white, and as highly polished as
-any ivory; it cannot, therefore be made from the elks’ horn (as some
-have supposed), which is of a dark colour and porous: nor can it come
-from the buffalo. It is my opinion, therefore, that the Indians on
-the Pacific coast procure the bone from the jaw of the sperm whale,
-which is often stranded on that coast, and bringing the bone into the
-mountains, trade it to the Blackfeet and Crows, who manufacture it into
-these bows without knowing any more than we do, from what source it has
-been procured.
-
-[Illustration: 14]
-
-One of these little bows in the hands of an Indian, on a fleet and
-well-trained horse, with a quiver of arrows slung on his back, is a
-most effective and powerful weapon in the open plains. No one can
-easily credit the force with which these missiles are thrown, and the
-sanguinary effects produced by their wounds, until he has rode by
-the side of a party of Indians in chase of a herd of buffaloes, and
-witnessed the apparent ease and grace with which their supple arms have
-drawn the bow, and seen these huge animals tumbling down and gushing
-out their hearts’ blood from their mouths and nostrils.
-
-Their bows are often made of bone and sinews, and their arrows headed
-with flints or with bones, of their own construction (+plate+ 18, _c_),
-or with steel, as they are now chiefly furnished by the Fur Traders
-quite to the Rocky Mountains (+plate+ 18, _d_). The quiver, which is
-uniformly carried on the back, and made of the panther or otter skins
-(+plate+ 18, _e_) is a magazine of these deadly weapons, and generally
-contains two varieties. The one to be drawn upon an enemy, generally
-poisoned, and with long flukes or barbs, which are designed to hang the
-blade in the wound after the shaft is withdrawn, in which they are but
-slightly glued;—the other to be used for their game, with the blade
-firmly fastened to the shaft, and the flukes inverted; that it may
-easily be drawn from the wound, and used on a future occasion.
-
-Such is the training of men and horses in this country, that this work
-of death and slaughter is simple and easy. The horse is trained to
-approach the animals on the _right_ side, enabling its rider to throw
-his arrows to the left; it runs and approaches without the use of the
-halter, which is hanging loose upon its neck bringing the rider within
-three or four paces of the animal, when the arrow is thrown with great
-ease and certainty to the heart; and instances sometimes occur, where
-the arrow passes entirely through the animal’s body.
-
-An Indian, therefore, mounted on a fleet and well-trained horse, with
-his bow in his hand, and his quiver slung on his back, containing an
-hundred arrows, of which he can throw fifteen or twenty in a minute, is
-a formidable and dangerous enemy. Many of them also ride with a lance
-of twelve or fourteen feet in length (+plate+ 18, _b_), with a blade
-of polished steel; and all of them (as a protection for their vital
-parts), with a shield or arrow-fender made of the skin of the buffalo’s
-neck, which has been smoked, and hardened with glue extracted from the
-hoofs (+plate+ 18). These shields are arrow-proof, and will glance off
-a rifle shot with perfect effect by being turned obliquely, which they
-do with great skill.
-
-This shield or arrow-fender is, in my opinion, made of similar
-materials, and used in the same way, and for the same purpose, as was
-the clypeus or small shield in the Roman and Grecian cavalry. They were
-made in those days as a means of defence on horseback only—made small
-and light, of bull’s hides; sometimes single, sometimes double and
-tripled. Such was Hector’s shield, and of most of the Homeric heroes of
-the Greek and Trojan wars. In those days also were darts or javelins
-and lances; the same were also used by the Ancient Britons; and such
-exactly are now in use amongst the Arabs and the North American Indians.
-
-In this wise then, are all of these wild red knights of the prairie,
-armed and equipped,—and while nothing can possibly be more picturesque
-and thrilling than a troop or war-party of these fellows, galloping
-over these green and endless prairies; there can be no set of mounted
-men of equal numbers, so effective and so invincible in this country
-as they would be, could they be inspired with confidence of their own
-powers and their own superiority; yet this never can be done;—for the
-Indian, as far as the name of white man has travelled, and long before
-he has to try his strength with him, is trembling with fright and fear
-of his approach; he hears of white man’s arts and artifice—his tricks
-and cunning, and his hundred instruments of death and destruction—he
-dreads his approach, shrinks from him with fear and trembling—his
-heart sickens, and his pride and courage wither, at the thoughts of
-contending with an enemy, whom he thinks may war and destroy with
-weapons of _medicine_ or mystery.
-
-Of the Blackfeet, whom I mentioned in the beginning of this Letter, and
-whose portraits are now standing in my room, there is another of whom
-I must say a few words; Pe-toh-pee-kiss, the eagle ribs (+plate+ 14).
-This man is one of the extraordinary men of the Blackfoot tribe; though
-not a chief, he stands here in the Fort, and deliberately boasts of
-eight scalps, which he says he has taken from the heads of trappers and
-traders with his own hand. His dress is really superb, almost literally
-covered with scalp-locks, of savage and civil.
-
-I have painted him at full length, with a head-dress made entirely
-of ermine skins and horns of the buffalo. This custom of wearing
-horns beautifully polished and surmounting the head-dress, is a very
-curious one, being worn only by the bravest of the brave; by the most
-extraordinary men in the nation. Of their importance and meaning, I
-shall say more in a future epistle. When he stood for his picture, he
-also held a lance and two “medicine-bags” in his hand; of lances I have
-spoken,—but “medicine-bags” and “medicine” will be the text for my next
-Letter.
-
-Besides the chiefs and warriors above-named, I have also transferred
-to my canvass the “looks and very resemblance” of an aged chief,
-who combines with his high office, the envied title of mystery or
-medicine-man, _i. e._ doctor—magician—prophet—soothsayer—jongleur—and
-high priest, all combined in one person, who necessarily is looked
-upon as “Sir Oracle” of the nation. The name of this distinguished
-functionary is Wun-nes-tou, the white buffalo (+plate+ 15); and on
-his left arm he presents his mystery-drum or tambour, in which are
-concealed the hidden and sacred mysteries of his healing art.
-
-And there is also In-ne-o-cose, the iron-horn (+plate+ 16), at full
-length, in a splendid dress, with his “medicine-bag” in his hand;
-and Ah-kay-ee-pix-en, the woman who strikes many (+plate+ 17), in a
-beautiful dress of the mountain-goats’ skin, and her robe of the young
-buffalo’s hide.
-
-[Illustration: 15]
-
-[Illustration: 17]
-
-[Illustration: 16]
-
-
-
-
-                             LETTER—No. 6.
-
-                MOUTH OF YELLOW STONE, _UPPER MISSOURI_.
-
-
-Now for medicines or mysteries—for doctors, high-priests, for hocus
-pocus, witchcraft, and animal magnetism!
-
-In the last Letter I spoke of Pe-toh-pee-kiss (the eagle ribs), a
-Blackfoot brave, whose portrait I had just painted at full length, in
-a splendid dress. I mentioned also, that he held two medicine-bags in
-his hand; as they are represented in the picture; both of them made of
-the skins of otters, and curiously ornamented with ermine, and other
-strange things.
-
-I must needs stop here—my painting and every thing else, until I can
-explain the word “_medicine_,” and “_medicine-bag_;” and also some
-_medicine operations_, which I have seen transacted at this place
-within a few days past. “Medicine” is a great word in this country; and
-it is very necessary that one should know the meaning of it, whilst he
-is scanning and estimating the Indian character, which is made up, in a
-great degree, of mysteries and superstitions.
-
-The word medicine, in its common acceptation here, means _mystery_, and
-nothing else; and in that sense I _shall_ use it very frequently in my
-Notes on Indian Manners and Customs.
-
-The Fur Traders in this country, are nearly all French; and in their
-language, a doctor or physician, is called “_Medecin_.” The Indian
-country is full of doctors; and as they are all magicians, and skilled,
-or profess to be skilled, in many mysteries, the word “medecin” has
-become habitually applied to every thing mysterious or unaccountable;
-and the English and Americans, who are also trading and passing through
-this country, have easily and familiarly adopted the same word, with
-a slight alteration, conveying the same meaning; and to be a little
-more explicit, they have denominated these personages “medicine-men,”
-which means something more than merely a doctor or physician. These
-physicians, however, are all _medicine-men_, as they are all supposed
-to deal more or less in mysteries and charms, which are aids and
-handmaids in their practice. Yet it was necessary to give the word or
-phrase a still more comprehensive meaning—as there were many personages
-amongst them, and also amongst the white men who visit the country,
-who could deal in mysteries, though not skilled in the application of
-drugs and medicines; and they all range now, under the comprehensive
-and accommodating phrase of “medicine-men.” For instance, I am a
-“medicine-man” of the highest order amongst these superstitious
-people, on account of the art which I practice; which is a strange and
-unaccountable thing to them, and of course, called the greatest of
-“medicine.” My gun and pistols, which have percussion-locks, are great
-medicine; and no Indian can be prevailed on to fire them off, for they
-say they have nothing to do with white man’s medicine.
-
-The Indians do not use the word medicine, however; but in each tribe
-they have a word of their own construction, synonimous with mystery or
-mystery-man.
-
-The “medicine-bag” then, is a mystery-bag; and its meaning and
-importance necessary to be understood, as it may be said to be the
-key to Indian life and Indian character. These bags are constructed
-of the skins of animals, of birds, or of reptiles, and ornamented and
-preserved in a thousand different ways, as suits the taste or freak of
-the person who constructs them. These skins are generally attached to
-some part of the clothing of the Indian, or carried in his hand—they
-are oftentimes decorated in such a manner as to be exceedingly
-ornamental to his person, and always are stuffed with grass, or moss,
-or something of the kind; and generally without drugs or medicines
-within them, as they are religiously closed and sealed, and seldom, if
-ever, to be opened. I find that every Indian in his primitive state,
-carries his medicine-bag in some form or other, to which he pays the
-greatest homage, and to which he looks for safety and protection
-through life—and in fact, it might almost be called a species of
-idolatry; for it would seem in some instances, as if he actually
-worshipped it. Feasts are often made, and dogs and horses sacrificed,
-to a man’s medicine; and days, and even weeks, of fasting and penance
-of various kinds are often suffered, to appease his medicine, which he
-imagines he has in some way offended.
-
-This curious custom has principally been done away with along the
-frontier, where white men laugh at the Indian for the observance of so
-ridiculous and useless a form; but in this country it is in full force,
-and every male in the tribe carries this, his supernatural charm or
-guardian, to which he looks for the preservation of his life, in battle
-or in other danger; at which times it would be considered ominous of
-bad luck and an ill fate to be without it.
-
-The manner in which this curious and important article is instituted
-is this: a boy, at the age of fourteen or fifteen years, is said to
-be making or “forming his medicine,” when he wanders away from his
-father’s lodge, and absents himself for the space of two or three, and
-sometimes even four or five, days; lying on the ground in some remote
-or secluded spot, crying to the Great Spirit, and fasting the whole
-time. During this period of peril and abstinence, when he falls asleep,
-the first animal, bird, or reptile, of which he dreams (or pretends to
-have dreamed, perhaps), he considers the Great Spirit has designated
-for his mysterious protector through life. He then returns home to his
-father’s lodge, and relates his success; and after allaying his thirst,
-and satiating his appetite, he sallies forth with weapons or traps,
-until he can procure the animal or bird, the skin of which he preserves
-entire, and ornaments it according to his own fancy, and carries
-it with him through life, for “good luck” (as he calls it); as his
-strength in battle—and in death his guardian _Spirit_, that is buried
-with him, and which is to conduct him safe to the beautiful hunting
-grounds, which he contemplates in the world to come.
-
-The value of the medicine-bag to the Indian is beyond all price; for
-to sell it, or give it away, would subject him to such signal disgrace
-in his tribe, that he could never rise above it; and again, his
-superstition would stand in the way of any such disposition of it, for
-he considers it the gift of the Great Spirit. An Indian carries his
-_medicine-bag_ into battle, and trusts to it for his protection; and
-if he loses it thus, when fighting ever so bravely for his country,
-he suffers a disgrace scarcely less than that which occurs in case he
-sells or gives it away; his enemy carries it off and displays it to his
-own people as a trophy; whilst the loser is cut short of the respect
-that is due to other young men of his tribe, and for ever subjected
-to the degrading epithet of “a man without medicine,” or “he who has
-lost his medicine,” until he can replace it again; which can only be
-done, by rushing into battle and plundering one from an enemy whom he
-slays with his own hand. This done, his medicine is restored, and he
-is reinstated again in the estimation of his tribe; and even higher
-than before, for such is called the best of medicine, or “_medicine
-honourable_.”
-
-It is a singular fact, that a man can institute his mystery or
-medicine, but once in his life; and equally singular that he can
-reinstate himself by the adoption of the medicine of his enemy; both
-of which regulations are strong and violent inducements for him to
-fight bravely in battle: the first, that he may protect and preserve
-his medicine; and the second, in case he has been so unlucky as to
-lose it, that he may restore it, and his reputation also, while he is
-desperately contending for the protection of his community.
-
-During my travels thus far, I have been unable to buy a medicine-bag of
-an Indian, although I have offered them extravagant prices for them;
-and even on the frontier, where they have been induced to abandon the
-practice, though a white man may induce an Indian to relinquish his
-medicine, yet he cannot _buy_ it of him—the Indian in such case will
-bury it, to please a white man, and save it from his sacrilegious
-touch; and he will linger around the spot and at regular times visit it
-and pay it his devotions, as long as he lives.
-
-These curious appendages to the persons or wardrobe of an Indian
-(+plate+ 18, _g_), are sometimes made of the skin of an otter, a
-beaver, a musk-rat, a weazel, a racoon, a pole-cat, a snake, a frog,
-a toad, a bat, a mouse, a mole, a hawk, an eagle, a magpie, or a
-sparrow:—sometimes of the skin of an animal so large as a wolf; and
-at others, of the skins of the lesser animals, so small that they
-are hidden under the dress, and very difficult to be found, even if
-searched for.
-
-Such then is the medicine-bag—such its meaning and importance; and when
-its owner dies, it is placed in his grave and decays with his body.
-
-In the case of the portrait of which I spoke in the beginning
-of this Letter, there are seen two medicine-bags in the hand of
-Pe-toh-pee-kiss; the one was of his own instituting, and the other was
-taken from his enemy, whom he had slain in battle; both of these he has
-a right to display and boast of on such an occasion. This is but the
-beginning or incipient stage of “medicines,” however, in this strange
-and superstitious country; and if you have patience, I will carry you
-a few degrees further into the mysteries of conjuration, before I
-close this Letter. Sit still then and read, until I relate a scene of
-a tragic, and yet of the most grotesque character, which took place in
-this Fort a few days since, and to all of which I was an eye-witness.
-The scene I will relate as it transpired precisely; and call it the
-story of the “doctor,” or the “Blackfoot medicine-man.”
-
-Not many weeks since, a party of Knisteneaux came here from the north,
-for the purpose of making their summer’s trade with the Fur Company;
-and, whilst here, a party of Blackfeet, their natural enemies (the
-same who are here now), came from the west, also to trade. These two
-belligerent tribes encamped on different sides of the Fort, and had
-spent some weeks here in the Fort and about it, in apparently good
-feeling and fellowship; unable in fact to act otherwise, for, according
-to a regulation of the Fort their arms and weapons were all locked up
-by M‘Kenzie in his “arsenal,” for the purpose of preserving the peace
-amongst these fighting-cocks.
-
-The Knisteneaux had completed their trade, and loitered about the
-premises, until all, both Indians and white men, were getting tired of
-their company, wishing them quietly off. When they were ready to start,
-with their goods packed upon their backs, their arms were given them,
-and they started; bidding everybody, both friends and foes, a hearty
-farewell. They went out of the Fort, and though the party gradually
-moved off, one of them undiscovered, loitered about the Fort, until he
-got an opportunity to poke the muzzle of his gun through between the
-piquets; when he fired it at one of the chiefs of the Blackfeet, who
-stood within a few paces, talking with Mr. M‘Kenzie, and shot him with
-two musket bullets through the centre of his body! The Blackfoot fell,
-and rolled about upon the ground in the agonies of death. The Blackfeet
-who were in the Fort seized their weapons and ran in a mass out of the
-Fort, in pursuit of the Knisteneaux, who were rapidly retreating to the
-bluffs. The Frenchmen in the Fort, also, at so flagrant and cowardly
-an insult, seized their guns and ran out, joining the Blackfeet in
-the pursuit. I, at that moment, ran to my painting-room in one of the
-bastions overlooking the plain, where I had a fair view of the affair;
-many shots were exchanged back and forward, and a skirmish ensued
-which lasted half an hour; the parties, however, were so far apart
-that little effect was produced; the Knisteneaux were driven off over
-the bluffs, having lost one man and had several others wounded. The
-Blackfeet and Frenchmen returned into the Fort, and then, I saw what
-I never before saw in my life—I saw a “_medicine-man_” performing his
-mysteries over a dying man. The man who had been shot was still living,
-though two bullets had passed through the centre of his body, about two
-inches apart from each other; he was lying on the ground in the agonies
-of death, and no one could indulge the slightest hope of his recovery;
-yet the _medicine-man_ must needs be called (for such a personage they
-had in their party), and hocus pocus applied to the dying man, as the
-dernier resort, when all drugs and all specifics were useless, and
-after all possibility of recovery was extinct!
-
-[Illustration: 18]
-
-I have mentioned that all tribes have their physicians, who are also
-medicine (or mystery) men. These professional gentlemen are worthies
-of the highest order in all tribes. They are regularly called and paid
-as physicians, to prescribe for the sick; and many of them acquire
-great skill in the medicinal world, and gain much celebrity in their
-nation. Their first prescriptions are roots and herbs, of which they
-have a great variety of species; and when these have all failed, their
-last resort is to “_medicine_” or mystery; and for this purpose,
-each one of them has a strange and unaccountable dress, conjured up
-and constructed during a life-time of practice, in the wildest fancy
-imaginable, in which he arrays himself, and makes his last visit to
-his dying patient,—dancing over him, shaking his frightful rattles,
-and singing songs of incantation, in hopes to cure him by a charm.
-There are some instances, of course, where the exhausted patient
-unaccountably recovers, under the application of these absurd forms;
-and in such cases, this ingenious son of _Indian_ Esculapius will be
-seen for several days after, on the top of a wigwam, with his right arm
-extended and waving over the gaping multitude, to whom he is vaunting
-forth, without modesty, the surprising skill he has acquired in his
-art, and the undoubted efficacy of his medicine or mystery. But if, on
-the contrary, the patient dies, he soon changes his dress, and joins in
-doleful lamentations with the mourners; and easily, with his craft, and
-the ignorance and superstition of his people, protects his reputation
-and maintains his influence over them; by assuring them, that it was
-the will of the Great Spirit that his patient should die, and when sent
-for, his feeble efforts must cease.
-
-Such was the case, and such the extraordinary means resorted to in
-the instance I am now relating. Several hundred spectators, including
-Indians and traders, were assembled around the dying man, when it was
-announced that the “_medicine-man_” was coming; we were required to
-“form a ring,” leaving a space of some thirty or forty feet in diameter
-around the dying man, in which the doctor could perform his wonderful
-operations; and a space was also opened to allow him free room to pass
-through the crowd without touching any one. This being done, in a
-few moments his arrival was announced by the death-like “hush——sh——”
-through the crowd; and nothing was to be heard, save the light and
-casual tinkling of the rattles upon his dress, which was scarcely
-perceptible to the ear, as he cautiously and slowly moved through the
-avenue left for him; which at length brought him into the ring, in view
-of the pitiable object over whom his mysteries were to be performed.
-
-Readers! you may have seen or read of the witch of Endor—or you may
-imagine all the ghosts, and spirits, and furies, that ever ranked
-amongst the “rank and file” of demonology; and yet you must see my
-painting of this strange scene before you can form a just conception of
-real frightful ugliness and Indian conjuration—yes, and even more: you
-must see the magic _dress_ of this Indian “big bug” (which I have this
-day procured in all its parts), placed upon the back of some person who
-can imitate the strides, and swells, the grunts, and spring the rattles
-of an Indian magician.
-
-His entrée and his garb were somewhat thus:—he approached the ring
-with his body in a crouching position (+plate+ 19), with a slow and
-tilting step—his body and head were entirely covered with the skin of
-a yellow bear, the head of which (his own head being inside of it)
-served as a mask; the huge claws of which also, were dangling on his
-wrists and ancles; in one hand he shook a frightful rattle, and in the
-other brandished his medicine-spear or magic wand; to the rattling din
-and discord of all of which, he added the wild and startling jumps
-and yelps of the Indian, and the horrid and appalling grunts, and
-snarls, and growls of the grizzly bear, in ejaculatory and guttural
-incantations to the Good and Bad Spirits, in behalf of his patient; who
-was rolling and groaning in the agonies of death, whilst he was dancing
-around him, jumping over him, and pawing him about, and rolling him in
-every direction.
-
-In this wise, this strange operation proceeded for half an hour, to the
-surprise of a numerous and death-like silent audience, until the man
-died; and the medicine-man danced off to his quarters, and packed up,
-and tied and secured from the sight of the world, his mystery dress and
-equipments.
-
-This dress, in all its parts, is one of the greatest curiosities in the
-whole collection of Indian manufactures which I have yet obtained in
-the Indian country. It is the strangest medley and mixture, perhaps of
-the mysteries of the animal and vegetable kingdoms that ever was seen.
-Besides the skin of the yellow bear (which being almost an anomaly in
-that country, is out of the regular order of nature, and, of course,
-great medicine, and converted to a medicine use), there are attached to
-it the skins of many animals, which are also anomalies or deformities,
-which render them, in their estimation, _medicine_; and there are also
-the skins of snakes, and frogs, and bats,—beaks and toes and tails of
-birds,—hoofs of deer, goats, and antelopes; and, in fact, the “odds
-and ends,” and fag ends, and tails, and tips of almost everything that
-swims, flies, or runs, in this part of the wide world.
-
-Such is a medicine-man or a physician, and such is one of his wild
-and ridiculous manœuvres, which I have just witnessed in this strange
-country.
-
-These men, as I before remarked, are valued as dignitaries in the
-tribe, and the greatest respect is paid to them by the whole community;
-not only for their skill in their “materia medica;” but more
-especially for their tact in magic and mysteries, in which they all
-deal to a very great extent. I shall have much more to say of these
-characters and their doings in future epistles, and barely observe in
-the present place, that no tribe is without them;—that in all tribes
-their doctors are conjurors—are magicians—are sooth-sayers, and I had
-like to have said, high-priests, inasmuch as they superintend and
-conduct all their religious ceremonies;—they are looked upon by all
-as oracles of the nation. In all councils of war and peace, they have
-a seat with the chiefs—are regularly consulted before any public step
-is taken, and the greatest deference and respect is paid to their
-opinions.
-
-[Illustration: 19]
-
-
-
-
-                             LETTER—No. 7.
-
-                MOUTH OF YELLOW STONE, _UPPER MISSOURI_.
-
-
-The Letter which I gave you yesterday, on the subject of “medicines”
-and “medicine-men,” has somewhat broken the “thread of my discourse;”
-and left my painting-room (in the bastion), and all the Indians in it,
-and portraits, and buffalo hunts, and landscapes of these beautiful
-regions, to be taken up and discussed; which I will now endeavour to
-do, beginning just where I left (or digressed) off.
-
-I was seated on the cool breech of a twelve-pounder, and had my easel
-before me, and Crows and Blackfeet, and Assinneboins, whom I was
-tracing upon the canvass. And so I have been doing to-day, and shall
-be for several days to come. My painting-room has become so great a
-lounge, and I so great a “medicine-man,” that all other amusements are
-left, and all other topics of conversation and gossip are postponed
-for future consideration. The chiefs have had to place “soldiers”
-(as they are called) at my door, with spears in hand to protect me
-from the throng, who otherwise would press upon me; and none but the
-worthies are allowed to come into my medicine apartments, and none to
-be painted, except such as are decided by the chiefs to be worthy of so
-high an honour.
-
-The Crows and Blackfeet who are here together, are enemies of the
-most deadly kind while out on the plains; but here they sit and smoke
-quietly together, yet with a studied and dignified reserve.
-
-The Blackfeet are, perhaps, one of the most (if not entirely the most)
-numerous and warlike tribes on the Continent. They occupy the whole of
-the country about the sources of the Missouri, from this place to the
-Rocky Mountains; and their numbers, from the best computations, are
-something like forty or fifty thousand—they are (like all other tribes
-whose numbers are sufficiently large to give them boldness) warlike and
-ferocious, _i. e._ they are predatory, are roaming fearlessly about the
-country, even into and through every part of the Rocky Mountains, and
-carrying war amongst their enemies, who are, of course, every tribe who
-inhabit the country about them.
-
-The Crows who live on the head waters of Yellow Stone, and extend from
-this neighbourhood also to the base of the Rocky Mountains, are similar
-in the above respects to the Blackfeet; roaming about a great part of
-the year—and seeking their enemies wherever they can find them.
-
-They are a much smaller tribe than the Blackfeet, with whom they are
-always at war, and from whose great numbers they suffer prodigiously
-in battle; and probably will be in a few years entirely destroyed by
-them.
-
-[Illustration: 20]
-
-The Crows have not, perhaps, more than 7000 in their nation, and
-probably not more than eight hundred warriors or fighting men. Amongst
-the more powerful tribes, like the Sioux and Blackfeet, who have been
-enabled to preserve their warriors, it is a fair calculation to count
-one in five as warriors; but among the Crows and Minatarees, and
-Puncahs, and several other small but warlike tribes, this proportion
-cannot exist; as in some of these I have found two or three women to
-a man in the nation; in consequence of the continual losses sustained
-amongst their men in war, and also whilst pursuing the buffaloes on the
-plains for food, where their lives are exceedingly exposed.
-
-The Blackfeet and the Crows, like the Sioux and Assinneboins, have
-nearly the same mode of constructing their wigwam or lodge; in which
-tribes it is made of buffalo skins sewed together, after being dressed,
-and made into the form of a tent; supported within by some twenty
-or thirty pine poles of twenty-five feet in height, with an apex or
-aperture at the top, through which the smoke escapes and the light
-is admitted. These lodges, or tents, are taken down in a few minutes
-by the squaws, when they wish to change their location, and easily
-transported to any part of the country where they wish to encamp;
-and they generally move some six or eight times in the course of the
-summer; following the immense herds of buffaloes, as they range over
-these vast plains, from east to west, and north to south. The objects
-for which they do this are two-fold,—to procure and dress their skins,
-which are brought in, in the fall and winter, and sold to the Fur
-Company, for white man’s luxury; and also for the purpose of killing
-and drying buffalo meat (+plate+ 22), which they bring in from their
-hunts, packed on their horses’ backs, in great quantities; making
-pemican, and preserving the marrow-fat for their winter quarters; which
-are generally taken up in some heavy-timbered bottom, on the banks of
-some stream, deep imbedded within the surrounding bluffs, which break
-off the winds, and make their long and tedious winter tolerable and
-supportable. They then sometimes erect their skin lodges amongst the
-timber, and dwell in them during the winter months; but more frequently
-cut logs and make a miserable and rude sort of log cabin, in which they
-can live much warmer and better protected from the assaults of their
-enemies, in case they are attacked; in which case a log cabin is a
-tolerable fort against Indian weapons.
-
-The Crows, of all the tribes in this region, or on the Continent,
-make the most beautiful lodge. As I have before mentioned, they
-construct them as the Sioux do, and make them of the same material;
-yet they oftentimes dress the skins of which they are composed almost
-as white as linen, and beautifully garnish them with porcupine
-quills, and paint and ornament them in such a variety of ways, as
-renders them exceedingly picturesque and agreeable to the eye. I have
-procured a very beautiful one of this description (+plate+ 20),
-highly-ornamented, and fringed with scalp-locks, and sufficiently large
-for forty men to dine under. The poles which support it are about
-thirty in number, of pine, and all cut in the Rocky Mountains, having
-been some hundred years, perhaps, in use. This tent, when erected, is
-about twenty-five feet high, and has a very pleasing effect; with the
-Great or Good Spirit painted on one side, and the Evil Spirit on the
-other. If I can ever succeed in transporting it to New York and other
-eastern cities, it will be looked upon as a beautiful and exceedingly
-interesting specimen.
-
-The manner in which an encampment of Indians strike their tents and
-transport them is curious, and to the traveller in this country a very
-novel and unexpected sight, when he first beholds it. Whilst ascending
-the river to this place, I saw an encampment of Sioux, consisting of
-six hundred of these lodges, struck, and all things packed and on the
-move in a very few minutes. The chief sends his runners or criers (for
-such all chiefs keep in their employment) through the village, a few
-hours before they are to start; announcing his determination to move,
-and the hour fixed upon, and the necessary preparations are in the
-meantime making; and at the time announced, the lodge of the chief is
-seen flapping in the wind, a part of the poles having been taken out
-from under it; this is the signal, and in one minute, six hundred of
-them (on a level and beautiful prairie), which before had been strained
-tight and fixed, were seen waving and flapping in the wind, and in one
-minute more all were flat upon the ground. Their horses and dogs, of
-which they had a vast number, had all been secured upon the spot, in
-readiness; and each one was speedily loaded with the burthen allotted
-to it, and ready to fall into the grand procession.
-
-For this strange cavalcade, preparation is made in the following
-manner: the poles of a lodge are divided into two bunches, and the
-little ends of each bunch fastened upon the shoulders or withers of a
-horse, leaving the butt ends to drag behind on the ground on either
-side. Just behind the horse, a brace or pole is tied across, which
-keeps the poles in their respective places; and then upon that and
-the poles behind the horse, is placed the lodge or tent, which is
-rolled up, and also numerous other articles of household and domestic
-furniture, and on the top of all, two, three, and even (sometimes) four
-women and children! Each one of these horses has a conductress, who
-sometimes walks before and leads it, with a tremendous pack upon her
-own back; and at others she sits astride of its back, with a child,
-perhaps, at her breast, and another astride of the horse’s back behind
-her, clinging to her waist with one arm, while it affectionately
-embraces a sneaking dog-pup in the other.
-
-In this way five or six hundred wigwams, with all their furniture
-(+plate+ 21), may be seen drawn out for miles, creeping over the
-grass-covered plains of this country; and three times that number of
-men, on good horses, strolling along in front or on the flank; and, in
-some tribes, in the rear of this heterogeneous caravan, at least five
-times that number of dogs, which fall into the rank, and follow in
-the train and company of the women, and every cur of them, who is large
-enough, and not too cunning to be enslaved, is encumbered with a car or
-sled (or whatever it may be better called), on which he patiently drags
-his load—a part of the household goods and furniture of the lodge to
-which he belongs. Two poles, about fifteen feet long, are placed upon
-the dog’s shoulder, in the same manner as the lodge poles are attached
-to the horses, leaving the larger ends to drag upon the ground behind
-him; on which is placed a bundle or wallet which is allotted to him to
-carry, and with which he trots off amid the throng of dogs and squaws;
-faithfully and cheerfully dragging his load ’till night, and by the way
-loitering and occasionally
-
-    “Catching at little bits of fun and glee
-     That’s played on dogs enslaved by dog that’s free.”
-
-[Illustration: 21]
-
-[Illustration: 22]
-
-The Crows, like the Blackfeet, are beautifully costumed, and perhaps
-with somewhat more of taste and elegance; inasmuch as the skins of
-which their dresses are made are more delicately and whitely dressed.
-The art of dressing skins belongs to the Indians in all countries;
-and the Crows surpass the civilized world in the beauty of their
-skin-dressing. The art of tanning is unknown to them, so far as
-civilized habits and arts have not been taught them; yet the art of
-dressing skins, so far as we have it in the civilized world, has been
-(like hundreds of other ornamental and useful customs which we are
-practising), borrowed from the savage; without our ever stopping to
-enquire from whence they come, or by whom invented.
-
-The usual mode of dressing the buffalo, and other skins, is by
-immersing them for a few days under a lye from ashes and water, until
-the hair can be removed; when they are strained upon a frame or upon
-the ground, with stakes or pins driven through the edges into the
-earth; where they remain for several days, with the brains of the
-buffalo or elk spread upon and over them; and at last finished by
-“graining,” as it is termed, by the squaws; who use a sharpened bone,
-the shoulder-blade or other large bone of the animal, sharpened at the
-edge, somewhat like an adze; with the edge of which they scrape the
-fleshy side of the skin; bearing on it with the weight of their bodies,
-thereby drying and softening the skin, and fitting it for use.
-
-The greater part of these skins, however, go through still another
-operation afterwards, which gives them a greater value, and renders
-them much more serviceable—that is, the process of smoking. For this,
-a small hole is dug in the ground, and a fire is built in it with
-rotten wood, which will produce a great quantity of smoke without
-much blaze; and several small poles of the proper length stuck in the
-ground around it, and drawn and fastened together at the top, around
-which a skin is wrapped in form of a tent, and generally sewed together
-at the edges to secure the smoke within it; within this the skins
-to be smoked are placed, and in this condition the tent will stand a
-day or so, enclosing the heated smoke; and by some chemical process
-or other, which I do not understand, the skins thus acquire a quality
-which enables them, after being ever so many times wet, to dry soft
-and pliant as they were before, which secret I have never yet seen
-practiced in my own country; and for the lack of which, all of our
-dressed skins when once wet, are, I think, chiefly ruined.
-
-An Indian’s dress of deer skins, which is wet a hundred times upon his
-back, dries soft; and his lodge also, which stands in the rains, and
-even through the severity of winter, is taken down as soft and as clean
-as when it was first put up.
-
-A Crow is known wherever he is met by his beautiful white dress, and
-his tall and elegant figure; the greater part of the men being six
-feet high. The Blackfeet on the other hand, are more of the Herculean
-make—about middling stature, with broad shoulders, and great expansion
-of chest; and the skins of which their dresses are made, are chiefly
-dressed black, or of a dark brown colour; from which circumstance, in
-all probability, they having black leggings or moccasins, have got the
-name of Blackfeet.
-
-The Crows are very handsome and gentlemanly Indians in their personal
-appearance: and have been always reputed, since the first acquaintance
-made with them, very civil and friendly.
-
-These people to be sure, have in some instances plundered and robbed
-trappers and travellers in their country; and for that I have sometimes
-heard them called rascals and thieves, and rogues of the first order,
-&c.; yet they do not consider themselves such; for thieving in their
-estimation is a high crime, and considered the most disgraceful act
-that a man can possibly do. They call this _capturing_, where they
-sometimes run off a Trader’s horses, and make their boast of it;
-considering it a kind of retaliation or summary justice, which they
-think it right and honourable that they should administer. And why
-not? for the unlicensed trespass committed through their country from
-one end to the other, by mercenary white men, who are destroying the
-game, and catching all the beaver and other rich and valuable furs
-out of their country, without paying them an equivalent, or, in fact,
-anything at all, for it; and this too, when they have been warned time
-and again of the danger they would be in, if they longer persisted in
-the practice. Reader, I look upon the Indian as the most honest and
-honourable race of people that I ever lived amongst in my life; and in
-their native state, I pledge you my honour they are the last of all
-the human family to pilfer or to steal, if you trust to their honour;
-and for this never-ending and boundless system of theft and plunder,
-and debauchery, that is practiced off upon these rightful owners of
-the soil, by acquisitive white men, I consider the infliction, or
-retaliation, by driving off and appropriating a few horses, but a
-lenient punishment, which those persons at least should expect; and
-which, in fact, none but a very honourable and high-minded people
-could inflict, instead of a much severer one; which they could easily
-practice upon the few white men in their country, without rendering
-themselves amenable to any law.
-
-Mr. M‘Kenzie has repeatedly told me, within the four last weeks, while
-in conversation relative to the Crows, that they were friendly and
-honourable in their dealing with the whites, and that he considered
-them the finest Indians of his acquaintance.
-
-I recollect whilst in St. Louis, and other places at the East, to have
-heard it often said, that the Crows were a rascally and thieving set of
-vagabonds, highway robbers, &c. &c.; and I have been told since, that
-this information has become current in the world, from the fact that
-they made some depredations upon the camp of Messrs. Crooks and Hunt of
-the Fur Company; and drove off a number of their horses, when they were
-passing through the Crow country, on their way to Astoria. This was no
-doubt true; and equally true, would these very Indians tell us, was the
-fact, that they had a good and sufficient reason for it.
-
-These gentlemen, with their party, were crossing the Crow country
-with a large stock of goods, of guns, and ammunition, of knives, and
-spears, arrowheads, &c.; and stopped for some time and encamped in the
-midst of the Crow country (and I think wintered there), when the Crows
-assembled in large numbers about them, and treated them in a kind and
-friendly manner; and at the same time proposed to trade with them for
-guns and ammunition, &c. (according to these gentlemen’s own account,)
-of which they were in great want, and for which they brought a great
-many horses, and offered them repeatedly in trade; which they refused
-to take, persisting in their determination of carrying their goods
-to their destined place, across the mountains; thereby disappointing
-these Indians, by denying them the arms and weapons which were in
-their possession, whilst they were living upon them, and exhausting
-the game and food of their country. No doubt, these gentlemen told the
-Crows, that these goods were going to Astoria, of which place they knew
-nothing; and of course, it was enough for them that they were going to
-take them farther west; which they would at once suppose was to the
-Blackfeet, their principal enemy, having eight or ten warriors to one
-of the Crows; where they supposed the white men could get a greater
-price for their weapons, and arm their enemies in such a way as would
-enable them to turn upon the Crows, and cut them to pieces without
-mercy. Under these circumstances, the Crows rode off, and to show their
-indignation, drove off some of the Company’s horses, for which they
-have ever since been denominated a band of thieves and highway robbers.
-It is a custom, and a part of the system of jurisprudence amongst all
-savages, to revenge upon the person or persons who give the offence,
-if they can; and if not, to let that punishment fall upon the head of
-the first white man who comes in their way, provided the offender was a
-white man. And I would not be surprised, therefore, if I get robbed of
-my horse; and you too, readers, if you go into that country, for that
-very (supposed) offence.
-
-I have conversed often and much with Messrs. Sublette and Campbell,
-two gentlemen of the highest respectability, who have traded with the
-Crows for several years, and they tell me they are one of the most
-honourable, honest, and high-minded races of people on earth; and with
-Mr. Tullock, also, a man of the strictest veracity, who is now here
-with a party of them; and, he says, they never steal,—have a high
-sense of honour,—and being fearless and proud, are quick to punish or
-retaliate.
-
-So much for the character of the Crows for the present, a subject which
-I shall assuredly take up again, when I shall have seen more of them
-myself.
-
-
-
-
-                             LETTER—No. 8.
-
-                MOUTH OF YELLOW STONE, _UPPER MISSOURI_.
-
-
-Since my last Letter, nothing of great moment has transpired at this
-place; but I have been continually employed in painting my portraits
-and making notes on the character and customs of the wild folks who
-are about me. I have just been painting a number of the Crows, fine
-looking and noble gentlemen. They are really a handsome and well-formed
-set of men as can be seen in any part of the world. There is a sort of
-ease and grace added to their dignity of manners, which gives them the
-air of gentlemen at once. I observed the other day, that most of them
-were over six feet high, and very many of these have cultivated their
-natural hair to such an almost incredible length, that it sweeps the
-ground as they walk; there are frequent instances of this kind amongst
-them, and in some cases, a foot or more of it will drag on the grass
-as they walk, giving exceeding grace and beauty to their movements.
-They usually oil their hair with a profusion of bear’s grease every
-morning, which is no doubt one cause of the unusual length to which
-their hair extends; though it cannot be the sole cause of it, for the
-other tribes throughout this country use the bear’s grease in equal
-profusion without producing the same results. The Mandans, however, and
-the Sioux, of whom I shall speak in future epistles, have cultivated
-a very great growth of the hair, as many of them are seen whose hair
-reaches near to the ground.
-
-This extraordinary length of hair amongst the Crows is confined to the
-men alone; for the women, though all of them with glossy and beautiful
-hair, and a great profusion of it, are unable to cultivate it to so
-great a length; or else they are not allowed to compete with their
-lords in a fashion so ornamental (and on which the men so highly pride
-themselves), and are obliged in many cases to cut it short off.
-
-The fashion of long hair amongst the men, prevails throughout all the
-Western and North Western tribes, after passing the Sacs and Foxes; and
-the Pawnees of the Platte, who, with two or three other tribes only,
-are in the habit of shaving nearly the whole head.
-
-The present chief of the Crows, who is called “Long-hair,” and has
-received his name as well as his office from the circumstance of
-having the longest hair of any man in the nation, I have not yet
-seen: but I hope I yet may, ere I leave this part of the country.
-This extraordinary man is known to several gentlemen with whom I am
-acquainted, and particularly to Messrs. Sublette and Campbell, of whom
-I have before spoken, who told me they had lived in his hospitable
-lodge for months together; and assured me that they had measured his
-hair by a correct means, and found it to be ten feet and seven inches
-in length; closely inspecting every part of it at the same time, and
-satisfying themselves that it was the natural growth.
-
-On ordinary occasions it is wound with a broad leather strap, from his
-head to its extreme end, and then folded up into a budget or block, of
-some ten or twelve inches in length, and of some pounds weight; which
-when he walks is carried under his arm, or placed in his bosom, within
-the folds of his robe; but on any great parade or similar occasion, his
-pride is to unfold it, oil it with bear’s grease and let it drag behind
-him, some three or four feet of it spread out upon the grass, and black
-and shining like a raven’s wing.
-
-It is a common custom amongst most of these upper tribes, to splice or
-add on several lengths of hair, by fastening them with glue; probably
-for the purpose of imitating the Crows, upon whom alone Nature has
-bestowed this conspicuous and signal ornament.
-
-Amongst the Crows of distinction now at this place, I have painted the
-portraits of several, who exhibit some striking peculiarities. Amongst
-whom is Chah-ee-chopes, the four wolves (+plate+ 24); a fine looking
-fellow, six feet in stature, and whose natural hair sweeps the grass
-as he walks; he is beautifully clad, and carries himself with the most
-graceful and manly mien—he is in mourning for a brother; and according
-to their custom, has cut off a number of locks of his long hair, which
-is as much as a man can well spare of so valued an ornament, which he
-has been for the greater part of his life cultivating; whilst a woman
-who mourns for a husband or child, is obliged to crop her hair short to
-her head, and so remain till it grows out again; ceasing gradually to
-mourn as her hair approaches to its former length.
-
-Duhk-pits-a-ho-shee, the red bear (+plate+ 26), a distinguished
-warrior; and Oo-je-en-a-he-ha, the woman who lives in the bear’s den
-(+plate+ 25). I have also painted Pa-ris-ka-roo-pa (two crows) the
-younger (+plate+ 27), one of the most extraordinary men in the Crow
-nation; not only for his looks, from the form of his head, which seems
-to be distortion itself—and curtailed of all its fair proportions; but
-from his extraordinary sagacity as a counsellor and orator, even at an
-early stage of his life.
-
-There is something very uncommon in this outline, and sets forth the
-striking peculiarity of the Crow tribe, though rather in an exaggerated
-form. The semi-lunar outline of the Crow head, with an exceedingly low
-and retreating forehead, is certainly a very peculiar and striking
-characteristic; and though not so strongly marked in most of the tribe
-as in the present instance, is sufficient for their detection whenever
-they are met; and will be subject for further comment in another place.
-
-The Crow women (and Blackfeet also) are not handsome, and I shall at
-present say but little of them. They are, like all other Indian
-women, the slaves of their husbands: being obliged to perform all the
-domestic duties and drudgeries of the tribe, and not allowed to join
-in their religious rites or ceremonies, nor in the dance or other
-amusements.
-
-[Illustration: 24 25]
-
-[Illustration: 26 27]
-
-The women in all these upper and western tribes are decently dressed,
-and many of them with great beauty and taste; their dresses are all of
-deer or goat skins, extending from their chins quite down to the feet;
-these dresses are in many instances trimmed with ermine, and ornamented
-with porcupine quills and beads with exceeding ingenuity.
-
-The Crow and Blackfeet women, like all others I ever saw in any Indian
-tribe, divide the hair on the forehead, and paint the separation or
-crease with vermilion or red earth. For what purpose this little, but
-universal, custom is observed, I never have been able to learn.
-
-The men amongst the Blackfeet tribe, have a fashion equally simple, and
-probably of as little meaning, which seems strictly to be adhered to
-by every man in the tribe; they separate the hair in two places on the
-forehead, leaving a lock between the two, of an inch or two in width,
-which is carefully straightened down on to the bridge of the nose, and
-there cut square off. It is more than probable that this is done for
-the purpose of distinction; that they may thereby be free from the
-epithet of effeminacy, which might otherwise attach to them.
-
-These two tribes, whom I have spoken of connectedly, speak two distinct
-and entirely dissimilar languages; and the language of each is
-different, and radically so, from that of all other tribes about them.
-As these people are always at war, and have been, time out of mind,
-they do not intermarry or hold converse with each other, by which any
-knowledge of each other’s language could be acquired. It would be the
-work of a man’s life-time to collect the languages of all the different
-tribes which I am visiting; and I shall, from necessity, leave this
-subject chiefly for others, who have the time to devote to them, to
-explain them to the world. I have, however, procured a brief vocabulary
-of their words and sentences in these tribes; and shall continue to do
-so amongst the tribes I shall visit, which will answer as a specimen
-or sample in each; and which, in the sequel to these Letters (if they
-should ever be published), will probably be arranged.
-
-The Blackfeet are, perhaps, the most powerful tribe of Indians on
-the Continent; and being sensible of their strength, have stubbornly
-resisted the Traders in their country, who have been gradually forming
-an acquaintance with them, and endeavouring to establish a permanent
-and profitable system of trade. Their country abounds in beaver and
-buffalo, and most of the fur-bearing animals of North America; and
-the American Fur Company, with an unconquerable spirit of trade and
-enterprize, has pushed its establishments into their country; and the
-numerous parties of trappers are tracing up their streams and rivers,
-rapidly destroying the beavers which dwell in them. The Blackfeet
-have repeatedly informed the Traders of the Company, that if their
-men persisted in trapping beavers in their country, they should kill
-them whenever they met them. They have executed their threats in many
-instances, and the Company loses some fifteen or twenty men annually,
-who fall by the hands of these people, in defence of what they deem
-their property and their rights. Trinkets and whiskey, however, will
-soon spread their charms amongst these, as they have amongst other
-tribes; and white man’s voracity will sweep the prairies and the
-streams of their wealth, to the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Ocean;
-leaving the Indians to inhabit, and at last to starve upon, a dreary
-and solitary waste.
-
-The Blackfeet, therefore, having been less traded with, and less seen
-by white people than most of the other tribes, are more imperfectly
-understood; and it yet remains a question to be solved—whether there
-are twenty, or forty or fifty thousand of them? for no one, as yet, can
-correctly estimate their real strength. From all I can learn, however,
-which is the best information that can be got from the Traders, there
-are not far from 40,000 Indians (altogether), who range under the
-general denomination of Blackfeet.
-
-From our slight and imperfect knowledge of them, and other tribes
-occupying the country about the sources of the Missouri, there is no
-doubt in my mind, that we are in the habit of bringing more Indians
-into the computation, than are entitled justly to the appellation of
-“Blackfeet.”
-
-Such, for instance, are the “Grosventres de Prairie” and Cotonnés,
-neither of which speak the Blackfeet language; but hunt, and eat,
-and fight, and intermarry with the Blackfeet; living therefore in a
-state of confederacy and friendship with them, but speaking their own
-language, and practicing their own customs.
-
-The Blackfeet proper are divided into four bands or families, as
-follow:—the “Pe-a-gans,” of 500 lodges; the “Blackfoot” band, of 450
-lodges; the “Blood” band, of 450 lodges; and the “Small Robes,” of 250
-lodges. These four bands constituting about 1650 lodges, averaging ten
-to the lodge, amount to about 16,500 souls.
-
-There are then of the other tribes above-mentioned (and whom we,
-perhaps, incorrectly denominate Blackfeet), Grosventres des Prairies,
-430 lodges, with language entirely distinct; Circees, of 220 lodges,
-and Cotonnés, of 250 lodges, with language also distinct from either.[1]
-
-There is in this region a rich and interesting field for the linguist
-of the antiquarian; and stubborn facts, I think, if they could be well
-procured, that would do away the idea which many learned gentlemen
-entertain, that the Indian languages of North America can all be
-traced to two or three roots. The language of the Dohcotas is entirely
-and radically distinct from that of the Mandans, and theirs equally so
-from the Blackfoot and the Crows. And from the lips of Mr. Brazeau, a
-gentleman of education and strict observation, who has lived several
-years with the Blackfeet and Shiennes, and who speaks the language of
-tribes on either side of them, assures me that these languages are
-radically distinct and dissimilar, as I have above stated; and also,
-that although he has been several years amongst those tribes, he has
-not been able to trace the slightest resemblance between the Circee,
-Cotonné, and Blackfoot, and Shienne, and Crow, and Mandan tongues; and
-from a great deal of corroborating information, which I have got from
-other persons acquainted with these tribes, I am fully convinced of the
-correctness of his statements.
-
-Besides the Blackfeet and Crows, whom I told you were assembled at
-this place, are also the Knisteneaux (or Crees, as they are commonly
-called), a very pretty and pleasing tribe of Indians, of about 3000
-in number, living on the north of this, and also the Assinneboins and
-Ojibbeways; both of which tribes also inhabit the country to the north
-and north-east of the mouth of Yellow Stone.
-
-The Knisteneaux are of small stature, but well-built for strength and
-activity combined; are a people of wonderful prowess for their numbers,
-and have waged an unceasing warfare with the Blackfeet, who are their
-neighbours and enemies on the west. From their disparity in numbers
-they are rapidly thinning the ranks of their warriors, who bravely
-sacrifice their lives in contentions with their powerful neighbours.
-This tribe occupy the country from the mouth of the Yellow Stone, in
-a north-western direction, far into the British territory, and trade
-principally at the British N. W. Company’s Posts.
-
-The Assinneboins of seven thousand, and the Ojibbeways of six thousand,
-occupy a vast extent of country, in a north-eastern direction from
-this; extending also into the British possessions as high north as
-Lake Winnepeg; and trading principally with the British Company. These
-three tribes are in a state of nature, living as neighbours, and are
-also on terms of friendship with each other. This friendship, however,
-is probably but a temporary arrangement, brought about by the Traders
-amongst them; and which, like most Indian peace establishments, will be
-of short duration.
-
-The Ojibbeways are, undoubtedly, a part of the tribe of Chippeways,
-with whom we are more familiarly acquainted, and who inhabit the
-south-west shore of Lake Superior. Their language is the same, though
-they are separated several hundred miles from any of them, and seem to
-have no knowledge of them, or traditions of the manner in which, or of
-the time when, they became severed from each other.
-
-The Assinneboins are a part of the Dohcotas, or Sioux, undoubtedly; for
-their personal appearance as well as their language is very similar.
-
-At what time, or in what manner, these two parts of a nation got
-strayed away from each other is a mystery; yet such cases have often
-occurred, of which I shall say more in future. Large parties who
-are straying off in pursuit of game, or in the occupation of war,
-are oftentimes intercepted by their enemy; and being prevented from
-returning, are run off to a distant region, where they take up their
-residence and establish themselves as a nation.
-
-There is a very curious custom amongst the Assinneboins, from which
-they have taken their name; a name given them by their neighbours,
-from a singular mode they have of boiling their meat, which is done in
-the following manner:—when they kill meat, a hole is dug in the ground
-about the size of a common pot, and a piece of the raw hide of the
-animal, as taken from the back, is put over the hole, and then pressed
-down with the hands close around the sides, and filled with water. The
-meat to be boiled is then put in this hole or pot of water; and in a
-fire, which is built near by, several large stones are heated to a red
-heat, which are successively dipped and held in the water until the
-meat is boiled; from which singular and peculiar custom, the Ojibbeways
-have given them the appellation of Assinneboins or stone boilers.
-
-This custom is a very awkward and tedious one, and used only as an
-ingenious means of boiling their meat, by a tribe who was too rude and
-ignorant to construct a kettle or pot.
-
-The Traders have recently supplied these people with pots; and even
-long before that, the Mandans had instructed them in the secret of
-manufacturing very good and serviceable earthen pots; which together
-have entirely done away the custom, excepting at public festivals;
-where they seem, like all others of the human family, to take pleasure
-in cherishing and perpetuating their ancient customs.
-
-Of these three tribes, I have also lined my painting-room with a number
-of very interesting portraits of the distinguished and brave men; and
-also representations of their games and ceremonies, which will be found
-in my +Indian Gallery+, if I live, and they can be preserved until I
-get home.
-
-The Assinneboins, or stone boilers, are a fine and noble looking race
-of Indians; bearing, both in their looks and customs, a striking
-resemblance to the Dohcotas or Sioux, from whom they have undoubtedly
-sprung. The men are tall, and graceful in their movements; and wear
-their pictured robes of the buffalo hide with great skill and pleasing
-effect. They are good hunters, and tolerably supplied with horses;
-and living in a country abounding with buffaloes, are well supplied
-with the necessaries of Indian life, and may be said to live well.
-Their games and amusements are many, of which the most valued one is
-the ball-play; and in addition to which, they have the game of the
-moccasin, horse-racing, and dancing; some one of which, they seem to be
-almost continually practicing, and of all of which I shall hereafter
-give the reader (as well as of many others of their amusements) a
-minute account.
-
-Their dances, which were frequent and varied, were generally exactly
-the same as those of the Sioux, of which I have given a faithful
-account in my Notes on the Sioux, and which the reader will soon
-meet with. There was one of these scenes, however, that I witnessed
-the other day, which appeared to me to be peculiar to this tribe,
-and exceedingly picturesque in its effect; which was described to me
-as the _pipe-dance_, and was as follows:—On a hard-trodden pavement
-in front of their village, which place is used for all their public
-meetings, and many of their amusements, the young men, who were to
-compose the dance, had gathered themselves around a small fire (+plate+
-32), and each one seated on a buffalo-robe spread upon the ground.
-In the centre and by the fire, was seated a dignitary, who seemed
-to be a chief (perhaps a doctor or medicine-man), with a long pipe
-in his hand, which he lighted at the fire and smoked incessantly,
-grunting forth at the same time, in half-strangled gutturals, a sort
-of song, which I did not get translated to my satisfaction, and which
-might have been susceptible of none. While this was going on, another
-grim-visaged fellow in another part of the group, commenced beating
-on a drum or tambourine, accompanied by his voice; when one of the
-young men seated, sprang instantly on his feet, and commenced singing
-in time with the taps of the drum, and leaping about on one foot and
-the other in the most violent manner imaginable. In this way he went
-several times around the circle, bowing and brandishing his fists in
-the faces of each one who was seated, until at length he grasped one of
-them by the hands, and jerked him forcibly up upon his feet; who joined
-in the dance for a moment, leaving the one who had pulled him up, to
-continue his steps and his song in the centre of the ring; whilst he
-danced around in a similar manner, jerking up another, and then joining
-his companion in the centre; leaving the third and the fourth, and
-so on to drag into the ring, each one his man, until all were upon
-their feet; and at last joined in the most frightful gesticulations
-and yells that seemed almost to make the earth quake under our feet.
-This strange manœuvre, which I did but partially understand, lasted
-for half or three-quarters of an hour; to the great amusement of the
-gaping multitude who were assembled around, and broke up with the most
-piercing yells and barks like those of so many affrighted dogs.
-
-The Assinneboins, somewhat like the Crows, cultivate their hair to
-a very great length, in many instances reaching down nearly to the
-ground; but in most instances of this kind, I find the great length is
-produced by splicing or adding on several lengths, which are fastened
-very ingeniously by means of glue, and the joints obscured by a sort
-of paste of red earth and glue, with which the hair is at intervals of
-every two or three inches filled, and divided into locks and slabs of
-an inch or so in breadth, and falling straight down over the back to
-the heels.
-
-I have painted the portrait of a very distinguished young man, and son
-of the chief (+plate+ 28); his dress is a very handsome one, and in
-every respect answers well to the descriptions I have given above. The
-name of this man is Wi-jun-jon (the pigeon’s egg head), and by the side
-of him (+plate+ 29) will be seen the portrait of his wife, Chin-cha-pee
-(the fire bug that creeps), a fine looking squaw, in a handsome dress
-of the mountain-sheep skin, holding in her hand a stick curiously
-carved, with which every woman in this country is supplied; for the
-purpose of digging up the “Pomme Blanche,” or prairie turnip, which is
-found in great quantities in these northern prairies, and furnishes the
-Indians with an abundant and nourishing food. The women collect these
-turnips by striking the end of the stick into the ground, and prying
-them out; after which they are dried and preserved in their wigwams for
-use during the season.
-
-I have just had the satisfaction of seeing this travelled-gentleman
-(Wi-jun-jon) meet his tribe, his wife and his little children; after an
-absence of a year or more, on his journey of 6000 miles to Washington
-City, and back again (in company with Major Sanford, the Indian agent);
-where he has been spending the winter amongst the fashionables in the
-polished circles of civilized society. And I can assure you, readers,
-that his entrée amongst his own people, in the dress and with the airs
-of a civilized beau, was one of no ordinary occurrence; and produced no
-common sensation amongst the red-visaged Assinneboins, or in the minds
-of those who were travellers, and but spectators to the scene.
-
-On his way home from St. Louis to this place, a distance of 2000 miles,
-I travelled with this gentleman, on the steamer Yellow-Stone; and
-saw him step ashore (on a beautiful prairie, where several thousands
-of his people were encamped), with a complete suit _en militaire_,
-a colonel’s uniform of blue, presented to him by the President of
-the United States, with a beaver hat and feather, with epaulettes of
-gold—with sash and belt, and broad sword; with high-heeled boots—with
-a keg of whiskey under his arm, and a blue umbrella in his hand. In
-this plight and metamorphose, he took his position on the bank, amongst
-his friends—his wife and other relations; not one of whom exhibited,
-for an half-hour or more, the least symptoms of recognition, although
-they knew well who was before them. He also gazed upon them—upon his
-wife and parents, and little children, who were about, as if they were
-foreign to him, and he had not a feeling or thought to interchange with
-them. Thus the mutual gazings upon and from this would-be-stranger,
-lasted for full half an hour; when a gradual, but cold and exceedingly
-formal recognition began to take place, and an acquaintance ensued,
-which ultimately and smoothly resolved itself, without the least
-apparent emotion, into its former state; and the mutual kindred
-intercourse seemed to flow on exactly where it had been broken off,
-as if it had been but for a moment, and nothing had transpired in the
-interim to check or change its character or expression.
-
-Such is one of the stoic instances of a custom which belongs to all the
-North American Indians, forming one of the most striking features in
-their character; valued, cherished and practiced, like many others
-of their strange notions, for reasons which are difficult to be learned
-or understood; and which probably will never be justly appreciated by
-others than themselves.
-
-[Illustration: 29 28]
-
-[Illustration: 30 31]
-
-[Illustration: 32]
-
-This man, at this time, is creating a wonderful sensation amongst
-his tribe, who are daily and nightly gathered in gaping and listless
-crowds around him, whilst he is descanting upon what he has seen in the
-fashionable world; and which to them is unintelligible and beyond their
-comprehension; for which I find they are already setting him down as a
-liar and impostor.
-
-What may be the final results of his travels and initiation into the
-fashionable world, and to what disasters his incredible narrations
-may yet subject the poor fellow in this strange land, time only will
-develop.
-
-He is now in disgrace, and spurned by the leading men of the tribe, and
-rather to be pitied than envied, for the advantages which one might
-have supposed would have flown from his fashionable tour. More of this
-curious occurrence and of this extraordinary man, I will surely give in
-some future epistles.
-
-The women of this tribe are often comely, and sometimes pretty;
-in +plate+ 34, will be seen a fair illustration of the dresses of
-the women and children, which are usually made of the skins of the
-mountain-goat, and ornamented with porcupine’s quills and rows of elk’s
-teeth.
-
-The Knisteneaux (or Crees, as they are more familiarly called in this
-country) are a very numerous tribe, extending from this place as high
-north as the shores of Lake Winnepeg; and even much further in a
-north-westerly direction, towards, and even through, a great part of
-the Rocky Mountains.
-
-I have before said of these, that they were about 3000 in numbers—by
-that, I meant but a small part of this extensive tribe, who are in the
-habit of visiting the American Fur Company’s Establishment, at this
-place, to do their trading; and who themselves, scarcely know anything
-of the great extent of country over which this numerous and scattered
-family range. Their customs may properly be said to be primitive, as no
-inroads of civilized habits have been as yet successfully made amongst
-them. Like the other tribes in these regions, they dress in skins, and
-gain their food, and conduct their wars in a very similar manner. They
-are a very daring and most adventurous tribe; roaming vast distances
-over the prairies and carrying war into their enemy’s country. With the
-numerous tribe of Blackfeet, they are always waging an uncompromising
-warfare; and though fewer in numbers and less in stature, they have
-shewn themselves equal in sinew, and not less successful in mortal
-combats.
-
-Amongst the foremost and most renowned of their warriors, is
-Bro-cas-sie, the broken arm (+plate+ 30), in a handsome dress; and by
-the side of him (+plate+ 31), his wife, a simple and comely looking
-woman. In +plate+ 33, will be seen the full length portrait of a young
-woman with a child on her back, shewing fairly the fashion of cutting
-and ornamenting the dresses of the females in this tribe; which,
-without further comment, is all I shall say at this time, of the
-valorous tribe of Crees or Knisteneaux.
-
-The Ojibbeways I have briefly mentioned in a former place, and of them
-should say more; which will be done at a proper time, after I shall
-have visited other branches of this great and scattered family.
-
-The chief of that part of the Ojibbeway tribe who inhabit these
-northern regions (+plate+ 35), and whose name is Sha-co-pay (the Six),
-is a man of huge size; with dignity of manner, and pride and vanity,
-just about in proportion to his bulk. He sat for his portrait in a most
-beautiful dress, fringed with scalp locks in profusion; which he had
-snatched, in his early life from his enemies’ heads, and now wears as
-proud trophies and proofs of what his arm has accomplished in battles
-with his enemies. His shirt of buckskin is beautifully embroidered and
-painted in curious hieroglyphics, the history of his battles and charts
-of his life. This, and also each and every article of his varied dress,
-had been manufactured by his wives, of which he had several; and one,
-though not the most agreeable (+plate+ 36), is seen represented by his
-side.
-
-I have much to see of these people yet, and much consequently to write;
-so for the present I close my book.
-
-  [1] Several years since writing the above, I held a conversation
-  with Major Pilcher (a strictly correct and honourable man, who was
-  then the agent for these people, who has lived amongst them, and is
-  at this time superintendent of Indian affairs at St. Louis), who
-  informed me, much to my surprise, that the Blackfeet were not far
-  from 60,000 in numbers, including all the confederacy of which I
-  have just spoken.
-
-
-
-
-                             LETTER—No. 9.
-
-                MOUTH OF YELLOW STONE, _UPPER MISSOURI_.
-
-
-Since the dates of my other Letters from this place, I have been taking
-some wild rambles about this beautiful country of green fields; jolted
-and tossed about, on horseback and on foot, where pen, ink, and paper
-never thought of going; and of course the most that I saw and have
-learned, and would tell to the world, is yet to be written. It is not
-probable, however, that I shall again date a letter at this place, as I
-commence, in a few days, my voyage down the river in a canoe; but yet
-I may give you many a retrospective glance at this fairy land and its
-amusements.
-
-A traveller on his tour through such a country as this, has no time to
-write, and scarcely time enough to moralize. It is as much as he can
-_well_ do to “look out for his _scalp_,” and “for _something to eat_.”
-Impressions, however, of the most vivid kind, are rapidly and indelibly
-made by the fleeting incidents of savage life; and for the mind that
-can ruminate upon them with pleasure, there are abundant materials
-clinging to it for its endless entertainment in driving the quill
-when he gets back. The mind susceptible of such impressions catches
-volumes of incidents which are easy to write—it is but to unfold a web
-which the fascinations of this _shorn_ country and its allurements
-have spun over the soul—it is but to paint the splendid panorama of a
-world entirely different from anything seen or painted before; with its
-thousands of miles, and tens of thousands of grassy hills and dales,
-where nought but silence reigns, and where the soul of a contemplative
-mould is seemingly lifted up to its Creator. What man in the world,
-I would ask, ever ascended to the pinnacle of one of Missouri’s
-green-carpeted bluffs, a thousand miles severed from his own familiar
-land, and giddily gazed over the interminable and boundless ocean of
-grass-covered hills and valleys which lie beneath him, where the gloom
-of _silence_ is complete—where not even the voice of the sparrow or
-cricket is heard—without feeling a sweet melancholy come over him,
-which seemed to drown his sense of everything beneath and on a level
-with him?
-
-It is but to paint a vast country of green fields, where the _men_
-are all _red_—where _meat_ is the staff of life—where no _laws_, but
-those of _honour_, are known—where the oak and the pine give way
-to the cotton-wood and peccan—where the buffaloes range, the elk,
-mountain-sheep, and the fleet-bounding antelope—where the magpie and
-chattering parroquettes supply the place of the red-breast and the
-blue-bird—where wolves are white and bears grizzly—where pheasants are
-hens of the prairie, and frogs have horns!—where the rivers are yellow,
-and white men are turned savages in looks. Through the whole of this
-strange land the dogs are all wolves—women all slaves—men all lords.
-The _sun_ and _rats_ alone (of all the list of old acquaintance), could
-be recognised in this country of strange metamorphose. The former shed
-everywhere his familiar rays; and Monsr. Ratapon was hailed as an old
-acquaintance, which it gave me pleasure to meet; though he had grown a
-little more _savage_ in his look.
-
-In traversing the immense regions of the _classic_ West, the mind of
-a philanthropist is filled to the brim with feelings of admiration;
-but to reach this country, one is obliged to descend from the light
-and glow of civilized atmosphere, through the different grades of
-civilization, which gradually sink to the most deplorable condition
-along the extreme frontier; thence through the most pitiable misery
-and wretchedness of savage degradation; where the genius of natural
-liberty and independence have been blasted and destroyed by the
-contaminating vices and dissipations introduced by the immoral part of
-_civilized_ society. Through this dark and sunken vale of wretchedness
-one hurries, as through a pestilence, until he gradually rises again
-into the proud and chivalrous pale of savage society, in its state of
-original nature, beyond the reach of civilized contamination; here he
-finds much to fix his enthusiasm upon, and much to admire. Even here,
-the predominant passions of the savage breast, of ferocity and cruelty,
-are often found; yet _restrained_, and frequently _subdued_, by the
-noblest traits, of honour and magnanimity,—a race of men who live and
-enjoy life and its luxuries, and practice its virtues, very far beyond
-the usual estimation of the world, who are apt to judge the savage and
-his virtues from the poor, degraded, and humbled specimens which alone
-can be seen along our frontiers. From the first settlements of our
-Atlantic coast to the present day, the bane of this _blasting frontier_
-has regularly crowded upon them, from the northern to the southern
-extremities of our country; and, like the fire in a prairie, which
-destroys everything where it passes, it has blasted and sunk them, and
-all but their names, into oblivion, wherever it has travelled. It is to
-this tainted class alone that the epithet of “poor, naked, and drunken
-savage,” can be, with propriety, applied; for all those numerous tribes
-which I have visited, and are yet uncorrupted by the vices of civilized
-acquaintance, are well clad, in many instances cleanly, and in the
-full enjoyment of life and its luxuries. It is for the character and
-preservation of these noble fellows that I am an enthusiast; and it is
-for these uncontaminated people that I would be willing to devote the
-energies of my life. It is a sad and melancholy truth to contemplate,
-that all the numerous tribes who inhabited our vast Atlantic States
-_have not_ “fled to the West;”—that they are not to be found here—that
-they have been blasted by the fire which has passed over them—have
-sunk into their graves, and everything but their names travelled into
-oblivion.
-
-[Illustration: 33]
-
-[Illustration: 34]
-
-[Illustration: 35]
-
-[Illustration: 36]
-
-The distinctive character of all these Western Indians, as well as
-their traditions relative to their ancient locations, prove beyond a
-doubt, that they have been for a very long time located on the soil
-which they now possess; and in most respects, distinct and unlike those
-nations who formerly inhabited the Atlantic coast, and who (according
-to the erroneous opinion of a great part of the world), have fled to
-the West.
-
-It is for these inoffensive and unoffending people, yet unvisited by
-the vices of civilized society, that I would proclaim to the world,
-that it is time, for the honour of our country—for the honour of
-every citizen of the republic—and for the sake of humanity, that our
-government should raise her strong arm to save the remainder of them
-from the pestilence which is rapidly advancing upon them. We have
-gotten from them territory enough, and the country which they now
-inhabit is most of it too barren of timber for the use of civilized
-man; it affords them, however, the means and luxuries of savage life;
-and it is to be hoped that our government will not acquiesce in the
-continued wilful destruction of these happy people.
-
-My heart has sometimes almost bled with pity for them, while amongst
-them, and witnessing their innocent amusements, as I have contemplated
-the inevitable bane that was rapidly advancing upon them; without that
-check from the protecting arm of government, and which alone could
-shield them from destruction.
-
-What degree of happiness these sons of Nature may attain to in the
-world, in their own way; or in what proportion they may relish the
-pleasures of life, compared to the sum of happiness belonging to
-civilized society, has long been a subject of much doubt, and one which
-I cannot undertake to decide at this time. I would say thus much,
-however, that if the thirst for knowledge has entailed everlasting
-miseries on mankind from the beginning of the world; if refined
-and intellectual pains increase in proportion to our intellectual
-pleasures, I do not see that we gain much advantage over them on that
-score; and judging from the full-toned enjoyment which beams from their
-happy faces, I should give it as my opinion, that their lives were
-much more happy than ours; that is, if the word happiness is properly
-applied to the enjoyments of those who have not experienced the light
-of the Christian religion. I have long looked with the eye of a critic,
-into the jovial faces of these sons of the forest, unfurrowed with
-cares—where the agonizing feeling of poverty had never stamped distress
-upon the brow. I have watched the bold, intrepid step—the proud, yet
-dignified deportment of Nature’s man, in fearless freedom, with a soul
-unalloyed by mercenary lusts, too great to yield to laws or power
-except from God. As these independent fellows are all joint-tenants of
-the soil, they are all rich, and none of the steepings of comparative
-poverty can strangle their just claims to renown. Who (I would ask)
-can look without admiring, into a society where peace and harmony
-prevail—where virtue is cherished—where rights are protected, and
-wrongs are redressed—with no laws, but the laws of honour, which are
-the supreme laws of their land. Trust the boasted virtues of civilized
-society for awhile, with all its intellectual refinements, to such a
-tribunal, and then write down the degradation of the “lawless savage,”
-and our trancendent virtues.
-
-As these people have no laws, the sovereign right of summary redress
-lies in the breast of the party (or friends of the party) aggrieved;
-and infinitely more dreaded is the certainty of cruel revenge from
-the licensed hands of an offended savage, than the slow and uncertain
-vengeance of the law.
-
-If you think me _enthusiast_, be it so; for I deny it not. It has
-ever been the predominant passion of my soul to seek Nature’s wildest
-haunts, and give my hand to Nature’s men. Legends of _these_, and
-visits to _those_, filled the earliest page of my juvenile impressions.
-
-The tablet has stood, and I am an enthusiast for God’s works as He left
-them.
-
-The sad tale of my native “valley,”[2] has been beautifully sung; and
-from the flight of “Gertrude’s” soul, my young imagination closely
-traced the savage to his deep retreats, and gazed upon him in dreadful
-horror, until pity pleaded, and admiration worked a charm.
-
-A journey of 4000 miles from the Atlantic shore, regularly receding
-from the centre of civilized society to the extreme wilderness of
-Nature’s original work, and back again, opens a book for many an
-interesting tale to be sketched; and the mind which lives, but to
-relish the works of Nature, reaps a reward on such a tour of a much
-higher order than can arise from the selfish expectations of pecuniary
-emolument. Notwithstanding all that has been written and said, there is
-scarcely any subject on which the _knowing_ people of the East, are yet
-less informed and instructed than on the character and amusements of
-the West: by this I mean the “Far West;”—the country whose fascinations
-spread a charm over the mind almost dangerous to civilized pursuits.
-Few people even know the true definition of the term “West;” and where
-is its location?—phantom-like it flies before us as we travel, and on
-our way is continually gilded, before us, as we approach the setting
-sun.
-
-In the commencement of my Tour, several of my travelling companions
-from the city of New York, found themselves at a frightful distance
-to the West, when we arrived at Niagara Falls; and hastened back to
-amuse their friends with tales and scenes of the West. At Buffalo a
-steam-boat was landing with 400 passengers, and twelve days out—“Where
-from?” “From the West.” In the rich state of Ohio, hundreds were
-selling their farms and going—to the West. In the beautiful city of
-Cincinnati, people said to me, “Our town has passed the days of its
-most rapid growth, it is not far enough West.”—In St. Louis, 1400 miles
-west of New York, my landlady assured me that I would be pleased with
-her boarders, for they were nearly all merchants from the “West.” I
-there asked,—“Whence come those steam-boats, laden with pork, honey,
-hides, &c.?”
-
-From the West.
-
-Whence those ponderous bars of silver, which those men have been for
-hours shouldering and putting on board that boat?
-
-They come from Santa Fee, from the West.
-
-Where goes this steam-boat so richly laden with dry goods,
-steam-engines, &c.?
-
-She goes to Jefferson city.
-
-Jefferson city?—Where is that?
-
-Far to the West.
-
-And where goes that boat laden down to her gunnels, the Yellow Stone?
-
-She goes still farther to the West—“Then,” said I, “I’ll go to the
-West.”
-
-I went on the Yellow Stone— *    *    *    *
-
-*    *    *    Two thousand miles on her, and we were at the mouth of
-Yellow Stone river—at the West. What! invoices, bills of lading, &c., a
-wholesale establishment so far to the West! And those strange looking,
-long-haired gentlemen, who have just arrived, and are relating the
-adventures of their long and tedious journey. Who are they?
-
-Oh! they are some of our merchants just arrived from the West.
-
-And that keel-boat, that Mackinaw-boat, and that formidable caravan,
-all of which are richly laden with goods.
-
-These, Sir, are outfits starting for the _West_.
-
-Going to the _West_, ha? “Then” said I, “I’ll try it again. I will try
-and see if I can go to the West.”
-
-  *    *    *    What, a Fort here, too?
-
-Oui, Monsieur—oui, Monsieur (as a dauntless, and
-_semibarbarian_-looking, jolly fellow, dashed forth in advance of his
-party on his wild horse to meet me.)
-
-What distance are you west of Yellow Stone here, my good fellow?
-
-Comment?
-
-What distance?—(stop)—quel distance?
-
-Pardón, Monsieur, je ne sais pas, Monsieur.
-
-Ne parlez vous l’Anglais?
-
-Non, Monsr. I speaks de French and de Americaine; mais je ne parle pas
-l’Anglais.
-
-“Well then, my good fellow, I will speak English, and you may speak
-Americaine.”
-
-Pardón, pardón, Monsieur.
-
-Well, then we will both speak Americaine.
-
-Val, sare, je suis bien content, pour for I see dat you speaks putty
-coot Americaine.
-
-What may I call your name?
-
-Ba’tiste, Monsieur.
-
-What Indians are those so splendidly dressed, and with such fine
-horses, encamped on the plain yonder?
-
-Ils sont Corbeaux.
-
-Crows, ha?
-
-Yes, sare, Monsieur.
-
-We are then in the Crow country?
-
-Non, Monsieur, not putty éxact; we are in de coontrae of de dam Pieds
-noirs.
-
-Blackfeet, ha?
-
-Oui.
-
-What blue mountain is that which we see in the distance yonder?
-
-Ha, quel Montaigne? cela est la Montaigne du (pardón).
-
-Du Rochers, I suppose?
-
-Oui, Monsieur, de Rock Montaigne.
-
-You live here, I suppose?
-
-Non, Monsieur, I comes fair from de West.
-
-What, from the West! Where under the heavens is that?
-
-Wat, diable! de West? well you shall see, Monsieur, he is putty fair
-off, súppose. Monsieur Pierre Chouteau can give you de histoire de ma
-vie—il bien sait que je prends les castors, very fair in de West.
-
-You carry goods, I suppose, to trade with the Snake Indians beyond the
-mountains, and trap beaver also?
-
-Oui, Monsieur.
-
-Do you see anything of the “Flat-heads” in your country?
-
-Non, Monsieur, ils demeurent very, _very_ fair to de West.
-
-Well, Ba’tiste, I’ll lay my course back again for the present, and at
-some future period, endeavour to go to the “West.” But you say you
-trade with the Indians and trap beavers; you are in the employment of
-the American Fur Company, I suppose?
-
-Non, Monsieur, not quite éxact; mais, súppose, I am “_free trappare_,”
-free, Monsr. free.
-
-Free trapper, what’s that? I don’t understand you, Ba’tiste.
-
-Well, Monsr. súppose he is easy pour understand—you shall know all.
-In de first place, I am enlist for tree year in de Fur Comp in St.
-Louis—for bounté—pour bounté, eighty dollare (understand, ha?) den I
-am go for wages, et I ave come de Missouri up, et I am trap castors
-putty much for six years, you see, until I am learn very much; and den
-you see, Monsr. M‘Kenzie is give me tree horse—one pour ride, et two
-pour pack (mais he is not buy, him not give, he is lend), and he is
-lend twelve trap; and I ave make start into de Rocky Montaigne, et I am
-live all álone on de leet rivares pour prendre les castors. Sometime
-six months—sometime five month, and I come back to Yel Stone, et Monsr.
-M‘Kenzie is give me coot price pour all.
-
-So Mr. M‘Kenzie fits you out, and takes your beaver of you at a certain
-price?
-
-Oui, Monsr. oui.
-
-What price does he pay you for your beaver, Ba’tiste?
-
-Ha! súppose one dollare pour one beavare.
-
-A dollar per skin, ah?
-
-Oui.
-
-Well, you must live a lonesome and hazardous sort of life; can you make
-anything by it?
-
-Oh! oui, Monsr. putty coot, mais if it is not pour for de dam rascalité
-Riccaree, et de dam Pieds noirs, de Blackfoot Ingin, I am make very
-much monnair, mais (sacré), I am rob—rob—rob too much!
-
-What, do the Blackfeet rob you of your furs?
-
-Oui, Monsr. rob, súppose, five time! I am been free trappare seven
-year, et I am rob five time—I am someting left not at all—he is take
-all; he is take all de horse—he is take my gun—he is take all my
-clothes—he is takee de castors—et I am come back with foot. So in
-de Fort, some cloths is cost putty much monnair, et some whiskey is
-give sixteen dollares pour gall; so you see I am owe de Fur Comp 600
-dollare, by Gar!
-
-Well, Ba’tiste, this then is what you call being a free trapper is it?
-
-Oui, Monsr. “free trappare,” free!
-
-You seem to be going down towards the Yellow Stone, and probably have
-been out on a trapping excursion.
-
-Oui, Monsr. c’est vrai.
-
-Have you been robbed this time, Ba’tiste?
-
-Oui, Monsr. by de dam Pieds noirs—I am loose much; I am loose all—very
-all——eh bien——pour le dernier—c’est le dernier fois, Monsr. I am go to
-Yel Stone—I am go le Missouri down, I am go to St. Louis.
-
-Well, Ba’tiste, I am to figure about in this part of the world a few
-weeks longer, and then I shall descend the Missouri from the mouth of
-Yellow Stone, to St. Louis; and I should like exceedingly to employ
-just such a man as you are as a voyageur with me—I will give you good
-wages, and pay all your expenses; what say you?
-
-Avec tout mon cour, Monsr. remercie, remercie.
-
-It’s a bargain then, Ba’tiste; I will see you at the mouth of Yellow
-Stone.
-
-Oui, Monsr. in de Yel Stone, bon soir, bon soir, Monsr.
-
-But stop, Ba’tiste, you told me those were Crows encamped yonder.
-
-Oui, Monsieur, oui, des Corbeaux.
-
-And I suppose you are their interpreter?
-
-Non, Monsieur.
-
-But you speak the Crow language?
-
-Ouis, Monsieur.
-
-Well then, turn about; I am going to pay them a visit, and you can
-render me a service.—Bien, Monsieur, allons.
-
-  [2] Wyöming.
-
-
-
-
-                             LETTER—No. 10.
-
-                   MANDAN VILLAGE, _UPPER MISSOURI_.
-
-
-Soon after the writing of my last Letter, which was dated at the Mouth
-of Yellow Stone, I embarked on the river for this place, where I landed
-safely; and have resided for a couple of weeks, a guest in this almost
-subterraneous city—the strangest place in the world; where one sees
-in the most rapid succession, scenes which force him to mirth—to pity
-and compassion—to admiration—disgust; to fear and astonishment. But
-before I proceed to reveal them, I must give you a brief sketch of my
-voyage down the river from the Mouth of the Yellow Stone river to this
-place, a distance of 200 miles; and which my little note-book says, was
-performed somewhat in the following manner:
-
-When I had completed my rambles and my sketches in those regions, and
-Ba’tiste and Bogard had taken their last spree, and fought their last
-battles, and forgotten them in the final and affectionate embrace and
-farewell (all of which are habitual with these game-fellows, when
-settling up their long-standing accounts with their fellow-trappers
-of the mountain streams); and after Mr. M‘Kenzie had procured for me
-a snug little craft, that was to waft us down the mighty torrent; we
-launched off one fine morning, taking our leave of the Fort, and the
-friends within it; and also, for ever, of the beautiful green fields,
-and hills, and dales, and prairie bluffs, that encompass the enchanting
-shores of the Yellow Stone.
-
-Our canoe, which was made of green timber, was heavy and awkward; but
-our course being with the current, promised us a fair and successful
-voyage. Ammunition was laid in in abundance—a good stock of dried
-buffalo tongues—a dozen or two of beavers’ tails—and a good supply of
-pemican. Bogard and Ba’tiste occupied the middle and bow, with their
-paddles in their hands; and I took my seat in the stern of the boat,
-at the steering oar. Our larder was as I have said; and added to that,
-some few pounds of fresh buffalo meat.
-
-Besides which, and ourselves, our little craft carried several
-packs of Indian dresses and other articles, which I had purchased
-of the Indians; and also my canvass and easel, and our culinary
-articles, which were few and simple; consisting of three tin cups, a
-coffee-pot—one plate—a frying-pan—and a tin kettle.
-
-Thus fitted out and embarked, we swept off at a rapid rate under the
-shouts of the savages, and the cheers of our friends, who lined the
-banks as we gradually lost sight of them, and turned our eyes towards
-St. Louis, which was 2000 miles below us, with nought intervening, save
-the widespread and wild regions, inhabited by the roaming savage.
-
-At the end of our first day’s journey, we found ourselves handily
-encamping with several thousand Assinneboins, who had pitched their
-tents upon the bank of the river, and received us with every mark of
-esteem and friendship.
-
-In the midst of this group, was my friend Wi-jun-jon (the pigeon’s
-egg head), still lecturing on the manners and customs of the “pale
-faces.” Continuing to relate without any appearance of exhaustion, the
-marvellous scenes which he had witnessed amongst the white people, on
-his tour to Washington City.
-
-Many were the gazers who seemed to be the whole time crowding around
-him, to hear his recitals; and the plight which he was in rendered his
-appearance quite ridiculous. His beautiful military dress, of which I
-before spoke, had been so shockingly tattered and metamorphosed, that
-his appearance was truly laughable.
-
-His keg of whiskey had dealt out to his friends all its charms—his
-frock-coat, which his wife had thought was of no earthly use below
-the waist, had been cut off at that place, and the nether half of it
-supplied her with a beautiful pair of leggings; and his silver-laced
-hat-band had been converted into a splendid pair of garters for the
-same. His umbrella the poor fellow still affectionately held on to,
-and kept spread at all times. As I before said, his theme seemed to
-be exhaustless, and he, in the estimation of his tribe, to be an
-unexampled liar.
-
-Of the village of Assinneboins we took leave on the following morning,
-and rapidly made our way down the river. The rate of the current
-being four or five miles per hour, through one continued series of
-picturesque grass-covered bluffs and knolls, which everywhere had the
-appearance of an old and highly-cultivated country, with houses and
-fences removed.
-
-There is, much of the way, on one side or the other, a bold and abrupt
-precipice of three or four hundred feet in elevation, presenting itself
-in an exceedingly rough and picturesque form, to the shore of the
-river; sloping down from the summit level of the prairies above, which
-sweep off from the brink of the precipice, almost level, to an unknown
-distance.
-
-It is along the rugged and wild fronts of these cliffs, whose sides are
-generally formed of hard clay, that the mountain-sheep dwell, and are
-often discovered in great numbers. Their habits are much like those
-of the goat; and in every respect they are like that animal, except
-in the horns, which resemble those of the ram; sometimes making two
-entire circles in their coil; and at the roots, each horn is, in some
-instances, from five to six inches in breadth.
-
-On the second day of our voyage we discovered a number of these
-animals skipping along the sides of the precipice, always keeping
-about equi-distant between the top and bottom of the ledge; leaping
-and vaulting in the most extraordinary manner from point to point, and
-seeming to cling actually, to the sides of the wall, where neither man
-nor beast could possibly follow them.
-
-We landed our canoe, and endeavoured to shoot one of these sagacious
-animals; and after he had led us a long and fruitless chase, amongst
-the cliffs, we thought we had fairly entrapped him in such a way as to
-be sure to bring him, at last, within the command of our rifles; when
-he suddenly bounded from his narrow foot-hold in the ledge, and tumbled
-down a distance of more than a hundred feet, amongst the fragments of
-rocks and clay, where I thought we must certainly find his carcass
-without further trouble; when, to my great surprise, I saw him bounding
-off, and he was almost instantly out of my sight.
-
-Bogard, who was an old hunter, and well acquainted with these
-creatures, shouldered his rifle, and said to me—“the game is up; and
-you now see the use of those big horns; when they fall by accident, or
-find it necessary to quit their foot-hold in the crevice, they fall
-upon their head at a great distance unharmed, even though it should be
-on the solid rock.”
-
-Being on shore, and our canoe landed secure, we whiled away the greater
-part of this day amongst the wild and ragged cliffs, into which we had
-entered; and a part of our labours were vainly spent in the pursuit
-of a war-eagle. This noble bird is the one which the Indians in these
-regions, value so highly for their tail feathers, which are used as
-the most valued plumes for decorating the heads and dresses of their
-warriors. It is a beautiful bird, and, the Indians tell me, conquers
-all other varieties of eagles in the country; from which circumstance,
-the Indians respect the bird, and hold it in the highest esteem, and
-value its quills. I am unable so say to what variety it belongs; but
-I am sure it is not to be seen in any of our museums; nor is it to be
-found in America (I think), until one gets near to the base of the
-Rocky Mountains. This bird has often been called the calumet eagle and
-war-eagle; the last of which appellations I have already accounted
-for; and the other has arisen from the fact, that the Indians almost
-invariably ornament their calumets or pipes of peace with its quills.
-
-Our day’s loitering brought us through many a wild scene; occasionally
-across the tracks of the grizzly bear, and, in sight merely of a band
-of buffaloes; “which got the wind of us,” and were out of the way,
-leaving us to return to our canoe at night, with a mere speck of good
-luck. Just before we reached the river, I heard the crack of a rifle,
-and in a few moments Bogard came in sight, and threw down from his
-shoulders a fine antelope; which added to our larder, and we were
-ready to proceed. We embarked and travelled until nightfall, when
-we encamped on a beautiful little prairie at the base of a series of
-grass-covered bluffs; and the next morning cooked our breakfast and
-ate it, and rowed on until late in the afternoon; when we stopped at
-the base of some huge clay bluffs, forming one of the most curious
-and romantic scenes imaginable. At this spot the river expands itself
-into the appearance somewhat of a beautiful lake; and in the midst of
-it, and on and about its sand-bars, floated and stood, hundreds and
-thousands of white swans and pelicans.
-
-Though the scene in front of our encampment at this place was placid
-and beautiful; with its flowing water—its wild fowl—and its almost
-endless variety of gracefully sloping hills and green prairies in the
-distance; yet it was not less wild and picturesque in our rear, where
-the rugged and various coloured bluffs were grouped in all the wildest
-fancies and rudeness of Nature’s accidental varieties.
-
-The whole country behind us seemed to have been dug and thrown up into
-huge piles, as if some giant mason had been there mixing his mortar
-and paints, and throwing together his rude models for some sublime
-structure of a colossal city;—with its walls—its domes—its ramparts—its
-huge porticos and galleries—its castles—its fosses and ditches;—and in
-the midst of his progress, he had abandoned his works to the destroying
-hand of time, which had already done much to tumble them down, and
-deface their noble structure; by jostling them together, with all their
-vivid colours, into an unsystematic and unintelligible mass of sublime
-ruins.
-
-To this group of clay bluffs, which line the river for many miles in
-distance, the voyageurs have very appropriately given the name of “the
-Brick-kilns;” owing to their red appearance, which may be discovered in
-a clear day at the distance of many leagues.
-
-By the action of water, or other power, the country seems to have been
-graded away; leaving occasionally a solitary mound or bluff, rising in
-a conical form to the height of two or three hundred feet, generally
-pointed or rounded at the top, and in some places grouped together
-in great numbers; some of which having a tabular surface on the top,
-and covered with a green turf. This fact (as all of those which are
-horizontal on their tops, and corresponding exactly with the summit
-level of the wide-spreading prairies in distance) clearly shows, that
-their present isolated and rounded forms have been produced by the
-action of waters: which have carried away the intervening earth, and
-left them in the picturesque shapes in which they are now seen.
-
-A similar formation (or _de_formation) may be seen in hundreds of
-places on the shores of the Missouri river, and the actual progress
-of the operation by which it is produced; leaving yet for the
-singularity of this place, the peculiar feature, that nowhere else
-(to my knowledge) occurs; that the superstratum, forming the tops of
-these mounds (where they remain high enough to support anything of
-the original surface) is composed, for the depth of fifteen feet, of
-red pumice; terminating at its bottom, in a layer of several feet of
-sedimentary deposite, which is formed into endless conglomerates of
-basaltic crystals.
-
-This strange feature in the country arrests the eye of a traveller
-suddenly, and as instantly brings him to the conclusion, that he stands
-in the midst of the ruins of an extinguished volcano.
-
-As will be seen in the drawings (+plate+ 37, a near view, and +plate+
-38, a distant view), the sides of these conical bluffs (which are
-composed of strata of different coloured clays), are continually
-washing down by the effect of the rains and melting of the frost; and
-the superincumbent masses of pumice and basalt are crumbling off, and
-falling down to their bases; and from thence, in vast quantities, by
-the force of the gorges of water which are often cutting their channels
-between them—carried into the river, which is close by; and wafted for
-thousands of miles, floating as light as a cork upon its surface, and
-lodging in every pile of drift-wood from this place to the ocean.
-
-The upper part of this layer of pumice is of a brilliant red; and when
-the sun is shining upon it, is as bright and vivid as vermilion. It is
-porous and open, and its specific gravity but trifling. These curious
-bluffs must be seen as they are in nature; or else in a painting, where
-their colours are faithfully given, or they lose their picturesque
-beauty, which consists in the variety of their vivid tints. The strata
-of clay are alternating from red to yellow—white—brown and dark blue;
-and so curiously arranged, as to form the most pleasing and singular
-effects.
-
-During the day that I loitered about this strange scene, I left my
-men stretched upon the grass, by the canoe; and taking my rifle and
-sketch-book in my hand, I wandered and clambered through the rugged
-defiles between the bluffs; passing over and under the immense blocks
-of the pumice, that had fallen to their bases; determined, if possible,
-to find the crater, or source, from whence these strange phenomena
-had sprung; but after clambering and squeezing about for some time,
-I unfortunately came upon the enormous tracks of a grizzly bear,
-which, apparently, was travelling in the same direction (probably for
-a very different purpose) but a few moments before me; and my ardour
-for exploring was instantly so cooled down, that I hastily retraced
-my steps, and was satisfied with making my drawings, and collecting
-specimens of the lava and other minerals in its vicinity.
-
-After strolling about during the day, and contemplating the beauty of
-the scenes that were around me, while I sat upon the pinnacles of these
-pumice-capped mounds; most of which time, Bogard and Ba’tiste laid
-enjoying the pleasure of a “mountaineer’s nap”—we met together—took
-our coffee and dried buffalo tongues—spread our buffalo robes upon the
-grass, and enjoyed during the night the luxury of sleep, that belongs
-so peculiarly to the tired voyageur in these realms of pure air and
-dead silence.
-
-[Illustration: 37]
-
-[Illustration: 38]
-
-In the morning, and before sunrise, as usual, Bogard (who was a Yankee,
-and a “wide-awake-fellow,” just retiring from a ten years’ siege of
-hunting and trapping in the Rocky Mountains,) thrust his head out from
-under the robe, rubbing his eyes open, and exclaiming as he grasped
-for his gun, “By darn, look at old Cale! will you!” Ba’tiste, who was
-more fond of his dreams, snored away, muttering something that I could
-not understand, when Bogard seized him with a grip, that instantly
-shook off his iron slumbers. I rose at the same time, and all eyes
-were turned at once upon _Caleb_ (as the grizzly bear is familiarly
-called by the trappers in the Rocky Mountains—or more often “Cale,” for
-brevity’s sake), who was sitting up in the dignity and fury of her sex,
-within a few rods, and gazing upon us, with her two little cubs at her
-side! here was a “_fix_,” and a subject for the painter; but I had no
-time to sketch it—I turned my eyes to the canoe which had been fastened
-at the shore a few paces from us; and saw that everything had been
-pawed out of it, and all eatables had been without ceremony devoured.
-My packages of dresses and Indian curiosities had been drawn out upon
-the bank, and deliberately opened and inspected. Every thing had been
-scraped and pawed out, to the bottom of the boat; and even the rawhide
-thong, with which it was tied to a stake, had been chewed, and no doubt
-swallowed, as there was no trace of it remaining. Nor was this peep
-into the secrets of our luggage enough for her insatiable curiosity—we
-saw by the prints of her huge paws, that were left in the ground, that
-she had been perambulating our humble mattresses, smelling at our toes
-and our noses, without choosing to molest us; verifying a trite saying
-of the country, “That man lying down is _medicine_ to the grizzly
-bear;” though it is a well-known fact, that man and beast, upon their
-feet, are sure to be attacked when they cross the path of this grizzly
-and grim monster, which is the terror of all this country; often
-growing to the enormous size of eight hundred or one thousand pounds.
-
-Well—whilst we sat in the dilemma which I have just described, each
-one was hastily preparing his weapons for defence, when I proposed the
-mode of attack; by which means I was in hopes to destroy her—capture
-her young ones, and bring her skin home as a trophy. My plans, however,
-entirely failed, though we were well armed; for Bogard and Ba’tiste
-both remonstrated with a vehemence that was irresistible; saying that
-the standing rule in the mountains was “never to fight Caleb, except
-in self-defence.” I was almost induced, however, to attack her alone,
-with my rifle in hand, and a pair of heavy pistols; with a tomahawk
-and scalping-knife in my belt; when Ba’tiste suddenly thrust his arm
-over my shoulder and pointing in another direction, exclaimed in an
-emphatic tone, “Voila! voila un corps de reserve—Monsr. Cataline—voila
-sa mari! allons—allons! déscendons la riviére, toute de suite! toute
-de suite! Monsr.” to which Bogard added, “these darned animals are too
-much for us, and we had better be off;” at which my courage cooled, and
-we packed up and re-embarked as fast as possible; giving each one of
-them the contents of our rifles as we drifted off in the current; which
-brought the she-monster, in all her rage and fury, to the spot where
-we, a few moments before, had passed our most prudent resolve.
-
-During the rest of this day, we passed on rapidly, gazing upon and
-admiring the beautiful shores, which were continually changing, from
-the high and ragged cliffs, to the graceful and green slopes of the
-prairie bluffs; and then to the wide expanded meadows, with their long
-waving grass, enamelled with myriads of wild flowers.
-
-The scene was one of enchantment the whole way; our chief conversation
-was about grizzly bears and hair’s-breadth escapes; of the histories
-of which my companions had volumes in store.—Our breakfast was a late
-one—cooked and eaten about five in the afternoon; at which time our
-demolished larder was luckily replenished by the unerring rifle of
-Bogard, which brought down a fine antelope, as it was innocently gazing
-at us, from the bank of the river. We landed our boat, and took in
-our prize; but there being no wood for our fire, we shoved off, and
-soon ran upon the head of an island, that was covered with immense
-quantities of raft and drift wood, where we easily kindled a huge fire
-and ate our delicious meal from a clean peeled log, astride of which
-we comfortably sat, making it answer admirably the double purpose of
-chairs and a table. After our meal was finished, we plied the paddles,
-and proceeded several miles further on our course; leaving our fire
-burning, and dragging our canoe upon the shore, in the dark, in a wild
-and unknown spot; and silently spreading our robes for our slumbers,
-which it is not generally considered prudent to do by the side of our
-fires, which might lead a war-party upon us, who often are prowling
-about and seeking an advantage over their enemy.
-
-The scenery of this day’s travel, as I have before said, was
-exceedingly beautiful; and our canoe was often run to the shore,
-upon which we stepped to admire the endless variety of wild flowers,
-“wasting their sweetness on the desert air,” and the abundance of
-delicious fruits that were about us. Whilst wandering through the high
-grass, the wild sun-flowers and voluptuous lilies were constantly
-taunting us by striking our faces; whilst here and there, in every
-direction, there were little copses and clusters of plum trees and
-gooseberries, and wild currants, loaded down with their fruit; and
-amongst these, to sweeten the atmosphere and add a charm to the
-effect, the wild rose bushes seemed planted in beds and in hedges, and
-everywhere were decked out in all the glory of their delicate tints,
-and shedding sweet aroma to every breath of the air that passed over
-them.
-
-In addition to these, we had the luxury of service-berries, without
-stint; and the buffalo bushes, which are peculiar to these northern
-regions, lined the banks of the river and defiles in the bluffs,
-sometimes for miles together; forming almost impassable hedges,
-so loaded with the weight of their fruit, that their boughs were
-everywhere gracefully bending down and resting on the ground.
-
-This last shrub (_shepperdia_), which may be said to be the most
-beautiful ornament that decks out the wild prairies, forms a striking
-contrast to the rest of the foliage, from the blue appearance of its
-leaves, by which it can be distinguished for miles in distance. The
-fruit which it produces in such incredible profusion, hanging in
-clusters to every limb and to every twig, is about the size of ordinary
-currants, and not unlike them in colour and even in flavour; being
-exceedingly acid, and almost unpalatable, until they are bitten by the
-frost of autumn, when they are sweetened, and their flavour delicious;
-having, to the taste, much the character of grapes, and I am inclined
-to think, would produce excellent wine.
-
-The shrub which bears them resembles some varieties of the thorn,
-though (as I have said) differs entirely in the colour of its leaves.
-It generally grows to the height of six or seven feet, and often to
-ten or twelve; and in groves or hedges, in some places, for miles in
-extent. While gathering the fruit, and contemplating it as capable of
-producing good wine, I asked my men this question, “Suppose we three
-had ascended the river to this point in the spring of the year, and in
-a timbered bottom had pitched our little encampment; and one of you two
-had been a boat-builder, and the other a cooper—the one to have got out
-your staves and constructed the wine casks, and the other to have built
-a mackinaw-boat, capable of carrying fifty or a hundred casks; and I
-had been a good hunter, capable of supplying the little encampment with
-meat; and we should have started off about this time, to float down
-the current, stopping our boat wherever we saw the finest groves of
-the buffalo bush, collecting the berries and expressing the juice, and
-putting it into our casks for fermentation while on the water for two
-thousand miles; how many bushels of these berries could you two gather
-in a day, provided I watched the boat and cooked your meals? and how
-many barrels of good wine do you think we could offer for sale in St.
-Louis when we should arrive there?”
-
-This idea startled my two men exceedingly, and Ba’tiste gabbled so
-fast in French, that I could not translate; and I am almost willing
-to believe, that but for the want of the requisite tools for the
-enterprize, I should have lost the company of Bogard and Ba’tiste; or
-that I should have been under the necessity of submitting to one of the
-unpleasant alternatives which are often regulated by the _majority_, in
-this strange and singular wilderness.
-
-I at length, however, got their opinions on the subject; when they
-mutually agreed that they could gather thirty bushels of this fruit
-per day; and I gave it then, and I offer it now, as my own also,
-that their estimate was not out of the way, and judged so from the
-experiments which we made in the following manner:—We several times
-took a large mackinaw blanket which I had in the canoe, and spreading
-it on the ground under the bushes, where they were the most abundantly
-loaded with fruit; and by striking the stalk of the tree with a club,
-we received the whole contents of its branches in an instant on the
-blanket, which was taken up by the corners, and not unfrequently would
-produce us, from one blow, the eighth part of a bushel of this fruit;
-when the boughs relieved of their burden, instantly flew up to their
-native position.
-
-Of this beautiful native, which I think would form one of the loveliest
-ornamental shrubs for a gentleman’s park or pleasure grounds, I
-procured a number of the roots; but which, from the many accidents and
-incidents that our unlucky bark was subjected to on our rough passage,
-I lost them (and almost the recollection of them) as well as many other
-curiosities I had collected on our way down the river.
-
-On the morning of the next day, and not long after we had stopped and
-taken our breakfast, and while our canoe was swiftly gliding along
-under the shore of a beautiful prairie, I saw in the grass, on the
-bank above me, what I supposed to be the back of a fine elk, busy at
-his grazing. I let our craft float silently by for a little distance,
-when I communicated the intelligence to my men, and slily ran in, to
-the shore. I pricked the priming of my firelock, and taking a bullet
-or two in my mouth, stepped ashore, and trailing my rifle in my hand,
-went back under the bank, carefully crawling up in a little ravine,
-quite sure of my game; when, to my utter surprise and violent alarm,
-I found the elk to be no more nor less than an Indian pony, getting
-his breakfast! and a little beyond him, a number of others grazing;
-and nearer to me, on the left, a war-party reclining around a little
-fire; and yet nearer, and within twenty paces of the muzzle of my gun,
-the naked shoulders if a brawny Indian, who seemed busily engaged in
-cleaning his gun. From this critical dilemma, the reader can easily
-imagine that I vanished with all the suddenness and secrecy that was
-possible, bending my course towards my canoe. Bogard and Ba’tiste
-correctly construing the expression of my face, and the agitation of
-my hurried retreat, prematurely unmoored from the shore; and the force
-of the current carrying them around a huge pile of drift wood, threw
-me back for some distance upon my own resources; though they finally
-got in, near the shore, and I into the boat, with the steering oar in
-my hand; when we plied our sinews with effect and in silence, till we
-were wafted far from the ground which we deemed critical and dangerous
-to our lives; for we had been daily in dread of meeting a war-party of
-the revengeful Riccarees, which we had been told was on the river, in
-search of the Mandans. From and after this exciting occurrence, the
-entries in my journal for the rest of the voyage to the village of the
-Mandans, were as follow:—
-
-Saturday, fifth day of our voyage from the mouth of Yellow Stone, at
-eleven o’clock.—Landed our canoe in the Grand Détour (or Big Bend) as
-it is called, at the base of a stately clay mound, and ascended, all
-hands, to the summit level, to take a glance at the picturesque and
-magnificent works of Nature that were about us. Spent the remainder
-of the day in painting a view of this grand scene; for which purpose
-Ba’tiste and Bogard carried my easel and canvass to the top of a huge
-mound, where they left me at my work; and I painted my picture (+plate+
-39), whilst they amused themselves with their rifles, decoying a flock
-of antelopes, of which they killed several, and abundantly added to the
-stock of our provisions.
-
-Scarcely anything in nature can be found, I am sure, more exceedingly
-picturesque than the view from this place; exhibiting the wonderful
-manner in which the gorges of the river have cut out its deep channel
-through these walls of clay on either side, of two or three hundred
-feet in elevation; and the imposing features of the high table-lands
-in distance, standing as a perpetual anomaly in the country, and
-producing the indisputable, though astounding evidence of the fact,
-that there has been at some ancient period, a _super_ surface to this
-country, corresponding with the elevation of these tabular hills, whose
-surface, for half a mile or more, on their tops, is perfectly level;
-being covered with a green turf, and yet one hundred and fifty or two
-hundred feet elevated above what may now be properly termed the summit
-level of all this section of country; as will be seen stretching off at
-their base, without furnishing other instances in hundreds of miles,
-of anything rising one foot above its surface, excepting the solitary
-group which is shewn in the painting.
-
-The fact, that _there_ was once the summit level of this great valley,
-is a stubborn one, however difficult it may be to reconcile it with
-reasonable causes and results; and the mind of feeble man is at once
-almost paralyzed in endeavouring to comprehend the process by which the
-adjacent country, from this to the base of the Rocky Mountains, as well
-as in other directions, could have been swept away; and equally so, for
-knowledge of the place where its mighty deposits have been carried.
-
-I recollect to have seen on my way up the river, at the distance of
-six or eight hundred miles below, a place called “the Square Hills,”
-and another denominated “the Bijou Hills;” which are the only features
-on the river, seeming to correspond with this strange _remain_, and
-which, on my way down, I shall carefully examine; and not fail to
-add their testimonies (if I am not mistaken in their character) to
-further speculations on this interesting feature of the geology of the
-great valley of the Missouri. Whilst my men were yet engaged in their
-sporting excursions, I left my easel and travelled to the base and
-summit of these tabular hills; which, to my great surprise, I found to
-be several miles from the river, and a severe journey to accomplish
-getting back to our encampment at nightfall. I found by their sides
-that they were evidently of an alluvial deposite, composed of a great
-variety of horizontal layers of clays of different colours—of granitic
-sand and pebbles (many of which furnished me beautiful specimens of
-agate, jasper and carnelians), and here and there large fragments of
-pumice and cinders, which gave, as instances above-mentioned, evidences
-of volcanic remains.
-
-The mode by which Bogard and Ba’tiste had been entrapping the timid
-and sagacious antelopes was one which is frequently and successfully
-practised in this country; and on this day had afforded them fine
-sport.
-
-The antelope of this country, I believe to be different from all
-other known varieties, and forms one of the most pleasing, living
-ornaments to this western world. They are seen in some places in great
-numbers sporting and playing about the hills and dales; and often, in
-flocks of fifty or a hundred, will follow the boat of the descending
-voyageur, or the travelling caravan, for hours together; keeping off
-at a safe distance, on the right or left, galloping up and down the
-hills, snuffing their noses and stamping their feet; as if they were
-endeavouring to remind the traveller of the wicked trespass he was
-making on their own hallowed ground.
-
-This little animal seems to be endowed, like many other gentle and
-sweet-breathing creatures, with an undue share of curiosity, which
-often leads them to destruction; and the hunter who wishes to entrap
-them, saves himself the trouble of travelling after them. When he has
-been discovered, he has only to elevate above the tops of the grass,
-his red or yellow handkerchief on the end of his gun-rod (+plate+ 40),
-which he sticks in the ground, and to which they are sure to advance,
-though with great coyness and caution; whilst he lies close, at a
-little distance, with his rifle in hand; when it is quite an easy
-matter to make sure of two or three at a shot, which he gets in range
-of his eye, to be pierced with one bullet.
-
-On Sunday, departed from our encampment in the Grand Détour; and having
-passed for many miles, through a series of winding and ever-varying
-bluffs and fancied ruins, like such as have already been described, our
-attention was more than usually excited by the stupendous scene (+plate+
-41), called by the voyageurs “the Grand Dome,” which was lying in full
-view before us.
-
-Our canoe was here hauled ashore, and a day whiled away again, amongst
-these clay built ruins.
-
-We clambered to their summits and enjoyed the distant view of the
-Missouri for many miles below, wending its way through the countless
-groups of clay and grass-covered hills; and we wandered back on the
-plains, in a toilsome and unsuccessful pursuit of a herd of buffaloes,
-which we discovered at some distance. Though we were disappointed
-in the results of the chase; yet we were in a measure repaid in
-amusements, which we found in paying a visit to an extensive village of
-prairie dogs, and of which I should render some account.
-
-I have subjoined a sketch (+plate+ 42) of one of these _sub-terra_
-communities; though it was taken in a former excursion, when my party
-was on horseback, and near the mouth of the Yellow Stone River; yet
-it answers for this place as well as any other, for their habits are
-one and the same wherever they are found; their houses or burrows
-are all alike, and as their location is uniformly on a level and
-desolate prairie, without timber, there is little room for variety or
-dissimilarity.
-
-The prairie dog of the American Prairies is undoubtedly a variety
-of the marmot; and probably not unlike those which inhabit the vast
-Steppes of Asia. It bears no resemblance to any variety of dogs,
-except in the sound of its voice, when excited by the approach of
-danger, which is something like that of a very small dog, and still
-much more resembling the barking of a grey squirrel.
-
-[Illustration: 39]
-
-[Illustration: 40]
-
-The size of these curious little animals is not far from that of a
-very large rat, and they are not unlike in their appearance. As I have
-said, their burrows, are uniformly built in a lonely desert; and away,
-both from the proximity of timber and water. Each individual, or each
-family, dig their hole in the prairie to the depth of eight or ten
-feet, throwing up the dirt from each excavation, in a little pile, in
-the form of a cone, which forms the only elevation for them to ascend;
-where they sit, to bark and chatter when an enemy is approaching their
-village. These villages are sometimes of several miles in extent;
-containing (I would almost say) myriads of their excavations and little
-dirt hillocks, and to the ears of their visitors, the din of their
-barkings is too confused and too peculiar to be described.
-
-In the present instance, we made many endeavours to shoot them, but
-finding our efforts to be entirely in vain. As we were approaching them
-at a distance, each one seemed to be perched up, on his hind feet,
-on his appropriate domicil, with a significant jerk of his tail at
-every bark, positively disputing our right of approach. I made several
-attempts to get near enough to “draw a bead” upon one of them; and
-just before I was ready to fire (and as if they knew the utmost limits
-of their safety), they sprang down into their holes, and instantly
-turning their bodies, shewed their ears and the ends of their noses, as
-they were peeping out at me; which position they would hold, until the
-shortness of the distance subjected their scalps to danger again, from
-the aim of a rifle; when they instantly disappeared from our sight,
-and all was silence thereafter, about their premises, as I passed them
-over; until I had so far advanced by them, that their ears were again
-discovered, and at length themselves, at full length, perched on the
-tops of their little hillocks and threatening as before; thus gradually
-sinking and rising like a wave before and behind me.
-
-The holes leading down to their burrows, are four or five inches in
-diameter, and run down nearly perpendicular; where they undoubtedly
-communicate into something like a subterraneous city (as I have
-formerly learned from fruitless endeavours to dig them out), undermined
-and vaulted; by which means, they can travel for a great distance under
-the ground, without danger from pursuit.
-
-Their food is simply the grass in the immediate vicinity of their
-burrows, which is cut close to the ground by their flat, shovel teeth;
-and, as they sometimes live twenty miles from any water, it is to be
-supposed that they get moisture enough from the dew on the grass, on
-which they feed chiefly at night; or that (as is generally supposed)
-they sink wells from their under-ground habitations, by which they
-descend low enough to get their supply. In the winter, they are for
-several months invisible; existing, undoubtedly, in a torpid state,
-as they certainly lay by no food for that season—nor can they procure
-any. These curious little animals belong to almost every latitude in
-the vast plains of prairie in North America; and their villages, which
-I have sometimes encountered in my travels, have compelled my party to
-ride several miles out of our way to get by them; for their burrows are
-generally within a few feet of each other, and dangerous to the feet
-and the limbs of our horses.
-
-The sketch of the bluffs denominated “the Grand Dome,” of which I spoke
-but a few moments since, is a faithful delineation of the lines and
-character of that wonderful scene; and the reader has here a just and
-striking illustration of the ruin-like appearances, as I have formerly
-described, that are so often met with on the banks of this mighty river.
-
-This is, perhaps, one of the most grand and beautiful scenes of the
-kind to be met with in this country, owing to the perfect appearance
-of its several huge domes, turrets, and towers, which were everywhere
-as precise and as perfect in their forms as they are represented in
-the illustration. These stupendous works are produced by the continual
-washing down of the sides of these clay-formed hills; and although, in
-many instances, their sides, by exposure, have become so hardened, that
-their change is very slow; yet they are mostly subjected to continual
-phases, more or less, until ultimately their decomposition ceases,
-and their sides becoming seeded and covered with a green turf, which
-protects and holds them (and will hold them) unalterable: with carpets
-of green, and enamelled with flowers, to be gazed upon with admiration,
-by the hardy voyageur and the tourist, for ages and centuries to come.
-
-On Monday, the seventh day from the mouth of the Yellow Stone River,
-we floated away from this noble scene; looking back again and again
-upon it, wondering at its curious and endless changes, as the swift
-current of the river, hurried us by, and gradually out of sight of
-it. We took a sort of melancholy leave of it—but at every bend and
-turn in the stream, we were introduced to others—and others—and yet
-others, almost as strange and curious. At the base of one of these,
-although we had passed it, we with difficulty landed our canoe, and I
-ascended to its top, with some hours’ labour; having to cut a foot-hold
-in the clay with my hatchet for each step, a great part of the way up
-its sides. So curious was this solitary bluff, standing alone as it
-did, to the height of 250 feet (+plate+ 43), with its sides washed
-down into hundreds of variegated forms—with large blocks of indurated
-clay, remaining upon pedestals and columns as it were, and with such
-a variety of tints; that I looked upon it as a beautiful picture, and
-devoted an hour or two with my brush, in transferring it to my canvass.
-
-In the after part of this day we passed another extraordinary scene,
-which is denominated “the Three Domes” (+plate+ 44), forming an
-exceedingly pleasing group, though requiring no further description for
-the reader, who is now sufficiently acquainted with these scenes to
-understand them.
-
-[Illustration: 41]
-
-[Illustration: 42]
-
-[Illustration: 43]
-
-[Illustration: 44]
-
-On this day, just before night, we landed our little boat in front of
-the Mandan village; and amongst the hundreds and thousands who flocked
-towards the river to meet and to greet us, was Mr. Kipp, the agent of
-the American Fur Company, who has charge of their Establishment at this
-place. He kindly ordered my canoe to be taken care of, and my things to
-be carried to his quarters, which was at once done; and I am at this
-time reaping the benefits of his genuine politeness, and gathering the
-pleasures of his amusing and interesting society.
-
-
-
-
-                             LETTER—No. 11.
-
-                   MANDAN VILLAGE, _UPPER MISSOURI_.
-
-
-I said that I was here in the midst of a strange people, which is
-literally true; and I find myself surrounded by subjects and scenes
-worthy the pens of Irving or Cooper—of the pencils of Raphael or
-Hogarth; rich in legends and romances, which would require no aid of
-the imagination for a book or a picture.
-
-The Mandans (or See-pohs-kah-nu-mah-kah-kee, “people of the pheasants,”
-as they call themselves), are perhaps one of the most ancient tribes
-of Indians in our country. Their origin, like that of all the other
-tribes is from necessity, involved in mystery and obscurity. Their
-traditions and peculiarities I shall casually recite in this or future
-epistles; which when understood, will at once, I think, denominate them
-a peculiar and distinct race. They take great pride in relating their
-traditions, with regard to their origin; contending that they were the
-_first_ people created on earth. Their existence in these regions has
-not been from a very ancient period; and, from what I could learn of
-their traditions, they have, at a former period, been a very numerous
-and powerful nation; but by the continual wars which have existed
-between them and their neighbours, they have been reduced to their
-present numbers.
-
-This tribe is at present located on the west bank of the Missouri,
-about 1800 miles above St. Louis, and 200 below the Mouth of Yellow
-Stone river. They have two villages only, which are about two miles
-distant from each other; and number in all (as near as I can learn),
-about 2000 souls. Their present villages are beautifully located, and
-judiciously also, for defence against the assaults of their enemies.
-The site of the lower (or principal) town, in particular (+plate+
-45), is one of the most beautiful and pleasing that can be seen
-in the world, and even more beautiful than imagination could ever
-create. In the very midst of an extensive valley (embraced within a
-thousand graceful swells and parapets or mounds of interminable green,
-changing to blue, as they vanish in distance) is built the city, or
-principal town of the Mandans. On an extensive plain (which is covered
-with a green turf, as well as the hills and dales, as far as the eye
-can possibly range, without tree or bush to be seen) are to be seen
-rising from the ground, and towards the heavens, domes—(not “of gold,”
-but) of dirt—and the thousand spears (not “spires”) and scalp-poles,
-&c. &c., of the semi-subterraneous village of the hospitable and
-gentlemanly Mandans.
-
-[Illustration: 45]
-
-[Illustration: 46]
-
-These people formerly (and within the recollection of many of their
-oldest men) lived fifteen or twenty miles farther down the river, in
-ten contiguous villages; the marks or ruins of which are yet plainly
-to be seen. At that period, it is evident, as well from the number of
-lodges which their villages contained, as from their traditions, that
-their numbers were much greater than at the present day.
-
-There are other, and very interesting, traditions and historical facts
-relative to a still prior location and condition of these people,
-of which I shall speak more fully on a future occasion. From these,
-when they are promulged, I think there may be a pretty fair deduction
-drawn, that they formerly occupied the lower part of the Missouri, and
-even the Ohio and Muskingum, and have gradually made their way up the
-Missouri to where they now are.
-
-There are many remains on the river below this place (and, in fact,
-to be seen nearly as low down as St. Louis), which shew clearly the
-peculiar construction of Mandan lodges, and consequently carry a strong
-proof of the above position. While descending the river, however, which
-I shall commence in a few weeks, in a canoe, this will be a subject of
-interest; and I shall give it close examination.
-
-The ground on which the Mandan village is at present built, was
-admirably selected for defence; being on a bank forty or fifty feet
-above the bed of the river. The greater part of this bank is nearly
-perpendicular, and of solid rock. The river, suddenly changing its
-course to a right-angle, protects two sides of the village, which is
-built upon this promontory or angle; they have therefore but one side
-to protect, which is effectually done by a strong piquet, and a ditch
-inside of it, of three or four feet in depth. The piquet is composed
-of timbers of a foot or more in diameter, and eighteen feet high, set
-firmly in the ground at sufficient distances from each other to admit
-of guns and other missiles to be fired between them. The ditch (unlike
-that of civilized modes of fortification) is inside of the piquet, in
-which their warriors screen their bodies from the view and weapons of
-their enemies, whilst they are reloading and discharging their weapons
-through the piquets.
-
-The Mandans are undoubtedly secure in their villages, from the attacks
-of any Indian nation, and have nothing to fear, except when they meet
-their enemy on the prairie. Their village has a most novel appearance
-to the eye of a stranger; their lodges are closely grouped together,
-leaving but just room enough for walking and riding between them; and
-appear from without, to be built entirely of dirt; but one is surprised
-when he enters them, to see the neatness, comfort, and spacious
-dimensions of these earth-covered dwellings. They all have a circular
-form, and are from forty to sixty feet in diameter. Their foundations
-are prepared by digging some two feet in the ground, and forming the
-floor of earth, by levelling the requisite size for the lodge. These
-floors or foundations are all perfectly circular, and varying in size
-in proportion to the number of inmates, or of the quality or standing
-of the families which are to occupy them. The superstructure is then
-produced, by arranging, inside of this circular excavation, firmly
-fixed in the ground and resting against the bank, a barrier or wall of
-timbers, some eight or nine inches in diameter, of equal height (about
-six feet) placed on end, and resting against each other, supported by
-a formidable embankment of earth raised against them outside; then,
-resting upon the tops of these timbers or piles, are others of equal
-size and equal in numbers, of twenty or twenty-five feet in length,
-resting firmly against each other, and sending their upper or smaller
-ends towards the centre and top of the lodge; rising at an angle of
-forty-five degrees to the apex or sky-light, which is about three or
-four feet in diameter, answering as a chimney and a sky-light at the
-same time. The roof of the lodge being thus formed, is supported by
-beams passing around the inner part of the lodge about the middle of
-these poles or timbers, and themselves upheld by four or five large
-posts passing down to the floor of the lodge. On the top of, and over
-the poles forming the roof, is placed a complete mat of willow-boughs,
-of half a foot or more in thickness, which protects the timbers from
-the dampness of the earth, with which the lodge is covered from bottom
-to top, to the depth of two or three feet; and then with a hard or
-tough clay, which is impervious to water, and which with long use
-becomes quite hard, and a lounging place for the whole family in
-pleasant weather—for sage—for wooing lovers—for dogs and all; an airing
-place—a look-out—a place for gossip and mirth—a seat for the solitary
-gaze and meditations of the stern warrior, who sits and contemplates
-the peaceful mirth and happiness that is breathed beneath him, fruits
-of his hard-fought battles, on fields of desperate combat with
-bristling Red Men.
-
-The floors of these dwellings are of earth, but so hardened by use,
-and swept so clean, and tracked by bare and moccassined feet, that
-they have almost a polish, and would scarcely soil the whitest linen.
-In the centre, and immediately under the sky-light (+plate+ 46) is the
-fire-place—a hole of four or five feet in diameter, of a circular form,
-sunk a foot or more below the surface, and curbed around with stone.
-Over the fire-place, and suspended from the apex of diverging props or
-poles, is generally seen the pot or kettle, filled with buffalo meat;
-and around it are the family, reclining in all the most picturesque
-attitudes and groups, resting on their buffalo-robes and beautiful mats
-of rushes. These cabins are so spacious, that they hold from twenty
-to forty persons—a family and all their connexions. They all sleep on
-bedsteads similar in form to ours, but generally not quite so high;
-made of round poles rudely lashed together with thongs. A buffalo skin,
-fresh stripped from the animal, is stretched across the bottom poles,
-and about two feet from the floor; which, when it dries, becomes much
-contracted, and forms a perfect sacking-bottom. The fur side of this
-skin is placed uppermost, on which they lie with great comfort, with
-a buffalo-robe folded up for a pillow, and others drawn over them
-instead of blankets. These beds, as far as I have seen them (and I have
-visited almost every lodge in the village), are uniformly screened with
-a covering of buffalo or elk skins, oftentimes beautifully dressed
-and placed over the upright poles or frame, like a suit of curtains;
-leaving a hole in front, sufficiently spacious for the occupant to pass
-in and out, to and from his or her bed. Some of these coverings or
-curtains are exceedingly beautiful, being cut tastefully into fringe,
-and handsomely ornamented with porcupine’s quills and picture writings
-or hieroglyphics.
-
-From the great number of inmates in these lodges, they are necessarily
-very spacious, and the number of beds considerable. It is no uncommon
-thing to see these lodges fifty feet in diameter inside (which is an
-immense room), with a row of these curtained beds extending quite
-around their sides, being some ten or twelve of them, placed four or
-five feet apart, and the space between them occupied by a large post,
-fixed quite firm in the ground, and six or seven feet high, with large
-wooden pegs or bolts in it, on which are hung and grouped, with a wild
-and startling taste, the arms and armour of the respective proprietor;
-consisting of his whitened shield, embossed and emblazoned with the
-figure of his protecting _medicine_ (or mystery), his bow and quiver,
-his war-club or battle-axe, his dart or javelin—his tobacco pouch and
-pipe—his medicine-bag—and his eagle—ermine or raven head-dress; and
-over all, and on the top of the post (as if placed by some conjuror
-or Indian magician, to guard and protect the spell of wildness that
-reigns in this strange place), stands forth and in full relief the head
-and horns of a buffalo, which is, by a village regulation, owned and
-possessed by every man in the nation, and hung at the head of his bed,
-which he uses as a mask when called upon by the chiefs, to join in the
-buffalo-dance, of which I shall say more in a future epistle.
-
-This arrangement of beds, of arms, &c., combining the most vivid
-display and arrangement of colours, of furs, of trinkets—of barbed and
-glistening points and steel—of mysteries and hocus pocus, together
-with the sombre and smoked colour of the roof and sides of the
-lodge; and the wild, and rude and red—the graceful (though uncivil)
-conversational, garrulous, story-telling and happy, though ignorant
-and untutored groups, that are smoking their pipes—wooing their
-sweethearts, and embracing their little ones about their peaceful and
-endeared fire-sides; together with their pots and kettles, spoons,
-and other culinary articles of their own manufacture, around them;
-present altogether, one of the most picturesque scenes to the eye of a
-stranger, that can be possibly seen; and far more wild and vivid than
-could ever be imagined.
-
-Reader, I said these people were garrulous, story-telling and happy;
-this is true, and literally so; and it belongs to me to establish the
-fact, and correct the error which seems to have gone forth to the world
-on this subject.
-
-As I have before observed, there is no subject that I know of within
-the scope and reach of human wisdom, on which the civilized world in
-this enlightened age are more incorrectly informed, than upon that
-of the true manners and customs, and moral condition, rights and
-abuses, of the North American Indians; and that, as I have also before
-remarked, chiefly on account of the difficulty of our cultivating a
-fair and honourable acquaintance with them, and doing them the justice,
-and ourselves the credit, of a fair and impartial investigation of
-their true character. The present age of refinement and research has
-brought every thing else that I know of (and a vast deal more than
-the most enthusiastic mind ever dreamed of) within the scope and fair
-estimation of refined intellect and of science; while the wild and
-timid savage, with his interesting customs and modes has vanished, or
-his character has become changed, at the approach of the enlightened
-and intellectual world; who follow him like a phantom for awhile, and
-in ignorance of his true character at last turn back to the common
-business and social transactions of life.
-
-Owing to the above difficulties, which have stood in the way, the world
-have fallen into many egregious errors with regard to the true modes
-and meaning of the savage, which I am striving to set forth and correct
-in the course of these epistles. And amongst them all, there is none
-more common, nor more entirely erroneous, nor more easily refuted,
-than the current one, that “the Indian is a sour, morose, reserved and
-taciturn man.” I have heard this opinion advanced a thousand times and
-I believed it; but such certainly, is not uniformly nor generally the
-case.
-
-I have observed in all my travels amongst the Indian tribes, and
-more particularly amongst these unassuming people, that they are a
-far more talkative and conversational race than can easily be seen
-in the civilized world. This assertion, like many others I shall
-occasionally make, will somewhat startle the folks at the East, yet
-it is true. No one can look into the wigwams of these people, or into
-any little momentary group of them, without being at once struck with
-the conviction that small-talk, gossip, garrulity, and story-telling,
-are the leading passions with them, who have little else to do in
-the world, but to while away their lives in the innocent and endless
-amusement of the exercise of those talents with which Nature has
-liberally endowed them, for their mirth and enjoyment.
-
-One has but to walk or ride about this little town and its environs
-for a few hours in a pleasant day, and overlook the numerous games and
-gambols, where their notes and yelps of exultation are unceasingly
-vibrating in the atmosphere; or peep into their wigwams (and watch
-the glistening fun that’s beaming from the noses, cheeks, and chins,
-of the crouching, cross-legged, and prostrate groups around the fire;
-where the pipe is passed, and jokes and anecdote, and laughter are
-excessive) to become convinced that it is natural to laugh and be
-merry. Indeed it would be strange if a race of people like these, who
-have little else to do or relish in life, should be curtailed in that
-source of pleasure and amusement; and it would be also strange, if a
-life-time of indulgence and practice in so innocent and productive a
-mode of amusement, free from the cares and anxieties of business or
-professions, should not advance them in their modes, and enable them to
-draw far greater pleasure from such sources, than we in the civilized
-and business world can possibly feel. If the uncultivated condition of
-their minds curtails the number of their enjoyments; yet they are free
-from, and independent of, a thousand cares and jealousies, which arise
-from mercenary motives in the civilized world; and are yet far a-head
-of us (in my opinion) in the real and uninterrupted enjoyment of their
-simple natural faculties.
-
-They live in a country and in communities, where it is not customary
-to look forward into the future with concern, for they live without
-incurring the expenses of life, which are absolutely necessary and
-unavoidable in the enlightened world; and of course their inclinations
-and faculties are solely directed to the enjoyment of the present day,
-without the sober reflections on the past or apprehensions of the
-future.
-
-With minds thus unexpanded and uninfluenced by the thousand passions
-and ambitions of civilized life, it is easy and natural to concentrate
-their thoughts and their conversation upon the little and trifling
-occurrences of their lives. They are fond of fun and good cheer, and
-can laugh easily and heartily at a slight joke, of which their peculiar
-modes of life furnish them an inexhaustible fund, and enable them to
-cheer their little circle about the wigwam fire-side with endless
-laughter and garrulity.
-
-It may be thought, that I am taking a great deal of pains to establish
-this fact, and I am dwelling longer upon it than I otherwise should,
-inasmuch as I am opposing an error that seems to have become current
-through the world; and which, if it be once corrected, removes a
-material difficulty, which has always stood in the way of a fair and
-just estimation of the Indian character. For the purpose of placing
-the Indian in a proper light before the world, as I hope to do in
-many respects, it is of importance to me—it is but justice to the
-savage—and justice to my readers also, that such points should be
-cleared up as I proceed; and for the world who enquire for correct and
-just information, they must take my words for the truth, or else come
-to this country and look for themselves, into these grotesque circles
-of never-ending laughter and fun, instead of going to Washington
-City to gaze on the poor embarrassed Indian who is called there by
-his “Great Father,” to contend with the sophistry of the learned and
-acquisitive world, in bartering away his lands with the graves and the
-hunting grounds of his ancestors. There is not the proper place to
-study the Indian character; yet it is the place where the sycophant and
-the scribbler go to gaze and frown upon him—to learn his character,
-and write his history! and because he does not speak, and quaffs the
-delicious beverage which he receives from white men’s hands, “he’s a
-speechless brute and a drunkard.” An Indian is a beggar in Washington
-City, and a white man is almost equally so in the Mandan village. An
-Indian in Washington is mute, is dumb and embarrassed; and so is a
-white man (and for the very same reasons) in this place—he has nobody
-to talk to.
-
-A wild Indian, to reach the civilized world, must needs travel
-some thousands of miles in vehicles of conveyance, to which he is
-unaccustomed—through latitudes and longitudes which are new to
-him—living on food that he is unused to—stared and gazed at by the
-thousands and tens of thousands whom he cannot talk to—his heart
-grieving and his body sickening at the exhibition of white men’s wealth
-and luxuries, which are enjoyed on the land, and over the bones of
-his ancestors. And at the end of his journey he stands (like a caged
-animal) to be scanned—to be criticised—to be pitied—and heralded to the
-world as a mute—as a brute, and a beggar.
-
-A white man, to reach this village, must travel by steam-boat—by
-canoes—on horseback and on foot; swim rivers—wade quagmires—fight
-mosquitoes—patch his moccasins, and patch them again and again, and his
-breeches; live on meat alone—sleep on the ground the whole way, and
-think and dream of his friends he has left behind; and when he gets
-here, half-starved, and half-naked, and more than half sick, he finds
-himself a beggar for a place to sleep, and for something to eat; a
-mute amongst thousands who flock about him, to look and to criticise,
-and to laugh at him for his jaded appearance, and to speak of him as
-they do of all white men (without distinction) as liars. These people
-are in the habit of seeing no white men in their country but Traders,
-and know of no other; deeming us all alike, and receiving us all under
-the presumption that we come to trade or barter; applying to us all,
-indiscriminately, the epithet of “liars” or Traders.
-
-The reader will therefore see, that we mutually suffer in each other’s
-estimation from the unfortunate ignorance, which distance has chained
-us in; and (as I can vouch, and the Indian also, who has visited
-the civilized world) that the historian who would record justly and
-correctly the character and customs of a people, must go and live among
-them.
-
-
-
-
-                             LETTER—No. 12.
-
-                    MANDAN VILLAGE, UPPER MISSOURI.
-
-
-In my last, I gave some account of the village, and the customs, and
-appearances of this strange people,—and I will now proceed to give
-further details on that subject.
-
-I have this morning, perched myself upon the top of one of the
-earth-covered lodges, which I have before described, and having the
-whole village beneath and about me (+plate+ 47), with its sachems—its
-warriors—its dogs—and its horses in motion—its medicines (or mysteries)
-and scalp-poles waving over my head—its piquets—its green fields and
-prairies, and river in full view, with the din and bustle of the
-thrilling panorama that is about me. I shall be able, I hope, to give
-some sketches more to the life than I could have done from any effort
-of recollection.
-
-I said that the lodges or wigwams were covered with earth—were of forty
-or sixty feet in diameter, and so closely grouped that there was but
-just room enough to walk and ride between them,—that they had a door by
-which to enter them, and a hole in the top for the admission of light,
-and for the smoke to escape,—that the inmates were at times grouped
-upon their tops in conversations and other amusements, &c.; and yet
-you know not exactly how they look, nor what is the precise appearance
-of the strange world that is about me. There is really a newness
-and rudeness in every thing that is to be seen. There are several
-hundred houses or dwellings about me, and they are purely unique—they
-are all covered with dirt—the people are all red, and yet distinct
-from all other red folks I have seen. The horses are wild—every dog
-is a wolf—the whole moving mass are strangers to me: the living, in
-everything, carry an air of intractable wildness about them, and the
-dead are not buried, but dried upon scaffolds.
-
-The groups of lodges around me present a very curious and pleasing
-appearance, resembling in shape (more nearly than anything else I
-can compare them to) so many potash-kettles inverted. On the tops
-of these are to be seen groups standing and reclining, whose wild
-and picturesque appearance it would be difficult to describe. Stern
-warriors, like statues, standing in dignified groups, wrapped in their
-painted robes, with their heads decked and plumed with quills of the
-war-eagle; extending their long arms to the east or the west, the
-scenes of their battles, which they are recounting over to each other.
-In another direction, the wooing lover, softening the heart of his fair
-Taih-nah-tai-a with the notes of his simple lute. On other lodges, and
-beyond these, groups are engaged in games of the “moccasin,” or the
-“platter.” Some are to be seen manufacturing robes and dresses, and
-others, fatigued with amusements or occupations, have stretched their
-limbs to enjoy the luxury of sleep, whilst basking in the sun. With
-all this wild and varied medley of living beings are mixed their dogs,
-which seem to be so near an Indian’s heart, as almost to constitute a
-material link of his existence.
-
-In the centre of the village is an open space, or public area, of 150
-feet in diameter, and circular in form, which is used for all public
-games and festivals, shews and exhibitions; and also for their “annual
-religious ceremonies,” which are soon to take place, and of which I
-shall hereafter give some account. The lodges around this open space
-front in, with their doors towards the centre; and in the middle of
-this circle stands an object of great religious veneration, as I am
-told, on account of the importance it has in the conduction of those
-annual religious rites.
-
-This object is in form of a large hogshead, some eight or ten feet
-high, made of planks and hoops, containing within it some of their
-choicest medicines or mysteries, and religiously preserved unhacked or
-scratched, as a symbol of the “Big Canoe,” as they call it.
-
-One of the lodges fronting on this circular area, and facing this
-strange object of their superstition, is called the “Medicine Lodge,”
-or council house. It is in this sacred building that these wonderful
-ceremonies, in commemoration of the flood, take place. I am told by the
-Traders that the cruelties of these scenes are frightful and abhorrent
-in the extreme; and that this huge wigwam, which is now closed, has
-been built exclusively for this grand celebration. I am every day
-reminded of the near approach of the season for this strange affair,
-and as I have not yet seen any thing of it, I cannot describe it; I
-know it only from the relations of the Traders who have witnessed parts
-of it; and their descriptions are of so extraordinary a character, that
-I would not be willing to describe until I can see for myself,—which
-will, in all probability, be in a few days.
-
-In ranging the eye over the village from where I am writing, there
-is presented to the view the strangest mixture and medley of
-unintelligible trash (independent of the living beings that are in
-motion), that can possibly be imagined. On the roofs of the lodges,
-besides the groups of living, are buffaloes’ skulls, skin canoes,
-pots and pottery; sleds and sledges—and suspended on poles, erected
-some twenty feet above the doors of their wigwams, are displayed in a
-pleasant day, the scalps of warriors, preserved as trophies; and thus
-proudly exposed as evidence of their warlike deeds. In other parts are
-raised on poles the warriors’ pure and whitened shields and quivers,
-with medicine-bags attached; and here and there a sacrifice of red
-cloth, or other costly stuff, offered up to the Great Spirit, over
-the door of some benignant chief, in humble gratitude for the blessings
-which he is enjoying. Such is a part of the strange medley that is
-before and around me; and amidst them and the blue streams of smoke
-that are rising from the tops of these hundred “coal-pits,” can be
-seen in distance, the green and boundless, treeless, bushless prairie;
-and on it, and contiguous to the piquet which encloses the village, a
-hundred scaffolds on which their “dead live,” as they term it.
-
-[Illustration: 47]
-
-[Illustration: 48]
-
-These people never bury the dead, but place the bodies on slight
-scaffolds just above the reach of human hands, and out of the way of
-wolves and dogs; and they are there left to moulder and decay. This
-cemetery, or place of deposite for the dead, is just back of the
-village, on a level prairie (+plate+ 48); and with all its appearances,
-history, forms, ceremonies, &c. is one of the strangest and most
-interesting objects to be described in the vicinity of this peculiar
-race.
-
-Whenever a person dies in the Mandan village, and the customary honours
-and condolence are paid to his remains, and the body dressed in its
-best attire, painted, oiled, feasted, and supplied with bow and quiver,
-shield, pipe and tobacco—knife, flint and steel, and provisions enough
-to last him a few days on the journey which he is to perform; a fresh
-buffalo’s skin, just taken from the animal’s back, is wrapped around
-the body, and tightly bound and wound with thongs of raw hide from head
-to foot. Then other robes are soaked in water, till they are quite
-soft and elastic, which are also bandaged around the body in the same
-manner, and tied fast with thongs, which are wound with great care and
-exactness, so as to exclude the action of the air from all parts of the
-body.
-
-There is then a separate scaffold erected for it, constructed of four
-upright posts, a little higher than human hands can reach; and on the
-tops of these are small poles passing around from one post to the
-others; across which a number of willow-rods just strong enough to
-support the body, which is laid upon them on its back, with its feet
-carefully presented towards the rising sun.
-
-There are a great number of these bodies resting exactly in a similar
-way; excepting in some instances where a chief, or medicine-man, may
-be seen with a few yards of scarlet or blue cloth spread over his
-remains, as a mark of public respect and esteem. Some hundreds of these
-bodies may be seen reposing in this manner in this curious place, which
-the Indians call, “the village of the dead;” and the traveller, who
-visits this country to study and learn, will not only be struck with
-the novel appearance of the scene; but if he will give attention to
-the respect and devotions that are paid to this sacred place, he will
-draw many a moral deduction that will last him through life: he will
-learn, at least, that filial, conjugal, and paternal affection are not
-necessarily the results of civilization; but that the Great Spirit
-has given them to man in his native state; and that the spices and
-improvements of the enlightened world have never refined upon them.
-
-There is not a day in the year in which one may not see in this place
-evidences of this fact, that will wring tears from his eyes, and kindle
-in his bosom a spark of respect and sympathy for the poor Indian, if
-he never felt it before. Fathers, mothers, wives, and children, may
-be seen lying under these scaffolds, prostrated upon the ground, with
-their faces in the dirt, howling forth incessantly the most piteous
-and heart-broken cries and lamentations for the misfortunes of their
-kindred; tearing their hair—cutting their flesh with their knives,
-and doing other penance to appease the spirits of the dead, whose
-misfortunes they attribute to some sin or omission of their own, for
-which they sometimes inflict the most excruciating self-torture.
-
-When the scaffolds on which the bodies rest, decay and fall to the
-ground, the nearest relations having buried the rest of the bones,
-take the skulls, which are perfectly bleached and purified, and place
-them in circles of an hundred or more on the prairie—placed at equal
-distances apart (some eight or nine inches from each other), with the
-faces all looking to the centre; where they are religiously protected
-and preserved in their precise positions from year to year, as objects
-of religious and affectionate veneration (+plate+ 48).
-
-There are several of these “Golgothas” or circles of twenty or thirty
-feet in diameter, and in the centre of each ring or circle is a
-little mound of three feet high, on which uniformly rest two buffalo
-skulls (a male and female); and in the centre of the little mound is
-erected a “medicine pole,” about twenty feet high, supporting many
-curious articles of mystery and superstition, which they suppose have
-the power of guarding and protecting this sacred arrangement. Here
-then, to this strange place do these people again resort, to evince
-their further affections for the dead—not in groans and lamentations
-however, for several years have cured the anguish; but fond affections
-and endearments are here renewed, and conversations are here held and
-cherished with the dead.
-
-Each one of these skulls is placed upon a bunch of wild sage, which
-has been pulled and placed under it. The wife knows (by some mark or
-resemblance) the skull of her husband or her child, which lies in this
-group; and there seldom passes a day that she does not visit it, with
-a dish of the best cooked food that her wigwam affords, which she sets
-before the skull at night, and returns for the dish in the morning.
-As soon as it is discovered that the sage on which the skull rests is
-beginning to decay, the woman cuts a fresh bunch, and places the skull
-carefully upon it, removing that which was under it.
-
-Independent of the above-named duties, which draw the women to this
-spot, they visit it from inclination, and linger upon it to hold
-converse and company with the dead. There is scarcely an hour in a
-pleasant day, but more or less of these women may be seen sitting or
-laying by the skull of their child or husband—talking to it in the most
-pleasant and endearing language that they can use (as they were wont
-to do in former days) and seemingly getting an answer back. It is not
-unfrequently the case, that the woman brings her needle-work with her,
-spending the greater part of the day, sitting by the side of the skull
-of her child, chatting incessantly with it, while she is embroidering
-or garnishing a pair of moccasins; and perhaps, overcome with fatigue,
-falls asleep, with her arms encircled around it, forgetting herself for
-hours; after which she gathers up her things and returns to the village.
-
-There is something exceedingly interesting and impressive in these
-scenes, which are so strikingly dissimilar, and yet within a few rods
-of each other; the one is the place where they pour forth the frantic
-anguish of their souls—and afterwards pay their visits to the other, to
-jest and gossip with the dead.
-
-The great variety of shapes and characters exhibited in these groups
-of crania, render them a very interesting study for the craniologist
-and phrenologist; but I apprehend that it would be a matter of great
-difficulty (if not of impossibility) to procure them at this time, for
-the use and benefit of the scientific world.
-
-
-
-
-                             LETTER—No. 13.
-
-                    MANDAN VILLAGE, UPPER MISSOURI.
-
-
-In several of my former Letters I have given sketches of the village,
-and some few of the customs of these peculiar people; and I have many
-more yet in store; some of which will induce the readers to laugh, and
-others almost dispose them to weep. But at present, I drop them, and
-introduce a few of the wild and gentlemanly Mandans themselves; and
-first, Ha-na-tah-nu-mauh, the wolf chief (+plate+ 49). This man is
-head-chief of the nation, and familiarly known by the name of “Chef
-de Loup,” as the French Traders call him; a haughty, austere, and
-overbearing man, respected and feared by his people rather than loved.
-The tenure by which this man holds his office, is that by which the
-head-chiefs of most of the tribes claim, that of inheritance. It is
-a general, though not an infallible rule amongst the numerous tribes
-of North American Indians, that the office of chief belongs to the
-eldest son of a chief; provided he shews himself, by his conduct, to be
-equally worthy of it as any other in the nation: making it hereditary
-on a very proper condition—in default of which requisites, or others
-which may happen, the office is elective.
-
-The dress of this chief was one of great extravagance, and some beauty;
-manufactured of skins, and a great number of quills of the raven,
-forming his stylish head-dress.
-
-The next and second chief of the tribe, is Mah-to-toh-pa (the four
-bears). This extraordinary man, though second in office is undoubtedly
-the first and most popular man in the nation. Free, generous, elegant
-and gentlemanly in his deportment—handsome, brave and valiant; wearing
-a robe on his back, with the history of his battles emblazoned on it;
-which would fill a book of themselves, if properly translated. This,
-readers, is the most extraordinary man, perhaps, who lives at this day,
-in the atmosphere of Nature’s noblemen; and I shall certainly tell you
-more of him anon.
-
-After him, there are Mah-tahp-ta-ha, he who rushes through the middle
-(+plate+ 50); Seehk-hee-da, the mouse-coloured feather (+plate+ 51);
-San-ja-ka-ko-kah (the deceiving wolf); Mah-to-he-ha (the old bear), and
-others, distinguished as chiefs and warriors—and there are belles also;
-such as Mi-neek-e-sunk-te-ca, the mink (+plate+ 53); and the little
-gray-haired Sha-ko-ka, mint (+plate+ 52); and fifty others, who are
-famous for their conquests, not with the bow or the javelin, but
-with their small black eyes, which shoot out from under their unfledged
-brows, and pierce the boldest, fiercest chieftain to the heart.
-
-[Illustration: 49]
-
-[Illustration: 50 51]
-
-[Illustration: 52 53]
-
-The Mandans are certainly a very interesting and pleasing people in
-their personal appearance and manners; differing in many respects, both
-in looks and customs, from all other tribes which I have seen. They
-are not a warlike people; for they seldom, if ever, carry war into
-their enemies’ country; but when invaded, shew their valour and courage
-to be equal to that of any people on earth. Being a small tribe, and
-unable to contend on the wide prairies with the Sioux and other roaming
-tribes, who are ten times more numerous; they have very judiciously
-located themselves in a permanent village, which is strongly fortified,
-and ensures their preservation. By this means they have advanced
-further in the arts of manufacture; have supplied their lodges more
-abundantly with the comforts, and even luxuries of life, than any
-Indian nation I know of. The consequence of this is, that this tribe
-have taken many steps ahead of other tribes in manners and refinements
-(if I may be allowed to apply the word refinement to Indian life); and
-are therefore familiarly (and correctly) denominated, by the Traders
-and others, who have been amongst them, “the polite and friendly
-Mandans.”
-
-There is certainly great justice in the remark; and so forcibly have
-I been struck with the peculiar ease and elegance of these people,
-together with the diversity of complexions, the various colours of
-their hair and eyes; the singularity of their language, and their
-peculiar and unaccountable customs, that I am fully convinced that
-they have sprung from some other origin than that of the other North
-American tribes, or that they are an amalgam of natives with some
-civilized race.
-
-Here arises a question of very great interest and importance for
-discussion; and, after further familiarity with their character,
-customs, and traditions, if I forget it not, I will eventually give it
-further consideration. Suffice it then, for the present, that their
-_personal appearance_ alone, independent of their modes and customs,
-pronounces them at once, as more or less, than savage.
-
-A stranger in the Mandan village is first struck with the different
-shades of complexion, and various colours of hair which he sees in a
-crowd about him; and is at once almost disposed to exclaim that “these
-are not Indians.”
-
-There are a great many of these people whose complexions appear as
-light as half breeds; and amongst the women particularly, there are
-many whose skins are almost white, with the most pleasing symmetry
-and proportion of features; with hazel, with grey, and with blue
-eyes,—with mildness and sweetness of expression, and excessive modesty
-of demeanour, which render them exceedingly pleasing and beautiful.
-
-Why this diversity of complexion I cannot tell, nor can they
-themselves account for it. Their traditions, so far as I have yet
-learned them, afford us no information of their having had any
-knowledge of white men before the visit of Lewis and Clarke, made to
-their village thirty-three years ago. Since that time there have been
-but very few visits from white men to this place, and surely not enough
-to have changed the complexions and the customs of a nation. And I
-recollect perfectly well that Governor Clarke told me, before I started
-for this place, that I would find the Mandans a strange people and half
-white.
-
-The diversity in the colour of hair is also equally as great as that
-in the complexion; for in a numerous group of these people (and more
-particularly amongst the females, who never take pains to change its
-natural colour, as the men often do), there may be seen every shade and
-colour of hair that can be seen in our own country, with the exception
-of red or auburn, which is not to be found.
-
-And there is yet one more strange and unaccountable peculiarity, which
-can probably be seen nowhere else on earth; nor on any rational grounds
-accounted for,—other than it is a freak or order of Nature, for which
-she has not seen fit to assign a reason. There are very many, of both
-sexes, and of every age, from infancy to manhood and old age, with hair
-of a bright silvery grey; and in some instances almost perfectly white.
-
-This singular and eccentric appearance is much oftener seen among the
-women than it is with the men; for many of the latter who have it,
-seem ashamed of it, and artfully conceal it, by filling their hair
-with glue and black and red earth. The women, on the other hand, seem
-proud of it, and display it often in an almost incredible profusion,
-which spreads over their shoulders and falls as low as the knee. I have
-ascertained, on a careful enquiry, that about one in ten or twelve of
-the whole tribe are what the French call “cheveux gris,” or greyhairs;
-and that this strange and unaccountable phenomenon is not the result of
-disease or habit; but that it is unquestionably a hereditary character
-which runs in families, and indicates no inequality in disposition or
-intellect. And by passing this hair through my hands, as I often have,
-I have found it uniformly to be as coarse and harsh as a horse’s mane;
-differing materially from the hair of other colours, which amongst the
-Mandans, is generally as fine and as soft as silk.
-
-The reader will at once see, by the above facts, that there is enough
-upon the faces and heads of these people to stamp them peculiar,—when
-he meets them in the heart of this almost boundless wilderness,
-presenting such diversities of colour in the complexion and hair; when
-he knows from what he has seen, and what he has read, that all other
-primitive tribes known in America, are dark copper-coloured, with jet
-black hair.
-
-From these few facts alone, the reader will see that I am amongst a
-strange and interesting people, and know how to pardon me, if I lead
-him through a maze of novelty and mysteries to the knowledge of a
-strange, yet kind and hospitable, people, whose fate, like that of all
-their race is sealed;— whose doom is fixed, to live just long enough
-to be imperfectly known, and then to fall before the fell disease or
-sword of civilizing devastation.
-
-The stature of the Mandans is rather below the ordinary size of
-man, with beautiful symmetry of form and proportion, and wonderful
-suppleness and elasticity; they are pleasingly erect and graceful,
-both in their walk and their attitudes; and the hair of the men,
-which generally spreads over their backs, falling down to the hams,
-and sometimes to the ground, is divided into plaits or slabs of two
-inches in width, and filled with a profusion of glue and red earth or
-vermilion, at intervals of an inch or two, which becoming very hard,
-remains in and unchanged from year to year.
-
-This mode of dressing the hair is curious, and gives to the Mandans the
-most singular appearance. The hair of the men is uniformly all laid
-over from the forehead backwards; carefully kept above and resting on
-the ear, and thence falling down over the back, in these flattened
-bunches, and painted red, extending oftentimes quite on to the calf
-of the leg, and sometimes in such profusion as almost to conceal the
-whole figure from the person walking behind them. In the portrait
-of San-ja-ka-ko-kah (the deceiving wolf, +plate+ 54), where he is
-represented at full length, with several others of his family around
-him in a group, there will be seen a fair illustration of these and
-other customs of these people.
-
-The hair of the women is also worn as long as they can possibly
-cultivate it, oiled very often, which preserves on it a beautiful gloss
-and shows its natural colour. They often braid it in two large plaits,
-one falling down just back of the ear, on each side of the head; and
-on any occasion which requires them to “put on their best looks,” they
-pass their fingers through it, drawing it out of braid, and spreading
-it over their shoulders. The Mandan women observe strictly the same
-custom, which I observed amongst the Crows and Blackfeet (and, in fact,
-all other tribes I have seen, without a single exception), of parting
-the hair on the forehead, and always keeping the crease or separation
-filled with vermilion or other red paint. This is one of the very few
-little (and apparently trivial) customs which I have found amongst the
-Indians, without being able to assign any cause for it, other than that
-“they are Indians,” and that this is an Indian fashion.
-
-In mourning, like the Crows and most other tribes the women are obliged
-to crop their hair all off; and the usual term of that condolence is
-until the hair has grown again to its former length.
-
-When a man mourns for the death of a near relation the case is quite
-different; his long, valued tresses, are of much greater importance,
-and only a lock or two can be spared. Just enough to tell of his grief
-to his friends, without destroying his most valued ornament, is doing
-just reverence and respect to the dead.
-
-To repeat what I have said before, the Mandans are a pleasing and
-friendly race of people, of whom it is proverbial amongst the Traders
-and all who ever have known them that their treatment of white men
-in their country has been friendly and kind ever since their first
-acquaintance with them—they have ever met and received them, on the
-prairie or in their villages, with hospitality and honour.
-
-They are handsome, straight and elegant in their forms—not tall,
-but quick and graceful; easy and polite in their manners, neat in
-their persons and beautifully clad. When I say “neat in person and
-beautifully clad,” however, I do not intend my readers to understand
-that such is the case with them all, for among them and most other
-tribes, as with the enlightened world, there are different grades of
-society—those who care but little for their personal appearance, and
-those who take great pains to please themselves and their friends.
-Amongst this class of personages, such as chiefs and braves, or
-warriors of distinction, and their families, and dandies or exquisites
-(a class of beings of whom I shall take due time to speak in a future
-Letter), the strictest regard to decency, and cleanliness and elegance
-of dress is observed; and there are few people, perhaps, who take more
-pains to keep their persons neat and cleanly than they do.
-
-At the distance of half a mile or so above the village, is the
-customary place where the women and girls resort every morning in the
-summer months, to bathe in the river. To this spot they repair by
-hundreds, every morning at sunrise, where, on a beautiful beach, they
-can be seen running and glistening in the sun, whilst they are playing
-their innocent gambols and leaping into the stream. They all learn to
-swim well, and the poorest swimmer amongst them will dash fearlessly
-into the boiling and eddying current of the Missouri, and cross it with
-perfect ease. At the distance of a quarter of a mile back from the
-river, extends a terrace or elevated prairie, running north from the
-village, and forming a kind of semi-circle around this bathing-place;
-and on this terrace, which is some twenty or thirty feet higher than
-the meadow between it and the river, are stationed every morning
-several sentinels, with their bows and arrows in hand, to guard and
-protect this sacred ground from the approach of boys or men from any
-directions.
-
-At a little distance below the village, also, is the place where
-the men and boys go to bathe and learn to swim. After this morning
-ablution, they return to their village, wipe their limbs dry, and use a
-profusion of bear’s grease through their hair and over their bodies.
-
-The art of swimming is known to all the American Indians; and perhaps
-no people on earth have taken more pains to learn it, nor any who turn
-it to better account. There certainly are no people whose avocations
-of life more often call for the use of their limbs in this way; as
-many of the tribes spend their lives on the shores of our vast lakes
-and rivers, paddling about from their childhood in their fragile bark
-canoes, which are liable to continual accidents, which often throw the
-Indian upon his natural resources for the preservation of his life.
-
-There are many times also, when out upon their long marches in the
-prosecution of their almost continued warfare, when it becomes
-necessary to plunge into and swim across the wildest streams and
-rivers, at times when they have no canoes or craft in which to cross
-them. I have as yet seen no tribe where this art is neglected. It is
-learned at a very early age by both sexes, and enables the strong and
-hardy muscles of the squaws to take their child upon the back, and
-successfully to pass any river that lies in their way.
-
-[Illustration: 54]
-
-The mode of swimming amongst the Mandans, as well as amongst most of
-the other tribes, is quite different from that practiced in those parts
-of the civilized world, which I have had the pleasure yet to visit. The
-Indian, instead of parting his hands simultaneously under the chin, and
-making the stroke outward, in a horizontal direction, causing thereby
-a serious strain upon the chest, throws his body alternately upon the
-left and the right side, raising one arm entirely above the water and
-reaching as far forward as he can, to dip it, whilst his whole weight
-and force are spent upon the one that is passing under him, and like a
-paddle propelling him along; whilst this arm is making a half circle,
-and is being raised out of the water behind him, the opposite arm is
-describing a similar arch in the air over his head, to be dipped in the
-water as far as he can reach before him, with the hand turned under,
-forming a sort of bucket, to act most effectively as it passes in its
-turn underneath him.
-
-By this bold and powerful mode of swimming, which may want the grace
-that many would wish to see, I am quite sure, from the experience I
-have had, that much of the fatigue and strain upon the breast and spine
-are avoided, and that a man will preserve his strength and his breath
-much longer in this alternate and rolling motion, than he can in the
-usual mode of swimming, in the polished world.
-
-In addition to the modes of bathing which I have above described,
-the Mandans have another, which is a much greater luxury, and often
-resorted to by the sick, but far more often by the well and sound, as
-a matter of luxury only, or perhaps for the purpose of hardening their
-limbs and preparing them for the thousand exposures and vicissitudes
-of life to which they are continually liable. I allude to their vapour
-baths, or _sudatories_, of which each village has several, and which
-seem to be a kind of public property—accessible to all, and resorted to
-by all, male and female, old and young, sick and well.
-
-In every Mandan lodge is to be seen a crib or basket, much in the shape
-of a bathing-tub, curiously woven with willow boughs, and sufficiently
-large to receive any person of the family in a reclining or recumbent
-posture; which, when any one is to take a bath, is carried by the squaw
-to the sudatory for the purpose, and brought back to the wigwam again
-after it has been used.
-
-These sudatories are always near the village, above or below it, on
-the bank of the river. They are generally built of skins (in form of
-a Crow or Sioux lodge which I have before described), covered with
-buffalo skins sewed tight together, with a kind of furnace in the
-centre; or in other words, in the centre of the lodge are two walls of
-stone about six feet long and two and a half apart, and about three
-feet high; across and over this space, between the two walls, are laid
-a number of round sticks, on which the bathing crib is placed (vide
-+plate+ 71). Contiguous to the lodge, and outside of it, is a little
-furnace something similar, in the side of the bank, where the woman
-kindles a hot fire, and heats to a red heat a number of large stones,
-which are kept at these places for this particular purpose; and having
-them all in readiness, she goes home or sends word to inform her
-husband or other one who is waiting, that all is ready; when he makes
-his appearance entirely naked, though with a large buffalo robe wrapped
-around him. He then enters the lodge and places himself in the crib or
-basket, either on his back or in a sitting posture (the latter of which
-is generally preferred), with his back towards the door of the lodge;
-when the squaw brings in a large stone red hot, between two sticks
-(lashed together somewhat in the form of a pair of tongs) and, placing
-it under him, throws cold water upon it, which raises a profusion of
-vapour about him. He is at once enveloped in a cloud of steam, and a
-woman or child will sit at a little distance and continue to dash water
-upon the stone, whilst the matron of the lodge is out, and preparing to
-make her appearance with another heated stone: or he will sit and dip
-from a wooden bowl, with a ladle made of the mountain-sheep’s horn, and
-throw upon the heated stones, with his own hands, the water which he is
-drawing through his lungs and pores, in the next moment, in the most
-delectable and exhilarating vapours, as it distils through the mat of
-wild sage and other medicinal and aromatic herbs, which he has strewed
-over the bottom of his basket, and on which he reclines.
-
-During all this time the lodge is shut perfectly tight, and he quaffs
-this delicious and renovating draught to his lungs with deep drawn
-sighs, and with extended nostrils, until he is drenched in the most
-profuse degree of perspiration that can be produced; when he makes a
-kind of strangled signal, at which the lodge is opened, and he darts
-forth with the speed of a frightened deer, and plunges headlong into
-the river, from which he instantly escapes again, wraps his robe around
-him and “leans” as fast as possible for home. Here his limbs are wiped
-dry, and wrapped close and tight within the fur of the buffalo robes,
-in which he takes his nap, with his feet to the fire; then oils his
-limbs and hair with bear’s grease, dresses and plumes himself for a
-visit—a feast—a parade, or a council; or slicks down his long hair,
-and rubs his oiled limbs to a polish, with a piece of soft buckskin,
-prepared to join in games of ball or Tchung-kee.
-
-Such is the sudatory or the vapour bath of the Mandans, and as I before
-observed, it is resorted to both as an every-day luxury by those who
-have the time and energy or industry to indulge in it; and also used
-by the sick as a remedy for nearly all the diseases which are known
-amongst them. Fevers are very rare, and in fact almost unknown amongst
-these people: but in the few cases of fever which have been known, this
-treatment has been applied, and without the fatal consequences which
-we would naturally predict. The greater part of their diseases are
-inflammatory rheumatisms, and other chronic diseases; and for these,
-this mode of treatment, with their modes of life, does admirably well.
-This custom is similar amongst nearly all of these Missouri Indians,
-and amongst the Pawnees, Omahas, and Punchas and other tribes, who have
-suffered with the small-pox (the dread destroyer of the Indian race),
-this mode was practiced by the poor creatures, who fled by hundreds
-to the river’s edge, and by hundreds died before they could escape
-from the waves, into which they had plunged in the heat and rage of a
-burning fever. Such will yet be the scourge, and such the misery of
-these poor unthinking people, and each tribe to the Rocky Mountains,
-as it has been with every tribe between here and the Atlantic
-Ocean. White men—whiskey—tomahawks—scalping knives—guns, powder and
-ball—small-pox—debauchery—extermination.
-
-
-
-
-                             LETTER No. 14.
-
-                    MANDAN VILLAGE, UPPER MISSOURI.
-
-
-The Mandans in many instances dress very neatly, and some of them
-splendidly. As they are in their native state, their dresses are all
-of their own manufacture; and of course, altogether made of skins of
-different animals belonging to those regions. There is, certainly,
-a reigning and striking similarity of costume amongst most of the
-North Western tribes; and I cannot say that the dress of the Mandans
-is decidedly distinct from that of the Crows or the Blackfeet, the
-Assinneboins or the Sioux; yet there are modes of stitching or
-embroidering, in every tribe, which may at once enable the traveller,
-who is familiar with their modes, to detect or distinguish the dress
-of any tribe. These differences consist generally in the fashions of
-constructing the head-dress, or of garnishing their dresses with the
-porcupine quills, which they use in great profusion.
-
-Amongst so many different and distinct nations, always at war with
-each other, and knowing nothing at all of each other’s languages; and
-amongst whom, fashions in dress seldom if ever change; it may seem
-somewhat strange that we should find these people so nearly following,
-or imitating each other, in the forms and modes of their dress and
-ornaments. This must however, be admitted, and I think may be accounted
-for in a manner, without raising the least argument in favour of the
-theory of their having all sprung from one stock or one family; for in
-their continual warfare, when chiefs or warriors fall, their clothes
-and weapons usually fall into the possession of the victors, who wear
-them; and the rest of the tribe would naturally more or less often
-copy from or imitate them; and so also in their repeated councils or
-treaties of peace, such articles of dress and other manufactures are
-customarily exchanged, which are equally adopted by the other tribe;
-and consequently, eventually lead to the similarity which we find
-amongst the modes of dress, &c. of the different tribes.
-
-The tunic or shirt of the Mandan men is very similar in shape to that
-of the Blackfeet—made of two skins of deer or mountain-sheep, strung
-with scalp-locks, beads, and ermine. The leggings, like those of the
-other tribes, of whom I have spoken, are made of deer skins, and shaped
-to fit the leg, embroidered with porcupine quills, and fringed with
-scalps from their enemies heads. Their moccasins are made of buckskin,
-and neatly ornamented with porcupine quills—over their shoulders (or
-in other words, over one shoulder and passing under the other), they
-very gracefully wear a robe from the young buffalo’s back, oftentimes
-cut down to about half its original size, to make it handy and easy
-for use. Many of these are also fringed on one side with scalp-locks;
-and the flesh side of the skin curiously ornamented with pictured
-representations of the creditable events and battles of their lives.
-
-Their head-dresses are of various sorts, and many of them exceedingly
-picturesque and handsome; generally made of war-eagles’ or ravens
-quills and ermine. These are the most costly part of an Indian’s dress
-in all this country, owing to the difficulty of procuring the quills
-and the fur. The war-eagle being the “_rara avis_,” and the ermine the
-rarest animal that is found in the country. The tail of a war-eagle
-in this village, provided it is a perfect one, containing some six or
-eight quills, which are denominated first-rate plumes, and suitable to
-arrange in a head-dress, will purchase a tolerable good horse (horses,
-however, are much cheaper here than they are in most other countries).
-I have had abundant opportunities of learning the great value which
-these people sometimes attach to such articles of dress and ornament,
-as I have been purchasing a great many, which I intend to exhibit in
-my Gallery of Indian Paintings, that the world may examine them for
-themselves, and thereby be enabled to judge of the fidelity of my
-works, and the ingenuity of Indian manufactures.
-
-In these purchases I have often been surprised at the prices demanded
-by them; and perhaps I could not recite a better instance of the kind,
-than one which occurred here a few days since:—One of the chiefs, whom
-I had painted at full length, in a beautiful costume, with head-dress
-of war-eagles’ quills and ermine, extending quite down to his feet;
-and whom I was soliciting for the purchase of his dress complete, was
-willing to sell to me all but the head-dress; saying, that “he could
-not part with that, as he would never be able to get quills and ermine
-of so good a quality to make another like it.” I agreed with him,
-however, for the rest of the dress, and importuned him, from day to
-day, for the head-dress, until he at length replied, that, if I must
-have it, he must have two horses for it; the bargain was instantly
-struck—the horses were procured of the Traders at twenty-five dollars
-each, and the head-dress secured for my Collection.
-
-There is occasionally, a chief or a warrior of so extraordinary renown,
-that he is allowed to wear horns on his head-dress, which give to his
-aspect a strange and majestic effect. These are made of about a third
-part of the horn of a buffalo bull; the horn having been split from end
-to end, and a third part of it taken and shaved thin and light, and
-highly polished. These are attached to the top of the head-dress on
-each side, in the same place that they rise and stand on the head of
-a buffalo; rising out of a mat of ermine skins and tails, which hang
-over the top of the head-dress, somewhat in the form that the large and
-profuse locks of hair hang and fall over the head of a buffalo bull.
-See head-dress in +plates+ 14, 64, and 91, of three different tribes.
-
-The same custom I have found observed amongst the Sioux,—the Crows—the
-Blackfeet and Assinneboins, and it is one of so striking a character
-as needs a few more words of observation. There is a peculiar meaning
-or importance (in their estimation) to this and many other curious and
-unaccountable appearances in the habits of Indians, upon which the
-world generally look as things that are absurd and ridiculous, merely
-because they are beyond the world’s comprehension, or because we do not
-stop to enquire or learn their uses or meaning.
-
-I find that the principal cause why we underrate and despise the
-savage, is generally because we do not understand him; and the reason
-why we are ignorant of him and his modes, is that we do not stop to
-investigate—the world have been too much in the habit of looking
-upon him as altogether inferior—as a beast, a brute; and unworthy
-of more than a passing notice. If they stop long enough to form
-an acquaintance, it is but to take advantage of his ignorance and
-credulities—to rob him of the wealth and resources of his country;—to
-make him drunk with whiskey, and visit him with abuses which in his
-ignorance he never thought of. By this method his first visitors
-entirely overlook and never understand the meaning of his thousand
-interesting and characteristic customs; and at the same time, by
-changing his native modes and habits of life, blot them out from the
-view of the enquiring world for ever.
-
-It is from the observance of a thousand little and apparently trivial
-modes and tricks of Indian life, that the Indian character must be
-learned; and, in fact, it is just the same with us if the subject were
-reversed: excepting that the system of civilized life would furnish
-ten apparently useless and ridiculous trifles to one which is found in
-Indian life; and at least twenty to one which are purely nonsensical
-and unmeaning.
-
-The civilized world look upon a group of Indians, in their classic
-dress, with their few and simple oddities, all of which have their
-moral or meaning, and laugh at them excessively, because they are not
-like ourselves—we ask, “why do the silly creatures wear such great
-bunches of quills on their heads?—Such loads and streaks of paint upon
-their bodies—and bear’s grease? abominable!” and a thousand other
-equally silly questions, without ever stopping to think that Nature
-taught them to do so—and that they all have some definite importance
-or meaning which an Indian could explain to us at once, if he were
-asked and felt disposed to do so—that each quill in his head stood,
-in the eyes of his whole tribe, as the symbol of an enemy who had
-fallen by his hand—that every streak of red paint covered a wound
-which he had got in honourable combat—and that the bear’s grease with
-which he carefully anoints his body every morning, from head to foot,
-cleanses and purifies the body, and protects his skin from the bite of
-mosquitoes, and at the same time preserves him from colds and coughs
-which are usually taken through the pores of the skin.
-
-At the same time, an Indian looks among the civilized world, no doubt,
-with equal, if not much greater, astonishment, at our apparently, as
-well as _really_, ridiculous customs and fashions; but he laughs not,
-nor ridicules, nor questions,—for his natural good sense and good
-manners forbid him,—until he is reclining about the fire-side of his
-wigwam companions, when he vents forth his just criticisms upon the
-learned world, who are a rich and just theme for Indian criticism and
-Indian gossip.
-
-An Indian will not ask a white man the reason why he does not oil his
-skin with bears’ grease, or why he does not paint his body—or why he
-wears a hat on his head, or why he has buttons on the back part of
-his coat, where they never can be used—or why he wears whiskers, and
-a shirt collar up to his eyes—or why he sleeps with his head towards
-the fire instead of his feet—why he walks with his toes out instead of
-turning them in—or why it is that hundreds of white folks will flock
-and crowd round a table to see an Indian eat—but he will go home to his
-wigwam fire-side, and “make the welkin ring” with jokes and fun upon
-the ignorance and folly of the knowing world.
-
-A wild Indian thrown into the civilized atmosphere will see a man
-occasionally moving in society, wearing a cocked hat; and another with
-a laced coat and gold or silver epaulettes upon his shoulders, without
-knowing or enquiring the meaning of them, or the objects for which they
-are worn. Just so a white man travels amongst a wild and untaught tribe
-of Indians, and sees occasionally one of them parading about their
-village, with a head-dress of eagles’ quills and ermine, and elevated
-above it a pair of beautifully polished buffalo horns; and just as
-ignorant is he also, of their meaning or importance; and more so, for
-the first will admit the presumption that epaulettes and cocked hats
-amongst the civilized world, are made for some important purpose,—but
-the latter will presume that horns on an Indian’s head are nothing more
-nor less (nor can they be in their estimation), than Indian nonsense
-and stupidity.
-
-This brings us to the “corned crest” again, and if the poor Indian
-scans epaulettes and cocked hats, without enquiring their meaning,
-and explaining them to his tribe, it is no reason why I should have
-associated with the noble dignitaries of these western regions, with
-horns and ermine on their heads, and then to have introduced the
-subject without giving some further clue to their importance and
-meaning. For me, this negligence would be doubly unpardonable, as I
-travel, not to _trade_ but to _herald_ the Indian and his dying customs
-to posterity.
-
-This custom then, which I have before observed belongs to all the
-north-western tribes, is one no doubt of very ancient origin, having
-a purely classic meaning. No one wears the head-dress surmounted with
-horns except the dignitaries who are very high in authority, and whose
-exceeding valour, worth, and power is admitted by all the nation.
-
-He may wear them, however, who is not a _chief_; but a brave, or
-warrior of such remarkable character, that he is esteemed universally
-in the tribe, as a man whose “voice is as loud in council” as that of a
-chief of the first grade, and consequently his _power_ as great.
-
-This head-dress with horns is used only on certain occasions, and they
-are very seldom. When foreign chiefs, Indian agents, or other important
-personages visit a tribe; or at war parades, at the celebration of
-a victory, at public festivals, &c. they are worn; but on no other
-occasions—unless, sometimes, when a chief sees fit to lead a war-party
-to battle, he decorates his head with this symbol of power, to
-stimulate his men; and throws himself into the foremost of the battle,
-inviting his enemy to concentrate their shafts upon him.
-
-The horns on these head-dresses are but loosely attached at the bottom,
-so that they easily fall back or forward, according as the head is
-inclined forward or backward; and by an ingenious motion of the head,
-which is so slight as to be almost imperceptible—they are made to
-balance to and fro, and sometimes, one backward and the other forward
-like a horse’s ears, giving a vast deal of expression and force of
-character, to the appearance of the chief who is wearing them. This,
-reader, is a remarkable instance (like hundreds of others), for its
-striking similarity to _Jewish customs_, to the kerns (or keren, in
-Hebrew), the horns worn by the Abysinian chiefs and Hebrews, as a
-_symbol of power_ and command; worn at great parades and celebrations
-of victories.
-
-“The false prophet Zedekiah, made him horns of iron” (1 Kings xxii.
-11). “Lift not your horns on high; speak not with a stiff neck” (Ps.
-lxxv. 5).
-
-This last citation seems so exactly to convey to my mind the mode of
-raising and changing the position of the horns by a motion of the head,
-as I have above described, that I am irresistibly led to believe that
-this custom is now practiced amongst these tribes very nearly as it
-was amongst the Jews; and that it has been, like many other customs of
-which I shall speak more in future epistles, handed down and preserved
-with very little innovation or change from that ancient people.
-
-The reader will see this custom exemplified in the portrait of
-Mah-to-toh-pa (+plate+ 64). This man, although the second chief, was
-the only man in the nation who was allowed to wear the horns; and
-all, I found, looked upon him as the leader, who had the power to
-lead all the warriors in time of war; and that, in consequence of the
-extraordinary battles which he had fought.
-
-
-
-
-                             LETTER—No. 15.
-
-                    MANDAN VILLAGE, UPPER MISSOURI.
-
-
-A week or more has elapsed since the date of my last Letter, and
-nothing as yet of the great and curious event—or the _Mandan religious
-ceremony_. There is evidently much preparation making for it,
-however; and from what I can learn, no one in the nation, save the
-_medicine-men_, have any knowledge of the exact day on which it is to
-commence. I am informed by the chiefs, that it takes place as soon as
-the willow-tree is in full leaf; for, say they, “the twig which the
-bird brought in was a willow bough, and had full-grown leaves on it.”
-So it seems that this celebration has some relation to the Flood.
-
-This great occasion is close at hand, and will, undoubtedly, commence
-in a few days; in the meantime I will give a few notes and memorandums,
-which I have made since my last.
-
-I have been continually at work with my brush, with fine and
-picturesque subjects before me; and from the strange, whimsical,
-and superstitious notions which they have of an art so novel and
-unaccountable to them, I have been initiated into many of their
-mysteries—have witnessed many very curious incidents, and preserved
-several anecdotes, some of which I must relate.
-
-Perhaps nothing ever more completely astonished these people than the
-operations of my _brush_. The art of portrait-painting was a subject
-entirely new to them, and of course, unthought of; and my appearance
-here has commenced a new era in the arcana of _medicine_ or mystery.
-Soon after arriving here, I commenced and finished the portraits of
-the two principal chiefs. This was done without having awakened the
-curiosity of the villagers, as they had heard nothing of what was going
-on, and even the chiefs themselves seemed to be ignorant of my designs,
-until the pictures were completed. No one else was admitted into my
-lodge during the operation; and when finished, it was exceedingly
-amusing to see them mutually recognizing each other’s likeness, and
-assuring each other of the striking resemblance which they bore to the
-originals. Both of these pressed their hand over their mouths awhile
-in dead silence (a custom amongst most tribes, when anything surprises
-them very much); looking attentively upon the portraits and myself, and
-upon the palette and colours with which these unaccountable effects had
-been produced.
-
-They then walked up to me in the most gentle manner, taking me in
-turn by the hand, with a firm grip; with head and eyes inclined
-downwards, and in a tone a little above a whisper—pronounced the words
-“te-ho-pe-nee Wash-ee!” and walked off.
-
-Readers, at that moment I was christened with a new and a great
-name—one by which I am now familiarly hailed, and talked of in this
-village; and no doubt will be, as long as traditions last in this
-strange community.
-
-That moment conferred an honour on me, which you as yet do not
-understand. I took the degree (not of Doctor of Laws, nor Bachelor of
-Arts) of Master of Arts—of mysteries—of magic, and of hocus pocus.
-I was recognized in that short sentence as a “great _medicine white
-man_;” and since that time, have been regularly installed _medicine_ or
-mystery, which is the most honourable degree that could be conferred
-upon me here; and I now hold a place amongst the most eminent and
-envied personages, the doctors and conjurati of this titled community.
-
-Te-ho-pe-nee Wash-ee (or medicine white man) is the name I now go by,
-and it will prove to me, no doubt, of more value than gold, for I have
-been called upon and feasted by the doctors, who are all mystery-men;
-and it has been an easy and successful passport already to many strange
-and mysterious places; and has put me in possession of a vast deal of
-curious and interesting information, which I am sure I never should
-have otherwise learned. I am daily growing in the estimation of the
-medicine-men and the chiefs; and by assuming all the gravity and
-circumspection due from so high a dignitary (and even considerably
-more); and endeavouring to perform now and then some art or trick that
-is unfathomable, I am in hopes of supporting my standing, until the
-great annual ceremony commences; on which occasion, I may possibly be
-allowed a seat in the _medicine-lodge_ by the doctors, who are the sole
-conductors of this great source and fountain of all priestcraft and
-conjuration in this country.
-
-After I had finished the portraits of the two chiefs, and they had
-returned to their wigwams, and deliberately seated themselves by their
-respective fire-sides, and silently smoked a pipe or two (according
-to an universal custom), they gradually began to tell what had taken
-place; and at length crowds of gaping listeners, with mouths wide open,
-thronged their lodges; and a throng of women and girls were about my
-house, and through every crack and crevice I could see their glistening
-eyes, which were piercing my hut in a hundred places, from a natural
-and restless propensity, a curiosity to see what was going on within.
-An hour or more passed in this way, and the soft and silken throng
-continually increased, until some hundreds of them were clung, and
-piled about my wigwam like a swarm of bees hanging on the front and
-sides of their hive.
-
-During this time, not a man made his appearance about the
-premises—after awhile, however, they could be seen, folded in their
-robes, gradually _siding_ up towards the lodge, with a silly look upon
-their faces, which confessed at once that curiosity was leading them
-reluctantly, where their pride checked and forbade them to go. The
-rush soon after became general, and the chiefs and medicine-men took
-possession of my room, placing _soldiers_ (braves with spears in their
-hands) at the door, admitting no one, but such as were allowed by the
-chiefs, to come in.
-
-Monsr. Kipp (the agent of the Fur Company, who has lived here eight
-years, and to whom, for his politeness and hospitality, I am much
-indebted), at this time took a seat with the chiefs, and, speaking
-their language fluently, he explained to them my views and the objects
-for which I was painting these portraits; and also expounded to them
-the manner in which they were made,—at which they seemed all to be very
-much pleased. The necessity at this time of exposing the portraits to
-the view of the crowds who were assembled around the house, became
-imperative, and they were held up together over the door, so that
-the whole village had a chance to see and recognize their chiefs.
-The effect upon so mixed a multitude, who as yet had heard no way of
-accounting for them, was novel and really laughable. The likenesses
-were instantly recognized, and many of the gaping multitude commenced
-yelping; some were stamping off in the jarring dance—others were
-singing, and others again were crying—hundreds covered their mouths
-with their hands and were mute; others, indignant, drove their spears
-frightfully into the ground, and some threw a reddened arrow at the
-sun, and went home to their wigwams.
-
-The pictures seen,—the next curiosity was to see the man who made them,
-and I was called forth. Readers! if you have any imagination, save me
-the trouble of painting this scene.    *    *    *    *    *    *    *
-*    *    I stepped forth, and was instantly hemmed in in the throng.
-Women were gaping and gazing—and warriors and braves were offering me
-their hands,—whilst little boys and girls, by dozens, were struggling
-through the crowd to touch me with the ends of their fingers; and
-whilst I was engaged, from the waist upwards, in fending off the throng
-and shaking hands, my legs were assailed (not unlike the nibbling of
-little fish, when I have been standing in deep water) by children, who
-were creeping between the legs of the bystanders for the curiosity or
-honour of touching me with the end of their finger. The eager curiosity
-and expression of astonishment with which they gazed upon me, plainly
-shewed that they looked upon me as some strange and unaccountable
-being. They pronounced me the greatest _medicine-man_ in the world;
-for they said I had made _living beings_,—they said they could see
-their chiefs alive, in two places—those that I had made were a _little_
-alive—they could see their eyes move—could see them smile and laugh,
-and that if they could laugh they could certainly speak, if they should
-try, and they must therefore have _some life_ in them.
-
-The squaws generally agreed, that they had discovered life enough in
-them to render my _medicine_ too great for the Mandans; saying that
-such an operation could not be performed without taking away from the
-original something of his existence, which I put in the picture, and
-they could see it move, could see it stir.
-
-This curtailing of the natural existence, for the purpose of
-instilling life into the secondary one, they decided to be an useless
-and destructive operation, and one which was calculated to do great
-mischief in their happy community; and they commenced a mournful and
-doleful chaunt against me, crying and weeping bitterly through the
-village, proclaiming me a most “dangerous man; one who could make
-living persons by looking at them; and at the same time, could, as
-a matter of course, destroy life in the same way, if I chose. That
-my medicine was dangerous to their lives, and that I must leave the
-village immediately. That bad luck would happen to those whom I
-painted—that I was to take a part of the existence of those whom I
-painted, and carry it home with me amongst the white people, and that
-when they died they would never sleep quiet in their graves.”
-
-In this way the women and some old quack medicine-men together,
-had succeeded in raising an opposition against me; and the reasons
-they assigned were so plausible and so exactly suited for their
-superstitious feelings, that they completely succeeded in exciting
-fears and a general panic in the minds of a number of chiefs who had
-agreed to sit for their portraits, and my operations were, of course,
-for several days completely at a stand. A grave council was held on
-the subject from day to day, and there seemed great difficulty in
-deciding what was to be done with me and the dangerous art which I was
-practicing; and which had far exceeded their original expectations.
-I finally got admittance to their sacred conclave, and assured them
-that I was but a man like themselves,—that my art had no _medicine_ or
-mystery about it, but could be learned by any of them if they would
-practice it as long as I had—that my intentions towards them were of
-the most friendly kind, and that in the country where I lived, brave
-men never allowed their squaws to frighten them with their foolish
-whims and stories. They all immediately arose, shook me by the hand,
-and dressed themselves for their pictures. After this, there was no
-further difficulty about sitting; all were ready to be painted,—the
-squaws were silent, and my painting-room a continual resort for the
-chiefs, and braves, and medicine-men; where they waited with impatience
-for the completion of each one’s picture,—that they could decide as to
-the likeness as it came from under the brush; that they could laugh,
-and yell, and sing a new song, and smoke a fresh pipe to the health and
-success of him who had just been safely delivered from the hands and
-the mystic operation of the “_white medicine_.”
-
-In each of these operations, as they successfully took place, I
-observed that a pipe or two were well filled, and as soon as I
-commenced painting, the chiefs and braves, who sat around the sides
-of the lodge, commenced smoking for the success of the picture (and
-probably as much or more so for the safe deliverance of the sitter from
-harm while under the operation); and so they continued to pass the
-pipe around until the portrait was completed.
-
-In this way I progressed with my portraits, stopping occasionally
-very suddenly as if something was wrong, and taking a tremendous puff
-or two at the pipe, and streaming the smoke through my nostrils,
-exhibiting in my looks and actions an evident relief; enabling me to
-proceed with more facility and success,—by flattering and complimenting
-each one on his good looks after I had got it done, and taking them
-according to rank, or standing, making it a matter of honour with them,
-which pleased them exceedingly, and gave me and my art the stamp of
-respectability at once.
-
-I was then taken by the arm by the chiefs, and led to their lodges,
-where feasts were prepared for me in elegant style, _i. e._ in the
-best manner which this country affords; and being led by the arm, and
-welcomed to them by _gentlemen_ of high and exalted feelings, rendered
-them in my estimation truly elegant.
-
-I was waited upon in due form and ceremony by the _medicine-men_, who
-received me upon the old adage, “Similis simili gaudet.” I was invited
-to a feast, and they presented me a _she-shee-quoi_, or a doctor’s
-rattle, and also a magical wand, or a doctor’s staff, strung with
-claws of the grizzly bear, with hoofs of the antelope—with ermine—with
-wild sage and bat’s wings—and perfumed withal with the _choice_ and
-_savoury_ odour of the pole-cat—a dog was sacrificed and hung by
-the legs over my wigwam, and I was therefore and thereby initiated
-into (and countenanced in the practice of) the arcana of medicine
-or mystery, and considered a Fellow of the Extraordinary Society of
-_Conjurati_.
-
-Since this signal success and good fortune in my operations, things
-have gone on very pleasantly, and I have had a great deal of amusement.
-Some altercation has taken place, however, amongst the chiefs and
-braves, with regard to standing or rank, of which they are exceedingly
-jealous; and they must sit (if at all) in regular order, according to
-that rank; the trouble is all settled at last, however, and I have had
-no want of subjects, though a great many have become again alarmed,
-and are unwilling to sit, for fear, as some say, that they will die
-prematurely if painted; and as others say, that if they are painted,
-the picture will live after they are dead, and they cannot sleep quiet
-in their graves.
-
-I have had several most remarkable occurrences in my painting-room, of
-this kind, which have made me some everlasting enemies here; though
-the minds and feelings of the chiefs and medicine-men have not been
-affected by them. There has been three or four instances where proud
-and aspiring young men have been in my lodge, and after gazing at the
-portraits of the head chief across the room (which sits looking them
-in the eyes), have raised their hands before their faces and walked
-around to the side of the lodge, on the right or left, from whence to
-take a long and fair side-look at the chief, instead of staring him
-full in the face (which is a most unpardonable offence in all Indian
-tribes); and after having got in that position, and cast their eyes
-again upon the portrait which was yet looking them full in the face,
-have thrown their robes over their heads and bolted out of the wigwam,
-filled equally with astonishment and indignation; averring, as they
-always will in a sullen mood, that they “saw the eyes move,”—that as
-they walked around the room “the eyes of the portrait followed them.”
-With these unfortunate gentlemen, repeated efforts have been made by
-the Traders, and also by the chiefs and doctors, who understand the
-illusion, to convince them of their error, by explaining the mystery;
-but they will not hear to any explanation whatever; saying, that “what
-they see with their eyes is always evidence enough for them;” that they
-always “believe their own eyes sooner than a hundred tongues,” and all
-efforts to get them a second time to my room, or into my company in any
-place, have proved entirely unsuccessful.
-
-I had trouble brewing also the other day from another source; one of
-the “_medicines_” commenced howling and haranguing around my domicil,
-amongst the throng that was outside, proclaiming that all who were
-inside and being painted were fools and would soon die; and very
-materially affecting thereby my popularity. I however sent for him
-and called him in the next morning, when I was alone, having only the
-interpreter with me; telling him that I had had my eye upon him for
-several days, and had been so well pleased with his looks, that I had
-taken great pains to find out his history, which had been explained by
-all as one of a most extraordinary kind, and his character and standing
-in his tribe as worthy of my particular notice; and that I had several
-days since resolved that as soon as I had practiced my hand long enough
-upon the others, to get the stiffness out of it (after paddling my
-canoe so far as I had) and make it to work easily and successfully,
-I would begin on his portrait, which I was then prepared to commence
-on that day, and that I felt as if I could do him justice. He shook
-me by the hand, giving me the “Doctor’s grip,” and beckoned me to sit
-down, which I did, and we smoked a pipe together. After this was over,
-he told me, that “he had no inimical feelings towards me, although he
-had been telling the chiefs that they were all fools, and all would
-die who had their portraits painted—that although he had set the old
-women and children all crying, and even made some of the young warriors
-tremble, yet he had no unfriendly feelings towards me, nor any fear
-or dread of my art.” “I know you are a good man (said he), I know you
-will do no harm to any one, your medicine is great and you are a great
-‘medicine-man.’ I would like to see myself very well—and so would all
-of the chiefs; but they have all been many days in this medicine-house,
-and they all know me well, and they have not asked me to come in and be
-_made alive_ with paints—my friend, I am glad that my people have told
-you who I am—my heart is glad—I will go to my wigwam and eat, and in
-a little while I will come, and you may go to work;”—another pipe was
-lit and smoked, and he got up and went off. I prepared my canvass and
-palette, and whistled away the time until twelve o’clock, before he
-made his appearance; having used the whole of the fore-part of the day
-at his toilette, arranging his dress and ornamenting his body for his
-picture.
-
-[Illustration: 55]
-
-At that hour then, bedaubed and streaked with paints of various
-colours, with bear’s grease and charcoal, with medicine-pipes in his
-hands and foxes tails attached to his heels, entered Mah-to-he-ha (the
-old bear, +plate+ 55), with a train of his own profession, who seated
-themselves around him; and also a number of boys, whom it was requested
-should remain with him, and whom I supposed it possible might have been
-pupils, whom he was instructing in the mysteries of _materia medica_
-and _hoca poca_. He took his position in the middle of the room, waving
-his eagle calumets in each hand, and singing his medicine-song which
-he sings over his dying patient, looking me full in the face until I
-completed his picture, which I painted at full length. His vanity has
-been completely gratified in the operation; he lies for hours together,
-day after day, in my room, in front of his picture, gazing intensely
-upon it; lights my pipe for me while I am painting—shakes hands with
-me a dozen times on each day, and talks of me, and enlarges upon my
-_medicine_ virtues and my talents, wherever he goes; so that this new
-difficulty is now removed, and instead of preaching against me, he
-is one of my strongest and most enthusiastic friends and aids in the
-country.
-
-There is yet to be described another sort of personage, that is often
-seen stalking about in all Indian communities, a kind of nondescript,
-with whom I have been somewhat annoyed, and still more amused, since I
-came to this village, of whom (or of _which_) I shall give some account
-in my next epistle.
-
-
-
-
-                             LETTER—No. 16.
-
-                    MANDAN VILLAGE, UPPER MISSOURI.
-
-
-Besides chiefs, and braves and doctors, of whom I have heretofore
-spoken, there is yet another character of whom I must say a few words
-before I proceed to other topics. The person I allude to, is the one
-mentioned at the close of my last Letter, and familiarly known and
-countenanced in every tribe as an Indian _beau_ or _dandy_. Such
-personages may be seen on every pleasant day, strutting and parading
-around the village in the most beautiful and unsoiled dresses, without
-the honourable trophies however of scalp locks and claws of the grizzly
-bear, attached to their costume, for with such things they deal not.
-They are not peculiarly anxious to hazard their lives in equal and
-honourable combat with the one, or disposed to cross the path of the
-other; but generally remain about the village, to take care of the
-women, and attire themselves in the skins of such animals as they can
-easily kill, without seeking the rugged cliffs for the war-eagle,
-or visiting the haunts of the grizzly bear. They plume themselves
-with swan’s-down and quills of ducks, with braids and plaits of
-sweet-scented grass and other harmless and unmeaning ornaments, which
-have no other merit than they themselves have, that of looking pretty
-and ornamental.
-
-These clean and elegant gentlemen, who are very few in each tribe, are
-held in very little estimation by the chiefs and braves; inasmuch as it
-is known by all, that they have a most horrible aversion to arms, and
-are denominated “faint hearts” or “old women” by the whole tribe, and
-are therefore but little respected. They seem, however, to be tolerably
-well contented with the appellation, together with the celebrity
-they have acquired amongst the women and children for the beauty and
-elegance of their personal appearance; and most of them seem to take
-and enjoy their share of the world’s pleasures, although they are
-looked upon as drones in society.
-
-These gay and tinselled bucks may be seen in a pleasant day in all
-their plumes, astride of their pied or dappled ponies, with a fan in
-the right hand, made of a turkey’s tail—with whip and a fly-brush
-attached to the wrist of the same hand, and underneath them a white and
-beautiful and soft pleasure-saddle, ornamented with porcupine quills
-and ermine, parading through and lounging about the village for an hour
-or so, when they will cautiously bend their course to the suburbs of
-the town, where they will sit or recline upon their horses for an hour
-or two, overlooking the beautiful games where the braves and the young
-aspirants are contending in manly and athletic amusements;—when they
-are fatigued with this severe effort, they wend their way back again,
-lift off their fine white saddle of doe’s-skin, which is wadded with
-buffalo’s hair, turn out their pony—take a little refreshment, smoke a
-pipe, fan themselves to sleep, and doze away the rest of the day.
-
-Whilst I have been painting, from day to day, there have been two or
-three of these fops continually strutting and taking their attitudes
-in front of my door; decked out in all their finery, without receiving
-other benefit or other information, than such as they could discover
-through the cracks and seams of my cabin. The chiefs, I observed,
-passed them by without notice, and of course, without inviting them
-in; and they seemed to figure about my door from day to day in their
-best dresses and best attitudes, as if in hopes that I would select
-them as models, for my canvass. It was natural that I should do so,
-for their costume and personal appearance was entirely more beautiful
-than anything else to be seen in the village. My plans were laid,
-and one day when I had got through with all of the head men, who
-were willing to sit to be painted, and there were two or three of
-the chiefs lounging in my room, I stepped to the door and tapped one
-of these fellows on the shoulder, who took the hint, and stepped in,
-well-pleased and delighted with the signal and honourable notice I had
-at length taken of him and his beautiful dress. Readers, you cannot
-imagine what was the expression of gratitude which beamed forth in
-this poor fellow’s face, and how high his heart beat with joy and
-pride at the idea of my selecting him to be immortal, alongside of the
-chiefs and worthies whose portraits he saw arranged around the room;
-and by which honour he, undoubtedly, considered himself well paid for
-two or three weeks of regular painting, and greasing, and dressing,
-and standing alternately on one leg and the other at the door of my
-premises.
-
-Well, I placed him before me, and a canvass on my easel, and “chalked
-him out” at full length. He was truly a beautiful subject for the
-brush, and I was filled with enthusiasm—his dress from head to foot was
-of the skins of the mountain-goat, and dressed so neatly, that they
-were almost as soft and as white as Canton crape—around the bottom and
-the sides it was trimmed with ermine, and porcupine quills of beautiful
-dyes garnished it in a hundred parts;—his hair which was long, and
-spread over his back and shoulders, extending nearly to the ground, was
-all combed back and parted on his forehead like that of a woman. He
-was a tall and fine figure, with ease and grace in his movements, that
-were well worthy of a man of better caste. In his left hand he held a
-beautiful pipe—and in his right hand he plied his fan, and on his wrist
-was still attached his whip of elk’s horn, and his fly-brush, made of
-the buffalo’s tail. There was nought about him of the terrible, and
-nought to shock the finest, chastest intellect.
-
-I had thus far progressed, with high-wrought feelings of pleasure,
-when the two or three chiefs, who had been seated around the lodge,
-and whose portraits I had before painted, arose suddenly, and wrapping
-themselves tightly in their robes, crossed my room with a quick and
-heavy step, and took an informal leave of my cabin. I was apprehensive
-of their displeasure, though I continued my work; and in a few moments
-the interpreter came furiously into my room, addressing me thus:—“My
-God, Sir! this never will do; you have given great offence to the
-chiefs—they have made complaint of your conduct to me—they tell me
-this is a worthless fellow—a man of no account in the nation, and if
-you paint his picture, you must instantly destroy theirs; you have no
-alternative, my dear Sir—and the quicker this chap is out of your lodge
-the better.”
-
-The same matter was explained to my sitter by the interpreter, when
-he picked up his robe, wrapped himself in it, plied his fan nimbly
-about his face, and walked out of the lodge in silence, but with quite
-a consequential smile, taking his old position in front of the door
-for awhile, after which he drew himself quietly off without further
-exhibition. So highly do Mandan braves and worthies value the honour
-of being painted; and so little do they value a man, however lavishly
-Nature may have bestowed her master touches upon him, who has not the
-pride and noble bearing of a warrior.
-
-I spoke in a former Letter of Mah-to-toh-pa (the four bears), the
-second chief of the nation, and the most popular man of the Mandans—a
-high-minded and gallant warrior, as well as a polite and polished
-gentleman. Since I painted his portrait, as I before described, I
-have received at his hands many marked and signal attentions; some
-of which I must name to you, as the very relation of them will put
-you in possession of many little forms and modes of Indian life, that
-otherwise might not have been noted.
-
-About a week since, this noble fellow stepped into my painting-room
-about twelve o’clock in the day, in full and splendid dress, and
-passing his arm through mine, pointed the way, and led me in the most
-gentlemanly manner, through the village and into his own lodge, where
-a feast was prepared in a careful manner and waiting our arrival. The
-lodge in which he dwelt was a room of immense size, some forty or fifty
-feet in diameter, in a circular form, and about twenty feet high—with a
-sunken curb of stone in the centre, of five or six feet in diameter and
-one foot deep, which contained the fire over which the pot was boiling.
-I was led near the edge of this curb, and seated on a very handsome
-robe, most ingeniously garnished and painted with hieroglyphics; and he
-seated himself gracefully on another one at a little distance from me;
-with the feast prepared in several dishes, resting on a beautiful rush
-mat, which was placed between us (+plate+ 62).
-
-The simple feast which was spread before us consisted of three dishes
-only, two of which were served in wooden bowls, and the third in
-an earthen vessel of their own manufacture, somewhat in shape of a
-bread-tray in our own country. This last contained a quantity of
-_pem-i-can_ and _marrow-fat_; and one of the former held a fine
-brace of buffalo ribs, delightfully roasted; and the other was filled
-with a kind of paste or pudding, made of the flour of the “_pomme
-blanche_,” as the French call it, a delicious turnip of the prairie,
-finely flavoured with the buffalo berries, which are collected in great
-quantities in this country, and used with divers dishes in cooking,
-as we in civilized countries use dried currants, which they very much
-resemble.
-
-[Illustration: 62]
-
-A handsome pipe and a tobacco-pouch made of the otter skin, filled with
-k’nick-k’neck (Indian tobacco), laid by the side of the feast; and when
-we were seated, mine host took up his pipe, and deliberately filled
-it; and instead of lighting it by the fire, which he could easily have
-done, he drew from his pouch his flint and steel, and raised a spark
-with which he kindled it. He drew a few strong whiffs through it, and
-presented the stem of it to my mouth, through which I drew a whiff or
-two while he held the stem in his hands. This done, he laid down the
-pipe, and drawing his knife from his belt, cut off a very small piece
-of the meat from the ribs, and pronouncing the words “Ho-pe-ne-chee
-wa-pa-shee” (meaning a _medicine_ sacrifice), threw it into the fire.
-
-He then (by signals) requested me to eat, and I commenced, after
-drawing out from my belt my knife (which it is supposed that every man
-in this country carries about him, for at an Indian feast a knife is
-never offered to a guest). Reader, be not astonished that I sat and ate
-my dinner _alone_, for such is the custom of this strange land. In all
-tribes in these western regions it is an invariable rule that a chief
-never eats with his guests invited to a feast; but while they eat, he
-sits by, at their service, and ready to wait upon them; deliberately
-charging and lighting the pipe which is to be passed around after the
-feast is over. Such was the case in the present instance, and while
-I was eating, Mah-to-toh-pa sat cross-legged before me, cleaning his
-pipe and preparing it for a cheerful smoke when I had finished my meal.
-For this ceremony I observed he was making unusual preparation, and I
-observed as I ate, that after he had taken enough of the k’nick-k’neck
-or bark of the red willow, from his pouch, he rolled out of it also a
-piece of the “_castor_,” which it is customary amongst these folks to
-carry in their tobacco-sack to give it a flavour; and, shaving off a
-small quantity of it, mixed it with the bark, with which he charged his
-pipe. This done, he drew also from his sack a small parcel containing a
-fine powder, which was made of dried buffalo dung, a little of which he
-spread over the top, (according also to custom,) which was like tinder,
-having no other effect than that of lighting the pipe with ease and
-satisfaction. My appetite satiated, I straightened up, and with a whiff
-the pipe was lit, and we enjoyed together for a quarter of an hour the
-most delightful exchange of good feelings, amid clouds of smoke and
-pantomimic signs and gesticulations.
-
-The dish of “pemican and marrow-fat,” of which I spoke, was thus:—The
-first, an article of food used throughout this country, as familiarly
-as we use bread in the civilized world. It is made of buffalo meat
-dried very hard, and afterwards pounded in a large wooden mortar until
-it is made nearly as fine as sawdust, then packed in this dry state in
-bladders or sacks of skin, and is easily carried to any part of the
-world in good order. “Marrow-fat” is collected by the Indians from
-the buffalo bones which they break to pieces, yielding a prodigious
-quantity of marrow, which is boiled out and put into buffalo bladders
-which have been distended; and after it cools, becomes quite hard like
-tallow, and has the appearance, and very nearly the flavour, of the
-richest yellow butter. At a feast, chunks of this marrow-fat are cut
-off and placed in a tray or bowl, with the pemican, and eaten together;
-which we civilized folks in these regions consider a very good
-substitute for (and indeed we generally so denominate it) “bread and
-butter.” In this dish laid a spoon made of the buffalo’s horn, which
-was black as jet, and beautifully polished; in one of the others there
-was another of still more ingenious and beautiful workmanship, made of
-the horn of the mountain-sheep, or “Gros corn,” as the French trappers
-call them; it was large enough to hold of itself two or three pints,
-and was almost entirely transparent.
-
-I spoke also of the earthen dishes or bowls in which these viands were
-served out; they are a familiar part of the culinary furniture of
-every Mandan lodge, and are manufactured by the women of this tribe
-in great quantities, and modelled into a thousand forms and tastes.
-They are made by the hands of the women, from a tough black clay, and
-baked in kilns which are made for the purpose, and are nearly equal in
-hardness to our own manufacture of pottery; though they have not yet
-got the art of glazing, which would be to them a most valuable secret.
-They make them so strong and serviceable, however, that they hang them
-over the fire as we do our iron pots, and boil their meat in them with
-perfect success. I have seen some few specimens of such manufacture,
-which have been dug up in Indian mounds and tombs in the southern and
-middle states, placed in our Eastern Museums and looked upon as a great
-wonder, when here this novelty is at once done away with, and the whole
-mystery; where women can be seen handling and using them by hundreds,
-and they can be seen every day in the summer also, moulding them into
-many fanciful forms, and passing them through the kiln where they are
-hardened.
-
-Whilst sitting at this feast the wigwam was as silent as death,
-although we were not alone in it. This chief, like most others, had a
-plurality of wives, and all of them (some six or seven) were seated
-around the sides of the lodge, upon robes or mats placed upon the
-ground, and not allowed to speak, though they were in readiness to obey
-his orders or commands, which were uniformly given by signs manual, and
-executed in the neatest and most silent manner.
-
-When I arose to return, the pipe through which we had smoked was
-presented to me; and the robe on which I had sat, he gracefully raised
-by the corners and tendered it to me, explaining by signs that the
-paintings which were on it were the representations of the battles of
-his life, where he had fought and killed with his own hand fourteen
-of his enemies; that he had been two weeks engaged in painting it for
-me, and that he had invited me here on this occasion to present it to
-me. The robe, readers, which I shall describe in a future epistle, I
-took upon my shoulder, and he took me by the arm and led me back to my
-painting-room.
-
-
-
-
-                             LETTER—No. 17.
-
-                   MANDAN VILLAGE, _UPPER MISSOURI_.
-
-
-I mentioned in the foregoing epistle, that the chiefs of the Mandans
-frequently have a plurality of wives. Such is the custom amongst all of
-these North Western tribes, and a few general remarks on this subject
-will apply to them all, and save the trouble of repeating them.
-
-Polygamy is countenanced amongst all of the North American Indians, so
-far as I have visited them; and it is no uncommon thing to find a chief
-with six, eight, or ten, and some with twelve or fourteen wives in his
-lodge. Such is an ancient custom, and in their estimation is right as
-well as necessary. Women in a savage state, I believe, are always held
-in a rank inferior to that of the men, in relation to whom in many
-respects they stand rather in the light of menials and slaves than
-otherwise; and as they are the “hewers of wood and drawers of water,”
-it becomes a matter of necessity for a chief (who must be liberal,
-keep open doors, and entertain, for the support of his popularity) to
-have in his wigwam a sufficient number of such handmaids or menials to
-perform the numerous duties and drudgeries of so large and expensive an
-establishment.
-
-There are two other reasons for this custom which operate with
-equal, if not with greater force than the one above assigned. In the
-first place, these people, though far behind the civilized world in
-acquisitiveness, have still more or less passion for the accumulation
-of wealth, or, in other words, for the luxuries of life; and a
-chief, excited by a desire of this kind, together with a wish to be
-able to furnish his lodge with something more than ordinary for the
-entertainment of his own people, as well as strangers who fall upon his
-hospitality, sees fit to marry a number of wives, who are kept at hard
-labour during most of the year; and the avails of that labour enable
-him to procure those luxuries, and give to his lodge the appearance
-of respectability which is not ordinarily seen. Amongst those tribes
-who trade with the Fur Companies, this system is carried out to a
-great extent, and the women are kept for the greater part of the
-year, dressing buffalo robes and other skins for the market; and the
-brave or chief, who has the greatest number of wives, is considered
-the most affluent and envied man in the tribe; for his table is most
-bountifully supplied, and his lodge the most abundantly furnished with
-the luxuries of civilized manufacture, who has at the year’s end the
-greatest number of robes to vend to the Fur Company.
-
-The manual labour amongst savages is all done by the women; and as
-there are no daily labourers or persons who will “_hire out_” to labour
-for another, it becomes necessary for him who requires more than the
-labour or services of one, to add to the number by legalizing and
-compromising by the ceremony of marriage, his stock of labourers; who
-can thus, and thus alone, be easily enslaved, and the results of their
-labour turned to good account.
-
-There is yet the other inducement, which probably is more effective
-than either; the natural inclination which belongs to man, who
-stands high in the estimation of his people and wields the sceptre
-of power—surrounded by temptations which he considers it would be
-unnatural to resist, where no law or regulation of society stands
-in the way of his enjoyment. Such a custom amongst savage nations
-can easily be excused too, and we are bound to excuse it, when
-we behold man in a state of nature, as he was made, following a
-natural inclination, which is sanctioned by ancient custom and by
-their religion, without a law or regulation of their society to
-discountenance it; and when, at the same time, such an accumulation of
-a man’s household, instead of quadrupling his expenses (as would be
-the case in the civilized world), actually becomes his wealth, as the
-results of their labour abundantly secure to him all the necessaries
-and luxuries of life.
-
-There are other and very rational grounds on which the propriety
-of such a custom may be urged, one of which is as follows:—as all
-nations of Indians in their natural condition are unceasingly at war
-with the tribes that are about them, for the adjustment of ancient
-and never-ending feuds, as well as from a love of glory, to which in
-Indian life the battle-field is almost the only road, their warriors
-are killed off to that extent, that in many instances two and sometimes
-three women to a man are found in a tribe. In such instances I have
-found that the custom of polygamy has kindly helped the community to an
-evident relief from a cruel and prodigious calamity.
-
-The instances of which I have above spoken, are generally confined to
-the chiefs and medicine-men; though there is no regulation prohibiting
-a poor or obscure individual from marrying several wives, other than
-the personal difficulties which lie between him and the hand which he
-wishes in vain to get, for want of sufficient celebrity in society, or
-from a still more frequent objection, that of his inability (from want
-of worldly goods) to deal in the customary way with the fathers of the
-girls whom he would appropriate to his own household.
-
-There are very few instances indeed, to be seen in these regions, where
-a poor or ordinary citizen has more than one wife; but amongst chiefs
-and braves of great reputation, and doctors, it is common to see some
-six or eight living under one roof, and all apparently quiet and
-contented; seemingly harmonizing, and enjoying the modes of life and
-treatment that falls to their lot.
-
-Wives in this country are mostly treated for with the father, as in all
-instances they are regularly bought and sold. In many cases the bargain
-is made with the father alone, without ever consulting the inclinations
-of the girl, and seems to be conducted on his part as a mercenary
-contract entirely, where he stands out for the highest price he can
-possibly command for her. There are other instances to be sure, where
-the parties approach each other, and from the expression of a mutual
-fondness, make their own arrangements, and pass their own mutual vows,
-which are quite as sacred and inviolable as similar assurances when
-made in the civilized world. Yet even in such cases, the marriage is
-never consummated without the necessary form of making presents to the
-father of the girl.
-
-It becomes a matter of policy and almost of absolute necessity, for the
-white men who are Traders in these regions to connect themselves in
-this way, to one or more of the most influential families in the tribe,
-which in a measure identifies their interest with that of the nation,
-and enables them, with the influence of their new family connexions,
-to carry on successfully their business transactions with them. The
-young women of the best families only can aspire to such an elevation;
-and the most of them are exceedingly ambitious for such a connexion,
-inasmuch as they are certain of a delightful exemption from the slavish
-duties that devolve upon them when married under other circumstances;
-and expect to be, as they generally are, allowed to lead a life of ease
-and idleness, covered with mantles of blue and scarlet cloth—with beads
-and trinkets, and ribbons, in which they flounce and flirt about, the
-envied and tinselled belles of every tribe.
-
-These connexions, however, can scarcely be called marriages, for I
-believe they are generally entered into without the form or solemnizing
-ceremony of a marriage, and on the part of the father of the girls,
-conducted purely as a mercenary or business transaction; in which
-they are very expert, and practice a deal of shrewdness in exacting
-an adequate price from a purchaser whom they consider possessed of
-so large and so rich a stock of the world’s goods; and who they deem
-abundantly able to pay liberally for so delightful a commodity.
-
-Almost every Trader and every clerk who commences in the business of
-this country, speedily enters into such an arrangement, which is done
-with as little ceremony as he would bargain for a horse, and just as
-unceremoniously do they annul and abolish this connexion when they
-wish to leave the country, or change their positions from one tribe to
-another; at which time the woman is left, a fair and proper candidate
-for matrimony or speculation, when another applicant comes along, and
-her father equally desirous for another horse or gun, &c. which he can
-easily command at her second espousal.
-
-From the enslaved and degraded condition in which the women are held in
-the Indian country, the world would naturally think that theirs must
-be a community formed of incongruous and unharmonizing materials; and
-consequently destitute of the fine, reciprocal feelings and attachments
-which flow from the domestic relations in the civilized world; yet it
-would be untrue, and doing injustice to the Indians, to say that they
-were in the least behind us in conjugal, in filial, and in paternal
-affection. There is no trait in the human character which is more
-universal than the attachments which flow from these relations, and
-there is no part of the human species who have a stronger affection and
-a higher regard for them than the North American Indians.
-
-There is no subject in the Indian character of more importance to be
-rightly understood than this, and none either that has furnished me
-more numerous instances and more striking proofs, of which I shall
-make use on a future occasion, when I shall say a vast deal more of
-marriage—of divorce—of polygamy—and of Indian domestic relations. For
-the present I am scribbling about the looks and usages of the Indians
-who are about me and under my eye; and I must not digress too much into
-general remarks, lest I lose sight of those who are near me, and the
-first to be heralded.
-
-Such, then, are the Mandans—their women are beautiful and modest,—and
-amongst the respectable families, virtue is as highly cherished and
-as inapproachable, as in any society whatever; yet at the same time a
-chief may marry a dozen wives if he pleases, and so may a white man;
-and if either wishes to marry the most beautiful and modest girl in the
-tribe, she is valued only equal, perhaps, to two horses, a gun with
-powder and ball for a year, five or six pounds of beads, a couple of
-gallons of whiskey, and a handful of awls.
-
-The girls of this tribe, like those of most of these north-western
-tribes, marry at the age of twelve or fourteen, and some at the age of
-eleven years; and their beauty, from this fact, as well as from the
-slavish life they lead, soon after marriage vanishes. Their occupations
-are almost continual, and they seem to go industriously at them, as if
-from choice or inclination, without a murmur.
-
-The principal occupations of the women in this village, consist in
-procuring wood and water, in cooking, dressing robes and other skins,
-in drying meat and wild fruit, and raising corn (maize). The Mandans
-are somewhat of agriculturists, as they raise a great deal of corn and
-some pumpkins and squashes. This is all done by the women, who make
-their hoes of the shoulder-blade of the buffalo or the elk, and dig the
-ground over instead of ploughing it, which is consequently done with a
-vast deal of labour. They raise a very small sort of corn, the ears of
-which are not longer than a man’s thumb. This variety is well adapted
-to their climate, as it ripens sooner than other varieties, which would
-not mature in so cold a latitude. The green corn season is one of great
-festivity with them, and one of much importance. The greater part of
-their crop is eaten during these festivals, and the remainder is
-gathered and dried on the cob, before it has ripened, and packed away
-in “_caches_” (as the French call them), holes dug in the ground, some
-six or seven feet deep, the insides of which are somewhat in the form
-of a jug, and tightly closed at the top. The corn, and even dried meat
-and pemican, are placed in these _caches_, being packed tight around
-the sides., with prairie grass, and effectually preserved through the
-severest winters.
-
-Corn and dried meat are generally laid in in the fall, in sufficient
-quantities to support them through the winter. These are the principal
-articles of food during that long and inclement season; and in addition
-to them, they oftentimes have in store great quantities of dried
-squashes and dried “_pommes blanches_,” a kind of turnip which grows in
-great abundance in these regions, and of which I have before spoken.
-These are dried in great quantities, and pounded into a sort of meal,
-and cooked with the dried meat and corn. Great quantities also of wild
-fruit of different kinds are dried and laid away in store for the
-winter season, such as buffalo berries, service berries, strawberries,
-and wild plums.
-
-The buffalo meat, however, is the great staple and “staff of life” in
-this country, and seldom (if ever) fails to afford them an abundant and
-wholesome means of subsistence. There are, from a fair computation,
-something like 250,000 Indians in these western regions, who live
-almost exclusively on the flesh of these animals, through every part of
-the year. During the summer and fall months they use the meat fresh,
-and cook it in a great variety of ways, by roasting, broiling, boiling,
-stewing, smoking, &c.; and by boiling the ribs and joints with the
-marrow in them, make a delicious soup, which is universally used, and
-in vast quantities. The Mandans, I find, have no regular or stated
-times for their meals, but generally eat about twice in the twenty-four
-hours. The pot is always boiling over the fire, and any one who is
-hungry (either of the household or from any other part of the village)
-has a right to order it taken off, and to fall to eating as he pleases.
-Such is an unvarying custom amongst the North American Indians, and I
-very much doubt, whether the civilized world have in their institutions
-any system which can properly be called more humane and charitable.
-Every man, woman, or child in Indian communities is allowed to enter
-any one’s lodge, and even that of the chief of the nation, and eat when
-they are hungry, provided misfortune or necessity has driven them to
-it. Even so can the poorest and most worthless drone of the nation; if
-he is too lazy to hunt or to supply himself, he can walk into any lodge
-and everyone will share with him as long as there is anything to eat.
-He, however, who thus begs when he is able to hunt, pays dear for his
-meat, for he is stigmatized with the disgraceful epithet of a poltroon
-and a beggar.
-
-The Mandans, like all other tribes, sit at their meals cross-legged,
-or rather with their ancles crossed in front of them, and both feet
-drawn close under their bodies; or, which is very often the case also,
-take their meals in a reclining posture, with the legs thrown out, and
-the body resting on one elbow and fore-arm, which are under them. The
-dishes from which they eat are invariably on the ground or floor of
-the lodge, and the group resting on buffalo robes or mats of various
-structure and manufacture.
-
-The position in which the women sit at their meals and on other
-occasions is different from that of the men, and one which they
-take and rise from again, with great ease and much grace, by merely
-bending the knees both together, inclining the body back and the head
-and shoulders quite forward, they squat entirely down to the ground,
-inclining both feet either to the right or the left. In this position
-they always rest while eating, and it is both modest and graceful, for
-they seem, with apparent ease, to assume the position and rise out of
-it, without using their hands in any way to assist them.
-
-These women, however, although graceful and civil, and ever so
-beautiful or ever so hungry, are not allowed to sit in the same group
-with the men while at their meals. So far as I have yet travelled in
-the Indian country, I never have seen an Indian woman eating with
-her husband. Men form the first group at the banquet, and women, and
-children and dogs all come together at the next, and these gormandize
-and glut themselves to an enormous extent, though the men very seldom
-do.
-
-It is time that an error on this subject, which has gone generally
-abroad in the world, was corrected. It is everywhere asserted, and
-almost universally believed, that the Indians are “enormous eaters;”
-but comparatively speaking, I assure my readers that this is an error.
-I venture to say that there are no persons on earth who practice
-greater prudence and self-denial, than the men do (amongst the wild
-Indians), who are constantly in war and in the chase, or in their
-athletic sports and exercises; for all of which they are excited by
-the highest ideas of pride and honour, and every kind of excess is
-studiously avoided; and for a very great part of their lives, the most
-painful abstinence is enforced upon themselves, for the purpose of
-preparing their bodies and their limbs for these extravagant exertions.
-Many a man who has been a few weeks along the frontier, amongst the
-drunken, naked and beggared part of the Indian race, and run home
-and written a book on Indians, has, no doubt, often seen them eat to
-beastly excess; and he has seen them also guzzle whiskey (and perhaps
-_sold_ it to them) till he has seen them glutted and besotted, without
-will or energy to move; and many and thousands of such things can
-always be seen, where white people have made beggars of them, and they
-have nothing to do but lie under a fence and beg a whole week to get
-meat and whiskey enough for one feast and one carouse; but amongst the
-wild Indians in this country there are no beggars—no drunkards—and
-every man, from a beautiful natural precept, studies to keep his body
-and mind in such a healthy shape and condition as will at all times
-enable him to use his weapons in self-defence, or struggle for the
-prize in their manly games.
-
-As I before observed, these men generally eat but twice a day, and many
-times not more than once, and those meals are light and simple compared
-with the meals that are swallowed in the civilized world; and by the
-very people also, who sit at the festive board three times a day,
-making a jest of the Indian for his eating, when they actually guzzle
-more liquids, besides their eating, than would fill the stomach of an
-Indian.
-
-There are, however, many seasons and occasions in the year with all
-Indians, when they fast for several days in succession; and others
-where they can _get_ nothing to eat; and at such times (their habits
-are such) they may be seen to commence with an enormous meal, and
-because they do so, it is an insufficient reason why we should for ever
-remain under so egregious an error with regard to a single custom of
-these people.
-
-I have seen so many of these, and lived with them, and travelled with
-them, and oftentimes felt as if I should starve to death on an equal
-allowance, that I am fully convinced I am correct in saying that the
-North American Indians, taking them in the aggregate, even where they
-have an abundance to subsist on, eat less than any civilized population
-of equal numbers, that I have ever travelled amongst.
-
-Their mode of curing and preserving the buffalo meat is somewhat
-curious, and in fact it is almost incredible also; for it is all cured
-or dried in the sun, without the aid of salt or smoke! The method of
-doing this is the same amongst all the tribes, from this to the Mexican
-Provinces, and is as follows:—The choicest parts of the flesh from the
-buffalo are cut out by the squaws, and carried home on their backs or
-on horses, and there cut “_across the grain_,” in such a manner as will
-take alternately the layers of lean and fat; and having prepared it
-all in this way, in strips about half an inch in thickness, it is hung
-up by hundreds and thousands of pounds on poles resting on crotches,
-out of the reach of dogs or wolves, and exposed to the rays of the sun
-for several days, when it becomes so effectually dried, that it can
-be carried to any part of the world without damage. This seems almost
-an unaccountable thing, and the more so, as it is done in the hottest
-months of the year, and also in all the different latitudes of an
-Indian country.
-
-So singular a fact as this can only be accounted for, I consider, on
-the ground of the extraordinary rarity and purity of the air which
-we meet with in these vast tracts of country, which are now properly
-denominated “the great buffalo plains,” a series of exceedingly
-elevated plateaus of _steppes_ or _prairies_, lying at and near the
-base of the Rocky Mountains.
-
-It is a fact then, which I presume will be new to most of the world,
-that meat can be cured in the sun without the aid of smoke or salt;
-and it is a fact equally true and equally surprising also, that none
-of these tribes use salt in any way, although their country abounds
-in salt springs; and in many places, in the frequent walks of the
-Indian, the prairie may be seen, for miles together, covered with an
-incrustation of salt as white as the drifted snow.
-
-I have, in travelling with Indians, encamped by such places, where they
-have cooked and eaten their meat, when I have been unable to prevail on
-them to use salt in any quantity whatever. The Indians cook their meat
-more than the civilized people do, and I have long since learned, from
-necessity, that meat thus cooked can easily be eaten and relished too,
-without salt or other condiment.
-
-The fact above asserted applies exclusively to those tribes of Indians
-which I have found in their primitive state, living entirely on meat;
-but everywhere along our Frontier, where the game of the country
-has long since been chiefly destroyed, and these people have become
-semi-civilized, raising and eating, as we do, a variety of vegetable
-food, they use (and no doubt require), a great deal of salt; and in
-many instances use it even to destructive excess.
-
-
-
-
-                             LETTER—No. 18.
-
-                    MANDAN VILLAGE, UPPER MISSOURI.
-
-
-The Mandans, like all other tribes, lead lives of idleness and
-leisure; and of course, devote a great deal of time to their sports
-and amusements, of which they have a great variety. Of these, dancing
-is one of the principal, and may be seen in a variety of forms: such
-as the buffalo dance, the boasting dance, the begging dance, the scalp
-dance, and a dozen other kinds of dances, all of which have their
-peculiar characters and meanings or objects.
-
-These exercises are exceedingly grotesque in their appearance, and to
-the eye of a traveller who knows not their meaning or importance, they
-are an uncouth and frightful display of starts, and jumps, and yelps,
-and jarring gutturals, which are sometimes truly terrifying. But when
-one gives them a little attention, and has been lucky enough to be
-initiated into their mysterious meaning, they become a subject of the
-most intense and exciting interest. Every dance has its peculiar step,
-and every step has its meaning; every dance also has its peculiar song,
-and that is so intricate and mysterious oftentimes, that not one in ten
-of the young men who are dancing and singing it, know the meaning of
-the song which they are chanting over. None but the medicine-men are
-allowed to understand them; and even they are generally only initiated
-into these secret arcana, on the payment of a liberal stipend for their
-tuition, which requires much application and study. There is evidently
-a set song and sentiment for every dance, for the songs are perfectly
-measured, and sung in exact time with the beat of the drum; and always
-with an uniform and invariable set of sounds and expressions, which
-clearly indicate certain sentiments, which are expressed by the voice,
-though sometimes not given in any known language whatever.
-
-They have other dances and songs which are not so mystified, but which
-are sung and understood by every person in the tribe, being sung in
-their own language, with much poetry in them, and perfectly metred, but
-without rhyme. On these subjects I shall take another occasion to say
-more; and will for the present turn your attention to the style and
-modes in which some of these curious transactions are conducted.
-
-My ears have been almost continually ringing since I came here, with
-the din of yelping and beating of the drums; but I have for several
-days past been peculiarly engrossed, and my senses almost confounded
-with the stamping, and grunting, and bellowing of the _buffalo dance_,
-which closed a few days since at sunrise (thank Heaven), and which I
-must needs describe to you.
-
-Buffaloes, it is known, are a sort of roaming creatures, congregating
-occasionally in huge masses, and strolling away about the country from
-east to west, or from north to south, or just where their whims or
-strange fancies may lead them; and the Mandans are sometimes, by this
-means, most unceremoniously left without any thing to eat; and being a
-small tribe, and unwilling to risk their lives by going far from home
-in the face of their more powerful enemies, are oftentimes left almost
-in a state of starvation. In any emergency of this kind, every man
-musters and brings out of his lodge his mask (the skin of a buffalo’s
-head with the horns on), which he is obliged to keep in readiness
-for this occasion; and then commences the buffalo dance, of which I
-have above spoken, which is held for the purpose of making “buffalo
-come” (as they term it), of inducing the buffalo herds to change the
-direction of their wanderings, and bend their course towards the Mandan
-village, and graze about on the beautiful hills and bluffs in its
-vicinity, where the Mandans can shoot them down and cook them as they
-want them for food.
-
-For the most part of the year, the young warriors and hunters, by
-riding out a mile or two from the village, can kill meat in abundance;
-and sometimes large herds of these animals may be seen grazing in
-full view of the village. There are other seasons also when the young
-men have ranged about the country as far as they are willing to risk
-their lives, on account of their enemies, without finding meat. This
-sad intelligence is brought back to the chiefs and doctors, who sit in
-solemn council, and consult on the most expedient measures to be taken,
-until they are sure to decide upon the old and only expedient which
-“never has failed.”
-
-The chief issues his order to his runners or criers, who proclaim it
-through the village—and in a few minutes the dance begins. The place
-where this strange operation is carried on is in the public area in the
-centre of the village, and in front of the great medicine or mystery
-lodge. About ten or fifteen Mandans at a time join in the dance, each
-one with the skin of the buffalo’s head (or mask) with the horns on,
-placed over his head, and in his hand his favourite bow or lance, with
-which he is used to slay the buffalo.
-
-I mentioned that this dance always had the desired effect, that it
-never fails, nor can it, for it cannot be stopped (but is going
-incessantly day and night) until “buffalo come.” Drums are beating and
-rattles are shaken, and songs and yells incessantly are shouted, and
-lookers-on stand ready with masks on their heads, and weapons in hand,
-to take the place of each one as he becomes fatigued, and jumps out of
-the ring.
-
-During this time of general excitement, spies or “_lookers_” are kept
-on the hills in the neighbourhood of the village, who, when they
-discover buffaloes in sight, give the appropriate signal, by “throwing
-their robes,” which is instantly seen in the village, and understood by
-the whole tribe. At this joyful intelligence there is a shout of thanks
-to the Great Spirit, and more especially to the mystery-man, and the
-dancers, _who have been the immediate cause of their success_! There is
-then a brisk preparation for the chase—a grand hunt takes place. The
-choicest pieces of the victims are sacrificed to the Great Spirit, and
-then a surfeit and a carouse.
-
-These dances have sometimes been continued in this village two and
-three weeks without stopping an instant, until the joyful moment when
-buffaloes made their appearance. So they _never fail_; and they think
-they have been the means of bringing them in.
-
-Every man in the Mandan village (as I have before said) is obliged by
-a village regulation, to keep the mask of the buffalo, hanging on a
-post at the head of his bed, which he can use on his head whenever he
-is called upon by the chiefs, to dance for the coming of buffaloes.
-The mask is put over the head, and generally has a strip of the skin
-hanging to it, of the whole length of the animal, with the tail
-attached to it, which, passing down over the back of the dancer, is
-dragging on the ground (+plate+ 56). When one becomes fatigued of the
-exercise, he signifies it by bending quite forward, and sinking his
-body towards the ground; when another draws a bow upon him and hits
-him with a blunt arrow, and he falls like a buffalo—is seized by the
-bye-standers, who drag him out of the ring by the heels, brandishing
-their knives about him; and having gone through the motions of skinning
-and cutting him up, they let him off, and his place is at once supplied
-by another, who dances into the ring with his mask on; and by this
-taking of places, the scene is easily kept up night and day, until the
-desired effect has been produced, that of “making buffalo come.”
-
-The day before yesterday however, readers, which, though it commenced
-in joy and thanksgiving to the Great Spirit for the signal success
-which had attended their several days of dancing and supplication,
-ended in a calamity which threw the village of the Mandans into
-mourning and repentant tears, and that at a time of scarcity and great
-distress. The signal was given into the village on that morning from
-the top of a distant bluff, that a band of buffaloes were in sight,
-though at a considerable distance off, and every heart beat with joy,
-and every eye watered and glistened with gladness.
-
-The dance had lasted some three or four days, and now, instead of the
-doleful tap of the drum and the begging chaunts of the dancers, the
-stamping of horses was heard as they were led and galloped through the
-village—young men were throwing off their robes and their shirts,—were
-seen snatching a handful of arrows from their quivers, and stringing
-their sinewy bows, glancing their eyes and their smiles at their
-sweethearts, and mounting their ponies.    *    *    *
-
-   *    *    A few minutes there had been of bustle and boasting,
-whilst bows were twanging and spears were polishing by running their
-blades into the ground—every face and every eye was filled with joy and
-gladness—horses were pawing and snuffing in fury for the outset, when
-Louison Frénié, an interpreter of the Fur Company, galloped through the
-village with his rifle in his hand and his powder-horn at his side; his
-head and waist were bandaged with handkerchiefs, and his shirt sleeves
-rolled up to his shoulders—the hunter’s yell issued from his lips and
-was repeated through the village; he flew to the bluffs, and behind
-him and over the graceful swells of the prairie, galloped the emulous
-youths, whose hearts were beating high and quick for the onset.
-
-[Illustration: 56]
-
-In the village, where hunger had reigned, and starvation was almost
-ready to look them in the face, all was instantly turned to joy and
-gladness. The chiefs and doctors who had been for some days dealing
-out minimum rations to the community from the public crib, now spread
-before their subjects the contents of their own private _caches_, and
-the last of every thing that could be mustered, that they might eat a
-thanksgiving to the Great Spirit for his goodness in sending them a
-supply of buffalo meat. A general carouse of banqueting ensued, which
-occupied the greater part of the day; and their hidden stores which
-might have fed an emergency for several weeks, were pretty nearly used
-up on the occasion—bones were half picked, and dishes half emptied and
-then handed to the dogs. _I_ was not forgotten neither, in the general
-surfeit; several large and generous wooden bowls of pemican and other
-palatable food were sent to my painting-room, and I received them in
-this time of scarcity with great pleasure.
-
-After this general indulgence was over, and the dogs had licked the
-dishes, their usual games and amusements ensued—and hilarity and mirth,
-and joy took possession of, and reigned in, every nook and corner of
-the village; and in the midst of this, screams and shrieks were heard!
-and echoed everywhere. Women and children scrambled to the tops of
-their wigwams, with their eyes and their hands stretched in agonizing
-earnestness to the prairie, whilst blackened warriors ran furiously
-through every winding maze of the village, and issuing their jarring
-gutturals of vengeance, as they snatched their deadly weapons from
-their lodges, and struck the reddened post as they furiously passed
-it by! Two of their hunters were bending their course down the sides
-of the bluff towards the village, and another broke suddenly out of a
-deep ravine, and yet another was seen dashing over and down the green
-hills, and all were goading on their horses at full speed! and then
-came another, and another, and all entered the village amid shouts and
-groans of the villagers who crowded around them; the story was told
-in their looks, for one was bleeding, and the blood that flowed from
-his naked breast had crimsoned his milk white steed as it had dripped
-over him; another grasped in his left hand a scalp that was reeking in
-blood—and in the other his whip—another grasped nothing, save the reins
-in one hand and the mane of the horse in the other, having thrown his
-bow and his arrows away, and trusted to the fleetness of his horse
-for his safety; yet the story was audibly told, and the fatal tragedy
-recited in irregular and almost suffocating ejaculations—the names
-of the dead were in turns pronounced and screams and shrieks burst
-forth at their recital—murmurs and groans ran through the village, and
-this happy little community were in a moment smitten with sorrow and
-distraction.
-
-Their proud band of hunters who had started full of glee and mirth in
-the morning, had been surrounded by their enemy, the Sioux, and eight
-of them killed. The Sioux, who had probably reconnoitred their village
-during the night, and ascertained that they were dancing for buffaloes,
-laid a stratagem to entrap them in the following manner:—Some six
-or eight of them appeared the next morning (on a distant bluff, in
-sight of their sentinel) under the skins of buffaloes, imitating the
-movements of those animals whilst grazing; and being discovered by
-the sentinel, the intelligence was telegraphed to the village, which
-brought out their hunters as I have described. The masked buffaloes
-were seen grazing on the top of a high bluff, and when the hunters had
-approached within half a mile or so of them, they suddenly disappeared
-over the hill. Louison Frénié, who was leading the little band of
-hunters, became at that moment suspicious of so strange a movement, and
-came to a halt    *    *    *
-
-   * “Look”! (said a Mandan, pointing to a little ravine to the right, and
-at the foot of the hill, from which suddenly broke some forty or fifty
-furious Sioux, on fleet horses and under full whip, who were rushing
-upon them); they wheeled, and in front of them came another band more
-furious from the other side of the hill! they started for home (poor
-fellows), and strained every nerve; but the Sioux were too fleet for
-them; and every now and then, the whizzing arrow and the lance were
-heard to rip the flesh of their naked backs, and a grunt and a groan,
-as they tumbled from their horses. Several miles were run in this
-desperate race; and Frénié got home, and several of the Mandans, though
-eight of them were killed and scalped by the way.
-
-So ended that day and the hunt; but many a day and sad, will last the
-grief of those whose hearts were broken on that unlucky occasion.
-
-_This_ day, though, my readers, has been one of a more joyful kind, for
-the Great Spirit, who was indignant at so flagrant an injustice, has
-sent the Mandans an abundance of buffaloes; and all hearts have joined
-in a general thanksgiving to Him for his goodness and justice.
-
-[Illustration: 57]
-
-
-
-
-                             LETTER—No. 19.
-
-                   MANDAN VILLAGE, _UPPER MISSOURI_.
-
-
-In my last Letter I gave an account of the buffalo dance, and in future
-epistles may give some descriptions of a dozen other kinds of dance,
-which these people have in common with other tribes; but in the present
-Letter I shall make an endeavour to confine my observations to several
-other customs and forms, which are very curious and peculiar to the
-Mandans.
-
-Of these, one of the most pleasing is the _sham-fight_ and sham
-scalp-dance of the Mandan boys, which is a part of their regular
-exercise, and constitutes a material branch of their education.
-During the pleasant mornings of the summer, the little boys between
-the age of seven and fifteen are called out, to the number of several
-hundred, and being divided into two companies, each of which is headed
-by some experienced warrior, who leads them on, in the character
-of a teacher; they are led out into the prairie at sunrise, where
-this curious discipline is regularly taught them (+plate+ 57). Their
-bodies are naked, and each one has a little bow in his left hand and
-a number of arrows made of large spears of grass, which are harmless
-in their effects. Each one has also a little belt or girdle around
-his waist, in which he carries a knife made of a piece of wood and
-equally harmless—on the tops of their heads are slightly attached
-small tufts of grass, which answer as scalps, and in this plight,
-they follow the dictates of their experienced leaders, who lead them
-through the judicious evolutions of Indian warfare—of feints—of
-retreats—of attacks—and at last to a general fight. Many manœuvres are
-gone through, and eventually they are brought up face to face, within
-fifteen or twenty feet of each other, with their leaders at their head
-stimulating them on. Their bows are bent upon each other and their
-missiles flying, whilst they are dodging and fending them off.
-
-If any one is struck with an arrow on any vital part of his body, he is
-obliged to fall, and his adversary rushes up to him, places his foot
-upon him, and snatching from his belt his wooden knife, grasps hold of
-his victim’s scalp-lock of grass, and making a feint at it with his
-wooden knife, twitches it off and puts it into his belt, and enters
-again into the ranks and front of battle.
-
-This mode of training generally lasts an hour or more in the morning,
-and is performed on an empty stomach, affording them a rigid and
-wholesome exercise, whilst they are instructed in the important science
-of war. Some five or six miles of ground are run over during these
-evolutions, giving suppleness to their limbs and strength to their
-muscles, which last and benefit them through life.
-
-After this exciting exhibition is ended, they all return to their
-village, where the chiefs and braves pay profound attention to their
-vaunting, and applaud them for their artifice and valour.
-
-Those who have taken scalps then step forward, brandishing them and
-making their boast as they enter into the _scalp-dance_ (in which
-they are also instructed by their leaders or teachers), jumping and
-yelling—brandishing their scalps, and reciting their _sanguinary
-deeds_, to the great astonishment of their tender aged sweethearts, who
-are gazing with wonder upon them.
-
-The games and amusements of these people are in most respects like
-those of the other tribes, consisting of ball plays—game of the
-moccasin, of the platter—feats of archery—horse-racing, &c.; and they
-have yet another, which may be said to be their favourite amusement,
-and unknown to the other tribes about them. The game of Tchung-kee, a
-beautiful athletic exercise, which they seem to be almost unceasingly
-practicing whilst the weather is fair, and they have nothing else
-of moment to demand their attention. This game is decidedly their
-favourite amusement, and is played near to the village on a pavement
-of clay, which has been used for that purpose until it has become as
-smooth and hard as a floor. For this game two champions form their
-respective parties, by choosing alternately the most famous players,
-until their requisite numbers are made up. Their bettings are then
-made, and their stakes are held by some of the chiefs or others
-present. The play commences (+plate+ 59) with two (one from each
-party), who start off upon a trot, abreast of each other, and one of
-them rolls in advance of them, on the pavement, a little ring of two
-or three inches in diameter, cut out of a stone; and each one follows
-it up with his “tchung-kee” (a stick of six feet in length, with
-little bits of leather projecting from its sides of an inch or more in
-length), which he throws before him as he runs, sliding it along upon
-the ground after the ring, endeavouring to place it in such a position
-when it stops, that the ring may fall upon it, and receive one of the
-little projections of leather through it, which counts for game, one,
-or two, or four, according to the position of the leather on which the
-ring is lodged. The last winner always has the rolling of the ring,
-and both start and throw the tchung-kee together; if either fails to
-receive the ring or to lie in a certain position, it is a forfeiture
-of the amount of the number he was nearest to, and he loses his throw;
-when another steps into his place. This game is a very difficult one
-to describe, so as to give an exact idea of it, unless one can see it
-played—it is a game of great beauty and fine bodily exercise, and these
-people become excessively fascinated with it; often gambling away every
-thing they possess, and even sometimes, when everything else was gone,
-have been known to stake their liberty upon the issue of these games,
-offering themselves as slaves to their opponents in case they get
-beaten.
-
-_Feasting_ and _fasting_ are important customs observed by the Mandans,
-as well as by most other tribes, at stated times and for particular
-purposes. These observances are strictly religious and rigidly
-observed. There are many of these forms practiced amongst the Mandans,
-some of which are exceedingly interesting, and important also, in
-forming a correct estimate of the Indian character; and I shall at a
-future period take particular pains to lay them before my readers.
-
-_Sacrificing_ is also a religious custom with these people, and is
-performed in many different modes, and on numerous occasions. Of
-this custom I shall also speak more fully hereafter, merely noticing
-at present, some few of the hundred modes in which these offerings
-are made to the Good and Evil Spirits. Human sacrifices have never
-been made by the Mandans, nor by any of the north western tribes (so
-far as I can learn), excepting the Pawnees of the Platte; who have,
-undoubtedly, observed such an inhuman practice in former times, though
-they have relinquished it of late. The Mandans sacrifice their fingers
-to the Great Spirit, and of their worldly goods, the best and the most
-costly; if a horse or a dog, it must be the favourite one; if it is
-an arrow from their quiver, they will select the most perfect one as
-the most effective gift; if it is meat, it is the choicest piece cut
-from the buffalo or other animal; if it is anything from the stores of
-the Traders, it is the most costly—it is blue or scarlet cloth, which
-costs them in this country an enormous price, and is chiefly used for
-the purpose of hanging over their wigwams to decay, or to cover the
-scaffolds where rest the bones of their departed relations.
-
-Of these kinds of sacrifices there are three of an interesting nature,
-erected over the great medicine-lodge in the centre of the village—they
-consist of ten or fifteen yards of blue and black cloth each, purchased
-from the Fur Company at fifteen or twenty dollars per yard, which are
-folded up so as to resemble human figures, with quills in their heads
-and masks on their faces. These singular-looking figures, like “_scare
-crows_” (+plate+ 47), are erected on poles about thirty feet high, over
-the door of the mystery-lodge, and there are left to decay. There hangs
-now by the side of them another, which was added to the number a few
-days since, of the skin of a white buffalo, which will remain there
-until it decays and falls to pieces.
-
-This beautiful and costly skin, when its history is known, will
-furnish a striking proof of the importance which they attach to these
-propitiatory offerings. But a few weeks since, a party of Mandans
-returned from the Mouth of the Yellow Stone, two hundred miles above,
-with information that a party of Blackfeet were visiting that place on
-business with the American Fur Company; and that they had with them
-a white buffalo robe for sale. This was looked upon as a subject of
-great importance by the chiefs, and one worthy of public consideration.
-A white buffalo robe is a great curiosity, even in the country of
-buffaloes, and will always command an almost incredible price, from its
-extreme scarcity; and then, from its being the most costly article of
-traffic in these regions, it is usually converted into a _sacrifice_,
-being offered to the Great Spirit, as the most acceptable gift that can
-be procured. Amongst the vast herds of buffaloes which graze on these
-boundless prairies, there is not one in an hundred thousand, perhaps,
-that is white; and when such an one is obtained, it is considered great
-_medicine_ or mystery.
-
-On the receipt of the intelligence above-mentioned, the chiefs convened
-in council, and deliberated on the expediency of procuring the white
-robe from the Blackfeet; and also of appropriating the requisite means,
-and devising the proper mode of procedure for effecting the purchase.
-At the close of their deliberations, eight men were fitted out on eight
-of their best horses, who took from the Fur Company’s store, on the
-credit of the chiefs, goods exceeding even the value of their eight
-horses; and they started for the Mouth of the Yellow Stone, where
-they arrived in due time, and made the purchase, by leaving the eight
-horses and all the goods which they carried; returning on foot to their
-own village, bringing home with them the white robe, which was looked
-upon by all eyes of the villagers as a thing that was vastly curious,
-and containing (as they express it) something of the Great Spirit.
-This wonderful anomaly laid several days in the chief’s lodge, until
-public curiosity was gratified; and then it was taken by the doctors or
-high-priests, and with a great deal of form and mystery consecrated,
-and raised on the top of a long pole over the _medicine-lodge_; where
-it now stands in a group with the others, and will stand as an offering
-to the Great Spirit, until it decays and falls to the ground.
-
-This Letter, as I promised in its commencement, being devoted to some
-of the customs peculiar to the Mandans, and all of which will be new
-to the world, I shall close, after recording in it an account of a
-laughable farce, which was enacted in this village when I was on my
-journey up the river, and had stopped on the way to spend a day or two
-in the Mandan village.
-
-Readers, did you ever hear of “_Rain Makers_?” If not, sit still, and
-read on; but laugh not—keep cool and sober, or else you may laugh in
-the _beginning_, and cry at the _end_ of my story. Well, I introduce
-to you a new character—not a _doctor_ or a _high-priest_, yet a
-_medicine-man_, and one of the highest and most respectable order, a
-“_Rain Maker_!” Such dignitaries live in the Mandan nation, aye, and
-“_rain stoppers_” too; and even those also amongst their _conjurati_,
-who, like Joshua of old, have even essayed to stop the sun in his
-course; but from the inefficiency of their medicine or mystery, have
-long since descended into insignificance.
-
-Well, the story begins thus:—The Mandans, as I have said in a former
-Letter, raise a great deal of corn; and sometimes a most disastrous
-drought will be visited on the land, destructive to their promised
-harvest. Such was the case when I arrived at the Mandan village
-on the steam-boat, Yellow-Stone. Rain had not fallen for many a day,
-and the dear little girls and the ugly old squaws, altogether (all of
-whom had fields of corn), were groaning and crying to their lords, and
-imploring them to intercede for rain, that their little respective
-patches, which were now turning pale and yellow, might not be withered,
-and they be deprived of the pleasure of their customary annual
-festivity, and the joyful occasion of the “roasting ears,” and the
-“green corn dance.”
-
-[Illustration: 58]
-
-[Illustration: 59]
-
-The chiefs and doctors sympathized with the plaints of the women, and
-recommended patience. Great deliberation, they said, was necessary in
-these cases; and though they resolved on making the attempt to produce
-rain for the benefit of the corn; yet they very wisely resolved that
-to begin too soon might ensure their entire defeat in the endeavour;
-and that the longer they put it off, the more certain they would
-feel of ultimate success. So, after a few days of further delay,
-when the importunities of the women had become clamorous, and even
-mournful, and almost insupportable, the _medicine-men_ assembled in
-the council-house, with all their mystery apparatus about them—with an
-abundance of wild sage, and other aromatic herbs, with a fire prepared
-to burn them, that their savoury odours might be sent forth to the
-Great Spirit. The lodge was closed to all the villagers, except some
-ten or fifteen young men, who were willing to hazard the dreadful
-alternative of making it rain, or suffer the everlasting disgrace of
-having made a fruitless essay.
-
-They, only, were allowed as witnesses to the _hocus pocus_ and
-_conjuration_ devised by the doctors inside of the medicine-lodge; and
-they were called up by lot, each one in his turn, to spend a day upon
-the top of the lodge, to test the potency of his medicine; or, in other
-words, to see how far his voice might be heard and obeyed amongst the
-clouds of the heavens; whilst the doctors were burning incense in the
-wigwam below, and with their songs and prayers to the Great Spirit for
-success, were sending forth grateful fumes and odours to Him “who lives
-in the sun and commands the thunders of Heaven.” Wah-kee (the shield)
-was the first who ascended the wigwam at sunrise; and he stood all day,
-and looked foolish, as he was counting over and over his string of
-mystery-beads—the whole village were assembled around him, and praying
-for his success. Not a cloud appeared—the day was calm and hot; and at
-the setting of the sun, he descended from the lodge and went home—“his
-_medicine_ was not good,” nor can he ever be a _medicine-man_.
-
-Om-pah (the elk) was the next; he ascended the lodge at sunrise the
-next morning. His body was entirely naked, being covered with yellow
-clay. On his left arm he carried a beautiful shield, and a long lance
-in his right; and on his head the skin of a raven, the bird that soars
-amidst the clouds, and above the lightning’s glare—he flourished his
-shield and brandished his lance, and raised his voice, but in vain; for
-at sunset the ground was dry and the sky was clear; the squaws were
-crying, and their corn was withering at its roots.
-
-War-rah-pa (the beaver) was the next; he also spent his breath in vain
-upon the empty air, and came down at night—and Wak-a-dah-ha-hee (the
-white buffalo’s hair) took the stand the next morning. He is a small,
-but beautifully proportioned young man. He was dressed in a tunic and
-leggings of the skins of the mountain-sheep, splendidly garnished
-with quills of the porcupine, and fringed with locks of hair taken
-by his own hand from the heads of his enemies. On his arm he carried
-his shield, made of the buffalo’s hide—its boss was the head of the
-war-eagle—and its front was ornamented with “red chains of lightning.”
-In his left hand he clenched his sinewy bow and one single arrow. The
-villagers were all gathered about him; when he threw up a feather to
-decide on the course of the wind, and he commenced thus:—“My friends!
-people of the pheasants! you see me here a sacrifice—I shall this
-day relieve you from great distress, and bring joy amongst you; or I
-shall descend from this lodge when the sun goes down, and live amongs
-the dogs and old women all my days. My friends! you saw which way the
-feather flew, and I hold my shield this day in the direction where the
-wind comes—the lightning on my shield will draw a great cloud, and
-this arrow, which is selected from my quiver, and which is feathered
-with the quill of the white swan, will make a hole in it. My friends!
-this hole in the lodge at my feet, shows me the medicine-men, who
-are seated in the lodge below me and crying to the Great Spirit; and
-through it comes and passes into my nose delightful odours, which
-you see rising in the smoke to the Great Spirit above, who rides in
-the clouds and commands the winds! Three days they have sat here, my
-friends, and nothing has been done to relieve your distress. On the
-first day was Wah-kee (the shield), he could do nothing; he counted his
-beads and came down—his medicine was not good—his name was bad, and
-it kept off the rain. The next was Om-pah (the elk); on his head the
-raven was seen, who flies _above_ the storm, and he failed. War-rah-pa
-(the beaver) was the next, my friends; the beaver lives _under_ the
-_water_, and he never wants it to rain. My friends! I see you are in
-great distress, and nothing has yet been done; this shield belonged to
-my father the White Buffalo; and the lightning you see on it is red; it
-was taken from a black cloud, and that cloud will come over us to-day.
-I am the white buffalo’s hair—and I am the son of my father.”
-
-In this manner flourished and manœuvred Wak-a-dah-ha-hee (the white
-buffalo’s hair), alternately addressing the audience and the heaven—and
-holding converse with the winds and the “_je-bi_” (spirits) that are
-floating about in them—stamping his foot over the heads of the _magi_,
-who were involved in mysteries beneath him, and invoking the spirits of
-darkness and light to send rain, to gladden the hearts of the Mandans.
-
-It happened on this memorable day about noon, that the steam-boat
-Yellow Stone, on her first trip up the Missouri River, approached and
-landed at the Mandan Village, as I have described in a former epistle.
-I was lucky enough to be a passenger on this boat, and helped to fire
-a salute of twenty guns of twelve pounds calibre, when we first came
-in sight of the village, some three or four miles below. These guns
-introduced a _new sound_ into this strange country, which the Mandans
-at first supposed to be thunder; and the young man upon the lodge, who
-turned it to good account, was gathering fame in rounds of applause,
-which were repeated and echoed through the whole village; all eyes
-were centred upon him—chiefs envied him—mothers’ hearts were beating
-high whilst they were decorating and leading up their fair daughters
-to offer him in marriage, on his signal success. The medicine-men had
-left the lodge, and came out to bestow upon him the envied title of
-“_medicine-man_,” or “_doctor_,” which he had so deservedly won—wreaths
-were prepared to decorate his brows, and eagle’s plumes and calumets
-were in readiness for him; his friends were all rejoiced—his enemies
-wore on their faces a silent gloom and hatred; and his old sweethearts,
-who had formerly cast him off, gazed intensely upon him, as they glowed
-with the burning fever of repentance.
-
-During all this excitement, Wak-a-dah-ha-hee kept his position,
-assuming the most commanding and threatening attitudes; brandishing his
-shield in the direction of the thunder (+plate+ 58), although there
-was not a cloud to be seen, until he (poor fellow), being elevated
-above the rest of the village, espied, to his inexpressible amazement,
-the steam-boat ploughing its way up the windings of the river below;
-puffing her steam from her pipes, and sending forth the thunder from
-a twelve-pounder on her deck!    *    *    *    The White Buffalo’s
-Hair stood motionless and turned pale, he looked awhile, and turned to
-the chief and to the multitude, and addressed them with a trembling
-lip—“My friends, we will get no rain!—there are, you see, no clouds;
-but my medicine is great—I have brought a _thunder boat_! look and see
-it! the thunder you hear is out of her mouth, and the lightning which
-you see is on the waters!”
-
-At this intelligence, the whole village flew to the tops of their
-wigwams, or to the bank of the river, from whence the steamer was in
-full view, and ploughing along, to their utter dismay and confusion.
-
-In this promiscuous throng of chiefs, doctors, women, children and
-dogs, was mingled Wak-a-dah-ha-hee (the white buffalo’s hair), having
-descended from his high place to mingle with the frightened throng.
-
-Dismayed at the approach of so strange and unaccountable an object, the
-Mandans stood their ground but a few moments; when, by an order of the
-chiefs, all hands were ensconced within the piquets of their village,
-and all the warriors armed for desperate defence. A few moments brought
-the boat in front of the village, and all was still and quiet as death;
-not a Mandan was to be seen upon the banks. The steamer was moored, and
-three or four of the chiefs soon after, walked boldly down the bank and
-on to her deck, with a spear in one hand and the calumet or pipe of
-peace in the other. The moment they stepped on board they met (to their
-great surprise and joy) their old friend, Major Sanford, their agent,
-which circumstance put an instant end to all their fears. The villagers
-were soon apprized of the fact, and the whole race of the beautiful and
-friendly Mandans was paraded on the bank of the river, in front of the
-steamer.
-
-The “rain maker,” whose apprehensions of a public calamity brought
-upon the nation by his extraordinary _medicine_, had, for the better
-security of his person from apprehended vengeance, secreted himself in
-some secure place, and was the last to come forward, and the last to
-be convinced that this visitation was a friendly one from the white
-people; and that his _medicine_ had not in the least been instrumental
-in bringing it about. This information, though received by him with
-much caution and suspicion, at length gave him great relief, and
-quieted his mind as to his danger. Yet still in his breast there was a
-rankling thorn, though he escaped the dreaded vengeance which he had a
-few moments before apprehended as at hand; as he had the mortification
-and disgrace of having failed in his mysterious operations. He set
-up, however (during the day, in his conversation about the strange
-arrival), his _medicines_, as the cause of its approach; asserting
-everywhere and to everybody, that he knew of its coming, and that he
-had by his magic brought the occurrence about. This plea, however, did
-not get him much audience; and in fact, everything else was pretty
-much swallowed up in the guttural talk, and bustle, and gossip about
-the mysteries of the “thunder-boat;” and so passed the day, until just
-at the approach of evening, when the “White Buffalo’s Hair” (more
-watchful of such matters on this occasion than most others) observed
-that a black cloud had been jutting up in the horizon, and was almost
-directly over the village! In an instant his shield was on his arm, and
-his bow in his hand, and he again upon the lodge! stiffened and braced
-to the last sinew, he stood, with his face and his shield presented to
-the cloud, and his bow drawn. He drew the eyes of the whole village
-upon him as he vaunted forth his super-human powers, and at the same
-time commanding the cloud to come nearer, that he might draw down
-its contents upon the heads and the corn-fields of the Mandans! In
-this wise he stood, waving his shield over his head, stamping his
-foot and frowning as he drew his bow and threatened the heavens,
-commanding it to rain—his bow was bent, and the arrow drawn to its
-head, was sent to the cloud, and he exclaimed, “My friends, it is done!
-Wak-a-dah-ha-hee’s arrow has entered that black cloud, and the Mandans
-will be wet with the water of the skies!” His predictions were true;—in
-a few moments the cloud was over the village, and the rain fell in
-torrents. He stood for some time wielding his weapons and presenting
-his shield to the sky, while he boasted of his power and the efficacy
-of his _medicine_, to those who had been about him, but were now driven
-to the shelter of their wigwams. He, at length, finished his vaunts and
-his threats, and descended from his high place (in which he had been
-perfectly drenched), prepared to receive the honours and the homage
-that were due to one so potent in his mysteries; and to receive the
-style and title of “_medicine-man_.” This is one of a hundred different
-modes in which a man in Indian countries acquires the honourable
-appellation.
-
-This man had “made it rain,” and of course was to receive more than
-usual honours, as he had done much more than ordinary men could do. All
-eyes were upon him, and all were ready to admit that he was skilled
-in the magic art; and must be so nearly allied to the Great or Evil
-Spirit, that he must needs be a man of great and powerful influence in
-the nation, and well entitled to the style of doctor or _medicine-man_.
-
-Readers, there are two facts relative to these strange transactions,
-which are infallibly true, and should needs be made known. The first
-is, that when the Mandans undertake to make it rain, _they never fail
-to succeed_, for their ceremonies never stop until rain begins to fall.
-The second is equally true, and is this:—that he who has once “_made
-it rain_,” never attempts it again; his medicine is undoubted—and on
-future occasions of the kind, he stands aloof, who has once done it in
-presence of the whole village, giving an opportunity to other young men
-who are ambitious to signalize themselves in the same way.
-
-During the memorable night of which I have just spoken, the steam-boat
-remained by the side of the Mandan village, and the rain that had
-commenced falling continued to pour down its torrents until midnight;
-black thunder roared, and livid lightning flashed until the heavens
-appeared to be lit up with one unceasing and appalling glare. In
-this frightful moment of consternation, a flash of lightning buried
-itself in one of the earth-covered lodges of the Mandans, and killed a
-beautiful girl. Here was food and fuel fresh for their superstitions;
-and a night of vast tumult and excitement ensued. The dreams of the
-new-made medicine-man were troubled, and he had dreadful apprehensions
-for the coming day—for he knew that he was subject to the irrevocable
-decree of the chiefs and doctors, who canvass every strange and
-unaccountable event, with close and superstitious scrutiny, and let
-their vengeance fall without mercy upon its immediate cause.
-
-He looked upon his well-earned fame as likely to be withheld from him;
-and also considered that his life might perhaps be demanded as the
-forfeit for this girl’s death, which would certainly be charged upon
-him. He looked upon himself as culpable, and supposed the accident
-to have been occasioned by his criminal desertion of his post, when
-the steam-boat was approaching the village. Morning came, and he soon
-learned from some of his friends, the opinions of the wise men; and
-also the nature of the tribunal that was preparing for him; he sent to
-the prairie for his three horses, which were brought in, and he mounted
-the _medicine-lodge_, around which, in a few moments, the villagers
-were all assembled. “My friends! (said he) I see you all around me, and
-I am before you; my medicine, you see, is great—it is _too great_—I
-am young, and I was too fast—I knew not when to stop. The wigwam of
-Mah-sish is laid low, and many are the eyes that weep for Ko-ka (the
-antelope;) Wak-a-dah-ha-hee gives three horses to gladden the hearts of
-those who weep for Ko-ka; his medicine was great—his arrow pierced the
-black cloud, and the lightning came, and the _thunder-boat_ also! who
-says the medicine of Wak-a-dah-ha-hee is not strong?”
-
-At the end of this sentence an unanimous shout of approbation ran
-through the crowd, and the “Hair of the White Buffalo” descended
-amongst them, where he was greeted by shakes of the hand; and amongst
-whom he now lives and thrives under the familiar and honourable
-appellation of the “+Big Double Medicine+.”
-
-
-
-
-                             LETTER—No. 20.
-
-                   MANDAN VILLAGE, _UPPER MISSOURI_.
-
-
-This day has been one of unusual mirth and amusement amongst the
-Mandans, and whether on account of some annual celebration or not, I
-am as yet unable to say, though I think such is the case; for these
-people have many days which, like this, are devoted to festivities and
-amusements.
-
-Their lives, however, are lives of idleness and ease, and almost all
-their days and hours are spent in innocent amusements. Amongst a people
-who have no office hours to attend to—no professions to study, and of
-whom but very little time is required in the chase, to supply their
-families with food, it would be strange if they did not practice many
-games and amusements, and also become exceedingly expert in them.
-
-I have this day been a spectator of games and plays until I am fatigued
-with looking on; and also by lending a hand, which I have done; but
-with so little success as only to attract general observation, and
-as generally to excite the criticisms and laughter of the squaws and
-little children.
-
-I have seen a fair exhibition of their archery this day, in a favourite
-amusement which they call the “_game of the arrow_” (see +plate+ 60),
-where the young men who are the most distinguished in this exercise,
-assemble on the prairie at a little distance from the village, and
-having paid, each one, his “entrance-fee,” such as a shield, a robe,
-a pipe, or other article, step forward in turn, shooting their arrows
-into the air, endeavouring to see who can get the greatest number
-flying in the air at one time, thrown from the same bow. For this, the
-number of eight or ten arrows are clenched in the left hand with the
-bow, and the first one which is thrown is elevated to such a degree
-as will enable it to remain the longest time possible in the air, and
-while it is flying, the others are discharged as rapidly as possible;
-and he who succeeds in getting the greatest number up at once, is
-“best,” and takes the goods staked.
-
-In looking on at this amusement, the spectator is surprised; not at
-the great distance to which the arrows are actually sent; but at
-the quickness of fixing them on the string, and discharging them in
-succession; which is no doubt, the result of great practice, and
-enables the most expert of them to get as many as eight arrows up
-before the first one reaches the ground.
-
-For the successful use of the bow, as it is used through all this
-region of country on horseback, and that invariably at full speed, the
-great object of practice is to enable the bowman to draw the bow with
-suddenness and instant effect; and also to repeat the shots in the most
-rapid manner. As their game is killed from their horses’ backs while
-at the swiftest rate—and their enemies fought in the same way; and as
-the horse is the swiftest animal of the prairie, and always able to
-bring his rider alongside, within a few paces of his victim; it will
-easily be seen that the Indian has little use in throwing his arrow
-more than a few paces; when he leans quite low on his horse’s side, and
-drives it with astonishing force, capable of producing instant death
-to the buffalo, or any other animal in the country. The bows which are
-generally in use in these regions I have described in a former Letter,
-and the effects produced by them at the distance of a few paces is
-almost beyond belief, considering their length, which is not often over
-three,—and sometimes not exceeding two and a half feet. It can easily
-be seen, from what has been said, that the Indian has little use or
-object in throwing the arrow to any great distance. And as it is very
-seldom that they can be seen shooting at a target, I doubt very much
-whether their skill in such practice would compare with that attained
-to in many parts of the civilized world; but with the same weapon,
-and dashing forward at fullest speed on the wild horse, without the
-use of the rein, when the shot is required to be made with the most
-instantaneous effect, I scarcely think it possible that any people can
-be found more skilled, and capable of producing more deadly effects
-with the bow.
-
-The horses which the Indians ride in this country are invariably the
-wild horses, which are found in great numbers on the prairies; and
-have, unquestionably, strayed from the Mexican borders, into which they
-were introduced by the Spanish invaders of that country; and now range
-and subsist themselves, in winter and summer, over the vast plains of
-prairie that stretch from the Mexican frontiers to Lake Winnipeg on
-the North, a distance of 3000 miles. These horses are all of small
-stature, of the pony order; but a very hardy and tough animal, being
-able to perform for the Indians a continual and essential service.
-They are taken with the _laso_, which is a long halter or thong, made
-of rawhide, of some fifteen or twenty yards in length, and which the
-Indians throw with great dexterity; with a noose at one end of it,
-which drops over the head of the animal they wish to catch, whilst
-running at full speed—when the Indian dismounts from his own horse, and
-holding to the end of the laso, choaks the animal down, and afterwards
-tames and converts him to his own use.
-
-Scarcely a man in these regions is to be found, who is not the owner of
-one or more of these horses; and in many instances of eight, ten, or
-even twenty, which he values as his own personal property.
-
-[Illustration: 60]
-
-[Illustration: 61]
-
-The Indians are hard and cruel masters; and, added to their cruelties
-is the sin that is familiar in the Christian world, of sporting with
-the limbs, and the lives of these noble animals. _Horse-racing_ here,
-as in all more enlightened communities, is one of the most exciting
-amusements, and one of the most extravagant modes of gambling.
-
-I have been this day a spectator to scenes of this kind, which have
-been enacted in abundance, on a course which they have, just back of
-their village; and although I never had the least taste for this cruel
-amusement in my own country, yet, I must say, I have been not a little
-amused and pleased with the thrilling effect which these exciting
-scenes have produced amongst so wild and picturesque a group.
-
-I have made a sketch of the ground and the group, as near as I could
-(+plate+ 61); shewing the manner of “starting” and “coming out,” which
-vary a little from the customs of the _knowing_ world; but in other
-respects, I believe, a horse-race is the same all the world over.
-
-Besides these, many have been the amusements of this day, to which I
-have been an eye-witness; and since writing the above, I have learned
-the cause of this unusual expression of hilarity and mirth; which was
-no more nor less than the safe return of a small war-party, who had
-been so long out without any tidings having been received of them—that
-they had long since been looked upon as sacrificed to the fates of
-war and lost. This party was made up of the most distinguished and
-desperate young men of the tribe, who had sallied out against the
-Riccarees, and taken the most solemn oath amongst themselves never
-to return without achieving a victory. They had wandered long and
-faithfully about the country, following the trails of their enemy; when
-they were attacked by a numerous party, and lost several of their men
-and all their horses. In this condition, to evade the scrutiny of their
-enemy, who were closely investing the natural route to their village;
-they took a circuitous range of the country, to enable them to return
-with their lives, to their village.
-
-In this plight, it seems, I had dropped my little canoe alongside of
-them, while descending from the Mouth of Yellow Stone to this place,
-not many weeks since; where they had bivouacked or halted, to smoke
-and consult on the best and safest mode of procedure. At the time of
-meeting them, not knowing anything of their language, they were unable
-to communicate their condition to me, and more probably were afraid
-to do so even if they could have done it, from apprehension that we
-might have given some account of them to their enemies. I rested my
-canoe an hour or so with them, during which time they treated us with
-an indifferent reserve, yet respectfully; and we passed on our way,
-without further information of them or their plans than the sketch that
-I there made (+plate+ 63), and which I shall preserve and value as one
-of the most pleasing groups I ever have had the pleasure to see. Seated
-on their buffalo robes, which were spread upon the grass, with their
-respective weapons laying about them, and lighting their pipes at a
-little fire which was kindled in the centre—the chief or leader of the
-party, with his arms stacked behind him, and his long head-dress of
-war-eagles’ quills and ermine falling down over his back, whilst he sat
-in a contemplative and almost desponding mood, was surely one of the
-most striking and beautiful illustrations of a natural hero that I ever
-looked upon.
-
-These gallant fellows got safely home to their village, and the
-numerous expressions of joy for their return, which I have this day
-witnessed, have much fatigued me that I write brief, and close my
-Letter here.
-
-[Illustration: 63]
-
-
-
-
-                             LETTER—No. 21.
-
-                   MANDAN VILLAGE, _UPPER MISSOURI_.
-
-
-In a former Letter I gave some account of Mah-to-toh-pa (the four
-bears), second chief of the Mandans, whom I said I had painted at
-full length, in a splendid costume. I therein said, also, that “this
-extraordinary man, though second in office, is undoubtedly the first
-and most popular man in the nation. Free, generous, elegant, and
-gentlemanly in his deportment—handsome, brave and valiant; wearing a
-robe on his back, with the history of all his battles painted on it,
-which would fill a book of themselves if they were properly enlarged
-and translated.”
-
-I gave you also, in another epistle, an account of the manner in
-which he invited me to a feast in his hospitable wigwam, at the same
-time presenting me a beautifully garnished robe; and I promised to
-say more of him on a future occasion. My readers will therefore
-pardon me for devoting a Letter or two at this time, to a sketch of
-this extraordinary man, which I will give in as brief a manner as
-possible, by describing the costume in which I painted his portrait;
-and afterwards reciting the most remarkable incidents of his life,
-as I had them from the Traders and the Indian agents, and afterwards
-corroborated by his own words, translated to me as he spoke, whilst I
-was writing them down.
-
-The dress of Mah-to-toh-pa then, the greater part of which I have
-represented in his full-length portrait, and which I shall now
-describe, was purchased of him after I had painted his picture; and
-every article of it can be seen in my Indian Gallery by the side of
-the portrait, provided I succeed in getting them home to the civilized
-world without injury.
-
-Mah-to-toh-pa had agreed to stand before me for his portrait at an
-early hour of the next morning, and on that day I sat with my palette
-of colours prepared, and waited till twelve o’clock, before he could
-leave his toilette with feelings of satisfaction as to the propriety of
-his looks and the arrangement of his equipments; and at that time it
-was announced, that “Mah-to-toh-pa was coming in full dress!” I looked
-out of the door of the wigwam, and saw him approaching with a firm and
-elastic step, accompanied by a great crowd of women and children, who
-were gazing on him with admiration, and escorting him to my room. No
-tragedian ever trod the stage, nor gladiator ever entered the Roman
-Forum, with more grace and manly dignity than did Mah-to-toh-pa enter
-the wigwam, where I was in readiness to receive him. He took his
-attitude before me (+plate+ 64), and with the sternness of a Brutus
-and the stillness of a statue, he stood until the darkness of night
-broke upon the solitary stillness. His dress, which was a very splendid
-one, was complete in all its parts, and consisted of a shirt or tunic,
-leggings, moccasins, head-dress, necklace, shield, bow and quiver,
-lance, tobacco-sack, and pipe; robe, belt, and knife; medicine-bag,
-tomahawk, and war-club, or _po-ko-mo-kon_.
-
-The shirt, of which I have spoken, was made of two skins of the
-mountain-sheep, beautifully dressed, and sewed together by seams which
-rested upon the arms; one skin hanging in front, upon the breast, and
-the other falling down upon the back; the head being passed between
-them, and they falling over and resting on the shoulders. Across each
-shoulder, and somewhat in the form of an epaulette, was a beautiful
-band; and down each arm from the neck to the hand was a similar one,
-of two inches in width (and crossing the other at right angles on the
-shoulder) beautifully embroidered with porcupine quills worked on the
-dress, and covering the seams. To the lower edge of these bands the
-whole way, at intervals of half an inch, were attached long locks of
-black hair, which he had taken with his own hand from the heads of
-his enemies whom he had slain in battle, and which he thus wore as a
-trophy, and also as an ornament to his dress. The front and back of
-the shirt were curiously garnished in several parts with porcupine
-quills and paintings of the battles he had fought, and also with
-representations of the victims that had fallen by his hand. The bottom
-of the dress was bound or hemmed with ermine skins, and tassels of
-ermines’ tails were suspended from the arms and the shoulders.
-
-The _Leggings_, which were made of deer skins, beautifully dressed,
-and fitting tight to the leg, extended from the feet to the hips, and
-were fastened to a belt which was passed around the waist. These, like
-the shirt, had a similar band, worked with porcupine quills of richest
-dyes, passing down the seam on the outer part of the leg, and fringed
-also the whole length of the leg, with the scalp-locks taken from his
-enemies’ heads.
-
-The _Moccasins_ were of buckskin, and covered in almost every part with
-the beautiful embroidery of porcupines’ quills.
-
-The _Head-dress_, which was superb and truly magnificent, consisted
-of a crest of war-eagles’ quills, gracefully falling back from the
-forehead over the back part of the head, and extending quite down to
-his feet; set the whole way in a profusion of ermine, and surmounted
-on the top of the head, with the horns of the buffalo, shaved thin and
-highly polished.
-
-The _Necklace_ was made of fifty huge claws or nails of the grizzly
-bear, ingeniously arranged on the skin of an otter, and worn, like the
-scalp-locks, as a trophy—as an evidence unquestionable, that he had
-contended with and overcome that desperate enemy in open combat.
-
-His _Shield_ was made of the hide of the buffalo’s neck, and hardened
-with the glue that was taken from its hoofs; its boss was the skin of
-a pole-cat, and its edges were fringed with rows of eagles’ quills and
-hoofs of the antelope.
-
-His _Bow_ was of bone, and as white and beautiful as ivory; over its
-back was laid, and firmly attached to it, a coating of deers’
-sinews, which gave it its elasticity, and of course death to all that
-stood inimically before it. Its string was three stranded and twisted
-of sinews, which many a time had twanged and sent the whizzing death to
-animal and to human victims.
-
-[Illustration: 64]
-
-The _Quiver_ was made of a panther’s skin and hung upon his back,
-charged with its deadly arrows; some were poisoned and some were not;
-they were feathered with hawks’ and eagles’ quills; some were clean and
-innocent, and pure, and others were stained all over, with animal and
-human blood that was dried upon them. Their blades or points were of
-flints, and some of steel; and altogether were a deadly magazine.
-
-The _Lance_ or spear was held in his left hand; its blade was two-edged
-and of polished steel, and the blood of several human victims was seen
-dried upon it, one over the other; its shaft was of the toughest ash,
-and ornamented at intervals with tufts of war-eagles’ quills.
-
-His _Tobacco-sack_ was made of the skin of an otter, and tastefully
-garnished with quills of the porcupine; in it was carried his _k’nick
-k’neck_, (the bark of the red willow, which is smoked as a substitute
-for tobacco), it contained also his flint and steel, and spunk for
-lighting——
-
-His _Pipe_, which was ingeniously carved out of the red steatite (or
-pipe-stone), the stem of which was three feet long and two inches
-wide, made from the stalk of the young ash; about half its length was
-wound with delicate braids of the porcupine’s quills, so ingeniously
-wrought as to represent figures of men and animals upon it. It was
-also ornamented with the skins and beaks of wood-peckers’ heads, and
-the hair of the white buffalo’s tail. The lower half of the stem was
-painted red, and on its edges it bore the notches he had recorded for
-the snows (or years) of his life.
-
-His _Robe_ was made of the skin of a young buffalo bull, with the fur
-on one side, and the other finely and delicately dressed; with all the
-battles of his life emblazoned on it by his own hand.
-
-His _Belt_, which was of a substantial piece of buckskin, was firmly
-girded around his waist; and in it were worn his tomahawk and
-scalping-knife.
-
-His _Medicine-bag_ was the skin of a beaver, curiously ornamented
-with hawks’ bills and ermine. It was held in his right hand, and his
-_po-ko-mo-kon_ (or war-club) which was made of a round stone, tied up
-in a piece of rawhide, and attached to the end of a stick, somewhat in
-the form of a sling, was laid with others of his weapons at his feet.
-
-Such was the dress of Mah-to-toh-pa when he entered my wigwam to stand
-for his picture; but such I have not entirely represented it in his
-portrait; having rejected such trappings and ornaments as interfered
-with the grace and simplicity of the figure. He was beautifully and
-extravagantly dressed; and in this he was not alone, for hundreds of
-others are equally elegant. In plumes, and arms, and ornaments, he is
-not singular; but in laurels and wreaths he stands unparalleled. His
-breast has been bared and scarred in defence of his country, and his
-brows crowned with honours that elevate him conspicuous above all of
-his nation. There is no man amongst the Mandans so generally loved,
-nor any one who wears a robe so justly famed and honourable as that of
-Mah-to-toh-pa.
-
-I said his robe was of the skin of a young buffalo bull, and that the
-battles of his life were emblazoned on it; and on a former occasion,
-that he presented me a beautiful robe, containing all the battles
-of his life, which he had spent two weeks’ time in copying from his
-original one, which he wore on his shoulders.
-
-This robe, with his tracings on it, is the chart of his military life;
-and when explained, will tell more of Mah-to-toh-pa.
-
-Some days after this robe was presented, he called upon me with Mr.
-Kipp, the trader and interpreter for the Mandans, and gave me of each
-battle there pourtrayed the following history, which was interpreted
-by Mr. Kipp, from his own lips, and written down by me, as we three
-sat upon the robe. Mr. Kipp, who is a gentleman of respectability and
-truth; and who has lived with these people ten years, assured me, that
-nearly every one of these narrations were of events that had happened
-whilst he had lived with them, and had been familiarly known to him;
-and that every word that he asserted was true.
-
-And again, reader, in this country where, of all countries I ever
-was in, men are the most jealous of rank and of standing; and in a
-community so small also, that every man’s deeds of honour and chivalry
-are familiarly known to all; it would not be reputable, or even safe
-to life, for a warrior to wear upon his back the representations of
-battles he never had fought; professing to have done what every child
-in the village would know he never had done.
-
-So then I take the records of battles on the robe of Mah-to-toh-pa
-to be matter of historical fact; and I proceed to give them as I
-wrote them down from his own lips. Twelve battle-scenes are there
-represented, where he has contended with his enemy, and in which he has
-taken fourteen of their scalps. The groups are drawn according to his
-own rude ideas of the arts; and I proceed to describe them in turn, as
-they were explained to me.
-
-
-                  ROBE OF MAH-TO-TOH-PA (+Plate+ 65).
-
-1. Mah-to-toh-pa kills a Sioux chief—the three heads represent the
-three Riccarees, whom the Sioux chief had previously killed. The Sioux
-chief is seen with war-paint black on his face. Mah-to-toh-pa is seen
-with the scalp of the Sioux in one hand, and his knife in the other,
-with his bow and quiver lying behind him.[3]
-
-2. A Shienne chief, who sent word to Mah-to-toh-pa that he wished to
-fight him—was killed by Mah-to-toh-pa with a lance, in presence of a
-large party of Mandans and Shiennes. Mah-to-toh-pa is here known
-by his lance with eagles’ quills on it.
-
-[Illustration: 65]
-
-[Illustration]
-
-[Illustration]
-
-3. A Shienne killed by Mah-to-toh-pa after Mah-to-toh-pa had been left
-by his party, badly wounded and bleeding; the twenty-five or thirty
-foot-tracks around, represent the number of Shiennes, who were present
-when the battle took place; and the bullets from their guns represented
-as flying all around the head of Mah-to-toh-pa.
-
-4. Shienne chief with war-eagle head-dress, and a beautiful shield,
-ornamented with eagles’ quills, killed by Mah-to-toh-pa. In this
-battle the wife of the Shienne rushed forward in a desperate manner to
-his assistance; but arriving too late, fell a victim. In this battle
-Mah-to-toh-pa obtained two scalps.
-
-5. Mah-to-toh-pa, with a party of Riccarees, fired at by a party of
-Sioux; the Riccarees fled—Mah-to-toh-pa dismounted and drove his horse
-back, facing the enemy alone and killing one of them. Mah-to-toh-pa is
-here represented with a beautiful head-dress of war-eagles’ quills,
-and one on his horse’s head of equal beauty; his shield is on his arm,
-and the party of Sioux is represented in front of him by the number of
-horse tracks.
-
-6. The brother of Mah-to-toh-pa killed by a Riccaree, who shot him with
-an arrow, and then running a lance through his body, left it there.
-Mah-to-toh-pa was the first to find his brother’s body with the lance
-in it: he drew the lance from the body, kept it four years with the
-blood dried on its blade, and then, according to his oath, killed the
-same Riccaree with the same lance; the dead body of his brother is here
-seen with the arrow and lance remaining in it, and the tracks of the
-Riccaree’s horses in front.
-
-The following was, perhaps, one of the most extraordinary exploits
-of this remarkable man’s life, and is well attested by Mr. Kipp, and
-several white men, who were living in the Mandan village at the time of
-its occurrence. In a skirmish, near the Mandan village, when they were
-set upon by their enemies, the Riccarees, the brother of Mah-to-toh-pa
-was missing for several days, when Mah-to-toh-pa found the body
-shockingly mangled, and a handsome spear left piercing the body through
-the heart. The spear was by him brought into the Mandan village, where
-it was recognized by many as a famous weapon belonging to a noted brave
-of the Riccarees, by the name of Won-ga-tap. This spear was brandished
-through the Mandan village by Mah-to-toh-pa (with the blood of his
-brother dried on its blade), crying most piteously, and swearing that
-he would some day revenge the death of his brother with the same weapon.
-
-It is almost an incredible fact, that he kept this spear with great
-care in his wigwam for the space of four years, in the fruitless
-expectation of an opportunity to use it upon the breast of its owner;
-when his indignant soul, impatient of further delay, burst forth in the
-most uncontroullable frenzy and fury; he again brandished it through
-the village, and said, that the blood of his brother’s heart which was
-seen on its blade was yet fresh, and called loudly for revenge. “Let
-every Mandan (said he) be silent, and let no one sound the name of
-Mah-to-toh-pa—let no one ask for him, nor where he has gone, until you
-hear him sound the war-cry in front of the village, when he will enter
-it and shew you the blood of Won-ga-tap. The blade of this lance shall
-drink the heart’s blood of Won-ga-tap, or Mah-to-toh-pa mingles his
-shadow with that of his brother.”
-
-With this he sallied forth from the village, and over the plains,
-with the lance in his hand; his direction was towards the Riccaree
-village, and all eyes were upon him, though none dared to speak till he
-disappeared over the distant grassy bluffs. He travelled the distance
-of two hundred miles entirely alone, with a little parched corn in
-his pouch, making his marches by night, and laying secreted by days,
-until he reached the Riccaree village; where (being acquainted with
-its shapes and its habits, and knowing the position of the wigwam of
-his doomed enemy) he loitered about in disguise, mingling himself in
-the obscure throng; and at last, silently and alone, observed through
-the rents of the wigwam, the last motions and movements of his victim,
-as he retired to bed with his wife: he saw him light his last pipe and
-smoke it “to its end”—he saw the last whiff, and saw the last curl of
-blue smoke that faintly steeped from its bowl—he saw the village awhile
-in darkness and silence, and the embers that were covered in the middle
-of the wigwam gone nearly out, and the last flickering light which had
-been gently playing over them; when he walked softly, but not slyly,
-into the wigwam and seated himself by the fire, over which was hanging
-a large pot, with a quantity of cooked meat remaining in it; and by
-the side of the fire, the pipe and tobacco-pouch which had just been
-used; and knowing that the twilight of the wigwam was not sufficient to
-disclose the features of his face to his enemy, he very deliberately
-turned to the pot and completely satiated the desperate appetite, which
-he had got in a journey of six or seven days, with little or nothing
-to eat; and then, as deliberately, charged and lighted the pipe, and
-sent (no doubt, in every whiff that he drew through its stem) a prayer
-to the Great Spirit for a moment longer for the consummation of his
-design. Whilst eating and smoking, the wife of his victim, while laying
-in bed, several times enquired of her husband, what man it was who was
-eating in their lodge? to which, he as many times replied, “It’s no
-matter; let him eat, for he is probably hungry.”
-
-Mah-to-toh-pa knew full well that his appearance would cause no other
-reply than this, from the dignitary of the nation; for, from an
-invariable custom amongst these Northern Indians, any one who is hungry
-is allowed to walk into any man’s lodge and eat. Whilst smoking his
-last gentle and tremulous whiffs on the pipe, Mah-to-toh-pa (leaning
-back, and turning gradually on his side, to get a better view of the
-position of his enemy, and to see a little more distinctly the shapes
-of things) stirred the embers with his toes (readers, I had every
-word of this from his own lips, and every attitude and gesture acted
-out with his own limbs), until he saw his way was clear; at which
-moment, with his lance in his hands, he rose and drove it through the
-body of his enemy, and snatching the scalp from his head, he darted
-from the lodge—and quick as lightning, with the lance in one hand,
-and the scalp in the other, made his way to the prairie! The village
-was in an uproar, but he was off, and no one knew the enemy who had
-struck the blow. Mah-to-toh-pa ran all night, and lay close during the
-days; thanking the Great Spirit for strengthening his heart and his
-arm to this noble revenge; and prayed fervently for a continuance of
-his aid and protection till he should get back to his own village. His
-prayers were heard; and on the sixth morning, at sunrise, Mah-to-toh-pa
-descended the bluffs, and entered the village amidst deafening shouts
-of applause, while he brandished and shewed to his people the blade of
-his lance, with the blood of his victim dried upon it, over that of his
-brother; and the scalp of Won-ga-tap suspended from its handle.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-Such was the feat represented by Mah-to-toh-pa on his robe—and the
-lance, of which I have just spoken, is seen in the hand of his
-portrait, which will stand in my Gallery, and of which I have thus
-formerly spoken:—“The lance or spear of Mah-to-toh-pa, when he stood
-for his portrait, was held in his left hand; its blade was two-edged,
-and of polished steel, and the blood of several human victims was
-seen dried upon its surface, one over the other; its shaft was of the
-toughest ash, and ornamented at intervals with tufts of war-eagle’s
-quills.”
-
-In the portrait, of which I am speaking, there will be seen an eagle’s
-quill balanced on the hilt of the lance, severed from its original
-position, and loose from the weapon. When I painted his portrait,
-he brought that quill to my wigwam in his left hand, and carefully
-balancing it on the lance, as seen in the painting; he desired me to be
-very exact with it, to have it appear as separate from, and unconnected
-with, the lance; and to represent a spot of blood which was visible
-upon it. I indulged him in his request, and then got from him the
-following explanation:—“That quill (said he) is great _medicine_! it
-belongs to the Great Spirit, and not to me—when I was running out of
-the lodge of Won-ga-tap, I looked back and saw that quill hanging to
-the wound in his side; I ran back, and pulling it out, brought it home
-in my left hand, and I have kept it for the Great Spirit to this day!”
-
-“Why do you not then tie it on to the lance again, where it came off?”
-
-“Hush-sh (said he), if the Great Spirit had wished it to be tied on in
-that place, it never would have come off; he has been kind to me, and I
-will not offend him.”
-
-7. A Riccaree killed by Mah-to-toh-pa in revenge of the death of a
-white man killed by a Riccaree in the Fur Traders’ Fort, a short time
-previous.
-
-8. Mah-to-toh-pa, or four bears, kills a Shienne chief, who challenged
-him to single combat, in presence of the two war-parties; they fought
-on horseback with guns, until Mah-to-toh-pa’s powder-horn was shot
-away; they then fought with bows and arrows, until their quivers were
-emptied, when they dismounted and fought single-handed. The Shienne
-drew his knife, and Mah-to-toh-pa had left his; they struggled for the
-knife, which Mah-to-toh-pa wrested from the Shienne, and killed him
-with it; in the struggle, the blade of the knife was several times
-drawn through the hand of Mah-to-toh-pa, and the blood is seen running
-from the wound.
-
-This extraordinary occurrence also, was one which admits of, and
-deserves a more elaborate description, which I will here give as it
-was translated from his own lips, while he sat upon the robe, pointing
-to his painting of it; and at the same time brandishing the identical
-knife which he drew from his belt, as he was shewing how the fatal blow
-was given; and exhibiting the wounds inflicted in his hand, as the
-blade of the knife was several times drawn through it before he wrested
-it from his antagonist.
-
-A party of about 150 Shienne warriors had made an assault upon the
-Mandan village at an early hour in the morning, and driven off a
-considerable number of horses, and taken one scalp. Mah-to-toh-pa,
-who was then a young man, but famed as one of the most valiant of the
-Mandans, took the lead of a party of fifty warriors, all he could at
-that time muster, and went in pursuit of the enemy; about noon of the
-second day, they came in sight of the Shiennes; and the Mandans seeing
-their enemy much more numerous than they had expected, were generally
-disposed to turn about and return without attacking them. They started
-to go back, when Mah-to-toh-pa galloped out in front upon the prairie,
-and plunged his lance into the ground; the blade was driven into the
-earth to its hilt—he made another circuit around, and in that circuit
-tore from his breast his reddened sash, which he hung upon its handle
-as a flag, calling out to the Mandans, “What! have we come to this?
-we have dogged our enemy two days, and now when we have found them,
-are we to turn about and go back like cowards? Mah-to-toh-pa’s lance,
-which is red with the blood of brave men, has led you to the sight of
-your enemy, and you have followed it; it now stands firm in the ground,
-where the earth will drink the blood of Mah-to-toh-pa! you may all go
-back, and Mah-to-toh-pa will fight them alone!”
-
-During this manœuvre, the Shiennes, who had discovered the Mandans
-behind them, had turned about and were gradually approaching, in order
-to give them battle; the chief of the Shienne war-party seeing and
-understanding the difficulty, and admiring the gallant conduct of
-Mah-to-toh-pa, galloped his horse forward within hailing distance, in
-front of the Mandans, and called out to know “who he was who had stuck
-down his lance and defied the whole enemy alone?”
-
-“I am Mah-to-toh-pa, second in command of the brave and valiant
-Mandans.”
-
-“I have heard often of Mah-to-toh-pa, he is a great warrior—dares
-Mah-to-toh-pa to come forward and fight this battle with me alone, and
-our warriors will look on?”
-
-“Is he a chief who speaks to Mah-to-toh-pa?”
-
-[Illustration: 66]
-
-“My scalps you see hanging to my horse’s bits, and here is my lance
-with the ermine skins and the war-eagle’s tail!”
-
-“You have said enough.”
-
-The Shienne chief made a circuit or two at full gallop on a beautiful
-white horse, when he struck his lance into the ground, and left it
-standing by the side of the lance of Mah-to-toh-pa, both of which were
-waving together their little red flags, tokens of blood and defiance.
-
-The two parties then drew nearer, on a beautiful prairie, and the
-two full-plumed chiefs, at full speed, drove furiously upon each
-other! both firing their guns at the same moment. They passed each
-other a little distance and wheeled, when Mah-to-toh-pa drew off his
-powder-horn, and by holding it up, shewed his adversary that the
-bullet had shattered it to pieces and destroyed his ammunition; he
-then threw it from him, and his gun also—drew his bow from his quiver,
-and an arrow, and his shield upon his left arm! The Shienne instantly
-did the same; _his_ horn was thrown off, and his gun was thrown into
-the air—his shield was balanced on his arm—his bow drawn, and quick
-as lightning, they were both on the wing for a deadly combat! Like
-two soaring eagles in the open air, they made their circuits around,
-and the twangs of their sinewy bows were heard, and the war-whoop, as
-they dashed by each other, parrying off the whizzing arrows with their
-shields! Some lodged in their legs and others in their arms; but both
-protected their _bodies_ with their bucklers of bull’s hide. Deadly and
-many were the shafts that fled from their murderous bows. At length the
-horse of Mah-to-toh-pa fell to the ground with an arrow in his heart;
-his rider sprang upon his feet prepared to renew the combat; but the
-Shienne, seeing his adversary dismounted, sprang from his horse, and
-driving him back, presented the face of his shield towards his enemy,
-inviting him to come on!—a few shots more were exchanged thus, when the
-Shienne, having discharged all his arrows, held up his empty quiver and
-dashing it furiously to the ground, with his bow and his shield; drew
-and brandished his naked knife!
-
-“Yes!” said Mah-to-toh-pa, as he threw _his_ shield and quiver to the
-earth, and was rushing up—_he_ grasped for his knife, but his belt
-had it not; he had left it at home! his bow was in his hand, with
-which he parried his antagonist’s blow and felled him to the ground! A
-desperate struggle now ensued for the knife—the blade of it was several
-times drawn through the right hand of Mah-to-toh-pa, inflicting the
-most frightful wounds, while he was severely wounded in several parts
-of the body. He at length succeeded however, in wresting it from his
-adversary’s hand, and plunged it to his heart.
-
-By this time the two parties had drawn up in close view of each other,
-and at the close of the battle, Mah-to-toh-pa held up, and claimed in
-deadly silence, the knife and scalp of the noble Shienne chief.[4]
-
-9. Several hundred Minatarees and Mandans attacked by a party of
-Assinneboins—all fled but Mah-to-toh-pa, who stood his ground,
-fired, and killed one of the enemy, putting the rest of them to
-flight, and driving off sixty horses! He is here seen with his lance
-and shield—foot-tracks of his enemy in front, and his own party’s
-horse-tracks behind him, and a shower of bullets flying around his
-head; here he got the name of “_the four bears_,” as the Assinneboins
-said he rushed on like four bears.
-
-10. Mah-to-toh-pa gets from his horse and kills two Ojibbeway women,
-and takes their scalps; done by the side of an Ojibbeway village, where
-they went to the river for water. He is here seen with his lance in
-one hand and his knife in the other—an eagle’s plume head-dress on his
-horse, and his shield left on his horse’s back. I incurred his ill-will
-for awhile by asking him, whether it was manly to boast of taking
-the scalps of women? and his pride prevented him from giving me any
-explanation or apology. The interpreter, however, explained to me that
-he had secreted himself in the most daring manner, in full sight of the
-Ojibbeway village, seeking to revenge a murder, where he remained six
-days without sustenance, and then killed the two women in full view of
-the tribe, and made his escape, which entitled him to the credit of a
-victory, though his victims were women.
-
-11. A large party of Assinneboins entrenched near the Mandan
-village attacked by the Mandans and Minatarees, who were driven
-back—Mah-to-toh-pa rushes into the entrenchment alone—an Indian fires
-at him and burns his face with the muzzle of his gun, which burst—the
-Indian retreats, leaving his exploded gun, and Mah-to-toh-pa shoots
-him through the shoulders as he runs, and kills him with his tomahawk;
-the gun of the Assinneboin is seen falling to the ground, and in front
-of him the heads of the Assinneboins in the entrenchment; the horse of
-Mah-to-toh-pa is seen behind him.
-
-12. Mah-to-toh-pa between his enemy the Sioux, and his own people, with
-an arrow shot through him, after standing the fire of the Sioux for a
-long time alone. In this battle he took no scalps, yet his valour was
-so extraordinary that the chiefs and braves awarded him the honour of a
-victory.
-
-This feat is seen in the centre of the robe—head-dress of war-eagles’
-quills on his own and his horse’s head—the tracks of his enemies’
-horses are seen in front of him, and bullets flying both ways all
-around him. With his whip in his hand, he is seen urging his horse
-forward, and an arrow is seen flying, and bloody, as it has passed
-through his body. For this wound, and the several others mentioned
-above, he bears the honourable scars on his body, which he generally
-keeps covered with red paint.
-
-Such are the battles traced upon the robe of Mah-to-toh-pa or four
-bears, interpreted by J. Kipp from the words of the hero while sitting
-upon the robe, explaining each battle as represented.
-
-  [3] The reader will see in +plate+ 65, an accurate drawing of this
-  curious robe, which now hangs in the +Indian Gallery+, and on the
-  following pages, each group numbered, and delineated on a larger
-  scale, which are _fac-similes_ of the drawings on the robe.
-
-
-  [4] This celebrated weapon with the blood of several victims
-  dried upon its blade, now hangs in the +Indian Gallery+, with
-  satisfactory certificates of its identity and its remarkable
-  history, and an exact drawing of it and its scabbard can be seen in
-  +plate+ 99, _a_.
-
-
-
-
-                             LETTER—No. 22.
-
-                   MANDAN VILLAGE, _UPPER MISSOURI_.
-
-
-Oh! “_horribile visu—et mirabile dictu!_” Thank God, it is over, that I
-have seen it, and am able to tell it to the world.
-
-The _annual religious ceremony_, of four days, of which I have so often
-spoken, and which I have so long been wishing to see, has at last been
-enacted in this village; and I have, fortunately, been able to see and
-to understand it in most of its bearings, which was more than I had
-reason to expect; for no white man, in all probability, has ever been
-before admitted to the _medicine-lodge_ during these most remarkable
-and appalling scenes.
-
-Well and truly has it been said, that the Mandans are a strange and
-peculiar people; and most correctly had I been informed, that this
-was an important and interesting scene, by those who had, on former
-occasions, witnessed such parts of it as are transacted out of doors,
-and in front of the _medicine-lodge_.
-
-Since the date of my last Letter, I was lucky enough to have painted
-the _medicine-man_, who was high-priest on this grand occasion, or
-conductor of the ceremonies, who had me regularly installed doctor or
-“_medicine_;” and who, on the morning when these grand refinements
-in mysteries commenced, took me by the arm, and led me into the
-_medicine-lodge_, where the Fur Trader, Mr. Kipp, and his two clerks
-accompanied me in close attendance for four days; all of us going to
-our own quarters at sun-down, and returning again at sun-rise the next
-morning.
-
-I took my sketch-book with me, and have made many and faithful drawings
-of what we saw, and full notes of everything as translated to me by
-the interpreter; and since the close of that horrid and frightful
-scene, which was a week ago or more, I have been closely ensconced
-in an earth-covered wigwam, with a fine sky-light over my head, with
-my palette and brushes, endeavouring faithfully to put the whole
-of what we saw upon canvass, which my companions all agree to be
-critically correct, and of the fidelity of which they have attached
-their certificates to the backs of the paintings. I have made four
-paintings of these strange scenes, containing several hundred figures,
-representing the transactions of each day; and if I live to get them
-home, they will be found to be exceedingly curious and interesting.
-
-I shudder at the relation, or even at the thought of these barbarous
-and cruel scenes, and am almost ready to shrink from the task of
-reciting them after I have so long promised some account of them.
-I entered the _medicine-house_ of these scenes, as I would have
-entered a church, and expected to see something extraordinary and
-strange, but yet in the form of worship or devotion; but alas! little
-did I expect to see the interior of their holy temple turned into a
-_slaughter-house_, and its floor strewed with the blood of its fanatic
-devotees. Little did I think that I was entering a house of God, where
-His blinded worshippers were to pollute its sacred interior with their
-blood, and propitiatory suffering and tortures—surpassing, if possible,
-the cruelty of the rack or the inquisition; but such the scene has
-been, and as such I will endeavour to describe it.
-
-The “_Mandan religious ceremony_” then, as I believe it is very justly
-denominated, is an annual transaction, held in their _medicine-lodge_
-once a year, as a great religious anniversary, and for several distinct
-objects, as I shall in a few minutes describe; during and after which,
-they look with implicit reliance for the justification and approval of
-the Great Spirit.
-
-All of the Indian tribes, as I have before observed, are religious—are
-worshipful—and many of them go to almost incredible lengths (as will
-be seen in the present instance, and many others I may recite) in
-worshipping the Great Spirit; denying and humbling themselves before
-Him for the same purpose, and in the same hope as we do, perhaps in a
-more rational and acceptable way.
-
-The tribes, so far as I have visited them, all distinctly believe in
-the existence of a Great (or Good) Spirit, an Evil (or Bad) Spirit,
-and also in a future existence and future accountability, according
-to their virtues and vices in this world. So far the North American
-Indians would seem to be one family, and such an unbroken theory
-amongst them; yet with regard to the manner and form, and time and
-place of that accountability—to the constructions of virtues and vices,
-and the modes of appeasing and propitiating the Good and Evil Spirits,
-they are found with all the changes and variety which fortuitous
-circumstances, and fictions, and fables have wrought upon them.
-
-If from their superstitions and their ignorance, there are oftentimes
-obscurities and mysteries thrown over and around their system, yet
-these affect not the theory itself, which is everywhere essentially
-the same—and which, if it be not correct, has this much to command
-the admiration of the enlightened world, that they worship with great
-sincerity, and all according to one creed.
-
-The Mandans believe in the existence of a Great (or Good) Spirit, and
-also of an Evil Spirit, who they say existed long before the Good
-Spirit, and is far superior in power. They all believe also in a
-future state of existence, and a future administration of rewards and
-punishments, and (so do all other tribes that I have yet visited) they
-believe those punishments are not eternal, but commensurate with their
-sins.
-
-These people living in a climate where they suffer from cold in the
-severity of their winters, have very naturally reversed our ideas of
-Heaven and Hell. The latter they describe to be a country very far
-to the north, of barren and hideous aspect, and covered with eternal
-snows and ice. The torments of this freezing place they describe as
-most excruciating; whilst Heaven they suppose to be in a warmer and
-delightful latitude, where nothing is felt but the keenest enjoyment,
-and where the country abounds in buffaloes and other luxuries of life.
-The Great or Good Spirit they believe dwells in the former place for
-the purpose of there meeting those who have offended him; increasing
-the agony of their sufferings, by being himself present, administering
-the penalties. The Bad or Evil Spirit they at the same time suppose to
-reside in Paradise, still tempting the happy; and those who have gone
-to the regions of punishment they believe to be tortured for a time
-proportioned to the amount of their transgressions, and that they are
-then to be transferred to the land of the happy, where they are again
-liable to the temptations of the Evil Spirit, and answerable again at a
-future period for their new offences.
-
-Such is the religious creed of the Mandans, and for the purpose of
-appeasing the Good and Evil Spirits, and to secure their entrance into
-those “fields Elysian,” or beautiful hunting grounds, do the young
-men subject themselves to the horrid and sickening cruelties to be
-described in the following pages.
-
-There are other three distinct objects (yet to be named) for which
-these religious ceremonies are held, which are as follow:—
-
-_First_, they are held annually as a celebration of the event of
-the subsiding of the Flood, which they call _Mee-nee-ro-ka-ha-sha_,
-(sinking down or settling of the waters.)
-
-_Secondly_, for the purpose of dancing what they call,
-_Bel-lohck-na-pic_ (the bull-dance); to the strict observance of which
-they attribute the coming of buffaloes to supply them with food during
-the season; and
-
-_Thirdly_ and lastly, for the purpose of conducting all the young men
-of the tribe, as they annually arrive to the age of manhood, through
-an ordeal of privation and torture, which, while it is supposed
-to harden their muscles and prepare them for extreme endurance,
-enables the chiefs who are spectators to the scene, to decide upon
-their comparative bodily strength and ability to endure the extreme
-privations and sufferings that often fall to the lots of Indian
-warriors; and that they may decide who is the most hardy and best able
-to lead a war-party in case of extreme exigency.
-
-This part of the ceremony, as I have just witnessed it, is truly
-shocking to behold, and will almost stagger the belief of the world
-when they read of it. The scene is too terrible and too revolting to
-be seen or to be told, were it not an essential part of a whole, which
-will be new to the civilized world, and therefore worth their knowing.
-
-The bull-dance, and many other parts of these ceremonies are
-exceedingly grotesque and amusing, and that part of them which has a
-relation to the Deluge is harmless and full of interest.
-
-In the centre of the Mandan village is an open, circular area of 150
-feet diameter, kept always clear, as a public ground, for the display
-of all their public feasts, parades, &c. and around it are their
-wigwams placed as near to each other as they can well stand, their
-doors facing the centre of this public area.
-
-In the middle of this ground, which is trodden like a hard pavement,
-is a curb (somewhat like a large hogshead standing on its end) made
-of planks (and bound with hoops), some eight or nine feet high, which
-they religiously preserve and protect from year to year, free from
-mark or scratch, and which they call the “big canoe”—it is undoubtedly
-a symbolic representation of a part of their traditional history of
-the Flood; which it is very evident, from this and numerous other
-features of this grand ceremony, they have in some way or other
-received, and are here endeavouring to perpetuate by vividly impressing
-it on the minds of the whole nation. This object of superstition,
-from its position, as the very centre of the village is the rallying
-point of the whole nation. To it their devotions are paid on various
-occasions of feasts and religious exercises during the year; and in
-this extraordinary scene it was often the nucleus of their mysteries
-and cruelties, as I shall shortly describe them, and becomes an object
-worth bearing in mind, and worthy of being understood.
-
-This exciting and appalling scene, then, which is familiarly (and no
-doubt correctly) called the “Mandan religious ceremony,” commences,
-not on a particular day of the year, (for these people keep no record
-of days or weeks), but at a particular season, which is designated by
-the full expansion of the willow leaves under the bank of the river;
-for according to their tradition, “the twig that the bird brought home
-was a willow bough, and had full-grown leaves on it,” and the bird to
-which they allude, is the mourning or turtle-dove, which they took
-great pains to point out to me, as it is often to be seen feeding on
-the sides of their earth-covered lodges, and which, being, as they call
-it, a _medicine-bird_, is not to be destroyed or harmed by any one, and
-even their dogs are instructed not to do it injury.
-
-On the morning on which this strange transaction commenced, I was
-sitting at breakfast in the house of the Trader, Mr. Kipp, when at
-sun-rise, we were suddenly startled by the shrieking and screaming
-of the women, and barking and howling of dogs, as if an enemy were
-actually storming their village.
-
-“Now we have it!” (exclaimed _mine host_, as he sprang from the table,)
-the grand ceremony has commenced!—“drop your knife and fork, Monsr. and
-get your sketch-book as soon as possible, that you may lose nothing,
-for the very moment of _commencing_ is as curious as anything else of
-this strange affair.” I seized my sketch-book, and all hands of us
-were in an instant in front of the medicine-lodge, ready to see and
-to hear all that was to take place. Groups of women and children were
-gathered on the tops of their earth-covered wigwams, and all were
-screaming, and dogs were howling, and all eyes directed to the prairies
-in the West, where was beheld at a mile distant, a solitary individual
-descending a prairie bluff, and making his way in a direct line towards
-the village!
-
-The whole community joined in the general expression of great alarm,
-as if they were in danger of instant destruction; bows were strung and
-thrumed to test their elasticity—their horses were caught upon the
-prairie and run into the village—warriors were blackening their faces,
-and dogs were muzzled, and every preparation made, as if for instant
-combat.
-
-During this deafening din and confusion within the piquets of the
-village of the Mandans, the figure discovered on the prairie continued
-to approach with a dignified step and in a right line towards the
-village; all eyes were upon him, and he at length made his appearance
-(without opposition) within the piquets, and proceeded towards the
-centre of the village, where all the chiefs and braves stood ready to
-receive him, which they did in a cordial manner, by shaking hands with
-him, recognizing him as an old acquaintance, and pronouncing his name
-_Nu-mohk-muck-a-nah_ (the first or only man). The body of this strange
-personage, which was chiefly naked, was painted with white clay, so as
-to resemble at a little distance, a white man; he wore a robe of four
-white wolf skins falling back over his shoulders; on his head he had a
-splendid head-dress made of two ravens’ skins, and in his left hand he
-cautiously carried a large pipe, which he seemed to watch and guard as
-something of great importance. After passing the chiefs and braves as
-described, he approached the _medicine_ or mystery lodge, which he had
-the means of opening, and which had been religiously closed during the
-year except for the performance of these religious rites.
-
-Having opened and entered it, he called in four men whom he appointed
-to clean it out, and put it in readiness for the ceremonies, by
-sweeping it and strewing a profusion of green willow-boughs over its
-floor, and with them decorating its sides. Wild sage also, and many
-other aromatic herbs they gathered from the prairies, and scattered
-over its floor; and over these were arranged a curious group of buffalo
-and human skulls, and other articles, which were to be used during this
-strange and unaccountable transaction.
-
-During the whole of this day, and while these preparations were
-making in the _medicine-lodge_, Nu-mohk-muck-a-nah (the first or only
-man) travelled through the village, stopping in front of every man’s
-lodge, and crying until the owner of the lodge came out, and asked
-who he was, and what was the matter? to which he replied by relating
-the sad catastrophe which had happened on the earth’s surface by the
-overflowing of the waters, saying that “he was the only person saved
-from the universal calamity; that he landed his big canoe on a high
-mountain in the west, where he now resides; that he had come to open
-the _medicine-lodge_, which must needs receive a present of some
-edged-tool from the owner of every wigwam, that it may be sacrificed
-to the water;” for he says, “if this is not done, there will be another
-flood, and no one will be saved, as it was with such tools that the big
-canoe was made.”
-
-Having visited every lodge or wigwam in the village, during the day,
-and having received such a present at each, as a hatchet, a knife, &c.
-(which is undoubtedly always prepared and ready for the occasion), he
-returned at evening and deposited them in the _medicine-lodge_, where
-they remained until the afternoon of the last day of the ceremony,
-when, as the final or closing scene, they were thrown into the river
-in a deep place, from a bank thirty feet high, and in presence of the
-whole village; from whence they can never be recovered, and where they
-were, undoubtedly, _sacrificed_ to the Spirit of the Water.
-
-During the first night of this strange character in the village, no
-one could tell where he slept; and every person, both old and young,
-and dogs, and all living things were kept within doors, and dead
-silence reigned every where. On the next morning at sunrise, however,
-he made his appearance again, and entered the _medicine-lodge_; and
-at his heels (in “_Indian file_,” _i. e._ single file, one following
-in another’s tracks) all the young men who were candidates for the
-self-tortures which were to be inflicted, and for the honours that were
-to be bestowed by the chiefs on those who could most manfully endure
-them. There were on this occasion about fifty young men who entered
-the lists, and as they went into the sacred lodge, each one’s body was
-chiefly naked, and covered with clay of different colours; some were
-red, others were yellow, and some were covered with white clay, giving
-them the appearance of white men. Each one of them carried in his right
-hand his _medicine-bag_—on his left arm, his shield of the bull’s
-hide—in his left hand, his bow and arrows, with his quiver slung on his
-back.
-
-When all had entered the lodge, they placed themselves in reclining
-postures around its sides, and each one had suspended over his head his
-respective weapons and _medicine_, presenting altogether, one of the
-most wild and picturesque scenes imaginable.
-
-Nu-mohk-muck-a-nah (the first or only man) was in the midst of them,
-and having lit and smoked his medicine-pipe for their success; and
-having addressed them in a short speech, stimulating and encouraging
-them to trust to the Great Spirit for His protection during the severe
-ordeal they were about to pass through; he called into the lodge
-an old medicine or mystery-man, whose body was painted yellow, and
-whom he appointed master of ceremonies during this occasion, whom
-they denominated in their language _O-kee-pah Ka-se-kah_ (keeper or
-conductor of the ceremonies). He was appointed, and the authority
-passed by the presentation of the medicine-pipe, on which they consider
-hangs all the power of holding and conducting all these rites.
-
-After this delegated authority had thus passed over to the
-medicine-man; Nu-mohk-muck-a-nah shook hands with him, and bade him
-good bye, saying “that he was going back to the mountains in the west,
-from whence he should assuredly return in just a year from that time,
-to open the lodge again.” He then went out of the lodge, and passing
-through the village, took formal leave of the chiefs in the same
-manner, and soon disappeared over the bluffs from whence he came. No
-more was seen of this surprising character during the occasion; but I
-shall have something yet to say of him and his strange office before I
-get through the Letter.
-
-To return to the lodge,—the medicine or mystery-man just appointed,
-and who had received his injunctions from Nu-mohk-muck-a-nah, was left
-sole conductor and keeper; and according to those injunctions, it was
-his duty to lie by a small fire in the centre of the lodge, with his
-medicine-pipe in his hand, crying to the Great Spirit incessantly,
-watching the young men, and preventing entirely their escape from the
-lodge, and all communication whatever with people outside, for the
-space of four days and nights, during which time they were not allowed
-to _eat_, to _drink_, or to _sleep_, preparatory to the excruciating
-self-tortures which they were to endure on the fourth day.
-
-I mentioned that I had made four paintings of these strange scenes,
-and the first one exhibits the interior of the medicine-lodge at
-this moment; with the young men all reclining around its sides, and
-the conductor or mystery-man lying by the fire, crying to the Great
-Spirit (+plate+ 66). It was just at this juncture that I was ushered
-into this sacred temple of their worship, with my companions, which
-was, undoubtedly, the first time that their devotions had ever been
-trespassed upon by the presence of pale faces; and in this instance had
-been brought about in the following strange and unexpected manner.
-
-I had most luckily for myself, painted a full-length portrait of this
-great magician or high-priest, but a day previous to the commencement
-of the ceremonies (in which I had represented him in the performance of
-some of his mysteries), with which he had been so exceedingly pleased
-as well as astonished (as “he could see its eyes move”), that I must
-needs be, in his opinion, deeply skilled in magic and mysteries, and
-well-entitled to a respectable rank in the craft, to which I had been
-at once elevated by the unanimous voice of the doctors, and regularly
-initiated, and styled _Te-ho-pee-nee-wash-ee-waska-pooska_, the _white
-medicine_ (or Spirit) _painter_.
-
-With this very honourable degree which had just been conferred upon me,
-I was standing in front of the medicine-lodge early in the morning,
-with my companions by my side, endeavouring to get a peep, if possible,
-into its sacred interior; when this _master of ceremonies_, guarding
-and conducting its secrets, as I before described, came out of the door
-and taking me with a firm _professional_ affection by the arm, led me
-into this _sanctum sanctorum_, which was strictly guarded from, even
-a peep or a gaze from the vulgar, by a vestibule of eight or ten feet
-in length, guarded with a double screen or door, and two or three dark
-and frowning centinels with spears or war-clubs in their hands. I gave
-the wink to my companions as I was passing in, and the potency of my
-_medicine_ was such as to gain them a quiet admission, and all of us
-were comfortably placed on elevated seats, which our conductor soon
-prepared for us.
-
-We were then in full view of everything that transpired in the lodge,
-having before us the scene exactly, which is represented in the first
-of the four pictures. To this seat we returned every morning at
-sunrise, and remained until sun-down for four days, the whole time
-which these strange scenes occupied.
-
-In addition to the preparations and arrangements of the interior of
-this sanctuary, as above described, there was a curious, though a very
-strict arrangement of buffalo and human skulls placed on the floor of
-the lodge, and between them (which were divided into two parcels),
-and in front of the reclining group of young candidates, was a small
-and very delicate scaffold, elevated about five feet from the ground,
-made of four posts or crotches, not larger than a gun-rod, and placed
-some four or five feet apart, supporting four equally delicate rods,
-resting in the crotches; thus forming the frame of the scaffold, which
-was completed by a number of still smaller and more delicate sticks,
-transversely resting upon them. On the centre of this little frame
-rested some small object, which I could not exactly understand from
-the distance of twenty or thirty feet which intervened between it and
-my eye. I started several times from my seat to approach it, but all
-eyes were instantly upon me, and every mouth in the assembly sent forth
-a hush—sh—! which brought me back to my seat again; and I at length
-quieted my stifled curiosity as well as I could, upon learning the
-fact, that so sacred was that object, and so important its secrets or
-mysteries, that not _I_ alone, but even the young men, who were passing
-the ordeal, and all the village, save the conductor of the mysteries,
-were stopped from approaching it, or knowing what it was.
-
-This little mystery-thing, whatever it was, had the appearance from
-where I sat, of a small tortoise or frog lying on its back, with
-its head and legs quite extended, and wound and tasselled off with
-exceedingly delicate red and blue, and yellow ribbons or tassels, and
-other bright coloured ornaments; and seemed, from the devotions paid
-to it, to be the very nucleus of their mysteries—the _sanctissimus
-sanctorum_, from which seemed to emanate all the sanctity of their
-proceedings, and to which, all seemed to be paying the highest
-devotional respect.
-
-This strange, yet important _essence_ of their mysteries, I made every
-enquiry about; but got no further information of, than what I could
-learn by my eyes, at the distance at which I saw it, and from the
-silent respect which I saw paid to it. I tried with the doctors, and
-all of the _fraternity_ answered me, that that was “_great medicine_,”
-assuring me that it “could not be told.” So I quieted my curiosity
-as well as I could, by the full conviction that I had a _degree_ or
-two yet to take before I could fathom all the arcana of Indian
-superstitions; and that this little, seemingly wonderful, relic of
-antiquity, symbol of some grand event, or “secret too valuable to be
-told,” might have been at last nothing but a silly bunch of strings
-and toys, to which they pay some great peculiar regard; giving thereby
-to some favourite Spirit or essence an ideal existence, and which,
-when called upon to describe, they refuse to do so, calling it “_Great
-Medicine_,” for the very reason that there is nothing in it to reveal
-or describe.
-
-[Illustration: 67]
-
-Immediately under the little frame or scaffold described, and on the
-floor of the lodge was placed a knife, and by the side of it a bundle
-of splints or skewers, which were kept in readiness for the infliction
-of the cruelties directly to be explained. There were seen also, in
-this stage of the affair, a number of cords of rawhide hanging down
-from the top of the lodge, and passing through its roof, with which
-the young men were to be suspended by the splints passed through their
-flesh, and drawn up by men placed on the top of the lodge for the
-purpose, as will be described in a few moments.
-
-There were also four articles of great veneration and importance
-lying on the floor of the lodge, which were sacks, containing in
-each some three or four gallons of water. These also were objects of
-superstitious regard, and made with great labour and much ingenuity;
-each one of them being constructed of the skin of the buffalo’s neck,
-and most elaborately sewed together in the form of a large tortoise
-lying on its back, with a bunch of eagle’s quills appended to it as a
-tail; and each of them having a stick, shaped like a drum-stick, lying
-on them, with which, in a subsequent stage of these ceremonies, as will
-be seen, they are beaten upon by several of their mystery-men, as a
-part of the music for their strange dances and mysteries. By the side
-of these sacks which they call _Eeh-teeh-ka_, are two other articles of
-equal importance, which they call _Eeh-na-dee_ (rattles), in the form
-of a gourd-shell made also of dried skins, and used at the same time
-as the others, in the music (or rather _noise_ and _din_) for their
-dances, &c.
-
-These four sacks of water have the appearance of very great
-antiquity; and by enquiring of my very ingenious friend and patron,
-the _medicine-man_, after the ceremonies were over, he very gravely
-told me, that “those four tortoises contained the waters from the
-four quarters of the world—that these waters had been contained
-therein ever since the settling down of the waters!” I did not think
-it best to advance any argument against so ridiculous a theory, and
-therefore could not even enquire or learn, at what period they had been
-instituted, or how often, or on what occasions, the water in them had
-been changed or replenished.
-
-I made several propositions, through my friend Mr. Kipp, the trader
-and interpreter, to purchase one of these strange things by offering
-them a very liberal price; to which I received in answer that these,
-and all the very numerous articles used in these ceremonies, being a
-_society property_ were _medicine_, and could not be sold for any
-consideration; so I abandoned all thoughts of obtaining anything,
-except what I have done by the _medicine_ operation of my pencil, which
-was applied to everything, and even upon that they looked with decided
-distrust and apprehension, as a sort of theft or sacrilege.
-
-Such then was the group, and such the appearance of the interior of the
-medicine-lodge during the three first, and part of the fourth day also,
-of the Mandan religious ceremonies. The medicine-man with a group about
-him, of young aspirants who were under his sole controul, as was every
-article and implement to be used, and the sanctity of this solitary and
-gloomy looking place, which could not be trespassed upon by any man’s
-presence without his most sovereign permission.
-
-During the three first days of this solemn conclave, there were many
-very curious forms and amusements enacted in the open area in the
-middle of the village, and in front of the medicine-lodge, by other
-members of the community, one of which formed a material part or
-link of these strange ceremonials. This very curious and exceedingly
-grotesque part of their performance, which they denominated _Bel-lohck
-nah-pick_ (the bull-dance) of which I have before spoken, as one of
-the avowed objects for which they held this annual fête; and to the
-strictest observance of which they attribute the coming of buffaloes to
-supply them with food during the season—is repeated four times during
-the first day, eight times on the second day, twelve times on the third
-day, and sixteen times on the fourth day; and always around the curb,
-or “_big canoe_,” of which I have before spoken.
-
-This subject I have selected for my second picture, and the principal
-actors in it were eight men, with the entire skins of buffaloes thrown
-over their backs, with the horns and hoofs and tails remaining on;
-their bodies in a horizontal position, enabling them to imitate the
-actions of the buffalo, whilst they were looking out of its eyes as
-through a mask (+plate+ 67).
-
-The bodies of these men were chiefly naked and all painted in the most
-extraordinary manner, with the nicest adherence to exact similarity;
-their limbs, bodies and faces, being in every part covered, either
-with black, red, or white paint. Each one of these strange characters
-had also a lock of buffalo’s hair tied around his ancles—in his right
-hand a rattle, and a slender white rod or staff, six feet long, in the
-other; and carried on his back, a bunch of green willow boughs about
-the usual size of a bundle of straw. These eight men, being divided
-into four pairs, took their positions on the four different sides of
-the curb or big canoe, representing thereby the four cardinal points;
-and between each group of them, with the back turned to the big canoe,
-was another figure, engaged in the same dance, keeping step with them,
-with a similar staff or wand in one hand and a rattle in the other, and
-(being four in number) answering again to the four cardinal points. The
-bodies of these four young men were chiefly naked, with no other dress
-upon them than a beautiful kelt (or quartz-quaw), around the waist,
-made of eagles quills and ermine, and very splendid head-dresses
-made of the same materials. Two of these figures were painted entirely
-black with pounded charcoal and grease, whom they called the “firmament
-or night,” and the numerous white spots which were dotted all over
-their bodies, they called “stars.” The other two were painted from
-head to foot as red as vermilion could make them; these they said
-represented the day, and the white streaks which were painted up and
-down over their bodies, were “ghosts which the morning rays were
-chasing away.”
-
-[Illustration: 68]
-
-These twelve are the only persons actually engaged in this strange
-dance, which is each time repeated in the same form, without the
-slightest variation. There are, however, a great number of characters
-engaged in giving the whole effect and wildness to this strange and
-laughable scene, each one acting well his part, and whose offices,
-strange and inexplicable as they are, I will endeavour to point out
-and explain as well as I can, from what I saw, elucidated by their own
-descriptions.
-
-This most remarkable scene, then, which is witnessed more or less often
-on each day, takes place in presence of the whole nation, who are
-generally gathered around, on the tops of the wigwams or otherwise,
-as spectators, whilst the young men are reclining and fasting in the
-lodge as above described. On the first day, this “_bull-dance_” is
-given _once_ to each of the cardinal points, and the medicine-man
-smokes his pipe in those directions. On the second day, _twice_ to
-each; _three times_ to each on the third day, and _four times_ to each
-on the fourth. As a signal for the dancers and other characters (as
-well as the public) to assemble, the old man, master of ceremonies,
-with the medicine-pipe in hand, dances out of the lodge, singing (or
-rather crying) forth a most pitiful lament, until he approaches the big
-canoe, against which he leans, with the pipe in his hand, and continues
-to cry. At this instant, four very aged and patriarchal looking men,
-whose bodies are painted red, and who have been guarding the four sides
-of the lodge, enter it and bring out the four sacks of water, which
-they place near the big canoe, where they seat themselves by the side
-of them and commence thumping on them with the mallets or drumsticks
-which have been lying on them; and another brandishes and shakes the
-_eeh-na-dees_ or rattles, and all unite to them their voices, raised
-to the highest pitch possible, as the music for the _bull-dance_,
-which is then commenced and continued for fifteen minutes or more in
-perfect time, and without cessation or intermission. When the music and
-dancing stop, which are always perfectly simultaneous, the whole nation
-raise the huzza! and a deafening shout of approbation; the master of
-ceremonies dances back to the medicine-lodge, and the old men return to
-their former place; the sacks of water, and all rest as before, until
-by the same method, they are again called into a similar action.
-
-The supernumeraries or other characters who play their parts in this
-grand spectacle, are numerous and well worth description. By the
-side of the big canoe are seen two men with the skins of grizzly
-bears thrown over them, using the skins as a mask, over their heads.
-These ravenous animals are continually growling and threatening to
-devour everything before them and interfering with the forms of their
-religious ceremony. To appease them, the women are continually bringing
-and placing before them dishes of meat, which are as often snatched up
-and carried to the prairie, by two men whose bodies are painted black
-and their heads white, whom they call bald eagles, who are darting by
-them and grasping their food from before them as they pass. These are
-again chased upon the plains by a hundred or more small boys, who are
-naked, with their bodies painted yellow and their heads white, whom
-they call _Cabris_ or antelopes; who at length get the food away from
-them and devour it; thereby inculcating (perhaps) the beautiful moral,
-that by the dispensations of Providence, his bountiful gifts will fall
-at last to the hands of the innocent.
-
-During the intervals between these dances, all these characters, except
-those from the medicine-lodge, retire to a wigwam close by, which they
-use on the occasion also as a sacred place, being occupied exclusively
-by them while they are at rest, and also for the purpose of painting
-and ornamenting their bodies for the occasion.
-
-During each and every one of these dances, the old men who beat upon
-the sacks and sing, are earnestly chanting forth their supplications
-to the Great Spirit, for the continuation of his influence in sending
-them buffaloes to supply them with food during the year; they are
-administering courage and fortitude to the young men in the lodge,
-by telling them, that “the Great Spirit has opened his ears in their
-behalf—that the very atmosphere all about them is peace—that their
-women and children can hold the mouth of the grizzly bear—that they
-have invoked from day to day O-kee-hee-de (the Evil Spirit)—that they
-are still challenging him to come, and yet he has not dared to make his
-appearance!”
-
-But alas! in the last of these dances, on the fourth day, in the midst
-of all their mirth and joy, and about noon, and in the height of all
-these exultations, an instant scream burst forth from the tops of the
-lodges!—men, women, dogs and all, seemed actually to howl and shudder
-with alarm, as they fixed their glaring eye-balls upon the prairie
-bluff, about a mile in the west, down the side of which a man was seen
-descending at full speed towards the village! This strange character
-darted about in a zig-zag course in all directions on the prairie,
-like a boy in pursuit of a butterfly, until he approached the piquets
-of the village, when it was discovered that his body was entirely
-naked, and painted as black as a negro, with pounded charcoal and
-bear’s grease; his body was therefore everywhere of a shining black,
-except occasionally white rings of an inch or more in diameter, which
-were marked here and there all over him; and frightful indentures of
-white around his mouth, resembling canine teeth. Added to his hideous
-appearance, he gave the most frightful shrieks and screams as he
-dashed through the village and entered the terrified group, which was
-composed (in that quarter) chiefly of females, who had assembled to
-witness the amusements which were transpiring around the “big canoe.”
-
-This unearthly looking creature carried in his two hands a wand or
-staff of eight or nine feet in length, with a red ball at the end of
-it, which he continually slid on the ground a-head of him as he ran.
-All eyes in the village, save those of the persons engaged in the
-dance, were centred upon him, and he made a desperate rush towards
-the women, who screamed for protection as they were endeavouring to
-retreat; and falling in groups upon each other as they were struggling
-to get out of his reach. In this moment of general terror and alarm
-there was an instant check! and all for a few moments were as silent as
-death.
-
-The old master of ceremonies, who had run from his position at the
-big canoe, had met this monster of fiends, and having thrust the
-_medicine-pipe_ before him, held him still and immoveable under its
-charm! This check gave the females an opportunity to get out of his
-reach, and when they were free from their danger, though all hearts
-beat yet with the instant excitement, their alarm soon cooled down
-into the most exorbitant laughter and shouts of applause at his sudden
-defeat, and the awkward and ridiculous posture in which he was stopped
-and held. The old man was braced stiff by his side, with his eye-balls
-glaring him in the face, whilst the medicine-pipe held in its mystic
-chains his _Satanic_ Majesty, annulling all the powers of his magical
-wand, and also depriving him of the powers of locomotion! Surely no
-two human beings ever presented a more striking group than these two
-individuals did for a few moments, with their eye-balls set in direst
-mutual hatred upon each other; both struggling for the supremacy,
-relying on the potency of their medicine or mystery. The one held in
-check, with his body painted black, representing (or rather assuming
-to be) his sable majesty, O-kee-hee-de (the Evil Spirit), frowning
-everlasting vengeance on the other, who sternly gazed him back with a
-look of exultation and contempt, as he held him in check and disarmed
-under the charm of his sacred mystery-pipe.
-
-When the superior powers of the medicine-pipe (on which hang all these
-annual mysteries) had been thus fully tested and acknowledged, and
-the women had had requisite time to withdraw from the reach of this
-fiendish monster, the pipe was very gradually withdrawn from before
-him, and he seemed delighted to recover the use of his limbs again,
-and power of changing his position from the exceedingly unpleasant and
-really ridiculous one he appeared in, and was compelled to maintain,
-a few moments before; rendered more superlatively ridiculous and
-laughable, from the further information, which I am constrained to
-give, of the plight in which this demon of terror and vulgarity made
-his _entrée_ into the midst of the Mandan village, and to the centre
-and nucleus of their first and greatest religious ceremony.
-
-Then, to proceed: I said that this strange personage’s body was
-naked—was painted jet black with charcoal and bear’s grease, with a
-wand in his hands of eight feet in length with a red ball at the end
-of it, which he was rubbing about on the ground in front of him as he
-ran. In addition to this he had—_ung gee ah waheea notch,t oheks teha,
-ung gee an ung hutch tow a tow ah ches menny. Ung gee ah to to wun nee,
-ahkst to wan ee eigh’ s ta w._
-
-In this plight, in which I have not dared fully to represent him in
-the picture, he pursued the groups of females, spreading dismay and
-alarm wherever he went, and consequently producing the awkward and
-exceedingly laughable predicament in which he was placed by the sudden
-check from the medicine-pipe, as I have above stated, when all eyes
-were intently fixed upon him, and all joined in rounds of applause for
-the success of the magic spell that was placed upon him; all voices
-were raised in shouts of satisfaction at his defeat, and all eyes
-gazed upon him; of chiefs and of warriors—matrons and even of their
-tender-aged and timid daughters, whose education had taught them to
-receive the _moral_ of these scenes without the shock of impropriety,
-that would have startled a more fastidious and consequently
-sensual-thinking people.
-
-After repeated attempts thus made, and thus defeated in several parts
-of the crowd, this blackened monster was retreating over the ground
-where the buffalo-dance was going on, and having (apparently, par
-accident) swaggered against one of the men placed under the skin of a
-buffalo and engaged in the “bull dance,” he started back, and placing
-himself in the attitude of a buffalo,—_hi ung ee a wahkstia, chee a
-nahk s tammee ung s towa; ee ung ee aht gwaht ee o nunghths tcha ho a,
-tummee oxt no ah, ughstono ah hi en en ah nahxt gwi aht gahtch gun ne.
-Gwee en on doatcht chee en aht gunne how how en ahxst tchu!_
-
-After this he paid his visits to three others of the eight, in
-succession, receiving as before the deafening shouts of approbation
-which pealed from every mouth in the multitude, who were all praying to
-the Great Spirit to send them buffaloes to supply them with food during
-the season, and who attribute the coming of buffaloes for this purpose
-entirely to the strict and critical observance of this ridiculous and
-disgusting part of the ceremonies.
-
-During the half hour or so that he had been jostled about amongst man
-and beasts, to the great amusement and satisfaction of the lookers-on,
-he seemed to have become exceedingly exhausted, and anxiously looking
-out for some feasible mode of escape.
-
-In this awkward predicament he became the laughing-stock and butt for
-the women, who being no longer afraid of him, were gathering in groups
-around, to tease and tantalize him; and in the midst of this dilemma,
-which soon became a very sad one—one of the women, who stole up behind
-him with both hands full of yellow dirt—dashed it into his face and
-eyes, and all over him, and his body being covered with grease, took
-instantly a different hue. He seemed heart-broken at this signal
-disgrace, and commenced crying most vehemently, when, _a l’instant_,
-another caught his _wand_ from his hand, and broke it across her knee.
-It was snatched for by others, who broke it still into bits, and then
-threw them at him. His power was now gone—his bodily strength was
-exhausted, and he made a bolt for the prairie—he dashed through the
-crowd, and made his way through the piquets on the back part of the
-village, where were placed for the purpose, an hundred or more women
-and girls, who escorted him as he ran on the prairie for half a mile
-or more, beating him with sticks, and stones, and dirt, and kicks, and
-cuffs, until he was at length seen escaping from their clutches, and
-making the best of his retreat over the prairie bluffs, from whence he
-first appeared.
-
-At the moment of this signal victory, and when all eyes lost sight of
-him as he disappeared over the bluffs, the whole village united their
-voices in shouts of satisfaction. The bull-dance then stopped, and
-preparations were instantly made for the commencement of the cruelties
-which were to take place within the lodge, leaving us to draw, from
-what had just transpired, the following beautiful moral:—
-
-That in the midst of their religious ceremonies, the Evil Spirit
-(O-kee-hee-de) made his entrée for the purpose of doing mischief, and
-of disturbing their worship—that he was held in check, and defeated
-by the superior influence and virtue of the _medicine-pipe_, and at
-last, driven in disgrace out of the village, by the very part of the
-community whom he came to abuse.
-
-At the close of this exciting scene, preparations were made, as above
-stated, by the return of the master of ceremonies and musicians to the
-medicine-lodge, where also were admitted at the same time a number
-of men, who were to be instruments of the cruelties to be inflicted;
-and also the chief and doctors of the tribe, who were to look on, and
-bear witness to, and decide upon, the comparative degree of fortitude,
-with which the young men sustain themselves in this most extreme and
-excruciating ordeal. The chiefs having seated themselves on one side
-of the lodge, dressed out in their robes and splendid head-dresses—the
-band of music seated and arranged themselves in another part; and the
-old master of ceremonies having placed himself in front of a small
-fire in the centre of the lodge, with his “big pipe” in his hands,
-and having commenced smoking to the Great Spirit, with all possible
-vehemence for the success of these aspirants, presented the subject for
-the third picture, which they call “_pohk-hong_,” the cutting scene
-(+plate+ 68). Around the sides of the lodge are seen, still reclining,
-as I have before mentioned, a part of the group, whilst others of them
-have passed the ordeal of self-tortures, and have been removed out of
-the lodge; and others still are seen in the very act of submitting
-to them, which were inflicted in the following manner:—After having
-removed the _sanctissimus sanctorum_, or little scaffold, of which I
-before spoke, and having removed also the buffalo and human skulls
-from the floor, and attached them to the posts of the lodge; and two
-men having taken their positions near the middle of the lodge, for the
-purpose of inflicting the tortures—the one with the scalping-knife, and
-the other with the bunch of splints (which I have before mentioned)
-in his hand; one at a time of the young fellows, already emaciated
-with fasting, and thirsting, and waking, for nearly four days and
-nights, advanced from the side of the lodge, and placed himself on his
-hands and feet, or otherwise, as best suited for the performance of
-the operation, where he submitted to the cruelties in the following
-manner:—An inch or more of the flesh on each shoulder, or each breast
-was taken up between the thumb and finger by the man who held the
-knife in his right hand; and the knife, which had been ground sharp on
-both edges, and then hacked and notched with the blade of another, to
-make it produce as much pain as possible, was forced through the flesh
-below the fingers, and being withdrawn, was followed with a splint or
-skewer, from the other, who held a bunch of such in his left hand, and
-was ready to force them through the wound. There were then two cords
-lowered down from the top of the lodge (by men who were placed on the
-lodge outside, for the purpose), which were fastened to these splints
-or skewers, and they instantly began to haul him up; he was thus raised
-until his body was suspended from the ground where he rested, until
-the knife and a splint were passed through the flesh or integuments in
-a similar manner on each arm below the shoulder (over the _brachialis
-externus_), below the elbow (over the _extensor carpi radialis_), on
-the thighs (over the _vastus externus_), and below the knees (over the
-_peroneus_).
-
-In some instances they remained in a reclining position on the ground
-until this painful operation was finished, which was performed, in all
-instances, exactly on the same parts of the body and limbs; and which,
-in its progress, occupied some five or six minutes.
-
-Each one was then instantly raised with the cords, until the weight of
-his body was suspended by them, and then, while the blood was streaming
-down their limbs, the bystanders hung upon the splints each man’s
-appropriate shield, bow and quiver, &c.; and in many instances, the
-skull of a buffalo with the horns on it, was attached to each lower arm
-and each lower leg, for the purpose, probably, of preventing by their
-great weight, the struggling, which might otherwise have taken place to
-their disadvantage whilst they were hung up.
-
-When these things were all adjusted, each one was raised higher by the
-cords, until these weights all swung clear from the ground, leaving
-his feet, in most cases, some six or eight feet above the ground. In
-this plight they at once became appalling and frightful to look at—the
-flesh, to support the weight of their bodies, with the additional
-weights which were attached to them, was raised six or eight inches by
-the skewers; and their heads sunk forward on the breasts, or thrown
-backwards, in a much more frightful condition, according to the way in
-which they were hung up.
-
-[Illustration: 69]
-
-The unflinching fortitude, with which every one of them bore this part
-of the torture surpassed credulity; each one as the knife was passed
-through his flesh sustained an unchangeable countenance; and several of
-them, seeing me making sketches, beckoned me to look at their faces,
-which I watched through all this horrid operation, without being able
-to detect anything but the pleasantest smiles as they looked me in
-the eye, while I could hear the knife rip through the flesh, and feel
-enough of it myself, to start involuntary and uncontroullable tears
-over my cheeks.
-
-When raised to the condition above described, and completely suspended
-by the cords, the sanguinary hands, through which he had just passed,
-turned back to perform a similar operation on another who was
-ready, and each one in his turn passed into the charge of others,
-who instantly introduced him to a new and improved stage of their
-refinements in cruelty.
-
-Surrounded by imps and demons as they appear, a dozen or more, who seem
-to be concerting and devising means for his exquisite agony, gather
-around him, when one of the number advances towards him in a sneering
-manner, and commences turning him around with a pole which he brings
-in his hand for the purpose. This is done in a gentle manner at first;
-but gradually increased, when the brave fellow, whose proud spirit
-can controul its agony no longer, burst out in the most lamentable
-and heart-rending cries that the human voice is capable of producing,
-crying forth a prayer to the Great Spirit to support and protect him
-in this dreadful trial; and continually repeating his confidence
-in his protection. In this condition he is continued to be turned,
-faster and faster—and there is no hope of escape from it, nor chance
-for the slightest relief, until by fainting, his voice falters, and
-his struggling ceases, and he hangs, apparently, a still and lifeless
-corpse! When he is, by turning, gradually brought to this condition,
-which is generally done within ten or fifteen minutes, there is a close
-scrutiny passed upon him among his tormentors, who are checking and
-holding each other back as long as the least struggling or tremour can
-be discovered, lest he should be removed before he is (as they term it)
-“entirely dead.”
-
-When brought to this alarming and most frightful condition, and the
-turning has gradually ceased, as his voice and his strength have given
-out, leaving him to hang entirely still, and apparently lifeless; when
-his tongue is distended from his mouth, and his _medicine-bag_, which
-he has affectionately and superstitiously clung to with his left hand,
-has dropped to the ground; the signal is given to the men on top of the
-lodge, by gently striking the cord with the pole below, when they very
-gradually and carefully lower him to the ground.
-
-In this helpless condition he lies, like a loathsome corpse to look
-at, though in the keeping (as they call it) of the Great Spirit, whom
-he trusts will protect him, and enable him to get up and walk away.
-As soon as he is lowered to the ground thus, one of the bystanders
-advances, and pulls out the two splints or pins from the breasts and
-shoulders, thereby disengaging him from the cords by which he has been
-hung up; but leaving all the others with their weights, &c. hanging to
-his flesh.
-
-In this condition he lies for six or eight minutes, until he gets
-strength to rise and move himself, for no one is allowed to assist or
-offer him aid, as he is here enjoying the most valued privilege which a
-Mandan can boast of, that of “trusting his life to the keeping of the
-Great Spirit,” in this time of extreme peril.
-
-As soon as he is seen to get strength enough to rise on his hands and
-feet, and drag his body around the lodge, he crawls with the weights
-still hanging to his body, to another part of the lodge, where there is
-another Indian sitting with a hatchet in his hand, and a dried buffalo
-skull before him; and here, in the most earnest and humble manner, by
-holding up the little finger of his left hand to the Great Spirit, he
-expresses to Him, in a speech of a few words, his willingness to give
-it as a sacrifice; when he lays it on the dried buffalo skull, where
-the other chops it off near the hand, with a blow of the hatchet!
-
-Nearly all of the young men whom I saw passing this horrid ordeal,
-gave in the above manner, the little finger of the left hand; and I
-saw also several, who immediately afterwards (and apparently with very
-little concern or emotion), with a similar speech, extended in the same
-way, the _fore_-finger of the same hand, and that too was struck off;
-leaving on the left hand only the two middle fingers and the thumb;
-all which they deem absolutely essential for holding the bow, the only
-weapon for the left hand.
-
-One would think that this mutilation had thus been carried quite far
-enough; but I have since examined several of the head chiefs and
-dignitaries of the tribe, who have also given, in this manner, the
-little finger of the right hand, which is considered by them to be a
-much greater sacrifice than both of the others; and I have found also
-a number of their most famous men, who furnish me incontestible proof,
-by five or six corresponding scars on each arm, and each breast, and
-each leg, that they had so many times in their lives submitted to this
-almost incredible operation, which seems to be optional with them;
-and the oftener they volunteer to go through it, the more famous they
-become in the estimation of their tribe.
-
-No bandages are applied to the fingers which have been amputated, nor
-any arteries taken up; nor is any attention whatever, paid to them or
-the other wounds; but they are left (as they say) “for the Great Spirit
-to cure, who will surely take good care of them.” It is a remarkable
-fact (which I learned from a close inspection of their wounds from day
-to day) that the bleeding is but very slight and soon ceases, probably
-from the fact of their extreme exhaustion and debility, caused by want
-of sustenance and sleep, which checks the natural circulation, and
-admirably at the same time prepares them to meet the severity of these
-tortures without the same degree of sensibility and pain, which, under
-other circumstances, might result in inflammation and death.
-
-During the whole of the time of this cruel part of these most
-extraordinary inflictions, the chiefs and dignitaries of the tribe are
-looking on, to decide who are the hardiest and “stoutest hearted”—who
-can hang the longest by his flesh before he faints, and who will be
-soonest up, after he has been down; that they may know whom to appoint
-to lead a war-party, or place at the most honourable and desperate
-post. The four old men are incessantly beating upon the sacks of water
-and singing the whole time, with their voices strained to the highest
-key, vaunting forth, for the encouragement of the young men, the power
-and efficacy of the _medicine-pipe_, which has disarmed the monster
-O-kee-hee-de (or Evil Spirit), and driven him from the village, and
-will be sure to protect them and watch over them through their present
-severe trial.
-
-As soon as six or eight had passed the ordeal as above described,
-they were led out of the lodge, with their weights hanging to their
-flesh, and dragging on the ground, to undergo another, and a still
-more appalling mode of suffering in the centre of the village, and in
-presence of the whole nation, in the manner as follows:—
-
-The signal for the commencement of this part of the cruelties was
-given by the old master of ceremonies, who again ran out as in
-the buffalo-dance, and leaning against the big canoe, with his
-_medicine-pipe_ in his hand, began to cry. This was done several times
-in the afternoon, as often as there were six or eight who had passed
-the ordeal just described within the lodge, who were then taken out in
-the open area, in the presence of the whole village, with the buffalo
-skulls and other weights attached to their flesh, and dragging on the
-ground! There were then in readiness, and prepared for the purpose,
-about twenty young men, selected of equal height and equal age; with
-their bodies chiefly naked, with beautiful (and similar) head-dresses
-of war-eagles’ quills, on their heads, and a wreath made of willow
-boughs held in the hands between them, connecting them in a chain or
-circle in which they ran around the big canoe, with all possible speed,
-raising their voices in screams and yelps to the highest pitch that was
-possible, and keeping the curb or _big canoe_ in the centre, as their
-nucleus.
-
-Then were led forward the young men who were further to suffer, and
-being placed at equal distances apart, and outside of the ring just
-described, each one was taken in charge of two athletic young men,
-fresh and strong, who stepped up to him, one on each side, and by
-wrapping a broad leather strap around his wrists, without tying it,
-grasped it firm underneath the hand, and stood prepared for what they
-call _Eh-ke-nah-ka-nah-pick_ (the last race, +plate+ 69). This, the
-spectator looking on would suppose was most correctly named, for he
-would think it was the last race they could possibly run in this world.
-
-In this condition they stand, pale and ghastly, from abstinence and
-loss of blood, until all are prepared, and the word is given, when
-all start and run around, outside of the other ring; and each poor
-fellow, with his weights dragging on the ground, and his furious
-conductors by his side, who hurry him forward by the wrists, struggles
-in the desperate emulation to run longer without “dying” (as they
-call it) than his comrades, who are fainting around him and sinking
-down, like himself, where their bodies are dragged with all possible
-speed, and often with their faces in the dirt. In the commencement of
-this dance or race they all start at a moderate pace, and their speed
-being gradually increased, the pain becomes so excruciating that their
-languid and exhausted frames give out, and they are dragged by their
-wrists until they are disengaged from the weights that were attached
-to their flesh, and this must be done by such violent force as to
-tear the flesh out with the splint, which (as they say) can never be
-pulled out endwise, without greatly offending the Great Spirit and
-defeating the object for which they have thus far suffered. The splints
-or skewers which are put through the breast and the shoulders, take
-up a part of the pectoral or trapezius muscle, which is necessary for
-the support of the great weight of their bodies, and which, as I have
-before mentioned, are withdrawn as soon as he is lowered down—but all
-the others, on the legs and arms, seem to be very ingeniously passed
-through the flesh and integuments without taking up the muscle, and
-even these, to be broken out, require so strong and so violent a force
-that most of the poor fellows fainted under the operation, and when
-they were freed from the last of the buffalo skulls and other weights,
-(which was often done by some of the bystanders throwing the weight of
-their bodies on to them as they were dragging on the ground) they were
-in every instance dropped by the persons who dragged them, and their
-bodies were left, appearing like nothing but a mangled and a loathsome
-corpse! At this strange and frightful juncture, the two men who had
-dragged them, fled through the crowd and away upon the prairie, as if
-they were guilty of some enormous crime, and were fleeing from summary
-vengeance.
-
-Each poor fellow, having thus patiently and manfully endured the
-privations and tortures devised for him, and (in this last struggle
-with the most appalling effort) torn himself loose from them and his
-tormentors, he lies the second time, in the “keeping (as he terms it)
-of the Great Spirit,” to whom he issues his repeated prayers, and
-entrusts his life: and in whom he reposes the most implicit confidence
-for his preservation and recovery. As an evidence of this, and of the
-high value which these youths set upon this privilege, there is no
-person, not a relation or a chief of the tribe, who is allowed, or who
-would dare, to step forward to offer an aiding hand, even to save his
-life; for not only the rigid customs of the nation, and the pride of
-the individual who has entrusted his life to the keeping of the Great
-Spirit, would sternly reject such a tender; but their superstition,
-which is the strongest of all arguments in an Indian community, would
-alone, hold all the tribe in fear and dread of interfering, when
-they consider they have so good a reason to believe that the Great
-Spirit has undertaken the special care and protection of his devoted
-worshippers.
-
-In this “last race,” which was the struggle that finally closed their
-sufferings, each one was dragged until he fainted, and was thus left,
-looking more like the dead than the living: and thus each one laid,
-until, by the aid of the Great Spirit, he was in a few minutes seen
-gradually rising, and at last reeling and staggering, like a drunken
-man, through the crowd (which made way for him) to his wigwam, where
-his friends and relatives stood ready to take him into hand and restore
-him.
-
-In this frightful scene, as in the buffalo-dance, the whole nation was
-assembled as spectators, and all raised the most piercing and violent
-yells and screams they could possibly produce, to drown the cries of
-the suffering ones, that no heart could even be touched with sympathy
-for them. I have mentioned before, that six or eight of the young men
-were brought from the medicine-lodge at a time, and when they were
-thus passed through this shocking ordeal, the medicine-men and the
-chiefs returned to the interior, where as many more were soon prepared,
-and underwent a similar treatment; and after that another batch, and
-another, and so on, until the whole number, some forty-five or fifty
-had run in this sickening circle, and, by leaving their weights, had
-opened the flesh for honourable scars. I said _all_, but there was one
-poor fellow though (and I shudder to tell it), who was dragged around
-and around the circle, with the skull of an elk hanging to the flesh
-on one of his legs,—several had jumped upon it, but to no effect, for
-the splint was under the sinew, which could not be broken. The dragging
-became every instant more and more furious, and the apprehensions for
-the poor fellow’s life, apparent by the piteous howl which was set up
-for him by the multitude around; and at last the medicine-man ran, with
-his medicine-pipe in his hand, and held them in check, when the body
-was dropped, and left upon the ground, with the skull yet hanging to
-it. The boy, who was an extremely interesting and fine-looking youth,
-soon recovered his senses and his strength, looking deliberately at
-his torn and bleeding limbs; and also with the most pleasant smile of
-defiance, upon the misfortune which had now fallen to his peculiar lot,
-crawled through the crowd (instead of walking, which they are never
-again at liberty to do until the flesh is torn out, and the article
-left) to the prairie, and over which, for the distance of half a mile,
-to a sequestered spot, without any attendant, where he laid three days
-and three nights, yet longer, without food, and praying to the Great
-Spirit, until suppuration took place in the wound, and by the decaying
-of the flesh the weight was dropped, and the splint also, which he dare
-not extricate in another way. At the end of this, he crawled back to
-the village on his hands and knees, being too much emaciated to walk,
-and begged for something to eat, which was at once given him, and he
-was soon restored to health.
-
-These extreme and difficult cases often occur, and I learn that in such
-instances the youth has it at his option to get rid of the weight that
-is thus left upon him, in such way as he may choose, and some of those
-modes are far more extraordinary than the one which I have just named.
-Several of the Traders, who have been for a number of years in the
-habit of seeing this part of the ceremony, have told me that two years
-since, when they were looking on, there was one whose flesh on the arms
-was so strong that the weights could not be left, and he dragged them
-with his body to the river by the side of the village, where he set a
-stake fast in the ground on the top of the bank, and fastening cords
-to it, he let himself half-way down a perpendicular wall of rock, of
-twenty-five or thirty feet, where the weight of his body was suspended
-by the two cords attached to the flesh of his arms. In this awful
-condition he hung for several days, equi-distant from the top of the
-rock and the deep water below, into which he at last dropped and saved
-himself by swimming ashore!
-
-I need record no more of these shocking and disgusting instances,
-of which I have already given enough to convince the world of the
-correctness of the established fact of the Indian’s superior stoicism
-and power of endurance, although some recent writers have, from motives
-of envy, from ignorance, or something else, taken great pains to cut
-the poor Indian short in everything, and in _this_, even as if it were
-a virtue.
-
-I am ready to accord to them in this particular, the palm; the credit
-of outdoing anything and everybody, and of enduring more than civilized
-man ever aspired to or ever thought of. My heart has sickened also
-with disgust for so abominable and ignorant a custom, and still I
-stand ready with all my heart, to excuse and forgive them for adhering
-so strictly to an ancient celebration, founded in superstitions and
-mysteries, of which they know not the origin, and constituting a
-material part and feature in the code and forms of their religion.
-
-Reader, I will return with you a moment to the medicine-lodge, which is
-just to be closed, and then we will indulge in some general reflections
-upon what has passed, and in what, and for what purposes this strange
-batch of mysteries has been instituted and perpetuated.
-
-After these young men, who had for the last four days occupied the
-medicine-lodge, had been operated on, in the manner above described,
-and taken out of it, the old medicine-man, master of ceremonies,
-returned, (still crying to the Great Spirit) sole tenant of that sacred
-place, and brought out the “edged tools,” which I before said had been
-collected at the door of every man’s wigwam, to be given as a sacrifice
-to the water, and leaving the lodge securely fastened, he approached
-the bank of the river, when all the medicine-men attended him, and all
-the nation were spectators; and in their presence he threw them from a
-high bank into very deep water, from which they cannot be recovered,
-and where they are, correctly speaking, made a sacrifice to the water.
-This part of the affair took place just exactly at sun-down, and closed
-the scene, being the end or finale of the _Mandan religious ceremony_.
-
-[Illustration: 70]
-
-[Illustration: 71]
-
-_The reader will forgive me for here inserting the Certificates which
-  I have just received from Mr. Kipp, of the city of New York, and two
-  others, who were with me; which I offer for the satisfaction of the
-  world, who read the above account._
-
-“_We hereby certify, that we witnessed, in company with Mr. Catlin, in
-the Mandan Village, the ceremonies represented in the four paintings,
-and described in his Notes, to which this Certificate refers; and that
-he has therein faithfully represented those scenes as we saw them
-transacted without any addition or exaggeration._
-
-                                 “+J. Kipp+, _Agent Amer. Fur Company_.
-                                  +L. Crawford+, _Clerk_.
-  “_Mandan Village, July 20, 1833._  +Abraham Bogard+.”
-
-The strange country that I am in—its excitements—its accidents and
-wild incidents which startle me at almost every moment, prevent me
-from any very elaborate disquisition upon the above remarkable events
-at present; and even had I all the time and leisure of a country
-gentleman, and all the additional information which I am daily
-procuring, and daily expect to procure hereafter in explanation of
-these unaccountable mysteries, yet do I fear that there would be
-that inexplicable difficulty that hangs over most of the customs and
-traditions of these simple people, who have no history to save facts
-and systems from falling into the most absurd and disjointed fable and
-ignorant fiction.
-
-What few plausible inferences I have as yet been able to draw from the
-above strange and peculiar transactions I will set forth, but with
-some diffidence, hoping and trusting that by further intimacy and
-familiarity with these people I may yet arrive at more satisfactory and
-important results.
-
-That these people should have a tradition of the Flood is by no means
-surprising; as I have learned from every tribe I have visited, that
-they all have some high mountain in their vicinity, where they insist
-upon it the big canoe landed; but that these people should hold an
-annual celebration of the event, and the season of that decided by such
-circumstances as the full leaf of the willow, and the medicine-lodge
-opened by such a man as Nu-mohk-muck-a-nah (who appears to be a white
-man), and making his appearance “from the high-mountains in the West;”
-and some other circumstances, is surely a very remarkable thing, and
-requires some extraordinary attention.
-
-This Nu-mohk-muck-a-nah (first or only man) is undoubtedly some mystery
-or medicine-man of the tribe, who has gone out on the prairie on the
-evening previous, and having dressed and painted himself for the
-occasion, comes into the village in the morning, endeavouring to keep
-up the semblance of reality; for their tradition says, that at a very
-ancient period such a man did actually come from the West—that his
-body was of the white colour, as this man’s body is represented—that
-he wore a robe of four white wolf skins—his head-dress was made of two
-raven’s skins—and in his left hand was a huge pipe. He said, “he was at
-one time the only man—he told them of the destruction of every thing on
-the earth’s surface by water—that he stopped in his _big canoe_ on a
-high mountain in the West, where he landed and was saved.”
-
-“That the Mandans, and all other people were bound to make yearly
-sacrifices of some edged-tools to the water, for of such things the
-big canoe was made. That he instructed the Mandans how to build
-their medicine-lodge, and taught them also the forms of these annual
-ceremonies; and told them that as long as they made these sacrifices,
-and performed their rites to the full letter, they might be assured of
-the fact, that they would be the favourite people of the Almighty, and
-would always have enough to eat and drink; and that so soon as they
-should depart in one tittle from these forms, they might be assured,
-that their race would decrease, and finally run out; and that they
-might date their nation’s calamity to that omission or neglect.”
-
-These people have, no doubt, been long living under the dread of such
-an injunction, and in the fear of departing from it; and while they are
-living in total ignorance of its origin, the world must remain equally
-ignorant of much of its meaning, as they needs must be of all Indian
-customs resting on ancient traditions, which soon run into fables,
-having lost all their system, by which they might have been construed.
-
-This strange and unaccountable custom, is undoubtedly peculiar to the
-Mandans; although, amongst the Minatarees, and some others of the
-neighbouring tribes, they have seasons of abstinence and self-torture,
-somewhat similar, but bearing no other resemblance to this than a mere
-feeble effort or form of imitation.
-
-It would seem from their tradition of the willow branch, and the dove,
-that these people must have had some proximity to some part of the
-civilized world; or that missionaries or others have been formerly
-among them, inculcating the Christian religion and the Mosaic account
-of the Flood; which is, in this and some other respects, decidedly
-different from the theory which most natural people have distinctly
-established of that event.
-
-There are other strong, and almost decisive proofs in my opinion, in
-support of the assertion, which are to be drawn from the diversity
-of colour in their hair and complexions, as I have before described,
-as well as from their tradition just related, of the “_first or only
-man_,” whose body was white, and who came from the West, telling them
-of the destruction of the earth by water, and instructing them in the
-forms of these mysteries; and, in addition to the above, I will add
-the two following very curious stories, which I had from several of
-their old and dignified chiefs, and which are, no doubt, standing and
-credited traditions of the tribe.
-
-“The Mandans (people of the pheasants) were the first people created
-in the world, and they originally lived inside of the earth; they
-raised many vines, and one of them had grown up through a hole in
-the earth, over head, and one of their young men climbed up it until
-he came out on the top of the ground, on the bank of the river, where
-the Mandan village stands. He looked around, and admired the beautiful
-country and prairies about him—saw many buffaloes—killed one with his
-bow and arrows, and found that its meat was good to eat. He returned,
-and related what he had seen; when a number of others went up the vine
-with him, and witnessed the same things. Amongst those who went up,
-were two very pretty young women, who were favourites of the chiefs,
-because they were virgins; and amongst those who were trying to get up,
-was a very large and fat woman, who was ordered by the chiefs not to go
-up, but whose curiosity led her to try it as soon as she got a secret
-opportunity, when there was no one present. When she got part of the
-way up, the vine broke under the great weight of her body, and let her
-down. She was very much hurt by the fall, but did not die. The Mandans
-were very sorry about this; and she was disgraced for being the cause
-of a very great calamity, which she had brought upon them, and which
-could never be averted; for no more could ever ascend, nor could those
-descend who had got up; but they built the Mandan village, where it
-formerly stood, a great ways below on the river; and the remainder of
-the people live under ground to this day.”
-
-The above tradition is told with great gravity by their chiefs and
-doctors or mystery-men; and the latter profess to hear their friends
-talk through the earth at certain times and places, and even consult
-them for their opinions and advice on many important occasions.
-
-The next tradition runs thus:—
-
-“At a very ancient period, O-kee-hee-de (the Evil Spirit, the black
-fellow mentioned in the religious ceremonies) came to the Mandan
-village with Nu-mohk-muck-a-nah (the first or only man) from the West,
-and sat down by a woman who had but one eye, and was hoeing corn. Her
-daughter, who was very pretty came up to her, and the Evil Spirit
-desired her to go and bring some water; but wished that before she
-started, she would come to him and eat some buffalo meat. He told her
-to take a piece out of his side, which she did and ate it, which proved
-to be buffalo-fat. She then went for the water, which she brought, and
-met them in the village where they had walked, and they both drank of
-it—nothing more was done.
-
-“The friends of the girl soon after endeavoured to disgrace her, by
-telling her that she was _enciente_, which she did not deny. She
-declared her innocence at the same time, and boldly defied any man
-in the village to come forward and accuse her. This raised a great
-excitement in the village, and as no one could stand forth to accuse
-her, she was looked upon as _great medicine_. She soon after went off
-secretly to the upper Mandan village, where the child was born.
-
-“Great search was made for her before she was found; as it was
-expected that the child would also be great _medicine_ or mystery,
-and of great importance to the existence and welfare of the tribe.
-They were induced to this belief from the very strange manner of its
-conception and birth, and were soon confirmed in it from the wonderful
-things which it did at an early age. They say, that amongst other
-miracles which he performed, when the Mandans were like to starve, he
-gave them four buffalo bulls, which filled the whole village—leaving as
-much meat as there was before they had eaten; saying that these four
-bulls would supply them for ever. Nu-mohk-muck-a-nah (the first or only
-man) was bent on the destruction of the child, and after making many
-fruitless searches for it, found it hidden in a dark place, and put it
-to death by throwing it into the river.
-
-“When O-kee-hee-de (the Evil Spirit) heard of the death of this child,
-he sought for Nu-mohk-muck-a-nah with intent to kill him. He traced
-him a long distance, and at length found him at _Heart River_, about
-seventy miles below the village, with the big medicine-pipe in his
-hand, the charm or mystery of which protects him from all of his
-enemies. They soon agreed, however, to become friends, smoked the big
-pipe together, and returned to the Mandan village. The Evil Spirit was
-satisfied; and Nu-mohk-muck-a-nah told the Mandans never to pass Heart
-River to live, for it was the centre of the world, and to live beyond
-it would be destruction to them; and he named it _Nat-com-pa-sa-hah_
-(heart or centre of the world).”
-
-Such are a few of the principal traditions of these people, which I
-have thought proper to give in this place, and I have given them in
-their own way, with all the imperfections and absurd inconsistencies
-which should be expected to characterize the history of all ignorant
-and superstitious people who live in a state of simple and untaught
-nature, with no other means of perpetuating historical events, than by
-oral traditions.
-
-I advance these vague stories then, as I have done, and shall do in
-other instances, not in support of any theory, but merely as I have
-heard them related by the Indians; and preserved them, as I have
-everything else that I could meet in the Indian habits and character,
-for the information of the world, who may get more time to theorize
-than I have at present; and who may consider better than I can, how far
-such traditions should be taken as evidence of the facts, that these
-people have for a long period preserved and perpetuated an imperfect
-knowledge of the Deluge—of the appearance and death of a Saviour—and of
-the transgressions of mother Eve.
-
-I am not yet able to learn from these people whether they have any
-distinct theory of the creation; as they seem to date nothing further
-back than their own existence as a people; saying (as I have before
-mentioned), that they were the first people created; involving the
-glaring absurdities that they were the only people on earth before
-the Flood, and the only one saved was a white man; or that they were
-created inside of the earth, as their tradition says; and that they did
-not make their appearance on its outer surface until after the Deluge.
-When an Indian story is told, it is like all other gifts, “to be taken
-for what it is worth,” and for any seeming inconsistency in their
-traditions there is no remedy; for as far as I have tried to reconcile
-them by reasoning with, or questioning them, I have been entirely
-defeated; and more than that, have generally incurred their distrust
-and ill-will. One of the Mandan doctors told me very gravely a few days
-since, that the earth was a large tortoise, that it carried the dirt on
-its back—that a tribe of people, who are now dead, and whose faces were
-white, used to dig down very deep in this ground to catch _badgers_;
-and that one day they stuck a knife through the tortoise-shell, and it
-sunk down so that the water ran over its back, and drowned all but one
-man. And on the next day while I was painting his portrait, he told me
-there were _four tortoises_,—one in the North—one in the East—one in
-the South, and one in the West; that each one of these rained ten days,
-and the water covered over the earth.
-
-These ignorant and conflicting accounts, and both from the same man,
-give as good a demonstration, perhaps, of what I have above mentioned,
-as to the inefficiency of Indian traditions as anything I could at
-present mention. They might, perhaps, have been in this instance
-however the creeds of different sects, or of different priests amongst
-them, who often advance diametrically opposite theories and traditions
-relative to history and mythology.
-
-And however ignorant and ridiculous they may seem, they are yet worthy
-of a little further consideration, as relating to a number of curious
-circumstances connected with the unaccountable religious ceremonies
-which I have just described.
-
-The Mandan chiefs and doctors, in all their feasts, where the pipe
-is lit and about to be passed around, deliberately propitiate the
-good-will and favour of the Great Spirit, by extending the stem of
-the pipe _upwards_ before they smoke it themselves; and also as
-deliberately and as strictly offering the stem to the four _cardinal
-points_ in succession, and then drawing a whiff through it, passing it
-around amongst the group.
-
-The _annual religious ceremony_ invariably lasts _four_ days, and
-the other following circumstances attending these strange forms, and
-seeming to have some allusion to the _four_ cardinal points, or the
-“four tortoises,” seem to me to be worthy of further notice. _Four_
-men are selected by Nu-mohk-muck-a-nah (as I have before said), to
-cleanse out and prepare the medicine-lodge for the occasion—one he
-calls from the _north_ part of the village—one from the _east_—one from
-the _south_, and one from the _west_. The _four_ sacks of water, in
-form of large tortoises, resting on the floor of the lodge and before
-described, would seem to be typical of the same thing; and also the
-_four_ buffalo, and the _four_ human skulls resting on the floor of the
-same lodge—the _four_ couples of dancers in the “bull-dance,” as before
-described, and also the _four_ intervening dancers in the same dance,
-and also described
-
-The bull-dance in front of the medicine-lodge, repeated on the _four_
-days, is danced _four_ times on the first day, _eight_ times on the
-second, _twelve_ times on the third, and _sixteen_ times on the
-_fourth_; (adding _four_ dances on each of the _four_ days,) which
-added together make _forty_, the exact number of days that it rained
-upon the earth, according to the Mosaic account, to produce the Deluge.
-There are _four_ sacrifices of black and blue cloths erected over the
-door of the medicine-lodge—the visits of O-kee-hee-de (or Evil Spirit)
-were paid to _four_ of the buffaloes in the buffalo-dance, as above
-described; and in every instance, the young men who underwent the
-tortures before explained, had _four_ splints or skewers run through
-the flesh on their legs—_four_ through the arms and _four_ through the
-body.
-
-Such is a brief account of these strange scenes which I have just been
-witnessing, and such my brief history of the Mandans. I might write
-much more on them, giving yet a volume on their stories and traditions;
-but it would be a volume of fables, and scarce worth recording. A
-nation of Indians in their primitive condition, where there are no
-historians, have but a temporary historical existence, for the reasons
-above advanced, and their history, what can be certainly learned of it,
-may be written in a very small compass.
-
-I have dwelt longer on the history and customs of these people than I
-have or shall on any other tribe, in all probability, and that from the
-fact that I have found them a very peculiar people, as will have been
-seen by my notes.
-
-From these very numerous and striking peculiarities in their personal
-appearance—their customs—traditions and language, I have been led
-conclusively to believe that they are a people of decidedly a different
-origin from that of any other tribe in these regions.
-
-From these reasons, as well as from the fact that they are a small and
-feeble tribe, against whom the powerful tribe of Sioux are waging a
-deadly war with the prospect of their extermination; and who with their
-limited numbers, are not likely to hold out long in their struggle for
-existence, I have taken more pains to pourtray their whole character,
-than my limited means will allow me to bestow upon other tribes.
-
-From the ignorant and barbarous and disgusting customs just recited,
-the world would naturally infer, that these people must be the most
-cruel and inhuman beings in the world—yet, such is not the case, and it
-becomes my duty to say it; a better, more honest, hospitable and kind
-people, as a community, are not to be found in the world. No set of men
-that ever I associated with have better hearts than the Mandans, and
-none are quicker to embrace and welcome a white man than they are—none
-will press him closer to his bosom, that the pulsation of his heart may
-be felt, than a Mandan; and no man in any country will keep his word
-and guard his honour more closely.
-
-The shocking and disgusting custom that I have just described, sickens
-the heart and even the stomach of a traveller in the country, and he
-weeps for their ignorance—he pities them with all his heart for their
-blindness, and laments that the light of civilization, of agriculture
-and religion cannot be extended to them, and that their hearts which
-are good enough, could not be turned to embrace something more rational
-and conducive to their true happiness.
-
-Many would doubtless ask, whether such a barbarous custom could be
-eradicated from these people? and whether their thoughts and tastes,
-being turned to agriculture and religion, could be made to abandon the
-dark and random channel in which they are drudging, and made to flow in
-the light and life of civilization?
-
-To this query I answer _yes_. Although this is a custom of long
-standing, being a part of their religion; and probably valued as one
-of their dearest rights; and notwithstanding the difficulty of making
-inroads upon the religion of a people in whose country there is no
-severence of opinions, and consequently no division into different
-sects, with different creeds to shake their faith; I still believe, and
-I _know_, that by a judicious and persevering effort, this abominable
-custom, and others, might be extinguished, and the beautiful green
-fields about the Mandan village might be turned into productive
-gardens, and the waving green bluffs that are spread in the surrounding
-distance, might be spotted with lowing kine, instead of the sneaking
-wolves and the hobbled war-horses that are now stalking about them.
-
-All ignorant and superstitious people, it is a well-known fact, are
-the most fixed and stubborn in their religious opinions, and perhaps
-the most difficult to divert from their established belief, from the
-very fact that they are the most difficult to reason with. Here is
-an ignorant race of human beings, who have from time immemorial been
-in the habit of worshipping in their own way, and of enjoying their
-religious opinions without ever having heard any one to question their
-correctness; and in those opinions they are quiet and satisfied, and
-it requires a patient, gradual, and untiring effort to convince such
-a people that they are wrong, and to work the desired change in their
-belief, and consequently in their actions.
-
-It is decidedly my opinion, however, that such a thing _can_ be done,
-and I do not believe there is a race of wild people on earth where the
-experiment could be more successfully made than amongst the kind and
-hospitable Mandans, nor any place where the Missionary labours of pious
-and industrious men would be more sure to succeed, or more certain to
-be rewarded in the world to come.
-
-I deem such a trial of patience and perseverance with these people of
-great importance, and well worth the experiment. One which I shall hope
-soon to see accomplished, and which, if properly conducted, I am sure
-will result in success. Severed as they are from the contaminating and
-counteracting vices which oppose and thwart most of the best efforts
-of the Missionaries along the frontier, and free from the almost fatal
-prejudices which they have there to contend with; they present a
-better field for the labours of such benevolent teachers than they
-have yet worked in, and a far better chance than they have yet had of
-proving to the world that the poor Indian is not a brute—that he is
-a human and humane being, that he is capable of improvement—and that
-his mind is a beautiful blank on which anything can be written if the
-proper means be taken.
-
-The Mandans being but a small tribe, of two thousand only, and living
-all in two villages, in sight of each other, and occupying these
-permanently, without roaming about like other neighbouring tribes,
-offer undoubtedly, the best opportunity for such an experiment of any
-tribe in the country. The land about their villages is of the best
-quality for ploughing and grazing, and the water just such as would
-be desired. Their villages are fortified with piquets or stockades,
-which protect them from the assaults of their enemies at home; and
-the introduction of agriculture (which would supply them with the
-necessaries and luxuries of life, without the necessity of continually
-exposing their lives to their more numerous enemies on the plains, when
-they are seeking in the chase the means of their subsistence) would
-save them from the continual wastes of life, to which, in their wars
-and the chase they are continually exposed, and which are calculated
-soon to result in their extinction.
-
-I deem it not folly nor idle to say that these people _can be saved_,
-nor officious to suggest to some of the very many excellent and
-pious men, who are almost throwing away the best energies of their
-lives along the debased frontier, that if they would introduce the
-ploughshare and their prayers amongst these people, who are so far
-separated from the taints and contaminating vices of the frontier, they
-would soon see their most ardent desires accomplished and be able to
-solve to the world the perplexing enigma, by presenting a nation of
-savages, civilized and christianized (and consequently _saved_), in the
-heart of the American wilderness.
-
-
-
-
-                             LETTER—No. 23.
-
-                  MINATAREE VILLAGE, _UPPER MISSOURI_.
-
-
-Soon after witnessing the curious scenes described in the former
-Letters, I changed my position to the place from whence I am now
-writing—to the village of the Minatarees, which is also located on
-the west bank of the Missouri river, and only eight miles above the
-Mandans. On my way down the river in my canoe, I passed this village
-without attending to their earnest and clamorous invitations for me to
-come ashore, and it will thus be seen that I am retrograding a little,
-to see all that is to be seen in this singular country.
-
-I have been residing here some weeks, and am able already to say of
-these people as follows:—
-
-The Minatarees (people of the willows) are a small tribe of about 1500
-souls, residing in three villages of earth-covered lodges, on the
-banks of Knife river; a small stream, so called, meandering through
-a beautiful and extensive prairie, and uniting its waters with the
-Missouri.
-
-This small community is undoubtedly a part of the tribe of Crows, of
-whom I have already spoken, living at the base of the Rocky Mountains,
-who have at some remote period, either in their war or hunting
-excursions, been run off by their enemy, and their retreat having been
-prevented, have thrown themselves upon the hospitality of the Mandans,
-to whom they have looked for protection, and under whose wing they are
-now living in a sort of confederacy, ready to intermarry and also to
-join, as they often have done, in the common defence of their country.
-
-In language and personal appearance, as well as in many of their
-customs, they are types of the Crows; yet having adopted and so long
-lived under its influence, the system of the Mandans, they are much
-like them in many respects, and continually assimilating to the modes
-of their patrons and protectors. Amongst their vague and various
-traditions they have evidently some disjointed authority for the manner
-in which they came here; but no account of the time. They say, that
-they came poor—without wigwams or horses—were nearly all women, as
-their warriors had been killed off in their flight; that the Mandans
-would not take them into their village, nor let them come nearer than
-where they are now living, and there assisted them to build their
-villages. From these circumstances their wigwams have been constructed
-exactly in the same manner as those of the Mandans, which I have
-already described, and entirely distinct from any custom to be seen in
-the Crow tribe.
-
-Notwithstanding the long familiarity in which they have lived with the
-Mandans, and the complete adoption of most of their customs, yet it is
-almost an unaccountable fact, that there is scarcely a man in the tribe
-who can speak half a dozen words of the Mandan language; although on
-the other hand, the Mandans are most of them able to converse in the
-Minataree tongue; leaving us to conclude, either that the Minatarees
-are a very inert and stupid people, or that the Mandan language (which
-is most probably the case) being different from any other language in
-the country, is an exceedingly difficult one to learn.
-
-The principal village of the Minatarees which is built upon the bank
-of the Knife river (+plate+ 70), contains forty or fifty earth-covered
-wigwams, from forty to fifty feet in diameter, and being elevated,
-overlooks the other two which are on lower ground and almost lost
-amidst their numerous corn fields and other profuse vegetation which
-cover the earth with their luxuriant growth.
-
-The scenery along the banks of this little river, from village to
-village, is quite peculiar and curious; rendered extremely so by the
-continual wild and garrulous groups of men, women, and children, who
-are wending their way along its winding shores, or dashing and plunging
-through its blue waves, enjoying the luxury of swimming, of which both
-sexes seem to be passionately fond. Others are paddling about in their
-tub-like canoes, made of the skins of buffaloes; and every now and
-then, are to be seen their sudatories, or vapour-baths (+plate+ 71),
-where steam is raised by throwing water on to heated stones; and the
-patient jumps from his sweating-house and leaps into the river in the
-highest state of perspiration, as I have more fully described whilst
-speaking of the bathing of the Mandans.
-
-The chief sachem of this tribe is a very ancient and patriarchal
-looking man, by the name of Eeh-tohk-pah-shee-pee-shah (the black
-moccasin), and counts, undoubtedly, more than an hundred _snows_. I
-have been for some days an inmate of his hospitable lodge, where he
-sits tottering with age, and silently reigns sole monarch of his little
-community around him, who are continually dropping in to cheer his
-sinking energies, and render him their homage. His voice and his sight
-are nearly gone; but the gestures of his hands are yet energetic and
-youthful, and freely speak the language of his kind heart.
-
-I have been treated in the kindest manner by this old chief; and have
-painted his portrait (+plate+ 72) as he was seated on the floor of his
-wigwam, smoking his pipe, whilst he was recounting over to me some of
-the extraordinary feats of his life, with a beautiful Crow robe wrapped
-around him, and his hair wound up in a conical form upon his head, and
-fastened with a small wooden pin, to keep it in its place.
-
-This man has many distinct recollections of Lewis and Clarke, who were
-the first explorers of this country, and who crossed the Rocky
-Mountains thirty years ago. It will be seen by reference to their very
-interesting history of their tour, that they were treated with great
-kindness by this man; and that they in consequence constituted him
-chief of the tribe, with the consent of his people; and he has remained
-their chief ever since. He enquired very earnestly for “Red Hair” and
-“Long Knife” (as he had ever since termed Lewis and Clarke), from the
-fact, that one had red hair (an unexampled thing in his country), and
-the other wore a broad sword which gained for him the appellation of
-“Long Knife.”
-
-[Illustration: 72]
-
-[Illustration: 73]
-
-[Illustration: 74]
-
-I have told him that “Long Knife” has been many years dead; and that
-“Red Hair” is yet living in St. Louis, and no doubt, would be glad to
-hear of him; at which he seemed much pleased, and has signified to me
-that he will make me bearer of some peculiar dispatches to him.[5]
-
-The name by which these people are generally called (Grosventres) is
-one given them by the French Traders, and has probably been applied to
-them with some degree of propriety or fitness, as contradistinguished
-from the Mandans, amongst whom these Traders were living; and who
-are a small race of Indians, being generally at or below the average
-stature of man; whilst the Minatarees are generally tall and heavily
-built. There is no tribe in the western wilds, perhaps, who are better
-entitled to the style of warlike, than the Minatarees; for they, unlike
-the Mandans, are continually carrying war into their enemies’ country;
-oftentimes drawing the poor Mandans into unnecessary broils, and
-suffering so much themselves in their desperate war-excursions, that I
-find the proportion of women to the number of men as two or three to
-one, through the tribe.
-
-The son of Black Moccasin, whose name is Ee-a-chin-che-a (the red
-thunder), and who is reputed one of the most desperate warriors of his
-tribe, I have also painted at full length, in his war-dress (+plate+
-73), with his bow in his hand, his quiver slung, and his shield upon
-his arm. In this plight, _sans_ head-dress, _sans_ robe, and _sans_
-everything that might be an useless incumbrance—with the body chiefly
-naked, and profusely bedaubed with red and black paint, so as to form
-an almost perfect disguise, the Indian warriors invariably sally forth
-to war; save the chief, who always plumes himself, and leads on his
-little band, tendering himself to his enemies a conspicuous mark, with
-all his ornaments and trophies upon him; that his enemies, if they get
-him, may get a prize worth the fighting for.
-
-Besides chiefs and warriors to be admired in this little tribe, there
-are many beautiful and voluptuous looking women, who are continually
-crowding in throngs, and gazing upon a stranger; and possibly shedding
-more bewitching smiles from a sort of necessity, growing out of the
-great disparity in numbers between them and the rougher sex, to which I
-have before alluded.
-
-From the very numerous groups of these that have from day to day
-constantly pressed upon me, overlooking the operations of my brush;
-I have been unable to get more than one who would consent to have
-her portrait painted, owing to some fear or dread of harm that might
-eventually ensue in consequence; or from a natural coyness or timidity,
-which is surpassing all description amongst these wild tribes, when in
-presence of strangers.
-
-The one whom I have painted (+plate+ 74) is a descendant from the old
-chief; and though not the most beautiful, is yet a fair sample of
-them, and dressed in a beautiful costume of the mountain-sheep skin,
-handsomely garnished with porcupine quills and beads. This girl was
-almost _compelled_ to stand for her picture by her relatives who urged
-her on, whilst she modestly declined, offering as her excuse that “she
-was not pretty enough, and that her picture would be laughed at.”
-This was either ignorance or excessive art on her part; for she was
-certainly more than comely, and the beauty of her name, Seet-se-be-a
-(the midday sun) is quite enough to make up for a deficiency, if there
-were any, in the beauty of her face.
-
-I mentioned that I found these people raising abundance of corn or
-maize; and I have happened to visit them in the season of their
-festivities, which annually take place when the ears of corn are of the
-proper size for eating. The green corn is considered a great luxury by
-all those tribes who cultivate it; and is ready for eating as soon as
-the ear is of full size, and the kernels are expanded to their full
-growth, but are yet soft and pulpy. In this green state of the corn,
-it is boiled and dealt out in great profusion to the whole tribe, who
-feast and surfeit upon it whilst it lasts; rendering thanks to the
-_Great Spirit_ for the return of this joyful season, which they do
-by making sacrifices, by dancing, and singing songs or thanksgiving.
-This joyful occasion is one valued alike, and conducted in a similar
-manner, by most of the tribes who raise the corn, however remote they
-may be from each other. It lasts but for a week or ten days; being
-limited to the longest term that the corn remains in this tender and
-palatable state; during which time all hunting, and all war-excursions,
-and all other avocations, are positively dispensed with; and all join
-in the most excessive indulgence of gluttony and conviviality that can
-possibly be conceived. The fields of corn are generally pretty well
-stripped during this excess; and the poor improvident Indian thanks the
-Great Spirit for the indulgence he has had, and is satisfied to ripen
-merely the few ears that are necessary for his next year’s planting,
-without reproaching himself for his wanton lavishness, which has laid
-waste his fine fields, and robbed him of the golden harvest, which
-might have gladdened his heart, with those of his wife and little
-children, through the cold and dreariness of winter.
-
-The most remarkable feature of these joyous occasion is the _green
-corn-dance_, which is always given as preparatory to the feast, and
-by most of the tribes in the following manner:—
-
-[Illustration: 75]
-
-At the usual season, and the time when from outward appearance of the
-stalks and ears of the corn, it is supposed to be nearly ready for
-use, several of the old women who are the owners of fields or patches
-of corn (for such are the proprietors and cultivators of all crops in
-Indian countries, the men never turning their hands to such degrading
-occupations) are delegated by the medicine-men to look at the corn
-fields every morning at sun-rise, and bring into the council-house,
-where the kettle is ready, several ears of corn, the husks of which the
-women are not allowed to break open or even to peep through. The women
-then are from day to day discharged and the doctors left to decide,
-until from repeated examinations they come to the decision that it
-will do; when they dispatch _runners_ or _criers_, announcing to every
-part of the village or tribe that the Great Spirit has been kind to
-them, and they must all meet on the next day to return thanks for his
-goodness. That all must empty their stomachs, and prepare for the feast
-that is approaching.
-
-On the day appointed by the doctors, the villagers are all assembled,
-and in the midst of the group a kettle is hung over a fire and filled
-with the green corn, which is well boiled, to be given to the Great
-Spirit, as a sacrifice necessary to be made before any one can indulge
-the cravings of his appetite. Whilst this first kettleful is boiling,
-four medicine-men, with a stalk of the corn in one hand and a rattle
-(she-she-quoi) in the other, with their bodies painted with white clay,
-dance around the kettle, chanting a song of thanksgiving to the Great
-Spirit to whom the offering is to be made (+plate+ 75). At the same
-time a number of warriors are dancing around in a more extended circle,
-with stalks of the corn in their hands, and joining also in the song of
-thanksgiving, whilst the villagers are all assembled and looking on.
-During this scene there is an arrangement of wooden bowls laid upon the
-ground, in which the feast is to be dealt out, each one having in it a
-spoon made of the buffalo or mountain-sheep’s horn.
-
-In this wise the dance continues until the doctors decide that the corn
-is sufficiently boiled; it then stops for a few moments, and again
-assumes a different form and a different song, whilst the doctors are
-placing the ears on a little scaffold of sticks, which they erect
-immediately over the fire where it is entirely consumed, as they join
-again in the dance around it.
-
-The fire is then removed, and with it the ashes, which together are
-buried in the ground, and _new fire_ is originated on the same spot
-where the old one was, by friction, which is done by a desperate and
-painful exertion by three men seated on the ground, facing each other
-and violently drilling the end of a stick into a hard block of wood by
-rolling it between the hands, each one catching it in turn from the
-others without allowing the motion to stop until smoke, and at last a
-spark of fire is seen and caught in a piece of spunk, when there is
-great rejoicing in the crowd. With this a fire is kindled, and the
-kettleful of corn again boiled for the feast, at which the chiefs,
-doctors, and warriors are seated; and after this an unlimited licence
-is given to the whole tribe, who surfeit upon it and indulge in all
-their favourite amusements and excesses, until the fields of corn are
-exhausted, or its ears have become too hard for their comfortable
-mastication.
-
-Such are the general features of the green corn festivity and dance
-amongst most of the tribes; and amongst some there are many additional
-forms and ceremonies gone through, preparatory to the indulgence in the
-feast.
-
-Some of the southern tribes concoct a most bitter and nauseating
-draught, which they call _asceola_ (the black drink), which they drink
-to excess for several days previous to the feast; ejecting everything
-from their stomachs and intestines, enabling them after this excessive
-and painful purgation, to commence with the green corn upon an empty
-and keen stomach.
-
-[Illustration: 76]
-
-  [5] About a year after writing the above, and whilst I was in St.
-  Louis, I had the pleasure of presenting the compliments of this old
-  veteran to General Clarke; and also of shewing to him the portrait,
-  which he instantly recognized amongst hundreds of others; saying,
-  that “they had considered the Black Moccasin quite an old man when
-  they appointed him chief thirty-two years ago.”
-
-
-
-
-                             LETTER—No. 24.
-
-                  MINATAREE VILLAGE, _UPPER MISSOURI_.
-
-
-Epistles from such a strange place as this, where I have no desk to
-write from, or mail to send them by, are hastily scribbled off in my
-note-book, as I can steal a little time from the gaze of the wild group
-that is continually about me; and instead of _sending_ them, _keeping_
-them to bring with me when I make my retreat from the country.
-
-The only place where I can satisfactorily make these entries is in
-the shade of some sequestered tree, to which I occasionally resort,
-or more often from my bed (from which I am now writing), enclosed by
-a sort of curtains made of the skins of elks or buffaloes, completely
-encompassing me, where I am reclining on a sacking-bottom, made of the
-buffalo’s hide; making my entries and notes of the incidents of the
-past day, amidst the roar and unintelligible din of savage conviviality
-that is going on under the same roof, and under my own eye, whenever I
-feel disposed to apply it to a small aperture which brings at once the
-whole interior and all its inmates within my view.
-
-There are at this time some distinguished guests, besides _myself_, in
-the lodge of the Black Moccasin; two chiefs or leaders of a party of
-Crows, who arrived here a few days since, on a visit to their ancient
-friends and relatives. The consequence has been, that feasting and
-carousing have been the “order of the day” here for some time; and I
-have luckily been a welcome participator in their entertainments. A
-distinguished chief of the Minatarees, with several others in company,
-has been for some months past on a visit to the Crows and returned,
-attended by some remarkably fine-looking fellows, all mounted on fine
-horses. I have said something of these fine specimens of the human race
-heretofore; and as I have been fastening more of them to the canvass
-within the few days past, I must use this occasion to add what follows:—
-
-I think I have said that no part of the human race could present a
-more picturesque and thrilling appearance on horseback than a party
-of Crows rigged out in all their plumes and trappings—galloping about
-and yelping, in what they call a war-parade, _i. e._ in a sort of
-tournament or sham-fight, passing rapidly through the evolutions of
-battle, and vaunting forth the wonderful character of their military
-exploits. This is an amusement, of which they are excessively fond; and
-great preparations are invariably made for these occasional shows.
-
-No tribe of Indians on the Continent are better able to produce a
-pleasing and thrilling effect in these scenes, nor any more vain,
-and consequently better prepared to draw pleasure and satisfaction
-from them, than the Crows. They may be justly said to be the most
-beautifully clad of all the Indians in these regions, and bringing
-from the base of the Rocky Mountains a fine and spirited breed of the
-wild horses, have been able to create a great sensation amongst the
-Minatarees, who have been paying them all attention and all honours for
-some days past.
-
-From amongst these showy fellows who have been entertaining us and
-pleasing themselves with their extraordinary feats of horsemanship,
-I have selected one of the most conspicuous, and transferred him and
-his horse, with arms and trappings, as faithfully as I could to the
-canvass, for the information of the world, who will learn vastly
-more from lines and colours than they could from oral or written
-delineations.
-
-I have painted him as he sat for me, balanced on his leaping wild horse
-(+plate+ 76) with his shield and quiver slung on his back, and his long
-lance decorated with the eagle’s quills, trailed in his right hand.
-His shirt and his leggings, and moccasins, were of the mountain-goat
-skins, beautifully dressed; and their seams everywhere fringed with a
-profusion of scalp-locks taken from the heads of his enemies slain in
-battle. His long hair, which reached almost to the ground whilst he was
-standing on his feet, was now lifted in the air, and floating in black
-waves over the hips of his leaping charger. On his head, and over his
-shining black locks, he wore a magnificent crest or head-dress, made of
-the quills of the war-eagle and ermine skins; and on his horse’s head
-also was another of equal beauty and precisely the same in pattern and
-material. Added to these ornaments there were yet many others which
-contributed to his picturesque appearance, and amongst them a beautiful
-netting of various colours, that completely covered and almost obscured
-the horse’s head and neck, and extended over its back and its hips,
-terminating in a most extravagant and magnificent crupper, embossed and
-fringed with rows of beautiful shells and porcupine quills of various
-colours.
-
-With all these picturesque ornaments and trappings upon and about
-him, with a noble figure, and the bold stamp of a wild _gentleman_
-on his face, added to the rage and spirit of his wild horse, in time
-with whose leaps he issued his startling (though smothered) yelps, as
-he gracefully leaned to and fro, leaving his plumes and his plumage,
-his long locks and his fringes, to float in the wind, he galloped
-about; and felt exceeding pleasure in displaying the extraordinary
-skill which a lifetime of practice and experiment had furnished him
-in the beautiful art of riding and managing his horse, as well as in
-displaying to advantage his weapons and ornaments of dress, by giving
-them the grace of motion, as they were brandished in the air and
-floating in the wind.
-
-[Illustration: 77]
-
-[Illustration: 78]
-
-[Illustration: 79]
-
-I have also secured the portraits of Ee-he-a-duck-chee-a (he who ties
-his hair before, +plate+ 78), and Pa-ris-ka-roo-pa (the two Crows,
-+plate+ 77); fine and fair specimens of this tribe, in both of which
-are exhibited the extraordinary instances of the natural hair reaching
-to the ground, peculiarities belonging almost exclusively to this
-tribe, and of which I have in a former Letter given some account. In
-presenting such instances as these, I offer them, (and the reader will
-take them of course) as extraordinary and rare occurrences amongst
-the tribe, who generally fall short of these in this peculiarity, and
-also in elegance of dress and ornament; although many others from
-their numbers might be selected of equal extravagance. The Crows are
-generally handsome, and comfortably clad; every man in the nation oils
-his hair with a profusion of bear’s grease, and promotes its growth to
-the utmost of his ability; and the greater part of them cultivate it
-down on to the calf of the leg, whilst a few are able to make it sweep
-the ground.
-
-In a former Letter I gave some account of the form of the head peculiar
-to this tribe which may well be recorded as a national characteristic,
-and worthy of further attention, which I shall give it on a future
-occasion. This striking peculiarity is quite conspicuous in the two
-portraits of which I have just spoken, exhibiting fairly, as they
-are both in profile, the _semi-lunar_ outline of the face of which I
-have before spoken, and which strongly characterizes them as distinct
-from any relationship or resemblance to, the Blackfeet, Shiennes,
-Knisteneaux, Mandans, or other tribes now existing in these regions.
-The peculiar character of which I am speaking, like all other national
-characteristics, is of course met by many exceptions in the tribe,
-though the greater part of the men are thus strongly marked with
-a bold and prominent anti-angular nose, with a clear and rounded
-arch, and a low and receding forehead; the frontal bone oftentimes
-appearing to have been compressed by some effort of art, in a certain
-degree approaching to the horrid distortion thus produced amongst the
-Flatheads beyond the Rocky Mountains. I learned however from repeated
-inquiries, that no such custom is practiced amongst them, but their
-heads, such as they are, are the results of a natural growth, and
-therefore may well be offered as the basis of a national or tribal
-_character_.
-
-I recollect to have seen in several publications on the antiquities of
-Mexico, many rude drawings made by the ancient Mexicans, of which the
-singular profiles of these people forcibly remind me, almost bringing
-me to the conclusion that these people may be the descendants of the
-race who have bequeathed those curious and inexplicable remains to the
-world, and whose scattered remnants, from dire and unknown necessities
-of those dark and veiled ages that have gone by, have been jostled and
-thrown along through the hideous and almost impenetrable labyrinths
-of the Rocky Mountains to the place of their destination where they
-now live. I am stopped, however, from advancing such as a _theory_,
-and much prefer to leave it to other hands, who may more easily get
-over difficulties which I should be afraid to encounter in the very
-outset, from the very important questions raised in my mind, as to the
-correctness of those rude and ignorant outlines, in truly establishing
-the looks and character of a people. Amongst a people so ignorant and
-so little advanced in the arts as the ancient Mexicans were, from whose
-tracings those very numerous drawings are copied, I think it would be
-assuming a great deal too much for satisfactory argument, to claim
-that such records were to set up to the world the looks and character
-of a people who have sunk into oblivion, when the heads of horses and
-other animals, drawn by the same hands, are so rude and so much out of
-drawing as scarcely to be distinguished, one from the other. I feel
-as if such rude outlines should be received with great caution and
-distrust, in establishing the character of a people; and for a fair
-illustration of the objection I am raising, I would refer the reader to
-a number of _fac-simile_ drawings which I have copied from some of the
-paintings of the Mandans (on the three plates following +plate+ 65),
-where most of the figures have the forehead and nose answering exactly
-to these Mexican outlines, and strikingly resembling the _living
-Crows_, also, when they have certainly borrowed nothing from either,
-nor have they any living outlines like them in their own tribe to have
-copied from.
-
-Since writing the above I have passed through many vicissitudes, and
-witnessed many curious scenes worthy of relating, some of which I will
-scribble now, and leave the rest for a more leisure occasion. I have
-witnessed many of the valued games and amusements of this tribe, and
-made sketches of them; and also have painted a number of portraits of
-distinguished warriors and braves which will be found in my collection.
-
-I have just been exceedingly amused with a formal and grave meeting
-which was called around me, formed by a number of young men, and even
-chiefs and doctors of the tribe, who, having heard that I was _great
-medicine_, and a great chief, took it upon themselves to suppose that
-I might (or perhaps must) be, a man of influence amongst the “pale
-faces,” and capable of rendering them some relief in a case of very
-great grievance, under which they represented that they were suffering.
-Several most profound speeches were made to me, setting forth these
-grievances, somewhat in the following manner:—They represented, that
-about five or six years ago, an unknown, small animal—not far differing
-in size from a ground squirrel, but with a long, round tail, shewed
-himself slily about one of the chief’s wigwams, peeping out from under
-the pots and kettles, and other such things; which they looked upon
-as great _medicine_—and no one dared to kill it; but hundreds came to
-watch and look at it. On one of these occasions, one of the spectators
-saw this strange animal catching and devouring a small “deer mouse,”
-of which little and very destructive animals their lodges contained
-many. It was then at once determined that this had been an act of the
-Great Spirit, as a means of putting a stop to the spoliations committed
-by these little sappers, who were cutting their clothing, and other
-manufactures to pieces in a lamentable manner. Councils had been called
-and solemn decrees issued for the countenance and protection of this
-welcome visitor and its progeny, which were soon ascertained to be
-rapidly increasing, and calculated soon to rid them of these thousands
-of little depredators. It was soon, however, learned from one of the
-Fur Traders, that this distinguished object of their superstition
-(which my man Ba’tiste familiarly calls “_Monsr. Ratapon_”) had, a
-short time before, landed himself from one of their keel boats, which
-had ascended the Missouri river for the distance of 1800 miles; and had
-taken up its residence, without introduction or invitation, in one of
-their earth-covered wigwams.
-
-This information, for a while, curtailed the extraordinary respect they
-had for some time been paying to it; but its continual war upon these
-little mice, which it was using for its food, in the absence of all
-other nutriment, continued to command their respect, in spite of the
-manner in which it had been introduced; being unwilling to believe that
-it had come from that source, even, without the agency in some way of
-the Great Spirit.
-
-Having been thus introduced and nurtured, and their numbers having been
-so wonderfully increased in the few last years, that every wigwam was
-infested with them,—that their _caches_, where they bury their corn
-and other provisions, were robbed and sacked; and the very pavements
-under their wigwams were so vaulted and sapped, that they were actually
-falling to the ground; they were now looked upon as a most disastrous
-nuisance, and a public calamity, to which it was the object of this
-meeting to call my attention, evidently in hopes that I might be able
-to designate some successful mode of relieving them from this real
-misfortune. I got rid of them at last, by assuring them of my deep
-regret for their situation, which was, to be sure, a very unpleasant
-one; and told them, that there was really a great deal of _medicine_
-in the thing, and that I should therefore be quite unwilling to have
-anything to do with it. Ba’tiste and Bogard, who are yet my daily and
-almost hourly companions, took to themselves a great deal of fun and
-amusement at the end of this interview, by suggesting many remedies
-for the evil, and enjoying many hearty laughs; after which, Ba’tiste,
-Bogard and I, took our hats; and I took my sketch-book in hand, and
-we started on a visit to the upper town of the Minatarees, which is
-half a mile or more distant, and on the other bank of the Knife River,
-which we crossed in the following manner:—The old chief, having learned
-that we were to cross the river, gave direction to one of the women
-of his numerous household, who took upon her head a skin-canoe (more
-familiarly called in this country, a bull-boat), made in the form of a
-large tub, of a buffalo’s skin, stretched on a frame of willow boughs,
-which she carried to the water’s edge; and placing it in the water,
-made signs for us three to get into it. When we were in, and seated
-flat on its bottom, with scarce room in any way to adjust our legs
-and our feet (as we sat necessarily facing each other), she stepped
-before the boat, and pulling it along, waded towards the deeper water,
-with her back towards us, carefully with the other hand attending to
-her dress, which seemed to be but a light slip, and floating upon the
-surface until the water was above her waist, when it was instantly
-turned off, over her head, and thrown ashore; and she boldly plunged
-forward, swimming and drawing the boat with one hand, which she did
-with apparent ease. In this manner we were conveyed to the middle of
-the stream, where we were soon surrounded by a dozen or more beautiful
-girls, from twelve to fifteen and eighteen years of age, who were at
-that time bathing on the opposite shore.
-
-They all swam in a bold and graceful manner, and as confidently as so
-many otters or beavers; and gathering around us, with their long black
-hair floating about on the water, whilst their faces were glowing with
-jokes and fun, which they were cracking about us, and which we could
-not understand.
-
-In the midst of this delightful little aquatic group, we three sat in
-our little skin-bound tub (like the “three wise men of Gotham, who
-went to sea in a bowl,” &c.), floating along down the current, losing
-sight, and all thoughts, of the shore, which was equi-distant from us
-on either side; whilst we were amusing ourselves with the playfulness
-of these dear little creatures who were floating about under the
-clear blue water, catching their hands on to the sides of our boat;
-occasionally raising one-half of their bodies out of the water, and
-sinking again, like so many mermaids.
-
-In the midst of this bewildering and tantalizing entertainment, in
-which poor Ba’tiste and Bogard, as well as myself, were all taking
-infinite pleasure, and which we supposed was all intended for our
-especial amusement; we found ourselves suddenly in the delightful
-dilemma of floating down the current in the middle of the river; and
-of being turned round and round to the excessive amusement of the
-villagers, who were laughing at us from the shore, as well as these
-little tyros, whose delicate hands were besetting our tub on all
-sides; and for an escape from whom, or for fending off, we had neither
-an oar, or anything else, that we could wield in self-defence, or
-for self-preservation. In this awkward predicament, our feelings of
-excessive admiration were immediately changed, to those of exceeding
-vexation, as we now learned that they had peremptorily discharged
-from her occupation our fair conductress, who had undertaken to ferry
-us safely across the river; and had also very ingeniously laid their
-plans, of which we had been ignorant until the present moment, to
-extort from us in this way, some little evidences of our liberality,
-which, in fact, it was impossible to refuse them, after so liberal and
-bewitching an exhibition on their part, as well as from the imperative
-obligation which the awkwardness of our situation had laid us under. I
-had some awls in my pockets, which I presented to them, and also a few
-strings of beautiful beads, which I placed over their delicate necks
-as they raised them out of the water by the side of our boat; after
-which they all joined in conducting our craft to the shore, by swimming
-by the sides of, and behind it, pushing it along in the direction where
-they designed to land it, until the water became so shallow, that their
-feet were upon the bottom, when they waded along with great coyness,
-dragging us towards the shore, as long as their bodies, in a crouching
-position, could possibly be half concealed under the water, when they
-gave our boat the last push for the shore, and raising a loud and
-exulting laugh, plunged back again into the river; leaving us the only
-alternative of sitting still where we were, or of stepping out into
-the water at half leg deep, and of wading to the shore, which we at
-once did, and soon escaped from the view of our little tormentors, and
-the numerous lookers-on, on our way to the upper village, which I have
-before mentioned.
-
-Here I was very politely treated by the _Yellow Moccasin_, quite an old
-man, and who seemed to be chief of this band or family, constituting
-their little community of thirty or forty lodges, averaging, perhaps,
-twenty persons to each. I was feasted in this man’s lodge—and
-afterwards invited to accompany him and several others to a beautiful
-prairie, a mile or so above the village, where the young men and young
-women of this town, and many from the village below, had assembled for
-their amusements; the chief of which seemed to be that of racing their
-horses. In the midst of these scenes, after I had been for some time
-a looker-on, and had felt some considerable degree of sympathy for a
-fine-looking young fellow, whose horse had been twice beaten on the
-course, and whose losses had been considerable; for which, his sister,
-a very modest and pretty girl, was most piteously howling and crying.
-I selected and brought forward an ordinary-looking pony, that was
-evidently too fat and too sleek to run against his fine-limbed little
-horse that had disappointed his high hopes; and I began to comment
-extravagantly upon its muscle, &c., when I discovered him evidently
-cheering up with the hope of getting me and my pony on to the turf with
-him; for which he soon made me a proposition; and I, having lauded the
-limbs of my little nag too much to “back out,” agreed to run a short
-race with him of half a mile, for three yards of scarlet cloth, a
-knife, and half a dozen strings of beads, which I was willing to stake
-against a handsome pair of leggings, which he was wearing at the time.
-The greatest imaginable excitement was now raised amongst the crowd by
-this arrangement; to see a white man preparing to run with an Indian
-jockey, and that with a scrub of a pony, in whose powers of running no
-Indian had the least confidence. Yet, there was no one in the crowd,
-who dared to take up the several other little bets I was willing to
-tender (merely for their amusement, and for their final exultation);
-owing, undoubtedly, to the bold and confident manner in which I had
-ventured on the merits of this little horse, which the tribe had all
-overlooked; and needs must have some _medicine_ about it.
-
-So far was this panic carried, that even my champion was ready to
-withdraw; but his friends encouraged him at length, and we galloped
-our horses off to the other end of the course, where we were to start;
-and where we were accompanied by a number of horsemen, who were to
-witness the “set off.” Some considerable delay here took place, from a
-_condition_, which was then named to me, and which I had not observed
-before, that in all the races of this day, every rider was to run
-entirely denuded, and ride a naked horse! Here I was completely balked,
-and having no one by me to interpret a word, I was quite at a loss to
-decide what was best to do. I found however, that remonstrance was of
-little avail; and as I had volunteered in this thing to gratify and
-flatter them, I thought it best not positively to displease them in
-this; so I laid off my clothes, and straddled the naked back of my
-round and glossy little pony, by the side of my competitor, who was
-also mounted and stripped to the skin, and panting with a restless
-anxiety for the start.
-
-Reader! did you ever imagine that in the _middle of a man’s life_
-there could be a thought or a feeling so _new_ to him, as to throw him
-instantly back to infancy; with a new world and a new genius before
-him—started afresh, to navigate and breathe the elements of naked and
-untasted liberty, which clothe him in their cool and silken robes that
-float about him; and wafting their life-inspiring folds to his inmost
-lungs? If you never have been inspired with such a feeling, and have
-been in the habit of believing that you have thought of, and imagined a
-little of every thing, try for a moment, to disrobe your mind and your
-body, and help me through feelings to which I cannot give utterance.
-Imagine yourselves as I was, with my trembling little horse underneath
-me, and the cool atmosphere that was floating about, and ready, more
-closely and familiarly to embrace me, as it did, at the next moment,
-when we “were off,” and struggling for the goal and the prize.
-
-Though my little Pegasus seemed to dart through the clouds, and I to
-be wafted on the wings of Mercury, yet my red adversary was leaving
-me too far behind for further competition; and I wheeled to the left,
-making a circuit on the prairie, and came in at the starting point,
-much to the satisfaction and exultation of the jockeys; but greatly
-to the murmuring disappointment of the women and children, who had
-assembled in a dense throng to witness the “coming out” of the “white
-medicine-man.” I clothed myself instantly, and came back, acknowledging
-my defeat, and the superior skill of my competitor, as well as the
-wonderful muscle of his little charger, which pleased him much; and
-his sisters’ lamentations were soon turned to joy, by the receipt of a
-beautiful scarlet robe, and a profusion of vari-coloured beads, which
-were speedily paraded on her copper-coloured neck.
-
-After I had seen enough of these amusements, I succeeded with some
-difficulty, in pulling Ba’tiste and Bogard from amongst the groups of
-women and girls, where they seemed to be successfully ingratiating
-themselves; and we trudged back to the little village of earth-covered
-lodges, which were hemmed in, and almost obscured from the eye, by
-the fields of corn and luxuriant growth of wild sun-flowers, and other
-vegetable productions of the soil, whose spontaneous growth had reared
-their heads in such profusion, as to appear all but like a dense and
-formidable forest.
-
-We loitered about this little village awhile, looking into most of its
-lodges, and tracing its winding avenues, after which we recrossed the
-river and wended our way back again to head-quarters, from whence we
-started in the morning, and where I am now writing. This day’s ramble
-shewed to us all the inhabitants of this little tribe, except a portion
-of their warriors who are out on a war excursion against the Riccarees;
-and I have been exceedingly pleased with their general behaviour and
-looks, as well as with their numerous games and amusements, in many of
-which I have given them great pleasure by taking a part.
-
-The Minatarees, as I have before said, are a bold, daring, and warlike
-tribe; quite different in these respects from their neighbours the
-Mandans, carrying war continually in their enemies’ country, thereby
-exposing their lives and diminishing the number of their warriors
-to that degree that I find two or three women to a man, through the
-tribe. They are bold and fearless in the chase also, and in their eager
-pursuits of the bison, or buffaloes, their feats are such as to excite
-the astonishment and admiration of all who behold them. Of these scenes
-I have witnessed many since I came into this country, and amongst
-them all, nothing have I seen to compare with one to which I was an
-eye-witness a few mornings since, and well worthy of being described.
-
-The Minatarees, as well as the Mandans, had suffered for some months
-past for want of meat, and had indulged in the most alarming fears,
-that the herds of buffaloes were emigrating so far off from them,
-that there was great danger of their actual starvation, when it was
-suddenly announced through the village one morning at an early hour,
-that a herd of buffaloes was in sight, when an hundred or more young
-men mounted their horses with weapons in hand and steered their course
-to the prairies. The chief informed me that one of his horses was in
-readiness for me at the door of his wigwam, and that I had better go
-and see the curious affair. I accepted his polite offer, and mounting
-the steed, galloped off with the hunters to the prairies, where we
-soon descried at a distance, a fine herd of buffaloes grazing, when
-a halt and a council were ordered, and the mode of attack was agreed
-upon. I had armed myself with my pencil and my sketch-book only, and
-consequently took my position generally in the rear, where I could see
-and appreciate every manœuvre.
-
-The plan of attack, which in this country is familiarly called a
-“_surround_,” was explicitly agreed upon, and the hunters who were all
-mounted on their “buffalo horses” and armed with bows and arrows or
-long lances, divided into two columns, taking opposite directions, and
-drew themselves gradually around the herd at a mile or more distance
-from them; thus forming a circle of horsemen at equal distances
-apart, who gradually closed in upon them with a moderate pace, at a
-signal given. The unsuspecting herd at length “got the wind” of the
-approaching enemy and fled in a mass in the greatest confusion. To
-the point where they were aiming to cross the line, the horsemen were
-seen at full speed, gathering and forming in a column, brandishing
-their weapons and yelling in the most frightful manner, by which means
-they turned the black and rushing mass which moved off in an opposite
-direction where they were again met and foiled in a similar manner,
-and wheeled back in utter confusion; by which time the horsemen had
-closed in from all directions, forming a continuous line around them,
-whilst the poor affrighted animals were eddying about in a crowded and
-confused mass, hooking and climbing upon each ether; when the work of
-death commenced. I had rode up in the rear and occupied an elevated
-position at a few rods distance, from which I could (like the general
-of a battle field) survey from my horse’s back, the nature and the
-progress of the grand mêlée; but (unlike him) without the power of
-issuing a command or in any way directing its issue.
-
-In this grand turmoil (+plate+ 79), a cloud of dust was soon raised,
-which in parts obscured the throng where the hunters were galloping
-their horses around and driving the whizzing arrows or their long
-lances to the hearts of these noble animals; which in many instances,
-becoming infuriated with deadly wounds in their sides, erected their
-shaggy manes over their bloodshot eyes and furiously plunged forwards
-at the sides of their assailants’ horses, sometimes goring them to
-death at a lunge, and putting their dismounted riders to flight for
-their lives; sometimes their dense crowd was opened, and the blinded
-horsemen, too intent on their prey amidst the cloud of dust, were
-hemmed and wedged in amidst the crowding beasts, over whose backs
-they were obliged to leap for security, leaving their horses to the
-fate that might await them in the results of this wild and desperate
-war. Many were the bulls that turned upon their assailants and met
-them with desperate resistance; and many were the warriors who were
-dismounted, and saved themselves by the superior muscles of their legs;
-some who were closely pursued by the bulls, wheeled suddenly around and
-snatching the part of a buffalo robe from around their waists, threw it
-over the horns and the eyes of the infuriated beast, and darting by its
-side drove the arrow or the lance to its heart. Others suddenly dashed
-off upon the prairies by the side of the affrighted animals which had
-escaped from the throng, and closely escorting them for a few rods,
-brought down their hearts blood in streams, and their huge carcasses
-upon the green and enamelled turf.
-
-In this way this grand hunt soon resolved itself into a desperate
-battle; and in the space of fifteen minutes, resulted in the total
-destruction of the whole herd, which in all their strength and fury
-were doomed, like every beast and living thing else, to fall before the
-destroying hands of mighty man.
-
-[Illustration: 80]
-
-I had sat in trembling silence upon my horse, and witnessed this
-extraordinary scene, which allowed not one of these animals to escape
-out of my sight. Many plunged off upon the prairie for a distance, but
-were overtaken and killed; and although I could not distinctly estimate
-the number that were slain, yet I am sure that some hundreds of these
-noble animals fell in this grand mêlée.
-
-The scene after the battle was over was novel and curious in the
-extreme; the hunters were moving about amongst the dead and dying
-animals, leading their horses by their halters, and claiming their
-victims by their private marks upon their arrows, which they were
-drawing from the wounds in the animals’ sides.
-
-Amongst the poor affrighted creatures that had occasionally dashed
-through the ranks of their enemy, and sought safety in flight upon the
-prairie (and in some instances, had undoubtedly gained it), I saw them
-stand awhile, looking back, when they turned, and, as if bent on their
-own destruction, retraced their steps, and mingled themselves and their
-deaths with those of the dying throng. Others had fled to a distance on
-the prairies and for want of company, of friends or of foes, had stood
-and gazed on till the battle-scene was over; seemingly taking pains to
-stay, and hold their lives in readiness for their destroyers, until
-the general destruction was over, when they fell easy victims to their
-weapons—making the slaughter complete.
-
-After this scene, and after arrows had been claimed and recovered, a
-general council was held, when all hands were seated on the ground, and
-a few pipes smoked; after which, all mounted their horses and rode back
-to the village.
-
-A deputation of several of the warriors was sent to the chief, who
-explained to him what had been their success; and the same intelligence
-was soon communicated by little squads to every family in the village;
-and preparations were at once made for securing the meat. For this
-purpose, some hundreds of women and children, to whose lots fall all
-the drudgeries of Indian life, started out upon the trail, which
-led them to the battle-field, where they spent the day in skinning
-the animals, and cutting up the meat, which was mostly brought into
-the villages on their backs, as they tugged and sweated under their
-enormous and cruel loads.
-
-I rode out to see this curious scene; and I regret exceedingly that I
-kept no memorandum of it in my sketch-book. Amidst the throng of women
-and children, that had been assembled, and all of whom seemed busily at
-work, were many superannuated and disabled nags, which they had brought
-out to assist in carrying in the meat; and at least, one thousand
-semi-loup dogs, and whelps, whose keen appetites and sagacity had
-brought them out, to claim their shares of this abundant and sumptuous
-supply.
-
-I staid and inspected this curious group for an hour or more,
-during which time, I was almost continually amused by the clamorous
-contentions that arose, and generally ended, in desperate combats;
-both amongst the dogs and women, who seemed alike tenacious of their
-local and recently acquired rights; and disposed to settle their claims
-by “tooth and nail”—by manual and brute force.
-
-When I had seen enough of this I rode to the top of a beautiful prairie
-bluff, a mile or two from the scene, where I was exceedingly amused by
-overlooking the route that laid between this and the village, which
-was over the undulating green fields for several miles, that laid
-beneath me; over which there seemed a continual string of women, dogs
-and horses, for the rest of the day, passing and repassing as they
-were busily bearing home their heavy burthens to their village, and in
-their miniature appearance, which the distance gave them, not unlike
-to a busy community of ants as they are sometimes seen, sacking and
-transporting the treasures of a cupboard, or the sweets of a sugar
-bowl.
-
-
-
-
-                             LETTER—No. 25.
-
-                LITTLE MANDAN VILLAGE, _UPPER MISSOURI_.
-
-
-In speaking of the Mandans, in a former Letter, I mentioned that they
-were living in two villages, which are about two miles apart. Of their
-principal village I have given a minute account, which precludes the
-necessity of my saying much of their smaller town, to which I descended
-a few days since, from the Minatarees; and where I find their modes
-and customs, precisely the same as I have heretofore described. This
-village contains sixty or eighty lodges, built in the same manner as
-those which I have already mentioned, and I have just learned that
-they have been keeping the annual ceremony here, precisely in the same
-manner as that which I witnessed in the lower or larger town, and have
-explained.
-
-I have been treated with the same hospitality here that was extended
-to me in the other village; and have painted the portraits of several
-distinguished persons, which has astonished and pleased them very much.
-The operation of my brush always gains me many enthusiastic friends
-wherever I go amongst these wild folks; and in this village I have been
-unusually honoured and even _afflicted_, by the friendly importunities
-of one of these reverencing parasites, who (amongst various other
-offices of hospitality and kindness which he has been bent upon
-extending to me), has insisted on, and for several nights been indulged
-in, the honour as he would term it, of offering his body for my
-pillow, which _I_ have not had the heart to reject, and of course _he_
-has not lacked the vanity to boast of, as an act of signal kindness
-and hospitality on his part, towards a _great_ and _a distinguished
-stranger_!
-
-I have been for several days suffering somewhat with an influenza,
-which has induced me to leave my bed, on the side of the lodge, and
-sleep on the floor, wrapped in a buffalo robe, with my feet to the
-fire in the centre of the room, to which place the genuine politeness
-of my constant and watchful friend has as regularly drawn him, where
-his irresistible importunities have brought me, night after night, to
-the only alternative of using his bedaubed and bear-greased body for a
-pillow.
-
-Being unwilling to deny the poor fellow the satisfaction he seemed to
-be drawing from this singular freak, I took some pains to inquire into
-his character; and learned that he was a Riccaree brave, by the name of
-Pah-too-ca-ra (he who strikes), who is here with several others of his
-tribe, on a friendly visit (though in a hostile village), and living
-as they are, unprotected, except by the mercy of their enemies. I
-think it probable, therefore, that he is ingeniously endeavouring thus
-to ingratiate himself in my affections, and consequently to insure my
-guardianship and influence for his protection. Be this as it may, he is
-rendering me many kind services, and I have in return traced him on my
-canvass for immortality (+plate+ 83).
-
-By the side of him (+plate+ 84), I have painted a beautiful little girl
-of the same tribe, whose name is Pshan-shaw (the sweet-scented grass),
-giving a very pretty specimen of the dress and fashion of the women
-in this tribe. The inner garment, which is like a slip or a frock, is
-entire in one piece, and beautifully ornamented with embroidery and
-beads, with a row of elks’ teeth passing across the breast, and a robe
-of the young buffalo’s skin, tastefully and elaborately embroidered,
-gracefully thrown over her shoulders, and hanging down to the ground
-behind her.
-
-+Plate+ 82 gives a portrait of one of the chiefs of this tribe by the
-name of Stan-au-pat (the bloody hand), and (+plate+ 81) of Kah-beck-a
-(the twin), a good-looking matron, who was painted a few weeks since in
-the principal Mandan village.
-
-The dresses in both of these portraits are very beautiful, and I have
-procured them, as well as the one before spoken of, for my collection.
-
-+Plate+ 80, gives a view of the Riccaree village, which is beautifully
-situated on the west bank of the river, 200 miles below the Mandans;
-and built very much in the same manner; being constituted of 150
-earth-covered lodges, which are in part surrounded by an imperfect and
-open barrier of piquets set firmly in the ground, and of ten or twelve
-feet in height.
-
-This village is built upon an open prairie, and the gracefully
-undulating hills that rise in distance behind it are everywhere covered
-with a verdant green turf, without a tree or a bush anywhere to be
-seen. This view was taken from the deck of the steamer when I was on my
-way up the river; and probably it was well that I took it then, for so
-hostile and deadly are the feelings of these people towards the _pale
-faces_, at this time, that it may be deemed most prudent for me to pass
-them on my way down the river, without stopping to make them a visit.
-They certainly are harbouring the most resentful feelings at this time
-towards the Traders, and others passing on the river; and no doubt,
-that there is great danger of the lives of any white men, who unluckily
-fall into their hands. They have recently sworn death and destruction
-to every white man, who comes in their way; and there is no doubt, that
-they are ready to execute their threats.
-
-When Lewis and Clarke first visited these people thirty years since,
-it will be found by a reference to their history, that the Riccarees
-received and treated them with great kindness and hospitality; but
-owing to the system of trade, and the manner in which it has been
-conducted in this country, they have been inflicted with real or
-imaginary abuses, of which they are themselves, and the Fur Traders,
-the best judges; and for which they are now harbouring the most
-inveterate feelings towards the whole civilized race.
-
-[Illustration: 81]
-
-[Illustration: 82]
-
-[Illustration: 83]
-
-[Illustration: 84]
-
-[Illustration: 85]
-
-The Riccarees are unquestionably a part of the tribe of Pawnees, living
-on the Platte River, some hundreds of miles below this, inasmuch
-as their language is nearly or quite the same; and their personal
-appearance and customs as similar as could be reasonably expected
-amongst a people so long since separated from their parent tribe, and
-continually subjected to innovations from the neighbouring tribes
-around them; amongst whom, in their erratic wanderings in search of a
-location, they have been jostled about in the character, alternately,
-of friends and of foes.
-
-I shall resume my voyage down the river in a few days in my canoe; and
-I may, perhaps, stop and pay these people a visit, and consequently, be
-able to say more of them; or, I may be _hauled in_, to the shore, and
-my boat plundered, and my “_scalp danced_,” as they have dealt quite
-recently with the _last trader_, who has dared for several years past,
-to continue his residence with them, after they had laid fatal hands on
-each one of his comrades before him, and divided and shared their goods.
-
-Of the Mandans, who are about me in this little village, I need say
-nothing, except that they are in every respect, the same as those
-I have described in the lower village—and in fact, I believe this
-little town is rather a _summer residence_ for a few of the noted
-families, than anything else; as I am told that none of their wigwams
-are tenanted through the winter. I shall leave them in the morning,
-and take up my residence a few days longer with my hospitable friends
-Mr. Kipp, Mah-to-toh-pa, &c. in the large village; and then with my
-canvass and easel, and paint-pots in my canoe; with Ba’tiste and Bogard
-to paddle, and my own oar to steer, wend my way again on the mighty
-Missouri towards my native land, bidding everlasting farewell to the
-kind and hospitable Mandans.
-
-In taking this final leave of them, which will be done with some
-decided feelings of regret, and in receding from their country, I shall
-look back and reflect upon them and their curious and peculiar modes
-with no small degree of pleasure, as well as surprise; inasmuch as
-their hospitality and friendly treatment have fully corroborated my
-fixed belief that the North American Indian in his primitive state is
-a high-minded, hospitable and honourable being—and their singular and
-peculiar customs have raised an irresistible belief in my mind that
-they have had a different origin, or are of a different compound of
-character from any other tribe that I have yet seen, or that can be
-probably seen in North America.
-
-In coming to such a conclusion as this, the mind is at once filled with
-a flood of enquiries as to the source from which they have sprung,
-and eagerly seeking for the evidence which is to lead it to the most
-probable and correct conclusion. Amongst these evidences of which there
-are many, and forcible ones to be met with amongst these people, and
-many of which I have named in my former epistles, the most striking
-ones are those which go, I think, decidedly to suggest the existence
-of looks and of customs amongst them, bearing incontestible proofs of
-an amalgam of civilized and savage; and that in the absence of all
-proof of any recent proximity of a civilized stock that could in any
-way have been engrafted upon them.
-
-These facts then, with the host of their peculiarities which stare
-a traveller in the face, lead the mind back in search of some more
-remote and rational cause for such striking singularities; and in this
-dilemma, I have been almost disposed (not to advance it as a _theory_,
-but) to enquire whether here may not be found, yet existing, the
-remains of the _Welsh colony_—the followers of Madoc; who history tells
-us, if I recollect right, started with ten ships, to colonize a country
-which he had discovered in the Western Ocean; whose expedition I think
-has been pretty clearly traced to the mouth of the Mississippi, or the
-coast of Florida, and whose fate further than this seems sealed in
-unsearchable mystery.
-
-I am travelling in this country as I have before said, not to advance
-or to prove _theories_, but to see all that I am able to see, and to
-tell it in the simplest and most intelligible manner I can to the
-world, for their own conclusions, or for theories I may feel disposed
-to advance, and be better able to defend after I get out of this
-singular country; where all the powers of ones faculties are required,
-and much better employed I consider, in helping him along and in
-gathering materials, than in stopping to draw too nice and delicate
-conclusions by the way.
-
-If my indefinite recollections of the fate of that colony, however,
-as recorded in history be correct, I see no harm in suggesting the
-inquiry, whether they did not sail up the Mississippi river in their
-ten ships, or such number of them as might have arrived safe in its
-mouth; and having advanced up the Ohio from its junction, (as they
-naturally would, it being the widest and most gentle current) to a
-rich and fertile country, planted themselves as agriculturalists on
-its rich banks, where they lived and flourished, and increased in
-numbers, until they were attacked, and at last besieged by the numerous
-hordes of savages who were jealous of their growing condition; and as
-a protection against their assaults, built those numerous _civilized_
-fortifications, the ruins of which are now to be seen on the Ohio
-and the Muskingum, in which they were at last all destroyed, except
-some few families who had intermarried with the Indians, and whose
-offspring, being half-breeds, were in such a manner allied to them
-that their lives were spared; and forming themselves into a small
-and separate community, took up their residence on the banks of the
-Missouri; on which, for the want of a permanent location, being on
-the lands of their more powerful enemies, were obliged repeatedly to
-remove; and continuing their course up the river, have in time migrated
-to the place where they are now living, and consequently found with the
-numerous and almost unaccountable peculiarities of which I have before
-spoken, so inconsonant with the general character of the North American
-Indians; with complexions of every shade; with hair of all the colours
-in civilized society, and many with hazel, with grey, and with blue
-eyes.
-
-The above is a suggestion of a _moment_; and I wish the reader to bear
-it in mind, that if I ever advance such as a _theory_, it will be
-after I have collected other proofs, which I shall take great pains
-to do; after I have taken a vocabulary of their language, and also
-in my transit down the river in my canoe, I may be able from my own
-examinations of the ground, to ascertain whether the shores of the
-Missouri bear evidences of their former locations; or whether amongst
-the tribes who inhabit the country below, there remain any satisfactory
-traditions of their residences in, and transit through their countries.
-
-I close here my book (and probably for some time, my remarks), on the
-friendly and hospitable Mandans.
-
-  +Note+—Several years having elapsed since the above account of the
-  Mandans was written, I open the book to convey to the reader the
-  melancholy intelligence of the _destruction_ of this interesting
-  tribe, which happened a short time after I left their country; and
-  the manner and causes of their misfortune I have explained in the
-  Appendix to the Second Volume of this Work; as well as some further
-  considerations of the subject just above-named, relative to their
-  early history, and the probable fate of the followers of _Madoc_,
-  to which I respectfully refer the reader before he goes further in
-  the body of the Work. See Appendix A.
-
-
-
-
-                             LETTER—No. 26.
-
-                MOUTH OF TETON RIVER, _UPPER MISSOURI_.
-
-
-Since writing the above Letter I have descended the Missouri, a
-distance of six or seven hundred miles, in my little bark, with
-Ba’tiste and Bogard, my old “_compagnons du voyage_,” and have much
-to say of what we three did and what we saw on our way, which will be
-given anon.
-
-I am now in the heart of the country belonging to the numerous tribe
-of Sioux or Dohcotas, and have Indian faces and Indian customs in
-abundance around me. This tribe is one of the most numerous in North
-America, and also one of the most vigorous and warlike tribes to be
-found, numbering some forty or fifty thousand, and able undoubtedly
-to muster, if the tribe could be moved simultaneously, at least eight
-or ten thousand warriors, well mounted and well armed. This tribe
-take vast numbers of the wild horses on the plains towards the Rocky
-Mountains, and many of them have been supplied with guns; but the
-greater part of them hunt with their bows and arrows and long lances,
-killing their game from their horses’ backs while at full speed.
-
-The name Sioux (pronounced _see-oo_) by which they are familiarly
-called, is one that has been given to them by the French traders, the
-meaning of which I never have learned; their own name being, in their
-language, Dah-co-ta. The personal appearance of these people is very
-fine and prepossessing, their persons tall and straight, and their
-movements elastic and graceful. Their stature is considerably above
-that of the Mandans and Riccarees, or Blackfeet; but about equal to
-that of the Crows, Assinneboins and Minatarees, furnishing at least one
-half of their warriors of six feet or more in height.
-
-I am here living with, and enjoying the hospitality of a gentleman by
-the name of _Laidlaw_, a Scotchman, who is attached to the American
-Fur Company, and who, in company with Mr. M‘Kenzie (of whom I have
-before spoken) and Lamont, has the whole agency of the Fur Company’s
-transactions in the regions of the Upper Missouri and the Rocky
-Mountains.
-
-This gentleman has a finely-built Fort here, of two or three hundred
-feet square, enclosing eight or ten of their factories, houses and
-stores, in the midst of which he occupies spacious and comfortable
-apartments, which are well supplied with the comforts and luxuries of
-life and neatly and respectably conducted by a fine looking, modest,
-and dignified Sioux woman, the kind and affectionate mother of his
-little flock of pretty and interesting children.
-
-[Illustration: 86]
-
-This Fort is undoubtedly one of the most important and productive
-of the American Fur Company’s posts, being in the centre of the
-great Sioux country, drawing from all quarters an immense and almost
-incredible number of buffalo robes, which are carried to the New York
-and other Eastern markets, and sold at a great profit. This post
-is thirteen hundred miles above St. Louis, on the west bank of the
-Missouri, on a beautiful plain near the mouth of the Teton river which
-empties into the Missouri from the West, and the Fort has received
-the name of Fort Pierre, in compliment to Monsr. Pierre Chouteau, who
-is one of the partners in the Fur Company, residing in St. Louis; and
-to whose politeness I am indebted, as I have before mentioned, for my
-passage in the Company’s steamer, on her first voyage to the Yellow
-Stone; and whose urbane and gentlemanly society, I have before said, I
-had during my passage.
-
-The country about this Fort is almost entirely prairie, producing along
-the banks of the river and streams only, slight skirtings of timber.
-No site could have been selected more pleasing or more advantageous
-than this; the Fort is in the centre of one of the Missouri’s most
-beautiful plains, and hemmed in by a series of gracefully undulating,
-grass-covered hills, on all sides; rising like a series of terraces, to
-the summit level of the prairies, some three or four hundred feet in
-elevation, which then stretches off in an apparently boundless ocean of
-gracefully swelling waves and fields of green. On my way up the river
-I made a painting of this lovely spot, taken from the summit of the
-bluffs, a mile or two distant (+plate+ 85), shewing an encampment of
-Sioux, of six hundred tents or skin lodges, around the Fort, where they
-had concentrated to make their spring trade; exchanging their furs and
-peltries for articles and luxuries of civilized manufactures.
-
-The great family of Sioux who occupy so vast a tract of country,
-extending from the banks of the Mississippi river to the base of
-the Rocky Mountains, are everywhere a migratory or roaming tribe,
-divided into forty-two bands or families, each having a chief who
-all acknowledge a superior or head chief, to whom they all are held
-subordinate. This subordination, however, I should rather record as
-their _former_ and _native_ regulation, of which there exists no
-doubt, than an _existing_ one, since the numerous innovations made
-amongst these people by the Fur Traders, as well as by the proximity
-of civilization along a great deal of their frontier, which soon upset
-and change many native regulations, and particularly those relating to
-their government and religion.
-
-There is one principal and familiar division of this tribe into what
-are called the _Mississippi_ and _Missouri_ Sioux. Those bordering
-on the banks of the Mississippi, concentrating at Prairie du Chien
-and Fort Snelling, for the purposes of trade, &c., are called the
-Mississippi Sioux. These are somewhat advanced towards civilization,
-and familiar with white people, with whom they have held intercourse
-for many years, and are consequently excessive whiskey drinkers, though
-constituting but a meagre proportion, and at the same time, but a very
-unfair and imperfect sample of the great mass of this tribe who inhabit
-the shores of the Missouri, and fearlessly roam on the vast plains
-intervening between it and the Rocky Mountains, and are still living
-entirely in their primitive condition.
-
-There is no tribe on the Continent, perhaps, of finer looking men than
-the Sioux; and few tribes who are better and more comfortably clad, and
-supplied with the necessaries of life. There are no parts of the great
-plains of America which are more abundantly stocked with buffaloes and
-wild horses, nor any people more bold in destroying the one for food,
-and appropriating the other to their use. There has gone abroad, from
-the many histories which have been written of these people, an opinion
-which is too current in the world, that the Indian is necessarily a
-poor, drunken, murderous wretch; which account is certainly unjust
-as regards the savage, and doing less than justice to the world for
-whom such histories have been prepared. I have travelled several years
-already amongst these people and I have not had my scalp taken, nor a
-blow struck me; nor had occasion to raise my hand against an Indian;
-nor has my property been stolen, as yet to my knowledge, to the value
-of a shilling; and that in a country where no man is punishable by
-law for the crime of stealing; still some of them steal, and murder
-too; and if white men did not do the same, and that in defiance of
-the laws of God and man, I might take satisfaction in stigmatizing
-the Indian character as thievish and murderous. That the Indians in
-their _native state_ are “_drunken_,” is false; for they are the only
-temperance people, literally speaking, that ever I saw in my travels,
-or ever expect to see. If the civilized world are startled at this,
-it is the _fact_ that they must battle with, not with me; for these
-people manufacture no spirituous liquor themselves, and know nothing
-of it until it is brought into their country and tendered to them by
-Christians. That these people are “_naked_” is equally untrue, and
-as easily disproved; for I am sure that with the paintings I have
-made amongst the Mandans and Crows, and other tribes; and with their
-beautiful costumes which I have procured and shall bring home, I shall
-be able to establish the fact that many of these people dress, not only
-with clothes comfortable for any latitude, but that they also dress
-with some considerable taste and elegance. Nor am I quite sure that
-they are entitled to the name of “_poor_,” who live in a boundless
-country of green fields, with good horses to ride; where they are
-all joint tenants of the soil, together; where the Great Spirit has
-supplied them with an abundance of food to eat—where they are all
-indulging in the pleasures and amusements of a lifetime of idleness
-and ease, with no business hours to attend to, or professions to
-learn—where they have no notes in bank or other debts to pay—no taxes,
-no tithes, no rents, nor beggars to touch and tax the sympathy of their
-souls at every step they go. Such might be poverty in the Christian
-world, but is sure to be a blessing where the pride and insolence of
-comparative wealth are unknown.
-
-[Illustration: 87]
-
-[Illustration: 88]
-
-I mentioned that this is the nucleus or place of concentration of the
-numerous tribe of the Sioux, who often congregate here in great masses
-to make their trades with the American Fur Company; and that on my way
-up the river, some months since, I found here encamped, six hundred
-families of Sioux, living in tents covered with buffalo hides. Amongst
-these there were twenty or more of the different bands, each one with
-their chief at their head, over whom was a _superior chief_ and leader,
-a middle-aged man, of middling stature, with a noble countenance, and a
-figure almost equalling the Apollo, and I painted his portrait (+plate+
-86). The name of this chief is Ha-wan-je-tah (the one horn) of the
-Mee-ne-cow-e-gee band, who has risen rapidly to the highest honours
-in the tribe, from his own extraordinary merits, even at so early an
-age. He told me that he took the name of “One Horn” (or shell) from a
-simple small shell that was hanging on his neck, which descended to
-him from his father, and which, he said, he valued more than anything
-he possessed; affording a striking instance of the living affection
-which these people often cherish for the dead, inasmuch as he chose
-to carry this name through life in preference to many others and more
-honourable ones he had a right to have taken, from different battles
-and exploits of his extraordinary life. He treated me with great
-kindness and attention, considering himself highly complimented by the
-signal and unprecedented honour I had conferred upon him by painting
-his portrait, and that before I had invited any other. His costume was
-a very handsome one, and will have a place in my +Indian Gallery+ by
-the side of his picture. It is made of elk skins beautifully dressed,
-and fringed with a profusion of porcupine quills and scalp-locks; and
-his hair, which is very long and profuse, divided into two parts, and
-lifted up and crossed, over the top of his head, with a simple tie,
-giving it somewhat the appearance of a Turkish turban.
-
-This extraordinary man, before he was raised to the dignity of chief,
-was the renowned of his tribe for his athletic achievements. In the
-chase he was foremost; he could run down a buffalo, which he often had
-done, on his own legs, and drive his arrow to the heart. He was the
-fleetest in the tribe; and in the races he had run, he had always taken
-the prize.
-
-It was proverbial in his tribe, that Ha-wan-je-tah’s bow never was
-drawn in vain, and his wigwam was abundantly furnished with scalps that
-he had taken from his enemies’ heads in battle.
-
-Having descended the river thus far, then, and having hauled out
-my canoe, and taken up my quarters for awhile with mine hospitable
-host, Mr. Laidlaw, as I have before said; and having introduced my
-readers to the country and the people, and more particularly to the
-chief dignitary of the Sioux; and having promised in the beginning of
-this Letter also, that I should give them some amusing and curious
-information that we picked up, and incidents that we met with, on
-our voyage from the Mandans to this place; I have again to beg that
-they will pardon me for withholding from them yet awhile longer, the
-incidents of that curious and most important part of my Tour, the
-absence of which, at this time, seems to make a “hole in the ballad,”
-though I promise my readers they are written, and will appear in the
-book in a proper and appropriate place.
-
-Taking it for granted then, that I will be indulged in this freak, I am
-taking the liberty of presuming on my readers’ patience in proposing
-another, which is to offer them here an extract from my Notes, which
-were made on my journey of 1300 miles from St. Louis to this place,
-where I stopped, as I have said, amongst several thousands of Sioux;
-where I remained for some time, and painted my numerous portraits of
-their chiefs, &c.; one of whom was the head and leader of the Sioux,
-whom I have already introduced. On the long and tedious route that lies
-between St. Louis and this place, I passed the Sacs and Ioways—the
-Konzas—the Omahaws, and the Otoes (making notes on them all, which are
-reserved for another place), and landed at the Puncahs, a small tribe
-residing in one village, on the west bank of the river, 300 miles below
-this, and 1000 from St. Louis.
-
-The Puncahs are all contained in seventy-five or eighty lodges, made of
-buffalo skins, in the form of tents; the frames for which are poles of
-fifteen or twenty feet in length, with the butt ends standing on the
-ground, and the small ends meeting at the top, forming a cone, which
-sheds off the rain and wind with perfect success. This small remnant
-of a tribe are not more than four or five hundred in numbers; and I
-should think, at least, two-thirds of those are women. This disparity
-in numbers having been produced by the continual losses which their
-men suffer, who are penetrating the buffalo country for meat, for
-which they are now obliged to travel a great way (as the buffaloes
-have recently left their country), exposing their lives to their more
-numerous enemies about them.
-
-The chief of this tribe, whose name is Shoo-de-ga-cha (smoke), I
-painted at full length (+plate+ 87), and his wife also, a young and
-very pretty woman (+plate+ 88), whose name is Hee-la’h-dee (the
-pure fountain); her neck and arms were curiously tattooed, which is
-a very frequent mode of ornamenting the body amongst this and some
-other tribes, which is done by pricking into the skin, gunpowder and
-vermilion.
-
-The chief, who was wrapped in a buffalo robe, is a noble specimen of
-native dignity and philosophy. I conversed much with him; and from his
-dignified manners, as well as from the soundness of his reasoning, I
-became fully convinced that he deserved to be the sachem of a more
-numerous and prosperous tribe. He related to me with great coolness
-and frankness, the poverty and distress of his nation; and with the
-method of a philosopher, predicted the certain and rapid extinction of
-his tribe, which he had not the power to avert. Poor, noble chief; who
-was equal to, and worthy of a greater empire! He sat upon the deck of
-the steamer, overlooking the little cluster of his wigwams mingled
-amongst the trees; and, like Caius Marius, weeping over the ruins
-of Carthage, shed tears as he was descanting on the poverty of his
-ill-fated little community, which he told me “had once been powerful
-and happy; that the buffaloes which the Great Spirit had given them
-for food, and which formerly spread all over their green prairies, had
-all been killed or driven out by the approach of white men, who wanted
-their skins; that their country was now entirely destitute of game,
-and even of roots for their food, as it was one continued prairie;
-and that his young men penetrating the countries of their enemies
-for buffaloes, which they were obliged to do, were cut to pieces and
-destroyed in great numbers. That his people had foolishly become fond
-of _fire-water_ (whiskey), and had given away everything in their
-country for it—that it had destroyed many of his warriors, and soon
-would destroy the rest—that his tribe was too small, and his warriors
-too few to go to war with the tribes around them; that they were met
-and killed by the Sioux on the North, by the Pawnees on the West; and
-by the Osages and Konzas on the South; and still more alarmed from the
-constant advance of the pale faces—their enemies from the East, with
-whiskey and small-pox, which already had destroyed four-fifths of his
-tribe, and soon would impoverish, and at last destroy the remainder of
-them.”
-
-[Illustration: 89]
-
-[Illustration: 90]
-
-In this way did this shrewd philosopher lament over the unlucky destiny
-of his tribe; and I pitied him with all my heart. I have no doubt of
-the correctness of his representations; and I believe there is no tribe
-on the frontier more in want, nor any more deserving of the sympathy
-and charity of the government and Christian societies of the civilized
-world.
-
-The son of this chief, a youth of eighteen years, and whose portrait I
-painted (+plate+ 90), distinguished himself in a singular manner the
-day before our steamer reached their village, by taking to him _four
-wives in one day_! This extraordinary and unprecedented freak of his,
-was just the thing to make him the greatest sort of _medicine_ in the
-eyes of his people; and probably he may date much of his success and
-greatness through life, to this bold and original step, which suddenly
-raised him into notice and importance.
-
-The old chief Shoo-de-ga-cha, of whom I have spoken above, considering
-his son to have arrived to the age of maturity, fitted him out for
-house-keeping, by giving him a handsome wigwam to live in, and nine
-horses, with many other valuable presents; when the boy, whose name
-is Hongs-kay-de (the great chief), soon laid his plans for the proud
-and pleasant epoch in his life, and consummated them in the following
-ingenious and amusing manner.
-
-Wishing to connect himself with, and consequently to secure the
-countenance of some of the most influential men in the tribe, he had
-held an interview with one of the most distinguished; and easily
-(being the son of a chief), made an arrangement for the hand of his
-daughter, which he was to receive on a certain day, and at a certain
-hour, for which he was to give two horses, a gun, and several pounds
-of tobacco. This was enjoined on the father as a profound secret, and
-as a condition of the espousal. In like manner he soon made similar
-arrangements with three other leading men of the tribe, each of whom
-had a young and beautiful daughter, of marriageable age. To each of
-the fathers he had promised two horses, and other presents similar
-to those stipulated for in the first instance, and all under the
-same injunctions of secrecy, until the hour approached, when he had
-announced to the whole tribe that he was to be married. At the time
-appointed, they all assembled, and all were in ignorance of the fair
-hand that was to be placed in his on this occasion. He had got some
-of his young friends who were prepared to assist him, to lead up
-the eight horses. He took two of them by the halters, and the other
-presents agreed upon in his other hand, and advancing to the first of
-the parents, whose daughter was standing by the side of him, saying
-to him, “you promised me the hand of your daughter on this day, for
-which I was to give you two horses.” The father assented with a “ugh!”
-receiving the presents, and giving his child; when some confusion
-ensued from the simultaneous remonstrances, which were suddenly made by
-the other three parents, who had brought their daughters forward, and
-were shocked at this sudden disappointment, as well as by the mutual
-declarations they were making, of similar contracts that each one had
-entered into with him! As soon as they could be pacified, and silence
-was restored, he exultingly replied, “You have all acknowledged in
-public your promises with me, which I shall expect you to fulfil. I am
-here to perform all the engagements which I have made, and I expect
-you all to do the same”—No more was said. He led up the two horses for
-each, and delivered the other presents; leading off to his wigwam his
-four brides—taking two in each hand, and commenced at once upon his new
-mode of life; reserving only one of his horses for his own daily use.
-
-I visited the wigwam of this young installed _medicine-man_ several
-times, and saw his four modest little wives seated around the fire,
-where all seemed to harmonize very well; and for aught I could
-discover, were entering very happily on the duties and pleasures of
-married life. I selected one of them for her portrait, and painted it
-(+plate+ 89), Mong-shong-shaw (the bending willow), in a very pretty
-dress of deer skins, and covered with a young buffalo’s robe, which was
-handsomely ornamented, and worn with much grace and pleasing effect.
-
-Mr. Chouteau of the Fur Company, and Major Sanford, the agent for the
-Upper Missouri Indians, were with me at this time; and both of these
-gentlemen, highly pleased with so ingenious and _innocent_ a freak,
-felt disposed to be liberal, and sent them many presents from the
-steamer.
-
-The ages of these young brides were probably all between twelve and
-fifteen years, the season of life in which most of the girls in this
-wild country contract marriage.
-
-[Illustration: 91]
-
-It is a surprising fact, that women mature in these regions at that
-early age, and there have been some instances where marriage has taken
-place, even at eleven; and the juvenile mother has been blest with her
-first offspring at the age of twelve!
-
-These facts are calculated to create surprise and almost incredulity
-in the mind of the reader, but there are circumstances for his
-consideration yet to be known, which will in a manner account for these
-extraordinary facts.
-
-There is not a doubt but there is a more early approach to maturity
-amongst the females of this country than in civilized communities,
-owing either to a natural and constitutional difference, or to the
-exposed and active life they lead. Yet there is another and more
-general cause of early marriages (and consequently apparent maturity),
-which arises out of the modes and forms of the country, where most
-of the marriages are contracted with the parents, hurried on by the
-impatience of the applicant, and prematurely accepted and consummated
-on the part of the parents, who are often impatient to be in receipt
-of the presents they are to receive as the price of their daughters.
-There is also the facility of dissolving the marriage contract in this
-country, which does away with one of the most serious difficulties
-which lies in the way in the civilized world, and calculated greatly
-to retard its consummation, which is not an equal objection in Indian
-communities. Education and accomplishments, again, in the fashionable
-world, and also a time and a season to flourish and show them off,
-necessarily engross that part of a young lady’s life, when the poor
-Indian girl, who finds herself weaned from the familiar embrace of her
-parents, with her mind and her body maturing, and her thoughts and her
-passions straying away in the world for some theme or some pleasure
-to cling to, easily follows their juvenile and ardent dictates,
-prematurely entering on that system of life, consisting in reciprocal
-dependence and protection.
-
-In the instance above described, the young man was in no way censured
-by his people, but most loudly applauded; for in this country polygamy
-is allowed; and in this tribe, where there are two or three times the
-number of women that there are of men, such an arrangement answers a
-good purpose, whereby so many of the females are provided for and taken
-care of; and particularly so, and to the great satisfaction of the
-tribe, as well as of the parties and families concerned, when so many
-fall to the lot of a chief, or the son of a chief, into whose wigwam it
-is considered an honour to be adopted, and where they are the most sure
-of protection.
-
-
-
-
-                             LETTER—No. 27.
-
-                MOUTH OF TETON RIVER, _UPPER MISSOURI_.
-
-
-When we were about to start on our way up the river from the village
-of the Puncahs, we found that they were packing up all their goods and
-preparing to start for the prairies, farther to the West, in pursuit
-of buffaloes, to dry meat for their winter’s supplies. They took down
-their wigwams of skins to carry with them, and all were flat to the
-ground and everything packing up ready for the start. My attention
-was directed by Major Sanford, the Indian Agent, to one of the most
-miserable and helpless looking objects that I ever had seen in my life,
-a very aged and emaciated man of the tribe, who he told me was to be
-_exposed_.
-
-The tribe were going where hunger and dire necessity compelled them
-to go, and this pitiable object, who had once been a chief, and a man
-of distinction in his tribe, who was now too old to travel, being
-reduced to mere skin and bones, was to be left to starve, or meet
-with such death as might fall to his lot, and his bones to be picked
-by the wolves! I lingered around this poor old forsaken patriarch for
-hours before we started, to indulge the tears of sympathy which were
-flowing for the sake of this poor benighted and decrepit old man,
-whose worn-out limbs were no longer able to support him; their kind
-and faithful offices having long since been performed, and his body
-and his mind doomed to linger into the withering agony of decay, and
-gradual solitary death. I wept, and it was a pleasure to weep, for the
-painful looks, and the dreary prospects of this old veteran, whose
-eyes were dimmed, whose venerable locks were whitened by an hundred
-years, whose limbs were almost naked, and trembling as he sat by a
-small fire which his friends had left him, with a few sticks of wood
-within his reach and a buffalo’s skin stretched upon some crotches over
-his head. Such was to be his only dwelling, and such the chances for
-his life, with only a few half-picked bones that were laid within his
-reach, and a dish of water, without weapons or means of any kind to
-replenish them, or strength to move his body from its fatal locality.
-In this sad plight I mournfully contemplated this miserable remnant
-of existence, who had unluckily outlived the fates and accidents of
-wars to die alone, at death’s leisure. His friends and his children
-had all left him, and were preparing in a little time to be on the
-march. He had told them to leave him, “he was old,” he said, “and too
-feeble to march.” “My children,” said he, “our nation is poor, and
-it is necessary that you should all go to the country where you can
-get meat,—my eyes are dimmed and my strength is no more; my days are
-nearly all numbered, and I am a burthen to my children—I cannot go, and
-I wish to die. Keep your hearts stout, and think not of me; I am no
-longer good for anything.” In this way they had finished the ceremony
-of _exposing_ him, and taken their final leave of him. I advanced to
-the old man, and was undoubtedly the last human being who held converse
-with him. I sat by the side of him, and though he could not distinctly
-see me, he shook me heartily by the hand and smiled, evidently aware
-that I was a white man, and that I sympathized with his inevitable
-misfortune. I shook hands again with him, and left him, steering my
-course towards the steamer which was a mile or more from me, and ready
-to resume her voyage up the Missouri.[6]
-
-This cruel custom of exposing their aged people, belongs, I think, to
-all the tribes who roam about the prairies, making severe marches,
-when such decrepit persons are totally unable to go, unable to ride or
-to walk,—when they have no means of carrying them. It often becomes
-absolutely necessary in such cases that they should be left; and they
-uniformly insist upon it, saying as this old man did, that they are
-old and of no further use—that they left their fathers in the same
-manner—that they wish to die, and their children must not mourn for
-them.
-
-From the Puncah village, our steamer made regular progress from day
-to day towards the mouth of the Teton, from where I am now writing;
-passing the whole way a country of green fields, that come sloping down
-to the river on either side, forming the loveliest scenes in the world.
-
-From day to day we advanced, opening our eyes to something new and
-more beautiful every hour that we progressed, until at last our boat
-was aground; and a day’s work of sounding told us at last, that there
-was no possibility of advancing further, until there should be a rise
-in the river, to enable the boat to get over the bar. After laying in
-the middle of the river about a week, in this unpromising dilemma, Mr.
-Chouteau started off twenty men on foot, to cross the plains for a
-distance of 200 miles to Laidlaw’s Fort, at the mouth of Teton river.
-To this expedition, I immediately attached myself; and having heard
-that a numerous party of Sioux were there encamped, and waiting to see
-the steamer, I packed on the backs, and in the hands of several of the
-men, such articles for painting, as I might want; canvass, paints, and
-brushes, with my sketch-book slung on my back, and my rifle in my hand,
-and I started off with them.
-
-We took leave of our friends on the boat, and mounting the green
-bluffs, steered our course from day to day over a level prairie,
-without a tree or a bush in sight, to relieve the painful monotony,
-filling our canteens at the occasional little streams that we passed,
-kindling our fires with dried buffalo dung, which we collected on the
-prairie, and stretching our tired limbs on the level turf whenever we
-were overtaken by night.
-
-We were six or seven days in performing this march; and it gave me a
-good opportunity of testing the muscles of my legs, with a number of
-half-breeds and Frenchmen, whose lives are mostly spent in this way,
-leading a novice, a cruel, and almost killing journey. Every rod of our
-way was over a continuous prairie, with a verdant green turf of wild
-grass of six or eight inches in height; and most of the way enamelled
-with wild flowers, and filled with a profusion of strawberries.
-
-For two or three of the first days, the scenery was monotonous, and
-became exceedingly painful from the fact, that we were (to use a
-phrase of the country) “out of sight of land,” _i. e._ out of sight
-of anything rising above the horizon, which was a perfect straight
-line around us, like that of the blue and boundless ocean. The
-pedestrian over such a discouraging sea of green, without a landmark
-before or behind him; without a beacon to lead him on, or define his
-progress, feels weak and overcome when night falls; and he stretches
-his exhausted limbs, apparently on the same spot where he has slept
-the night before, with the same prospect before and behind him; the
-same grass, and the same wild flowers beneath and about him; the same
-canopy over his head, and the same cheerless sea of green to start
-upon in the morning. It is difficult to describe the simple beauty
-and serenity of these scenes of solitude, or the feelings of feeble
-man, whose limbs are toiling to carry him through them—without a hill
-or tree to mark his progress, and convince him that he is not, like a
-squirrel in his cage, after all his toil, standing still. One commences
-on peregrinations like these, with a light heart, and a nimble foot,
-and spirits as buoyant as the very air that floats along by the side of
-him; but his spirit soon tires, and he lags on the way that is rendered
-more tedious and intolerable by the tantalizing _mirage_ that opens
-before him beautiful lakes, and lawns, and copses; or by the _looming_
-of the prairie ahead of him, that seems to rise in a parapet, and
-decked with its varied flowers, phantom-like, flies and moves along
-before him.
-
-I got on for a couple of days in tolerable condition, and with some
-considerable applause; but my half-bred, companions took the lead at
-length, and left me with several other novices far behind, which gave
-me additional pangs; and I at length felt like giving up the journey,
-and throwing myself upon the ground in hopeless despair. I was not
-alone in my misery, however, but was cheered and encouraged by looking
-back and beholding several of our party half a mile or more in the rear
-of me, jogging along, and suffering more agony in their new experiment
-than I was suffering myself. Their loitering and my murmurs, at length,
-brought our leaders to a halt, and we held a sort of council, in which
-I explained that the pain in my feet was so intolerable, that I felt as
-if I could go no further; when one of our half-breed leaders stepped
-up to me, and addressing me in French, told me that I must “_turn my
-toes in_” as the Indians do, and that I could then go on very well. We
-halted a half-hour, and took a little refreshment, whilst the little
-Frenchman was teaching his lesson to the rest of my fellow-novices,
-when we took up our march again; and I soon found upon trial, that by
-turning my toes in, my feet went more easily through the grass; and by
-turning the weight of my body more equally on the toes (enabling each
-one to support its proportionable part of the load, instead of throwing
-it all on to the joints of the big toes, which is done when the toes
-are turned out); I soon got relief, and made my onward progress very
-well. I rigidly adhered to this mode, and found no difficulty on the
-third and fourth days, of taking the lead of the whole party, which I
-constantly led until our journey was completed.[7]
-
-On this journey we saw immense herds of buffaloes; and although we had
-no horses to _run_ them, we successfully _approached_ them on foot,
-and supplied ourselves abundantly with fresh meat. After travelling
-for several days, we came in sight of a high range of blue hills in
-distance on our left, which rose to the height of several hundred
-feet above the level of the prairies. These hills were a conspicuous
-landmark at last, and some relief to us. I was told by our guide, that
-they were called the Bijou Hills, from a Fur Trader of that name, who
-had had his trading-house at the foot of them on the banks of the
-Missouri river, where he was at last destroyed by the Sioux Indians.
-
-Not many miles back of this range of hills, we came in contact with an
-immense saline, or “salt meadow,” as they are termed in this country,
-which turned us out of our path, and compelled us to travel several
-miles out of our way, to get by it; we came suddenly upon a great
-depression of the prairie, which extended for several miles, and as
-we stood upon its green banks, which were gracefully sloping down, we
-could overlook some hundreds of acres of the prairie which were covered
-with an incrustation of salt, that appeared the same as if the ground
-was everywhere covered with snow.
-
-These scenes, I am told are frequently to be met with in these regions,
-and certainly present the most singular and startling effect, by the
-sudden and unexpected contrast between their snow-white appearance,
-and the green fields that hem them in on all sides. Through each of
-these meadows there is a meandering small stream which arises from
-salt springs, throwing out in the spring of the year great quantities
-of water, which flood over these meadows to the depth of three or four
-feet; and during the heat of summer, being exposed to the rays of
-the sun, entirely evaporates, leaving the incrustation of _muriate_
-on the surface, to the depth of one or two inches. These places are
-the constant resort of buffaloes, which congregate in thousands about
-them, to lick up the salt; and on approaching the banks of this place
-we stood amazed at the almost incredible numbers of these animals,
-which were in sight on the opposite banks, at the distance of a mile or
-two from us, where they were lying in countless numbers, on the level
-prairie above, and stretching down by hundreds, to lick at the salt,
-forming in distance, large masses of black, most pleasingly to contrast
-with the snow white, and the vivid green, which I have before mentioned.
-
-After several days toil in the manner above-mentioned, all the way
-over soft and green fields, and amused with many pleasing incidents
-and accidents of the chase, we arrived, pretty well jaded, at Fort
-Pierre, mouth of Teton River, from whence I am now writing; where for
-the first time I was introduced to Mr. M‘Kenzie (of whom I have before
-spoken), to Mr. Laidlaw, mine host, and Mr. Halsey, a chief clerk in
-the establishment; and after, to the head chief and dignitaries of the
-great Sioux nation, who were here encamped about the Fort, in six or
-seven hundred skin lodges, and waiting for the arrival of the steamer,
-which they had heard, was on its way up the river, and which they had
-great curiosity to see.
-
-After resting a few days, and recovering from the fatigues of my
-journey, having taken a fair survey of the Sioux village, and explained
-my views to the Indians, as well as to the gentlemen whom I have
-above named; I commenced my operations with the brush, and first of
-all painted the portrait of the head-chief of the Sioux (the one
-horn), whom I have before spoken of. This truly noble fellow sat for
-his portrait, and it was finished before any one of the tribe knew
-anything of it; several of the chiefs and doctors were allowed to see
-it, and at last it was talked of through the village; and of course,
-the greater part of their numbers were at once gathered around me.
-Nothing short of hanging it out of doors on the side of my wigwam,
-would in any way answer them; and here I had the peculiar satisfaction
-of beholding, through a small hole I had made in my wigwam, the high
-admiration and respect they all felt for their chief, as well as
-the very great estimation in which they held me as a painter and a
-magician, conferring upon me at once the very distinguished appellation
-of Ee-cha-zoo-kah-ga-wa-kon (the medicine painter).
-
-After the exhibition of this chief’s picture, there was much excitement
-in the village about it; the doctors generally took a decided and noisy
-stand against the operations of my brush; haranguing the populace, and
-predicting bad luck, and premature death, to all who submitted to so
-strange and unaccountable an operation! My business for some days was
-entirely at a stand for want of sitters; for the doctors were opposing
-me with all their force; and the women and children were crying, with
-their hands over their mouths, making the most pitiful and doleful
-laments, which I never can explain to my readers; but for some just
-account of which, I must refer them to my friends M‘Kenzie and Halsey,
-who overlooked with infinite amusement, these curious scenes and are
-able, no doubt, to give them with truth and effect to the world.
-
-In this sad and perplexing dilemma, this noble chief stepped forward,
-and addressing himself to the chiefs and the doctors, to the braves and
-to the women and children, he told them to be quiet, and to treat me
-with friendship; that I had been travelling a great way to see them,
-and smoke with them; that I was great _medicine_, to be sure; that I
-was a great chief, and that I was the friend of Mr. Laidlaw and Mr.
-M‘Kenzie, who had prevailed upon him to sit for his picture, and fully
-assured him that there was no harm in it. His speech had the desired
-effect, and I was shaken hands with by hundreds of their worthies, many
-of whom were soon dressed and ornamented, prepared to sit for their
-portraits.[8]
-
-The first who then stepped forward for his portrait was Ee-ah-sa-pa
-(the Black Rock) chief of the Nee-caw-wee-gee band (+plate+ 91), a tall
-and fine looking man, of six feet or more in stature; in a splendid
-dress, with his lance in his hand; with his pictured robe thrown
-gracefully over his shoulders, and his head-dress made of war-eagles’
-quills and ermine skins, falling in a beautiful crest over his back,
-quite down to his feet, and surmounted on the top with a pair of horns
-denoting him (as I have explained in former instances) head leader or
-war-chief of his band.
-
-This man has been a constant and faithful friend of Mr. M‘Kenzie and
-others of the Fur Traders, who held him in high estimation, both as an
-honourable and valiant man, and an estimable companion.
-
-The next who sat to me was Tchan-dee, tobacco (+plate+ 92), a desperate
-warrior, and represented to me by the traders, as one of the most
-respectable and famous chiefs of the tribe. After him sat Toh-ki-ee-to,
-the stone with horns (+plate+ 93), chief of the Yanc-ton band, and
-reputed the principal and most eloquent _orator_ of the nation. The
-neck, and breast, and shoulders of this man, were curiously tattooed,
-by pricking in gunpowder and vermilion, which in this extraordinary
-instance, was put on in such elaborate profusion as to appear at a
-little distance like a beautifully embroidered dress. In his hand he
-held a handsome pipe, the stem of which was several feet long, and all
-the way wound with ornamented braids of the porcupine quills. Around
-his body was wrapped a valued robe, made of the skin of the grizzly
-bear, and on his neck several strings of _wampum_, an ornament seldom
-seen amongst the Indians in the Far West and the North.[9] I was
-much amused with the excessive vanity and egotism of this notorious
-man, who, whilst sitting for his picture, took occasion to have the
-interpreter constantly explaining to me the wonderful effects which his
-oratory had at different times produced on the minds of the chiefs and
-people of his tribe.
-
-[Illustration: 92 93]
-
-[Illustration: 94 95]
-
-[Illustration: 96]
-
-[Illustration: 97]
-
-He told me, that it was a very easy thing for him to set all the women
-of the tribe to crying: and that all the chiefs listened profoundly to
-his voice before they went to war; and at last, summed up by saying,
-that he was “the greatest orator in the Sioux nation,” by which he
-undoubtedly meant the greatest in the _world_.
-
-Besides these _distingués_ of this great and powerful tribe, I
-painted in regular succession, according to their rank and standing,
-Wan-ee-ton, chief of the _Susseton band_; Tah-zee-kah-da-cha (the torn
-belly), a brave of the _Yancton band_; Ka-pes-ka-day (the shell), a
-brave of the _O-gla-la band_; Wuk-mi-ser (corn), a warrior of the
-_Nee-cow-ee-gee band_; Cha-tee-wah-nee-chee (no heart), chief of the
-_Wah-nee-watch-to-nee-nah band_; Mah-to-ra-rish-nee-eeh-ee-rah (the
-grizzly bear that runs without regard), a brave of the _Onc-pa-pa
-band_; Mah-to-chee-ga (the little bear), a distinguished brave;
-Shon-ka (the dog), chief of the _Ca-za-zhee-ta_ (bad arrow points)
-_band_; Tah-teck-a-da-hair (the steep wind), a brave of the same
-band; Hah-ha-ra-pah (the elk’s head), chief of the _Ee-ta-sip-shov
-band_; Mah-to-een-nah-pa (the white bear that goes out), chief of the
-_Blackfoot Sioux band_; Shon-ga-ton-ga-chesh-en-day (the horse dung),
-chief of a band, a great conjuror and magician.
-
-The portraits of all the above dignitaries can be always seen, as large
-as life, in my very numerous Collection, provided I get them safe
-home; and also the portraits of two very pretty Sioux women (+plate+
-94), Wi-looh-tah-eeh-tchah-ta-mah-nee (the red thing that touches
-in marching), and (+plate+ 95), Tchon-su-mons-ka (the sand bar). The
-first of these women (+plate+ 94), is the daughter of the famous chief
-called Black Rock, of whom I have spoken, and whose portrait has been
-given (+plate+ 91). She is an unmarried girl, and much esteemed by the
-whole tribe, for her modesty, as well as beauty. She was beautifully
-dressed in skins, ornamented profusely with brass buttons and beads.
-Her hair was plaited, her ears supported a great profusion of curious
-beads—and over her other dress she wore a handsomely garnished buffalo
-robe.
-
-So highly was the Black Rock esteemed (as I have before mentioned), and
-his beautiful daughter admired and respected by the Traders, that Mr.
-M‘Kenzie employed me to make him copies of their two portraits, which
-he has hung up in Mr. Laidlaw’s trading-house, as valued ornaments and
-keepsakes.[10]
-
-The second of these women (+plate+ 95) was very richly dressed, the
-upper part of her garment being almost literally covered with brass
-buttons; and her hair, which was inimitably beautiful and soft, and
-glossy as silk, fell over her shoulders in great profusion, and in
-beautiful waves, produced by the condition in which it is generally
-kept in braids, giving to it, when combed out, a waving form, adding
-much to its native appearance, which is invariably straight and
-graceless.
-
-This woman is at present the wife of a white man by the name of
-Chardon, a Frenchman, who has been many years in the employment of the
-American Fur Company, in the character of a Trader and Interpreter;
-and who by his bold and daring nature, has not only carried dread and
-consternation amongst the Indian tribes wherever he has gone; but
-has commanded much respect, and rendered essential service to the
-Company in the prosecution of their dangerous and critical dealings
-with the Indian tribes. I have said something of this extraordinary
-man heretofore, and shall take future occasion to say more of him.
-For the present, suffice it to say, that although from his continual
-intercourse with the different tribes for twenty-five or thirty years,
-where he had always been put forward in the front of danger—sent
-as a sacrifice, or _forlorn hope_; still his cut and hacked limbs
-have withstood all the blows that have been aimed at them; and his
-unfaltering courage leads him to “beard the lion in his den,” whilst
-his liberal heart, as it always has, deals out to his friends (and even
-to strangers, if friends are not by) all the dear earnings which are
-continually bought with severest toil, and at the hazard of his life.
-
-I acknowledge myself a debtor to this good hearted fellow for much
-kindness and attention to me whilst in the Indian country, and also for
-a superb dress and robe, which had been manufactured and worn by his
-wife, and which he insisted on adding to my +Indian Gallery+ since her
-death, where it will long remain to be examined.[11]
-
-  [6] When passing by the site of the Puncah village a few months
-  after this, in my canoe, I went ashore with my men, and found the
-  poles and the buffalo skin, standing as they were left, over the
-  old man’s head. The firebrands were lying nearly as I had left
-  them, and I found at a few yards distant the skull, and others of
-  his bones, which had been picked and cleaned by the wolves; which
-  is probably all that any human being can ever know of his final and
-  melancholy fate.
-
-
-  [7] On this march we were all travelling in moccasins, which being
-  made without any soles, according to the Indian custom, had but
-  little support for the foot underneath; and consequently, soon
-  subjected us to excruciating pain, whilst walking according to the
-  civilized mode, with the toes turned out. From this very painful
-  experience I learned to my complete satisfaction, that man in a
-  state of nature who walks on his naked feet, _must_ walk with his
-  toes turned in, that each may perform the duties assigned to it in
-  proportion to its size and strength; and that civilized man _can_
-  walk with his toes turned out if he chooses, if he will use a stiff
-  sole under his feet, and will be content at last to put up with an
-  acquired deformity of the big toe joint which too many know to be a
-  frequent and painful occurrence.
-
-
-  [8] Several years after I painted the portrait of this
-  extraordinary man, and whilst I was delivering my Lectures in the
-  City of New York, I first received intelligence of his death,
-  in the following singular manner:—I was on the platform in my
-  Lecture-room, in the Stuyvesant Institute, with an audience of
-  twelve or fourteen hundred persons, in the midst of whom were
-  seated a delegation of thirty or forty Sioux Indians under the
-  charge of Major Pilcher, their agent; and I was successfully
-  passing before their eyes the portraits of a number of Sioux
-  chiefs, and making my remarks upon them. The Sioux instantly
-  recognized each one as it was exhibited, which they instantly
-  hailed by a sharp and startling yelp. But when the portrait of this
-  chief was placed before them, instead of the usual recognition,
-  each one placed his hand over his mouth, and gave a “hush—sh—” and
-  hung down their heads, their usual expressions of grief in case of
-  a death. From this sudden emotion, I knew instantly, that the chief
-  must be dead, and so expressed my belief to the audience. I stopped
-  my Lecture a few moments to converse with Major Pilcher who was by
-  my side, and who gave me the following extraordinary account of his
-  death, which I immediately related to the audience; and which being
-  translated to the Sioux Indians, their chief arose and addressed
-  himself to the audience, saying that the account was true, and that
-  Ha-wan-je-tah was killed but a few days before they left home.
-
-  The account which Major Pilcher gave was nearly as follows:—
-
-  “But a few weeks before I left the Sioux country with the
-  delegation, Ha-wan-je-tah (the one horn) had in some way been the
-  accidental cause of the death of his only son, a very fine youth;
-  and so great was the anguish of his mind at times, that he became
-  frantic and insane. In one of these moods he mounted his favourite
-  war-horse with his bow and his arrows in his hand, and dashed off
-  at full speed upon the prairies, repeating the most solemn oath,
-  ‘that he would slay the first living thing that fell in his way, be
-  it man or beast, or friend or foe.’
-
-  “No one dared to follow him, and after he had been absent an hour
-  or two, his horse came back to the village with two arrows in its
-  body, and covered with blood! Fears of the most serious kind were
-  now entertained for the fate of the chief, and a party of warriors
-  immediately mounted their horses, and retraced the animal’s tracks
-  to the place of the tragedy, where they found the body of their
-  chief horribly mangled and gored by a buffalo bull, whose carcass
-  was stretched by the side of him.
-
-  “A close examination of the ground was then made by the Indians,
-  who ascertained by the tracks, that their unfortunate chief, under
-  his unlucky resolve, had met a buffalo bull in the season when
-  they are very stubborn, and unwilling to run from any one; and
-  had incensed the animal by shooting a number of arrows into him,
-  which had brought him into furious combat. The chief had then
-  dismounted, and turned his horse loose, having given it a couple of
-  arrows from his bow, which sent it home at full speed, and then had
-  thrown away his bow and quiver, encountering the infuriated animal
-  with his knife alone, and the desperate battle resulted as I have
-  before-mentioned, in the death of both. Many of the bones of the
-  chief were broken, as he was gored and stamped to death, and his
-  huge antagonist had laid his body by the side of him, weltering in
-  blood from an hundred wounds made by the chief’s long and two-edged
-  knife.”
-
-  So died this elegant and high-minded nobleman of the wilderness,
-  whom I confidently had hoped to meet and admire again at some
-  future period of my life. (_Vide_ +plate+ 86).
-
-
-  [9] _Wampum_ is the Indian name of ornaments manufactured by the
-  Indians from vari-coloured shells, which they get on the shores of
-  the fresh water streams, and file or cut into bits of half an inch,
-  or an inch in length, and perforate (giving to them the shape of
-  pieces of broken pipe stems), which they string on deers’ sinews,
-  and wear on their necks in profusion; or weave them ingeniously
-  into war-belts for the waist.
-
-  Amongst the numerous tribes who have formerly inhabited the
-  Atlantic Coast, and that part of the country which now constitutes
-  the principal part of the United States, wampum has been invariably
-  manufactured, and highly valued as a circulating medium (instead of
-  coins, of which the Indians have no knowledge); so many strings, or
-  so many hands-breadth, being the fixed value of a horse, a gun, a
-  robe, &c.
-
-  In treaties, the wampum belt has been passed as the pledge of
-  friendship, and from time immemorial sent to hostile tribes, as the
-  messenger of peace; or paid by so many fathoms length, as tribute
-  to conquering enemies, and Indian kings.
-
-  It is a remarkable fact, and worthy of observation in this place,
-  that after I passed the Mississippi, I saw but very little wampum
-  used; and on ascending the Missouri, I do not recollect to have
-  seen it worn at all by the Upper Missouri Indians, although the
-  same materials for its manufacture are found in abundance through
-  those regions. I met with but very few strings of it amongst the
-  Missouri Sioux, and nothing of it amongst the tribes north and
-  west of them. Below the Sioux, and along the whole of our Western
-  frontier, the different tribes are found loaded and beautifully
-  ornamented with it, which they can now afford to do, for they
-  consider it of little value, as the Fur Traders have ingeniously
-  introduced a spurious imitation of it, manufactured by steam or
-  otherwise, of porcelain or some composition closely resembling it,
-  with which they have flooded the whole Indian country, and sold at
-  so reduced a price, as to cheapen, and consequently destroy, the
-  value and meaning of the original wampum, a string of which can now
-  but very rarely be found in any part of the country.
-
-
-  [10] Several years after I left the Sioux country, I saw Messrs.
-  Chardon and Piquot, two of the Traders from that country, who
-  recently had left it, and told me in St. Louis, whilst looking at
-  the portrait of this girl, that while staying in Mr. Laidlaw’s
-  Fort, the chief, Black Rock, entered the room suddenly where the
-  portrait of his daughter was hanging on the wall, and pointing to
-  it with a heavy heart, told Mr. Laidlaw, that whilst his band was
-  out on the prairies, where they had been for several months “making
-  meat,” his daughter had died, and was there buried. “My heart is
-  glad again,” said he, “when I see her here alive; and I want the
-  one the medicine-man made of her, which is now before me, that I
-  can see her, and talk to her. My band are all in mourning for her,
-  and at the gate of your Fort, which I have just passed, are ten
-  horses for you, and Ee-ah-sa-pa’s wigwam, which you know is the
-  best one in the Sioux nation. I wish you to take down my daughter
-  and give her to me.” Mr. Laidlaw, seeing the _unusually_ liberal
-  price that this nobleman was willing to pay for a portrait, and
-  the true grief that he expressed for the loss of his child, had
-  not the heart to abuse such noble feeling; and taking the painting
-  from the wall, placed it into his hands; telling him that it of
-  right belonged to him, and that his horses and wigwam he must take
-  back and keep them, to mend, as far as possible, his liberal heart,
-  which was broken by the loss of his only daughter.
-
-
-  [11] Several years since writing the above, I made a visit with
-  my wife, to the venerable parent of Mr. Chardon, who lives in her
-  snug and neat mansion, near the City of Philadelphia, where we were
-  treated with genuine politeness and hospitality. His mother and two
-  sisters, who are highly respectable, had many anxious questions
-  to ask about him; and had at the same time, living with them, a
-  fine-looking half-breed boy, about ten years old, the son of Monsr.
-  Chardon and his Indian wife, whom I have above spoken of. This fine
-  boy who had received the name of Bolivar, had been brought from the
-  Indian country by the father, and left here for his education, with
-  which they were taking great pains.
-
-
-
-
-                             LETTER—No. 28.
-
-                MOUTH OF TETON RIVER, _UPPER MISSOURI_.
-
-
-Whilst painting the portraits of the chiefs and braves of the Sioux,
-as described in my last epistle, my painting-room was the continual
-rendezvous of the worthies of the tribe; and I, the “lion of the day,”
-and my art, the _summum_ and _ne plus ultra_ of mysteries, which
-engaged the whole conversation of chiefs and sachems, as well as of
-women and children. I mentioned that I have been obliged to paint them
-according to rank, as they looked upon the operation as a very great
-honour, which I, as “a great chief and medicine-man,” was conferring on
-all who sat to me. Fortunate it was for me, however, that the honour
-was not a sufficient inducement for all to overcome their fears, which
-often stood in the way of their consenting to be painted; for if all
-had been willing to undergo the operation, I should have progressed
-but a very little way in the “_rank and file_” of their worthies; and
-should have had to leave many discontented, and (as they would think)
-neglected. About one in five or eight was willing to be painted, and
-the rest thought they would be much more sure of “sleeping quiet in
-their graves” after they were dead, if their pictures were not made. By
-this lucky difficulty I got great relief, and easily got through with
-those who were willing, and at the same time decided by the chiefs to
-be worthy, of so signal an honour.
-
-After I had done with the chiefs and braves, and proposed to paint a
-few of the women, I at once got myself into a serious perplexity, being
-heartily laughed at by the whole tribe, both by men and by women, for
-my exceeding and (to them) unaccountable condescension in seriously
-proposing to paint a woman; conferring on her the same honour that
-I had done the chiefs and braves. Those whom I had honoured, were
-laughed at by hundreds of the jealous, who had been decided unworthy
-the distinction, and were now amusing themselves with the _very
-enviable honour_ which the _great white medicine-man_ had conferred,
-_especially_ on _them_, and was now to confer equally upon the _squaws_!
-
-The first reply that I received from those whom I had painted, was,
-that if I was to paint women and children, the sooner I destroyed
-_their_ pictures, the better; for I had represented to them that I
-wanted their pictures to exhibit to white chiefs, to shew who were
-the most distinguished and worthy of the Sioux; and their women had
-never taken scalps, nor did anything better than make fires and dress
-skins. I was quite awkward in this dilemma, in explaining to them
-that I wanted the portraits of the women to hang _under_ those of
-their husbands, merely to shew how their women _looked_, and how they
-_dressed_, without saying any more of them. After some considerable
-delay of my operations, and much deliberation on the subject, through
-the village, I succeeded in getting a number of women’s portraits, of
-which the two above introduced are a couple.
-
-The vanity of these men, after they had agreed to be painted was beyond
-all description, and far surpassing that which is oftentimes immodest
-enough in civilized society, where the sitter generally leaves the
-picture, when it is done to speak for, and to take care of, itself;
-while an Indian often lays down, from morning till night, in front of
-his portrait, admiring his own beautiful face, and faithfully guarding
-it from day to day, to save it from accident or harm.
-
-This _watching_ or _guarding_ their portraits, I have observed during
-all of my travels amongst them as a very curious thing; and in many
-instances, where my colours were not dry, and subjected to so many
-accidents, from the crowds who were gathering about them, I have found
-this peculiar guardianship of essential service to me—relieving my mind
-oftentimes from a great deal of anxiety.
-
-I was for a long time at a loss for the true cause of so singular
-a peculiarity, but at last learned that it was owing to their
-superstitious notion, that there may be life to a certain extent in the
-picture; and that if harm or violence be done to it, it may in some
-mysterious way, affect their health or do them other injury.
-
-After I had been several weeks busily at work with my brush in this
-village, and pretty well used to the modes of life in these regions—and
-also familiarly acquainted with all the officers and clerks of the
-Establishment, it was announced one day, that the steamer which we had
-left, was coming in the river below, where all eyes were anxiously
-turned, and all ears were listening; when, at length, we discovered the
-puffing of her steam; and, at last, heard the thundering of her cannon,
-which were firing from her deck.
-
-The excitement and dismay caused amongst 6000 of these wild people,
-when the steamer came up in front of their village, was amusing in the
-extreme. The steamer was moored at the shore, however; and when Mr.
-Chouteau and Major Sanford, their old friend and agent, walked ashore,
-it seemed to restore their confidence and courage; and the whole
-village gathered in front of the boat, without showing much further
-amazement, or even curiosity about it.
-
-The steamer rested a week or two at this place before she started on
-her voyage for the head-waters of the Missouri; during which time,
-there was much hilarity and mirth indulged in amongst the Indians, as
-well as with the hands employed in the service of the Fur Company. The
-appearance of a steamer in this wild country was deemed a wonderful
-occurrence, and the time of her presence here, looked upon, and used
-as a holiday. Some sharp encounters amongst the trappers, who come
-in here from the mountains, loaded with packs of furs, with sinews
-hardened by long exposure, and seemingly impatient for a _fight_, which
-is soon given them by some bullying fisticuff-fellow, who steps forward
-and settles the matter in a ring, which is made and strictly preserved
-for _fair play_, until hard raps, and bloody noses, and blind eyes
-“_settle the hash_,” and satisfy his trappership to lay in bed a week
-or two, and then graduate, a sober and a civil man.
-
-Amongst the Indians we have had numerous sights and
-amusements to entertain and some to shock us. Shows of
-dances—ball-plays—horse-racing—foot-racing, and wrestling in abundance.
-Feasting—fasting, and prayers we have also had; and penance and
-tortures, and almost every thing short of self-immolation.
-
-Some few days after the steamer had arrived, it was announced that
-a grand feast was to be given to the _great white chiefs_, who were
-visitors amongst them; and preparations were made accordingly for it.
-The two chiefs, Ha-wan-je-tah and Tchan-dee, of whom I have before
-spoken, brought their two tents together, forming the two into a
-semi-circle (+plate+ 96), enclosing a space sufficiently large to
-accommodate 150 men; and sat down with that number of the principal
-chiefs and warriors of the Sioux nation; with Mr. Chouteau, Major
-Sanford, the Indian agent, Mr. M‘Kenzie, and myself, whom they had
-invited in due time, and placed on elevated seats in the centre of the
-crescent; while the rest of the company all sat upon the ground, and
-mostly cross-legged, preparatory to the feast being dealt out.
-
-In the centre of the semi-circle was erected a flag-staff, on which
-was waving a white flag, and to which also was tied the calumet, both
-expressive of their friendly feelings towards us. Near the foot of the
-flag-staff were placed in a row on the ground, six or eight kettles,
-with iron covers on them, shutting them tight, in which were prepared
-the viands for our _voluptuous_ feast. Near the kettles, and on the
-ground also, bottomside upwards, were a number of wooden bowls, in
-which the meat was to be served out. And in front, two or three men,
-who were there placed as waiters, to light the pipes for smoking, and
-also to deal out the food.
-
-In these positions things stood, and all sat, with thousands climbing
-and crowding around, for a peep at the grand pageant; when at length,
-Ha-wan-je-tah (the one horn), head chief of the nation, rose in front
-of the Indian agent, in a very handsome costume, and addressed him
-thus:—“My father, I am glad to see you here to-day—my heart is always
-glad to see my father when he comes—our Great Father, who sends him
-here is very rich, and we are poor. Our friend Mr. M‘Kenzie, who
-is here, we are also glad to see; we know him well, and we shall
-be sorry when he is gone. Our friend who is on your right-hand we
-all know is very rich; and we have heard that he owns the great
-_medicine-canoe_; he is a good man, and a friend to the red men. Our
-friend the _White Medicine_, who sits with you, we did not know—he
-came amongst us a stranger, and he has made me very well—all the women
-know it, and think it very good; he has done many curious things, and
-we have all been pleased with him—he has made us much amusement—and we
-know he is great medicine.
-
-[Illustration: 98]
-
-“My father, I hope you will have pity on us, we are very poor—we offer
-you to-day, not the best that we have got; for we have a plenty of good
-buffalo hump and marrow—but we give you our hearts in this feast—we
-have killed our faithful dogs to feed you—and the Great Spirit will
-seal our friendship. I have no more to say.”
-
-After these words he took off his beautiful war-eagle head-dress—his
-shirt and leggings—his necklace of grizzly bears’ claws and his
-moccasins; and tying them together, laid them gracefully down at the
-feet of the agent as a present; and laying a handsome pipe on top of
-them, he walked around into an adjoining lodge, where he got a buffalo
-robe to cover his shoulders, and returned to the feast, taking his seat
-which he had before occupied.
-
-Major Sanford then rose and made a short speech in reply, thanking
-him for the valuable present which he had made him, and for the very
-polite and impressive manner in which it had been done; and sent to the
-steamer for a quantity of tobacco and other presents, which were given
-to him in return. After this, and after several others of the chiefs
-had addressed him in a similar manner; and, like the first, disrobed
-themselves, and thrown their beautiful costumes at his feet, one of the
-three men in front deliberately lit a handsome pipe, and brought it to
-Ha-wan-je-tah to smoke. He took it, and after presenting the stem to
-the North—to the South—to the East, and the West—and then to the Sun
-that was over his head, and pronounced the words “How—how—how!” drew
-a whiff or two of smoke through it, and holding the bowl of it in one
-hand, and its stem in the other, he then held it to each of our mouths,
-as we successively smoked it; after which it was passed around through
-the whole group, who all smoked through it, or as far as its contents
-lasted, when another of the three waiters was ready with a second, and
-at length a third one, in the same way, which lasted through the hands
-of the whole number of guests. This smoking was conducted with the
-strictest adherence to exact and established form, and the feast the
-whole way, to the most positive silence. After the pipe is charged, and
-is being lit, until the time that the chief has drawn the smoke through
-it, it is considered an evil omen for any one to speak; and if any one
-break silence in that time, even in a whisper, the pipe is instantly
-dropped by the chief, and their superstition is such, that they would
-not dare to use it on this occasion; but another one is called for
-and used in its stead. If there is no accident of the kind during the
-smoking, the waiters then proceed to distribute the meat, which is soon
-devoured in the feast.
-
-In his case the lids were raised from the kettles, which were all
-filled with dogs’ meat alone. It being well-cooked, and made into a
-sort of a stew, sent forth a very savoury and pleasing smell, promising
-to be an acceptable and palatable food. Each of us civilized guests had
-a large wooden bowl placed before us, with a huge quantity of dogs’
-flesh floating in a profusion of soup, or rich gravy, with a large
-spoon resting in the dish, made of the buffalo’s horn. In this most
-difficult and painful dilemma we sat; all of us knowing the solemnity
-and good feeling in which it was given, and the absolute necessity of
-falling to, and devouring a little of it. We all tasted it a few times,
-and resigned our dishes, which were quite willingly taken, and passed
-around with others, to every part of the group, who all ate heartily of
-the _delicious viands_, which were soon dipped out of the kettles, and
-entirely devoured; after which each one arose as he felt disposed, and
-walked off without uttering a word. In this way the feast ended, and
-all retired silently, and gradually, until the ground was left vacant
-to the charge of the waiters or officers, who seemed to have charge of
-it during the whole occasion.
-
-This feast was unquestionably given to us, as the most undoubted
-evidence they could give us of their friendship; and we, who knew
-the spirit and feeling in which it was given, could not but treat it
-respectfully, and receive it as a very high and marked compliment.
-
-Since I witnessed it on this occasion, I have been honoured with
-numerous entertainments of the kind amongst the other tribes, which I
-have visited towards the sources of the Missouri, and all conducted in
-the same solemn and impressive manner; from which I feel authorized to
-pronounce the _dog-feast_ a truly religious ceremony, wherein the poor
-Indian sees fit to sacrifice his faithful companion to bear testimony
-to the sacredness of his vows of friendship, and invite his friend to
-partake of its flesh, to remind him forcibly of the reality of the
-sacrifice, and the solemnity of his professions.
-
-The dog, amongst all Indian tribes, is more esteemed and more valued
-than amongst any part of the civilized world; the Indian who has more
-time to devote to his company, and whose untutored mind more nearly
-assimilates to that of his faithful servant, keeps him closer company,
-and draws him nearer to his heart; they hunt together, and are equal
-sharers in the chase—their bed is one; and on the rocks, and on their
-coats of arms they carve his image as the symbol of fidelity. Yet, with
-all of these he will end his affection with this faithful follower, and
-with tears in his eyes, offer him as a sacrifice to seal the pledge he
-has made to man; because a feast of venison, or of buffalo meat, is
-what is due to every one who enters an Indian’s wigwam; and of course,
-conveys but a passive or neutral evidence, that generally goes for
-nothing.
-
-I have sat at many of these feasts, and never could but appreciate
-the moral and solemnity of them. I have seen the master take from the
-bowl the head of his victim, and descant on its former affection and
-fidelity with tears in his eyes. And I have seen guests at the same
-time by the side of me, jesting and sneering at the poor Indian’s folly
-and stupidity; and I have said in my heart, that they never deserved a
-name so good or so honourable as that of the poor animal whose bones
-they were picking.
-
-At the feast which I have been above describing, each of us tasted a
-little of the meat, and passed the dishes on to the Indians, who soon
-demolished everything they contained. We all agreed that the meat was
-well cooked, and seemed to be a well-flavoured and palatable food; and
-no doubt, could have been eaten with a good relish, if we had been
-hungry, and ignorant of the nature of the food we were eating.
-
-The flesh of these dogs, though apparently relished by the Indians,
-is, undoubtedly, inferior to the venison and buffalo’s meat, of which
-feasts are constantly made where friends are invited, as they are in
-civilized society, to a pleasant and convivial party; from which fact
-alone, it would seem clear, that they have some extraordinary motive,
-at all events, for feasting on the flesh of that useful and faithful
-animal; even when, as in the instance I have been describing, their
-village is well supplied with fresh and dried meat of the buffalo. The
-dog-feast is given, I believe, by all tribes in North America; and
-by them all, I think, this faithful animal, as well as the horse, is
-sacrificed in several different ways, to appease offended Spirits or
-Deities, whom it is considered necessary that they should conciliate in
-this way; and when done, is invariably done by giving the best in the
-herd or the kennel.
-
-
-
-
-                             LETTER—No. 29.
-
-                MOUTH OF TETON RIVER, _UPPER MISSOURI_.
-
-
-Another curious and disgusting scene I witnessed in the after part of
-the day on which we were honoured with the dog feast. In this I took no
-part, but was sufficiently near to it, when standing some rods off, and
-witnessing the cruel operation. I was called upon by one of the clerks
-in the Establishment to ride up a mile or so, near the banks of the
-Teton River, in a little plain at the base of the bluffs, where were
-grouped some fifteen or twenty lodges of the Ting-ta-to-ah band, to see
-a man (as they said) “_looking at the sun_!” We found him naked, except
-his breech-cloth, with splints or skewers run through the flesh on both
-breasts, leaning back and hanging with the weight of his body to the
-top of a pole which was fastened in the ground, and to the upper end
-of which he was fastened by a cord which was tied to the splints. In
-this position he was leaning back, with nearly the whole weight of his
-body hanging to the pole, the top of which was bent forward, allowing
-his body to sink about half-way to the ground (+plate+ 97). His feet
-were still upon the ground, supporting a small part of his weight; and
-he held in his left hand his favourite bow, and in his right, with a
-desperate grip, his medicine-bag. In this condition, with the blood
-trickling down over his body, which was covered with white and yellow
-clay, and amidst a great crowd who were looking on, sympathizing with
-and encouraging him, he was hanging and “looking at the sun,” without
-paying the least attention to any one about him. In the group that was
-reclining around him, were several mystery-men beating their drums
-and shaking their rattles, and singing as loud as they could yell, to
-encourage him and strengthen his heart to stand and look at the sun,
-from its rising in the morning ’till its setting at night; at which
-time, if his heart and his strength have not failed him, he is “cut
-down,” receives the liberal donation of presents (which have been
-thrown into a pile before him during the day), and also the name and
-the style of a doctor, or _medicine-man_, which lasts him, and ensures
-him respect, through life.
-
-This most extraordinary and cruel custom I never heard of amongst any
-other tribe, and never saw an instance of it before or after the one I
-have just named. It is a sort of worship, or penance, of great cruelty;
-disgusting and painful to behold, with only one palliating circumstance
-about it, which is, that it is a voluntary torture and of very rare
-occurrence. The poor and ignorant, misguided and superstitious man who
-undertakes it, puts his everlasting reputation at stake upon the issue;
-for when he takes his stand, he expects to face the sun and gradually
-turn his body in listless silence, till he sees it go down at night;
-and if he faints and falls, of which there is imminent danger, he loses
-his reputation as a brave or mystery-man, and suffers a signal disgrace
-in the estimation of the tribe, like all men who have the presumption
-to set themselves up for braves or mystery-men, and fail justly to
-sustain the character.
-
-The Sioux seem to have many modes of worshipping the Great or Good
-Spirit, and also of conciliating the Evil Spirit: they have numerous
-fasts and feasts, and many modes of sacrificing, but yet they seem
-to pay less strict attention to them than the Mandans do, which may
-perhaps be owing in a great measure to the wandering and predatory
-modes of life which they pursue, rendering it difficult to adhere so
-rigidly to the strict form and letter of their customs.
-
-There had been, a few days before I arrived at this place, a great
-medicine operation held on the prairie, a mile or so back of the Fort,
-and which, of course, I was not lucky enough to see. The poles were
-still standing, and the whole transaction was described to me by my
-friend Mr. Halsey, one of the clerks in the Establishment. From the
-account given of it, it seems to bear some slight resemblance to that
-of the _Mandan religious ceremony_, but no nearer to it than a feeble
-effort by so ignorant and superstitious a people, to copy a custom
-which they most probably have had no opportunity to see themselves, but
-have endeavoured to imitate from hearsay. They had an awning of immense
-size erected on the prairie which is yet standing, made of willow
-bushes supported by posts, with poles and willow boughs laid over;
-under the centre of which there was a pole set firmly in the ground,
-from which many of the young men had suspended their bodies by splints
-run through the flesh in different parts, the numerous scars of which
-were yet seen bleeding afresh from day to day, amongst the crowds that
-were about me.
-
-During my stay amongst the Sioux, as I was considered by them to
-be great _medicine_, I received many pipes and other little things
-from them as presents, given to me in token of respect for me, and
-as assurances of their friendship; and I, being desirous to collect
-and bring from their country every variety of their manufactures, of
-their costumes, their weapons, their pipes, and their mystery-things,
-purchased a great many others, for which, as I was “medicine” and a
-“great white chief!” I was necessarily obliged to pay very _liberal_
-prices.
-
-Of the various costumes (of this, as well as of other tribes), that I
-have collected, there will be seen fair and faithful representations in
-the numerous portraits; and of their war-clubs, pipes, &c. I have set
-forth in the following illustrations, a few of the most interesting of
-the very great numbers of those things which I have collected in this
-and other tribes which I have visited.
-
-The luxury of smoking is known to all the North American Indians,
-in their primitive state, and that before they have any knowledge
-of tobacco; which is only introduced amongst them by civilized
-adventurers, who teach them the use and luxury of whiskey at the same
-time.
-
-In their native state they are excessive smokers, and many of them (I
-would almost venture the assertion), would seem to be smoking one-half
-of their lives. There may be two good reasons for this, the first
-of which is, that the idle and leisure life that the Indian leads,
-(who has no trade or business to follow—no office hours to attend
-to, or profession to learn), induces him to look for occupation and
-amusement in so innocent a luxury, which again further tempts him
-to its excessive use, from its feeble and harmless effects on the
-system. There are many weeds and leaves, and barks of trees, which are
-narcotics, and of spontaneous growth in their countries, which the
-Indians dry and pulverize, and carry in pouches and smoke to great
-excess—and which in several of the languages, when thus prepared, is
-called _k’nick k’neck_.
-
-As smoking is a luxury so highly valued by the Indians, they have
-bestowed much pains, and not a little ingenuity, to the construction
-of their pipes. Of these I have procured a collection of several
-hundreds, and in +plate+ 98, have given fac-simile outlines of a number
-of the most curious. The bowls of these are generally made of the red
-steatite, or “pipe-stone” (as it is more familiarly called in this
-country), and many of them designed and carved with much taste and
-skill, with figures and groups in _alto relievo_, standing or reclining
-upon them.
-
-The red stone of which these pipe bowls are made, is, in my estimation,
-a great curiosity; inasmuch as I am sure it is a variety of steatite
-(if it be steatite), differing from that of any known European
-locality, and also from any locality known in America, other than the
-one from which all these pipes come; and which are all traceable I have
-found to one source; and that source as yet unvisited except by the
-red man who describes it, everywhere, as a place of vast importance to
-the Indians—as given to them by the Great Spirit, for their pipes, and
-strictly forbidden to be used for anything else.
-
-The source from whence all these pipes come, is, undoubtedly, somewhere
-between this place and the Mississippi River; and as the Indians all
-speak of it as a great _medicine_-place, I shall certainly lay my
-course to it, ere long, and be able to give the world some account of
-it and its mysteries.
-
-The Indians shape out the bowls of these pipes from the solid stone,
-which is not quite as hard as marble, with nothing but a knife. The
-stone which is of a cherry red, admits of a beautiful polish, and the
-Indian makes the hole in the bowl of the pipe, by drilling into it a
-hard stick, shaped to the desired size, with a quantity of sharp sand
-and water kept constantly in the hole, subjecting him therefore to a
-very great labour and the necessity of much patience.
-
-[Illustration: 99]
-
-The shafts or stems of these pipes, as will be seen in +plate+ 98, are
-from two to four feet long, sometimes round, but most generally flat;
-of an inch or two in breadth, and wound half their length or more with
-braids of porcupines’ quills; and often ornamented with the beaks and
-tufts from the wood-pecker’s head, with ermine skins and long red hair,
-dyed from white horse hair or the white buffalo’s tail.
-
-The stems of these pipes will be found to be carved in many ingenious
-forms, and in all cases they are perforated through the centre, quite
-staggering the wits of the enlightened world to _guess how_ the
-holes have been _bored_ through them; until it is simply and briefly
-explained, that the stems are uniformly made of the stalk of the young
-ash, which generally grows straight, and has a small pith through the
-centre, which is easily burned out with a hot wire or a piece of hard
-wood, by a much slower process.
-
-In +plate+ 98, the pipes marked _b_ are ordinary pipes, made and used
-for the _luxury_ only of smoking; and for this purpose, every Indian
-designs and constructs his own pipe. The _calumet_, or pipe of peace
-(+plate+ 98 _a_), ornamented with the war-eagle’s quills, is a sacred
-pipe, and never allowed to be used on any other occasion than that of
-_peace-making_; when the chief brings it into treaty, and unfolding the
-many bandages which are carefully kept around it—has it ready to be
-mutually smoked by the chiefs, after the terms of the treaty are agreed
-upon, as the means of _solemnizing_ or _signing_, by an illiterate
-people, who cannot draw up an instrument, and sign their names to it,
-as it is done in the civilized world.
-
-The mode of solemnizing is by passing the sacred stem to each chief,
-who draws one breath of smoke only through it, thereby passing the most
-inviolable pledge that they can possibly give, for the keeping of the
-peace. This sacred pipe is then carefully folded up, and stowed away in
-the chief’s lodge, until a similar occasion calls it out to be used in
-a similar manner.
-
-There is no custom more uniformly in constant use amongst the poor
-Indians than that of smoking, nor any other more highly valued. His
-pipe is his constant companion through life—his messenger of peace;
-he pledges his friends through its stem and its bowl—and when its
-care-drowning fumes cease to flow, it takes a place with him in his
-solitary grave, with his tomahawk and war-club, companions to his long
-fancied, “mild and beautiful hunting-grounds.”
-
-The weapons of these people, like their pipes, are numerous, and mostly
-manufactured by themselves. In a former place (+plate+ 18) I have
-described a part of these, such as the bows and arrows, lances, &c.,
-and they have yet many others, specimens of which I have collected
-from every tribe; and a number of which I have grouped together in
-+plate+ 99; consisting of knives, war-clubs, and tomahawks. I have
-here introduced the most general and established forms that are in
-use amongst the different tribes, which are all strictly copied
-from amongst the great variety of these articles to be found in my
-Collection.
-
-The scalping-knives _a_ and _b_, and tomahawks _e_ _e_ _e_ _e_ are
-of civilized manufacture, made expressly for Indian use, and carried
-into the Indian country by thousands and tens of thousands, and sold
-at an enormous price. The scabbards of the knives and handles for
-the tomahawks, the Indians construct themselves, according to their
-own taste, and oftentimes ornament them very handsomely. In his rude
-and unapproached condition, the Indian is a stranger to such weapons
-as these—he works not in the metals; and his untutored mind has not
-been ingenious enough to design or execute anything so _savage_ or
-destructive as these civilized _refinements on Indian barbarity_. In
-his native simplicity he shapes out his rude hatchet from a piece of
-stone, as in letter _f_, heads his arrows and spears with flints; and
-his knife is a sharpened bone, or the edge of a broken silex. The
-war-club _c_ is also another civilized refinement, with a blade of
-steel, of eight or ten inches in length, and set in a club, studded
-around and ornamented with some hundreds of brass nails.
-
-Their primitive clubs _d_ are curiously carved in wood, and fashioned
-out with some considerable picturesque form and grace; are admirably
-fitted to the hand, and calculated to deal a deadly blow with the spike
-of iron or bone which is imbedded in the ball or bulb at the end.
-
-Two of the tomahawks that I have named, marked _e_, are what are
-denominated “pipe-tomahawks,” as the heads of them are formed into
-bowls like a pipe, in which their tobacco is put, and they smoke
-through the handle. These are the most valued of an Indian’s weapons,
-inasmuch as they are a matter of luxury, and useful for cutting his
-fire-wood, &c. in time of peace; and deadly weapons in time of war,
-which they use in the hand, or throw with unerring and deadly aim.
-
-The scalping-knife _b_ in a beautiful scabbard, which is carried under
-the belt, is the form of knife most generally used in all parts of
-the Indian country, where knives have been introduced. It is a common
-and cheap butcher knife with one edge, manufactured at Sheffield, in
-England, perhaps, for sixpence; and sold to the poor Indian in these
-wild regions for a horse. If I should live to get home, and should ever
-cross the Atlantic with my Collection, a curious enigma would be solved
-for the English people, who may enquire for a scalping-knife, when they
-find that every one in my Collection (and hear also, that nearly every
-one that is to be seen in the Indian country, to the Rocky Mountains
-and the Pacific Ocean) bears on its blade the impress of G.R., which
-they will doubtless understand.
-
-The huge two-edged knife, with its scabbard of a part of the skin of a
-grizzly bear’s head, letter _a_, is one belonging to the famous chief
-of the Mandans, of whom I have before said much. The manufacture of
-this knife is undoubtedly American; and its shape differs altogether
-from those which are in general use.[12]
-
-[Illustration: 100]
-
-The above weapons, as well as the bow and lance, of which I have before
-spoken, are all carried and used on horseback with great effect. The
-Indians in this country of green fields, all _ride_ for their enemies,
-and also for their game, which is almost invariably killed whilst
-their horses are at full-speed. They are all cruel masters for their
-horses; and in war or the chase goad them on with a heavy and cruel
-whip (+plate+ 99 _g_), the handle of which is generally made of a large
-prong of the elk’s horn or of wood, and the lashes of rawhide are very
-heavy; being braided, or twisted, or cut into wide straps. These are
-invariably attached to the wrist of the right arm by a tough thong, so
-that they can be taken up and used at any moment, and dropped the next,
-without being lost.
-
-During the time that I was engaged in painting my portraits, I was
-occasionally inducing the young men to give me their dances, a great
-variety of which they gave me by being slightly paid; which I was glad
-to do, in order to enable me to study their character and expression
-thoroughly, which I am sure I have done; and I shall take pleasure in
-shewing them to the world when I get back. The dancing is generally
-done by the young men, and considered undignified for the chiefs or
-doctors to join in. Yet so great was my _medicine_, that chiefs and
-medicine-men turned out and agreed to compliment me with a dance
-(+plate+ 100). I looked on with great satisfaction; having been assured
-by the Interpreters and Traders, that this was the highest honour they
-had ever known them to pay to any stranger amongst them.
-
-In this dance, which I have called “the dance of the chiefs,” for want
-of a more significant title, was given by fifteen or twenty chiefs and
-doctors; many of whom were very old and venerable men. All of them came
-out in their head-dresses of war-eagle quills, with a spear or staff in
-the left hand, and a rattle in the right. It was given in the midst of
-the Sioux village, in front of the head chief’s lodge; and beside the
-medicine-man who beat on the drum, and sang for the dance, there were
-four young women standing in a row, and chanting a sort of chorus for
-the dancers; forming one of the very few instances that I ever have
-met, where the women are allowed to take any part in the dancing, or
-other game or amusement, with the men.
-
-This dance was a very spirited thing, and pleased me much, as well as
-all the village, who were assembled around to witness what most of them
-never before had seen, their aged and venerable chiefs united in giving
-a dance.
-
-As I have introduced the _scalping-knife_ above, it may be well for
-me to give some further account in this place of the custom and the
-mode of taking the scalp; a custom practiced by all the North American
-Indians, which is done when an enemy is killed in battle, by grasping
-the left hand into the hair on the crown of the head, and passing the
-knife around it through the skin, tearing off a piece of the skin with
-the hair, as large as the palm of the hand, or larger, which is dried,
-and often curiously ornamented and preserved, and highly valued as a
-trophy. The scalping is an operation not calculated of itself to take
-life, as it only removes the skin, without injuring the bone of the
-head; and necessarily, to be a genuine scalp, must contain and show the
-crown or centre of the head; that part of the skin which lies directly
-over what the phrenologists call “self-esteem,” where the hair divides
-and radiates from the centre; of which they all profess to be strict
-judges, and able to decide whether an effort has been made to produce
-two or more scalps from one head. Besides taking the scalp, the victor
-generally, if he has time to do it without endangering his own scalp,
-cuts off and brings home the rest of the hair, which his wife will
-divide into a great many small locks, and with them fringe off the
-seams of his shirt and his leggings, as will have been seen in many of
-the illustrations; which also are worn as trophies and ornaments to the
-dress, and then are familiarly called “_scalp-locks_.” Of these there
-are many dresses in my Collection, which exhibit a continuous row from
-the top of each shoulder, down the arms to the wrists, and down the
-seams of the leggings, from the hips to the feet, rendering them a very
-costly article to buy from the Indian who is not sure that his success
-in his military exploits will ever enable him to replace them.
-
-The scalp, then, is a patch of the skin taken from the head of an enemy
-killed in battle, and preserved and highly appreciated as the record of
-a death produced by the hand of the individual who possesses it; and
-may oftentimes during his life, be of great service to a man living
-in a community where there is no historian to enrol the names of the
-famous—to record the heroic deeds of the brave, who have gained their
-laurels in mortal combat with their enemies; where it is as lawful
-and as glorious to slay an enemy in battle, as it is in Christian
-communities, and where the poor Indian is bound to keep the record
-himself, or be liable to lose it and the honour, for no one in the
-tribe will keep it for him. As the scalp is taken then as the evidence
-of a death, it will easily be seen, that the Indian has no business or
-inclination to take it from the head of the living; which I venture to
-say is never done in North America, unless it be, as it sometimes has
-happened, where a man falls in the heat of battle, stunned with the
-blow of a weapon or a gunshot, and the Indian, rushing over his body,
-snatches off his scalp, supposing him dead, who afterwards rises from
-the field of battle, and easily recovers from this superficial wound
-of the knife, wearing a bald spot on his head during the remainder
-of his life, of which we have frequent occurrences on our Western
-frontiers. The scalp must be from the head of _an enemy_ also, or it
-subjects its possessor to disgrace and infamy who carries it. There
-may be many instances where an Indian is justified in the estimation
-of his tribe in taking the life of one of his own people; and their
-laws are such, as oftentimes make it his imperative duty; and yet no
-circumstances, however aggravating, will justify him or release him
-from the disgrace of taking the scalp.
-
-[Illustration: 101]
-
-There is no custom practised by the Indians, for which they are
-more universally condemned, than that of taking the scalp; and, at
-the same time, I think there is some excuse for them, inasmuch as
-it is a general custom of the country, and founded, like many other
-apparently absurd and ridiculous customs of these people, in one of
-the necessities of Indian life, which necessities we are free from in
-the civilized world, and which customs, of course, we need not and do
-not practice. From an ancient custom, “time out of mind,” the warriors
-of these tribes have been in the habit of going to war, expecting to
-take the scalps of their enemies whom they may slay in battle, and all
-eyes of the tribe are upon them, making it their duty to do it; so from
-custom it is every man’s right, and his duty also, to continue and keep
-up a regulation of his society, which it is not in his power as an
-individual, to abolish or correct, if he saw fit to do it.
-
-One of the principal denunciations against the custom of taking the
-scalp, is on account of its alleged _cruelty_, which it certainly has
-not; as the cruelty would be in the _killing_, and not in the act of
-cutting the skin from a man’s head after he is dead. To say the most of
-it, it is a disgusting custom, and I wish I could be quite sure that
-the civilized and Christian world (who kill hundreds, to where the poor
-Indians kill one), do not often treat their _enemies dead_, in equally
-as indecent and disgusting a manner, as the Indian does by taking the
-scalp.
-
-If the reader thinks that I am taking too much pains to defend the
-Indians for this, and others of their seemingly abominable customs,
-he will bear it in mind, that I have lived with these people, until I
-have learned the necessities of Indian life in which these customs are
-founded; and also, that I have met with so many acts of kindness and
-hospitality at the hands of the poor Indian, that I feel bound, when I
-can do it, to render what excuse I can for a people, who are dying with
-broken hearts, and never can speak in the civilized world in their own
-defence.
-
-And even yet, reader, if your education, and your reading of Indian
-cruelties and Indian barbarities—of scalps, and scalping-knives, and
-scalping, should have ossified a corner of your heart against these
-unfortunate people, and would shut out their advocate, I will annoy
-you no longer on this subject, but withdraw, and leave you to cherish
-the very beautiful, humane and parental moral that was carried out by
-the United States and British Governments during the last, and the
-revolutionary wars, when they mutually employed thousands of their
-“_Red children_,” to aid and to bleed, in fighting their battles, and
-paid them, according to contract, so many pounds, shillings and pence
-or so many dollars and cents for every “_scalp_” of a “red” or a “blue
-coat” they could bring in!
-
-In +plate+ 101, there will be seen the principal modes in which the
-scalps are prepared, and several of the uses to which they are put.
-The most usual way of preparing and dressing the scalp is that of
-stretching it on a little hoop at the end of a stick two or three feet
-long (letter _a_), for the purpose of “dancing it,” as they term it;
-which will be described in the _scalp-dance_, in a few moments. There
-are many again, which are small, and not “dressed;” sometimes not
-larger than a crown piece (letter _c_), and hung to different parts of
-the dress. In public shows and parades, they are often suspended from
-the bridle bits or halter when they are paraded and carried as trophies
-(letter _b_). Sometimes they are cut out, as it were into a string,
-the hair forming a beautiful fringe to line the handle of a war-club
-(letter _e_). Sometimes they are hung at the _end_ of a club (_letter
-d_), and at other times, by the order of the chief, are hung out, over
-the wigwams, suspended from a pole, which is called the “_scalp-pole_.”
-This is often done by the chief of a village, in a pleasant day, by his
-erecting over his wigwam a pole with all the scalps that he had taken,
-arranged upon it (letter _f_); at the sight of which all the chiefs and
-warriors of the tribe, who had taken scalps, “follow suit;” enabling
-every member of the community to stroll about the village on that day
-and “count scalps,” learning thereby the standing of every warrior,
-which is decided in a great degree by the number of scalps they have
-taken in battles with their enemies. Letters _g_, _g_, shew the usual
-manner of taking the scalp, and (letter _h_), exhibits the head of a
-man who had been scalped and recovered from the wound.
-
-So much for scalps and scalping, of which I shall yet say more, unless
-I should unluckily _lose one_ before I get out of the country.
-
-[Illustration: 101½]
-
-  [12] This celebrated knife is now in my +Indian Museum+, and
-  there is no doubt, from its authentic history, that it has been
-  several times plunged to the hearts of his enemies by the hand
-  of Mah-to-toh-pa, who wielded it. Several years after I left
-  that country, and one year after the destruction of the Mandans,
-  I received the following letter from Mr. M‘Kenzie, accompanying
-  the knife and other things sent to me by him from that country:
-  +Extract+—“The poor Mandans are gone, and amongst them your old
-  friend, Mah-to-toh-pa. I have been able to send you but a very few
-  things, as the Riccarees immediately took possession of everything
-  they had. Amongst the articles I have been able to procure, I send
-  you the war-knife of Mah-to-toh-pa, which is now looked upon as the
-  greatest _medicine_ in this country; and as you will recollect it,
-  it will be highly appreciated by you.”
-
-
-
-
-                             LETTER—No. 30.
-
-                MOUTH OF TETON RIVER, _UPPER MISSOURI_.
-
-
-In the last letter I gave an account of many of the weapons and
-other manufactures of these wild folks; and as this has been a day
-of _packing_ and _casing_ a great many of these things, which I have
-obtained of the Indians, to add to my _Musée Indienne_, I will name a
-few more, which I have just been handling over; some description of
-which may be necessary for the reader in endeavouring to appreciate
-some of their strange customs and amusements, which I am soon to
-unfold. In +plate+ 101½, letters _a_ and _b_, will be seen the _quiver_
-made of the fawn’s skin, and the Sioux _shield_ made of the skin of
-the buffalo’s neck, hardened with the glue extracted from the hoofs
-and joints of the same animal. The process of “_smoking the shield_”
-is a very curious, as well as an important one, in their estimation.
-For this purpose a young man about to construct him a shield, digs a
-hole of two feet in depth, in the ground, and as large in diameter
-as he designs to make his shield. In this he builds a fire, and over
-it, a few inches higher than the ground, he stretches the raw hide
-horizontally over the fire, with little pegs driven through holes made
-near the edges of the skin. This skin is at first, twice as large as
-the size of the required shield; but having got his particular and
-best friends (who are invited on the occasion,) into a ring, to dance
-and sing around it, and solicit the Great Spirit to instil into it the
-power to protect him harmless against his enemies, he spreads over
-it the glue, which is rubbed and dried in, as the skin is heated;
-and a second busily drives other and other pegs, inside of those in
-the ground, as they are gradually giving way and being pulled up
-by the contraction of the skin. By this curious process, which is
-most dexterously done, the skin is kept tight whilst it contracts to
-one-half of its size, taking up the glue and increasing in thickness
-until it is rendered as thick and hard as required (and his friends
-have pleaded long enough to make it arrow, and almost ball proof), when
-the dance ceases, and the fire is put out. When it is cooled and cut
-into the shape that he desires, it is often painted with his _medicine_
-or _totem_ upon it, the figure of an eagle, an owl, a buffalo or other
-animal, as the case may be, which he trusts will guard and protect him
-from harm; it is then fringed with eagles’ quills, or other ornaments
-he may have chosen, and _slung_ with a broad leather strap that crosses
-his breast. These shields are carried by all the warriors in these
-regions, for their protection in battles, which are almost invariably
-fought from their horses’ backs.
-
-Of _pipes_, and the custom of smoking, I have already spoken; and I
-then said, that the Indians use several substitutes for tobacco, which
-they call _K’nick K’neck_. For the carrying of this delicious weed or
-bark, and preserving its flavour, the women construct very curious
-pouches of otter, or beaver, or other skins (letters _c_, _c_, _c_,),
-which are ingeniously ornamented with porcupine quills and beads, and
-generally carried hanging across the left arm, containing a quantity of
-the precious _narcotic_, with flint and steel, and spunk, for lighting
-the pipe.
-
-The _musical instruments_ used amongst these people are few, and
-exceedingly rude and imperfect, consisting chiefly of rattles, drums,
-whistles, and lutes, all of which are used in the different tribes.
-
-In +plate+ 101½ (letters _d_, _d_,) will be seen the _rattles_ (or
-She-she-quois) most generally used, made of rawhide, which becomes
-very hard when dry, and charged with pebbles or something of the
-kind, which produce a shrill noise to mark the time in their dances
-and songs. Their _drums_ (letters _e_, _e_,) are made in a very rude
-manner, oftentimes with a mere piece of rawhide stretched over a hoop,
-very much in the shape of a tambourin; and at other times are made in
-the form of a keg, with a head of rawhide at each end; on these they
-beat with a drum-stick, which oftentimes itself is a rattle, the bulb
-or head of it being made of rawhide and filled with pebbles. In other
-instances the stick has, at its end, a little hoop wound and covered
-with buckskin, to soften the sound; with which they beat on the drum
-with great violence, as the chief and _heel-inspiring_ sound for all
-their dances, and also as an accompaniment for their numerous and
-never-ending songs of amusement, of thanksgiving, and _medicine_ or
-_metai_. The _mystery whistle_, (letter _f_,) is another instrument of
-their invention, and very ingeniously made, the sound being produced
-on a principle entirely different from that of any wind instrument
-known in civilized inventions; and the notes produced on it, by the
-sleight or trick of an Indian boy, in so simple and successful a
-manner, as to baffle entirely all civilized ingenuity, even when it
-is seen to be played. An Indian boy would stand and blow his notes on
-this repeatedly, for hundreds of white men who might be lookers-on, not
-one of whom could make the least noise on it, even by practising with
-it for hours. When I first saw this curious exhibition, I was charmed
-with the peculiar sweetness of its harmonic sounds, and completely
-perplexed, (as hundreds of white men have no doubt been before me, to
-the great amusement and satisfaction of the women and children,) as to
-the mode in which the sound was produced, even though it was repeatedly
-played immediately before my eyes, and handed to me for my vain and
-amusing endeavours. The sounds of this little simple toy are liquid and
-sweet beyond description; and, though here only given in harmonics,
-I am inclined to think, might, by some ingenious musician or musical
-instrument-maker, be modulated and converted into something very
-pleasing.
-
-The _War-whistle_ (letter _h_,) is a well known and valued little
-instrument, of six or nine inches in length, invariably made of
-the bone of the deer or turkey’s leg, and generally ornamented with
-porcupine quills of different colours which are wound around it. A
-chief or leader carries this to battle with him, suspended generally
-from his neck, and worn under his dress. This little instrument has
-but two notes, which are produced by blowing in the ends of it. The
-note produced in one end, being much more shrill than the other, gives
-the signal for battle, whilst the other sounds a retreat; a thing that
-is distinctly heard and understood by every man, even in the heat and
-noise of battle, where all are barking and yelling as loud as possible,
-and of course unable to hear the commands of their leader.
-
-[Illustration: 102]
-
-There is yet another wind instrument which I have added to my
-Collection, and from its appearance would seem to have been borrowed,
-in part, from the civilized world (letter _g_). This is what is often
-on the frontier called a “_deer-skin flute_,” a “Winnebago courting
-flute,” a “tsal-eet-quash-to,” &c.; it is perforated with holes for the
-fingers, sometimes for six, at others for four, and in some instances
-for three only, having only so many notes with their octaves. These
-notes are very irregularly graduated, showing clearly that they have
-very little taste or ear for melody. These instruments are blown in the
-end, and the sound produced much on the principle of a whistle.
-
-In the vicinity of the Upper Mississippi, I often and familiarly heard
-this instrument, called the Winnebago courting flute; and was credibly
-informed by traders and others in those regions, that the young men
-of that tribe meet with signal success, oftentimes, in wooing their
-sweethearts with its simple notes, which they blow for hours together,
-and from day to day, from the bank of some stream—some favourite rock
-or log on which they are seated, near to the wigwam which contains the
-object of their tender passion; until her soul is touched, and she
-responds by some welcome signal, that she is ready to repay the young
-_Orpheus_ for his pains, with the gift of her hand and her heart. How
-true these representations may have been made, I cannot say, but there
-certainly must have been some ground for the present cognomen by which
-it is known in that country.
-
-From these rude and exceedingly defective instruments, it will at once
-be seen, that music has made but little progress with these people; and
-the same fact will be still more clearly proved, to those who have an
-opportunity to hear their vocal exhibitions, which are daily and almost
-hourly serenading the ears of the traveller through their country.
-
-Dancing is one of the principal and most frequent amusements of all
-the tribes of Indians in America; and, in all of these, both vocal and
-instrumental music are introduced. These dances consist in about four
-different steps, which constitute all the different varieties: but the
-figures and forms of these scenes are very numerous, and produced by
-the most violent jumps and contortions, accompanied with the song and
-beats of the drum, which are given in exact time with their motions.
-It has been said by some travellers, that the Indian has neither
-harmony or melody in his music, but I am unwilling to subscribe to such
-an assertion; although I grant, that for the most part of their vocal
-exercises, there is a total absence of what the musical world would
-call melody; their songs being made up chiefly of a sort of violent
-chaunt of harsh and jarring gutturals, of yelps and barks, and screams,
-which are given out in perfect time, not only with “method (but with
-harmony) in their madness.” There are times too, as every traveller
-of the Indian country will attest, if he will recall them to his
-recollection, when the Indian lays down by his fire-side with his drum
-in his hand, which he lightly and almost imperceptibly touches over, as
-he accompanies it with his stifled voice of dulcet sounds that might
-come from the most tender and delicate female.
-
-These quiet and tender songs are very different from those which are
-sung at their dances, in full chorus and violent gesticulation; and
-many of them seem to be quite rich in plaintive expression and melody,
-though barren of change and variety.
-
-_Dancing_, I have before said, is one of the principal and most valued
-amusements of the Indians, and much more frequently practised by them
-than by any civilized society; inasmuch as it enters into their forms
-of worship, and is often their mode of appealing to the Great Spirit—of
-paying their usual devotions to their _medicine_—and of honouring and
-entertaining strangers of distinction in their country.
-
-Instead of the “giddy maze” of the quadrille or the country dance,
-enlivened by the cheering smiles and graces of silkened beauty, the
-Indian performs his rounds with jumps, and starts, and yells, much to
-the satisfaction of his own exclusive self, and infinite amusement
-of the gentler sex, who are always lookers on, but seldom allowed so
-great a pleasure, or so signal an honour, as that of joining with
-their lords in this or any other entertainment. Whilst staying with
-these people on my way up the river, I was repeatedly honoured with
-the dance, and I as often hired them to give them, or went to overlook
-where they were performing them at their own pleasure, in pursuance
-of their peculiar customs, or for their own amusement, that I might
-study and correctly herald them to future ages. I saw so many of their
-different varieties of dances amongst the Sioux, that I should almost
-be disposed to denominate them the “_dancing Indians_.” It would
-actually seem as if they had dances for every thing. And in so large a
-village, there was scarcely an hour in any day or night, but what the
-beat of the drum could somewhere be heard. These dances are almost as
-various and different in their character as they are numerous—some of
-them so exceedingly grotesque and laughable, as to keep the bystanders
-in an irresistible roar of laughter—others are calculated to excite his
-pity, and forcibly appeal to his sympathies, whilst others disgust,
-and yet others terrify and alarm him with their frightful threats and
-contortions.
-
-All the world have heard of the “_bear-dance_,” though I doubt whether
-more than a very small proportion have ever seen it; here it is (+plate+
-102). The Sioux, like all the others of these western tribes, are
-fond of bear’s meat, and must have good stores of the “bear’s-grease”
-laid in, to oil their long and glossy locks, as well as the surface of
-their bodies. And they all like the fine pleasure of a bear hunt, and
-also a participation in the bear dance, which is given several days
-in succession, previous to their starting out, and in which they all
-join in a song to the _Bear Spirit_; which they think holds somewhere
-an invisible existence, and must be consulted and conciliated before
-they can enter upon their excursion with any prospect of success. For
-this grotesque and amusing scene, one of the chief medicine-men, placed
-over his body the entire skin of a bear, with a war-eagle’s quill on
-his head, taking the lead in the dance, and looking through the skin
-which formed a masque that hung over his face. Many others in the dance
-wore masques on their faces, made of the skin from the bear’s head; and
-all, with the motions of their hands, closely imitated the movements
-of that animal; some representing its motion in running, and others
-the peculiar attitude and hanging of the paws, when it is sitting up
-on its hind feet, and looking out for the approach of an enemy. This
-grotesque and amusing masquerade oftentimes is continued at intervals,
-for several days previous to the starting of a party on the bear hunt,
-who would scarcely count upon a tolerable prospect of success, without
-a strict adherence to this most important and indispensible form!
-
-[Illustration: 103]
-
-Dancing is done here too, as it is oftentimes done in the enlightened
-world, to get favours—to buy the world’s goods; and in both countries
-danced with about equal merit, except that the Indian has surpassed
-us in honesty by christening it in his own country, the “_beggar’s
-dance_.” This spirited dance (+plate+ 103), was given, not by a set
-of _beggars_ though, literally speaking, but by the first and most
-independent young men in the tribe, beautifully dressed, (_i. e._ not
-dressed at all, except with their breech clouts or _kelts_, made of
-eagles’ and ravens’ quills,) with their lances, and pipes, and rattles
-in their hands, and a medicine-man beating the drum, and joining in the
-song at the highest key of his voice. In this dance every one sings as
-loud as he can halloo; uniting his voice with the others, in an appeal
-to the Great Spirit, to open the hearts of the bystanders to give to
-the poor, and not to themselves; assuring them that the Great Spirit
-will be kind to those who are kind to the helpless and poor.
-
-Of _scalps_, and of the modes and objects of scalping, I have before
-spoken; and I therein stated, “that most of the scalps were stretched
-on little hoops for the purpose of being used in the scalp-dance, of
-which I shall say more at a future time.”
-
-The _Scalp-dance_ (+plate+ 104) is given as a celebration of a victory;
-and amongst this tribe, as I learned whilst residing with them, danced
-in the night, by the light of their torches, and just before retiring
-to bed. When a war party returns from a war excursion, bringing home
-with them the scalps of their enemies, they generally “dance them” for
-fifteen nights in succession, vaunting forth the most extravagant
-boasts of their wonderful prowess in war, whilst they brandish their
-war weapons in their hands. A number of young women are selected to
-aid (though they do not actually join in the dance), by stepping into
-the centre of the ring, and holding up the scalps that have been
-recently taken, whilst the warriors dance (or rather _jump_), around
-in a circle, brandishing their weapons, and barking and yelping in
-the most frightful manner, all jumping on both feet at a time, with a
-simultaneous stamp, and blow, and thrust of their weapons; with which
-it would seem as if they were actually cutting and carving each other
-to pieces. During these frantic leaps, and yelps, and thrusts, every
-man distorts his face to the utmost of his muscles, darting about his
-glaring eye-balls and snapping his teeth, as if he were in the heat
-(and actually breathing through his inflated nostrils the very hissing
-death) of battle! No description that can be written, could ever convey
-more than a feeble outline of the frightful effects of these scenes
-enacted in the dead and darkness of night, under the glaring light of
-their blazing flambeaux; nor could all the years allotted to mortal
-man, in the least obliterate or deface the vivid impress that one scene
-of this kind would leave upon his memory.
-
-The precise object for which the scalp is taken, is one which is
-definitely understood, and has already been explained; but the motive
-(or motives) for which this strict ceremony is so scrupulously held
-by all the American tribes, over the scalp of an enemy, is a subject,
-as yet not satisfactorily settled in my mind. There is no doubt, but
-one great object in these exhibitions is public exultation; yet there
-are several conclusive evidences, that there are other and essential
-motives for thus formally and strictly displaying the scalp. Amongst
-some of the tribes, it is the custom to bury the scalps after they
-have gone through this series of public exhibitions; which may in a
-measure have been held for the purpose of giving them notoriety, and
-of awarding public credit to the persons who obtained them, and now,
-from a custom of the tribe, are obliged to part with them. The great
-respect which seems to be paid to them whilst they use them, as well as
-the pitying and mournful song which they howl to the _manes_ of their
-unfortunate victims; as well as the precise care and solemnity with
-which they afterwards bury the scalps, sufficiently convince me that
-they have a superstitious dread of the spirits of their slain enemies,
-and many conciliatory offices to perform, to ensure their own peace;
-one of which is the ceremony above described.
-
-[Illustration: 104]
-
-
-
-
-                             LETTER—No. 31.
-
-                MOUTH OF TETON RIVER, _UPPER MISSOURI_.
-
-
-In former Letters I have given some account of the _Bisons_, or (as
-they are more familiarly denominated in this country) _Buffaloes_,
-which inhabit these regions in numerous herds; and of which I must say
-yet a little more.
-
-These noble animals of the ox species, and which have been so well
-described in our books on Natural History, are a subject of curious
-interest and great importance in this vast wilderness; rendered
-peculiarly so at this time, like the history of the poor savage; and
-from the same consideration, that they are rapidly wasting away at the
-approach of civilized man—and like him and his character, in a very few
-years, to live only in books or on canvass.
-
-The word buffalo is undoubtedly most incorrectly applied to these
-animals, and I can scarcely tell why they have been so called; for
-they bear just about as much resemblance to the Eastern buffalo, as
-they do to a zebra or to a common ox. How nearly they may approach to
-the bison of Europe, which I never have had an opportunity to see, and
-which, I am inclined to think, is now nearly extinct, I am unable to
-say; yet if I were to judge from the numerous engravings I have seen
-of those animals, and descriptions I have read of them, I should be
-inclined to think, there was yet a wide difference between the bison
-of the American prairies, and those in the North of Europe and Asia.
-The American bison, or (as I shall hereafter call it) buffalo, is
-the largest of the ruminating animals that is now living in America;
-and seems to have been spread over the plains of this vast country,
-by the Great Spirit, for the use and subsistence of the red men, who
-live almost exclusively on their flesh, and clothe themselves with
-their skins. The reader, by referring back to +plates+ 7 and 8, in the
-beginning of this Work, will see faithful traces of the male and female
-of this huge animal, in their proud and free state of nature, grazing
-on the plains of the country to which they appropriately belong. Their
-colour is a dark brown, but changing very much as the season varies
-from warm to cold; their hair or fur, from its great length in the
-winter and spring, and exposure to the weather, turning quite light,
-and almost to a jet black, when the winter coat is shed off, and a new
-growth is shooting out.
-
-The buffalo bull often grows to the enormous weight of 2000 pounds, and
-shakes a long and shaggy black mane, that falls in great profusion and
-_confusion_, over his head and shoulders; and oftentimes falling down
-quite to the ground. The horns are short, but very large, and have but
-one turn, _i. e._ they are a simple arch, without the least approach to
-a spiral form, like those of the common ox, or of the goat species.
-
-The female is much smaller than the male, and always distinguishable
-by the peculiar shape of the horns, which are much smaller and more
-crooked, turning their points more in towards the centre of the
-forehead.
-
-One of the most remarkable characteristics of the buffalo, is the
-peculiar formation and expression of the eye, the ball of which is
-very large and white, and the iris jet black. The lids of the eye seem
-always to be strained quite open, and the ball rolling forward and
-down; so that a considerable part of the iris is hidden behind the
-lower lid, while the pure white of the eyeball glares out over it in an
-arch, in the shape of a moon at the end of its first quarter.
-
-These animals are, truly speaking, gregarious, but not migratory—they
-graze in immense and almost incredible numbers at times, and roam about
-and over vast tracts of country, from East to West, and from West to
-East, as often as from North to South; which has often been supposed
-they naturally and habitually did to accommodate themselves to the
-temperature of the climate in the different latitudes. The limits
-within which they are found in America, are from the 30th to the 55th
-degrees of North latitude; and their extent from East to West, which is
-from the border of our extreme Western frontier limits, to the Western
-verge of the Rocky Mountains, is defined by quite different causes,
-than those which the degrees of temperature have prescribed to them
-on the North and the South. Within these 25 degrees of latitude, the
-buffaloes seem to flourish, and get their living without the necessity
-of evading the rigour of the climate, for which Nature seems most
-wisely to have prepared them by the greater or less profusion of fur,
-with which she has clothed them.
-
-It is very evident that, as high North as Lake Winnepeg, seven or eight
-hundred miles North of this, the buffalo subsists itself through the
-severest winters; getting its food chiefly by browsing amongst the
-timber, and by pawing through the snow, for a bite at the grass, which
-in those regions is frozen up very suddenly in the beginning of the
-winter, with all its juices in it, and consequently furnishes very
-nutritious and efficient food; and often, if not generally, supporting
-the animal in better flesh during these difficult seasons of their
-lives, than they are found to be in, in the 30th degree of latitude,
-upon the borders of Mexico, where the severity of winter is not known,
-but during a long and tedious autumn, the herbage, under the influence
-of a burning sun, is gradually dried away to a mere husk, and its
-nutriment gone, leaving these poor creatures, even in the dead of
-winter, to bask in the warmth of a genial sun, without the benefit of a
-green or juicy thing to bite at.
-
-The place from which I am now writing, may be said to be the very heart
-or nucleus of the buffalo country, about equi-distant between the two
-extremes; and of course, the most congenial temperature for them to
-flourish in. The finest animals that graze on the prairies are to be
-found in this latitude; and I am sure I never could send from a better
-source, some further account of the death and destruction that is dealt
-among these noble animals, and hurrying on their final extinction.
-
-The Sioux are a bold and desperate set of horsemen, and great hunters;
-and in the heart of their country is one of the most extensive
-assortments of goods, of whiskey, and other saleable commodities, as
-well as a party of the most indefatigable men, who are constantly
-calling for every robe that can be stripped from these animals’ backs.
-
-These are the causes which lead so directly to their rapid destruction;
-and which open to the view of the traveller so freshly, so vividly, and
-so familiarly, the scenes of archery—of lancing, and of death-dealing,
-that belong peculiarly to this wild and shorn country.
-
-The almost countless herds of these animals that are sometimes met with
-on these prairies, have been often spoken of by other writers, and may
-yet be seen by any traveller who will take the pains to visit these
-regions. The “_running season_,” which is in August and September,
-is the time when they congregate into such masses in some places, as
-literally to blacken the prairies for miles together. It is no uncommon
-thing at this season, at these gatherings, to see several thousands
-in a mass, eddying and wheeling about under a cloud of dust, which
-is raised by the bulls as they are pawing in the dirt, or engaged in
-desperate combats, as they constantly are, plunging and butting at each
-other in the most furious manner (+plate+ 105). In these scenes, the
-males are continually following the females, and the whole mass are in
-constant motion; and all bellowing (or “roaring”) in deep and hollow
-sounds; which, mingled altogether, appear, at the distance of a mile or
-two, like the sound of distant thunder.
-
-During the season whilst they are congregated together in these dense
-and confused masses, the remainder of the country around for many
-miles, becomes entirely vacated; and the traveller may spend many a
-toilsome day, and many a hungry night, without being cheered by the
-sight of one; where, if he retraces his steps a few weeks after, he
-will find them dispersed, and grazing quietly in little families and
-flocks, and equally stocking the whole country. Of these quiet little
-herds, a fair representation will be seen in +plate+ 106, where some
-are grazing, others at play, or lying down, and others indulging in
-their “wallows.” “A bull in his wallow” is a frequent saying in this
-country; and has a very significant meaning with those who have ever
-seen a buffalo bull performing _ablution_, or rather endeavouring to
-cool his heated sides, by tumbling about in a mud puddle.
-
-In the heat of summer, these huge animals, which, no doubt, suffer very
-much with the great profusion of their long and shaggy hair or fur,
-often graze on the low grounds in the prairies, where there is a little
-stagnant water lying amongst the grass, and the ground underneath
-being saturated with it, is soft, into which the enormous bull, lowered
-down upon one knee, will plunge his horns, and at last his head,
-driving up the earth, and soon making an excavation in the ground, into
-which the water filters from amongst the grass, forming for him in a
-few moments, a cool and comfortable bath, into which he plunges like a
-hog in his mire.
-
-In this _delectable_ laver, he throws himself flat upon his side, and
-forcing himself violently around, with his horns and his huge hump
-on his shoulders presented to the sides, he ploughs up the ground by
-his rotary motion, sinking himself deeper and deeper in the ground,
-continually enlarging his pool, in which he at length becomes nearly
-immersed; and the water and mud about him mixed into a complete mortar,
-which changes his colour, and drips in streams from every part of him
-as he rises up upon his feet, a hideous monster of mud and ugliness,
-too frightful and too eccentric to be described!
-
-It is generally the leader of the herd that takes upon him to make
-this excavation; and if not (but another one opens the ground), the
-leader (who is conqueror) marches forward, and driving the other from
-it plunges himself into it; and having cooled his sides, and changed
-his colour to a walking mass of mud and mortar; he stands in the pool
-until inclination induces him to step out, and give place to the next
-in command, who stands ready; and another, and another, who advance
-forward in their turns, to enjoy the luxury of the wallow; until the
-whole band (sometimes an hundred or more) will pass through it in turn;
-each one throwing his body around in a similar manner; and each one
-adding a little to the dimensions of the pool, while he carries away in
-his hair an equal share of the clay, which dries to a grey or whitish
-colour, and gradually falls off. By this operation, which is done,
-perhaps, in the space of half an hour, a circular excavation of fifteen
-or twenty feet in diameter, and two feet in depth, is completed, and
-left for the water to run into, which soon fills it to the level of the
-ground.
-
-To these sinks, the waters lying on the surface of the prairies, are
-continually draining, and in them lodging their vegetable deposits;
-which, after a lapse of years, fill them up to the surface with a rich
-soil, which throws up an unusual growth of grass and herbage; forming
-conspicuous circles which arrest the eye of the traveller, and are
-calculated to excite his surprise for ages to come.
-
-Many travellers who have penetrated not quite far enough into the
-Western country to see the habits of these animals, and the manner
-in which these _mysterious_ circles are made; but who have seen the
-prairies strewed with their bleached bones, and have beheld these
-strange circles, which often occur in groups, and of different
-sizes—have come home with beautiful and ingenious theories (which _must
-needs be made_), for the origin of these singular and unaccountable
-appearances, which, for want of a rational theory, have generally
-been attributed to _fairy feet_, and gained the appellation of “_fairy
-circles_.”
-
-[Illustration: 105]
-
-[Illustration: 106]
-
-Many travellers, again, have supposed that these rings were produced
-by the dances of the Indians, which are oftentimes (and in fact
-most generally) performed in a circle; yet a moment’s consideration
-disproves such a probability, inasmuch as the Indians always select the
-ground for their dancing near the sites of their villages, and that
-always on a dry and hard foundation; when these “fairy circles” are
-uniformly found to be on low and wet ground.
-
-As my visit to these parts of the “_Great Far West_” has brought me
-into the heart of the buffalo country, where I have had abundant
-opportunities of seeing this noble animal in all its phases—its habits
-of life, and every mode of its death; I shall take the liberty of being
-yet a little more particular, and of rendering some further accounts of
-scenes which I have witnessed in following out my sporting propensities
-in these singular regions.
-
-The chief hunting amusement of the Indians in these parts consists in
-the chase of the buffalo, which is almost invariably done on horseback,
-with bow and lance. In this exercise, which is highly prized by them,
-as one of their most valued amusements, as well as for the principal
-mode of procuring meat for their subsistence, they become exceedingly
-expert; and are able to slay these huge animals with apparent ease.
-
-The Indians in these parts are all mounted on small, but serviceable
-horses, which are caught by them on the prairies, where they are often
-running wild in numerous bands. The Indian, then, mounted on his little
-wild horse, which has been through some years of training, dashes off
-at full speed amongst the herds of buffaloes, elks, or even antelopes,
-and deals his deadly arrows to their hearts from his horse’s back. The
-horse is the fleetest animal of the prairie, and easily brings his
-rider alongside of his game, which falls a certain prey to his deadly
-shafts, at the distance of a few paces.
-
-In the chase of the buffalo, or other animal, the Indian generally
-“strips” himself and his horse, by throwing off his shield and quiver,
-and every part of his dress, which might be an encumbrance to him in
-running; grasping his bow in his left hand, with five or six arrows
-drawn from his quiver, and ready for instant use. In his right hand (or
-attached to the wrist) is a heavy whip, which he uses without mercy,
-and forces his horse alongside of his game at the swiftest speed.
-
-These horses are so trained, that the Indian has little use for the
-rein, which hangs on the neck, whilst the horse approaches the animal
-on the right side (+plate+ 107), giving his rider the chance to throw
-his arrow to the left; which he does at the instant when the horse
-is passing—bringing him opposite to the heart, which receives the
-deadly weapon “to the feather.” When pursuing a large herd, the Indian
-generally rides close in the rear, until he selects the animal he
-wishes to kill, which he separates from the throng as soon as he can,
-by dashing his horse between it and the herd, and forcing it off by
-itself; where he can approach it without the danger of being trampled
-to death, to which he is often liable by too closely escorting the
-multitude.
-
-In +plate+ 107, I have fairly represented the mode of _approaching_,
-at the instant the arrow is to be thrown; and the striking disparity
-between the size of a huge bull of 2000 pounds weight, and the Indian
-horse, which, it will be borne in mind, is but a pony.
-
-No bridle whatever is used in this country by the Indians, as they have
-no knowledge of a bit. A short halter, however, which answers in place
-of a bridle, is in general use; of which they usually form a noose
-around the under jaw of the horse, by which they get great power over
-the animal; and which they use generally to _stop_ rather than _guide_
-the horse. This halter is called by the French Traders in the country,
-_l’arrêt_, the stop, and has great power in arresting the speed of a
-horse; though it is extremely dangerous to use too freely as a guide,
-interfering too much with the freedom of his limbs, for the certainty
-of his feet and security of his rider.
-
-When the Indian then has directed the course of his steed to the animal
-which he has selected, the training of the horse is such, that it knows
-the object of its rider’s selection, and exerts every muscle to give it
-close company; while the halter lies loose and untouched upon its neck,
-and the rider leans quite forward, and off from the side of his horse,
-with his bow drawn, and ready for the deadly shot, which is given
-at the instant he is opposite to the animal’s body. The horse being
-instinctively afraid of the animal (though he generally brings his
-rider within the reach of the end of his bow), keeps his eye strained
-upon the furious enemy he is so closely encountering; and the moment
-he has approached to the nearest distance required, and has passed the
-animal, whether the shot is given or not, he gradually sheers off, to
-prevent coming on to the horns of the infuriated beast, which often
-are instantly turned, and presented for the fatal reception of its
-too familiar attendant. These frightful collisions often take place,
-notwithstanding the sagacity of the horse, and the caution of its
-rider; for in these extraordinary (and inexpressible) exhilarations of
-chase, which seem to drown the prudence alike, of instinct and reason,
-both horse and rider often seem rushing on to destruction, as if it
-were mere pastime and amusement.[13]
-
-I have always counted myself a prudent man, yet I have often _waked_
-(as it were) out of the delirium of the chase (into which I had fallen,
-as into an agitated sleep, and through which I had passed as through
-a delightful dream), where to have died would have been but to have
-remained, riding on, without a struggle or a pang.
-
-In some of these, too, I have arisen from the prairie, covered with
-dirt and blood, having severed company with gun and horse, the one
-lying some twenty or thirty feet from me with a broken stalk, and the
-other coolly brousing on the grass at half a mile distance, without
-man, and without other beast remaining in sight.
-
-[Illustration: 107]
-
-[Illustration: 108]
-
-For the novice in these scenes there is much danger of his limbs and
-his life, and he finds it a hard and a desperate struggle that brings
-him in at _the death_ of these huge monsters, except where it has been
-produced by hands that have acquired more sleight and tact than his own.
-
-With the Indian, who has made this the every day sport and amusement of
-his life, there is less difficulty and less danger; he rides without
-“losing his breath,” and his unagitated hand deals _certainty_ in its
-deadly blows.
-
-In +plate+ 108, I have represented a party of Indians in chase of a
-herd some of whom are pursuing with lance and others with bows and
-arrows. The group in the foreground shews the attitude at the instant
-after the arrow has been thrown and driven to the heart; the Indian at
-full speed, and the _laso_ dragging behind his horse’s heels. The laso
-is a long thong of rawhide, of ten or fifteen yards in length, made of
-several braids or twists, and used chiefly to catch the wild horse,
-which is done by throwing over their necks a noose which is made at the
-end of the _laso_, with which they are “choked down.” In running the
-buffaloes, or in time of war, the _laso_ drags on the ground at the
-horse’s feet, and sometimes several rods behind, so that if a man is
-dismounted, which is often the case, by the tripping or stumbling of
-the horse, he has the power of grasping to the laso, and by stubbornly
-holding on to it, of stopping and securing his horse, on whose back he
-is instantly replaced, and continuing on in the chase.
-
-In the dead of the winters, which are very long and severely cold in
-this country, where horses cannot be brought into the chase with any
-avail, the Indian runs upon the surface of the snow by the aid of his
-snow shoes, which buoy him up, while the great weight of the buffaloes,
-sinks them down to the middle of their sides, and completely stopping
-their progress, ensures them certain and easy victims to the bow or
-lance of their pursuers, as in +plate+ 109. The snow in these regions
-often lies during the winter, to the depth of three and four feet,
-being blown away from the tops and sides of the hills in many places,
-which are left bare for the buffaloes to graze upon, whilst it is
-drifted in the hollows and ravines to a very great depth, and rendered
-almost entirely impassable to these huge animals, which, when closely
-pursued by their enemies, endeavour to plunge through it, but are soon
-wedged in and almost unable to move, where they fall an easy prey to
-the Indian, who runs up lightly upon his snow shoes and drives his
-lance to their hearts. The skins are then stripped off, to be sold to
-the Fur Traders, and the carcasses left to be devoured by the wolves.
-This is the season in which the greatest number of these animals are
-destroyed for their robes—they are most easily killed at this time, and
-their hair or fur being longer and more abundant, gives greater value
-to the robe.
-
-The Indians generally kill and dry meat enough in the fall, when it
-is fat and juicy, to last them through the winter; so that they have
-little other object for this unlimited slaughter, amid the drifts
-of snow, than that of procuring their robes for traffic with their
-Traders. The snow shoes are made in a great many forms, of two and
-three feet in length, and one foot or more in width, of a hoop or
-hoops bent around for the frame, with a netting or web woven across
-with strings of rawhide, on which the feet rest, and to which they are
-fastened with straps somewhat like a skate.[14] With these the Indian
-will glide over the snow with astonishing quickness, without sinking
-down, or scarcely leaving his track where he has gone.
-
-The poor buffaloes have their enemy _man_, besetting and beseiging them
-at all times of the year, and in all the modes that man in his superior
-wisdom has been able to devise for their destruction. They struggle in
-vain to evade his deadly shafts, when he dashes amongst them over the
-plains on his wild horse—they plunge into the snow-drifts where they
-yield themselves an easy prey to their destroyers, and they also stand
-unwittingly and behold him, unsuspected under the skin of a white wolf,
-insinuating himself and his fatal weapons into close company, when they
-are peaceably grazing on the level prairies, and shot down before they
-are aware of their danger (+plate+ 110).
-
-There are several varieties of the wolf species in this country, the
-most formidable and most numerous of which are white, often sneaking
-about in gangs or families of fifty or sixty in numbers, appearing in
-distance, on the green prairies like nothing but a flock of sheep.
-Many of these animals grow to a very great size, being I should think,
-quite a match for the largest Newfoundland dog. At present, whilst the
-buffaloes are so abundant, and these ferocious animals are glutted
-with the buffalo’s flesh, they are harmless, and everywhere sneak away
-from man’s presence; which I scarcely think will be the case after
-the buffaloes are all gone, and they are left, as they must be, with
-scarcely anything to eat. They always are seen following about in the
-vicinity of herds of buffaloes and stand ready to pick the bones of
-those that the hunters leave on the ground, or to overtake and devour
-those that are wounded, which fall an easy prey to them. While the herd
-of buffaloes are together, they seem to have little dread of the wolf,
-and allow them to come in close company with them. The Indian then has
-taken advantage of this fact, and often places himself under the skin
-of this animal, and crawls for half a mile or more on his hands and
-knees, until he approaches within a few rods of the unsuspecting group,
-and easily shoots down the fattest of the throng.
-
-The buffalo is a very timid animal, and shuns the vicinity of man with
-the keenest sagacity; yet, when overtaken, and harassed or wounded,
-turns upon its assailants with the utmost fury, who have only to seek
-safety in flight. In their desperate resistance the finest horses
-are often destroyed; but the Indian, with his superior sagacity and
-dexterity, generally finds some effective mode of escape, as in +plate+
-111.
-
-[Illustration: 109]
-
-[Illustration: 110]
-
-During the season of the year whilst the calves are young, the male
-seems to stroll about by the side of the dam, as if for the purpose
-of protecting the young, at which time it is exceedingly hazardous to
-attack them, as they are sure to turn upon their pursuers, who have
-often to fly to each others assistance (+plate+ 112). The buffalo calf,
-during the first six months is red, and has so much the appearance of
-a red calf in cultivated fields, that it could easily be mingled and
-mistaken amongst them. In the fall, when it changes its hair it takes a
-brown coat for the winter, which it always retains. In pursuing a large
-herd of buffaloes at the season when their calves are but a few weeks
-old, I have often been exceedingly amused with the curious manœuvres of
-these shy little things. Amidst the thundering confusion of a throng of
-several hundreds or several thousands of these animals, there will be
-many of the calves that lose sight of their dams; and being left behind
-by the throng, and the swift passing hunters, they endeavour to secrete
-themselves, when they are exceedingly put to it on a level prairie,
-where nought can be seen but the short grass of six or eight inches in
-height, save an occasional bunch of wild sage, a few inches higher, to
-which the poor affrighted things will run, and dropping on their knees,
-will push their noses under it, and into the grass, where they will
-stand for hours, with their eyes shut, imagining themselves securely
-hid, whilst they are standing up quite straight upon their hind feet
-and can easily be seen at several miles distance. It is a familiar
-amusement for us accustomed to these scenes, to retreat back over the
-ground where we have just escorted the herd, and approach these little
-trembling things, which stubbornly maintain their positions, with their
-noses pushed under the grass, and their eyes strained upon us, as we
-dismount from our horses and are passing around them. From this fixed
-position they are sure not to move, until hands are laid upon them,
-and then for the shins of a novice, we can extend our sympathy; or if
-he can preserve the skin on his bones from the furious buttings of its
-head, we know how to congratulate him on his signal success and good
-luck. In these desperate struggles, for a moment, the little thing
-is conquered, and makes no further resistance. And I have often, in
-concurrence with a known custom of the country, held my hands over the
-eyes of the calf, and breathed a few strong breaths into its nostrils;
-after which I have, with my hunting companions, rode several miles into
-our encampment, with the little prisoner busily following the heels
-of my horse the whole way, as closely and as affectionately as its
-instinct would attach it to the company of its dam!
-
-This is one of the most extraordinary things that I have met with
-in the habits of this wild country, and although I had often heard
-of it, and felt unable exactly to believe it, I am now willing to
-bear testimony to the fact, from the numerous instances which I have
-witnessed since I came into the country. During the time that I resided
-at this post, in the spring of the year, on my way up the river, I
-assisted (in numerous hunts of the buffalo, with the Fur Company’s
-men,) in bringing in, in the above manner, several of these little
-prisoners, which sometimes followed for five or six miles close to
-our horses’ heels, and even into the Fur Company’s Fort, and into the
-stable where our horses were led. In this way, before I left for the
-head waters of the Missouri, I think we had collected about a dozen,
-which Mr. Laidlaw was successfully raising with the aid of a good milch
-cow, and which were to be committed to the care of Mr. Chouteau to be
-transported by the return of the steamer, to his extensive plantation
-in the vicinity of St. Louis.[15]
-
-It is truly a melancholy contemplation for the traveller in this
-country, to anticipate the period which is not far distant, when the
-last of these noble animals, at the hands of white and red men, will
-fall victims to their cruel and improvident rapacity; leaving these
-beautiful green fields, a vast and idle waste, unstocked and unpeopled
-for ages to come, until the bones of the one and the traditions of the
-other will have vanished, and left scarce an intelligible trace behind.
-
-That the reader should not think me visionary in these contemplations,
-or romancing in making such assertions, I will hand him the following
-item of the extravagancies which are practiced in these regions, and
-rapidly leading to the results which I have just named.
-
-When I first arrived at this place, on my way up the river, which was
-in the month of May, in 1832, and had taken up my lodgings in the Fur
-Company’s Fort, Mr. Laidlaw, of whom I have before spoken, and also his
-chief clerk, Mr. Halsey, and many of their men, as well as the chiefs
-of the Sioux, told me, that only a few days before I arrived, (when an
-immense herd of buffaloes had showed themselves on the opposite side
-of the river, almost blackening the plains for a great distance,) a
-party of five or six hundred Sioux Indians on horseback, forded the
-river about mid-day, and spending a few hours amongst them, recrossed
-the river at sun-down and came into the Fort with _fourteen hundred
-fresh buffalo tongues_, which were thrown down in a mass, and for which
-they required but a few gallons of whiskey, which was soon demolished,
-indulging them in a little, and harmless carouse.
-
-This profligate waste of the lives of these noble and useful animals,
-when, from all that I could learn, not a skin or a pound of the
-meat (except the tongues), was brought in, fully supports me in
-the seemingly extravagant predictions that I have made as to
-their extinction, which I am certain is near at hand. In the above
-extravagant instance, at a season when their skins were without fur and
-not worth taking off, and their camp was so well stocked with fresh and
-dried meat, that they had no occasion for using the flesh, there is a
-fair exhibition of the improvident character of the savage, and also of
-his recklessness in catering for his appetite, so long as the present
-inducements are held out to him in his country, for its gratification.
-
-[Illustration: 111]
-
-[Illustration: 112]
-
-In this singular country, where the poor Indians have no laws or
-regulations of society, making it a vice or an impropriety to drink to
-excess, they think it no harm to indulge in the delicious beverage, as
-long as they are able to buy whiskey to drink. They look to white men
-as wiser than themselves, and able to set them examples—they see none
-of these in their country but sellers of whiskey, who are constantly
-tendering it to them, and most of them setting the example by using it
-themselves; and they easily acquire a taste, that to be catered for,
-where whiskey is sold at sixteen dollars per gallon, soon impoverishes
-them, and must soon strip the skin from the last buffalo’s back that
-lives in their country, to “be dressed by their squaws” and vended to
-the Traders for a pint of diluted alcohol.
-
-From the above remarks it will be seen, that not only the red men,
-but red men and white, have aimed destruction at the race of these
-animals; and with them, _beasts_ have turned hunters of buffaloes in
-this country, slaying them, however, in less numbers, and for far more
-laudable purpose than that of selling their skins. The white wolves, of
-which I have spoken in a former epistle, follow the herds of buffaloes
-as I have said, from one season to another, glutting themselves on the
-carcasses of those that fall by the deadly shafts of their enemies,
-or linger with disease or old age to be dispatched by these sneaking
-cormorants, who are ready at all times kindly to relieve them from the
-pangs of a lingering death.
-
-Whilst the herd is together, the wolves never attack them, as they
-instantly gather for combined resistance, which they effectually make.
-But when the herds are travelling, it often happens that an aged or
-wounded one, lingers at a distance behind, and when fairly out of sight
-of the herd, is set upon by these voracious hunters, which often gather
-to the number of fifty or more, and are sure at last to torture him
-to death, and use him up at a meal. The buffalo, however, is a huge
-and furious animal, and when his retreat is cut off, makes desperate
-and deadly resistance, contending to the last moment for the right of
-life—and oftentimes deals death by wholesale, to his canine assailants,
-which he is tossing into the air or stamping to death under his feet
-(+plate+ 113).
-
-During my travels in these regions, I have several times come across
-such a gang of these animals surrounding an old or a wounded bull,
-where it would seem, from appearances, that they had been for several
-days in attendance, and at intervals desperately engaged in the
-effort to take his life. But a short time since, as one of my hunting
-companions and myself were returning to our encampment with our horses
-loaded with meat, we discovered at a distance, a huge bull, encircled
-with a gang of white wolves; we rode up as near as we could without
-driving them away, and being within pistol shot, we had a remarkably
-good view, where I sat for a few moments and made a sketch in my
-note-book (+plate+ 114); after which, we rode up and gave the signal
-for them to disperse, which they instantly did, withdrawing themselves
-to the distance of fifty or sixty rods, when we found, to our great
-surprise, that the animal had made desperate resistance, until his
-eyes were entirely eaten out of his head—the grizzle of his nose was
-mostly gone—his tongue was half eaten off, and the skin and flesh of
-his legs torn almost literally into strings. In this tattered and torn
-condition, the poor old veteran stood bracing up in the midst of his
-devourers, who had ceased hostilities for a few minutes, to enjoy a
-sort of parley, recovering strength and preparing to resume the attack
-in a few moments again. In this group, some were reclining, to gain
-breath, whilst others were sneaking about and licking their chaps in
-anxiety for a renewal of the attack; and others, less lucky, had been
-crushed to death by the feet or the horns of the bull. I rode nearer
-to the pitiable object as he stood bleeding and trembling before me,
-and said to him, “Now is your time, old fellow, and you had better be
-off.” Though blind and nearly destroyed, there seemed evidently to be
-a recognition of a friend in me, as he straightened up, and, trembling
-with excitement, dashed off at full speed upon the prairie, in a
-straight line. We turned our horses and resumed our march, and when we
-had advanced a mile or more, we looked back, and on our left, where we
-saw again the ill-fated animal surrounded by his tormentors, to whose
-insatiable voracity he unquestionably soon fell a victim.
-
-Thus much I wrote of the buffaloes, and of the accidents that befall
-them, as well as of the fate that awaits them; and before I closed my
-book, I strolled out one day to the shade of a plum-tree, where I laid
-in the grass on a favourite bluff, and wrote thus:—
-
-“It is generally supposed, and familiarly said, that a man ‘_falls_’
-into a rêverie; but I seated myself in the shade a few minutes since,
-resolved to _force_ myself into one; and for this purpose I laid open a
-small pocket-map of North America, and excluding my thoughts from every
-other object in the world, I soon succeeded in producing the desired
-illusion. This little chart, over which I bent, was seen in all its
-parts, as nothing but the green and vivid reality. I was lifted up upon
-an imaginary pair of wings, which easily raised and held me floating
-in the open air, from whence I could behold beneath me the Pacific
-and the Atlantic Oceans—the great cities of the East, and the mighty
-rivers. I could see the blue chain of the great lakes at the North—the
-Rocky Mountains, and beneath them and near their base, the vast, and
-almost boundless plains of grass, which were speckled with the bands of
-grazing buffaloes!
-
-“The world turned gently around, and I examined its surface; continent
-after continent passed under my eye, and yet amidst them all, I saw
-not the vast and vivid green, that is spread like a carpet over the
-Western wilds of my own country. I saw not elsewhere in the world, the
-myriad herds of buffaloes—my eyes scanned in vain, for they were not.
-And when I turned again to the wilds of my native land, I beheld them
-all in motion! For the distance of several hundreds of miles from North
-to South, they were wheeling about in vast columns and herds—some were
-scattered, and ran with furious wildness—some lay dead, and others
-were pawing the earth for a hiding-place—some were sinking down and
-dying, gushing out their life’s blood in deep-drawn sighs—and others
-were contending in furious battle for the life they possessed, and
-the ground that they stood upon. They had long since assembled from
-the thickets, and secret haunts of the deep forest, into the midst of
-the treeless and bushless plains, as the place for their safety. I
-could see in an hundred places, amid the wheeling bands, and on their
-skirts and flanks, the leaping wild horse darting among them. I saw
-not the arrows, nor heard the twang of the sinewy bows that sent them;
-but I saw their victims fall!—on other steeds that rushed along their
-sides I saw the glistening lances, which seemed to lay across them;
-their blades were blazing in the sun, till dipped in blood, and then
-I lost them! In other parts (and there were many), the vivid flash of
-_fire-arms_ was seen—_their_ victims fell too, and over their dead
-bodies hung suspended in air, little clouds of whitened smoke, from
-under which the flying horsemen had darted forward to mingle again
-with, and deal death to, the trampling throng.
-
-[Illustration: 113]
-
-[Illustration: 114]
-
-“So strange were men mixed (both red and white) with the countless
-herds that wheeled and eddyed about, that all below seemed one vast
-extended field of battle—whole armies, in some places, seemed to
-blacken the earth’s surface;—in other parts, regiments, battalions,
-wings, platoons, rank and file, and “_Indian-file_”—all were in motion;
-and death and destruction seemed to be the watch-word amongst them. In
-their turmoil, they sent up great clouds of dust, and with them came
-the mingled din of groans and trampling hoofs, that seemed like the
-rumbling of a dreadful cataract, or the roaring of distant thunder.
-Alternate pity and admiration harrowed up in my bosom and my brain,
-many a hidden thought; and amongst them a few of the beautiful notes
-that were once sung, and exactly in point: ‘_Quadrupedante putrem
-sonitu quatit ungula campum._’ Even such was the din amidst the
-quadrupeds of these vast plains. And from the craggy cliffs of the
-Rocky Mountains also were seen descending into the valley, the myriad
-Tartars, who had not horses to ride, but before their well-drawn bows
-the fattest of the herds were falling. Hundreds and thousands were
-strewed upon the plains—they were flayed, and their reddened carcasses
-left; and about them bands of wolves, and dogs, and buzzards were seen
-devouring them. Contiguous, and in sight, were the distant and feeble
-smokes of wigwams and villages, where the skins were dragged, and
-dressed for white man’s luxury! where they were all sold for _whiskey_,
-and the poor Indians laid drunk, and were crying. I cast my eyes into
-the towns and cities of the East, and there I beheld buffalo robes
-hanging at almost every door for traffic; and I saw also the curling
-smokes of a thousand _Stills_—and I said, ‘Oh insatiable man, is thy
-avarice such! wouldst thou tear the skin from the back of the last
-animal of this noble race, _and rob thy fellow-man of his meat, and for
-it give him poison_!’”    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *
-
-Many are the rudenesses and wilds in Nature’s works, which are destined
-to fall before the deadly axe and desolating hands of cultivating man;
-and so amongst her ranks of _living_, of beast and human, we often find
-noble stamps, or beautiful colours, to which our admiration clings;
-and even in the overwhelming march of civilized improvements and
-refinements do we love to cherish their existence, and lend our efforts
-to preserve them in their primitive rudeness. Such of Nature’s works
-are always worthy of our preservation and protection; and the further
-we become separated (and the face of the country) from that pristine
-wildness and beauty, the more pleasure does the mind of enlightened man
-feel in recurring to those scenes, when he can have them preserved for
-his eyes and his mind to dwell upon.
-
-Of such “rudenesses and wilds,” Nature has no where presented more
-beautiful and lovely scenes, than those of the vast prairies of the
-West; and of _man_ and _beast_, no nobler specimens than those who
-inhabit them—the _Indian_ and the _buffalo_—joint and original tenants
-of the soil, and fugitives together from the approach of civilized
-man; they have fled to the great plains of the West, and there, under
-an equal doom, they have taken up their _last abode_, where their race
-will expire, and their bones will bleach together.
-
-It may be that _power_ is _right_, and _voracity_ a _virtue_; and that
-these people, and these noble animals, are _righteously_ doomed to an
-issue that _will_ not be averted. It can be easily proved—we have a
-civilized science that can easily do it, or anything else that may be
-required to cover the iniquities of civilized man in catering for his
-unholy appetites. It can be proved that the weak and ignorant have no
-_rights_—that there can be no virtue in darkness—that God’s gifts have
-no meaning or merit until they are appropriated by civilized man—by
-him brought into the light, and converted to his use and luxury. We
-have a mode of reasoning (I forget what it is called) by which all this
-can be proved, and even more. The _word_ and the _system_ are entirely
-of _civilized_ origin; and latitude is admirably given to them in
-proportion to the increase of civilized wants, which often require a
-_judge_ to overrule the laws of nature. I say that _we_ can prove such
-things; but an _Indian_ cannot. It is a mode of reasoning unknown to
-him in his nature’s simplicity, but admirably adapted to subserve the
-interests of the enlightened world, who are always their own judges,
-when dealing with the savage; and who, in the present refined age, have
-many appetites that can only be lawfully indulged, by proving God’s
-laws defective.
-
-It is not enough in this polished and extravagant age, that we get from
-the Indian his lands, and the very clothes from his back, but the food
-from their mouths must be stopped, to add a new and useless article to
-the fashionable world’s luxuries. The ranks must be thinned, and the
-race exterminated, of this noble animal, and the Indians of the great
-plains left without the means of supporting life, that white men may
-figure a few years longer, enveloped in buffalo robes—that they may
-spread them, for their pleasure and elegance, over the backs of their
-sleighs, and trail them ostentatiously amidst the busy throng, as
-things of beauty and elegance that had been made for them!
-
-Reader! listen to the following calculations, and forget them not.
-The buffaloes (the quadrupeds from whose backs your beautiful robes
-were taken, and whose myriads were once spread over the whole country,
-from the Rocky Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean) have recently fled
-before the appalling appearance of civilized man, and taken up their
-abode and pasturage amid the almost boundless prairies of the West.
-An instinctive dread of their deadly foes, who made an easy prey of
-them whilst grazing in the forest, has led them to seek the midst of
-the vast and treeless plains of grass, as the spot where they would be
-least exposed to the assaults of their enemies; and it is exclusively
-in those desolate fields of silence (yet of beauty) that they are to
-be found—and over these vast steppes, or prairies, have they fled,
-like the Indian, towards the “setting sun;” until their bands have
-been crowded together, and their limits confined to a narrow strip of
-country on this side of the Rocky Mountains.
-
-This strip of country, which extends from the province of Mexico to
-lake Winnepeg on the North, is almost one entire plain of grass, which
-is, and ever must be, useless to cultivating man. It is here, and
-here chiefly, that the buffaloes dwell; and with, and hovering about
-them, live and flourish the tribes of Indians, whom God made for the
-enjoyment of that fair land and its luxuries.
-
-It is a melancholy contemplation for one who has travelled as I have,
-through these realms, and seen this noble animal in all its pride and
-glory, to contemplate it so rapidly wasting from the world, drawing the
-irresistible conclusion too, which one must do, that its species is
-soon to be extinguished, and with it the peace and happiness (if not
-the actual existence) of the tribes of Indians who are joint tenants
-with them, in the occupancy of these vast and idle plains.
-
-And what a splendid contemplation too, when one (who has travelled
-these realms, and can duly appreciate them) imagines them as they
-_might_ in future be seen, (by some great protecting policy of
-government) preserved in their pristine beauty and wildness, in a
-_magnificent park_, where the world could see for ages to come, the
-native Indian in his classic attire, galloping his wild horse, with
-sinewy bow, and shield and lance, amid the fleeting herds of elks and
-buffaloes. What a beautiful and thrilling specimen for America to
-preserve and hold up to the view of her refined citizens and the world,
-in future ages! A _nation’s Park_, containing man and beast, in all the
-wild and freshness of their nature’s beauty!
-
-I would ask no other monument to my memory, nor any other enrolment of
-my name amongst the famous dead, than the reputation of having been the
-founder of such an institution.
-
-Such scenes might easily have been preserved, and still could be
-cherished on the great plains of the West, without detriment to
-the country or its borders; for the tracts of country on which the
-buffaloes have assembled, are uniformly sterile, and of no available
-use to cultivating man.
-
-It is on these plains, which are stocked with buffaloes, that the
-finest specimens of the Indian race are to be seen. It is here, that
-the savage is decorated in the richest costume. It is here, and here
-only, that his wants are all satisfied, and even the _luxuries_ of
-life are afforded him in abundance. And here also is he the proud and
-honourable man (before he has had teachers or laws), above the imported
-wants, which beget meanness and vice; stimulated by ideas of honour and
-virtue, in which the God of Nature has certainly not curtailed him.
-
-There are, by a fair calculation, more than 300,000 Indians, who are
-now subsisted on the flesh of the buffaloes, and by those animals
-supplied with all the luxuries of life which they desire, as they
-know of none others. The great variety of uses to which they convert
-the body and other parts of that animal, are almost incredible to
-the person who has not actually dwelt amongst these people, and
-closely studied their modes and customs. Every part of their flesh is
-converted into food, in one shape or another, and on it they entirely
-subsist. The robes of the animals are worn by the Indians instead of
-blankets—their skins when tanned, are used as coverings for their
-lodges, and for their beds; undressed, they are used for constructing
-canoes—for saddles, for bridles—l’arrêts, lasos, and thongs. The horns
-are shaped into ladles and spoons—the brains are used for dressing the
-skins—their bones are used for saddle trees—for war clubs, and scrapers
-for graining the robes—and others are broken up for the marrow-fat
-which is contained in them. Their sinews are used for strings and backs
-to their bows—for thread to string their beads and sew their dresses.
-The feet of the animals are boiled, with their hoofs, for the glue
-they contain, for fastening their arrow points, and many other uses.
-The hair from the head and shoulders, which is long, is twisted and
-braided into halters, and the tail is used for a fly brush. In this
-wise do these people convert and use the various parts of this useful
-animal, and with all these luxuries of life about them, and their
-numerous games, they are happy (God bless them) in the ignorance of the
-disastrous fate that awaits them.
-
-Yet this interesting community, with its sports, its wildnesses, its
-languages, and all its manners and customs, could be perpetuated, and
-also the buffaloes, whose numbers would increase and supply them with
-food for ages and centuries to come, if a system of non-intercourse
-could be established and preserved. But such is not to be the case—the
-buffalo’s doom is sealed, and with their extinction must assuredly sink
-into real despair and starvation, the inhabitants of these vast plains,
-which afford for the Indians, no other possible means of subsistence;
-and they must at last fall a prey to wolves and buzzards, who will have
-no other bones to pick.
-
-It seems hard and cruel, (does it not?) that we civilized people with
-all the luxuries and comforts of the world about us, should be drawing
-from the backs of these useful animals the skins for our luxury,
-leaving their carcasses to be devoured by the wolves—that we should
-draw from that country, some 150 or 200,000 of their robes annually,
-the greater part of which are taken from animals that are killed
-expressly for the robe, at a season when the meat is not cured and
-preserved, and for each of which skins the Indian has received but a
-pint of whiskey!
-
-Such is the fact, and that number or near it, are annually destroyed,
-in addition to the number that is necessarily killed for the
-subsistence of 300,000 Indians, who live entirely upon them. It may
-be said, perhaps, that the Fur Trade of these great western realms,
-which is now limited chiefly to the purchase of buffalo robes, is of
-great and national importance, and should and must be encouraged. To
-such a suggestion I would reply, by merely enquiring, (independently of
-the poor Indians’ disasters,) how much more advantageously would such
-a capital be employed, both for the weal of the country and for the
-owners, if it were invested in machines for the manufacture of _woollen
-robes_, of equal and superior value and beauty; thereby encouraging
-the growers of wool, and the industrious manufacturer, rather than
-cultivating a taste for the use of buffalo skins; which is just to be
-acquired, and then, from necessity, to be dispensed with, when a few
-years shall have destroyed the last of the animals producing them.
-
-It may be answered, perhaps, that the necessaries of life are given in
-exchange for these robes; but what, I would ask, are the necessities
-in Indian life, where they have buffaloes in abundance to live on?
-The Indian’s necessities are entirely artificial—are all created; and
-when the buffaloes shall have disappeared in his country, which will
-be within _eight_ or _ten_ years, I would ask, who is to supply him
-with the necessaries of life then? and I would ask, further, (and leave
-the question to be answered ten years hence), when the skin shall have
-been stripped from the back of the last animal, who is to resist the
-ravages of 300,000 starving savages; and in their trains, 1,500,000
-wolves, whom direst necessity will have driven from their desolate and
-gameless plains, to seek for the means of subsistence along our exposed
-frontier? God has everywhere supplied man in a state of Nature, with
-the necessaries of life, and before we destroy the game of his country,
-or teach him new desires, he has no wants that are not satisfied.
-
-Amongst the tribes who have been impoverished and repeatedly removed,
-the necessaries of life are extended with a better grace from the
-hands of civilized man; 90,000 of such have already been removed, and
-they draw from Government some 5 or 600,000 dollars annually in cash;
-_which money passes immediately into the hands of white men_, and for
-it the necessaries of life _may be_ abundantly furnished. But who, I
-would ask, are to furnish the Indians who have been instructed in this
-unnatural mode—living upon _such_ necessaries, and even luxuries of
-life, extended to them by the hands of white men, when those annuities
-are at an end, and the skin is stripped from the last of the animals
-which God gave them for their subsistence?
-
-Reader, I will stop here, lest you might forget to answer these
-important queries—these are questions which I know will puzzle the
-world—and, perhaps it is not right that I should ask them.   *    *
-  *    *    *    *    *    *    *
-
-  *    *    Thus much I wrote and painted at this place, whilst on my way up
-the river: after which I embarked on the steamer for the Yellow Stone,
-and the sources of the Missouri, through which interesting regions I
-have made a successful Tour; and have returned, as will have been seen
-by the foregoing narrations, in my canoe, to this place, from whence
-I am to descend the river still further in a few days. If I ever get
-time, I may give further Notes on this place, and of people and their
-doings, which I met with here; but at present, I throw my note-book,
-and canvass, and brushes into my canoe, which will be launched
-to-morrow morning, and on its way towards St. Louis, with myself at
-the steering-oar, as usual; and with Ba’tiste and Bogard to paddle, of
-whom, I beg the readers’ pardon for having said nothing of late, though
-they have been my constant companions. Our way is now over the foaming
-and muddy waters of the Missouri, and amid snags and drift logs (for
-there is a sweeping freshet on her waters), and many a day will pass
-before other Letters will come from me; and possibly, the reader may
-have to look to my biographer for the rest. Adieu.
-
-  [13] The reader will be further instructed on this subject, by
-  referring back to +plate+ 9, in the beginning of the book.
-
-
-  [14] The readers will look forward to +plates+ 240 and 243, in the
-  Second Volume, for snow shoes.
-
-
-  [15] The fate of these poor little prisoners, I was informed on my
-  return to St. Louis a year afterwards, was a very disastrous one.
-  The steamer having a distance of 1600 miles to perform, and lying
-  a week or two on sand bars, in a country where milk could not be
-  procured, they all perished but one, which is now flourishing in
-  the extensive fields of this gentleman.
-
-
-                             END OF VOL. I.
-
-
-  Transcriber’s Notes:
-
-    - Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).
-    - Text enclosed by equals is in antiqua (=antiqua=).
-    - Text enclosed by pluses is in small caps (+Small Caps+).
-    - Blank pages have been removed.
-    - Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected.
-    - All illustrations are attributed to _G. Catlin_.
-    - There is no illustration 23.
-    - “Plate” numbers on pages with illustrations are excluded from the
-      text version as they seem to serve no purpose. Plate number
-      references in the text are for the image numbers.
-
-*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE MANNERS,
-CUSTOMS, & CONDITION OF THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS, VOL. I (OF 2) ***
-
-Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will
-be renamed.
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-<p style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Illustrations of the manners, customs, &amp; condition of the North American Indians, Vol. I (of 2), by George Catlin</p>
-<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
-most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
-whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
-of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online
-at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you
-are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the
-country where you are located before using this eBook.
-</div>
-
-<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: Illustrations of the manners, customs, &amp; condition of the North American Indians, Vol. I (of 2)</p>
-<p style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:0; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:1em;'>With letters and notes, written during eight years of travel and adventure among the wildest and most remarkable tribes now existing</p>
-<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: George Catlin</p>
-<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: August 16, 2022 [eBook #68768]</p>
-<br>
-[Most recently updated: August 23, 2023]<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</p>
-  <p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em; text-align:left'>Produced by: Richard Hulse, Robert Tonsing and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)</p>
-<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE MANNERS, CUSTOMS, &AMP; CONDITION OF THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS, VOL. I (OF 2) ***</div>
-  <figure class="illowp75 x-ebookmaker-drop">
-    <img src="images/cover.jpg" alt="cover">
-  </figure>
-
-  <hr class="chap">
-  <figure class="illowp75" id="i_frontis">
-    <img src="images/frontis.jpg" alt="">
-    <figcaption><span class="small"><i>G. Catlin</i></span><br>
-      <i>The Author painting a Chief at the base of the Rocky Mountains.</i></figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <hr class="chap">
-  <div class="titlepage">
-    <h1>ILLUSTRATIONS<br>
-      <span class="xsmall">OF THE</span><br>
-      <span class="xlarge normal"><i>MANNERS, CUSTOMS, &amp; CONDITION</i></span><br>
-      <span class="xsmall">OF THE</span><br>
-      <span class="xxxlarge">NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS.</span></h1>
-
-    <div class="antiqua" style="font-size: 170%;"><span class="gesperrt1">With Letters and Notes</span>,</div>
-
-    <div class="smcap mt2">Written during Eight Years of Travel and Adventure among the<br>
-      Wildest and most Remarkable Tribes now Existing.</div>
-
-    <div class="smcap xlarge mt3">By GEORGE CATLIN.</div>
-
-    <div class="lh1 mt3"><span class="small">WITH</span><br>
-      <span class="large"><i>THREE HUNDRED AND SIXTY COLOURED ENGRAVINGS</i></span><br>
-      <span class="small">FROM THE AUTHOR’S ORIGINAL PAINTINGS.</span></div>
-
-    <figure class="mt3">
-      <img class="illowp25" src="images/i_title.jpg" alt="Logo">
-    </figure>
-
-    <div class="large mt3">IN TWO VOLUMES.—VOL. <abbr title="1">I.</abbr></div>
-
-    <div class="large lh1 mt3"><span class="antiqua">London</span>:<br>
-      <b><span class="large gesperrt2">CHATTO &amp; WINDUS, PICCADILLY</span>.<br>
-      <span class="small">1876.</span></b></div>
-  </div>
-
-  <hr class="chap">
-  <div class="titlepage">
-    <div class="xsmall lh1 mt10 mb10"><b>LONDON:<br>
-    <span class="gesperrt2">PRINTED BY J. OGDEN AND CO</span>.,<br>
-    172, <abbr title="Saint">ST.</abbr> JOHN STREET, E.C.</b></div>
-  </div>
-
-  <hr class="chap">
-  <div class="chapter lh2">
-    <span class="pagenum" id="Page_iii">iii</span>
-    <h2 class="nobreak" id="CONTENTS">CONTENTS<br>
-      <span class="small">OF</span><br>THE FIRST VOLUME.</h2>
-  </div>
-
-  <div class="hang"><a href="#i_frontis"><span class="smcap">Frontispiece</span></a>:—<i>The Author painting a Chief in an Indian
-    Village.</i></div>
-
-  <div class="hang"><a href="#i_map"><span class="smcap">Map</span> <i>of</i> <span class="smcap">Indian Localities</span></a> <i>embraced within
-    the Author’s Travels</i>.</div>
-
-  <div class="center mt2"><a href="#LETTER_1">LETTER—<span class="smcap"><abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 1.</span></a></div>
-
-  <div class="hang">Wyöming, birth-place of the Author, <a href="#Page_2"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 2</a>.—His former Profession—First
-    cause of his Travels to the Indian Country—Delegation of Indians in
-    Philadelphia—First start to the Far West, in 1832, <a href="#Page_3"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 3</a>.—Design of
-    forming a National Gallery—Numbers of Tribes visited, and number of
-    Paintings and other things collected, <a href="#Page_4"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 4</a>.—Probable extinction of
-    the Indians, <a href="#Page_5"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 5</a>.—Former and present numbers of—The proper mode of
-    approaching them, and estimating their character, <a href="#Page_5"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 5–10</a>.</div>
-
-  <div class="hang"><span class="smcap">Certificates</span> <i>of Government Officers, Indian Agents and
-    others, as to the fidelity of the Portraits and other Paintings</i>, <a href="#Page_11"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 11–13</a>.</div>
-
-  <div class="center mt2"><a href="#LETTER_2">LETTER—<span class="smcap"><abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 2.</span></a></div>
-
-  <div class="hang">Mouth of Yellow Stone, <a href="#Page_14"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 14</a>, <a href="#i_003"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 3</a>.—Distance from <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr>
-    Louis—Difficulties of the Missouri—Politeness of Mr. Chouteau and
-    Major Sanford—Fur Company’s Fort—Indian Epicures—New and true School
-    for the Arts—Beautiful Models, <a href="#Page_14"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 14–16</a>.</div>
-
-  <div class="center mt2"><a href="#LETTER_3">LETTER—<span class="smcap"><abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 3, Mouth of Yellow Stone.</span></a></div>
-
-  <div class="hang">Character of Missouri River, <a href="#Page_18"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 18</a>, <a href="#i_004"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 4</a>.—Beautiful prairie shores, <a href="#Page_19"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr>
-    19</a>, <a href="#i_005"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 5</a>.—Picturesque clay bluffs, <a href="#Page_19"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 19</a>, <a href="#i_006"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 6</a>.—First appearance of
-    a steamer at the Yellow Stone, and curious conjectures of the Indians
-    about it, <a href="#Page_20"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 20</a>.—Fur Company’s Establishment at the mouth of Yellow
-    Stone—M‘Kenzie—His table and politeness, <a href="#Page_21"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 21</a>.—Indian tribes in this
-    vicinity, <a href="#Page_22"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 22</a>.</div>
-
-  <div class="center mt2"><a href="#LETTER_4">LETTER—<span class="smcap"><abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 4, Mouth of Yellow Stone</span></a></div>
-
-  <div class="hang">Upper Missouri Indians—General character, <a href="#Page_23"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 23</a>.—Buffaloes—Description
-    of, <a href="#Page_24"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 24</a>, pls. <a href="#i_007">7</a>, <a href="#i_008">8</a>.—Modes of killing them—Buffalo-hunt, <a href="#Page_25"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr>
-    25</a>.—Chardon’s Leap, <a href="#Page_26"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 26</a>, <a href="#i_009"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 9</a>.—Wounded bull, <a href="#Page_26"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 26</a>, <a href="#i_018"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr>
-    10</a>.—Extraordinary feat of Mr. M‘Kenzie, <a href="#Page_27"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 27</a>.—Return from the chase,
-    <a href="#Page_28"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 28</a>.</div>
-
-  <div class="hang"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_iv">iv</span></div>
-
-  <div class="center mt2"><a href="#LETTER_5">LETTER—<span class="smcap"><abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 5, Mouth of Yellow Stone.</span></a></div>
-
-  <div class="hang">Author’s painting-room, and characters in it, <a href="#Page_29"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 29</a>.—Blackfoot
-    chief, <a href="#Page_29"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 29</a>, <a href="#i_011"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 11</a>.—Other Blackfoot chiefs, and their costumes,
-    <a href="#Page_30"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 30</a>.—Blackfoot woman and child, <a href="#Page_30"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 30</a>, pls. <a href="#i_012">12</a>, <a href="#i_013">13</a>;—Scalps,
-    and objects for which taken—red pipes, and pipe-stone quarry, <a href="#Page_31"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr>
-    31</a>.—Blackfoot bows, shields, arrows and lances, <a href="#Page_32"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 32, 33</a>, <a href="#i_018"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr>
-    18</a>.—Several distinguished Blackfeet, <a href="#Page_34"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 34</a>, pls. <a href="#i_014">14</a>, <a href="#i_015">15</a>, <a href="#i_016">16</a>, <a href="#i_017">17</a>.</div>
-
-  <div class="center mt2"><a href="#LETTER_6">LETTER—<span class="smcap"><abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 6, Mouth of Yellow Stone.</span></a></div>
-
-  <div class="hang">Medicines or mysteries—medicine-bag—origin of the word medicine,
-    <a href="#Page_35"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 35</a>.—Mode of forming the medicine-bag, <a href="#Page_36"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 36</a>.—Value of the
-    medicine-bag to the Indian, and materials for their construction,
-    <a href="#Page_37"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 37</a>, <a href="#i_018"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 18</a>.—Blackfoot doctor or medicine-man—his mode of curing
-    the sick, <a href="#Page_39"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 39</a>, <a href="#i_019"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 19</a>.—Different offices and importance of
-    medicine-men, <a href="#Page_41"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 41</a>.</div>
-
-  <div class="center mt2"><a href="#LETTER_7">LETTER—<span class="smcap"><abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 7, Mouth of Yellow Stone.</span></a></div>
-
-  <div class="hang">Crews and Blackfeet—General character and appearance, <a href="#Page_42"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 42</a>.—Killing
-    and drying meat, <a href="#Page_43"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 43</a>, <a href="#i_022"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 22</a>.—Crow lodge or wigwam, <a href="#Page_43"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 43</a>, <a href="#i_020"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr>
-    20</a>.—Striking their tents and encampment moving, <a href="#Page_44"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 44</a>, <a href="#i_021"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 21</a>.—Mode
-    of dressing and smoking skins, <a href="#Page_45"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 45</a>.—Crows—Beauty of their
-    dresses—Horse-stealing or capturing—Reasons why they are called
-    rogues and robbers of the first order, &amp;c. <a href="#Page_46"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 46</a>.</div>
-
-  <div class="center mt2"><a href="#LETTER_8">LETTER—<span class="smcap"><abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 8, Mouth of Yellow Stone.</span></a></div>
-
-  <div class="hang">Further remarks on the Crows—Extraordinary length of hair, <a href="#Page_49"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr>
-    49</a>.—Peculiarities of the Crow head, and several portraits, <a href="#Page_50"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 50</a>,
-    pls. <a href="#i_024">24</a>, <a href="#i_024">25</a>, <a href="#i_026">26</a>, <a href="#i_026">27</a>.—Crow and Blackfeet women—Their modes of dressing
-    and painting, <a href="#Page_51"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 51</a>.—Differences between the Crow and Blackfoot
-    languages, <a href="#Page_51"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 51</a>.—Different hands—Different languages, and numbers
-    of the Blackfeet, <a href="#Page_52"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 52</a>.—Knisteneaux—Assinneboins, and Ojibbeways,
-    <a href="#Page_53"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 53</a>.—Assinneboins a part of the Sioux—Their mode of boiling meat,
-    <a href="#Page_54"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 54</a>.—Pipe-dance, <a href="#Page_55"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 55</a>, <a href="#i_052"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 52</a>.—Wi-jun-jon (a chief) and wife,
-    pls. <a href="#i_028">28</a>, <a href="#i_028">29</a>.—His visit to Washington, <a href="#Page_56"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 56</a>.—Dresses of women
-    and children of the Assinneboins, <a href="#Page_57"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 57</a>, <a href="#i_034"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 34</a>.—Knisteneaux (or
-    Crees)—character and numbers, and several portraits, <a href="#Page_57"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 57</a>, pls. <a href="#i_030">30</a>,
-    <a href="#i_030">31</a>.—Ojibbeways—Chief and wife, <a href="#Page_58"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 58</a>, pls. <a href="#i_035">35</a>, <a href="#i_036">36</a>.</div>
-
-  <div class="center mt2"><a href="#LETTER_9">LETTER—<span class="smcap"><abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 9, Mouth of Yellow Stone.</span></a></div>
-
-  <div class="hang">Contemplations of the Great Far West and its customs, <a href="#Page_59"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 59</a>.—Old
-    acquaintance, <a href="#Page_60"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 60</a>.—March and effects of civilization, <a href="#Page_60"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 60</a>.—The
-    “Far West”—The Author in search of it, <a href="#Page_62"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 62</a>.—Meeting with
-    “Ba’tiste,” a free trapper, <a href="#Page_63"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 63, 64</a>.</div>
-
-  <div class="center mt2"><a href="#LETTER_10">LETTER—<span class="smcap"><abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 10, Mandan Village, Upper Missouri.</span></a></div>
-
-  <div class="hang">A strange place—Voyage from Mouth of Yellow Stone down the river to
-    Mandans—Commencement—Leave M‘Kenzie’s Fort, <a href="#Page_66"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 66</a>.—Assinneboins
-    encamped on the river Wi-jun-jon lecturing on the customs of white
-    people—Mountain-sheep, <span class="pagenum" id="Page_v">v</span><a href="#Page_67"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 67</a>,—War-eagles—Grizzly bears, <a href="#Page_68"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 68</a>.—Clay
-    bluffs, “brick-kilns,” volcanic remains, <a href="#Page_69"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 69</a>, pls. <a href="#i_037">37</a>, <a href="#i_038">38</a>.—Red
-    pumice stone—A wild stroll—Mountaineer’s sleep, <a href="#Page_70"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 70</a>.—Grizzly bear
-    and cubs—Courageous attack—Canoe robbed, <a href="#Page_71"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 71</a>.—Eating our meals
-    on a pile of drift-wood—Encamping in the night—Voluptuous scene of
-    wild flowers, buffalo bush and berries, <a href="#Page_72"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 72</a>.—Adventure after an
-    elk—War-party discovered, <a href="#Page_74"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 74</a>.—Magnificent scenery in the “Grand
-    Détour”—Stupendous clay bluffs—Table land, <a href="#Page_75"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 75</a>, <a href="#i_039"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 39</a>.—Antelope
-    shooting, <a href="#Page_76"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 76</a>, <a href="#i_040"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 40</a>.—“Grand Dome”—Prairie dogs—Village—Fruitless
-    endeavours to shoot them, <a href="#Page_77"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 77</a>, <a href="#i_042"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 42</a>.—Pictured bluff and the Three
-    Domes, <a href="#Page_78"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 78</a>, pls. <a href="#i_043">43</a>, <a href="#i_044">44</a>.—Arrival at the Mandan village, <a href="#Page_79"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 79</a>.</div>
-
-  <div class="center mt2"><a href="#LETTER_11">LETTER—<span class="smcap"><abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 11, Mandan Village.</span></a></div>
-
-  <div class="hang">Location—Village, <a href="#Page_80"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 80</a>, <a href="#i_045"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 45</a>.—Former locations fortification of
-    their village—Description of village and mode of constructing their
-    wigwams, <a href="#Page_81"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 81, 82</a>.—Description of interior—Beds—Weapons—Family
-    groups, <a href="#Page_82"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 82, 83</a>, <a href="#i_046"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 46</a>.—Indian garrulity—Jokes—Fire-side fun and
-    story-telling, <a href="#Page_84"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 84</a>.—Causes of Indian taciturnity in civilized
-    society, <a href="#Page_85"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 85</a>.</div>
-
-  <div class="center mt2"><a href="#LETTER_12">LETTER—<span class="smcap"><abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 12, Mandan Village.</span></a></div>
-
-  <div class="hang">Bird’s-eye view of the village, <a href="#Page_87"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 87</a>, <a href="#i_047"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 47</a>.—The “big
-    canoe”—Medicine-lodge—A strange medley, <a href="#Page_88"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 88</a>.—Mode of depositing
-    the dead on scaffolds, <a href="#Page_89"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 89</a>.—Respect to the dead—Visiting the
-    dead—Feeding the dead—Converse with the dead—Bones of the dead, <a href="#Page_90"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr>
-    90</a>, <a href="#i_048"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 48</a>.</div>
-
-  <div class="center mt2"><a href="#LETTER_13">LETTER—<span class="smcap"><abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 13, Mandan Village.</span></a></div>
-
-  <div class="hang">The wolf-chief—Head-chief of the tribe, <a href="#Page_92"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 92</a>, <a href="#i_049"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr>
-    49</a>.—Several portraits, <a href="#Page_92"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 92</a>, pls. <a href="#i_050">50</a>, <a href="#i_050">51</a>, <a href="#i_052">52</a>, <a href="#i_052">53</a>.—Personal
-    appearance—Peculiarities—Complexion, <a href="#Page_93"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 93</a>.—“Cheveux gris,” <a href="#Page_94"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr>
-    94</a>.—Hair of the men—Hair of the women, <a href="#Page_95"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 95</a>, <a href="#i_054"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 54</a>.—Bathing and
-    swimming, <a href="#Page_96"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 96</a>.—Mode of swimming—Sudatories or vapour-baths, <a href="#Page_97"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr>
-    97–8</a>, <a href="#i_071"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 71</a>.</div>
-
-  <div class="center mt2"><a href="#LETTER_14">LETTER—<span class="smcap"><abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 14, Mandan Village.</span></a></div>
-
-  <div class="hang">Costumes of the Mandans—High value set upon them—Two horses for
-    a head-dress—Made of war-eagles’ quills and ermine, <a href="#Page_100"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 100,
-    101</a>.—Head-dresses with horns, <a href="#Page_103"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 103</a>.—A Jewish custom, <a href="#Page_104"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 104</a>.</div>
-
-  <div class="center mt2"><a href="#LETTER_15">LETTER—<span class="smcap"><abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 15, Mandan Village.</span></a></div>
-
-  <div class="hang">Astonishment of the Mandans at the operation of the Author’s
-    brush, <a href="#Page_105"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 105</a>.—The Author installed medicine or medicine-man,
-    <a href="#Page_106"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 106</a>.—Crowds around the Author—Curiosity to see and to touch
-    him, <a href="#Page_107"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 107</a>.—Superstitious fears for those who were painted, <a href="#Page_168"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr>
-    168</a>.—Objections raised to being painted, <a href="#Page_109"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 109</a>.—The Author’s
-    operations opposed by a Mandan doctor, or medicine-man, and how
-    brought over, <a href="#Page_110"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 110</a>, <a href="#i_055"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 55</a>.</div>
-
-  <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_vi">vi</span></p>
-
-  <div class="center mt2"><a href="#LETTER_16">LETTER—<span class="smcap"><abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 16, Mandan Village.</span></a></div>
-
-  <div class="hang">An Indian beau or dandy, <a href="#Page_112"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 112</a>.—A fruitless endeavour to paint one, <a href="#Page_113"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr>
-    113</a>.—Mah-to-toh-pa (the four bears), second chief of the tribe—The
-    Author feasted in his wigwam, <a href="#Page_114"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 114</a>, <a href="#i_062"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 62</a>.—Viands of the feast, <a href="#Page_115"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr>
-    115</a>.—Pemican and marrow-fat—Mandan pottery—Robe presented, <a href="#Page_116"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 116</a>.</div>
-
-  <div class="center mt2"><a href="#LETTER_17">LETTER—<span class="smcap"><abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 17, Mandan Village.</span></a></div>
-
-  <div class="hang">Polygamy—Reasons and excuses for it, <a href="#Page_118"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 118</a>.—Marriages, how
-    contracted—Wives bought and sold, <a href="#Page_120"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 120</a>.—Paternal and filial
-    affection—Virtue and modesty of women—Early marriages—Slavish lives
-    and occupations of the Indian women, <a href="#Page_121"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 121</a>.—Pomme blanche—Dried
-    meat—Caches—Modes of cooking, and times of eating—Attitudes in
-    eating, <a href="#Page_122"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 122</a>.—Separation of males and females in eating—the Indians
-    moderate eaters—Some exceptions, <a href="#Page_123"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 123</a>.—Curing meat in the sun,
-    without smoke or salt—The wild Indians eat no salt, <a href="#Page_124"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 124</a>.</div>
-
-  <div class="center mt2"><a href="#LETTER_18">LETTER—<span class="smcap"><abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 18. Mandan Village.</span></a></div>
-
-  <div class="hang">Indian dancing—“Buffalo dance,” <a href="#Page_127"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 127</a>, <a href="#i_056"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 56</a>.—Discovery of
-    buffaloes—Preparations for the chase—Start—A decoy—A retreat—Death
-    and scalping, <a href="#Page_129"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 129</a>.</div>
-
-  <div class="center mt2"><a href="#LETTER_19">LETTER—<span class="smcap"><abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 19, Mandan Village.</span></a></div>
-
-  <div class="hang">Sham fight and sham scalp dance of the Mandan boys, <a href="#Page_131"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 131</a>, <a href="#i_057"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr>
-    57</a>.—Game of Tchung-kee, <a href="#Page_132"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 132</a>, <a href="#i_059"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 59</a>.—Feasting—Fasting and
-    sacrificing—White buffalo robe—Its value <a href="#Page_133"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 133</a>, <a href="#i_047"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 47</a>.—Rain makers
-    and rain stoppers, <a href="#Page_131"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 131</a>.—Rain making, <a href="#Page_135"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 135</a>, <a href="#i_058"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 58</a>.—“The thunder
-    boat”—The big double medicine, <a href="#Page_140"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 140</a>.</div>
-
-  <div class="center mt2"><a href="#LETTER_20">LETTER—<span class="smcap"><abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 20, Mandan Village.</span></a></div>
-
-  <div class="hang">Mandan archery—“Game of the arrow,” <a href="#Page_141"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 141</a>, <a href="#i_060"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 60</a>.—Wild
-    horses—Horse-racing, <a href="#Page_142"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 142</a>, <a href="#i_061"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 61</a>.—Foot war-party in council, <a href="#Page_143"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr>
-    143</a>, <a href="#i_063"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 63</a>.</div>
-
-  <div class="center mt2"><a href="#LETTER_21">LETTER—<span class="smcap"><abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 21, Mandan Village, Upper Missouri.</span></a></div>
-
-  <div class="hang">Mah-to-toh-pa, (the Four Bears)—His costume and his portrait, <a href="#Page_145"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 145</a>,
-    <a href="#i_064"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 64</a>.—The robe of Mah-to-toh-pa, with all the battles of his life
-    painted on it, <a href="#Page_148"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 148</a>, <a href="#i_065"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 65</a>.</div>
-
-  <div class="center mt2"><a href="#LETTER_22">LETTER—<span class="smcap"><abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 22, Mandan Village.</span></a></div>
-
-  <div class="hang">Mandan religious ceremonies—Mandan religious creed, <a href="#Page_156"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 156</a>.—Three
-    objects of the ceremony, <a href="#Page_157"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 157</a>.—Place of holding the ceremony—Big
-    canoe—Season of commencing—and manner, <a href="#Page_158"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 158</a>.—Opening the medicine
-    lodge—Sacrifices to the water, <a href="#Page_159"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 159</a>.—Fasting scene for four
-    days and nights, <a href="#Page_161"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 161</a>, <a href="#i_066"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 66</a>.—Bei-lohck-nah-pick, (the bull
-    dance), <a href="#Page_164"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 164</a>, <a href="#i_067"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 67</a>.—Pohk-hong (the cutting or torturing scene),
-    <a href="#Page_169"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 169</a>, <a href="#i_068"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 68</a>.—Ah-ke-nah-ka-nah-pick,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_vii">[Pg vii]</span> (the last race) <a href="#Page_173"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 173</a>,
-    <a href="#i_069"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 69</a>.—Extraordinary instances of cruelty in self-torture, <a href="#Page_175"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr>
-    175</a>.—Sacrificing to the water, <a href="#Page_176"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 176</a>.—Certificates of the Mandan
-    ceremonies—Inferences drawn from these horrible cruelties, with
-    traditions, <a href="#Page_177"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 177</a>.—Tradition of O-kee-hee-de (the Evil Spirit), <a href="#Page_179"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr>
-    179</a>.—Mandans can be civilized, <a href="#Page_183"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 183</a>.</div>
-
-  <div class="center mt2"><a href="#LETTER_23">LETTER—<span class="smcap"><abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 23, Minataree Village.</span></a></div>
-
-  <div class="hang">Location and numbers—Origin, <a href="#Page_185"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 185</a>.—Principal village, <a href="#i_070"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 70</a>.—Vapour
-    baths, <a href="#i_071"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 71</a>.—Old chief, Black Moccasin, <a href="#Page_186"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 186</a>, <a href="#i_072"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 72</a>.—Two
-    portraits, man and woman, pls. <a href="#i_073">73</a>, <a href="#i_073">74</a>.—Green corn dance, <a href="#Page_189"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 189</a>, <a href="#i_075"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 75</a>.</div>
-
-  <div class="center mt2"><a href="#LETTER_24">LETTER—<span class="smcap"><abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 24, Minataree Village.</span></a></div>
-
-  <div class="hang">Crows, in the Minataree village, <a href="#Page_191"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 191</a>.—Crow chief on horseback,
-    in full dress, <a href="#Page_192"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 192</a>, <a href="#i_076"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 76</a>.—Peculiarities of the Crows—Long
-    hair—Semi-lunar faces, <a href="#Page_193"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 193</a>, pls. <a href="#i_077">77</a>, <a href="#i_073">78</a>.—Rats in the Minataree
-    village, <a href="#Page_195"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 195</a>.—Crossing Knife River in “bull boat”—Swimming of
-    Minataree girls, <a href="#Page_196"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 196</a>.—Horse-racing—A banter—Riding a “naked horse,”
-    <a href="#Page_197"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 197</a>.—Grand buffalo surround, <a href="#Page_199"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 199</a>, <a href="#i_079"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 79</a>.—Cutting up and
-    carrying in meat, <a href="#Page_201"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 201</a>.</div>
-
-  <div class="center mt2"><a href="#LETTER_25">LETTER—<span class="smcap"><abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 25, Little Mandan Village, Upper Missouri.</span></a></div>
-
-  <div class="hang">An Indian offering himself for a pillow, <a href="#Page_203"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 203</a>.—Portraits of
-    Riccarees, <a href="#Page_204"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 204</a>, pls. <a href="#i_081">83</a>, <a href="#i_084">84</a>, <a href="#i_082">82</a>,
-    <a href="#i_081">81</a>.—Riccaree village, <a href="#Page_204"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 204</a>, <a href="#i_080"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr>
-    80</a>.—Origin of the Mandans—Welsh colony—Expedition of Madoc, <a href="#Page_206"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 206–7</a>.</div>
-
-  <div class="center mt2"><a href="#LETTER_26">LETTER—<span class="smcap"><abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 26, Mouth of Teton River.</span></a></div>
-
-  <div class="hang">Sioux or (Dah-co-ta), <a href="#Page_208"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 208</a>.—Fort Pierre, <a href="#i_085"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 85</a>.—Mississippi
-    and Missouri Sioux, <a href="#Page_209"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 209</a>.—Ha-wan-je-tah (chief), <a href="#Page_211"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 211</a>, <a href="#i_086"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr>
-    86</a>.—Puncahs, Shoo-de-ga-cha (chief) and wife, <a href="#Page_212"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 212</a>, pls. <a href="#i_087">87</a>,
-    <a href="#i_088">88</a>.—Four wives taken at once, <a href="#Page_213"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 213</a>, <a href="#i_090"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 90</a>.—Portrait of one of the
-    wives, <a href="#Page_214"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 214</a>, <a href="#i_089"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 89</a>.—Early marriages—Causes of, <a href="#Page_215"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 215</a>.</div>
-
-  <div class="center mt2"><a href="#LETTER_27">LETTER—<span class="smcap"><abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 27, Mouth of Teton River.</span></a></div>
-
-  <div class="hang">Custom of exposing the aged, <a href="#Page_216"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 216</a>.—A tedious march on foot, <a href="#Page_218"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr>
-    218</a>.—Level prairies—“Out of sight of land”—Mirage—Looming of the
-    prairies, <a href="#Page_218"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 218</a>.—Turning the toes in—Bijou hills—Salt meadows,
-    <a href="#Page_219"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 219</a>.—Arrive at Fort Pierre—Great assemblage of Sioux—Paint the
-    portrait of the chief—Superstitious objections—Opposed by the
-    doctors, <a href="#Page_220"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 220</a>.—Difficulty settled—Death of Ha-wan-je-tah (the
-    chief)—Mode of, <a href="#Page_221"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 221</a>.—Portraits of other Sioux chiefs—Wampum,
-    <a href="#Page_222"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 222–3</a>, pls. <a href="#i_091">91</a>, <a href="#i_091">92</a>.—Beautiful Sioux women—Daughter of Black
-    Rock—Chardon, his Indian wife, <a href="#Page_224"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 224–5</a>, pls. <a href="#i_094">94</a>, <a href="#i_094">95</a>.</div>
-
-  <div class="center mt2"><a href="#LETTER_28">LETTER—<span class="smcap"><abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 28, Mouth of Teton River.</span></a></div>
-
-  <div class="hang">Difficulty of painting Indian women, <a href="#Page_226"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 226</a>.—Indian vanity—Watching
-    their portraits—Arrival of the first steamer amongst the Sioux, <a href="#Page_227"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr>
-    227</a>.—Dog-feast, <a href="#Page_228"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 228</a>, <a href="#i_096"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 96</a>.</div>
-
-  <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_viii">viii</span></p>
-
-  <div class="center mt2"><a href="#LETTER_29">LETTER—<span class="smcap"><abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 29, Mouth of Teton River.</span></a></div>
-
-  <div class="hang">Voluntary torture, “looking at the sun,” <a href="#Page_232"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 232</a>, <a href="#i_097"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 97</a>.—Religious
-    ceremony, <a href="#Page_233"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 233</a>.—Smoking “k’nick-k’neck”—Pipes, <a href="#Page_234"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 234</a>. <a href="#i_098"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr>
-    98</a>.—Calumets or pipes of peace, <a href="#Page_235"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 235</a>.—Tomahawks and scalping knives,
-    <a href="#Page_235"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 235–6</a>, <a href="#i_099"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 99</a>.—Dance of the chiefs, <a href="#Page_237"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 237</a>, <a href="#i_100"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 100</a>.—Scalps—Mode
-    of taking, and object, <a href="#Page_238"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 238–9</a>.—Modes of carrying and using the
-    scalps, <a href="#Page_240"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 240</a>, <a href="#i_101"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 101</a>.</div>
-
-  <div class="center mt2"><a href="#LETTER_30">LETTER—<span class="smcap"><abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 30, Mouth of Teton River.</span></a></div>
-
-  <div class="hang">Indian weapons and instruments of music, <a href="#Page_241"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 241</a>, <a href="#i_101a"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr>
-    101½</a>.—Quiver and shield—Smoking the shield, <a href="#Page_241"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 241</a>.—Tobacco
-    pouches—Drums—Rattles—Whistles—Lutes, <a href="#Page_242"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 242</a>, <a href="#i_101a"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 101½</a>.—Bear dance,
-    <a href="#Page_244"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 244</a>, <a href="#i_102"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 102</a>.—Beggars’ dance—Scalp dance, <a href="#Page_245"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 245</a>, <a href="#i_103">pls. 103, 104</a>.</div>
-
-  <div class="center mt2"><a href="#LETTER_31">LETTER—<span class="smcap"><abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 31, Mouth of Teton River.</span></a></div>
-
-  <div class="hang">Bisons (or buffaloes) description of, <a href="#Page_247"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 247</a>.—Habits of, <a href="#Page_248"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 248</a>.—Bulls’
-    fighting—Buffalo wallows—Fairy circles, <a href="#Page_249"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 249</a>, pls. <a href="#i_105">105</a>,
-    <a href="#i_106">106</a>.—Running the buffaloes, and throwing the arrow, <a href="#Page_251"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 251</a>, <abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr>
-    <a href="#i_107">107</a>.—Buffalo chase—Use of the laso, <a href="#Page_253"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 253</a>, pls. <a href="#i_108">108</a>, <a href="#i_109">109</a>.—Hunting
-    under masque of white wolfskins, <a href="#Page_254"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 254</a>, <a href="#i_110"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 110</a>.—Horses destroyed
-    in buffalo hunting, <a href="#Page_255"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 255</a>, <a href="#i_111"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 111</a>.—Buffalo calf—Mode of catching
-    and bringing in, <a href="#Page_255"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 255</a>, <a href="#i_112"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 112</a>.—Immense and wanton destruction of
-    buffaloes—1,400 killed, <a href="#Page_256"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 256</a>.—White wolves attacking buffaloes, <a href="#Page_257"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr>
-    257–8</a>, pls. <a href="#i_113">113</a>, <a href="#i_114">114</a>.—Contemplations on the probable extinction of
-    buffaloes and Indians, <a href="#Page_258"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 258, 264</a>.</div>
-
-  <hr class="chap">
-  <figure id="i_map">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_map.jpg" alt="">
-    <figcaption style="font-size: medium;">OUTLINE MAP<br>
-      <span class="xsmall"><i>OF</i></span><br>
-      INDIAN LOCALITIES<br>
-      <i>in 1833</i>.<br>
-      <hr class="short">
-      In Vol. 2. see Map of<br>
-      <i>LOCALITIES in 1840,</i><br>
-      <i>since all the tribes have</i><br>
-      <i>been removed from the States,</i><br>
-      <i>W. of the Mississippi</i>
-      <hr class="short">
-      [<a href="images/i_map_big.jpg">See larger version</a>]
-    </figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <hr class="chap">
-  <div class="chapter">
-    <span class="pagenum" id="Page_1">1</span>
-    <h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_1">LETTER—<abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 1.</h2>
-  </div>
-
-  <p><span class="smcap">As</span> the following pages have been hastily compiled, at the urgent
-    request of a number of my friends, from a series of Letters and Notes
-    written by myself during several years’ residence and travel amongst
-    a number of the wildest and most remote tribes of the North American
-    Indians, I have thought it best to make this page the beginning of my
-    book; dispensing with Preface, and even with Dedication, other than
-    that which I hereby make of it, with all my heart, to those who will
-    take the pains to read it.</p>
-
-  <p>If it be necessary to render any apology for beginning thus
-    unceremoniously my readers will understand that I had no space in
-    these, my first volumes, to throw away; nor much time at my disposal,
-    which I could, in justice, use for introducing myself and my works to
-    the world.</p>
-
-  <p>Having commenced thus abruptly then, I will venture to take upon myself
-    the sin of calling this one of the series of Letters of which I have
-    spoken; although I am writing it several years later, and placing it
-    at the beginning of my book; by which means I will be enabled briefly
-    to introduce myself to my readers (who, as yet, know little or nothing
-    of me), and also the subjects of the following epistles, with such
-    explanations of the customs described in them, as will serve for a
-    key or glossary to the same, and prepare the reader’s mind for the
-    information they contain.</p>
-
-  <p>Amidst the multiplicity of books which are, in this enlightened age,
-    flooding the world, I feel it my duty, as early as possible, to beg
-    pardon for making a book at all; and in the next (if my readers should
-    become so much interested in my narrations, as to censure me for the
-    brevity of the work) to take some considerable credit for not having
-    trespassed too long upon their time and patience.</p>
-
-  <p>Leaving my readers, therefore, to find out what is in the book, without
-    promising them anything, I proceed to say—of <em>myself</em>, that I was
-    born in Wyöming, in North America, some thirty or forty years since,
-    of parents<span class="pagenum" id="Page_2">2</span> who entered that beautiful and famed valley soon after the
-    close of the revolutionary war, and the disastrous event of the “Indian
-    massacre.”</p>
-
-  <p>The early part of my life was whiled away, apparently, somewhat
-    in vain, with books reluctantly held in one hand, and a rifle or
-    fishing-pole firmly and affectionately grasped in the other.</p>
-
-  <p>At the urgent request of my father, who was a practising lawyer, I
-    was prevailed upon to abandon these favourite themes, and also my
-    occasional dabblings with the brush, which had secured already a corner
-    in my affections; and I commenced reading the law for a profession,
-    under the direction of Reeve and Gould, of Connecticut. I attended
-    the lectures of these learned judges for two years—was admitted
-    to the bar—and practised the law, as a sort of <em>Nimrodical</em>
-    lawyer, in my native land, for the term of two or three years; when
-    I very deliberately sold my law library and all (save my rifle and
-    fishing-tackle), and converting their proceeds into brushes and paint
-    pots; I commenced the art of painting in Philadelphia, without teacher
-    or adviser.</p>
-
-  <p>I there closely applied my hand to the labours of the art for several
-    years; during which time my mind was continually reaching for some
-    branch or enterprise of the art, on which to devote a whole life-time
-    of enthusiasm; when a delegation of some ten or fifteen noble and
-    dignified-looking Indians, from the wilds of the “Far West,” suddenly
-    arrived in the city, arrayed and equipped in all their classic
-    beauty,—with shield and helmet,—with tunic and manteau,—tinted and
-    tasselled off, exactly for the painter’s palette!</p>
-
-  <p>In silent and stoic dignity, these lords of the forest strutted about
-    the city for a few days, wrapped in their pictured robes, with their
-    brows plumed with the quills of the war-eagle, attracting the gaze
-    and admiration of all who beheld them. After this, they took their
-    leave for Washington City, and I was left to reflect and regret, which
-    I did long and deeply, until I came to the following deductions and
-    conclusions.</p>
-
-  <p>Black and blue cloth and civilization are destined, not only to
-    veil, but to obliterate the grace and beauty of Nature. Man, in the
-    simplicity and loftiness of his nature, unrestrained and unfettered
-    by the disguises of art, is surely the most beautiful model for the
-    painter,—and the country from which he hails is unquestionably the best
-    study or school of the arts in the world: such I am sure, from the
-    models I have seen, is the wilderness of North America. And the history
-    and customs of such a people, preserved by pictorial illustrations,
-    are themes worthy the life-time of one man, and nothing short of the
-    loss of my life, shall prevent me from visiting their country, and of
-    becoming their historian.</p>
-
-  <p>There was something inexpressibly delightful in the above resolve,
-    which was to bring me amidst such living models for my brush: and at
-    the same time to place in my hands again, for my living and protection,
-    the objects of my heart above-named; which had long been laid by to
-    rust and decay<span class="pagenum" id="Page_3">3</span> in the city, without the remotest prospect of again
-    contributing to my amusement.</p>
-
-  <p>I had fully resolved—I opened my views to my friends and relations,
-    but got not one advocate or abettor. I tried fairly and faithfully,
-    but it was in vain to reason with those whose anxieties were ready to
-    fabricate every difficulty and danger that could be imagined, without
-    being able to understand or appreciate the extent or importance of
-    my designs, and I broke from them all,—from my wife and my aged
-    parents,—myself my only adviser and protector.</p>
-
-  <p>With these views firmly fixed—armed, equipped, and supplied, I started
-    out in the year 1832, and penetrated the vast and pathless wilds
-    which are familiarly denominated the great “Far West” of the North
-    American Continent, with a light heart, inspired with an enthusiastic
-    hope and reliance that I could meet and overcome all the hazards
-    and privations of a life devoted to the production of a literal and
-    graphic delineation of the living manners, customs, and character of an
-    interesting race of people, who are rapidly passing away from the face
-    of the earth—lending a hand to a dying nation, who have no historians
-    or biographers of their own to pourtray with fidelity their native
-    looks and history; thus snatching from a hasty oblivion what could be
-    saved for the benefit of posterity, and perpetuating it, as a fair and
-    just monument, to the memory of a truly lofty and noble race.</p>
-
-  <p>I have spent about eight years already in the pursuit above-named,
-    having been for the most of that time immersed in the Indian country,
-    mingling with red men, and identifying myself with them as much as
-    possible, in their games and amusements; in order the better to
-    familiarize myself with their superstitions and mysteries, which are
-    the keys to Indian life and character.</p>
-
-  <p>It was during the several years of my life just mentioned, and whilst I
-    was in familiar participation with them in their sports and amusements,
-    that I penned the following series of epistles; describing only such
-    glowing or curious scenes and events as passed under my immediate
-    observation; leaving their early history, and many of their traditions,
-    language, &amp;c. for a subsequent and much more elaborate work, for which
-    I have procured the materials, and which I may eventually publish.</p>
-
-  <p>I set out on my arduous and perilous undertaking with the determination
-    of reaching, ultimately, every tribe of Indians on the Continent
-    of North America, and of bringing home faithful portraits of their
-    principal personages, both men and women, from each tribe; views of
-    their villages, games, &amp;c. and full notes on their character and
-    history. I designed, also, to procure their costumes, and a complete
-    collection of their manufactures and weapons, and to perpetuate them in
-    a <i>Gallery unique</i>, for the use and instruction of future ages.</p>
-
-  <p>I claim whatever merit there may have been in the originality of such
-    a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_4">4</span> design, as I was undoubtedly the first artist who ever set out upon
-    such a work, designing to carry his canvass to the Rocky Mountains;
-    and a considerable part of the following Letters were written and
-    published in the New York Papers, as early as the years 1832 and 1833;
-    long before the Tours of Washington Irving, and several others, whose
-    interesting narratives are before the world.</p>
-
-  <p>I have, as yet, by no means visited <em>all</em> the tribes; but I have
-    progressed a very great way with the enterprise, and with far greater
-    and more complete success than I expected.</p>
-
-  <p>I have visited forty-eight different tribes, the greater part of which
-    I found speaking different languages, and containing in all 400,000
-    souls. I have brought home safe, and in good order, 310 portraits in
-    oil, all painted in their native dress, and in their own wigwams;
-    and also 200 other paintings in oil, containing views of their
-    villages—their wigwams—their games and religious ceremonies—their
-    dances—their ball plays—their buffalo hunting, and other amusements
-    (containing in all, over 3000 full-length figures); and the landscapes
-    of the country they live in, as well as a very extensive and curious
-    collection of their costumes, and all their other manufactures, from
-    the size of a wigwam down to the size of a quill or a rattle.</p>
-
-  <p>A considerable part of the above-named paintings, and Indian
-    manufactures, will be found amongst the very numerous illustrations
-    in the following pages; having been, in every instance, faithfully
-    copied and reduced by my own hand, for the engraver, from my original
-    paintings; and the reader of this book who will take the pains to step
-    in to “<span class="smcap">Catlin’s North American Indian Gallery</span>,” will find
-    nearly every scene and custom which is described in this work, as well
-    as many others, carefully and correctly delineated, and displayed upon
-    the walls, and every weapon (and every “Sachem” and every “Sagamore”
-    who has wielded them) according to the tenor of the tales herein
-    recited.</p>
-
-  <p>So much of <em>myself</em> and of my <em>works</em>, which is all that I
-    wish to say at present.</p>
-
-  <p>Of the <span class="smcap">Indians</span>, I have much more to say, and to the following
-    delineations of them, and their character and customs, I shall make no
-    further apology for requesting the attention of my readers.</p>
-
-  <p>The Indians (as I shall call them), the savages or red men of the
-    forests and prairies of North America, are at this time a subject of
-    great interest and some importance to the civilized world; rendered
-    more particularly so in this age, from their relative position to, and
-    their rapid declension from, the civilized nations of the earth. A
-    numerous nation of human beings, whose origin is beyond the reach of
-    human investigation,—whose early history is lost—whose term of national
-    existence is nearly expired—three-fourths of whose country has fallen
-    into the possession of civilized man within the short space of 250
-    years—twelve millions of whose bodies have fattened the soil in the
-    mean time; who have fallen victims to whiskey, the small-pox, and the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_5">5</span>
-    bayonet; leaving at this time but a meagre proportion to live a short
-    time longer, in the certain apprehension of soon sharing a similar fate.</p>
-
-  <p>The writer who would undertake to embody the whole history of such a
-    people, with all their misfortunes and calamities, must needs have much
-    more space than I have allotted to this epitome; and he must needs
-    begin also (as I am doing) with those who are <em>living</em>, or he
-    would be very apt to dwell upon the preamble of his work, until the
-    present living remnants of the race should have passed away; and their
-    existence and customs, like those of ages gone bye, become subjects of
-    doubt and incredulity to the world for whom his book was preparing.
-    Such an historian also, to do them justice, must needs correct many
-    theories and opinions which have, either ignorantly or maliciously,
-    gone forth to the world in indelible characters; and gather and arrange
-    a vast deal which has been but imperfectly recorded, or placed to
-    the credit of a people who have not had the means of recording it
-    themselves; but have entrusted it, from necessity, to the honesty and
-    punctuality of their enemies.</p>
-
-  <p>In such an history should be embodied, also, a correct account of their
-    treatment, and the causes which have led to their rapid destruction;
-    and a plain and systematical prophecy as to the time and manner of
-    their final extinction, based upon the causes and the ratio of their
-    former and present declension.</p>
-
-  <p>So Herculean a task may fall to my lot at a future period, or it
-    may not: but I send forth these volumes at this time, fresh and
-    full of their living deeds and customs, as a familiar and unstudied
-    introduction (at least) to them and their native character; which I
-    confidently hope will repay the readers who read for information and
-    historical facts, as well as those who read but for amusement.</p>
-
-  <p>The world know generally, that the Indians of North America are
-    copper-coloured; that their eyes and their hair are black, &amp;c.; that
-    they are mostly uncivilized, and consequently unchristianized; that
-    they are nevertheless human beings, with features, thoughts, reason,
-    and sympathies like our own; but few yet know how they <em>live</em>, how
-    they <em>dress</em>, how they <em>worship</em>, what are their actions,
-    their customs, their religion, their amusements, &amp;c. as they practise
-    them in the uncivilized regions of their uninvaded country, which it is
-    the main object of this work, clearly and distinctly to set forth.</p>
-
-  <p>It would be impossible at the same time, in a book of these dimensions,
-    to explain <em>all</em> the manners and customs of these people; but as
-    far as they are narrated, they have been described by my pen, upon the
-    spot, as I have seen them transacted; and if some few of my narrations
-    should seem a <em>little too highly coloured</em>, I trust the world
-    will be ready to extend to me that pardon which it is customary to
-    yield to all artists whose main faults exist in the vividness of their
-    colouring, rather than in the drawing of their pictures; but there
-    is nothing else in them, I think, that I should ask pardon for, even
-    though some of them should stagger credulity, and incur<span class="pagenum" id="Page_6">6</span> for me the
-    censure of those critics, who sometimes, unthinkingly or unmercifully,
-    sit at home at their desks, enjoying the luxury of wine and a good
-    cigar, over the simple narration of the honest and weather-worn
-    traveller (who shortens his half-starved life in catering for the
-    world), to condemn him and his work to oblivion, and his wife and his
-    little children to poverty and starvation; merely because he describes
-    scenes which they have not beheld, and which, consequently, they are
-    unable to believe.</p>
-
-  <p>The Indians of North America, as I have before said, are
-    copper-coloured, with long black hair, black eyes, tall, straight, and
-    elastic forms—are less than two millions in number—were originally
-    the undisputed owners of the soil, and got their title to their lands
-    from the Great Spirit who created them on it,—were once a happy and
-    flourishing people, enjoying all the comforts and luxuries of life
-    which they knew of, and consequently cared for:—were sixteen millions
-    in numbers, and sent that number of daily prayers to the Almighty,
-    and thanks for his goodness and protection. Their country was entered
-    by white men, but a few hundred years since; and thirty millions of
-    these are now scuffling for the goods and luxuries of life, over
-    the bones and ashes of twelve millions of red men; six millions of
-    whom have fallen victims to the small-pox, and the remainder to the
-    sword, the bayonet, and whiskey; all of which means of their death and
-    destruction have been introduced and visited upon them by acquisitive
-    white men; and by white men, also, whose forefathers were welcomed
-    and embraced in the land where the poor Indian met and fed them with
-    “ears of green corn and with pemican.” Of the two millions remaining
-    alive at this time, about 1,400,000, are already the miserable living
-    victims and dupes of white man’s cupidity, degraded, discouraged and
-    lost in the bewildering maze that is produced by the use of whiskey and
-    its concomitant vices; and the remaining number are yet unroused and
-    unenticed from their wild haunts or their primitive modes, by the dread
-    or love of white man and his allurements.</p>
-
-  <p>It has been with these, mostly, that I have spent my time, and of
-    these, chiefly, and their customs, that the following Letters treat.
-    Their habits (and their’s alone) as we can see them transacted, are
-    native, and such as I have wished to fix and preserve for future ages.</p>
-
-  <p>Of the dead, and of those who are dying, of those who have suffered
-    death, and of those who are now trodden and kicked through it, I may
-    speak more fully in some deductions at the close of this book; or at
-    some future time, when I may find more leisure, and may be able to
-    speak of these scenes without giving offence to the world, or to any
-    body in it.</p>
-
-  <p>Such a portrait then as I have set forth in the following pages (taken
-    by myself from the free and vivid realities of life, instead of the
-    vague and uncertain imagery of recollection, or from the haggard
-    deformities and distortions of disease and death), I offer to the world
-    for their amusement, as well as for their information; and I trust they
-    will pardon me, if it should be thought<span class="pagenum" id="Page_7">7</span> that I have over-estimated the
-    Indian character, or at other times descended too much into the details
-    and minutiæ of Indian mysteries and absurdities.</p>
-
-  <p>The reader, then, to understand me rightly, and draw from these Letters
-    the information which they are intended to give, must follow me a vast
-    way from the civilized world; he must needs wend his way from the city
-    of New York, over the Alleghany, and far beyond the mighty Missouri,
-    and even to the base and summit of the Rocky Mountains, some two or
-    three thousand miles from the Atlantic coast. He should forget many
-    theories he has read in the books of Indian barbarities, of wanton
-    butcheries and murders; and divest himself, as far as possible of the
-    deadly prejudices which he has carried from his childhood, against this
-    most unfortunate and most abused part of the race of his fellow-man.</p>
-
-  <p>He should consider, that if he has seen the savages of North America
-    without making such a tour, he has fixed his eyes upon and drawn his
-    conclusions (in all probability) only from those who inhabit the
-    frontier; whose habits have been changed—whose pride has been cut
-    down—whose country has been ransacked—whose wives and daughters have
-    been shamefully abused—whose lands have been wrested from them—whose
-    limbs have become enervated and naked by the excessive use of
-    whiskey—whose friends and relations have been prematurely thrown into
-    their graves—whose native pride and dignity have at last given way to
-    the unnatural vices which civilized cupidity has engrafted upon them,
-    to be silently nurtured and magnified by a burning sense of injury and
-    injustice, and ready for that cruel vengeance which often falls from
-    the hand that is palsied by refined abuses, and yet unrestrained by the
-    glorious influences of refined and moral cultivation.—That if he has
-    laid up what he considers well-founded knowledge of these people, from
-    books which he has read, and from newspapers only, he should pause at
-    least, and withhold his sentence before he passes it upon the character
-    of a people, who are dying at the hands of their enemies, without the
-    means of recording their own annals—struggling in their nakedness with
-    their simple weapons, against guns and gunpowder—against whiskey and
-    steel, and disease, and mailed warriors who are continually trampling
-    them to the earth, and at last exultingly promulgating from the very
-    soil which they have wrested from the poor savage, the history of his
-    cruelties and barbarities, whilst his bones are quietly resting under
-    the very furrows which their ploughs are turning.</p>
-
-  <p>So great and unfortunate are the disparities between savage and civil,
-    in numbers—in weapons and defences—in enterprise, in craft, and in
-    education, that the former is almost universally the sufferer either in
-    peace or in war; and not less so after his pipe and his tomahawk have
-    retired to the grave with him, and his character is left to be entered
-    upon the pages of history, and that justice done to his memory which
-    from necessity, he has intrusted to his enemy.</p>
-
-  <p>Amongst the numerous historians, however, of these strange people, they
-    have had some friends who have done them justice; yet as a part of all
-    systems<span class="pagenum" id="Page_8">8</span> of justice whenever it is meted to the poor Indian, it comes
-    invariably too late, or is administered at an ineffectual distance; and
-    that too when his enemies are continually about him, and effectually
-    applying the means of his destruction.</p>
-
-  <p>Some writers, I have been grieved to see, have written down the
-    character of the North American Indian, as dark, relentless, cruel and
-    murderous in the last degree; with scarce a quality to stamp their
-    existence of a higher order than that of the brutes:—whilst others
-    have given them a high rank, as I feel myself authorized to do, as
-    honourable and highly-intellectual beings; and others, both friends and
-    foes to the red men, have spoken of them as an “anomaly in nature!”</p>
-
-  <p>In this place I have no time or inclination to reply to so
-    unaccountable an assertion as this; contenting myself with the belief,
-    that the term would be far more correctly applied to that part of the
-    human family who have strayed farthest from nature, than it could be to
-    those who are simply moving in, and filling the sphere for which they
-    were designed by the Great Spirit who made them.</p>
-
-  <p>From what I have seen of these people I feel authorized to say, that
-    there is nothing very strange or unaccountable in their character; but
-    that it is a simple one, and easy to be learned and understood, if the
-    right means be taken to familiarize ourselves with it. Although it has
-    its dark spots, yet there is much in it to be applauded, and much to
-    recommend it to the admiration of the enlightened world. And I trust
-    that the reader, who looks through these volumes with care, will be
-    disposed to join me in the conclusion that the North American Indian in
-    his native state, is an honest, hospitable, faithful, brave, warlike,
-    cruel, revengeful, relentless,—yet honourable, contemplative and
-    religious being.</p>
-
-  <p>If such be the case, I am sure there is enough in it to recommend it
-    to the fair perusal of the world, and charity enough in all civilized
-    countries, in this enlightened age, to extend a helping hand to a
-    dying race; provided that prejudice and fear can be removed, which
-    have heretofore constantly held the civilized portions in dread of the
-    savage—and away from that familiar and friendly embrace, in which alone
-    his true native character can be justly appreciated.</p>
-
-  <p>I am fully convinced, from a long familiarity with these people, that
-    the Indian’s misfortune has consisted chiefly in our ignorance of their
-    true native character and disposition, which has always held us at a
-    distrustful distance from them; inducing us to look upon them in no
-    other light than that of a hostile foe, and worthy only of that system
-    of continued warfare and abuse that has been for ever waged against
-    them.</p>
-
-  <p>There is no difficulty in approaching the Indian and getting acquainted
-    with him in his wild and unsophisticated state, and finding him an
-    honest and honourable man; with feelings to meet feelings, if the above
-    prejudice and dread can be laid aside, and any one will take the pains,
-    as I have done, to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_9">9</span> go and see him in the simplicity of his native
-    state, smoking his pipe under his own humble roof, with his wife and
-    children around him, and his faithful dogs and horses hanging about
-    his hospitable tenement.—So the world <em>may</em> see him and smoke
-    his friendly pipe, which will be invariably extended to them; and
-    share, with a hearty welcome, the best that his wigwam affords for the
-    appetite, which is always set out to a stranger the next moment after
-    he enters.</p>
-
-  <p>But so the mass of the world, most assuredly, will <em>not</em> see these
-    people; for they are too far off, and approachable to those only whose
-    avarice or cupidity alone lead them to those remote regions, and whose
-    shame prevents them from publishing to the world the virtues which they
-    have thrown down and trampled under foot.</p>
-
-  <p>The very use of the word savage, as it is applied in its general sense,
-    I am inclined to believe is an abuse of the word, and the people to
-    whom it is applied. The word, in its true definition, means no more
-    than <em>wild</em>, or <em>wild man</em>; and a wild man may have been
-    endowed by his Maker with all the humane and noble traits that inhabit
-    the heart of a tame man. Our ignorance and dread or fear of these
-    people, therefore, have given a new definition to the adjective; and
-    nearly the whole civilized world apply the word <em>savage</em>, as
-    expressive of the most ferocious, cruel, and murderous character that
-    can be described.</p>
-
-  <p>The grizzly bear is called savage, because he is blood-thirsty,
-    ravenous and cruel; and so is the tiger, and they, like the poor red
-    man, have been feared and dreaded (from the distance at which ignorance
-    and prejudice have kept us from them, or from resented abuses which we
-    have practised when we have come in close contact with them), until Van
-    Amburgh shewed the world, that even these ferocious and unreasoning
-    animals wanted only the friendship and close embrace of their master,
-    to respect and to love him.</p>
-
-  <p>As evidence of the hospitality of these ignorant and benighted people,
-    and also of their honesty and honour, there will be found recorded
-    many striking instances in the following pages. And also, as an offset
-    to these, many evidences of the dark and cruel, as well as ignorant
-    and disgusting excesses of passions, unrestrained by the salutary
-    influences of laws and Christianity.</p>
-
-  <p>I have roamed about from time to time during seven or eight years,
-    visiting and associating with some three or four hundred thousand of
-    these people, under an almost infinite variety of circumstances; and
-    from the very many and decided voluntary acts of their hospitality
-    and kindness, I feel bound to pronounce them, by nature, a kind and
-    hospitable people. I have been welcomed generally in their country,
-    and treated to the best that they could give me, without any charges
-    made for my board; they have often escorted me through their enemies’
-    country at some hazard to their own lives, and aided me in passing
-    mountains and rivers with my awkward baggage;<span class="pagenum" id="Page_10">10</span> and under all of these
-    circumstances of exposure, no Indian ever betrayed me, struck me a
-    blow, or stole from me a shilling’s worth of my property that I am
-    aware of.</p>
-
-  <p>This is saying a great deal, (and proving it too, if the reader will
-    believe me) in favour of the virtues of these people; when it is borne
-    in mind, as it should be, that there is no law in their land to punish
-    a man for theft—that locks and keys are not known in their country—that
-    the commandments have never been divulged amongst them; nor can any
-    human retribution fall upon the head of a thief, save the disgrace
-    which attaches as a stigma to his character, in the eyes of his people
-    about him.</p>
-
-  <p>And thus in these little communities, strange as it may seem, in the
-    absence of all systems of jurisprudence, I have often beheld peace
-    and happiness, and quiet, reigning supreme, for which even kings and
-    emperors might envy them. I have seen rights and virtue protected,
-    and wrongs redressed; and I have seen conjugal, filial and paternal
-    affection in the simplicity and contentedness of nature. I have
-    unavoidably, formed warm and enduring attachments to some of these
-    men which I do not wish to forget—who have brought me near to their
-    hearts, and in our final separation have embraced me in their arms, and
-    commended me and my affairs to the keeping of the Great Spirit.</p>
-
-  <p>For the above reasons, the reader will be disposed to forgive me for
-    dwelling so long and so strong on the justness of the claims of these
-    people; and for my occasional expressions of sadness, when my heart
-    bleeds for the fate that awaits the remainder of their unlucky race;
-    which is long to be outlived by the rocks, by the beasts, and even
-    birds and reptiles of the country they live in;—set upon by their
-    fellow-man, whose cupidity, it is feared, will fix no bounds to the
-    Indian’s earthly calamity, short of the grave.</p>
-
-  <p>I cannot help but repeat, before I close this Letter, that the tribes
-    of the red men of North America, as a nation of human beings, are on
-    their wane; that (to use their own very beautiful figure) “they are
-    fast travelling to the shades of their fathers, towards the setting
-    sun;” and that the traveller who would see these people in their native
-    simplicity and beauty, must needs be hastily on his way to the prairies
-    and Rocky Mountains, or he will see them only as they are now seen
-    on the frontiers, as a basket of <em>dead game</em>,—harassed, chased,
-    bleeding and dead; with their plumage and colours despoiled; to be
-    gazed amongst in vain for some system or moral, or for some scale by
-    which to estimate their true native character, other than that which
-    has too often recorded them but a dark and unintelligible mass of
-    cruelty and barbarity.</p>
-
-  <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_11">11</span></p>
-
-  <p>Without further comments I close this Letter, introducing my readers
-    at once to the heart of the Indian country, only asking their
-    forgiveness for having made it so long, and their patience whilst
-    travelling through the following pages (as I journeyed through those
-    remote realms) in search of information and rational amusement; in
-    tracing out the true character of that “<em>strange anomaly</em>” of man
-    in the simple elements of his nature, undissolved or compounded into
-    the mysteries of enlightened and fashionable life.</p>
-
-  <hr class="tb">
-
-  <p class="center"><b>NOTE.</b></p>
-
-  <p><i>As the singular manners of the Country set forth in the following
-    pages, and the extraordinary scenes represented in the very numerous
-    illustrations, are of such a character as to require all possible aids
-    for the satisfaction of the readers; I hope they will excuse me for
-    intruding in this place the numerous Certificates which follow, and
-    which have been voluntarily furnished me by men whose lives, it will
-    be seen, have been spent, in great part, in the Indian Country, and in
-    familiarity with the men and manners set forth in the work</i>:</p>
-
-  <p class="center mt3">CERTIFICATES.</p>
-
-  <p>“I hereby certify, that the persons whose signatures are affixed to
-    the certificates here below, by Mr. <span class="smcap">Catlin</span>, are officers in
-    the service of the United States, as herein set forth; and that their
-    opinions of the accuracy of the likenesses, and correctness of the
-    views, &amp;c. exhibited by him in his ‘<span class="smcap">Indian Gallery</span>,’ are
-    entitled to full credit.</p>
-
-  <p class="right">“J. R. POINSETT, <i>Secretary of War, Washington</i>.”</p>
-
-  <p>“With regard to the gentlemen whose names are affixed to certificates
-    below, I am fully warranted in saying, that no individuals have had
-    better opportunities of acquiring a knowledge of the persons, habits,
-    costumes, and sports of the Indian tribes, or possess stronger claims
-    upon the public confidence in the statements they make, respecting
-    the correctness of delineations, &amp;c. of Mr. <span class="smcap">Catlin’s Indian
-    Gallery</span>; and I may add my own testimony, with regard to many
-    of those Indians whom I have seen, and whose likenesses are in the
-    collection, and sketched with fidelity and correctness.</p>
-
-  <p class="right">“C. A. HARRIS, <i>Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Washington</i>.”</p>
-
-  <hr class="tb">
-
-  <p>“I have seen Mr. <span class="smcap">Catlin’s</span> Collection of Portraits of Indians,
-    east of the Rocky Mountains many of which were familiar to me, and
-    painted in my presence: and as far as they have included Indians of
-    my acquaintance, the <em>likenesses</em> are easily recognized, bearing
-    the most striking resemblance to the originals, as well as faithful
-    representations of their costumes.</p>
-
-  <p class="right">“W. CLARK, <i>Superintendent of Indian Affairs, <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Louis</i>.”</p>
-
-  <hr class="tb">
-
-  <p>“I have examined Mr. <span class="smcap">Catlin’s</span> Collection of the Upper Missouri
-    Indians to the Rocky Mountains, all of which I am acquainted with;
-    and indeed most of them were painted when I was present, and I do
-    not hesitate to pronounce them correct likenesses, and readily to be
-    recognized. And I consider the <em>costumes</em>, as painted by him, to
-    be the <em>only correct representations</em> I have ever seen.</p>
-
-  <div class="right">
-    <div class="inline">
-      <div class="center">
-        “JOHN F. A. SANFORD,<br>
-        “<i>U. SS. Indian Agent for Mandans, Rickarees, Minatarees,</i><br>
-        <i>Crows, Knisteneaux, Assinneboins, Blackfeet, &amp;c.</i>”
-      </div>
-    </div>
-  </div>
-
-  <p class="pagenum" id="Page_12">12</p>
-
-  <hr class="tb">
-
-  <p>“We have seen Mr. <span class="smcap">Catlin’s</span> Portraits of Indians east of the
-    Rocky Mountains, many of which are familiar to us; the likenesses are
-    easily recognized, bearing a strong resemblance to the originals, as
-    well as a faithful representation of their costumes.</p>
-
-  <div>
-    <span class="fright">“J. DOUGHERTY, <i>Indian Agent</i>.</span><br>
-    <span style="margin-left: 1em;">“<i>November 27th, 1837.</i></span><span class="fright" style="margin-right: 8em;">J. GANTT.”</span>
-  </div>
-
-  <hr class="tb">
-
-  <p>“We hereby certify, that the Portraits of the Grand Pawnees, Republican
-    Pawnees, Pawnee Loups, Tappage Pawnees, Otoes, Omahaws, and Missouries,
-    which are in Mr. <span class="smcap">Catlin’s Indian Gallery</span>, were painted from
-    life by Mr. <span class="smcap">Geo. Catlin</span>, and that the individuals sat to him
-    in the costumes precisely in which they are painted.</p>
-
-  <div>
-    <span class="fright">“J. DOUGHERTY, <i>I. A. for Pawnees, Omahaws, and Otoes</i>.</span><br>
-    <span style="margin-left: 1em;">“<i>New York, 1837.</i></span><span class="fright" style="margin-right: 18.8em;">J. GANTT.”</span>
-  </div>
-
-  <hr class="tb">
-
-  <p>“I have seen Mr. <span class="smcap">Catlin’s</span> Collection of Indian Portraits, many
-    of which were familiar to me, and painted in my presence at their own
-    villages. I have spent the greater part of my life amongst the tribes
-    and individuals he has represented, and I do not hesitate to pronounce
-    them correct likenesses, and easily recognized: also his sketches of
-    their <em>manners</em> and <em>customs</em>, I think, are excellent; and
-    the <em>landscape views</em> on the Missouri and Mississippi, are correct
-    representations.</p>
-
-  <p class="right">“K. M‘KENZIE, <i>of the Am. Fur Co. Mouth of Yellow Stone</i>.”</p>
-
-  <hr class="tb">
-
-  <p>“We hereby certify, that the Portraits of Seminoles and Euchees, in Mr.
-    <span class="smcap">Catlin’s Gallery</span>, were painted by him, from the life, at Fort
-    Moultrie; that the Indians sat or stood in the costumes precisely in
-    which they are painted, and that the likenesses are remarkably good.</p>
-
-  <div>
-    <span style="margin-left: 1em;">“P. MORRISON, Capt. 4th Inft.</span><span class="fright">H. WHARTON, 2d. Lieut. 6th Inft.</span><br>
-    <span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">J. S. HATHAWAY, 2d Lieut. 1st Art.</span><span class="fright" style="margin-right: 0.8em;">F. WEEDON, Assistant Surgeon.</span><br>
-    <span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Fort Moultrie, Jan. 26, 1838.</i>”</span>
-  </div>
-
-  <hr class="tb">
-
-  <p>“Having examined Mr. <span class="smcap">Catlin’s</span> Collection of Portraits of
-    Indians of the Missouri to the Rocky Mountains, I have no hesitation
-    in pronouncing them, so far as I am acquainted with the Individuals,
-    to be the best I have ever seen, both as regards the expression of
-    countenance, and the exact and complete manner in which the costume has
-    been painted by him.</p>
-
-  <p class="right">“J. L. BEAN, <i>S. Agent for Indian Affairs</i>.”</p>
-
-  <hr class="tb">
-
-  <p>“I have been for many years past in familiar acquaintance with
-    the Indian tribes of the Upper Missouri to the Rocky Mountains,
-    and also with the landscape and other scenes represented in Mr.
-    <span class="smcap">Catlin’s</span> Collection; and it gives me great pleasure to assure
-    the world, that on looking them over, I found the likenesses of my
-    old friends easily to be recognized; and his sketches of Manners and
-    Customs to be pourtrayed with singular truth and correctness.</p>
-
-  <p class="right">“J. PILCHER, <i>Agent for Upper Missouri Indians</i>.”</p>
-
-  <hr class="tb">
-
-  <p>“It gives me great pleasure in being enabled to add my name to the
-    list of those who have spontaneously expressed their approbation of
-    Mr. <span class="smcap">Catlin’s</span> Collection of Indian Paintings. His Collection
-    of materials place it in his power to throw much light on the Indian
-    character, and his portraits, so far as I have seen them, are drawn
-    with great fidelity as to character and likeness.</p>
-
-  <p class="right">“H. SCHOOLCRAFT, <i>Indian Agent for Wisconsin Territory</i>.”</p>
-
-  <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_13">13</span></p>
-
-  <hr class="tb">
-
-  <p>“Having lived and dealt with the Black Feet Indians for five years
-    past, I was enabled to recognize <em>every one</em> of the Portraits of
-    those people, and of the Crows also, which Mr. <span class="smcap">Catlin</span> has in
-    his Collection, from the faithful likenesses they bore to the originals.</p>
-
-  <p class="right">“<i><abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Louis, 1835.</i> “J. E. BRAZEAU.”</p>
-
-  <hr class="tb">
-
-  <p>“Having spent sixteen years in the continual acquaintance with the
-    Indians of the several tribes of the Missouri, represented in Mr.
-    <span class="smcap">Catlin’s</span> Gallery of Indian Paintings, I was enabled to judge
-    of the correctness of the likenesses, and I <em>instantly recognized
-    every one of them</em>, when I looked them over, from the striking
-    resemblance they bore to the originals—so also, of the Landscapes on
-    the Missouri.</p>
-
-  <p class="right">“HONORE PICOTTE.”</p>
-
-  <hr class="tb">
-
-  <p>“The Portraits, in the possession of Mr. <span class="smcap">Catlin</span>, of Pawnee
-    Picts, Kioways, Camanches, Wecos, and Osages, were painted by him
-    <em>from life</em>, when on a tour to their country, with the United
-    States Dragoons. The <em>likenesses</em> are good, very easily to be
-    recognized, and the <em>costumes</em> faithfully represented.</p>
-
-  <div>
-    <span style="margin-left: 1em;">“HENRY DODGE, Col. of Drag.</span><span class="fright" style="margin-right: 2em;">D. PERKINS. Capt. of Drag.</span><br>
-    <span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">R. H. MASON, Major of Ditto.</span><span class="fright" style="margin-right: 3.8em;">M. DUNCAN,&#160; &#160; &#160; Ditto.</span><br>
-    <span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">D. HUNTER, Capt.</span><span style="margin-left: 2.4em;">Ditto.</span><span class="fright">T. B. WHEELOCK, Lieut. Drag.”</span>
-  </div>
-
-  <hr class="tb">
-
-  <p>“The Landscapes, Buffalo-Hunting scenes, &amp;c. above-mentioned, I have
-    seen, and although it has been thirty years since I travelled over that
-    country; yet a considerable number of them I recognized as faithful
-    representations, and the remainder of them are so much in the peculiar
-    character of that country as to seem entirely familiar to me.</p>
-
-  <p class="right">“WM. CLARK, <i>Superintendent of Indian Affairs</i>.”</p>
-
-  <hr class="tb">
-
-  <p>“The Landscape Views on the Missouri, Buffalo Hunts, and other scenes,
-    taken by my friend Mr. <span class="smcap">Catlin</span>, are correct delineations of the
-    scenes they profess to represent, as I am perfectly well acquainted
-    with the country, having passed through it more than a dozen times. And
-    further, I know, that they were taken on the spot, from nature, as I
-    was present when Mr. <span class="smcap">Catlin</span> visited that country.</p>
-
-  <p class="right">“JOHN F. A. SANFORD, <i>U. SS. Indian Agent</i>.”</p>
-
-  <hr class="tb">
-
-  <p>“It gives me great pleasure to be able to pronounce the Landscape
-    Views, Views of Hunting, and other scenes, taken on the Upper Missouri
-    by Mr. <span class="smcap">Catlin</span>, to be correct delineations of the scenery they
-    profess to represent; and although I was not present when they were
-    taken in the field, I was able to identify almost every one between <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr>
-    Louis and the grand bend of the Missouri.</p>
-
-  <p class="right">“J. L. BEAN, <i>S. Agent of Indian Affairs</i>.”</p>
-
-  <hr class="tb">
-
-  <p>“I have examined a series of paintings by Mr. <span class="smcap">Catlin</span>,
-    representing <em>Indian Buffalo Hunts, Landscapes, &amp;c.</em>, and from an
-    acquaintance of twenty-seven years with such scenes as are represented,
-    I feel qualified to judge them, and do unhesitatingly pronounce them
-    good and unexaggerated representations.</p>
-
-  <p class="right">“JNO. DOUGHERTY, <i>Indian Agent for Pawnees, Omahaws, and Otoes</i>.”</p>
-
-  <hr class="chap">
-  <div class="chapter">
-    <span class="pagenum" id="Page_14">14</span>
-    <h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_2">LETTER—<abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 2.</h2>
-  </div>
-  <div class="subheadc">MOUTH OF YELLOW STONE, <i>UPPER MISSOURI</i>, 1832.</div>
-
-  <p><span class="smcap">I arrived</span> at this place yesterday in the steamer “Yellow Stone,”
-    after a voyage of nearly three months from <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Louis, a distance of
-    two thousand miles, the greater part of which has never before been
-    navigated by steam; and the almost insurmountable difficulties which
-    continually oppose the <i lang="fr">voyageur</i> on this turbid stream, have
-    been by degrees overcome by the indefatigable zeal of Mr. Chouteau, a
-    gentleman of great perseverance, and part proprietor of the boat. To
-    the politeness of this gentleman I am indebted for my passage from <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr>
-    Louis to this place, and I had also the pleasure of his <em>company</em>,
-    with that of Major Sanford, the government agent for the Missouri
-    Indians.</p>
-
-  <p>The American Fur Company have erected here, for their protection
-    against the savages, a very substantial Fort, 300 feet square, with
-    bastions armed with ordnance (<a href="#i_003"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 3</a>); and our approach
-    to it under the continued roar of cannon for half an hour, and the
-    shrill yells of the half-affrighted savages who lined the shores,
-    presented a scene of the most thrilling and picturesque appearance. A
-    voyage so full of incident, and furnishing so many novel scenes of the
-    picturesque and romantic, as we have passed the numerous villages of
-    the “astonished natives,” saluting them with the puffing of steam and
-    the thunder of artillery, would afford subject for many epistles; and I
-    cannot deny myself the pleasure of occasionally giving you some little
-    sketches of scenes that I have witnessed, and <em>am witnessing</em>; and
-    of the singular feelings that are excited in the breast of the stranger
-    travelling through this interesting country. Interesting (as I have
-    said) and <em>luxurious</em>, for this is truly the land of Epicures; we
-    are invited by the savages to feasts of <em>dog’s meat</em>, as the most
-    honourable food that can be presented to a stranger, and glutted with
-    the more delicious food of beavers’ tails, and buffaloes’ tongues. You
-    will, no doubt, be somewhat surprised on the receipt of a Letter from
-    me, so far strayed into the Western World; and still more startled,
-    when I tell you that I am here in the full enthusiasm and practice of
-    my art. That enthusiasm alone has brought me into this remote region,
-    3500 miles from my native soil; the last 2000 of which have furnished
-    me with almost unlimited models, both in landscape and the human
-    figure, exactly suited to my feelings. I am now in the full possession
-    and enjoyments of those conditions, on which alone I was induced to
-    pursue the art as a profession; and in anticipation of which alone, my
-    admiration for the art could ever have been kindled into a pure flame.
-    I mean the free use of nature’s undisguised models, with the privilege
-    of selecting for myself. If I am here losing the benefit of the
-    fleeting fashions of the day, and neglecting that elegant polish, which
-    the world say an artist should draw from a continual intercourse with
-    the polite world; yet have I this consolation, that in this country,
-    I am entirely divested of those dangerous steps and allurements which
-    beset an artist in fashionable life; and have little to steal my
-    thoughts away from the contemplation of the beautiful models that
-    are about me. If, also, I have not here the benefit of that feeling
-    of emulation, which is the life and spur to the arts, where artists
-    are associates together; yet am I surrounded by living models of such
-    elegance and beauty, that I feel an unceasing excitement of a much
-    higher order—the certainty that I am drawing knowledge from the true
-    source. My enthusiastic admiration of man in the honest and elegant
-    simplicity of nature, has always fed the warmest feelings of my bosom,
-    and shut half the avenues to my heart against the specious refinements
-    of the accomplished world. This feeling, together with the desire to
-    study my art, independently of the embarrassments which the ridiculous
-    fashions of civilized society have thrown in its way, has led me to the
-    wilderness for a while, as the true school of the arts.</p>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>3</i></div>
-  <figure id="i_003">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_003.jpg" alt="View of fort">
-     <figcaption>3</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <figure class="mt2" id="i_004">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_004.jpg" alt="River filled with trees">
-     <figcaption>4</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p>I have for a long time been of opinion, that the wilderness of our
-    country afforded models equal to those from which the Grecian sculptors
-    transferred to the marble such inimitable grace and beauty; and I am
-    now more confirmed in this opinion, since I have immersed myself in
-    the midst of thousands and tens of thousands of these knights of the
-    forest; whose whole lives are lives of chivalry, and whose daily feats,
-    with their naked limbs, might vie with those of the Grecian youths in
-    the beautiful rivalry of the Olympian games.</p>
-
-  <p>No man’s imagination, with all the aids of description that can be
-    given to it, can ever picture the beauty and wildness of scenes that
-    may be daily witnessed in this romantic country; of hundreds of these
-    graceful youths, without a care to wrinkle, or a fear to disturb
-    the full expression of pleasure and enjoyment that beams upon their
-    faces—their long black hair mingling with their horses’ tails, floating
-    in the wind, while they are flying over the carpeted prairie, and
-    dealing death with their spears and arrows, to a band of infuriated
-    buffaloes; or their splendid procession in a war-parade, arrayed in all
-    their gorgeous colours and trappings, moving with most exquisite grace
-    and manly beauty, added to that bold defiance which man carries on his
-    front, who acknowledges no superior on earth, and who is amenable to no
-    laws except the laws of God and honour.</p>
-
-  <p>In addition to the knowledge of human nature and of my art, which I
-    hope to acquire by this toilsome and expensive undertaking, I have
-    another in view, which, if it should not be of equal service to me,
-    will be of no less<span class="pagenum" id="Page_16">16</span> interest and value to posterity. I have, for many
-    years past, contemplated the noble races of red men who are now spread
-    over these trackless forests and boundless prairies, melting away
-    at the approach of civilization. Their rights invaded, their morals
-    corrupted, their lands wrested from them, their customs changed, and
-    therefore lost to the world; and they at last sunk into the earth, and
-    the ploughshare turning the sod over their graves, and I have flown
-    to their rescue—not of their lives or of their race (for they are
-    “<em>doomed</em>” and must perish), but to the rescue of their looks and
-    their modes, at which the acquisitive world may hurl their poison and
-    every besom of destruction, and trample them down and crush them to
-    death; yet, phœnix-like, they may rise from the “stain on a painter’s
-    palette,” and live again upon canvass, and stand forth for centuries
-    yet to come, the living monuments of a noble race. For this purpose,
-    I have designed to visit every tribe of Indians on the Continent, if
-    my life should be spared; for the purpose of procuring portraits of
-    distinguished Indians, of both sexes in each tribe, painted in their
-    native costume; accompanied with pictures of their villages, domestic
-    habits, games, mysteries, religious ceremonies, &amp;c. with anecdotes,
-    traditions, and history of their respective nations.</p>
-
-  <p>If I should live to accomplish my design, the result of my labours will
-    doubtless be interesting to future ages; who will have little else left
-    from which to judge of the original inhabitants of this simple race of
-    beings, who require but a few years more of the march of civilization
-    and death, to deprive them of all their native customs and character.
-    I have been kindly supplied by the Commander-in-Chief of the Army and
-    the Secretary of War, with letters to the commander of every military
-    post, and every Indian agent on the Western Frontier, with instructions
-    to render me all the facilities in their power, which will be of great
-    service to me in so arduous an undertaking. The opportunity afforded me
-    by familiarity with so many tribes of human beings in the simplicity of
-    nature, devoid of the deformities of art; of drawing fair conclusions
-    in the interesting sciences of physiognomy and phrenology; of manners
-    and customs, rites, ceremonies, &amp;c.; and the opportunity of examining
-    the geology and mineralogy of this western, and yet unexplored
-    country, will enable me occasionally to entertain you with much new
-    and interesting information, which I shall take equal pleasure in
-    communicating by an occasional Letter in my clumsy way.</p>
-
-  <hr class="chap">
-  <div class="chapter">
-    <span class="pagenum" id="Page_17">17</span>
-    <h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_3">LETTER—<abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 3.</h2>
-  </div>
-  <div class="subheadc">MOUTH OF YELLOW STONE, <i>UPPER MISSOURI</i>.</div>
-
-  <p><span class="smcap">Since</span> the date of my former Letter, I have been so much engaged in
-    the amusements of the country, and the use of my brush, that I have
-    scarcely been able to drop you a line until the present moment.</p>
-
-  <p>Before I let you into the amusements and customs of this delightful
-    country however, (and which, as yet, are secrets to most of the world),
-    I must hastily travel with you over the tedious journey of 2000 miles,
-    from <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Louis to this place; over which distance one is obliged to
-    pass, before he can reach this wild and lovely spot.</p>
-
-  <p>The Missouri is, perhaps, different in appearance and character
-    from all other rivers in the world; there is a terror in its manner
-    which is sensibly felt, the moment we enter its muddy waters from
-    the Mississippi. From the mouth of the Yellow Stone River, which is
-    the place from whence I am now writing, to its junction with the
-    Mississippi, a distance of 2000 miles, the Missouri, with its boiling,
-    turbid waters, sweeps off, in one unceasing current; and in the whole
-    distance there is scarcely an eddy or resting-place for a canoe. Owing
-    to the continual falling in of its rich alluvial banks, its water is
-    always turbid and opaque; having, at all seasons of the year, the
-    colour of a cup of chocolate or coffee, with sugar and cream stirred
-    into it. To give a better definition of its density and opacity, I
-    have tried a number of simple experiments with it at this place, and
-    at other points below, at the results of which I was exceedingly
-    surprised. By placing a piece of silver (and afterwards a piece of
-    shell, which is a much whiter substance) in a tumbler of its water,
-    and looking through the side of the glass, I ascertained that those
-    substances could not be seen through the eighth part of an inch; this,
-    however, is in the spring of the year, when the freshet is upon the
-    river, rendering the water, undoubtedly, much more turbid than it would
-    be at other seasons; though it is always muddy and yellow, and from its
-    boiling and wild character and uncommon colour, a stranger would think,
-    even in its lowest state, that there was a freshet upon it.</p>
-
-  <p>For the distance of 1000 miles above <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Louis, the shores of this
-    river (and, in many places, the whole bed of the stream) are filled
-    with snags and raft, formed of trees of the largest size, which have
-    been undermined by the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_18">18</span> falling banks and cast into the stream;
-    their roots becoming fastened in the bottom of the river, with their
-    tops floating on the surface of the water, and pointing down the
-    stream, forming the most frightful and discouraging prospect for the
-    adventurous voyageur. (See <a href="#i_004"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 4</a>.)</p>
-
-  <p>Almost every island and sand-bar is covered with huge piles of these
-    floating trees, and when the river is flooded, its surface is almost
-    literally covered with floating raft and drift wood which bid positive
-    defiance to keel-boats and steamers, on their way up the river.</p>
-
-  <p>With what propriety this “Hell of waters” might he denominated the
-    “River Styx,” I will not undertake to decide; but nothing could be more
-    appropriate or innocent than to call it the River <em>of Sticks</em>.</p>
-
-  <p>The scene is not, however, all so dreary; there is a redeeming beauty
-    in the green and carpeted shores, which hem in this huge and terrible
-    deformity of waters. There is much of the way though, where the mighty
-    forests of stately cotton wood stand, and frown in horrid dark and
-    coolness over the filthy abyss below; into which they are ready to
-    plunge headlong, when the mud and soil in which they were germed and
-    reared have been washed out from underneath them, and with the rolling
-    current are mixed, and on their way to the ocean.</p>
-
-  <p>The greater part of the shores of this river, however, are without
-    timber, where the eye is delightfully relieved by wandering over the
-    beautiful prairies; most of the way gracefully sloping down to the
-    water’s edge, carpeted with the deepest green, and, in distance,
-    softening into velvet of the richest hues, entirely beyond the reach
-    of the artist’s pencil. Such is the character of the upper part of the
-    river especially; and as one advances towards its source, and through
-    its upper half, it becomes more pleasing to the eye, for snags and raft
-    are no longer to be seen; yet the current holds its stiff and onward
-    turbid character.</p>
-
-  <p>It has been, heretofore, very erroneously represented to the world,
-    that the scenery on this river was monotonous, and wanting in
-    picturesque beauty. This intelligence is surely incorrect, and that
-    because it has been brought perhaps, by men who are not the best
-    judges in the world, of Nature’s beautiful works; and if they were,
-    they always pass them by, in pain or desperate distress, in toil and
-    trembling fear for the safety of their furs and peltries, or for their
-    lives, which are at the mercy of the yelling savages who inhabit this
-    delightful country.</p>
-
-  <p>One thousand miles or more of the upper part of the river, was, to
-    my eye, like fairy-land; and during our transit through that part of
-    our voyage, I was most of the time rivetted to the deck of the boat,
-    indulging my eyes in the boundless and tireless pleasure of roaming
-    over the thousand hills, and bluffs, and dales, and ravines; where the
-    astonished herds of buffaloes, of elks, and antelopes, and sneaking
-    wolves, and mountain-goats, were to be seen bounding up and down and
-    over the green fields; each one and each tribe, band, and gang, taking
-    their own way, and using their own means to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_19">19</span> the greatest advantage
-    possible, to leave the sight and sound of the puffing of our boat;
-    which was, for the first time, saluting the green and wild shores of
-    the Missouri with the din of mighty steam.</p>
-
-  <p>From <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Louis to the falls of the Missouri, a distance of 2600 miles,
-    is one continued prairie; with the exception of a few of the bottoms
-    formed along the bank of the river, and the streams which are falling
-    into it, which are often covered with the most luxuriant growth of
-    forest timber.</p>
-
-  <p>The summit level of the great prairies stretching off to the west and
-    the east from the river, to an almost boundless extent, is from two to
-    three hundred feet above the level of the river; which has formed a bed
-    or valley for its course, varying in width from two to twenty miles.
-    This channel or valley has been evidently produced by the force of the
-    current, which has gradually excavated, in its floods and gorges, this
-    immense space, and sent its débris into the ocean. By the continual
-    overflowing of the river, its deposits have been lodged and left with a
-    horizontal surface, spreading the deepest and richest alluvion over the
-    surface of its meadows on either side; through which the river winds
-    its serpentine course, alternately running from one bluff to the other,
-    which present themselves to its shores in all the most picturesque and
-    beautiful shapes and colours imaginable—some with their green sides
-    gracefully slope down in the most lovely groups to the water’s edge
-    (<a href="#i_005"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 5</a>); whilst others, divested of their verdure, present
-    themselves in immense masses of clay of different colours, which arrest
-    the eye of the traveller, with the most curious views in the world.</p>
-
-  <p>These strange and picturesque appearances have been produced by the
-    rains and frosts, which are continually changing the dimensions, and
-    varying the thousand shapes of these denuded hills, by washing down
-    their sides and carrying them into the river.</p>
-
-  <p>Amongst these groups may be seen tens and hundreds of thousands of
-    different forms and figures, of the sublime and the picturesque; in
-    many places for miles together, as the boat glides along, there is
-    one continued appearance, before and behind us, of some ancient and
-    boundless city in ruins—ramparts, terraces, domes, towers, citadels
-    and castles may be seen,—cupolas, and magnificent porticos, and here
-    and there a solitary column and crumbling pedestal, and even spires
-    of clay which stand alone—and glistening in distance, as the sun’s
-    rays are refracted back by the thousand crystals of gypsum which are
-    imbedded in the clay of which they are formed (<a href="#i_006"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 6</a>). Over
-    and through these groups of domes and battlements (as one is compelled
-    to imagine them), the sun sends his long and gilding rays, at morn or
-    in the evening; giving life and light, by aid of shadows cast, to the
-    different glowing colours of these clay-built ruins; shedding a glory
-    over the solitude of this wild and pictured country, which no one can
-    realize unless he travels here and looks upon it.</p>
-
-  <p>It is amidst these wild and quiet haunts that the mountain-sheep, and
-    the fleet-bounding antelope sport and live in herds, secure from their
-    enemies,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_20">20</span> to whom the sides and slopes of these bluffs (around which
-    they fearlessly bound) are nearly inaccessible.</p>
-
-  <p>The grizzly bear also has chosen these places for his abode; he
-    sullenly sneaks through the gulphs and chasms, and ravines, and frowns
-    away the lurking Indian; whilst the mountain-sheep and antelope are
-    bounding over and around the hill tops, safe and free from harm of man
-    and beast.</p>
-
-  <p>Such is a hasty sketch of the river scenes and scenery for 2000 miles,
-    over which we tugged, and puffed, and blowed, and toiled for three
-    months, before we reached this place. Since we arrived here, the
-    steamer has returned and left me here to explore the country and visit
-    the tribes in this vicinity, and then descend the river from this place
-    to <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Louis; which Tour, if I live through it, will furnish material
-    for many a story and curious incident, which I may give you in detail
-    in future epistles, and when I have more leisure than I have at the
-    present moment. I will then undertake to tell how we astonished the
-    natives, in many an instance, which I can in this Letter but just
-    hint at and say adieu. If anything did ever literally and completely
-    “astonish (and astound) the natives,” it was the appearance of our
-    steamer, puffing and blowing, and paddling and rushing by their
-    villages which were on the banks of the river.</p>
-
-  <p>These poor and ignorant people for the distance of 2000 miles, had
-    never before seen or heard of a steam-boat, and in some places they
-    seemed at a loss to know what to do, or how to act; they could not,
-    as the Dutch did at Newburgh, on the Hudson River, take it to be a
-    “<em>floating saw-mill</em>”—and they had no name for it—so it was, like
-    every thing else (with them), which is mysterious and unaccountable,
-    called <em>medicine</em> (mystery). We had on board one twelve-pound
-    cannon and three or four eight-pound swivels, which we were taking up
-    to arm the Fur Company’s Fort at the mouth of Yellow Stone, and at the
-    approach to every village they were all discharged several times in
-    rapid succession, which threw the inhabitants into utter confusion and
-    amazement—some of them laid their faces to the ground, and cried to
-    the Great Spirit—some shot their horses and dogs, and sacrificed them
-    to appease the Great Spirit, whom they conceived was offended—some
-    deserted their villages and ran to the tops of the bluffs some miles
-    distant; and others, in some places, as the boat landed in front of
-    their villages, came with great caution, and peeped over the bank of
-    the river to see the fate of their chiefs whose duty it was (from the
-    nature of their office) to approach us, whether friends or foes, and
-    to go on board. Sometimes, in this plight, they were instantly thrown
-    ‘neck and heels’ over each other’s heads and shoulders—men, women
-    and children, and dogs—sage, sachem, old and young—all in a mass, at
-    the frightful discharge of the steam from the escape-pipe, which the
-    captain of the boat let loose upon them for his own fun and amusement.</p>
-
-  <p>There were many curious conjectures amongst their wise men, with regard
-    to the nature and powers of the steam-boat. Amongst the Mandans, some
-    called it the “big thunder canoe;” for when in distance below the
-    village,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_21">21</span> they saw the lightning flash from its sides, and heard
-    the thunder come from it; others called it the “big medicine canoe
-    with eyes;” it was <em>medicine</em> (mystery) because they could not
-    understand it; and it must have eyes, for said they, “it sees its own
-    way, and takes the deep water in the middle of the channel.”</p>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>4</i></div>
-  <figure id="i_005">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_005.jpg" alt="View of bluffs">
-     <figcaption>5</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <figure class="mt2" id="i_006">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_006.jpg" alt="View of domes and columns">
-     <figcaption>6</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p>They had no idea of the boat being steered by the man at the wheel, and
-    well they might have been astonished at its taking the deepest water. I
-    may (if I do not forget it) hereafter give you an account of some other
-    curious incidents of this kind, which we met with in this voyage; for
-    we met many, and some of them were really laughable.</p>
-
-  <p>The Fort in which I am residing was built by Mr. M‘Kenzie, who now
-    occupies it. It is the largest and best-built establishment of the kind
-    on the river, being the great or principal head-quarters and depôt
-    of the Fur Company’s business in this region. A vast stock of goods
-    is kept on hand at this place; and at certain times of the year the
-    numerous out-posts concentrate here with the returns of their season’s
-    trade, and refit out with a fresh supply of goods to trade with the
-    Indians.</p>
-
-  <p>The site for the Fort is well selected, being a beautiful prairie
-    on the bank near the junction of the Missouri with the Yellow Stone
-    rivers; and its inmates and its stores well protected from Indian
-    assaults.</p>
-
-  <p>Mr. M‘Kenzie is a kind-hearted and high-minded Scotchman; and seems to
-    have charge of all the Fur Companies’ business in this region, and from
-    this to the Rocky Mountains. He lives in good and comfortable style,
-    inside of the Fort, which contains some eight or ten log-houses and
-    stores, and has generally forty or fifty men, and one hundred and fifty
-    horses about him.</p>
-
-  <p>He has, with the same spirit of liberality and politeness with
-    which Mons. Pierre Chouteau treated me on my passage up the river,
-    pronounced me welcome at his table, which groans under the luxuries of
-    the country; with buffalo meat and tongues, with beavers’ tails and
-    marrow-fat; but <i>sans</i> coffee, <i>sans</i> bread and butter. Good
-    cheer and good living we get at it however, and good wine also; for a
-    bottle of Madeira and one of excellent Port are set in a pail of ice
-    every day, and exhausted at dinner.</p>
-
-  <p>At the hospitable board of this gentleman I found also another, who
-    forms a happy companion for <em>mine host</em>; and whose intellectual
-    and polished society has added not a little to <em>my</em> pleasure and
-    amusement since I arrived here.</p>
-
-  <p>The gentleman of whom I am speaking is an Englishman, by the name
-    of Hamilton, of the most pleasing and entertaining conversation,
-    whose mind seems to be a complete store-house of ancient and modern
-    literature and art; and whose free and familiar acquaintance with the
-    manners and men of his country gives him the stamp of a gentleman, who
-    has had the curiosity to bring the embellishments of the enlightened
-    world, to contrast with the rude and the wild of these remote regions.</p>
-
-  <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_22">22</span></p>
-
-  <p>We three <i lang="fr">bons vivants</i> form the group about the dinner-table,
-    of which I have before spoken, and crack our jokes and fun over the
-    bottles of Port and Madeira, which I have named; and a considerable
-    part of which, this gentleman has brought with great and precious care
-    from his own country.</p>
-
-  <p>This post is the general rendezvous of a great number of Indian tribes
-    in these regions, who are continually concentrating here for the
-    purpose of trade; sometimes coming, the whole tribe together, in a
-    mass. There are now here, and encamped about the Fort, a great many,
-    and I am continually at work with my brush; we have around us at this
-    time the Knisteneaux, Crows, Assinneboins and Blackfeet, and in a few
-    days are to have large accessions.</p>
-
-  <p>The finest specimens of Indians on the Continent are in these regions;
-    and before I leave these parts, I shall make excursions into their
-    respective countries, to their own native fire-sides; and there study
-    their looks and peculiar customs; enabling me to drop you now and then
-    an interesting Letter. The tribes which I shall be enabled to see and
-    study by my visit to this region, are the Ojibbeways, the Assinneboins,
-    Knisteneaux, Blackfeet, Crows, Shiennes, Grosventres, Mandans, and
-    others; of whom and their customs, their history, traditions, costumes,
-    &amp;c., I shall in due season, give you further and minute accounts.</p>
-
-  <hr class="chap">
-  <div class="chapter">
-    <span class="pagenum" id="Page_23">23</span>
-    <h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_4">LETTER—<abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 4.</h2>
-  </div>
-  <div class="subheadc">MOUTH OF YELLOW STONE.</div>
-
-  <p><span class="smcap">The</span> several tribes of Indians inhabiting the regions of the Upper
-    Missouri, and of whom I spoke in my last Letter, are undoubtedly the
-    finest looking, best equipped, and most beautifully costumed of any on
-    the Continent. They live in a country well-stocked with buffaloes and
-    wild horses, which furnish them an excellent and easy living; their
-    atmosphere is pure, which produces good health and long life; and they
-    are the most independent and the happiest races of Indians I have met
-    with: they are all entirely in a state of primitive wildness, and
-    consequently are picturesque and handsome, almost beyond description.
-    Nothing in the world, of its kind, can possibly surpass in beauty and
-    grace, some of their games and amusements—their gambols and parades, of
-    which I shall speak and paint hereafter.</p>
-
-  <p>As far as my travels have yet led me into the Indian country, I have
-    more than realized my former predictions that those Indians who could
-    be found most entirely in a state of nature, with the least knowledge
-    of civilized society, would be found to be the most cleanly in their
-    persons, elegant in their dress and manners, and enjoying life to the
-    greatest perfection. Of such tribes, perhaps the Crows and Blackfeet
-    stand first; and no one would be able to appreciate the richness and
-    elegance (and even taste too), with which some of these people dress,
-    without seeing them in their own country. I will do all I can, however,
-    to make their looks as well as customs known to the world; I will paint
-    with my brush and scribble with my pen, and bring their plumes and
-    plumage, dresses, weapons, &amp;c., and every thing but the Indian himself,
-    to prove to the world the assertions which I have made above.</p>
-
-  <p>Every one of these red sons of the forest (or rather of the prairie)
-    is a knight and lord—his squaws are his slaves; the only things which
-    he deems worthy of his exertions are to mount his snorting steed, with
-    his bow and quiver slung, his arrow-shield upon his arm, and his long
-    lance glistening in the war-parade; or, divested of all his plumes and
-    trappings, armed with a simple bow and quiver, to plunge his steed
-    amongst the flying herds of buffaloes, and with his sinewy bow, which
-    he seldom bends in vain, to drive deep to life’s fountain the whizzing
-    arrow.</p>
-
-  <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_24">24</span></p>
-
-  <p>The buffalo herds, which graze in almost countless numbers on these
-    beautiful prairies, afford them an abundance of meat; and so much is
-    it preferred to all other, that the deer, the elk, and the antelope
-    sport upon the prairies in herds in the greatest security; as the
-    Indians seldom kill them, unless they want their skins for a dress.
-    The buffalo (or more correctly speaking bison) is a noble animal,
-    that roams over the vast prairies, from the borders of Mexico on the
-    south, to Hudson’s Bay on the north. Their size is somewhat above
-    that of our common bullock, and their flesh of a delicious flavour,
-    resembling and equalling that of fat beef. Their flesh which is easily
-    procured, furnishes the savages of these vast regions the means of a
-    wholesome and good subsistence, and they live almost exclusively upon
-    it—converting the skins, horns, hoofs and bones, to the construction
-    of dresses, shields, bows, &amp;c. The buffalo bull is one of the most
-    formidable and frightful looking animals in the world when excited to
-    resistance; his long shaggy mane hangs in great profusion over his neck
-    and shoulders and often extends quite down to the ground (<a href="#i_007"><span class="smcap">plate</span>
-    7</a>). The cow is less in stature, and less ferocious; though not
-    much less wild and frightful in her appearance (<a href="#i_008"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 8</a>).</p>
-
-  <p>The mode in which these Indians kill this noble animal is spirited and
-    thrilling in the extreme; and I must in a future epistle, give you
-    a minute account of it. I have almost daily accompanied parties of
-    Indians to see the fun, and have often shared in it myself; but much
-    oftener ran my horse by their sides, to see how the thing was done—to
-    study the modes and expressions of these splendid scenes, which I am
-    industriously putting upon the canvass.</p>
-
-  <p>They are all (or nearly so) killed with arrows and the lance, while at
-    full speed; and the reader may easily imagine, that these scenes afford
-    the most spirited and picturesque views of the sporting kind that can
-    possibly be seen.</p>
-
-  <p>At present, I will give a little sketch of a bit of fun I joined in
-    yesterday, with Mr. M‘Kenzie and a number of his men, without the
-    company or aid of Indians.</p>
-
-  <p>I mentioned the other day, that M‘Kenzie’s table from day to day
-    groans under the weight of buffalo tongues and beavers’ tails, and
-    other luxuries of this western land. He has within his Fort a spacious
-    ice-house, in which he preserves his meat fresh for any length of time
-    required; and sometimes, when his larder runs low. he starts out,
-    rallying some five or six of his best hunters (not to hunt, but to “go
-    for meat”). He leads the party, mounted on his favourite buffalo horse
-    (<i>i. e.</i> the horse amongst his whole group which is best trained
-    to run the buffalo), trailing a light and short gun in his hand, such
-    an one as he can most easily reload whilst his horse is at full speed.</p>
-
-  <p>Such was the condition of the ice-house yesterday morning, which caused
-    these self-catering gentlemen to cast their eyes with a wishful look
-    over the prairies; and such was the plight in which our host took
-    the lead, and I,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_25">25</span> and then Mons. Chardon, and Ba’tiste Défonde and
-    Tullock (who is a trader amongst the Crows, and is here at this time,
-    with a large party of that tribe), and there were several others whose
-    names I do not know.</p>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>5</i></div>
-  <figure id="i_007">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_007.jpg" alt="Buffalo bull">
-     <figcaption>7</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <figure class="mt2" id="i_008">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_008.jpg" alt="Buffalo cow">
-     <figcaption>8</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p>As we were mounted and ready to start, M‘Kenzie called up some four
-    or five of his men, and told them to follow immediately on our trail,
-    with as many one-horse carts, which they were to harness up, to bring
-    home the meat; “ferry them across the river in the scow,” said he,
-    “and following our trail through the bottom, you will find us on the
-    plain yonder, between the Yellow Stone and the Missouri rivers, with
-    meat enough to load you home. My watch on yonder bluff has just told
-    us by his signals, that there are cattle a plenty on that spot, and we
-    are going there as fast as possible.” We all crossed the river, and
-    galloped away a couple of miles or so, when we mounted the bluff; and
-    to be sure, as was said, there was in full view of us a fine herd of
-    some four or five hundred buffaloes, perfectly at rest, and in their
-    own estimation (probably) perfectly secure. Some were grazing, and
-    others were lying down and sleeping; we advanced within a mile or so
-    of them in full view, and came to a halt. Mons. Chardon “tossed the
-    feather” (a custom always observed, to try the course of the wind),
-    and we commenced “stripping” as it is termed (<i>i. e.</i> every man
-    strips himself and his horse of every extraneous and unnecessary
-    appendage of dress, &amp;c. that might be an incumbrance in running): hats
-    are laid off, and coats—and bullet pouches; sleeves are rolled up,
-    a handkerchief tied tightly around the head, and another around the
-    waist—cartridges are prepared and placed in the waistcoat pocket, or
-    a half dozen bullets “throwed into the mouth,” &amp;c., &amp;c., all of which
-    takes up some ten or fifteen minutes, and is not, in appearance or
-    in effect, unlike a council of war. Our leader lays the whole plan
-    of the chase, and preliminaries all fixed, guns charged and ramrods
-    in our hands, we mount and start for the onset. The horses are all
-    trained for this business, and seem to enter into it with as much
-    enthusiasm, and with as restless a spirit as the riders themselves.
-    While “stripping” and mounting, they exhibit the most restless
-    impatience; and when “approaching”—(which is, all of us abreast,
-    upon a slow walk, and in a straight line towards the herd, until
-    they discover us and run), they all seem to have caught entirely the
-    spirit of the chase, for the laziest nag amongst them prances with
-    an elasticity in his step—champing his bit—his ears erect—his eyes
-    strained out of his head, and fixed upon the game before him, whilst
-    he trembles under the saddle of his rider. In this way we carefully
-    and silently marched, until within some forty or fifty rods; when the
-    herd discovering us, wheeled and laid their course in a mass. At this
-    instant we started! (and all <em>must</em> start, for no one could check
-    the fury of those steeds at that moment of excitement,) and away all
-    sailed, and over the prairie flew, in a cloud of dust which was raised
-    by their trampling hoofs. M‘Kenzie was foremost in the throng, and
-    soon dashed off amidst the dust and was out of sight—he was after the
-    fattest and the fastest. I had discovered a huge bull whose shoulders<span class="pagenum" id="Page_26">26</span>
-    towered above the whole band, and I picked my way through the crowd to
-    get alongside of him. I went not for “meat,” but for a <em>trophy</em>;
-    I wanted his head and horns. I dashed along through the thundering
-    mass, as they swept away over the plain, scarcely able to tell whether
-    I was on a buffalo’s back or my horse—hit, and hooked, and jostled
-    about, till at length I found myself alongside of my game, when I gave
-    him a shot, as I passed him. I saw guns flash in several directions
-    about me, but I heard them not. Amidst the trampling throng, Mons.
-    Chardon had wounded a stately bull, and at this moment was passing
-    him again with his piece levelled for another shot; they were both
-    at full speed and I also, within the reach of the muzzle of my gun,
-    when the bull instantly turned and receiving the horse upon his horns,
-    and the ground received poor Chardon, who made a frog’s leap of some
-    twenty feet or more over the bull’s back (<a href="#i_009"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 9</a>), and almost
-    under my horse’s heels. I wheeled my horse as soon as possible and
-    rode back, where lay poor Chardon, gasping to start his breath again;
-    and within a few paces of him his huge victim, with his heels high
-    in the air, and the horse lying across him. I dismounted instantly,
-    but Chardon was raising himself on his hands, with his eyes and
-    mouth full of dirt, and feeling for his gun, which lay about thirty
-    feet in advance of him. “Heaven spare you! are you hurt, Chardon?”
-    “hi—hic——hic———hic————hic—————hic——————no,——hic———no——no, I
-    believe not. Oh! this is not much, Mons. Cataline—this is nothing
-    new—but this is a d——d hard piece of ground here—hic—oh! hic!” At this
-    the poor fellow fainted, but in a few moments arose, picked up his gun,
-    took his horse by the bit; which then opened <em>its</em> eyes, and with
-    a <em>hic</em> and a <em>ugh</em>—<span class="allsmcap">UGHK</span>! sprang upon its feet—shook
-    off the dirt—and here we were, all upon our legs again, save the bull,
-    whose fate had been more sad than that of either.</p>
-
-  <p>I turned my eyes in the direction where the herd had gone, and
-    our companions in pursuit, and nothing could be seen of them, nor
-    indication, except the cloud of dust which they left behind them.
-    At a little distance on the right, however, I beheld my huge victim
-    endeavouring to make as much head-way as he possibly could, from this
-    dangerous ground, upon three legs. I galloped off to him, and at my
-    approach he wheeled around—and bristled up for battle; he seemed to
-    know perfectly well that he could not escape from me, and resolved to
-    meet his enemy and death as bravely as possible.</p>
-
-  <p>I found that my shot had entered him a little too far forward, breaking
-    one of his shoulders, and lodging in his breast, and from his very
-    great weight it was impossible for him to make much advance upon me.
-    As I rode up within a few paces of him, he would bristle up with fury
-    enough in his <em>looks</em> alone, almost to annihilate me (<a href="#i_010"><span class="smcap">plate</span>
-    10</a>); and making one lunge at me, would fall upon his neck and
-    nose, so that I found the sagacity of my horse alone enough to keep
-    me out of reach of danger: and I drew from my pocket my sketch-book,
-    laid my gun across my lap, and commenced taking his likeness. He stood
-    stiffened up, and swelling with awful<span class="pagenum" id="Page_27">27</span> vengeance, which was sublime
-    for a picture, but which he could not vent upon me. I rode around him
-    and sketched him in numerous attitudes, sometimes he would lie down,
-    and I would then sketch him; then throw my cap at him, and rousing him
-    on his legs, rally a new expression, and sketch him again.</p>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>6</i></div>
-  <figure id="i_009">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_009.jpg" alt="Chardon over bull's back">
-     <figcaption>9</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <figure class="mt2" id="i_010">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_010.jpg" alt="Wounded bull">
-     <figcaption>10</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p>In this way I added to my sketch-book some invaluable sketches of
-    this grim-visaged monster, who knew not that he was standing for his
-    likeness.</p>
-
-  <p>No man on earth can imagine what is the look and expression of such a
-    subject before him as this was. I defy the world to produce another
-    animal than can look so frightful as a huge buffalo bull, when wounded
-    as he was, turned around for battle, and swelling with rage;—his eyes
-    bloodshot, and his long shaggy mane hanging to the ground,—his mouth
-    open, and his horrid rage hissing in streams of smoke and blood from
-    his mouth and through his nostrils, as he is bending forward to spring
-    upon his assailant.</p>
-
-  <p>After I had had the requisite time and opportunity for using my pencil,
-    M‘Kenzie and his companions came walking their exhausted horses back
-    from the chase, and in our rear came four or five carts to carry home
-    the meat. The party met from all quarters around me and my buffalo
-    bull, whom I then shot in the head and finished. And being seated
-    together for a few minutes, each one took a smoke of the pipe, and
-    recited his exploits, and his “coups” or deaths; when all parties had
-    a hearty laugh at me, as a novice, for having aimed at an old bull,
-    whose flesh was not suitable for food, and the carts were escorted on
-    the trail, to bring away the meat. I rode back with Mr. M‘Kenzie, who
-    pointed out five cows which he had killed, and all of them selected
-    as the fattest and slickest of the herd. This astonishing feat was
-    all performed within the distance of one mile—all were killed at full
-    speed, and every one shot through the heart. In the short space of time
-    required for a horse under “full whip,” to run the distance of one
-    mile, he had discharged his gun five, and loaded it four times—selected
-    his animals, and killed at every shot! There were six or eight others
-    killed at the same time, which altogether furnished, as will be seen,
-    abundance of freight for the carts; which returned, as well as several
-    packhorses, loaded with the choicest parts which were cut from the
-    animals, and the remainder of the carcasses left a prey for the wolves.</p>
-
-  <p>Such is the mode by which white men live in this country—such the way
-    in which they get their food, and such is one of their delightful
-    amusements—at the hazard of every bone in one’s body, to feel the fine
-    and thrilling exhilaration of the chase for a moment, and then as often
-    to upbraid and blame himself for his folly and imprudence.</p>
-
-  <p>From this scene we commenced leisurely wending our way back; and
-    dismounting at the place where we had stripped, each man dressed
-    himself again, or slung his extra articles of dress, &amp;c. across his
-    saddle, astride of which he sat; and we rode back to the Fort, reciting
-    as we rode, and for twenty-four hours afterwards, deeds of chivalry and
-    chase, and hair’s-breadth<span class="pagenum" id="Page_28">28</span> escapes which each and either had fought
-    and run on former occasions. M‘Kenzie, with all the true character
-    and dignity of a leader, was silent on these subjects; but smiled,
-    while those in his train were reciting for him the astonishing and
-    almost incredible deeds of his sinewy arms, which they had witnessed
-    in similar scenes; from which I learned (as well as from my own
-    observations), that he was reputed (and actually <em>was</em>) the
-    most distinguished of all the white men who have flourished in these
-    regions, in the pursuit and death of the buffalo.</p>
-
-  <p>On our return to the Fort, a bottle or two of wine were set forth
-    upon the table, and around them a half dozen parched throats were
-    soon moistened, and good cheer ensued. Ba’tiste Défonde, Chardon,
-    &amp;c., retired to their quarters, enlarging smoothly upon the events
-    of our morning’s work; which they were reciting to their wives and
-    sweethearts; when about this time the gate of the Fort was thrown open,
-    and the procession of carts and packhorses laden with buffalo meat made
-    its entrée; gladdening the hearts of a hundred women and children,
-    and tickling the noses of as many hungry dogs and puppies, who were
-    stealing in and smelling at the tail of the procession. The door of the
-    ice-house was thrown open, the meat was discharged into it, and I being
-    fatigued, went to sleep.</p>
-
-  <figure class="illowp75 mt2" id="i_011">
-    <div class="plate"><i>7</i></div>
-    <img src="images/i_011.jpg" alt="Stu-mick-o-sucks, Blackfoot head chief">
-     <figcaption>11</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <hr class="chap">
-  <div class="chapter">
-    <span class="pagenum" id="Page_29">29</span>
-    <h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_5">LETTER—<abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 5.</h2>
-  </div>
-  <div class="subheadc">MOUTH OF YELLOW STONE, <i>UPPER MISSOURI</i>.</div>
-
-  <p><span class="smcap">In</span> my former epistle I told you there were encamped about the Fort
-    a host of wild, incongruous spirits—chiefs and sachems—warriors,
-    braves, and women and children of different tribes—of Crows and
-    Blackfeet—Ojibbeways—Assinneboins—and Crees or Knisteneaux. Amongst
-    and in the midst of them am I, with my paint pots and canvass, snugly
-    ensconced in one of the bastions of the Fort, which I occupy as a
-    painting-room. My easel stands before me, and the cool breech of a
-    twelve-pounder makes me a comfortable seat, whilst her muzzle is
-    looking out at one of the port-holes. The operations of my brush are
-    <em>mysteries</em> of the highest order to these red sons of the prairie,
-    and my room the earliest and latest place of concentration of these
-    wild and jealous spirits, who all meet here to be amused and pay me
-    signal honours; but gaze upon each other, sending their sidelong looks
-    of deep-rooted hatred and revenge around the group. However, whilst in
-    the Fort, their weapons are placed within the arsenal, and naught but
-    looks and thoughts can be breathed here; but death and grim destruction
-    will visit back those looks upon each other, when these wild spirits
-    again are loose and free to breathe and act upon the plains.</p>
-
-  <p>I have this day been painting a portrait of the head chief of the
-    Blackfoot nation; he is a good-looking and dignified Indian, about
-    fifty years of age, and superbly dressed (<a href="#i_011"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 11</a>); whilst
-    sitting for his picture he has been surrounded by his own braves
-    and warriors, and also gazed at by his enemies, the Crows and the
-    Knisteneaux, Assinneboins and Ojibbeways; a number of distinguished
-    personages of each of which tribes, have laid all day around the sides
-    of my room; reciting to each other the battles they have fought, and
-    pointing to the scalp-locks, worn as proofs of their victories, and
-    attached to the seams of their shirts and leggings. This is a curious
-    scene to witness, when one sits in the midst of such inflammable and
-    combustible materials, brought together, unarmed, for the first time in
-    their lives; peaceably and calmly recounting over the deeds of their
-    lives, and smoking their pipes upon it, when a few weeks or days will
-    bring them on the plains again, where the war-cry will be raised, and
-    their deadly bows will again be drawn on each other.</p>
-
-  <p>The name of this dignitary, of whom I have just spoken, is
-    Stu-mick-o-sucks (the buffalo’s back fat), <i>i. e.</i> the “hump”
-    or “fleece,” the most delicious part of the buffalo’s flesh. I
-    have also painted, of the Blackfeet,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_30">30</span> Pe-toh-pee-kiss (the eagle
-    ribs), and Mix-ke-mote-skin-na (the iron horn), and Wun-nes-tou (the
-    white buffalo), and Tcha-aes-sa-ko-mah-pee (the bear’s child), and
-    In-ne-o-cose (the buffalo’s child), and half-a-dozen others, and all in
-    rich and costly dresses.</p>
-
-  <p>There is no tribe, perhaps, on the Continent, who dress more
-    comfortably, and more gaudily, than the Blackfeet, unless it be
-    the tribe of Crows. There is no great difference, however, in the
-    costliness or elegance of their costumes; nor in the materials of which
-    they are formed; though there is a distinctive mode in each tribe, of
-    stitching or ornamenting with the porcupine quills, which constitute
-    one of the principal ornaments to all their fine dresses; and which
-    can be easily recognized, by any one a little familiar with their
-    modes, as belonging to such or such a tribe. The dress, for instance of
-    the chief whom I have just mentioned, and whose portrait I have just
-    painted, consists of a shirt or tunic, made of two deer skins finely
-    dressed, and so placed together with the necks of the skins downwards,
-    and the skins of the hind legs stitched together, the seams running
-    down on each arm, from the neck to the knuckles of the hand; this
-    seam is covered with a band of two inches in width, of very beautiful
-    embroidery of porcupine quills, and suspended from the under edge of
-    this, from the shoulders to the hands, is a fringe of the locks of
-    black hair, which he has taken from the heads of victims slain by his
-    own hand in battle. The leggings are made also of the same material;
-    and down the outer side of the leg, from the hip to the feet, extends
-    also a similar band or belt of the same width; and wrought in the same
-    manner, with porcupine quills, and fringed with scalp locks. These
-    locks of hair are procured from scalps, and worn as trophies.</p>
-
-  <p>The wife (or squaw) of this dignitary Eeh-nis-kin (the crystal
-    stone), I have also placed upon my canvass (<a href="#i_013"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 13</a>); her
-    countenance is rather pleasing, which is an uncommon thing amongst
-    the Blackfeet—her dress is made of skins, and being the youngest of a
-    bevy of six or eight, and the last one taken under his guardianship,
-    was smiled upon with great satisfaction, whilst he exempted her from
-    the drudgeries of the camp; and keeping her continually in the halo of
-    his own person, watched and guarded her as the apple of his eye. The
-    grandson also of this sachem, a boy of six years of age, and too young
-    as yet to have acquired a name, has stood forth like a tried warrior;
-    and I have painted him at full length (<a href="#i_012"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 12</a>), with his
-    bow and quiver slung, and his robe made of a racoon skin. The history
-    of this child is somewhat curious and interesting; his father is dead,
-    and in case of the death of the chief, of whom I have spoken, he
-    becomes hereditary chief of the tribe. This boy has been twice stolen
-    away by the Crows by ingenious stratagems, and twice re-captured by
-    the Blackfeet, at considerable sacrifice of life, and at present he is
-    lodged with Mr. M‘Kenzie, for safe keeping and protection, until he
-    shall arrive at the proper age to take the office to which he is to
-    succeed, and able to protect himself.</p>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>8</i></div>
-  <div class="col50">
-    <figure id="i_013">
-      <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_013.jpg" alt="Eeh-nis-kin, wife of Stu-mick-o-sucks">
-       <figcaption>13</figcaption>
-    </figure>
-  </div>
-  <div class="col50">
-    <figure id="i_012">
-      <img style="width: 99%;" src="images/i_012.jpg" alt="Grandson of Stu-mick-o-sucks">
-       <figcaption>12</figcaption>
-    </figure>
-  </div>
-
-  <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_31">31</span></p>
-
-  <p>The scalp of which I spoke above, is procured by cutting out a piece
-    of the skin of the head, the size of the palm of the hand or less,
-    containing the very centre or crown of the head, the place where the
-    hair radiates from a point, and exactly over what the phrenologists
-    call self-esteem. This patch then is kept and dried with great care, as
-    proof positive of the death of an enemy, and evidence of a man’s claims
-    as a warrior; and after having been formally “danced,” as the saying
-    is, (<i>i. e.</i> after it has been stuck up upon a pole or held up by
-    an “old woman,” and the warriors have danced around it for two or three
-    weeks at intervals,) it is fastened to the handle of a lance, or the
-    end of a war-club, or divided into a great many small locks and used
-    to fringe and ornament the victor’s dress. When these dresses are seen
-    bearing such trophies, it is of course a difficult matter to purchase
-    them of the Indian, for they often hold them above all price. I shall
-    hereafter take occasion to speak of the scalp-dance; describing it in
-    all its parts, and giving a long Letter, at the same time on scalps
-    and scalping, an interesting and general custom amongst all the North
-    American Indians.</p>
-
-  <p>In the chief’s dress, which I am describing, there are his moccasins,
-    made also of buckskin, and ornamented in a corresponding manner. And
-    over all, his robe, made of the skin of a young buffalo bull, with
-    the hair remaining on; and on the inner or flesh side, beautifully
-    garnished with porcupine quills, and the battles of his life very
-    ingeniously, though rudely, pourtrayed in pictorial representations.
-    In his hand he holds a very beautiful pipe, the stem of which is four
-    or five feet long, and two inches wide, curiously wound with braids
-    of the porcupine quills of various colours; and the bowl of the pipe
-    ingeniously carved by himself from a piece of red steatite of an
-    interesting character, and which they all tell me is procured somewhere
-    between this place and the Falls of <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Anthony, on the head waters of
-    the Mississippi.</p>
-
-  <p>This curious stone has many peculiar qualities, and has, undoubtedly,
-    but one origin in this country, and perhaps in the world. It is found
-    but in the hands of the savage, and every tribe, and nearly every
-    individual in the tribe has his pipe made of it. I consider this stone
-    a subject of great interest, and curiosity to the world; and I shall
-    most assuredly make it a point, during my Indian rambles, to visit the
-    place from whence it is brought. I have already got a number of most
-    remarkable traditions and stories relating to the “sacred quarry;”
-    of pilgrimages performed there to procure the stone, and of curious
-    transactions that have taken place on that ground. It seems, from all
-    I can learn, that all the tribes in these regions, and also of the
-    Mississippi and the Lakes, have been in the habit of going to that
-    place, and meeting their enemies there, whom they are obliged to treat
-    as friends, under an injunction of the Great Spirit.</p>
-
-  <p>So then is this sachem (the buffalo’s back fat) dressed; and in a very
-    similar manner, and almost the same, is each of the others above named;
-    and all are armed with bow and quiver, lance and shield. These north-western<span class="pagenum" id="Page_32">32</span>
-    tribes are all armed with the bow and lance, and protected with
-    the shield or arrow fender, which is carried outside of the left arm,
-    exactly as the Roman and Grecian shield was carried, and for the same
-    purpose.</p>
-
-  <p>There is an appearance purely classic in the plight and equipment of
-    these warriors and “knights of the lance.” They are almost literally
-    always on their horses’ backs, and they wield these weapons with
-    desperate effect upon the open plains; where they kill their game
-    while at full speed, and contend in like manner in battles with their
-    enemy. There is one prevailing custom in these respects, amongst all
-    the tribes who inhabit the great plains or prairies of these western
-    regions. These plains afford them an abundance of wild and fleet
-    horses, which are easily procured; and on their backs at full speed,
-    they can come alongside of any animal, which they easily destroy.</p>
-
-  <p>The bow with which they are armed is small, and apparently an
-    insignificant weapon, though one of great and almost incredible power
-    in the hands of its owner, whose sinews have been from childhood
-    habituated to its use and service. The length of these bows is
-    generally about three feet, and sometimes not more than two and a half
-    (<a href="#i_018"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 18</a> <i>a</i>). They have, no doubt, studied to get
-    the requisite power in the smallest compass possible, as it is more
-    easily and handily used on horseback than one of greater length. The
-    greater number of these bows are made of ash, or of “bois d’arc” (as
-    the French call it), and lined on the back with layers of buffalo or
-    deer’s sinews, which are inseparably attached to them, and give them
-    great elasticity. There are very many also (amongst the Blackfeet
-    and the Crows) which are made of bone, and others of the horn of the
-    mountain-sheep. Those made of bone are decidedly the most valuable, and
-    cannot in this country be procured of a good quality short of the price
-    of one or two horses. About these there is a mystery yet to be solved,
-    and I advance my opinion against all theories that I have heard in the
-    country where they are used and made. I have procured several very fine
-    specimens, and when purchasing them have inquired of the Indians, what
-    bone they were made of? and in every instance, the answer was, “That’s
-    medicine,” meaning that it was a mystery to them, or that they did not
-    wish to be questioned about them. The bone of which they are made is
-    certainly not the bone of any animal now grazing on the prairies, or
-    in the mountains between this place and the Pacific Ocean; for some
-    of these bows are three feet in length, of a solid piece of bone, and
-    that as close-grained—as hard—as white, and as highly polished as
-    any ivory; it cannot, therefore be made from the elks’ horn (as some
-    have supposed), which is of a dark colour and porous: nor can it come
-    from the buffalo. It is my opinion, therefore, that the Indians on
-    the Pacific coast procure the bone from the jaw of the sperm whale,
-    which is often stranded on that coast, and bringing the bone into the
-    mountains, trade it to the Blackfeet and Crows, who manufacture it into
-    these bows without knowing any more than we do, from what source it has
-    been procured.</p>
-
-  <figure class="illowp75 mt2" id="i_014">
-    <div class="plate"><i>9</i></div>
-    <img src="images/i_014.jpg" alt="">
-     <figcaption>14</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_33">33</span></p>
-
-  <p>One of these little bows in the hands of an Indian, on a fleet and
-    well-trained horse, with a quiver of arrows slung on his back, is a
-    most effective and powerful weapon in the open plains. No one can
-    easily credit the force with which these missiles are thrown, and the
-    sanguinary effects produced by their wounds, until he has rode by
-    the side of a party of Indians in chase of a herd of buffaloes, and
-    witnessed the apparent ease and grace with which their supple arms have
-    drawn the bow, and seen these huge animals tumbling down and gushing
-    out their hearts’ blood from their mouths and nostrils.</p>
-
-  <p>Their bows are often made of bone and sinews, and their arrows headed
-    with flints or with bones, of their own construction (<a href="#i_018"><span class="smcap">plate</span>
-    18</a>, <i>c</i>), or with steel, as they are now chiefly furnished
-    by the Fur Traders quite to the Rocky Mountains (<a href="#i_018"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 18</a>,
-    <i>d</i>). The quiver, which is uniformly carried on the back, and
-    made of the panther or otter skins (<a href="#i_018"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 18</a>, <i>e</i>) is a
-    magazine of these deadly weapons, and generally contains two varieties.
-    The one to be drawn upon an enemy, generally poisoned, and with long
-    flukes or barbs, which are designed to hang the blade in the wound
-    after the shaft is withdrawn, in which they are but slightly glued;—the
-    other to be used for their game, with the blade firmly fastened to the
-    shaft, and the flukes inverted; that it may easily be drawn from the
-    wound, and used on a future occasion.</p>
-
-  <p>Such is the training of men and horses in this country, that this work
-    of death and slaughter is simple and easy. The horse is trained to
-    approach the animals on the <em>right</em> side, enabling its rider to
-    throw his arrows to the left; it runs and approaches without the use
-    of the halter, which is hanging loose upon its neck bringing the rider
-    within three or four paces of the animal, when the arrow is thrown with
-    great ease and certainty to the heart; and instances sometimes occur,
-    where the arrow passes entirely through the animal’s body.</p>
-
-  <p>An Indian, therefore, mounted on a fleet and well-trained horse, with
-    his bow in his hand, and his quiver slung on his back, containing an
-    hundred arrows, of which he can throw fifteen or twenty in a minute, is
-    a formidable and dangerous enemy. Many of them also ride with a lance
-    of twelve or fourteen feet in length (<a href="#i_018"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 18</a>, <i>b</i>),
-    with a blade of polished steel; and all of them (as a protection
-    for their vital parts), with a shield or arrow-fender made of the
-    skin of the buffalo’s neck, which has been smoked, and hardened with
-    glue extracted from the hoofs (<a href="#i_018"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 18</a>). These shields are
-    arrow-proof, and will glance off a rifle shot with perfect effect by
-    being turned obliquely, which they do with great skill.</p>
-
-  <p>This shield or arrow-fender is, in my opinion, made of similar
-    materials, and used in the same way, and for the same purpose, as was
-    the clypeus or small shield in the Roman and Grecian cavalry. They were
-    made in those days as a means of defence on horseback only—made small
-    and light, of bull’s hides; sometimes single, sometimes double and
-    tripled. Such was Hector’s shield, and of most of the Homeric heroes of
-    the Greek and Trojan wars. In those days also were darts or javelins
-    and lances; the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_34">34</span> same were also used by the Ancient Britons; and such
-    exactly are now in use amongst the Arabs and the North American Indians.</p>
-
-  <p>In this wise then, are all of these wild red knights of the prairie,
-    armed and equipped,—and while nothing can possibly be more picturesque
-    and thrilling than a troop or war-party of these fellows, galloping
-    over these green and endless prairies; there can be no set of mounted
-    men of equal numbers, so effective and so invincible in this country
-    as they would be, could they be inspired with confidence of their own
-    powers and their own superiority; yet this never can be done;—for the
-    Indian, as far as the name of white man has travelled, and long before
-    he has to try his strength with him, is trembling with fright and fear
-    of his approach; he hears of white man’s arts and artifice—his tricks
-    and cunning, and his hundred instruments of death and destruction—he
-    dreads his approach, shrinks from him with fear and trembling—his
-    heart sickens, and his pride and courage wither, at the thoughts of
-    contending with an enemy, whom he thinks may war and destroy with
-    weapons of <em>medicine</em> or mystery.</p>
-
-  <p>Of the Blackfeet, whom I mentioned in the beginning of this Letter,
-    and whose portraits are now standing in my room, there is another of
-    whom I must say a few words; Pe-toh-pee-kiss, the eagle ribs (<a href="#i_015"><span class="smcap">plate</span>
-    14</a>). This man is one of the extraordinary men of the Blackfoot
-    tribe; though not a chief, he stands here in the Fort, and deliberately
-    boasts of eight scalps, which he says he has taken from the heads of
-    trappers and traders with his own hand. His dress is really superb,
-    almost literally covered with scalp-locks, of savage and civil.</p>
-
-  <p>I have painted him at full length, with a head-dress made entirely
-    of ermine skins and horns of the buffalo. This custom of wearing
-    horns beautifully polished and surmounting the head-dress, is a very
-    curious one, being worn only by the bravest of the brave; by the most
-    extraordinary men in the nation. Of their importance and meaning, I
-    shall say more in a future epistle. When he stood for his picture, he
-    also held a lance and two “medicine-bags” in his hand; of lances I have
-    spoken,—but “medicine-bags” and “medicine” will be the text for my next
-    Letter.</p>
-
-  <p>Besides the chiefs and warriors above-named, I have also
-    transferred to my canvass the “looks and very resemblance”
-    of an aged chief, who combines with his high office, the
-    envied title of mystery or medicine-man, <i>i. e.</i>
-    doctor—magician—prophet—soothsayer—jongleur—and high priest, all
-    combined in one person, who necessarily is looked upon as “Sir
-    Oracle” of the nation. The name of this distinguished functionary is
-    Wun-nes-tou, the white buffalo (<a href="#i_015"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 15</a>); and on his left arm
-    he presents his mystery-drum or tambour, in which are concealed the
-    hidden and sacred mysteries of his healing art.</p>
-
-  <p>And there is also In-ne-o-cose, the iron-horn (<a href="#i_016"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 16</a>), at
-    full length, in a splendid dress, with his “medicine-bag” in his hand;
-    and Ah-kay-ee-pix-en, the woman who strikes many (<a href="#i_017"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 17</a>),
-    in a beautiful dress of the mountain-goats’ skin, and her robe of the
-    young buffalo’s hide.</p>
-
-  <figure class="illowp75 mt2" id="i_015">
-    <div class="plate"><i>10</i></div>
-    <img src="images/i_015.jpg" alt="Wun-nes-tou, medicine-man">
-     <figcaption>15</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>11</i></div>
-  <figure id="i_017">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_017.jpg" alt="In-ne-o-cose and Ah-kay-ee-pix-en" id="i_016">
-    <figcaption><span class="col50">17</span><span class="col50">16</span></figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <hr class="chap">
-  <div class="chapter">
-    <span class="pagenum" id="Page_35">35</span>
-    <h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_6">LETTER—<abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 6.</h2>
-  </div>
-  <div class="subheadc">MOUTH OF YELLOW STONE, <i>UPPER MISSOURI</i>.</div>
-
-  <p><span class="smcap">Now</span> for medicines or mysteries—for doctors, high-priests, for hocus
-    pocus, witchcraft, and animal magnetism!</p>
-
-  <p>In the last Letter I spoke of Pe-toh-pee-kiss (the eagle ribs), a
-    Blackfoot brave, whose portrait I had just painted at full length, in
-    a splendid dress. I mentioned also, that he held two medicine-bags in
-    his hand; as they are represented in the picture; both of them made of
-    the skins of otters, and curiously ornamented with ermine, and other
-    strange things.</p>
-
-  <p>I must needs stop here—my painting and every thing else, until I can
-    explain the word “<em>medicine</em>,” and “<em>medicine-bag</em>;” and
-    also some <em>medicine operations</em>, which I have seen transacted at
-    this place within a few days past. “Medicine” is a great word in this
-    country; and it is very necessary that one should know the meaning of
-    it, whilst he is scanning and estimating the Indian character, which is
-    made up, in a great degree, of mysteries and superstitions.</p>
-
-  <p>The word medicine, in its common acceptation here, means
-    <em>mystery</em>, and nothing else; and in that sense I <em>shall</em> use
-    it very frequently in my Notes on Indian Manners and Customs.</p>
-
-  <p>The Fur Traders in this country, are nearly all French; and in their
-    language, a doctor or physician, is called “<i lang="fr">Medecin</i>.” The Indian
-    country is full of doctors; and as they are all magicians, and skilled,
-    or profess to be skilled, in many mysteries, the word “medecin” has
-    become habitually applied to every thing mysterious or unaccountable;
-    and the English and Americans, who are also trading and passing through
-    this country, have easily and familiarly adopted the same word, with
-    a slight alteration, conveying the same meaning; and to be a little
-    more explicit, they have denominated these personages “medicine-men,”
-    which means something more than merely a doctor or physician. These
-    physicians, however, are all <em>medicine-men</em>, as they are all
-    supposed to deal more or less in mysteries and charms, which are aids
-    and handmaids in their practice. Yet it was necessary to give the
-    word or phrase a still more comprehensive meaning—as there were many
-    personages amongst them, and also amongst the white men who visit
-    the country, who could deal in mysteries, though not skilled in the
-    application of drugs and medicines; and they all range now, under the
-    comprehensive and accommodating phrase of “medicine-men.” For instance,
-    I am a “medicine-man” of the highest order amongst<span class="pagenum" id="Page_36">36</span> these superstitious
-    people, on account of the art which I practice; which is a strange and
-    unaccountable thing to them, and of course, called the greatest of
-    “medicine.” My gun and pistols, which have percussion-locks, are great
-    medicine; and no Indian can be prevailed on to fire them off, for they
-    say they have nothing to do with white man’s medicine.</p>
-
-  <p>The Indians do not use the word medicine, however; but in each tribe
-    they have a word of their own construction, synonimous with mystery or
-    mystery-man.</p>
-
-  <p>The “medicine-bag” then, is a mystery-bag; and its meaning and
-    importance necessary to be understood, as it may be said to be the
-    key to Indian life and Indian character. These bags are constructed
-    of the skins of animals, of birds, or of reptiles, and ornamented and
-    preserved in a thousand different ways, as suits the taste or freak of
-    the person who constructs them. These skins are generally attached to
-    some part of the clothing of the Indian, or carried in his hand—they
-    are oftentimes decorated in such a manner as to be exceedingly
-    ornamental to his person, and always are stuffed with grass, or moss,
-    or something of the kind; and generally without drugs or medicines
-    within them, as they are religiously closed and sealed, and seldom, if
-    ever, to be opened. I find that every Indian in his primitive state,
-    carries his medicine-bag in some form or other, to which he pays the
-    greatest homage, and to which he looks for safety and protection
-    through life—and in fact, it might almost be called a species of
-    idolatry; for it would seem in some instances, as if he actually
-    worshipped it. Feasts are often made, and dogs and horses sacrificed,
-    to a man’s medicine; and days, and even weeks, of fasting and penance
-    of various kinds are often suffered, to appease his medicine, which he
-    imagines he has in some way offended.</p>
-
-  <p>This curious custom has principally been done away with along the
-    frontier, where white men laugh at the Indian for the observance of so
-    ridiculous and useless a form; but in this country it is in full force,
-    and every male in the tribe carries this, his supernatural charm or
-    guardian, to which he looks for the preservation of his life, in battle
-    or in other danger; at which times it would be considered ominous of
-    bad luck and an ill fate to be without it.</p>
-
-  <p>The manner in which this curious and important article is instituted
-    is this: a boy, at the age of fourteen or fifteen years, is said to
-    be making or “forming his medicine,” when he wanders away from his
-    father’s lodge, and absents himself for the space of two or three, and
-    sometimes even four or five, days; lying on the ground in some remote
-    or secluded spot, crying to the Great Spirit, and fasting the whole
-    time. During this period of peril and abstinence, when he falls asleep,
-    the first animal, bird, or reptile, of which he dreams (or pretends to
-    have dreamed, perhaps), he considers the Great Spirit has designated
-    for his mysterious protector through life. He then returns home to
-    his father’s lodge, and relates his success; and after allaying his
-    thirst, and satiating his appetite, he sallies forth with weapons<span class="pagenum" id="Page_37">37</span> or
-    traps, until he can procure the animal or bird, the skin of which he
-    preserves entire, and ornaments it according to his own fancy, and
-    carries it with him through life, for “good luck” (as he calls it); as
-    his strength in battle—and in death his guardian <em>Spirit</em>, that
-    is buried with him, and which is to conduct him safe to the beautiful
-    hunting grounds, which he contemplates in the world to come.</p>
-
-  <p>The value of the medicine-bag to the Indian is beyond all price; for
-    to sell it, or give it away, would subject him to such signal disgrace
-    in his tribe, that he could never rise above it; and again, his
-    superstition would stand in the way of any such disposition of it, for
-    he considers it the gift of the Great Spirit. An Indian carries his
-    <em>medicine-bag</em> into battle, and trusts to it for his protection;
-    and if he loses it thus, when fighting ever so bravely for his country,
-    he suffers a disgrace scarcely less than that which occurs in case he
-    sells or gives it away; his enemy carries it off and displays it to his
-    own people as a trophy; whilst the loser is cut short of the respect
-    that is due to other young men of his tribe, and for ever subjected
-    to the degrading epithet of “a man without medicine,” or “he who has
-    lost his medicine,” until he can replace it again; which can only be
-    done, by rushing into battle and plundering one from an enemy whom he
-    slays with his own hand. This done, his medicine is restored, and he
-    is reinstated again in the estimation of his tribe; and even higher
-    than before, for such is called the best of medicine, or “<em>medicine
-     honourable</em>.”</p>
-
-  <p>It is a singular fact, that a man can institute his mystery or
-    medicine, but once in his life; and equally singular that he can
-    reinstate himself by the adoption of the medicine of his enemy; both
-    of which regulations are strong and violent inducements for him to
-    fight bravely in battle: the first, that he may protect and preserve
-    his medicine; and the second, in case he has been so unlucky as to
-    lose it, that he may restore it, and his reputation also, while he is
-    desperately contending for the protection of his community.</p>
-
-  <p>During my travels thus far, I have been unable to buy a medicine-bag of
-    an Indian, although I have offered them extravagant prices for them;
-    and even on the frontier, where they have been induced to abandon the
-    practice, though a white man may induce an Indian to relinquish his
-    medicine, yet he cannot <em>buy</em> it of him—the Indian in such case
-    will bury it, to please a white man, and save it from his sacrilegious
-    touch; and he will linger around the spot and at regular times visit it
-    and pay it his devotions, as long as he lives.</p>
-
-  <p>These curious appendages to the persons or wardrobe of an Indian
-    (<a href="#i_018"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 18</a>, <i>g</i>), are sometimes made of the skin of an
-    otter, a beaver, a musk-rat, a weazel, a racoon, a pole-cat, a snake,
-    a frog, a toad, a bat, a mouse, a mole, a hawk, an eagle, a magpie,
-    or a sparrow:—sometimes of the skin of an animal so large as a wolf;
-    and at others, of the skins of the lesser animals, so small that they
-    are hidden under the dress, and very difficult to be found, even if
-    searched for.</p>
-
-  <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_38">38</span></p>
-
-  <p>Such then is the medicine-bag—such its meaning and importance; and when
-    its owner dies, it is placed in his grave and decays with his body.</p>
-
-  <p>In the case of the portrait of which I spoke in the beginning
-    of this Letter, there are seen two medicine-bags in the hand of
-    Pe-toh-pee-kiss; the one was of his own instituting, and the other was
-    taken from his enemy, whom he had slain in battle; both of these he has
-    a right to display and boast of on such an occasion. This is but the
-    beginning or incipient stage of “medicines,” however, in this strange
-    and superstitious country; and if you have patience, I will carry you
-    a few degrees further into the mysteries of conjuration, before I
-    close this Letter. Sit still then and read, until I relate a scene of
-    a tragic, and yet of the most grotesque character, which took place in
-    this Fort a few days since, and to all of which I was an eye-witness.
-    The scene I will relate as it transpired precisely; and call it the
-    story of the “doctor,” or the “Blackfoot medicine-man.”</p>
-
-  <p>Not many weeks since, a party of Knisteneaux came here from the north,
-    for the purpose of making their summer’s trade with the Fur Company;
-    and, whilst here, a party of Blackfeet, their natural enemies (the
-    same who are here now), came from the west, also to trade. These two
-    belligerent tribes encamped on different sides of the Fort, and had
-    spent some weeks here in the Fort and about it, in apparently good
-    feeling and fellowship; unable in fact to act otherwise, for, according
-    to a regulation of the Fort their arms and weapons were all locked up
-    by M‘Kenzie in his “arsenal,” for the purpose of preserving the peace
-    amongst these fighting-cocks.</p>
-
-  <p>The Knisteneaux had completed their trade, and loitered about the
-    premises, until all, both Indians and white men, were getting tired of
-    their company, wishing them quietly off. When they were ready to start,
-    with their goods packed upon their backs, their arms were given them,
-    and they started; bidding everybody, both friends and foes, a hearty
-    farewell. They went out of the Fort, and though the party gradually
-    moved off, one of them undiscovered, loitered about the Fort, until he
-    got an opportunity to poke the muzzle of his gun through between the
-    piquets; when he fired it at one of the chiefs of the Blackfeet, who
-    stood within a few paces, talking with Mr. M‘Kenzie, and shot him with
-    two musket bullets through the centre of his body! The Blackfoot fell,
-    and rolled about upon the ground in the agonies of death. The Blackfeet
-    who were in the Fort seized their weapons and ran in a mass out of the
-    Fort, in pursuit of the Knisteneaux, who were rapidly retreating to the
-    bluffs. The Frenchmen in the Fort, also, at so flagrant and cowardly
-    an insult, seized their guns and ran out, joining the Blackfeet in
-    the pursuit. I, at that moment, ran to my painting-room in one of the
-    bastions overlooking the plain, where I had a fair view of the affair;
-    many shots were exchanged back and forward, and a skirmish ensued
-    which lasted half an hour; the parties, however, were so far apart
-    that little effect was produced; the Knisteneaux were driven off over
-    the bluffs, having lost one man and had several others wounded. The
-    Blackfeet and Frenchmen<span class="pagenum" id="Page_39">39</span> returned into the Fort, and then, I saw what
-    I never before saw in my life—I saw a “<em>medicine-man</em>” performing
-    his mysteries over a dying man. The man who had been shot was still
-    living, though two bullets had passed through the centre of his body,
-    about two inches apart from each other; he was lying on the ground in
-    the agonies of death, and no one could indulge the slightest hope of
-    his recovery; yet the <em>medicine-man</em> must needs be called (for
-    such a personage they had in their party), and hocus pocus applied to
-    the dying man, as the dernier resort, when all drugs and all specifics
-    were useless, and after all possibility of recovery was extinct!</p>
-
-  <figure class="illowp75 mt2" id="i_018">
-    <div class="plate"><i>12</i></div>
-    <img src="images/i_018.jpg" alt="Weapons and medicine-bags">
-     <figcaption>18</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p>I have mentioned that all tribes have their physicians, who are also
-    medicine (or mystery) men. These professional gentlemen are worthies
-    of the highest order in all tribes. They are regularly called and paid
-    as physicians, to prescribe for the sick; and many of them acquire
-    great skill in the medicinal world, and gain much celebrity in their
-    nation. Their first prescriptions are roots and herbs, of which they
-    have a great variety of species; and when these have all failed, their
-    last resort is to “<em>medicine</em>” or mystery; and for this purpose,
-    each one of them has a strange and unaccountable dress, conjured up
-    and constructed during a life-time of practice, in the wildest fancy
-    imaginable, in which he arrays himself, and makes his last visit to
-    his dying patient,—dancing over him, shaking his frightful rattles,
-    and singing songs of incantation, in hopes to cure him by a charm.
-    There are some instances, of course, where the exhausted patient
-    unaccountably recovers, under the application of these absurd forms;
-    and in such cases, this ingenious son of <em>Indian</em> Esculapius
-    will be seen for several days after, on the top of a wigwam, with his
-    right arm extended and waving over the gaping multitude, to whom he is
-    vaunting forth, without modesty, the surprising skill he has acquired
-    in his art, and the undoubted efficacy of his medicine or mystery. But
-    if, on the contrary, the patient dies, he soon changes his dress, and
-    joins in doleful lamentations with the mourners; and easily, with his
-    craft, and the ignorance and superstition of his people, protects his
-    reputation and maintains his influence over them; by assuring them,
-    that it was the will of the Great Spirit that his patient should die,
-    and when sent for, his feeble efforts must cease.</p>
-
-  <p>Such was the case, and such the extraordinary means resorted to in
-    the instance I am now relating. Several hundred spectators, including
-    Indians and traders, were assembled around the dying man, when it was
-    announced that the “<em>medicine-man</em>” was coming; we were required
-    to “form a ring,” leaving a space of some thirty or forty feet in
-    diameter around the dying man, in which the doctor could perform his
-    wonderful operations; and a space was also opened to allow him free
-    room to pass through the crowd without touching any one. This being
-    done, in a few moments his arrival was announced by the death-like
-    “hush——sh——” through the crowd; and nothing was to be heard, save the
-    light and casual tinkling of the rattles upon his dress, which was
-    scarcely perceptible to the ear, as he<span class="pagenum" id="Page_40">40</span> cautiously and slowly moved
-    through the avenue left for him; which at length brought him into the
-    ring, in view of the pitiable object over whom his mysteries were to be
-    performed.</p>
-
-  <p>Readers! you may have seen or read of the witch of Endor—or you may
-    imagine all the ghosts, and spirits, and furies, that ever ranked
-    amongst the “rank and file” of demonology; and yet you must see my
-    painting of this strange scene before you can form a just conception
-    of real frightful ugliness and Indian conjuration—yes, and even more:
-    you must see the magic <em>dress</em> of this Indian “big bug” (which I
-    have this day procured in all its parts), placed upon the back of some
-    person who can imitate the strides, and swells, the grunts, and spring
-    the rattles of an Indian magician.</p>
-
-  <p>His entrée and his garb were somewhat thus:—he approached the ring
-    with his body in a crouching position (<a href="#i_019"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 19</a>), with a slow
-    and tilting step—his body and head were entirely covered with the skin
-    of a yellow bear, the head of which (his own head being inside of it)
-    served as a mask; the huge claws of which also, were dangling on his
-    wrists and ancles; in one hand he shook a frightful rattle, and in the
-    other brandished his medicine-spear or magic wand; to the rattling din
-    and discord of all of which, he added the wild and startling jumps
-    and yelps of the Indian, and the horrid and appalling grunts, and
-    snarls, and growls of the grizzly bear, in ejaculatory and guttural
-    incantations to the Good and Bad Spirits, in behalf of his patient; who
-    was rolling and groaning in the agonies of death, whilst he was dancing
-    around him, jumping over him, and pawing him about, and rolling him in
-    every direction.</p>
-
-  <p>In this wise, this strange operation proceeded for half an hour, to the
-    surprise of a numerous and death-like silent audience, until the man
-    died; and the medicine-man danced off to his quarters, and packed up,
-    and tied and secured from the sight of the world, his mystery dress and
-    equipments.</p>
-
-  <p>This dress, in all its parts, is one of the greatest curiosities in the
-    whole collection of Indian manufactures which I have yet obtained in
-    the Indian country. It is the strangest medley and mixture, perhaps of
-    the mysteries of the animal and vegetable kingdoms that ever was seen.
-    Besides the skin of the yellow bear (which being almost an anomaly in
-    that country, is out of the regular order of nature, and, of course,
-    great medicine, and converted to a medicine use), there are attached to
-    it the skins of many animals, which are also anomalies or deformities,
-    which render them, in their estimation, <em>medicine</em>; and there are
-    also the skins of snakes, and frogs, and bats,—beaks and toes and tails
-    of birds,—hoofs of deer, goats, and antelopes; and, in fact, the “odds
-    and ends,” and fag ends, and tails, and tips of almost everything that
-    swims, flies, or runs, in this part of the wide world.</p>
-
-  <p>Such is a medicine-man or a physician, and such is one of his wild
-    and ridiculous manœuvres, which I have just witnessed in this strange
-    country.</p>
-
-  <p>These men, as I before remarked, are valued as dignitaries in the
-    tribe, and the greatest respect is paid to them by the whole community;
-    not only<span class="pagenum" id="Page_41">41</span> for their skill in their “materia medica;” but more
-    especially for their tact in magic and mysteries, in which they all
-    deal to a very great extent. I shall have much more to say of these
-    characters and their doings in future epistles, and barely observe in
-    the present place, that no tribe is without them;—that in all tribes
-    their doctors are conjurors—are magicians—are sooth-sayers, and I had
-    like to have said, high-priests, inasmuch as they superintend and
-    conduct all their religious ceremonies;—they are looked upon by all
-    as oracles of the nation. In all councils of war and peace, they have
-    a seat with the chiefs—are regularly consulted before any public step
-    is taken, and the greatest deference and respect is paid to their
-    opinions.</p>
-
-  <figure class="illowp75 mt2" id="i_019">
-    <div class="plate "><i>13</i></div>
-    <img src="images/i_019.jpg" alt="Medicine-mam">
-     <figcaption>19</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <hr class="chap">
-  <div class="chapter">
-    <span class="pagenum" id="Page_42">42</span>
-    <h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_7">LETTER—<abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 7.</h2>
-  </div>
-  <div class="subheadc">MOUTH OF YELLOW STONE, <i>UPPER MISSOURI</i>.</div>
-
-  <p><span class="smcap">The</span> Letter which I gave you yesterday, on the subject of “medicines”
-    and “medicine-men,” has somewhat broken the “thread of my discourse;”
-    and left my painting-room (in the bastion), and all the Indians in it,
-    and portraits, and buffalo hunts, and landscapes of these beautiful
-    regions, to be taken up and discussed; which I will now endeavour to
-    do, beginning just where I left (or digressed) off.</p>
-
-  <p>I was seated on the cool breech of a twelve-pounder, and had my easel
-    before me, and Crows and Blackfeet, and Assinneboins, whom I was
-    tracing upon the canvass. And so I have been doing to-day, and shall
-    be for several days to come. My painting-room has become so great a
-    lounge, and I so great a “medicine-man,” that all other amusements are
-    left, and all other topics of conversation and gossip are postponed
-    for future consideration. The chiefs have had to place “soldiers”
-    (as they are called) at my door, with spears in hand to protect me
-    from the throng, who otherwise would press upon me; and none but the
-    worthies are allowed to come into my medicine apartments, and none to
-    be painted, except such as are decided by the chiefs to be worthy of so
-    high an honour.</p>
-
-  <p>The Crows and Blackfeet who are here together, are enemies of the
-    most deadly kind while out on the plains; but here they sit and smoke
-    quietly together, yet with a studied and dignified reserve.</p>
-
-  <p>The Blackfeet are, perhaps, one of the most (if not entirely the most)
-    numerous and warlike tribes on the Continent. They occupy the whole of
-    the country about the sources of the Missouri, from this place to the
-    Rocky Mountains; and their numbers, from the best computations, are
-    something like forty or fifty thousand—they are (like all other tribes
-    whose numbers are sufficiently large to give them boldness) warlike
-    and ferocious, <i>i. e.</i> they are predatory, are roaming fearlessly
-    about the country, even into and through every part of the Rocky
-    Mountains, and carrying war amongst their enemies, who are, of course,
-    every tribe who inhabit the country about them.</p>
-
-  <p>The Crows who live on the head waters of Yellow Stone, and extend from
-    this neighbourhood also to the base of the Rocky Mountains, are similar
-    in the above respects to the Blackfeet; roaming about a great part of
-    the year—and seeking their enemies wherever they can find them.</p>
-
-  <p>They are a much smaller tribe than the Blackfeet, with whom they are
-    <span class="pagenum" id="Page_43">43</span>always at war, and from whose great numbers they suffer prodigiously
-    in battle; and probably will be in a few years entirely destroyed by
-    them.</p>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>14</i></div>
-  <figure id="i_020">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_020.jpg" alt="Crow lodge">
-     <figcaption>20</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p>The Crows have not, perhaps, more than 7000 in their nation, and
-    probably not more than eight hundred warriors or fighting men. Amongst
-    the more powerful tribes, like the Sioux and Blackfeet, who have been
-    enabled to preserve their warriors, it is a fair calculation to count
-    one in five as warriors; but among the Crows and Minatarees, and
-    Puncahs, and several other small but warlike tribes, this proportion
-    cannot exist; as in some of these I have found two or three women to
-    a man in the nation; in consequence of the continual losses sustained
-    amongst their men in war, and also whilst pursuing the buffaloes on the
-    plains for food, where their lives are exceedingly exposed.</p>
-
-  <p>The Blackfeet and the Crows, like the Sioux and Assinneboins, have
-    nearly the same mode of constructing their wigwam or lodge; in which
-    tribes it is made of buffalo skins sewed together, after being dressed,
-    and made into the form of a tent; supported within by some twenty
-    or thirty pine poles of twenty-five feet in height, with an apex or
-    aperture at the top, through which the smoke escapes and the light
-    is admitted. These lodges, or tents, are taken down in a few minutes
-    by the squaws, when they wish to change their location, and easily
-    transported to any part of the country where they wish to encamp;
-    and they generally move some six or eight times in the course of the
-    summer; following the immense herds of buffaloes, as they range over
-    these vast plains, from east to west, and north to south. The objects
-    for which they do this are two-fold,—to procure and dress their skins,
-    which are brought in, in the fall and winter, and sold to the Fur
-    Company, for white man’s luxury; and also for the purpose of killing
-    and drying buffalo meat (<a href="#i_022"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 22</a>), which they bring in from
-    their hunts, packed on their horses’ backs, in great quantities; making
-    pemican, and preserving the marrow-fat for their winter quarters; which
-    are generally taken up in some heavy-timbered bottom, on the banks of
-    some stream, deep imbedded within the surrounding bluffs, which break
-    off the winds, and make their long and tedious winter tolerable and
-    supportable. They then sometimes erect their skin lodges amongst the
-    timber, and dwell in them during the winter months; but more frequently
-    cut logs and make a miserable and rude sort of log cabin, in which they
-    can live much warmer and better protected from the assaults of their
-    enemies, in case they are attacked; in which case a log cabin is a
-    tolerable fort against Indian weapons.</p>
-
-  <p>The Crows, of all the tribes in this region, or on the Continent, make
-    the most beautiful lodge. As I have before mentioned, they construct
-    them as the Sioux do, and make them of the same material; yet they
-    oftentimes dress the skins of which they are composed almost as white
-    as linen, and beautifully garnish them with porcupine quills, and
-    paint and ornament them in such a variety of ways, as renders them
-    exceedingly picturesque and agreeable to the eye. I have procured
-    a very beautiful one of this description<span class="pagenum" id="Page_44">44</span> (<a href="#i_020"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 20</a>),
-    highly-ornamented, and fringed with scalp-locks, and sufficiently large
-    for forty men to dine under. The poles which support it are about
-    thirty in number, of pine, and all cut in the Rocky Mountains, having
-    been some hundred years, perhaps, in use. This tent, when erected, is
-    about twenty-five feet high, and has a very pleasing effect; with the
-    Great or Good Spirit painted on one side, and the Evil Spirit on the
-    other. If I can ever succeed in transporting it to New York and other
-    eastern cities, it will be looked upon as a beautiful and exceedingly
-    interesting specimen.</p>
-
-  <p>The manner in which an encampment of Indians strike their tents and
-    transport them is curious, and to the traveller in this country a very
-    novel and unexpected sight, when he first beholds it. Whilst ascending
-    the river to this place, I saw an encampment of Sioux, consisting of
-    six hundred of these lodges, struck, and all things packed and on the
-    move in a very few minutes. The chief sends his runners or criers (for
-    such all chiefs keep in their employment) through the village, a few
-    hours before they are to start; announcing his determination to move,
-    and the hour fixed upon, and the necessary preparations are in the
-    meantime making; and at the time announced, the lodge of the chief is
-    seen flapping in the wind, a part of the poles having been taken out
-    from under it; this is the signal, and in one minute, six hundred of
-    them (on a level and beautiful prairie), which before had been strained
-    tight and fixed, were seen waving and flapping in the wind, and in one
-    minute more all were flat upon the ground. Their horses and dogs, of
-    which they had a vast number, had all been secured upon the spot, in
-    readiness; and each one was speedily loaded with the burthen allotted
-    to it, and ready to fall into the grand procession.</p>
-
-  <p>For this strange cavalcade, preparation is made in the following
-    manner: the poles of a lodge are divided into two bunches, and the
-    little ends of each bunch fastened upon the shoulders or withers of a
-    horse, leaving the butt ends to drag behind on the ground on either
-    side. Just behind the horse, a brace or pole is tied across, which
-    keeps the poles in their respective places; and then upon that and
-    the poles behind the horse, is placed the lodge or tent, which is
-    rolled up, and also numerous other articles of household and domestic
-    furniture, and on the top of all, two, three, and even (sometimes) four
-    women and children! Each one of these horses has a conductress, who
-    sometimes walks before and leads it, with a tremendous pack upon her
-    own back; and at others she sits astride of its back, with a child,
-    perhaps, at her breast, and another astride of the horse’s back behind
-    her, clinging to her waist with one arm, while it affectionately
-    embraces a sneaking dog-pup in the other.</p>
-
-  <p>In this way five or six hundred wigwams, with all their furniture
-    (<a href="#i_021"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 21</a>), may be seen drawn out for miles, creeping over the
-    grass-covered plains of this country; and three times that number of
-    men, on good horses, strolling along in front or on the flank; and, in
-    some tribes, in the rear of this heterogeneous caravan, at least five
-    times that number of dogs, which<span class="pagenum" id="Page_45">45</span> fall into the rank, and follow in
-    the train and company of the women, and every cur of them, who is large
-    enough, and not too cunning to be enslaved, is encumbered with a car or
-    sled (or whatever it may be better called), on which he patiently drags
-    his load—a part of the household goods and furniture of the lodge to
-    which he belongs. Two poles, about fifteen feet long, are placed upon
-    the dog’s shoulder, in the same manner as the lodge poles are attached
-    to the horses, leaving the larger ends to drag upon the ground behind
-    him; on which is placed a bundle or wallet which is allotted to him to
-    carry, and with which he trots off amid the throng of dogs and squaws;
-    faithfully and cheerfully dragging his load ’till night, and by the way
-    loitering and occasionally</p>
-
-  <div class="center-container">
-    <div class="poetry">
-      <div class="stanza">
-        <div class="i0">“Catching at little bits of fun and glee</div>
-        <div class="i1">That’s played on dogs enslaved by dog that’s free.”</div>
-      </div>
-    </div>
-  </div>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>15</i></div>
-  <figure id="i_021">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_021.jpg" alt="Sioux on the move">
-     <figcaption>21</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <figure class="mt2" id="i_022">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_022.jpg" alt="Crow camp">
-     <figcaption>22</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p>The Crows, like the Blackfeet, are beautifully costumed, and perhaps
-    with somewhat more of taste and elegance; inasmuch as the skins of
-    which their dresses are made are more delicately and whitely dressed.
-    The art of dressing skins belongs to the Indians in all countries;
-    and the Crows surpass the civilized world in the beauty of their
-    skin-dressing. The art of tanning is unknown to them, so far as
-    civilized habits and arts have not been taught them; yet the art of
-    dressing skins, so far as we have it in the civilized world, has been
-    (like hundreds of other ornamental and useful customs which we are
-    practising), borrowed from the savage; without our ever stopping to
-    enquire from whence they come, or by whom invented.</p>
-
-  <p>The usual mode of dressing the buffalo, and other skins, is by
-    immersing them for a few days under a lye from ashes and water, until
-    the hair can be removed; when they are strained upon a frame or upon
-    the ground, with stakes or pins driven through the edges into the
-    earth; where they remain for several days, with the brains of the
-    buffalo or elk spread upon and over them; and at last finished by
-    “graining,” as it is termed, by the squaws; who use a sharpened bone,
-    the shoulder-blade or other large bone of the animal, sharpened at the
-    edge, somewhat like an adze; with the edge of which they scrape the
-    fleshy side of the skin; bearing on it with the weight of their bodies,
-    thereby drying and softening the skin, and fitting it for use.</p>
-
-  <p>The greater part of these skins, however, go through still another
-    operation afterwards, which gives them a greater value, and renders
-    them much more serviceable—that is, the process of smoking. For this,
-    a small hole is dug in the ground, and a fire is built in it with
-    rotten wood, which will produce a great quantity of smoke without
-    much blaze; and several small poles of the proper length stuck in the
-    ground around it, and drawn and fastened together at the top, around
-    which a skin is wrapped in form of a tent, and generally sewed together
-    at the edges to secure the smoke within it;<span class="pagenum" id="Page_46">46</span> within this the skins
-    to be smoked are placed, and in this condition the tent will stand a
-    day or so, enclosing the heated smoke; and by some chemical process
-    or other, which I do not understand, the skins thus acquire a quality
-    which enables them, after being ever so many times wet, to dry soft
-    and pliant as they were before, which secret I have never yet seen
-    practiced in my own country; and for the lack of which, all of our
-    dressed skins when once wet, are, I think, chiefly ruined.</p>
-
-  <p>An Indian’s dress of deer skins, which is wet a hundred times upon his
-    back, dries soft; and his lodge also, which stands in the rains, and
-    even through the severity of winter, is taken down as soft and as clean
-    as when it was first put up.</p>
-
-  <p>A Crow is known wherever he is met by his beautiful white dress, and
-    his tall and elegant figure; the greater part of the men being six
-    feet high. The Blackfeet on the other hand, are more of the Herculean
-    make—about middling stature, with broad shoulders, and great expansion
-    of chest; and the skins of which their dresses are made, are chiefly
-    dressed black, or of a dark brown colour; from which circumstance, in
-    all probability, they having black leggings or moccasins, have got the
-    name of Blackfeet.</p>
-
-  <p>The Crows are very handsome and gentlemanly Indians in their personal
-    appearance: and have been always reputed, since the first acquaintance
-    made with them, very civil and friendly.</p>
-
-  <p>These people to be sure, have in some instances plundered and robbed
-    trappers and travellers in their country; and for that I have sometimes
-    heard them called rascals and thieves, and rogues of the first order,
-    &amp;c.; yet they do not consider themselves such; for thieving in their
-    estimation is a high crime, and considered the most disgraceful act
-    that a man can possibly do. They call this <em>capturing</em>, where
-    they sometimes run off a Trader’s horses, and make their boast of it;
-    considering it a kind of retaliation or summary justice, which they
-    think it right and honourable that they should administer. And why
-    not? for the unlicensed trespass committed through their country from
-    one end to the other, by mercenary white men, who are destroying the
-    game, and catching all the beaver and other rich and valuable furs
-    out of their country, without paying them an equivalent, or, in fact,
-    anything at all, for it; and this too, when they have been warned time
-    and again of the danger they would be in, if they longer persisted in
-    the practice. Reader, I look upon the Indian as the most honest and
-    honourable race of people that I ever lived amongst in my life; and in
-    their native state, I pledge you my honour they are the last of all
-    the human family to pilfer or to steal, if you trust to their honour;
-    and for this never-ending and boundless system of theft and plunder,
-    and debauchery, that is practiced off upon these rightful owners of
-    the soil, by acquisitive white men, I consider the infliction, or
-    retaliation, by driving off and appropriating a few horses, but a
-    lenient punishment, which those persons at least should expect; and
-    which, in fact, none but a very honourable and high-minded people
-    could inflict, instead<span class="pagenum" id="Page_47">47</span> of a much severer one; which they could easily
-    practice upon the few white men in their country, without rendering
-    themselves amenable to any law.</p>
-
-  <p>Mr. M‘Kenzie has repeatedly told me, within the four last weeks, while
-    in conversation relative to the Crows, that they were friendly and
-    honourable in their dealing with the whites, and that he considered
-    them the finest Indians of his acquaintance.</p>
-
-  <p>I recollect whilst in <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Louis, and other places at the East, to have
-    heard it often said, that the Crows were a rascally and thieving set of
-    vagabonds, highway robbers, &amp;c. &amp;c.; and I have been told since, that
-    this information has become current in the world, from the fact that
-    they made some depredations upon the camp of Messrs. Crooks and Hunt of
-    the Fur Company; and drove off a number of their horses, when they were
-    passing through the Crow country, on their way to Astoria. This was no
-    doubt true; and equally true, would these very Indians tell us, was the
-    fact, that they had a good and sufficient reason for it.</p>
-
-  <p>These gentlemen, with their party, were crossing the Crow country
-    with a large stock of goods, of guns, and ammunition, of knives, and
-    spears, arrowheads, &amp;c.; and stopped for some time and encamped in the
-    midst of the Crow country (and I think wintered there), when the Crows
-    assembled in large numbers about them, and treated them in a kind and
-    friendly manner; and at the same time proposed to trade with them for
-    guns and ammunition, &amp;c. (according to these gentlemen’s own account,)
-    of which they were in great want, and for which they brought a great
-    many horses, and offered them repeatedly in trade; which they refused
-    to take, persisting in their determination of carrying their goods
-    to their destined place, across the mountains; thereby disappointing
-    these Indians, by denying them the arms and weapons which were in
-    their possession, whilst they were living upon them, and exhausting
-    the game and food of their country. No doubt, these gentlemen told the
-    Crows, that these goods were going to Astoria, of which place they knew
-    nothing; and of course, it was enough for them that they were going to
-    take them farther west; which they would at once suppose was to the
-    Blackfeet, their principal enemy, having eight or ten warriors to one
-    of the Crows; where they supposed the white men could get a greater
-    price for their weapons, and arm their enemies in such a way as would
-    enable them to turn upon the Crows, and cut them to pieces without
-    mercy. Under these circumstances, the Crows rode off, and to show their
-    indignation, drove off some of the Company’s horses, for which they
-    have ever since been denominated a band of thieves and highway robbers.
-    It is a custom, and a part of the system of jurisprudence amongst all
-    savages, to revenge upon the person or persons who give the offence,
-    if they can; and if not, to let that punishment fall upon the head of
-    the first white man who comes in their way, provided the offender was a
-    white man. And I would not be surprised, therefore, if I get robbed of
-    my horse; and you too, readers, if you go into that country, for that
-    very (supposed) offence.</p>
-
-  <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_48">48</span></p>
-
-  <p>I have conversed often and much with Messrs. Sublette and Campbell,
-    two gentlemen of the highest respectability, who have traded with the
-    Crows for several years, and they tell me they are one of the most
-    honourable, honest, and high-minded races of people on earth; and with
-    Mr. Tullock, also, a man of the strictest veracity, who is now here
-    with a party of them; and, he says, they never steal,—have a high
-    sense of honour,—and being fearless and proud, are quick to punish or
-    retaliate.</p>
-
-  <p>So much for the character of the Crows for the present, a subject which
-    I shall assuredly take up again, when I shall have seen more of them
-    myself.</p>
-
-  <hr class="chap">
-  <div class="chapter">
-    <span class="pagenum" id="Page_49">49</span>
-    <h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_8">LETTER—<abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 8.</h2>
-  </div>
-  <div class="subheadc">MOUTH OF YELLOW STONE, <i>UPPER MISSOURI</i>.</div>
-
-  <p><span class="smcap">Since</span> my last Letter, nothing of great moment has transpired at this
-    place; but I have been continually employed in painting my portraits
-    and making notes on the character and customs of the wild folks who
-    are about me. I have just been painting a number of the Crows, fine
-    looking and noble gentlemen. They are really a handsome and well-formed
-    set of men as can be seen in any part of the world. There is a sort of
-    ease and grace added to their dignity of manners, which gives them the
-    air of gentlemen at once. I observed the other day, that most of them
-    were over six feet high, and very many of these have cultivated their
-    natural hair to such an almost incredible length, that it sweeps the
-    ground as they walk; there are frequent instances of this kind amongst
-    them, and in some cases, a foot or more of it will drag on the grass
-    as they walk, giving exceeding grace and beauty to their movements.
-    They usually oil their hair with a profusion of bear’s grease every
-    morning, which is no doubt one cause of the unusual length to which
-    their hair extends; though it cannot be the sole cause of it, for the
-    other tribes throughout this country use the bear’s grease in equal
-    profusion without producing the same results. The Mandans, however, and
-    the Sioux, of whom I shall speak in future epistles, have cultivated
-    a very great growth of the hair, as many of them are seen whose hair
-    reaches near to the ground.</p>
-
-  <p>This extraordinary length of hair amongst the Crows is confined to the
-    men alone; for the women, though all of them with glossy and beautiful
-    hair, and a great profusion of it, are unable to cultivate it to so
-    great a length; or else they are not allowed to compete with their
-    lords in a fashion so ornamental (and on which the men so highly pride
-    themselves), and are obliged in many cases to cut it short off.</p>
-
-  <p>The fashion of long hair amongst the men, prevails throughout all the
-    Western and North Western tribes, after passing the Sacs and Foxes; and
-    the Pawnees of the Platte, who, with two or three other tribes only,
-    are in the habit of shaving nearly the whole head.</p>
-
-  <p>The present chief of the Crows, who is called “Long-hair,” and has
-    received his name as well as his office from the circumstance of
-    having the longest hair of any man in the nation, I have not yet
-    seen: but I hope I yet may, ere I leave this part of the country.
-    This extraordinary man is known to several gentlemen with whom I am
-    acquainted, and particularly to Messrs. Sublette and Campbell, of whom
-    I have before spoken, who<span class="pagenum" id="Page_50">50</span> told me they had lived in his hospitable
-    lodge for months together; and assured me that they had measured his
-    hair by a correct means, and found it to be ten feet and seven inches
-    in length; closely inspecting every part of it at the same time, and
-    satisfying themselves that it was the natural growth.</p>
-
-  <p>On ordinary occasions it is wound with a broad leather strap, from his
-    head to its extreme end, and then folded up into a budget or block, of
-    some ten or twelve inches in length, and of some pounds weight; which
-    when he walks is carried under his arm, or placed in his bosom, within
-    the folds of his robe; but on any great parade or similar occasion, his
-    pride is to unfold it, oil it with bear’s grease and let it drag behind
-    him, some three or four feet of it spread out upon the grass, and black
-    and shining like a raven’s wing.</p>
-
-  <p>It is a common custom amongst most of these upper tribes, to splice or
-    add on several lengths of hair, by fastening them with glue; probably
-    for the purpose of imitating the Crows, upon whom alone Nature has
-    bestowed this conspicuous and signal ornament.</p>
-
-  <p>Amongst the Crows of distinction now at this place, I have painted
-    the portraits of several, who exhibit some striking peculiarities.
-    Amongst whom is Chah-ee-chopes, the four wolves (<a href="#i_024"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 24</a>);
-    a fine looking fellow, six feet in stature, and whose natural hair
-    sweeps the grass as he walks; he is beautifully clad, and carries
-    himself with the most graceful and manly mien—he is in mourning for
-    a brother; and according to their custom, has cut off a number of
-    locks of his long hair, which is as much as a man can well spare of
-    so valued an ornament, which he has been for the greater part of his
-    life cultivating; whilst a woman who mourns for a husband or child, is
-    obliged to crop her hair short to her head, and so remain till it grows
-    out again; ceasing gradually to mourn as her hair approaches to its
-    former length.</p>
-
-  <p>Duhk-pits-a-ho-shee, the red bear (<a href="#i_026"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 26</a>), a distinguished
-    warrior; and Oo-je-en-a-he-ha, the woman who lives in the bear’s den
-    (<a href="#i_024"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 25</a>). I have also painted Pa-ris-ka-roo-pa (two crows)
-    the younger (<a href="#i_026"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 27</a>), one of the most extraordinary men in
-    the Crow nation; not only for his looks, from the form of his head,
-    which seems to be distortion itself—and curtailed of all its fair
-    proportions; but from his extraordinary sagacity as a counsellor and
-    orator, even at an early stage of his life.</p>
-
-  <p>There is something very uncommon in this outline, and sets forth the
-    striking peculiarity of the Crow tribe, though rather in an exaggerated
-    form. The semi-lunar outline of the Crow head, with an exceedingly low
-    and retreating forehead, is certainly a very peculiar and striking
-    characteristic; and though not so strongly marked in most of the tribe
-    as in the present instance, is sufficient for their detection whenever
-    they are met; and will be subject for further comment in another place.</p>
-
-  <p>The Crow women (and Blackfeet also) are not handsome, and I shall at
-    <span class="pagenum" id="Page_51">51</span>present say but little of them. They are, like all other Indian
-    women, the slaves of their husbands: being obliged to perform all the
-    domestic duties and drudgeries of the tribe, and not allowed to join
-    in their religious rites or ceremonies, nor in the dance or other
-    amusements.</p>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>16</i></div>
-  <figure id="i_024">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_024.jpg" alt="Chah-ee-chopes and Oo-je-en-a-he-ha">
-    <figcaption><span class="col50">24</span><span class="col50">25</span></figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <figure class="mt2" id="i_026">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_026.jpg" alt="Duhk-pits-a-ho-shee and Pa-ris-ka-roo-pa">
-    <figcaption><span class="col50">26</span><span class="col50">27</span></figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p>The women in all these upper and western tribes are decently dressed,
-    and many of them with great beauty and taste; their dresses are all of
-    deer or goat skins, extending from their chins quite down to the feet;
-    these dresses are in many instances trimmed with ermine, and ornamented
-    with porcupine quills and beads with exceeding ingenuity.</p>
-
-  <p>The Crow and Blackfeet women, like all others I ever saw in any Indian
-    tribe, divide the hair on the forehead, and paint the separation or
-    crease with vermilion or red earth. For what purpose this little, but
-    universal, custom is observed, I never have been able to learn.</p>
-
-  <p>The men amongst the Blackfeet tribe, have a fashion equally simple, and
-    probably of as little meaning, which seems strictly to be adhered to
-    by every man in the tribe; they separate the hair in two places on the
-    forehead, leaving a lock between the two, of an inch or two in width,
-    which is carefully straightened down on to the bridge of the nose, and
-    there cut square off. It is more than probable that this is done for
-    the purpose of distinction; that they may thereby be free from the
-    epithet of effeminacy, which might otherwise attach to them.</p>
-
-  <p>These two tribes, whom I have spoken of connectedly, speak two distinct
-    and entirely dissimilar languages; and the language of each is
-    different, and radically so, from that of all other tribes about them.
-    As these people are always at war, and have been, time out of mind,
-    they do not intermarry or hold converse with each other, by which any
-    knowledge of each other’s language could be acquired. It would be the
-    work of a man’s life-time to collect the languages of all the different
-    tribes which I am visiting; and I shall, from necessity, leave this
-    subject chiefly for others, who have the time to devote to them, to
-    explain them to the world. I have, however, procured a brief vocabulary
-    of their words and sentences in these tribes; and shall continue to do
-    so amongst the tribes I shall visit, which will answer as a specimen
-    or sample in each; and which, in the sequel to these Letters (if they
-    should ever be published), will probably be arranged.</p>
-
-  <p>The Blackfeet are, perhaps, the most powerful tribe of Indians on
-    the Continent; and being sensible of their strength, have stubbornly
-    resisted the Traders in their country, who have been gradually forming
-    an acquaintance with them, and endeavouring to establish a permanent
-    and profitable system of trade. Their country abounds in beaver and
-    buffalo, and most of the fur-bearing animals of North America; and
-    the American Fur Company, with an unconquerable spirit of trade and
-    enterprize, has pushed its establishments into their country; and the
-    numerous parties of trappers are tracing up their streams and rivers,
-    rapidly destroying the beavers which<span class="pagenum" id="Page_52">52</span> dwell in them. The Blackfeet
-    have repeatedly informed the Traders of the Company, that if their
-    men persisted in trapping beavers in their country, they should kill
-    them whenever they met them. They have executed their threats in many
-    instances, and the Company loses some fifteen or twenty men annually,
-    who fall by the hands of these people, in defence of what they deem
-    their property and their rights. Trinkets and whiskey, however, will
-    soon spread their charms amongst these, as they have amongst other
-    tribes; and white man’s voracity will sweep the prairies and the
-    streams of their wealth, to the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Ocean;
-    leaving the Indians to inhabit, and at last to starve upon, a dreary
-    and solitary waste.</p>
-
-  <p>The Blackfeet, therefore, having been less traded with, and less seen
-    by white people than most of the other tribes, are more imperfectly
-    understood; and it yet remains a question to be solved—whether there
-    are twenty, or forty or fifty thousand of them? for no one, as yet, can
-    correctly estimate their real strength. From all I can learn, however,
-    which is the best information that can be got from the Traders, there
-    are not far from 40,000 Indians (altogether), who range under the
-    general denomination of Blackfeet.</p>
-
-  <p>From our slight and imperfect knowledge of them, and other tribes
-    occupying the country about the sources of the Missouri, there is no
-    doubt in my mind, that we are in the habit of bringing more Indians
-    into the computation, than are entitled justly to the appellation of
-    “Blackfeet.”</p>
-
-  <p>Such, for instance, are the “Grosventres de Prairie” and Cotonnés,
-    neither of which speak the Blackfeet language; but hunt, and eat,
-    and fight, and intermarry with the Blackfeet; living therefore in a
-    state of confederacy and friendship with them, but speaking their own
-    language, and practicing their own customs.</p>
-
-  <p>The Blackfeet proper are divided into four bands or families, as
-    follow:—the “Pe-a-gans,” of 500 lodges; the “Blackfoot” band, of 450
-    lodges; the “Blood” band, of 450 lodges; and the “Small Robes,” of 250
-    lodges. These four bands constituting about 1650 lodges, averaging ten
-    to the lodge, amount to about 16,500 souls.</p>
-
-  <p>There are then of the other tribes above-mentioned (and whom we,
-    perhaps, incorrectly denominate Blackfeet), Grosventres des Prairies,
-    430 lodges, with language entirely distinct; Circees, of 220 lodges,
-    and Cotonnés, of 250 lodges, with language also distinct from either.<a id="FNanchor_1" href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p>
-
-  <p>There is in this region a rich and interesting field for the linguist
-    of the antiquarian; and stubborn facts, I think, if they could be well
-    procured, that would do away the idea which many learned gentlemen
-    entertain, that the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_53">53</span>
-    Indian languages of North America can all be traced to two or three
-    roots. The language of the Dohcotas is entirely and radically distinct
-    from that of the Mandans, and theirs equally so from the Blackfoot and
-    the Crows. And from the lips of Mr. Brazeau, a gentleman of education
-    and strict observation, who has lived several years with the Blackfeet
-    and Shiennes, and who speaks the language of tribes on either side
-    of them, assures me that these languages are radically distinct and
-    dissimilar, as I have above stated; and also, that although he has
-    been several years amongst those tribes, he has not been able to trace
-    the slightest resemblance between the Circee, Cotonné, and Blackfoot,
-    and Shienne, and Crow, and Mandan tongues; and from a great deal
-    of corroborating information, which I have got from other persons
-    acquainted with these tribes, I am fully convinced of the correctness
-    of his statements.</p>
-
-  <p>Besides the Blackfeet and Crows, whom I told you were assembled at
-    this place, are also the Knisteneaux (or Crees, as they are commonly
-    called), a very pretty and pleasing tribe of Indians, of about 3000
-    in number, living on the north of this, and also the Assinneboins and
-    Ojibbeways; both of which tribes also inhabit the country to the north
-    and north-east of the mouth of Yellow Stone.</p>
-
-  <p>The Knisteneaux are of small stature, but well-built for strength and
-    activity combined; are a people of wonderful prowess for their numbers,
-    and have waged an unceasing warfare with the Blackfeet, who are their
-    neighbours and enemies on the west. From their disparity in numbers
-    they are rapidly thinning the ranks of their warriors, who bravely
-    sacrifice their lives in contentions with their powerful neighbours.
-    This tribe occupy the country from the mouth of the Yellow Stone, in
-    a north-western direction, far into the British territory, and trade
-    principally at the British N. W. Company’s Posts.</p>
-
-  <p>The Assinneboins of seven thousand, and the Ojibbeways of six thousand,
-    occupy a vast extent of country, in a north-eastern direction from
-    this; extending also into the British possessions as high north as
-    Lake Winnepeg; and trading principally with the British Company. These
-    three tribes are in a state of nature, living as neighbours, and are
-    also on terms of friendship with each other. This friendship, however,
-    is probably but a temporary arrangement, brought about by the Traders
-    amongst them; and which, like most Indian peace establishments, will be
-    of short duration.</p>
-
-  <p>The Ojibbeways are, undoubtedly, a part of the tribe of Chippeways,
-    with whom we are more familiarly acquainted, and who inhabit the
-    south-west shore of Lake Superior. Their language is the same, though
-    they are separated several hundred miles from any of them, and seem to
-    have no knowledge of them, or traditions of the manner in which, or of
-    the time when, they became severed from each other.</p>
-
-  <p>The Assinneboins are a part of the Dohcotas, or Sioux, undoubtedly; for
-    their personal appearance as well as their language is very similar.</p>
-
-  <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_54">54</span></p>
-
-  <p>At what time, or in what manner, these two parts of a nation got
-    strayed away from each other is a mystery; yet such cases have often
-    occurred, of which I shall say more in future. Large parties who
-    are straying off in pursuit of game, or in the occupation of war,
-    are oftentimes intercepted by their enemy; and being prevented from
-    returning, are run off to a distant region, where they take up their
-    residence and establish themselves as a nation.</p>
-
-  <p>There is a very curious custom amongst the Assinneboins, from which
-    they have taken their name; a name given them by their neighbours,
-    from a singular mode they have of boiling their meat, which is done in
-    the following manner:—when they kill meat, a hole is dug in the ground
-    about the size of a common pot, and a piece of the raw hide of the
-    animal, as taken from the back, is put over the hole, and then pressed
-    down with the hands close around the sides, and filled with water. The
-    meat to be boiled is then put in this hole or pot of water; and in a
-    fire, which is built near by, several large stones are heated to a red
-    heat, which are successively dipped and held in the water until the
-    meat is boiled; from which singular and peculiar custom, the Ojibbeways
-    have given them the appellation of Assinneboins or stone boilers.</p>
-
-  <p>This custom is a very awkward and tedious one, and used only as an
-    ingenious means of boiling their meat, by a tribe who was too rude and
-    ignorant to construct a kettle or pot.</p>
-
-  <p>The Traders have recently supplied these people with pots; and even
-    long before that, the Mandans had instructed them in the secret of
-    manufacturing very good and serviceable earthen pots; which together
-    have entirely done away the custom, excepting at public festivals;
-    where they seem, like all others of the human family, to take pleasure
-    in cherishing and perpetuating their ancient customs.</p>
-
-  <p>Of these three tribes, I have also lined my painting-room with a number
-    of very interesting portraits of the distinguished and brave men; and
-    also representations of their games and ceremonies, which will be found
-    in my <span class="smcap">Indian Gallery</span>, if I live, and they can be preserved
-    until I get home.</p>
-
-  <p>The Assinneboins, or stone boilers, are a fine and noble looking race
-    of Indians; bearing, both in their looks and customs, a striking
-    resemblance to the Dohcotas or Sioux, from whom they have undoubtedly
-    sprung. The men are tall, and graceful in their movements; and wear
-    their pictured robes of the buffalo hide with great skill and pleasing
-    effect. They are good hunters, and tolerably supplied with horses;
-    and living in a country abounding with buffaloes, are well supplied
-    with the necessaries of Indian life, and may be said to live well.
-    Their games and amusements are many, of which the most valued one is
-    the ball-play; and in addition to which, they have the game of the
-    moccasin, horse-racing, and dancing; some one of which, they seem to be
-    almost continually practicing, and of all of which I shall hereafter
-    give the reader (as well as of many others of their amusements) a
-    minute account.</p>
-
-  <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_55">55</span></p>
-
-  <p>Their dances, which were frequent and varied, were generally exactly
-    the same as those of the Sioux, of which I have given a faithful
-    account in my Notes on the Sioux, and which the reader will soon meet
-    with. There was one of these scenes, however, that I witnessed the
-    other day, which appeared to me to be peculiar to this tribe, and
-    exceedingly picturesque in its effect; which was described to me as
-    the <em>pipe-dance</em>, and was as follows:—On a hard-trodden pavement
-    in front of their village, which place is used for all their public
-    meetings, and many of their amusements, the young men, who were
-    to compose the dance, had gathered themselves around a small fire
-    (<a href="#i_032"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 32</a>), and each one seated on a buffalo-robe spread upon
-    the ground. In the centre and by the fire, was seated a dignitary, who
-    seemed to be a chief (perhaps a doctor or medicine-man), with a long
-    pipe in his hand, which he lighted at the fire and smoked incessantly,
-    grunting forth at the same time, in half-strangled gutturals, a sort
-    of song, which I did not get translated to my satisfaction, and which
-    might have been susceptible of none. While this was going on, another
-    grim-visaged fellow in another part of the group, commenced beating
-    on a drum or tambourine, accompanied by his voice; when one of the
-    young men seated, sprang instantly on his feet, and commenced singing
-    in time with the taps of the drum, and leaping about on one foot and
-    the other in the most violent manner imaginable. In this way he went
-    several times around the circle, bowing and brandishing his fists in
-    the faces of each one who was seated, until at length he grasped one of
-    them by the hands, and jerked him forcibly up upon his feet; who joined
-    in the dance for a moment, leaving the one who had pulled him up, to
-    continue his steps and his song in the centre of the ring; whilst he
-    danced around in a similar manner, jerking up another, and then joining
-    his companion in the centre; leaving the third and the fourth, and
-    so on to drag into the ring, each one his man, until all were upon
-    their feet; and at last joined in the most frightful gesticulations
-    and yells that seemed almost to make the earth quake under our feet.
-    This strange manœuvre, which I did but partially understand, lasted
-    for half or three-quarters of an hour; to the great amusement of the
-    gaping multitude who were assembled around, and broke up with the most
-    piercing yells and barks like those of so many affrighted dogs.</p>
-
-  <p>The Assinneboins, somewhat like the Crows, cultivate their hair to
-    a very great length, in many instances reaching down nearly to the
-    ground; but in most instances of this kind, I find the great length is
-    produced by splicing or adding on several lengths, which are fastened
-    very ingeniously by means of glue, and the joints obscured by a sort
-    of paste of red earth and glue, with which the hair is at intervals of
-    every two or three inches filled, and divided into locks and slabs of
-    an inch or so in breadth, and falling straight down over the back to
-    the heels.</p>
-
-  <p>I have painted the portrait of a very distinguished young man, and son
-    of the chief (<a href="#i_028"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 28</a>); his dress is a very handsome one, and
-    in every<span class="pagenum" id="Page_56">56</span> respect answers well to the descriptions I have given above.
-    The name of this man is Wi-jun-jon (the pigeon’s egg head), and by the
-    side of him (<a href="#i_028"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 29</a>) will be seen the portrait of his wife,
-    Chin-cha-pee (the fire bug that creeps), a fine looking squaw, in a
-    handsome dress of the mountain-sheep skin, holding in her hand a stick
-    curiously carved, with which every woman in this country is supplied;
-    for the purpose of digging up the “Pomme Blanche,” or prairie turnip,
-    which is found in great quantities in these northern prairies, and
-    furnishes the Indians with an abundant and nourishing food. The women
-    collect these turnips by striking the end of the stick into the ground,
-    and prying them out; after which they are dried and preserved in their
-    wigwams for use during the season.</p>
-
-  <p>I have just had the satisfaction of seeing this travelled-gentleman
-    (Wi-jun-jon) meet his tribe, his wife and his little children; after an
-    absence of a year or more, on his journey of 6000 miles to Washington
-    City, and back again (in company with Major Sanford, the Indian agent);
-    where he has been spending the winter amongst the fashionables in the
-    polished circles of civilized society. And I can assure you, readers,
-    that his entrée amongst his own people, in the dress and with the airs
-    of a civilized beau, was one of no ordinary occurrence; and produced no
-    common sensation amongst the red-visaged Assinneboins, or in the minds
-    of those who were travellers, and but spectators to the scene.</p>
-
-  <p>On his way home from <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Louis to this place, a distance of 2000 miles,
-    I travelled with this gentleman, on the steamer Yellow-Stone; and saw
-    him step ashore (on a beautiful prairie, where several thousands of
-    his people were encamped), with a complete suit <i lang="fr">en militaire</i>,
-    a colonel’s uniform of blue, presented to him by the President of
-    the United States, with a beaver hat and feather, with epaulettes of
-    gold—with sash and belt, and broad sword; with high-heeled boots—with
-    a keg of whiskey under his arm, and a blue umbrella in his hand. In
-    this plight and metamorphose, he took his position on the bank, amongst
-    his friends—his wife and other relations; not one of whom exhibited,
-    for an half-hour or more, the least symptoms of recognition, although
-    they knew well who was before them. He also gazed upon them—upon his
-    wife and parents, and little children, who were about, as if they were
-    foreign to him, and he had not a feeling or thought to interchange with
-    them. Thus the mutual gazings upon and from this would-be-stranger,
-    lasted for full half an hour; when a gradual, but cold and exceedingly
-    formal recognition began to take place, and an acquaintance ensued,
-    which ultimately and smoothly resolved itself, without the least
-    apparent emotion, into its former state; and the mutual kindred
-    intercourse seemed to flow on exactly where it had been broken off,
-    as if it had been but for a moment, and nothing had transpired in the
-    interim to check or change its character or expression.</p>
-
-  <p>Such is one of the stoic instances of a custom which belongs to all the
-    North American Indians, forming one of the most striking features in
-    their<span class="pagenum" id="Page_57">57</span> character; valued, cherished and practiced, like many others
-    of their strange notions, for reasons which are difficult to be learned
-    or understood; and which probably will never be justly appreciated by
-    others than themselves.</p>
-
-  <figure class="mt2" id="i_028">
-    <div class="plate"><i>17</i></div>
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_028.jpg" alt="Wi-jun-jon and Chin-cha-pee">
-    <figcaption><span class="col50">29</span><span class="col50">28</span></figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <figure class="mt2" id="i_030">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_030.jpg" alt="Bro-cas-sie and his wife">
-    <figcaption><span class="col50">30</span><span class="col50">31</span></figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>18</i></div>
-  <figure id="i_032">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_032.jpg" alt="Pipe dance">
-     <figcaption>32</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p>This man, at this time, is creating a wonderful sensation amongst
-    his tribe, who are daily and nightly gathered in gaping and listless
-    crowds around him, whilst he is descanting upon what he has seen in the
-    fashionable world; and which to them is unintelligible and beyond their
-    comprehension; for which I find they are already setting him down as a
-    liar and impostor.</p>
-
-  <p>What may be the final results of his travels and initiation into the
-    fashionable world, and to what disasters his incredible narrations
-    may yet subject the poor fellow in this strange land, time only will
-    develop.</p>
-
-  <p>He is now in disgrace, and spurned by the leading men of the tribe, and
-    rather to be pitied than envied, for the advantages which one might
-    have supposed would have flown from his fashionable tour. More of this
-    curious occurrence and of this extraordinary man, I will surely give in
-    some future epistles.</p>
-
-  <p>The women of this tribe are often comely, and sometimes pretty; in
-    <a href="#i_034"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 34</a>, will be seen a fair illustration of the dresses of
-    the women and children, which are usually made of the skins of the
-    mountain-goat, and ornamented with porcupine’s quills and rows of elk’s
-    teeth.</p>
-
-  <p>The Knisteneaux (or Crees, as they are more familiarly called in this
-    country) are a very numerous tribe, extending from this place as high
-    north as the shores of Lake Winnepeg; and even much further in a
-    north-westerly direction, towards, and even through, a great part of
-    the Rocky Mountains.</p>
-
-  <p>I have before said of these, that they were about 3000 in numbers—by
-    that, I meant but a small part of this extensive tribe, who are in the
-    habit of visiting the American Fur Company’s Establishment, at this
-    place, to do their trading; and who themselves, scarcely know anything
-    of the great extent of country over which this numerous and scattered
-    family range. Their customs may properly be said to be primitive, as no
-    inroads of civilized habits have been as yet successfully made amongst
-    them. Like the other tribes in these regions, they dress in skins, and
-    gain their food, and conduct their wars in a very similar manner. They
-    are a very daring and most adventurous tribe; roaming vast distances
-    over the prairies and carrying war into their enemy’s country. With the
-    numerous tribe of Blackfeet, they are always waging an uncompromising
-    warfare; and though fewer in numbers and less in stature, they have
-    shewn themselves equal in sinew, and not less successful in mortal
-    combats.</p>
-
-  <p>Amongst the foremost and most renowned of their warriors, is
-    Bro-cas-sie, the broken arm (<a href="#i_030"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 30</a>), in a handsome dress;
-    and by the side of him (<a href="#i_030"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 31</a>), his wife, a simple and
-    comely looking woman. In <a href="#i_033"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 33</a>, will be seen the full
-    length portrait of a young woman with a child on her back, shewing
-    fairly the fashion of cutting and ornamenting the dresses<span class="pagenum" id="Page_58">58</span> of the
-    females in this tribe; which, without further comment, is all I shall
-    say at this time, of the valorous tribe of Crees or Knisteneaux.</p>
-
-  <p>The Ojibbeways I have briefly mentioned in a former place, and of them
-    should say more; which will be done at a proper time, after I shall
-    have visited other branches of this great and scattered family.</p>
-
-  <p>The chief of that part of the Ojibbeway tribe who inhabit these
-    northern regions (<a href="#i_035"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 35</a>), and whose name is Sha-co-pay (the
-    Six), is a man of huge size; with dignity of manner, and pride and
-    vanity, just about in proportion to his bulk. He sat for his portrait
-    in a most beautiful dress, fringed with scalp locks in profusion; which
-    he had snatched, in his early life from his enemies’ heads, and now
-    wears as proud trophies and proofs of what his arm has accomplished
-    in battles with his enemies. His shirt of buckskin is beautifully
-    embroidered and painted in curious hieroglyphics, the history of his
-    battles and charts of his life. This, and also each and every article
-    of his varied dress, had been manufactured by his wives, of which
-    he had several; and one, though not the most agreeable (<a href="#i_036"><span class="smcap">plate</span>
-    36</a>), is seen represented by his side.</p>
-
-  <p>I have much to see of these people yet, and much consequently to write;
-    so for the present I close my book.</p>
-
-  <div class="footnotes">
-    <div class="footnote">
-      <a id="Footnote_1" href="#FNanchor_1" class="label">[1]</a> Several years since writing the above, I held a
-        conversation with Major Pilcher (a strictly correct and honourable man,
-        who was then the agent for these people, who has lived amongst them,
-        and is at this time superintendent of Indian affairs at <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Louis), who
-        informed me, much to my surprise, that the Blackfeet were not far from
-        60,000 in numbers, including all the confederacy of which I have just
-        spoken.
-    </div>
-  </div>
-
-  <hr class="chap">
-  <div class="chapter">
-    <span class="pagenum" id="Page_59">59</span>
-    <h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_9">LETTER—<abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 9.</h2>
-  </div>
-  <div class="subheadc">MOUTH OF YELLOW STONE, <i>UPPER MISSOURI</i>.</div>
-
-  <p><span class="smcap">Since</span> the dates of my other Letters from this place, I have been taking
-    some wild rambles about this beautiful country of green fields; jolted
-    and tossed about, on horseback and on foot, where pen, ink, and paper
-    never thought of going; and of course the most that I saw and have
-    learned, and would tell to the world, is yet to be written. It is not
-    probable, however, that I shall again date a letter at this place, as I
-    commence, in a few days, my voyage down the river in a canoe; but yet
-    I may give you many a retrospective glance at this fairy land and its
-    amusements.</p>
-
-  <p>A traveller on his tour through such a country as this, has no time
-    to write, and scarcely time enough to moralize. It is as much as
-    he can <em>well</em> do to “look out for his <em>scalp</em>,” and “for
-    <em>something to eat</em>.” Impressions, however, of the most vivid kind,
-    are rapidly and indelibly made by the fleeting incidents of savage
-    life; and for the mind that can ruminate upon them with pleasure, there
-    are abundant materials clinging to it for its endless entertainment
-    in driving the quill when he gets back. The mind susceptible of such
-    impressions catches volumes of incidents which are easy to write—it is
-    but to unfold a web which the fascinations of this <em>shorn</em> country
-    and its allurements have spun over the soul—it is but to paint the
-    splendid panorama of a world entirely different from anything seen or
-    painted before; with its thousands of miles, and tens of thousands of
-    grassy hills and dales, where nought but silence reigns, and where the
-    soul of a contemplative mould is seemingly lifted up to its Creator.
-    What man in the world, I would ask, ever ascended to the pinnacle of
-    one of Missouri’s green-carpeted bluffs, a thousand miles severed from
-    his own familiar land, and giddily gazed over the interminable and
-    boundless ocean of grass-covered hills and valleys which lie beneath
-    him, where the gloom of <em>silence</em> is complete—where not even
-    the voice of the sparrow or cricket is heard—without feeling a sweet
-    melancholy come over him, which seemed to drown his sense of everything
-    beneath and on a level with him?</p>
-
-  <p>It is but to paint a vast country of green fields, where the <em>men</em>
-    are all <em>red</em>—where <em>meat</em> is the staff of life—where
-    no <em>laws</em>, but those of <em>honour</em>, are known—where the
-    oak and the pine give way to the cotton-wood and peccan—where the
-    buffaloes range, the elk, mountain-sheep, and the fleet-bounding<span class="pagenum" id="Page_60">60</span>
-    antelope—where the magpie and chattering parroquettes supply the
-    place of the red-breast and the blue-bird—where wolves are white and
-    bears grizzly—where pheasants are hens of the prairie, and frogs have
-    horns!—where the rivers are yellow, and white men are turned savages
-    in looks. Through the whole of this strange land the dogs are all
-    wolves—women all slaves—men all lords. The <em>sun</em> and <em>rats</em>
-    alone (of all the list of old acquaintance), could be recognised in
-    this country of strange metamorphose. The former shed everywhere his
-    familiar rays; and Monsr. Ratapon was hailed as an old acquaintance,
-    which it gave me pleasure to meet; though he had grown a little more
-    <em>savage</em> in his look.</p>
-
-  <p>In traversing the immense regions of the <em>classic</em> West, the mind
-    of a philanthropist is filled to the brim with feelings of admiration;
-    but to reach this country, one is obliged to descend from the light
-    and glow of civilized atmosphere, through the different grades of
-    civilization, which gradually sink to the most deplorable condition
-    along the extreme frontier; thence through the most pitiable misery
-    and wretchedness of savage degradation; where the genius of natural
-    liberty and independence have been blasted and destroyed by the
-    contaminating vices and dissipations introduced by the immoral part
-    of <em>civilized</em> society. Through this dark and sunken vale of
-    wretchedness one hurries, as through a pestilence, until he gradually
-    rises again into the proud and chivalrous pale of savage society,
-    in its state of original nature, beyond the reach of civilized
-    contamination; here he finds much to fix his enthusiasm upon, and much
-    to admire. Even here, the predominant passions of the savage breast,
-    of ferocity and cruelty, are often found; yet <em>restrained</em>,
-    and frequently <em>subdued</em>, by the noblest traits, of honour and
-    magnanimity,—a race of men who live and enjoy life and its luxuries,
-    and practice its virtues, very far beyond the usual estimation of the
-    world, who are apt to judge the savage and his virtues from the poor,
-    degraded, and humbled specimens which alone can be seen along our
-    frontiers. From the first settlements of our Atlantic coast to the
-    present day, the bane of this <em>blasting frontier</em> has regularly
-    crowded upon them, from the northern to the southern extremities of our
-    country; and, like the fire in a prairie, which destroys everything
-    where it passes, it has blasted and sunk them, and all but their
-    names, into oblivion, wherever it has travelled. It is to this tainted
-    class alone that the epithet of “poor, naked, and drunken savage,”
-    can be, with propriety, applied; for all those numerous tribes which
-    I have visited, and are yet uncorrupted by the vices of civilized
-    acquaintance, are well clad, in many instances cleanly, and in the
-    full enjoyment of life and its luxuries. It is for the character and
-    preservation of these noble fellows that I am an enthusiast; and it is
-    for these uncontaminated people that I would be willing to devote the
-    energies of my life. It is a sad and melancholy truth to contemplate,
-    that all the numerous tribes who inhabited our vast Atlantic States
-    <em>have not</em> “fled to the West;”—that they are not to be found
-    here—that they have been blasted by the fire which<span class="pagenum" id="Page_61">61</span> has passed
-    over them—have sunk into their graves, and everything but their names
-    travelled into oblivion.</p>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>19</i></div>
-  <div class="col50">
-    <figure id="i_033">
-      <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_033.jpg" alt="Dresses of woman and child">
-       <figcaption>33</figcaption>
-    </figure>
-  </div>
-  <div class="col50">
-    <figure id="i_034">
-      <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_034.jpg" alt="Dresses of woman and child">
-       <figcaption>34</figcaption>
-    </figure>
-  </div>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>20</i></div>
-  <div class="col50">
-    <figure id="i_035">
-      <img style="width: 99.4%;" src="images/i_035.jpg" alt="Sha-co-pay, Ojibbeway chief">
-       <figcaption>35</figcaption>
-    </figure>
-  </div>
-  <div class="col50">
-    <figure id="i_036">
-      <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_036.jpg" alt="Wife of Sha-co-pay">
-       <figcaption>36</figcaption>
-    </figure>
-  </div>
-
-  <p>The distinctive character of all these Western Indians, as well as
-    their traditions relative to their ancient locations, prove beyond a
-    doubt, that they have been for a very long time located on the soil
-    which they now possess; and in most respects, distinct and unlike those
-    nations who formerly inhabited the Atlantic coast, and who (according
-    to the erroneous opinion of a great part of the world), have fled to
-    the West.</p>
-
-  <p>It is for these inoffensive and unoffending people, yet unvisited by
-    the vices of civilized society, that I would proclaim to the world,
-    that it is time, for the honour of our country—for the honour of
-    every citizen of the republic—and for the sake of humanity, that our
-    government should raise her strong arm to save the remainder of them
-    from the pestilence which is rapidly advancing upon them. We have
-    gotten from them territory enough, and the country which they now
-    inhabit is most of it too barren of timber for the use of civilized
-    man; it affords them, however, the means and luxuries of savage life;
-    and it is to be hoped that our government will not acquiesce in the
-    continued wilful destruction of these happy people.</p>
-
-  <p>My heart has sometimes almost bled with pity for them, while amongst
-    them, and witnessing their innocent amusements, as I have contemplated
-    the inevitable bane that was rapidly advancing upon them; without that
-    check from the protecting arm of government, and which alone could
-    shield them from destruction.</p>
-
-  <p>What degree of happiness these sons of Nature may attain to in the
-    world, in their own way; or in what proportion they may relish the
-    pleasures of life, compared to the sum of happiness belonging to
-    civilized society, has long been a subject of much doubt, and one which
-    I cannot undertake to decide at this time. I would say thus much,
-    however, that if the thirst for knowledge has entailed everlasting
-    miseries on mankind from the beginning of the world; if refined
-    and intellectual pains increase in proportion to our intellectual
-    pleasures, I do not see that we gain much advantage over them on that
-    score; and judging from the full-toned enjoyment which beams from their
-    happy faces, I should give it as my opinion, that their lives were
-    much more happy than ours; that is, if the word happiness is properly
-    applied to the enjoyments of those who have not experienced the light
-    of the Christian religion. I have long looked with the eye of a critic,
-    into the jovial faces of these sons of the forest, unfurrowed with
-    cares—where the agonizing feeling of poverty had never stamped distress
-    upon the brow. I have watched the bold, intrepid step—the proud, yet
-    dignified deportment of Nature’s man, in fearless freedom, with a soul
-    unalloyed by mercenary lusts, too great to yield to laws or power
-    except from God. As these independent fellows are all joint-tenants of
-    the soil, they are all rich, and none of the steepings of comparative
-    poverty can strangle their just claims to renown. Who (I would<span class="pagenum" id="Page_62">62</span> ask)
-    can look without admiring, into a society where peace and harmony
-    prevail—where virtue is cherished—where rights are protected, and
-    wrongs are redressed—with no laws, but the laws of honour, which are
-    the supreme laws of their land. Trust the boasted virtues of civilized
-    society for awhile, with all its intellectual refinements, to such a
-    tribunal, and then write down the degradation of the “lawless savage,”
-    and our trancendent virtues.</p>
-
-  <p>As these people have no laws, the sovereign right of summary redress
-    lies in the breast of the party (or friends of the party) aggrieved;
-    and infinitely more dreaded is the certainty of cruel revenge from
-    the licensed hands of an offended savage, than the slow and uncertain
-    vengeance of the law.</p>
-
-  <p>If you think me <em>enthusiast</em>, be it so; for I deny it not. It has
-    ever been the predominant passion of my soul to seek Nature’s wildest
-    haunts, and give my hand to Nature’s men. Legends of <em>these</em>,
-    and visits to <em>those</em>, filled the earliest page of my juvenile
-    impressions.</p>
-
-  <p>The tablet has stood, and I am an enthusiast for God’s works as He left
-    them.</p>
-
-  <p>The sad tale of my native “valley,”<a id="FNanchor_2" href="#Footnote_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> has been beautifully sung; and
-    from the flight of “Gertrude’s” soul, my young imagination closely
-    traced the savage to his deep retreats, and gazed upon him in dreadful
-    horror, until pity pleaded, and admiration worked a charm.</p>
-
-  <p>A journey of 4000 miles from the Atlantic shore, regularly receding
-    from the centre of civilized society to the extreme wilderness of
-    Nature’s original work, and back again, opens a book for many an
-    interesting tale to be sketched; and the mind which lives, but to
-    relish the works of Nature, reaps a reward on such a tour of a much
-    higher order than can arise from the selfish expectations of pecuniary
-    emolument. Notwithstanding all that has been written and said, there
-    is scarcely any subject on which the <em>knowing</em> people of the
-    East, are yet less informed and instructed than on the character and
-    amusements of the West: by this I mean the “Far West;”—the country
-    whose fascinations spread a charm over the mind almost dangerous to
-    civilized pursuits. Few people even know the true definition of the
-    term “West;” and where is its location?—phantom-like it flies before us
-    as we travel, and on our way is continually gilded, before us, as we
-    approach the setting sun.</p>
-
-  <p>In the commencement of my Tour, several of my travelling companions
-    from the city of New York, found themselves at a frightful distance
-    to the West, when we arrived at Niagara Falls; and hastened back to
-    amuse their friends with tales and scenes of the West. At Buffalo a
-    steam-boat was landing with 400 passengers, and twelve days out—“Where
-    from?” “From the West.” In the rich state of Ohio, hundreds were
-    selling their farms and going—to the West. In the beautiful city of
-    Cincinnati, people said to me, “Our town has passed the days of its
-    most rapid growth, it is not far enough West.”—In <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Louis, 1400 miles
-    west of New York, my landlady assured <span class="pagenum" id="Page_63">63</span>me that I would be pleased with
-    her boarders, for they were nearly all merchants from the “West.” I
-    there asked,—“Whence come those steam-boats, laden with pork, honey,
-    hides, &amp;c.?”</p>
-
-  <p>From the West.</p>
-
-  <p>Whence those ponderous bars of silver, which those men have been for
-    hours shouldering and putting on board that boat?</p>
-
-  <p>They come from Santa Fee, from the West.</p>
-
-  <p>Where goes this steam-boat so richly laden with dry goods,
-    steam-engines, &amp;c.?</p>
-
-  <p>She goes to Jefferson city.</p>
-
-  <p>Jefferson city?—Where is that?</p>
-
-  <p>Far to the West.</p>
-
-  <p>And where goes that boat laden down to her gunnels, the Yellow Stone?</p>
-
-  <p>She goes still farther to the West—“Then,” said I, “I’ll go to the
-    West.”</p>
-
-  <p>I went on the Yellow Stone— <span class="gesperrtstar">* * * *</span></p>
-
-  <p><span class="gesperrtstar">* * *</span> Two thousand miles on her, and we were at the mouth of Yellow
-    Stone river—at the West. What! invoices, bills of lading, &amp;c., a
-    wholesale establishment so far to the West! And those strange looking,
-    long-haired gentlemen, who have just arrived, and are relating the
-    adventures of their long and tedious journey. Who are they?</p>
-
-  <p>Oh! they are some of our merchants just arrived from the West.</p>
-
-  <p>And that keel-boat, that Mackinaw-boat, and that formidable caravan,
-    all of which are richly laden with goods.</p>
-
-  <p>These, Sir, are outfits starting for the <em>West</em>.</p>
-
-  <p>Going to the <em>West</em>, ha? “Then” said I, “I’ll try it again. I will
-    try and see if I can go to the West.”</p>
-
-  <p><span class="gesperrtstar">* * *</span> What, a Fort here, too?</p>
-
-  <p>Oui, Monsieur—oui, Monsieur (as a dauntless, and
-    <em>semibarbarian</em>-looking, jolly fellow, dashed forth in advance of
-    his party on his wild horse to meet me.)</p>
-
-  <p>What distance are you west of Yellow Stone here, my good fellow?</p>
-
-  <p>Comment?</p>
-
-  <p>What distance?—(stop)—quel distance?</p>
-
-  <p>Pardón, Monsieur, je ne sais pas, Monsieur.</p>
-
-  <p>Ne parlez vous l’Anglais?</p>
-
-  <p>Non, Monsr. I speaks de French and de Americaine; mais je ne parle pas
-    l’Anglais.</p>
-
-  <p>“Well then, my good fellow, I will speak English, and you may speak
-    Americaine.”</p>
-
-  <p>Pardón, pardón, Monsieur.</p>
-
-  <p>Well, then we will both speak Americaine.</p>
-
-  <p>Val, sare, je suis bien content, pour for I see dat you speaks putty
-    coot Americaine.</p>
-
-  <p>What may I call your name?</p>
-
-  <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_64">64</span></p>
-
-  <p>Ba’tiste, Monsieur.</p>
-
-  <p>What Indians are those so splendidly dressed, and with such fine
-    horses, encamped on the plain yonder?</p>
-
-  <p>Ils sont Corbeaux.</p>
-
-  <p>Crows, ha?</p>
-
-  <p>Yes, sare, Monsieur.</p>
-
-  <p>We are then in the Crow country?</p>
-
-  <p>Non, Monsieur, not putty éxact; we are in de coontrae of de dam Pieds
-    noirs.</p>
-
-  <p>Blackfeet, ha?</p>
-
-  <p>Oui.</p>
-
-  <p>What blue mountain is that which we see in the distance yonder?</p>
-
-  <p>Ha, quel Montaigne? cela est la Montaigne du (pardón).</p>
-
-  <p>Du Rochers, I suppose?</p>
-
-  <p>Oui, Monsieur, de Rock Montaigne.</p>
-
-  <p>You live here, I suppose?</p>
-
-  <p>Non, Monsieur, I comes fair from de West.</p>
-
-  <p>What, from the West! Where under the heavens is that?</p>
-
-  <p>Wat, diable! de West? well you shall see, Monsieur, he is putty fair
-    off, súppose. Monsieur Pierre Chouteau can give you de histoire de ma
-    vie—il bien sait que je prends les castors, very fair in de West.</p>
-
-  <p>You carry goods, I suppose, to trade with the Snake Indians beyond the
-    mountains, and trap beaver also?</p>
-
-  <p>Oui, Monsieur.</p>
-
-  <p>Do you see anything of the “Flat-heads” in your country?</p>
-
-  <p>Non, Monsieur, ils demeurent very, <em>very</em> fair to de West.</p>
-
-  <p>Well, Ba’tiste, I’ll lay my course back again for the present, and at
-    some future period, endeavour to go to the “West.” But you say you
-    trade with the Indians and trap beavers; you are in the employment of
-    the American Fur Company, I suppose?</p>
-
-  <p>Non, Monsieur, not quite éxact; mais, súppose, I am “<em>free
-    trappare</em>,” free, Monsr. free.</p>
-
-  <p>Free trapper, what’s that? I don’t understand you, Ba’tiste.</p>
-
-  <p>Well, Monsr. súppose he is easy pour understand—you shall know all.
-    In de first place, I am enlist for tree year in de Fur Comp in <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr>
-    Louis—for bounté—pour bounté, eighty dollare (understand, ha?) den I
-    am go for wages, et I ave come de Missouri up, et I am trap castors
-    putty much for six years, you see, until I am learn very much; and den
-    you see, Monsr. M‘Kenzie is give me tree horse—one pour ride, et two
-    pour pack (mais he is not buy, him not give, he is lend), and he is
-    lend twelve trap; and I ave make start into de Rocky Montaigne, et I am
-    live all álone on de leet rivares pour prendre les castors. Sometime
-    six months—sometime five month, and I come back to Yel Stone, et Monsr.
-    M‘Kenzie is give me coot price pour all.</p>
-
-  <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_65">65</span></p>
-
-  <p>So Mr. M‘Kenzie fits you out, and takes your beaver of you at a certain
-    price?</p>
-
-  <p>Oui, Monsr. oui.</p>
-
-  <p>What price does he pay you for your beaver, Ba’tiste?</p>
-
-  <p>Ha! súppose one dollare pour one beavare.</p>
-
-  <p>A dollar per skin, ah?</p>
-
-  <p>Oui.</p>
-
-  <p>Well, you must live a lonesome and hazardous sort of life; can you make
-    anything by it?</p>
-
-  <p>Oh! oui, Monsr. putty coot, mais if it is not pour for de dam rascalité
-    Riccaree, et de dam Pieds noirs, de Blackfoot Ingin, I am make very
-    much monnair, mais (sacré), I am rob—rob—rob too much!</p>
-
-  <p>What, do the Blackfeet rob you of your furs?</p>
-
-  <p>Oui, Monsr. rob, súppose, five time! I am been free trappare seven
-    year, et I am rob five time—I am someting left not at all—he is take
-    all; he is take all de horse—he is take my gun—he is take all my
-    clothes—he is takee de castors—et I am come back with foot. So in
-    de Fort, some cloths is cost putty much monnair, et some whiskey is
-    give sixteen dollares pour gall; so you see I am owe de Fur Comp 600
-    dollare, by Gar!</p>
-
-  <p>Well, Ba’tiste, this then is what you call being a free trapper is it?</p>
-
-  <p>Oui, Monsr. “free trappare,” free!</p>
-
-  <p>You seem to be going down towards the Yellow Stone, and probably have
-    been out on a trapping excursion.</p>
-
-  <p>Oui, Monsr. c’est vrai.</p>
-
-  <p>Have you been robbed this time, Ba’tiste?</p>
-
-  <p>Oui, Monsr. by de dam Pieds noirs—I am loose much; I am loose all—very
-    all——eh bien——pour le dernier—c’est le dernier fois, Monsr. I am go to
-    Yel Stone—I am go le Missouri down, I am go to <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Louis.</p>
-
-  <p>Well, Ba’tiste, I am to figure about in this part of the world a few
-    weeks longer, and then I shall descend the Missouri from the mouth of
-    Yellow Stone, to <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Louis; and I should like exceedingly to employ
-    just such a man as you are as a voyageur with me—I will give you good
-    wages, and pay all your expenses; what say you?</p>
-
-  <p>Avec tout mon cour, Monsr. remercie, remercie.</p>
-
-  <p>It’s a bargain then, Ba’tiste; I will see you at the mouth of Yellow
-    Stone.</p>
-
-  <p>Oui, Monsr. in de Yel Stone, bon soir, bon soir, Monsr.</p>
-
-  <p>But stop, Ba’tiste, you told me those were Crows encamped yonder.</p>
-
-  <p>Oui, Monsieur, oui, des Corbeaux.</p>
-
-  <p>And I suppose you are their interpreter?</p>
-
-  <p>Non, Monsieur.</p>
-
-  <p>But you speak the Crow language?</p>
-
-  <p>Ouis, Monsieur.</p>
-
-  <p>Well then, turn about; I am going to pay them a visit, and you can
-    render me a service.—Bien, Monsieur, allons.</p>
-
-  <div class="footnotes">
-    <div class="footnote">
-      <a id="Footnote_2" href="#FNanchor_2" class="label">[2]</a> Wyöming.
-    </div>
-  </div>
-
-  <hr class="chap">
-  <div class="chapter">
-    <span class="pagenum" id="Page_66">66</span>
-    <h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_10">LETTER—<abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 10.</h2>
-  </div>
-  <div class="subheadc">MANDAN VILLAGE, <i>UPPER MISSOURI</i>.</div>
-
-  <p><span class="smcap">Soon</span> after the writing of my last Letter, which was dated at the Mouth
-    of Yellow Stone, I embarked on the river for this place, where I landed
-    safely; and have resided for a couple of weeks, a guest in this almost
-    subterraneous city—the strangest place in the world; where one sees
-    in the most rapid succession, scenes which force him to mirth—to pity
-    and compassion—to admiration—disgust; to fear and astonishment. But
-    before I proceed to reveal them, I must give you a brief sketch of my
-    voyage down the river from the Mouth of the Yellow Stone river to this
-    place, a distance of 200 miles; and which my little note-book says, was
-    performed somewhat in the following manner:</p>
-
-  <p>When I had completed my rambles and my sketches in those regions, and
-    Ba’tiste and Bogard had taken their last spree, and fought their last
-    battles, and forgotten them in the final and affectionate embrace and
-    farewell (all of which are habitual with these game-fellows, when
-    settling up their long-standing accounts with their fellow-trappers
-    of the mountain streams); and after Mr. M‘Kenzie had procured for me
-    a snug little craft, that was to waft us down the mighty torrent; we
-    launched off one fine morning, taking our leave of the Fort, and the
-    friends within it; and also, for ever, of the beautiful green fields,
-    and hills, and dales, and prairie bluffs, that encompass the enchanting
-    shores of the Yellow Stone.</p>
-
-  <p>Our canoe, which was made of green timber, was heavy and awkward; but
-    our course being with the current, promised us a fair and successful
-    voyage. Ammunition was laid in in abundance—a good stock of dried
-    buffalo tongues—a dozen or two of beavers’ tails—and a good supply of
-    pemican. Bogard and Ba’tiste occupied the middle and bow, with their
-    paddles in their hands; and I took my seat in the stern of the boat,
-    at the steering oar. Our larder was as I have said; and added to that,
-    some few pounds of fresh buffalo meat.</p>
-
-  <p>Besides which, and ourselves, our little craft carried several
-    packs of Indian dresses and other articles, which I had purchased
-    of the Indians; and also my canvass and easel, and our culinary
-    articles, which were few and simple;<span class="pagenum" id="Page_67">67</span> consisting of three tin cups, a
-    coffee-pot—one plate—a frying-pan—and a tin kettle.</p>
-
-  <p>Thus fitted out and embarked, we swept off at a rapid rate under the
-    shouts of the savages, and the cheers of our friends, who lined the
-    banks as we gradually lost sight of them, and turned our eyes towards
-    <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Louis, which was 2000 miles below us, with nought intervening, save
-    the widespread and wild regions, inhabited by the roaming savage.</p>
-
-  <p>At the end of our first day’s journey, we found ourselves handily
-    encamping with several thousand Assinneboins, who had pitched their
-    tents upon the bank of the river, and received us with every mark of
-    esteem and friendship.</p>
-
-  <p>In the midst of this group, was my friend Wi-jun-jon (the pigeon’s
-    egg head), still lecturing on the manners and customs of the “pale
-    faces.” Continuing to relate without any appearance of exhaustion, the
-    marvellous scenes which he had witnessed amongst the white people, on
-    his tour to Washington City.</p>
-
-  <p>Many were the gazers who seemed to be the whole time crowding around
-    him, to hear his recitals; and the plight which he was in rendered his
-    appearance quite ridiculous. His beautiful military dress, of which I
-    before spoke, had been so shockingly tattered and metamorphosed, that
-    his appearance was truly laughable.</p>
-
-  <p>His keg of whiskey had dealt out to his friends all its charms—his
-    frock-coat, which his wife had thought was of no earthly use below
-    the waist, had been cut off at that place, and the nether half of it
-    supplied her with a beautiful pair of leggings; and his silver-laced
-    hat-band had been converted into a splendid pair of garters for the
-    same. His umbrella the poor fellow still affectionately held on to,
-    and kept spread at all times. As I before said, his theme seemed to
-    be exhaustless, and he, in the estimation of his tribe, to be an
-    unexampled liar.</p>
-
-  <p>Of the village of Assinneboins we took leave on the following morning,
-    and rapidly made our way down the river. The rate of the current
-    being four or five miles per hour, through one continued series of
-    picturesque grass-covered bluffs and knolls, which everywhere had the
-    appearance of an old and highly-cultivated country, with houses and
-    fences removed.</p>
-
-  <p>There is, much of the way, on one side or the other, a bold and abrupt
-    precipice of three or four hundred feet in elevation, presenting itself
-    in an exceedingly rough and picturesque form, to the shore of the
-    river; sloping down from the summit level of the prairies above, which
-    sweep off from the brink of the precipice, almost level, to an unknown
-    distance.</p>
-
-  <p>It is along the rugged and wild fronts of these cliffs, whose sides are
-    generally formed of hard clay, that the mountain-sheep dwell, and are
-    often discovered in great numbers. Their habits are much like those
-    of the goat; and in every respect they are like that animal, except
-    in the horns, which resemble those of the ram; sometimes making two
-    entire circles in their<span class="pagenum" id="Page_68">68</span> coil; and at the roots, each horn is, in some
-    instances, from five to six inches in breadth.</p>
-
-  <p>On the second day of our voyage we discovered a number of these
-    animals skipping along the sides of the precipice, always keeping
-    about equi-distant between the top and bottom of the ledge; leaping
-    and vaulting in the most extraordinary manner from point to point, and
-    seeming to cling actually, to the sides of the wall, where neither man
-    nor beast could possibly follow them.</p>
-
-  <p>We landed our canoe, and endeavoured to shoot one of these sagacious
-    animals; and after he had led us a long and fruitless chase, amongst
-    the cliffs, we thought we had fairly entrapped him in such a way as to
-    be sure to bring him, at last, within the command of our rifles; when
-    he suddenly bounded from his narrow foot-hold in the ledge, and tumbled
-    down a distance of more than a hundred feet, amongst the fragments of
-    rocks and clay, where I thought we must certainly find his carcass
-    without further trouble; when, to my great surprise, I saw him bounding
-    off, and he was almost instantly out of my sight.</p>
-
-  <p>Bogard, who was an old hunter, and well acquainted with these
-    creatures, shouldered his rifle, and said to me—“the game is up; and
-    you now see the use of those big horns; when they fall by accident, or
-    find it necessary to quit their foot-hold in the crevice, they fall
-    upon their head at a great distance unharmed, even though it should be
-    on the solid rock.”</p>
-
-  <p>Being on shore, and our canoe landed secure, we whiled away the greater
-    part of this day amongst the wild and ragged cliffs, into which we had
-    entered; and a part of our labours were vainly spent in the pursuit
-    of a war-eagle. This noble bird is the one which the Indians in these
-    regions, value so highly for their tail feathers, which are used as
-    the most valued plumes for decorating the heads and dresses of their
-    warriors. It is a beautiful bird, and, the Indians tell me, conquers
-    all other varieties of eagles in the country; from which circumstance,
-    the Indians respect the bird, and hold it in the highest esteem, and
-    value its quills. I am unable so say to what variety it belongs; but
-    I am sure it is not to be seen in any of our museums; nor is it to be
-    found in America (I think), until one gets near to the base of the
-    Rocky Mountains. This bird has often been called the calumet eagle and
-    war-eagle; the last of which appellations I have already accounted
-    for; and the other has arisen from the fact, that the Indians almost
-    invariably ornament their calumets or pipes of peace with its quills.</p>
-
-  <p>Our day’s loitering brought us through many a wild scene; occasionally
-    across the tracks of the grizzly bear, and, in sight merely of a band
-    of buffaloes; “which got the wind of us,” and were out of the way,
-    leaving us to return to our canoe at night, with a mere speck of good
-    luck. Just before we reached the river, I heard the crack of a rifle,
-    and in a few moments Bogard came in sight, and threw down from his
-    shoulders a fine antelope; which added to our larder, and we were
-    ready to proceed. We embarked<span class="pagenum" id="Page_69">69</span> and travelled until nightfall, when
-    we encamped on a beautiful little prairie at the base of a series of
-    grass-covered bluffs; and the next morning cooked our breakfast and
-    ate it, and rowed on until late in the afternoon; when we stopped at
-    the base of some huge clay bluffs, forming one of the most curious
-    and romantic scenes imaginable. At this spot the river expands itself
-    into the appearance somewhat of a beautiful lake; and in the midst of
-    it, and on and about its sand-bars, floated and stood, hundreds and
-    thousands of white swans and pelicans.</p>
-
-  <p>Though the scene in front of our encampment at this place was placid
-    and beautiful; with its flowing water—its wild fowl—and its almost
-    endless variety of gracefully sloping hills and green prairies in the
-    distance; yet it was not less wild and picturesque in our rear, where
-    the rugged and various coloured bluffs were grouped in all the wildest
-    fancies and rudeness of Nature’s accidental varieties.</p>
-
-  <p>The whole country behind us seemed to have been dug and thrown up into
-    huge piles, as if some giant mason had been there mixing his mortar
-    and paints, and throwing together his rude models for some sublime
-    structure of a colossal city;—with its walls—its domes—its ramparts—its
-    huge porticos and galleries—its castles—its fosses and ditches;—and in
-    the midst of his progress, he had abandoned his works to the destroying
-    hand of time, which had already done much to tumble them down, and
-    deface their noble structure; by jostling them together, with all their
-    vivid colours, into an unsystematic and unintelligible mass of sublime
-    ruins.</p>
-
-  <p>To this group of clay bluffs, which line the river for many miles in
-    distance, the voyageurs have very appropriately given the name of “the
-    Brick-kilns;” owing to their red appearance, which may be discovered in
-    a clear day at the distance of many leagues.</p>
-
-  <p>By the action of water, or other power, the country seems to have been
-    graded away; leaving occasionally a solitary mound or bluff, rising in
-    a conical form to the height of two or three hundred feet, generally
-    pointed or rounded at the top, and in some places grouped together
-    in great numbers; some of which having a tabular surface on the top,
-    and covered with a green turf. This fact (as all of those which are
-    horizontal on their tops, and corresponding exactly with the summit
-    level of the wide-spreading prairies in distance) clearly shows, that
-    their present isolated and rounded forms have been produced by the
-    action of waters: which have carried away the intervening earth, and
-    left them in the picturesque shapes in which they are now seen.</p>
-
-  <p>A similar formation (or <em>de</em>formation) may be seen in hundreds of
-    places on the shores of the Missouri river, and the actual progress
-    of the operation by which it is produced; leaving yet for the
-    singularity of this place, the peculiar feature, that nowhere else
-    (to my knowledge) occurs; that the superstratum, forming the tops of
-    these mounds (where they remain high enough to support anything of
-    the original surface) is composed, for the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_70">70</span> depth of fifteen feet, of
-    red pumice; terminating at its bottom, in a layer of several feet of
-    sedimentary deposite, which is formed into endless conglomerates of
-    basaltic crystals.</p>
-
-  <p>This strange feature in the country arrests the eye of a traveller
-    suddenly, and as instantly brings him to the conclusion, that he stands
-    in the midst of the ruins of an extinguished volcano.</p>
-
-  <p>As will be seen in the drawings (<a href="#i_037"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 37</a>, a near view,
-    and <a href="#i_038"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 38</a>, a distant view), the sides of these conical
-    bluffs (which are composed of strata of different coloured clays), are
-    continually washing down by the effect of the rains and melting of the
-    frost; and the superincumbent masses of pumice and basalt are crumbling
-    off, and falling down to their bases; and from thence, in vast
-    quantities, by the force of the gorges of water which are often cutting
-    their channels between them—carried into the river, which is close by;
-    and wafted for thousands of miles, floating as light as a cork upon its
-    surface, and lodging in every pile of drift-wood from this place to the
-    ocean.</p>
-
-  <p>The upper part of this layer of pumice is of a brilliant red; and when
-    the sun is shining upon it, is as bright and vivid as vermilion. It is
-    porous and open, and its specific gravity but trifling. These curious
-    bluffs must be seen as they are in nature; or else in a painting, where
-    their colours are faithfully given, or they lose their picturesque
-    beauty, which consists in the variety of their vivid tints. The strata
-    of clay are alternating from red to yellow—white—brown and dark blue;
-    and so curiously arranged, as to form the most pleasing and singular
-    effects.</p>
-
-  <p>During the day that I loitered about this strange scene, I left my
-    men stretched upon the grass, by the canoe; and taking my rifle and
-    sketch-book in my hand, I wandered and clambered through the rugged
-    defiles between the bluffs; passing over and under the immense blocks
-    of the pumice, that had fallen to their bases; determined, if possible,
-    to find the crater, or source, from whence these strange phenomena
-    had sprung; but after clambering and squeezing about for some time,
-    I unfortunately came upon the enormous tracks of a grizzly bear,
-    which, apparently, was travelling in the same direction (probably for
-    a very different purpose) but a few moments before me; and my ardour
-    for exploring was instantly so cooled down, that I hastily retraced
-    my steps, and was satisfied with making my drawings, and collecting
-    specimens of the lava and other minerals in its vicinity.</p>
-
-  <p>After strolling about during the day, and contemplating the beauty of
-    the scenes that were around me, while I sat upon the pinnacles of these
-    pumice-capped mounds; most of which time, Bogard and Ba’tiste laid
-    enjoying the pleasure of a “mountaineer’s nap”—we met together—took
-    our coffee and dried buffalo tongues—spread our buffalo robes upon the
-    grass, and enjoyed during the night the luxury of sleep, that belongs
-    so peculiarly to the tired voyageur in these realms of pure air and
-    dead silence.</p>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>21</i></div>
-  <figure id="i_037">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_037.jpg" alt="Conical bluffs">
-     <figcaption>37</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <figure class="mt2" id="i_038">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_038.jpg" alt="Conical bluffs">
-     <figcaption>38</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_71">71</span></p>
-
-  <p>In the morning, and before sunrise, as usual, Bogard (who was a Yankee,
-    and a “wide-awake-fellow,” just retiring from a ten years’ siege of
-    hunting and trapping in the Rocky Mountains,) thrust his head out from
-    under the robe, rubbing his eyes open, and exclaiming as he grasped
-    for his gun, “By darn, look at old Cale! will you!” Ba’tiste, who was
-    more fond of his dreams, snored away, muttering something that I could
-    not understand, when Bogard seized him with a grip, that instantly
-    shook off his iron slumbers. I rose at the same time, and all eyes were
-    turned at once upon <em>Caleb</em> (as the grizzly bear is familiarly
-    called by the trappers in the Rocky Mountains—or more often “Cale,”
-    for brevity’s sake), who was sitting up in the dignity and fury of her
-    sex, within a few rods, and gazing upon us, with her two little cubs
-    at her side! here was a “<em>fix</em>,” and a subject for the painter;
-    but I had no time to sketch it—I turned my eyes to the canoe which had
-    been fastened at the shore a few paces from us; and saw that everything
-    had been pawed out of it, and all eatables had been without ceremony
-    devoured. My packages of dresses and Indian curiosities had been drawn
-    out upon the bank, and deliberately opened and inspected. Every thing
-    had been scraped and pawed out, to the bottom of the boat; and even
-    the rawhide thong, with which it was tied to a stake, had been chewed,
-    and no doubt swallowed, as there was no trace of it remaining. Nor was
-    this peep into the secrets of our luggage enough for her insatiable
-    curiosity—we saw by the prints of her huge paws, that were left in the
-    ground, that she had been perambulating our humble mattresses, smelling
-    at our toes and our noses, without choosing to molest us; verifying a
-    trite saying of the country, “That man lying down is <em>medicine</em> to
-    the grizzly bear;” though it is a well-known fact, that man and beast,
-    upon their feet, are sure to be attacked when they cross the path of
-    this grizzly and grim monster, which is the terror of all this country;
-    often growing to the enormous size of eight hundred or one thousand
-    pounds.</p>
-
-  <p>Well—whilst we sat in the dilemma which I have just described, each
-    one was hastily preparing his weapons for defence, when I proposed the
-    mode of attack; by which means I was in hopes to destroy her—capture
-    her young ones, and bring her skin home as a trophy. My plans, however,
-    entirely failed, though we were well armed; for Bogard and Ba’tiste
-    both remonstrated with a vehemence that was irresistible; saying that
-    the standing rule in the mountains was “never to fight Caleb, except
-    in self-defence.” I was almost induced, however, to attack her alone,
-    with my rifle in hand, and a pair of heavy pistols; with a tomahawk
-    and scalping-knife in my belt; when Ba’tiste suddenly thrust his arm
-    over my shoulder and pointing in another direction, exclaimed in an
-    emphatic tone, “Voila! voila un corps de reserve—Monsr. Cataline—voila
-    sa mari! allons—allons! déscendons la riviére, toute de suite! toute
-    de suite! Monsr.” to which Bogard added, “these darned animals are too
-    much for us, and we had better be off;” at which my courage cooled, and
-    we packed up and re-embarked as fast as<span class="pagenum" id="Page_72">72</span> possible; giving each one of
-    them the contents of our rifles as we drifted off in the current; which
-    brought the she-monster, in all her rage and fury, to the spot where
-    we, a few moments before, had passed our most prudent resolve.</p>
-
-  <p>During the rest of this day, we passed on rapidly, gazing upon and
-    admiring the beautiful shores, which were continually changing, from
-    the high and ragged cliffs, to the graceful and green slopes of the
-    prairie bluffs; and then to the wide expanded meadows, with their long
-    waving grass, enamelled with myriads of wild flowers.</p>
-
-  <p>The scene was one of enchantment the whole way; our chief conversation
-    was about grizzly bears and hair’s-breadth escapes; of the histories
-    of which my companions had volumes in store.—Our breakfast was a late
-    one—cooked and eaten about five in the afternoon; at which time our
-    demolished larder was luckily replenished by the unerring rifle of
-    Bogard, which brought down a fine antelope, as it was innocently gazing
-    at us, from the bank of the river. We landed our boat, and took in
-    our prize; but there being no wood for our fire, we shoved off, and
-    soon ran upon the head of an island, that was covered with immense
-    quantities of raft and drift wood, where we easily kindled a huge fire
-    and ate our delicious meal from a clean peeled log, astride of which
-    we comfortably sat, making it answer admirably the double purpose of
-    chairs and a table. After our meal was finished, we plied the paddles,
-    and proceeded several miles further on our course; leaving our fire
-    burning, and dragging our canoe upon the shore, in the dark, in a wild
-    and unknown spot; and silently spreading our robes for our slumbers,
-    which it is not generally considered prudent to do by the side of our
-    fires, which might lead a war-party upon us, who often are prowling
-    about and seeking an advantage over their enemy.</p>
-
-  <p>The scenery of this day’s travel, as I have before said, was
-    exceedingly beautiful; and our canoe was often run to the shore,
-    upon which we stepped to admire the endless variety of wild flowers,
-    “wasting their sweetness on the desert air,” and the abundance of
-    delicious fruits that were about us. Whilst wandering through the high
-    grass, the wild sun-flowers and voluptuous lilies were constantly
-    taunting us by striking our faces; whilst here and there, in every
-    direction, there were little copses and clusters of plum trees and
-    gooseberries, and wild currants, loaded down with their fruit; and
-    amongst these, to sweeten the atmosphere and add a charm to the
-    effect, the wild rose bushes seemed planted in beds and in hedges, and
-    everywhere were decked out in all the glory of their delicate tints,
-    and shedding sweet aroma to every breath of the air that passed over
-    them.</p>
-
-  <p>In addition to these, we had the luxury of service-berries, without
-    stint; and the buffalo bushes, which are peculiar to these northern
-    regions, lined the banks of the river and defiles in the bluffs,
-    sometimes for miles together; forming almost impassable hedges,
-    so loaded with the weight of their fruit, that their boughs were
-    everywhere gracefully bending down and resting on the ground.</p>
-
-  <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_73">73</span></p>
-
-  <p>This last shrub (<i>shepperdia</i>), which may be said to be the most
-    beautiful ornament that decks out the wild prairies, forms a striking
-    contrast to the rest of the foliage, from the blue appearance of its
-    leaves, by which it can be distinguished for miles in distance. The
-    fruit which it produces in such incredible profusion, hanging in
-    clusters to every limb and to every twig, is about the size of ordinary
-    currants, and not unlike them in colour and even in flavour; being
-    exceedingly acid, and almost unpalatable, until they are bitten by the
-    frost of autumn, when they are sweetened, and their flavour delicious;
-    having, to the taste, much the character of grapes, and I am inclined
-    to think, would produce excellent wine.</p>
-
-  <p>The shrub which bears them resembles some varieties of the thorn,
-    though (as I have said) differs entirely in the colour of its leaves.
-    It generally grows to the height of six or seven feet, and often to
-    ten or twelve; and in groves or hedges, in some places, for miles in
-    extent. While gathering the fruit, and contemplating it as capable of
-    producing good wine, I asked my men this question, “Suppose we three
-    had ascended the river to this point in the spring of the year, and in
-    a timbered bottom had pitched our little encampment; and one of you two
-    had been a boat-builder, and the other a cooper—the one to have got out
-    your staves and constructed the wine casks, and the other to have built
-    a mackinaw-boat, capable of carrying fifty or a hundred casks; and I
-    had been a good hunter, capable of supplying the little encampment with
-    meat; and we should have started off about this time, to float down
-    the current, stopping our boat wherever we saw the finest groves of
-    the buffalo bush, collecting the berries and expressing the juice, and
-    putting it into our casks for fermentation while on the water for two
-    thousand miles; how many bushels of these berries could you two gather
-    in a day, provided I watched the boat and cooked your meals? and how
-    many barrels of good wine do you think we could offer for sale in <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr>
-    Louis when we should arrive there?”</p>
-
-  <p>This idea startled my two men exceedingly, and Ba’tiste gabbled so
-    fast in French, that I could not translate; and I am almost willing
-    to believe, that but for the want of the requisite tools for the
-    enterprize, I should have lost the company of Bogard and Ba’tiste;
-    or that I should have been under the necessity of submitting to one
-    of the unpleasant alternatives which are often regulated by the
-    <em>majority</em>, in this strange and singular wilderness.</p>
-
-  <p>I at length, however, got their opinions on the subject; when they
-    mutually agreed that they could gather thirty bushels of this fruit
-    per day; and I gave it then, and I offer it now, as my own also,
-    that their estimate was not out of the way, and judged so from the
-    experiments which we made in the following manner:—We several times
-    took a large mackinaw blanket which I had in the canoe, and spreading
-    it on the ground under the bushes, where they were the most abundantly
-    loaded with fruit; and by striking the stalk of the tree with a club,
-    we received the whole contents of its branches in an instant on the
-    blanket, which was taken up by the corners, and not unfrequently<span class="pagenum" id="Page_74">74</span> would
-    produce us, from one blow, the eighth part of a bushel of this fruit;
-    when the boughs relieved of their burden, instantly flew up to their
-    native position.</p>
-
-  <p>Of this beautiful native, which I think would form one of the loveliest
-    ornamental shrubs for a gentleman’s park or pleasure grounds, I
-    procured a number of the roots; but which, from the many accidents and
-    incidents that our unlucky bark was subjected to on our rough passage,
-    I lost them (and almost the recollection of them) as well as many other
-    curiosities I had collected on our way down the river.</p>
-
-  <p>On the morning of the next day, and not long after we had stopped and
-    taken our breakfast, and while our canoe was swiftly gliding along
-    under the shore of a beautiful prairie, I saw in the grass, on the
-    bank above me, what I supposed to be the back of a fine elk, busy at
-    his grazing. I let our craft float silently by for a little distance,
-    when I communicated the intelligence to my men, and slily ran in, to
-    the shore. I pricked the priming of my firelock, and taking a bullet
-    or two in my mouth, stepped ashore, and trailing my rifle in my hand,
-    went back under the bank, carefully crawling up in a little ravine,
-    quite sure of my game; when, to my utter surprise and violent alarm,
-    I found the elk to be no more nor less than an Indian pony, getting
-    his breakfast! and a little beyond him, a number of others grazing;
-    and nearer to me, on the left, a war-party reclining around a little
-    fire; and yet nearer, and within twenty paces of the muzzle of my gun,
-    the naked shoulders if a brawny Indian, who seemed busily engaged in
-    cleaning his gun. From this critical dilemma, the reader can easily
-    imagine that I vanished with all the suddenness and secrecy that was
-    possible, bending my course towards my canoe. Bogard and Ba’tiste
-    correctly construing the expression of my face, and the agitation of
-    my hurried retreat, prematurely unmoored from the shore; and the force
-    of the current carrying them around a huge pile of drift wood, threw
-    me back for some distance upon my own resources; though they finally
-    got in, near the shore, and I into the boat, with the steering oar in
-    my hand; when we plied our sinews with effect and in silence, till we
-    were wafted far from the ground which we deemed critical and dangerous
-    to our lives; for we had been daily in dread of meeting a war-party of
-    the revengeful Riccarees, which we had been told was on the river, in
-    search of the Mandans. From and after this exciting occurrence, the
-    entries in my journal for the rest of the voyage to the village of the
-    Mandans, were as follow:—</p>
-
-  <p>Saturday, fifth day of our voyage from the mouth of Yellow Stone, at
-    eleven o’clock.—Landed our canoe in the Grand Détour (or Big Bend) as
-    it is called, at the base of a stately clay mound, and ascended, all
-    hands, to the summit level, to take a glance at the picturesque and
-    magnificent works of Nature that were about us. Spent the remainder
-    of the day in painting a view of this grand scene; for which purpose
-    Ba’tiste and Bogard carried my easel and canvass to the top of a
-    huge mound, where they left me at my<span class="pagenum" id="Page_75">75</span> work; and I painted my picture
-    (<a href="#i_039"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 39</a>), whilst they amused themselves with their rifles,
-    decoying a flock of antelopes, of which they killed several, and
-    abundantly added to the stock of our provisions.</p>
-
-  <p>Scarcely anything in nature can be found, I am sure, more exceedingly
-    picturesque than the view from this place; exhibiting the wonderful
-    manner in which the gorges of the river have cut out its deep channel
-    through these walls of clay on either side, of two or three hundred
-    feet in elevation; and the imposing features of the high table-lands in
-    distance, standing as a perpetual anomaly in the country, and producing
-    the indisputable, though astounding evidence of the fact, that there
-    has been at some ancient period, a <em>super</em> surface to this
-    country, corresponding with the elevation of these tabular hills, whose
-    surface, for half a mile or more, on their tops, is perfectly level;
-    being covered with a green turf, and yet one hundred and fifty or two
-    hundred feet elevated above what may now be properly termed the summit
-    level of all this section of country; as will be seen stretching off at
-    their base, without furnishing other instances in hundreds of miles,
-    of anything rising one foot above its surface, excepting the solitary
-    group which is shewn in the painting.</p>
-
-  <p>The fact, that <em>there</em> was once the summit level of this great
-    valley, is a stubborn one, however difficult it may be to reconcile
-    it with reasonable causes and results; and the mind of feeble man is
-    at once almost paralyzed in endeavouring to comprehend the process
-    by which the adjacent country, from this to the base of the Rocky
-    Mountains, as well as in other directions, could have been swept away;
-    and equally so, for knowledge of the place where its mighty deposits
-    have been carried.</p>
-
-  <p>I recollect to have seen on my way up the river, at the distance of
-    six or eight hundred miles below, a place called “the Square Hills,”
-    and another denominated “the Bijou Hills;” which are the only features
-    on the river, seeming to correspond with this strange <em>remain</em>,
-    and which, on my way down, I shall carefully examine; and not fail to
-    add their testimonies (if I am not mistaken in their character) to
-    further speculations on this interesting feature of the geology of the
-    great valley of the Missouri. Whilst my men were yet engaged in their
-    sporting excursions, I left my easel and travelled to the base and
-    summit of these tabular hills; which, to my great surprise, I found to
-    be several miles from the river, and a severe journey to accomplish
-    getting back to our encampment at nightfall. I found by their sides
-    that they were evidently of an alluvial deposite, composed of a great
-    variety of horizontal layers of clays of different colours—of granitic
-    sand and pebbles (many of which furnished me beautiful specimens of
-    agate, jasper and carnelians), and here and there large fragments of
-    pumice and cinders, which gave, as instances above-mentioned, evidences
-    of volcanic remains.</p>
-
-  <p>The mode by which Bogard and Ba’tiste had been entrapping the timid
-    and sagacious antelopes was one which is frequently and successfully
-    practised in this country; and on this day had afforded them fine
-    sport.</p>
-
-  <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_76">76</span></p>
-
-  <p>The antelope of this country, I believe to be different from all
-    other known varieties, and forms one of the most pleasing, living
-    ornaments to this western world. They are seen in some places in great
-    numbers sporting and playing about the hills and dales; and often, in
-    flocks of fifty or a hundred, will follow the boat of the descending
-    voyageur, or the travelling caravan, for hours together; keeping off
-    at a safe distance, on the right or left, galloping up and down the
-    hills, snuffing their noses and stamping their feet; as if they were
-    endeavouring to remind the traveller of the wicked trespass he was
-    making on their own hallowed ground.</p>
-
-  <p>This little animal seems to be endowed, like many other gentle and
-    sweet-breathing creatures, with an undue share of curiosity, which
-    often leads them to destruction; and the hunter who wishes to entrap
-    them, saves himself the trouble of travelling after them. When he has
-    been discovered, he has only to elevate above the tops of the grass,
-    his red or yellow handkerchief on the end of his gun-rod (<a href="#i_040"><span class="smcap">plate</span>
-    40</a>), which he sticks in the ground, and to which they are sure to
-    advance, though with great coyness and caution; whilst he lies close,
-    at a little distance, with his rifle in hand; when it is quite an easy
-    matter to make sure of two or three at a shot, which he gets in range
-    of his eye, to be pierced with one bullet.</p>
-
-  <p>On Sunday, departed from our encampment in the Grand Détour; and having
-    passed for many miles, through a series of winding and ever-varying
-    bluffs and fancied ruins, like such as have already been described,
-    our attention was more than usually excited by the stupendous scene
-    (<a href="#i_041"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 41</a>), called by the voyageurs “the Grand Dome,” which
-    was lying in full view before us.</p>
-
-  <p>Our canoe was here hauled ashore, and a day whiled away again, amongst
-    these clay built ruins.</p>
-
-  <p>We clambered to their summits and enjoyed the distant view of the
-    Missouri for many miles below, wending its way through the countless
-    groups of clay and grass-covered hills; and we wandered back on the
-    plains, in a toilsome and unsuccessful pursuit of a herd of buffaloes,
-    which we discovered at some distance. Though we were disappointed
-    in the results of the chase; yet we were in a measure repaid in
-    amusements, which we found in paying a visit to an extensive village of
-    prairie dogs, and of which I should render some account.</p>
-
-  <p>I have subjoined a sketch (<a href="#i_042"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 42</a>) of one of these
-    <i>sub-terra</i> communities; though it was taken in a former
-    excursion, when my party was on horseback, and near the mouth of the
-    Yellow Stone River; yet it answers for this place as well as any other,
-    for their habits are one and the same wherever they are found; their
-    houses or burrows are all alike, and as their location is uniformly on
-    a level and desolate prairie, without timber, there is little room for
-    variety or dissimilarity.</p>
-
-  <p>The prairie dog of the American Prairies is undoubtedly a variety
-    of the marmot; and probably not unlike those which inhabit the vast
-    Steppes of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_77">77</span> Asia. It bears no resemblance to any variety of dogs,
-    except in the sound of its voice, when excited by the approach of
-    danger, which is something like that of a very small dog, and still
-    much more resembling the barking of a grey squirrel.</p>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>22</i></div>
-  <figure id="i_039">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_039.jpg" alt="The Grand Détour">
-     <figcaption>39</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <figure class="mt2" id="i_040">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_040.jpg" alt="Shooting antelope">
-     <figcaption>40</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p>The size of these curious little animals is not far from that of a
-    very large rat, and they are not unlike in their appearance. As I have
-    said, their burrows, are uniformly built in a lonely desert; and away,
-    both from the proximity of timber and water. Each individual, or each
-    family, dig their hole in the prairie to the depth of eight or ten
-    feet, throwing up the dirt from each excavation, in a little pile, in
-    the form of a cone, which forms the only elevation for them to ascend;
-    where they sit, to bark and chatter when an enemy is approaching their
-    village. These villages are sometimes of several miles in extent;
-    containing (I would almost say) myriads of their excavations and little
-    dirt hillocks, and to the ears of their visitors, the din of their
-    barkings is too confused and too peculiar to be described.</p>
-
-  <p>In the present instance, we made many endeavours to shoot them, but
-    finding our efforts to be entirely in vain. As we were approaching them
-    at a distance, each one seemed to be perched up, on his hind feet,
-    on his appropriate domicil, with a significant jerk of his tail at
-    every bark, positively disputing our right of approach. I made several
-    attempts to get near enough to “draw a bead” upon one of them; and
-    just before I was ready to fire (and as if they knew the utmost limits
-    of their safety), they sprang down into their holes, and instantly
-    turning their bodies, shewed their ears and the ends of their noses, as
-    they were peeping out at me; which position they would hold, until the
-    shortness of the distance subjected their scalps to danger again, from
-    the aim of a rifle; when they instantly disappeared from our sight,
-    and all was silence thereafter, about their premises, as I passed them
-    over; until I had so far advanced by them, that their ears were again
-    discovered, and at length themselves, at full length, perched on the
-    tops of their little hillocks and threatening as before; thus gradually
-    sinking and rising like a wave before and behind me.</p>
-
-  <p>The holes leading down to their burrows, are four or five inches in
-    diameter, and run down nearly perpendicular; where they undoubtedly
-    communicate into something like a subterraneous city (as I have
-    formerly learned from fruitless endeavours to dig them out), undermined
-    and vaulted; by which means, they can travel for a great distance under
-    the ground, without danger from pursuit.</p>
-
-  <p>Their food is simply the grass in the immediate vicinity of their
-    burrows, which is cut close to the ground by their flat, shovel teeth;
-    and, as they sometimes live twenty miles from any water, it is to be
-    supposed that they get moisture enough from the dew on the grass, on
-    which they feed chiefly at night; or that (as is generally supposed)
-    they sink wells from their under-ground habitations, by which they
-    descend low enough to get their supply. In the winter, they are for
-    several months invisible; existing, undoubtedly,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_78">78</span> in a torpid state,
-    as they certainly lay by no food for that season—nor can they procure
-    any. These curious little animals belong to almost every latitude in
-    the vast plains of prairie in North America; and their villages, which
-    I have sometimes encountered in my travels, have compelled my party to
-    ride several miles out of our way to get by them; for their burrows are
-    generally within a few feet of each other, and dangerous to the feet
-    and the limbs of our horses.</p>
-
-  <p>The sketch of the bluffs denominated “the Grand Dome,” of which I spoke
-    but a few moments since, is a faithful delineation of the lines and
-    character of that wonderful scene; and the reader has here a just and
-    striking illustration of the ruin-like appearances, as I have formerly
-    described, that are so often met with on the banks of this mighty river.</p>
-
-  <p>This is, perhaps, one of the most grand and beautiful scenes of the
-    kind to be met with in this country, owing to the perfect appearance
-    of its several huge domes, turrets, and towers, which were everywhere
-    as precise and as perfect in their forms as they are represented in
-    the illustration. These stupendous works are produced by the continual
-    washing down of the sides of these clay-formed hills; and although, in
-    many instances, their sides, by exposure, have become so hardened, that
-    their change is very slow; yet they are mostly subjected to continual
-    phases, more or less, until ultimately their decomposition ceases,
-    and their sides becoming seeded and covered with a green turf, which
-    protects and holds them (and will hold them) unalterable: with carpets
-    of green, and enamelled with flowers, to be gazed upon with admiration,
-    by the hardy voyageur and the tourist, for ages and centuries to come.</p>
-
-  <p>On Monday, the seventh day from the mouth of the Yellow Stone River,
-    we floated away from this noble scene; looking back again and again
-    upon it, wondering at its curious and endless changes, as the swift
-    current of the river, hurried us by, and gradually out of sight of it.
-    We took a sort of melancholy leave of it—but at every bend and turn in
-    the stream, we were introduced to others—and others—and yet others,
-    almost as strange and curious. At the base of one of these, although
-    we had passed it, we with difficulty landed our canoe, and I ascended
-    to its top, with some hours’ labour; having to cut a foot-hold in the
-    clay with my hatchet for each step, a great part of the way up its
-    sides. So curious was this solitary bluff, standing alone as it did,
-    to the height of 250 feet (<a href="#i_043"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 43</a>), with its sides washed
-    down into hundreds of variegated forms—with large blocks of indurated
-    clay, remaining upon pedestals and columns as it were, and with such
-    a variety of tints; that I looked upon it as a beautiful picture, and
-    devoted an hour or two with my brush, in transferring it to my canvass.</p>
-
-  <p>In the after part of this day we passed another extraordinary scene,
-    which is denominated “the Three Domes” (<a href="#i_044"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 44</a>), forming an
-    exceedingly pleasing group, though requiring no further description for
-    the reader, who is now sufficiently acquainted with these scenes to
-    understand them.</p>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>23</i></div>
-  <figure id="i_041">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_041.jpg" alt="The Grand Dome,">
-     <figcaption>41</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <figure class="mt2" id="i_042">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_042.jpg" alt="Prairie dog village">
-     <figcaption>42</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>24</i></div>
-  <figure id="i_043">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_043.jpg" alt="River bluff">
-     <figcaption>43</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <figure class="mt2" id="i_044">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_044.jpg" alt="The Three Domes">
-     <figcaption>44</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_79">79</span></p>
-
-  <p>On this day, just before night, we landed our little boat in front of
-    the Mandan village; and amongst the hundreds and thousands who flocked
-    towards the river to meet and to greet us, was Mr. Kipp, the agent of
-    the American Fur Company, who has charge of their Establishment at this
-    place. He kindly ordered my canoe to be taken care of, and my things to
-    be carried to his quarters, which was at once done; and I am at this
-    time reaping the benefits of his genuine politeness, and gathering the
-    pleasures of his amusing and interesting society.</p>
-
-  <hr class="chap">
-  <div class="chapter">
-    <span class="pagenum" id="Page_80">80</span>
-    <h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_11">LETTER—<abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 11.</h2>
-  </div>
-  <div class="subheadc">MANDAN VILLAGE, <i>UPPER MISSOURI</i>.</div>
-
-  <p><span class="smcap">I said</span> that I was here in the midst of a strange people, which is
-    literally true; and I find myself surrounded by subjects and scenes
-    worthy the pens of Irving or Cooper—of the pencils of Raphael or
-    Hogarth; rich in legends and romances, which would require no aid of
-    the imagination for a book or a picture.</p>
-
-  <p>The Mandans (or See-pohs-kah-nu-mah-kah-kee, “people of the pheasants,”
-    as they call themselves), are perhaps one of the most ancient tribes
-    of Indians in our country. Their origin, like that of all the other
-    tribes is from necessity, involved in mystery and obscurity. Their
-    traditions and peculiarities I shall casually recite in this or future
-    epistles; which when understood, will at once, I think, denominate
-    them a peculiar and distinct race. They take great pride in relating
-    their traditions, with regard to their origin; contending that they
-    were the <em>first</em> people created on earth. Their existence in these
-    regions has not been from a very ancient period; and, from what I could
-    learn of their traditions, they have, at a former period, been a very
-    numerous and powerful nation; but by the continual wars which have
-    existed between them and their neighbours, they have been reduced to
-    their present numbers.</p>
-
-  <p>This tribe is at present located on the west bank of the Missouri,
-    about 1800 miles above <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Louis, and 200 below the Mouth of Yellow
-    Stone river. They have two villages only, which are about two miles
-    distant from each other; and number in all (as near as I can learn),
-    about 2000 souls. Their present villages are beautifully located, and
-    judiciously also, for defence against the assaults of their enemies.
-    The site of the lower (or principal) town, in particular (<a href="#i_045"><span class="smcap">plate</span>
-    45</a>), is one of the most beautiful and pleasing that can be seen
-    in the world, and even more beautiful than imagination could ever
-    create. In the very midst of an extensive valley (embraced within a
-    thousand graceful swells and parapets or mounds of interminable green,
-    changing to blue, as they vanish in distance) is built the city, or
-    principal town of the Mandans. On an extensive plain (which is covered
-    with a green turf, as well as the hills and dales, as far as the eye
-    can possibly range, without tree or bush to be seen) are to be seen
-    rising from the ground, and towards the heavens, domes—(not “of gold,”
-    but) of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_81">81</span> dirt—and the thousand spears (not “spires”) and scalp-poles,
-    &amp;c. &amp;c., of the semi-subterraneous village of the hospitable and
-    gentlemanly Mandans.</p>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>25</i></div>
-  <figure id="i_045">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_045.jpg" alt="Mandan town">
-     <figcaption>45</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <figure class="mt2" id="i_046">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_046.jpg" alt="Mandan lodge interior">
-     <figcaption>46</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p>These people formerly (and within the recollection of many of their
-    oldest men) lived fifteen or twenty miles farther down the river, in
-    ten contiguous villages; the marks or ruins of which are yet plainly
-    to be seen. At that period, it is evident, as well from the number of
-    lodges which their villages contained, as from their traditions, that
-    their numbers were much greater than at the present day.</p>
-
-  <p>There are other, and very interesting, traditions and historical facts
-    relative to a still prior location and condition of these people,
-    of which I shall speak more fully on a future occasion. From these,
-    when they are promulged, I think there may be a pretty fair deduction
-    drawn, that they formerly occupied the lower part of the Missouri, and
-    even the Ohio and Muskingum, and have gradually made their way up the
-    Missouri to where they now are.</p>
-
-  <p>There are many remains on the river below this place (and, in fact,
-    to be seen nearly as low down as <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Louis), which shew clearly the
-    peculiar construction of Mandan lodges, and consequently carry a strong
-    proof of the above position. While descending the river, however, which
-    I shall commence in a few weeks, in a canoe, this will be a subject of
-    interest; and I shall give it close examination.</p>
-
-  <p>The ground on which the Mandan village is at present built, was
-    admirably selected for defence; being on a bank forty or fifty feet
-    above the bed of the river. The greater part of this bank is nearly
-    perpendicular, and of solid rock. The river, suddenly changing its
-    course to a right-angle, protects two sides of the village, which is
-    built upon this promontory or angle; they have therefore but one side
-    to protect, which is effectually done by a strong piquet, and a ditch
-    inside of it, of three or four feet in depth. The piquet is composed
-    of timbers of a foot or more in diameter, and eighteen feet high, set
-    firmly in the ground at sufficient distances from each other to admit
-    of guns and other missiles to be fired between them. The ditch (unlike
-    that of civilized modes of fortification) is inside of the piquet, in
-    which their warriors screen their bodies from the view and weapons of
-    their enemies, whilst they are reloading and discharging their weapons
-    through the piquets.</p>
-
-  <p>The Mandans are undoubtedly secure in their villages, from the attacks
-    of any Indian nation, and have nothing to fear, except when they meet
-    their enemy on the prairie. Their village has a most novel appearance
-    to the eye of a stranger; their lodges are closely grouped together,
-    leaving but just room enough for walking and riding between them; and
-    appear from without, to be built entirely of dirt; but one is surprised
-    when he enters them, to see the neatness, comfort, and spacious
-    dimensions of these earth-covered dwellings. They all have a circular
-    form, and are from forty to sixty feet in diameter. Their foundations
-    are prepared by digging some two feet in the ground, and forming the
-    floor of earth, by levelling the requisite size for<span class="pagenum" id="Page_82">82</span> the lodge. These
-    floors or foundations are all perfectly circular, and varying in size
-    in proportion to the number of inmates, or of the quality or standing
-    of the families which are to occupy them. The superstructure is then
-    produced, by arranging, inside of this circular excavation, firmly
-    fixed in the ground and resting against the bank, a barrier or wall of
-    timbers, some eight or nine inches in diameter, of equal height (about
-    six feet) placed on end, and resting against each other, supported by
-    a formidable embankment of earth raised against them outside; then,
-    resting upon the tops of these timbers or piles, are others of equal
-    size and equal in numbers, of twenty or twenty-five feet in length,
-    resting firmly against each other, and sending their upper or smaller
-    ends towards the centre and top of the lodge; rising at an angle of
-    forty-five degrees to the apex or sky-light, which is about three or
-    four feet in diameter, answering as a chimney and a sky-light at the
-    same time. The roof of the lodge being thus formed, is supported by
-    beams passing around the inner part of the lodge about the middle of
-    these poles or timbers, and themselves upheld by four or five large
-    posts passing down to the floor of the lodge. On the top of, and over
-    the poles forming the roof, is placed a complete mat of willow-boughs,
-    of half a foot or more in thickness, which protects the timbers from
-    the dampness of the earth, with which the lodge is covered from bottom
-    to top, to the depth of two or three feet; and then with a hard or
-    tough clay, which is impervious to water, and which with long use
-    becomes quite hard, and a lounging place for the whole family in
-    pleasant weather—for sage—for wooing lovers—for dogs and all; an airing
-    place—a look-out—a place for gossip and mirth—a seat for the solitary
-    gaze and meditations of the stern warrior, who sits and contemplates
-    the peaceful mirth and happiness that is breathed beneath him, fruits
-    of his hard-fought battles, on fields of desperate combat with
-    bristling Red Men.</p>
-
-  <p>The floors of these dwellings are of earth, but so hardened by use, and
-    swept so clean, and tracked by bare and moccassined feet, that they
-    have almost a polish, and would scarcely soil the whitest linen. In the
-    centre, and immediately under the sky-light (<a href="#i_046"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 46</a>) is the
-    fire-place—a hole of four or five feet in diameter, of a circular form,
-    sunk a foot or more below the surface, and curbed around with stone.
-    Over the fire-place, and suspended from the apex of diverging props or
-    poles, is generally seen the pot or kettle, filled with buffalo meat;
-    and around it are the family, reclining in all the most picturesque
-    attitudes and groups, resting on their buffalo-robes and beautiful mats
-    of rushes. These cabins are so spacious, that they hold from twenty
-    to forty persons—a family and all their connexions. They all sleep on
-    bedsteads similar in form to ours, but generally not quite so high;
-    made of round poles rudely lashed together with thongs. A buffalo skin,
-    fresh stripped from the animal, is stretched across the bottom poles,
-    and about two feet from the floor; which, when it dries, becomes much
-    contracted, and forms a perfect sacking-bottom. The fur side of this
-    skin is placed uppermost, on which they lie with great comfort, with
-    a buffalo-robe<span class="pagenum" id="Page_83">83</span> folded up for a pillow, and others drawn over them
-    instead of blankets. These beds, as far as I have seen them (and I have
-    visited almost every lodge in the village), are uniformly screened with
-    a covering of buffalo or elk skins, oftentimes beautifully dressed
-    and placed over the upright poles or frame, like a suit of curtains;
-    leaving a hole in front, sufficiently spacious for the occupant to pass
-    in and out, to and from his or her bed. Some of these coverings or
-    curtains are exceedingly beautiful, being cut tastefully into fringe,
-    and handsomely ornamented with porcupine’s quills and picture writings
-    or hieroglyphics.</p>
-
-  <p>From the great number of inmates in these lodges, they are necessarily
-    very spacious, and the number of beds considerable. It is no uncommon
-    thing to see these lodges fifty feet in diameter inside (which is an
-    immense room), with a row of these curtained beds extending quite
-    around their sides, being some ten or twelve of them, placed four or
-    five feet apart, and the space between them occupied by a large post,
-    fixed quite firm in the ground, and six or seven feet high, with
-    large wooden pegs or bolts in it, on which are hung and grouped, with
-    a wild and startling taste, the arms and armour of the respective
-    proprietor; consisting of his whitened shield, embossed and emblazoned
-    with the figure of his protecting <em>medicine</em> (or mystery), his
-    bow and quiver, his war-club or battle-axe, his dart or javelin—his
-    tobacco pouch and pipe—his medicine-bag—and his eagle—ermine or raven
-    head-dress; and over all, and on the top of the post (as if placed
-    by some conjuror or Indian magician, to guard and protect the spell
-    of wildness that reigns in this strange place), stands forth and in
-    full relief the head and horns of a buffalo, which is, by a village
-    regulation, owned and possessed by every man in the nation, and hung at
-    the head of his bed, which he uses as a mask when called upon by the
-    chiefs, to join in the buffalo-dance, of which I shall say more in a
-    future epistle.</p>
-
-  <p>This arrangement of beds, of arms, &amp;c., combining the most vivid
-    display and arrangement of colours, of furs, of trinkets—of barbed and
-    glistening points and steel—of mysteries and hocus pocus, together
-    with the sombre and smoked colour of the roof and sides of the
-    lodge; and the wild, and rude and red—the graceful (though uncivil)
-    conversational, garrulous, story-telling and happy, though ignorant
-    and untutored groups, that are smoking their pipes—wooing their
-    sweethearts, and embracing their little ones about their peaceful and
-    endeared fire-sides; together with their pots and kettles, spoons,
-    and other culinary articles of their own manufacture, around them;
-    present altogether, one of the most picturesque scenes to the eye of a
-    stranger, that can be possibly seen; and far more wild and vivid than
-    could ever be imagined.</p>
-
-  <p>Reader, I said these people were garrulous, story-telling and happy;
-    this is true, and literally so; and it belongs to me to establish the
-    fact, and correct the error which seems to have gone forth to the world
-    on this subject.</p>
-
-  <p>As I have before observed, there is no subject that I know of within
-    the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_84">84</span> scope and reach of human wisdom, on which the civilized world in
-    this enlightened age are more incorrectly informed, than upon that
-    of the true manners and customs, and moral condition, rights and
-    abuses, of the North American Indians; and that, as I have also before
-    remarked, chiefly on account of the difficulty of our cultivating a
-    fair and honourable acquaintance with them, and doing them the justice,
-    and ourselves the credit, of a fair and impartial investigation of
-    their true character. The present age of refinement and research has
-    brought every thing else that I know of (and a vast deal more than
-    the most enthusiastic mind ever dreamed of) within the scope and fair
-    estimation of refined intellect and of science; while the wild and
-    timid savage, with his interesting customs and modes has vanished, or
-    his character has become changed, at the approach of the enlightened
-    and intellectual world; who follow him like a phantom for awhile, and
-    in ignorance of his true character at last turn back to the common
-    business and social transactions of life.</p>
-
-  <p>Owing to the above difficulties, which have stood in the way, the world
-    have fallen into many egregious errors with regard to the true modes
-    and meaning of the savage, which I am striving to set forth and correct
-    in the course of these epistles. And amongst them all, there is none
-    more common, nor more entirely erroneous, nor more easily refuted,
-    than the current one, that “the Indian is a sour, morose, reserved and
-    taciturn man.” I have heard this opinion advanced a thousand times and
-    I believed it; but such certainly, is not uniformly nor generally the
-    case.</p>
-
-  <p>I have observed in all my travels amongst the Indian tribes, and
-    more particularly amongst these unassuming people, that they are a
-    far more talkative and conversational race than can easily be seen
-    in the civilized world. This assertion, like many others I shall
-    occasionally make, will somewhat startle the folks at the East, yet
-    it is true. No one can look into the wigwams of these people, or into
-    any little momentary group of them, without being at once struck with
-    the conviction that small-talk, gossip, garrulity, and story-telling,
-    are the leading passions with them, who have little else to do in
-    the world, but to while away their lives in the innocent and endless
-    amusement of the exercise of those talents with which Nature has
-    liberally endowed them, for their mirth and enjoyment.</p>
-
-  <p>One has but to walk or ride about this little town and its environs
-    for a few hours in a pleasant day, and overlook the numerous games and
-    gambols, where their notes and yelps of exultation are unceasingly
-    vibrating in the atmosphere; or peep into their wigwams (and watch
-    the glistening fun that’s beaming from the noses, cheeks, and chins,
-    of the crouching, cross-legged, and prostrate groups around the fire;
-    where the pipe is passed, and jokes and anecdote, and laughter are
-    excessive) to become convinced that it is natural to laugh and be
-    merry. Indeed it would be strange if a race of people like these, who
-    have little else to do or relish in life, should be curtailed in that
-    source of pleasure and amusement; and it<span class="pagenum" id="Page_85">85</span> would be also strange, if a
-    life-time of indulgence and practice in so innocent and productive a
-    mode of amusement, free from the cares and anxieties of business or
-    professions, should not advance them in their modes, and enable them to
-    draw far greater pleasure from such sources, than we in the civilized
-    and business world can possibly feel. If the uncultivated condition of
-    their minds curtails the number of their enjoyments; yet they are free
-    from, and independent of, a thousand cares and jealousies, which arise
-    from mercenary motives in the civilized world; and are yet far a-head
-    of us (in my opinion) in the real and uninterrupted enjoyment of their
-    simple natural faculties.</p>
-
-  <p>They live in a country and in communities, where it is not customary
-    to look forward into the future with concern, for they live without
-    incurring the expenses of life, which are absolutely necessary and
-    unavoidable in the enlightened world; and of course their inclinations
-    and faculties are solely directed to the enjoyment of the present day,
-    without the sober reflections on the past or apprehensions of the
-    future.</p>
-
-  <p>With minds thus unexpanded and uninfluenced by the thousand passions
-    and ambitions of civilized life, it is easy and natural to concentrate
-    their thoughts and their conversation upon the little and trifling
-    occurrences of their lives. They are fond of fun and good cheer, and
-    can laugh easily and heartily at a slight joke, of which their peculiar
-    modes of life furnish them an inexhaustible fund, and enable them to
-    cheer their little circle about the wigwam fire-side with endless
-    laughter and garrulity.</p>
-
-  <p>It may be thought, that I am taking a great deal of pains to establish
-    this fact, and I am dwelling longer upon it than I otherwise should,
-    inasmuch as I am opposing an error that seems to have become current
-    through the world; and which, if it be once corrected, removes a
-    material difficulty, which has always stood in the way of a fair and
-    just estimation of the Indian character. For the purpose of placing
-    the Indian in a proper light before the world, as I hope to do in
-    many respects, it is of importance to me—it is but justice to the
-    savage—and justice to my readers also, that such points should be
-    cleared up as I proceed; and for the world who enquire for correct and
-    just information, they must take my words for the truth, or else come
-    to this country and look for themselves, into these grotesque circles
-    of never-ending laughter and fun, instead of going to Washington
-    City to gaze on the poor embarrassed Indian who is called there by
-    his “Great Father,” to contend with the sophistry of the learned and
-    acquisitive world, in bartering away his lands with the graves and the
-    hunting grounds of his ancestors. There is not the proper place to
-    study the Indian character; yet it is the place where the sycophant and
-    the scribbler go to gaze and frown upon him—to learn his character,
-    and write his history! and because he does not speak, and quaffs the
-    delicious beverage which he receives from white men’s hands, “he’s a
-    speechless brute and a drunkard.” An Indian is a beggar in Washington
-    City, and a white man is<span class="pagenum" id="Page_86">86</span> almost equally so in the Mandan village. An
-    Indian in Washington is mute, is dumb and embarrassed; and so is a
-    white man (and for the very same reasons) in this place—he has nobody
-    to talk to.</p>
-
-  <p>A wild Indian, to reach the civilized world, must needs travel
-    some thousands of miles in vehicles of conveyance, to which he is
-    unaccustomed—through latitudes and longitudes which are new to
-    him—living on food that he is unused to—stared and gazed at by the
-    thousands and tens of thousands whom he cannot talk to—his heart
-    grieving and his body sickening at the exhibition of white men’s wealth
-    and luxuries, which are enjoyed on the land, and over the bones of
-    his ancestors. And at the end of his journey he stands (like a caged
-    animal) to be scanned—to be criticised—to be pitied—and heralded to the
-    world as a mute—as a brute, and a beggar.</p>
-
-  <p>A white man, to reach this village, must travel by steam-boat—by
-    canoes—on horseback and on foot; swim rivers—wade quagmires—fight
-    mosquitoes—patch his moccasins, and patch them again and again, and his
-    breeches; live on meat alone—sleep on the ground the whole way, and
-    think and dream of his friends he has left behind; and when he gets
-    here, half-starved, and half-naked, and more than half sick, he finds
-    himself a beggar for a place to sleep, and for something to eat; a
-    mute amongst thousands who flock about him, to look and to criticise,
-    and to laugh at him for his jaded appearance, and to speak of him as
-    they do of all white men (without distinction) as liars. These people
-    are in the habit of seeing no white men in their country but Traders,
-    and know of no other; deeming us all alike, and receiving us all under
-    the presumption that we come to trade or barter; applying to us all,
-    indiscriminately, the epithet of “liars” or Traders.</p>
-
-  <p>The reader will therefore see, that we mutually suffer in each other’s
-    estimation from the unfortunate ignorance, which distance has chained
-    us in; and (as I can vouch, and the Indian also, who has visited
-    the civilized world) that the historian who would record justly and
-    correctly the character and customs of a people, must go and live among
-    them.</p>
-
-  <hr class="chap">
-  <div class="chapter">
-    <span class="pagenum" id="Page_87">87</span>
-    <h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_12">LETTER—<abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 12.</h2>
-  </div>
-  <div class="subheadc">MANDAN VILLAGE, UPPER MISSOURI.</div>
-
-  <p><span class="smcap">In</span> my last, I gave some account of the village, and the customs, and
-    appearances of this strange people,—and I will now proceed to give
-    further details on that subject.</p>
-
-  <p>I have this morning, perched myself upon the top of one of the
-    earth-covered lodges, which I have before described, and having the
-    whole village beneath and about me (<a href="#i_047"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 47</a>), with its
-    sachems—its warriors—its dogs—and its horses in motion—its medicines
-    (or mysteries) and scalp-poles waving over my head—its piquets—its
-    green fields and prairies, and river in full view, with the din and
-    bustle of the thrilling panorama that is about me. I shall be able, I
-    hope, to give some sketches more to the life than I could have done
-    from any effort of recollection.</p>
-
-  <p>I said that the lodges or wigwams were covered with earth—were of forty
-    or sixty feet in diameter, and so closely grouped that there was but
-    just room enough to walk and ride between them,—that they had a door by
-    which to enter them, and a hole in the top for the admission of light,
-    and for the smoke to escape,—that the inmates were at times grouped
-    upon their tops in conversations and other amusements, &amp;c.; and yet
-    you know not exactly how they look, nor what is the precise appearance
-    of the strange world that is about me. There is really a newness
-    and rudeness in every thing that is to be seen. There are several
-    hundred houses or dwellings about me, and they are purely unique—they
-    are all covered with dirt—the people are all red, and yet distinct
-    from all other red folks I have seen. The horses are wild—every dog
-    is a wolf—the whole moving mass are strangers to me: the living, in
-    everything, carry an air of intractable wildness about them, and the
-    dead are not buried, but dried upon scaffolds.</p>
-
-  <p>The groups of lodges around me present a very curious and pleasing
-    appearance, resembling in shape (more nearly than anything else I
-    can compare them to) so many potash-kettles inverted. On the tops
-    of these are to be seen groups standing and reclining, whose wild
-    and picturesque appearance it would be difficult to describe. Stern
-    warriors, like statues, standing in dignified groups, wrapped in their
-    painted robes, with their heads decked and plumed with quills of the
-    war-eagle; extending their long arms to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_88">88</span> the east or the west, the
-    scenes of their battles, which they are recounting over to each other.
-    In another direction, the wooing lover, softening the heart of his fair
-    Taih-nah-tai-a with the notes of his simple lute. On other lodges, and
-    beyond these, groups are engaged in games of the “moccasin,” or the
-    “platter.” Some are to be seen manufacturing robes and dresses, and
-    others, fatigued with amusements or occupations, have stretched their
-    limbs to enjoy the luxury of sleep, whilst basking in the sun. With
-    all this wild and varied medley of living beings are mixed their dogs,
-    which seem to be so near an Indian’s heart, as almost to constitute a
-    material link of his existence.</p>
-
-  <p>In the centre of the village is an open space, or public area, of 150
-    feet in diameter, and circular in form, which is used for all public
-    games and festivals, shews and exhibitions; and also for their “annual
-    religious ceremonies,” which are soon to take place, and of which I
-    shall hereafter give some account. The lodges around this open space
-    front in, with their doors towards the centre; and in the middle of
-    this circle stands an object of great religious veneration, as I am
-    told, on account of the importance it has in the conduction of those
-    annual religious rites.</p>
-
-  <p>This object is in form of a large hogshead, some eight or ten feet
-    high, made of planks and hoops, containing within it some of their
-    choicest medicines or mysteries, and religiously preserved unhacked or
-    scratched, as a symbol of the “Big Canoe,” as they call it.</p>
-
-  <p>One of the lodges fronting on this circular area, and facing this
-    strange object of their superstition, is called the “Medicine Lodge,”
-    or council house. It is in this sacred building that these wonderful
-    ceremonies, in commemoration of the flood, take place. I am told by the
-    Traders that the cruelties of these scenes are frightful and abhorrent
-    in the extreme; and that this huge wigwam, which is now closed, has
-    been built exclusively for this grand celebration. I am every day
-    reminded of the near approach of the season for this strange affair,
-    and as I have not yet seen any thing of it, I cannot describe it; I
-    know it only from the relations of the Traders who have witnessed parts
-    of it; and their descriptions are of so extraordinary a character, that
-    I would not be willing to describe until I can see for myself,—which
-    will, in all probability, be in a few days.</p>
-
-  <p>In ranging the eye over the village from where I am writing, there
-    is presented to the view the strangest mixture and medley of
-    unintelligible trash (independent of the living beings that are in
-    motion), that can possibly be imagined. On the roofs of the lodges,
-    besides the groups of living, are buffaloes’ skulls, skin canoes,
-    pots and pottery; sleds and sledges—and suspended on poles, erected
-    some twenty feet above the doors of their wigwams, are displayed in a
-    pleasant day, the scalps of warriors, preserved as trophies; and thus
-    proudly exposed as evidence of their warlike deeds. In other parts are
-    raised on poles the warriors’ pure and whitened shields and quivers,
-    with medicine-bags attached; and here and there a sacrifice of red
-    <span class="pagenum" id="Page_89">89</span>cloth, or other costly stuff, offered up to the Great Spirit, over
-    the door of some benignant chief, in humble gratitude for the blessings
-    which he is enjoying. Such is a part of the strange medley that is
-    before and around me; and amidst them and the blue streams of smoke
-    that are rising from the tops of these hundred “coal-pits,” can be
-    seen in distance, the green and boundless, treeless, bushless prairie;
-    and on it, and contiguous to the piquet which encloses the village, a
-    hundred scaffolds on which their “dead live,” as they term it.</p>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>26</i></div>
-  <figure id="i_047">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_047.jpg" alt="Tops of Mandan lodges">
-     <figcaption>47</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <figure class="mt2" id="i_048">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_048.jpg" alt="Mandan cemetery">
-     <figcaption>48</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p>These people never bury the dead, but place the bodies on slight
-    scaffolds just above the reach of human hands, and out of the way of
-    wolves and dogs; and they are there left to moulder and decay. This
-    cemetery, or place of deposite for the dead, is just back of the
-    village, on a level prairie (<a href="#i_048"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 48</a>); and with all its
-    appearances, history, forms, ceremonies, &amp;c. is one of the strangest
-    and most interesting objects to be described in the vicinity of this
-    peculiar race.</p>
-
-  <p>Whenever a person dies in the Mandan village, and the customary honours
-    and condolence are paid to his remains, and the body dressed in its
-    best attire, painted, oiled, feasted, and supplied with bow and quiver,
-    shield, pipe and tobacco—knife, flint and steel, and provisions enough
-    to last him a few days on the journey which he is to perform; a fresh
-    buffalo’s skin, just taken from the animal’s back, is wrapped around
-    the body, and tightly bound and wound with thongs of raw hide from head
-    to foot. Then other robes are soaked in water, till they are quite
-    soft and elastic, which are also bandaged around the body in the same
-    manner, and tied fast with thongs, which are wound with great care and
-    exactness, so as to exclude the action of the air from all parts of the
-    body.</p>
-
-  <p>There is then a separate scaffold erected for it, constructed of four
-    upright posts, a little higher than human hands can reach; and on the
-    tops of these are small poles passing around from one post to the
-    others; across which a number of willow-rods just strong enough to
-    support the body, which is laid upon them on its back, with its feet
-    carefully presented towards the rising sun.</p>
-
-  <p>There are a great number of these bodies resting exactly in a similar
-    way; excepting in some instances where a chief, or medicine-man, may
-    be seen with a few yards of scarlet or blue cloth spread over his
-    remains, as a mark of public respect and esteem. Some hundreds of these
-    bodies may be seen reposing in this manner in this curious place, which
-    the Indians call, “the village of the dead;” and the traveller, who
-    visits this country to study and learn, will not only be struck with
-    the novel appearance of the scene; but if he will give attention to
-    the respect and devotions that are paid to this sacred place, he will
-    draw many a moral deduction that will last him through life: he will
-    learn, at least, that filial, conjugal, and paternal affection are not
-    necessarily the results of civilization; but that the Great Spirit
-    has given them to man in his native state; and that the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_90">90</span> spices and
-    improvements of the enlightened world have never refined upon them.</p>
-
-  <p>There is not a day in the year in which one may not see in this place
-    evidences of this fact, that will wring tears from his eyes, and kindle
-    in his bosom a spark of respect and sympathy for the poor Indian, if
-    he never felt it before. Fathers, mothers, wives, and children, may
-    be seen lying under these scaffolds, prostrated upon the ground, with
-    their faces in the dirt, howling forth incessantly the most piteous
-    and heart-broken cries and lamentations for the misfortunes of their
-    kindred; tearing their hair—cutting their flesh with their knives,
-    and doing other penance to appease the spirits of the dead, whose
-    misfortunes they attribute to some sin or omission of their own, for
-    which they sometimes inflict the most excruciating self-torture.</p>
-
-  <p>When the scaffolds on which the bodies rest, decay and fall to the
-    ground, the nearest relations having buried the rest of the bones,
-    take the skulls, which are perfectly bleached and purified, and place
-    them in circles of an hundred or more on the prairie—placed at equal
-    distances apart (some eight or nine inches from each other), with the
-    faces all looking to the centre; where they are religiously protected
-    and preserved in their precise positions from year to year, as objects
-    of religious and affectionate veneration (<a href="#i_048"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 48</a>).</p>
-
-  <p>There are several of these “Golgothas” or circles of twenty or thirty
-    feet in diameter, and in the centre of each ring or circle is a
-    little mound of three feet high, on which uniformly rest two buffalo
-    skulls (a male and female); and in the centre of the little mound is
-    erected a “medicine pole,” about twenty feet high, supporting many
-    curious articles of mystery and superstition, which they suppose have
-    the power of guarding and protecting this sacred arrangement. Here
-    then, to this strange place do these people again resort, to evince
-    their further affections for the dead—not in groans and lamentations
-    however, for several years have cured the anguish; but fond affections
-    and endearments are here renewed, and conversations are here held and
-    cherished with the dead.</p>
-
-  <p>Each one of these skulls is placed upon a bunch of wild sage, which
-    has been pulled and placed under it. The wife knows (by some mark or
-    resemblance) the skull of her husband or her child, which lies in this
-    group; and there seldom passes a day that she does not visit it, with
-    a dish of the best cooked food that her wigwam affords, which she sets
-    before the skull at night, and returns for the dish in the morning.
-    As soon as it is discovered that the sage on which the skull rests is
-    beginning to decay, the woman cuts a fresh bunch, and places the skull
-    carefully upon it, removing that which was under it.</p>
-
-  <p>Independent of the above-named duties, which draw the women to this
-    spot, they visit it from inclination, and linger upon it to hold
-    converse and company with the dead. There is scarcely an hour in a
-    pleasant day, but<span class="pagenum" id="Page_91">91</span> more or less of these women may be seen sitting or
-    laying by the skull of their child or husband—talking to it in the most
-    pleasant and endearing language that they can use (as they were wont
-    to do in former days) and seemingly getting an answer back. It is not
-    unfrequently the case, that the woman brings her needle-work with her,
-    spending the greater part of the day, sitting by the side of the skull
-    of her child, chatting incessantly with it, while she is embroidering
-    or garnishing a pair of moccasins; and perhaps, overcome with fatigue,
-    falls asleep, with her arms encircled around it, forgetting herself for
-    hours; after which she gathers up her things and returns to the village.</p>
-
-  <p>There is something exceedingly interesting and impressive in these
-    scenes, which are so strikingly dissimilar, and yet within a few rods
-    of each other; the one is the place where they pour forth the frantic
-    anguish of their souls—and afterwards pay their visits to the other, to
-    jest and gossip with the dead.</p>
-
-  <p>The great variety of shapes and characters exhibited in these groups
-    of crania, render them a very interesting study for the craniologist
-    and phrenologist; but I apprehend that it would be a matter of great
-    difficulty (if not of impossibility) to procure them at this time, for
-    the use and benefit of the scientific world.</p>
-
-  <hr class="chap">
-  <div class="chapter">
-    <span class="pagenum" id="Page_92">92</span>
-    <h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_13">LETTER—<abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 13.</h2>
-  </div>
-  <div class="subheadc">MANDAN VILLAGE, UPPER MISSOURI.</div>
-
-  <p><span class="smcap">In</span> several of my former Letters I have given sketches of the village,
-    and some few of the customs of these peculiar people; and I have many
-    more yet in store; some of which will induce the readers to laugh, and
-    others almost dispose them to weep. But at present, I drop them, and
-    introduce a few of the wild and gentlemanly Mandans themselves; and
-    first, Ha-na-tah-nu-mauh, the wolf chief (<a href="#i_049"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 49</a>). This
-    man is head-chief of the nation, and familiarly known by the name of
-    “Chef de Loup,” as the French Traders call him; a haughty, austere, and
-    overbearing man, respected and feared by his people rather than loved.
-    The tenure by which this man holds his office, is that by which the
-    head-chiefs of most of the tribes claim, that of inheritance. It is
-    a general, though not an infallible rule amongst the numerous tribes
-    of North American Indians, that the office of chief belongs to the
-    eldest son of a chief; provided he shews himself, by his conduct, to be
-    equally worthy of it as any other in the nation: making it hereditary
-    on a very proper condition—in default of which requisites, or others
-    which may happen, the office is elective.</p>
-
-  <p>The dress of this chief was one of great extravagance, and some beauty;
-    manufactured of skins, and a great number of quills of the raven,
-    forming his stylish head-dress.</p>
-
-  <p>The next and second chief of the tribe, is Mah-to-toh-pa (the four
-    bears). This extraordinary man, though second in office is undoubtedly
-    the first and most popular man in the nation. Free, generous, elegant
-    and gentlemanly in his deportment—handsome, brave and valiant; wearing
-    a robe on his back, with the history of his battles emblazoned on it;
-    which would fill a book of themselves, if properly translated. This,
-    readers, is the most extraordinary man, perhaps, who lives at this day,
-    in the atmosphere of Nature’s noblemen; and I shall certainly tell you
-    more of him anon.</p>
-
-  <p>After him, there are Mah-tahp-ta-ha, he who rushes through the
-    middle (<a href="#i_050"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 50</a>); Seehk-hee-da, the mouse-coloured
-    feather (<a href="#i_050"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 51</a>); San-ja-ka-ko-kah (the deceiving wolf);
-    Mah-to-he-ha (the old bear), and others, distinguished as chiefs and
-    warriors—and there are belles also; such as Mi-neek-e-sunk-te-ca, the
-    mink (<a href="#i_052"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 53</a>); and the little gray-haired Sha-ko-ka, mint
-    (<a href="#i_052"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 52</a>); and fifty others, who are famous for
-    <span class="pagenum" id="Page_93">93</span>their
-    conquests, not with the bow or the javelin, but with their small black
-    eyes, which shoot out from under their unfledged brows, and pierce the
-    boldest, fiercest chieftain to the heart.</p>
-
-  <figure class="mt2 illowp75" id="i_049">
-    <div class="plate"><i>27</i></div>
-    <img src="images/i_049.jpg" alt="Ha-na-tah-nu-mauh, Mandan chief">
-     <figcaption>49</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>28</i></div>
-  <figure id="i_050">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_050.jpg" alt="Mah-tahp-ta-ha and Seehk-hee-da">
-    <figcaption><span class="col50">50</span><span class="col50">51</span></figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <figure class="mt2" id="i_052">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_052.jpg" alt="Sha-ko-ka and Mi-neek-e-sunk-te-ca">
-    <figcaption><span class="col50">52</span><span class="col50">53</span></figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p>The Mandans are certainly a very interesting and pleasing people in
-    their personal appearance and manners; differing in many respects, both
-    in looks and customs, from all other tribes which I have seen. They
-    are not a warlike people; for they seldom, if ever, carry war into
-    their enemies’ country; but when invaded, shew their valour and courage
-    to be equal to that of any people on earth. Being a small tribe, and
-    unable to contend on the wide prairies with the Sioux and other roaming
-    tribes, who are ten times more numerous; they have very judiciously
-    located themselves in a permanent village, which is strongly fortified,
-    and ensures their preservation. By this means they have advanced
-    further in the arts of manufacture; have supplied their lodges more
-    abundantly with the comforts, and even luxuries of life, than any
-    Indian nation I know of. The consequence of this is, that this tribe
-    have taken many steps ahead of other tribes in manners and refinements
-    (if I may be allowed to apply the word refinement to Indian life); and
-    are therefore familiarly (and correctly) denominated, by the Traders
-    and others, who have been amongst them, “the polite and friendly
-    Mandans.”</p>
-
-  <p>There is certainly great justice in the remark; and so forcibly have
-    I been struck with the peculiar ease and elegance of these people,
-    together with the diversity of complexions, the various colours of
-    their hair and eyes; the singularity of their language, and their
-    peculiar and unaccountable customs, that I am fully convinced that
-    they have sprung from some other origin than that of the other North
-    American tribes, or that they are an amalgam of natives with some
-    civilized race.</p>
-
-  <p>Here arises a question of very great interest and importance for
-    discussion; and, after further familiarity with their character,
-    customs, and traditions, if I forget it not, I will eventually give it
-    further consideration. Suffice it then, for the present, that their
-    <em>personal appearance</em> alone, independent of their modes and
-    customs, pronounces them at once, as more or less, than savage.</p>
-
-  <p>A stranger in the Mandan village is first struck with the different
-    shades of complexion, and various colours of hair which he sees in a
-    crowd about him; and is at once almost disposed to exclaim that “these
-    are not Indians.”</p>
-
-  <p>There are a great many of these people whose complexions appear as
-    light as half breeds; and amongst the women particularly, there are
-    many whose skins are almost white, with the most pleasing symmetry
-    and proportion of features; with hazel, with grey, and with blue
-    eyes,—with mildness and sweetness of expression, and excessive modesty
-    of demeanour, which render them exceedingly pleasing and beautiful.</p>
-
-  <p>Why this diversity of complexion I cannot tell, nor can they
-    themselves<span class="pagenum" id="Page_94">94</span> account for it. Their traditions, so far as I have yet
-    learned them, afford us no information of their having had any
-    knowledge of white men before the visit of Lewis and Clarke, made to
-    their village thirty-three years ago. Since that time there have been
-    but very few visits from white men to this place, and surely not enough
-    to have changed the complexions and the customs of a nation. And I
-    recollect perfectly well that Governor Clarke told me, before I started
-    for this place, that I would find the Mandans a strange people and half
-    white.</p>
-
-  <p>The diversity in the colour of hair is also equally as great as that
-    in the complexion; for in a numerous group of these people (and more
-    particularly amongst the females, who never take pains to change its
-    natural colour, as the men often do), there may be seen every shade and
-    colour of hair that can be seen in our own country, with the exception
-    of red or auburn, which is not to be found.</p>
-
-  <p>And there is yet one more strange and unaccountable peculiarity, which
-    can probably be seen nowhere else on earth; nor on any rational grounds
-    accounted for,—other than it is a freak or order of Nature, for which
-    she has not seen fit to assign a reason. There are very many, of both
-    sexes, and of every age, from infancy to manhood and old age, with hair
-    of a bright silvery grey; and in some instances almost perfectly white.</p>
-
-  <p>This singular and eccentric appearance is much oftener seen among the
-    women than it is with the men; for many of the latter who have it,
-    seem ashamed of it, and artfully conceal it, by filling their hair
-    with glue and black and red earth. The women, on the other hand, seem
-    proud of it, and display it often in an almost incredible profusion,
-    which spreads over their shoulders and falls as low as the knee. I have
-    ascertained, on a careful enquiry, that about one in ten or twelve of
-    the whole tribe are what the French call “cheveux gris,” or greyhairs;
-    and that this strange and unaccountable phenomenon is not the result of
-    disease or habit; but that it is unquestionably a hereditary character
-    which runs in families, and indicates no inequality in disposition or
-    intellect. And by passing this hair through my hands, as I often have,
-    I have found it uniformly to be as coarse and harsh as a horse’s mane;
-    differing materially from the hair of other colours, which amongst the
-    Mandans, is generally as fine and as soft as silk.</p>
-
-  <p>The reader will at once see, by the above facts, that there is enough
-    upon the faces and heads of these people to stamp them peculiar,—when
-    he meets them in the heart of this almost boundless wilderness,
-    presenting such diversities of colour in the complexion and hair; when
-    he knows from what he has seen, and what he has read, that all other
-    primitive tribes known in America, are dark copper-coloured, with jet
-    black hair.</p>
-
-  <p>From these few facts alone, the reader will see that I am amongst a
-    strange and interesting people, and know how to pardon me, if I lead
-    him through a maze of novelty and mysteries to the knowledge of a
-    strange, yet kind and hospitable, people, whose fate, like that of all
-    their race is sealed;—<span class="pagenum" id="Page_95">95</span> whose doom is fixed, to live just long enough
-    to be imperfectly known, and then to fall before the fell disease or
-    sword of civilizing devastation.</p>
-
-  <p>The stature of the Mandans is rather below the ordinary size of
-    man, with beautiful symmetry of form and proportion, and wonderful
-    suppleness and elasticity; they are pleasingly erect and graceful,
-    both in their walk and their attitudes; and the hair of the men,
-    which generally spreads over their backs, falling down to the hams,
-    and sometimes to the ground, is divided into plaits or slabs of two
-    inches in width, and filled with a profusion of glue and red earth or
-    vermilion, at intervals of an inch or two, which becoming very hard,
-    remains in and unchanged from year to year.</p>
-
-  <p>This mode of dressing the hair is curious, and gives to the Mandans the
-    most singular appearance. The hair of the men is uniformly all laid
-    over from the forehead backwards; carefully kept above and resting on
-    the ear, and thence falling down over the back, in these flattened
-    bunches, and painted red, extending oftentimes quite on to the calf
-    of the leg, and sometimes in such profusion as almost to conceal the
-    whole figure from the person walking behind them. In the portrait of
-    San-ja-ka-ko-kah (the deceiving wolf, <a href="#i_054"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 54</a>), where he is
-    represented at full length, with several others of his family around
-    him in a group, there will be seen a fair illustration of these and
-    other customs of these people.</p>
-
-  <p>The hair of the women is also worn as long as they can possibly
-    cultivate it, oiled very often, which preserves on it a beautiful gloss
-    and shows its natural colour. They often braid it in two large plaits,
-    one falling down just back of the ear, on each side of the head; and
-    on any occasion which requires them to “put on their best looks,” they
-    pass their fingers through it, drawing it out of braid, and spreading
-    it over their shoulders. The Mandan women observe strictly the same
-    custom, which I observed amongst the Crows and Blackfeet (and, in fact,
-    all other tribes I have seen, without a single exception), of parting
-    the hair on the forehead, and always keeping the crease or separation
-    filled with vermilion or other red paint. This is one of the very few
-    little (and apparently trivial) customs which I have found amongst the
-    Indians, without being able to assign any cause for it, other than that
-    “they are Indians,” and that this is an Indian fashion.</p>
-
-  <p>In mourning, like the Crows and most other tribes the women are obliged
-    to crop their hair all off; and the usual term of that condolence is
-    until the hair has grown again to its former length.</p>
-
-  <p>When a man mourns for the death of a near relation the case is quite
-    different; his long, valued tresses, are of much greater importance,
-    and only a lock or two can be spared. Just enough to tell of his grief
-    to his friends, without destroying his most valued ornament, is doing
-    just reverence and respect to the dead.</p>
-
-  <p>To repeat what I have said before, the Mandans are a pleasing and
-    friendly race of people, of whom it is proverbial amongst the Traders
-    and all who ever have known them that their treatment of white men
-    in their<span class="pagenum" id="Page_96">96</span> country has been friendly and kind ever since their first
-    acquaintance with them—they have ever met and received them, on the
-    prairie or in their villages, with hospitality and honour.</p>
-
-  <p>They are handsome, straight and elegant in their forms—not tall,
-    but quick and graceful; easy and polite in their manners, neat in
-    their persons and beautifully clad. When I say “neat in person and
-    beautifully clad,” however, I do not intend my readers to understand
-    that such is the case with them all, for among them and most other
-    tribes, as with the enlightened world, there are different grades of
-    society—those who care but little for their personal appearance, and
-    those who take great pains to please themselves and their friends.
-    Amongst this class of personages, such as chiefs and braves, or
-    warriors of distinction, and their families, and dandies or exquisites
-    (a class of beings of whom I shall take due time to speak in a future
-    Letter), the strictest regard to decency, and cleanliness and elegance
-    of dress is observed; and there are few people, perhaps, who take more
-    pains to keep their persons neat and cleanly than they do.</p>
-
-  <p>At the distance of half a mile or so above the village, is the
-    customary place where the women and girls resort every morning in the
-    summer months, to bathe in the river. To this spot they repair by
-    hundreds, every morning at sunrise, where, on a beautiful beach, they
-    can be seen running and glistening in the sun, whilst they are playing
-    their innocent gambols and leaping into the stream. They all learn to
-    swim well, and the poorest swimmer amongst them will dash fearlessly
-    into the boiling and eddying current of the Missouri, and cross it with
-    perfect ease. At the distance of a quarter of a mile back from the
-    river, extends a terrace or elevated prairie, running north from the
-    village, and forming a kind of semi-circle around this bathing-place;
-    and on this terrace, which is some twenty or thirty feet higher than
-    the meadow between it and the river, are stationed every morning
-    several sentinels, with their bows and arrows in hand, to guard and
-    protect this sacred ground from the approach of boys or men from any
-    directions.</p>
-
-  <p>At a little distance below the village, also, is the place where
-    the men and boys go to bathe and learn to swim. After this morning
-    ablution, they return to their village, wipe their limbs dry, and use a
-    profusion of bear’s grease through their hair and over their bodies.</p>
-
-  <p>The art of swimming is known to all the American Indians; and perhaps
-    no people on earth have taken more pains to learn it, nor any who turn
-    it to better account. There certainly are no people whose avocations
-    of life more often call for the use of their limbs in this way; as
-    many of the tribes spend their lives on the shores of our vast lakes
-    and rivers, paddling about from their childhood in their fragile bark
-    canoes, which are liable to continual accidents, which often throw the
-    Indian upon his natural resources for the preservation of his life.</p>
-
-  <p>There are many times also, when out upon their long marches in the
-    prosecution of their almost continued warfare, when it becomes
-    necessary to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_97">97</span> plunge into and swim across the wildest streams and
-    rivers, at times when they have no canoes or craft in which to cross
-    them. I have as yet seen no tribe where this art is neglected. It is
-    learned at a very early age by both sexes, and enables the strong and
-    hardy muscles of the squaws to take their child upon the back, and
-    successfully to pass any river that lies in their way.</p>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>29</i></div>
-  <figure id="i_054">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_054.jpg" alt="San-ja-ka-ko-kah and family">
-     <figcaption>54</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p>The mode of swimming amongst the Mandans, as well as amongst most of
-    the other tribes, is quite different from that practiced in those parts
-    of the civilized world, which I have had the pleasure yet to visit. The
-    Indian, instead of parting his hands simultaneously under the chin, and
-    making the stroke outward, in a horizontal direction, causing thereby
-    a serious strain upon the chest, throws his body alternately upon the
-    left and the right side, raising one arm entirely above the water and
-    reaching as far forward as he can, to dip it, whilst his whole weight
-    and force are spent upon the one that is passing under him, and like a
-    paddle propelling him along; whilst this arm is making a half circle,
-    and is being raised out of the water behind him, the opposite arm is
-    describing a similar arch in the air over his head, to be dipped in the
-    water as far as he can reach before him, with the hand turned under,
-    forming a sort of bucket, to act most effectively as it passes in its
-    turn underneath him.</p>
-
-  <p>By this bold and powerful mode of swimming, which may want the grace
-    that many would wish to see, I am quite sure, from the experience I
-    have had, that much of the fatigue and strain upon the breast and spine
-    are avoided, and that a man will preserve his strength and his breath
-    much longer in this alternate and rolling motion, than he can in the
-    usual mode of swimming, in the polished world.</p>
-
-  <p>In addition to the modes of bathing which I have above described,
-    the Mandans have another, which is a much greater luxury, and often
-    resorted to by the sick, but far more often by the well and sound, as
-    a matter of luxury only, or perhaps for the purpose of hardening their
-    limbs and preparing them for the thousand exposures and vicissitudes
-    of life to which they are continually liable. I allude to their vapour
-    baths, or <em>sudatories</em>, of which each village has several, and
-    which seem to be a kind of public property—accessible to all, and
-    resorted to by all, male and female, old and young, sick and well.</p>
-
-  <p>In every Mandan lodge is to be seen a crib or basket, much in the shape
-    of a bathing-tub, curiously woven with willow boughs, and sufficiently
-    large to receive any person of the family in a reclining or recumbent
-    posture; which, when any one is to take a bath, is carried by the squaw
-    to the sudatory for the purpose, and brought back to the wigwam again
-    after it has been used.</p>
-
-  <p>These sudatories are always near the village, above or below it, on
-    the bank of the river. They are generally built of skins (in form of
-    a Crow or Sioux lodge which I have before described), covered with
-    buffalo skins<span class="pagenum" id="Page_98">98</span> sewed tight together, with a kind of furnace in the
-    centre; or in other words, in the centre of the lodge are two walls of
-    stone about six feet long and two and a half apart, and about three
-    feet high; across and over this space, between the two walls, are laid
-    a number of round sticks, on which the bathing crib is placed (vide
-    <a href="#i_071"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 71</a>). Contiguous to the lodge, and outside of it, is a
-    little furnace something similar, in the side of the bank, where the
-    woman kindles a hot fire, and heats to a red heat a number of large
-    stones, which are kept at these places for this particular purpose; and
-    having them all in readiness, she goes home or sends word to inform her
-    husband or other one who is waiting, that all is ready; when he makes
-    his appearance entirely naked, though with a large buffalo robe wrapped
-    around him. He then enters the lodge and places himself in the crib or
-    basket, either on his back or in a sitting posture (the latter of which
-    is generally preferred), with his back towards the door of the lodge;
-    when the squaw brings in a large stone red hot, between two sticks
-    (lashed together somewhat in the form of a pair of tongs) and, placing
-    it under him, throws cold water upon it, which raises a profusion of
-    vapour about him. He is at once enveloped in a cloud of steam, and a
-    woman or child will sit at a little distance and continue to dash water
-    upon the stone, whilst the matron of the lodge is out, and preparing to
-    make her appearance with another heated stone: or he will sit and dip
-    from a wooden bowl, with a ladle made of the mountain-sheep’s horn, and
-    throw upon the heated stones, with his own hands, the water which he is
-    drawing through his lungs and pores, in the next moment, in the most
-    delectable and exhilarating vapours, as it distils through the mat of
-    wild sage and other medicinal and aromatic herbs, which he has strewed
-    over the bottom of his basket, and on which he reclines.</p>
-
-  <p>During all this time the lodge is shut perfectly tight, and he quaffs
-    this delicious and renovating draught to his lungs with deep drawn
-    sighs, and with extended nostrils, until he is drenched in the most
-    profuse degree of perspiration that can be produced; when he makes a
-    kind of strangled signal, at which the lodge is opened, and he darts
-    forth with the speed of a frightened deer, and plunges headlong into
-    the river, from which he instantly escapes again, wraps his robe around
-    him and “leans” as fast as possible for home. Here his limbs are wiped
-    dry, and wrapped close and tight within the fur of the buffalo robes,
-    in which he takes his nap, with his feet to the fire; then oils his
-    limbs and hair with bear’s grease, dresses and plumes himself for a
-    visit—a feast—a parade, or a council; or slicks down his long hair,
-    and rubs his oiled limbs to a polish, with a piece of soft buckskin,
-    prepared to join in games of ball or Tchung-kee.</p>
-
-  <p>Such is the sudatory or the vapour bath of the Mandans, and as I before
-    observed, it is resorted to both as an every-day luxury by those who
-    have the time and energy or industry to indulge in it; and also used
-    by the sick as a remedy for nearly all the diseases which are known
-    amongst them.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_99">99</span> Fevers are very rare, and in fact almost unknown amongst
-    these people: but in the few cases of fever which have been known, this
-    treatment has been applied, and without the fatal consequences which
-    we would naturally predict. The greater part of their diseases are
-    inflammatory rheumatisms, and other chronic diseases; and for these,
-    this mode of treatment, with their modes of life, does admirably well.
-    This custom is similar amongst nearly all of these Missouri Indians,
-    and amongst the Pawnees, Omahas, and Punchas and other tribes, who have
-    suffered with the small-pox (the dread destroyer of the Indian race),
-    this mode was practiced by the poor creatures, who fled by hundreds
-    to the river’s edge, and by hundreds died before they could escape
-    from the waves, into which they had plunged in the heat and rage of a
-    burning fever. Such will yet be the scourge, and such the misery of
-    these poor unthinking people, and each tribe to the Rocky Mountains,
-    as it has been with every tribe between here and the Atlantic
-    Ocean. White men—whiskey—tomahawks—scalping knives—guns, powder and
-    ball—small-pox—debauchery—extermination.</p>
-
-  <hr class="chap">
-  <div class="chapter">
-    <span class="pagenum" id="Page_100">100</span>
-    <h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_14">LETTER—<abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 14.</h2>
-  </div>
-  <div class="subheadc">MANDAN VILLAGE, UPPER MISSOURI.</div>
-
-  <p>The Mandans in many instances dress very neatly, and some of them
-    splendidly. As they are in their native state, their dresses are all
-    of their own manufacture; and of course, altogether made of skins of
-    different animals belonging to those regions. There is, certainly,
-    a reigning and striking similarity of costume amongst most of the
-    North Western tribes; and I cannot say that the dress of the Mandans
-    is decidedly distinct from that of the Crows or the Blackfeet, the
-    Assinneboins or the Sioux; yet there are modes of stitching or
-    embroidering, in every tribe, which may at once enable the traveller,
-    who is familiar with their modes, to detect or distinguish the dress
-    of any tribe. These differences consist generally in the fashions of
-    constructing the head-dress, or of garnishing their dresses with the
-    porcupine quills, which they use in great profusion.</p>
-
-  <p>Amongst so many different and distinct nations, always at war with
-    each other, and knowing nothing at all of each other’s languages; and
-    amongst whom, fashions in dress seldom if ever change; it may seem
-    somewhat strange that we should find these people so nearly following,
-    or imitating each other, in the forms and modes of their dress and
-    ornaments. This must however, be admitted, and I think may be accounted
-    for in a manner, without raising the least argument in favour of the
-    theory of their having all sprung from one stock or one family; for in
-    their continual warfare, when chiefs or warriors fall, their clothes
-    and weapons usually fall into the possession of the victors, who wear
-    them; and the rest of the tribe would naturally more or less often
-    copy from or imitate them; and so also in their repeated councils or
-    treaties of peace, such articles of dress and other manufactures are
-    customarily exchanged, which are equally adopted by the other tribe;
-    and consequently, eventually lead to the similarity which we find
-    amongst the modes of dress, &amp;c. of the different tribes.</p>
-
-  <p>The tunic or shirt of the Mandan men is very similar in shape to that
-    of the Blackfeet—made of two skins of deer or mountain-sheep, strung
-    with scalp-locks, beads, and ermine. The leggings, like those of the
-    other tribes, of whom I have spoken, are made of deer skins, and shaped
-    to fit the leg, embroidered with porcupine quills, and fringed with
-    scalps from their enemies heads. Their moccasins are made of buckskin,
-    and neatly ornamented<span class="pagenum" id="Page_101">101</span> with porcupine quills—over their shoulders (or
-    in other words, over one shoulder and passing under the other), they
-    very gracefully wear a robe from the young buffalo’s back, oftentimes
-    cut down to about half its original size, to make it handy and easy
-    for use. Many of these are also fringed on one side with scalp-locks;
-    and the flesh side of the skin curiously ornamented with pictured
-    representations of the creditable events and battles of their lives.</p>
-
-  <p>Their head-dresses are of various sorts, and many of them exceedingly
-    picturesque and handsome; generally made of war-eagles’ or ravens
-    quills and ermine. These are the most costly part of an Indian’s dress
-    in all this country, owing to the difficulty of procuring the quills
-    and the fur. The war-eagle being the “<i>rara avis</i>,” and the ermine
-    the rarest animal that is found in the country. The tail of a war-eagle
-    in this village, provided it is a perfect one, containing some six or
-    eight quills, which are denominated first-rate plumes, and suitable to
-    arrange in a head-dress, will purchase a tolerable good horse (horses,
-    however, are much cheaper here than they are in most other countries).
-    I have had abundant opportunities of learning the great value which
-    these people sometimes attach to such articles of dress and ornament,
-    as I have been purchasing a great many, which I intend to exhibit in
-    my Gallery of Indian Paintings, that the world may examine them for
-    themselves, and thereby be enabled to judge of the fidelity of my
-    works, and the ingenuity of Indian manufactures.</p>
-
-  <p>In these purchases I have often been surprised at the prices demanded
-    by them; and perhaps I could not recite a better instance of the kind,
-    than one which occurred here a few days since:—One of the chiefs, whom
-    I had painted at full length, in a beautiful costume, with head-dress
-    of war-eagles’ quills and ermine, extending quite down to his feet;
-    and whom I was soliciting for the purchase of his dress complete, was
-    willing to sell to me all but the head-dress; saying, that “he could
-    not part with that, as he would never be able to get quills and ermine
-    of so good a quality to make another like it.” I agreed with him,
-    however, for the rest of the dress, and importuned him, from day to
-    day, for the head-dress, until he at length replied, that, if I must
-    have it, he must have two horses for it; the bargain was instantly
-    struck—the horses were procured of the Traders at twenty-five dollars
-    each, and the head-dress secured for my Collection.</p>
-
-  <p>There is occasionally, a chief or a warrior of so extraordinary renown,
-    that he is allowed to wear horns on his head-dress, which give to his
-    aspect a strange and majestic effect. These are made of about a third
-    part of the horn of a buffalo bull; the horn having been split from end
-    to end, and a third part of it taken and shaved thin and light, and
-    highly polished. These are attached to the top of the head-dress on
-    each side, in the same place that they rise and stand on the head of
-    a buffalo; rising out of a mat<span class="pagenum" id="Page_102">102</span> of ermine skins and tails, which hang
-    over the top of the head-dress, somewhat in the form that the large and
-    profuse locks of hair hang and fall over the head of a buffalo bull.
-    See head-dress in <span class="smcap">plates</span> <a href="#i_014">14</a>, <a href="#i_064">64</a>, and <a href="#i_091">91</a>, of three different
-    tribes.</p>
-
-  <p>The same custom I have found observed amongst the Sioux,—the Crows—the
-    Blackfeet and Assinneboins, and it is one of so striking a character
-    as needs a few more words of observation. There is a peculiar meaning
-    or importance (in their estimation) to this and many other curious and
-    unaccountable appearances in the habits of Indians, upon which the
-    world generally look as things that are absurd and ridiculous, merely
-    because they are beyond the world’s comprehension, or because we do not
-    stop to enquire or learn their uses or meaning.</p>
-
-  <p>I find that the principal cause why we underrate and despise the
-    savage, is generally because we do not understand him; and the reason
-    why we are ignorant of him and his modes, is that we do not stop to
-    investigate—the world have been too much in the habit of looking
-    upon him as altogether inferior—as a beast, a brute; and unworthy
-    of more than a passing notice. If they stop long enough to form
-    an acquaintance, it is but to take advantage of his ignorance and
-    credulities—to rob him of the wealth and resources of his country;—to
-    make him drunk with whiskey, and visit him with abuses which in his
-    ignorance he never thought of. By this method his first visitors
-    entirely overlook and never understand the meaning of his thousand
-    interesting and characteristic customs; and at the same time, by
-    changing his native modes and habits of life, blot them out from the
-    view of the enquiring world for ever.</p>
-
-  <p>It is from the observance of a thousand little and apparently trivial
-    modes and tricks of Indian life, that the Indian character must be
-    learned; and, in fact, it is just the same with us if the subject were
-    reversed: excepting that the system of civilized life would furnish
-    ten apparently useless and ridiculous trifles to one which is found in
-    Indian life; and at least twenty to one which are purely nonsensical
-    and unmeaning.</p>
-
-  <p>The civilized world look upon a group of Indians, in their classic
-    dress, with their few and simple oddities, all of which have their
-    moral or meaning, and laugh at them excessively, because they are not
-    like ourselves—we ask, “why do the silly creatures wear such great
-    bunches of quills on their heads?—Such loads and streaks of paint upon
-    their bodies—and bear’s grease? abominable!” and a thousand other
-    equally silly questions, without ever stopping to think that Nature
-    taught them to do so—and that they all have some definite importance
-    or meaning which an Indian could explain to us at once, if he were
-    asked and felt disposed to do so—that each quill in his head stood,
-    in the eyes of his whole tribe, as the symbol of an enemy who had
-    fallen by his hand—that every streak of red paint covered a wound
-    which he had got in honourable combat—and that the bear’s grease with
-    which he carefully anoints his body every morning, from<span class="pagenum" id="Page_103">103</span> head to foot,
-    cleanses and purifies the body, and protects his skin from the bite of
-    mosquitoes, and at the same time preserves him from colds and coughs
-    which are usually taken through the pores of the skin.</p>
-
-  <p>At the same time, an Indian looks among the civilized world, no doubt,
-    with equal, if not much greater, astonishment, at our apparently, as
-    well as <em>really</em>, ridiculous customs and fashions; but he laughs
-    not, nor ridicules, nor questions,—for his natural good sense and good
-    manners forbid him,—until he is reclining about the fire-side of his
-    wigwam companions, when he vents forth his just criticisms upon the
-    learned world, who are a rich and just theme for Indian criticism and
-    Indian gossip.</p>
-
-  <p>An Indian will not ask a white man the reason why he does not oil his
-    skin with bears’ grease, or why he does not paint his body—or why he
-    wears a hat on his head, or why he has buttons on the back part of
-    his coat, where they never can be used—or why he wears whiskers, and
-    a shirt collar up to his eyes—or why he sleeps with his head towards
-    the fire instead of his feet—why he walks with his toes out instead of
-    turning them in—or why it is that hundreds of white folks will flock
-    and crowd round a table to see an Indian eat—but he will go home to his
-    wigwam fire-side, and “make the welkin ring” with jokes and fun upon
-    the ignorance and folly of the knowing world.</p>
-
-  <p>A wild Indian thrown into the civilized atmosphere will see a man
-    occasionally moving in society, wearing a cocked hat; and another with
-    a laced coat and gold or silver epaulettes upon his shoulders, without
-    knowing or enquiring the meaning of them, or the objects for which they
-    are worn. Just so a white man travels amongst a wild and untaught tribe
-    of Indians, and sees occasionally one of them parading about their
-    village, with a head-dress of eagles’ quills and ermine, and elevated
-    above it a pair of beautifully polished buffalo horns; and just as
-    ignorant is he also, of their meaning or importance; and more so, for
-    the first will admit the presumption that epaulettes and cocked hats
-    amongst the civilized world, are made for some important purpose,—but
-    the latter will presume that horns on an Indian’s head are nothing more
-    nor less (nor can they be in their estimation), than Indian nonsense
-    and stupidity.</p>
-
-  <p>This brings us to the “corned crest” again, and if the poor Indian
-    scans epaulettes and cocked hats, without enquiring their meaning,
-    and explaining them to his tribe, it is no reason why I should have
-    associated with the noble dignitaries of these western regions, with
-    horns and ermine on their heads, and then to have introduced the
-    subject without giving some further clue to their importance and
-    meaning. For me, this negligence would be doubly unpardonable, as I
-    travel, not to <em>trade</em> but to <em>herald</em> the Indian and his
-    dying customs to posterity.</p>
-
-  <p>This custom then, which I have before observed belongs to all the
-    north-western tribes, is one no doubt of very ancient origin, having
-    a purely classic meaning. No one wears the head-dress surmounted with
-    horns except<span class="pagenum" id="Page_104">104</span> the dignitaries who are very high in authority, and whose
-    exceeding valour, worth, and power is admitted by all the nation.</p>
-
-  <p>He may wear them, however, who is not a <em>chief</em>; but a brave, or
-    warrior of such remarkable character, that he is esteemed universally
-    in the tribe, as a man whose “voice is as loud in council” as that of a
-    chief of the first grade, and consequently his <em>power</em> as great.</p>
-
-  <p>This head-dress with horns is used only on certain occasions, and they
-    are very seldom. When foreign chiefs, Indian agents, or other important
-    personages visit a tribe; or at war parades, at the celebration of
-    a victory, at public festivals, &amp;c. they are worn; but on no other
-    occasions—unless, sometimes, when a chief sees fit to lead a war-party
-    to battle, he decorates his head with this symbol of power, to
-    stimulate his men; and throws himself into the foremost of the battle,
-    inviting his enemy to concentrate their shafts upon him.</p>
-
-  <p>The horns on these head-dresses are but loosely attached at the bottom,
-    so that they easily fall back or forward, according as the head is
-    inclined forward or backward; and by an ingenious motion of the head,
-    which is so slight as to be almost imperceptible—they are made to
-    balance to and fro, and sometimes, one backward and the other forward
-    like a horse’s ears, giving a vast deal of expression and force of
-    character, to the appearance of the chief who is wearing them. This,
-    reader, is a remarkable instance (like hundreds of others), for its
-    striking similarity to <em>Jewish customs</em>, to the kerns (or keren,
-    in Hebrew), the horns worn by the Abysinian chiefs and Hebrews, as
-    a <em>symbol of power</em> and command; worn at great parades and
-    celebrations of victories.</p>
-
-  <p>“The false prophet Zedekiah, made him horns of iron” (1 Kings <abbr title="22">xxii</abbr>.
-    11). “Lift not your horns on high; speak not with a stiff neck” (Ps.
-    <abbr title="75">lxxv.</abbr> 5).</p>
-
-  <p>This last citation seems so exactly to convey to my mind the mode of
-    raising and changing the position of the horns by a motion of the head,
-    as I have above described, that I am irresistibly led to believe that
-    this custom is now practiced amongst these tribes very nearly as it
-    was amongst the Jews; and that it has been, like many other customs of
-    which I shall speak more in future epistles, handed down and preserved
-    with very little innovation or change from that ancient people.</p>
-
-  <p>The reader will see this custom exemplified in the portrait of
-    Mah-to-toh-pa (<a href="#i_064"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 64</a>). This man, although the second chief,
-    was the only man in the nation who was allowed to wear the horns; and
-    all, I found, looked upon him as the leader, who had the power to
-    lead all the warriors in time of war; and that, in consequence of the
-    extraordinary battles which he had fought.</p>
-
-  <hr class="chap">
-  <div class="chapter">
-    <span class="pagenum" id="Page_105">105</span>
-    <h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_15">LETTER—<abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 15.</h2>
-  </div>
-  <div class="subheadc">MANDAN VILLAGE, UPPER MISSOURI.</div>
-
-  <p><span class="smcap">A week</span> or more has elapsed since the date of my last Letter, and
-    nothing as yet of the great and curious event—or the <em>Mandan
-    religious ceremony</em>. There is evidently much preparation making for
-    it, however; and from what I can learn, no one in the nation, save the
-    <em>medicine-men</em>, have any knowledge of the exact day on which it is
-    to commence. I am informed by the chiefs, that it takes place as soon
-    as the willow-tree is in full leaf; for, say they, “the twig which the
-    bird brought in was a willow bough, and had full-grown leaves on it.”
-    So it seems that this celebration has some relation to the Flood.</p>
-
-  <p>This great occasion is close at hand, and will, undoubtedly, commence
-    in a few days; in the meantime I will give a few notes and memorandums,
-    which I have made since my last.</p>
-
-  <p>I have been continually at work with my brush, with fine and
-    picturesque subjects before me; and from the strange, whimsical,
-    and superstitious notions which they have of an art so novel and
-    unaccountable to them, I have been initiated into many of their
-    mysteries—have witnessed many very curious incidents, and preserved
-    several anecdotes, some of which I must relate.</p>
-
-  <p>Perhaps nothing ever more completely astonished these people than
-    the operations of my <em>brush</em>. The art of portrait-painting
-    was a subject entirely new to them, and of course, unthought of;
-    and my appearance here has commenced a new era in the arcana of
-    <em>medicine</em> or mystery. Soon after arriving here, I commenced and
-    finished the portraits of the two principal chiefs. This was done
-    without having awakened the curiosity of the villagers, as they had
-    heard nothing of what was going on, and even the chiefs themselves
-    seemed to be ignorant of my designs, until the pictures were completed.
-    No one else was admitted into my lodge during the operation; and
-    when finished, it was exceedingly amusing to see them mutually
-    recognizing each other’s likeness, and assuring each other of the
-    striking resemblance which they bore to the originals. Both of these
-    pressed their hand over their mouths awhile in dead silence (a custom
-    amongst most tribes, when anything surprises them very much); looking
-    attentively upon the portraits and myself, and upon the palette and
-    colours with which these unaccountable effects had been produced.</p>
-
-  <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_106">106</span></p>
-
-  <p>They then walked up to me in the most gentle manner, taking me in
-    turn by the hand, with a firm grip; with head and eyes inclined
-    downwards, and in a tone a little above a whisper—pronounced the words
-    “te-ho-pe-nee Wash-ee!” and walked off.</p>
-
-  <p>Readers, at that moment I was christened with a new and a great
-    name—one by which I am now familiarly hailed, and talked of in this
-    village; and no doubt will be, as long as traditions last in this
-    strange community.</p>
-
-  <p>That moment conferred an honour on me, which you as yet do not
-    understand. I took the degree (not of Doctor of Laws, nor Bachelor of
-    Arts) of Master of Arts—of mysteries—of magic, and of hocus pocus.
-    I was recognized in that short sentence as a “great <em>medicine
-    white man</em>;” and since that time, have been regularly installed
-    <em>medicine</em> or mystery, which is the most honourable degree that
-    could be conferred upon me here; and I now hold a place amongst the
-    most eminent and envied personages, the doctors and conjurati of this
-    titled community.</p>
-
-  <p>Te-ho-pe-nee Wash-ee (or medicine white man) is the name I now go by,
-    and it will prove to me, no doubt, of more value than gold, for I have
-    been called upon and feasted by the doctors, who are all mystery-men;
-    and it has been an easy and successful passport already to many strange
-    and mysterious places; and has put me in possession of a vast deal of
-    curious and interesting information, which I am sure I never should
-    have otherwise learned. I am daily growing in the estimation of the
-    medicine-men and the chiefs; and by assuming all the gravity and
-    circumspection due from so high a dignitary (and even considerably
-    more); and endeavouring to perform now and then some art or trick that
-    is unfathomable, I am in hopes of supporting my standing, until the
-    great annual ceremony commences; on which occasion, I may possibly be
-    allowed a seat in the <em>medicine-lodge</em> by the doctors, who are the
-    sole conductors of this great source and fountain of all priestcraft
-    and conjuration in this country.</p>
-
-  <p>After I had finished the portraits of the two chiefs, and they had
-    returned to their wigwams, and deliberately seated themselves by their
-    respective fire-sides, and silently smoked a pipe or two (according
-    to an universal custom), they gradually began to tell what had taken
-    place; and at length crowds of gaping listeners, with mouths wide open,
-    thronged their lodges; and a throng of women and girls were about my
-    house, and through every crack and crevice I could see their glistening
-    eyes, which were piercing my hut in a hundred places, from a natural
-    and restless propensity, a curiosity to see what was going on within.
-    An hour or more passed in this way, and the soft and silken throng
-    continually increased, until some hundreds of them were clung, and
-    piled about my wigwam like a swarm of bees hanging on the front and
-    sides of their hive.</p>
-
-  <p>During this time, not a man made his appearance about the
-    premises—after awhile, however, they could be seen, folded in their
-    robes, gradually <em>siding</em> up towards the lodge, with a silly look
-    upon their faces, which confessed at<span class="pagenum" id="Page_107">107</span> once that curiosity was leading
-    them reluctantly, where their pride checked and forbade them to go. The
-    rush soon after became general, and the chiefs and medicine-men took
-    possession of my room, placing <em>soldiers</em> (braves with spears in
-    their hands) at the door, admitting no one, but such as were allowed by
-    the chiefs, to come in.</p>
-
-  <p>Monsr. Kipp (the agent of the Fur Company, who has lived here eight
-    years, and to whom, for his politeness and hospitality, I am much
-    indebted), at this time took a seat with the chiefs, and, speaking
-    their language fluently, he explained to them my views and the objects
-    for which I was painting these portraits; and also expounded to them
-    the manner in which they were made,—at which they seemed all to be very
-    much pleased. The necessity at this time of exposing the portraits to
-    the view of the crowds who were assembled around the house, became
-    imperative, and they were held up together over the door, so that
-    the whole village had a chance to see and recognize their chiefs.
-    The effect upon so mixed a multitude, who as yet had heard no way of
-    accounting for them, was novel and really laughable. The likenesses
-    were instantly recognized, and many of the gaping multitude commenced
-    yelping; some were stamping off in the jarring dance—others were
-    singing, and others again were crying—hundreds covered their mouths
-    with their hands and were mute; others, indignant, drove their spears
-    frightfully into the ground, and some threw a reddened arrow at the
-    sun, and went home to their wigwams.</p>
-
-  <p>The pictures seen,—the next curiosity was to see the man who made them,
-    and I was called forth. Readers! if you have any imagination, save me
-    the trouble of painting this scene. <span class="gesperrtstar">* * * * * * *</span> I stepped forth, and
-    was instantly hemmed in in the throng. Women were gaping and gazing—and
-    warriors and braves were offering me their hands,—whilst little boys
-    and girls, by dozens, were struggling through the crowd to touch me
-    with the ends of their fingers; and whilst I was engaged, from the
-    waist upwards, in fending off the throng and shaking hands, my legs
-    were assailed (not unlike the nibbling of little fish, when I have been
-    standing in deep water) by children, who were creeping between the legs
-    of the bystanders for the curiosity or honour of touching me with the
-    end of their finger. The eager curiosity and expression of astonishment
-    with which they gazed upon me, plainly shewed that they looked upon
-    me as some strange and unaccountable being. They pronounced me the
-    greatest <em>medicine-man</em> in the world; for they said I had made
-    <em>living beings</em>,—they said they could see their chiefs alive, in
-    two places—those that I had made were a <em>little</em> alive—they could
-    see their eyes move—could see them smile and laugh, and that if they
-    could laugh they could certainly speak, if they should try, and they
-    must therefore have <em>some life</em> in them.</p>
-
-  <p>The squaws generally agreed, that they had discovered life enough in
-    them to render my <em>medicine</em> too great for the Mandans; saying
-    that such an<span class="pagenum" id="Page_108">108</span> operation could not be performed without taking away from
-    the original something of his existence, which I put in the picture,
-    and they could see it move, could see it stir.</p>
-
-  <p>This curtailing of the natural existence, for the purpose of
-    instilling life into the secondary one, they decided to be an useless
-    and destructive operation, and one which was calculated to do great
-    mischief in their happy community; and they commenced a mournful and
-    doleful chaunt against me, crying and weeping bitterly through the
-    village, proclaiming me a most “dangerous man; one who could make
-    living persons by looking at them; and at the same time, could, as
-    a matter of course, destroy life in the same way, if I chose. That
-    my medicine was dangerous to their lives, and that I must leave the
-    village immediately. That bad luck would happen to those whom I
-    painted—that I was to take a part of the existence of those whom I
-    painted, and carry it home with me amongst the white people, and that
-    when they died they would never sleep quiet in their graves.”</p>
-
-  <p>In this way the women and some old quack medicine-men together,
-    had succeeded in raising an opposition against me; and the reasons
-    they assigned were so plausible and so exactly suited for their
-    superstitious feelings, that they completely succeeded in exciting
-    fears and a general panic in the minds of a number of chiefs who had
-    agreed to sit for their portraits, and my operations were, of course,
-    for several days completely at a stand. A grave council was held on
-    the subject from day to day, and there seemed great difficulty in
-    deciding what was to be done with me and the dangerous art which I was
-    practicing; and which had far exceeded their original expectations. I
-    finally got admittance to their sacred conclave, and assured them that
-    I was but a man like themselves,—that my art had no <em>medicine</em> or
-    mystery about it, but could be learned by any of them if they would
-    practice it as long as I had—that my intentions towards them were of
-    the most friendly kind, and that in the country where I lived, brave
-    men never allowed their squaws to frighten them with their foolish
-    whims and stories. They all immediately arose, shook me by the hand,
-    and dressed themselves for their pictures. After this, there was no
-    further difficulty about sitting; all were ready to be painted,—the
-    squaws were silent, and my painting-room a continual resort for the
-    chiefs, and braves, and medicine-men; where they waited with impatience
-    for the completion of each one’s picture,—that they could decide as to
-    the likeness as it came from under the brush; that they could laugh,
-    and yell, and sing a new song, and smoke a fresh pipe to the health and
-    success of him who had just been safely delivered from the hands and
-    the mystic operation of the “<em>white medicine</em>.”</p>
-
-  <p>In each of these operations, as they successfully took place, I
-    observed that a pipe or two were well filled, and as soon as I
-    commenced painting, the chiefs and braves, who sat around the sides
-    of the lodge, commenced smoking for the success of the picture (and
-    probably as much or more so for the safe deliverance of the sitter from
-    harm while under the operation);<span class="pagenum" id="Page_109">109</span> and so they continued to pass the
-    pipe around until the portrait was completed.</p>
-
-  <p>In this way I progressed with my portraits, stopping occasionally
-    very suddenly as if something was wrong, and taking a tremendous puff
-    or two at the pipe, and streaming the smoke through my nostrils,
-    exhibiting in my looks and actions an evident relief; enabling me to
-    proceed with more facility and success,—by flattering and complimenting
-    each one on his good looks after I had got it done, and taking them
-    according to rank, or standing, making it a matter of honour with them,
-    which pleased them exceedingly, and gave me and my art the stamp of
-    respectability at once.</p>
-
-  <p>I was then taken by the arm by the chiefs, and led to their lodges,
-    where feasts were prepared for me in elegant style, <i>i. e.</i> in
-    the best manner which this country affords; and being led by the arm,
-    and welcomed to them by <em>gentlemen</em> of high and exalted feelings,
-    rendered them in my estimation truly elegant.</p>
-
-  <p>I was waited upon in due form and ceremony by the <em>medicine-men</em>,
-    who received me upon the old adage, “Similis simili gaudet.” I was
-    invited to a feast, and they presented me a <i lang="mhq">she-shee-quoi</i>,
-    or a doctor’s rattle, and also a magical wand, or a doctor’s staff,
-    strung with claws of the grizzly bear, with hoofs of the antelope—with
-    ermine—with wild sage and bat’s wings—and perfumed withal with the
-    <em>choice</em> and <em>savoury</em> odour of the pole-cat—a dog was
-    sacrificed and hung by the legs over my wigwam, and I was therefore and
-    thereby initiated into (and countenanced in the practice of) the arcana
-    of medicine or mystery, and considered a Fellow of the Extraordinary
-    Society of <em>Conjurati</em>.</p>
-
-  <p>Since this signal success and good fortune in my operations, things
-    have gone on very pleasantly, and I have had a great deal of amusement.
-    Some altercation has taken place, however, amongst the chiefs and
-    braves, with regard to standing or rank, of which they are exceedingly
-    jealous; and they must sit (if at all) in regular order, according to
-    that rank; the trouble is all settled at last, however, and I have had
-    no want of subjects, though a great many have become again alarmed,
-    and are unwilling to sit, for fear, as some say, that they will die
-    prematurely if painted; and as others say, that if they are painted,
-    the picture will live after they are dead, and they cannot sleep quiet
-    in their graves.</p>
-
-  <p>I have had several most remarkable occurrences in my painting-room, of
-    this kind, which have made me some everlasting enemies here; though
-    the minds and feelings of the chiefs and medicine-men have not been
-    affected by them. There has been three or four instances where proud
-    and aspiring young men have been in my lodge, and after gazing at the
-    portraits of the head chief across the room (which sits looking them
-    in the eyes), have raised their hands before their faces and walked
-    around to the side of the lodge, on the right or left, from whence to
-    take a long and fair side-look at the chief, instead of staring him
-    full in the face (which is a most unpardonable offence<span class="pagenum" id="Page_110">110</span> in all Indian
-    tribes); and after having got in that position, and cast their eyes
-    again upon the portrait which was yet looking them full in the face,
-    have thrown their robes over their heads and bolted out of the wigwam,
-    filled equally with astonishment and indignation; averring, as they
-    always will in a sullen mood, that they “saw the eyes move,”—that as
-    they walked around the room “the eyes of the portrait followed them.”
-    With these unfortunate gentlemen, repeated efforts have been made by
-    the Traders, and also by the chiefs and doctors, who understand the
-    illusion, to convince them of their error, by explaining the mystery;
-    but they will not hear to any explanation whatever; saying, that “what
-    they see with their eyes is always evidence enough for them;” that they
-    always “believe their own eyes sooner than a hundred tongues,” and all
-    efforts to get them a second time to my room, or into my company in any
-    place, have proved entirely unsuccessful.</p>
-
-  <p>I had trouble brewing also the other day from another source; one of
-    the “<em>medicines</em>” commenced howling and haranguing around my
-    domicil, amongst the throng that was outside, proclaiming that all who
-    were inside and being painted were fools and would soon die; and very
-    materially affecting thereby my popularity. I however sent for him
-    and called him in the next morning, when I was alone, having only the
-    interpreter with me; telling him that I had had my eye upon him for
-    several days, and had been so well pleased with his looks, that I had
-    taken great pains to find out his history, which had been explained by
-    all as one of a most extraordinary kind, and his character and standing
-    in his tribe as worthy of my particular notice; and that I had several
-    days since resolved that as soon as I had practiced my hand long enough
-    upon the others, to get the stiffness out of it (after paddling my
-    canoe so far as I had) and make it to work easily and successfully,
-    I would begin on his portrait, which I was then prepared to commence
-    on that day, and that I felt as if I could do him justice. He shook
-    me by the hand, giving me the “Doctor’s grip,” and beckoned me to sit
-    down, which I did, and we smoked a pipe together. After this was over,
-    he told me, that “he had no inimical feelings towards me, although he
-    had been telling the chiefs that they were all fools, and all would
-    die who had their portraits painted—that although he had set the old
-    women and children all crying, and even made some of the young warriors
-    tremble, yet he had no unfriendly feelings towards me, nor any fear
-    or dread of my art.” “I know you are a good man (said he), I know you
-    will do no harm to any one, your medicine is great and you are a great
-    ‘medicine-man.’ I would like to see myself very well—and so would all
-    of the chiefs; but they have all been many days in this medicine-house,
-    and they all know me well, and they have not asked me to come in and be
-    <em>made alive</em> with paints—my friend, I am glad that my people have
-    told you who I am—my heart is glad—I will go to my wigwam and eat, and
-    in a little while I will come, and you may go to work;”—another pipe
-    was lit and smoked, and he got up and went off. I prepared my canvass
-    and palette,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_111">111</span> and whistled away the time until twelve o’clock, before
-    he made his appearance; having used the whole of the fore-part of the
-    day at his toilette, arranging his dress and ornamenting his body for
-    his picture.</p>
-
-  <figure class="mt2 illowp75" id="i_055">
-  <div class="plate"><i>30</i></div>
-    <img src="images/i_055.jpg" alt="Mah-to-he-ha">
-     <figcaption>55</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p>At that hour then, bedaubed and streaked with paints of various
-    colours, with bear’s grease and charcoal, with medicine-pipes in his
-    hands and foxes tails attached to his heels, entered Mah-to-he-ha (the
-    old bear, <a href="#i_055"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 55</a>), with a train of his own profession, who
-    seated themselves around him; and also a number of boys, whom it was
-    requested should remain with him, and whom I supposed it possible
-    might have been pupils, whom he was instructing in the mysteries of
-    <i>materia medica</i> and <i>hoca poca</i>. He took his position in
-    the middle of the room, waving his eagle calumets in each hand, and
-    singing his medicine-song which he sings over his dying patient,
-    looking me full in the face until I completed his picture, which I
-    painted at full length. His vanity has been completely gratified in
-    the operation; he lies for hours together, day after day, in my room,
-    in front of his picture, gazing intensely upon it; lights my pipe for
-    me while I am painting—shakes hands with me a dozen times on each day,
-    and talks of me, and enlarges upon my <em>medicine</em> virtues and my
-    talents, wherever he goes; so that this new difficulty is now removed,
-    and instead of preaching against me, he is one of my strongest and most
-    enthusiastic friends and aids in the country.</p>
-
-  <p>There is yet to be described another sort of personage, that is often
-    seen stalking about in all Indian communities, a kind of nondescript,
-    with whom I have been somewhat annoyed, and still more amused, since I
-    came to this village, of whom (or of <em>which</em>) I shall give some
-    account in my next epistle.</p>
-
-  <hr class="chap">
-  <div class="chapter">
-    <span class="pagenum" id="Page_112">112</span>
-    <h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_16">LETTER—<abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 16.</h2>
-  </div>
-  <div class="subheadc">MANDAN VILLAGE, UPPER MISSOURI.</div>
-
-  <p><span class="smcap">Besides</span> chiefs, and braves and doctors, of whom I have heretofore
-    spoken, there is yet another character of whom I must say a few words
-    before I proceed to other topics. The person I allude to, is the one
-    mentioned at the close of my last Letter, and familiarly known and
-    countenanced in every tribe as an Indian <i lang="fr">beau</i> or <em>dandy</em>.
-    Such personages may be seen on every pleasant day, strutting and
-    parading around the village in the most beautiful and unsoiled dresses,
-    without the honourable trophies however of scalp locks and claws of
-    the grizzly bear, attached to their costume, for with such things they
-    deal not. They are not peculiarly anxious to hazard their lives in
-    equal and honourable combat with the one, or disposed to cross the path
-    of the other; but generally remain about the village, to take care of
-    the women, and attire themselves in the skins of such animals as they
-    can easily kill, without seeking the rugged cliffs for the war-eagle,
-    or visiting the haunts of the grizzly bear. They plume themselves
-    with swan’s-down and quills of ducks, with braids and plaits of
-    sweet-scented grass and other harmless and unmeaning ornaments, which
-    have no other merit than they themselves have, that of looking pretty
-    and ornamental.</p>
-
-  <p>These clean and elegant gentlemen, who are very few in each tribe, are
-    held in very little estimation by the chiefs and braves; inasmuch as it
-    is known by all, that they have a most horrible aversion to arms, and
-    are denominated “faint hearts” or “old women” by the whole tribe, and
-    are therefore but little respected. They seem, however, to be tolerably
-    well contented with the appellation, together with the celebrity
-    they have acquired amongst the women and children for the beauty and
-    elegance of their personal appearance; and most of them seem to take
-    and enjoy their share of the world’s pleasures, although they are
-    looked upon as drones in society.</p>
-
-  <p>These gay and tinselled bucks may be seen in a pleasant day in all
-    their plumes, astride of their pied or dappled ponies, with a fan in
-    the right hand, made of a turkey’s tail—with whip and a fly-brush
-    attached to the wrist of the same hand, and underneath them a white and
-    beautiful and soft pleasure-saddle, ornamented with porcupine quills
-    and ermine, parading through and lounging about the village for an hour
-    or so, when they will cautiously bend their course to the suburbs of
-    the town, where they will sit<span class="pagenum" id="Page_113">113</span> or recline upon their horses for an hour
-    or two, overlooking the beautiful games where the braves and the young
-    aspirants are contending in manly and athletic amusements;—when they
-    are fatigued with this severe effort, they wend their way back again,
-    lift off their fine white saddle of doe’s-skin, which is wadded with
-    buffalo’s hair, turn out their pony—take a little refreshment, smoke a
-    pipe, fan themselves to sleep, and doze away the rest of the day.</p>
-
-  <p>Whilst I have been painting, from day to day, there have been two or
-    three of these fops continually strutting and taking their attitudes
-    in front of my door; decked out in all their finery, without receiving
-    other benefit or other information, than such as they could discover
-    through the cracks and seams of my cabin. The chiefs, I observed,
-    passed them by without notice, and of course, without inviting them
-    in; and they seemed to figure about my door from day to day in their
-    best dresses and best attitudes, as if in hopes that I would select
-    them as models, for my canvass. It was natural that I should do so,
-    for their costume and personal appearance was entirely more beautiful
-    than anything else to be seen in the village. My plans were laid,
-    and one day when I had got through with all of the head men, who
-    were willing to sit to be painted, and there were two or three of
-    the chiefs lounging in my room, I stepped to the door and tapped one
-    of these fellows on the shoulder, who took the hint, and stepped in,
-    well-pleased and delighted with the signal and honourable notice I had
-    at length taken of him and his beautiful dress. Readers, you cannot
-    imagine what was the expression of gratitude which beamed forth in
-    this poor fellow’s face, and how high his heart beat with joy and
-    pride at the idea of my selecting him to be immortal, alongside of the
-    chiefs and worthies whose portraits he saw arranged around the room;
-    and by which honour he, undoubtedly, considered himself well paid for
-    two or three weeks of regular painting, and greasing, and dressing,
-    and standing alternately on one leg and the other at the door of my
-    premises.</p>
-
-  <p>Well, I placed him before me, and a canvass on my easel, and “chalked
-    him out” at full length. He was truly a beautiful subject for the
-    brush, and I was filled with enthusiasm—his dress from head to foot was
-    of the skins of the mountain-goat, and dressed so neatly, that they
-    were almost as soft and as white as Canton crape—around the bottom and
-    the sides it was trimmed with ermine, and porcupine quills of beautiful
-    dyes garnished it in a hundred parts;—his hair which was long, and
-    spread over his back and shoulders, extending nearly to the ground, was
-    all combed back and parted on his forehead like that of a woman. He
-    was a tall and fine figure, with ease and grace in his movements, that
-    were well worthy of a man of better caste. In his left hand he held a
-    beautiful pipe—and in his right hand he plied his fan, and on his wrist
-    was still attached his whip of elk’s horn, and his fly-brush, made of
-    the buffalo’s tail. There was nought about him of the terrible, and
-    nought to shock the finest, chastest intellect.</p>
-
-  <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_114">114</span></p>
-
-  <p>I had thus far progressed, with high-wrought feelings of pleasure,
-    when the two or three chiefs, who had been seated around the lodge,
-    and whose portraits I had before painted, arose suddenly, and wrapping
-    themselves tightly in their robes, crossed my room with a quick and
-    heavy step, and took an informal leave of my cabin. I was apprehensive
-    of their displeasure, though I continued my work; and in a few moments
-    the interpreter came furiously into my room, addressing me thus:—“My
-    God, Sir! this never will do; you have given great offence to the
-    chiefs—they have made complaint of your conduct to me—they tell me
-    this is a worthless fellow—a man of no account in the nation, and if
-    you paint his picture, you must instantly destroy theirs; you have no
-    alternative, my dear Sir—and the quicker this chap is out of your lodge
-    the better.”</p>
-
-  <p>The same matter was explained to my sitter by the interpreter, when
-    he picked up his robe, wrapped himself in it, plied his fan nimbly
-    about his face, and walked out of the lodge in silence, but with quite
-    a consequential smile, taking his old position in front of the door
-    for awhile, after which he drew himself quietly off without further
-    exhibition. So highly do Mandan braves and worthies value the honour
-    of being painted; and so little do they value a man, however lavishly
-    Nature may have bestowed her master touches upon him, who has not the
-    pride and noble bearing of a warrior.</p>
-
-  <p>I spoke in a former Letter of Mah-to-toh-pa (the four bears), the
-    second chief of the nation, and the most popular man of the Mandans—a
-    high-minded and gallant warrior, as well as a polite and polished
-    gentleman. Since I painted his portrait, as I before described, I
-    have received at his hands many marked and signal attentions; some
-    of which I must name to you, as the very relation of them will put
-    you in possession of many little forms and modes of Indian life, that
-    otherwise might not have been noted.</p>
-
-  <p>About a week since, this noble fellow stepped into my painting-room
-    about twelve o’clock in the day, in full and splendid dress, and
-    passing his arm through mine, pointed the way, and led me in the most
-    gentlemanly manner, through the village and into his own lodge, where
-    a feast was prepared in a careful manner and waiting our arrival. The
-    lodge in which he dwelt was a room of immense size, some forty or fifty
-    feet in diameter, in a circular form, and about twenty feet high—with a
-    sunken curb of stone in the centre, of five or six feet in diameter and
-    one foot deep, which contained the fire over which the pot was boiling.
-    I was led near the edge of this curb, and seated on a very handsome
-    robe, most ingeniously garnished and painted with hieroglyphics; and he
-    seated himself gracefully on another one at a little distance from me;
-    with the feast prepared in several dishes, resting on a beautiful rush
-    mat, which was placed between us (<a href="#i_062"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 62</a>).</p>
-
-  <p>The simple feast which was spread before us consisted of three dishes
-    only, two of which were served in wooden bowls, and the third in
-    an earthen vessel of their own manufacture, somewhat in shape of a
-    bread-tray in our own country. This last contained a quantity of
-    <em>pem-i-can</em> and <em>marrow-fat</em>;<span class="pagenum" id="Page_115">115</span> and one of the former held
-    a fine brace of buffalo ribs, delightfully roasted; and the other
-    was filled with a kind of paste or pudding, made of the flour of the
-    “<i lang="fr">pomme blanche</i>,” as the French call it, a delicious turnip of
-    the prairie, finely flavoured with the buffalo berries, which are
-    collected in great quantities in this country, and used with divers
-    dishes in cooking, as we in civilized countries use dried currants,
-    which they very much resemble.</p>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>31</i></div>
-  <figure id="i_062">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_062.jpg" alt="In Mah-to-toh-pa's lodge">
-     <figcaption>62</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p>A handsome pipe and a tobacco-pouch made of the otter skin, filled with
-    k’nick-k’neck (Indian tobacco), laid by the side of the feast; and when
-    we were seated, mine host took up his pipe, and deliberately filled
-    it; and instead of lighting it by the fire, which he could easily have
-    done, he drew from his pouch his flint and steel, and raised a spark
-    with which he kindled it. He drew a few strong whiffs through it, and
-    presented the stem of it to my mouth, through which I drew a whiff or
-    two while he held the stem in his hands. This done, he laid down the
-    pipe, and drawing his knife from his belt, cut off a very small piece
-    of the meat from the ribs, and pronouncing the words “Ho-pe-ne-chee
-    wa-pa-shee” (meaning a <em>medicine</em> sacrifice), threw it into the
-    fire.</p>
-
-  <p>He then (by signals) requested me to eat, and I commenced, after
-    drawing out from my belt my knife (which it is supposed that every man
-    in this country carries about him, for at an Indian feast a knife is
-    never offered to a guest). Reader, be not astonished that I sat and
-    ate my dinner <em>alone</em>, for such is the custom of this strange
-    land. In all tribes in these western regions it is an invariable rule
-    that a chief never eats with his guests invited to a feast; but while
-    they eat, he sits by, at their service, and ready to wait upon them;
-    deliberately charging and lighting the pipe which is to be passed
-    around after the feast is over. Such was the case in the present
-    instance, and while I was eating, Mah-to-toh-pa sat cross-legged before
-    me, cleaning his pipe and preparing it for a cheerful smoke when I had
-    finished my meal. For this ceremony I observed he was making unusual
-    preparation, and I observed as I ate, that after he had taken enough
-    of the k’nick-k’neck or bark of the red willow, from his pouch, he
-    rolled out of it also a piece of the “<em>castor</em>,” which it is
-    customary amongst these folks to carry in their tobacco-sack to give it
-    a flavour; and, shaving off a small quantity of it, mixed it with the
-    bark, with which he charged his pipe. This done, he drew also from his
-    sack a small parcel containing a fine powder, which was made of dried
-    buffalo dung, a little of which he spread over the top, (according also
-    to custom,) which was like tinder, having no other effect than that of
-    lighting the pipe with ease and satisfaction. My appetite satiated,
-    I straightened up, and with a whiff the pipe was lit, and we enjoyed
-    together for a quarter of an hour the most delightful exchange of good
-    feelings, amid clouds of smoke and pantomimic signs and gesticulations.</p>
-
-  <p>The dish of “pemican and marrow-fat,” of which I spoke, was thus:—The
-    first, an article of food used throughout this country, as familiarly
-    as we use<span class="pagenum" id="Page_116">116</span> bread in the civilized world. It is made of buffalo meat
-    dried very hard, and afterwards pounded in a large wooden mortar until
-    it is made nearly as fine as sawdust, then packed in this dry state in
-    bladders or sacks of skin, and is easily carried to any part of the
-    world in good order. “Marrow-fat” is collected by the Indians from
-    the buffalo bones which they break to pieces, yielding a prodigious
-    quantity of marrow, which is boiled out and put into buffalo bladders
-    which have been distended; and after it cools, becomes quite hard like
-    tallow, and has the appearance, and very nearly the flavour, of the
-    richest yellow butter. At a feast, chunks of this marrow-fat are cut
-    off and placed in a tray or bowl, with the pemican, and eaten together;
-    which we civilized folks in these regions consider a very good
-    substitute for (and indeed we generally so denominate it) “bread and
-    butter.” In this dish laid a spoon made of the buffalo’s horn, which
-    was black as jet, and beautifully polished; in one of the others there
-    was another of still more ingenious and beautiful workmanship, made of
-    the horn of the mountain-sheep, or “Gros corn,” as the French trappers
-    call them; it was large enough to hold of itself two or three pints,
-    and was almost entirely transparent.</p>
-
-  <p>I spoke also of the earthen dishes or bowls in which these viands were
-    served out; they are a familiar part of the culinary furniture of
-    every Mandan lodge, and are manufactured by the women of this tribe
-    in great quantities, and modelled into a thousand forms and tastes.
-    They are made by the hands of the women, from a tough black clay, and
-    baked in kilns which are made for the purpose, and are nearly equal in
-    hardness to our own manufacture of pottery; though they have not yet
-    got the art of glazing, which would be to them a most valuable secret.
-    They make them so strong and serviceable, however, that they hang them
-    over the fire as we do our iron pots, and boil their meat in them with
-    perfect success. I have seen some few specimens of such manufacture,
-    which have been dug up in Indian mounds and tombs in the southern and
-    middle states, placed in our Eastern Museums and looked upon as a great
-    wonder, when here this novelty is at once done away with, and the whole
-    mystery; where women can be seen handling and using them by hundreds,
-    and they can be seen every day in the summer also, moulding them into
-    many fanciful forms, and passing them through the kiln where they are
-    hardened.</p>
-
-  <p>Whilst sitting at this feast the wigwam was as silent as death,
-    although we were not alone in it. This chief, like most others, had a
-    plurality of wives, and all of them (some six or seven) were seated
-    around the sides of the lodge, upon robes or mats placed upon the
-    ground, and not allowed to speak, though they were in readiness to obey
-    his orders or commands, which were uniformly given by signs manual, and
-    executed in the neatest and most silent manner.</p>
-
-  <p>When I arose to return, the pipe through which we had smoked was
-    presented to me; and the robe on which I had sat, he gracefully raised
-    by the corners and tendered it to me, explaining by signs that the
-    paintings<span class="pagenum" id="Page_117">117</span> which were on it were the representations of the battles of
-    his life, where he had fought and killed with his own hand fourteen
-    of his enemies; that he had been two weeks engaged in painting it for
-    me, and that he had invited me here on this occasion to present it to
-    me. The robe, readers, which I shall describe in a future epistle, I
-    took upon my shoulder, and he took me by the arm and led me back to my
-    painting-room.</p>
-
-  <hr class="chap">
-  <div class="chapter">
-    <span class="pagenum" id="Page_118">118</span>
-    <h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_17">LETTER—<abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 17.</h2>
-  </div>
-  <div class="subheadc">MANDAN VILLAGE, <i>UPPER MISSOURI</i>.</div>
-
-  <p><span class="smcap">I mentioned</span> in the foregoing epistle, that the chiefs of the Mandans
-    frequently have a plurality of wives. Such is the custom amongst all of
-    these North Western tribes, and a few general remarks on this subject
-    will apply to them all, and save the trouble of repeating them.</p>
-
-  <p>Polygamy is countenanced amongst all of the North American Indians, so
-    far as I have visited them; and it is no uncommon thing to find a chief
-    with six, eight, or ten, and some with twelve or fourteen wives in his
-    lodge. Such is an ancient custom, and in their estimation is right as
-    well as necessary. Women in a savage state, I believe, are always held
-    in a rank inferior to that of the men, in relation to whom in many
-    respects they stand rather in the light of menials and slaves than
-    otherwise; and as they are the “hewers of wood and drawers of water,”
-    it becomes a matter of necessity for a chief (who must be liberal,
-    keep open doors, and entertain, for the support of his popularity) to
-    have in his wigwam a sufficient number of such handmaids or menials to
-    perform the numerous duties and drudgeries of so large and expensive an
-    establishment.</p>
-
-  <p>There are two other reasons for this custom which operate with
-    equal, if not with greater force than the one above assigned. In the
-    first place, these people, though far behind the civilized world in
-    acquisitiveness, have still more or less passion for the accumulation
-    of wealth, or, in other words, for the luxuries of life; and a
-    chief, excited by a desire of this kind, together with a wish to be
-    able to furnish his lodge with something more than ordinary for the
-    entertainment of his own people, as well as strangers who fall upon his
-    hospitality, sees fit to marry a number of wives, who are kept at hard
-    labour during most of the year; and the avails of that labour enable
-    him to procure those luxuries, and give to his lodge the appearance
-    of respectability which is not ordinarily seen. Amongst those tribes
-    who trade with the Fur Companies, this system is carried out to a
-    great extent, and the women are kept for the greater part of the
-    year, dressing buffalo robes and other skins for the market; and the
-    brave or chief, who has the greatest number of wives, is considered
-    the most affluent and envied man in the tribe; for his table is most
-    bountifully supplied, and his lodge the most abundantly furnished with
-    the luxuries<span class="pagenum" id="Page_119">119</span> of civilized manufacture, who has at the year’s end the
-    greatest number of robes to vend to the Fur Company.</p>
-
-  <p>The manual labour amongst savages is all done by the women; and as
-    there are no daily labourers or persons who will “<em>hire out</em>” to
-    labour for another, it becomes necessary for him who requires more than
-    the labour or services of one, to add to the number by legalizing and
-    compromising by the ceremony of marriage, his stock of labourers; who
-    can thus, and thus alone, be easily enslaved, and the results of their
-    labour turned to good account.</p>
-
-  <p>There is yet the other inducement, which probably is more effective
-    than either; the natural inclination which belongs to man, who
-    stands high in the estimation of his people and wields the sceptre
-    of power—surrounded by temptations which he considers it would be
-    unnatural to resist, where no law or regulation of society stands
-    in the way of his enjoyment. Such a custom amongst savage nations
-    can easily be excused too, and we are bound to excuse it, when
-    we behold man in a state of nature, as he was made, following a
-    natural inclination, which is sanctioned by ancient custom and by
-    their religion, without a law or regulation of their society to
-    discountenance it; and when, at the same time, such an accumulation of
-    a man’s household, instead of quadrupling his expenses (as would be
-    the case in the civilized world), actually becomes his wealth, as the
-    results of their labour abundantly secure to him all the necessaries
-    and luxuries of life.</p>
-
-  <p>There are other and very rational grounds on which the propriety
-    of such a custom may be urged, one of which is as follows:—as all
-    nations of Indians in their natural condition are unceasingly at war
-    with the tribes that are about them, for the adjustment of ancient
-    and never-ending feuds, as well as from a love of glory, to which in
-    Indian life the battle-field is almost the only road, their warriors
-    are killed off to that extent, that in many instances two and sometimes
-    three women to a man are found in a tribe. In such instances I have
-    found that the custom of polygamy has kindly helped the community to an
-    evident relief from a cruel and prodigious calamity.</p>
-
-  <p>The instances of which I have above spoken, are generally confined to
-    the chiefs and medicine-men; though there is no regulation prohibiting
-    a poor or obscure individual from marrying several wives, other than
-    the personal difficulties which lie between him and the hand which he
-    wishes in vain to get, for want of sufficient celebrity in society, or
-    from a still more frequent objection, that of his inability (from want
-    of worldly goods) to deal in the customary way with the fathers of the
-    girls whom he would appropriate to his own household.</p>
-
-  <p>There are very few instances indeed, to be seen in these regions, where
-    a poor or ordinary citizen has more than one wife; but amongst chiefs
-    and braves of great reputation, and doctors, it is common to see some
-    six or<span class="pagenum" id="Page_120">120</span> eight living under one roof, and all apparently quiet and
-    contented; seemingly harmonizing, and enjoying the modes of life and
-    treatment that falls to their lot.</p>
-
-  <p>Wives in this country are mostly treated for with the father, as in all
-    instances they are regularly bought and sold. In many cases the bargain
-    is made with the father alone, without ever consulting the inclinations
-    of the girl, and seems to be conducted on his part as a mercenary
-    contract entirely, where he stands out for the highest price he can
-    possibly command for her. There are other instances to be sure, where
-    the parties approach each other, and from the expression of a mutual
-    fondness, make their own arrangements, and pass their own mutual vows,
-    which are quite as sacred and inviolable as similar assurances when
-    made in the civilized world. Yet even in such cases, the marriage is
-    never consummated without the necessary form of making presents to the
-    father of the girl.</p>
-
-  <p>It becomes a matter of policy and almost of absolute necessity, for the
-    white men who are Traders in these regions to connect themselves in
-    this way, to one or more of the most influential families in the tribe,
-    which in a measure identifies their interest with that of the nation,
-    and enables them, with the influence of their new family connexions,
-    to carry on successfully their business transactions with them. The
-    young women of the best families only can aspire to such an elevation;
-    and the most of them are exceedingly ambitious for such a connexion,
-    inasmuch as they are certain of a delightful exemption from the slavish
-    duties that devolve upon them when married under other circumstances;
-    and expect to be, as they generally are, allowed to lead a life of ease
-    and idleness, covered with mantles of blue and scarlet cloth—with beads
-    and trinkets, and ribbons, in which they flounce and flirt about, the
-    envied and tinselled belles of every tribe.</p>
-
-  <p>These connexions, however, can scarcely be called marriages, for I
-    believe they are generally entered into without the form or solemnizing
-    ceremony of a marriage, and on the part of the father of the girls,
-    conducted purely as a mercenary or business transaction; in which
-    they are very expert, and practice a deal of shrewdness in exacting
-    an adequate price from a purchaser whom they consider possessed of
-    so large and so rich a stock of the world’s goods; and who they deem
-    abundantly able to pay liberally for so delightful a commodity.</p>
-
-  <p>Almost every Trader and every clerk who commences in the business of
-    this country, speedily enters into such an arrangement, which is done
-    with as little ceremony as he would bargain for a horse, and just as
-    unceremoniously do they annul and abolish this connexion when they
-    wish to leave the country, or change their positions from one tribe to
-    another; at which time the woman is left, a fair and proper candidate
-    for matrimony or speculation, when another applicant comes along, and
-    her father equally desirous for another horse or gun, &amp;c. which he can
-    easily command at her second espousal.</p>
-
-  <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_121">121</span></p>
-
-  <p>From the enslaved and degraded condition in which the women are held in
-    the Indian country, the world would naturally think that theirs must
-    be a community formed of incongruous and unharmonizing materials; and
-    consequently destitute of the fine, reciprocal feelings and attachments
-    which flow from the domestic relations in the civilized world; yet it
-    would be untrue, and doing injustice to the Indians, to say that they
-    were in the least behind us in conjugal, in filial, and in paternal
-    affection. There is no trait in the human character which is more
-    universal than the attachments which flow from these relations, and
-    there is no part of the human species who have a stronger affection and
-    a higher regard for them than the North American Indians.</p>
-
-  <p>There is no subject in the Indian character of more importance to be
-    rightly understood than this, and none either that has furnished me
-    more numerous instances and more striking proofs, of which I shall
-    make use on a future occasion, when I shall say a vast deal more of
-    marriage—of divorce—of polygamy—and of Indian domestic relations. For
-    the present I am scribbling about the looks and usages of the Indians
-    who are about me and under my eye; and I must not digress too much into
-    general remarks, lest I lose sight of those who are near me, and the
-    first to be heralded.</p>
-
-  <p>Such, then, are the Mandans—their women are beautiful and modest,—and
-    amongst the respectable families, virtue is as highly cherished and
-    as inapproachable, as in any society whatever; yet at the same time a
-    chief may marry a dozen wives if he pleases, and so may a white man;
-    and if either wishes to marry the most beautiful and modest girl in the
-    tribe, she is valued only equal, perhaps, to two horses, a gun with
-    powder and ball for a year, five or six pounds of beads, a couple of
-    gallons of whiskey, and a handful of awls.</p>
-
-  <p>The girls of this tribe, like those of most of these north-western
-    tribes, marry at the age of twelve or fourteen, and some at the age of
-    eleven years; and their beauty, from this fact, as well as from the
-    slavish life they lead, soon after marriage vanishes. Their occupations
-    are almost continual, and they seem to go industriously at them, as if
-    from choice or inclination, without a murmur.</p>
-
-  <p>The principal occupations of the women in this village, consist in
-    procuring wood and water, in cooking, dressing robes and other skins,
-    in drying meat and wild fruit, and raising corn (maize). The Mandans
-    are somewhat of agriculturists, as they raise a great deal of corn and
-    some pumpkins and squashes. This is all done by the women, who make
-    their hoes of the shoulder-blade of the buffalo or the elk, and dig the
-    ground over instead of ploughing it, which is consequently done with a
-    vast deal of labour. They raise a very small sort of corn, the ears of
-    which are not longer than a man’s thumb. This variety is well adapted
-    to their climate, as it ripens sooner than other varieties, which
-    would not mature in so cold a latitude. The green corn season is one
-    of great festivity with them, and one of much importance. The greater
-    part of their crop is eaten during these festivals,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_122">122</span> and the remainder
-    is gathered and dried on the cob, before it has ripened, and packed
-    away in “<i lang="fr">caches</i>” (as the French call them), holes dug in the
-    ground, some six or seven feet deep, the insides of which are somewhat
-    in the form of a jug, and tightly closed at the top. The corn, and even
-    dried meat and pemican, are placed in these <i lang="fr">caches</i>, being packed
-    tight around the sides., with prairie grass, and effectually preserved
-    through the severest winters.</p>
-
-  <p>Corn and dried meat are generally laid in in the fall, in sufficient
-    quantities to support them through the winter. These are the principal
-    articles of food during that long and inclement season; and in addition
-    to them, they oftentimes have in store great quantities of dried
-    squashes and dried “<i lang="fr">pommes blanches</i>,” a kind of turnip which
-    grows in great abundance in these regions, and of which I have before
-    spoken. These are dried in great quantities, and pounded into a sort of
-    meal, and cooked with the dried meat and corn. Great quantities also of
-    wild fruit of different kinds are dried and laid away in store for the
-    winter season, such as buffalo berries, service berries, strawberries,
-    and wild plums.</p>
-
-  <p>The buffalo meat, however, is the great staple and “staff of life” in
-    this country, and seldom (if ever) fails to afford them an abundant and
-    wholesome means of subsistence. There are, from a fair computation,
-    something like 250,000 Indians in these western regions, who live
-    almost exclusively on the flesh of these animals, through every part of
-    the year. During the summer and fall months they use the meat fresh,
-    and cook it in a great variety of ways, by roasting, broiling, boiling,
-    stewing, smoking, &amp;c.; and by boiling the ribs and joints with the
-    marrow in them, make a delicious soup, which is universally used, and
-    in vast quantities. The Mandans, I find, have no regular or stated
-    times for their meals, but generally eat about twice in the twenty-four
-    hours. The pot is always boiling over the fire, and any one who is
-    hungry (either of the household or from any other part of the village)
-    has a right to order it taken off, and to fall to eating as he pleases.
-    Such is an unvarying custom amongst the North American Indians, and I
-    very much doubt, whether the civilized world have in their institutions
-    any system which can properly be called more humane and charitable.
-    Every man, woman, or child in Indian communities is allowed to enter
-    any one’s lodge, and even that of the chief of the nation, and eat when
-    they are hungry, provided misfortune or necessity has driven them to
-    it. Even so can the poorest and most worthless drone of the nation; if
-    he is too lazy to hunt or to supply himself, he can walk into any lodge
-    and everyone will share with him as long as there is anything to eat.
-    He, however, who thus begs when he is able to hunt, pays dear for his
-    meat, for he is stigmatized with the disgraceful epithet of a poltroon
-    and a beggar.</p>
-
-  <p>The Mandans, like all other tribes, sit at their meals cross-legged,
-    or rather with their ancles crossed in front of them, and both feet
-    drawn close under their bodies; or, which is very often the case also,
-    take their meals in a reclining<span class="pagenum" id="Page_123">123</span> posture, with the legs thrown out, and
-    the body resting on one elbow and fore-arm, which are under them. The
-    dishes from which they eat are invariably on the ground or floor of
-    the lodge, and the group resting on buffalo robes or mats of various
-    structure and manufacture.</p>
-
-  <p>The position in which the women sit at their meals and on other
-    occasions is different from that of the men, and one which they
-    take and rise from again, with great ease and much grace, by merely
-    bending the knees both together, inclining the body back and the head
-    and shoulders quite forward, they squat entirely down to the ground,
-    inclining both feet either to the right or the left. In this position
-    they always rest while eating, and it is both modest and graceful, for
-    they seem, with apparent ease, to assume the position and rise out of
-    it, without using their hands in any way to assist them.</p>
-
-  <p>These women, however, although graceful and civil, and ever so
-    beautiful or ever so hungry, are not allowed to sit in the same group
-    with the men while at their meals. So far as I have yet travelled in
-    the Indian country, I never have seen an Indian woman eating with
-    her husband. Men form the first group at the banquet, and women, and
-    children and dogs all come together at the next, and these gormandize
-    and glut themselves to an enormous extent, though the men very seldom
-    do.</p>
-
-  <p>It is time that an error on this subject, which has gone generally
-    abroad in the world, was corrected. It is everywhere asserted, and
-    almost universally believed, that the Indians are “enormous eaters;”
-    but comparatively speaking, I assure my readers that this is an error.
-    I venture to say that there are no persons on earth who practice
-    greater prudence and self-denial, than the men do (amongst the wild
-    Indians), who are constantly in war and in the chase, or in their
-    athletic sports and exercises; for all of which they are excited by
-    the highest ideas of pride and honour, and every kind of excess is
-    studiously avoided; and for a very great part of their lives, the most
-    painful abstinence is enforced upon themselves, for the purpose of
-    preparing their bodies and their limbs for these extravagant exertions.
-    Many a man who has been a few weeks along the frontier, amongst the
-    drunken, naked and beggared part of the Indian race, and run home
-    and written a book on Indians, has, no doubt, often seen them eat to
-    beastly excess; and he has seen them also guzzle whiskey (and perhaps
-    <em>sold</em> it to them) till he has seen them glutted and besotted,
-    without will or energy to move; and many and thousands of such things
-    can always be seen, where white people have made beggars of them, and
-    they have nothing to do but lie under a fence and beg a whole week to
-    get meat and whiskey enough for one feast and one carouse; but amongst
-    the wild Indians in this country there are no beggars—no drunkards—and
-    every man, from a beautiful natural precept, studies to keep his body
-    and mind in such a healthy shape and condition as will at all times
-    enable him to use his weapons in self-defence, or struggle for the
-    prize in their manly games.</p>
-
-  <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_124">124</span></p>
-
-  <p>As I before observed, these men generally eat but twice a day, and many
-    times not more than once, and those meals are light and simple compared
-    with the meals that are swallowed in the civilized world; and by the
-    very people also, who sit at the festive board three times a day,
-    making a jest of the Indian for his eating, when they actually guzzle
-    more liquids, besides their eating, than would fill the stomach of an
-    Indian.</p>
-
-  <p>There are, however, many seasons and occasions in the year with all
-    Indians, when they fast for several days in succession; and others
-    where they can <em>get</em> nothing to eat; and at such times (their
-    habits are such) they may be seen to commence with an enormous meal,
-    and because they do so, it is an insufficient reason why we should for
-    ever remain under so egregious an error with regard to a single custom
-    of these people.</p>
-
-  <p>I have seen so many of these, and lived with them, and travelled with
-    them, and oftentimes felt as if I should starve to death on an equal
-    allowance, that I am fully convinced I am correct in saying that the
-    North American Indians, taking them in the aggregate, even where they
-    have an abundance to subsist on, eat less than any civilized population
-    of equal numbers, that I have ever travelled amongst.</p>
-
-  <p>Their mode of curing and preserving the buffalo meat is somewhat
-    curious, and in fact it is almost incredible also; for it is all cured
-    or dried in the sun, without the aid of salt or smoke! The method
-    of doing this is the same amongst all the tribes, from this to the
-    Mexican Provinces, and is as follows:—The choicest parts of the flesh
-    from the buffalo are cut out by the squaws, and carried home on their
-    backs or on horses, and there cut “<em>across the grain</em>,” in such a
-    manner as will take alternately the layers of lean and fat; and having
-    prepared it all in this way, in strips about half an inch in thickness,
-    it is hung up by hundreds and thousands of pounds on poles resting on
-    crotches, out of the reach of dogs or wolves, and exposed to the rays
-    of the sun for several days, when it becomes so effectually dried, that
-    it can be carried to any part of the world without damage. This seems
-    almost an unaccountable thing, and the more so, as it is done in the
-    hottest months of the year, and also in all the different latitudes of
-    an Indian country.</p>
-
-  <p>So singular a fact as this can only be accounted for, I consider, on
-    the ground of the extraordinary rarity and purity of the air which
-    we meet with in these vast tracts of country, which are now properly
-    denominated “the great buffalo plains,” a series of exceedingly
-    elevated plateaus of <em>steppes</em> or <em>prairies</em>, lying at and
-    near the base of the Rocky Mountains.</p>
-
-  <p>It is a fact then, which I presume will be new to most of the world,
-    that meat can be cured in the sun without the aid of smoke or salt;
-    and it is a fact equally true and equally surprising also, that none
-    of these tribes use salt in any way, although their country abounds
-    in salt springs; and in many places, in the frequent walks of the
-    Indian, the prairie may be seen, for miles together, covered with an
-    incrustation of salt as white as the drifted snow.</p>
-
-  <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_125">125</span></p>
-
-  <p>I have, in travelling with Indians, encamped by such places, where they
-    have cooked and eaten their meat, when I have been unable to prevail on
-    them to use salt in any quantity whatever. The Indians cook their meat
-    more than the civilized people do, and I have long since learned, from
-    necessity, that meat thus cooked can easily be eaten and relished too,
-    without salt or other condiment.</p>
-
-  <p>The fact above asserted applies exclusively to those tribes of Indians
-    which I have found in their primitive state, living entirely on meat;
-    but everywhere along our Frontier, where the game of the country
-    has long since been chiefly destroyed, and these people have become
-    semi-civilized, raising and eating, as we do, a variety of vegetable
-    food, they use (and no doubt require), a great deal of salt; and in
-    many instances use it even to destructive excess.</p>
-
-  <hr class="chap">
-  <div class="chapter">
-    <span class="pagenum" id="Page_126">126</span>
-    <h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_18">LETTER—<abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 18.</h2>
-  </div>
-  <div class="subheadc">MANDAN VILLAGE, UPPER MISSOURI.</div>
-
-  <p><span class="smcap">The</span> Mandans, like all other tribes, lead lives of idleness and
-    leisure; and of course, devote a great deal of time to their sports
-    and amusements, of which they have a great variety. Of these, dancing
-    is one of the principal, and may be seen in a variety of forms: such
-    as the buffalo dance, the boasting dance, the begging dance, the scalp
-    dance, and a dozen other kinds of dances, all of which have their
-    peculiar characters and meanings or objects.</p>
-
-  <p>These exercises are exceedingly grotesque in their appearance, and to
-    the eye of a traveller who knows not their meaning or importance, they
-    are an uncouth and frightful display of starts, and jumps, and yelps,
-    and jarring gutturals, which are sometimes truly terrifying. But when
-    one gives them a little attention, and has been lucky enough to be
-    initiated into their mysterious meaning, they become a subject of the
-    most intense and exciting interest. Every dance has its peculiar step,
-    and every step has its meaning; every dance also has its peculiar song,
-    and that is so intricate and mysterious oftentimes, that not one in ten
-    of the young men who are dancing and singing it, know the meaning of
-    the song which they are chanting over. None but the medicine-men are
-    allowed to understand them; and even they are generally only initiated
-    into these secret arcana, on the payment of a liberal stipend for their
-    tuition, which requires much application and study. There is evidently
-    a set song and sentiment for every dance, for the songs are perfectly
-    measured, and sung in exact time with the beat of the drum; and always
-    with an uniform and invariable set of sounds and expressions, which
-    clearly indicate certain sentiments, which are expressed by the voice,
-    though sometimes not given in any known language whatever.</p>
-
-  <p>They have other dances and songs which are not so mystified, but which
-    are sung and understood by every person in the tribe, being sung in
-    their own language, with much poetry in them, and perfectly metred, but
-    without rhyme. On these subjects I shall take another occasion to say
-    more; and will for the present turn your attention to the style and
-    modes in which some of these curious transactions are conducted.</p>
-
-  <p>My ears have been almost continually ringing since I came here, with
-    the din of yelping and beating of the drums; but I have for several
-    days<span class="pagenum" id="Page_127">127</span> past been peculiarly engrossed, and my senses almost confounded
-    with the stamping, and grunting, and bellowing of the <em>buffalo
-    dance</em>, which closed a few days since at sunrise (thank Heaven), and
-    which I must needs describe to you.</p>
-
-  <p>Buffaloes, it is known, are a sort of roaming creatures, congregating
-    occasionally in huge masses, and strolling away about the country from
-    east to west, or from north to south, or just where their whims or
-    strange fancies may lead them; and the Mandans are sometimes, by this
-    means, most unceremoniously left without any thing to eat; and being a
-    small tribe, and unwilling to risk their lives by going far from home
-    in the face of their more powerful enemies, are oftentimes left almost
-    in a state of starvation. In any emergency of this kind, every man
-    musters and brings out of his lodge his mask (the skin of a buffalo’s
-    head with the horns on), which he is obliged to keep in readiness
-    for this occasion; and then commences the buffalo dance, of which I
-    have above spoken, which is held for the purpose of making “buffalo
-    come” (as they term it), of inducing the buffalo herds to change the
-    direction of their wanderings, and bend their course towards the Mandan
-    village, and graze about on the beautiful hills and bluffs in its
-    vicinity, where the Mandans can shoot them down and cook them as they
-    want them for food.</p>
-
-  <p>For the most part of the year, the young warriors and hunters, by
-    riding out a mile or two from the village, can kill meat in abundance;
-    and sometimes large herds of these animals may be seen grazing in
-    full view of the village. There are other seasons also when the young
-    men have ranged about the country as far as they are willing to risk
-    their lives, on account of their enemies, without finding meat. This
-    sad intelligence is brought back to the chiefs and doctors, who sit in
-    solemn council, and consult on the most expedient measures to be taken,
-    until they are sure to decide upon the old and only expedient which
-    “never has failed.”</p>
-
-  <p>The chief issues his order to his runners or criers, who proclaim it
-    through the village—and in a few minutes the dance begins. The place
-    where this strange operation is carried on is in the public area in the
-    centre of the village, and in front of the great medicine or mystery
-    lodge. About ten or fifteen Mandans at a time join in the dance, each
-    one with the skin of the buffalo’s head (or mask) with the horns on,
-    placed over his head, and in his hand his favourite bow or lance, with
-    which he is used to slay the buffalo.</p>
-
-  <p>I mentioned that this dance always had the desired effect, that it
-    never fails, nor can it, for it cannot be stopped (but is going
-    incessantly day and night) until “buffalo come.” Drums are beating and
-    rattles are shaken, and songs and yells incessantly are shouted, and
-    lookers-on stand ready with masks on their heads, and weapons in hand,
-    to take the place of each one as he becomes fatigued, and jumps out of
-    the ring.</p>
-
-  <p>During this time of general excitement, spies or “<em>lookers</em>” are
-    kept on the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_128">128</span> hills in the neighbourhood of the village, who, when they
-    discover buffaloes in sight, give the appropriate signal, by “throwing
-    their robes,” which is instantly seen in the village, and understood by
-    the whole tribe. At this joyful intelligence there is a shout of thanks
-    to the Great Spirit, and more especially to the mystery-man, and the
-    dancers, <em>who have been the immediate cause of their success</em>!
-    There is then a brisk preparation for the chase—a grand hunt takes
-    place. The choicest pieces of the victims are sacrificed to the Great
-    Spirit, and then a surfeit and a carouse.</p>
-
-  <p>These dances have sometimes been continued in this village two and
-    three weeks without stopping an instant, until the joyful moment when
-    buffaloes made their appearance. So they <em>never fail</em>; and they
-    think they have been the means of bringing them in.</p>
-
-  <p>Every man in the Mandan village (as I have before said) is obliged by
-    a village regulation, to keep the mask of the buffalo, hanging on a
-    post at the head of his bed, which he can use on his head whenever he
-    is called upon by the chiefs, to dance for the coming of buffaloes.
-    The mask is put over the head, and generally has a strip of the skin
-    hanging to it, of the whole length of the animal, with the tail
-    attached to it, which, passing down over the back of the dancer, is
-    dragging on the ground (<a href="#i_056"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 56</a>). When one becomes fatigued
-    of the exercise, he signifies it by bending quite forward, and sinking
-    his body towards the ground; when another draws a bow upon him and hits
-    him with a blunt arrow, and he falls like a buffalo—is seized by the
-    bye-standers, who drag him out of the ring by the heels, brandishing
-    their knives about him; and having gone through the motions of skinning
-    and cutting him up, they let him off, and his place is at once supplied
-    by another, who dances into the ring with his mask on; and by this
-    taking of places, the scene is easily kept up night and day, until the
-    desired effect has been produced, that of “making buffalo come.”</p>
-
-  <p>The day before yesterday however, readers, which, though it commenced
-    in joy and thanksgiving to the Great Spirit for the signal success
-    which had attended their several days of dancing and supplication,
-    ended in a calamity which threw the village of the Mandans into
-    mourning and repentant tears, and that at a time of scarcity and great
-    distress. The signal was given into the village on that morning from
-    the top of a distant bluff, that a band of buffaloes were in sight,
-    though at a considerable distance off, and every heart beat with joy,
-    and every eye watered and glistened with gladness.</p>
-
-  <p>The dance had lasted some three or four days, and now, instead of the
-    doleful tap of the drum and the begging chaunts of the dancers, the
-    stamping of horses was heard as they were led and galloped through the
-    village—young men were throwing off their robes and their shirts,—were
-    seen snatching a handful of arrows from their quivers, and stringing
-    their sinewy bows, glancing their eyes and their smiles at their
-    sweethearts, and mounting their ponies. <span class="gesperrtstar">* * *</span></p>
-
-  <p><span class="gesperrtstar">* *</span> A few minutes there had been of bustle and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_129">129</span> boasting, whilst
-    bows were twanging and spears were polishing by running their blades
-    into the ground—every face and every eye was filled with joy and
-    gladness—horses were pawing and snuffing in fury for the outset, when
-    Louison Frénié, an interpreter of the Fur Company, galloped through the
-    village with his rifle in his hand and his powder-horn at his side; his
-    head and waist were bandaged with handkerchiefs, and his shirt sleeves
-    rolled up to his shoulders—the hunter’s yell issued from his lips and
-    was repeated through the village; he flew to the bluffs, and behind
-    him and over the graceful swells of the prairie, galloped the emulous
-    youths, whose hearts were beating high and quick for the onset.</p>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>32</i></div>
-  <figure id="i_056">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_056.jpg" alt="Buffalo dance">
-     <figcaption>56</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p>In the village, where hunger had reigned, and starvation was almost
-    ready to look them in the face, all was instantly turned to joy and
-    gladness. The chiefs and doctors who had been for some days dealing
-    out minimum rations to the community from the public crib, now spread
-    before their subjects the contents of their own private <i lang="fr">caches</i>,
-    and the last of every thing that could be mustered, that they might eat
-    a thanksgiving to the Great Spirit for his goodness in sending them a
-    supply of buffalo meat. A general carouse of banqueting ensued, which
-    occupied the greater part of the day; and their hidden stores which
-    might have fed an emergency for several weeks, were pretty nearly used
-    up on the occasion—bones were half picked, and dishes half emptied and
-    then handed to the dogs. <em>I</em> was not forgotten neither, in the
-    general surfeit; several large and generous wooden bowls of pemican and
-    other palatable food were sent to my painting-room, and I received them
-    in this time of scarcity with great pleasure.</p>
-
-  <p>After this general indulgence was over, and the dogs had licked the
-    dishes, their usual games and amusements ensued—and hilarity and mirth,
-    and joy took possession of, and reigned in, every nook and corner of
-    the village; and in the midst of this, screams and shrieks were heard!
-    and echoed everywhere. Women and children scrambled to the tops of
-    their wigwams, with their eyes and their hands stretched in agonizing
-    earnestness to the prairie, whilst blackened warriors ran furiously
-    through every winding maze of the village, and issuing their jarring
-    gutturals of vengeance, as they snatched their deadly weapons from
-    their lodges, and struck the reddened post as they furiously passed
-    it by! Two of their hunters were bending their course down the sides
-    of the bluff towards the village, and another broke suddenly out of a
-    deep ravine, and yet another was seen dashing over and down the green
-    hills, and all were goading on their horses at full speed! and then
-    came another, and another, and all entered the village amid shouts and
-    groans of the villagers who crowded around them; the story was told
-    in their looks, for one was bleeding, and the blood that flowed from
-    his naked breast had crimsoned his milk white steed as it had dripped
-    over him; another grasped in his left hand a scalp that was reeking in
-    blood—and in the other his whip—another grasped nothing, save the reins
-    in one hand and the mane of the horse in the other, having thrown his
-    bow and his arrows<span class="pagenum" id="Page_130">130</span> away, and trusted to the fleetness of his horse
-    for his safety; yet the story was audibly told, and the fatal tragedy
-    recited in irregular and almost suffocating ejaculations—the names
-    of the dead were in turns pronounced and screams and shrieks burst
-    forth at their recital—murmurs and groans ran through the village, and
-    this happy little community were in a moment smitten with sorrow and
-    distraction.</p>
-
-  <p>Their proud band of hunters who had started full of glee and mirth in
-    the morning, had been surrounded by their enemy, the Sioux, and eight
-    of them killed. The Sioux, who had probably reconnoitred their village
-    during the night, and ascertained that they were dancing for buffaloes,
-    laid a stratagem to entrap them in the following manner:—Some six
-    or eight of them appeared the next morning (on a distant bluff, in
-    sight of their sentinel) under the skins of buffaloes, imitating the
-    movements of those animals whilst grazing; and being discovered by
-    the sentinel, the intelligence was telegraphed to the village, which
-    brought out their hunters as I have described. The masked buffaloes
-    were seen grazing on the top of a high bluff, and when the hunters had
-    approached within half a mile or so of them, they suddenly disappeared
-    over the hill. Louison Frénié, who was leading the little band of
-    hunters, became at that moment suspicious of so strange a movement, and
-    came to a halt <span class="gesperrtstar">* * *</span></p>
-
-  <p>* “Look”! (said a Mandan, pointing to a little ravine to the right, and
-    at the foot of the hill, from which suddenly broke some forty or fifty
-    furious Sioux, on fleet horses and under full whip, who were rushing
-    upon them); they wheeled, and in front of them came another band more
-    furious from the other side of the hill! they started for home (poor
-    fellows), and strained every nerve; but the Sioux were too fleet for
-    them; and every now and then, the whizzing arrow and the lance were
-    heard to rip the flesh of their naked backs, and a grunt and a groan,
-    as they tumbled from their horses. Several miles were run in this
-    desperate race; and Frénié got home, and several of the Mandans, though
-    eight of them were killed and scalped by the way.</p>
-
-  <p>So ended that day and the hunt; but many a day and sad, will last the
-    grief of those whose hearts were broken on that unlucky occasion.</p>
-
-  <p><em>This</em> day, though, my readers, has been one of a more joyful
-    kind, for the Great Spirit, who was indignant at so flagrant an
-    injustice, has sent the Mandans an abundance of buffaloes; and all
-    hearts have joined in a general thanksgiving to Him for his goodness
-    and justice.</p>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>33</i></div>
-  <figure id="i_057">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_057.jpg" alt="Bow training">
-     <figcaption>57</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <hr class="chap">
-  <div class="chapter">
-    <span class="pagenum" id="Page_131">131</span>
-    <h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_19">LETTER—<abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 19.</h2>
-  </div>
-  <div class="subheadc">MANDAN VILLAGE, <i>UPPER MISSOURI</i>.</div>
-
-  <p><span class="smcap">In</span> my last Letter I gave an account of the buffalo dance, and in future
-    epistles may give some descriptions of a dozen other kinds of dance,
-    which these people have in common with other tribes; but in the present
-    Letter I shall make an endeavour to confine my observations to several
-    other customs and forms, which are very curious and peculiar to the
-    Mandans.</p>
-
-  <p>Of these, one of the most pleasing is the <em>sham-fight</em> and sham
-    scalp-dance of the Mandan boys, which is a part of their regular
-    exercise, and constitutes a material branch of their education.
-    During the pleasant mornings of the summer, the little boys between
-    the age of seven and fifteen are called out, to the number of several
-    hundred, and being divided into two companies, each of which is headed
-    by some experienced warrior, who leads them on, in the character of
-    a teacher; they are led out into the prairie at sunrise, where this
-    curious discipline is regularly taught them (<a href="#i_057"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 57</a>). Their
-    bodies are naked, and each one has a little bow in his left hand and
-    a number of arrows made of large spears of grass, which are harmless
-    in their effects. Each one has also a little belt or girdle around
-    his waist, in which he carries a knife made of a piece of wood and
-    equally harmless—on the tops of their heads are slightly attached
-    small tufts of grass, which answer as scalps, and in this plight,
-    they follow the dictates of their experienced leaders, who lead them
-    through the judicious evolutions of Indian warfare—of feints—of
-    retreats—of attacks—and at last to a general fight. Many manœuvres are
-    gone through, and eventually they are brought up face to face, within
-    fifteen or twenty feet of each other, with their leaders at their head
-    stimulating them on. Their bows are bent upon each other and their
-    missiles flying, whilst they are dodging and fending them off.</p>
-
-  <p>If any one is struck with an arrow on any vital part of his body, he is
-    obliged to fall, and his adversary rushes up to him, places his foot
-    upon him, and snatching from his belt his wooden knife, grasps hold of
-    his victim’s scalp-lock of grass, and making a feint at it with his
-    wooden knife, twitches it off and puts it into his belt, and enters
-    again into the ranks and front of battle.</p>
-
-  <p>This mode of training generally lasts an hour or more in the morning,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_132">132</span>
-    and is performed on an empty stomach, affording them a rigid and
-    wholesome exercise, whilst they are instructed in the important science
-    of war. Some five or six miles of ground are run over during these
-    evolutions, giving suppleness to their limbs and strength to their
-    muscles, which last and benefit them through life.</p>
-
-  <p>After this exciting exhibition is ended, they all return to their
-    village, where the chiefs and braves pay profound attention to their
-    vaunting, and applaud them for their artifice and valour.</p>
-
-  <p>Those who have taken scalps then step forward, brandishing them and
-    making their boast as they enter into the <em>scalp-dance</em> (in which
-    they are also instructed by their leaders or teachers), jumping and
-    yelling—brandishing their scalps, and reciting their <em>sanguinary
-    deeds</em>, to the great astonishment of their tender aged sweethearts,
-    who are gazing with wonder upon them.</p>
-
-  <p>The games and amusements of these people are in most respects like
-    those of the other tribes, consisting of ball plays—game of the
-    moccasin, of the platter—feats of archery—horse-racing, &amp;c.; and they
-    have yet another, which may be said to be their favourite amusement,
-    and unknown to the other tribes about them. The game of Tchung-kee, a
-    beautiful athletic exercise, which they seem to be almost unceasingly
-    practicing whilst the weather is fair, and they have nothing else
-    of moment to demand their attention. This game is decidedly their
-    favourite amusement, and is played near to the village on a pavement
-    of clay, which has been used for that purpose until it has become as
-    smooth and hard as a floor. For this game two champions form their
-    respective parties, by choosing alternately the most famous players,
-    until their requisite numbers are made up. Their bettings are then
-    made, and their stakes are held by some of the chiefs or others
-    present. The play commences (<a href="#i_059"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 59</a>) with two (one from each
-    party), who start off upon a trot, abreast of each other, and one of
-    them rolls in advance of them, on the pavement, a little ring of two
-    or three inches in diameter, cut out of a stone; and each one follows
-    it up with his “tchung-kee” (a stick of six feet in length, with
-    little bits of leather projecting from its sides of an inch or more in
-    length), which he throws before him as he runs, sliding it along upon
-    the ground after the ring, endeavouring to place it in such a position
-    when it stops, that the ring may fall upon it, and receive one of the
-    little projections of leather through it, which counts for game, one,
-    or two, or four, according to the position of the leather on which the
-    ring is lodged. The last winner always has the rolling of the ring,
-    and both start and throw the tchung-kee together; if either fails to
-    receive the ring or to lie in a certain position, it is a forfeiture
-    of the amount of the number he was nearest to, and he loses his throw;
-    when another steps into his place. This game is a very difficult one
-    to describe, so as to give an exact idea of it, unless one can see it
-    played—it is a game of great beauty and fine bodily exercise, and these
-    people become excessively fascinated with it; often gambling away every
-    thing they possess, and even sometimes, when everything else was gone,
-    have been known to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_133">133</span> stake their liberty upon the issue of these games,
-    offering themselves as slaves to their opponents in case they get
-    beaten.</p>
-
-  <p><em>Feasting</em> and <em>fasting</em> are important customs observed by
-    the Mandans, as well as by most other tribes, at stated times and for
-    particular purposes. These observances are strictly religious and
-    rigidly observed. There are many of these forms practiced amongst the
-    Mandans, some of which are exceedingly interesting, and important also,
-    in forming a correct estimate of the Indian character; and I shall at a
-    future period take particular pains to lay them before my readers.</p>
-
-  <p><em>Sacrificing</em> is also a religious custom with these people, and
-    is performed in many different modes, and on numerous occasions. Of
-    this custom I shall also speak more fully hereafter, merely noticing
-    at present, some few of the hundred modes in which these offerings
-    are made to the Good and Evil Spirits. Human sacrifices have never
-    been made by the Mandans, nor by any of the north western tribes (so
-    far as I can learn), excepting the Pawnees of the Platte; who have,
-    undoubtedly, observed such an inhuman practice in former times, though
-    they have relinquished it of late. The Mandans sacrifice their fingers
-    to the Great Spirit, and of their worldly goods, the best and the most
-    costly; if a horse or a dog, it must be the favourite one; if it is
-    an arrow from their quiver, they will select the most perfect one as
-    the most effective gift; if it is meat, it is the choicest piece cut
-    from the buffalo or other animal; if it is anything from the stores of
-    the Traders, it is the most costly—it is blue or scarlet cloth, which
-    costs them in this country an enormous price, and is chiefly used for
-    the purpose of hanging over their wigwams to decay, or to cover the
-    scaffolds where rest the bones of their departed relations.</p>
-
-  <p>Of these kinds of sacrifices there are three of an interesting nature,
-    erected over the great medicine-lodge in the centre of the village—they
-    consist of ten or fifteen yards of blue and black cloth each, purchased
-    from the Fur Company at fifteen or twenty dollars per yard, which
-    are folded up so as to resemble human figures, with quills in their
-    heads and masks on their faces. These singular-looking figures, like
-    “<em>scare crows</em>” (<a href="#i_047"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 47</a>), are erected on poles about
-    thirty feet high, over the door of the mystery-lodge, and there are
-    left to decay. There hangs now by the side of them another, which was
-    added to the number a few days since, of the skin of a white buffalo,
-    which will remain there until it decays and falls to pieces.</p>
-
-  <p>This beautiful and costly skin, when its history is known, will
-    furnish a striking proof of the importance which they attach to these
-    propitiatory offerings. But a few weeks since, a party of Mandans
-    returned from the Mouth of the Yellow Stone, two hundred miles
-    above, with information that a party of Blackfeet were visiting that
-    place on business with the American Fur Company; and that they had
-    with them a white buffalo robe for sale. This was looked upon as a
-    subject of great importance by the chiefs, and one worthy of public
-    consideration. A white buffalo robe is a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_134">134</span> great curiosity, even in the
-    country of buffaloes, and will always command an almost incredible
-    price, from its extreme scarcity; and then, from its being the most
-    costly article of traffic in these regions, it is usually converted
-    into a <em>sacrifice</em>, being offered to the Great Spirit, as the
-    most acceptable gift that can be procured. Amongst the vast herds of
-    buffaloes which graze on these boundless prairies, there is not one in
-    an hundred thousand, perhaps, that is white; and when such an one is
-    obtained, it is considered great <em>medicine</em> or mystery.</p>
-
-  <p>On the receipt of the intelligence above-mentioned, the chiefs convened
-    in council, and deliberated on the expediency of procuring the white
-    robe from the Blackfeet; and also of appropriating the requisite means,
-    and devising the proper mode of procedure for effecting the purchase.
-    At the close of their deliberations, eight men were fitted out on eight
-    of their best horses, who took from the Fur Company’s store, on the
-    credit of the chiefs, goods exceeding even the value of their eight
-    horses; and they started for the Mouth of the Yellow Stone, where
-    they arrived in due time, and made the purchase, by leaving the eight
-    horses and all the goods which they carried; returning on foot to their
-    own village, bringing home with them the white robe, which was looked
-    upon by all eyes of the villagers as a thing that was vastly curious,
-    and containing (as they express it) something of the Great Spirit.
-    This wonderful anomaly laid several days in the chief’s lodge, until
-    public curiosity was gratified; and then it was taken by the doctors or
-    high-priests, and with a great deal of form and mystery consecrated,
-    and raised on the top of a long pole over the <em>medicine-lodge</em>;
-    where it now stands in a group with the others, and will stand as an
-    offering to the Great Spirit, until it decays and falls to the ground.</p>
-
-  <p>This Letter, as I promised in its commencement, being devoted to some
-    of the customs peculiar to the Mandans, and all of which will be new
-    to the world, I shall close, after recording in it an account of a
-    laughable farce, which was enacted in this village when I was on my
-    journey up the river, and had stopped on the way to spend a day or two
-    in the Mandan village.</p>
-
-  <p>Readers, did you ever hear of “<em>Rain Makers</em>?” If not, sit still,
-    and read on; but laugh not—keep cool and sober, or else you may laugh
-    in the <em>beginning</em>, and cry at the <em>end</em> of my story.
-    Well, I introduce to you a new character—not a <em>doctor</em> or a
-    <em>high-priest</em>, yet a <em>medicine-man</em>, and one of the highest
-    and most respectable order, a “<em>Rain Maker</em>!” Such dignitaries
-    live in the Mandan nation, aye, and “<em>rain stoppers</em>” too; and
-    even those also amongst their <em>conjurati</em>, who, like Joshua of
-    old, have even essayed to stop the sun in his course; but from the
-    inefficiency of their medicine or mystery, have long since descended
-    into insignificance.</p>
-
-  <p>Well, the story begins thus:—The Mandans, as I have said in a former
-    Letter, raise a great deal of corn; and sometimes a most disastrous
-    drought will be visited on the land, destructive to their promised
-    harvest. Such<span class="pagenum" id="Page_135">135</span> was the case when I arrived at the Mandan village
-    on the steam-boat, Yellow-Stone. Rain had not fallen for many a day,
-    and the dear little girls and the ugly old squaws, altogether (all of
-    whom had fields of corn), were groaning and crying to their lords, and
-    imploring them to intercede for rain, that their little respective
-    patches, which were now turning pale and yellow, might not be withered,
-    and they be deprived of the pleasure of their customary annual
-    festivity, and the joyful occasion of the “roasting ears,” and the
-    “green corn dance.”</p>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>34</i></div>
-  <figure id="i_058">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_058.jpg" alt="Wak-a-dah-ha-hee's rain dance">
-     <figcaption>58</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <figure class="mt2" id="i_059">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_059.jpg" alt="Playing tchung-kee">
-     <figcaption>59</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p>The chiefs and doctors sympathized with the plaints of the women, and
-    recommended patience. Great deliberation, they said, was necessary in
-    these cases; and though they resolved on making the attempt to produce
-    rain for the benefit of the corn; yet they very wisely resolved that
-    to begin too soon might ensure their entire defeat in the endeavour;
-    and that the longer they put it off, the more certain they would feel
-    of ultimate success. So, after a few days of further delay, when the
-    importunities of the women had become clamorous, and even mournful,
-    and almost insupportable, the <em>medicine-men</em> assembled in the
-    council-house, with all their mystery apparatus about them—with an
-    abundance of wild sage, and other aromatic herbs, with a fire prepared
-    to burn them, that their savoury odours might be sent forth to the
-    Great Spirit. The lodge was closed to all the villagers, except some
-    ten or fifteen young men, who were willing to hazard the dreadful
-    alternative of making it rain, or suffer the everlasting disgrace of
-    having made a fruitless essay.</p>
-
-  <p>They, only, were allowed as witnesses to the <em>hocus pocus</em> and
-    <em>conjuration</em> devised by the doctors inside of the medicine-lodge;
-    and they were called up by lot, each one in his turn, to spend a day
-    upon the top of the lodge, to test the potency of his medicine; or, in
-    other words, to see how far his voice might be heard and obeyed amongst
-    the clouds of the heavens; whilst the doctors were burning incense in
-    the wigwam below, and with their songs and prayers to the Great Spirit
-    for success, were sending forth grateful fumes and odours to Him “who
-    lives in the sun and commands the thunders of Heaven.” Wah-kee (the
-    shield) was the first who ascended the wigwam at sunrise; and he stood
-    all day, and looked foolish, as he was counting over and over his
-    string of mystery-beads—the whole village were assembled around him,
-    and praying for his success. Not a cloud appeared—the day was calm and
-    hot; and at the setting of the sun, he descended from the lodge and
-    went home—“his <em>medicine</em> was not good,” nor can he ever be a
-    <em>medicine-man</em>.</p>
-
-  <p>Om-pah (the elk) was the next; he ascended the lodge at sunrise the
-    next morning. His body was entirely naked, being covered with yellow
-    clay. On his left arm he carried a beautiful shield, and a long lance
-    in his right; and on his head the skin of a raven, the bird that soars
-    amidst the clouds, and above the lightning’s glare—he flourished his
-    shield and brandished his lance, and raised his voice, but in vain; for
-    at sunset the ground<span class="pagenum" id="Page_136">136</span> was dry and the sky was clear; the squaws were
-    crying, and their corn was withering at its roots.</p>
-
-  <p>War-rah-pa (the beaver) was the next; he also spent his breath in vain
-    upon the empty air, and came down at night—and Wak-a-dah-ha-hee (the
-    white buffalo’s hair) took the stand the next morning. He is a small,
-    but beautifully proportioned young man. He was dressed in a tunic and
-    leggings of the skins of the mountain-sheep, splendidly garnished
-    with quills of the porcupine, and fringed with locks of hair taken
-    by his own hand from the heads of his enemies. On his arm he carried
-    his shield, made of the buffalo’s hide—its boss was the head of the
-    war-eagle—and its front was ornamented with “red chains of lightning.”
-    In his left hand he clenched his sinewy bow and one single arrow. The
-    villagers were all gathered about him; when he threw up a feather to
-    decide on the course of the wind, and he commenced thus:—“My friends!
-    people of the pheasants! you see me here a sacrifice—I shall this
-    day relieve you from great distress, and bring joy amongst you; or I
-    shall descend from this lodge when the sun goes down, and live amongs
-    the dogs and old women all my days. My friends! you saw which way the
-    feather flew, and I hold my shield this day in the direction where the
-    wind comes—the lightning on my shield will draw a great cloud, and this
-    arrow, which is selected from my quiver, and which is feathered with
-    the quill of the white swan, will make a hole in it. My friends! this
-    hole in the lodge at my feet, shows me the medicine-men, who are seated
-    in the lodge below me and crying to the Great Spirit; and through it
-    comes and passes into my nose delightful odours, which you see rising
-    in the smoke to the Great Spirit above, who rides in the clouds and
-    commands the winds! Three days they have sat here, my friends, and
-    nothing has been done to relieve your distress. On the first day was
-    Wah-kee (the shield), he could do nothing; he counted his beads and
-    came down—his medicine was not good—his name was bad, and it kept off
-    the rain. The next was Om-pah (the elk); on his head the raven was
-    seen, who flies <em>above</em> the storm, and he failed. War-rah-pa (the
-    beaver) was the next, my friends; the beaver lives <em>under</em> the
-    <em>water</em>, and he never wants it to rain. My friends! I see you are
-    in great distress, and nothing has yet been done; this shield belonged
-    to my father the White Buffalo; and the lightning you see on it is
-    red; it was taken from a black cloud, and that cloud will come over us
-    to-day. I am the white buffalo’s hair—and I am the son of my father.”</p>
-
-  <p>In this manner flourished and manœuvred Wak-a-dah-ha-hee (the white
-    buffalo’s hair), alternately addressing the audience and the heaven—and
-    holding converse with the winds and the “<i lang="mhq">je-bi</i>” (spirits) that
-    are floating about in them—stamping his foot over the heads of the
-    <em>magi</em>, who were involved in mysteries beneath him, and invoking
-    the spirits of darkness and light to send rain, to gladden the hearts
-    of the Mandans.</p>
-
-  <p>It happened on this memorable day about noon, that the steam-boat<span class="pagenum" id="Page_137">137</span>
-    Yellow Stone, on her first trip up the Missouri River, approached and
-    landed at the Mandan Village, as I have described in a former epistle.
-    I was lucky enough to be a passenger on this boat, and helped to fire
-    a salute of twenty guns of twelve pounds calibre, when we first came
-    in sight of the village, some three or four miles below. These guns
-    introduced a <em>new sound</em> into this strange country, which the
-    Mandans at first supposed to be thunder; and the young man upon the
-    lodge, who turned it to good account, was gathering fame in rounds of
-    applause, which were repeated and echoed through the whole village;
-    all eyes were centred upon him—chiefs envied him—mothers’ hearts
-    were beating high whilst they were decorating and leading up their
-    fair daughters to offer him in marriage, on his signal success. The
-    medicine-men had left the lodge, and came out to bestow upon him the
-    envied title of “<em>medicine-man</em>,” or “<em>doctor</em>,” which he
-    had so deservedly won—wreaths were prepared to decorate his brows, and
-    eagle’s plumes and calumets were in readiness for him; his friends were
-    all rejoiced—his enemies wore on their faces a silent gloom and hatred;
-    and his old sweethearts, who had formerly cast him off, gazed intensely
-    upon him, as they glowed with the burning fever of repentance.</p>
-
-  <p>During all this excitement, Wak-a-dah-ha-hee kept his position,
-    assuming the most commanding and threatening attitudes; brandishing his
-    shield in the direction of the thunder (<a class="smcap" href="#i_058">plate 58</a>), although
-    there was not a cloud to be seen, until he (poor fellow), being
-    elevated above the rest of the village, espied, to his inexpressible
-    amazement, the steam-boat ploughing its way up the windings of the
-    river below; puffing her steam from her pipes, and sending forth the
-    thunder from a twelve-pounder on her deck! <span class="gesperrtstar">* * *</span> The White Buffalo’s
-    Hair stood motionless and turned pale, he looked awhile, and turned to
-    the chief and to the multitude, and addressed them with a trembling
-    lip—“My friends, we will get no rain!—there are, you see, no clouds;
-    but my medicine is great—I have brought a <em>thunder boat</em>! look and
-    see it! the thunder you hear is out of her mouth, and the lightning
-    which you see is on the waters!”</p>
-
-  <p>At this intelligence, the whole village flew to the tops of their
-    wigwams, or to the bank of the river, from whence the steamer was in
-    full view, and ploughing along, to their utter dismay and confusion.</p>
-
-  <p>In this promiscuous throng of chiefs, doctors, women, children and
-    dogs, was mingled Wak-a-dah-ha-hee (the white buffalo’s hair), having
-    descended from his high place to mingle with the frightened throng.</p>
-
-  <p>Dismayed at the approach of so strange and unaccountable an object, the
-    Mandans stood their ground but a few moments; when, by an order of the
-    chiefs, all hands were ensconced within the piquets of their village,
-    and all the warriors armed for desperate defence. A few moments brought
-    the boat in front of the village, and all was still and quiet as death;
-    not a Mandan was to be seen upon the banks. The steamer was moored, and
-    three or four of the chiefs soon after, walked boldly down the bank and
-    on to her<span class="pagenum" id="Page_138">138</span> deck, with a spear in one hand and the calumet or pipe of
-    peace in the other. The moment they stepped on board they met (to their
-    great surprise and joy) their old friend, Major Sanford, their agent,
-    which circumstance put an instant end to all their fears. The villagers
-    were soon apprized of the fact, and the whole race of the beautiful and
-    friendly Mandans was paraded on the bank of the river, in front of the
-    steamer.</p>
-
-  <p>The “rain maker,” whose apprehensions of a public calamity brought
-    upon the nation by his extraordinary <em>medicine</em>, had, for the
-    better security of his person from apprehended vengeance, secreted
-    himself in some secure place, and was the last to come forward, and the
-    last to be convinced that this visitation was a friendly one from the
-    white people; and that his <em>medicine</em> had not in the least been
-    instrumental in bringing it about. This information, though received
-    by him with much caution and suspicion, at length gave him great
-    relief, and quieted his mind as to his danger. Yet still in his breast
-    there was a rankling thorn, though he escaped the dreaded vengeance
-    which he had a few moments before apprehended as at hand; as he had
-    the mortification and disgrace of having failed in his mysterious
-    operations. He set up, however (during the day, in his conversation
-    about the strange arrival), his <em>medicines</em>, as the cause of
-    its approach; asserting everywhere and to everybody, that he knew
-    of its coming, and that he had by his magic brought the occurrence
-    about. This plea, however, did not get him much audience; and in fact,
-    everything else was pretty much swallowed up in the guttural talk, and
-    bustle, and gossip about the mysteries of the “thunder-boat;” and so
-    passed the day, until just at the approach of evening, when the “White
-    Buffalo’s Hair” (more watchful of such matters on this occasion than
-    most others) observed that a black cloud had been jutting up in the
-    horizon, and was almost directly over the village! In an instant his
-    shield was on his arm, and his bow in his hand, and he again upon the
-    lodge! ; and braced to the last sinew, he stood, with his face
-    and his shield presented to the cloud, and his bow drawn. He drew the
-    eyes of the whole village upon him as he vaunted forth his super-human
-    powers, and at the same time commanding the cloud to come nearer, that
-    he might draw down its contents upon the heads and the corn-fields of
-    the Mandans! In this wise he stood, waving his shield over his head,
-    stamping his foot and frowning as he drew his bow and threatened the
-    heavens, commanding it to rain—his bow was bent, and the arrow drawn
-    to its head, was sent to the cloud, and he exclaimed, “My friends, it
-    is done! Wak-a-dah-ha-hee’s arrow has entered that black cloud, and
-    the Mandans will be wet with the water of the skies!” His predictions
-    were true;—in a few moments the cloud was over the village, and the
-    rain fell in torrents. He stood for some time wielding his weapons and
-    presenting his shield to the sky, while he boasted of his power and
-    the efficacy of his <em>medicine</em>, to those who had been about him,
-    but were now driven to the shelter of their wigwams. He, at length,
-    finished his vaunts and his threats, and descended<span class="pagenum" id="Page_139">139</span> from his high place
-    (in which he had been perfectly drenched), prepared to receive the
-    honours and the homage that were due to one so potent in his mysteries;
-    and to receive the style and title of “<em>medicine-man</em>.” This is
-    one of a hundred different modes in which a man in Indian countries
-    acquires the honourable appellation.</p>
-
-  <p>This man had “made it rain,” and of course was to receive more than
-    usual honours, as he had done much more than ordinary men could do.
-    All eyes were upon him, and all were ready to admit that he was
-    skilled in the magic art; and must be so nearly allied to the Great
-    or Evil Spirit, that he must needs be a man of great and powerful
-    influence in the nation, and well entitled to the style of doctor or
-    <em>medicine-man</em>.</p>
-
-  <p>Readers, there are two facts relative to these strange transactions,
-    which are infallibly true, and should needs be made known. The first
-    is, that when the Mandans undertake to make it rain, <em>they never
-    fail to succeed</em>, for their ceremonies never stop until rain begins
-    to fall. The second is equally true, and is this:—that he who has
-    once “<em>made it rain</em>,” never attempts it again; his medicine is
-    undoubted—and on future occasions of the kind, he stands aloof, who has
-    once done it in presence of the whole village, giving an opportunity to
-    other young men who are ambitious to signalize themselves in the same
-    way.</p>
-
-  <p>During the memorable night of which I have just spoken, the steam-boat
-    remained by the side of the Mandan village, and the rain that had
-    commenced falling continued to pour down its torrents until midnight;
-    black thunder roared, and livid lightning flashed until the heavens
-    appeared to be lit up with one unceasing and appalling glare. In
-    this frightful moment of consternation, a flash of lightning buried
-    itself in one of the earth-covered lodges of the Mandans, and killed a
-    beautiful girl. Here was food and fuel fresh for their superstitions;
-    and a night of vast tumult and excitement ensued. The dreams of the
-    new-made medicine-man were troubled, and he had dreadful apprehensions
-    for the coming day—for he knew that he was subject to the irrevocable
-    decree of the chiefs and doctors, who canvass every strange and
-    unaccountable event, with close and superstitious scrutiny, and let
-    their vengeance fall without mercy upon its immediate cause.</p>
-
-  <p>He looked upon his well-earned fame as likely to be withheld from him;
-    and also considered that his life might perhaps be demanded as the
-    forfeit for this girl’s death, which would certainly be charged upon
-    him. He looked upon himself as culpable, and supposed the accident
-    to have been occasioned by his criminal desertion of his post, when
-    the steam-boat was approaching the village. Morning came, and he soon
-    learned from some of his friends, the opinions of the wise men; and
-    also the nature of the tribunal that was preparing for him; he sent
-    to the prairie for his three horses, which were brought in, and he
-    mounted the <em>medicine-lodge</em>, around which, in a few moments, the
-    villagers were all assembled. “My friends! (said he) I see you all
-    around me, and I am before you; my medicine, you see, is great—it is<span class="pagenum" id="Page_140">140</span>
-    <em>too great</em>—I am young, and I was too fast—I knew not when to
-    stop. The wigwam of Mah-sish is laid low, and many are the eyes that
-    weep for Ko-ka (the antelope;) Wak-a-dah-ha-hee gives three horses
-    to gladden the hearts of those who weep for Ko-ka; his medicine was
-    great—his arrow pierced the black cloud, and the lightning came, and
-    the <em>thunder-boat</em> also! who says the medicine of Wak-a-dah-ha-hee
-    is not strong?”</p>
-
-  <p>At the end of this sentence an unanimous shout of approbation ran
-    through the crowd, and the “Hair of the White Buffalo” descended
-    amongst them, where he was greeted by shakes of the hand; and amongst
-    whom he now lives and thrives under the familiar and honourable
-    appellation of the “<span class="smcap">Big Double Medicine</span>.”</p>
-
-  <hr class="chap">
-  <div class="chapter">
-    <span class="pagenum" id="Page_141">141</span>
-    <h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_20">LETTER—<abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 20.</h2>
-  </div>
-  <div class="subheadc">MANDAN VILLAGE, <i>UPPER MISSOURI</i>.</div>
-
-  <p><span class="smcap">This</span> day has been one of unusual mirth and amusement amongst the
-    Mandans, and whether on account of some annual celebration or not, I
-    am as yet unable to say, though I think such is the case; for these
-    people have many days which, like this, are devoted to festivities and
-    amusements.</p>
-
-  <p>Their lives, however, are lives of idleness and ease, and almost all
-    their days and hours are spent in innocent amusements. Amongst a people
-    who have no office hours to attend to—no professions to study, and of
-    whom but very little time is required in the chase, to supply their
-    families with food, it would be strange if they did not practice many
-    games and amusements, and also become exceedingly expert in them.</p>
-
-  <p>I have this day been a spectator of games and plays until I am fatigued
-    with looking on; and also by lending a hand, which I have done; but
-    with so little success as only to attract general observation, and
-    as generally to excite the criticisms and laughter of the squaws and
-    little children.</p>
-
-  <p>I have seen a fair exhibition of their archery this day, in a favourite
-    amusement which they call the “<em>game of the arrow</em>” (see <a href="#i_060"><span class="smcap">plate</span>
-    60</a>), where the young men who are the most distinguished in
-    this exercise, assemble on the prairie at a little distance from
-    the village, and having paid, each one, his “entrance-fee,” such as
-    a shield, a robe, a pipe, or other article, step forward in turn,
-    shooting their arrows into the air, endeavouring to see who can get the
-    greatest number flying in the air at one time, thrown from the same
-    bow. For this, the number of eight or ten arrows are clenched in the
-    left hand with the bow, and the first one which is thrown is elevated
-    to such a degree as will enable it to remain the longest time possible
-    in the air, and while it is flying, the others are discharged as
-    rapidly as possible; and he who succeeds in getting the greatest number
-    up at once, is “best,” and takes the goods staked.</p>
-
-  <p>In looking on at this amusement, the spectator is surprised; not at
-    the great distance to which the arrows are actually sent; but at
-    the quickness of fixing them on the string, and discharging them in
-    succession; which is no doubt, the result of great practice, and
-    enables the most expert<span class="pagenum" id="Page_142">142</span> of them to get as many as eight arrows up
-    before the first one reaches the ground.</p>
-
-  <p>For the successful use of the bow, as it is used through all this
-    region of country on horseback, and that invariably at full speed, the
-    great object of practice is to enable the bowman to draw the bow with
-    suddenness and instant effect; and also to repeat the shots in the most
-    rapid manner. As their game is killed from their horses’ backs while
-    at the swiftest rate—and their enemies fought in the same way; and as
-    the horse is the swiftest animal of the prairie, and always able to
-    bring his rider alongside, within a few paces of his victim; it will
-    easily be seen that the Indian has little use in throwing his arrow
-    more than a few paces; when he leans quite low on his horse’s side, and
-    drives it with astonishing force, capable of producing instant death
-    to the buffalo, or any other animal in the country. The bows which are
-    generally in use in these regions I have described in a former Letter,
-    and the effects produced by them at the distance of a few paces is
-    almost beyond belief, considering their length, which is not often over
-    three,—and sometimes not exceeding two and a half feet. It can easily
-    be seen, from what has been said, that the Indian has little use or
-    object in throwing the arrow to any great distance. And as it is very
-    seldom that they can be seen shooting at a target, I doubt very much
-    whether their skill in such practice would compare with that attained
-    to in many parts of the civilized world; but with the same weapon,
-    and dashing forward at fullest speed on the wild horse, without the
-    use of the rein, when the shot is required to be made with the most
-    instantaneous effect, I scarcely think it possible that any people can
-    be found more skilled, and capable of producing more deadly effects
-    with the bow.</p>
-
-  <p>The horses which the Indians ride in this country are invariably the
-    wild horses, which are found in great numbers on the prairies; and
-    have, unquestionably, strayed from the Mexican borders, into which they
-    were introduced by the Spanish invaders of that country; and now range
-    and subsist themselves, in winter and summer, over the vast plains of
-    prairie that stretch from the Mexican frontiers to Lake Winnipeg on
-    the North, a distance of 3000 miles. These horses are all of small
-    stature, of the pony order; but a very hardy and tough animal, being
-    able to perform for the Indians a continual and essential service.
-    They are taken with the <em>laso</em>, which is a long halter or thong,
-    made of rawhide, of some fifteen or twenty yards in length, and which
-    the Indians throw with great dexterity; with a noose at one end of it,
-    which drops over the head of the animal they wish to catch, whilst
-    running at full speed—when the Indian dismounts from his own horse, and
-    holding to the end of the laso, choaks the animal down, and afterwards
-    tames and converts him to his own use.</p>
-
-  <p>Scarcely a man in these regions is to be found, who is not the owner of
-    one or more of these horses; and in many instances of eight, ten, or
-    even twenty, which he values as his own personal property.</p>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>35</i></div>
-  <figure id="i_060">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_060.jpg" alt="Game of the arrow">
-     <figcaption>60</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>36</i></div>
-  <figure id="i_061">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_061.jpg" alt="Horse-racing">
-     <figcaption>61</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_143">143</span></p>
-
-  <p>The Indians are hard and cruel masters; and, added to their cruelties
-    is the sin that is familiar in the Christian world, of sporting with
-    the limbs, and the lives of these noble animals. <em>Horse-racing</em>
-    here, as in all more enlightened communities, is one of the most
-    exciting amusements, and one of the most extravagant modes of gambling.</p>
-
-  <p>I have been this day a spectator to scenes of this kind, which have
-    been enacted in abundance, on a course which they have, just back of
-    their village; and although I never had the least taste for this cruel
-    amusement in my own country, yet, I must say, I have been not a little
-    amused and pleased with the thrilling effect which these exciting
-    scenes have produced amongst so wild and picturesque a group.</p>
-
-  <p>I have made a sketch of the ground and the group, as near as I could
-    (<a href="#i_061"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 61</a>); shewing the manner of “starting” and “coming out,”
-    which vary a little from the customs of the <em>knowing</em> world; but
-    in other respects, I believe, a horse-race is the same all the world
-    over.</p>
-
-  <p>Besides these, many have been the amusements of this day, to which I
-    have been an eye-witness; and since writing the above, I have learned
-    the cause of this unusual expression of hilarity and mirth; which was
-    no more nor less than the safe return of a small war-party, who had
-    been so long out without any tidings having been received of them—that
-    they had long since been looked upon as sacrificed to the fates of
-    war and lost. This party was made up of the most distinguished and
-    desperate young men of the tribe, who had sallied out against the
-    Riccarees, and taken the most solemn oath amongst themselves never
-    to return without achieving a victory. They had wandered long and
-    faithfully about the country, following the trails of their enemy; when
-    they were attacked by a numerous party, and lost several of their men
-    and all their horses. In this condition, to evade the scrutiny of their
-    enemy, who were closely investing the natural route to their village;
-    they took a circuitous range of the country, to enable them to return
-    with their lives, to their village.</p>
-
-  <p>In this plight, it seems, I had dropped my little canoe alongside of
-    them, while descending from the Mouth of Yellow Stone to this place,
-    not many weeks since; where they had bivouacked or halted, to smoke
-    and consult on the best and safest mode of procedure. At the time of
-    meeting them, not knowing anything of their language, they were unable
-    to communicate their condition to me, and more probably were afraid
-    to do so even if they could have done it, from apprehension that we
-    might have given some account of them to their enemies. I rested my
-    canoe an hour or so with them, during which time they treated us with
-    an indifferent reserve, yet respectfully; and we passed on our way,
-    without further information of them or their plans than the sketch that
-    I there made (<a href="#i_063"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 63</a>), and which I shall preserve and value
-    as one of the most pleasing groups I ever have had the pleasure to see.
-    Seated on their buffalo robes, which were spread upon the grass, with
-    their respective weapons laying about them, and lighting their pipes at
-    a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_144">144</span> little fire which was kindled in the centre—the chief or leader of
-    the party, with his arms stacked behind him, and his long head-dress of
-    war-eagles’ quills and ermine falling down over his back, whilst he sat
-    in a contemplative and almost desponding mood, was surely one of the
-    most striking and beautiful illustrations of a natural hero that I ever
-    looked upon.</p>
-
-  <p>These gallant fellows got safely home to their village, and the
-    numerous expressions of joy for their return, which I have this day
-    witnessed, have much fatigued me that I write brief, and close my
-    Letter here.</p>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>37</i></div>
-  <figure id="i_063">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_063.jpg" alt="War-party">
-     <figcaption>63</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <hr class="chap">
-  <div class="chapter">
-    <span class="pagenum" id="Page_145">145</span>
-    <h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_21">LETTER—<abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 21.</h2>
-  </div>
-  <div class="subheadc">MANDAN VILLAGE, <i>UPPER MISSOURI</i>.</div>
-
-  <p><span class="smcap">In</span> a former Letter I gave some account of Mah-to-toh-pa (the four
-    bears), second chief of the Mandans, whom I said I had painted at
-    full length, in a splendid costume. I therein said, also, that “this
-    extraordinary man, though second in office, is undoubtedly the first
-    and most popular man in the nation. Free, generous, elegant, and
-    gentlemanly in his deportment—handsome, brave and valiant; wearing a
-    robe on his back, with the history of all his battles painted on it,
-    which would fill a book of themselves if they were properly enlarged
-    and translated.”</p>
-
-  <p>I gave you also, in another epistle, an account of the manner in
-    which he invited me to a feast in his hospitable wigwam, at the same
-    time presenting me a beautifully garnished robe; and I promised to
-    say more of him on a future occasion. My readers will therefore
-    pardon me for devoting a Letter or two at this time, to a sketch of
-    this extraordinary man, which I will give in as brief a manner as
-    possible, by describing the costume in which I painted his portrait;
-    and afterwards reciting the most remarkable incidents of his life,
-    as I had them from the Traders and the Indian agents, and afterwards
-    corroborated by his own words, translated to me as he spoke, whilst I
-    was writing them down.</p>
-
-  <p>The dress of Mah-to-toh-pa then, the greater part of which I have
-    represented in his full-length portrait, and which I shall now
-    describe, was purchased of him after I had painted his picture; and
-    every article of it can be seen in my Indian Gallery by the side of
-    the portrait, provided I succeed in getting them home to the civilized
-    world without injury.</p>
-
-  <p>Mah-to-toh-pa had agreed to stand before me for his portrait at an
-    early hour of the next morning, and on that day I sat with my palette
-    of colours prepared, and waited till twelve o’clock, before he could
-    leave his toilette with feelings of satisfaction as to the propriety of
-    his looks and the arrangement of his equipments; and at that time it
-    was announced, that “Mah-to-toh-pa was coming in full dress!” I looked
-    out of the door of the wigwam, and saw him approaching with a firm and
-    elastic step, accompanied by a great crowd of women and children, who
-    were gazing on him with admiration, and escorting him to my room. No
-    tragedian ever trod the stage, nor gladiator ever entered the Roman
-    Forum, with more grace and manly dignity than did Mah-to-toh-pa enter
-    the wigwam, where I was in readiness to receive him. He took his
-    attitude before me (<a href="#i_064"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 64</a>), and with the sternness of a
-    Brutus and the stillness of a statue, he stood until the darkness<span class="pagenum" id="Page_146">146</span>
-    of night broke upon the solitary stillness. His dress, which was a
-    very splendid one, was complete in all its parts, and consisted of a
-    shirt or tunic, leggings, moccasins, head-dress, necklace, shield,
-    bow and quiver, lance, tobacco-sack, and pipe; robe, belt, and knife;
-    medicine-bag, tomahawk, and war-club, or <i lang="mhq">po-ko-mo-kon</i>.</p>
-
-  <p>The shirt, of which I have spoken, was made of two skins of the
-    mountain-sheep, beautifully dressed, and sewed together by seams which
-    rested upon the arms; one skin hanging in front, upon the breast, and
-    the other falling down upon the back; the head being passed between
-    them, and they falling over and resting on the shoulders. Across each
-    shoulder, and somewhat in the form of an epaulette, was a beautiful
-    band; and down each arm from the neck to the hand was a similar one,
-    of two inches in width (and crossing the other at right angles on the
-    shoulder) beautifully embroidered with porcupine quills worked on the
-    dress, and covering the seams. To the lower edge of these bands the
-    whole way, at intervals of half an inch, were attached long locks of
-    black hair, which he had taken with his own hand from the heads of
-    his enemies whom he had slain in battle, and which he thus wore as a
-    trophy, and also as an ornament to his dress. The front and back of
-    the shirt were curiously garnished in several parts with porcupine
-    quills and paintings of the battles he had fought, and also with
-    representations of the victims that had fallen by his hand. The bottom
-    of the dress was bound or hemmed with ermine skins, and tassels of
-    ermines’ tails were suspended from the arms and the shoulders.</p>
-
-  <p>The <em>Leggings</em>, which were made of deer skins, beautifully
-    dressed, and fitting tight to the leg, extended from the feet to the
-    hips, and were fastened to a belt which was passed around the waist.
-    These, like the shirt, had a similar band, worked with porcupine quills
-    of richest dyes, passing down the seam on the outer part of the leg,
-    and fringed also the whole length of the leg, with the scalp-locks
-    taken from his enemies’ heads.</p>
-
-  <p>The <em>Moccasins</em> were of buckskin, and covered in almost every part
-    with the beautiful embroidery of porcupines’ quills.</p>
-
-  <p>The <em>Head-dress</em>, which was superb and truly magnificent,
-    consisted of a crest of war-eagles’ quills, gracefully falling back
-    from the forehead over the back part of the head, and extending quite
-    down to his feet; set the whole way in a profusion of ermine, and
-    surmounted on the top of the head, with the horns of the buffalo,
-    shaved thin and highly polished.</p>
-
-  <p>The <em>Necklace</em> was made of fifty huge claws or nails of the
-    grizzly bear, ingeniously arranged on the skin of an otter, and worn,
-    like the scalp-locks, as a trophy—as an evidence unquestionable, that
-    he had contended with and overcome that desperate enemy in open combat.</p>
-
-  <p>His <em>Shield</em> was made of the hide of the buffalo’s neck, and
-    hardened with the glue that was taken from its hoofs; its boss was the
-    skin of a pole-cat, and its edges were fringed with rows of eagles’
-    quills and hoofs of the antelope.</p>
-
-  <p>His <em>Bow</em> was of bone, and as white and beautiful as ivory; over
-    its back<span class="pagenum" id="Page_147">147</span> was laid, and firmly attached to it, a coating of deers’
-    sinews, which gave it its elasticity, and of course death to all that
-    stood inimically before it. Its string was three stranded and twisted
-    of sinews, which many a time had twanged and sent the whizzing death to
-    animal and to human victims.</p>
-
-  <figure class="mt2 illowp75" id="i_064">
-    <div class="plate "><i>38</i></div>
-    <img src="images/i_064.jpg" alt="Mah-to-toh-pa">
-     <figcaption>64</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p>The <em>Quiver</em> was made of a panther’s skin and hung upon his back,
-    charged with its deadly arrows; some were poisoned and some were not;
-    they were feathered with hawks’ and eagles’ quills; some were clean and
-    innocent, and pure, and others were stained all over, with animal and
-    human blood that was dried upon them. Their blades or points were of
-    flints, and some of steel; and altogether were a deadly magazine.</p>
-
-  <p>The <em>Lance</em> or spear was held in his left hand; its blade was
-    two-edged and of polished steel, and the blood of several human victims
-    was seen dried upon it, one over the other; its shaft was of the
-    toughest ash, and ornamented at intervals with tufts of war-eagles’
-    quills.</p>
-
-  <p>His <em>Tobacco-sack</em> was made of the skin of an otter, and
-    tastefully garnished with quills of the porcupine; in it was carried
-    his <i lang="mhq">k’nick k’neck</i>, (the bark of the red willow, which is smoked
-    as a substitute for tobacco), it contained also his flint and steel,
-    and spunk for lighting——</p>
-
-  <p>His <em>Pipe</em>, which was ingeniously carved out of the red steatite
-    (or pipe-stone), the stem of which was three feet long and two inches
-    wide, made from the stalk of the young ash; about half its length was
-    wound with delicate braids of the porcupine’s quills, so ingeniously
-    wrought as to represent figures of men and animals upon it. It was
-    also ornamented with the skins and beaks of wood-peckers’ heads, and
-    the hair of the white buffalo’s tail. The lower half of the stem was
-    painted red, and on its edges it bore the notches he had recorded for
-    the snows (or years) of his life.</p>
-
-  <p>His <em>Robe</em> was made of the skin of a young buffalo bull, with the
-    fur on one side, and the other finely and delicately dressed; with all
-    the battles of his life emblazoned on it by his own hand.</p>
-
-  <p>His <em>Belt</em>, which was of a substantial piece of buckskin, was
-    firmly girded around his waist; and in it were worn his tomahawk and
-    scalping-knife.</p>
-
-  <p>His <em>Medicine-bag</em> was the skin of a beaver, curiously ornamented
-    with hawks’ bills and ermine. It was held in his right hand, and his
-    <i lang="mhq">po-ko-mo-kon</i> (or war-club) which was made of a round stone, tied
-    up in a piece of rawhide, and attached to the end of a stick, somewhat
-    in the form of a sling, was laid with others of his weapons at his feet.</p>
-
-  <p>Such was the dress of Mah-to-toh-pa when he entered my wigwam to stand
-    for his picture; but such I have not entirely represented it in his
-    portrait; having rejected such trappings and ornaments as interfered
-    with the grace and simplicity of the figure. He was beautifully and
-    extravagantly dressed; and in this he was not alone, for hundreds of
-    others are equally elegant. In plumes, and arms, and ornaments, he is
-    not singular; but in laurels and wreaths he stands unparalleled. His
-    breast has been bared and scarred in defence of his country, and his
-    brows crowned with honours<span class="pagenum" id="Page_148">148</span> that elevate him conspicuous above all of
-    his nation. There is no man amongst the Mandans so generally loved,
-    nor any one who wears a robe so justly famed and honourable as that of
-    Mah-to-toh-pa.</p>
-
-  <p>I said his robe was of the skin of a young buffalo bull, and that the
-    battles of his life were emblazoned on it; and on a former occasion,
-    that he presented me a beautiful robe, containing all the battles
-    of his life, which he had spent two weeks’ time in copying from his
-    original one, which he wore on his shoulders.</p>
-
-  <p>This robe, with his tracings on it, is the chart of his military life;
-    and when explained, will tell more of Mah-to-toh-pa.</p>
-
-  <p>Some days after this robe was presented, he called upon me with Mr.
-    Kipp, the trader and interpreter for the Mandans, and gave me of each
-    battle there pourtrayed the following history, which was interpreted
-    by Mr. Kipp, from his own lips, and written down by me, as we three
-    sat upon the robe. Mr. Kipp, who is a gentleman of respectability and
-    truth; and who has lived with these people ten years, assured me, that
-    nearly every one of these narrations were of events that had happened
-    whilst he had lived with them, and had been familiarly known to him;
-    and that every word that he asserted was true.</p>
-
-  <p>And again, reader, in this country where, of all countries I ever
-    was in, men are the most jealous of rank and of standing; and in a
-    community so small also, that every man’s deeds of honour and chivalry
-    are familiarly known to all; it would not be reputable, or even safe
-    to life, for a warrior to wear upon his back the representations of
-    battles he never had fought; professing to have done what every child
-    in the village would know he never had done.</p>
-
-  <p>So then I take the records of battles on the robe of Mah-to-toh-pa
-    to be matter of historical fact; and I proceed to give them as I
-    wrote them down from his own lips. Twelve battle-scenes are there
-    represented, where he has contended with his enemy, and in which he has
-    taken fourteen of their scalps. The groups are drawn according to his
-    own rude ideas of the arts; and I proceed to describe them in turn, as
-    they were explained to me.</p>
-
-  <h3>ROBE OF MAH-TO-TOH-PA (<a href="#i_065"><span class="smcap">Plate</span> 65</a>).</h3>
-
-  <p>1. Mah-to-toh-pa kills a Sioux chief—the three heads represent the
-    three Riccarees, whom the Sioux chief had previously killed. The Sioux
-    chief is seen with war-paint black on his face. Mah-to-toh-pa is seen
-    with the scalp of the Sioux in one hand, and his knife in the other,
-    with his bow and quiver lying behind him.<a id="FNanchor_3" href="#Footnote_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p>
-
-  <p>2. A Shienne chief, who sent word to Mah-to-toh-pa that he wished to
-    fight him—was killed by Mah-to-toh-pa with a lance, in presence of a
-    large <span class="pagenum" id="Page_149">149</span>party of Mandans and Shiennes. Mah-to-toh-pa is here known
-    by his lance with eagles’ quills on it.</p>
-
-  <figure class="mt2 illowp75" id="i_065">
-    <div class="plate"><i>39</i></div>
-    <img src="images/i_065.jpg" alt="Robe of Mah-to-toh-pa">
-     <figcaption>65</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <figure class="mt2 illowp75">
-    <div class="plate"><i>40</i></div>
-    <img src="images/i_065a.jpg" alt="Robe of Mah-to-toh-pa">
-  </figure>
-
-  <figure class="mt2 illowp75">
-    <div class="plate"><i>41</i></div>
-    <img src="images/i_065b.jpg" alt="Robe of Mah-to-toh-pa">
-  </figure>
-
-  <p>3. A Shienne killed by Mah-to-toh-pa after Mah-to-toh-pa had been left
-    by his party, badly wounded and bleeding; the twenty-five or thirty
-    foot-tracks around, represent the number of Shiennes, who were present
-    when the battle took place; and the bullets from their guns represented
-    as flying all around the head of Mah-to-toh-pa.</p>
-
-  <p>4. Shienne chief with war-eagle head-dress, and a beautiful shield,
-    ornamented with eagles’ quills, killed by Mah-to-toh-pa. In this
-    battle the wife of the Shienne rushed forward in a desperate manner to
-    his assistance; but arriving too late, fell a victim. In this battle
-    Mah-to-toh-pa obtained two scalps.</p>
-
-  <p>5. Mah-to-toh-pa, with a party of Riccarees, fired at by a party of
-    Sioux; the Riccarees fled—Mah-to-toh-pa dismounted and drove his horse
-    back, facing the enemy alone and killing one of them. Mah-to-toh-pa is
-    here represented with a beautiful head-dress of war-eagles’ quills,
-    and one on his horse’s head of equal beauty; his shield is on his arm,
-    and the party of Sioux is represented in front of him by the number of
-    horse tracks.</p>
-
-  <p>6. The brother of Mah-to-toh-pa killed by a Riccaree, who shot him with
-    an arrow, and then running a lance through his body, left it there.
-    Mah-to-toh-pa was the first to find his brother’s body with the lance
-    in it: he drew the lance from the body, kept it four years with the
-    blood dried on its blade, and then, according to his oath, killed the
-    same Riccaree with the same lance; the dead body of his brother is here
-    seen with the arrow and lance remaining in it, and the tracks of the
-    Riccaree’s horses in front.</p>
-
-  <p>The following was, perhaps, one of the most extraordinary exploits
-    of this remarkable man’s life, and is well attested by Mr. Kipp, and
-    several white men, who were living in the Mandan village at the time of
-    its occurrence. In a skirmish, near the Mandan village, when they were
-    set upon by their enemies, the Riccarees, the brother of Mah-to-toh-pa
-    was missing for several days, when Mah-to-toh-pa found the body
-    shockingly mangled, and a handsome spear left piercing the body through
-    the heart. The spear was by him brought into the Mandan village, where
-    it was recognized by many as a famous weapon belonging to a noted brave
-    of the Riccarees, by the name of Won-ga-tap. This spear was brandished
-    through the Mandan village by Mah-to-toh-pa (with the blood of his
-    brother dried on its blade), crying most piteously, and swearing that
-    he would some day revenge the death of his brother with the same weapon.</p>
-
-  <p>It is almost an incredible fact, that he kept this spear with great
-    care in his wigwam for the space of four years, in the fruitless
-    expectation of an opportunity to use it upon the breast of its owner;
-    when his indignant soul, impatient of further delay, burst forth in the
-    most uncontroullable frenzy and fury; he again brandished it through
-    the village, and said, that the blood of his brother’s heart which was
-    seen on its blade was yet fresh,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_150">150</span>
-    and called loudly for revenge. “Let
-    every Mandan (said he) be silent, and let no one sound the name of
-    Mah-to-toh-pa—let no one ask for him, nor where he has gone, until you
-    hear him sound the war-cry in front of the village, when he will enter
-    it and shew you the blood of Won-ga-tap. The blade of this lance shall
-    drink the heart’s blood of Won-ga-tap, or Mah-to-toh-pa mingles his
-    shadow with that of his brother.”</p>
-
-  <p>With this he sallied forth from the village, and over the plains,
-    with the lance in his hand; his direction was towards the Riccaree
-    village, and all eyes were upon him, though none dared to speak till he
-    disappeared over the distant grassy bluffs. He travelled the distance
-    of two hundred miles entirely alone, with a little parched corn in
-    his pouch, making his marches by night, and laying secreted by days,
-    until he reached the Riccaree village; where (being acquainted with
-    its shapes and its habits, and knowing the position of the wigwam of
-    his doomed enemy) he loitered about in disguise, mingling himself in
-    the obscure throng; and at last, silently and alone, observed through
-    the rents of the wigwam, the last motions and movements of his victim,
-    as he retired to bed with his wife: he saw him light his last pipe and
-    smoke it “to its end”—he saw the last whiff, and saw the last curl of
-    blue smoke that faintly steeped from its bowl—he saw the village awhile
-    in darkness and silence, and the embers that were covered in the middle
-    of the wigwam gone nearly out, and the last flickering light which had
-    been gently playing over them; when he walked softly, but not slyly,
-    into the wigwam and seated himself by the fire, over which was hanging
-    a large pot, with a quantity of cooked meat remaining in it; and by
-    the side of the fire, the pipe and tobacco-pouch which had just been
-    used; and knowing that the twilight of the wigwam was not sufficient to
-    disclose the features of his face to his enemy, he very deliberately
-    turned to the pot and completely satiated the desperate appetite, which
-    he had got in a journey of six or seven days, with little or nothing
-    to eat; and then, as deliberately, charged and lighted the pipe, and
-    sent (no doubt, in every whiff that he drew through its stem) a prayer
-    to the Great Spirit for a moment longer for the consummation of his
-    design. Whilst eating and smoking, the wife of his victim, while laying
-    in bed, several times enquired of her husband, what man it was who was
-    eating in their lodge? to which, he as many times replied, “It’s no
-    matter; let him eat, for he is probably hungry.”</p>
-
-  <p>Mah-to-toh-pa knew full well that his appearance would cause no other
-    reply than this, from the dignitary of the nation; for, from an
-    invariable custom amongst these Northern Indians, any one who is hungry
-    is allowed to walk into any man’s lodge and eat. Whilst smoking his
-    last gentle and tremulous whiffs on the pipe, Mah-to-toh-pa (leaning
-    back, and turning gradually on his side, to get a better view of the
-    position of his enemy, and to see a little more distinctly the shapes
-    of things) stirred the embers with his toes (readers, I had every
-    word of this from his own lips, and every attitude and gesture acted
-    out with his own limbs), until he saw his<span class="pagenum" id="Page_151">151</span> way was clear; at which
-    moment, with his lance in his hands, he rose and drove it through the
-    body of his enemy, and snatching the scalp from his head, he darted
-    from the lodge—and quick as lightning, with the lance in one hand,
-    and the scalp in the other, made his way to the prairie! The village
-    was in an uproar, but he was off, and no one knew the enemy who had
-    struck the blow. Mah-to-toh-pa ran all night, and lay close during the
-    days; thanking the Great Spirit for strengthening his heart and his
-    arm to this noble revenge; and prayed fervently for a continuance of
-    his aid and protection till he should get back to his own village. His
-    prayers were heard; and on the sixth morning, at sunrise, Mah-to-toh-pa
-    descended the bluffs, and entered the village amidst deafening shouts
-    of applause, while he brandished and shewed to his people the blade of
-    his lance, with the blood of his victim dried upon it, over that of his
-    brother; and the scalp of Won-ga-tap suspended from its handle.</p>
-
-  <figure class="mt2 illowp75">
-  <div class="plate"><i>42</i></div>
-    <img src="images/i_065c.jpg" alt="Robe of Mah-to-toh-pa">
-  </figure>
-
-  <p>Such was the feat represented by Mah-to-toh-pa on his robe—and the
-    lance, of which I have just spoken, is seen in the hand of his
-    portrait, which will stand in my Gallery, and of which I have thus
-    formerly spoken:—“The lance or spear of Mah-to-toh-pa, when he stood
-    for his portrait, was held in his left hand; its blade was two-edged,
-    and of polished steel, and the blood of several human victims was
-    seen dried upon its surface, one over the other; its shaft was of the
-    toughest ash, and ornamented at intervals with tufts of war-eagle’s
-    quills.”</p>
-
-  <p>In the portrait, of which I am speaking, there will be seen an eagle’s
-    quill balanced on the hilt of the lance, severed from its original
-    position, and loose from the weapon. When I painted his portrait,
-    he brought that quill to my wigwam in his left hand, and carefully
-    balancing it on the lance, as seen in the painting; he desired me to be
-    very exact with it, to have it appear as separate from, and unconnected
-    with, the lance; and to represent a spot of blood which was visible
-    upon it. I indulged him in his request, and then got from him the
-    following explanation:—“That quill (said he) is great <em>medicine</em>!
-    it belongs to the Great Spirit, and not to me—when I was running out of
-    the lodge of Won-ga-tap, I looked back and saw that quill hanging to
-    the wound in his side; I ran back, and pulling it out, brought it home
-    in my left hand, and I have kept it for the Great Spirit to this day!”</p>
-
-  <p>“Why do you not then tie it on to the lance again, where it came off?”</p>
-
-  <p>“Hush-sh (said he), if the Great Spirit had wished it to be tied on in
-    that place, it never would have come off; he has been kind to me, and I
-    will not offend him.”</p>
-
-  <p>7. A Riccaree killed by Mah-to-toh-pa in revenge of the death of a
-    white man killed by a Riccaree in the Fur Traders’ Fort, a short time
-    previous.</p>
-
-  <p>8. Mah-to-toh-pa, or four bears, kills a Shienne chief, who challenged
-    him to single combat, in presence of the two war-parties; they fought
-    on horseback with guns, until Mah-to-toh-pa’s powder-horn was shot
-    away; they then fought with bows and arrows, until their quivers were
-    emptied, when they<span class="pagenum" id="Page_152">152</span> dismounted and fought single-handed. The Shienne
-    drew his knife, and Mah-to-toh-pa had left his; they struggled for the
-    knife, which Mah-to-toh-pa wrested from the Shienne, and killed him
-    with it; in the struggle, the blade of the knife was several times
-    drawn through the hand of Mah-to-toh-pa, and the blood is seen running
-    from the wound.</p>
-
-  <p>This extraordinary occurrence also, was one which admits of, and
-    deserves a more elaborate description, which I will here give as it
-    was translated from his own lips, while he sat upon the robe, pointing
-    to his painting of it; and at the same time brandishing the identical
-    knife which he drew from his belt, as he was shewing how the fatal blow
-    was given; and exhibiting the wounds inflicted in his hand, as the
-    blade of the knife was several times drawn through it before he wrested
-    it from his antagonist.</p>
-
-  <p>A party of about 150 Shienne warriors had made an assault upon the
-    Mandan village at an early hour in the morning, and driven off a
-    considerable number of horses, and taken one scalp. Mah-to-toh-pa,
-    who was then a young man, but famed as one of the most valiant of the
-    Mandans, took the lead of a party of fifty warriors, all he could at
-    that time muster, and went in pursuit of the enemy; about noon of the
-    second day, they came in sight of the Shiennes; and the Mandans seeing
-    their enemy much more numerous than they had expected, were generally
-    disposed to turn about and return without attacking them. They started
-    to go back, when Mah-to-toh-pa galloped out in front upon the prairie,
-    and plunged his lance into the ground; the blade was driven into the
-    earth to its hilt—he made another circuit around, and in that circuit
-    tore from his breast his reddened sash, which he hung upon its handle
-    as a flag, calling out to the Mandans, “What! have we come to this?
-    we have dogged our enemy two days, and now when we have found them,
-    are we to turn about and go back like cowards? Mah-to-toh-pa’s lance,
-    which is red with the blood of brave men, has led you to the sight of
-    your enemy, and you have followed it; it now stands firm in the ground,
-    where the earth will drink the blood of Mah-to-toh-pa! you may all go
-    back, and Mah-to-toh-pa will fight them alone!”</p>
-
-  <p>During this manœuvre, the Shiennes, who had discovered the Mandans
-    behind them, had turned about and were gradually approaching, in order
-    to give them battle; the chief of the Shienne war-party seeing and
-    understanding the difficulty, and admiring the gallant conduct of
-    Mah-to-toh-pa, galloped his horse forward within hailing distance, in
-    front of the Mandans, and called out to know “who he was who had stuck
-    down his lance and defied the whole enemy alone?”</p>
-
-  <p>“I am Mah-to-toh-pa, second in command of the brave and valiant
-    Mandans.”</p>
-
-  <p>“I have heard often of Mah-to-toh-pa, he is a great warrior—dares
-    Mah-to-toh-pa to come forward and fight this battle with me alone, and
-    our warriors will look on?”</p>
-
-  <p>“Is he a chief who speaks to Mah-to-toh-pa?”</p>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>43</i></div>
-  <figure id="i_066">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_066.jpg" alt="Medicine-lodge interior">
-     <figcaption>66</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_153">153</span></p>
-
-  <p>“My scalps you see hanging to my horse’s bits, and here is my lance
-    with the ermine skins and the war-eagle’s tail!”</p>
-
-  <p>“You have said enough.”</p>
-
-  <p>The Shienne chief made a circuit or two at full gallop on a beautiful
-    white horse, when he struck his lance into the ground, and left it
-    standing by the side of the lance of Mah-to-toh-pa, both of which were
-    waving together their little red flags, tokens of blood and defiance.</p>
-
-  <p>The two parties then drew nearer, on a beautiful prairie, and the
-    two full-plumed chiefs, at full speed, drove furiously upon each
-    other! both firing their guns at the same moment. They passed each
-    other a little distance and wheeled, when Mah-to-toh-pa drew off his
-    powder-horn, and by holding it up, shewed his adversary that the bullet
-    had shattered it to pieces and destroyed his ammunition; he then threw
-    it from him, and his gun also—drew his bow from his quiver, and an
-    arrow, and his shield upon his left arm! The Shienne instantly did
-    the same; <em>his</em> horn was thrown off, and his gun was thrown into
-    the air—his shield was balanced on his arm—his bow drawn, and quick
-    as lightning, they were both on the wing for a deadly combat! Like
-    two soaring eagles in the open air, they made their circuits around,
-    and the twangs of their sinewy bows were heard, and the war-whoop,
-    as they dashed by each other, parrying off the whizzing arrows with
-    their shields! Some lodged in their legs and others in their arms; but
-    both protected their <em>bodies</em> with their bucklers of bull’s hide.
-    Deadly and many were the shafts that fled from their murderous bows. At
-    length the horse of Mah-to-toh-pa fell to the ground with an arrow in
-    his heart; his rider sprang upon his feet prepared to renew the combat;
-    but the Shienne, seeing his adversary dismounted, sprang from his
-    horse, and driving him back, presented the face of his shield towards
-    his enemy, inviting him to come on!—a few shots more were exchanged
-    thus, when the Shienne, having discharged all his arrows, held up his
-    empty quiver and dashing it furiously to the ground, with his bow and
-    his shield; drew and brandished his naked knife!</p>
-
-  <p>“Yes!” said Mah-to-toh-pa, as he threw <em>his</em> shield and quiver to
-    the earth, and was rushing up—<em>he</em> grasped for his knife, but his
-    belt had it not; he had left it at home! his bow was in his hand, with
-    which he parried his antagonist’s blow and felled him to the ground! A
-    desperate struggle now ensued for the knife—the blade of it was several
-    times drawn through the right hand of Mah-to-toh-pa, inflicting the
-    most frightful wounds, while he was severely wounded in several parts
-    of the body. He at length succeeded however, in wresting it from his
-    adversary’s hand, and plunged it to his heart.</p>
-
-  <p>By this time the two parties had drawn up in close view of each other,
-    and at the close of the battle, Mah-to-toh-pa held up, and claimed in
-    deadly silence, the knife and scalp of the noble Shienne chief.<a id="FNanchor_4" href="#Footnote_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p>
-
-  <p>9. Several hundred Minatarees and Mandans attacked by a party of
-    Assinneboins—all fled but Mah-to-toh-pa, who stood his ground,
-    fired, and killed one of the enemy, putting the rest of them to
-    flight, and driving off sixty horses! He is here seen with his lance
-    and shield—foot-tracks of his enemy in front, and his own party’s
-    horse-tracks behind him, and a shower of bullets flying around
-    his head; here he got the name of “<em>the four bears</em>,” as the
-    Assinneboins said he rushed on like four bears.</p>
-
-  <p>10. Mah-to-toh-pa gets from his horse and kills two Ojibbeway women,
-    and takes their scalps; done by the side of an Ojibbeway village, where
-    they went to the river for water. He is here seen with his lance in
-    one hand and his knife in the other—an eagle’s plume head-dress on his
-    horse, and his shield left on his horse’s back. I incurred his ill-will
-    for awhile by asking him, whether it was manly to boast of taking
-    the scalps of women? and his pride prevented him from giving me any
-    explanation or apology. The interpreter, however, explained to me that
-    he had secreted himself in the most daring manner, in full sight of the
-    Ojibbeway village, seeking to revenge a murder, where he remained six
-    days without sustenance, and then killed the two women in full view of
-    the tribe, and made his escape, which entitled him to the credit of a
-    victory, though his victims were women.</p>
-
-  <p>11. A large party of Assinneboins entrenched near the Mandan
-    village attacked by the Mandans and Minatarees, who were driven
-    back—Mah-to-toh-pa rushes into the entrenchment alone—an Indian fires
-    at him and burns his face with the muzzle of his gun, which burst—the
-    Indian retreats, leaving his exploded gun, and Mah-to-toh-pa shoots
-    him through the shoulders as he runs, and kills him with his tomahawk;
-    the gun of the Assinneboin is seen falling to the ground, and in front
-    of him the heads of the Assinneboins in the entrenchment; the horse of
-    Mah-to-toh-pa is seen behind him.</p>
-
-  <p>12. Mah-to-toh-pa between his enemy the Sioux, and his own people, with
-    an arrow shot through him, after standing the fire of the Sioux for a
-    long time alone. In this battle he took no scalps, yet his valour was
-    so extraordinary that the chiefs and braves awarded him the honour of a
-    victory.</p>
-
-  <p>This feat is seen in the centre of the robe—head-dress of war-eagles’
-    quills on his own and his horse’s head—the tracks of his enemies’
-    horses are seen in front of him, and bullets flying both ways all
-    around him. With his whip in his hand, he is seen urging his horse
-    forward, and an arrow is seen flying, and bloody, as it has passed
-    through his body. For this wound, and the several others mentioned
-    above, he bears the honourable scars on his body, which he generally
-    keeps covered with red paint.</p>
-
-  <p>Such are the battles traced upon the robe of Mah-to-toh-pa or four
-    bears, interpreted by J. Kipp from the words of the hero while sitting
-    upon the robe, explaining each battle as represented.</p>
-
-  <div class="footnotes">
-    <div class="footnote">
-      <a id="Footnote_3" href="#FNanchor_3" class="label">[3]</a> The reader will see in <a href="#i_065"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 65</a>, an accurate
-        drawing of this curious robe, which now hangs in the <span class="smcap">Indian
-        Gallery</span>, and on the following pages, each group numbered, and
-        delineated on a larger scale, which are <i>fac-similes</i> of the
-        drawings on the robe.
-    </div>
-
-    <div class="footnote">
-      <a id="Footnote_4" href="#FNanchor_4" class="label">[4]</a> This celebrated weapon with the blood of several victims
-        dried upon its blade, now<span class="pagenum" id="Page_154">154</span> hangs in the <span class="smcap">Indian Gallery</span>, with
-        satisfactory certificates of its identity and its remarkable history,
-        and an exact drawing of it and its scabbard can be seen in <a href="#i_099"><span class="smcap">plate</span>
-        99</a>, <i>a</i>.
-    </div>
-  </div>
-
-  <hr class="chap">
-  <div class="chapter">
-    <span class="pagenum" id="Page_155">155</span>
-    <h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_22">LETTER—<abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 22.</h2>
-  </div>
-  <div class="subheadc">MANDAN VILLAGE, <i>UPPER MISSOURI</i>.</div>
-
-  <p><span class="smcap">Oh!</span> “<i lang="fr">horribile visu—et mirabile dictu!</i>” Thank God, it is over,
-    that I have seen it, and am able to tell it to the world.</p>
-
-  <p>The <em>annual religious ceremony</em>, of four days, of which I have so
-    often spoken, and which I have so long been wishing to see, has at last
-    been enacted in this village; and I have, fortunately, been able to
-    see and to understand it in most of its bearings, which was more than
-    I had reason to expect; for no white man, in all probability, has ever
-    been before admitted to the <em>medicine-lodge</em> during these most
-    remarkable and appalling scenes.</p>
-
-  <p>Well and truly has it been said, that the Mandans are a strange and
-    peculiar people; and most correctly had I been informed, that this
-    was an important and interesting scene, by those who had, on former
-    occasions, witnessed such parts of it as are transacted out of doors,
-    and in front of the <em>medicine-lodge</em>.</p>
-
-  <p>Since the date of my last Letter, I was lucky enough to have painted
-    the <em>medicine-man</em>, who was high-priest on this grand occasion, or
-    conductor of the ceremonies, who had me regularly installed doctor or
-    “<em>medicine</em>;” and who, on the morning when these grand refinements
-    in mysteries commenced, took me by the arm, and led me into the
-    <em>medicine-lodge</em>, where the Fur Trader, Mr. Kipp, and his two
-    clerks accompanied me in close attendance for four days; all of us
-    going to our own quarters at sun-down, and returning again at sun-rise
-    the next morning.</p>
-
-  <p>I took my sketch-book with me, and have made many and faithful drawings
-    of what we saw, and full notes of everything as translated to me by
-    the interpreter; and since the close of that horrid and frightful
-    scene, which was a week ago or more, I have been closely ensconced
-    in an earth-covered wigwam, with a fine sky-light over my head, with
-    my palette and brushes, endeavouring faithfully to put the whole
-    of what we saw upon canvass, which my companions all agree to be
-    critically correct, and of the fidelity of which they have attached
-    their certificates to the backs of the paintings. I have made four
-    paintings of these strange scenes, containing several hundred figures,
-    representing the transactions of each day; and if I live to get them
-    home, they will be found to be exceedingly curious and interesting.</p>
-
-  <p>I shudder at the relation, or even at the thought of these barbarous
-    and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_156">156</span> cruel scenes, and am almost ready to shrink from the task of
-    reciting them after I have so long promised some account of them. I
-    entered the <em>medicine-house</em> of these scenes, as I would have
-    entered a church, and expected to see something extraordinary and
-    strange, but yet in the form of worship or devotion; but alas! little
-    did I expect to see the interior of their holy temple turned into a
-    <em>slaughter-house</em>, and its floor strewed with the blood of its
-    fanatic devotees. Little did I think that I was entering a house of
-    God, where His blinded worshippers were to pollute its sacred interior
-    with their blood, and propitiatory suffering and tortures—surpassing,
-    if possible, the cruelty of the rack or the inquisition; but such the
-    scene has been, and as such I will endeavour to describe it.</p>
-
-  <p>The “<em>Mandan religious ceremony</em>” then, as I believe it is
-    very justly denominated, is an annual transaction, held in their
-    <em>medicine-lodge</em> once a year, as a great religious anniversary,
-    and for several distinct objects, as I shall in a few minutes describe;
-    during and after which, they look with implicit reliance for the
-    justification and approval of the Great Spirit.</p>
-
-  <p>All of the Indian tribes, as I have before observed, are religious—are
-    worshipful—and many of them go to almost incredible lengths (as will
-    be seen in the present instance, and many others I may recite) in
-    worshipping the Great Spirit; denying and humbling themselves before
-    Him for the same purpose, and in the same hope as we do, perhaps in a
-    more rational and acceptable way.</p>
-
-  <p>The tribes, so far as I have visited them, all distinctly believe in
-    the existence of a Great (or Good) Spirit, an Evil (or Bad) Spirit,
-    and also in a future existence and future accountability, according
-    to their virtues and vices in this world. So far the North American
-    Indians would seem to be one family, and such an unbroken theory
-    amongst them; yet with regard to the manner and form, and time and
-    place of that accountability—to the constructions of virtues and vices,
-    and the modes of appeasing and propitiating the Good and Evil Spirits,
-    they are found with all the changes and variety which fortuitous
-    circumstances, and fictions, and fables have wrought upon them.</p>
-
-  <p>If from their superstitions and their ignorance, there are oftentimes
-    obscurities and mysteries thrown over and around their system, yet
-    these affect not the theory itself, which is everywhere essentially
-    the same—and which, if it be not correct, has this much to command
-    the admiration of the enlightened world, that they worship with great
-    sincerity, and all according to one creed.</p>
-
-  <p>The Mandans believe in the existence of a Great (or Good) Spirit, and
-    also of an Evil Spirit, who they say existed long before the Good
-    Spirit, and is far superior in power. They all believe also in a
-    future state of existence, and a future administration of rewards and
-    punishments, and (so do all other tribes that I have yet visited) they
-    believe those punishments are not eternal, but commensurate with their
-    sins.</p>
-
-  <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_157">157</span></p>
-
-  <p>These people living in a climate where they suffer from cold in the
-    severity of their winters, have very naturally reversed our ideas of
-    Heaven and Hell. The latter they describe to be a country very far
-    to the north, of barren and hideous aspect, and covered with eternal
-    snows and ice. The torments of this freezing place they describe as
-    most excruciating; whilst Heaven they suppose to be in a warmer and
-    delightful latitude, where nothing is felt but the keenest enjoyment,
-    and where the country abounds in buffaloes and other luxuries of life.
-    The Great or Good Spirit they believe dwells in the former place for
-    the purpose of there meeting those who have offended him; increasing
-    the agony of their sufferings, by being himself present, administering
-    the penalties. The Bad or Evil Spirit they at the same time suppose to
-    reside in Paradise, still tempting the happy; and those who have gone
-    to the regions of punishment they believe to be tortured for a time
-    proportioned to the amount of their transgressions, and that they are
-    then to be transferred to the land of the happy, where they are again
-    liable to the temptations of the Evil Spirit, and answerable again at a
-    future period for their new offences.</p>
-
-  <p>Such is the religious creed of the Mandans, and for the purpose of
-    appeasing the Good and Evil Spirits, and to secure their entrance into
-    those “fields Elysian,” or beautiful hunting grounds, do the young
-    men subject themselves to the horrid and sickening cruelties to be
-    described in the following pages.</p>
-
-  <p>There are other three distinct objects (yet to be named) for which
-    these religious ceremonies are held, which are as follow:—</p>
-
-  <p><em>First</em>, they are held annually as a celebration of
-    the event of the subsiding of the Flood, which they call
-    <i lang="mhq">Mee-nee-ro-ka-ha-sha</i>, (sinking down or settling of the waters.)</p>
-
-  <p><em>Secondly</em>, for the purpose of dancing what they call,
-    <i lang="mhq">Bel-lohck-na-pic</i> (the bull-dance); to the strict observance of
-    which they attribute the coming of buffaloes to supply them with food
-    during the season; and</p>
-
-  <p><em>Thirdly</em> and lastly, for the purpose of conducting all the young
-    men of the tribe, as they annually arrive to the age of manhood,
-    through an ordeal of privation and torture, which, while it is supposed
-    to harden their muscles and prepare them for extreme endurance,
-    enables the chiefs who are spectators to the scene, to decide upon
-    their comparative bodily strength and ability to endure the extreme
-    privations and sufferings that often fall to the lots of Indian
-    warriors; and that they may decide who is the most hardy and best able
-    to lead a war-party in case of extreme exigency.</p>
-
-  <p>This part of the ceremony, as I have just witnessed it, is truly
-    shocking to behold, and will almost stagger the belief of the world
-    when they read of it. The scene is too terrible and too revolting to
-    be seen or to be told, were it not an essential part of a whole, which
-    will be new to the civilized world, and therefore worth their knowing.</p>
-
-  <p>The bull-dance, and many other parts of these ceremonies are
-    exceedingly<span class="pagenum" id="Page_158">158</span> grotesque and amusing, and that part of them which has a
-    relation to the Deluge is harmless and full of interest.</p>
-
-  <p>In the centre of the Mandan village is an open, circular area of 150
-    feet diameter, kept always clear, as a public ground, for the display
-    of all their public feasts, parades, &amp;c. and around it are their
-    wigwams placed as near to each other as they can well stand, their
-    doors facing the centre of this public area.</p>
-
-  <p>In the middle of this ground, which is trodden like a hard pavement,
-    is a curb (somewhat like a large hogshead standing on its end) made
-    of planks (and bound with hoops), some eight or nine feet high, which
-    they religiously preserve and protect from year to year, free from
-    mark or scratch, and which they call the “big canoe”—it is undoubtedly
-    a symbolic representation of a part of their traditional history of
-    the Flood; which it is very evident, from this and numerous other
-    features of this grand ceremony, they have in some way or other
-    received, and are here endeavouring to perpetuate by vividly impressing
-    it on the minds of the whole nation. This object of superstition,
-    from its position, as the very centre of the village is the rallying
-    point of the whole nation. To it their devotions are paid on various
-    occasions of feasts and religious exercises during the year; and in
-    this extraordinary scene it was often the nucleus of their mysteries
-    and cruelties, as I shall shortly describe them, and becomes an object
-    worth bearing in mind, and worthy of being understood.</p>
-
-  <p>This exciting and appalling scene, then, which is familiarly (and no
-    doubt correctly) called the “Mandan religious ceremony,” commences, not
-    on a particular day of the year, (for these people keep no record of
-    days or weeks), but at a particular season, which is designated by the
-    full expansion of the willow leaves under the bank of the river; for
-    according to their tradition, “the twig that the bird brought home was
-    a willow bough, and had full-grown leaves on it,” and the bird to which
-    they allude, is the mourning or turtle-dove, which they took great
-    pains to point out to me, as it is often to be seen feeding on the
-    sides of their earth-covered lodges, and which, being, as they call it,
-    a <em>medicine-bird</em>, is not to be destroyed or harmed by any one,
-    and even their dogs are instructed not to do it injury.</p>
-
-  <p>On the morning on which this strange transaction commenced, I was
-    sitting at breakfast in the house of the Trader, Mr. Kipp, when at
-    sun-rise, we were suddenly startled by the shrieking and screaming
-    of the women, and barking and howling of dogs, as if an enemy were
-    actually storming their village.</p>
-
-  <p>“Now we have it!” (exclaimed <em>mine host</em>, as he sprang from the
-    table,) the grand ceremony has commenced!—“drop your knife and fork,
-    Monsr. and get your sketch-book as soon as possible, that you may lose
-    nothing, for the very moment of <em>commencing</em> is as curious as
-    anything else of this strange affair.” I seized my sketch-book, and all
-    hands of us were in an instant in front of the medicine-lodge, ready
-    to see and to hear all that was to take place. Groups of women and
-    children were gathered on the tops of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_159">159</span> their earth-covered wigwams, and
-    all were screaming, and dogs were howling, and all eyes directed to the
-    prairies in the West, where was beheld at a mile distant, a solitary
-    individual descending a prairie bluff, and making his way in a direct
-    line towards the village!</p>
-
-  <p>The whole community joined in the general expression of great alarm,
-    as if they were in danger of instant destruction; bows were strung and
-    thrumed to test their elasticity—their horses were caught upon the
-    prairie and run into the village—warriors were blackening their faces,
-    and dogs were muzzled, and every preparation made, as if for instant
-    combat.</p>
-
-  <p>During this deafening din and confusion within the piquets of the
-    village of the Mandans, the figure discovered on the prairie continued
-    to approach with a dignified step and in a right line towards the
-    village; all eyes were upon him, and he at length made his appearance
-    (without opposition) within the piquets, and proceeded towards the
-    centre of the village, where all the chiefs and braves stood ready to
-    receive him, which they did in a cordial manner, by shaking hands with
-    him, recognizing him as an old acquaintance, and pronouncing his name
-    <i lang="mhq">Nu-mohk-muck-a-nah</i> (the first or only man). The body of this
-    strange personage, which was chiefly naked, was painted with white
-    clay, so as to resemble at a little distance, a white man; he wore a
-    robe of four white wolf skins falling back over his shoulders; on his
-    head he had a splendid head-dress made of two ravens’ skins, and in
-    his left hand he cautiously carried a large pipe, which he seemed to
-    watch and guard as something of great importance. After passing the
-    chiefs and braves as described, he approached the <em>medicine</em> or
-    mystery lodge, which he had the means of opening, and which had been
-    religiously closed during the year except for the performance of these
-    religious rites.</p>
-
-  <p>Having opened and entered it, he called in four men whom he appointed
-    to clean it out, and put it in readiness for the ceremonies, by
-    sweeping it and strewing a profusion of green willow-boughs over its
-    floor, and with them decorating its sides. Wild sage also, and many
-    other aromatic herbs they gathered from the prairies, and scattered
-    over its floor; and over these were arranged a curious group of buffalo
-    and human skulls, and other articles, which were to be used during this
-    strange and unaccountable transaction.</p>
-
-  <p>During the whole of this day, and while these preparations were making
-    in the <em>medicine-lodge</em>, Nu-mohk-muck-a-nah (the first or only
-    man) travelled through the village, stopping in front of every man’s
-    lodge, and crying until the owner of the lodge came out, and asked
-    who he was, and what was the matter? to which he replied by relating
-    the sad catastrophe which had happened on the earth’s surface by the
-    overflowing of the waters, saying that “he was the only person saved
-    from the universal calamity; that he landed his big canoe on a high
-    mountain in the west, where he now resides; that he had come to open
-    the <em>medicine-lodge</em>, which must needs receive a present of some
-    edged-tool from the owner of every wigwam, that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_160">160</span> it may be sacrificed
-    to the water;” for he says, “if this is not done, there will be another
-    flood, and no one will be saved, as it was with such tools that the big
-    canoe was made.”</p>
-
-  <p>Having visited every lodge or wigwam in the village, during the day,
-    and having received such a present at each, as a hatchet, a knife, &amp;c.
-    (which is undoubtedly always prepared and ready for the occasion), he
-    returned at evening and deposited them in the <em>medicine-lodge</em>,
-    where they remained until the afternoon of the last day of the
-    ceremony, when, as the final or closing scene, they were thrown into
-    the river in a deep place, from a bank thirty feet high, and in
-    presence of the whole village; from whence they can never be recovered,
-    and where they were, undoubtedly, <em>sacrificed</em> to the Spirit of
-    the Water.</p>
-
-  <p>During the first night of this strange character in the village, no one
-    could tell where he slept; and every person, both old and young, and
-    dogs, and all living things were kept within doors, and dead silence
-    reigned every where. On the next morning at sunrise, however, he made
-    his appearance again, and entered the <em>medicine-lodge</em>; and at his
-    heels (in “<em>Indian file</em>,” <i>i. e.</i> single file, one following
-    in another’s tracks) all the young men who were candidates for the
-    self-tortures which were to be inflicted, and for the honours that were
-    to be bestowed by the chiefs on those who could most manfully endure
-    them. There were on this occasion about fifty young men who entered
-    the lists, and as they went into the sacred lodge, each one’s body was
-    chiefly naked, and covered with clay of different colours; some were
-    red, others were yellow, and some were covered with white clay, giving
-    them the appearance of white men. Each one of them carried in his right
-    hand his <em>medicine-bag</em>—on his left arm, his shield of the bull’s
-    hide—in his left hand, his bow and arrows, with his quiver slung on his
-    back.</p>
-
-  <p>When all had entered the lodge, they placed themselves in reclining
-    postures around its sides, and each one had suspended over his head his
-    respective weapons and <em>medicine</em>, presenting altogether, one of
-    the most wild and picturesque scenes imaginable.</p>
-
-  <p>Nu-mohk-muck-a-nah (the first or only man) was in the midst of them,
-    and having lit and smoked his medicine-pipe for their success; and
-    having addressed them in a short speech, stimulating and encouraging
-    them to trust to the Great Spirit for His protection during the severe
-    ordeal they were about to pass through; he called into the lodge an
-    old medicine or mystery-man, whose body was painted yellow, and whom
-    he appointed master of ceremonies during this occasion, whom they
-    denominated in their language <i lang="mhq">O-kee-pah Ka-se-kah</i> (keeper or
-    conductor of the ceremonies). He was appointed, and the authority
-    passed by the presentation of the medicine-pipe, on which they consider
-    hangs all the power of holding and conducting all these rites.</p>
-
-  <p>After this delegated authority had thus passed over to the
-    medicine-man; Nu-mohk-muck-a-nah shook hands with him, and bade him
-    good<span class="pagenum" id="Page_161">161</span> bye, saying “that he was going back to the mountains in the west,
-    from whence he should assuredly return in just a year from that time,
-    to open the lodge again.” He then went out of the lodge, and passing
-    through the village, took formal leave of the chiefs in the same
-    manner, and soon disappeared over the bluffs from whence he came. No
-    more was seen of this surprising character during the occasion; but I
-    shall have something yet to say of him and his strange office before I
-    get through the Letter.</p>
-
-  <p>To return to the lodge,—the medicine or mystery-man just appointed,
-    and who had received his injunctions from Nu-mohk-muck-a-nah, was left
-    sole conductor and keeper; and according to those injunctions, it was
-    his duty to lie by a small fire in the centre of the lodge, with his
-    medicine-pipe in his hand, crying to the Great Spirit incessantly,
-    watching the young men, and preventing entirely their escape from the
-    lodge, and all communication whatever with people outside, for the
-    space of four days and nights, during which time they were not allowed
-    to <em>eat</em>, to <em>drink</em>, or to <em>sleep</em>, preparatory to the
-    excruciating self-tortures which they were to endure on the fourth day.</p>
-
-  <p>I mentioned that I had made four paintings of these strange scenes,
-    and the first one exhibits the interior of the medicine-lodge at this
-    moment; with the young men all reclining around its sides, and the
-    conductor or mystery-man lying by the fire, crying to the Great Spirit
-    (<a href="#i_066"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 66</a>). It was just at this juncture that I was ushered
-    into this sacred temple of their worship, with my companions, which
-    was, undoubtedly, the first time that their devotions had ever been
-    trespassed upon by the presence of pale faces; and in this instance had
-    been brought about in the following strange and unexpected manner.</p>
-
-  <p>I had most luckily for myself, painted a full-length portrait of this
-    great magician or high-priest, but a day previous to the commencement
-    of the ceremonies (in which I had represented him in the performance of
-    some of his mysteries), with which he had been so exceedingly pleased
-    as well as astonished (as “he could see its eyes move”), that I must
-    needs be, in his opinion, deeply skilled in magic and mysteries, and
-    well-entitled to a respectable rank in the craft, to which I had been
-    at once elevated by the unanimous voice of the doctors, and regularly
-    initiated, and styled <i lang="mhq">Te-ho-pee-nee-wash-ee-waska-pooska</i>, the
-    <em>white medicine</em> (or Spirit) <em>painter</em>.</p>
-
-  <p>With this very honourable degree which had just been conferred upon me,
-    I was standing in front of the medicine-lodge early in the morning,
-    with my companions by my side, endeavouring to get a peep, if possible,
-    into its sacred interior; when this <em>master of ceremonies</em>,
-    guarding and conducting its secrets, as I before described, came out
-    of the door and taking me with a firm <em>professional</em> affection by
-    the arm, led me into this <i>sanctum sanctorum</i>, which was strictly
-    guarded from, even a peep or a gaze from the vulgar, by a vestibule
-    of eight or ten feet in length, guarded with a double screen or door,
-    and two or three dark and frowning centinels with spears<span class="pagenum" id="Page_162">162</span> or war-clubs
-    in their hands. I gave the wink to my companions as I was passing in,
-    and the potency of my <em>medicine</em> was such as to gain them a quiet
-    admission, and all of us were comfortably placed on elevated seats,
-    which our conductor soon prepared for us.</p>
-
-  <p>We were then in full view of everything that transpired in the lodge,
-    having before us the scene exactly, which is represented in the first
-    of the four pictures. To this seat we returned every morning at
-    sunrise, and remained until sun-down for four days, the whole time
-    which these strange scenes occupied.</p>
-
-  <p>In addition to the preparations and arrangements of the interior of
-    this sanctuary, as above described, there was a curious, though a very
-    strict arrangement of buffalo and human skulls placed on the floor of
-    the lodge, and between them (which were divided into two parcels),
-    and in front of the reclining group of young candidates, was a small
-    and very delicate scaffold, elevated about five feet from the ground,
-    made of four posts or crotches, not larger than a gun-rod, and placed
-    some four or five feet apart, supporting four equally delicate rods,
-    resting in the crotches; thus forming the frame of the scaffold, which
-    was completed by a number of still smaller and more delicate sticks,
-    transversely resting upon them. On the centre of this little frame
-    rested some small object, which I could not exactly understand from
-    the distance of twenty or thirty feet which intervened between it and
-    my eye. I started several times from my seat to approach it, but all
-    eyes were instantly upon me, and every mouth in the assembly sent forth
-    a hush—sh—! which brought me back to my seat again; and I at length
-    quieted my stifled curiosity as well as I could, upon learning the
-    fact, that so sacred was that object, and so important its secrets or
-    mysteries, that not <em>I</em> alone, but even the young men, who were
-    passing the ordeal, and all the village, save the conductor of the
-    mysteries, were stopped from approaching it, or knowing what it was.</p>
-
-  <p>This little mystery-thing, whatever it was, had the appearance from
-    where I sat, of a small tortoise or frog lying on its back, with
-    its head and legs quite extended, and wound and tasselled off with
-    exceedingly delicate red and blue, and yellow ribbons or tassels, and
-    other bright coloured ornaments; and seemed, from the devotions paid
-    to it, to be the very nucleus of their mysteries—the <i>sanctissimus
-    sanctorum</i>, from which seemed to emanate all the sanctity of
-    their proceedings, and to which, all seemed to be paying the highest
-    devotional respect.</p>
-
-  <p>This strange, yet important <em>essence</em> of their mysteries, I made
-    every enquiry about; but got no further information of, than what I
-    could learn by my eyes, at the distance at which I saw it, and from
-    the silent respect which I saw paid to it. I tried with the doctors,
-    and all of the <em>fraternity</em> answered me, that that was “<em>great
-    medicine</em>,” assuring me that it “could not be told.” So I quieted
-    my curiosity as well as I could, by the full conviction that I had
-    a <em>degree</em> or two yet to take before I could fathom all<span class="pagenum" id="Page_163">163</span> the
-    arcana of Indian superstitions; and that this little, seemingly
-    wonderful, relic of antiquity, symbol of some grand event, or “secret
-    too valuable to be told,” might have been at last nothing but a silly
-    bunch of strings and toys, to which they pay some great peculiar
-    regard; giving thereby to some favourite Spirit or essence an ideal
-    existence, and which, when called upon to describe, they refuse to do
-    so, calling it “<em>Great Medicine</em>,” for the very reason that there
-    is nothing in it to reveal or describe.</p>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>44</i></div>
-  <figure id="i_067">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_067.jpg" alt="The bull-dance">
-     <figcaption>67</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p>Immediately under the little frame or scaffold described, and on the
-    floor of the lodge was placed a knife, and by the side of it a bundle
-    of splints or skewers, which were kept in readiness for the infliction
-    of the cruelties directly to be explained. There were seen also, in
-    this stage of the affair, a number of cords of rawhide hanging down
-    from the top of the lodge, and passing through its roof, with which
-    the young men were to be suspended by the splints passed through their
-    flesh, and drawn up by men placed on the top of the lodge for the
-    purpose, as will be described in a few moments.</p>
-
-  <p>There were also four articles of great veneration and importance
-    lying on the floor of the lodge, which were sacks, containing in
-    each some three or four gallons of water. These also were objects of
-    superstitious regard, and made with great labour and much ingenuity;
-    each one of them being constructed of the skin of the buffalo’s neck,
-    and most elaborately sewed together in the form of a large tortoise
-    lying on its back, with a bunch of eagle’s quills appended to it as a
-    tail; and each of them having a stick, shaped like a drum-stick, lying
-    on them, with which, in a subsequent stage of these ceremonies, as
-    will be seen, they are beaten upon by several of their mystery-men,
-    as a part of the music for their strange dances and mysteries. By
-    the side of these sacks which they call <i lang="mhq">Eeh-teeh-ka</i>, are two
-    other articles of equal importance, which they call <i lang="mhq">Eeh-na-dee</i>
-    (rattles), in the form of a gourd-shell made also of dried skins,
-    and used at the same time as the others, in the music (or rather
-    <em>noise</em> and <em>din</em>) for their dances, &amp;c.</p>
-
-  <p>These four sacks of water have the appearance of very great
-    antiquity; and by enquiring of my very ingenious friend and patron,
-    the <em>medicine-man</em>, after the ceremonies were over, he very
-    gravely told me, that “those four tortoises contained the waters from
-    the four quarters of the world—that these waters had been contained
-    therein ever since the settling down of the waters!” I did not think
-    it best to advance any argument against so ridiculous a theory, and
-    therefore could not even enquire or learn, at what period they had been
-    instituted, or how often, or on what occasions, the water in them had
-    been changed or replenished.</p>
-
-  <p>I made several propositions, through my friend Mr. Kipp, the trader and
-    interpreter, to purchase one of these strange things by offering them a
-    very liberal price; to which I received in answer that these, and all
-    the very numerous articles used in these ceremonies, being a <em>society
-    property</em> were<span class="pagenum" id="Page_164">164</span> <em>medicine</em>, and could not be sold for any
-    consideration; so I abandoned all thoughts of obtaining anything,
-    except what I have done by the <em>medicine</em> operation of my pencil,
-    which was applied to everything, and even upon that they looked with
-    decided distrust and apprehension, as a sort of theft or sacrilege.</p>
-
-  <p>Such then was the group, and such the appearance of the interior of the
-    medicine-lodge during the three first, and part of the fourth day also,
-    of the Mandan religious ceremonies. The medicine-man with a group about
-    him, of young aspirants who were under his sole controul, as was every
-    article and implement to be used, and the sanctity of this solitary and
-    gloomy looking place, which could not be trespassed upon by any man’s
-    presence without his most sovereign permission.</p>
-
-  <p>During the three first days of this solemn conclave, there were
-    many very curious forms and amusements enacted in the open area
-    in the middle of the village, and in front of the medicine-lodge,
-    by other members of the community, one of which formed a material
-    part or link of these strange ceremonials. This very curious and
-    exceedingly grotesque part of their performance, which they denominated
-    <i lang="mhq">Bel-lohck nah-pick</i> (the bull-dance) of which I have before
-    spoken, as one of the avowed objects for which they held this annual
-    fête; and to the strictest observance of which they attribute the
-    coming of buffaloes to supply them with food during the season—is
-    repeated four times during the first day, eight times on the second
-    day, twelve times on the third day, and sixteen times on the fourth
-    day; and always around the curb, or “<em>big canoe</em>,” of which I have
-    before spoken.</p>
-
-  <p>This subject I have selected for my second picture, and the principal
-    actors in it were eight men, with the entire skins of buffaloes thrown
-    over their backs, with the horns and hoofs and tails remaining on;
-    their bodies in a horizontal position, enabling them to imitate the
-    actions of the buffalo, whilst they were looking out of its eyes as
-    through a mask (<a href="#i_067"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 67</a>).</p>
-
-  <p>The bodies of these men were chiefly naked and all painted in the most
-    extraordinary manner, with the nicest adherence to exact similarity;
-    their limbs, bodies and faces, being in every part covered, either
-    with black, red, or white paint. Each one of these strange characters
-    had also a lock of buffalo’s hair tied around his ancles—in his right
-    hand a rattle, and a slender white rod or staff, six feet long, in the
-    other; and carried on his back, a bunch of green willow boughs about
-    the usual size of a bundle of straw. These eight men, being divided
-    into four pairs, took their positions on the four different sides of
-    the curb or big canoe, representing thereby the four cardinal points;
-    and between each group of them, with the back turned to the big canoe,
-    was another figure, engaged in the same dance, keeping step with them,
-    with a similar staff or wand in one hand and a rattle in the other, and
-    (being four in number) answering again to the four cardinal points. The
-    bodies of these four young men were chiefly naked, with no other dress
-    upon them than a beautiful kelt (or quartz-quaw), around the waist,
-    made of eagles<span class="pagenum" id="Page_165">165</span> quills and ermine, and very splendid head-dresses
-    made of the same materials. Two of these figures were painted entirely
-    black with pounded charcoal and grease, whom they called the “firmament
-    or night,” and the numerous white spots which were dotted all over
-    their bodies, they called “stars.” The other two were painted from
-    head to foot as red as vermilion could make them; these they said
-    represented the day, and the white streaks which were painted up and
-    down over their bodies, were “ghosts which the morning rays were
-    chasing away.”</p>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>45</i></div>
-  <figure id="i_068">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_068.jpg" alt="The cutting scene">
-     <figcaption>68</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p>These twelve are the only persons actually engaged in this strange
-    dance, which is each time repeated in the same form, without the
-    slightest variation. There are, however, a great number of characters
-    engaged in giving the whole effect and wildness to this strange and
-    laughable scene, each one acting well his part, and whose offices,
-    strange and inexplicable as they are, I will endeavour to point out
-    and explain as well as I can, from what I saw, elucidated by their own
-    descriptions.</p>
-
-  <p>This most remarkable scene, then, which is witnessed more or less often
-    on each day, takes place in presence of the whole nation, who are
-    generally gathered around, on the tops of the wigwams or otherwise,
-    as spectators, whilst the young men are reclining and fasting in the
-    lodge as above described. On the first day, this “<em>bull-dance</em>” is
-    given <em>once</em> to each of the cardinal points, and the medicine-man
-    smokes his pipe in those directions. On the second day, <em>twice</em>
-    to each; <em>three times</em> to each on the third day, and <em>four
-    times</em> to each on the fourth. As a signal for the dancers and other
-    characters (as well as the public) to assemble, the old man, master
-    of ceremonies, with the medicine-pipe in hand, dances out of the
-    lodge, singing (or rather crying) forth a most pitiful lament, until
-    he approaches the big canoe, against which he leans, with the pipe in
-    his hand, and continues to cry. At this instant, four very aged and
-    patriarchal looking men, whose bodies are painted red, and who have
-    been guarding the four sides of the lodge, enter it and bring out the
-    four sacks of water, which they place near the big canoe, where they
-    seat themselves by the side of them and commence thumping on them
-    with the mallets or drumsticks which have been lying on them; and
-    another brandishes and shakes the <i lang="mhq">eeh-na-dees</i> or rattles, and
-    all unite to them their voices, raised to the highest pitch possible,
-    as the music for the <em>bull-dance</em>, which is then commenced and
-    continued for fifteen minutes or more in perfect time, and without
-    cessation or intermission. When the music and dancing stop, which are
-    always perfectly simultaneous, the whole nation raise the huzza! and a
-    deafening shout of approbation; the master of ceremonies dances back to
-    the medicine-lodge, and the old men return to their former place; the
-    sacks of water, and all rest as before, until by the same method, they
-    are again called into a similar action.</p>
-
-  <p>The supernumeraries or other characters who play their parts in this
-    grand spectacle, are numerous and well worth description. By the
-    side of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_166">166</span> big canoe are seen two men with the skins of grizzly
-    bears thrown over them, using the skins as a mask, over their heads.
-    These ravenous animals are continually growling and threatening to
-    devour everything before them and interfering with the forms of their
-    religious ceremony. To appease them, the women are continually bringing
-    and placing before them dishes of meat, which are as often snatched up
-    and carried to the prairie, by two men whose bodies are painted black
-    and their heads white, whom they call bald eagles, who are darting by
-    them and grasping their food from before them as they pass. These are
-    again chased upon the plains by a hundred or more small boys, who are
-    naked, with their bodies painted yellow and their heads white, whom
-    they call <em>Cabris</em> or antelopes; who at length get the food away
-    from them and devour it; thereby inculcating (perhaps) the beautiful
-    moral, that by the dispensations of Providence, his bountiful gifts
-    will fall at last to the hands of the innocent.</p>
-
-  <p>During the intervals between these dances, all these characters, except
-    those from the medicine-lodge, retire to a wigwam close by, which they
-    use on the occasion also as a sacred place, being occupied exclusively
-    by them while they are at rest, and also for the purpose of painting
-    and ornamenting their bodies for the occasion.</p>
-
-  <p>During each and every one of these dances, the old men who beat upon
-    the sacks and sing, are earnestly chanting forth their supplications
-    to the Great Spirit, for the continuation of his influence in sending
-    them buffaloes to supply them with food during the year; they are
-    administering courage and fortitude to the young men in the lodge,
-    by telling them, that “the Great Spirit has opened his ears in their
-    behalf—that the very atmosphere all about them is peace—that their
-    women and children can hold the mouth of the grizzly bear—that they
-    have invoked from day to day O-kee-hee-de (the Evil Spirit)—that they
-    are still challenging him to come, and yet he has not dared to make his
-    appearance!”</p>
-
-  <p>But alas! in the last of these dances, on the fourth day, in the midst
-    of all their mirth and joy, and about noon, and in the height of all
-    these exultations, an instant scream burst forth from the tops of the
-    lodges!—men, women, dogs and all, seemed actually to howl and shudder
-    with alarm, as they fixed their glaring eye-balls upon the prairie
-    bluff, about a mile in the west, down the side of which a man was seen
-    descending at full speed towards the village! This strange character
-    darted about in a zig-zag course in all directions on the prairie,
-    like a boy in pursuit of a butterfly, until he approached the piquets
-    of the village, when it was discovered that his body was entirely
-    naked, and painted as black as a negro, with pounded charcoal and
-    bear’s grease; his body was therefore everywhere of a shining black,
-    except occasionally white rings of an inch or more in diameter, which
-    were marked here and there all over him; and frightful indentures of
-    white around his mouth, resembling canine teeth. Added to his hideous
-    appearance, he gave the most frightful shrieks and screams as he
-    dashed through the village<span class="pagenum" id="Page_167">167</span> and entered the terrified group, which was
-    composed (in that quarter) chiefly of females, who had assembled to
-    witness the amusements which were transpiring around the “big canoe.”</p>
-
-  <p>This unearthly looking creature carried in his two hands a wand or
-    staff of eight or nine feet in length, with a red ball at the end of
-    it, which he continually slid on the ground a-head of him as he ran.
-    All eyes in the village, save those of the persons engaged in the
-    dance, were centred upon him, and he made a desperate rush towards
-    the women, who screamed for protection as they were endeavouring to
-    retreat; and falling in groups upon each other as they were struggling
-    to get out of his reach. In this moment of general terror and alarm
-    there was an instant check! and all for a few moments were as silent as
-    death.</p>
-
-  <p>The old master of ceremonies, who had run from his position at the
-    big canoe, had met this monster of fiends, and having thrust the
-    <em>medicine-pipe</em> before him, held him still and immoveable under
-    its charm! This check gave the females an opportunity to get out of
-    his reach, and when they were free from their danger, though all
-    hearts beat yet with the instant excitement, their alarm soon cooled
-    down into the most exorbitant laughter and shouts of applause at his
-    sudden defeat, and the awkward and ridiculous posture in which he was
-    stopped and held. The old man was braced stiff by his side, with his
-    eye-balls glaring him in the face, whilst the medicine-pipe held in its
-    mystic chains his <em>Satanic</em> Majesty, annulling all the powers of
-    his magical wand, and also depriving him of the powers of locomotion!
-    Surely no two human beings ever presented a more striking group than
-    these two individuals did for a few moments, with their eye-balls
-    set in direst mutual hatred upon each other; both struggling for the
-    supremacy, relying on the potency of their medicine or mystery. The one
-    held in check, with his body painted black, representing (or rather
-    assuming to be) his sable majesty, O-kee-hee-de (the Evil Spirit),
-    frowning everlasting vengeance on the other, who sternly gazed him back
-    with a look of exultation and contempt, as he held him in check and
-    disarmed under the charm of his sacred mystery-pipe.</p>
-
-  <p>When the superior powers of the medicine-pipe (on which hang all these
-    annual mysteries) had been thus fully tested and acknowledged, and
-    the women had had requisite time to withdraw from the reach of this
-    fiendish monster, the pipe was very gradually withdrawn from before
-    him, and he seemed delighted to recover the use of his limbs again,
-    and power of changing his position from the exceedingly unpleasant and
-    really ridiculous one he appeared in, and was compelled to maintain,
-    a few moments before; rendered more superlatively ridiculous and
-    laughable, from the further information, which I am constrained to
-    give, of the plight in which this demon of terror and vulgarity made
-    his <i lang="fr">entrée</i> into the midst of the Mandan village, and to the
-    centre and nucleus of their first and greatest religious ceremony.</p>
-
-  <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_168">168</span></p>
-
-  <p>Then, to proceed: I said that this strange personage’s body was
-    naked—was painted jet black with charcoal and bear’s grease, with a
-    wand in his hands of eight feet in length with a red ball at the end of
-    it, which he was rubbing about on the ground in front of him as he ran.
-    In addition to this he had—<i lang="mhq">ung gee ah waheea notch,t oheks teha, ung
-    gee an ung hutch tow a tow ah ches menny. Ung gee ah to to wun nee,
-    ahkst to wan ee eigh’ s ta w.</i></p>
-
-  <p>In this plight, in which I have not dared fully to represent him
-    in the picture, he pursued the groups of females, spreading dismay
-    and alarm wherever he went, and consequently producing the awkward
-    and exceedingly laughable predicament in which he was placed by the
-    sudden check from the medicine-pipe, as I have above stated, when
-    all eyes were intently fixed upon him, and all joined in rounds of
-    applause for the success of the magic spell that was placed upon
-    him; all voices were raised in shouts of satisfaction at his defeat,
-    and all eyes gazed upon him; of chiefs and of warriors—matrons and
-    even of their tender-aged and timid daughters, whose education had
-    taught them to receive the <em>moral</em> of these scenes without the
-    shock of impropriety, that would have startled a more fastidious and
-    consequently sensual-thinking people.</p>
-
-  <p>After repeated attempts thus made, and thus defeated in several parts
-    of the crowd, this blackened monster was retreating over the ground
-    where the buffalo-dance was going on, and having (apparently, par
-    accident) swaggered against one of the men placed under the skin of a
-    buffalo and engaged in the “bull dance,” he started back, and placing
-    himself in the attitude of a buffalo,—<i lang="mhq">hi ung ee a wahkstia, chee a
-    nahk s tammee ung s towa; ee ung ee aht gwaht ee o nunghths tcha ho a,
-    tummee oxt no ah, ughstono ah hi en en ah nahxt gwi aht gahtch gun ne.
-    Gwee en on doatcht chee en aht gunne how how en ahxst tchu!</i></p>
-
-  <p>After this he paid his visits to three others of the eight, in
-    succession, receiving as before the deafening shouts of approbation
-    which pealed from every mouth in the multitude, who were all praying to
-    the Great Spirit to send them buffaloes to supply them with food during
-    the season, and who attribute the coming of buffaloes for this purpose
-    entirely to the strict and critical observance of this ridiculous and
-    disgusting part of the ceremonies.</p>
-
-  <p>During the half hour or so that he had been jostled about amongst man
-    and beasts, to the great amusement and satisfaction of the lookers-on,
-    he seemed to have become exceedingly exhausted, and anxiously looking
-    out for some feasible mode of escape.</p>
-
-  <p>In this awkward predicament he became the laughing-stock and butt
-    for the women, who being no longer afraid of him, were gathering in
-    groups around, to tease and tantalize him; and in the midst of this
-    dilemma, which soon became a very sad one—one of the women, who stole
-    up behind him with both hands full of yellow dirt—dashed it into his
-    face and eyes, and all<span class="pagenum" id="Page_169">169</span> over him, and his body being covered with
-    grease, took instantly a different hue. He seemed heart-broken at this
-    signal disgrace, and commenced crying most vehemently, when, <i lang="fr">a
-    l’instant</i>, another caught his <em>wand</em> from his hand, and broke
-    it across her knee. It was snatched for by others, who broke it still
-    into bits, and then threw them at him. His power was now gone—his
-    bodily strength was exhausted, and he made a bolt for the prairie—he
-    dashed through the crowd, and made his way through the piquets on the
-    back part of the village, where were placed for the purpose, an hundred
-    or more women and girls, who escorted him as he ran on the prairie for
-    half a mile or more, beating him with sticks, and stones, and dirt,
-    and kicks, and cuffs, until he was at length seen escaping from their
-    clutches, and making the best of his retreat over the prairie bluffs,
-    from whence he first appeared.</p>
-
-  <p>At the moment of this signal victory, and when all eyes lost sight of
-    him as he disappeared over the bluffs, the whole village united their
-    voices in shouts of satisfaction. The bull-dance then stopped, and
-    preparations were instantly made for the commencement of the cruelties
-    which were to take place within the lodge, leaving us to draw, from
-    what had just transpired, the following beautiful moral:—</p>
-
-  <p>That in the midst of their religious ceremonies, the Evil Spirit
-    (O-kee-hee-de) made his entrée for the purpose of doing mischief, and
-    of disturbing their worship—that he was held in check, and defeated by
-    the superior influence and virtue of the <em>medicine-pipe</em>, and at
-    last, driven in disgrace out of the village, by the very part of the
-    community whom he came to abuse.</p>
-
-  <p>At the close of this exciting scene, preparations were made, as above
-    stated, by the return of the master of ceremonies and musicians to the
-    medicine-lodge, where also were admitted at the same time a number
-    of men, who were to be instruments of the cruelties to be inflicted;
-    and also the chief and doctors of the tribe, who were to look on, and
-    bear witness to, and decide upon, the comparative degree of fortitude,
-    with which the young men sustain themselves in this most extreme and
-    excruciating ordeal. The chiefs having seated themselves on one side
-    of the lodge, dressed out in their robes and splendid head-dresses—the
-    band of music seated and arranged themselves in another part; and the
-    old master of ceremonies having placed himself in front of a small
-    fire in the centre of the lodge, with his “big pipe” in his hands,
-    and having commenced smoking to the Great Spirit, with all possible
-    vehemence for the success of these aspirants, presented the subject
-    for the third picture, which they call “<i lang="mhq">pohk-hong</i>,” the cutting
-    scene (<a href="#i_068"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 68</a>). Around the sides of the lodge are seen,
-    still reclining, as I have before mentioned, a part of the group,
-    whilst others of them have passed the ordeal of self-tortures, and
-    have been removed out of the lodge; and others still are seen in the
-    very act of submitting to them, which were inflicted in the following
-    manner:—After having removed the <i>sanctissimus sanctorum</i>, or
-    little scaffold, of which I before spoke, and having<span class="pagenum" id="Page_170">170</span> removed also the
-    buffalo and human skulls from the floor, and attached them to the posts
-    of the lodge; and two men having taken their positions near the middle
-    of the lodge, for the purpose of inflicting the tortures—the one with
-    the scalping-knife, and the other with the bunch of splints (which I
-    have before mentioned) in his hand; one at a time of the young fellows,
-    already emaciated with fasting, and thirsting, and waking, for nearly
-    four days and nights, advanced from the side of the lodge, and placed
-    himself on his hands and feet, or otherwise, as best suited for the
-    performance of the operation, where he submitted to the cruelties in
-    the following manner:—An inch or more of the flesh on each shoulder,
-    or each breast was taken up between the thumb and finger by the man
-    who held the knife in his right hand; and the knife, which had been
-    ground sharp on both edges, and then hacked and notched with the blade
-    of another, to make it produce as much pain as possible, was forced
-    through the flesh below the fingers, and being withdrawn, was followed
-    with a splint or skewer, from the other, who held a bunch of such in
-    his left hand, and was ready to force them through the wound. There
-    were then two cords lowered down from the top of the lodge (by men who
-    were placed on the lodge outside, for the purpose), which were fastened
-    to these splints or skewers, and they instantly began to haul him up;
-    he was thus raised until his body was suspended from the ground where
-    he rested, until the knife and a splint were passed through the flesh
-    or integuments in a similar manner on each arm below the shoulder (over
-    the <i>brachialis externus</i>), below the elbow (over the <i>extensor
-    carpi radialis</i>), on the thighs (over the <i>vastus externus</i>),
-    and below the knees (over the <i>peroneus</i>).</p>
-
-  <p>In some instances they remained in a reclining position on the ground
-    until this painful operation was finished, which was performed, in all
-    instances, exactly on the same parts of the body and limbs; and which,
-    in its progress, occupied some five or six minutes.</p>
-
-  <p>Each one was then instantly raised with the cords, until the weight of
-    his body was suspended by them, and then, while the blood was streaming
-    down their limbs, the bystanders hung upon the splints each man’s
-    appropriate shield, bow and quiver, &amp;c.; and in many instances, the
-    skull of a buffalo with the horns on it, was attached to each lower arm
-    and each lower leg, for the purpose, probably, of preventing by their
-    great weight, the struggling, which might otherwise have taken place to
-    their disadvantage whilst they were hung up.</p>
-
-  <p>When these things were all adjusted, each one was raised higher by the
-    cords, until these weights all swung clear from the ground, leaving
-    his feet, in most cases, some six or eight feet above the ground. In
-    this plight they at once became appalling and frightful to look at—the
-    flesh, to support the weight of their bodies, with the additional
-    weights which were attached to them, was raised six or eight inches by
-    the skewers; and their heads sunk forward on the breasts, or thrown
-    backwards, in a much more frightful condition, according to the way in
-    which they were hung up.</p>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>46</i></div>
-  <figure id="i_069">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_069.jpg" alt="Eh-ke-nah-ka-nah-pick, the last race">
-     <figcaption>69</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_171">171</span></p>
-
-  <p>The unflinching fortitude, with which every one of them bore this part
-    of the torture surpassed credulity; each one as the knife was passed
-    through his flesh sustained an unchangeable countenance; and several of
-    them, seeing me making sketches, beckoned me to look at their faces,
-    which I watched through all this horrid operation, without being able
-    to detect anything but the pleasantest smiles as they looked me in
-    the eye, while I could hear the knife rip through the flesh, and feel
-    enough of it myself, to start involuntary and uncontroullable tears
-    over my cheeks.</p>
-
-  <p>When raised to the condition above described, and completely suspended
-    by the cords, the sanguinary hands, through which he had just passed,
-    turned back to perform a similar operation on another who was
-    ready, and each one in his turn passed into the charge of others,
-    who instantly introduced him to a new and improved stage of their
-    refinements in cruelty.</p>
-
-  <p>Surrounded by imps and demons as they appear, a dozen or more, who seem
-    to be concerting and devising means for his exquisite agony, gather
-    around him, when one of the number advances towards him in a sneering
-    manner, and commences turning him around with a pole which he brings
-    in his hand for the purpose. This is done in a gentle manner at first;
-    but gradually increased, when the brave fellow, whose proud spirit
-    can controul its agony no longer, burst out in the most lamentable
-    and heart-rending cries that the human voice is capable of producing,
-    crying forth a prayer to the Great Spirit to support and protect him
-    in this dreadful trial; and continually repeating his confidence
-    in his protection. In this condition he is continued to be turned,
-    faster and faster—and there is no hope of escape from it, nor chance
-    for the slightest relief, until by fainting, his voice falters, and
-    his struggling ceases, and he hangs, apparently, a still and lifeless
-    corpse! When he is, by turning, gradually brought to this condition,
-    which is generally done within ten or fifteen minutes, there is a close
-    scrutiny passed upon him among his tormentors, who are checking and
-    holding each other back as long as the least struggling or tremour can
-    be discovered, lest he should be removed before he is (as they term it)
-    “entirely dead.”</p>
-
-  <p>When brought to this alarming and most frightful condition, and the
-    turning has gradually ceased, as his voice and his strength have given
-    out, leaving him to hang entirely still, and apparently lifeless; when
-    his tongue is distended from his mouth, and his <em>medicine-bag</em>,
-    which he has affectionately and superstitiously clung to with his left
-    hand, has dropped to the ground; the signal is given to the men on top
-    of the lodge, by gently striking the cord with the pole below, when
-    they very gradually and carefully lower him to the ground.</p>
-
-  <p>In this helpless condition he lies, like a loathsome corpse to look
-    at, though in the keeping (as they call it) of the Great Spirit, whom
-    he trusts will protect him, and enable him to get up and walk away.
-    As soon as he is lowered to the ground thus, one of the bystanders
-    advances, and pulls out the two splints or pins from the breasts and
-    shoulders, thereby disengaging<span class="pagenum" id="Page_172">172</span> him from the cords by which he has been
-    hung up; but leaving all the others with their weights, &amp;c. hanging to
-    his flesh.</p>
-
-  <p>In this condition he lies for six or eight minutes, until he gets
-    strength to rise and move himself, for no one is allowed to assist or
-    offer him aid, as he is here enjoying the most valued privilege which a
-    Mandan can boast of, that of “trusting his life to the keeping of the
-    Great Spirit,” in this time of extreme peril.</p>
-
-  <p>As soon as he is seen to get strength enough to rise on his hands and
-    feet, and drag his body around the lodge, he crawls with the weights
-    still hanging to his body, to another part of the lodge, where there is
-    another Indian sitting with a hatchet in his hand, and a dried buffalo
-    skull before him; and here, in the most earnest and humble manner, by
-    holding up the little finger of his left hand to the Great Spirit, he
-    expresses to Him, in a speech of a few words, his willingness to give
-    it as a sacrifice; when he lays it on the dried buffalo skull, where
-    the other chops it off near the hand, with a blow of the hatchet!</p>
-
-  <p>Nearly all of the young men whom I saw passing this horrid ordeal, gave
-    in the above manner, the little finger of the left hand; and I saw also
-    several, who immediately afterwards (and apparently with very little
-    concern or emotion), with a similar speech, extended in the same way,
-    the <em>fore</em>-finger of the same hand, and that too was struck off;
-    leaving on the left hand only the two middle fingers and the thumb;
-    all which they deem absolutely essential for holding the bow, the only
-    weapon for the left hand.</p>
-
-  <p>One would think that this mutilation had thus been carried quite far
-    enough; but I have since examined several of the head chiefs and
-    dignitaries of the tribe, who have also given, in this manner, the
-    little finger of the right hand, which is considered by them to be a
-    much greater sacrifice than both of the others; and I have found also
-    a number of their most famous men, who furnish me incontestible proof,
-    by five or six corresponding scars on each arm, and each breast, and
-    each leg, that they had so many times in their lives submitted to this
-    almost incredible operation, which seems to be optional with them;
-    and the oftener they volunteer to go through it, the more famous they
-    become in the estimation of their tribe.</p>
-
-  <p>No bandages are applied to the fingers which have been amputated, nor
-    any arteries taken up; nor is any attention whatever, paid to them or
-    the other wounds; but they are left (as they say) “for the Great Spirit
-    to cure, who will surely take good care of them.” It is a remarkable
-    fact (which I learned from a close inspection of their wounds from day
-    to day) that the bleeding is but very slight and soon ceases, probably
-    from the fact of their extreme exhaustion and debility, caused by want
-    of sustenance and sleep, which checks the natural circulation, and
-    admirably at the same time prepares them to meet the severity of these
-    tortures without the same degree of sensibility and pain, which, under
-    other circumstances, might result in inflammation and death.</p>
-
-  <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_173">173</span></p>
-
-  <p>During the whole of the time of this cruel part of these most
-    extraordinary inflictions, the chiefs and dignitaries of the tribe are
-    looking on, to decide who are the hardiest and “stoutest hearted”—who
-    can hang the longest by his flesh before he faints, and who will be
-    soonest up, after he has been down; that they may know whom to appoint
-    to lead a war-party, or place at the most honourable and desperate
-    post. The four old men are incessantly beating upon the sacks of water
-    and singing the whole time, with their voices strained to the highest
-    key, vaunting forth, for the encouragement of the young men, the power
-    and efficacy of the <em>medicine-pipe</em>, which has disarmed the
-    monster O-kee-hee-de (or Evil Spirit), and driven him from the village,
-    and will be sure to protect them and watch over them through their
-    present severe trial.</p>
-
-  <p>As soon as six or eight had passed the ordeal as above described,
-    they were led out of the lodge, with their weights hanging to their
-    flesh, and dragging on the ground, to undergo another, and a still
-    more appalling mode of suffering in the centre of the village, and in
-    presence of the whole nation, in the manner as follows:—</p>
-
-  <p>The signal for the commencement of this part of the cruelties was
-    given by the old master of ceremonies, who again ran out as in
-    the buffalo-dance, and leaning against the big canoe, with his
-    <em>medicine-pipe</em> in his hand, began to cry. This was done several
-    times in the afternoon, as often as there were six or eight who had
-    passed the ordeal just described within the lodge, who were then taken
-    out in the open area, in the presence of the whole village, with the
-    buffalo skulls and other weights attached to their flesh, and dragging
-    on the ground! There were then in readiness, and prepared for the
-    purpose, about twenty young men, selected of equal height and equal
-    age; with their bodies chiefly naked, with beautiful (and similar)
-    head-dresses of war-eagles’ quills, on their heads, and a wreath made
-    of willow boughs held in the hands between them, connecting them
-    in a chain or circle in which they ran around the big canoe, with
-    all possible speed, raising their voices in screams and yelps to
-    the highest pitch that was possible, and keeping the curb or <em>big
-    canoe</em> in the centre, as their nucleus.</p>
-
-  <p>Then were led forward the young men who were further to suffer, and
-    being placed at equal distances apart, and outside of the ring just
-    described, each one was taken in charge of two athletic young men,
-    fresh and strong, who stepped up to him, one on each side, and by
-    wrapping a broad leather strap around his wrists, without tying it,
-    grasped it firm underneath the hand, and stood prepared for what they
-    call <i lang="mhq">Eh-ke-nah-ka-nah-pick</i> (the last race, <a href="#i_069"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 69</a>).
-    This, the spectator looking on would suppose was most correctly named,
-    for he would think it was the last race they could possibly run in this
-    world.</p>
-
-  <p>In this condition they stand, pale and ghastly, from abstinence and
-    loss of blood, until all are prepared, and the word is given, when
-    all start and run around, outside of the other ring; and each poor
-    fellow, with his weights<span class="pagenum" id="Page_174">174</span> dragging on the ground, and his furious
-    conductors by his side, who hurry him forward by the wrists, struggles
-    in the desperate emulation to run longer without “dying” (as they
-    call it) than his comrades, who are fainting around him and sinking
-    down, like himself, where their bodies are dragged with all possible
-    speed, and often with their faces in the dirt. In the commencement of
-    this dance or race they all start at a moderate pace, and their speed
-    being gradually increased, the pain becomes so excruciating that their
-    languid and exhausted frames give out, and they are dragged by their
-    wrists until they are disengaged from the weights that were attached
-    to their flesh, and this must be done by such violent force as to
-    tear the flesh out with the splint, which (as they say) can never be
-    pulled out endwise, without greatly offending the Great Spirit and
-    defeating the object for which they have thus far suffered. The splints
-    or skewers which are put through the breast and the shoulders, take
-    up a part of the pectoral or trapezius muscle, which is necessary for
-    the support of the great weight of their bodies, and which, as I have
-    before mentioned, are withdrawn as soon as he is lowered down—but all
-    the others, on the legs and arms, seem to be very ingeniously passed
-    through the flesh and integuments without taking up the muscle, and
-    even these, to be broken out, require so strong and so violent a force
-    that most of the poor fellows fainted under the operation, and when
-    they were freed from the last of the buffalo skulls and other weights,
-    (which was often done by some of the bystanders throwing the weight of
-    their bodies on to them as they were dragging on the ground) they were
-    in every instance dropped by the persons who dragged them, and their
-    bodies were left, appearing like nothing but a mangled and a loathsome
-    corpse! At this strange and frightful juncture, the two men who had
-    dragged them, fled through the crowd and away upon the prairie, as if
-    they were guilty of some enormous crime, and were fleeing from summary
-    vengeance.</p>
-
-  <p>Each poor fellow, having thus patiently and manfully endured the
-    privations and tortures devised for him, and (in this last struggle
-    with the most appalling effort) torn himself loose from them and his
-    tormentors, he lies the second time, in the “keeping (as he terms it)
-    of the Great Spirit,” to whom he issues his repeated prayers, and
-    entrusts his life: and in whom he reposes the most implicit confidence
-    for his preservation and recovery. As an evidence of this, and of the
-    high value which these youths set upon this privilege, there is no
-    person, not a relation or a chief of the tribe, who is allowed, or who
-    would dare, to step forward to offer an aiding hand, even to save his
-    life; for not only the rigid customs of the nation, and the pride of
-    the individual who has entrusted his life to the keeping of the Great
-    Spirit, would sternly reject such a tender; but their superstition,
-    which is the strongest of all arguments in an Indian community, would
-    alone, hold all the tribe in fear and dread of interfering, when
-    they consider they have so good a reason to believe that the Great
-    Spirit has undertaken the special care and protection of his devoted
-    worshippers.</p>
-
-  <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_175">175</span></p>
-
-  <p>In this “last race,” which was the struggle that finally closed their
-    sufferings, each one was dragged until he fainted, and was thus left,
-    looking more like the dead than the living: and thus each one laid,
-    until, by the aid of the Great Spirit, he was in a few minutes seen
-    gradually rising, and at last reeling and staggering, like a drunken
-    man, through the crowd (which made way for him) to his wigwam, where
-    his friends and relatives stood ready to take him into hand and restore
-    him.</p>
-
-  <p>In this frightful scene, as in the buffalo-dance, the whole nation
-    was assembled as spectators, and all raised the most piercing and
-    violent yells and screams they could possibly produce, to drown the
-    cries of the suffering ones, that no heart could even be touched with
-    sympathy for them. I have mentioned before, that six or eight of the
-    young men were brought from the medicine-lodge at a time, and when
-    they were thus passed through this shocking ordeal, the medicine-men
-    and the chiefs returned to the interior, where as many more were soon
-    prepared, and underwent a similar treatment; and after that another
-    batch, and another, and so on, until the whole number, some forty-five
-    or fifty had run in this sickening circle, and, by leaving their
-    weights, had opened the flesh for honourable scars. I said <em>all</em>,
-    but there was one poor fellow though (and I shudder to tell it), who
-    was dragged around and around the circle, with the skull of an elk
-    hanging to the flesh on one of his legs,—several had jumped upon it,
-    but to no effect, for the splint was under the sinew, which could not
-    be broken. The dragging became every instant more and more furious, and
-    the apprehensions for the poor fellow’s life, apparent by the piteous
-    howl which was set up for him by the multitude around; and at last the
-    medicine-man ran, with his medicine-pipe in his hand, and held them in
-    check, when the body was dropped, and left upon the ground, with the
-    skull yet hanging to it. The boy, who was an extremely interesting and
-    fine-looking youth, soon recovered his senses and his strength, looking
-    deliberately at his torn and bleeding limbs; and also with the most
-    pleasant smile of defiance, upon the misfortune which had now fallen to
-    his peculiar lot, crawled through the crowd (instead of walking, which
-    they are never again at liberty to do until the flesh is torn out, and
-    the article left) to the prairie, and over which, for the distance of
-    half a mile, to a sequestered spot, without any attendant, where he
-    laid three days and three nights, yet longer, without food, and praying
-    to the Great Spirit, until suppuration took place in the wound, and
-    by the decaying of the flesh the weight was dropped, and the splint
-    also, which he dare not extricate in another way. At the end of this,
-    he crawled back to the village on his hands and knees, being too much
-    emaciated to walk, and begged for something to eat, which was at once
-    given him, and he was soon restored to health.</p>
-
-  <p>These extreme and difficult cases often occur, and I learn that in such
-    instances the youth has it at his option to get rid of the weight that
-    is thus left upon him, in such way as he may choose, and some of those
-    modes are<span class="pagenum" id="Page_176">176</span> far more extraordinary than the one which I have just named.
-    Several of the Traders, who have been for a number of years in the
-    habit of seeing this part of the ceremony, have told me that two years
-    since, when they were looking on, there was one whose flesh on the arms
-    was so strong that the weights could not be left, and he dragged them
-    with his body to the river by the side of the village, where he set a
-    stake fast in the ground on the top of the bank, and fastening cords
-    to it, he let himself half-way down a perpendicular wall of rock, of
-    twenty-five or thirty feet, where the weight of his body was suspended
-    by the two cords attached to the flesh of his arms. In this awful
-    condition he hung for several days, equi-distant from the top of the
-    rock and the deep water below, into which he at last dropped and saved
-    himself by swimming ashore!</p>
-
-  <p>I need record no more of these shocking and disgusting instances,
-    of which I have already given enough to convince the world of the
-    correctness of the established fact of the Indian’s superior stoicism
-    and power of endurance, although some recent writers have, from motives
-    of envy, from ignorance, or something else, taken great pains to cut
-    the poor Indian short in everything, and in <em>this</em>, even as if it
-    were a virtue.</p>
-
-  <p>I am ready to accord to them in this particular, the palm; the credit
-    of outdoing anything and everybody, and of enduring more than civilized
-    man ever aspired to or ever thought of. My heart has sickened also
-    with disgust for so abominable and ignorant a custom, and still I
-    stand ready with all my heart, to excuse and forgive them for adhering
-    so strictly to an ancient celebration, founded in superstitions and
-    mysteries, of which they know not the origin, and constituting a
-    material part and feature in the code and forms of their religion.</p>
-
-  <p>Reader, I will return with you a moment to the medicine-lodge, which is
-    just to be closed, and then we will indulge in some general reflections
-    upon what has passed, and in what, and for what purposes this strange
-    batch of mysteries has been instituted and perpetuated.</p>
-
-  <p>After these young men, who had for the last four days occupied the
-    medicine-lodge, had been operated on, in the manner above described,
-    and taken out of it, the old medicine-man, master of ceremonies,
-    returned, (still crying to the Great Spirit) sole tenant of that sacred
-    place, and brought out the “edged tools,” which I before said had been
-    collected at the door of every man’s wigwam, to be given as a sacrifice
-    to the water, and leaving the lodge securely fastened, he approached
-    the bank of the river, when all the medicine-men attended him, and all
-    the nation were spectators; and in their presence he threw them from a
-    high bank into very deep water, from which they cannot be recovered,
-    and where they are, correctly speaking, made a sacrifice to the water.
-    This part of the affair took place just exactly at sun-down, and
-    closed the scene, being the end or finale of the <em>Mandan religious
-    ceremony</em>.</p>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>47</i></div>
-  <figure id="i_070">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_070.jpg" alt="Principal village of the Minatarees">
-     <figcaption>70</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <figure class="mt2" id="i_071">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_071.jpg" alt="Vapour-bath">
-     <figcaption>71</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_177">177</span></p>
-
-  <p class="hang"><i>The reader will forgive me for here inserting the Certificates which
-    I have just received from Mr. Kipp, of the city of New York, and two
-    others, who were with me; which I offer for the satisfaction of the
-    world, who read the above account.</i></p>
-
-  <p class="mt2">“<i>We hereby certify, that we witnessed, in company with Mr. Catlin,
-    in the Mandan Village, the ceremonies represented in the four
-    paintings, and described in his Notes, to which this Certificate
-    refers; and that he has therein faithfully represented those scenes as
-    we saw them transacted without any addition or exaggeration.</i></p>
-
-  <div>
-    <span class="fright">“<span class="smcap">J. Kipp</span>, <i>Agent Amer. Fur Company</i>.</span><br>
-    <span class="fright" style="margin-right: 5.7em;"><span class="smcap">L. Crawford</span>, <i>Clerk</i>.</span><br>
-    <span>“<i>Mandan Village, July 20, 1833.</i></span><span class="fright" style="margin-right: 5.9em;"><span class="smcap">Abraham Bogard</span>.”</span>
-  </div>
-
-  <p class="mt2">The strange country that I am in—its excitements—its accidents and
-    wild incidents which startle me at almost every moment, prevent me
-    from any very elaborate disquisition upon the above remarkable events
-    at present; and even had I all the time and leisure of a country
-    gentleman, and all the additional information which I am daily
-    procuring, and daily expect to procure hereafter in explanation of
-    these unaccountable mysteries, yet do I fear that there would be
-    that inexplicable difficulty that hangs over most of the customs and
-    traditions of these simple people, who have no history to save facts
-    and systems from falling into the most absurd and disjointed fable and
-    ignorant fiction.</p>
-
-  <p>What few plausible inferences I have as yet been able to draw from the
-    above strange and peculiar transactions I will set forth, but with
-    some diffidence, hoping and trusting that by further intimacy and
-    familiarity with these people I may yet arrive at more satisfactory and
-    important results.</p>
-
-  <p>That these people should have a tradition of the Flood is by no means
-    surprising; as I have learned from every tribe I have visited, that
-    they all have some high mountain in their vicinity, where they insist
-    upon it the big canoe landed; but that these people should hold an
-    annual celebration of the event, and the season of that decided by such
-    circumstances as the full leaf of the willow, and the medicine-lodge
-    opened by such a man as Nu-mohk-muck-a-nah (who appears to be a white
-    man), and making his appearance “from the high-mountains in the West;”
-    and some other circumstances, is surely a very remarkable thing, and
-    requires some extraordinary attention.</p>
-
-  <p>This Nu-mohk-muck-a-nah (first or only man) is undoubtedly some mystery
-    or medicine-man of the tribe, who has gone out on the prairie on the
-    evening previous, and having dressed and painted himself for the
-    occasion, comes into the village in the morning, endeavouring to keep
-    up the semblance of reality; for their tradition says, that at a very
-    ancient period such a man did actually come from the West—that his
-    body was of the white colour, as<span class="pagenum" id="Page_178">178</span> this man’s body is represented—that
-    he wore a robe of four white wolf skins—his head-dress was made of two
-    raven’s skins—and in his left hand was a huge pipe. He said, “he was at
-    one time the only man—he told them of the destruction of every thing on
-    the earth’s surface by water—that he stopped in his <em>big canoe</em> on
-    a high mountain in the West, where he landed and was saved.”</p>
-
-  <p>“That the Mandans, and all other people were bound to make yearly
-    sacrifices of some edged-tools to the water, for of such things the
-    big canoe was made. That he instructed the Mandans how to build
-    their medicine-lodge, and taught them also the forms of these annual
-    ceremonies; and told them that as long as they made these sacrifices,
-    and performed their rites to the full letter, they might be assured of
-    the fact, that they would be the favourite people of the Almighty, and
-    would always have enough to eat and drink; and that so soon as they
-    should depart in one tittle from these forms, they might be assured,
-    that their race would decrease, and finally run out; and that they
-    might date their nation’s calamity to that omission or neglect.”</p>
-
-  <p>These people have, no doubt, been long living under the dread of such
-    an injunction, and in the fear of departing from it; and while they are
-    living in total ignorance of its origin, the world must remain equally
-    ignorant of much of its meaning, as they needs must be of all Indian
-    customs resting on ancient traditions, which soon run into fables,
-    having lost all their system, by which they might have been construed.</p>
-
-  <p>This strange and unaccountable custom, is undoubtedly peculiar to the
-    Mandans; although, amongst the Minatarees, and some others of the
-    neighbouring tribes, they have seasons of abstinence and self-torture,
-    somewhat similar, but bearing no other resemblance to this than a mere
-    feeble effort or form of imitation.</p>
-
-  <p>It would seem from their tradition of the willow branch, and the dove,
-    that these people must have had some proximity to some part of the
-    civilized world; or that missionaries or others have been formerly
-    among them, inculcating the Christian religion and the Mosaic account
-    of the Flood; which is, in this and some other respects, decidedly
-    different from the theory which most natural people have distinctly
-    established of that event.</p>
-
-  <p>There are other strong, and almost decisive proofs in my opinion, in
-    support of the assertion, which are to be drawn from the diversity of
-    colour in their hair and complexions, as I have before described, as
-    well as from their tradition just related, of the “<em>first or only
-    man</em>,” whose body was white, and who came from the West, telling
-    them of the destruction of the earth by water, and instructing them in
-    the forms of these mysteries; and, in addition to the above, I will add
-    the two following very curious stories, which I had from several of
-    their old and dignified chiefs, and which are, no doubt, standing and
-    credited traditions of the tribe.</p>
-
-  <p>“The Mandans (people of the pheasants) were the first people created
-    in the world, and they originally lived inside of the earth; they
-    raised many<span class="pagenum" id="Page_179">179</span> vines, and one of them had grown up through a hole in
-    the earth, over head, and one of their young men climbed up it until
-    he came out on the top of the ground, on the bank of the river, where
-    the Mandan village stands. He looked around, and admired the beautiful
-    country and prairies about him—saw many buffaloes—killed one with his
-    bow and arrows, and found that its meat was good to eat. He returned,
-    and related what he had seen; when a number of others went up the vine
-    with him, and witnessed the same things. Amongst those who went up,
-    were two very pretty young women, who were favourites of the chiefs,
-    because they were virgins; and amongst those who were trying to get up,
-    was a very large and fat woman, who was ordered by the chiefs not to go
-    up, but whose curiosity led her to try it as soon as she got a secret
-    opportunity, when there was no one present. When she got part of the
-    way up, the vine broke under the great weight of her body, and let her
-    down. She was very much hurt by the fall, but did not die. The Mandans
-    were very sorry about this; and she was disgraced for being the cause
-    of a very great calamity, which she had brought upon them, and which
-    could never be averted; for no more could ever ascend, nor could those
-    descend who had got up; but they built the Mandan village, where it
-    formerly stood, a great ways below on the river; and the remainder of
-    the people live under ground to this day.”</p>
-
-  <p>The above tradition is told with great gravity by their chiefs and
-    doctors or mystery-men; and the latter profess to hear their friends
-    talk through the earth at certain times and places, and even consult
-    them for their opinions and advice on many important occasions.</p>
-
-  <p>The next tradition runs thus:—</p>
-
-  <p>“At a very ancient period, O-kee-hee-de (the Evil Spirit, the black
-    fellow mentioned in the religious ceremonies) came to the Mandan
-    village with Nu-mohk-muck-a-nah (the first or only man) from the West,
-    and sat down by a woman who had but one eye, and was hoeing corn. Her
-    daughter, who was very pretty came up to her, and the Evil Spirit
-    desired her to go and bring some water; but wished that before she
-    started, she would come to him and eat some buffalo meat. He told her
-    to take a piece out of his side, which she did and ate it, which proved
-    to be buffalo-fat. She then went for the water, which she brought, and
-    met them in the village where they had walked, and they both drank of
-    it—nothing more was done.</p>
-
-  <p>“The friends of the girl soon after endeavoured to disgrace her, by
-    telling her that she was <i lang="fr">enciente</i>, which she did not deny. She
-    declared her innocence at the same time, and boldly defied any man
-    in the village to come forward and accuse her. This raised a great
-    excitement in the village, and as no one could stand forth to accuse
-    her, she was looked upon as <em>great medicine</em>. She soon after went
-    off secretly to the upper Mandan village, where the child was born.</p>
-
-  <p>“Great search was made for her before she was found; as it was
-    expected<span class="pagenum" id="Page_180">180</span> that the child would also be great <em>medicine</em> or
-    mystery, and of great importance to the existence and welfare of the
-    tribe. They were induced to this belief from the very strange manner
-    of its conception and birth, and were soon confirmed in it from
-    the wonderful things which it did at an early age. They say, that
-    amongst other miracles which he performed, when the Mandans were like
-    to starve, he gave them four buffalo bulls, which filled the whole
-    village—leaving as much meat as there was before they had eaten; saying
-    that these four bulls would supply them for ever. Nu-mohk-muck-a-nah
-    (the first or only man) was bent on the destruction of the child, and
-    after making many fruitless searches for it, found it hidden in a dark
-    place, and put it to death by throwing it into the river.</p>
-
-  <p>“When O-kee-hee-de (the Evil Spirit) heard of the death of this child,
-    he sought for Nu-mohk-muck-a-nah with intent to kill him. He traced
-    him a long distance, and at length found him at <em>Heart River</em>,
-    about seventy miles below the village, with the big medicine-pipe
-    in his hand, the charm or mystery of which protects him from all of
-    his enemies. They soon agreed, however, to become friends, smoked
-    the big pipe together, and returned to the Mandan village. The Evil
-    Spirit was satisfied; and Nu-mohk-muck-a-nah told the Mandans never
-    to pass Heart River to live, for it was the centre of the world,
-    and to live beyond it would be destruction to them; and he named it
-    <i lang="mhq">Nat-com-pa-sa-hah</i> (heart or centre of the world).”</p>
-
-  <p>Such are a few of the principal traditions of these people, which I
-    have thought proper to give in this place, and I have given them in
-    their own way, with all the imperfections and absurd inconsistencies
-    which should be expected to characterize the history of all ignorant
-    and superstitious people who live in a state of simple and untaught
-    nature, with no other means of perpetuating historical events, than by
-    oral traditions.</p>
-
-  <p>I advance these vague stories then, as I have done, and shall do in
-    other instances, not in support of any theory, but merely as I have
-    heard them related by the Indians; and preserved them, as I have
-    everything else that I could meet in the Indian habits and character,
-    for the information of the world, who may get more time to theorize
-    than I have at present; and who may consider better than I can, how far
-    such traditions should be taken as evidence of the facts, that these
-    people have for a long period preserved and perpetuated an imperfect
-    knowledge of the Deluge—of the appearance and death of a Saviour—and of
-    the transgressions of mother Eve.</p>
-
-  <p>I am not yet able to learn from these people whether they have any
-    distinct theory of the creation; as they seem to date nothing further
-    back than their own existence as a people; saying (as I have before
-    mentioned), that they were the first people created; involving the
-    glaring absurdities that they were the only people on earth before
-    the Flood, and the only one saved was a white man; or that they were
-    created inside of the earth, as their tradition says; and that they
-    did not make their appearance on its<span class="pagenum" id="Page_181">181</span> outer surface until after the
-    Deluge. When an Indian story is told, it is like all other gifts, “to
-    be taken for what it is worth,” and for any seeming inconsistency in
-    their traditions there is no remedy; for as far as I have tried to
-    reconcile them by reasoning with, or questioning them, I have been
-    entirely defeated; and more than that, have generally incurred their
-    distrust and ill-will. One of the Mandan doctors told me very gravely
-    a few days since, that the earth was a large tortoise, that it carried
-    the dirt on its back—that a tribe of people, who are now dead, and
-    whose faces were white, used to dig down very deep in this ground to
-    catch <em>badgers</em>; and that one day they stuck a knife through the
-    tortoise-shell, and it sunk down so that the water ran over its back,
-    and drowned all but one man. And on the next day while I was painting
-    his portrait, he told me there were <em>four tortoises</em>,—one in the
-    North—one in the East—one in the South, and one in the West; that each
-    one of these rained ten days, and the water covered over the earth.</p>
-
-  <p>These ignorant and conflicting accounts, and both from the same man,
-    give as good a demonstration, perhaps, of what I have above mentioned,
-    as to the inefficiency of Indian traditions as anything I could at
-    present mention. They might, perhaps, have been in this instance
-    however the creeds of different sects, or of different priests amongst
-    them, who often advance diametrically opposite theories and traditions
-    relative to history and mythology.</p>
-
-  <p>And however ignorant and ridiculous they may seem, they are yet worthy
-    of a little further consideration, as relating to a number of curious
-    circumstances connected with the unaccountable religious ceremonies
-    which I have just described.</p>
-
-  <p>The Mandan chiefs and doctors, in all their feasts, where the pipe
-    is lit and about to be passed around, deliberately propitiate the
-    good-will and favour of the Great Spirit, by extending the stem of
-    the pipe <em>upwards</em> before they smoke it themselves; and also as
-    deliberately and as strictly offering the stem to the four <em>cardinal
-    points</em> in succession, and then drawing a whiff through it, passing
-    it around amongst the group.</p>
-
-  <p>The <em>annual religious ceremony</em> invariably lasts <em>four</em>
-    days, and the other following circumstances attending these strange
-    forms, and seeming to have some allusion to the <em>four</em> cardinal
-    points, or the “four tortoises,” seem to me to be worthy of further
-    notice. <em>Four</em> men are selected by Nu-mohk-muck-a-nah (as I
-    have before said), to cleanse out and prepare the medicine-lodge
-    for the occasion—one he calls from the <em>north</em> part of the
-    village—one from the <em>east</em>—one from the <em>south</em>, and one
-    from the <em>west</em>. The <em>four</em> sacks of water, in form of large
-    tortoises, resting on the floor of the lodge and before described,
-    would seem to be typical of the same thing; and also the <em>four</em>
-    buffalo, and the <em>four</em> human skulls resting on the floor of the
-    same lodge—the <em>four</em> couples of dancers in the “bull-dance,” as
-    before described, and also the <em>four</em> intervening dancers in the
-    same dance, and also described</p>
-
-  <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_182">182</span></p>
-
-  <p>The bull-dance in front of the medicine-lodge, repeated on the
-    <em>four</em> days, is danced <em>four</em> times on the first day,
-    <em>eight</em> times on the second, <em>twelve</em> times on the third,
-    and <em>sixteen</em> times on the <em>fourth</em>; (adding <em>four</em>
-    dances on each of the <em>four</em> days,) which added together make
-    <em>forty</em>, the exact number of days that it rained upon the earth,
-    according to the Mosaic account, to produce the Deluge. There are
-    <em>four</em> sacrifices of black and blue cloths erected over the door
-    of the medicine-lodge—the visits of O-kee-hee-de (or Evil Spirit)
-    were paid to <em>four</em> of the buffaloes in the buffalo-dance, as
-    above described; and in every instance, the young men who underwent
-    the tortures before explained, had <em>four</em> splints or skewers
-    run through the flesh on their legs—<em>four</em> through the arms and
-    <em>four</em> through the body.</p>
-
-  <p>Such is a brief account of these strange scenes which I have just been
-    witnessing, and such my brief history of the Mandans. I might write
-    much more on them, giving yet a volume on their stories and traditions;
-    but it would be a volume of fables, and scarce worth recording. A
-    nation of Indians in their primitive condition, where there are no
-    historians, have but a temporary historical existence, for the reasons
-    above advanced, and their history, what can be certainly learned of it,
-    may be written in a very small compass.</p>
-
-  <p>I have dwelt longer on the history and customs of these people than I
-    have or shall on any other tribe, in all probability, and that from the
-    fact that I have found them a very peculiar people, as will have been
-    seen by my notes.</p>
-
-  <p>From these very numerous and striking peculiarities in their personal
-    appearance—their customs—traditions and language, I have been led
-    conclusively to believe that they are a people of decidedly a different
-    origin from that of any other tribe in these regions.</p>
-
-  <p>From these reasons, as well as from the fact that they are a small and
-    feeble tribe, against whom the powerful tribe of Sioux are waging a
-    deadly war with the prospect of their extermination; and who with their
-    limited numbers, are not likely to hold out long in their struggle for
-    existence, I have taken more pains to pourtray their whole character,
-    than my limited means will allow me to bestow upon other tribes.</p>
-
-  <p>From the ignorant and barbarous and disgusting customs just recited,
-    the world would naturally infer, that these people must be the most
-    cruel and inhuman beings in the world—yet, such is not the case, and it
-    becomes my duty to say it; a better, more honest, hospitable and kind
-    people, as a community, are not to be found in the world. No set of men
-    that ever I associated with have better hearts than the Mandans, and
-    none are quicker to embrace and welcome a white man than they are—none
-    will press him closer to his bosom, that the pulsation of his heart may
-    be felt, than a Mandan; and no man in any country will keep his word
-    and guard his honour more closely.</p>
-
-  <p>The shocking and disgusting custom that I have just described, sickens<span class="pagenum" id="Page_183">183</span>
-    the heart and even the stomach of a traveller in the country, and he
-    weeps for their ignorance—he pities them with all his heart for their
-    blindness, and laments that the light of civilization, of agriculture
-    and religion cannot be extended to them, and that their hearts which
-    are good enough, could not be turned to embrace something more rational
-    and conducive to their true happiness.</p>
-
-  <p>Many would doubtless ask, whether such a barbarous custom could be
-    eradicated from these people? and whether their thoughts and tastes,
-    being turned to agriculture and religion, could be made to abandon the
-    dark and random channel in which they are drudging, and made to flow in
-    the light and life of civilization?</p>
-
-  <p>To this query I answer <em>yes</em>. Although this is a custom of long
-    standing, being a part of their religion; and probably valued as one
-    of their dearest rights; and notwithstanding the difficulty of making
-    inroads upon the religion of a people in whose country there is no
-    severence of opinions, and consequently no division into different
-    sects, with different creeds to shake their faith; I still believe,
-    and I <em>know</em>, that by a judicious and persevering effort, this
-    abominable custom, and others, might be extinguished, and the beautiful
-    green fields about the Mandan village might be turned into productive
-    gardens, and the waving green bluffs that are spread in the surrounding
-    distance, might be spotted with lowing kine, instead of the sneaking
-    wolves and the hobbled war-horses that are now stalking about them.</p>
-
-  <p>All ignorant and superstitious people, it is a well-known fact, are
-    the most fixed and stubborn in their religious opinions, and perhaps
-    the most difficult to divert from their established belief, from the
-    very fact that they are the most difficult to reason with. Here is
-    an ignorant race of human beings, who have from time immemorial been
-    in the habit of worshipping in their own way, and of enjoying their
-    religious opinions without ever having heard any one to question their
-    correctness; and in those opinions they are quiet and satisfied, and
-    it requires a patient, gradual, and untiring effort to convince such
-    a people that they are wrong, and to work the desired change in their
-    belief, and consequently in their actions.</p>
-
-  <p>It is decidedly my opinion, however, that such a thing <em>can</em> be
-    done, and I do not believe there is a race of wild people on earth
-    where the experiment could be more successfully made than amongst the
-    kind and hospitable Mandans, nor any place where the Missionary labours
-    of pious and industrious men would be more sure to succeed, or more
-    certain to be rewarded in the world to come.</p>
-
-  <p>I deem such a trial of patience and perseverance with these people of
-    great importance, and well worth the experiment. One which I shall hope
-    soon to see accomplished, and which, if properly conducted, I am sure
-    will result in success. Severed as they are from the contaminating and
-    counteracting vices which oppose and thwart most of the best efforts
-    of the Missionaries along the frontier, and free from the almost fatal
-    prejudices which they have<span class="pagenum" id="Page_184">184</span> there to contend with; they present a
-    better field for the labours of such benevolent teachers than they
-    have yet worked in, and a far better chance than they have yet had of
-    proving to the world that the poor Indian is not a brute—that he is
-    a human and humane being, that he is capable of improvement—and that
-    his mind is a beautiful blank on which anything can be written if the
-    proper means be taken.</p>
-
-  <p>The Mandans being but a small tribe, of two thousand only, and living
-    all in two villages, in sight of each other, and occupying these
-    permanently, without roaming about like other neighbouring tribes,
-    offer undoubtedly, the best opportunity for such an experiment of any
-    tribe in the country. The land about their villages is of the best
-    quality for ploughing and grazing, and the water just such as would
-    be desired. Their villages are fortified with piquets or stockades,
-    which protect them from the assaults of their enemies at home; and
-    the introduction of agriculture (which would supply them with the
-    necessaries and luxuries of life, without the necessity of continually
-    exposing their lives to their more numerous enemies on the plains, when
-    they are seeking in the chase the means of their subsistence) would
-    save them from the continual wastes of life, to which, in their wars
-    and the chase they are continually exposed, and which are calculated
-    soon to result in their extinction.</p>
-
-  <p>I deem it not folly nor idle to say that these people <em>can be
-    saved</em>, nor officious to suggest to some of the very many excellent
-    and pious men, who are almost throwing away the best energies of their
-    lives along the debased frontier, that if they would introduce the
-    ploughshare and their prayers amongst these people, who are so far
-    separated from the taints and contaminating vices of the frontier, they
-    would soon see their most ardent desires accomplished and be able to
-    solve to the world the perplexing enigma, by presenting a nation of
-    savages, civilized and christianized (and consequently <em>saved</em>),
-    in the heart of the American wilderness.</p>
-
-  <hr class="chap">
-  <div class="chapter">
-    <span class="pagenum" id="Page_185">185</span>
-    <h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_23">LETTER—<abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 23.</h2>
-  </div>
-  <div class="subheadc">MINATAREE VILLAGE, <i>UPPER MISSOURI</i>.</div>
-
-  <p><span class="smcap">Soon</span> after witnessing the curious scenes described in the former
-    Letters, I changed my position to the place from whence I am now
-    writing—to the village of the Minatarees, which is also located on
-    the west bank of the Missouri river, and only eight miles above the
-    Mandans. On my way down the river in my canoe, I passed this village
-    without attending to their earnest and clamorous invitations for me to
-    come ashore, and it will thus be seen that I am retrograding a little,
-    to see all that is to be seen in this singular country.</p>
-
-  <p>I have been residing here some weeks, and am able already to say of
-    these people as follows:—</p>
-
-  <p>The Minatarees (people of the willows) are a small tribe of about 1500
-    souls, residing in three villages of earth-covered lodges, on the
-    banks of Knife river; a small stream, so called, meandering through
-    a beautiful and extensive prairie, and uniting its waters with the
-    Missouri.</p>
-
-  <p>This small community is undoubtedly a part of the tribe of Crows, of
-    whom I have already spoken, living at the base of the Rocky Mountains,
-    who have at some remote period, either in their war or hunting
-    excursions, been run off by their enemy, and their retreat having been
-    prevented, have thrown themselves upon the hospitality of the Mandans,
-    to whom they have looked for protection, and under whose wing they are
-    now living in a sort of confederacy, ready to intermarry and also to
-    join, as they often have done, in the common defence of their country.</p>
-
-  <p>In language and personal appearance, as well as in many of their
-    customs, they are types of the Crows; yet having adopted and so long
-    lived under its influence, the system of the Mandans, they are much
-    like them in many respects, and continually assimilating to the modes
-    of their patrons and protectors. Amongst their vague and various
-    traditions they have evidently some disjointed authority for the manner
-    in which they came here; but no account of the time. They say, that
-    they came poor—without wigwams or horses—were nearly all women, as
-    their warriors had been killed off in their flight; that the Mandans
-    would not take them into their village, nor let them come nearer than
-    where they are now living, and there assisted them to build their
-    villages. From these circumstances their wigwams have been constructed
-    exactly in the same manner as those of the Mandans, which I<span class="pagenum" id="Page_186">186</span> have
-    already described, and entirely distinct from any custom to be seen in
-    the Crow tribe.</p>
-
-  <p>Notwithstanding the long familiarity in which they have lived with the
-    Mandans, and the complete adoption of most of their customs, yet it is
-    almost an unaccountable fact, that there is scarcely a man in the tribe
-    who can speak half a dozen words of the Mandan language; although on
-    the other hand, the Mandans are most of them able to converse in the
-    Minataree tongue; leaving us to conclude, either that the Minatarees
-    are a very inert and stupid people, or that the Mandan language (which
-    is most probably the case) being different from any other language in
-    the country, is an exceedingly difficult one to learn.</p>
-
-  <p>The principal village of the Minatarees which is built upon the bank
-    of the Knife river (<a href="#i_070"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 70</a>), contains forty or fifty
-    earth-covered wigwams, from forty to fifty feet in diameter, and being
-    elevated, overlooks the other two which are on lower ground and almost
-    lost amidst their numerous corn fields and other profuse vegetation
-    which cover the earth with their luxuriant growth.</p>
-
-  <p>The scenery along the banks of this little river, from village to
-    village, is quite peculiar and curious; rendered extremely so by the
-    continual wild and garrulous groups of men, women, and children, who
-    are wending their way along its winding shores, or dashing and plunging
-    through its blue waves, enjoying the luxury of swimming, of which
-    both sexes seem to be passionately fond. Others are paddling about in
-    their tub-like canoes, made of the skins of buffaloes; and every now
-    and then, are to be seen their sudatories, or vapour-baths (<a href="#i_071"><span class="smcap">plate</span>
-    71</a>), where steam is raised by throwing water on to heated stones;
-    and the patient jumps from his sweating-house and leaps into the river
-    in the highest state of perspiration, as I have more fully described
-    whilst speaking of the bathing of the Mandans.</p>
-
-  <p>The chief sachem of this tribe is a very ancient and patriarchal
-    looking man, by the name of Eeh-tohk-pah-shee-pee-shah (the black
-    moccasin), and counts, undoubtedly, more than an hundred <em>snows</em>.
-    I have been for some days an inmate of his hospitable lodge, where he
-    sits tottering with age, and silently reigns sole monarch of his little
-    community around him, who are continually dropping in to cheer his
-    sinking energies, and render him their homage. His voice and his sight
-    are nearly gone; but the gestures of his hands are yet energetic and
-    youthful, and freely speak the language of his kind heart.</p>
-
-  <p>I have been treated in the kindest manner by this old chief; and have
-    painted his portrait (<a href="#i_072"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 72</a>) as he was seated on the floor
-    of his wigwam, smoking his pipe, whilst he was recounting over to me
-    some of the extraordinary feats of his life, with a beautiful Crow robe
-    wrapped around him, and his hair wound up in a conical form upon his
-    head, and fastened with a small wooden pin, to keep it in its place.</p>
-
-  <p>This man has many distinct recollections of Lewis and Clarke, who were
-    <span class="pagenum" id="Page_187">187</span>the first explorers of this country, and who crossed the Rocky
-    Mountains thirty years ago. It will be seen by reference to their very
-    interesting history of their tour, that they were treated with great
-    kindness by this man; and that they in consequence constituted him
-    chief of the tribe, with the consent of his people; and he has remained
-    their chief ever since. He enquired very earnestly for “Red Hair” and
-    “Long Knife” (as he had ever since termed Lewis and Clarke), from the
-    fact, that one had red hair (an unexampled thing in his country), and
-    the other wore a broad sword which gained for him the appellation of
-    “Long Knife.”</p>
-
-  <figure class="mt2 illowp75" id="i_072">
-    <div class="plate"><i>48</i></div>
-    <img src="images/i_072.jpg" alt="Eeh-tohk-pah-shee-pee-shah">
-     <figcaption>72</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>49</i></div>
-  <div class="col50">
-    <figure id="i_073">
-      <img style="width: 99.4%;" src="images/i_073.jpg" alt="Ee-a-chin-che-a">
-       <figcaption>73</figcaption>
-    </figure>
-  </div>
-  <div class="col50">
-    <figure id="i_074">
-      <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_074.jpg" alt="Seet-se-be-a">
-       <figcaption>74</figcaption>
-    </figure>
-  </div>
-
-  <p>I have told him that “Long Knife” has been many years dead; and that
-    “Red Hair” is yet living in <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Louis, and no doubt, would be glad to
-    hear of him; at which he seemed much pleased, and has signified to me
-    that he will make me bearer of some peculiar dispatches to him.<a id="FNanchor_5" href="#Footnote_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></p>
-
-  <p>The name by which these people are generally called (Grosventres) is
-    one given them by the French Traders, and has probably been applied to
-    them with some degree of propriety or fitness, as contradistinguished
-    from the Mandans, amongst whom these Traders were living; and who
-    are a small race of Indians, being generally at or below the average
-    stature of man; whilst the Minatarees are generally tall and heavily
-    built. There is no tribe in the western wilds, perhaps, who are better
-    entitled to the style of warlike, than the Minatarees; for they, unlike
-    the Mandans, are continually carrying war into their enemies’ country;
-    oftentimes drawing the poor Mandans into unnecessary broils, and
-    suffering so much themselves in their desperate war-excursions, that I
-    find the proportion of women to the number of men as two or three to
-    one, through the tribe.</p>
-
-  <p>The son of Black Moccasin, whose name is Ee-a-chin-che-a (the red
-    thunder), and who is reputed one of the most desperate warriors of his
-    tribe, I have also painted at full length, in his war-dress (<a href="#i_073"><span class="smcap">plate</span>
-    73</a>), with his bow in his hand, his quiver slung, and his shield
-    upon his arm. In this plight, <i>sans</i> head-dress, <i>sans</i> robe,
-    and <i>sans</i> everything that might be an useless incumbrance—with
-    the body chiefly naked, and profusely bedaubed with red and black
-    paint, so as to form an almost perfect disguise, the Indian warriors
-    invariably sally forth to war; save the chief, who always plumes
-    himself, and leads on his little band, tendering himself to his enemies
-    a conspicuous mark, with all his ornaments and trophies upon him; that
-    his enemies, if they get him, may get a prize worth the fighting for.</p>
-
-  <p>Besides chiefs and warriors to be admired in this little tribe, there
-    are many beautiful and voluptuous looking women, who are continually
-    crowding in throngs, and gazing upon a stranger; and possibly shedding
-    more bewitching<span class="pagenum" id="Page_188">188</span> smiles from a sort of necessity, growing out of the
-    great disparity in numbers between them and the rougher sex, to which I
-    have before alluded.</p>
-
-  <p>From the very numerous groups of these that have from day to day
-    constantly pressed upon me, overlooking the operations of my brush;
-    I have been unable to get more than one who would consent to have
-    her portrait painted, owing to some fear or dread of harm that might
-    eventually ensue in consequence; or from a natural coyness or timidity,
-    which is surpassing all description amongst these wild tribes, when in
-    presence of strangers.</p>
-
-  <p>The one whom I have painted (<a href="#i_074"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 74</a>) is a descendant from
-    the old chief; and though not the most beautiful, is yet a fair sample
-    of them, and dressed in a beautiful costume of the mountain-sheep skin,
-    handsomely garnished with porcupine quills and beads. This girl was
-    almost <em>compelled</em> to stand for her picture by her relatives who
-    urged her on, whilst she modestly declined, offering as her excuse that
-    “she was not pretty enough, and that her picture would be laughed at.”
-    This was either ignorance or excessive art on her part; for she was
-    certainly more than comely, and the beauty of her name, Seet-se-be-a
-    (the midday sun) is quite enough to make up for a deficiency, if there
-    were any, in the beauty of her face.</p>
-
-  <p>I mentioned that I found these people raising abundance of corn or
-    maize; and I have happened to visit them in the season of their
-    festivities, which annually take place when the ears of corn are of the
-    proper size for eating. The green corn is considered a great luxury by
-    all those tribes who cultivate it; and is ready for eating as soon as
-    the ear is of full size, and the kernels are expanded to their full
-    growth, but are yet soft and pulpy. In this green state of the corn,
-    it is boiled and dealt out in great profusion to the whole tribe, who
-    feast and surfeit upon it whilst it lasts; rendering thanks to the
-    <em>Great Spirit</em> for the return of this joyful season, which they do
-    by making sacrifices, by dancing, and singing songs or thanksgiving.
-    This joyful occasion is one valued alike, and conducted in a similar
-    manner, by most of the tribes who raise the corn, however remote they
-    may be from each other. It lasts but for a week or ten days; being
-    limited to the longest term that the corn remains in this tender and
-    palatable state; during which time all hunting, and all war-excursions,
-    and all other avocations, are positively dispensed with; and all join
-    in the most excessive indulgence of gluttony and conviviality that can
-    possibly be conceived. The fields of corn are generally pretty well
-    stripped during this excess; and the poor improvident Indian thanks the
-    Great Spirit for the indulgence he has had, and is satisfied to ripen
-    merely the few ears that are necessary for his next year’s planting,
-    without reproaching himself for his wanton lavishness, which has laid
-    waste his fine fields, and robbed him of the golden harvest, which
-    might have gladdened his heart, with those of his wife and little
-    children, through the cold and dreariness of winter.</p>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>50</i></div>
-  <figure id="i_075">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_075.jpg" alt="Green corn-dance">
-     <figcaption>75</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p>The most remarkable feature of these joyous occasion is the <em>green
-    corn-dance</em><span class="pagenum" id="Page_189">189</span>, which is always given as preparatory to the feast,
-    and by most of the tribes in the following manner:—</p>
-
-  <p>At the usual season, and the time when from outward appearance of the
-    stalks and ears of the corn, it is supposed to be nearly ready for
-    use, several of the old women who are the owners of fields or patches
-    of corn (for such are the proprietors and cultivators of all crops in
-    Indian countries, the men never turning their hands to such degrading
-    occupations) are delegated by the medicine-men to look at the corn
-    fields every morning at sun-rise, and bring into the council-house,
-    where the kettle is ready, several ears of corn, the husks of which the
-    women are not allowed to break open or even to peep through. The women
-    then are from day to day discharged and the doctors left to decide,
-    until from repeated examinations they come to the decision that it will
-    do; when they dispatch <em>runners</em> or <em>criers</em>, announcing to
-    every part of the village or tribe that the Great Spirit has been kind
-    to them, and they must all meet on the next day to return thanks for
-    his goodness. That all must empty their stomachs, and prepare for the
-    feast that is approaching.</p>
-
-  <p>On the day appointed by the doctors, the villagers are all assembled,
-    and in the midst of the group a kettle is hung over a fire and filled
-    with the green corn, which is well boiled, to be given to the Great
-    Spirit, as a sacrifice necessary to be made before any one can indulge
-    the cravings of his appetite. Whilst this first kettleful is boiling,
-    four medicine-men, with a stalk of the corn in one hand and a rattle
-    (she-she-quoi) in the other, with their bodies painted with white clay,
-    dance around the kettle, chanting a song of thanksgiving to the Great
-    Spirit to whom the offering is to be made (<a href="#i_075"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 75</a>). At the
-    same time a number of warriors are dancing around in a more extended
-    circle, with stalks of the corn in their hands, and joining also in
-    the song of thanksgiving, whilst the villagers are all assembled and
-    looking on. During this scene there is an arrangement of wooden bowls
-    laid upon the ground, in which the feast is to be dealt out, each one
-    having in it a spoon made of the buffalo or mountain-sheep’s horn.</p>
-
-  <p>In this wise the dance continues until the doctors decide that the corn
-    is sufficiently boiled; it then stops for a few moments, and again
-    assumes a different form and a different song, whilst the doctors are
-    placing the ears on a little scaffold of sticks, which they erect
-    immediately over the fire where it is entirely consumed, as they join
-    again in the dance around it.</p>
-
-  <p>The fire is then removed, and with it the ashes, which together are
-    buried in the ground, and <em>new fire</em> is originated on the same
-    spot where the old one was, by friction, which is done by a desperate
-    and painful exertion by three men seated on the ground, facing each
-    other and violently drilling the end of a stick into a hard block of
-    wood by rolling it between the hands, each one catching it in turn
-    from the others without allowing the motion to stop until smoke, and
-    at last a spark of fire is seen and caught in a piece of spunk, when
-    there is great rejoicing in the crowd. With this a fire is kindled,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_190">190</span>
-    and the kettleful of corn again boiled for the feast, at which the
-    chiefs, doctors, and warriors are seated; and after this an unlimited
-    licence is given to the whole tribe, who surfeit upon it and indulge in
-    all their favourite amusements and excesses, until the fields of corn
-    are exhausted, or its ears have become too hard for their comfortable
-    mastication.</p>
-
-  <p>Such are the general features of the green corn festivity and dance
-    amongst most of the tribes; and amongst some there are many additional
-    forms and ceremonies gone through, preparatory to the indulgence in the
-    feast.</p>
-
-  <p>Some of the southern tribes concoct a most bitter and nauseating
-    draught, which they call <em>asceola</em> (the black drink), which they
-    drink to excess for several days previous to the feast; ejecting
-    everything from their stomachs and intestines, enabling them after this
-    excessive and painful purgation, to commence with the green corn upon
-    an empty and keen stomach.</p>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>51</i></div>
-  <figure id="i_076">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_076.jpg" alt="Crow on horse">
-     <figcaption>76</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <div class="footnotes">
-    <div class="footnote">
-      <a id="Footnote_5" href="#FNanchor_5" class="label">[5]</a> About a year after writing the above, and whilst I was in
-        <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Louis, I had the pleasure of presenting the compliments of this old
-        veteran to General Clarke; and also of shewing to him the portrait,
-        which he instantly recognized amongst hundreds of others; saying, that
-        “they had considered the Black Moccasin quite an old man when they
-        appointed him chief thirty-two years ago.”
-    </div>
-  </div>
-
-  <hr class="chap">
-  <div class="chapter">
-    <span class="pagenum" id="Page_191">191</span>
-    <h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_24">LETTER—<abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 24.</h2>
-  </div>
-  <div class="subheadc">MINATAREE VILLAGE, <i>UPPER MISSOURI</i>.</div>
-
-  <p><span class="smcap">Epistles</span> from such a strange place as this, where I have no desk to
-    write from, or mail to send them by, are hastily scribbled off in my
-    note-book, as I can steal a little time from the gaze of the wild group
-    that is continually about me; and instead of <em>sending</em> them,
-    <em>keeping</em> them to bring with me when I make my retreat from the
-    country.</p>
-
-  <p>The only place where I can satisfactorily make these entries is in
-    the shade of some sequestered tree, to which I occasionally resort,
-    or more often from my bed (from which I am now writing), enclosed by
-    a sort of curtains made of the skins of elks or buffaloes, completely
-    encompassing me, where I am reclining on a sacking-bottom, made of the
-    buffalo’s hide; making my entries and notes of the incidents of the
-    past day, amidst the roar and unintelligible din of savage conviviality
-    that is going on under the same roof, and under my own eye, whenever I
-    feel disposed to apply it to a small aperture which brings at once the
-    whole interior and all its inmates within my view.</p>
-
-  <p>There are at this time some distinguished guests, besides
-    <em>myself</em>, in the lodge of the Black Moccasin; two chiefs or
-    leaders of a party of Crows, who arrived here a few days since, on a
-    visit to their ancient friends and relatives. The consequence has been,
-    that feasting and carousing have been the “order of the day” here for
-    some time; and I have luckily been a welcome participator in their
-    entertainments. A distinguished chief of the Minatarees, with several
-    others in company, has been for some months past on a visit to the
-    Crows and returned, attended by some remarkably fine-looking fellows,
-    all mounted on fine horses. I have said something of these fine
-    specimens of the human race heretofore; and as I have been fastening
-    more of them to the canvass within the few days past, I must use this
-    occasion to add what follows:—</p>
-
-  <p>I think I have said that no part of the human race could present a
-    more picturesque and thrilling appearance on horseback than a party
-    of Crows rigged out in all their plumes and trappings—galloping about
-    and yelping, in what they call a war-parade, <i>i. e.</i> in a sort of
-    tournament or sham-fight, passing rapidly through the evolutions of
-    battle, and vaunting forth the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_192">192</span> wonderful character of their military
-    exploits. This is an amusement, of which they are excessively fond; and
-    great preparations are invariably made for these occasional shows.</p>
-
-  <p>No tribe of Indians on the Continent are better able to produce a
-    pleasing and thrilling effect in these scenes, nor any more vain,
-    and consequently better prepared to draw pleasure and satisfaction
-    from them, than the Crows. They may be justly said to be the most
-    beautifully clad of all the Indians in these regions, and bringing
-    from the base of the Rocky Mountains a fine and spirited breed of the
-    wild horses, have been able to create a great sensation amongst the
-    Minatarees, who have been paying them all attention and all honours for
-    some days past.</p>
-
-  <p>From amongst these showy fellows who have been entertaining us and
-    pleasing themselves with their extraordinary feats of horsemanship,
-    I have selected one of the most conspicuous, and transferred him and
-    his horse, with arms and trappings, as faithfully as I could to the
-    canvass, for the information of the world, who will learn vastly
-    more from lines and colours than they could from oral or written
-    delineations.</p>
-
-  <p>I have painted him as he sat for me, balanced on his leaping wild horse
-    (<a href="#i_076"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 76</a>) with his shield and quiver slung on his back,
-    and his long lance decorated with the eagle’s quills, trailed in his
-    right hand. His shirt and his leggings, and moccasins, were of the
-    mountain-goat skins, beautifully dressed; and their seams everywhere
-    fringed with a profusion of scalp-locks taken from the heads of his
-    enemies slain in battle. His long hair, which reached almost to the
-    ground whilst he was standing on his feet, was now lifted in the air,
-    and floating in black waves over the hips of his leaping charger. On
-    his head, and over his shining black locks, he wore a magnificent crest
-    or head-dress, made of the quills of the war-eagle and ermine skins;
-    and on his horse’s head also was another of equal beauty and precisely
-    the same in pattern and material. Added to these ornaments there were
-    yet many others which contributed to his picturesque appearance, and
-    amongst them a beautiful netting of various colours, that completely
-    covered and almost obscured the horse’s head and neck, and extended
-    over its back and its hips, terminating in a most extravagant and
-    magnificent crupper, embossed and fringed with rows of beautiful shells
-    and porcupine quills of various colours.</p>
-
-  <p>With all these picturesque ornaments and trappings upon and about him,
-    with a noble figure, and the bold stamp of a wild <em>gentleman</em>
-    on his face, added to the rage and spirit of his wild horse, in time
-    with whose leaps he issued his startling (though smothered) yelps, as
-    he gracefully leaned to and fro, leaving his plumes and his plumage,
-    his long locks and his fringes, to float in the wind, he galloped
-    about; and felt exceeding pleasure in displaying the extraordinary
-    skill which a lifetime of practice and experiment had furnished him
-    in the beautiful art of riding and managing his horse, as well as in
-    displaying to advantage his weapons and ornaments of dress, by giving
-    <span class="pagenum" id="Page_193">193</span>them the grace of motion, as they were brandished in the air and
-    floating in the wind.</p>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>52</i></div>
-  <div class="col50">
-    <figure id="i_077">
-      <img style="width: 99.5%;" src="images/i_077.jpg" alt="Pa-ris-ka-roo-pa">
-       <figcaption>77</figcaption>
-    </figure>
-  </div>
-  <div class="col50">
-    <figure id="i_078">
-      <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_078.jpg" alt="Ee-he-a-duck-chee-a">
-       <figcaption>78</figcaption>
-    </figure>
-  </div>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>53</i></div>
-  <figure id="i_079">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_079.jpg" alt="Buffalo hunt">
-     <figcaption>79</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p>I have also secured the portraits of Ee-he-a-duck-chee-a (he who ties
-    his hair before, <a href="#i_078"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 78</a>), and Pa-ris-ka-roo-pa (the two
-    Crows, <a href="#i_077"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 77</a>); fine and fair specimens of this tribe, in
-    both of which are exhibited the extraordinary instances of the natural
-    hair reaching to the ground, peculiarities belonging almost exclusively
-    to this tribe, and of which I have in a former Letter given some
-    account. In presenting such instances as these, I offer them, (and the
-    reader will take them of course) as extraordinary and rare occurrences
-    amongst the tribe, who generally fall short of these in this
-    peculiarity, and also in elegance of dress and ornament; although many
-    others from their numbers might be selected of equal extravagance. The
-    Crows are generally handsome, and comfortably clad; every man in the
-    nation oils his hair with a profusion of bear’s grease, and promotes
-    its growth to the utmost of his ability; and the greater part of them
-    cultivate it down on to the calf of the leg, whilst a few are able to
-    make it sweep the ground.</p>
-
-  <p>In a former Letter I gave some account of the form of the head peculiar
-    to this tribe which may well be recorded as a national characteristic,
-    and worthy of further attention, which I shall give it on a future
-    occasion. This striking peculiarity is quite conspicuous in the two
-    portraits of which I have just spoken, exhibiting fairly, as they
-    are both in profile, the <em>semi-lunar</em> outline of the face of
-    which I have before spoken, and which strongly characterizes them
-    as distinct from any relationship or resemblance to, the Blackfeet,
-    Shiennes, Knisteneaux, Mandans, or other tribes now existing in these
-    regions. The peculiar character of which I am speaking, like all other
-    national characteristics, is of course met by many exceptions in the
-    tribe, though the greater part of the men are thus strongly marked
-    with a bold and prominent anti-angular nose, with a clear and rounded
-    arch, and a low and receding forehead; the frontal bone oftentimes
-    appearing to have been compressed by some effort of art, in a certain
-    degree approaching to the horrid distortion thus produced amongst the
-    Flatheads beyond the Rocky Mountains. I learned however from repeated
-    inquiries, that no such custom is practiced amongst them, but their
-    heads, such as they are, are the results of a natural growth, and
-    therefore may well be offered as the basis of a national or tribal
-    <em>character</em>.</p>
-
-  <p>I recollect to have seen in several publications on the antiquities of
-    Mexico, many rude drawings made by the ancient Mexicans, of which the
-    singular profiles of these people forcibly remind me, almost bringing
-    me to the conclusion that these people may be the descendants of the
-    race who have bequeathed those curious and inexplicable remains to the
-    world, and whose scattered remnants, from dire and unknown necessities
-    of those dark and veiled ages that have gone by, have been jostled and
-    thrown along through the hideous and almost impenetrable labyrinths of
-    the Rocky Mountains to the place of their<span class="pagenum" id="Page_194">194</span> destination where they now
-    live. I am stopped, however, from advancing such as a <em>theory</em>,
-    and much prefer to leave it to other hands, who may more easily get
-    over difficulties which I should be afraid to encounter in the very
-    outset, from the very important questions raised in my mind, as to the
-    correctness of those rude and ignorant outlines, in truly establishing
-    the looks and character of a people. Amongst a people so ignorant and
-    so little advanced in the arts as the ancient Mexicans were, from whose
-    tracings those very numerous drawings are copied, I think it would be
-    assuming a great deal too much for satisfactory argument, to claim
-    that such records were to set up to the world the looks and character
-    of a people who have sunk into oblivion, when the heads of horses and
-    other animals, drawn by the same hands, are so rude and so much out of
-    drawing as scarcely to be distinguished, one from the other. I feel
-    as if such rude outlines should be received with great caution and
-    distrust, in establishing the character of a people; and for a fair
-    illustration of the objection I am raising, I would refer the reader
-    to a number of <em>fac-simile</em> drawings which I have copied from
-    some of the paintings of the Mandans (on the three plates following
-    <a href="#i_065"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 65</a>), where most of the figures have the forehead and
-    nose answering exactly to these Mexican outlines, and strikingly
-    resembling the <em>living Crows</em>, also, when they have certainly
-    borrowed nothing from either, nor have they any living outlines like
-    them in their own tribe to have copied from.</p>
-
-  <p>Since writing the above I have passed through many vicissitudes, and
-    witnessed many curious scenes worthy of relating, some of which I will
-    scribble now, and leave the rest for a more leisure occasion. I have
-    witnessed many of the valued games and amusements of this tribe, and
-    made sketches of them; and also have painted a number of portraits of
-    distinguished warriors and braves which will be found in my collection.</p>
-
-  <p>I have just been exceedingly amused with a formal and grave meeting
-    which was called around me, formed by a number of young men, and even
-    chiefs and doctors of the tribe, who, having heard that I was <em>great
-    medicine</em>, and a great chief, took it upon themselves to suppose
-    that I might (or perhaps must) be, a man of influence amongst the “pale
-    faces,” and capable of rendering them some relief in a case of very
-    great grievance, under which they represented that they were suffering.
-    Several most profound speeches were made to me, setting forth these
-    grievances, somewhat in the following manner:—They represented, that
-    about five or six years ago, an unknown, small animal—not far differing
-    in size from a ground squirrel, but with a long, round tail, shewed
-    himself slily about one of the chief’s wigwams, peeping out from under
-    the pots and kettles, and other such things; which they looked upon as
-    great <em>medicine</em>—and no one dared to kill it; but hundreds came to
-    watch and look at it. On one of these occasions, one of the spectators
-    saw this strange animal catching and devouring a small “deer mouse,”
-    of which little and very destructive animals their lodges contained
-    many. It was then at once determined that this had<span class="pagenum" id="Page_195">195</span> been an act of the
-    Great Spirit, as a means of putting a stop to the spoliations committed
-    by these little sappers, who were cutting their clothing, and other
-    manufactures to pieces in a lamentable manner. Councils had been called
-    and solemn decrees issued for the countenance and protection of this
-    welcome visitor and its progeny, which were soon ascertained to be
-    rapidly increasing, and calculated soon to rid them of these thousands
-    of little depredators. It was soon, however, learned from one of the
-    Fur Traders, that this distinguished object of their superstition
-    (which my man Ba’tiste familiarly calls “<em>Monsr. Ratapon</em>”) had, a
-    short time before, landed himself from one of their keel boats, which
-    had ascended the Missouri river for the distance of 1800 miles; and had
-    taken up its residence, without introduction or invitation, in one of
-    their earth-covered wigwams.</p>
-
-  <p>This information, for a while, curtailed the extraordinary respect they
-    had for some time been paying to it; but its continual war upon these
-    little mice, which it was using for its food, in the absence of all
-    other nutriment, continued to command their respect, in spite of the
-    manner in which it had been introduced; being unwilling to believe that
-    it had come from that source, even, without the agency in some way of
-    the Great Spirit.</p>
-
-  <p>Having been thus introduced and nurtured, and their numbers having
-    been so wonderfully increased in the few last years, that every wigwam
-    was infested with them,—that their <i lang="fr">caches</i>, where they bury
-    their corn and other provisions, were robbed and sacked; and the very
-    pavements under their wigwams were so vaulted and sapped, that they
-    were actually falling to the ground; they were now looked upon as a
-    most disastrous nuisance, and a public calamity, to which it was the
-    object of this meeting to call my attention, evidently in hopes that
-    I might be able to designate some successful mode of relieving them
-    from this real misfortune. I got rid of them at last, by assuring them
-    of my deep regret for their situation, which was, to be sure, a very
-    unpleasant one; and told them, that there was really a great deal of
-    <em>medicine</em> in the thing, and that I should therefore be quite
-    unwilling to have anything to do with it. Ba’tiste and Bogard, who are
-    yet my daily and almost hourly companions, took to themselves a great
-    deal of fun and amusement at the end of this interview, by suggesting
-    many remedies for the evil, and enjoying many hearty laughs; after
-    which, Ba’tiste, Bogard and I, took our hats; and I took my sketch-book
-    in hand, and we started on a visit to the upper town of the Minatarees,
-    which is half a mile or more distant, and on the other bank of the
-    Knife River, which we crossed in the following manner:—The old chief,
-    having learned that we were to cross the river, gave direction to
-    one of the women of his numerous household, who took upon her head
-    a skin-canoe (more familiarly called in this country, a bull-boat),
-    made in the form of a large tub, of a buffalo’s skin, stretched on a
-    frame of willow boughs, which she carried to the water’s edge; and
-    placing it in the water, made signs for us three to get into it. When
-    we were in, and seated flat on its bottom, with scarce room in any
-    way to adjust<span class="pagenum" id="Page_196">196</span> our legs and our feet (as we sat necessarily facing
-    each other), she stepped before the boat, and pulling it along, waded
-    towards the deeper water, with her back towards us, carefully with the
-    other hand attending to her dress, which seemed to be but a light slip,
-    and floating upon the surface until the water was above her waist, when
-    it was instantly turned off, over her head, and thrown ashore; and she
-    boldly plunged forward, swimming and drawing the boat with one hand,
-    which she did with apparent ease. In this manner we were conveyed to
-    the middle of the stream, where we were soon surrounded by a dozen or
-    more beautiful girls, from twelve to fifteen and eighteen years of age,
-    who were at that time bathing on the opposite shore.</p>
-
-  <p>They all swam in a bold and graceful manner, and as confidently as so
-    many otters or beavers; and gathering around us, with their long black
-    hair floating about on the water, whilst their faces were glowing with
-    jokes and fun, which they were cracking about us, and which we could
-    not understand.</p>
-
-  <p>In the midst of this delightful little aquatic group, we three sat in
-    our little skin-bound tub (like the “three wise men of Gotham, who
-    went to sea in a bowl,” &amp;c.), floating along down the current, losing
-    sight, and all thoughts, of the shore, which was equi-distant from us
-    on either side; whilst we were amusing ourselves with the playfulness
-    of these dear little creatures who were floating about under the
-    clear blue water, catching their hands on to the sides of our boat;
-    occasionally raising one-half of their bodies out of the water, and
-    sinking again, like so many mermaids.</p>
-
-  <p>In the midst of this bewildering and tantalizing entertainment, in
-    which poor Ba’tiste and Bogard, as well as myself, were all taking
-    infinite pleasure, and which we supposed was all intended for our
-    especial amusement; we found ourselves suddenly in the delightful
-    dilemma of floating down the current in the middle of the river; and
-    of being turned round and round to the excessive amusement of the
-    villagers, who were laughing at us from the shore, as well as these
-    little tyros, whose delicate hands were besetting our tub on all
-    sides; and for an escape from whom, or for fending off, we had neither
-    an oar, or anything else, that we could wield in self-defence, or
-    for self-preservation. In this awkward predicament, our feelings of
-    excessive admiration were immediately changed, to those of exceeding
-    vexation, as we now learned that they had peremptorily discharged
-    from her occupation our fair conductress, who had undertaken to ferry
-    us safely across the river; and had also very ingeniously laid their
-    plans, of which we had been ignorant until the present moment, to
-    extort from us in this way, some little evidences of our liberality,
-    which, in fact, it was impossible to refuse them, after so liberal and
-    bewitching an exhibition on their part, as well as from the imperative
-    obligation which the awkwardness of our situation had laid us under. I
-    had some awls in my pockets, which I presented to them, and also a few
-    strings of beautiful beads, which I placed over their delicate<span class="pagenum" id="Page_197">197</span> necks
-    as they raised them out of the water by the side of our boat; after
-    which they all joined in conducting our craft to the shore, by swimming
-    by the sides of, and behind it, pushing it along in the direction where
-    they designed to land it, until the water became so shallow, that their
-    feet were upon the bottom, when they waded along with great coyness,
-    dragging us towards the shore, as long as their bodies, in a crouching
-    position, could possibly be half concealed under the water, when they
-    gave our boat the last push for the shore, and raising a loud and
-    exulting laugh, plunged back again into the river; leaving us the only
-    alternative of sitting still where we were, or of stepping out into
-    the water at half leg deep, and of wading to the shore, which we at
-    once did, and soon escaped from the view of our little tormentors, and
-    the numerous lookers-on, on our way to the upper village, which I have
-    before mentioned.</p>
-
-  <p>Here I was very politely treated by the <em>Yellow Moccasin</em>,
-    quite an old man, and who seemed to be chief of this band or family,
-    constituting their little community of thirty or forty lodges,
-    averaging, perhaps, twenty persons to each. I was feasted in this man’s
-    lodge—and afterwards invited to accompany him and several others to
-    a beautiful prairie, a mile or so above the village, where the young
-    men and young women of this town, and many from the village below, had
-    assembled for their amusements; the chief of which seemed to be that
-    of racing their horses. In the midst of these scenes, after I had been
-    for some time a looker-on, and had felt some considerable degree of
-    sympathy for a fine-looking young fellow, whose horse had been twice
-    beaten on the course, and whose losses had been considerable; for
-    which, his sister, a very modest and pretty girl, was most piteously
-    howling and crying. I selected and brought forward an ordinary-looking
-    pony, that was evidently too fat and too sleek to run against his
-    fine-limbed little horse that had disappointed his high hopes; and I
-    began to comment extravagantly upon its muscle, &amp;c., when I discovered
-    him evidently cheering up with the hope of getting me and my pony on
-    to the turf with him; for which he soon made me a proposition; and
-    I, having lauded the limbs of my little nag too much to “back out,”
-    agreed to run a short race with him of half a mile, for three yards
-    of scarlet cloth, a knife, and half a dozen strings of beads, which I
-    was willing to stake against a handsome pair of leggings, which he was
-    wearing at the time. The greatest imaginable excitement was now raised
-    amongst the crowd by this arrangement; to see a white man preparing to
-    run with an Indian jockey, and that with a scrub of a pony, in whose
-    powers of running no Indian had the least confidence. Yet, there was no
-    one in the crowd, who dared to take up the several other little bets I
-    was willing to tender (merely for their amusement, and for their final
-    exultation); owing, undoubtedly, to the bold and confident manner in
-    which I had ventured on the merits of this little horse, which the
-    tribe had all overlooked; and needs must have some <em>medicine</em>
-    about it.</p>
-
-  <p>So far was this panic carried, that even my champion was ready to
-    withdraw;<span class="pagenum" id="Page_198">198</span> but his friends encouraged him at length, and we galloped
-    our horses off to the other end of the course, where we were to start;
-    and where we were accompanied by a number of horsemen, who were to
-    witness the “set off.” Some considerable delay here took place, from
-    a <em>condition</em>, which was then named to me, and which I had not
-    observed before, that in all the races of this day, every rider was to
-    run entirely denuded, and ride a naked horse! Here I was completely
-    balked, and having no one by me to interpret a word, I was quite at a
-    loss to decide what was best to do. I found however, that remonstrance
-    was of little avail; and as I had volunteered in this thing to gratify
-    and flatter them, I thought it best not positively to displease them
-    in this; so I laid off my clothes, and straddled the naked back of my
-    round and glossy little pony, by the side of my competitor, who was
-    also mounted and stripped to the skin, and panting with a restless
-    anxiety for the start.</p>
-
-  <p>Reader! did you ever imagine that in the <em>middle of a man’s life</em>
-    there could be a thought or a feeling so <em>new</em> to him, as to throw
-    him instantly back to infancy; with a new world and a new genius before
-    him—started afresh, to navigate and breathe the elements of naked and
-    untasted liberty, which clothe him in their cool and silken robes that
-    float about him; and wafting their life-inspiring folds to his inmost
-    lungs? If you never have been inspired with such a feeling, and have
-    been in the habit of believing that you have thought of, and imagined a
-    little of every thing, try for a moment, to disrobe your mind and your
-    body, and help me through feelings to which I cannot give utterance.
-    Imagine yourselves as I was, with my trembling little horse underneath
-    me, and the cool atmosphere that was floating about, and ready, more
-    closely and familiarly to embrace me, as it did, at the next moment,
-    when we “were off,” and struggling for the goal and the prize.</p>
-
-  <p>Though my little Pegasus seemed to dart through the clouds, and I to
-    be wafted on the wings of Mercury, yet my red adversary was leaving
-    me too far behind for further competition; and I wheeled to the left,
-    making a circuit on the prairie, and came in at the starting point,
-    much to the satisfaction and exultation of the jockeys; but greatly
-    to the murmuring disappointment of the women and children, who had
-    assembled in a dense throng to witness the “coming out” of the “white
-    medicine-man.” I clothed myself instantly, and came back, acknowledging
-    my defeat, and the superior skill of my competitor, as well as the
-    wonderful muscle of his little charger, which pleased him much; and
-    his sisters’ lamentations were soon turned to joy, by the receipt of a
-    beautiful scarlet robe, and a profusion of vari-coloured beads, which
-    were speedily paraded on her copper-coloured neck.</p>
-
-  <p>After I had seen enough of these amusements, I succeeded with some
-    difficulty, in pulling Ba’tiste and Bogard from amongst the groups of
-    women and girls, where they seemed to be successfully ingratiating
-    themselves; and we trudged back to the little village of earth-covered
-    lodges, which were<span class="pagenum" id="Page_199">199</span> hemmed in, and almost obscured from the eye, by
-    the fields of corn and luxuriant growth of wild sun-flowers, and other
-    vegetable productions of the soil, whose spontaneous growth had reared
-    their heads in such profusion, as to appear all but like a dense and
-    formidable forest.</p>
-
-  <p>We loitered about this little village awhile, looking into most of its
-    lodges, and tracing its winding avenues, after which we recrossed the
-    river and wended our way back again to head-quarters, from whence we
-    started in the morning, and where I am now writing. This day’s ramble
-    shewed to us all the inhabitants of this little tribe, except a portion
-    of their warriors who are out on a war excursion against the Riccarees;
-    and I have been exceedingly pleased with their general behaviour and
-    looks, as well as with their numerous games and amusements, in many of
-    which I have given them great pleasure by taking a part.</p>
-
-  <p>The Minatarees, as I have before said, are a bold, daring, and warlike
-    tribe; quite different in these respects from their neighbours the
-    Mandans, carrying war continually in their enemies’ country, thereby
-    exposing their lives and diminishing the number of their warriors
-    to that degree that I find two or three women to a man, through the
-    tribe. They are bold and fearless in the chase also, and in their eager
-    pursuits of the bison, or buffaloes, their feats are such as to excite
-    the astonishment and admiration of all who behold them. Of these scenes
-    I have witnessed many since I came into this country, and amongst
-    them all, nothing have I seen to compare with one to which I was an
-    eye-witness a few mornings since, and well worthy of being described.</p>
-
-  <p>The Minatarees, as well as the Mandans, had suffered for some months
-    past for want of meat, and had indulged in the most alarming fears,
-    that the herds of buffaloes were emigrating so far off from them,
-    that there was great danger of their actual starvation, when it was
-    suddenly announced through the village one morning at an early hour,
-    that a herd of buffaloes was in sight, when an hundred or more young
-    men mounted their horses with weapons in hand and steered their course
-    to the prairies. The chief informed me that one of his horses was in
-    readiness for me at the door of his wigwam, and that I had better go
-    and see the curious affair. I accepted his polite offer, and mounting
-    the steed, galloped off with the hunters to the prairies, where we
-    soon descried at a distance, a fine herd of buffaloes grazing, when
-    a halt and a council were ordered, and the mode of attack was agreed
-    upon. I had armed myself with my pencil and my sketch-book only, and
-    consequently took my position generally in the rear, where I could see
-    and appreciate every manœuvre.</p>
-
-  <p>The plan of attack, which in this country is familiarly called a
-    “<em>surround</em>,” was explicitly agreed upon, and the hunters who were
-    all mounted on their “buffalo horses” and armed with bows and arrows or
-    long lances, divided into two columns, taking opposite directions, and
-    drew themselves gradually around the herd at a mile or more distance
-    from them; thus forming a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_200">200</span> circle of horsemen at equal distances
-    apart, who gradually closed in upon them with a moderate pace, at a
-    signal given. The unsuspecting herd at length “got the wind” of the
-    approaching enemy and fled in a mass in the greatest confusion. To
-    the point where they were aiming to cross the line, the horsemen were
-    seen at full speed, gathering and forming in a column, brandishing
-    their weapons and yelling in the most frightful manner, by which means
-    they turned the black and rushing mass which moved off in an opposite
-    direction where they were again met and foiled in a similar manner,
-    and wheeled back in utter confusion; by which time the horsemen had
-    closed in from all directions, forming a continuous line around them,
-    whilst the poor affrighted animals were eddying about in a crowded and
-    confused mass, hooking and climbing upon each ether; when the work of
-    death commenced. I had rode up in the rear and occupied an elevated
-    position at a few rods distance, from which I could (like the general
-    of a battle field) survey from my horse’s back, the nature and the
-    progress of the grand mêlée; but (unlike him) without the power of
-    issuing a command or in any way directing its issue.</p>
-
-  <p>In this grand turmoil (<a href="#i_079"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 79</a>), a cloud of dust was soon
-    raised, which in parts obscured the throng where the hunters were
-    galloping their horses around and driving the whizzing arrows or
-    their long lances to the hearts of these noble animals; which in many
-    instances, becoming infuriated with deadly wounds in their sides,
-    erected their shaggy manes over their bloodshot eyes and furiously
-    plunged forwards at the sides of their assailants’ horses, sometimes
-    goring them to death at a lunge, and putting their dismounted riders to
-    flight for their lives; sometimes their dense crowd was opened, and the
-    blinded horsemen, too intent on their prey amidst the cloud of dust,
-    were hemmed and wedged in amidst the crowding beasts, over whose backs
-    they were obliged to leap for security, leaving their horses to the
-    fate that might await them in the results of this wild and desperate
-    war. Many were the bulls that turned upon their assailants and met
-    them with desperate resistance; and many were the warriors who were
-    dismounted, and saved themselves by the superior muscles of their legs;
-    some who were closely pursued by the bulls, wheeled suddenly around and
-    snatching the part of a buffalo robe from around their waists, threw it
-    over the horns and the eyes of the infuriated beast, and darting by its
-    side drove the arrow or the lance to its heart. Others suddenly dashed
-    off upon the prairies by the side of the affrighted animals which had
-    escaped from the throng, and closely escorting them for a few rods,
-    brought down their hearts blood in streams, and their huge carcasses
-    upon the green and enamelled turf.</p>
-
-  <p>In this way this grand hunt soon resolved itself into a desperate
-    battle; and in the space of fifteen minutes, resulted in the total
-    destruction of the whole herd, which in all their strength and fury
-    were doomed, like every beast and living thing else, to fall before the
-    destroying hands of mighty man.</p>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>54</i></div>
-  <figure id="i_080">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_080.jpg" alt="Riccaree village">
-     <figcaption>80</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_201">201</span></p>
-
-  <p>I had sat in trembling silence upon my horse, and witnessed this
-    extraordinary scene, which allowed not one of these animals to escape
-    out of my sight. Many plunged off upon the prairie for a distance, but
-    were overtaken and killed; and although I could not distinctly estimate
-    the number that were slain, yet I am sure that some hundreds of these
-    noble animals fell in this grand mêlée.</p>
-
-  <p>The scene after the battle was over was novel and curious in the
-    extreme; the hunters were moving about amongst the dead and dying
-    animals, leading their horses by their halters, and claiming their
-    victims by their private marks upon their arrows, which they were
-    drawing from the wounds in the animals’ sides.</p>
-
-  <p>Amongst the poor affrighted creatures that had occasionally dashed
-    through the ranks of their enemy, and sought safety in flight upon the
-    prairie (and in some instances, had undoubtedly gained it), I saw them
-    stand awhile, looking back, when they turned, and, as if bent on their
-    own destruction, retraced their steps, and mingled themselves and their
-    deaths with those of the dying throng. Others had fled to a distance on
-    the prairies and for want of company, of friends or of foes, had stood
-    and gazed on till the battle-scene was over; seemingly taking pains to
-    stay, and hold their lives in readiness for their destroyers, until
-    the general destruction was over, when they fell easy victims to their
-    weapons—making the slaughter complete.</p>
-
-  <p>After this scene, and after arrows had been claimed and recovered, a
-    general council was held, when all hands were seated on the ground, and
-    a few pipes smoked; after which, all mounted their horses and rode back
-    to the village.</p>
-
-  <p>A deputation of several of the warriors was sent to the chief, who
-    explained to him what had been their success; and the same intelligence
-    was soon communicated by little squads to every family in the village;
-    and preparations were at once made for securing the meat. For this
-    purpose, some hundreds of women and children, to whose lots fall all
-    the drudgeries of Indian life, started out upon the trail, which
-    led them to the battle-field, where they spent the day in skinning
-    the animals, and cutting up the meat, which was mostly brought into
-    the villages on their backs, as they tugged and sweated under their
-    enormous and cruel loads.</p>
-
-  <p>I rode out to see this curious scene; and I regret exceedingly that I
-    kept no memorandum of it in my sketch-book. Amidst the throng of women
-    and children, that had been assembled, and all of whom seemed busily at
-    work, were many superannuated and disabled nags, which they had brought
-    out to assist in carrying in the meat; and at least, one thousand
-    semi-loup dogs, and whelps, whose keen appetites and sagacity had
-    brought them out, to claim their shares of this abundant and sumptuous
-    supply.</p>
-
-  <p>I staid and inspected this curious group for an hour or more,
-    during which time, I was almost continually amused by the clamorous
-    contentions<span class="pagenum" id="Page_202">202</span> that arose, and generally ended, in desperate combats;
-    both amongst the dogs and women, who seemed alike tenacious of their
-    local and recently acquired rights; and disposed to settle their claims
-    by “tooth and nail”—by manual and brute force.</p>
-
-  <p>When I had seen enough of this I rode to the top of a beautiful prairie
-    bluff, a mile or two from the scene, where I was exceedingly amused by
-    overlooking the route that laid between this and the village, which
-    was over the undulating green fields for several miles, that laid
-    beneath me; over which there seemed a continual string of women, dogs
-    and horses, for the rest of the day, passing and repassing as they
-    were busily bearing home their heavy burthens to their village, and in
-    their miniature appearance, which the distance gave them, not unlike
-    to a busy community of ants as they are sometimes seen, sacking and
-    transporting the treasures of a cupboard, or the sweets of a sugar
-    bowl.</p>
-
-  <hr class="chap">
-  <div class="chapter">
-    <span class="pagenum" id="Page_203">203</span>
-    <h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_25">LETTER—<abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 25.</h2>
-  </div>
-  <div class="subheadc">LITTLE MANDAN VILLAGE, <i>UPPER MISSOURI</i>.</div>
-
-  <p><span class="smcap">In</span> speaking of the Mandans, in a former Letter, I mentioned that they
-    were living in two villages, which are about two miles apart. Of their
-    principal village I have given a minute account, which precludes the
-    necessity of my saying much of their smaller town, to which I descended
-    a few days since, from the Minatarees; and where I find their modes
-    and customs, precisely the same as I have heretofore described. This
-    village contains sixty or eighty lodges, built in the same manner as
-    those which I have already mentioned, and I have just learned that
-    they have been keeping the annual ceremony here, precisely in the same
-    manner as that which I witnessed in the lower or larger town, and have
-    explained.</p>
-
-  <p>I have been treated with the same hospitality here that was extended
-    to me in the other village; and have painted the portraits of several
-    distinguished persons, which has astonished and pleased them very much.
-    The operation of my brush always gains me many enthusiastic friends
-    wherever I go amongst these wild folks; and in this village I have
-    been unusually honoured and even <em>afflicted</em>, by the friendly
-    importunities of one of these reverencing parasites, who (amongst
-    various other offices of hospitality and kindness which he has been
-    bent upon extending to me), has insisted on, and for several nights
-    been indulged in, the honour as he would term it, of offering his body
-    for my pillow, which <em>I</em> have not had the heart to reject, and of
-    course <em>he</em> has not lacked the vanity to boast of, as an act of
-    signal kindness and hospitality on his part, towards a <em>great</em> and
-    <em>a distinguished stranger</em>!</p>
-
-  <p>I have been for several days suffering somewhat with an influenza,
-    which has induced me to leave my bed, on the side of the lodge, and
-    sleep on the floor, wrapped in a buffalo robe, with my feet to the
-    fire in the centre of the room, to which place the genuine politeness
-    of my constant and watchful friend has as regularly drawn him, where
-    his irresistible importunities have brought me, night after night, to
-    the only alternative of using his bedaubed and bear-greased body for a
-    pillow.</p>
-
-  <p>Being unwilling to deny the poor fellow the satisfaction he seemed to
-    be drawing from this singular freak, I took some pains to inquire into
-    his character; and learned that he was a Riccaree brave, by the name of
-    Pah-too-ca-ra (he who strikes), who is here with several others of his
-    tribe, on a friendly visit (though in a hostile village), and living
-    as they are, unprotected,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_204">204</span> except by the mercy of their enemies. I
-    think it probable, therefore, that he is ingeniously endeavouring thus
-    to ingratiate himself in my affections, and consequently to insure my
-    guardianship and influence for his protection. Be this as it may, he is
-    rendering me many kind services, and I have in return traced him on my
-    canvass for immortality (<a href="#i_083"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 83</a>).</p>
-
-  <p>By the side of him (<a href="#i_084"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 84</a>), I have painted a beautiful
-    little girl of the same tribe, whose name is Pshan-shaw (the
-    sweet-scented grass), giving a very pretty specimen of the dress and
-    fashion of the women in this tribe. The inner garment, which is like
-    a slip or a frock, is entire in one piece, and beautifully ornamented
-    with embroidery and beads, with a row of elks’ teeth passing across
-    the breast, and a robe of the young buffalo’s skin, tastefully and
-    elaborately embroidered, gracefully thrown over her shoulders, and
-    hanging down to the ground behind her.</p>
-
-  <p><a href="#i_082"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 82</a> gives a portrait of one of the chiefs of this tribe
-    by the name of Stan-au-pat (the bloody hand), and (<a href="#i_081"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 81</a>)
-    of Kah-beck-a (the twin), a good-looking matron, who was painted a few
-    weeks since in the principal Mandan village.</p>
-
-  <p>The dresses in both of these portraits are very beautiful, and I have
-    procured them, as well as the one before spoken of, for my collection.</p>
-
-  <p><a href="#i_080"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 80</a>, gives a view of the Riccaree village, which is
-    beautifully situated on the west bank of the river, 200 miles below the
-    Mandans; and built very much in the same manner; being constituted of
-    150 earth-covered lodges, which are in part surrounded by an imperfect
-    and open barrier of piquets set firmly in the ground, and of ten or
-    twelve feet in height.</p>
-
-  <p>This village is built upon an open prairie, and the gracefully
-    undulating hills that rise in distance behind it are everywhere covered
-    with a verdant green turf, without a tree or a bush anywhere to be
-    seen. This view was taken from the deck of the steamer when I was on my
-    way up the river; and probably it was well that I took it then, for so
-    hostile and deadly are the feelings of these people towards the <em>pale
-    faces</em>, at this time, that it may be deemed most prudent for me to
-    pass them on my way down the river, without stopping to make them a
-    visit. They certainly are harbouring the most resentful feelings at
-    this time towards the Traders, and others passing on the river; and no
-    doubt, that there is great danger of the lives of any white men, who
-    unluckily fall into their hands. They have recently sworn death and
-    destruction to every white man, who comes in their way; and there is no
-    doubt, that they are ready to execute their threats.</p>
-
-  <p>When Lewis and Clarke first visited these people thirty years since,
-    it will be found by a reference to their history, that the Riccarees
-    received and treated them with great kindness and hospitality; but
-    owing to the system of trade, and the manner in which it has been
-    conducted in this country, they have been inflicted with real or
-    imaginary abuses, of which they are themselves, and the Fur Traders,
-    the best judges; and for which they are<span class="pagenum" id="Page_205">205</span> now harbouring the most
-    inveterate feelings towards the whole civilized race.</p>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>55</i></div>
-  <div class="col50">
-    <figure id="i_081">
-      <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_081.jpg" alt="Kah-beck-a">
-       <figcaption>81</figcaption>
-    </figure>
-  </div>
-  <div class="col50">
-    <figure id="i_082">
-      <img style="width: 99.2%;" src="images/i_082.jpg" alt="Stan-au-pat">
-       <figcaption>82</figcaption>
-    </figure>
-  </div>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>56</i></div>
-  <div class="col50">
-    <figure id="i_083">
-      <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_083.jpg" alt="Pah-too-ca-ra">
-       <figcaption>83</figcaption>
-    </figure>
-  </div>
-  <div class="col50">
-    <figure id="i_084">
-      <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_084.jpg" alt="Pshan-shaw">
-       <figcaption>84</figcaption>
-    </figure>
-  </div>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>57</i></div>
-  <figure id="i_085">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_085.jpg" alt="Fort Pierre">
-     <figcaption>85</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p>The Riccarees are unquestionably a part of the tribe of Pawnees, living
-    on the Platte River, some hundreds of miles below this, inasmuch
-    as their language is nearly or quite the same; and their personal
-    appearance and customs as similar as could be reasonably expected
-    amongst a people so long since separated from their parent tribe, and
-    continually subjected to innovations from the neighbouring tribes
-    around them; amongst whom, in their erratic wanderings in search of a
-    location, they have been jostled about in the character, alternately,
-    of friends and of foes.</p>
-
-  <p>I shall resume my voyage down the river in a few days in my canoe; and
-    I may, perhaps, stop and pay these people a visit, and consequently, be
-    able to say more of them; or, I may be <em>hauled in</em>, to the shore,
-    and my boat plundered, and my “<em>scalp danced</em>,” as they have dealt
-    quite recently with the <em>last trader</em>, who has dared for several
-    years past, to continue his residence with them, after they had laid
-    fatal hands on each one of his comrades before him, and divided and
-    shared their goods.</p>
-
-  <p>Of the Mandans, who are about me in this little village, I need say
-    nothing, except that they are in every respect, the same as those
-    I have described in the lower village—and in fact, I believe this
-    little town is rather a <em>summer residence</em> for a few of the noted
-    families, than anything else; as I am told that none of their wigwams
-    are tenanted through the winter. I shall leave them in the morning,
-    and take up my residence a few days longer with my hospitable friends
-    Mr. Kipp, Mah-to-toh-pa, &amp;c. in the large village; and then with my
-    canvass and easel, and paint-pots in my canoe; with Ba’tiste and Bogard
-    to paddle, and my own oar to steer, wend my way again on the mighty
-    Missouri towards my native land, bidding everlasting farewell to the
-    kind and hospitable Mandans.</p>
-
-  <p>In taking this final leave of them, which will be done with some
-    decided feelings of regret, and in receding from their country, I shall
-    look back and reflect upon them and their curious and peculiar modes
-    with no small degree of pleasure, as well as surprise; inasmuch as
-    their hospitality and friendly treatment have fully corroborated my
-    fixed belief that the North American Indian in his primitive state is
-    a high-minded, hospitable and honourable being—and their singular and
-    peculiar customs have raised an irresistible belief in my mind that
-    they have had a different origin, or are of a different compound of
-    character from any other tribe that I have yet seen, or that can be
-    probably seen in North America.</p>
-
-  <p>In coming to such a conclusion as this, the mind is at once filled with
-    a flood of enquiries as to the source from which they have sprung,
-    and eagerly seeking for the evidence which is to lead it to the most
-    probable and correct conclusion. Amongst these evidences of which there
-    are many, and forcible ones to be met with amongst these people, and
-    many of which I have named in my former epistles, the most striking
-    ones are those which go, I think, decidedly<span class="pagenum" id="Page_206">206</span> to suggest the existence
-    of looks and of customs amongst them, bearing incontestible proofs of
-    an amalgam of civilized and savage; and that in the absence of all
-    proof of any recent proximity of a civilized stock that could in any
-    way have been engrafted upon them.</p>
-
-  <p>These facts then, with the host of their peculiarities which stare
-    a traveller in the face, lead the mind back in search of some more
-    remote and rational cause for such striking singularities; and in
-    this dilemma, I have been almost disposed (not to advance it as a
-    <em>theory</em>, but) to enquire whether here may not be found, yet
-    existing, the remains of the <em>Welsh colony</em>—the followers of
-    Madoc; who history tells us, if I recollect right, started with ten
-    ships, to colonize a country which he had discovered in the Western
-    Ocean; whose expedition I think has been pretty clearly traced to the
-    mouth of the Mississippi, or the coast of Florida, and whose fate
-    further than this seems sealed in unsearchable mystery.</p>
-
-  <p>I am travelling in this country as I have before said, not to advance
-    or to prove <em>theories</em>, but to see all that I am able to see,
-    and to tell it in the simplest and most intelligible manner I can
-    to the world, for their own conclusions, or for theories I may feel
-    disposed to advance, and be better able to defend after I get out of
-    this singular country; where all the powers of ones faculties are
-    required, and much better employed I consider, in helping him along and
-    in gathering materials, than in stopping to draw too nice and delicate
-    conclusions by the way.</p>
-
-  <p>If my indefinite recollections of the fate of that colony, however,
-    as recorded in history be correct, I see no harm in suggesting the
-    inquiry, whether they did not sail up the Mississippi river in their
-    ten ships, or such number of them as might have arrived safe in its
-    mouth; and having advanced up the Ohio from its junction, (as they
-    naturally would, it being the widest and most gentle current) to a
-    rich and fertile country, planted themselves as agriculturalists
-    on its rich banks, where they lived and flourished, and increased
-    in numbers, until they were attacked, and at last besieged by the
-    numerous hordes of savages who were jealous of their growing condition;
-    and as a protection against their assaults, built those numerous
-    <em>civilized</em> fortifications, the ruins of which are now to be
-    seen on the Ohio and the Muskingum, in which they were at last all
-    destroyed, except some few families who had intermarried with the
-    Indians, and whose offspring, being half-breeds, were in such a manner
-    allied to them that their lives were spared; and forming themselves
-    into a small and separate community, took up their residence on the
-    banks of the Missouri; on which, for the want of a permanent location,
-    being on the lands of their more powerful enemies, were obliged
-    repeatedly to remove; and continuing their course up the river, have in
-    time migrated to the place where they are now living, and consequently
-    found with the numerous and almost unaccountable peculiarities of which
-    I have before spoken, so inconsonant with the general character of the
-    North American Indians; with complexions of every shade; with hair<span class="pagenum" id="Page_207">207</span> of
-    all the colours in civilized society, and many with hazel, with grey,
-    and with blue eyes.</p>
-
-  <p>The above is a suggestion of a <em>moment</em>; and I wish the reader to
-    bear it in mind, that if I ever advance such as a <em>theory</em>, it
-    will be after I have collected other proofs, which I shall take great
-    pains to do; after I have taken a vocabulary of their language, and
-    also in my transit down the river in my canoe, I may be able from my
-    own examinations of the ground, to ascertain whether the shores of the
-    Missouri bear evidences of their former locations; or whether amongst
-    the tribes who inhabit the country below, there remain any satisfactory
-    traditions of their residences in, and transit through their countries.</p>
-
-  <p>I close here my book (and probably for some time, my remarks), on the
-    friendly and hospitable Mandans.</p>
-
-  <blockquote>
-    <p><span class="smcap">Note</span>—Several years having elapsed since the above account
-      of the Mandans was written, I open the book to convey to the
-      reader the melancholy intelligence of the <em>destruction</em> of
-      this interesting tribe, which happened a short time after I left
-      their country; and the manner and causes of their misfortune
-      I have explained in the Appendix to the Second Volume of this
-      Work; as well as some further considerations of the subject just
-      above-named, relative to their early history, and the probable fate
-      of the followers of <em>Madoc</em>, to which I respectfully refer the
-      reader before he goes further in the body of the Work. See Appendix A.</p>
-  </blockquote>
-
-  <hr class="chap">
-  <div class="chapter">
-    <span class="pagenum" id="Page_208">208</span>
-    <h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_26">LETTER—<abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 26.</h2>
-  </div>
-  <div class="subheadc">MOUTH OF TETON RIVER, <i>UPPER MISSOURI</i>.</div>
-
-  <p><span class="smcap">Since</span> writing the above Letter I have descended the Missouri, a
-    distance of six or seven hundred miles, in my little bark, with
-    Ba’tiste and Bogard, my old “<i lang="fr">compagnons du voyage</i>,” and have
-    much to say of what we three did and what we saw on our way, which will
-    be given anon.</p>
-
-  <p>I am now in the heart of the country belonging to the numerous tribe
-    of Sioux or Dohcotas, and have Indian faces and Indian customs in
-    abundance around me. This tribe is one of the most numerous in North
-    America, and also one of the most vigorous and warlike tribes to be
-    found, numbering some forty or fifty thousand, and able undoubtedly
-    to muster, if the tribe could be moved simultaneously, at least eight
-    or ten thousand warriors, well mounted and well armed. This tribe
-    take vast numbers of the wild horses on the plains towards the Rocky
-    Mountains, and many of them have been supplied with guns; but the
-    greater part of them hunt with their bows and arrows and long lances,
-    killing their game from their horses’ backs while at full speed.</p>
-
-  <p>The name Sioux (pronounced <i>see-oo</i>) by which they are familiarly
-    called, is one that has been given to them by the French traders, the
-    meaning of which I never have learned; their own name being, in their
-    language, Dah-co-ta. The personal appearance of these people is very
-    fine and prepossessing, their persons tall and straight, and their
-    movements elastic and graceful. Their stature is considerably above
-    that of the Mandans and Riccarees, or Blackfeet; but about equal to
-    that of the Crows, Assinneboins and Minatarees, furnishing at least one
-    half of their warriors of six feet or more in height.</p>
-
-  <p>I am here living with, and enjoying the hospitality of a gentleman
-    by the name of <i>Laidlaw</i>, a Scotchman, who is attached to the
-    American Fur Company, and who, in company with Mr. M‘Kenzie (of whom
-    I have before spoken) and Lamont, has the whole agency of the Fur
-    Company’s transactions in the regions of the Upper Missouri and the
-    Rocky Mountains.</p>
-
-  <p>This gentleman has a finely-built Fort here, of two or three hundred
-    feet square, enclosing eight or ten of their factories, houses and
-    stores, in the midst of which he occupies spacious and comfortable
-    apartments, which are well supplied with the comforts and luxuries of
-    life and neatly and respectably conducted by a fine looking, modest,
-    and dignified Sioux<span class="pagenum" id="Page_209">209</span> woman, the kind and affectionate mother of his
-    little flock of pretty and interesting children.</p>
-
-  <figure class="illowp75 mt2" id="i_086">
-    <div class="plate"><i>58</i></div>
-    <img src="images/i_086.jpg" alt="Ha-wan-je-tah">
-     <figcaption>86</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p>This Fort is undoubtedly one of the most important and productive
-    of the American Fur Company’s posts, being in the centre of the
-    great Sioux country, drawing from all quarters an immense and almost
-    incredible number of buffalo robes, which are carried to the New York
-    and other Eastern markets, and sold at a great profit. This post
-    is thirteen hundred miles above <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Louis, on the west bank of the
-    Missouri, on a beautiful plain near the mouth of the Teton river which
-    empties into the Missouri from the West, and the Fort has received
-    the name of Fort Pierre, in compliment to Monsr. Pierre Chouteau, who
-    is one of the partners in the Fur Company, residing in <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Louis; and
-    to whose politeness I am indebted, as I have before mentioned, for my
-    passage in the Company’s steamer, on her first voyage to the Yellow
-    Stone; and whose urbane and gentlemanly society, I have before said, I
-    had during my passage.</p>
-
-  <p>The country about this Fort is almost entirely prairie, producing along
-    the banks of the river and streams only, slight skirtings of timber.
-    No site could have been selected more pleasing or more advantageous
-    than this; the Fort is in the centre of one of the Missouri’s most
-    beautiful plains, and hemmed in by a series of gracefully undulating,
-    grass-covered hills, on all sides; rising like a series of terraces,
-    to the summit level of the prairies, some three or four hundred feet
-    in elevation, which then stretches off in an apparently boundless
-    ocean of gracefully swelling waves and fields of green. On my way
-    up the river I made a painting of this lovely spot, taken from the
-    summit of the bluffs, a mile or two distant (<a href="#i_085"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 85</a>),
-    shewing an encampment of Sioux, of six hundred tents or skin lodges,
-    around the Fort, where they had concentrated to make their spring
-    trade; exchanging their furs and peltries for articles and luxuries of
-    civilized manufactures.</p>
-
-  <p>The great family of Sioux who occupy so vast a tract of country,
-    extending from the banks of the Mississippi river to the base of
-    the Rocky Mountains, are everywhere a migratory or roaming tribe,
-    divided into forty-two bands or families, each having a chief who
-    all acknowledge a superior or head chief, to whom they all are held
-    subordinate. This subordination, however, I should rather record as
-    their <em>former</em> and <em>native</em> regulation, of which there exists
-    no doubt, than an <em>existing</em> one, since the numerous innovations
-    made amongst these people by the Fur Traders, as well as by the
-    proximity of civilization along a great deal of their frontier, which
-    soon upset and change many native regulations, and particularly those
-    relating to their government and religion.</p>
-
-  <p>There is one principal and familiar division of this tribe into what
-    are called the <em>Mississippi</em> and <em>Missouri</em> Sioux. Those
-    bordering on the banks of the Mississippi, concentrating at Prairie du
-    Chien and Fort Snelling, for the purposes of trade, &amp;c., are called the
-    Mississippi Sioux. These are somewhat advanced towards civilization,
-    and familiar with white people, with<span class="pagenum" id="Page_210">210</span> whom they have held intercourse
-    for many years, and are consequently excessive whiskey drinkers, though
-    constituting but a meagre proportion, and at the same time, but a very
-    unfair and imperfect sample of the great mass of this tribe who inhabit
-    the shores of the Missouri, and fearlessly roam on the vast plains
-    intervening between it and the Rocky Mountains, and are still living
-    entirely in their primitive condition.</p>
-
-  <p>There is no tribe on the Continent, perhaps, of finer looking men than
-    the Sioux; and few tribes who are better and more comfortably clad, and
-    supplied with the necessaries of life. There are no parts of the great
-    plains of America which are more abundantly stocked with buffaloes and
-    wild horses, nor any people more bold in destroying the one for food,
-    and appropriating the other to their use. There has gone abroad, from
-    the many histories which have been written of these people, an opinion
-    which is too current in the world, that the Indian is necessarily a
-    poor, drunken, murderous wretch; which account is certainly unjust
-    as regards the savage, and doing less than justice to the world for
-    whom such histories have been prepared. I have travelled several years
-    already amongst these people and I have not had my scalp taken, nor a
-    blow struck me; nor had occasion to raise my hand against an Indian;
-    nor has my property been stolen, as yet to my knowledge, to the value
-    of a shilling; and that in a country where no man is punishable by
-    law for the crime of stealing; still some of them steal, and murder
-    too; and if white men did not do the same, and that in defiance of
-    the laws of God and man, I might take satisfaction in stigmatizing
-    the Indian character as thievish and murderous. That the Indians in
-    their <em>native state</em> are “<em>drunken</em>,” is false; for they are
-    the only temperance people, literally speaking, that ever I saw in my
-    travels, or ever expect to see. If the civilized world are startled at
-    this, it is the <em>fact</em> that they must battle with, not with me;
-    for these people manufacture no spirituous liquor themselves, and know
-    nothing of it until it is brought into their country and tendered to
-    them by Christians. That these people are “<em>naked</em>” is equally
-    untrue, and as easily disproved; for I am sure that with the paintings
-    I have made amongst the Mandans and Crows, and other tribes; and with
-    their beautiful costumes which I have procured and shall bring home, I
-    shall be able to establish the fact that many of these people dress,
-    not only with clothes comfortable for any latitude, but that they also
-    dress with some considerable taste and elegance. Nor am I quite sure
-    that they are entitled to the name of “<em>poor</em>,” who live in a
-    boundless country of green fields, with good horses to ride; where they
-    are all joint tenants of the soil, together; where the Great Spirit
-    has supplied them with an abundance of food to eat—where they are all
-    indulging in the pleasures and amusements of a lifetime of idleness
-    and ease, with no business hours to attend to, or professions to
-    learn—where they have no notes in bank or other debts to pay—no taxes,
-    no tithes, no rents, nor beggars to touch and tax the sympathy of their
-    souls at every step they go. Such might be poverty in the Christian
-    world, but<span class="pagenum" id="Page_211">211</span> is sure to be a blessing where the pride and insolence of
-    comparative wealth are unknown.</p>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>59</i></div>
-  <div class="col50">
-    <figure id="i_087">
-      <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_087.jpg" alt="Shoo-de-ga-cha">
-       <figcaption>87</figcaption>
-    </figure>
-  </div>
-  <div class="col50">
-    <figure id="i_088">
-      <img style="width: 96.6%;" src="images/i_088.jpg" alt="Hee-la’h-dee">
-       <figcaption>88</figcaption>
-    </figure>
-  </div>
-
-  <p>I mentioned that this is the nucleus or place of concentration of
-    the numerous tribe of the Sioux, who often congregate here in great
-    masses to make their trades with the American Fur Company; and that
-    on my way up the river, some months since, I found here encamped,
-    six hundred families of Sioux, living in tents covered with buffalo
-    hides. Amongst these there were twenty or more of the different bands,
-    each one with their chief at their head, over whom was a <em>superior
-    chief</em> and leader, a middle-aged man, of middling stature, with
-    a noble countenance, and a figure almost equalling the Apollo, and
-    I painted his portrait (<a href="#i_086"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 86</a>). The name of this chief
-    is Ha-wan-je-tah (the one horn) of the Mee-ne-cow-e-gee band, who
-    has risen rapidly to the highest honours in the tribe, from his own
-    extraordinary merits, even at so early an age. He told me that he
-    took the name of “One Horn” (or shell) from a simple small shell that
-    was hanging on his neck, which descended to him from his father, and
-    which, he said, he valued more than anything he possessed; affording
-    a striking instance of the living affection which these people often
-    cherish for the dead, inasmuch as he chose to carry this name through
-    life in preference to many others and more honourable ones he had
-    a right to have taken, from different battles and exploits of his
-    extraordinary life. He treated me with great kindness and attention,
-    considering himself highly complimented by the signal and unprecedented
-    honour I had conferred upon him by painting his portrait, and that
-    before I had invited any other. His costume was a very handsome one,
-    and will have a place in my <span class="smcap">Indian Gallery</span> by the side of
-    his picture. It is made of elk skins beautifully dressed, and fringed
-    with a profusion of porcupine quills and scalp-locks; and his hair,
-    which is very long and profuse, divided into two parts, and lifted up
-    and crossed, over the top of his head, with a simple tie, giving it
-    somewhat the appearance of a Turkish turban.</p>
-
-  <p>This extraordinary man, before he was raised to the dignity of chief,
-    was the renowned of his tribe for his athletic achievements. In the
-    chase he was foremost; he could run down a buffalo, which he often had
-    done, on his own legs, and drive his arrow to the heart. He was the
-    fleetest in the tribe; and in the races he had run, he had always taken
-    the prize.</p>
-
-  <p>It was proverbial in his tribe, that Ha-wan-je-tah’s bow never was
-    drawn in vain, and his wigwam was abundantly furnished with scalps that
-    he had taken from his enemies’ heads in battle.</p>
-
-  <p>Having descended the river thus far, then, and having hauled out
-    my canoe, and taken up my quarters for awhile with mine hospitable
-    host, Mr. Laidlaw, as I have before said; and having introduced my
-    readers to the country and the people, and more particularly to the
-    chief dignitary of the Sioux; and having promised in the beginning of
-    this Letter also, that I should give them some amusing and curious
-    information that we picked up,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_212">212</span> and incidents that we met with, on
-    our voyage from the Mandans to this place; I have again to beg that
-    they will pardon me for withholding from them yet awhile longer, the
-    incidents of that curious and most important part of my Tour, the
-    absence of which, at this time, seems to make a “hole in the ballad,”
-    though I promise my readers they are written, and will appear in the
-    book in a proper and appropriate place.</p>
-
-  <p>Taking it for granted then, that I will be indulged in this freak, I am
-    taking the liberty of presuming on my readers’ patience in proposing
-    another, which is to offer them here an extract from my Notes, which
-    were made on my journey of 1300 miles from <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Louis to this place,
-    where I stopped, as I have said, amongst several thousands of Sioux;
-    where I remained for some time, and painted my numerous portraits of
-    their chiefs, &amp;c.; one of whom was the head and leader of the Sioux,
-    whom I have already introduced. On the long and tedious route that lies
-    between <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Louis and this place, I passed the Sacs and Ioways—the
-    Konzas—the Omahaws, and the Otoes (making notes on them all, which are
-    reserved for another place), and landed at the Puncahs, a small tribe
-    residing in one village, on the west bank of the river, 300 miles below
-    this, and 1000 from <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Louis.</p>
-
-  <p>The Puncahs are all contained in seventy-five or eighty lodges, made of
-    buffalo skins, in the form of tents; the frames for which are poles of
-    fifteen or twenty feet in length, with the butt ends standing on the
-    ground, and the small ends meeting at the top, forming a cone, which
-    sheds off the rain and wind with perfect success. This small remnant
-    of a tribe are not more than four or five hundred in numbers; and I
-    should think, at least, two-thirds of those are women. This disparity
-    in numbers having been produced by the continual losses which their
-    men suffer, who are penetrating the buffalo country for meat, for
-    which they are now obliged to travel a great way (as the buffaloes
-    have recently left their country), exposing their lives to their more
-    numerous enemies about them.</p>
-
-  <p>The chief of this tribe, whose name is Shoo-de-ga-cha (smoke), I
-    painted at full length (<a href="#i_087"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 87</a>), and his wife also, a young
-    and very pretty woman (<a href="#i_088"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 88</a>), whose name is Hee-la’h-dee
-    (the pure fountain); her neck and arms were curiously tattooed, which
-    is a very frequent mode of ornamenting the body amongst this and some
-    other tribes, which is done by pricking into the skin, gunpowder and
-    vermilion.</p>
-
-  <p>The chief, who was wrapped in a buffalo robe, is a noble specimen of
-    native dignity and philosophy. I conversed much with him; and from his
-    dignified manners, as well as from the soundness of his reasoning, I
-    became fully convinced that he deserved to be the sachem of a more
-    numerous and prosperous tribe. He related to me with great coolness
-    and frankness, the poverty and distress of his nation; and with the
-    method of a philosopher, predicted the certain and rapid extinction of
-    his tribe, which he had not the power to avert. Poor, noble chief; who
-    was equal to, and worthy of a greater empire! He sat upon the deck of
-    the steamer, overlooking the little<span class="pagenum" id="Page_213">213</span> cluster of his wigwams mingled
-    amongst the trees; and, like Caius Marius, weeping over the ruins
-    of Carthage, shed tears as he was descanting on the poverty of his
-    ill-fated little community, which he told me “had once been powerful
-    and happy; that the buffaloes which the Great Spirit had given them
-    for food, and which formerly spread all over their green prairies, had
-    all been killed or driven out by the approach of white men, who wanted
-    their skins; that their country was now entirely destitute of game,
-    and even of roots for their food, as it was one continued prairie;
-    and that his young men penetrating the countries of their enemies
-    for buffaloes, which they were obliged to do, were cut to pieces and
-    destroyed in great numbers. That his people had foolishly become fond
-    of <em>fire-water</em> (whiskey), and had given away everything in their
-    country for it—that it had destroyed many of his warriors, and soon
-    would destroy the rest—that his tribe was too small, and his warriors
-    too few to go to war with the tribes around them; that they were met
-    and killed by the Sioux on the North, by the Pawnees on the West; and
-    by the Osages and Konzas on the South; and still more alarmed from the
-    constant advance of the pale faces—their enemies from the East, with
-    whiskey and small-pox, which already had destroyed four-fifths of his
-    tribe, and soon would impoverish, and at last destroy the remainder of
-    them.”</p>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>60</i></div>
-  <div class="col50">
-    <figure id="i_089">
-      <img style="width: 98.7%;" src="images/i_089.jpg" alt="Mong-shong-shaw">
-       <figcaption>89</figcaption>
-    </figure>
-  </div>
-  <div class="col50">
-    <figure id="i_090">
-      <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_090.jpg" alt="Hongs-kay-de">
-       <figcaption>90</figcaption>
-    </figure>
-  </div>
-
-  <p>In this way did this shrewd philosopher lament over the unlucky destiny
-    of his tribe; and I pitied him with all my heart. I have no doubt of
-    the correctness of his representations; and I believe there is no tribe
-    on the frontier more in want, nor any more deserving of the sympathy
-    and charity of the government and Christian societies of the civilized
-    world.</p>
-
-  <p>The son of this chief, a youth of eighteen years, and whose portrait
-    I painted (<a href="#i_090"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 90</a>), distinguished himself in a singular
-    manner the day before our steamer reached their village, by taking to
-    him <em>four wives in one day</em>! This extraordinary and unprecedented
-    freak of his, was just the thing to make him the greatest sort of
-    <em>medicine</em> in the eyes of his people; and probably he may date
-    much of his success and greatness through life, to this bold and
-    original step, which suddenly raised him into notice and importance.</p>
-
-  <p>The old chief Shoo-de-ga-cha, of whom I have spoken above, considering
-    his son to have arrived to the age of maturity, fitted him out for
-    house-keeping, by giving him a handsome wigwam to live in, and nine
-    horses, with many other valuable presents; when the boy, whose name
-    is Hongs-kay-de (the great chief), soon laid his plans for the proud
-    and pleasant epoch in his life, and consummated them in the following
-    ingenious and amusing manner.</p>
-
-  <p>Wishing to connect himself with, and consequently to secure the
-    countenance of some of the most influential men in the tribe, he had
-    held an interview with one of the most distinguished; and easily
-    (being the son of a chief), made an arrangement for the hand of his
-    daughter, which he was<span class="pagenum" id="Page_214">214</span> to receive on a certain day, and at a certain
-    hour, for which he was to give two horses, a gun, and several pounds
-    of tobacco. This was enjoined on the father as a profound secret, and
-    as a condition of the espousal. In like manner he soon made similar
-    arrangements with three other leading men of the tribe, each of whom
-    had a young and beautiful daughter, of marriageable age. To each of
-    the fathers he had promised two horses, and other presents similar
-    to those stipulated for in the first instance, and all under the
-    same injunctions of secrecy, until the hour approached, when he had
-    announced to the whole tribe that he was to be married. At the time
-    appointed, they all assembled, and all were in ignorance of the fair
-    hand that was to be placed in his on this occasion. He had got some
-    of his young friends who were prepared to assist him, to lead up
-    the eight horses. He took two of them by the halters, and the other
-    presents agreed upon in his other hand, and advancing to the first of
-    the parents, whose daughter was standing by the side of him, saying
-    to him, “you promised me the hand of your daughter on this day, for
-    which I was to give you two horses.” The father assented with a “ugh!”
-    receiving the presents, and giving his child; when some confusion
-    ensued from the simultaneous remonstrances, which were suddenly made by
-    the other three parents, who had brought their daughters forward, and
-    were shocked at this sudden disappointment, as well as by the mutual
-    declarations they were making, of similar contracts that each one had
-    entered into with him! As soon as they could be pacified, and silence
-    was restored, he exultingly replied, “You have all acknowledged in
-    public your promises with me, which I shall expect you to fulfil. I am
-    here to perform all the engagements which I have made, and I expect
-    you all to do the same”—No more was said. He led up the two horses for
-    each, and delivered the other presents; leading off to his wigwam his
-    four brides—taking two in each hand, and commenced at once upon his new
-    mode of life; reserving only one of his horses for his own daily use.</p>
-
-  <p>I visited the wigwam of this young installed <em>medicine-man</em>
-    several times, and saw his four modest little wives seated around the
-    fire, where all seemed to harmonize very well; and for aught I could
-    discover, were entering very happily on the duties and pleasures of
-    married life. I selected one of them for her portrait, and painted it
-    (<a href="#i_089"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 89</a>), Mong-shong-shaw (the bending willow), in a very
-    pretty dress of deer skins, and covered with a young buffalo’s robe,
-    which was handsomely ornamented, and worn with much grace and pleasing
-    effect.</p>
-
-  <p>Mr. Chouteau of the Fur Company, and Major Sanford, the agent for the
-    Upper Missouri Indians, were with me at this time; and both of these
-    gentlemen, highly pleased with so ingenious and <em>innocent</em> a
-    freak, felt disposed to be liberal, and sent them many presents from
-    the steamer.</p>
-
-  <p>The ages of these young brides were probably all between twelve and
-    fifteen years, the season of life in which most of the girls in this
-    wild country contract marriage.</p>
-
-  <figure class="illowp75 mt2" id="i_091">
-    <div class="plate"><i>61</i></div>
-    <img src="images/i_091.jpg" alt="Ee-ah-sa-pa">
-     <figcaption>91</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_215">215</span></p>
-
-  <p>It is a surprising fact, that women mature in these regions at that
-    early age, and there have been some instances where marriage has taken
-    place, even at eleven; and the juvenile mother has been blest with her
-    first offspring at the age of twelve!</p>
-
-  <p>These facts are calculated to create surprise and almost incredulity
-    in the mind of the reader, but there are circumstances for his
-    consideration yet to be known, which will in a manner account for these
-    extraordinary facts.</p>
-
-  <p>There is not a doubt but there is a more early approach to maturity
-    amongst the females of this country than in civilized communities,
-    owing either to a natural and constitutional difference, or to the
-    exposed and active life they lead. Yet there is another and more
-    general cause of early marriages (and consequently apparent maturity),
-    which arises out of the modes and forms of the country, where most
-    of the marriages are contracted with the parents, hurried on by the
-    impatience of the applicant, and prematurely accepted and consummated
-    on the part of the parents, who are often impatient to be in receipt
-    of the presents they are to receive as the price of their daughters.
-    There is also the facility of dissolving the marriage contract in this
-    country, which does away with one of the most serious difficulties
-    which lies in the way in the civilized world, and calculated greatly
-    to retard its consummation, which is not an equal objection in Indian
-    communities. Education and accomplishments, again, in the fashionable
-    world, and also a time and a season to flourish and show them off,
-    necessarily engross that part of a young lady’s life, when the poor
-    Indian girl, who finds herself weaned from the familiar embrace of her
-    parents, with her mind and her body maturing, and her thoughts and her
-    passions straying away in the world for some theme or some pleasure
-    to cling to, easily follows their juvenile and ardent dictates,
-    prematurely entering on that system of life, consisting in reciprocal
-    dependence and protection.</p>
-
-  <p>In the instance above described, the young man was in no way censured
-    by his people, but most loudly applauded; for in this country polygamy
-    is allowed; and in this tribe, where there are two or three times the
-    number of women that there are of men, such an arrangement answers a
-    good purpose, whereby so many of the females are provided for and taken
-    care of; and particularly so, and to the great satisfaction of the
-    tribe, as well as of the parties and families concerned, when so many
-    fall to the lot of a chief, or the son of a chief, into whose wigwam it
-    is considered an honour to be adopted, and where they are the most sure
-    of protection.</p>
-
-  <hr class="chap">
-  <div class="chapter">
-    <span class="pagenum" id="Page_216">216</span>
-    <h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_27">LETTER—<abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 27.</h2>
-  </div>
-  <div class="subheadc">MOUTH OF TETON RIVER, <i>UPPER MISSOURI</i>.</div>
-
-  <p><span class="smcap">When</span> we were about to start on our way up the river from the village
-    of the Puncahs, we found that they were packing up all their goods and
-    preparing to start for the prairies, farther to the West, in pursuit
-    of buffaloes, to dry meat for their winter’s supplies. They took down
-    their wigwams of skins to carry with them, and all were flat to the
-    ground and everything packing up ready for the start. My attention
-    was directed by Major Sanford, the Indian Agent, to one of the most
-    miserable and helpless looking objects that I ever had seen in my life,
-    a very aged and emaciated man of the tribe, who he told me was to be
-    <em>exposed</em>.</p>
-
-  <p>The tribe were going where hunger and dire necessity compelled them
-    to go, and this pitiable object, who had once been a chief, and a man
-    of distinction in his tribe, who was now too old to travel, being
-    reduced to mere skin and bones, was to be left to starve, or meet
-    with such death as might fall to his lot, and his bones to be picked
-    by the wolves! I lingered around this poor old forsaken patriarch for
-    hours before we started, to indulge the tears of sympathy which were
-    flowing for the sake of this poor benighted and decrepit old man,
-    whose worn-out limbs were no longer able to support him; their kind
-    and faithful offices having long since been performed, and his body
-    and his mind doomed to linger into the withering agony of decay, and
-    gradual solitary death. I wept, and it was a pleasure to weep, for the
-    painful looks, and the dreary prospects of this old veteran, whose
-    eyes were dimmed, whose venerable locks were whitened by an hundred
-    years, whose limbs were almost naked, and trembling as he sat by a
-    small fire which his friends had left him, with a few sticks of wood
-    within his reach and a buffalo’s skin stretched upon some crotches over
-    his head. Such was to be his only dwelling, and such the chances for
-    his life, with only a few half-picked bones that were laid within his
-    reach, and a dish of water, without weapons or means of any kind to
-    replenish them, or strength to move his body from its fatal locality.
-    In this sad plight I mournfully contemplated this miserable remnant
-    of existence, who had unluckily outlived the fates and accidents of
-    wars to die alone, at death’s leisure. His friends and his children
-    had all left him, and were preparing in a little time to be on the
-    march. He had told<span class="pagenum" id="Page_217">217</span> them to leave him, “he was old,” he said, “and too
-    feeble to march.” “My children,” said he, “our nation is poor, and it
-    is necessary that you should all go to the country where you can get
-    meat,—my eyes are dimmed and my strength is no more; my days are nearly
-    all numbered, and I am a burthen to my children—I cannot go, and I wish
-    to die. Keep your hearts stout, and think not of me; I am no longer
-    good for anything.” In this way they had finished the ceremony of
-    <em>exposing</em> him, and taken their final leave of him. I advanced to
-    the old man, and was undoubtedly the last human being who held converse
-    with him. I sat by the side of him, and though he could not distinctly
-    see me, he shook me heartily by the hand and smiled, evidently aware
-    that I was a white man, and that I sympathized with his inevitable
-    misfortune. I shook hands again with him, and left him, steering my
-    course towards the steamer which was a mile or more from me, and ready
-    to resume her voyage up the Missouri.<a id="FNanchor_6" href="#Footnote_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a></p>
-
-  <p>This cruel custom of exposing their aged people, belongs, I think, to
-    all the tribes who roam about the prairies, making severe marches,
-    when such decrepit persons are totally unable to go, unable to ride or
-    to walk,—when they have no means of carrying them. It often becomes
-    absolutely necessary in such cases that they should be left; and they
-    uniformly insist upon it, saying as this old man did, that they are
-    old and of no further use—that they left their fathers in the same
-    manner—that they wish to die, and their children must not mourn for
-    them.</p>
-
-  <p>From the Puncah village, our steamer made regular progress from day
-    to day towards the mouth of the Teton, from where I am now writing;
-    passing the whole way a country of green fields, that come sloping down
-    to the river on either side, forming the loveliest scenes in the world.</p>
-
-  <p>From day to day we advanced, opening our eyes to something new and
-    more beautiful every hour that we progressed, until at last our boat
-    was aground; and a day’s work of sounding told us at last, that there
-    was no possibility of advancing further, until there should be a rise
-    in the river, to enable the boat to get over the bar. After laying in
-    the middle of the river about a week, in this unpromising dilemma, Mr.
-    Chouteau started off twenty men on foot, to cross the plains for a
-    distance of 200 miles to Laidlaw’s Fort, at the mouth of Teton river.
-    To this expedition, I immediately attached myself; and having heard
-    that a numerous party of Sioux were there encamped, and waiting to see
-    the steamer, I packed on the backs, and in the hands of several of the
-    men, such articles for painting, as I might want; canvass, paints, and
-    brushes, with my sketch-book slung on my back, and my rifle in my hand,
-    and I started off with them.</p>
-
-  <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_218">218</span></p>
-
-  <p>We took leave of our friends on the boat, and mounting the green
-    bluffs, steered our course from day to day over a level prairie,
-    without a tree or a bush in sight, to relieve the painful monotony,
-    filling our canteens at the occasional little streams that we passed,
-    kindling our fires with dried buffalo dung, which we collected on the
-    prairie, and stretching our tired limbs on the level turf whenever we
-    were overtaken by night.</p>
-
-  <p>We were six or seven days in performing this march; and it gave me a
-    good opportunity of testing the muscles of my legs, with a number of
-    half-breeds and Frenchmen, whose lives are mostly spent in this way,
-    leading a novice, a cruel, and almost killing journey. Every rod of our
-    way was over a continuous prairie, with a verdant green turf of wild
-    grass of six or eight inches in height; and most of the way enamelled
-    with wild flowers, and filled with a profusion of strawberries.</p>
-
-  <p>For two or three of the first days, the scenery was monotonous,
-    and became exceedingly painful from the fact, that we were (to use
-    a phrase of the country) “out of sight of land,” <i>i. e.</i> out
-    of sight of anything rising above the horizon, which was a perfect
-    straight line around us, like that of the blue and boundless ocean. The
-    pedestrian over such a discouraging sea of green, without a landmark
-    before or behind him; without a beacon to lead him on, or define his
-    progress, feels weak and overcome when night falls; and he stretches
-    his exhausted limbs, apparently on the same spot where he has slept
-    the night before, with the same prospect before and behind him; the
-    same grass, and the same wild flowers beneath and about him; the same
-    canopy over his head, and the same cheerless sea of green to start
-    upon in the morning. It is difficult to describe the simple beauty
-    and serenity of these scenes of solitude, or the feelings of feeble
-    man, whose limbs are toiling to carry him through them—without a hill
-    or tree to mark his progress, and convince him that he is not, like a
-    squirrel in his cage, after all his toil, standing still. One commences
-    on peregrinations like these, with a light heart, and a nimble foot,
-    and spirits as buoyant as the very air that floats along by the side
-    of him; but his spirit soon tires, and he lags on the way that is
-    rendered more tedious and intolerable by the tantalizing <em>mirage</em>
-    that opens before him beautiful lakes, and lawns, and copses; or by
-    the <em>looming</em> of the prairie ahead of him, that seems to rise in
-    a parapet, and decked with its varied flowers, phantom-like, flies and
-    moves along before him.</p>
-
-  <p>I got on for a couple of days in tolerable condition, and with some
-    considerable applause; but my half-bred, companions took the lead at
-    length, and left me with several other novices far behind, which gave
-    me additional pangs; and I at length felt like giving up the journey,
-    and throwing myself upon the ground in hopeless despair. I was not
-    alone in my misery, however, but was cheered and encouraged by looking
-    back and beholding several of our party half a mile or more in the rear
-    of me, jogging along, and suffering more agony in their new experiment
-    than I was suffering myself. Their loitering and my murmurs, at length,
-    brought our leaders to a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_219">219</span> halt, and we held a sort of council, in which
-    I explained that the pain in my feet was so intolerable, that I felt as
-    if I could go no further; when one of our half-breed leaders stepped
-    up to me, and addressing me in French, told me that I must “<em>turn my
-    toes in</em>” as the Indians do, and that I could then go on very well.
-    We halted a half-hour, and took a little refreshment, whilst the little
-    Frenchman was teaching his lesson to the rest of my fellow-novices,
-    when we took up our march again; and I soon found upon trial, that by
-    turning my toes in, my feet went more easily through the grass; and by
-    turning the weight of my body more equally on the toes (enabling each
-    one to support its proportionable part of the load, instead of throwing
-    it all on to the joints of the big toes, which is done when the toes
-    are turned out); I soon got relief, and made my onward progress very
-    well. I rigidly adhered to this mode, and found no difficulty on the
-    third and fourth days, of taking the lead of the whole party, which I
-    constantly led until our journey was completed.<a id="FNanchor_7" href="#Footnote_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></p>
-
-  <p>On this journey we saw immense herds of buffaloes; and although we
-    had no horses to <em>run</em> them, we successfully <em>approached</em>
-    them on foot, and supplied ourselves abundantly with fresh meat. After
-    travelling for several days, we came in sight of a high range of blue
-    hills in distance on our left, which rose to the height of several
-    hundred feet above the level of the prairies. These hills were a
-    conspicuous landmark at last, and some relief to us. I was told by our
-    guide, that they were called the Bijou Hills, from a Fur Trader of that
-    name, who had had his trading-house at the foot of them on the banks of
-    the Missouri river, where he was at last destroyed by the Sioux Indians.</p>
-
-  <p>Not many miles back of this range of hills, we came in contact with an
-    immense saline, or “salt meadow,” as they are termed in this country,
-    which turned us out of our path, and compelled us to travel several
-    miles out of our way, to get by it; we came suddenly upon a great
-    depression of the prairie, which extended for several miles, and as
-    we stood upon its green banks, which were gracefully sloping down, we
-    could overlook some hundreds of acres of the prairie which were covered
-    with an incrustation of salt, that appeared the same as if the ground
-    was everywhere covered with snow.</p>
-
-  <p>These scenes, I am told are frequently to be met with in these regions,
-    and certainly present the most singular and startling effect, by the
-    sudden<span class="pagenum" id="Page_220">220</span>
-    and unexpected contrast between their snow-white appearance, and the
-    green fields that hem them in on all sides. Through each of these
-    meadows there is a meandering small stream which arises from salt
-    springs, throwing out in the spring of the year great quantities of
-    water, which flood over these meadows to the depth of three or four
-    feet; and during the heat of summer, being exposed to the rays of the
-    sun, entirely evaporates, leaving the incrustation of <em>muriate</em>
-    on the surface, to the depth of one or two inches. These places are
-    the constant resort of buffaloes, which congregate in thousands about
-    them, to lick up the salt; and on approaching the banks of this place
-    we stood amazed at the almost incredible numbers of these animals,
-    which were in sight on the opposite banks, at the distance of a mile or
-    two from us, where they were lying in countless numbers, on the level
-    prairie above, and stretching down by hundreds, to lick at the salt,
-    forming in distance, large masses of black, most pleasingly to contrast
-    with the snow white, and the vivid green, which I have before mentioned.</p>
-
-  <p>After several days toil in the manner above-mentioned, all the way
-    over soft and green fields, and amused with many pleasing incidents
-    and accidents of the chase, we arrived, pretty well jaded, at Fort
-    Pierre, mouth of Teton River, from whence I am now writing; where for
-    the first time I was introduced to Mr. M‘Kenzie (of whom I have before
-    spoken), to Mr. Laidlaw, mine host, and Mr. Halsey, a chief clerk in
-    the establishment; and after, to the head chief and dignitaries of the
-    great Sioux nation, who were here encamped about the Fort, in six or
-    seven hundred skin lodges, and waiting for the arrival of the steamer,
-    which they had heard, was on its way up the river, and which they had
-    great curiosity to see.</p>
-
-  <p>After resting a few days, and recovering from the fatigues of my
-    journey, having taken a fair survey of the Sioux village, and explained
-    my views to the Indians, as well as to the gentlemen whom I have
-    above named; I commenced my operations with the brush, and first of
-    all painted the portrait of the head-chief of the Sioux (the one
-    horn), whom I have before spoken of. This truly noble fellow sat for
-    his portrait, and it was finished before any one of the tribe knew
-    anything of it; several of the chiefs and doctors were allowed to see
-    it, and at last it was talked of through the village; and of course,
-    the greater part of their numbers were at once gathered around me.
-    Nothing short of hanging it out of doors on the side of my wigwam,
-    would in any way answer them; and here I had the peculiar satisfaction
-    of beholding, through a small hole I had made in my wigwam, the high
-    admiration and respect they all felt for their chief, as well as
-    the very great estimation in which they held me as a painter and a
-    magician, conferring upon me at once the very distinguished appellation
-    of Ee-cha-zoo-kah-ga-wa-kon (the medicine painter).</p>
-
-  <p>After the exhibition of this chief’s picture, there was much excitement
-    in the village about it; the doctors generally took a decided and noisy
-    stand against the operations of my brush; haranguing the populace, and
-    predicting<span class="pagenum" id="Page_221">221</span> bad luck, and premature death, to all who submitted to so
-    strange and unaccountable an operation! My business for some days was
-    entirely at a stand for want of sitters; for the doctors were opposing
-    me with all their force; and the women and children were crying, with
-    their hands over their mouths, making the most pitiful and doleful
-    laments, which I never can explain to my readers; but for some just
-    account of which, I must refer them to my friends M‘Kenzie and Halsey,
-    who overlooked with infinite amusement, these curious scenes and are
-    able, no doubt, to give them with truth and effect to the world.</p>
-
-  <p>In this sad and perplexing dilemma, this noble chief stepped forward,
-    and addressing himself to the chiefs and the doctors, to the braves and
-    to the women and children, he told them to be quiet, and to treat me
-    with friendship; that I had been travelling a great way to see them,
-    and smoke with them; that I was great <em>medicine</em>, to be sure; that
-    I was a great chief, and that I was the friend of Mr. Laidlaw and Mr.
-    M‘Kenzie, who had prevailed upon him to sit for his picture, and fully
-    assured him that there was no harm in it. His speech had the desired
-    effect, and I was shaken hands with by hundreds of their worthies, many
-    of whom were soon dressed and ornamented, prepared to sit for their
-    portraits.<a id="FNanchor_8" href="#Footnote_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a></p>
-
-  <p>The first who then stepped forward for his portrait was Ee-ah-sa-pa
-    (the Black Rock) chief of the Nee-caw-wee-gee band (<a href="#i_091"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 91</a>),
-    a tall and fine looking man, of six feet or more in stature; in a
-    splendid dress, with his lance in his hand; with his pictured robe
-    thrown gracefully over his shoulders, and his head-dress made of
-    war-eagles’ quills and ermine skins, falling in a beautiful crest over
-    his back, quite down to his feet, and surmounted on the top with a pair
-    of horns denoting him (as I have explained in former instances) head
-    leader or war-chief of his band.</p>
-
-  <p>This man has been a constant and faithful friend of Mr. M‘Kenzie and
-    others of the Fur Traders, who held him in high estimation, both as an
-    honourable and valiant man, and an estimable companion.</p>
-
-  <p>The next who sat to me was Tchan-dee, tobacco (<a href="#i_092"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 92</a>),
-    a desperate warrior, and represented to me by the traders, as one
-    of the most respectable and famous chiefs of the tribe. After him
-    sat Toh-ki-ee-to, the stone with horns (<a href="#i_092"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 93</a>), chief
-    of the Yanc-ton band, and reputed the principal and most eloquent
-    <em>orator</em> of the nation. The neck, and breast, and shoulders
-    of this man, were curiously tattooed, by pricking in gunpowder and
-    vermilion, which in this extraordinary instance, was put on in
-    such elaborate profusion as to appear at a little distance like a
-    beautifully embroidered dress. In his hand he held a handsome pipe,
-    the stem of which was several feet long, and all the way wound with
-    ornamented braids of the porcupine quills. Around his body was wrapped
-    a valued robe, made of the skin of the grizzly bear, and on his neck
-    several strings of <em>wampum</em>, an ornament seldom seen amongst the
-    Indians in the Far West and the North.<a id="FNanchor_9" href="#Footnote_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> I was much amused with the
-    excessive vanity and egotism of this notorious man, who, whilst sitting
-    for his picture, took occasion to have the interpreter constantly
-    explaining to me the wonderful effects which his oratory had at
-    different times produced on the minds of the chiefs and people of his
-    tribe.</p>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>62</i></div>
-  <figure id="i_092">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_092.jpg" alt="Tchan-dee and Toh-ki-ee-to">
-    <figcaption><span class="col50">92</span><span class="col50">93</span></figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <figure class="mt2" id="i_094">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_094.jpg" alt="Wi-looh-tah-eeh-tchah-ta-mah-nee and Tchon-su-mons-ka">
-    <figcaption><span class="col50">94</span><span class="col50">95</span></figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>63</i></div>
-  <figure id="i_096">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_096.jpg" alt="Tent semi-circle">
-     <figcaption>96</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <figure class="mt2" id="i_097">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_097.jpg" alt="Looking at the sun">
-     <figcaption>97</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_223">223</span></p>
-
-  <p>He told me, that it was a very easy thing for him to set all the women
-    of the tribe to crying: and that all the chiefs listened profoundly to
-    his voice before they went to war; and at last, summed up by saying,
-    that he was “the greatest orator in the Sioux nation,” by which he
-    undoubtedly meant the greatest in the <em>world</em>.</p>
-
-  <p>Besides these <i lang="fr">distingués</i> of this great and powerful tribe, I
-    painted in regular succession, according to their rank and standing,
-    Wan-ee-ton, chief of the <em>Susseton band</em>; Tah-zee-kah-da-cha
-    (the torn belly), a brave of the <em>Yancton band</em>; Ka-pes-ka-day
-    (the shell), a brave of the <em>O-gla-la band</em>; Wuk-mi-ser (corn),
-    a warrior of the <em>Nee-cow-ee-gee band</em>; Cha-tee-wah-nee-chee
-    (no heart), chief of the <em>Wah-nee-watch-to-nee-nah band</em>;
-    Mah-to-ra-rish-nee-eeh-ee-rah (the grizzly bear that runs without
-    regard), a brave of the <em>Onc-pa-pa band</em>; Mah-to-chee-ga (the
-    little bear), a distinguished brave; Shon-ka (the dog), chief of the
-    <em>Ca-za-zhee-ta</em> (bad arrow points) <em>band</em>; Tah-teck-a-da-hair
-    (the steep wind), a brave of the same band; Hah-ha-ra-pah (the elk’s
-    head), chief of the <em>Ee-ta-sip-shov band</em>; Mah-to-een-nah-pa (the
-    white bear that goes out), chief of the <em>Blackfoot Sioux band</em>;
-    Shon-ga-ton-ga-chesh-en-day (the horse dung), chief of a band, a great
-    conjuror and magician.</p>
-
-  <p>The portraits of all the above dignitaries can be always seen, as large
-    as life, in my very numerous Collection, provided I get them safe
-    home; and also the portraits of two very pretty Sioux women (<a href="#i_094"><span class="smcap">plate</span>
-    94</a>), Wi-looh-tah-eeh-tchah-ta-mah-nee (the red thing that touches
-    in marching), and (<a href="#i_094"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 95</a>), Tchon-su-mons-ka (the sand bar).
-    The first of these women<span class="pagenum" id="Page_224">224</span>
-    (<a href="#i_094"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 94</a>), is the daughter of the famous chief called
-    Black Rock, of whom I have spoken, and whose portrait has been given
-    (<a href="#i_091"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 91</a>). She is an unmarried girl, and much esteemed by the
-    whole tribe, for her modesty, as well as beauty. She was beautifully
-    dressed in skins, ornamented profusely with brass buttons and beads.
-    Her hair was plaited, her ears supported a great profusion of curious
-    beads—and over her other dress she wore a handsomely garnished buffalo robe.</p>
-
-  <p>So highly was the Black Rock esteemed (as I have before mentioned), and
-    his beautiful daughter admired and respected by the Traders, that Mr.
-    M‘Kenzie employed me to make him copies of their two portraits, which
-    he has hung up in Mr. Laidlaw’s trading-house, as valued ornaments and
-    keepsakes.<a id="FNanchor_10" href="#Footnote_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a></p>
-
-  <p>The second of these women (<a href="#i_094"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 95</a>) was very richly dressed,
-    the upper part of her garment being almost literally covered with brass
-    buttons; and her hair, which was inimitably beautiful and soft, and
-    glossy as silk, fell over her shoulders in great profusion, and in
-    beautiful waves, produced by the condition in which it is generally
-    kept in braids, giving to it, when combed out, a waving form, adding
-    much to its native appearance, which is invariably straight and
-    graceless.</p>
-
-  <p>This woman is at present the wife of a white man by the name of
-    Chardon, a Frenchman, who has been many years in the employment of the
-    American Fur Company, in the character of a Trader and Interpreter;
-    and who by his bold and daring nature, has not only carried dread and
-    consternation amongst the Indian tribes wherever he has gone; but
-    has commanded much respect, and rendered essential service to the
-    Company in the prosecution of their dangerous and critical dealings
-    with the Indian tribes. I have said something of this extraordinary
-    man heretofore, and shall take future occasion to say more of him.
-    For the present, suffice it to say, that <span class="pagenum" id="Page_225">225</span>although from his continual
-    intercourse with the different tribes for twenty-five or thirty years,
-    where he had always been put forward in the front of danger—sent as
-    a sacrifice, or <em>forlorn hope</em>; still his cut and hacked limbs
-    have withstood all the blows that have been aimed at them; and his
-    unfaltering courage leads him to “beard the lion in his den,” whilst
-    his liberal heart, as it always has, deals out to his friends (and even
-    to strangers, if friends are not by) all the dear earnings which are
-    continually bought with severest toil, and at the hazard of his life.</p>
-
-  <p>I acknowledge myself a debtor to this good hearted fellow for much
-    kindness and attention to me whilst in the Indian country, and also for
-    a superb dress and robe, which had been manufactured and worn by his
-    wife, and which he insisted on adding to my <span class="smcap">Indian Gallery</span>
-    since her death, where it will long remain to be examined.<a id="FNanchor_11" href="#Footnote_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a></p>
-
-  <div class="footnotes">
-    <div class="footnote">
-      <a id="Footnote_6" href="#FNanchor_6" class="label">[6]</a> When passing by the site of the Puncah village a few
-        months after this, in my canoe, I went ashore with my men, and found
-        the poles and the buffalo skin, standing as they were left, over the
-        old man’s head. The firebrands were lying nearly as I had left them,
-        and I found at a few yards distant the skull, and others of his bones,
-        which had been picked and cleaned by the wolves; which is probably all
-        that any human being can ever know of his final and melancholy fate.
-    </div>
-
-    <div class="footnote">
-      <a id="Footnote_7" href="#FNanchor_7" class="label">[7]</a> On this march we were all travelling in moccasins, which
-        being made without any soles, according to the Indian custom, had
-        but little support for the foot underneath; and consequently, soon
-        subjected us to excruciating pain, whilst walking according to the
-        civilized mode, with the toes turned out. From this very painful
-        experience I learned to my complete satisfaction, that man in a state
-        of nature who walks on his naked feet, <em>must</em> walk with his
-        toes turned in, that each may perform the duties assigned to it in
-        proportion to its size and strength; and that civilized man <em>can</em>
-        walk with his toes turned out if he chooses, if he will use a stiff
-        sole under his feet, and will be content at last to put up with an
-        acquired deformity of the big toe joint which too many know to be a
-        frequent and painful occurrence.
-    </div>
-
-    <div class="footnote">
-      <a id="Footnote_8" href="#FNanchor_8" class="label">[8]</a> Several years after I painted the portrait of this
-        extraordinary man, and whilst I was delivering my Lectures in the
-        City of New York, I first received intelligence of his death, in the
-        following singular manner:—I was on the platform in my Lecture-room,
-        in the Stuyvesant Institute, with an audience of twelve or fourteen
-        hundred persons, in the midst of whom were seated a delegation of
-        thirty or forty Sioux Indians under the charge of Major Pilcher, their
-        agent; and I was successfully passing before their eyes the portraits
-        of a number of Sioux chiefs, and making my remarks upon them. The Sioux
-        instantly recognized each one as it was exhibited, which they instantly
-        hailed by a sharp and startling yelp. But when the portrait of this
-        chief was placed before them, instead of the usual recognition, each
-        one placed his hand over his mouth, and gave a “hush—sh—” and hung
-        down their heads, their usual expressions of grief in case of a death.
-        From this sudden emotion, I knew instantly, that the chief must be
-        dead, and so expressed my belief to the audience. I stopped my Lecture
-        a few moments to converse with Major Pilcher who was by my side, and
-        who gave me the following extraordinary account of his death, which I
-        immediately related to the audience; and which being translated to the
-        Sioux Indians, their chief arose and addressed himself to the audience,
-        saying that the account was true, and that Ha-wan-je-tah was killed but
-        a few days before they left home.
-
-      <p>The account which Major Pilcher gave was nearly as follows:—</p>
-
-      <p>“But a few weeks before I left the Sioux country with the delegation,
-        Ha-wan-je-tah (the one horn) had in some way been the accidental cause
-        of the death of his only son, a very fine youth; and so great was the
-        anguish of his mind at times, that he became frantic and insane. In one
-        of these moods he mounted his favourite war-horse with his bow and his
-        arrows in his hand, and dashed off at full speed upon the prairies,
-        repeating the most solemn oath, ‘that he would slay the first living
-        thing that fell in his way, be it man or beast, or friend or foe.’</p>
-
-      <p>“No one dared to follow him, and after he had been absent an hour
-        or two, his horse came back to the village with two arrows in its
-        body, and covered with blood! Fears of the most serious kind were
-        now entertained for the fate of the chief, and a party of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_222">222</span> warriors
-        immediately mounted their horses, and retraced the animal’s tracks to
-        the place of the tragedy, where they found the body of their chief
-        horribly mangled and gored by a buffalo bull, whose carcass was
-        stretched by the side of him.</p>
-
-      <p>“A close examination of the ground was then made by the Indians, who
-        ascertained by the tracks, that their unfortunate chief, under his
-        unlucky resolve, had met a buffalo bull in the season when they are
-        very stubborn, and unwilling to run from any one; and had incensed
-        the animal by shooting a number of arrows into him, which had brought
-        him into furious combat. The chief had then dismounted, and turned
-        his horse loose, having given it a couple of arrows from his bow,
-        which sent it home at full speed, and then had thrown away his bow and
-        quiver, encountering the infuriated animal with his knife alone, and
-        the desperate battle resulted as I have before-mentioned, in the death
-        of both. Many of the bones of the chief were broken, as he was gored
-        and stamped to death, and his huge antagonist had laid his body by the
-        side of him, weltering in blood from an hundred wounds made by the
-        chief’s long and two-edged knife.”</p>
-
-      <p>So died this elegant and high-minded nobleman of the wilderness, whom I
-        confidently had hoped to meet and admire again at some future period of
-        my life. (<i>Vide</i> <a href="#i_086"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 86</a>).</p>
-    </div>
-
-    <div class="footnote">
-      <a id="Footnote_9" href="#FNanchor_9" class="label">[9]</a> <em>Wampum</em> is the Indian name of ornaments
-        manufactured by the Indians from vari-coloured shells, which they get
-        on the shores of the fresh water streams, and file or cut into bits
-        of half an inch, or an inch in length, and perforate (giving to them
-        the shape of pieces of broken pipe stems), which they string on deers’
-        sinews, and wear on their necks in profusion; or weave them ingeniously
-        into war-belts for the waist.
-
-      <p>Amongst the numerous tribes who have formerly inhabited the Atlantic
-        Coast, and that part of the country which now constitutes the principal
-        part of the United States, wampum has been invariably manufactured, and
-        highly valued as a circulating medium (instead of coins, of which the
-        Indians have no knowledge); so many strings, or so many hands-breadth,
-        being the fixed value of a horse, a gun, a robe, &amp;c.</p>
-
-      <p>In treaties, the wampum belt has been passed as the pledge of
-        friendship, and from time immemorial sent to hostile tribes, as the
-        messenger of peace; or paid by so many fathoms length, as tribute to
-        conquering enemies, and Indian kings.</p>
-
-      <p>It is a remarkable fact, and worthy of observation in this place, that
-        after I passed the Mississippi, I saw but very little wampum used; and
-        on ascending the Missouri, I do not recollect to have seen it worn at
-        all by the Upper Missouri Indians, although the same materials for its
-        manufacture are found in abundance through those regions. I met with
-        but very few strings of it amongst the Missouri Sioux, and nothing of
-        it amongst the tribes north and west of them. Below the Sioux, and
-        along the whole of our Western frontier, the different tribes are found
-        loaded and beautifully ornamented with it, which they can now afford
-        to do, for they consider it of little value, as the Fur Traders have
-        ingeniously introduced a spurious imitation of it, manufactured by
-        steam or otherwise, of porcelain or some composition closely resembling
-        it, with which they have flooded the whole Indian country, and sold at
-        so reduced a price, as to cheapen, and consequently destroy, the value
-        and meaning of the original wampum, a string of which can now but very
-        rarely be found in any part of the country.</p>
-    </div>
-
-    <div class="footnote">
-      <a id="Footnote_10" href="#FNanchor_10" class="label">[10]</a> Several years after I left the Sioux country, I saw
-        Messrs. Chardon and Piquot, two of the Traders from that country, who
-        recently had left it, and told me in <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Louis, whilst looking at the
-        portrait of this girl, that while staying in Mr. Laidlaw’s Fort, the
-        chief, Black Rock, entered the room suddenly where the portrait of
-        his daughter was hanging on the wall, and pointing to it with a heavy
-        heart, told Mr. Laidlaw, that whilst his band was out on the prairies,
-        where they had been for several months “making meat,” his daughter
-        had died, and was there buried. “My heart is glad again,” said he,
-        “when I see her here alive; and I want the one the medicine-man made
-        of her, which is now before me, that I can see her, and talk to her.
-        My band are all in mourning for her, and at the gate of your Fort,
-        which I have just passed, are ten horses for you, and Ee-ah-sa-pa’s
-        wigwam, which you know is the best one in the Sioux nation. I wish you
-        to take down my daughter and give her to me.” Mr. Laidlaw, seeing the
-        <em>unusually</em> liberal price that this nobleman was willing to pay
-        for a portrait, and the true grief that he expressed for the loss of
-        his child, had not the heart to abuse such noble feeling; and taking
-        the painting from the wall, placed it into his hands; telling him that
-        it of right belonged to him, and that his horses and wigwam he must
-        take back and keep them, to mend, as far as possible, his liberal
-        heart, which was broken by the loss of his only daughter.
-    </div>
-
-    <div class="footnote">
-      <a id="Footnote_11" href="#FNanchor_11" class="label">[11]</a> Several years since writing the above, I made a visit
-        with my wife, to the venerable parent of Mr. Chardon, who lives in her
-        snug and neat mansion, near the City of Philadelphia, where we were
-        treated with genuine politeness and hospitality. His mother and two
-        sisters, who are highly respectable, had many anxious questions to ask
-        about him; and had at the same time, living with them, a fine-looking
-        half-breed boy, about ten years old, the son of Monsr. Chardon and
-        his Indian wife, whom I have above spoken of. This fine boy who had
-        received the name of Bolivar, had been brought from the Indian country
-        by the father, and left here for his education, with which they were
-        taking great pains.
-    </div>
-  </div>
-
-  <hr class="chap">
-  <div class="chapter">
-    <span class="pagenum" id="Page_226">226</span>
-    <h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_28">LETTER—<abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 28.</h2>
-  </div>
-  <div class="subheadc">MOUTH OF TETON RIVER, <i>UPPER MISSOURI</i>.</div>
-
-  <p><span class="smcap">Whilst</span> painting the portraits of the chiefs and braves of the Sioux,
-    as described in my last epistle, my painting-room was the continual
-    rendezvous of the worthies of the tribe; and I, the “lion of the day,”
-    and my art, the <i lang="fr">summum</i> and <i lang="fr">ne plus ultra</i> of mysteries,
-    which engaged the whole conversation of chiefs and sachems, as well
-    as of women and children. I mentioned that I have been obliged to
-    paint them according to rank, as they looked upon the operation as a
-    very great honour, which I, as “a great chief and medicine-man,” was
-    conferring on all who sat to me. Fortunate it was for me, however, that
-    the honour was not a sufficient inducement for all to overcome their
-    fears, which often stood in the way of their consenting to be painted;
-    for if all had been willing to undergo the operation, I should have
-    progressed but a very little way in the “<em>rank and file</em>” of their
-    worthies; and should have had to leave many discontented, and (as they
-    would think) neglected. About one in five or eight was willing to be
-    painted, and the rest thought they would be much more sure of “sleeping
-    quiet in their graves” after they were dead, if their pictures were
-    not made. By this lucky difficulty I got great relief, and easily got
-    through with those who were willing, and at the same time decided by
-    the chiefs to be worthy, of so signal an honour.</p>
-
-  <p>After I had done with the chiefs and braves, and proposed to paint a
-    few of the women, I at once got myself into a serious perplexity, being
-    heartily laughed at by the whole tribe, both by men and by women, for
-    my exceeding and (to them) unaccountable condescension in seriously
-    proposing to paint a woman; conferring on her the same honour that I
-    had done the chiefs and braves. Those whom I had honoured, were laughed
-    at by hundreds of the jealous, who had been decided unworthy the
-    distinction, and were now amusing themselves with the <em>very enviable
-    honour</em> which the <em>great white medicine-man</em> had conferred,
-    <em>especially</em> on <em>them</em>, and was now to confer equally upon
-    the <em>squaws</em>!</p>
-
-  <p>The first reply that I received from those whom I had painted, was,
-    that if I was to paint women and children, the sooner I destroyed
-    <em>their</em> pictures, the better; for I had represented to them
-    that I wanted their pictures to exhibit to white chiefs, to shew who
-    were the most distinguished and worthy of the Sioux; and their women
-    had never taken scalps, nor did anything<span class="pagenum" id="Page_227">227</span> better than make fires and
-    dress skins. I was quite awkward in this dilemma, in explaining to
-    them that I wanted the portraits of the women to hang <em>under</em>
-    those of their husbands, merely to shew how their women <em>looked</em>,
-    and how they <em>dressed</em>, without saying any more of them. After
-    some considerable delay of my operations, and much deliberation on
-    the subject, through the village, I succeeded in getting a number of
-    women’s portraits, of which the two above introduced are a couple.</p>
-
-  <p>The vanity of these men, after they had agreed to be painted was beyond
-    all description, and far surpassing that which is oftentimes immodest
-    enough in civilized society, where the sitter generally leaves the
-    picture, when it is done to speak for, and to take care of, itself;
-    while an Indian often lays down, from morning till night, in front of
-    his portrait, admiring his own beautiful face, and faithfully guarding
-    it from day to day, to save it from accident or harm.</p>
-
-  <p>This <em>watching</em> or <em>guarding</em> their portraits, I have
-    observed during all of my travels amongst them as a very curious thing;
-    and in many instances, where my colours were not dry, and subjected
-    to so many accidents, from the crowds who were gathering about them,
-    I have found this peculiar guardianship of essential service to
-    me—relieving my mind oftentimes from a great deal of anxiety.</p>
-
-  <p>I was for a long time at a loss for the true cause of so singular
-    a peculiarity, but at last learned that it was owing to their
-    superstitious notion, that there may be life to a certain extent in the
-    picture; and that if harm or violence be done to it, it may in some
-    mysterious way, affect their health or do them other injury.</p>
-
-  <p>After I had been several weeks busily at work with my brush in this
-    village, and pretty well used to the modes of life in these regions—and
-    also familiarly acquainted with all the officers and clerks of the
-    Establishment, it was announced one day, that the steamer which we had
-    left, was coming in the river below, where all eyes were anxiously
-    turned, and all ears were listening; when, at length, we discovered the
-    puffing of her steam; and, at last, heard the thundering of her cannon,
-    which were firing from her deck.</p>
-
-  <p>The excitement and dismay caused amongst 6000 of these wild people,
-    when the steamer came up in front of their village, was amusing in the
-    extreme. The steamer was moored at the shore, however; and when Mr.
-    Chouteau and Major Sanford, their old friend and agent, walked ashore,
-    it seemed to restore their confidence and courage; and the whole
-    village gathered in front of the boat, without showing much further
-    amazement, or even curiosity about it.</p>
-
-  <p>The steamer rested a week or two at this place before she started on
-    her voyage for the head-waters of the Missouri; during which time,
-    there was much hilarity and mirth indulged in amongst the Indians, as
-    well as with the hands employed in the service of the Fur Company. The
-    appearance of a steamer in this wild country was deemed a wonderful
-    occurrence, and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_228">228</span> the time of her presence here, looked upon, and used
-    as a holiday. Some sharp encounters amongst the trappers, who come
-    in here from the mountains, loaded with packs of furs, with sinews
-    hardened by long exposure, and seemingly impatient for a <em>fight</em>,
-    which is soon given them by some bullying fisticuff-fellow, who steps
-    forward and settles the matter in a ring, which is made and strictly
-    preserved for <em>fair play</em>, until hard raps, and bloody noses, and
-    blind eyes “<em>settle the hash</em>,” and satisfy his trappership to lay
-    in bed a week or two, and then graduate, a sober and a civil man.</p>
-
-  <p>Amongst the Indians we have had numerous sights and
-    amusements to entertain and some to shock us. Shows of
-    dances—ball-plays—horse-racing—foot-racing, and wrestling in abundance.
-    Feasting—fasting, and prayers we have also had; and penance and
-    tortures, and almost every thing short of self-immolation.</p>
-
-  <p>Some few days after the steamer had arrived, it was announced that
-    a grand feast was to be given to the <em>great white chiefs</em>, who
-    were visitors amongst them; and preparations were made accordingly
-    for it. The two chiefs, Ha-wan-je-tah and Tchan-dee, of whom I have
-    before spoken, brought their two tents together, forming the two into a
-    semi-circle (<a href="#i_096"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 96</a>), enclosing a space sufficiently large
-    to accommodate 150 men; and sat down with that number of the principal
-    chiefs and warriors of the Sioux nation; with Mr. Chouteau, Major
-    Sanford, the Indian agent, Mr. M‘Kenzie, and myself, whom they had
-    invited in due time, and placed on elevated seats in the centre of the
-    crescent; while the rest of the company all sat upon the ground, and
-    mostly cross-legged, preparatory to the feast being dealt out.</p>
-
-  <p>In the centre of the semi-circle was erected a flag-staff, on which
-    was waving a white flag, and to which also was tied the calumet, both
-    expressive of their friendly feelings towards us. Near the foot of the
-    flag-staff were placed in a row on the ground, six or eight kettles,
-    with iron covers on them, shutting them tight, in which were prepared
-    the viands for our <em>voluptuous</em> feast. Near the kettles, and on
-    the ground also, bottomside upwards, were a number of wooden bowls, in
-    which the meat was to be served out. And in front, two or three men,
-    who were there placed as waiters, to light the pipes for smoking, and
-    also to deal out the food.</p>
-
-  <p>In these positions things stood, and all sat, with thousands climbing
-    and crowding around, for a peep at the grand pageant; when at length,
-    Ha-wan-je-tah (the one horn), head chief of the nation, rose in front
-    of the Indian agent, in a very handsome costume, and addressed him
-    thus:—“My father, I am glad to see you here to-day—my heart is always
-    glad to see my father when he comes—our Great Father, who sends him
-    here is very rich, and we are poor. Our friend Mr. M‘Kenzie, who
-    is here, we are also glad to see; we know him well, and we shall
-    be sorry when he is gone. Our friend who is on your right-hand we
-    all know is very rich; and we<span class="pagenum" id="Page_229">229</span> have heard that he owns the great
-    <em>medicine-canoe</em>; he is a good man, and a friend to the red men.
-    Our friend the <em>White Medicine</em>, who sits with you, we did not
-    know—he came amongst us a stranger, and he has made me very well—all
-    the women know it, and think it very good; he has done many curious
-    things, and we have all been pleased with him—he has made us much
-    amusement—and we know he is great medicine.</p>
-
-  <figure class="illowp75 mt2" id="i_098">
-    <div class="plate"><i>64</i></div>
-    <img src="images/i_098.jpg" alt="Pipes">
-     <figcaption>98</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p>“My father, I hope you will have pity on us, we are very poor—we offer
-    you to-day, not the best that we have got; for we have a plenty of good
-    buffalo hump and marrow—but we give you our hearts in this feast—we
-    have killed our faithful dogs to feed you—and the Great Spirit will
-    seal our friendship. I have no more to say.”</p>
-
-  <p>After these words he took off his beautiful war-eagle head-dress—his
-    shirt and leggings—his necklace of grizzly bears’ claws and his
-    moccasins; and tying them together, laid them gracefully down at the
-    feet of the agent as a present; and laying a handsome pipe on top of
-    them, he walked around into an adjoining lodge, where he got a buffalo
-    robe to cover his shoulders, and returned to the feast, taking his seat
-    which he had before occupied.</p>
-
-  <p>Major Sanford then rose and made a short speech in reply, thanking
-    him for the valuable present which he had made him, and for the very
-    polite and impressive manner in which it had been done; and sent to the
-    steamer for a quantity of tobacco and other presents, which were given
-    to him in return. After this, and after several others of the chiefs
-    had addressed him in a similar manner; and, like the first, disrobed
-    themselves, and thrown their beautiful costumes at his feet, one of the
-    three men in front deliberately lit a handsome pipe, and brought it to
-    Ha-wan-je-tah to smoke. He took it, and after presenting the stem to
-    the North—to the South—to the East, and the West—and then to the Sun
-    that was over his head, and pronounced the words “How—how—how!” drew
-    a whiff or two of smoke through it, and holding the bowl of it in one
-    hand, and its stem in the other, he then held it to each of our mouths,
-    as we successively smoked it; after which it was passed around through
-    the whole group, who all smoked through it, or as far as its contents
-    lasted, when another of the three waiters was ready with a second, and
-    at length a third one, in the same way, which lasted through the hands
-    of the whole number of guests. This smoking was conducted with the
-    strictest adherence to exact and established form, and the feast the
-    whole way, to the most positive silence. After the pipe is charged, and
-    is being lit, until the time that the chief has drawn the smoke through
-    it, it is considered an evil omen for any one to speak; and if any one
-    break silence in that time, even in a whisper, the pipe is instantly
-    dropped by the chief, and their superstition is such, that they would
-    not dare to use it on this occasion; but another one is called for
-    and used in its stead. If there is no accident of the kind during the
-    smoking, the waiters then proceed to distribute the meat, which is soon
-    devoured in the feast.</p>
-
-  <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_230">230</span></p>
-
-  <p>In his case the lids were raised from the kettles, which were all
-    filled with dogs’ meat alone. It being well-cooked, and made into a
-    sort of a stew, sent forth a very savoury and pleasing smell, promising
-    to be an acceptable and palatable food. Each of us civilized guests had
-    a large wooden bowl placed before us, with a huge quantity of dogs’
-    flesh floating in a profusion of soup, or rich gravy, with a large
-    spoon resting in the dish, made of the buffalo’s horn. In this most
-    difficult and painful dilemma we sat; all of us knowing the solemnity
-    and good feeling in which it was given, and the absolute necessity of
-    falling to, and devouring a little of it. We all tasted it a few times,
-    and resigned our dishes, which were quite willingly taken, and passed
-    around with others, to every part of the group, who all ate heartily of
-    the <em>delicious viands</em>, which were soon dipped out of the kettles,
-    and entirely devoured; after which each one arose as he felt disposed,
-    and walked off without uttering a word. In this way the feast ended,
-    and all retired silently, and gradually, until the ground was left
-    vacant to the charge of the waiters or officers, who seemed to have
-    charge of it during the whole occasion.</p>
-
-  <p>This feast was unquestionably given to us, as the most undoubted
-    evidence they could give us of their friendship; and we, who knew
-    the spirit and feeling in which it was given, could not but treat it
-    respectfully, and receive it as a very high and marked compliment.</p>
-
-  <p>Since I witnessed it on this occasion, I have been honoured with
-    numerous entertainments of the kind amongst the other tribes, which I
-    have visited towards the sources of the Missouri, and all conducted in
-    the same solemn and impressive manner; from which I feel authorized
-    to pronounce the <em>dog-feast</em> a truly religious ceremony, wherein
-    the poor Indian sees fit to sacrifice his faithful companion to bear
-    testimony to the sacredness of his vows of friendship, and invite his
-    friend to partake of its flesh, to remind him forcibly of the reality
-    of the sacrifice, and the solemnity of his professions.</p>
-
-  <p>The dog, amongst all Indian tribes, is more esteemed and more valued
-    than amongst any part of the civilized world; the Indian who has more
-    time to devote to his company, and whose untutored mind more nearly
-    assimilates to that of his faithful servant, keeps him closer company,
-    and draws him nearer to his heart; they hunt together, and are equal
-    sharers in the chase—their bed is one; and on the rocks, and on their
-    coats of arms they carve his image as the symbol of fidelity. Yet, with
-    all of these he will end his affection with this faithful follower, and
-    with tears in his eyes, offer him as a sacrifice to seal the pledge he
-    has made to man; because a feast of venison, or of buffalo meat, is
-    what is due to every one who enters an Indian’s wigwam; and of course,
-    conveys but a passive or neutral evidence, that generally goes for
-    nothing.</p>
-
-  <p>I have sat at many of these feasts, and never could but appreciate
-    the moral and solemnity of them. I have seen the master take from the
-    bowl the head of his victim, and descant on its former affection and
-    fidelity with<span class="pagenum" id="Page_231">231</span> tears in his eyes. And I have seen guests at the same
-    time by the side of me, jesting and sneering at the poor Indian’s folly
-    and stupidity; and I have said in my heart, that they never deserved a
-    name so good or so honourable as that of the poor animal whose bones
-    they were picking.</p>
-
-  <p>At the feast which I have been above describing, each of us tasted a
-    little of the meat, and passed the dishes on to the Indians, who soon
-    demolished everything they contained. We all agreed that the meat was
-    well cooked, and seemed to be a well-flavoured and palatable food; and
-    no doubt, could have been eaten with a good relish, if we had been
-    hungry, and ignorant of the nature of the food we were eating.</p>
-
-  <p>The flesh of these dogs, though apparently relished by the Indians,
-    is, undoubtedly, inferior to the venison and buffalo’s meat, of which
-    feasts are constantly made where friends are invited, as they are in
-    civilized society, to a pleasant and convivial party; from which fact
-    alone, it would seem clear, that they have some extraordinary motive,
-    at all events, for feasting on the flesh of that useful and faithful
-    animal; even when, as in the instance I have been describing, their
-    village is well supplied with fresh and dried meat of the buffalo. The
-    dog-feast is given, I believe, by all tribes in North America; and
-    by them all, I think, this faithful animal, as well as the horse, is
-    sacrificed in several different ways, to appease offended Spirits or
-    Deities, whom it is considered necessary that they should conciliate in
-    this way; and when done, is invariably done by giving the best in the
-    herd or the kennel.</p>
-
-  <hr class="chap">
-  <div class="chapter">
-    <span class="pagenum" id="Page_232">232</span>
-    <h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_29">LETTER—<abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 29.</h2>
-  </div>
-  <div class="subheadc">MOUTH OF TETON RIVER, <i>UPPER MISSOURI</i>.</div>
-
-  <p><span class="smcap">Another</span> curious and disgusting scene I witnessed in the after part of
-    the day on which we were honoured with the dog feast. In this I took no
-    part, but was sufficiently near to it, when standing some rods off, and
-    witnessing the cruel operation. I was called upon by one of the clerks
-    in the Establishment to ride up a mile or so, near the banks of the
-    Teton River, in a little plain at the base of the bluffs, where were
-    grouped some fifteen or twenty lodges of the Ting-ta-to-ah band, to see
-    a man (as they said) “<em>looking at the sun</em>!” We found him naked,
-    except his breech-cloth, with splints or skewers run through the flesh
-    on both breasts, leaning back and hanging with the weight of his body
-    to the top of a pole which was fastened in the ground, and to the upper
-    end of which he was fastened by a cord which was tied to the splints.
-    In this position he was leaning back, with nearly the whole weight
-    of his body hanging to the pole, the top of which was bent forward,
-    allowing his body to sink about half-way to the ground (<a href="#i_097"><span class="smcap">plate</span>
-    97</a>). His feet were still upon the ground, supporting a small part
-    of his weight; and he held in his left hand his favourite bow, and in
-    his right, with a desperate grip, his medicine-bag. In this condition,
-    with the blood trickling down over his body, which was covered with
-    white and yellow clay, and amidst a great crowd who were looking on,
-    sympathizing with and encouraging him, he was hanging and “looking at
-    the sun,” without paying the least attention to any one about him.
-    In the group that was reclining around him, were several mystery-men
-    beating their drums and shaking their rattles, and singing as loud as
-    they could yell, to encourage him and strengthen his heart to stand
-    and look at the sun, from its rising in the morning ’till its setting
-    at night; at which time, if his heart and his strength have not failed
-    him, he is “cut down,” receives the liberal donation of presents (which
-    have been thrown into a pile before him during the day), and also the
-    name and the style of a doctor, or <em>medicine-man</em>, which lasts
-    him, and ensures him respect, through life.</p>
-
-  <p>This most extraordinary and cruel custom I never heard of amongst any
-    other tribe, and never saw an instance of it before or after the one I
-    have just named. It is a sort of worship, or penance, of great cruelty;
-    disgusting and painful to behold, with only one palliating circumstance
-    about it, which is, that it is a voluntary torture and of very rare
-    occurrence. The<span class="pagenum" id="Page_233">233</span> poor and ignorant, misguided and superstitious man who
-    undertakes it, puts his everlasting reputation at stake upon the issue;
-    for when he takes his stand, he expects to face the sun and gradually
-    turn his body in listless silence, till he sees it go down at night;
-    and if he faints and falls, of which there is imminent danger, he loses
-    his reputation as a brave or mystery-man, and suffers a signal disgrace
-    in the estimation of the tribe, like all men who have the presumption
-    to set themselves up for braves or mystery-men, and fail justly to
-    sustain the character.</p>
-
-  <p>The Sioux seem to have many modes of worshipping the Great or Good
-    Spirit, and also of conciliating the Evil Spirit: they have numerous
-    fasts and feasts, and many modes of sacrificing, but yet they seem
-    to pay less strict attention to them than the Mandans do, which may
-    perhaps be owing in a great measure to the wandering and predatory
-    modes of life which they pursue, rendering it difficult to adhere so
-    rigidly to the strict form and letter of their customs.</p>
-
-  <p>There had been, a few days before I arrived at this place, a great
-    medicine operation held on the prairie, a mile or so back of the
-    Fort, and which, of course, I was not lucky enough to see. The poles
-    were still standing, and the whole transaction was described to me by
-    my friend Mr. Halsey, one of the clerks in the Establishment. From
-    the account given of it, it seems to bear some slight resemblance to
-    that of the <em>Mandan religious ceremony</em>, but no nearer to it
-    than a feeble effort by so ignorant and superstitious a people, to
-    copy a custom which they most probably have had no opportunity to see
-    themselves, but have endeavoured to imitate from hearsay. They had an
-    awning of immense size erected on the prairie which is yet standing,
-    made of willow bushes supported by posts, with poles and willow boughs
-    laid over; under the centre of which there was a pole set firmly in the
-    ground, from which many of the young men had suspended their bodies by
-    splints run through the flesh in different parts, the numerous scars of
-    which were yet seen bleeding afresh from day to day, amongst the crowds
-    that were about me.</p>
-
-  <p>During my stay amongst the Sioux, as I was considered by them to be
-    great <em>medicine</em>, I received many pipes and other little things
-    from them as presents, given to me in token of respect for me, and
-    as assurances of their friendship; and I, being desirous to collect
-    and bring from their country every variety of their manufactures, of
-    their costumes, their weapons, their pipes, and their mystery-things,
-    purchased a great many others, for which, as I was “medicine”
-    and a “great white chief!” I was necessarily obliged to pay very
-    <em>liberal</em> prices.</p>
-
-  <p>Of the various costumes (of this, as well as of other tribes), that I
-    have collected, there will be seen fair and faithful representations in
-    the numerous portraits; and of their war-clubs, pipes, &amp;c. I have set
-    forth in the following illustrations, a few of the most interesting of
-    the very great numbers of those things which I have collected in this
-    and other tribes which I have visited.</p>
-
-  <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_234">234</span></p>
-
-  <p>The luxury of smoking is known to all the North American Indians,
-    in their primitive state, and that before they have any knowledge
-    of tobacco; which is only introduced amongst them by civilized
-    adventurers, who teach them the use and luxury of whiskey at the same
-    time.</p>
-
-  <p>In their native state they are excessive smokers, and many of them (I
-    would almost venture the assertion), would seem to be smoking one-half
-    of their lives. There may be two good reasons for this, the first
-    of which is, that the idle and leisure life that the Indian leads,
-    (who has no trade or business to follow—no office hours to attend
-    to, or profession to learn), induces him to look for occupation and
-    amusement in so innocent a luxury, which again further tempts him
-    to its excessive use, from its feeble and harmless effects on the
-    system. There are many weeds and leaves, and barks of trees, which are
-    narcotics, and of spontaneous growth in their countries, which the
-    Indians dry and pulverize, and carry in pouches and smoke to great
-    excess—and which in several of the languages, when thus prepared, is
-    called <i lang="mhq">k’nick k’neck</i>.</p>
-
-  <p>As smoking is a luxury so highly valued by the Indians, they have
-    bestowed much pains, and not a little ingenuity, to the construction
-    of their pipes. Of these I have procured a collection of several
-    hundreds, and in <a href="#i_098"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 98</a>, have given fac-simile outlines of
-    a number of the most curious. The bowls of these are generally made of
-    the red steatite, or “pipe-stone” (as it is more familiarly called in
-    this country), and many of them designed and carved with much taste
-    and skill, with figures and groups in <i>alto relievo</i>, standing or
-    reclining upon them.</p>
-
-  <p>The red stone of which these pipe bowls are made, is, in my estimation,
-    a great curiosity; inasmuch as I am sure it is a variety of steatite
-    (if it be steatite), differing from that of any known European
-    locality, and also from any locality known in America, other than the
-    one from which all these pipes come; and which are all traceable I have
-    found to one source; and that source as yet unvisited except by the
-    red man who describes it, everywhere, as a place of vast importance to
-    the Indians—as given to them by the Great Spirit, for their pipes, and
-    strictly forbidden to be used for anything else.</p>
-
-  <p>The source from whence all these pipes come, is, undoubtedly, somewhere
-    between this place and the Mississippi River; and as the Indians all
-    speak of it as a great <em>medicine</em>-place, I shall certainly lay my
-    course to it, ere long, and be able to give the world some account of
-    it and its mysteries.</p>
-
-  <p>The Indians shape out the bowls of these pipes from the solid stone,
-    which is not quite as hard as marble, with nothing but a knife. The
-    stone which is of a cherry red, admits of a beautiful polish, and the
-    Indian makes the hole in the bowl of the pipe, by drilling into it a
-    hard stick, shaped to the desired size, with a quantity of sharp sand
-    and water kept constantly in the hole, subjecting him therefore to a
-    very great labour and the necessity of much patience.</p>
-
-  <figure class="illowp75 mt2" id="i_099">
-    <div class="plate"><i>65</i></div>
-    <img src="images/i_099.jpg" alt="Weapons ">
-     <figcaption>99</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_235">235</span></p>
-
-  <p>The shafts or stems of these pipes, as will be seen in <a href="#i_098"><span class="smcap">plate</span>
-    98</a>, are from two to four feet long, sometimes round, but most
-    generally flat; of an inch or two in breadth, and wound half their
-    length or more with braids of porcupines’ quills; and often ornamented
-    with the beaks and tufts from the wood-pecker’s head, with ermine skins
-    and long red hair, dyed from white horse hair or the white buffalo’s
-    tail.</p>
-
-  <p>The stems of these pipes will be found to be carved in many ingenious
-    forms, and in all cases they are perforated through the centre, quite
-    staggering the wits of the enlightened world to <em>guess how</em> the
-    holes have been <em>bored</em> through them; until it is simply and
-    briefly explained, that the stems are uniformly made of the stalk of
-    the young ash, which generally grows straight, and has a small pith
-    through the centre, which is easily burned out with a hot wire or a
-    piece of hard wood, by a much slower process.</p>
-
-  <p>In <a href="#i_098"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 98</a>, the pipes marked <i>b</i> are ordinary
-    pipes, made and used for the <em>luxury</em> only of smoking; and
-    for this purpose, every Indian designs and constructs his own
-    pipe. The <em>calumet</em>, or pipe of peace (<a href="#i_098"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 98</a>
-    <i>a</i>), ornamented with the war-eagle’s quills, is a sacred
-    pipe, and never allowed to be used on any other occasion than that
-    of <em>peace-making</em>; when the chief brings it into treaty, and
-    unfolding the many bandages which are carefully kept around it—has
-    it ready to be mutually smoked by the chiefs, after the terms of
-    the treaty are agreed upon, as the means of <em>solemnizing</em> or
-    <em>signing</em>, by an illiterate people, who cannot draw up an
-    instrument, and sign their names to it, as it is done in the civilized
-    world.</p>
-
-  <p>The mode of solemnizing is by passing the sacred stem to each chief,
-    who draws one breath of smoke only through it, thereby passing the most
-    inviolable pledge that they can possibly give, for the keeping of the
-    peace. This sacred pipe is then carefully folded up, and stowed away in
-    the chief’s lodge, until a similar occasion calls it out to be used in
-    a similar manner.</p>
-
-  <p>There is no custom more uniformly in constant use amongst the poor
-    Indians than that of smoking, nor any other more highly valued. His
-    pipe is his constant companion through life—his messenger of peace;
-    he pledges his friends through its stem and its bowl—and when its
-    care-drowning fumes cease to flow, it takes a place with him in his
-    solitary grave, with his tomahawk and war-club, companions to his long
-    fancied, “mild and beautiful hunting-grounds.”</p>
-
-  <p>The weapons of these people, like their pipes, are numerous, and mostly
-    manufactured by themselves. In a former place (<a href="#i_018"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 18</a>) I
-    have described a part of these, such as the bows and arrows, lances,
-    &amp;c., and they have yet many others, specimens of which I have collected
-    from every tribe; and a number of which I have grouped together in
-    <a href="#i_099"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 99</a>; consisting of knives, war-clubs, and tomahawks. I
-    have here introduced the most general and established forms that are
-    in use amongst the different tribes, which are all strictly copied
-    from amongst the great variety of these articles to be found in my
-    Collection.</p>
-
-  <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_236">236</span></p>
-
-  <p>The scalping-knives <i>a</i> and <i>b</i>, and tomahawks <i>e</i>
-    <i>e</i> <i>e</i> <i>e</i> are of civilized manufacture, made expressly
-    for Indian use, and carried into the Indian country by thousands
-    and tens of thousands, and sold at an enormous price. The scabbards
-    of the knives and handles for the tomahawks, the Indians construct
-    themselves, according to their own taste, and oftentimes ornament them
-    very handsomely. In his rude and unapproached condition, the Indian
-    is a stranger to such weapons as these—he works not in the metals;
-    and his untutored mind has not been ingenious enough to design or
-    execute anything so <em>savage</em> or destructive as these civilized
-    <em>refinements on Indian barbarity</em>. In his native simplicity
-    he shapes out his rude hatchet from a piece of stone, as in letter
-    <i>f</i>, heads his arrows and spears with flints; and his knife is a
-    sharpened bone, or the edge of a broken silex. The war-club <i>c</i> is
-    also another civilized refinement, with a blade of steel, of eight or
-    ten inches in length, and set in a club, studded around and ornamented
-    with some hundreds of brass nails.</p>
-
-  <p>Their primitive clubs <i>d</i> are curiously carved in wood, and
-    fashioned out with some considerable picturesque form and grace; are
-    admirably fitted to the hand, and calculated to deal a deadly blow with
-    the spike of iron or bone which is imbedded in the ball or bulb at the
-    end.</p>
-
-  <p>Two of the tomahawks that I have named, marked <i>e</i>, are what
-    are denominated “pipe-tomahawks,” as the heads of them are formed
-    into bowls like a pipe, in which their tobacco is put, and they smoke
-    through the handle. These are the most valued of an Indian’s weapons,
-    inasmuch as they are a matter of luxury, and useful for cutting his
-    fire-wood, &amp;c. in time of peace; and deadly weapons in time of war,
-    which they use in the hand, or throw with unerring and deadly aim.</p>
-
-  <p>The scalping-knife <i>b</i> in a beautiful scabbard, which is carried
-    under the belt, is the form of knife most generally used in all
-    parts of the Indian country, where knives have been introduced. It
-    is a common and cheap butcher knife with one edge, manufactured at
-    Sheffield, in England, perhaps, for sixpence; and sold to the poor
-    Indian in these wild regions for a horse. If I should live to get
-    home, and should ever cross the Atlantic with my Collection, a curious
-    enigma would be solved for the English people, who may enquire for a
-    scalping-knife, when they find that every one in my Collection (and
-    hear also, that nearly every one that is to be seen in the Indian
-    country, to the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Ocean) bears on its
-    blade the impress of G.R., which they will doubtless understand.</p>
-
-  <p>The huge two-edged knife, with its scabbard of a part of the skin of a
-    grizzly bear’s head, letter <i>a</i>, is one belonging to the famous
-    chief of the Mandans, of whom I have before said much. The manufacture
-    of this knife is undoubtedly American; and its shape differs altogether
-    from those which are in general use.<a id="FNanchor_12" href="#Footnote_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a></p>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>66</i></div>
-  <figure id="i_100">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_100.jpg" alt="the dance of the chiefs">
-     <figcaption>100</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_237">237</span></p>
-
-  <p>The above weapons, as well as the bow and lance, of which I have before
-    spoken, are all carried and used on horseback with great effect. The
-    Indians in this country of green fields, all <em>ride</em> for their
-    enemies, and also for their game, which is almost invariably killed
-    whilst their horses are at full-speed. They are all cruel masters
-    for their horses; and in war or the chase goad them on with a heavy
-    and cruel whip (<a href="#i_099"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 99</a> <i>g</i>), the handle of which is
-    generally made of a large prong of the elk’s horn or of wood, and the
-    lashes of rawhide are very heavy; being braided, or twisted, or cut
-    into wide straps. These are invariably attached to the wrist of the
-    right arm by a tough thong, so that they can be taken up and used at
-    any moment, and dropped the next, without being lost.</p>
-
-  <p>During the time that I was engaged in painting my portraits, I was
-    occasionally inducing the young men to give me their dances, a great
-    variety of which they gave me by being slightly paid; which I was glad
-    to do, in order to enable me to study their character and expression
-    thoroughly, which I am sure I have done; and I shall take pleasure in
-    shewing them to the world when I get back. The dancing is generally
-    done by the young men, and considered undignified for the chiefs or
-    doctors to join in. Yet so great was my <em>medicine</em>, that chiefs
-    and medicine-men turned out and agreed to compliment me with a dance
-    (<a href="#i_100"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 100</a>). I looked on with great satisfaction; having been
-    assured by the Interpreters and Traders, that this was the highest
-    honour they had ever known them to pay to any stranger amongst them.</p>
-
-  <p>In this dance, which I have called “the dance of the chiefs,” for want
-    of a more significant title, was given by fifteen or twenty chiefs and
-    doctors; many of whom were very old and venerable men. All of them came
-    out in their head-dresses of war-eagle quills, with a spear or staff in
-    the left hand, and a rattle in the right. It was given in the midst of
-    the Sioux village, in front of the head chief’s lodge; and beside the
-    medicine-man who beat on the drum, and sang for the dance, there were
-    four young women standing in a row, and chanting a sort of chorus for
-    the dancers; forming one of the very few instances that I ever have
-    met, where the women are allowed to take any part in the dancing, or
-    other game or amusement, with the men.</p>
-
-  <p>This dance was a very spirited thing, and pleased me much, as well as
-    all the village, who were assembled around to witness what most of them
-    never before had seen, their aged and venerable chiefs united in giving
-    a dance.</p>
-
-  <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_238">238</span></p>
-
-  <p>As I have introduced the <em>scalping-knife</em> above, it may be well
-    for me to give some further account in this place of the custom and the
-    mode of taking the scalp; a custom practiced by all the North American
-    Indians, which is done when an enemy is killed in battle, by grasping
-    the left hand into the hair on the crown of the head, and passing the
-    knife around it through the skin, tearing off a piece of the skin with
-    the hair, as large as the palm of the hand, or larger, which is dried,
-    and often curiously ornamented and preserved, and highly valued as a
-    trophy. The scalping is an operation not calculated of itself to take
-    life, as it only removes the skin, without injuring the bone of the
-    head; and necessarily, to be a genuine scalp, must contain and show the
-    crown or centre of the head; that part of the skin which lies directly
-    over what the phrenologists call “self-esteem,” where the hair divides
-    and radiates from the centre; of which they all profess to be strict
-    judges, and able to decide whether an effort has been made to produce
-    two or more scalps from one head. Besides taking the scalp, the victor
-    generally, if he has time to do it without endangering his own scalp,
-    cuts off and brings home the rest of the hair, which his wife will
-    divide into a great many small locks, and with them fringe off the
-    seams of his shirt and his leggings, as will have been seen in many of
-    the illustrations; which also are worn as trophies and ornaments to the
-    dress, and then are familiarly called “<em>scalp-locks</em>.” Of these
-    there are many dresses in my Collection, which exhibit a continuous row
-    from the top of each shoulder, down the arms to the wrists, and down
-    the seams of the leggings, from the hips to the feet, rendering them
-    a very costly article to buy from the Indian who is not sure that his
-    success in his military exploits will ever enable him to replace them.</p>
-
-  <p>The scalp, then, is a patch of the skin taken from the head of an enemy
-    killed in battle, and preserved and highly appreciated as the record of
-    a death produced by the hand of the individual who possesses it; and
-    may oftentimes during his life, be of great service to a man living
-    in a community where there is no historian to enrol the names of the
-    famous—to record the heroic deeds of the brave, who have gained their
-    laurels in mortal combat with their enemies; where it is as lawful
-    and as glorious to slay an enemy in battle, as it is in Christian
-    communities, and where the poor Indian is bound to keep the record
-    himself, or be liable to lose it and the honour, for no one in the
-    tribe will keep it for him. As the scalp is taken then as the evidence
-    of a death, it will easily be seen, that the Indian has no business or
-    inclination to take it from the head of the living; which I venture to
-    say is never done in North America, unless it be, as it sometimes has
-    happened, where a man falls in the heat of battle, stunned with the
-    blow of a weapon or a gunshot, and the Indian, rushing over his body,
-    snatches off his scalp, supposing him dead, who afterwards rises from
-    the field of battle, and easily recovers from this superficial wound
-    of the knife, wearing a bald spot on his head during the remainder
-    of his life, of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_239">239</span> which we have frequent occurrences on our Western
-    frontiers. The scalp must be from the head of <em>an enemy</em> also, or
-    it subjects its possessor to disgrace and infamy who carries it. There
-    may be many instances where an Indian is justified in the estimation
-    of his tribe in taking the life of one of his own people; and their
-    laws are such, as oftentimes make it his imperative duty; and yet no
-    circumstances, however aggravating, will justify him or release him
-    from the disgrace of taking the scalp.</p>
-
-  <figure class="illowp75 mt2" id="i_101">
-    <div class="plate"><i>67</i></div>
-    <img src="images/i_101.jpg" alt="Scalping">
-     <figcaption>101</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p>There is no custom practised by the Indians, for which they are
-    more universally condemned, than that of taking the scalp; and, at
-    the same time, I think there is some excuse for them, inasmuch as
-    it is a general custom of the country, and founded, like many other
-    apparently absurd and ridiculous customs of these people, in one of
-    the necessities of Indian life, which necessities we are free from in
-    the civilized world, and which customs, of course, we need not and do
-    not practice. From an ancient custom, “time out of mind,” the warriors
-    of these tribes have been in the habit of going to war, expecting to
-    take the scalps of their enemies whom they may slay in battle, and all
-    eyes of the tribe are upon them, making it their duty to do it; so from
-    custom it is every man’s right, and his duty also, to continue and keep
-    up a regulation of his society, which it is not in his power as an
-    individual, to abolish or correct, if he saw fit to do it.</p>
-
-  <p>One of the principal denunciations against the custom of taking the
-    scalp, is on account of its alleged <em>cruelty</em>, which it certainly
-    has not; as the cruelty would be in the <em>killing</em>, and not in the
-    act of cutting the skin from a man’s head after he is dead. To say the
-    most of it, it is a disgusting custom, and I wish I could be quite sure
-    that the civilized and Christian world (who kill hundreds, to where the
-    poor Indians kill one), do not often treat their <em>enemies dead</em>,
-    in equally as indecent and disgusting a manner, as the Indian does by
-    taking the scalp.</p>
-
-  <p>If the reader thinks that I am taking too much pains to defend the
-    Indians for this, and others of their seemingly abominable customs,
-    he will bear it in mind, that I have lived with these people, until I
-    have learned the necessities of Indian life in which these customs are
-    founded; and also, that I have met with so many acts of kindness and
-    hospitality at the hands of the poor Indian, that I feel bound, when I
-    can do it, to render what excuse I can for a people, who are dying with
-    broken hearts, and never can speak in the civilized world in their own
-    defence.</p>
-
-  <p>And even yet, reader, if your education, and your reading of Indian
-    cruelties and Indian barbarities—of scalps, and scalping-knives, and
-    scalping, should have ossified a corner of your heart against these
-    unfortunate people, and would shut out their advocate, I will annoy
-    you no longer on this subject, but withdraw, and leave you to cherish
-    the very beautiful, humane and parental moral that was carried out by
-    the United States and British Governments during the last, and the
-    revolutionary wars, when they mutually employed thousands of their
-    “<em>Red children</em>,” to aid and to bleed, in fighting<span class="pagenum" id="Page_240">240</span> their battles,
-    and paid them, according to contract, so many pounds, shillings and
-    pence or so many dollars and cents for every “<em>scalp</em>” of a “red”
-    or a “blue coat” they could bring in!</p>
-
-  <p>In <a href="#i_101"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 101</a>, there will be seen the principal modes in which
-    the scalps are prepared, and several of the uses to which they are
-    put. The most usual way of preparing and dressing the scalp is that
-    of stretching it on a little hoop at the end of a stick two or three
-    feet long (letter <i>a</i>), for the purpose of “dancing it,” as they
-    term it; which will be described in the <em>scalp-dance</em>, in a few
-    moments. There are many again, which are small, and not “dressed;”
-    sometimes not larger than a crown piece (letter <i>c</i>), and hung to
-    different parts of the dress. In public shows and parades, they are
-    often suspended from the bridle bits or halter when they are paraded
-    and carried as trophies (letter <i>b</i>). Sometimes they are cut out,
-    as it were into a string, the hair forming a beautiful fringe to line
-    the handle of a war-club (letter <i>e</i>). Sometimes they are hung at
-    the <em>end</em> of a club (<em>letter d</em>), and at other times, by the
-    order of the chief, are hung out, over the wigwams, suspended from a
-    pole, which is called the “<em>scalp-pole</em>.” This is often done by
-    the chief of a village, in a pleasant day, by his erecting over his
-    wigwam a pole with all the scalps that he had taken, arranged upon it
-    (letter <i>f</i>); at the sight of which all the chiefs and warriors of
-    the tribe, who had taken scalps, “follow suit;” enabling every member
-    of the community to stroll about the village on that day and “count
-    scalps,” learning thereby the standing of every warrior, which is
-    decided in a great degree by the number of scalps they have taken in
-    battles with their enemies. Letters <i>g</i>, <i>g</i>, shew the usual
-    manner of taking the scalp, and (letter <i>h</i>), exhibits the head of
-    a man who had been scalped and recovered from the wound.</p>
-
-  <p>So much for scalps and scalping, of which I shall yet say more, unless
-    I should unluckily <em>lose one</em> before I get out of the country.</p>
-
-  <figure class="illowp75 mt2" id="i_101a">
-    <div class="plate"><i>68</i></div>
-    <img src="images/i_101a.jpg" alt="Manufactured items">
-    <figcaption>101½</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <div class="footnotes">
-    <div class="footnote">
-      <a id="Footnote_12" href="#FNanchor_12" class="label">[12]</a> This celebrated knife is now in my <span class="smcap">Indian
-        Museum</span>, and there is no doubt, from its authentic history, that
-        it has been several times plunged to the hearts of his enemies by the
-        hand of Mah-to-toh-pa, who wielded it. Several years after I left that
-        country, and one year after the destruction of the Mandans, I received
-        the following letter from Mr. M‘Kenzie, accompanying the knife and
-        other things sent to me by him from that country: <span class="smcap">Extract</span>—“The
-        poor Mandans are gone, and amongst them your old friend, Mah-to-toh-pa.
-        I have been able to send you but a very few things, as the Riccarees
-        immediately took possession of everything they had. Amongst the
-        articles I have been able to procure, I send you the war-knife of
-        Mah-to-toh-pa, which is now looked upon as the greatest <em>medicine</em>
-        in this country; and as you will recollect it, it will be highly
-        appreciated by you.”
-    </div>
-  </div>
-
-  <hr class="chap">
-  <div class="chapter">
-    <span class="pagenum" id="Page_241">241</span>
-    <h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_30">LETTER—<abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 30.</h2>
-  </div>
-  <div class="subheadc">MOUTH OF TETON RIVER, <i>UPPER MISSOURI</i>.</div>
-
-  <p><span class="smcap">In</span> the last letter I gave an account of many of the weapons and other
-    manufactures of these wild folks; and as this has been a day of
-    <em>packing</em> and <em>casing</em> a great many of these things, which
-    I have obtained of the Indians, to add to my <i lang="fr">Musée Indienne</i>,
-    I will name a few more, which I have just been handling over; some
-    description of which may be necessary for the reader in endeavouring
-    to appreciate some of their strange customs and amusements, which I am
-    soon to unfold. In <a href="#i_101a"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 101½</a>, letters <i>a</i> and <i>b</i>,
-    will be seen the <em>quiver</em> made of the fawn’s skin, and the Sioux
-    <em>shield</em> made of the skin of the buffalo’s neck, hardened with
-    the glue extracted from the hoofs and joints of the same animal. The
-    process of “<em>smoking the shield</em>” is a very curious, as well as
-    an important one, in their estimation. For this purpose a young man
-    about to construct him a shield, digs a hole of two feet in depth, in
-    the ground, and as large in diameter as he designs to make his shield.
-    In this he builds a fire, and over it, a few inches higher than the
-    ground, he stretches the raw hide horizontally over the fire, with
-    little pegs driven through holes made near the edges of the skin. This
-    skin is at first, twice as large as the size of the required shield;
-    but having got his particular and best friends (who are invited on
-    the occasion,) into a ring, to dance and sing around it, and solicit
-    the Great Spirit to instil into it the power to protect him harmless
-    against his enemies, he spreads over it the glue, which is rubbed and
-    dried in, as the skin is heated; and a second busily drives other and
-    other pegs, inside of those in the ground, as they are gradually giving
-    way and being pulled up by the contraction of the skin. By this curious
-    process, which is most dexterously done, the skin is kept tight whilst
-    it contracts to one-half of its size, taking up the glue and increasing
-    in thickness until it is rendered as thick and hard as required (and
-    his friends have pleaded long enough to make it arrow, and almost ball
-    proof), when the dance ceases, and the fire is put out. When it is
-    cooled and cut into the shape that he desires, it is often painted with
-    his <em>medicine</em> or <em>totem</em> upon it, the figure of an eagle,
-    an owl, a buffalo or other animal, as the case may be, which he trusts
-    will guard and protect him from harm; it is then fringed with eagles’
-    quills, or other ornaments he may have chosen, and <em>slung</em> with a
-    broad leather strap that crosses his breast. These shields are carried
-    by all the warriors in these regions, for their protection in battles,
-    which are almost invariably fought from their horses’ backs.</p>
-
-  <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_242">242</span></p>
-
-  <p>Of <em>pipes</em>, and the custom of smoking, I have already spoken; and
-    I then said, that the Indians use several substitutes for tobacco,
-    which they call <i>K’nick K’neck</i>. For the carrying of this
-    delicious weed or bark, and preserving its flavour, the women construct
-    very curious pouches of otter, or beaver, or other skins (letters
-    <i>c</i>, <i>c</i>, <i>c</i>,), which are ingeniously ornamented with
-    porcupine quills and beads, and generally carried hanging across the
-    left arm, containing a quantity of the precious <em>narcotic</em>, with
-    flint and steel, and spunk, for lighting the pipe.</p>
-
-  <p>The <em>musical instruments</em> used amongst these people are few, and
-    exceedingly rude and imperfect, consisting chiefly of rattles, drums,
-    whistles, and lutes, all of which are used in the different tribes.</p>
-
-  <p>In <a href="#i_101a"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 101½</a> (letters <i>d</i>, <i>d</i>,) will be seen
-    the <em>rattles</em> (or She-she-quois) most generally used, made of
-    rawhide, which becomes very hard when dry, and charged with pebbles
-    or something of the kind, which produce a shrill noise to mark the
-    time in their dances and songs. Their <em>drums</em> (letters <i>e</i>,
-    <i>e</i>,) are made in a very rude manner, oftentimes with a mere
-    piece of rawhide stretched over a hoop, very much in the shape of a
-    tambourin; and at other times are made in the form of a keg, with a
-    head of rawhide at each end; on these they beat with a drum-stick,
-    which oftentimes itself is a rattle, the bulb or head of it being made
-    of rawhide and filled with pebbles. In other instances the stick has,
-    at its end, a little hoop wound and covered with buckskin, to soften
-    the sound; with which they beat on the drum with great violence, as
-    the chief and <em>heel-inspiring</em> sound for all their dances, and
-    also as an accompaniment for their numerous and never-ending songs of
-    amusement, of thanksgiving, and <em>medicine</em> or <em>metai</em>. The
-    <em>mystery whistle</em>, (letter <i>f</i>,) is another instrument of
-    their invention, and very ingeniously made, the sound being produced
-    on a principle entirely different from that of any wind instrument
-    known in civilized inventions; and the notes produced on it, by the
-    sleight or trick of an Indian boy, in so simple and successful a
-    manner, as to baffle entirely all civilized ingenuity, even when it
-    is seen to be played. An Indian boy would stand and blow his notes on
-    this repeatedly, for hundreds of white men who might be lookers-on, not
-    one of whom could make the least noise on it, even by practising with
-    it for hours. When I first saw this curious exhibition, I was charmed
-    with the peculiar sweetness of its harmonic sounds, and completely
-    perplexed, (as hundreds of white men have no doubt been before me, to
-    the great amusement and satisfaction of the women and children,) as to
-    the mode in which the sound was produced, even though it was repeatedly
-    played immediately before my eyes, and handed to me for my vain and
-    amusing endeavours. The sounds of this little simple toy are liquid and
-    sweet beyond description; and, though here only given in harmonics,
-    I am inclined to think, might, by some ingenious musician or musical
-    instrument-maker, be modulated and converted into something very
-    pleasing.</p>
-
-  <p>The <em>War-whistle</em> (letter <i>h</i>,) is a well known and valued
-    little instrument,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_243">243</span> of six or nine inches in length, invariably made
-    of the bone of the deer or turkey’s leg, and generally ornamented with
-    porcupine quills of different colours which are wound around it. A
-    chief or leader carries this to battle with him, suspended generally
-    from his neck, and worn under his dress. This little instrument has
-    but two notes, which are produced by blowing in the ends of it. The
-    note produced in one end, being much more shrill than the other, gives
-    the signal for battle, whilst the other sounds a retreat; a thing that
-    is distinctly heard and understood by every man, even in the heat and
-    noise of battle, where all are barking and yelling as loud as possible,
-    and of course unable to hear the commands of their leader.</p>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>69</i></div>
-  <figure id="i_102">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_102.jpg" alt="Bear-dance">
-     <figcaption>102</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p>There is yet another wind instrument which I have added to my
-    Collection, and from its appearance would seem to have been borrowed,
-    in part, from the civilized world (letter <i>g</i>). This is what is
-    often on the frontier called a “<em>deer-skin flute</em>,” a “Winnebago
-    courting flute,” a “tsal-eet-quash-to,” &amp;c.; it is perforated with
-    holes for the fingers, sometimes for six, at others for four, and in
-    some instances for three only, having only so many notes with their
-    octaves. These notes are very irregularly graduated, showing clearly
-    that they have very little taste or ear for melody. These instruments
-    are blown in the end, and the sound produced much on the principle of a
-    whistle.</p>
-
-  <p>In the vicinity of the Upper Mississippi, I often and familiarly heard
-    this instrument, called the Winnebago courting flute; and was credibly
-    informed by traders and others in those regions, that the young men
-    of that tribe meet with signal success, oftentimes, in wooing their
-    sweethearts with its simple notes, which they blow for hours together,
-    and from day to day, from the bank of some stream—some favourite rock
-    or log on which they are seated, near to the wigwam which contains the
-    object of their tender passion; until her soul is touched, and she
-    responds by some welcome signal, that she is ready to repay the young
-    <em>Orpheus</em> for his pains, with the gift of her hand and her heart.
-    How true these representations may have been made, I cannot say, but
-    there certainly must have been some ground for the present cognomen by
-    which it is known in that country.</p>
-
-  <p>From these rude and exceedingly defective instruments, it will at once
-    be seen, that music has made but little progress with these people; and
-    the same fact will be still more clearly proved, to those who have an
-    opportunity to hear their vocal exhibitions, which are daily and almost
-    hourly serenading the ears of the traveller through their country.</p>
-
-  <p>Dancing is one of the principal and most frequent amusements of all
-    the tribes of Indians in America; and, in all of these, both vocal and
-    instrumental music are introduced. These dances consist in about four
-    different steps, which constitute all the different varieties: but the
-    figures and forms of these scenes are very numerous, and produced by
-    the most violent jumps and contortions, accompanied with the song and
-    beats of the drum, which are given in exact time with their motions.
-    It has been said by some travellers, that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_244">244</span> the Indian has neither
-    harmony or melody in his music, but I am unwilling to subscribe to such
-    an assertion; although I grant, that for the most part of their vocal
-    exercises, there is a total absence of what the musical world would
-    call melody; their songs being made up chiefly of a sort of violent
-    chaunt of harsh and jarring gutturals, of yelps and barks, and screams,
-    which are given out in perfect time, not only with “method (but with
-    harmony) in their madness.” There are times too, as every traveller
-    of the Indian country will attest, if he will recall them to his
-    recollection, when the Indian lays down by his fire-side with his drum
-    in his hand, which he lightly and almost imperceptibly touches over, as
-    he accompanies it with his stifled voice of dulcet sounds that might
-    come from the most tender and delicate female.</p>
-
-  <p>These quiet and tender songs are very different from those which are
-    sung at their dances, in full chorus and violent gesticulation; and
-    many of them seem to be quite rich in plaintive expression and melody,
-    though barren of change and variety.</p>
-
-  <p><em>Dancing</em>, I have before said, is one of the principal and most
-    valued amusements of the Indians, and much more frequently practised by
-    them than by any civilized society; inasmuch as it enters into their
-    forms of worship, and is often their mode of appealing to the Great
-    Spirit—of paying their usual devotions to their <em>medicine</em>—and of
-    honouring and entertaining strangers of distinction in their country.</p>
-
-  <p>Instead of the “giddy maze” of the quadrille or the country dance,
-    enlivened by the cheering smiles and graces of silkened beauty, the
-    Indian performs his rounds with jumps, and starts, and yells, much to
-    the satisfaction of his own exclusive self, and infinite amusement
-    of the gentler sex, who are always lookers on, but seldom allowed so
-    great a pleasure, or so signal an honour, as that of joining with
-    their lords in this or any other entertainment. Whilst staying with
-    these people on my way up the river, I was repeatedly honoured with
-    the dance, and I as often hired them to give them, or went to overlook
-    where they were performing them at their own pleasure, in pursuance
-    of their peculiar customs, or for their own amusement, that I might
-    study and correctly herald them to future ages. I saw so many of their
-    different varieties of dances amongst the Sioux, that I should almost
-    be disposed to denominate them the “<em>dancing Indians</em>.” It would
-    actually seem as if they had dances for every thing. And in so large a
-    village, there was scarcely an hour in any day or night, but what the
-    beat of the drum could somewhere be heard. These dances are almost as
-    various and different in their character as they are numerous—some of
-    them so exceedingly grotesque and laughable, as to keep the bystanders
-    in an irresistible roar of laughter—others are calculated to excite his
-    pity, and forcibly appeal to his sympathies, whilst others disgust,
-    and yet others terrify and alarm him with their frightful threats and
-    contortions.</p>
-
-  <p>All the world have heard of the “<em>bear-dance</em>,” though I doubt
-    whether more than a very small proportion have ever seen it; here it
-    is (<a href="#i_102"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 102</a>).<span class="pagenum" id="Page_245">245</span> The Sioux, like all the others of these
-    western tribes, are fond of bear’s meat, and must have good stores
-    of the “bear’s-grease” laid in, to oil their long and glossy locks,
-    as well as the surface of their bodies. And they all like the fine
-    pleasure of a bear hunt, and also a participation in the bear dance,
-    which is given several days in succession, previous to their starting
-    out, and in which they all join in a song to the <em>Bear Spirit</em>;
-    which they think holds somewhere an invisible existence, and must be
-    consulted and conciliated before they can enter upon their excursion
-    with any prospect of success. For this grotesque and amusing scene,
-    one of the chief medicine-men, placed over his body the entire skin
-    of a bear, with a war-eagle’s quill on his head, taking the lead in
-    the dance, and looking through the skin which formed a masque that
-    hung over his face. Many others in the dance wore masques on their
-    faces, made of the skin from the bear’s head; and all, with the motions
-    of their hands, closely imitated the movements of that animal; some
-    representing its motion in running, and others the peculiar attitude
-    and hanging of the paws, when it is sitting up on its hind feet,
-    and looking out for the approach of an enemy. This grotesque and
-    amusing masquerade oftentimes is continued at intervals, for several
-    days previous to the starting of a party on the bear hunt, who would
-    scarcely count upon a tolerable prospect of success, without a strict
-    adherence to this most important and indispensible form!</p>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>70</i></div>
-  <figure id="i_103">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_103.jpg" alt="Beggar’s dance">
-     <figcaption>103</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p>Dancing is done here too, as it is oftentimes done in the enlightened
-    world, to get favours—to buy the world’s goods; and in both countries
-    danced with about equal merit, except that the Indian has surpassed
-    us in honesty by christening it in his own country, the “<em>beggar’s
-    dance</em>.” This spirited dance (<a href="#i_103"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 103</a>), was given, not by
-    a set of <em>beggars</em> though, literally speaking, but by the first
-    and most independent young men in the tribe, beautifully dressed,
-    (<i>i. e.</i> not dressed at all, except with their breech clouts or
-    <em>kelts</em>, made of eagles’ and ravens’ quills,) with their lances,
-    and pipes, and rattles in their hands, and a medicine-man beating the
-    drum, and joining in the song at the highest key of his voice. In this
-    dance every one sings as loud as he can halloo; uniting his voice with
-    the others, in an appeal to the Great Spirit, to open the hearts of
-    the bystanders to give to the poor, and not to themselves; assuring
-    them that the Great Spirit will be kind to those who are kind to the
-    helpless and poor.</p>
-
-  <p>Of <em>scalps</em>, and of the modes and objects of scalping, I have
-    before spoken; and I therein stated, “that most of the scalps were
-    stretched on little hoops for the purpose of being used in the
-    scalp-dance, of which I shall say more at a future time.”</p>
-
-  <p>The <em>Scalp-dance</em> (<a href="#i_104"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 104</a>) is given as a celebration
-    of a victory; and amongst this tribe, as I learned whilst residing
-    with them, danced in the night, by the light of their torches, and
-    just before retiring to bed. When a war party returns from a war
-    excursion, bringing home with them the scalps of their enemies, they
-    generally “dance them” for fifteen nights in succession,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_246">246</span> vaunting
-    forth the most extravagant boasts of their wonderful prowess in war,
-    whilst they brandish their war weapons in their hands. A number of
-    young women are selected to aid (though they do not actually join in
-    the dance), by stepping into the centre of the ring, and holding up the
-    scalps that have been recently taken, whilst the warriors dance (or
-    rather <em>jump</em>), around in a circle, brandishing their weapons,
-    and barking and yelping in the most frightful manner, all jumping on
-    both feet at a time, with a simultaneous stamp, and blow, and thrust
-    of their weapons; with which it would seem as if they were actually
-    cutting and carving each other to pieces. During these frantic leaps,
-    and yelps, and thrusts, every man distorts his face to the utmost of
-    his muscles, darting about his glaring eye-balls and snapping his
-    teeth, as if he were in the heat (and actually breathing through his
-    inflated nostrils the very hissing death) of battle! No description
-    that can be written, could ever convey more than a feeble outline of
-    the frightful effects of these scenes enacted in the dead and darkness
-    of night, under the glaring light of their blazing flambeaux; nor could
-    all the years allotted to mortal man, in the least obliterate or deface
-    the vivid impress that one scene of this kind would leave upon his
-    memory.</p>
-
-  <p>The precise object for which the scalp is taken, is one which is
-    definitely understood, and has already been explained; but the motive
-    (or motives) for which this strict ceremony is so scrupulously held
-    by all the American tribes, over the scalp of an enemy, is a subject,
-    as yet not satisfactorily settled in my mind. There is no doubt, but
-    one great object in these exhibitions is public exultation; yet there
-    are several conclusive evidences, that there are other and essential
-    motives for thus formally and strictly displaying the scalp. Amongst
-    some of the tribes, it is the custom to bury the scalps after they
-    have gone through this series of public exhibitions; which may in a
-    measure have been held for the purpose of giving them notoriety, and of
-    awarding public credit to the persons who obtained them, and now, from
-    a custom of the tribe, are obliged to part with them. The great respect
-    which seems to be paid to them whilst they use them, as well as the
-    pitying and mournful song which they howl to the <em>manes</em> of their
-    unfortunate victims; as well as the precise care and solemnity with
-    which they afterwards bury the scalps, sufficiently convince me that
-    they have a superstitious dread of the spirits of their slain enemies,
-    and many conciliatory offices to perform, to ensure their own peace;
-    one of which is the ceremony above described.</p>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>71</i></div>
-  <figure id="i_104">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_104.jpg" alt="Scalp-dance">
-     <figcaption>104</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <hr class="chap">
-  <div class="chapter">
-    <span class="pagenum" id="Page_247">247</span>
-    <h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_31">LETTER—<abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 31.</h2>
-  </div>
-  <div class="subheadc">MOUTH OF TETON RIVER, <i>UPPER MISSOURI</i>.</div>
-
-  <p><span class="smcap">In</span> former Letters I have given some account of the <em>Bisons</em>,
-    or (as they are more familiarly denominated in this country)
-    <em>Buffaloes</em>, which inhabit these regions in numerous herds; and of
-    which I must say yet a little more.</p>
-
-  <p>These noble animals of the ox species, and which have been so well
-    described in our books on Natural History, are a subject of curious
-    interest and great importance in this vast wilderness; rendered
-    peculiarly so at this time, like the history of the poor savage; and
-    from the same consideration, that they are rapidly wasting away at the
-    approach of civilized man—and like him and his character, in a very few
-    years, to live only in books or on canvass.</p>
-
-  <p>The word buffalo is undoubtedly most incorrectly applied to these
-    animals, and I can scarcely tell why they have been so called; for
-    they bear just about as much resemblance to the Eastern buffalo, as
-    they do to a zebra or to a common ox. How nearly they may approach to
-    the bison of Europe, which I never have had an opportunity to see, and
-    which, I am inclined to think, is now nearly extinct, I am unable to
-    say; yet if I were to judge from the numerous engravings I have seen
-    of those animals, and descriptions I have read of them, I should be
-    inclined to think, there was yet a wide difference between the bison
-    of the American prairies, and those in the North of Europe and Asia.
-    The American bison, or (as I shall hereafter call it) buffalo, is the
-    largest of the ruminating animals that is now living in America; and
-    seems to have been spread over the plains of this vast country, by the
-    Great Spirit, for the use and subsistence of the red men, who live
-    almost exclusively on their flesh, and clothe themselves with their
-    skins. The reader, by referring back to <span class="smcap">plates</span> <a href="#i_007">7</a> and <a href="#i_008">8</a>, in the
-    beginning of this Work, will see faithful traces of the male and female
-    of this huge animal, in their proud and free state of nature, grazing
-    on the plains of the country to which they appropriately belong. Their
-    colour is a dark brown, but changing very much as the season varies
-    from warm to cold; their hair or fur, from its great length in the
-    winter and spring, and exposure to the weather, turning quite light,
-    and almost to a jet black, when the winter coat is shed off, and a new
-    growth is shooting out.</p>
-
-  <p>The buffalo bull often grows to the enormous weight of 2000 pounds, and
-    shakes a long and shaggy black mane, that falls in great profusion and
-    <em>confusion</em>,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_248">248</span> over his head and shoulders; and oftentimes falling
-    down quite to the ground. The horns are short, but very large, and have
-    but one turn, <i>i. e.</i> they are a simple arch, without the least
-    approach to a spiral form, like those of the common ox, or of the goat
-    species.</p>
-
-  <p>The female is much smaller than the male, and always distinguishable
-    by the peculiar shape of the horns, which are much smaller and more
-    crooked, turning their points more in towards the centre of the
-    forehead.</p>
-
-  <p>One of the most remarkable characteristics of the buffalo, is the
-    peculiar formation and expression of the eye, the ball of which is
-    very large and white, and the iris jet black. The lids of the eye seem
-    always to be strained quite open, and the ball rolling forward and
-    down; so that a considerable part of the iris is hidden behind the
-    lower lid, while the pure white of the eyeball glares out over it in an
-    arch, in the shape of a moon at the end of its first quarter.</p>
-
-  <p>These animals are, truly speaking, gregarious, but not migratory—they
-    graze in immense and almost incredible numbers at times, and roam about
-    and over vast tracts of country, from East to West, and from West to
-    East, as often as from North to South; which has often been supposed
-    they naturally and habitually did to accommodate themselves to the
-    temperature of the climate in the different latitudes. The limits
-    within which they are found in America, are from the 30th to the 55th
-    degrees of North latitude; and their extent from East to West, which is
-    from the border of our extreme Western frontier limits, to the Western
-    verge of the Rocky Mountains, is defined by quite different causes,
-    than those which the degrees of temperature have prescribed to them
-    on the North and the South. Within these 25 degrees of latitude, the
-    buffaloes seem to flourish, and get their living without the necessity
-    of evading the rigour of the climate, for which Nature seems most
-    wisely to have prepared them by the greater or less profusion of fur,
-    with which she has clothed them.</p>
-
-  <p>It is very evident that, as high North as Lake Winnepeg, seven or eight
-    hundred miles North of this, the buffalo subsists itself through the
-    severest winters; getting its food chiefly by browsing amongst the
-    timber, and by pawing through the snow, for a bite at the grass, which
-    in those regions is frozen up very suddenly in the beginning of the
-    winter, with all its juices in it, and consequently furnishes very
-    nutritious and efficient food; and often, if not generally, supporting
-    the animal in better flesh during these difficult seasons of their
-    lives, than they are found to be in, in the 30th degree of latitude,
-    upon the borders of Mexico, where the severity of winter is not known,
-    but during a long and tedious autumn, the herbage, under the influence
-    of a burning sun, is gradually dried away to a mere husk, and its
-    nutriment gone, leaving these poor creatures, even in the dead of
-    winter, to bask in the warmth of a genial sun, without the benefit of a
-    green or juicy thing to bite at.</p>
-
-  <p>The place from which I am now writing, may be said to be the very heart
-    or<span class="pagenum" id="Page_249">249</span> nucleus of the buffalo country, about equi-distant between the two
-    extremes; and of course, the most congenial temperature for them to
-    flourish in. The finest animals that graze on the prairies are to be
-    found in this latitude; and I am sure I never could send from a better
-    source, some further account of the death and destruction that is dealt
-    among these noble animals, and hurrying on their final extinction.</p>
-
-  <p>The Sioux are a bold and desperate set of horsemen, and great hunters;
-    and in the heart of their country is one of the most extensive
-    assortments of goods, of whiskey, and other saleable commodities, as
-    well as a party of the most indefatigable men, who are constantly
-    calling for every robe that can be stripped from these animals’ backs.</p>
-
-  <p>These are the causes which lead so directly to their rapid destruction;
-    and which open to the view of the traveller so freshly, so vividly, and
-    so familiarly, the scenes of archery—of lancing, and of death-dealing,
-    that belong peculiarly to this wild and shorn country.</p>
-
-  <p>The almost countless herds of these animals that are sometimes met with
-    on these prairies, have been often spoken of by other writers, and may
-    yet be seen by any traveller who will take the pains to visit these
-    regions. The “<em>running season</em>,” which is in August and September,
-    is the time when they congregate into such masses in some places, as
-    literally to blacken the prairies for miles together. It is no uncommon
-    thing at this season, at these gatherings, to see several thousands
-    in a mass, eddying and wheeling about under a cloud of dust, which
-    is raised by the bulls as they are pawing in the dirt, or engaged in
-    desperate combats, as they constantly are, plunging and butting at each
-    other in the most furious manner (<a href="#i_105"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 105</a>). In these scenes,
-    the males are continually following the females, and the whole mass are
-    in constant motion; and all bellowing (or “roaring”) in deep and hollow
-    sounds; which, mingled altogether, appear, at the distance of a mile or
-    two, like the sound of distant thunder.</p>
-
-  <p>During the season whilst they are congregated together in these dense
-    and confused masses, the remainder of the country around for many
-    miles, becomes entirely vacated; and the traveller may spend many a
-    toilsome day, and many a hungry night, without being cheered by the
-    sight of one; where, if he retraces his steps a few weeks after, he
-    will find them dispersed, and grazing quietly in little families and
-    flocks, and equally stocking the whole country. Of these quiet little
-    herds, a fair representation will be seen in <a href="#i_106"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 106</a>, where
-    some are grazing, others at play, or lying down, and others indulging
-    in their “wallows.” “A bull in his wallow” is a frequent saying in this
-    country; and has a very significant meaning with those who have ever
-    seen a buffalo bull performing <em>ablution</em>, or rather endeavouring
-    to cool his heated sides, by tumbling about in a mud puddle.</p>
-
-  <p>In the heat of summer, these huge animals, which, no doubt, suffer very
-    much with the great profusion of their long and shaggy hair or fur,
-    often graze on the low grounds in the prairies, where there is a little
-    stagnant<span class="pagenum" id="Page_250">250</span> water lying amongst the grass, and the ground underneath
-    being saturated with it, is soft, into which the enormous bull, lowered
-    down upon one knee, will plunge his horns, and at last his head,
-    driving up the earth, and soon making an excavation in the ground, into
-    which the water filters from amongst the grass, forming for him in a
-    few moments, a cool and comfortable bath, into which he plunges like a
-    hog in his mire.</p>
-
-  <p>In this <em>delectable</em> laver, he throws himself flat upon his side,
-    and forcing himself violently around, with his horns and his huge hump
-    on his shoulders presented to the sides, he ploughs up the ground by
-    his rotary motion, sinking himself deeper and deeper in the ground,
-    continually enlarging his pool, in which he at length becomes nearly
-    immersed; and the water and mud about him mixed into a complete mortar,
-    which changes his colour, and drips in streams from every part of him
-    as he rises up upon his feet, a hideous monster of mud and ugliness,
-    too frightful and too eccentric to be described!</p>
-
-  <p>It is generally the leader of the herd that takes upon him to make
-    this excavation; and if not (but another one opens the ground), the
-    leader (who is conqueror) marches forward, and driving the other from
-    it plunges himself into it; and having cooled his sides, and changed
-    his colour to a walking mass of mud and mortar; he stands in the pool
-    until inclination induces him to step out, and give place to the next
-    in command, who stands ready; and another, and another, who advance
-    forward in their turns, to enjoy the luxury of the wallow; until the
-    whole band (sometimes an hundred or more) will pass through it in turn;
-    each one throwing his body around in a similar manner; and each one
-    adding a little to the dimensions of the pool, while he carries away in
-    his hair an equal share of the clay, which dries to a grey or whitish
-    colour, and gradually falls off. By this operation, which is done,
-    perhaps, in the space of half an hour, a circular excavation of fifteen
-    or twenty feet in diameter, and two feet in depth, is completed, and
-    left for the water to run into, which soon fills it to the level of the
-    ground.</p>
-
-  <p>To these sinks, the waters lying on the surface of the prairies, are
-    continually draining, and in them lodging their vegetable deposits;
-    which, after a lapse of years, fill them up to the surface with a rich
-    soil, which throws up an unusual growth of grass and herbage; forming
-    conspicuous circles which arrest the eye of the traveller, and are
-    calculated to excite his surprise for ages to come.</p>
-
-  <p>Many travellers who have penetrated not quite far enough into the
-    Western country to see the habits of these animals, and the manner
-    in which these <em>mysterious</em> circles are made; but who have seen
-    the prairies strewed with their bleached bones, and have beheld
-    these strange circles, which often occur in groups, and of different
-    sizes—have come home with beautiful and ingenious theories (which
-    <em>must needs be made</em>), for the origin of these singular and
-    unaccountable appearances, which, for want of a rational<span class="pagenum" id="Page_251">251</span> theory,
-    have generally been attributed to <em>fairy feet</em>, and gained the
-    appellation of “<em>fairy circles</em>.”</p>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>72</i></div>
-  <figure id="i_105">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_105.jpg" alt="buffaloes fighting">
-     <figcaption>105</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <figure class="mt2" id="i_106">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_106.jpg" alt="buffalo herd">
-     <figcaption>106</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p>Many travellers, again, have supposed that these rings were produced
-    by the dances of the Indians, which are oftentimes (and in fact
-    most generally) performed in a circle; yet a moment’s consideration
-    disproves such a probability, inasmuch as the Indians always select the
-    ground for their dancing near the sites of their villages, and that
-    always on a dry and hard foundation; when these “fairy circles” are
-    uniformly found to be on low and wet ground.</p>
-
-  <p>As my visit to these parts of the “<em>Great Far West</em>” has brought
-    me into the heart of the buffalo country, where I have had abundant
-    opportunities of seeing this noble animal in all its phases—its habits
-    of life, and every mode of its death; I shall take the liberty of being
-    yet a little more particular, and of rendering some further accounts of
-    scenes which I have witnessed in following out my sporting propensities
-    in these singular regions.</p>
-
-  <p>The chief hunting amusement of the Indians in these parts consists in
-    the chase of the buffalo, which is almost invariably done on horseback,
-    with bow and lance. In this exercise, which is highly prized by them,
-    as one of their most valued amusements, as well as for the principal
-    mode of procuring meat for their subsistence, they become exceedingly
-    expert; and are able to slay these huge animals with apparent ease.</p>
-
-  <p>The Indians in these parts are all mounted on small, but serviceable
-    horses, which are caught by them on the prairies, where they are often
-    running wild in numerous bands. The Indian, then, mounted on his little
-    wild horse, which has been through some years of training, dashes off
-    at full speed amongst the herds of buffaloes, elks, or even antelopes,
-    and deals his deadly arrows to their hearts from his horse’s back. The
-    horse is the fleetest animal of the prairie, and easily brings his
-    rider alongside of his game, which falls a certain prey to his deadly
-    shafts, at the distance of a few paces.</p>
-
-  <p>In the chase of the buffalo, or other animal, the Indian generally
-    “strips” himself and his horse, by throwing off his shield and quiver,
-    and every part of his dress, which might be an encumbrance to him in
-    running; grasping his bow in his left hand, with five or six arrows
-    drawn from his quiver, and ready for instant use. In his right hand (or
-    attached to the wrist) is a heavy whip, which he uses without mercy,
-    and forces his horse alongside of his game at the swiftest speed.</p>
-
-  <p>These horses are so trained, that the Indian has little use for the
-    rein, which hangs on the neck, whilst the horse approaches the animal
-    on the right side (<a href="#i_107"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 107</a>), giving his rider the chance
-    to throw his arrow to the left; which he does at the instant when the
-    horse is passing—bringing him opposite to the heart, which receives the
-    deadly weapon “to the feather.” When pursuing a large herd, the Indian
-    generally rides close in the rear, until he selects the animal he
-    wishes to kill, which he separates from the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_252">252</span> throng as soon as he can,
-    by dashing his horse between it and the herd, and forcing it off by
-    itself; where he can approach it without the danger of being trampled
-    to death, to which he is often liable by too closely escorting the
-    multitude.</p>
-
-  <p>In <a href="#i_107"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 107</a>, I have fairly represented the mode of
-    <em>approaching</em>, at the instant the arrow is to be thrown; and the
-    striking disparity between the size of a huge bull of 2000 pounds
-    weight, and the Indian horse, which, it will be borne in mind, is but a
-    pony.</p>
-
-  <p>No bridle whatever is used in this country by the Indians, as they have
-    no knowledge of a bit. A short halter, however, which answers in place
-    of a bridle, is in general use; of which they usually form a noose
-    around the under jaw of the horse, by which they get great power over
-    the animal; and which they use generally to <em>stop</em> rather than
-    <em>guide</em> the horse. This halter is called by the French Traders in
-    the country, <i lang="fr">l’arrêt</i>, the stop, and has great power in arresting
-    the speed of a horse; though it is extremely dangerous to use too
-    freely as a guide, interfering too much with the freedom of his limbs,
-    for the certainty of his feet and security of his rider.</p>
-
-  <p>When the Indian then has directed the course of his steed to the animal
-    which he has selected, the training of the horse is such, that it knows
-    the object of its rider’s selection, and exerts every muscle to give it
-    close company; while the halter lies loose and untouched upon its neck,
-    and the rider leans quite forward, and off from the side of his horse,
-    with his bow drawn, and ready for the deadly shot, which is given
-    at the instant he is opposite to the animal’s body. The horse being
-    instinctively afraid of the animal (though he generally brings his
-    rider within the reach of the end of his bow), keeps his eye strained
-    upon the furious enemy he is so closely encountering; and the moment
-    he has approached to the nearest distance required, and has passed the
-    animal, whether the shot is given or not, he gradually sheers off, to
-    prevent coming on to the horns of the infuriated beast, which often
-    are instantly turned, and presented for the fatal reception of its
-    too familiar attendant. These frightful collisions often take place,
-    notwithstanding the sagacity of the horse, and the caution of its
-    rider; for in these extraordinary (and inexpressible) exhilarations of
-    chase, which seem to drown the prudence alike, of instinct and reason,
-    both horse and rider often seem rushing on to destruction, as if it
-    were mere pastime and amusement.<a id="FNanchor_13" href="#Footnote_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a></p>
-
-  <p>I have always counted myself a prudent man, yet I have often
-    <em>waked</em> (as it were) out of the delirium of the chase (into which
-    I had fallen, as into an agitated sleep, and through which I had passed
-    as through a delightful dream), where to have died would have been but
-    to have remained, riding on, without a struggle or a pang.</p>
-
-  <p>In some of these, too, I have arisen from the prairie, covered with
-    dirt and <span class="pagenum" id="Page_253">253</span>blood, having severed company with gun and horse, the one
-    lying some twenty or thirty feet from me with a broken stalk, and the
-    other coolly brousing on the grass at half a mile distance, without
-    man, and without other beast remaining in sight.</p>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>73</i></div>
-  <figure id="i_107">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_107.jpg" alt="Approaching buffalo">
-     <figcaption>107</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <figure class="mt2" id="i_108">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_108.jpg" alt="Buffalo hunt">
-     <figcaption>108</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p>For the novice in these scenes there is much danger of his limbs and
-    his life, and he finds it a hard and a desperate struggle that brings
-    him in at <em>the death</em> of these huge monsters, except where it has
-    been produced by hands that have acquired more sleight and tact than
-    his own.</p>
-
-  <p>With the Indian, who has made this the every day sport and amusement of
-    his life, there is less difficulty and less danger; he rides without
-    “losing his breath,” and his unagitated hand deals <em>certainty</em> in
-    its deadly blows.</p>
-
-  <p>In <a href="#i_108"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 108</a>, I have represented a party of Indians in chase
-    of a herd some of whom are pursuing with lance and others with bows and
-    arrows. The group in the foreground shews the attitude at the instant
-    after the arrow has been thrown and driven to the heart; the Indian at
-    full speed, and the <em>laso</em> dragging behind his horse’s heels. The
-    laso is a long thong of rawhide, of ten or fifteen yards in length,
-    made of several braids or twists, and used chiefly to catch the wild
-    horse, which is done by throwing over their necks a noose which is made
-    at the end of the <em>laso</em>, with which they are “choked down.” In
-    running the buffaloes, or in time of war, the <em>laso</em> drags on the
-    ground at the horse’s feet, and sometimes several rods behind, so that
-    if a man is dismounted, which is often the case, by the tripping or
-    stumbling of the horse, he has the power of grasping to the laso, and
-    by stubbornly holding on to it, of stopping and securing his horse, on
-    whose back he is instantly replaced, and continuing on in the chase.</p>
-
-  <p>In the dead of the winters, which are very long and severely cold in
-    this country, where horses cannot be brought into the chase with any
-    avail, the Indian runs upon the surface of the snow by the aid of his
-    snow shoes, which buoy him up, while the great weight of the buffaloes,
-    sinks them down to the middle of their sides, and completely stopping
-    their progress, ensures them certain and easy victims to the bow or
-    lance of their pursuers, as in <a href="#i_109"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 109</a>. The snow in these
-    regions often lies during the winter, to the depth of three and four
-    feet, being blown away from the tops and sides of the hills in many
-    places, which are left bare for the buffaloes to graze upon, whilst
-    it is drifted in the hollows and ravines to a very great depth, and
-    rendered almost entirely impassable to these huge animals, which, when
-    closely pursued by their enemies, endeavour to plunge through it,
-    but are soon wedged in and almost unable to move, where they fall an
-    easy prey to the Indian, who runs up lightly upon his snow shoes and
-    drives his lance to their hearts. The skins are then stripped off, to
-    be sold to the Fur Traders, and the carcasses left to be devoured by
-    the wolves. This is the season in which the greatest number of these
-    animals are destroyed for their robes—they are most easily killed at
-    this time, and their hair or fur being longer and more abundant, gives
-    greater value to the robe.</p>
-
-  <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_254">254</span></p>
-
-  <p>The Indians generally kill and dry meat enough in the fall, when it
-    is fat and juicy, to last them through the winter; so that they have
-    little other object for this unlimited slaughter, amid the drifts
-    of snow, than that of procuring their robes for traffic with their
-    Traders. The snow shoes are made in a great many forms, of two and
-    three feet in length, and one foot or more in width, of a hoop or
-    hoops bent around for the frame, with a netting or web woven across
-    with strings of rawhide, on which the feet rest, and to which they are
-    fastened with straps somewhat like a skate.<a id="FNanchor_14" href="#Footnote_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> With these the Indian
-    will glide over the snow with astonishing quickness, without sinking
-    down, or scarcely leaving his track where he has gone.</p>
-
-  <p>The poor buffaloes have their enemy <em>man</em>, besetting and beseiging
-    them at all times of the year, and in all the modes that man in his
-    superior wisdom has been able to devise for their destruction. They
-    struggle in vain to evade his deadly shafts, when he dashes amongst
-    them over the plains on his wild horse—they plunge into the snow-drifts
-    where they yield themselves an easy prey to their destroyers, and they
-    also stand unwittingly and behold him, unsuspected under the skin of
-    a white wolf, insinuating himself and his fatal weapons into close
-    company, when they are peaceably grazing on the level prairies, and
-    shot down before they are aware of their danger (<a href="#i_110"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 110</a>).</p>
-
-  <p>There are several varieties of the wolf species in this country, the
-    most formidable and most numerous of which are white, often sneaking
-    about in gangs or families of fifty or sixty in numbers, appearing in
-    distance, on the green prairies like nothing but a flock of sheep.
-    Many of these animals grow to a very great size, being I should think,
-    quite a match for the largest Newfoundland dog. At present, whilst the
-    buffaloes are so abundant, and these ferocious animals are glutted
-    with the buffalo’s flesh, they are harmless, and everywhere sneak away
-    from man’s presence; which I scarcely think will be the case after
-    the buffaloes are all gone, and they are left, as they must be, with
-    scarcely anything to eat. They always are seen following about in the
-    vicinity of herds of buffaloes and stand ready to pick the bones of
-    those that the hunters leave on the ground, or to overtake and devour
-    those that are wounded, which fall an easy prey to them. While the herd
-    of buffaloes are together, they seem to have little dread of the wolf,
-    and allow them to come in close company with them. The Indian then has
-    taken advantage of this fact, and often places himself under the skin
-    of this animal, and crawls for half a mile or more on his hands and
-    knees, until he approaches within a few rods of the unsuspecting group,
-    and easily shoots down the fattest of the throng.</p>
-
-  <p>The buffalo is a very timid animal, and shuns the vicinity of man
-    with the <span class="pagenum" id="Page_255">255</span>keenest sagacity; yet, when overtaken, and harassed or
-    wounded, turns upon its assailants with the utmost fury, who have only
-    to seek safety in flight. In their desperate resistance the finest
-    horses are often destroyed; but the Indian, with his superior sagacity
-    and dexterity, generally finds some effective mode of escape, as in
-    <a href="#i_111"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 111</a>.</p>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>74</i></div>
-  <figure id="i_109">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_109.jpg" alt="Buffalo hunt in snow">
-     <figcaption>109</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <figure class="mt2" id="i_110">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_110.jpg" alt="Buffalo hunt">
-     <figcaption>110</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p>During the season of the year whilst the calves are young, the male
-    seems to stroll about by the side of the dam, as if for the purpose
-    of protecting the young, at which time it is exceedingly hazardous
-    to attack them, as they are sure to turn upon their pursuers, who
-    have often to fly to each others assistance (<a href="#i_112"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 112</a>). The
-    buffalo calf, during the first six months is red, and has so much the
-    appearance of a red calf in cultivated fields, that it could easily be
-    mingled and mistaken amongst them. In the fall, when it changes its
-    hair it takes a brown coat for the winter, which it always retains.
-    In pursuing a large herd of buffaloes at the season when their calves
-    are but a few weeks old, I have often been exceedingly amused with the
-    curious manœuvres of these shy little things. Amidst the thundering
-    confusion of a throng of several hundreds or several thousands of
-    these animals, there will be many of the calves that lose sight
-    of their dams; and being left behind by the throng, and the swift
-    passing hunters, they endeavour to secrete themselves, when they are
-    exceedingly put to it on a level prairie, where nought can be seen but
-    the short grass of six or eight inches in height, save an occasional
-    bunch of wild sage, a few inches higher, to which the poor affrighted
-    things will run, and dropping on their knees, will push their noses
-    under it, and into the grass, where they will stand for hours, with
-    their eyes shut, imagining themselves securely hid, whilst they are
-    standing up quite straight upon their hind feet and can easily be seen
-    at several miles distance. It is a familiar amusement for us accustomed
-    to these scenes, to retreat back over the ground where we have just
-    escorted the herd, and approach these little trembling things, which
-    stubbornly maintain their positions, with their noses pushed under
-    the grass, and their eyes strained upon us, as we dismount from our
-    horses and are passing around them. From this fixed position they are
-    sure not to move, until hands are laid upon them, and then for the
-    shins of a novice, we can extend our sympathy; or if he can preserve
-    the skin on his bones from the furious buttings of its head, we know
-    how to congratulate him on his signal success and good luck. In these
-    desperate struggles, for a moment, the little thing is conquered,
-    and makes no further resistance. And I have often, in concurrence
-    with a known custom of the country, held my hands over the eyes of
-    the calf, and breathed a few strong breaths into its nostrils; after
-    which I have, with my hunting companions, rode several miles into our
-    encampment, with the little prisoner busily following the heels of my
-    horse the whole way, as closely and as affectionately as its instinct
-    would attach it to the company of its dam!</p>
-
-  <p>This is one of the most extraordinary things that I have met with
-    in the habits of this wild country, and although I had often heard
-    of it, and felt<span class="pagenum" id="Page_256">256</span> unable exactly to believe it, I am now willing to
-    bear testimony to the fact, from the numerous instances which I have
-    witnessed since I came into the country. During the time that I resided
-    at this post, in the spring of the year, on my way up the river, I
-    assisted (in numerous hunts of the buffalo, with the Fur Company’s
-    men,) in bringing in, in the above manner, several of these little
-    prisoners, which sometimes followed for five or six miles close to
-    our horses’ heels, and even into the Fur Company’s Fort, and into the
-    stable where our horses were led. In this way, before I left for the
-    head waters of the Missouri, I think we had collected about a dozen,
-    which Mr. Laidlaw was successfully raising with the aid of a good milch
-    cow, and which were to be committed to the care of Mr. Chouteau to be
-    transported by the return of the steamer, to his extensive plantation
-    in the vicinity of <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Louis.<a id="FNanchor_15" href="#Footnote_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a></p>
-
-  <p>It is truly a melancholy contemplation for the traveller in this
-    country, to anticipate the period which is not far distant, when the
-    last of these noble animals, at the hands of white and red men, will
-    fall victims to their cruel and improvident rapacity; leaving these
-    beautiful green fields, a vast and idle waste, unstocked and unpeopled
-    for ages to come, until the bones of the one and the traditions of the
-    other will have vanished, and left scarce an intelligible trace behind.</p>
-
-  <p>That the reader should not think me visionary in these contemplations,
-    or romancing in making such assertions, I will hand him the following
-    item of the extravagancies which are practiced in these regions, and
-    rapidly leading to the results which I have just named.</p>
-
-  <p>When I first arrived at this place, on my way up the river, which was
-    in the month of May, in 1832, and had taken up my lodgings in the Fur
-    Company’s Fort, Mr. Laidlaw, of whom I have before spoken, and also his
-    chief clerk, Mr. Halsey, and many of their men, as well as the chiefs
-    of the Sioux, told me, that only a few days before I arrived, (when an
-    immense herd of buffaloes had showed themselves on the opposite side of
-    the river, almost blackening the plains for a great distance,) a party
-    of five or six hundred Sioux Indians on horseback, forded the river
-    about mid-day, and spending a few hours amongst them, recrossed the
-    river at sun-down and came into the Fort with <em>fourteen hundred fresh
-    buffalo tongues</em>, which were thrown down in a mass, and for which
-    they required but a few gallons of whiskey, which was soon demolished,
-    indulging them in a little, and harmless carouse.</p>
-
-  <p>This profligate waste of the lives of these noble and useful animals,
-    when, from all that I could learn, not a skin or a pound of the
-    meat (except the tongues), was brought in, fully supports me in
-    the seemingly extravagant <span class="pagenum" id="Page_257">257</span>predictions that I have made as to
-    their extinction, which I am certain is near at hand. In the above
-    extravagant instance, at a season when their skins were without fur and
-    not worth taking off, and their camp was so well stocked with fresh and
-    dried meat, that they had no occasion for using the flesh, there is a
-    fair exhibition of the improvident character of the savage, and also of
-    his recklessness in catering for his appetite, so long as the present
-    inducements are held out to him in his country, for its gratification.</p>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>75</i></div>
-  <figure id="i_111">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_111.jpg" alt="Buffalo hunt">
-     <figcaption>111</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <figure class="mt2" id="i_112">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_112.jpg" alt="Buffalo hunt">
-     <figcaption>112</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p>In this singular country, where the poor Indians have no laws or
-    regulations of society, making it a vice or an impropriety to drink to
-    excess, they think it no harm to indulge in the delicious beverage, as
-    long as they are able to buy whiskey to drink. They look to white men
-    as wiser than themselves, and able to set them examples—they see none
-    of these in their country but sellers of whiskey, who are constantly
-    tendering it to them, and most of them setting the example by using it
-    themselves; and they easily acquire a taste, that to be catered for,
-    where whiskey is sold at sixteen dollars per gallon, soon impoverishes
-    them, and must soon strip the skin from the last buffalo’s back that
-    lives in their country, to “be dressed by their squaws” and vended to
-    the Traders for a pint of diluted alcohol.</p>
-
-  <p>From the above remarks it will be seen, that not only the red men, but
-    red men and white, have aimed destruction at the race of these animals;
-    and with them, <em>beasts</em> have turned hunters of buffaloes in this
-    country, slaying them, however, in less numbers, and for far more
-    laudable purpose than that of selling their skins. The white wolves, of
-    which I have spoken in a former epistle, follow the herds of buffaloes
-    as I have said, from one season to another, glutting themselves on the
-    carcasses of those that fall by the deadly shafts of their enemies,
-    or linger with disease or old age to be dispatched by these sneaking
-    cormorants, who are ready at all times kindly to relieve them from the
-    pangs of a lingering death.</p>
-
-  <p>Whilst the herd is together, the wolves never attack them, as they
-    instantly gather for combined resistance, which they effectually make.
-    But when the herds are travelling, it often happens that an aged or
-    wounded one, lingers at a distance behind, and when fairly out of sight
-    of the herd, is set upon by these voracious hunters, which often gather
-    to the number of fifty or more, and are sure at last to torture him
-    to death, and use him up at a meal. The buffalo, however, is a huge
-    and furious animal, and when his retreat is cut off, makes desperate
-    and deadly resistance, contending to the last moment for the right of
-    life—and oftentimes deals death by wholesale, to his canine assailants,
-    which he is tossing into the air or stamping to death under his feet
-    (<a href="#i_113"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 113</a>).</p>
-
-  <p>During my travels in these regions, I have several times come across
-    such a gang of these animals surrounding an old or a wounded bull,
-    where it would seem, from appearances, that they had been for several
-    days in attendance, and at intervals desperately engaged in the
-    effort to take his life. But a short time since, as one of my hunting
-    companions and myself were returning<span class="pagenum" id="Page_258">258</span> to our encampment with our horses
-    loaded with meat, we discovered at a distance, a huge bull, encircled
-    with a gang of white wolves; we rode up as near as we could without
-    driving them away, and being within pistol shot, we had a remarkably
-    good view, where I sat for a few moments and made a sketch in my
-    note-book (<a href="#i_114"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 114</a>); after which, we rode up and gave the
-    signal for them to disperse, which they instantly did, withdrawing
-    themselves to the distance of fifty or sixty rods, when we found, to
-    our great surprise, that the animal had made desperate resistance,
-    until his eyes were entirely eaten out of his head—the grizzle of his
-    nose was mostly gone—his tongue was half eaten off, and the skin and
-    flesh of his legs torn almost literally into strings. In this tattered
-    and torn condition, the poor old veteran stood bracing up in the midst
-    of his devourers, who had ceased hostilities for a few minutes, to
-    enjoy a sort of parley, recovering strength and preparing to resume
-    the attack in a few moments again. In this group, some were reclining,
-    to gain breath, whilst others were sneaking about and licking their
-    chaps in anxiety for a renewal of the attack; and others, less lucky,
-    had been crushed to death by the feet or the horns of the bull. I rode
-    nearer to the pitiable object as he stood bleeding and trembling before
-    me, and said to him, “Now is your time, old fellow, and you had better
-    be off.” Though blind and nearly destroyed, there seemed evidently
-    to be a recognition of a friend in me, as he straightened up, and,
-    trembling with excitement, dashed off at full speed upon the prairie,
-    in a straight line. We turned our horses and resumed our march, and
-    when we had advanced a mile or more, we looked back, and on our left,
-    where we saw again the ill-fated animal surrounded by his tormentors,
-    to whose insatiable voracity he unquestionably soon fell a victim.</p>
-
-  <p>Thus much I wrote of the buffaloes, and of the accidents that befall
-    them, as well as of the fate that awaits them; and before I closed my
-    book, I strolled out one day to the shade of a plum-tree, where I laid
-    in the grass on a favourite bluff, and wrote thus:—</p>
-
-  <p>“It is generally supposed, and familiarly said, that a man
-    ‘<em>falls</em>’ into a rêverie; but I seated myself in the shade a few
-    minutes since, resolved to <em>force</em> myself into one; and for this
-    purpose I laid open a small pocket-map of North America, and excluding
-    my thoughts from every other object in the world, I soon succeeded in
-    producing the desired illusion. This little chart, over which I bent,
-    was seen in all its parts, as nothing but the green and vivid reality.
-    I was lifted up upon an imaginary pair of wings, which easily raised
-    and held me floating in the open air, from whence I could behold
-    beneath me the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans—the great cities of the
-    East, and the mighty rivers. I could see the blue chain of the great
-    lakes at the North—the Rocky Mountains, and beneath them and near
-    their base, the vast, and almost boundless plains of grass, which were
-    speckled with the bands of grazing buffaloes!</p>
-
-  <p>“The world turned gently around, and I examined its surface; continent
-    <span class="pagenum" id="Page_259">259</span>after continent passed under my eye, and yet amidst them all, I saw
-    not the vast and vivid green, that is spread like a carpet over the
-    Western wilds of my own country. I saw not elsewhere in the world, the
-    myriad herds of buffaloes—my eyes scanned in vain, for they were not.
-    And when I turned again to the wilds of my native land, I beheld them
-    all in motion! For the distance of several hundreds of miles from North
-    to South, they were wheeling about in vast columns and herds—some were
-    scattered, and ran with furious wildness—some lay dead, and others
-    were pawing the earth for a hiding-place—some were sinking down and
-    dying, gushing out their life’s blood in deep-drawn sighs—and others
-    were contending in furious battle for the life they possessed, and
-    the ground that they stood upon. They had long since assembled from
-    the thickets, and secret haunts of the deep forest, into the midst of
-    the treeless and bushless plains, as the place for their safety. I
-    could see in an hundred places, amid the wheeling bands, and on their
-    skirts and flanks, the leaping wild horse darting among them. I saw
-    not the arrows, nor heard the twang of the sinewy bows that sent them;
-    but I saw their victims fall!—on other steeds that rushed along their
-    sides I saw the glistening lances, which seemed to lay across them;
-    their blades were blazing in the sun, till dipped in blood, and then
-    I lost them! In other parts (and there were many), the vivid flash of
-    <em>fire-arms</em> was seen—<em>their</em> victims fell too, and over their
-    dead bodies hung suspended in air, little clouds of whitened smoke,
-    from under which the flying horsemen had darted forward to mingle again
-    with, and deal death to, the trampling throng.</p>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>76</i></div>
-  <figure id="i_113">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_113.jpg" alt="Wolves attacking buffalo">
-     <figcaption>113</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <figure class="mt2" id="i_114">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_114.jpg" alt="Wolves attacking buffalo">
-     <figcaption>114</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p>“So strange were men mixed (both red and white) with the countless
-    herds that wheeled and eddyed about, that all below seemed one vast
-    extended field of battle—whole armies, in some places, seemed to
-    blacken the earth’s surface;—in other parts, regiments, battalions,
-    wings, platoons, rank and file, and “<em>Indian-file</em>”—all were in
-    motion; and death and destruction seemed to be the watch-word amongst
-    them. In their turmoil, they sent up great clouds of dust, and with
-    them came the mingled din of groans and trampling hoofs, that seemed
-    like the rumbling of a dreadful cataract, or the roaring of distant
-    thunder. Alternate pity and admiration harrowed up in my bosom and my
-    brain, many a hidden thought; and amongst them a few of the beautiful
-    notes that were once sung, and exactly in point: ‘<i lang="la">Quadrupedante
-    putrem sonitu quatit ungula campum.</i>’ Even such was the din amidst
-    the quadrupeds of these vast plains. And from the craggy cliffs of the
-    Rocky Mountains also were seen descending into the valley, the myriad
-    Tartars, who had not horses to ride, but before their well-drawn bows
-    the fattest of the herds were falling. Hundreds and thousands were
-    strewed upon the plains—they were flayed, and their reddened carcasses
-    left; and about them bands of wolves, and dogs, and buzzards were
-    seen devouring them. Contiguous, and in sight, were the distant and
-    feeble smokes of wigwams and villages, where the skins were dragged,
-    and dressed for white man’s luxury! where they were all sold for
-    <em>whiskey</em>, and the poor<span class="pagenum" id="Page_260">260</span> Indians laid drunk, and were crying.
-    I cast my eyes into the towns and cities of the East, and there I
-    beheld buffalo robes hanging at almost every door for traffic; and I
-    saw also the curling smokes of a thousand <em>Stills</em>—and I said,
-    ‘Oh insatiable man, is thy avarice such! wouldst thou tear the skin
-    from the back of the last animal of this noble race, <em>and rob thy
-    fellow-man of his meat, and for it give him poison</em>!’” <span class="gesperrtstar">* * * * * * * * * * *</span></p>
-
-  <p>Many are the rudenesses and wilds in Nature’s works, which are destined
-    to fall before the deadly axe and desolating hands of cultivating man;
-    and so amongst her ranks of <em>living</em>, of beast and human, we
-    often find noble stamps, or beautiful colours, to which our admiration
-    clings; and even in the overwhelming march of civilized improvements
-    and refinements do we love to cherish their existence, and lend our
-    efforts to preserve them in their primitive rudeness. Such of Nature’s
-    works are always worthy of our preservation and protection; and the
-    further we become separated (and the face of the country) from that
-    pristine wildness and beauty, the more pleasure does the mind of
-    enlightened man feel in recurring to those scenes, when he can have
-    them preserved for his eyes and his mind to dwell upon.</p>
-
-  <p>Of such “rudenesses and wilds,” Nature has no where presented more
-    beautiful and lovely scenes, than those of the vast prairies of the
-    West; and of <em>man</em> and <em>beast</em>, no nobler specimens than
-    those who inhabit them—the <em>Indian</em> and the <em>buffalo</em>—joint
-    and original tenants of the soil, and fugitives together from the
-    approach of civilized man; they have fled to the great plains of the
-    West, and there, under an equal doom, they have taken up their <em>last
-    abode</em>, where their race will expire, and their bones will bleach
-    together.</p>
-
-  <p>It may be that <em>power</em> is <em>right</em>, and <em>voracity</em> a
-    <em>virtue</em>; and that these people, and these noble animals, are
-    <em>righteously</em> doomed to an issue that <em>will</em> not be averted.
-    It can be easily proved—we have a civilized science that can easily do
-    it, or anything else that may be required to cover the iniquities of
-    civilized man in catering for his unholy appetites. It can be proved
-    that the weak and ignorant have no <em>rights</em>—that there can be no
-    virtue in darkness—that God’s gifts have no meaning or merit until they
-    are appropriated by civilized man—by him brought into the light, and
-    converted to his use and luxury. We have a mode of reasoning (I forget
-    what it is called) by which all this can be proved, and even more. The
-    <em>word</em> and the <em>system</em> are entirely of <em>civilized</em>
-    origin; and latitude is admirably given to them in proportion to
-    the increase of civilized wants, which often require a <em>judge</em>
-    to overrule the laws of nature. I say that <em>we</em> can prove such
-    things; but an <em>Indian</em> cannot. It is a mode of reasoning unknown
-    to him in his nature’s simplicity, but admirably adapted to subserve
-    the interests of the enlightened world, who are always their own
-    judges, when dealing with the savage; and who, in the present refined
-    age, have many appetites that can only be lawfully indulged, by proving
-    God’s laws defective.</p>
-
-  <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_261">261</span></p>
-
-  <p>It is not enough in this polished and extravagant age, that we get from
-    the Indian his lands, and the very clothes from his back, but the food
-    from their mouths must be stopped, to add a new and useless article to
-    the fashionable world’s luxuries. The ranks must be thinned, and the
-    race exterminated, of this noble animal, and the Indians of the great
-    plains left without the means of supporting life, that white men may
-    figure a few years longer, enveloped in buffalo robes—that they may
-    spread them, for their pleasure and elegance, over the backs of their
-    sleighs, and trail them ostentatiously amidst the busy throng, as
-    things of beauty and elegance that had been made for them!</p>
-
-  <p>Reader! listen to the following calculations, and forget them not.
-    The buffaloes (the quadrupeds from whose backs your beautiful robes
-    were taken, and whose myriads were once spread over the whole country,
-    from the Rocky Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean) have recently fled
-    before the appalling appearance of civilized man, and taken up their
-    abode and pasturage amid the almost boundless prairies of the West.
-    An instinctive dread of their deadly foes, who made an easy prey of
-    them whilst grazing in the forest, has led them to seek the midst of
-    the vast and treeless plains of grass, as the spot where they would be
-    least exposed to the assaults of their enemies; and it is exclusively
-    in those desolate fields of silence (yet of beauty) that they are to
-    be found—and over these vast steppes, or prairies, have they fled,
-    like the Indian, towards the “setting sun;” until their bands have
-    been crowded together, and their limits confined to a narrow strip of
-    country on this side of the Rocky Mountains.</p>
-
-  <p>This strip of country, which extends from the province of Mexico to
-    lake Winnepeg on the North, is almost one entire plain of grass, which
-    is, and ever must be, useless to cultivating man. It is here, and
-    here chiefly, that the buffaloes dwell; and with, and hovering about
-    them, live and flourish the tribes of Indians, whom God made for the
-    enjoyment of that fair land and its luxuries.</p>
-
-  <p>It is a melancholy contemplation for one who has travelled as I have,
-    through these realms, and seen this noble animal in all its pride and
-    glory, to contemplate it so rapidly wasting from the world, drawing the
-    irresistible conclusion too, which one must do, that its species is
-    soon to be extinguished, and with it the peace and happiness (if not
-    the actual existence) of the tribes of Indians who are joint tenants
-    with them, in the occupancy of these vast and idle plains.</p>
-
-  <p>And what a splendid contemplation too, when one (who has travelled
-    these realms, and can duly appreciate them) imagines them as they
-    <em>might</em> in future be seen, (by some great protecting policy of
-    government) preserved in their pristine beauty and wildness, in a
-    <em>magnificent park</em>, where the world could see for ages to come,
-    the native Indian in his classic attire, galloping his wild horse,
-    with sinewy bow, and shield and lance, amid the fleeting herds of elks
-    and buffaloes. What a beautiful and thrilling specimen for<span class="pagenum" id="Page_262">262</span> America to
-    preserve and hold up to the view of her refined citizens and the world,
-    in future ages! A <em>nation’s Park</em>, containing man and beast, in
-    all the wild and freshness of their nature’s beauty!</p>
-
-  <p>I would ask no other monument to my memory, nor any other enrolment of
-    my name amongst the famous dead, than the reputation of having been the
-    founder of such an institution.</p>
-
-  <p>Such scenes might easily have been preserved, and still could be
-    cherished on the great plains of the West, without detriment to
-    the country or its borders; for the tracts of country on which the
-    buffaloes have assembled, are uniformly sterile, and of no available
-    use to cultivating man.</p>
-
-  <p>It is on these plains, which are stocked with buffaloes, that the
-    finest specimens of the Indian race are to be seen. It is here, that
-    the savage is decorated in the richest costume. It is here, and here
-    only, that his wants are all satisfied, and even the <em>luxuries</em> of
-    life are afforded him in abundance. And here also is he the proud and
-    honourable man (before he has had teachers or laws), above the imported
-    wants, which beget meanness and vice; stimulated by ideas of honour and
-    virtue, in which the God of Nature has certainly not curtailed him.</p>
-
-  <p>There are, by a fair calculation, more than 300,000 Indians, who are
-    now subsisted on the flesh of the buffaloes, and by those animals
-    supplied with all the luxuries of life which they desire, as they
-    know of none others. The great variety of uses to which they convert
-    the body and other parts of that animal, are almost incredible to
-    the person who has not actually dwelt amongst these people, and
-    closely studied their modes and customs. Every part of their flesh is
-    converted into food, in one shape or another, and on it they entirely
-    subsist. The robes of the animals are worn by the Indians instead of
-    blankets—their skins when tanned, are used as coverings for their
-    lodges, and for their beds; undressed, they are used for constructing
-    canoes—for saddles, for bridles—l’arrêts, lasos, and thongs. The horns
-    are shaped into ladles and spoons—the brains are used for dressing the
-    skins—their bones are used for saddle trees—for war clubs, and scrapers
-    for graining the robes—and others are broken up for the marrow-fat
-    which is contained in them. Their sinews are used for strings and backs
-    to their bows—for thread to string their beads and sew their dresses.
-    The feet of the animals are boiled, with their hoofs, for the glue
-    they contain, for fastening their arrow points, and many other uses.
-    The hair from the head and shoulders, which is long, is twisted and
-    braided into halters, and the tail is used for a fly brush. In this
-    wise do these people convert and use the various parts of this useful
-    animal, and with all these luxuries of life about them, and their
-    numerous games, they are happy (God bless them) in the ignorance of the
-    disastrous fate that awaits them.</p>
-
-  <p>Yet this interesting community, with its sports, its wildnesses, its
-    languages, and all its manners and customs, could be perpetuated, and
-    also the buffaloes, whose numbers would increase and supply them with
-    food for ages and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_263">263</span> centuries to come, if a system of non-intercourse
-    could be established and preserved. But such is not to be the case—the
-    buffalo’s doom is sealed, and with their extinction must assuredly sink
-    into real despair and starvation, the inhabitants of these vast plains,
-    which afford for the Indians, no other possible means of subsistence;
-    and they must at last fall a prey to wolves and buzzards, who will have
-    no other bones to pick.</p>
-
-  <p>It seems hard and cruel, (does it not?) that we civilized people with
-    all the luxuries and comforts of the world about us, should be drawing
-    from the backs of these useful animals the skins for our luxury,
-    leaving their carcasses to be devoured by the wolves—that we should
-    draw from that country, some 150 or 200,000 of their robes annually,
-    the greater part of which are taken from animals that are killed
-    expressly for the robe, at a season when the meat is not cured and
-    preserved, and for each of which skins the Indian has received but a
-    pint of whiskey!</p>
-
-  <p>Such is the fact, and that number or near it, are annually destroyed,
-    in addition to the number that is necessarily killed for the
-    subsistence of 300,000 Indians, who live entirely upon them. It may
-    be said, perhaps, that the Fur Trade of these great western realms,
-    which is now limited chiefly to the purchase of buffalo robes, is of
-    great and national importance, and should and must be encouraged. To
-    such a suggestion I would reply, by merely enquiring, (independently
-    of the poor Indians’ disasters,) how much more advantageously would
-    such a capital be employed, both for the weal of the country and for
-    the owners, if it were invested in machines for the manufacture of
-    <em>woollen robes</em>, of equal and superior value and beauty; thereby
-    encouraging the growers of wool, and the industrious manufacturer,
-    rather than cultivating a taste for the use of buffalo skins; which is
-    just to be acquired, and then, from necessity, to be dispensed with,
-    when a few years shall have destroyed the last of the animals producing
-    them.</p>
-
-  <p>It may be answered, perhaps, that the necessaries of life are given in
-    exchange for these robes; but what, I would ask, are the necessities
-    in Indian life, where they have buffaloes in abundance to live on? The
-    Indian’s necessities are entirely artificial—are all created; and when
-    the buffaloes shall have disappeared in his country, which will be
-    within <em>eight</em> or <em>ten</em> years, I would ask, who is to supply
-    him with the necessaries of life then? and I would ask, further, (and
-    leave the question to be answered ten years hence), when the skin shall
-    have been stripped from the back of the last animal, who is to resist
-    the ravages of 300,000 starving savages; and in their trains, 1,500,000
-    wolves, whom direst necessity will have driven from their desolate and
-    gameless plains, to seek for the means of subsistence along our exposed
-    frontier? God has everywhere supplied man in a state of Nature, with
-    the necessaries of life, and before we destroy the game of his country,
-    or teach him new desires, he has no wants that are not satisfied.</p>
-
-  <p>Amongst the tribes who have been impoverished and repeatedly removed,
-    the necessaries of life are extended with a better grace from the
-    hands of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_264">264</span> civilized man; 90,000 of such have already been removed, and
-    they draw from Government some 5 or 600,000 dollars annually in cash;
-    <em>which money passes immediately into the hands of white men</em>, and
-    for it the necessaries of life <em>may be</em> abundantly furnished. But
-    who, I would ask, are to furnish the Indians who have been instructed
-    in this unnatural mode—living upon <em>such</em> necessaries, and even
-    luxuries of life, extended to them by the hands of white men, when
-    those annuities are at an end, and the skin is stripped from the last
-    of the animals which God gave them for their subsistence?</p>
-
-  <p>Reader, I will stop here, lest you might forget to answer these
-    important queries—these are questions which I know will puzzle the
-    world—and, perhaps it is not right that I should ask them. <span class="gesperrtstar">* * * * * * * * *</span></p>
-
-  <p><span class="gesperrtstar">* *</span> Thus much I wrote and painted at this place, whilst on my way up
-    the river: after which I embarked on the steamer for the Yellow Stone,
-    and the sources of the Missouri, through which interesting regions I
-    have made a successful Tour; and have returned, as will have been seen
-    by the foregoing narrations, in my canoe, to this place, from whence
-    I am to descend the river still further in a few days. If I ever get
-    time, I may give further Notes on this place, and of people and their
-    doings, which I met with here; but at present, I throw my note-book,
-    and canvass, and brushes into my canoe, which will be launched
-    to-morrow morning, and on its way towards <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Louis, with myself at
-    the steering-oar, as usual; and with Ba’tiste and Bogard to paddle, of
-    whom, I beg the readers’ pardon for having said nothing of late, though
-    they have been my constant companions. Our way is now over the foaming
-    and muddy waters of the Missouri, and amid snags and drift logs (for
-    there is a sweeping freshet on her waters), and many a day will pass
-    before other Letters will come from me; and possibly, the reader may
-    have to look to my biographer for the rest. Adieu.</p>
-
-  <div class="footnotes">
-    <div class="footnote">
-      <a id="Footnote_13" href="#FNanchor_13" class="label">[13]</a> The reader will be further instructed on this subject, by
-        referring back to <a href="#i_009"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 9</a>, in the beginning of the book.
-    </div>
-
-    <div class="footnote">
-      <a id="Footnote_14" href="#FNanchor_14" class="label">[14]</a> The readers will look forward to
-        <span class="smcap">plates</span> 240 and 243, in the Second Volume, for snow shoes.
-    </div>
-
-    <div class="footnote">
-      <a id="Footnote_15" href="#FNanchor_15" class="label">[15]</a> The fate of these poor little prisoners, I was informed
-        on my return to <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Louis a year afterwards, was a very disastrous
-        one. The steamer having a distance of 1600 miles to perform, and lying
-        a week or two on sand bars, in a country where milk could not be
-        procured, they all perished but one, which is now flourishing in the
-        extensive fields of this gentleman.
-    </div>
-  </div>
-
-<div class="center small mt5">END OF VOL. I.</div>
-
-  <div class="transnote mt5">
-    <div class="large center"><b>Transcriber’s Notes:</b></div>
-    <ul class="spaced">
-      <li>Blank pages have been removed.</li>
-      <li>Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected.</li>
-      <li>All illustrations are attributed to <i>G. Catlin</i>.</li>
-      <li>There is no illustration 23, and some are out of sequence.</li>
-    </ul>
-  </div>
-
-<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE MANNERS, CUSTOMS, &AMP; CONDITION OF THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS, VOL. I (OF 2) ***</div>
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-The Project Gutenberg eBook of Illustrations of the manners, customs,
-& condition of the North American Indians, Vol. I (of 2), by George
-Catlin
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
-most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
-whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
-of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
-www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you
-will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before
-using this eBook.
-
-Title: Illustrations of the manners, customs, & condition of the North
-       American Indians, Vol. I (of 2)
-       With letters and notes, written during eight years of travel and
-       adventure among the wildest and most remarkable tribes now
-       existing
-
-Author: George Catlin
-
-Release Date: August 16, 2022 [eBook #68768]
-
-Language: English
-
-Produced by: Richard Hulse, Robert Tonsing and the Online Distributed
-             Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was
-             produced from images generously made available by The
-             Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
-
-*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE MANNERS,
-CUSTOMS, & CONDITION OF THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS, VOL. I (OF 2) ***
-
-
-
-[Illustration: _G. Catlin_
-
-  _The Author painting a Chief at the base of the Rocky Mountains._]
-
-
-
-
-                             ILLUSTRATIONS
-                                 OF THE
-                    _MANNERS, CUSTOMS, & CONDITION_
-                                 OF THE
-                        NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS.
-
-                       =With Letters and Notes=,
-
-     +Written during Eight Years of Travel and Adventure among the
-           Wildest and most Remarkable Tribes now Existing+.
-
-                          +By+ GEORGE CATLIN.
-
-                                  WITH
-             _THREE HUNDRED AND SIXTY COLOURED ENGRAVINGS_
-                 FROM THE AUTHOR’S ORIGINAL PAINTINGS.
-
-                             [Illustration]
-
-                        IN TWO VOLUMES.—VOL. I.
-
-                               =London:=
-                      CHATTO & WINDUS, PICCADILLY.
-                                 1876.
-
-
-                                LONDON:
-                      PRINTED BY J. OGDEN AND CO.,
-                       172, ST. JOHN STREET, E.C.
-
-
-
-
-                                CONTENTS
-                                   OF
-                           THE FIRST VOLUME.
-
-
-+Frontispiece+:—_The Author painting a Chief in an Indian Village._
-
-+Map+ _of_ +Indian Localities+ _embraced within the Author’s Travels_.
-
-
-                             LETTER—No. 1.
-
-Wyöming, birth-place of the Author, p. 2.—His former Profession—First
-  cause of his Travels to the Indian Country—Delegation of Indians in
-  Philadelphia—First start to the Far West, in 1832, p. 3.—Design of
-  forming a National Gallery—Numbers of Tribes visited, and number of
-  Paintings and other things collected, p. 4.—Probable extinction of
-  the Indians, p. 5.—Former and present numbers of—The proper mode of
-  approaching them, and estimating their character, p. 5–10.
-
-+Certificates+ _of Government Officers, Indian Agents and others, as to
-  the fidelity of the Portraits and other Paintings_, p. 11–13.
-
-
-                             LETTER—No. 2.
-
-Mouth of Yellow Stone, p. 14, pl. 3.—Distance from St.
-  Louis—Difficulties of the Missouri—Politeness of Mr. Chouteau and
-  Major Sanford—Fur Company’s Fort—Indian Epicures—New and true School
-  for the Arts—Beautiful Models, p. 14–16.
-
-
-                 LETTER—+No. 3, Mouth of Yellow Stone+.
-
-Character of Missouri River, p. 18, pl. 4.—Beautiful prairie shores, p.
-  19, pl. 5.—Picturesque clay bluffs, p. 19, pl. 6.—First appearance of
-  a steamer at the Yellow Stone, and curious conjectures of the Indians
-  about it, p. 20.—Fur Company’s Establishment at the mouth of Yellow
-  Stone—M‘Kenzie—His table and politeness, p. 21.—Indian tribes in this
-  vicinity, p. 22.
-
-
-                 LETTER—+No. 4, Mouth of Yellow Stone+.
-
-Upper Missouri Indians—General character, p. 23.—Buffaloes—Description
-  of, p. 24, pls. 7, 8.—Modes of killing them—Buffalo-hunt, p.
-  25.—Chardon’s Leap, p. 26, pl. 9.—Wounded bull, p. 26, pl.
-  10.—Extraordinary feat of Mr. M‘Kenzie, p. 27.—Return from the chase,
-  p. 28.
-
-
-                 LETTER—+No. 5, Mouth of Yellow Stone+.
-
-Author’s painting-room, and characters in it, p. 29.—Blackfoot
-  chief, p. 29, pl. 11.—Other Blackfoot chiefs, and their costumes,
-  p. 30.—Blackfoot woman and child, p. 30, pls. 12, 13;—Scalps,
-  and objects for which taken—red pipes, and pipe-stone quarry, p.
-  31.—Blackfoot bows, shields, arrows and lances, p. 32, 33, pl.
-  18.—Several distinguished Blackfeet, p. 34, pls. 14, 15, 16, 17.
-
-
-                 LETTER—+No. 6, Mouth of Yellow Stone+.
-
-Medicines or mysteries—medicine-bag—origin of the word medicine,
-  p. 35.—Mode of forming the medicine-bag, p. 36.—Value of the
-  medicine-bag to the Indian, and materials for their construction,
-  p. 37, pl. 18.—Blackfoot doctor or medicine-man—his mode of curing
-  the sick, p. 39, pl. 19.—Different offices and importance of
-  medicine-men, p. 41.
-
-
-                 LETTER—+No. 7, Mouth of Yellow Stone+.
-
-Crews and Blackfeet—General character and appearance, p. 42.—Killing
-  and drying meat, p. 43, pl. 22.—Crow lodge or wigwam, p. 43, pl.
-  20.—Striking their tents and encampment moving, p. 44, pl. 21.—Mode
-  of dressing and smoking skins, p. 45.—Crows—Beauty of their
-  dresses—Horse-stealing or capturing—Reasons why they are called
-  rogues and robbers of the first order, &c. p. 46.
-
-
-                 LETTER—+No. 8, Mouth of Yellow Stone+.
-
-Further remarks on the Crows—Extraordinary length of hair, p.
-  49.—Peculiarities of the Crow head, and several portraits, p. 50,
-  pls. 24, 25, 26, 27.—Crow and Blackfeet women—Their modes of dressing
-  and painting, p. 51.—Differences between the Crow and Blackfoot
-  languages, p. 51.—Different hands—Different languages, and numbers
-  of the Blackfeet, p. 52.—Knisteneaux—Assinneboins, and Ojibbeways,
-  p. 53.—Assinneboins a part of the Sioux—Their mode of boiling meat,
-  p. 54.—Pipe-dance, p. 55, pl. 52.—Wi-jun-jon (a chief) and wife,
-  pls. 28, 29.—His visit to Washington, p. 56.—Dresses of women
-  and children of the Assinneboins, p. 57, pl. 34.—Knisteneaux (or
-  Crees)—character and numbers, and several portraits, p. 57, pls. 30,
-  31.—Ojibbeways—Chief and wife, p. 58, pls. 35, 36.
-
-
-                 LETTER—+No. 9, Mouth of Yellow Stone+.
-
-Contemplations of the Great Far West and its customs, p. 59.—Old
-  acquaintance, p. 60.—March and effects of civilization, p. 60.—The
-  “Far West”—The Author in search of it, p. 62.—Meeting with
-  “Ba’tiste,” a free trapper, p. 63, 64.
-
-
-            LETTER—+No. 10, Mandan Village, Upper Missouri+.
-
-A strange place—Voyage from Mouth of Yellow Stone down the river to
-  Mandans—Commencement—Leave M‘Kenzie’s Fort, p. 66.—Assinneboins
-  encamped on the river Wi-jun-jon lecturing on the customs of white
-  people—Mountain-sheep, p. 67,—War-eagles—Grizzly bears, p. 68.—Clay
-  bluffs, “brick-kilns,” volcanic remains, p. 69, pls. 37, 38.—Red
-  pumice stone—A wild stroll—Mountaineer’s sleep, p. 70.—Grizzly bear
-  and cubs—Courageous attack—Canoe robbed, p. 71.—Eating our meals
-  on a pile of drift-wood—Encamping in the night—Voluptuous scene of
-  wild flowers, buffalo bush and berries, p. 72.—Adventure after an
-  elk—War-party discovered, p. 74.—Magnificent scenery in the “Grand
-  Détour”—Stupendous clay bluffs—Table land, p. 75, pl. 39.—Antelope
-  shooting, p. 76, pl. 40.—“Grand Dome”—Prairie dogs—Village—Fruitless
-  endeavours to shoot them, p. 77, pl. 42.—Pictured bluff and the Three
-  Domes, p. 78, pls. 43, 44.—Arrival at the Mandan village, p. 79.
-
-
-                    LETTER—+No. 11, Mandan Village+.
-
-Location—Village, p. 80, pl. 45.—Former locations fortification of
-  their village—Description of village and mode of constructing their
-  wigwams, p. 81, 82.—Description of interior—Beds—Weapons—Family
-  groups, p. 82, 83, pl. 46.—Indian garrulity—Jokes—Fire-side fun and
-  story-telling, p. 84.—Causes of Indian taciturnity in civilized
-  society, p. 85.
-
-
-                    LETTER—+No. 12, Mandan Village+.
-
-Bird’s-eye view of the village, p. 87, pl. 47.—The “big
-  canoe”—Medicine-lodge—A strange medley, p. 88.—Mode of depositing
-  the dead on scaffolds, p. 89.—Respect to the dead—Visiting the
-  dead—Feeding the dead—Converse with the dead—Bones of the dead, p.
-  90, pl. 48.
-
-
-                    LETTER—+No. 13, Mandan Village+.
-
-The wolf-chief—Head-chief of the tribe, p. 92, pl.
-  49.—Several portraits, p. 92, pls. 50, 51, 52, 53.—Personal
-  appearance—Peculiarities—Complexion, p. 93.—“Cheveux gris,” p.
-  94.—Hair of the men—Hair of the women, p. 95, pl. 54.—Bathing and
-  swimming, p. 96.—Mode of swimming—Sudatories or vapour-baths, p.
-  97–8, pl. 71.
-
-
-                    LETTER—+No. 14, Mandan Village+.
-
-Costumes of the Mandans—High value set upon them—Two horses for
-  a head-dress—Made of war-eagles’ quills and ermine, p. 100,
-  101.—Head-dresses with horns, p. 103.—A Jewish custom, p. 104.
-
-
-                    LETTER—+No. 15, Mandan Village+.
-
-Astonishment of the Mandans at the operation of the Author’s
-  brush, p. 105.—The Author installed medicine or medicine-man,
-  p. 106.—Crowds around the Author—Curiosity to see and to touch
-  him, p. 107.—Superstitious fears for those who were painted, p.
-  168.—Objections raised to being painted, p. 109.—The Author’s
-  operations opposed by a Mandan doctor, or medicine-man, and how
-  brought over, p. 110, pl. 55.
-
-
-                    LETTER—+No. 16, Mandan Village+.
-
-An Indian beau or dandy, p. 112.—A fruitless endeavour to paint one, p.
-  113.—Mah-to-toh-pa (the four bears), second chief of the tribe—The
-  Author feasted in his wigwam, p. 114, pl. 62.—Viands of the feast, p.
-  115.—Pemican and marrow-fat—Mandan pottery—Robe presented, p. 116.
-
-
-                    LETTER—+No. 17, Mandan Village+.
-
-Polygamy—Reasons and excuses for it, p. 118.—Marriages, how
-  contracted—Wives bought and sold, p. 120.—Paternal and filial
-  affection—Virtue and modesty of women—Early marriages—Slavish lives
-  and occupations of the Indian women, p. 121.—Pomme blanche—Dried
-  meat—Caches—Modes of cooking, and times of eating—Attitudes in
-  eating, p. 122.—Separation of males and females in eating—the Indians
-  moderate eaters—Some exceptions, p. 123.—Curing meat in the sun,
-  without smoke or salt—The wild Indians eat no salt, p. 124.
-
-
-                    LETTER—+No. 18. Mandan Village+.
-
-Indian dancing—“Buffalo dance,” p. 127, pl. 56.—Discovery of
-  buffaloes—Preparations for the chase—Start—A decoy—A retreat—Death
-  and scalping, p. 129.
-
-
-                    LETTER—+No. 19, Mandan Village+.
-
-Sham fight and sham scalp dance of the Mandan boys, p. 131, pl.
-  57.—Game of Tchung-kee, p. 132, pl. 59.—Feasting—Fasting and
-  sacrificing—White buffalo robe—Its value p. 133, pl. 47.—Rain makers
-  and rain stoppers, p. 131.—Rain making, p. 135, pl. 58.—“The thunder
-  boat”—The big double medicine, p. 140.
-
-
-                    LETTER—+No. 20, Mandan Village+.
-
-Mandan archery—“Game of the arrow,” p. 141, pl. 60.—Wild
-  horses—Horse-racing, p. 142, pl. 61.—Foot war-party in council, p.
-  143, pl. 63.
-
-
-            LETTER—+No. 21, Mandan Village, Upper Missouri+.
-
-Mah-to-toh-pa, (the Four Bears)—His costume and his portrait, p. 145,
-  pl. 64.—The robe of Mah-to-toh-pa, with all the battles of his life
-  painted on it, p. 148, pl. 65.
-
-
-                    LETTER—+No. 22, Mandan Village+.
-
-Mandan religious ceremonies—Mandan religious creed, p. 156.—Three
-  objects of the ceremony, p. 157.—Place of holding the ceremony—Big
-  canoe—Season of commencing—and manner, p. 158.—Opening the medicine
-  lodge—Sacrifices to the water, p. 159.—Fasting scene for four
-  days and nights, p. 161, pl. 66.—Bei-lohck-nah-pick, (the bull
-  dance), p. 164, pl. 67.—Pohk-hong (the cutting or torturing scene),
-  p. 169, pl. 68.—Ah-ke-nah-ka-nah-pick, (the last race) p. 173,
-  pl. 69.—Extraordinary instances of cruelty in self-torture, p.
-  175.—Sacrificing to the water, p. 176.—Certificates of the Mandan
-  ceremonies—Inferences drawn from these horrible cruelties, with
-  traditions, p. 177.—Tradition of O-kee-hee-de (the Evil Spirit), p.
-  179.—Mandans can be civilized, p. 183.
-
-
-                  LETTER—+No. 23, Minataree Village+.
-
-Location and numbers—Origin, p. 185.—Principal village, pl. 70.—Vapour
-  baths, pl. 71.—Old chief, Black Moccasin, p. 186, pl. 72.—Two
-  portraits, man and woman, pls. 73, 74.—Green corn dance, p. 189, pl.
-  75.
-
-
-                  LETTER—+No. 24, Minataree Village+.
-
-Crows, in the Minataree village, p. 191.—Crow chief on horseback,
-  in full dress, p. 192, pl. 76.—Peculiarities of the Crows—Long
-  hair—Semi-lunar faces, p. 193, pls. 77, 78.—Rats in the Minataree
-  village, p. 195.—Crossing Knife River in “bull boat”—Swimming of
-  Minataree girls, p. 196.—Horse-racing—A banter—Riding a “naked horse,”
-  p. 197.—Grand buffalo surround, p. 199, pl. 79.—Cutting up and
-  carrying in meat, p. 201.
-
-
-        LETTER—+No. 25, Little Mandan Village, Upper Missouri+.
-
-An Indian offering himself for a pillow, p. 203.—Portraits of
-  Riccarees, p. 204, pls. 83, 84, 82, 81.—Riccaree village, p. 204, pl.
-  80.—Origin of the Mandans—Welsh colony—Expedition of Madoc, p. 206–7.
-
-
-                 LETTER—+No. 26, Mouth of Teton River+.
-
-Sioux or (Dah-co-ta), p. 208.—Fort Pierre, pl. 85.—Mississippi
-  and Missouri Sioux, p. 209.—Ha-wan-je-tah (chief), p. 211, pl.
-  86.—Puncahs, Shoo-de-ga-cha (chief) and wife, p. 212, pls. 87,
-  88.—Four wives taken at once, p. 213, pl. 90.—Portrait of one of the
-  wives, p. 214, pl. 89.—Early marriages—Causes of, p. 215.
-
-
-                 LETTER—+No. 27, Mouth of Teton River+.
-
-Custom of exposing the aged, p. 216.—A tedious march on foot, p.
-  218.—Level prairies—“Out of sight of land”—Mirage—Looming of the
-  prairies, p. 218.—Turning the toes in—Bijou hills—Salt meadows,
-  p. 219.—Arrive at Fort Pierre—Great assemblage of Sioux—Paint the
-  portrait of the chief—Superstitious objections—Opposed by the
-  doctors, p. 220.—Difficulty settled—Death of Ha-wan-je-tah (the
-  chief)—Mode of, p. 221.—Portraits of other Sioux chiefs—Wampum,
-  p. 222–3, pls. 91, 92.—Beautiful Sioux women—Daughter of Black
-  Rock—Chardon, his Indian wife, p. 224–5, pls. 94, 95.
-
-
-                 LETTER—+No. 28, Mouth of Teton River+.
-
-Difficulty of painting Indian women, p. 226.—Indian vanity—Watching
-  their portraits—Arrival of the first steamer amongst the Sioux, p.
-  227.—Dog-feast, p. 228, pl. 96.
-
-
-                 LETTER—+No. 29, Mouth of Teton River.+
-
-Voluntary torture, “looking at the sun,” p. 232, pl. 97.—Religious
-  ceremony, p. 233.—Smoking “k’nick-k’neck”—Pipes, p. 234. pl.
-  98.—Calumets or pipes of peace, p. 235.—Tomahawks and scalping knives,
-  p. 235–6, pl. 99.—Dance of the chiefs, p. 237, pl. 100.—Scalps—Mode
-  of taking, and object, p. 238–9.—Modes of carrying and using the
-  scalps, p. 240, pl. 101.
-
-
-                 LETTER—+No. 30, Mouth of Teton River+.
-
-Indian weapons and instruments of music, p. 241, pl.
-  101½.—Quiver and shield—Smoking the shield, p. 241.—Tobacco
-  pouches—Drums—Rattles—Whistles—Lutes, p. 242, pl. 101½.—Bear dance,
-  p. 244, pl. 102.—Beggars’ dance—Scalp dance, p. 245, pls. 103, 104.
-
-
-                 LETTER—+No. 31, Mouth of Teton River+.
-
-Bisons (or buffaloes) description of, p. 247.—Habits of, p. 248.—Bulls’
-  fighting—Buffalo wallows—Fairy circles, p. 249, pls. 105,
-  106.—Running the buffaloes, and throwing the arrow, p. 251, pl.
-  107.—Buffalo chase—Use of the laso, p. 253, pls. 108, 109.—Hunting
-  under masque of white wolfskins, p. 254, pl. 110.—Horses destroyed
-  in buffalo hunting, p. 255, pl. 111.—Buffalo calf—Mode of catching
-  and bringing in, p. 255, pl. 112.—Immense and wanton destruction of
-  buffaloes—1,400 killed, p. 256.—White wolves attacking buffaloes, p.
-  257–8, pls. 113, 114.—Contemplations on the probable extinction of
-  buffaloes and Indians, p. 258, 264.
-
-
-
-[Illustration:
-
-                              OUTLINE MAP
-                                  _OF_
-                           INDIAN LOCALITIES
-                               _in 1833_.
-
-                         In Vol. 2. see Map of
-                          _LOCALITIES in 1840,
-                       since all the tribes have
-                     been removed from the States,
-                         W. of the Mississippi_
-]
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-                              LETTER—No. 1.
-
-
-As the following pages have been hastily compiled, at the urgent
-request of a number of my friends, from a series of Letters and Notes
-written by myself during several years’ residence and travel amongst
-a number of the wildest and most remote tribes of the North American
-Indians, I have thought it best to make this page the beginning of my
-book; dispensing with Preface, and even with Dedication, other than
-that which I hereby make of it, with all my heart, to those who will
-take the pains to read it.
-
-If it be necessary to render any apology for beginning thus
-unceremoniously my readers will understand that I had no space in
-these, my first volumes, to throw away; nor much time at my disposal,
-which I could, in justice, use for introducing myself and my works to
-the world.
-
-Having commenced thus abruptly then, I will venture to take upon myself
-the sin of calling this one of the series of Letters of which I have
-spoken; although I am writing it several years later, and placing it
-at the beginning of my book; by which means I will be enabled briefly
-to introduce myself to my readers (who, as yet, know little or nothing
-of me), and also the subjects of the following epistles, with such
-explanations of the customs described in them, as will serve for a
-key or glossary to the same, and prepare the reader’s mind for the
-information they contain.
-
-Amidst the multiplicity of books which are, in this enlightened age,
-flooding the world, I feel it my duty, as early as possible, to beg
-pardon for making a book at all; and in the next (if my readers should
-become so much interested in my narrations, as to censure me for the
-brevity of the work) to take some considerable credit for not having
-trespassed too long upon their time and patience.
-
-Leaving my readers, therefore, to find out what is in the book, without
-promising them anything, I proceed to say—of _myself_, that I was born
-in Wyöming, in North America, some thirty or forty years since, of
-parents who entered that beautiful and famed valley soon after the
-close of the revolutionary war, and the disastrous event of the “Indian
-massacre.”
-
-The early part of my life was whiled away, apparently, somewhat
-in vain, with books reluctantly held in one hand, and a rifle or
-fishing-pole firmly and affectionately grasped in the other.
-
-At the urgent request of my father, who was a practising lawyer,
-I was prevailed upon to abandon these favourite themes, and also
-my occasional dabblings with the brush, which had secured already
-a corner in my affections; and I commenced reading the law for a
-profession, under the direction of Reeve and Gould, of Connecticut.
-I attended the lectures of these learned judges for two years—was
-admitted to the bar—and practised the law, as a sort of _Nimrodical_
-lawyer, in my native land, for the term of two or three years; when
-I very deliberately sold my law library and all (save my rifle and
-fishing-tackle), and converting their proceeds into brushes and paint
-pots; I commenced the art of painting in Philadelphia, without teacher
-or adviser.
-
-I there closely applied my hand to the labours of the art for several
-years; during which time my mind was continually reaching for some
-branch or enterprise of the art, on which to devote a whole life-time
-of enthusiasm; when a delegation of some ten or fifteen noble and
-dignified-looking Indians, from the wilds of the “Far West,” suddenly
-arrived in the city, arrayed and equipped in all their classic
-beauty,—with shield and helmet,—with tunic and manteau,—tinted and
-tasselled off, exactly for the painter’s palette!
-
-In silent and stoic dignity, these lords of the forest strutted about
-the city for a few days, wrapped in their pictured robes, with their
-brows plumed with the quills of the war-eagle, attracting the gaze
-and admiration of all who beheld them. After this, they took their
-leave for Washington City, and I was left to reflect and regret, which
-I did long and deeply, until I came to the following deductions and
-conclusions.
-
-Black and blue cloth and civilization are destined, not only to
-veil, but to obliterate the grace and beauty of Nature. Man, in the
-simplicity and loftiness of his nature, unrestrained and unfettered
-by the disguises of art, is surely the most beautiful model for the
-painter,—and the country from which he hails is unquestionably the best
-study or school of the arts in the world: such I am sure, from the
-models I have seen, is the wilderness of North America. And the history
-and customs of such a people, preserved by pictorial illustrations,
-are themes worthy the life-time of one man, and nothing short of the
-loss of my life, shall prevent me from visiting their country, and of
-becoming their historian.
-
-There was something inexpressibly delightful in the above resolve,
-which was to bring me amidst such living models for my brush: and at
-the same time to place in my hands again, for my living and protection,
-the objects of my heart above-named; which had long been laid by to
-rust and decay in the city, without the remotest prospect of again
-contributing to my amusement.
-
-I had fully resolved—I opened my views to my friends and relations,
-but got not one advocate or abettor. I tried fairly and faithfully,
-but it was in vain to reason with those whose anxieties were ready to
-fabricate every difficulty and danger that could be imagined, without
-being able to understand or appreciate the extent or importance of
-my designs, and I broke from them all,—from my wife and my aged
-parents,—myself my only adviser and protector.
-
-With these views firmly fixed—armed, equipped, and supplied, I started
-out in the year 1832, and penetrated the vast and pathless wilds
-which are familiarly denominated the great “Far West” of the North
-American Continent, with a light heart, inspired with an enthusiastic
-hope and reliance that I could meet and overcome all the hazards
-and privations of a life devoted to the production of a literal and
-graphic delineation of the living manners, customs, and character of an
-interesting race of people, who are rapidly passing away from the face
-of the earth—lending a hand to a dying nation, who have no historians
-or biographers of their own to pourtray with fidelity their native
-looks and history; thus snatching from a hasty oblivion what could be
-saved for the benefit of posterity, and perpetuating it, as a fair and
-just monument, to the memory of a truly lofty and noble race.
-
-I have spent about eight years already in the pursuit above-named,
-having been for the most of that time immersed in the Indian country,
-mingling with red men, and identifying myself with them as much as
-possible, in their games and amusements; in order the better to
-familiarize myself with their superstitions and mysteries, which are
-the keys to Indian life and character.
-
-It was during the several years of my life just mentioned, and whilst I
-was in familiar participation with them in their sports and amusements,
-that I penned the following series of epistles; describing only such
-glowing or curious scenes and events as passed under my immediate
-observation; leaving their early history, and many of their traditions,
-language, &c. for a subsequent and much more elaborate work, for which
-I have procured the materials, and which I may eventually publish.
-
-I set out on my arduous and perilous undertaking with the determination
-of reaching, ultimately, every tribe of Indians on the Continent
-of North America, and of bringing home faithful portraits of their
-principal personages, both men and women, from each tribe; views of
-their villages, games, &c. and full notes on their character and
-history. I designed, also, to procure their costumes, and a complete
-collection of their manufactures and weapons, and to perpetuate them in
-a _Gallery unique_, for the use and instruction of future ages.
-
-I claim whatever merit there may have been in the originality of such
-a design, as I was undoubtedly the first artist who ever set out upon
-such a work, designing to carry his canvass to the Rocky Mountains;
-and a considerable part of the following Letters were written and
-published in the New York Papers, as early as the years 1832 and 1833;
-long before the Tours of Washington Irving, and several others, whose
-interesting narratives are before the world.
-
-I have, as yet, by no means visited _all_ the tribes; but I have
-progressed a very great way with the enterprise, and with far greater
-and more complete success than I expected.
-
-I have visited forty-eight different tribes, the greater part of which
-I found speaking different languages, and containing in all 400,000
-souls. I have brought home safe, and in good order, 310 portraits in
-oil, all painted in their native dress, and in their own wigwams;
-and also 200 other paintings in oil, containing views of their
-villages—their wigwams—their games and religious ceremonies—their
-dances—their ball plays—their buffalo hunting, and other amusements
-(containing in all, over 3000 full-length figures); and the landscapes
-of the country they live in, as well as a very extensive and curious
-collection of their costumes, and all their other manufactures, from
-the size of a wigwam down to the size of a quill or a rattle.
-
-A considerable part of the above-named paintings, and Indian
-manufactures, will be found amongst the very numerous illustrations
-in the following pages; having been, in every instance, faithfully
-copied and reduced by my own hand, for the engraver, from my original
-paintings; and the reader of this book who will take the pains to step
-in to “+Catlin’s North American Indian Gallery+,” will find nearly
-every scene and custom which is described in this work, as well as many
-others, carefully and correctly delineated, and displayed upon the
-walls, and every weapon (and every “Sachem” and every “Sagamore” who
-has wielded them) according to the tenor of the tales herein recited.
-
-So much of _myself_ and of my _works_, which is all that I wish to say
-at present.
-
-Of the +Indians+, I have much more to say, and to the following
-delineations of them, and their character and customs, I shall make no
-further apology for requesting the attention of my readers.
-
-The Indians (as I shall call them), the savages or red men of the
-forests and prairies of North America, are at this time a subject of
-great interest and some importance to the civilized world; rendered
-more particularly so in this age, from their relative position to, and
-their rapid declension from, the civilized nations of the earth. A
-numerous nation of human beings, whose origin is beyond the reach of
-human investigation,—whose early history is lost—whose term of national
-existence is nearly expired—three-fourths of whose country has fallen
-into the possession of civilized man within the short space of 250
-years—twelve millions of whose bodies have fattened the soil in the
-mean time; who have fallen victims to whiskey, the small-pox, and the
-bayonet; leaving at this time but a meagre proportion to live a short
-time longer, in the certain apprehension of soon sharing a similar fate.
-
-The writer who would undertake to embody the whole history of such a
-people, with all their misfortunes and calamities, must needs have
-much more space than I have allotted to this epitome; and he must
-needs begin also (as I am doing) with those who are _living_, or he
-would be very apt to dwell upon the preamble of his work, until the
-present living remnants of the race should have passed away; and their
-existence and customs, like those of ages gone bye, become subjects of
-doubt and incredulity to the world for whom his book was preparing.
-Such an historian also, to do them justice, must needs correct many
-theories and opinions which have, either ignorantly or maliciously,
-gone forth to the world in indelible characters; and gather and arrange
-a vast deal which has been but imperfectly recorded, or placed to
-the credit of a people who have not had the means of recording it
-themselves; but have entrusted it, from necessity, to the honesty and
-punctuality of their enemies.
-
-In such an history should be embodied, also, a correct account of their
-treatment, and the causes which have led to their rapid destruction;
-and a plain and systematical prophecy as to the time and manner of
-their final extinction, based upon the causes and the ratio of their
-former and present declension.
-
-So Herculean a task may fall to my lot at a future period, or it
-may not: but I send forth these volumes at this time, fresh and
-full of their living deeds and customs, as a familiar and unstudied
-introduction (at least) to them and their native character; which I
-confidently hope will repay the readers who read for information and
-historical facts, as well as those who read but for amusement.
-
-The world know generally, that the Indians of North America are
-copper-coloured; that their eyes and their hair are black, &c.; that
-they are mostly uncivilized, and consequently unchristianized; that
-they are nevertheless human beings, with features, thoughts, reason,
-and sympathies like our own; but few yet know how they _live_, how they
-_dress_, how they _worship_, what are their actions, their customs,
-their religion, their amusements, &c. as they practise them in the
-uncivilized regions of their uninvaded country, which it is the main
-object of this work, clearly and distinctly to set forth.
-
-It would be impossible at the same time, in a book of these dimensions,
-to explain _all_ the manners and customs of these people; but as far
-as they are narrated, they have been described by my pen, upon the
-spot, as I have seen them transacted; and if some few of my narrations
-should seem a _little too highly coloured_, I trust the world will be
-ready to extend to me that pardon which it is customary to yield to all
-artists whose main faults exist in the vividness of their colouring,
-rather than in the drawing of their pictures; but there is nothing else
-in them, I think, that I should ask pardon for, even though some of
-them should stagger credulity, and incur for me the censure of those
-critics, who sometimes, unthinkingly or unmercifully, sit at home at
-their desks, enjoying the luxury of wine and a good cigar, over the
-simple narration of the honest and weather-worn traveller (who shortens
-his half-starved life in catering for the world), to condemn him and
-his work to oblivion, and his wife and his little children to poverty
-and starvation; merely because he describes scenes which they have not
-beheld, and which, consequently, they are unable to believe.
-
-The Indians of North America, as I have before said, are
-copper-coloured, with long black hair, black eyes, tall, straight, and
-elastic forms—are less than two millions in number—were originally
-the undisputed owners of the soil, and got their title to their lands
-from the Great Spirit who created them on it,—were once a happy and
-flourishing people, enjoying all the comforts and luxuries of life
-which they knew of, and consequently cared for:—were sixteen millions
-in numbers, and sent that number of daily prayers to the Almighty,
-and thanks for his goodness and protection. Their country was entered
-by white men, but a few hundred years since; and thirty millions of
-these are now scuffling for the goods and luxuries of life, over
-the bones and ashes of twelve millions of red men; six millions of
-whom have fallen victims to the small-pox, and the remainder to the
-sword, the bayonet, and whiskey; all of which means of their death and
-destruction have been introduced and visited upon them by acquisitive
-white men; and by white men, also, whose forefathers were welcomed
-and embraced in the land where the poor Indian met and fed them with
-“ears of green corn and with pemican.” Of the two millions remaining
-alive at this time, about 1,400,000, are already the miserable living
-victims and dupes of white man’s cupidity, degraded, discouraged and
-lost in the bewildering maze that is produced by the use of whiskey and
-its concomitant vices; and the remaining number are yet unroused and
-unenticed from their wild haunts or their primitive modes, by the dread
-or love of white man and his allurements.
-
-It has been with these, mostly, that I have spent my time, and of
-these, chiefly, and their customs, that the following Letters treat.
-Their habits (and their’s alone) as we can see them transacted, are
-native, and such as I have wished to fix and preserve for future ages.
-
-Of the dead, and of those who are dying, of those who have suffered
-death, and of those who are now trodden and kicked through it, I may
-speak more fully in some deductions at the close of this book; or at
-some future time, when I may find more leisure, and may be able to
-speak of these scenes without giving offence to the world, or to any
-body in it.
-
-Such a portrait then as I have set forth in the following pages (taken
-by myself from the free and vivid realities of life, instead of the
-vague and uncertain imagery of recollection, or from the haggard
-deformities and distortions of disease and death), I offer to the world
-for their amusement, as well as for their information; and I trust they
-will pardon me, if it should be thought that I have over-estimated the
-Indian character, or at other times descended too much into the details
-and minutiæ of Indian mysteries and absurdities.
-
-The reader, then, to understand me rightly, and draw from these Letters
-the information which they are intended to give, must follow me a vast
-way from the civilized world; he must needs wend his way from the city
-of New York, over the Alleghany, and far beyond the mighty Missouri,
-and even to the base and summit of the Rocky Mountains, some two or
-three thousand miles from the Atlantic coast. He should forget many
-theories he has read in the books of Indian barbarities, of wanton
-butcheries and murders; and divest himself, as far as possible of the
-deadly prejudices which he has carried from his childhood, against this
-most unfortunate and most abused part of the race of his fellow-man.
-
-He should consider, that if he has seen the savages of North America
-without making such a tour, he has fixed his eyes upon and drawn his
-conclusions (in all probability) only from those who inhabit the
-frontier; whose habits have been changed—whose pride has been cut
-down—whose country has been ransacked—whose wives and daughters have
-been shamefully abused—whose lands have been wrested from them—whose
-limbs have become enervated and naked by the excessive use of
-whiskey—whose friends and relations have been prematurely thrown into
-their graves—whose native pride and dignity have at last given way to
-the unnatural vices which civilized cupidity has engrafted upon them,
-to be silently nurtured and magnified by a burning sense of injury and
-injustice, and ready for that cruel vengeance which often falls from
-the hand that is palsied by refined abuses, and yet unrestrained by the
-glorious influences of refined and moral cultivation.—That if he has
-laid up what he considers well-founded knowledge of these people, from
-books which he has read, and from newspapers only, he should pause at
-least, and withhold his sentence before he passes it upon the character
-of a people, who are dying at the hands of their enemies, without the
-means of recording their own annals—struggling in their nakedness with
-their simple weapons, against guns and gunpowder—against whiskey and
-steel, and disease, and mailed warriors who are continually trampling
-them to the earth, and at last exultingly promulgating from the very
-soil which they have wrested from the poor savage, the history of his
-cruelties and barbarities, whilst his bones are quietly resting under
-the very furrows which their ploughs are turning.
-
-So great and unfortunate are the disparities between savage and civil,
-in numbers—in weapons and defences—in enterprise, in craft, and in
-education, that the former is almost universally the sufferer either in
-peace or in war; and not less so after his pipe and his tomahawk have
-retired to the grave with him, and his character is left to be entered
-upon the pages of history, and that justice done to his memory which
-from necessity, he has intrusted to his enemy.
-
-Amongst the numerous historians, however, of these strange people, they
-have had some friends who have done them justice; yet as a part of all
-systems of justice whenever it is meted to the poor Indian, it comes
-invariably too late, or is administered at an ineffectual distance; and
-that too when his enemies are continually about him, and effectually
-applying the means of his destruction.
-
-Some writers, I have been grieved to see, have written down the
-character of the North American Indian, as dark, relentless, cruel and
-murderous in the last degree; with scarce a quality to stamp their
-existence of a higher order than that of the brutes:—whilst others
-have given them a high rank, as I feel myself authorized to do, as
-honourable and highly-intellectual beings; and others, both friends and
-foes to the red men, have spoken of them as an “anomaly in nature!”
-
-In this place I have no time or inclination to reply to so
-unaccountable an assertion as this; contenting myself with the belief,
-that the term would be far more correctly applied to that part of the
-human family who have strayed farthest from nature, than it could be to
-those who are simply moving in, and filling the sphere for which they
-were designed by the Great Spirit who made them.
-
-From what I have seen of these people I feel authorized to say, that
-there is nothing very strange or unaccountable in their character; but
-that it is a simple one, and easy to be learned and understood, if the
-right means be taken to familiarize ourselves with it. Although it has
-its dark spots, yet there is much in it to be applauded, and much to
-recommend it to the admiration of the enlightened world. And I trust
-that the reader, who looks through these volumes with care, will be
-disposed to join me in the conclusion that the North American Indian in
-his native state, is an honest, hospitable, faithful, brave, warlike,
-cruel, revengeful, relentless,—yet honourable, contemplative and
-religious being.
-
-If such be the case, I am sure there is enough in it to recommend it
-to the fair perusal of the world, and charity enough in all civilized
-countries, in this enlightened age, to extend a helping hand to a
-dying race; provided that prejudice and fear can be removed, which
-have heretofore constantly held the civilized portions in dread of the
-savage—and away from that familiar and friendly embrace, in which alone
-his true native character can be justly appreciated.
-
-I am fully convinced, from a long familiarity with these people, that
-the Indian’s misfortune has consisted chiefly in our ignorance of their
-true native character and disposition, which has always held us at a
-distrustful distance from them; inducing us to look upon them in no
-other light than that of a hostile foe, and worthy only of that system
-of continued warfare and abuse that has been for ever waged against
-them.
-
-There is no difficulty in approaching the Indian and getting acquainted
-with him in his wild and unsophisticated state, and finding him an
-honest and honourable man; with feelings to meet feelings, if the above
-prejudice and dread can be laid aside, and any one will take the pains,
-as I have done, to go and see him in the simplicity of his native
-state, smoking his pipe under his own humble roof, with his wife and
-children around him, and his faithful dogs and horses hanging about his
-hospitable tenement.—So the world _may_ see him and smoke his friendly
-pipe, which will be invariably extended to them; and share, with a
-hearty welcome, the best that his wigwam affords for the appetite,
-which is always set out to a stranger the next moment after he enters.
-
-But so the mass of the world, most assuredly, will _not_ see these
-people; for they are too far off, and approachable to those only whose
-avarice or cupidity alone lead them to those remote regions, and whose
-shame prevents them from publishing to the world the virtues which they
-have thrown down and trampled under foot.
-
-The very use of the word savage, as it is applied in its general sense,
-I am inclined to believe is an abuse of the word, and the people to
-whom it is applied. The word, in its true definition, means no more
-than _wild_, or _wild man_; and a wild man may have been endowed by his
-Maker with all the humane and noble traits that inhabit the heart of a
-tame man. Our ignorance and dread or fear of these people, therefore,
-have given a new definition to the adjective; and nearly the whole
-civilized world apply the word _savage_, as expressive of the most
-ferocious, cruel, and murderous character that can be described.
-
-The grizzly bear is called savage, because he is blood-thirsty,
-ravenous and cruel; and so is the tiger, and they, like the poor red
-man, have been feared and dreaded (from the distance at which ignorance
-and prejudice have kept us from them, or from resented abuses which we
-have practised when we have come in close contact with them), until Van
-Amburgh shewed the world, that even these ferocious and unreasoning
-animals wanted only the friendship and close embrace of their master,
-to respect and to love him.
-
-As evidence of the hospitality of these ignorant and benighted people,
-and also of their honesty and honour, there will be found recorded
-many striking instances in the following pages. And also, as an offset
-to these, many evidences of the dark and cruel, as well as ignorant
-and disgusting excesses of passions, unrestrained by the salutary
-influences of laws and Christianity.
-
-I have roamed about from time to time during seven or eight years,
-visiting and associating with some three or four hundred thousand of
-these people, under an almost infinite variety of circumstances; and
-from the very many and decided voluntary acts of their hospitality
-and kindness, I feel bound to pronounce them, by nature, a kind and
-hospitable people. I have been welcomed generally in their country,
-and treated to the best that they could give me, without any charges
-made for my board; they have often escorted me through their enemies’
-country at some hazard to their own lives, and aided me in passing
-mountains and rivers with my awkward baggage; and under all of these
-circumstances of exposure, no Indian ever betrayed me, struck me a
-blow, or stole from me a shilling’s worth of my property that I am
-aware of.
-
-This is saying a great deal, (and proving it too, if the reader will
-believe me) in favour of the virtues of these people; when it is borne
-in mind, as it should be, that there is no law in their land to punish
-a man for theft—that locks and keys are not known in their country—that
-the commandments have never been divulged amongst them; nor can any
-human retribution fall upon the head of a thief, save the disgrace
-which attaches as a stigma to his character, in the eyes of his people
-about him.
-
-And thus in these little communities, strange as it may seem, in the
-absence of all systems of jurisprudence, I have often beheld peace
-and happiness, and quiet, reigning supreme, for which even kings and
-emperors might envy them. I have seen rights and virtue protected,
-and wrongs redressed; and I have seen conjugal, filial and paternal
-affection in the simplicity and contentedness of nature. I have
-unavoidably, formed warm and enduring attachments to some of these
-men which I do not wish to forget—who have brought me near to their
-hearts, and in our final separation have embraced me in their arms, and
-commended me and my affairs to the keeping of the Great Spirit.
-
-For the above reasons, the reader will be disposed to forgive me for
-dwelling so long and so strong on the justness of the claims of these
-people; and for my occasional expressions of sadness, when my heart
-bleeds for the fate that awaits the remainder of their unlucky race;
-which is long to be outlived by the rocks, by the beasts, and even
-birds and reptiles of the country they live in;—set upon by their
-fellow-man, whose cupidity, it is feared, will fix no bounds to the
-Indian’s earthly calamity, short of the grave.
-
-I cannot help but repeat, before I close this Letter, that the tribes
-of the red men of North America, as a nation of human beings, are on
-their wane; that (to use their own very beautiful figure) “they are
-fast travelling to the shades of their fathers, towards the setting
-sun;” and that the traveller who would see these people in their native
-simplicity and beauty, must needs be hastily on his way to the prairies
-and Rocky Mountains, or he will see them only as they are now seen on
-the frontiers, as a basket of _dead game_,—harassed, chased, bleeding
-and dead; with their plumage and colours despoiled; to be gazed
-amongst in vain for some system or moral, or for some scale by which
-to estimate their true native character, other than that which has too
-often recorded them but a dark and unintelligible mass of cruelty and
-barbarity.
-
-Without further comments I close this Letter, introducing my readers
-at once to the heart of the Indian country, only asking their
-forgiveness for having made it so long, and their patience whilst
-travelling through the following pages (as I journeyed through those
-remote realms) in search of information and rational amusement; in
-tracing out the true character of that “_strange anomaly_” of man in
-the simple elements of his nature, undissolved or compounded into the
-mysteries of enlightened and fashionable life.
-
-
-                             ————————————
-
-                                 NOTE.
-
-_As the singular manners of the Country set forth in the following
-pages, and the extraordinary scenes represented in the very numerous
-illustrations, are of such a character as to require all possible aids
-for the satisfaction of the readers; I hope they will excuse me for
-intruding in this place the numerous Certificates which follow, and
-which have been voluntarily furnished me by men whose lives, it will
-be seen, have been spent, in great part, in the Indian Country, and in
-familiarity with the men and manners set forth in the work_:
-
-
-                             CERTIFICATES.
-
-“I hereby certify, that the persons whose signatures are affixed to the
-certificates here below, by Mr. +Catlin+, are officers in the service
-of the United States, as herein set forth; and that their opinions
-of the accuracy of the likenesses, and correctness of the views, &c.
-exhibited by him in his ‘+Indian Gallery+,’ are entitled to full credit.
-
-                       “J. R. POINSETT, _Secretary of War, Washington_.”
-
-                             ————————————
-
-“With regard to the gentlemen whose names are affixed to certificates
-below, I am fully warranted in saying, that no individuals have had
-better opportunities of acquiring a knowledge of the persons, habits,
-costumes, and sports of the Indian tribes, or possess stronger claims
-upon the public confidence in the statements they make, respecting the
-correctness of delineations, &c. of Mr. +Catlin’s Indian Gallery+; and
-I may add my own testimony, with regard to many of those Indians whom
-I have seen, and whose likenesses are in the collection, and sketched
-with fidelity and correctness.
-
-           “C. A. HARRIS, _Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Washington_.”
-
-                             ————————————
-
-“I have seen Mr. +Catlin’s+ Collection of Portraits of Indians,
-east of the Rocky Mountains many of which were familiar to me, and
-painted in my presence: and as far as they have included Indians of
-my acquaintance, the _likenesses_ are easily recognized, bearing
-the most striking resemblance to the originals, as well as faithful
-representations of their costumes.
-
-              “W. CLARK, _Superintendent of Indian Affairs, St. Louis_.”
-
-                             ————————————
-
-“I have examined Mr. +Catlin’s+ Collection of the Upper Missouri
-Indians to the Rocky Mountains, all of which I am acquainted with;
-and indeed most of them were painted when I was present, and I do
-not hesitate to pronounce them correct likenesses, and readily to be
-recognized. And I consider the _costumes_, as painted by him, to be the
-_only correct representations_ I have ever seen.
-
-                            “JOHN F. A. SANFORD,
-               “_U. SS. Indian Agent for Mandans, Rickarees, Minatarees,
-                    Crows, Knisteneaux, Assinneboins, Blackfeet, &c._”
-
-                             ————————————
-
-“We have seen Mr. +Catlin’s+ Portraits of Indians east of the Rocky
-Mountains, many of which are familiar to us; the likenesses are easily
-recognized, bearing a strong resemblance to the originals, as well as a
-faithful representation of their costumes.
-
-                                         “J. DOUGHERTY, _Indian Agent_.
-  “_November 27th, 1837._                 J. GANTT.”
-
-                             ————————————
-
-“We hereby certify, that the Portraits of the Grand Pawnees, Republican
-Pawnees, Pawnee Loups, Tappage Pawnees, Otoes, Omahaws, and Missouries,
-which are in Mr. +Catlin’s Indian Gallery+, were painted from life by
-Mr. +Geo. Catlin+, and that the individuals sat to him in the costumes
-precisely in which they are painted.
-
-                “J. DOUGHERTY, _I. A. for Pawnees, Omahaws, and Otoes_.
-  “_New York, 1837._    J. GANTT.”
-
-                             ————————————
-
-“I have seen Mr. +Catlin’s+ Collection of Indian Portraits, many
-of which were familiar to me, and painted in my presence at their
-own villages. I have spent the greater part of my life amongst the
-tribes and individuals he has represented, and I do not hesitate to
-pronounce them correct likenesses, and easily recognized: also his
-sketches of their _manners_ and _customs_, I think, are excellent; and
-the _landscape views_ on the Missouri and Mississippi, are correct
-representations.
-
-              “K. M‘KENZIE, _of the Am. Fur Co. Mouth of Yellow Stone_.”
-
-                             ————————————
-
-“We hereby certify, that the Portraits of Seminoles and Euchees, in
-Mr. +Catlin’s Gallery+, were painted by him, from the life, at Fort
-Moultrie; that the Indians sat or stood in the costumes precisely in
-which they are painted, and that the likenesses are remarkably good.
-
-  “P. MORRISON, Capt. 4th Inft.          H. WHARTON, 2d. Lieut. 6th Inft.
-   J. S. HATHAWAY, 2d Lieut. 1st Art.    F. WEEDON, Assistant Surgeon.
-  _Fort Moultrie, Jan. 26, 1838._”
-
-                             ————————————
-
-“Having examined Mr. +Catlin’s+ Collection of Portraits of Indians
-of the Missouri to the Rocky Mountains, I have no hesitation in
-pronouncing them, so far as I am acquainted with the Individuals,
-to be the best I have ever seen, both as regards the expression of
-countenance, and the exact and complete manner in which the costume has
-been painted by him.
-
-                            “J. L. BEAN, _S. Agent for Indian Affairs_.”
-
-                             ————————————
-
-“I have been for many years past in familiar acquaintance with the
-Indian tribes of the Upper Missouri to the Rocky Mountains, and also
-with the landscape and other scenes represented in Mr. +Catlin’s+
-Collection; and it gives me great pleasure to assure the world, that on
-looking them over, I found the likenesses of my old friends easily to
-be recognized; and his sketches of Manners and Customs to be pourtrayed
-with singular truth and correctness.
-
-                       “J. PILCHER, _Agent for Upper Missouri Indians_.”
-
-                             ————————————
-
-“It gives me great pleasure in being enabled to add my name to the list
-of those who have spontaneously expressed their approbation of Mr.
-+Catlin’s+ Collection of Indian Paintings. His Collection of materials
-place it in his power to throw much light on the Indian character,
-and his portraits, so far as I have seen them, are drawn with great
-fidelity as to character and likeness.
-
-               “H. SCHOOLCRAFT, _Indian Agent for Wisconsin Territory_.”
-
-“Having lived and dealt with the Black Feet Indians for five years
-past, I was enabled to recognize _every one_ of the Portraits of
-those people, and of the Crows also, which Mr. +Catlin+ has in his
-Collection, from the faithful likenesses they bore to the originals.
-
-  “_St. Louis, 1835._ “J. E. BRAZEAU.”
-
-                             ————————————
-
-“Having spent sixteen years in the continual acquaintance with the
-Indians of the several tribes of the Missouri, represented in Mr.
-+Catlin’s+ Gallery of Indian Paintings, I was enabled to judge of the
-correctness of the likenesses, and I _instantly recognized every one of
-them_, when I looked them over, from the striking resemblance they bore
-to the originals—so also, of the Landscapes on the Missouri.
-
-                                                       “HONORE PICOTTE.”
-
-                             ————————————
-
-“The Portraits, in the possession of Mr. +Catlin+, of Pawnee Picts,
-Kioways, Camanches, Wecos, and Osages, were painted by him _from life_,
-when on a tour to their country, with the United States Dragoons. The
-_likenesses_ are good, very easily to be recognized, and the _costumes_
-faithfully represented.
-
-  “HENRY DODGE, Col. of Drag.        D. PERKINS. Capt. of Drag.
-   R. H. MASON, Major of Ditto.      M. DUNCAN,     Ditto.
-   D. HUNTER, Capt.      Ditto.      T. B. WHEELOCK, Lieut. Drag.”
-
-                             ————————————
-
-“The Landscapes, Buffalo-Hunting scenes, &c. above-mentioned, I have
-seen, and although it has been thirty years since I travelled over that
-country; yet a considerable number of them I recognized as faithful
-representations, and the remainder of them are so much in the peculiar
-character of that country as to seem entirely familiar to me.
-
-                        “WM. CLARK, _Superintendent of Indian Affairs_.”
-
-                             ————————————
-
-“The Landscape Views on the Missouri, Buffalo Hunts, and other scenes,
-taken by my friend Mr. +Catlin+, are correct delineations of the scenes
-they profess to represent, as I am perfectly well acquainted with the
-country, having passed through it more than a dozen times. And further,
-I know, that they were taken on the spot, from nature, as I was present
-when Mr. +Catlin+ visited that country.
-
-                            “JOHN F. A. SANFORD, _U. SS. Indian Agent_.”
-
-                             ————————————
-
-“It gives me great pleasure to be able to pronounce the Landscape
-Views, Views of Hunting, and other scenes, taken on the Upper Missouri
-by Mr. +Catlin+, to be correct delineations of the scenery they profess
-to represent; and although I was not present when they were taken in
-the field, I was able to identify almost every one between St. Louis
-and the grand bend of the Missouri.
-
-                             “J. L. BEAN, _S. Agent of Indian Affairs_.”
-
-                             ————————————
-
-“I have examined a series of paintings by Mr. +Catlin+, representing
-_Indian Buffalo Hunts, Landscapes, &c._, and from an acquaintance
-of twenty-seven years with such scenes as are represented, I feel
-qualified to judge them, and do unhesitatingly pronounce them good and
-unexaggerated representations.
-
-      “JNO. DOUGHERTY, _Indian Agent for Pawnees, Omahaws, and Otoes_.”
-
-
-
-
-                             LETTER—No. 2.
-
-             MOUTH OF YELLOW STONE, _UPPER MISSOURI_, 1832.
-
-
-I arrived at this place yesterday in the steamer “Yellow Stone,”
-after a voyage of nearly three months from St. Louis, a distance of
-two thousand miles, the greater part of which has never before been
-navigated by steam; and the almost insurmountable difficulties which
-continually oppose the _voyageur_ on this turbid stream, have been
-by degrees overcome by the indefatigable zeal of Mr. Chouteau, a
-gentleman of great perseverance, and part proprietor of the boat. To
-the politeness of this gentleman I am indebted for my passage from St.
-Louis to this place, and I had also the pleasure of his _company_, with
-that of Major Sanford, the government agent for the Missouri Indians.
-
-The American Fur Company have erected here, for their protection
-against the savages, a very substantial Fort, 300 feet square, with
-bastions armed with ordnance (+plate+ 3); and our approach to it under
-the continued roar of cannon for half an hour, and the shrill yells of
-the half-affrighted savages who lined the shores, presented a scene
-of the most thrilling and picturesque appearance. A voyage so full of
-incident, and furnishing so many novel scenes of the picturesque and
-romantic, as we have passed the numerous villages of the “astonished
-natives,” saluting them with the puffing of steam and the thunder of
-artillery, would afford subject for many epistles; and I cannot deny
-myself the pleasure of occasionally giving you some little sketches of
-scenes that I have witnessed, and _am witnessing_; and of the singular
-feelings that are excited in the breast of the stranger travelling
-through this interesting country. Interesting (as I have said) and
-_luxurious_, for this is truly the land of Epicures; we are invited by
-the savages to feasts of _dog’s meat_, as the most honourable food that
-can be presented to a stranger, and glutted with the more delicious
-food of beavers’ tails, and buffaloes’ tongues. You will, no doubt, be
-somewhat surprised on the receipt of a Letter from me, so far strayed
-into the Western World; and still more startled, when I tell you that I
-am here in the full enthusiasm and practice of my art. That enthusiasm
-alone has brought me into this remote region, 3500 miles from my native
-soil; the last 2000 of which have furnished me with almost unlimited
-models, both in landscape and the human figure, exactly suited to
-my feelings. I am now in the full possession and enjoyments of
-those conditions, on which alone I was induced to pursue the art as a
-profession; and in anticipation of which alone, my admiration for the
-art could ever have been kindled into a pure flame. I mean the free use
-of nature’s undisguised models, with the privilege of selecting for
-myself. If I am here losing the benefit of the fleeting fashions of the
-day, and neglecting that elegant polish, which the world say an artist
-should draw from a continual intercourse with the polite world; yet
-have I this consolation, that in this country, I am entirely divested
-of those dangerous steps and allurements which beset an artist in
-fashionable life; and have little to steal my thoughts away from the
-contemplation of the beautiful models that are about me. If, also, I
-have not here the benefit of that feeling of emulation, which is the
-life and spur to the arts, where artists are associates together; yet
-am I surrounded by living models of such elegance and beauty, that I
-feel an unceasing excitement of a much higher order—the certainty that
-I am drawing knowledge from the true source. My enthusiastic admiration
-of man in the honest and elegant simplicity of nature, has always fed
-the warmest feelings of my bosom, and shut half the avenues to my
-heart against the specious refinements of the accomplished world. This
-feeling, together with the desire to study my art, independently of the
-embarrassments which the ridiculous fashions of civilized society have
-thrown in its way, has led me to the wilderness for a while, as the
-true school of the arts.
-
-[Illustration: 3]
-
-[Illustration: 4]
-
-I have for a long time been of opinion, that the wilderness of our
-country afforded models equal to those from which the Grecian sculptors
-transferred to the marble such inimitable grace and beauty; and I am
-now more confirmed in this opinion, since I have immersed myself in
-the midst of thousands and tens of thousands of these knights of the
-forest; whose whole lives are lives of chivalry, and whose daily feats,
-with their naked limbs, might vie with those of the Grecian youths in
-the beautiful rivalry of the Olympian games.
-
-No man’s imagination, with all the aids of description that can be
-given to it, can ever picture the beauty and wildness of scenes that
-may be daily witnessed in this romantic country; of hundreds of these
-graceful youths, without a care to wrinkle, or a fear to disturb
-the full expression of pleasure and enjoyment that beams upon their
-faces—their long black hair mingling with their horses’ tails, floating
-in the wind, while they are flying over the carpeted prairie, and
-dealing death with their spears and arrows, to a band of infuriated
-buffaloes; or their splendid procession in a war-parade, arrayed in all
-their gorgeous colours and trappings, moving with most exquisite grace
-and manly beauty, added to that bold defiance which man carries on his
-front, who acknowledges no superior on earth, and who is amenable to no
-laws except the laws of God and honour.
-
-In addition to the knowledge of human nature and of my art, which I
-hope to acquire by this toilsome and expensive undertaking, I have
-another in view, which, if it should not be of equal service to me,
-will be of no less interest and value to posterity. I have, for many
-years past, contemplated the noble races of red men who are now spread
-over these trackless forests and boundless prairies, melting away
-at the approach of civilization. Their rights invaded, their morals
-corrupted, their lands wrested from them, their customs changed, and
-therefore lost to the world; and they at last sunk into the earth,
-and the ploughshare turning the sod over their graves, and I have
-flown to their rescue—not of their lives or of their race (for they
-are “_doomed_” and must perish), but to the rescue of their looks and
-their modes, at which the acquisitive world may hurl their poison and
-every besom of destruction, and trample them down and crush them to
-death; yet, phœnix-like, they may rise from the “stain on a painter’s
-palette,” and live again upon canvass, and stand forth for centuries
-yet to come, the living monuments of a noble race. For this purpose,
-I have designed to visit every tribe of Indians on the Continent, if
-my life should be spared; for the purpose of procuring portraits of
-distinguished Indians, of both sexes in each tribe, painted in their
-native costume; accompanied with pictures of their villages, domestic
-habits, games, mysteries, religious ceremonies, &c. with anecdotes,
-traditions, and history of their respective nations.
-
-If I should live to accomplish my design, the result of my labours will
-doubtless be interesting to future ages; who will have little else left
-from which to judge of the original inhabitants of this simple race of
-beings, who require but a few years more of the march of civilization
-and death, to deprive them of all their native customs and character.
-I have been kindly supplied by the Commander-in-Chief of the Army and
-the Secretary of War, with letters to the commander of every military
-post, and every Indian agent on the Western Frontier, with instructions
-to render me all the facilities in their power, which will be of great
-service to me in so arduous an undertaking. The opportunity afforded me
-by familiarity with so many tribes of human beings in the simplicity of
-nature, devoid of the deformities of art; of drawing fair conclusions
-in the interesting sciences of physiognomy and phrenology; of manners
-and customs, rites, ceremonies, &c.; and the opportunity of examining
-the geology and mineralogy of this western, and yet unexplored
-country, will enable me occasionally to entertain you with much new
-and interesting information, which I shall take equal pleasure in
-communicating by an occasional Letter in my clumsy way.
-
-
-
-
-                             LETTER—No. 3.
-
-                MOUTH OF YELLOW STONE, _UPPER MISSOURI_.
-
-
-Since the date of my former Letter, I have been so much engaged in
-the amusements of the country, and the use of my brush, that I have
-scarcely been able to drop you a line until the present moment.
-
-Before I let you into the amusements and customs of this delightful
-country however, (and which, as yet, are secrets to most of the world),
-I must hastily travel with you over the tedious journey of 2000 miles,
-from St. Louis to this place; over which distance one is obliged to
-pass, before he can reach this wild and lovely spot.
-
-The Missouri is, perhaps, different in appearance and character
-from all other rivers in the world; there is a terror in its manner
-which is sensibly felt, the moment we enter its muddy waters from
-the Mississippi. From the mouth of the Yellow Stone River, which is
-the place from whence I am now writing, to its junction with the
-Mississippi, a distance of 2000 miles, the Missouri, with its boiling,
-turbid waters, sweeps off, in one unceasing current; and in the whole
-distance there is scarcely an eddy or resting-place for a canoe. Owing
-to the continual falling in of its rich alluvial banks, its water is
-always turbid and opaque; having, at all seasons of the year, the
-colour of a cup of chocolate or coffee, with sugar and cream stirred
-into it. To give a better definition of its density and opacity, I
-have tried a number of simple experiments with it at this place, and
-at other points below, at the results of which I was exceedingly
-surprised. By placing a piece of silver (and afterwards a piece of
-shell, which is a much whiter substance) in a tumbler of its water,
-and looking through the side of the glass, I ascertained that those
-substances could not be seen through the eighth part of an inch; this,
-however, is in the spring of the year, when the freshet is upon the
-river, rendering the water, undoubtedly, much more turbid than it would
-be at other seasons; though it is always muddy and yellow, and from its
-boiling and wild character and uncommon colour, a stranger would think,
-even in its lowest state, that there was a freshet upon it.
-
-For the distance of 1000 miles above St. Louis, the shores of this
-river (and, in many places, the whole bed of the stream) are filled
-with snags and raft, formed of trees of the largest size, which have
-been undermined by the falling banks and cast into the stream;
-their roots becoming fastened in the bottom of the river, with their
-tops floating on the surface of the water, and pointing down the
-stream, forming the most frightful and discouraging prospect for the
-adventurous voyageur. (See +plate+ 4.)
-
-Almost every island and sand-bar is covered with huge piles of these
-floating trees, and when the river is flooded, its surface is almost
-literally covered with floating raft and drift wood which bid positive
-defiance to keel-boats and steamers, on their way up the river.
-
-With what propriety this “Hell of waters” might he denominated the
-“River Styx,” I will not undertake to decide; but nothing could be more
-appropriate or innocent than to call it the River _of Sticks_.
-
-The scene is not, however, all so dreary; there is a redeeming beauty
-in the green and carpeted shores, which hem in this huge and terrible
-deformity of waters. There is much of the way though, where the mighty
-forests of stately cotton wood stand, and frown in horrid dark and
-coolness over the filthy abyss below; into which they are ready to
-plunge headlong, when the mud and soil in which they were germed and
-reared have been washed out from underneath them, and with the rolling
-current are mixed, and on their way to the ocean.
-
-The greater part of the shores of this river, however, are without
-timber, where the eye is delightfully relieved by wandering over the
-beautiful prairies; most of the way gracefully sloping down to the
-water’s edge, carpeted with the deepest green, and, in distance,
-softening into velvet of the richest hues, entirely beyond the reach
-of the artist’s pencil. Such is the character of the upper part of the
-river especially; and as one advances towards its source, and through
-its upper half, it becomes more pleasing to the eye, for snags and raft
-are no longer to be seen; yet the current holds its stiff and onward
-turbid character.
-
-It has been, heretofore, very erroneously represented to the world,
-that the scenery on this river was monotonous, and wanting in
-picturesque beauty. This intelligence is surely incorrect, and that
-because it has been brought perhaps, by men who are not the best
-judges in the world, of Nature’s beautiful works; and if they were,
-they always pass them by, in pain or desperate distress, in toil and
-trembling fear for the safety of their furs and peltries, or for their
-lives, which are at the mercy of the yelling savages who inhabit this
-delightful country.
-
-One thousand miles or more of the upper part of the river, was, to
-my eye, like fairy-land; and during our transit through that part of
-our voyage, I was most of the time rivetted to the deck of the boat,
-indulging my eyes in the boundless and tireless pleasure of roaming
-over the thousand hills, and bluffs, and dales, and ravines; where the
-astonished herds of buffaloes, of elks, and antelopes, and sneaking
-wolves, and mountain-goats, were to be seen bounding up and down and
-over the green fields; each one and each tribe, band, and gang, taking
-their own way, and using their own means to the greatest advantage
-possible, to leave the sight and sound of the puffing of our boat;
-which was, for the first time, saluting the green and wild shores of
-the Missouri with the din of mighty steam.
-
-From St. Louis to the falls of the Missouri, a distance of 2600 miles,
-is one continued prairie; with the exception of a few of the bottoms
-formed along the bank of the river, and the streams which are falling
-into it, which are often covered with the most luxuriant growth of
-forest timber.
-
-The summit level of the great prairies stretching off to the west and
-the east from the river, to an almost boundless extent, is from two to
-three hundred feet above the level of the river; which has formed a bed
-or valley for its course, varying in width from two to twenty miles.
-This channel or valley has been evidently produced by the force of the
-current, which has gradually excavated, in its floods and gorges, this
-immense space, and sent its débris into the ocean. By the continual
-overflowing of the river, its deposits have been lodged and left with a
-horizontal surface, spreading the deepest and richest alluvion over the
-surface of its meadows on either side; through which the river winds
-its serpentine course, alternately running from one bluff to the other,
-which present themselves to its shores in all the most picturesque
-and beautiful shapes and colours imaginable—some with their green
-sides gracefully slope down in the most lovely groups to the water’s
-edge (+plate+ 5); whilst others, divested of their verdure, present
-themselves in immense masses of clay of different colours, which arrest
-the eye of the traveller, with the most curious views in the world.
-
-These strange and picturesque appearances have been produced by the
-rains and frosts, which are continually changing the dimensions, and
-varying the thousand shapes of these denuded hills, by washing down
-their sides and carrying them into the river.
-
-Amongst these groups may be seen tens and hundreds of thousands of
-different forms and figures, of the sublime and the picturesque; in
-many places for miles together, as the boat glides along, there is
-one continued appearance, before and behind us, of some ancient and
-boundless city in ruins—ramparts, terraces, domes, towers, citadels and
-castles may be seen,—cupolas, and magnificent porticos, and here and
-there a solitary column and crumbling pedestal, and even spires of clay
-which stand alone—and glistening in distance, as the sun’s rays are
-refracted back by the thousand crystals of gypsum which are imbedded in
-the clay of which they are formed (+plate+ 6). Over and through these
-groups of domes and battlements (as one is compelled to imagine them),
-the sun sends his long and gilding rays, at morn or in the evening;
-giving life and light, by aid of shadows cast, to the different glowing
-colours of these clay-built ruins; shedding a glory over the solitude
-of this wild and pictured country, which no one can realize unless he
-travels here and looks upon it.
-
-It is amidst these wild and quiet haunts that the mountain-sheep, and
-the fleet-bounding antelope sport and live in herds, secure from their
-enemies, to whom the sides and slopes of these bluffs (around which
-they fearlessly bound) are nearly inaccessible.
-
-The grizzly bear also has chosen these places for his abode; he
-sullenly sneaks through the gulphs and chasms, and ravines, and frowns
-away the lurking Indian; whilst the mountain-sheep and antelope are
-bounding over and around the hill tops, safe and free from harm of man
-and beast.
-
-Such is a hasty sketch of the river scenes and scenery for 2000 miles,
-over which we tugged, and puffed, and blowed, and toiled for three
-months, before we reached this place. Since we arrived here, the
-steamer has returned and left me here to explore the country and visit
-the tribes in this vicinity, and then descend the river from this place
-to St. Louis; which Tour, if I live through it, will furnish material
-for many a story and curious incident, which I may give you in detail
-in future epistles, and when I have more leisure than I have at the
-present moment. I will then undertake to tell how we astonished the
-natives, in many an instance, which I can in this Letter but just
-hint at and say adieu. If anything did ever literally and completely
-“astonish (and astound) the natives,” it was the appearance of our
-steamer, puffing and blowing, and paddling and rushing by their
-villages which were on the banks of the river.
-
-These poor and ignorant people for the distance of 2000 miles, had
-never before seen or heard of a steam-boat, and in some places they
-seemed at a loss to know what to do, or how to act; they could not,
-as the Dutch did at Newburgh, on the Hudson River, take it to be a
-“_floating saw-mill_”—and they had no name for it—so it was, like
-every thing else (with them), which is mysterious and unaccountable,
-called _medicine_ (mystery). We had on board one twelve-pound cannon
-and three or four eight-pound swivels, which we were taking up to
-arm the Fur Company’s Fort at the mouth of Yellow Stone, and at the
-approach to every village they were all discharged several times in
-rapid succession, which threw the inhabitants into utter confusion and
-amazement—some of them laid their faces to the ground, and cried to
-the Great Spirit—some shot their horses and dogs, and sacrificed them
-to appease the Great Spirit, whom they conceived was offended—some
-deserted their villages and ran to the tops of the bluffs some miles
-distant; and others, in some places, as the boat landed in front of
-their villages, came with great caution, and peeped over the bank of
-the river to see the fate of their chiefs whose duty it was (from the
-nature of their office) to approach us, whether friends or foes, and
-to go on board. Sometimes, in this plight, they were instantly thrown
-‘neck and heels’ over each other’s heads and shoulders—men, women
-and children, and dogs—sage, sachem, old and young—all in a mass, at
-the frightful discharge of the steam from the escape-pipe, which the
-captain of the boat let loose upon them for his own fun and amusement.
-
-There were many curious conjectures amongst their wise men, with regard
-to the nature and powers of the steam-boat. Amongst the Mandans, some
-called it the “big thunder canoe;” for when in distance below the
-village, they saw the lightning flash from its sides, and heard the
-thunder come from it; others called it the “big medicine canoe with
-eyes;” it was _medicine_ (mystery) because they could not understand
-it; and it must have eyes, for said they, “it sees its own way, and
-takes the deep water in the middle of the channel.”
-
-[Illustration: 5]
-
-[Illustration: 6]
-
-They had no idea of the boat being steered by the man at the wheel, and
-well they might have been astonished at its taking the deepest water. I
-may (if I do not forget it) hereafter give you an account of some other
-curious incidents of this kind, which we met with in this voyage; for
-we met many, and some of them were really laughable.
-
-The Fort in which I am residing was built by Mr. M‘Kenzie, who now
-occupies it. It is the largest and best-built establishment of the kind
-on the river, being the great or principal head-quarters and depôt
-of the Fur Company’s business in this region. A vast stock of goods
-is kept on hand at this place; and at certain times of the year the
-numerous out-posts concentrate here with the returns of their season’s
-trade, and refit out with a fresh supply of goods to trade with the
-Indians.
-
-The site for the Fort is well selected, being a beautiful prairie
-on the bank near the junction of the Missouri with the Yellow Stone
-rivers; and its inmates and its stores well protected from Indian
-assaults.
-
-Mr. M‘Kenzie is a kind-hearted and high-minded Scotchman; and seems to
-have charge of all the Fur Companies’ business in this region, and from
-this to the Rocky Mountains. He lives in good and comfortable style,
-inside of the Fort, which contains some eight or ten log-houses and
-stores, and has generally forty or fifty men, and one hundred and fifty
-horses about him.
-
-He has, with the same spirit of liberality and politeness with
-which Mons. Pierre Chouteau treated me on my passage up the river,
-pronounced me welcome at his table, which groans under the luxuries of
-the country; with buffalo meat and tongues, with beavers’ tails and
-marrow-fat; but _sans_ coffee, _sans_ bread and butter. Good cheer and
-good living we get at it however, and good wine also; for a bottle of
-Madeira and one of excellent Port are set in a pail of ice every day,
-and exhausted at dinner.
-
-At the hospitable board of this gentleman I found also another, who
-forms a happy companion for _mine host_; and whose intellectual and
-polished society has added not a little to _my_ pleasure and amusement
-since I arrived here.
-
-The gentleman of whom I am speaking is an Englishman, by the name
-of Hamilton, of the most pleasing and entertaining conversation,
-whose mind seems to be a complete store-house of ancient and modern
-literature and art; and whose free and familiar acquaintance with the
-manners and men of his country gives him the stamp of a gentleman, who
-has had the curiosity to bring the embellishments of the enlightened
-world, to contrast with the rude and the wild of these remote regions.
-
-We three _bons vivants_ form the group about the dinner-table, of which
-I have before spoken, and crack our jokes and fun over the bottles of
-Port and Madeira, which I have named; and a considerable part of which,
-this gentleman has brought with great and precious care from his own
-country.
-
-This post is the general rendezvous of a great number of Indian tribes
-in these regions, who are continually concentrating here for the
-purpose of trade; sometimes coming, the whole tribe together, in a
-mass. There are now here, and encamped about the Fort, a great many,
-and I am continually at work with my brush; we have around us at this
-time the Knisteneaux, Crows, Assinneboins and Blackfeet, and in a few
-days are to have large accessions.
-
-The finest specimens of Indians on the Continent are in these regions;
-and before I leave these parts, I shall make excursions into their
-respective countries, to their own native fire-sides; and there study
-their looks and peculiar customs; enabling me to drop you now and then
-an interesting Letter. The tribes which I shall be enabled to see and
-study by my visit to this region, are the Ojibbeways, the Assinneboins,
-Knisteneaux, Blackfeet, Crows, Shiennes, Grosventres, Mandans, and
-others; of whom and their customs, their history, traditions, costumes,
-&c., I shall in due season, give you further and minute accounts.
-
-
-
-
-                             LETTER—No. 4.
-
-                         MOUTH OF YELLOW STONE.
-
-
-The several tribes of Indians inhabiting the regions of the Upper
-Missouri, and of whom I spoke in my last Letter, are undoubtedly the
-finest looking, best equipped, and most beautifully costumed of any on
-the Continent. They live in a country well-stocked with buffaloes and
-wild horses, which furnish them an excellent and easy living; their
-atmosphere is pure, which produces good health and long life; and they
-are the most independent and the happiest races of Indians I have met
-with: they are all entirely in a state of primitive wildness, and
-consequently are picturesque and handsome, almost beyond description.
-Nothing in the world, of its kind, can possibly surpass in beauty and
-grace, some of their games and amusements—their gambols and parades, of
-which I shall speak and paint hereafter.
-
-As far as my travels have yet led me into the Indian country, I have
-more than realized my former predictions that those Indians who could
-be found most entirely in a state of nature, with the least knowledge
-of civilized society, would be found to be the most cleanly in their
-persons, elegant in their dress and manners, and enjoying life to the
-greatest perfection. Of such tribes, perhaps the Crows and Blackfeet
-stand first; and no one would be able to appreciate the richness and
-elegance (and even taste too), with which some of these people dress,
-without seeing them in their own country. I will do all I can, however,
-to make their looks as well as customs known to the world; I will paint
-with my brush and scribble with my pen, and bring their plumes and
-plumage, dresses, weapons, &c., and every thing but the Indian himself,
-to prove to the world the assertions which I have made above.
-
-Every one of these red sons of the forest (or rather of the prairie)
-is a knight and lord—his squaws are his slaves; the only things which
-he deems worthy of his exertions are to mount his snorting steed, with
-his bow and quiver slung, his arrow-shield upon his arm, and his long
-lance glistening in the war-parade; or, divested of all his plumes and
-trappings, armed with a simple bow and quiver, to plunge his steed
-amongst the flying herds of buffaloes, and with his sinewy bow, which
-he seldom bends in vain, to drive deep to life’s fountain the whizzing
-arrow.
-
-The buffalo herds, which graze in almost countless numbers on these
-beautiful prairies, afford them an abundance of meat; and so much is
-it preferred to all other, that the deer, the elk, and the antelope
-sport upon the prairies in herds in the greatest security; as the
-Indians seldom kill them, unless they want their skins for a dress.
-The buffalo (or more correctly speaking bison) is a noble animal,
-that roams over the vast prairies, from the borders of Mexico on the
-south, to Hudson’s Bay on the north. Their size is somewhat above
-that of our common bullock, and their flesh of a delicious flavour,
-resembling and equalling that of fat beef. Their flesh which is easily
-procured, furnishes the savages of these vast regions the means of a
-wholesome and good subsistence, and they live almost exclusively upon
-it—converting the skins, horns, hoofs and bones, to the construction
-of dresses, shields, bows, &c. The buffalo bull is one of the most
-formidable and frightful looking animals in the world when excited to
-resistance; his long shaggy mane hangs in great profusion over his neck
-and shoulders and often extends quite down to the ground (+plate+ 7).
-The cow is less in stature, and less ferocious; though not much less
-wild and frightful in her appearance (+plate+ 8).
-
-The mode in which these Indians kill this noble animal is spirited and
-thrilling in the extreme; and I must in a future epistle, give you
-a minute account of it. I have almost daily accompanied parties of
-Indians to see the fun, and have often shared in it myself; but much
-oftener ran my horse by their sides, to see how the thing was done—to
-study the modes and expressions of these splendid scenes, which I am
-industriously putting upon the canvass.
-
-They are all (or nearly so) killed with arrows and the lance, while at
-full speed; and the reader may easily imagine, that these scenes afford
-the most spirited and picturesque views of the sporting kind that can
-possibly be seen.
-
-At present, I will give a little sketch of a bit of fun I joined in
-yesterday, with Mr. M‘Kenzie and a number of his men, without the
-company or aid of Indians.
-
-I mentioned the other day, that M‘Kenzie’s table from day to day
-groans under the weight of buffalo tongues and beavers’ tails, and
-other luxuries of this western land. He has within his Fort a spacious
-ice-house, in which he preserves his meat fresh for any length of time
-required; and sometimes, when his larder runs low. he starts out,
-rallying some five or six of his best hunters (not to hunt, but to “go
-for meat”). He leads the party, mounted on his favourite buffalo horse
-(_i. e._ the horse amongst his whole group which is best trained to run
-the buffalo), trailing a light and short gun in his hand, such an one
-as he can most easily reload whilst his horse is at full speed.
-
-Such was the condition of the ice-house yesterday morning, which caused
-these self-catering gentlemen to cast their eyes with a wishful look
-over the prairies; and such was the plight in which our host took
-the lead, and I, and then Mons. Chardon, and Ba’tiste Défonde and
-Tullock (who is a trader amongst the Crows, and is here at this time,
-with a large party of that tribe), and there were several others whose
-names I do not know.
-
-[Illustration: 7]
-
-[Illustration: 8]
-
-As we were mounted and ready to start, M‘Kenzie called up some four
-or five of his men, and told them to follow immediately on our trail,
-with as many one-horse carts, which they were to harness up, to bring
-home the meat; “ferry them across the river in the scow,” said he,
-“and following our trail through the bottom, you will find us on the
-plain yonder, between the Yellow Stone and the Missouri rivers, with
-meat enough to load you home. My watch on yonder bluff has just told
-us by his signals, that there are cattle a plenty on that spot, and
-we are going there as fast as possible.” We all crossed the river,
-and galloped away a couple of miles or so, when we mounted the bluff;
-and to be sure, as was said, there was in full view of us a fine herd
-of some four or five hundred buffaloes, perfectly at rest, and in
-their own estimation (probably) perfectly secure. Some were grazing,
-and others were lying down and sleeping; we advanced within a mile or
-so of them in full view, and came to a halt. Mons. Chardon “tossed
-the feather” (a custom always observed, to try the course of the
-wind), and we commenced “stripping” as it is termed (_i. e._ every
-man strips himself and his horse of every extraneous and unnecessary
-appendage of dress, &c. that might be an incumbrance in running): hats
-are laid off, and coats—and bullet pouches; sleeves are rolled up,
-a handkerchief tied tightly around the head, and another around the
-waist—cartridges are prepared and placed in the waistcoat pocket, or
-a half dozen bullets “throwed into the mouth,” &c., &c., all of which
-takes up some ten or fifteen minutes, and is not, in appearance or in
-effect, unlike a council of war. Our leader lays the whole plan of the
-chase, and preliminaries all fixed, guns charged and ramrods in our
-hands, we mount and start for the onset. The horses are all trained for
-this business, and seem to enter into it with as much enthusiasm, and
-with as restless a spirit as the riders themselves. While “stripping”
-and mounting, they exhibit the most restless impatience; and when
-“approaching”—(which is, all of us abreast, upon a slow walk, and
-in a straight line towards the herd, until they discover us and
-run), they all seem to have caught entirely the spirit of the chase,
-for the laziest nag amongst them prances with an elasticity in his
-step—champing his bit—his ears erect—his eyes strained out of his head,
-and fixed upon the game before him, whilst he trembles under the saddle
-of his rider. In this way we carefully and silently marched, until
-within some forty or fifty rods; when the herd discovering us, wheeled
-and laid their course in a mass. At this instant we started! (and
-all _must_ start, for no one could check the fury of those steeds at
-that moment of excitement,) and away all sailed, and over the prairie
-flew, in a cloud of dust which was raised by their trampling hoofs.
-M‘Kenzie was foremost in the throng, and soon dashed off amidst the
-dust and was out of sight—he was after the fattest and the fastest. I
-had discovered a huge bull whose shoulders towered above the whole
-band, and I picked my way through the crowd to get alongside of him. I
-went not for “meat,” but for a _trophy_; I wanted his head and horns. I
-dashed along through the thundering mass, as they swept away over the
-plain, scarcely able to tell whether I was on a buffalo’s back or my
-horse—hit, and hooked, and jostled about, till at length I found myself
-alongside of my game, when I gave him a shot, as I passed him. I saw
-guns flash in several directions about me, but I heard them not. Amidst
-the trampling throng, Mons. Chardon had wounded a stately bull, and at
-this moment was passing him again with his piece levelled for another
-shot; they were both at full speed and I also, within the reach of the
-muzzle of my gun, when the bull instantly turned and receiving the
-horse upon his horns, and the ground received poor Chardon, who made a
-frog’s leap of some twenty feet or more over the bull’s back (+plate+
-9), and almost under my horse’s heels. I wheeled my horse as soon as
-possible and rode back, where lay poor Chardon, gasping to start his
-breath again; and within a few paces of him his huge victim, with his
-heels high in the air, and the horse lying across him. I dismounted
-instantly, but Chardon was raising himself on his hands, with his eyes
-and mouth full of dirt, and feeling for his gun, which lay about thirty
-feet in advance of him. “Heaven spare you! are you hurt, Chardon?”
-“hi—hic——hic———hic————hic—————hic——————no,——hic———no——no, I believe
-not. Oh! this is not much, Mons. Cataline—this is nothing new—but this
-is a d——d hard piece of ground here—hic—oh! hic!” At this the poor
-fellow fainted, but in a few moments arose, picked up his gun, took his
-horse by the bit; which then opened _its_ eyes, and with a _hic_ and a
-_ugh_—+UGHK+! sprang upon its feet—shook off the dirt—and here we were,
-all upon our legs again, save the bull, whose fate had been more sad
-than that of either.
-
-I turned my eyes in the direction where the herd had gone, and
-our companions in pursuit, and nothing could be seen of them, nor
-indication, except the cloud of dust which they left behind them.
-At a little distance on the right, however, I beheld my huge victim
-endeavouring to make as much head-way as he possibly could, from this
-dangerous ground, upon three legs. I galloped off to him, and at my
-approach he wheeled around—and bristled up for battle; he seemed to
-know perfectly well that he could not escape from me, and resolved to
-meet his enemy and death as bravely as possible.
-
-I found that my shot had entered him a little too far forward, breaking
-one of his shoulders, and lodging in his breast, and from his very
-great weight it was impossible for him to make much advance upon me.
-As I rode up within a few paces of him, he would bristle up with fury
-enough in his _looks_ alone, almost to annihilate me (+plate+ 10); and
-making one lunge at me, would fall upon his neck and nose, so that I
-found the sagacity of my horse alone enough to keep me out of reach of
-danger: and I drew from my pocket my sketch-book, laid my gun across
-my lap, and commenced taking his likeness. He stood stiffened up, and
-swelling with awful vengeance, which was sublime for a picture, but
-which he could not vent upon me. I rode around him and sketched him
-in numerous attitudes, sometimes he would lie down, and I would then
-sketch him; then throw my cap at him, and rousing him on his legs,
-rally a new expression, and sketch him again.
-
-[Illustration: 9]
-
-[Illustration: 10]
-
-In this way I added to my sketch-book some invaluable sketches of
-this grim-visaged monster, who knew not that he was standing for his
-likeness.
-
-No man on earth can imagine what is the look and expression of such a
-subject before him as this was. I defy the world to produce another
-animal than can look so frightful as a huge buffalo bull, when wounded
-as he was, turned around for battle, and swelling with rage;—his eyes
-bloodshot, and his long shaggy mane hanging to the ground,—his mouth
-open, and his horrid rage hissing in streams of smoke and blood from
-his mouth and through his nostrils, as he is bending forward to spring
-upon his assailant.
-
-After I had had the requisite time and opportunity for using my pencil,
-M‘Kenzie and his companions came walking their exhausted horses back
-from the chase, and in our rear came four or five carts to carry home
-the meat. The party met from all quarters around me and my buffalo
-bull, whom I then shot in the head and finished. And being seated
-together for a few minutes, each one took a smoke of the pipe, and
-recited his exploits, and his “coups” or deaths; when all parties had
-a hearty laugh at me, as a novice, for having aimed at an old bull,
-whose flesh was not suitable for food, and the carts were escorted on
-the trail, to bring away the meat. I rode back with Mr. M‘Kenzie, who
-pointed out five cows which he had killed, and all of them selected
-as the fattest and slickest of the herd. This astonishing feat was
-all performed within the distance of one mile—all were killed at full
-speed, and every one shot through the heart. In the short space of time
-required for a horse under “full whip,” to run the distance of one
-mile, he had discharged his gun five, and loaded it four times—selected
-his animals, and killed at every shot! There were six or eight others
-killed at the same time, which altogether furnished, as will be seen,
-abundance of freight for the carts; which returned, as well as several
-packhorses, loaded with the choicest parts which were cut from the
-animals, and the remainder of the carcasses left a prey for the wolves.
-
-Such is the mode by which white men live in this country—such the way
-in which they get their food, and such is one of their delightful
-amusements—at the hazard of every bone in one’s body, to feel the fine
-and thrilling exhilaration of the chase for a moment, and then as often
-to upbraid and blame himself for his folly and imprudence.
-
-From this scene we commenced leisurely wending our way back; and
-dismounting at the place where we had stripped, each man dressed
-himself again, or slung his extra articles of dress, &c. across
-his saddle, astride of which he sat; and we rode back to the Fort,
-reciting as we rode, and for twenty-four hours afterwards, deeds of
-chivalry and chase, and hair’s-breadth escapes which each and either
-had fought and run on former occasions. M‘Kenzie, with all the true
-character and dignity of a leader, was silent on these subjects; but
-smiled, while those in his train were reciting for him the astonishing
-and almost incredible deeds of his sinewy arms, which they had
-witnessed in similar scenes; from which I learned (as well as from
-my own observations), that he was reputed (and actually _was_) the
-most distinguished of all the white men who have flourished in these
-regions, in the pursuit and death of the buffalo.
-
-On our return to the Fort, a bottle or two of wine were set forth
-upon the table, and around them a half dozen parched throats were
-soon moistened, and good cheer ensued. Ba’tiste Défonde, Chardon,
-&c., retired to their quarters, enlarging smoothly upon the events
-of our morning’s work; which they were reciting to their wives and
-sweethearts; when about this time the gate of the Fort was thrown open,
-and the procession of carts and packhorses laden with buffalo meat made
-its entrée; gladdening the hearts of a hundred women and children,
-and tickling the noses of as many hungry dogs and puppies, who were
-stealing in and smelling at the tail of the procession. The door of the
-ice-house was thrown open, the meat was discharged into it, and I being
-fatigued, went to sleep.
-
-[Illustration: 11]
-
-
-
-
-                             LETTER—No. 5.
-
-                MOUTH OF YELLOW STONE, _UPPER MISSOURI_.
-
-
-In my former epistle I told you there were encamped about the Fort
-a host of wild, incongruous spirits—chiefs and sachems—warriors,
-braves, and women and children of different tribes—of Crows and
-Blackfeet—Ojibbeways—Assinneboins—and Crees or Knisteneaux. Amongst
-and in the midst of them am I, with my paint pots and canvass, snugly
-ensconced in one of the bastions of the Fort, which I occupy as a
-painting-room. My easel stands before me, and the cool breech of a
-twelve-pounder makes me a comfortable seat, whilst her muzzle is
-looking out at one of the port-holes. The operations of my brush are
-_mysteries_ of the highest order to these red sons of the prairie, and
-my room the earliest and latest place of concentration of these wild
-and jealous spirits, who all meet here to be amused and pay me signal
-honours; but gaze upon each other, sending their sidelong looks of
-deep-rooted hatred and revenge around the group. However, whilst in the
-Fort, their weapons are placed within the arsenal, and naught but looks
-and thoughts can be breathed here; but death and grim destruction will
-visit back those looks upon each other, when these wild spirits again
-are loose and free to breathe and act upon the plains.
-
-I have this day been painting a portrait of the head chief of the
-Blackfoot nation; he is a good-looking and dignified Indian, about
-fifty years of age, and superbly dressed (+plate+ 11); whilst sitting
-for his picture he has been surrounded by his own braves and warriors,
-and also gazed at by his enemies, the Crows and the Knisteneaux,
-Assinneboins and Ojibbeways; a number of distinguished personages of
-each of which tribes, have laid all day around the sides of my room;
-reciting to each other the battles they have fought, and pointing to
-the scalp-locks, worn as proofs of their victories, and attached to
-the seams of their shirts and leggings. This is a curious scene to
-witness, when one sits in the midst of such inflammable and combustible
-materials, brought together, unarmed, for the first time in their
-lives; peaceably and calmly recounting over the deeds of their lives,
-and smoking their pipes upon it, when a few weeks or days will bring
-them on the plains again, where the war-cry will be raised, and their
-deadly bows will again be drawn on each other.
-
-The name of this dignitary, of whom I have just spoken, is
-Stu-mick-o-sucks (the buffalo’s back fat), _i. e._ the “hump” or
-“fleece,” the most delicious part of the buffalo’s flesh. I have
-also painted, of the Blackfeet, Pe-toh-pee-kiss (the eagle ribs),
-and Mix-ke-mote-skin-na (the iron horn), and Wun-nes-tou (the
-white buffalo), and Tcha-aes-sa-ko-mah-pee (the bear’s child), and
-In-ne-o-cose (the buffalo’s child), and half-a-dozen others, and all in
-rich and costly dresses.
-
-There is no tribe, perhaps, on the Continent, who dress more
-comfortably, and more gaudily, than the Blackfeet, unless it be
-the tribe of Crows. There is no great difference, however, in the
-costliness or elegance of their costumes; nor in the materials of which
-they are formed; though there is a distinctive mode in each tribe, of
-stitching or ornamenting with the porcupine quills, which constitute
-one of the principal ornaments to all their fine dresses; and which
-can be easily recognized, by any one a little familiar with their
-modes, as belonging to such or such a tribe. The dress, for instance of
-the chief whom I have just mentioned, and whose portrait I have just
-painted, consists of a shirt or tunic, made of two deer skins finely
-dressed, and so placed together with the necks of the skins downwards,
-and the skins of the hind legs stitched together, the seams running
-down on each arm, from the neck to the knuckles of the hand; this
-seam is covered with a band of two inches in width, of very beautiful
-embroidery of porcupine quills, and suspended from the under edge of
-this, from the shoulders to the hands, is a fringe of the locks of
-black hair, which he has taken from the heads of victims slain by his
-own hand in battle. The leggings are made also of the same material;
-and down the outer side of the leg, from the hip to the feet, extends
-also a similar band or belt of the same width; and wrought in the same
-manner, with porcupine quills, and fringed with scalp locks. These
-locks of hair are procured from scalps, and worn as trophies.
-
-The wife (or squaw) of this dignitary Eeh-nis-kin (the crystal stone),
-I have also placed upon my canvass (+plate+ 13); her countenance is
-rather pleasing, which is an uncommon thing amongst the Blackfeet—her
-dress is made of skins, and being the youngest of a bevy of six or
-eight, and the last one taken under his guardianship, was smiled upon
-with great satisfaction, whilst he exempted her from the drudgeries of
-the camp; and keeping her continually in the halo of his own person,
-watched and guarded her as the apple of his eye. The grandson also
-of this sachem, a boy of six years of age, and too young as yet to
-have acquired a name, has stood forth like a tried warrior; and I
-have painted him at full length (+plate+ 12), with his bow and quiver
-slung, and his robe made of a racoon skin. The history of this child is
-somewhat curious and interesting; his father is dead, and in case of
-the death of the chief, of whom I have spoken, he becomes hereditary
-chief of the tribe. This boy has been twice stolen away by the Crows
-by ingenious stratagems, and twice re-captured by the Blackfeet, at
-considerable sacrifice of life, and at present he is lodged with Mr.
-M‘Kenzie, for safe keeping and protection, until he shall arrive at the
-proper age to take the office to which he is to succeed, and able to
-protect himself.
-
-[Illustration: 13]
-
-[Illustration: 12]
-
-The scalp of which I spoke above, is procured by cutting out a piece
-of the skin of the head, the size of the palm of the hand or less,
-containing the very centre or crown of the head, the place where the
-hair radiates from a point, and exactly over what the phrenologists
-call self-esteem. This patch then is kept and dried with great care, as
-proof positive of the death of an enemy, and evidence of a man’s claims
-as a warrior; and after having been formally “danced,” as the saying
-is, (_i. e._ after it has been stuck up upon a pole or held up by an
-“old woman,” and the warriors have danced around it for two or three
-weeks at intervals,) it is fastened to the handle of a lance, or the
-end of a war-club, or divided into a great many small locks and used
-to fringe and ornament the victor’s dress. When these dresses are seen
-bearing such trophies, it is of course a difficult matter to purchase
-them of the Indian, for they often hold them above all price. I shall
-hereafter take occasion to speak of the scalp-dance; describing it in
-all its parts, and giving a long Letter, at the same time on scalps
-and scalping, an interesting and general custom amongst all the North
-American Indians.
-
-In the chief’s dress, which I am describing, there are his moccasins,
-made also of buckskin, and ornamented in a corresponding manner. And
-over all, his robe, made of the skin of a young buffalo bull, with
-the hair remaining on; and on the inner or flesh side, beautifully
-garnished with porcupine quills, and the battles of his life very
-ingeniously, though rudely, pourtrayed in pictorial representations.
-In his hand he holds a very beautiful pipe, the stem of which is four
-or five feet long, and two inches wide, curiously wound with braids
-of the porcupine quills of various colours; and the bowl of the pipe
-ingeniously carved by himself from a piece of red steatite of an
-interesting character, and which they all tell me is procured somewhere
-between this place and the Falls of St. Anthony, on the head waters of
-the Mississippi.
-
-This curious stone has many peculiar qualities, and has, undoubtedly,
-but one origin in this country, and perhaps in the world. It is found
-but in the hands of the savage, and every tribe, and nearly every
-individual in the tribe has his pipe made of it. I consider this stone
-a subject of great interest, and curiosity to the world; and I shall
-most assuredly make it a point, during my Indian rambles, to visit the
-place from whence it is brought. I have already got a number of most
-remarkable traditions and stories relating to the “sacred quarry;”
-of pilgrimages performed there to procure the stone, and of curious
-transactions that have taken place on that ground. It seems, from all
-I can learn, that all the tribes in these regions, and also of the
-Mississippi and the Lakes, have been in the habit of going to that
-place, and meeting their enemies there, whom they are obliged to treat
-as friends, under an injunction of the Great Spirit.
-
-So then is this sachem (the buffalo’s back fat) dressed; and in a
-very similar manner, and almost the same, is each of the others above
-named; and all are armed with bow and quiver, lance and shield. These
-north-western tribes are all armed with the bow and lance, and
-protected with the shield or arrow fender, which is carried outside of
-the left arm, exactly as the Roman and Grecian shield was carried, and
-for the same purpose.
-
-There is an appearance purely classic in the plight and equipment of
-these warriors and “knights of the lance.” They are almost literally
-always on their horses’ backs, and they wield these weapons with
-desperate effect upon the open plains; where they kill their game
-while at full speed, and contend in like manner in battles with their
-enemy. There is one prevailing custom in these respects, amongst all
-the tribes who inhabit the great plains or prairies of these western
-regions. These plains afford them an abundance of wild and fleet
-horses, which are easily procured; and on their backs at full speed,
-they can come alongside of any animal, which they easily destroy.
-
-The bow with which they are armed is small, and apparently an
-insignificant weapon, though one of great and almost incredible power
-in the hands of its owner, whose sinews have been from childhood
-habituated to its use and service. The length of these bows is
-generally about three feet, and sometimes not more than two and a half
-(+plate+ 18 _a_). They have, no doubt, studied to get the requisite
-power in the smallest compass possible, as it is more easily and
-handily used on horseback than one of greater length. The greater
-number of these bows are made of ash, or of “bois d’arc” (as the
-French call it), and lined on the back with layers of buffalo or
-deer’s sinews, which are inseparably attached to them, and give them
-great elasticity. There are very many also (amongst the Blackfeet
-and the Crows) which are made of bone, and others of the horn of the
-mountain-sheep. Those made of bone are decidedly the most valuable, and
-cannot in this country be procured of a good quality short of the price
-of one or two horses. About these there is a mystery yet to be solved,
-and I advance my opinion against all theories that I have heard in the
-country where they are used and made. I have procured several very fine
-specimens, and when purchasing them have inquired of the Indians, what
-bone they were made of? and in every instance, the answer was, “That’s
-medicine,” meaning that it was a mystery to them, or that they did not
-wish to be questioned about them. The bone of which they are made is
-certainly not the bone of any animal now grazing on the prairies, or
-in the mountains between this place and the Pacific Ocean; for some
-of these bows are three feet in length, of a solid piece of bone, and
-that as close-grained—as hard—as white, and as highly polished as
-any ivory; it cannot, therefore be made from the elks’ horn (as some
-have supposed), which is of a dark colour and porous: nor can it come
-from the buffalo. It is my opinion, therefore, that the Indians on
-the Pacific coast procure the bone from the jaw of the sperm whale,
-which is often stranded on that coast, and bringing the bone into the
-mountains, trade it to the Blackfeet and Crows, who manufacture it into
-these bows without knowing any more than we do, from what source it has
-been procured.
-
-[Illustration: 14]
-
-One of these little bows in the hands of an Indian, on a fleet and
-well-trained horse, with a quiver of arrows slung on his back, is a
-most effective and powerful weapon in the open plains. No one can
-easily credit the force with which these missiles are thrown, and the
-sanguinary effects produced by their wounds, until he has rode by
-the side of a party of Indians in chase of a herd of buffaloes, and
-witnessed the apparent ease and grace with which their supple arms have
-drawn the bow, and seen these huge animals tumbling down and gushing
-out their hearts’ blood from their mouths and nostrils.
-
-Their bows are often made of bone and sinews, and their arrows headed
-with flints or with bones, of their own construction (+plate+ 18, _c_),
-or with steel, as they are now chiefly furnished by the Fur Traders
-quite to the Rocky Mountains (+plate+ 18, _d_). The quiver, which is
-uniformly carried on the back, and made of the panther or otter skins
-(+plate+ 18, _e_) is a magazine of these deadly weapons, and generally
-contains two varieties. The one to be drawn upon an enemy, generally
-poisoned, and with long flukes or barbs, which are designed to hang the
-blade in the wound after the shaft is withdrawn, in which they are but
-slightly glued;—the other to be used for their game, with the blade
-firmly fastened to the shaft, and the flukes inverted; that it may
-easily be drawn from the wound, and used on a future occasion.
-
-Such is the training of men and horses in this country, that this work
-of death and slaughter is simple and easy. The horse is trained to
-approach the animals on the _right_ side, enabling its rider to throw
-his arrows to the left; it runs and approaches without the use of the
-halter, which is hanging loose upon its neck bringing the rider within
-three or four paces of the animal, when the arrow is thrown with great
-ease and certainty to the heart; and instances sometimes occur, where
-the arrow passes entirely through the animal’s body.
-
-An Indian, therefore, mounted on a fleet and well-trained horse, with
-his bow in his hand, and his quiver slung on his back, containing an
-hundred arrows, of which he can throw fifteen or twenty in a minute, is
-a formidable and dangerous enemy. Many of them also ride with a lance
-of twelve or fourteen feet in length (+plate+ 18, _b_), with a blade
-of polished steel; and all of them (as a protection for their vital
-parts), with a shield or arrow-fender made of the skin of the buffalo’s
-neck, which has been smoked, and hardened with glue extracted from the
-hoofs (+plate+ 18). These shields are arrow-proof, and will glance off
-a rifle shot with perfect effect by being turned obliquely, which they
-do with great skill.
-
-This shield or arrow-fender is, in my opinion, made of similar
-materials, and used in the same way, and for the same purpose, as was
-the clypeus or small shield in the Roman and Grecian cavalry. They were
-made in those days as a means of defence on horseback only—made small
-and light, of bull’s hides; sometimes single, sometimes double and
-tripled. Such was Hector’s shield, and of most of the Homeric heroes of
-the Greek and Trojan wars. In those days also were darts or javelins
-and lances; the same were also used by the Ancient Britons; and such
-exactly are now in use amongst the Arabs and the North American Indians.
-
-In this wise then, are all of these wild red knights of the prairie,
-armed and equipped,—and while nothing can possibly be more picturesque
-and thrilling than a troop or war-party of these fellows, galloping
-over these green and endless prairies; there can be no set of mounted
-men of equal numbers, so effective and so invincible in this country
-as they would be, could they be inspired with confidence of their own
-powers and their own superiority; yet this never can be done;—for the
-Indian, as far as the name of white man has travelled, and long before
-he has to try his strength with him, is trembling with fright and fear
-of his approach; he hears of white man’s arts and artifice—his tricks
-and cunning, and his hundred instruments of death and destruction—he
-dreads his approach, shrinks from him with fear and trembling—his
-heart sickens, and his pride and courage wither, at the thoughts of
-contending with an enemy, whom he thinks may war and destroy with
-weapons of _medicine_ or mystery.
-
-Of the Blackfeet, whom I mentioned in the beginning of this Letter, and
-whose portraits are now standing in my room, there is another of whom
-I must say a few words; Pe-toh-pee-kiss, the eagle ribs (+plate+ 14).
-This man is one of the extraordinary men of the Blackfoot tribe; though
-not a chief, he stands here in the Fort, and deliberately boasts of
-eight scalps, which he says he has taken from the heads of trappers and
-traders with his own hand. His dress is really superb, almost literally
-covered with scalp-locks, of savage and civil.
-
-I have painted him at full length, with a head-dress made entirely
-of ermine skins and horns of the buffalo. This custom of wearing
-horns beautifully polished and surmounting the head-dress, is a very
-curious one, being worn only by the bravest of the brave; by the most
-extraordinary men in the nation. Of their importance and meaning, I
-shall say more in a future epistle. When he stood for his picture, he
-also held a lance and two “medicine-bags” in his hand; of lances I have
-spoken,—but “medicine-bags” and “medicine” will be the text for my next
-Letter.
-
-Besides the chiefs and warriors above-named, I have also transferred
-to my canvass the “looks and very resemblance” of an aged chief,
-who combines with his high office, the envied title of mystery or
-medicine-man, _i. e._ doctor—magician—prophet—soothsayer—jongleur—and
-high priest, all combined in one person, who necessarily is looked
-upon as “Sir Oracle” of the nation. The name of this distinguished
-functionary is Wun-nes-tou, the white buffalo (+plate+ 15); and on
-his left arm he presents his mystery-drum or tambour, in which are
-concealed the hidden and sacred mysteries of his healing art.
-
-And there is also In-ne-o-cose, the iron-horn (+plate+ 16), at full
-length, in a splendid dress, with his “medicine-bag” in his hand;
-and Ah-kay-ee-pix-en, the woman who strikes many (+plate+ 17), in a
-beautiful dress of the mountain-goats’ skin, and her robe of the young
-buffalo’s hide.
-
-[Illustration: 15]
-
-[Illustration: 17]
-
-[Illustration: 16]
-
-
-
-
-                             LETTER—No. 6.
-
-                MOUTH OF YELLOW STONE, _UPPER MISSOURI_.
-
-
-Now for medicines or mysteries—for doctors, high-priests, for hocus
-pocus, witchcraft, and animal magnetism!
-
-In the last Letter I spoke of Pe-toh-pee-kiss (the eagle ribs), a
-Blackfoot brave, whose portrait I had just painted at full length, in
-a splendid dress. I mentioned also, that he held two medicine-bags in
-his hand; as they are represented in the picture; both of them made of
-the skins of otters, and curiously ornamented with ermine, and other
-strange things.
-
-I must needs stop here—my painting and every thing else, until I can
-explain the word “_medicine_,” and “_medicine-bag_;” and also some
-_medicine operations_, which I have seen transacted at this place
-within a few days past. “Medicine” is a great word in this country; and
-it is very necessary that one should know the meaning of it, whilst he
-is scanning and estimating the Indian character, which is made up, in a
-great degree, of mysteries and superstitions.
-
-The word medicine, in its common acceptation here, means _mystery_, and
-nothing else; and in that sense I _shall_ use it very frequently in my
-Notes on Indian Manners and Customs.
-
-The Fur Traders in this country, are nearly all French; and in their
-language, a doctor or physician, is called “_Medecin_.” The Indian
-country is full of doctors; and as they are all magicians, and skilled,
-or profess to be skilled, in many mysteries, the word “medecin” has
-become habitually applied to every thing mysterious or unaccountable;
-and the English and Americans, who are also trading and passing through
-this country, have easily and familiarly adopted the same word, with
-a slight alteration, conveying the same meaning; and to be a little
-more explicit, they have denominated these personages “medicine-men,”
-which means something more than merely a doctor or physician. These
-physicians, however, are all _medicine-men_, as they are all supposed
-to deal more or less in mysteries and charms, which are aids and
-handmaids in their practice. Yet it was necessary to give the word or
-phrase a still more comprehensive meaning—as there were many personages
-amongst them, and also amongst the white men who visit the country,
-who could deal in mysteries, though not skilled in the application of
-drugs and medicines; and they all range now, under the comprehensive
-and accommodating phrase of “medicine-men.” For instance, I am a
-“medicine-man” of the highest order amongst these superstitious
-people, on account of the art which I practice; which is a strange and
-unaccountable thing to them, and of course, called the greatest of
-“medicine.” My gun and pistols, which have percussion-locks, are great
-medicine; and no Indian can be prevailed on to fire them off, for they
-say they have nothing to do with white man’s medicine.
-
-The Indians do not use the word medicine, however; but in each tribe
-they have a word of their own construction, synonimous with mystery or
-mystery-man.
-
-The “medicine-bag” then, is a mystery-bag; and its meaning and
-importance necessary to be understood, as it may be said to be the
-key to Indian life and Indian character. These bags are constructed
-of the skins of animals, of birds, or of reptiles, and ornamented and
-preserved in a thousand different ways, as suits the taste or freak of
-the person who constructs them. These skins are generally attached to
-some part of the clothing of the Indian, or carried in his hand—they
-are oftentimes decorated in such a manner as to be exceedingly
-ornamental to his person, and always are stuffed with grass, or moss,
-or something of the kind; and generally without drugs or medicines
-within them, as they are religiously closed and sealed, and seldom, if
-ever, to be opened. I find that every Indian in his primitive state,
-carries his medicine-bag in some form or other, to which he pays the
-greatest homage, and to which he looks for safety and protection
-through life—and in fact, it might almost be called a species of
-idolatry; for it would seem in some instances, as if he actually
-worshipped it. Feasts are often made, and dogs and horses sacrificed,
-to a man’s medicine; and days, and even weeks, of fasting and penance
-of various kinds are often suffered, to appease his medicine, which he
-imagines he has in some way offended.
-
-This curious custom has principally been done away with along the
-frontier, where white men laugh at the Indian for the observance of so
-ridiculous and useless a form; but in this country it is in full force,
-and every male in the tribe carries this, his supernatural charm or
-guardian, to which he looks for the preservation of his life, in battle
-or in other danger; at which times it would be considered ominous of
-bad luck and an ill fate to be without it.
-
-The manner in which this curious and important article is instituted
-is this: a boy, at the age of fourteen or fifteen years, is said to
-be making or “forming his medicine,” when he wanders away from his
-father’s lodge, and absents himself for the space of two or three, and
-sometimes even four or five, days; lying on the ground in some remote
-or secluded spot, crying to the Great Spirit, and fasting the whole
-time. During this period of peril and abstinence, when he falls asleep,
-the first animal, bird, or reptile, of which he dreams (or pretends to
-have dreamed, perhaps), he considers the Great Spirit has designated
-for his mysterious protector through life. He then returns home to his
-father’s lodge, and relates his success; and after allaying his thirst,
-and satiating his appetite, he sallies forth with weapons or traps,
-until he can procure the animal or bird, the skin of which he preserves
-entire, and ornaments it according to his own fancy, and carries
-it with him through life, for “good luck” (as he calls it); as his
-strength in battle—and in death his guardian _Spirit_, that is buried
-with him, and which is to conduct him safe to the beautiful hunting
-grounds, which he contemplates in the world to come.
-
-The value of the medicine-bag to the Indian is beyond all price; for
-to sell it, or give it away, would subject him to such signal disgrace
-in his tribe, that he could never rise above it; and again, his
-superstition would stand in the way of any such disposition of it, for
-he considers it the gift of the Great Spirit. An Indian carries his
-_medicine-bag_ into battle, and trusts to it for his protection; and
-if he loses it thus, when fighting ever so bravely for his country,
-he suffers a disgrace scarcely less than that which occurs in case he
-sells or gives it away; his enemy carries it off and displays it to his
-own people as a trophy; whilst the loser is cut short of the respect
-that is due to other young men of his tribe, and for ever subjected
-to the degrading epithet of “a man without medicine,” or “he who has
-lost his medicine,” until he can replace it again; which can only be
-done, by rushing into battle and plundering one from an enemy whom he
-slays with his own hand. This done, his medicine is restored, and he
-is reinstated again in the estimation of his tribe; and even higher
-than before, for such is called the best of medicine, or “_medicine
-honourable_.”
-
-It is a singular fact, that a man can institute his mystery or
-medicine, but once in his life; and equally singular that he can
-reinstate himself by the adoption of the medicine of his enemy; both
-of which regulations are strong and violent inducements for him to
-fight bravely in battle: the first, that he may protect and preserve
-his medicine; and the second, in case he has been so unlucky as to
-lose it, that he may restore it, and his reputation also, while he is
-desperately contending for the protection of his community.
-
-During my travels thus far, I have been unable to buy a medicine-bag of
-an Indian, although I have offered them extravagant prices for them;
-and even on the frontier, where they have been induced to abandon the
-practice, though a white man may induce an Indian to relinquish his
-medicine, yet he cannot _buy_ it of him—the Indian in such case will
-bury it, to please a white man, and save it from his sacrilegious
-touch; and he will linger around the spot and at regular times visit it
-and pay it his devotions, as long as he lives.
-
-These curious appendages to the persons or wardrobe of an Indian
-(+plate+ 18, _g_), are sometimes made of the skin of an otter, a
-beaver, a musk-rat, a weazel, a racoon, a pole-cat, a snake, a frog,
-a toad, a bat, a mouse, a mole, a hawk, an eagle, a magpie, or a
-sparrow:—sometimes of the skin of an animal so large as a wolf; and
-at others, of the skins of the lesser animals, so small that they
-are hidden under the dress, and very difficult to be found, even if
-searched for.
-
-Such then is the medicine-bag—such its meaning and importance; and when
-its owner dies, it is placed in his grave and decays with his body.
-
-In the case of the portrait of which I spoke in the beginning
-of this Letter, there are seen two medicine-bags in the hand of
-Pe-toh-pee-kiss; the one was of his own instituting, and the other was
-taken from his enemy, whom he had slain in battle; both of these he has
-a right to display and boast of on such an occasion. This is but the
-beginning or incipient stage of “medicines,” however, in this strange
-and superstitious country; and if you have patience, I will carry you
-a few degrees further into the mysteries of conjuration, before I
-close this Letter. Sit still then and read, until I relate a scene of
-a tragic, and yet of the most grotesque character, which took place in
-this Fort a few days since, and to all of which I was an eye-witness.
-The scene I will relate as it transpired precisely; and call it the
-story of the “doctor,” or the “Blackfoot medicine-man.”
-
-Not many weeks since, a party of Knisteneaux came here from the north,
-for the purpose of making their summer’s trade with the Fur Company;
-and, whilst here, a party of Blackfeet, their natural enemies (the
-same who are here now), came from the west, also to trade. These two
-belligerent tribes encamped on different sides of the Fort, and had
-spent some weeks here in the Fort and about it, in apparently good
-feeling and fellowship; unable in fact to act otherwise, for, according
-to a regulation of the Fort their arms and weapons were all locked up
-by M‘Kenzie in his “arsenal,” for the purpose of preserving the peace
-amongst these fighting-cocks.
-
-The Knisteneaux had completed their trade, and loitered about the
-premises, until all, both Indians and white men, were getting tired of
-their company, wishing them quietly off. When they were ready to start,
-with their goods packed upon their backs, their arms were given them,
-and they started; bidding everybody, both friends and foes, a hearty
-farewell. They went out of the Fort, and though the party gradually
-moved off, one of them undiscovered, loitered about the Fort, until he
-got an opportunity to poke the muzzle of his gun through between the
-piquets; when he fired it at one of the chiefs of the Blackfeet, who
-stood within a few paces, talking with Mr. M‘Kenzie, and shot him with
-two musket bullets through the centre of his body! The Blackfoot fell,
-and rolled about upon the ground in the agonies of death. The Blackfeet
-who were in the Fort seized their weapons and ran in a mass out of the
-Fort, in pursuit of the Knisteneaux, who were rapidly retreating to the
-bluffs. The Frenchmen in the Fort, also, at so flagrant and cowardly
-an insult, seized their guns and ran out, joining the Blackfeet in
-the pursuit. I, at that moment, ran to my painting-room in one of the
-bastions overlooking the plain, where I had a fair view of the affair;
-many shots were exchanged back and forward, and a skirmish ensued
-which lasted half an hour; the parties, however, were so far apart
-that little effect was produced; the Knisteneaux were driven off over
-the bluffs, having lost one man and had several others wounded. The
-Blackfeet and Frenchmen returned into the Fort, and then, I saw what
-I never before saw in my life—I saw a “_medicine-man_” performing his
-mysteries over a dying man. The man who had been shot was still living,
-though two bullets had passed through the centre of his body, about two
-inches apart from each other; he was lying on the ground in the agonies
-of death, and no one could indulge the slightest hope of his recovery;
-yet the _medicine-man_ must needs be called (for such a personage they
-had in their party), and hocus pocus applied to the dying man, as the
-dernier resort, when all drugs and all specifics were useless, and
-after all possibility of recovery was extinct!
-
-[Illustration: 18]
-
-I have mentioned that all tribes have their physicians, who are also
-medicine (or mystery) men. These professional gentlemen are worthies
-of the highest order in all tribes. They are regularly called and paid
-as physicians, to prescribe for the sick; and many of them acquire
-great skill in the medicinal world, and gain much celebrity in their
-nation. Their first prescriptions are roots and herbs, of which they
-have a great variety of species; and when these have all failed, their
-last resort is to “_medicine_” or mystery; and for this purpose,
-each one of them has a strange and unaccountable dress, conjured up
-and constructed during a life-time of practice, in the wildest fancy
-imaginable, in which he arrays himself, and makes his last visit to
-his dying patient,—dancing over him, shaking his frightful rattles,
-and singing songs of incantation, in hopes to cure him by a charm.
-There are some instances, of course, where the exhausted patient
-unaccountably recovers, under the application of these absurd forms;
-and in such cases, this ingenious son of _Indian_ Esculapius will be
-seen for several days after, on the top of a wigwam, with his right arm
-extended and waving over the gaping multitude, to whom he is vaunting
-forth, without modesty, the surprising skill he has acquired in his
-art, and the undoubted efficacy of his medicine or mystery. But if, on
-the contrary, the patient dies, he soon changes his dress, and joins in
-doleful lamentations with the mourners; and easily, with his craft, and
-the ignorance and superstition of his people, protects his reputation
-and maintains his influence over them; by assuring them, that it was
-the will of the Great Spirit that his patient should die, and when sent
-for, his feeble efforts must cease.
-
-Such was the case, and such the extraordinary means resorted to in
-the instance I am now relating. Several hundred spectators, including
-Indians and traders, were assembled around the dying man, when it was
-announced that the “_medicine-man_” was coming; we were required to
-“form a ring,” leaving a space of some thirty or forty feet in diameter
-around the dying man, in which the doctor could perform his wonderful
-operations; and a space was also opened to allow him free room to pass
-through the crowd without touching any one. This being done, in a
-few moments his arrival was announced by the death-like “hush——sh——”
-through the crowd; and nothing was to be heard, save the light and
-casual tinkling of the rattles upon his dress, which was scarcely
-perceptible to the ear, as he cautiously and slowly moved through the
-avenue left for him; which at length brought him into the ring, in view
-of the pitiable object over whom his mysteries were to be performed.
-
-Readers! you may have seen or read of the witch of Endor—or you may
-imagine all the ghosts, and spirits, and furies, that ever ranked
-amongst the “rank and file” of demonology; and yet you must see my
-painting of this strange scene before you can form a just conception of
-real frightful ugliness and Indian conjuration—yes, and even more: you
-must see the magic _dress_ of this Indian “big bug” (which I have this
-day procured in all its parts), placed upon the back of some person who
-can imitate the strides, and swells, the grunts, and spring the rattles
-of an Indian magician.
-
-His entrée and his garb were somewhat thus:—he approached the ring
-with his body in a crouching position (+plate+ 19), with a slow and
-tilting step—his body and head were entirely covered with the skin of
-a yellow bear, the head of which (his own head being inside of it)
-served as a mask; the huge claws of which also, were dangling on his
-wrists and ancles; in one hand he shook a frightful rattle, and in the
-other brandished his medicine-spear or magic wand; to the rattling din
-and discord of all of which, he added the wild and startling jumps
-and yelps of the Indian, and the horrid and appalling grunts, and
-snarls, and growls of the grizzly bear, in ejaculatory and guttural
-incantations to the Good and Bad Spirits, in behalf of his patient; who
-was rolling and groaning in the agonies of death, whilst he was dancing
-around him, jumping over him, and pawing him about, and rolling him in
-every direction.
-
-In this wise, this strange operation proceeded for half an hour, to the
-surprise of a numerous and death-like silent audience, until the man
-died; and the medicine-man danced off to his quarters, and packed up,
-and tied and secured from the sight of the world, his mystery dress and
-equipments.
-
-This dress, in all its parts, is one of the greatest curiosities in the
-whole collection of Indian manufactures which I have yet obtained in
-the Indian country. It is the strangest medley and mixture, perhaps of
-the mysteries of the animal and vegetable kingdoms that ever was seen.
-Besides the skin of the yellow bear (which being almost an anomaly in
-that country, is out of the regular order of nature, and, of course,
-great medicine, and converted to a medicine use), there are attached to
-it the skins of many animals, which are also anomalies or deformities,
-which render them, in their estimation, _medicine_; and there are also
-the skins of snakes, and frogs, and bats,—beaks and toes and tails of
-birds,—hoofs of deer, goats, and antelopes; and, in fact, the “odds
-and ends,” and fag ends, and tails, and tips of almost everything that
-swims, flies, or runs, in this part of the wide world.
-
-Such is a medicine-man or a physician, and such is one of his wild
-and ridiculous manœuvres, which I have just witnessed in this strange
-country.
-
-These men, as I before remarked, are valued as dignitaries in the
-tribe, and the greatest respect is paid to them by the whole community;
-not only for their skill in their “materia medica;” but more
-especially for their tact in magic and mysteries, in which they all
-deal to a very great extent. I shall have much more to say of these
-characters and their doings in future epistles, and barely observe in
-the present place, that no tribe is without them;—that in all tribes
-their doctors are conjurors—are magicians—are sooth-sayers, and I had
-like to have said, high-priests, inasmuch as they superintend and
-conduct all their religious ceremonies;—they are looked upon by all
-as oracles of the nation. In all councils of war and peace, they have
-a seat with the chiefs—are regularly consulted before any public step
-is taken, and the greatest deference and respect is paid to their
-opinions.
-
-[Illustration: 19]
-
-
-
-
-                             LETTER—No. 7.
-
-                MOUTH OF YELLOW STONE, _UPPER MISSOURI_.
-
-
-The Letter which I gave you yesterday, on the subject of “medicines”
-and “medicine-men,” has somewhat broken the “thread of my discourse;”
-and left my painting-room (in the bastion), and all the Indians in it,
-and portraits, and buffalo hunts, and landscapes of these beautiful
-regions, to be taken up and discussed; which I will now endeavour to
-do, beginning just where I left (or digressed) off.
-
-I was seated on the cool breech of a twelve-pounder, and had my easel
-before me, and Crows and Blackfeet, and Assinneboins, whom I was
-tracing upon the canvass. And so I have been doing to-day, and shall
-be for several days to come. My painting-room has become so great a
-lounge, and I so great a “medicine-man,” that all other amusements are
-left, and all other topics of conversation and gossip are postponed
-for future consideration. The chiefs have had to place “soldiers”
-(as they are called) at my door, with spears in hand to protect me
-from the throng, who otherwise would press upon me; and none but the
-worthies are allowed to come into my medicine apartments, and none to
-be painted, except such as are decided by the chiefs to be worthy of so
-high an honour.
-
-The Crows and Blackfeet who are here together, are enemies of the
-most deadly kind while out on the plains; but here they sit and smoke
-quietly together, yet with a studied and dignified reserve.
-
-The Blackfeet are, perhaps, one of the most (if not entirely the most)
-numerous and warlike tribes on the Continent. They occupy the whole of
-the country about the sources of the Missouri, from this place to the
-Rocky Mountains; and their numbers, from the best computations, are
-something like forty or fifty thousand—they are (like all other tribes
-whose numbers are sufficiently large to give them boldness) warlike and
-ferocious, _i. e._ they are predatory, are roaming fearlessly about the
-country, even into and through every part of the Rocky Mountains, and
-carrying war amongst their enemies, who are, of course, every tribe who
-inhabit the country about them.
-
-The Crows who live on the head waters of Yellow Stone, and extend from
-this neighbourhood also to the base of the Rocky Mountains, are similar
-in the above respects to the Blackfeet; roaming about a great part of
-the year—and seeking their enemies wherever they can find them.
-
-They are a much smaller tribe than the Blackfeet, with whom they are
-always at war, and from whose great numbers they suffer prodigiously
-in battle; and probably will be in a few years entirely destroyed by
-them.
-
-[Illustration: 20]
-
-The Crows have not, perhaps, more than 7000 in their nation, and
-probably not more than eight hundred warriors or fighting men. Amongst
-the more powerful tribes, like the Sioux and Blackfeet, who have been
-enabled to preserve their warriors, it is a fair calculation to count
-one in five as warriors; but among the Crows and Minatarees, and
-Puncahs, and several other small but warlike tribes, this proportion
-cannot exist; as in some of these I have found two or three women to
-a man in the nation; in consequence of the continual losses sustained
-amongst their men in war, and also whilst pursuing the buffaloes on the
-plains for food, where their lives are exceedingly exposed.
-
-The Blackfeet and the Crows, like the Sioux and Assinneboins, have
-nearly the same mode of constructing their wigwam or lodge; in which
-tribes it is made of buffalo skins sewed together, after being dressed,
-and made into the form of a tent; supported within by some twenty
-or thirty pine poles of twenty-five feet in height, with an apex or
-aperture at the top, through which the smoke escapes and the light
-is admitted. These lodges, or tents, are taken down in a few minutes
-by the squaws, when they wish to change their location, and easily
-transported to any part of the country where they wish to encamp;
-and they generally move some six or eight times in the course of the
-summer; following the immense herds of buffaloes, as they range over
-these vast plains, from east to west, and north to south. The objects
-for which they do this are two-fold,—to procure and dress their skins,
-which are brought in, in the fall and winter, and sold to the Fur
-Company, for white man’s luxury; and also for the purpose of killing
-and drying buffalo meat (+plate+ 22), which they bring in from their
-hunts, packed on their horses’ backs, in great quantities; making
-pemican, and preserving the marrow-fat for their winter quarters; which
-are generally taken up in some heavy-timbered bottom, on the banks of
-some stream, deep imbedded within the surrounding bluffs, which break
-off the winds, and make their long and tedious winter tolerable and
-supportable. They then sometimes erect their skin lodges amongst the
-timber, and dwell in them during the winter months; but more frequently
-cut logs and make a miserable and rude sort of log cabin, in which they
-can live much warmer and better protected from the assaults of their
-enemies, in case they are attacked; in which case a log cabin is a
-tolerable fort against Indian weapons.
-
-The Crows, of all the tribes in this region, or on the Continent,
-make the most beautiful lodge. As I have before mentioned, they
-construct them as the Sioux do, and make them of the same material;
-yet they oftentimes dress the skins of which they are composed almost
-as white as linen, and beautifully garnish them with porcupine
-quills, and paint and ornament them in such a variety of ways, as
-renders them exceedingly picturesque and agreeable to the eye. I have
-procured a very beautiful one of this description (+plate+ 20),
-highly-ornamented, and fringed with scalp-locks, and sufficiently large
-for forty men to dine under. The poles which support it are about
-thirty in number, of pine, and all cut in the Rocky Mountains, having
-been some hundred years, perhaps, in use. This tent, when erected, is
-about twenty-five feet high, and has a very pleasing effect; with the
-Great or Good Spirit painted on one side, and the Evil Spirit on the
-other. If I can ever succeed in transporting it to New York and other
-eastern cities, it will be looked upon as a beautiful and exceedingly
-interesting specimen.
-
-The manner in which an encampment of Indians strike their tents and
-transport them is curious, and to the traveller in this country a very
-novel and unexpected sight, when he first beholds it. Whilst ascending
-the river to this place, I saw an encampment of Sioux, consisting of
-six hundred of these lodges, struck, and all things packed and on the
-move in a very few minutes. The chief sends his runners or criers (for
-such all chiefs keep in their employment) through the village, a few
-hours before they are to start; announcing his determination to move,
-and the hour fixed upon, and the necessary preparations are in the
-meantime making; and at the time announced, the lodge of the chief is
-seen flapping in the wind, a part of the poles having been taken out
-from under it; this is the signal, and in one minute, six hundred of
-them (on a level and beautiful prairie), which before had been strained
-tight and fixed, were seen waving and flapping in the wind, and in one
-minute more all were flat upon the ground. Their horses and dogs, of
-which they had a vast number, had all been secured upon the spot, in
-readiness; and each one was speedily loaded with the burthen allotted
-to it, and ready to fall into the grand procession.
-
-For this strange cavalcade, preparation is made in the following
-manner: the poles of a lodge are divided into two bunches, and the
-little ends of each bunch fastened upon the shoulders or withers of a
-horse, leaving the butt ends to drag behind on the ground on either
-side. Just behind the horse, a brace or pole is tied across, which
-keeps the poles in their respective places; and then upon that and
-the poles behind the horse, is placed the lodge or tent, which is
-rolled up, and also numerous other articles of household and domestic
-furniture, and on the top of all, two, three, and even (sometimes) four
-women and children! Each one of these horses has a conductress, who
-sometimes walks before and leads it, with a tremendous pack upon her
-own back; and at others she sits astride of its back, with a child,
-perhaps, at her breast, and another astride of the horse’s back behind
-her, clinging to her waist with one arm, while it affectionately
-embraces a sneaking dog-pup in the other.
-
-In this way five or six hundred wigwams, with all their furniture
-(+plate+ 21), may be seen drawn out for miles, creeping over the
-grass-covered plains of this country; and three times that number of
-men, on good horses, strolling along in front or on the flank; and, in
-some tribes, in the rear of this heterogeneous caravan, at least five
-times that number of dogs, which fall into the rank, and follow in
-the train and company of the women, and every cur of them, who is large
-enough, and not too cunning to be enslaved, is encumbered with a car or
-sled (or whatever it may be better called), on which he patiently drags
-his load—a part of the household goods and furniture of the lodge to
-which he belongs. Two poles, about fifteen feet long, are placed upon
-the dog’s shoulder, in the same manner as the lodge poles are attached
-to the horses, leaving the larger ends to drag upon the ground behind
-him; on which is placed a bundle or wallet which is allotted to him to
-carry, and with which he trots off amid the throng of dogs and squaws;
-faithfully and cheerfully dragging his load ’till night, and by the way
-loitering and occasionally
-
-    “Catching at little bits of fun and glee
-     That’s played on dogs enslaved by dog that’s free.”
-
-[Illustration: 21]
-
-[Illustration: 22]
-
-The Crows, like the Blackfeet, are beautifully costumed, and perhaps
-with somewhat more of taste and elegance; inasmuch as the skins of
-which their dresses are made are more delicately and whitely dressed.
-The art of dressing skins belongs to the Indians in all countries;
-and the Crows surpass the civilized world in the beauty of their
-skin-dressing. The art of tanning is unknown to them, so far as
-civilized habits and arts have not been taught them; yet the art of
-dressing skins, so far as we have it in the civilized world, has been
-(like hundreds of other ornamental and useful customs which we are
-practising), borrowed from the savage; without our ever stopping to
-enquire from whence they come, or by whom invented.
-
-The usual mode of dressing the buffalo, and other skins, is by
-immersing them for a few days under a lye from ashes and water, until
-the hair can be removed; when they are strained upon a frame or upon
-the ground, with stakes or pins driven through the edges into the
-earth; where they remain for several days, with the brains of the
-buffalo or elk spread upon and over them; and at last finished by
-“graining,” as it is termed, by the squaws; who use a sharpened bone,
-the shoulder-blade or other large bone of the animal, sharpened at the
-edge, somewhat like an adze; with the edge of which they scrape the
-fleshy side of the skin; bearing on it with the weight of their bodies,
-thereby drying and softening the skin, and fitting it for use.
-
-The greater part of these skins, however, go through still another
-operation afterwards, which gives them a greater value, and renders
-them much more serviceable—that is, the process of smoking. For this,
-a small hole is dug in the ground, and a fire is built in it with
-rotten wood, which will produce a great quantity of smoke without
-much blaze; and several small poles of the proper length stuck in the
-ground around it, and drawn and fastened together at the top, around
-which a skin is wrapped in form of a tent, and generally sewed together
-at the edges to secure the smoke within it; within this the skins
-to be smoked are placed, and in this condition the tent will stand a
-day or so, enclosing the heated smoke; and by some chemical process
-or other, which I do not understand, the skins thus acquire a quality
-which enables them, after being ever so many times wet, to dry soft
-and pliant as they were before, which secret I have never yet seen
-practiced in my own country; and for the lack of which, all of our
-dressed skins when once wet, are, I think, chiefly ruined.
-
-An Indian’s dress of deer skins, which is wet a hundred times upon his
-back, dries soft; and his lodge also, which stands in the rains, and
-even through the severity of winter, is taken down as soft and as clean
-as when it was first put up.
-
-A Crow is known wherever he is met by his beautiful white dress, and
-his tall and elegant figure; the greater part of the men being six
-feet high. The Blackfeet on the other hand, are more of the Herculean
-make—about middling stature, with broad shoulders, and great expansion
-of chest; and the skins of which their dresses are made, are chiefly
-dressed black, or of a dark brown colour; from which circumstance, in
-all probability, they having black leggings or moccasins, have got the
-name of Blackfeet.
-
-The Crows are very handsome and gentlemanly Indians in their personal
-appearance: and have been always reputed, since the first acquaintance
-made with them, very civil and friendly.
-
-These people to be sure, have in some instances plundered and robbed
-trappers and travellers in their country; and for that I have sometimes
-heard them called rascals and thieves, and rogues of the first order,
-&c.; yet they do not consider themselves such; for thieving in their
-estimation is a high crime, and considered the most disgraceful act
-that a man can possibly do. They call this _capturing_, where they
-sometimes run off a Trader’s horses, and make their boast of it;
-considering it a kind of retaliation or summary justice, which they
-think it right and honourable that they should administer. And why
-not? for the unlicensed trespass committed through their country from
-one end to the other, by mercenary white men, who are destroying the
-game, and catching all the beaver and other rich and valuable furs
-out of their country, without paying them an equivalent, or, in fact,
-anything at all, for it; and this too, when they have been warned time
-and again of the danger they would be in, if they longer persisted in
-the practice. Reader, I look upon the Indian as the most honest and
-honourable race of people that I ever lived amongst in my life; and in
-their native state, I pledge you my honour they are the last of all
-the human family to pilfer or to steal, if you trust to their honour;
-and for this never-ending and boundless system of theft and plunder,
-and debauchery, that is practiced off upon these rightful owners of
-the soil, by acquisitive white men, I consider the infliction, or
-retaliation, by driving off and appropriating a few horses, but a
-lenient punishment, which those persons at least should expect; and
-which, in fact, none but a very honourable and high-minded people
-could inflict, instead of a much severer one; which they could easily
-practice upon the few white men in their country, without rendering
-themselves amenable to any law.
-
-Mr. M‘Kenzie has repeatedly told me, within the four last weeks, while
-in conversation relative to the Crows, that they were friendly and
-honourable in their dealing with the whites, and that he considered
-them the finest Indians of his acquaintance.
-
-I recollect whilst in St. Louis, and other places at the East, to have
-heard it often said, that the Crows were a rascally and thieving set of
-vagabonds, highway robbers, &c. &c.; and I have been told since, that
-this information has become current in the world, from the fact that
-they made some depredations upon the camp of Messrs. Crooks and Hunt of
-the Fur Company; and drove off a number of their horses, when they were
-passing through the Crow country, on their way to Astoria. This was no
-doubt true; and equally true, would these very Indians tell us, was the
-fact, that they had a good and sufficient reason for it.
-
-These gentlemen, with their party, were crossing the Crow country
-with a large stock of goods, of guns, and ammunition, of knives, and
-spears, arrowheads, &c.; and stopped for some time and encamped in the
-midst of the Crow country (and I think wintered there), when the Crows
-assembled in large numbers about them, and treated them in a kind and
-friendly manner; and at the same time proposed to trade with them for
-guns and ammunition, &c. (according to these gentlemen’s own account,)
-of which they were in great want, and for which they brought a great
-many horses, and offered them repeatedly in trade; which they refused
-to take, persisting in their determination of carrying their goods
-to their destined place, across the mountains; thereby disappointing
-these Indians, by denying them the arms and weapons which were in
-their possession, whilst they were living upon them, and exhausting
-the game and food of their country. No doubt, these gentlemen told the
-Crows, that these goods were going to Astoria, of which place they knew
-nothing; and of course, it was enough for them that they were going to
-take them farther west; which they would at once suppose was to the
-Blackfeet, their principal enemy, having eight or ten warriors to one
-of the Crows; where they supposed the white men could get a greater
-price for their weapons, and arm their enemies in such a way as would
-enable them to turn upon the Crows, and cut them to pieces without
-mercy. Under these circumstances, the Crows rode off, and to show their
-indignation, drove off some of the Company’s horses, for which they
-have ever since been denominated a band of thieves and highway robbers.
-It is a custom, and a part of the system of jurisprudence amongst all
-savages, to revenge upon the person or persons who give the offence,
-if they can; and if not, to let that punishment fall upon the head of
-the first white man who comes in their way, provided the offender was a
-white man. And I would not be surprised, therefore, if I get robbed of
-my horse; and you too, readers, if you go into that country, for that
-very (supposed) offence.
-
-I have conversed often and much with Messrs. Sublette and Campbell,
-two gentlemen of the highest respectability, who have traded with the
-Crows for several years, and they tell me they are one of the most
-honourable, honest, and high-minded races of people on earth; and with
-Mr. Tullock, also, a man of the strictest veracity, who is now here
-with a party of them; and, he says, they never steal,—have a high
-sense of honour,—and being fearless and proud, are quick to punish or
-retaliate.
-
-So much for the character of the Crows for the present, a subject which
-I shall assuredly take up again, when I shall have seen more of them
-myself.
-
-
-
-
-                             LETTER—No. 8.
-
-                MOUTH OF YELLOW STONE, _UPPER MISSOURI_.
-
-
-Since my last Letter, nothing of great moment has transpired at this
-place; but I have been continually employed in painting my portraits
-and making notes on the character and customs of the wild folks who
-are about me. I have just been painting a number of the Crows, fine
-looking and noble gentlemen. They are really a handsome and well-formed
-set of men as can be seen in any part of the world. There is a sort of
-ease and grace added to their dignity of manners, which gives them the
-air of gentlemen at once. I observed the other day, that most of them
-were over six feet high, and very many of these have cultivated their
-natural hair to such an almost incredible length, that it sweeps the
-ground as they walk; there are frequent instances of this kind amongst
-them, and in some cases, a foot or more of it will drag on the grass
-as they walk, giving exceeding grace and beauty to their movements.
-They usually oil their hair with a profusion of bear’s grease every
-morning, which is no doubt one cause of the unusual length to which
-their hair extends; though it cannot be the sole cause of it, for the
-other tribes throughout this country use the bear’s grease in equal
-profusion without producing the same results. The Mandans, however, and
-the Sioux, of whom I shall speak in future epistles, have cultivated
-a very great growth of the hair, as many of them are seen whose hair
-reaches near to the ground.
-
-This extraordinary length of hair amongst the Crows is confined to the
-men alone; for the women, though all of them with glossy and beautiful
-hair, and a great profusion of it, are unable to cultivate it to so
-great a length; or else they are not allowed to compete with their
-lords in a fashion so ornamental (and on which the men so highly pride
-themselves), and are obliged in many cases to cut it short off.
-
-The fashion of long hair amongst the men, prevails throughout all the
-Western and North Western tribes, after passing the Sacs and Foxes; and
-the Pawnees of the Platte, who, with two or three other tribes only,
-are in the habit of shaving nearly the whole head.
-
-The present chief of the Crows, who is called “Long-hair,” and has
-received his name as well as his office from the circumstance of
-having the longest hair of any man in the nation, I have not yet
-seen: but I hope I yet may, ere I leave this part of the country.
-This extraordinary man is known to several gentlemen with whom I am
-acquainted, and particularly to Messrs. Sublette and Campbell, of whom
-I have before spoken, who told me they had lived in his hospitable
-lodge for months together; and assured me that they had measured his
-hair by a correct means, and found it to be ten feet and seven inches
-in length; closely inspecting every part of it at the same time, and
-satisfying themselves that it was the natural growth.
-
-On ordinary occasions it is wound with a broad leather strap, from his
-head to its extreme end, and then folded up into a budget or block, of
-some ten or twelve inches in length, and of some pounds weight; which
-when he walks is carried under his arm, or placed in his bosom, within
-the folds of his robe; but on any great parade or similar occasion, his
-pride is to unfold it, oil it with bear’s grease and let it drag behind
-him, some three or four feet of it spread out upon the grass, and black
-and shining like a raven’s wing.
-
-It is a common custom amongst most of these upper tribes, to splice or
-add on several lengths of hair, by fastening them with glue; probably
-for the purpose of imitating the Crows, upon whom alone Nature has
-bestowed this conspicuous and signal ornament.
-
-Amongst the Crows of distinction now at this place, I have painted the
-portraits of several, who exhibit some striking peculiarities. Amongst
-whom is Chah-ee-chopes, the four wolves (+plate+ 24); a fine looking
-fellow, six feet in stature, and whose natural hair sweeps the grass
-as he walks; he is beautifully clad, and carries himself with the most
-graceful and manly mien—he is in mourning for a brother; and according
-to their custom, has cut off a number of locks of his long hair, which
-is as much as a man can well spare of so valued an ornament, which he
-has been for the greater part of his life cultivating; whilst a woman
-who mourns for a husband or child, is obliged to crop her hair short to
-her head, and so remain till it grows out again; ceasing gradually to
-mourn as her hair approaches to its former length.
-
-Duhk-pits-a-ho-shee, the red bear (+plate+ 26), a distinguished
-warrior; and Oo-je-en-a-he-ha, the woman who lives in the bear’s den
-(+plate+ 25). I have also painted Pa-ris-ka-roo-pa (two crows) the
-younger (+plate+ 27), one of the most extraordinary men in the Crow
-nation; not only for his looks, from the form of his head, which seems
-to be distortion itself—and curtailed of all its fair proportions; but
-from his extraordinary sagacity as a counsellor and orator, even at an
-early stage of his life.
-
-There is something very uncommon in this outline, and sets forth the
-striking peculiarity of the Crow tribe, though rather in an exaggerated
-form. The semi-lunar outline of the Crow head, with an exceedingly low
-and retreating forehead, is certainly a very peculiar and striking
-characteristic; and though not so strongly marked in most of the tribe
-as in the present instance, is sufficient for their detection whenever
-they are met; and will be subject for further comment in another place.
-
-The Crow women (and Blackfeet also) are not handsome, and I shall at
-present say but little of them. They are, like all other Indian
-women, the slaves of their husbands: being obliged to perform all the
-domestic duties and drudgeries of the tribe, and not allowed to join
-in their religious rites or ceremonies, nor in the dance or other
-amusements.
-
-[Illustration: 24 25]
-
-[Illustration: 26 27]
-
-The women in all these upper and western tribes are decently dressed,
-and many of them with great beauty and taste; their dresses are all of
-deer or goat skins, extending from their chins quite down to the feet;
-these dresses are in many instances trimmed with ermine, and ornamented
-with porcupine quills and beads with exceeding ingenuity.
-
-The Crow and Blackfeet women, like all others I ever saw in any Indian
-tribe, divide the hair on the forehead, and paint the separation or
-crease with vermilion or red earth. For what purpose this little, but
-universal, custom is observed, I never have been able to learn.
-
-The men amongst the Blackfeet tribe, have a fashion equally simple, and
-probably of as little meaning, which seems strictly to be adhered to
-by every man in the tribe; they separate the hair in two places on the
-forehead, leaving a lock between the two, of an inch or two in width,
-which is carefully straightened down on to the bridge of the nose, and
-there cut square off. It is more than probable that this is done for
-the purpose of distinction; that they may thereby be free from the
-epithet of effeminacy, which might otherwise attach to them.
-
-These two tribes, whom I have spoken of connectedly, speak two distinct
-and entirely dissimilar languages; and the language of each is
-different, and radically so, from that of all other tribes about them.
-As these people are always at war, and have been, time out of mind,
-they do not intermarry or hold converse with each other, by which any
-knowledge of each other’s language could be acquired. It would be the
-work of a man’s life-time to collect the languages of all the different
-tribes which I am visiting; and I shall, from necessity, leave this
-subject chiefly for others, who have the time to devote to them, to
-explain them to the world. I have, however, procured a brief vocabulary
-of their words and sentences in these tribes; and shall continue to do
-so amongst the tribes I shall visit, which will answer as a specimen
-or sample in each; and which, in the sequel to these Letters (if they
-should ever be published), will probably be arranged.
-
-The Blackfeet are, perhaps, the most powerful tribe of Indians on
-the Continent; and being sensible of their strength, have stubbornly
-resisted the Traders in their country, who have been gradually forming
-an acquaintance with them, and endeavouring to establish a permanent
-and profitable system of trade. Their country abounds in beaver and
-buffalo, and most of the fur-bearing animals of North America; and
-the American Fur Company, with an unconquerable spirit of trade and
-enterprize, has pushed its establishments into their country; and the
-numerous parties of trappers are tracing up their streams and rivers,
-rapidly destroying the beavers which dwell in them. The Blackfeet
-have repeatedly informed the Traders of the Company, that if their
-men persisted in trapping beavers in their country, they should kill
-them whenever they met them. They have executed their threats in many
-instances, and the Company loses some fifteen or twenty men annually,
-who fall by the hands of these people, in defence of what they deem
-their property and their rights. Trinkets and whiskey, however, will
-soon spread their charms amongst these, as they have amongst other
-tribes; and white man’s voracity will sweep the prairies and the
-streams of their wealth, to the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Ocean;
-leaving the Indians to inhabit, and at last to starve upon, a dreary
-and solitary waste.
-
-The Blackfeet, therefore, having been less traded with, and less seen
-by white people than most of the other tribes, are more imperfectly
-understood; and it yet remains a question to be solved—whether there
-are twenty, or forty or fifty thousand of them? for no one, as yet, can
-correctly estimate their real strength. From all I can learn, however,
-which is the best information that can be got from the Traders, there
-are not far from 40,000 Indians (altogether), who range under the
-general denomination of Blackfeet.
-
-From our slight and imperfect knowledge of them, and other tribes
-occupying the country about the sources of the Missouri, there is no
-doubt in my mind, that we are in the habit of bringing more Indians
-into the computation, than are entitled justly to the appellation of
-“Blackfeet.”
-
-Such, for instance, are the “Grosventres de Prairie” and Cotonnés,
-neither of which speak the Blackfeet language; but hunt, and eat,
-and fight, and intermarry with the Blackfeet; living therefore in a
-state of confederacy and friendship with them, but speaking their own
-language, and practicing their own customs.
-
-The Blackfeet proper are divided into four bands or families, as
-follow:—the “Pe-a-gans,” of 500 lodges; the “Blackfoot” band, of 450
-lodges; the “Blood” band, of 450 lodges; and the “Small Robes,” of 250
-lodges. These four bands constituting about 1650 lodges, averaging ten
-to the lodge, amount to about 16,500 souls.
-
-There are then of the other tribes above-mentioned (and whom we,
-perhaps, incorrectly denominate Blackfeet), Grosventres des Prairies,
-430 lodges, with language entirely distinct; Circees, of 220 lodges,
-and Cotonnés, of 250 lodges, with language also distinct from either.[1]
-
-There is in this region a rich and interesting field for the linguist
-of the antiquarian; and stubborn facts, I think, if they could be well
-procured, that would do away the idea which many learned gentlemen
-entertain, that the Indian languages of North America can all be
-traced to two or three roots. The language of the Dohcotas is entirely
-and radically distinct from that of the Mandans, and theirs equally so
-from the Blackfoot and the Crows. And from the lips of Mr. Brazeau, a
-gentleman of education and strict observation, who has lived several
-years with the Blackfeet and Shiennes, and who speaks the language of
-tribes on either side of them, assures me that these languages are
-radically distinct and dissimilar, as I have above stated; and also,
-that although he has been several years amongst those tribes, he has
-not been able to trace the slightest resemblance between the Circee,
-Cotonné, and Blackfoot, and Shienne, and Crow, and Mandan tongues; and
-from a great deal of corroborating information, which I have got from
-other persons acquainted with these tribes, I am fully convinced of the
-correctness of his statements.
-
-Besides the Blackfeet and Crows, whom I told you were assembled at
-this place, are also the Knisteneaux (or Crees, as they are commonly
-called), a very pretty and pleasing tribe of Indians, of about 3000
-in number, living on the north of this, and also the Assinneboins and
-Ojibbeways; both of which tribes also inhabit the country to the north
-and north-east of the mouth of Yellow Stone.
-
-The Knisteneaux are of small stature, but well-built for strength and
-activity combined; are a people of wonderful prowess for their numbers,
-and have waged an unceasing warfare with the Blackfeet, who are their
-neighbours and enemies on the west. From their disparity in numbers
-they are rapidly thinning the ranks of their warriors, who bravely
-sacrifice their lives in contentions with their powerful neighbours.
-This tribe occupy the country from the mouth of the Yellow Stone, in
-a north-western direction, far into the British territory, and trade
-principally at the British N. W. Company’s Posts.
-
-The Assinneboins of seven thousand, and the Ojibbeways of six thousand,
-occupy a vast extent of country, in a north-eastern direction from
-this; extending also into the British possessions as high north as
-Lake Winnepeg; and trading principally with the British Company. These
-three tribes are in a state of nature, living as neighbours, and are
-also on terms of friendship with each other. This friendship, however,
-is probably but a temporary arrangement, brought about by the Traders
-amongst them; and which, like most Indian peace establishments, will be
-of short duration.
-
-The Ojibbeways are, undoubtedly, a part of the tribe of Chippeways,
-with whom we are more familiarly acquainted, and who inhabit the
-south-west shore of Lake Superior. Their language is the same, though
-they are separated several hundred miles from any of them, and seem to
-have no knowledge of them, or traditions of the manner in which, or of
-the time when, they became severed from each other.
-
-The Assinneboins are a part of the Dohcotas, or Sioux, undoubtedly; for
-their personal appearance as well as their language is very similar.
-
-At what time, or in what manner, these two parts of a nation got
-strayed away from each other is a mystery; yet such cases have often
-occurred, of which I shall say more in future. Large parties who
-are straying off in pursuit of game, or in the occupation of war,
-are oftentimes intercepted by their enemy; and being prevented from
-returning, are run off to a distant region, where they take up their
-residence and establish themselves as a nation.
-
-There is a very curious custom amongst the Assinneboins, from which
-they have taken their name; a name given them by their neighbours,
-from a singular mode they have of boiling their meat, which is done in
-the following manner:—when they kill meat, a hole is dug in the ground
-about the size of a common pot, and a piece of the raw hide of the
-animal, as taken from the back, is put over the hole, and then pressed
-down with the hands close around the sides, and filled with water. The
-meat to be boiled is then put in this hole or pot of water; and in a
-fire, which is built near by, several large stones are heated to a red
-heat, which are successively dipped and held in the water until the
-meat is boiled; from which singular and peculiar custom, the Ojibbeways
-have given them the appellation of Assinneboins or stone boilers.
-
-This custom is a very awkward and tedious one, and used only as an
-ingenious means of boiling their meat, by a tribe who was too rude and
-ignorant to construct a kettle or pot.
-
-The Traders have recently supplied these people with pots; and even
-long before that, the Mandans had instructed them in the secret of
-manufacturing very good and serviceable earthen pots; which together
-have entirely done away the custom, excepting at public festivals;
-where they seem, like all others of the human family, to take pleasure
-in cherishing and perpetuating their ancient customs.
-
-Of these three tribes, I have also lined my painting-room with a number
-of very interesting portraits of the distinguished and brave men; and
-also representations of their games and ceremonies, which will be found
-in my +Indian Gallery+, if I live, and they can be preserved until I
-get home.
-
-The Assinneboins, or stone boilers, are a fine and noble looking race
-of Indians; bearing, both in their looks and customs, a striking
-resemblance to the Dohcotas or Sioux, from whom they have undoubtedly
-sprung. The men are tall, and graceful in their movements; and wear
-their pictured robes of the buffalo hide with great skill and pleasing
-effect. They are good hunters, and tolerably supplied with horses;
-and living in a country abounding with buffaloes, are well supplied
-with the necessaries of Indian life, and may be said to live well.
-Their games and amusements are many, of which the most valued one is
-the ball-play; and in addition to which, they have the game of the
-moccasin, horse-racing, and dancing; some one of which, they seem to be
-almost continually practicing, and of all of which I shall hereafter
-give the reader (as well as of many others of their amusements) a
-minute account.
-
-Their dances, which were frequent and varied, were generally exactly
-the same as those of the Sioux, of which I have given a faithful
-account in my Notes on the Sioux, and which the reader will soon
-meet with. There was one of these scenes, however, that I witnessed
-the other day, which appeared to me to be peculiar to this tribe,
-and exceedingly picturesque in its effect; which was described to me
-as the _pipe-dance_, and was as follows:—On a hard-trodden pavement
-in front of their village, which place is used for all their public
-meetings, and many of their amusements, the young men, who were to
-compose the dance, had gathered themselves around a small fire (+plate+
-32), and each one seated on a buffalo-robe spread upon the ground.
-In the centre and by the fire, was seated a dignitary, who seemed
-to be a chief (perhaps a doctor or medicine-man), with a long pipe
-in his hand, which he lighted at the fire and smoked incessantly,
-grunting forth at the same time, in half-strangled gutturals, a sort
-of song, which I did not get translated to my satisfaction, and which
-might have been susceptible of none. While this was going on, another
-grim-visaged fellow in another part of the group, commenced beating
-on a drum or tambourine, accompanied by his voice; when one of the
-young men seated, sprang instantly on his feet, and commenced singing
-in time with the taps of the drum, and leaping about on one foot and
-the other in the most violent manner imaginable. In this way he went
-several times around the circle, bowing and brandishing his fists in
-the faces of each one who was seated, until at length he grasped one of
-them by the hands, and jerked him forcibly up upon his feet; who joined
-in the dance for a moment, leaving the one who had pulled him up, to
-continue his steps and his song in the centre of the ring; whilst he
-danced around in a similar manner, jerking up another, and then joining
-his companion in the centre; leaving the third and the fourth, and
-so on to drag into the ring, each one his man, until all were upon
-their feet; and at last joined in the most frightful gesticulations
-and yells that seemed almost to make the earth quake under our feet.
-This strange manœuvre, which I did but partially understand, lasted
-for half or three-quarters of an hour; to the great amusement of the
-gaping multitude who were assembled around, and broke up with the most
-piercing yells and barks like those of so many affrighted dogs.
-
-The Assinneboins, somewhat like the Crows, cultivate their hair to
-a very great length, in many instances reaching down nearly to the
-ground; but in most instances of this kind, I find the great length is
-produced by splicing or adding on several lengths, which are fastened
-very ingeniously by means of glue, and the joints obscured by a sort
-of paste of red earth and glue, with which the hair is at intervals of
-every two or three inches filled, and divided into locks and slabs of
-an inch or so in breadth, and falling straight down over the back to
-the heels.
-
-I have painted the portrait of a very distinguished young man, and son
-of the chief (+plate+ 28); his dress is a very handsome one, and in
-every respect answers well to the descriptions I have given above. The
-name of this man is Wi-jun-jon (the pigeon’s egg head), and by the side
-of him (+plate+ 29) will be seen the portrait of his wife, Chin-cha-pee
-(the fire bug that creeps), a fine looking squaw, in a handsome dress
-of the mountain-sheep skin, holding in her hand a stick curiously
-carved, with which every woman in this country is supplied; for the
-purpose of digging up the “Pomme Blanche,” or prairie turnip, which is
-found in great quantities in these northern prairies, and furnishes the
-Indians with an abundant and nourishing food. The women collect these
-turnips by striking the end of the stick into the ground, and prying
-them out; after which they are dried and preserved in their wigwams for
-use during the season.
-
-I have just had the satisfaction of seeing this travelled-gentleman
-(Wi-jun-jon) meet his tribe, his wife and his little children; after an
-absence of a year or more, on his journey of 6000 miles to Washington
-City, and back again (in company with Major Sanford, the Indian agent);
-where he has been spending the winter amongst the fashionables in the
-polished circles of civilized society. And I can assure you, readers,
-that his entrée amongst his own people, in the dress and with the airs
-of a civilized beau, was one of no ordinary occurrence; and produced no
-common sensation amongst the red-visaged Assinneboins, or in the minds
-of those who were travellers, and but spectators to the scene.
-
-On his way home from St. Louis to this place, a distance of 2000 miles,
-I travelled with this gentleman, on the steamer Yellow-Stone; and
-saw him step ashore (on a beautiful prairie, where several thousands
-of his people were encamped), with a complete suit _en militaire_,
-a colonel’s uniform of blue, presented to him by the President of
-the United States, with a beaver hat and feather, with epaulettes of
-gold—with sash and belt, and broad sword; with high-heeled boots—with
-a keg of whiskey under his arm, and a blue umbrella in his hand. In
-this plight and metamorphose, he took his position on the bank, amongst
-his friends—his wife and other relations; not one of whom exhibited,
-for an half-hour or more, the least symptoms of recognition, although
-they knew well who was before them. He also gazed upon them—upon his
-wife and parents, and little children, who were about, as if they were
-foreign to him, and he had not a feeling or thought to interchange with
-them. Thus the mutual gazings upon and from this would-be-stranger,
-lasted for full half an hour; when a gradual, but cold and exceedingly
-formal recognition began to take place, and an acquaintance ensued,
-which ultimately and smoothly resolved itself, without the least
-apparent emotion, into its former state; and the mutual kindred
-intercourse seemed to flow on exactly where it had been broken off,
-as if it had been but for a moment, and nothing had transpired in the
-interim to check or change its character or expression.
-
-Such is one of the stoic instances of a custom which belongs to all the
-North American Indians, forming one of the most striking features in
-their character; valued, cherished and practiced, like many others
-of their strange notions, for reasons which are difficult to be learned
-or understood; and which probably will never be justly appreciated by
-others than themselves.
-
-[Illustration: 29 28]
-
-[Illustration: 30 31]
-
-[Illustration: 32]
-
-This man, at this time, is creating a wonderful sensation amongst
-his tribe, who are daily and nightly gathered in gaping and listless
-crowds around him, whilst he is descanting upon what he has seen in the
-fashionable world; and which to them is unintelligible and beyond their
-comprehension; for which I find they are already setting him down as a
-liar and impostor.
-
-What may be the final results of his travels and initiation into the
-fashionable world, and to what disasters his incredible narrations
-may yet subject the poor fellow in this strange land, time only will
-develop.
-
-He is now in disgrace, and spurned by the leading men of the tribe, and
-rather to be pitied than envied, for the advantages which one might
-have supposed would have flown from his fashionable tour. More of this
-curious occurrence and of this extraordinary man, I will surely give in
-some future epistles.
-
-The women of this tribe are often comely, and sometimes pretty;
-in +plate+ 34, will be seen a fair illustration of the dresses of
-the women and children, which are usually made of the skins of the
-mountain-goat, and ornamented with porcupine’s quills and rows of elk’s
-teeth.
-
-The Knisteneaux (or Crees, as they are more familiarly called in this
-country) are a very numerous tribe, extending from this place as high
-north as the shores of Lake Winnepeg; and even much further in a
-north-westerly direction, towards, and even through, a great part of
-the Rocky Mountains.
-
-I have before said of these, that they were about 3000 in numbers—by
-that, I meant but a small part of this extensive tribe, who are in the
-habit of visiting the American Fur Company’s Establishment, at this
-place, to do their trading; and who themselves, scarcely know anything
-of the great extent of country over which this numerous and scattered
-family range. Their customs may properly be said to be primitive, as no
-inroads of civilized habits have been as yet successfully made amongst
-them. Like the other tribes in these regions, they dress in skins, and
-gain their food, and conduct their wars in a very similar manner. They
-are a very daring and most adventurous tribe; roaming vast distances
-over the prairies and carrying war into their enemy’s country. With the
-numerous tribe of Blackfeet, they are always waging an uncompromising
-warfare; and though fewer in numbers and less in stature, they have
-shewn themselves equal in sinew, and not less successful in mortal
-combats.
-
-Amongst the foremost and most renowned of their warriors, is
-Bro-cas-sie, the broken arm (+plate+ 30), in a handsome dress; and by
-the side of him (+plate+ 31), his wife, a simple and comely looking
-woman. In +plate+ 33, will be seen the full length portrait of a young
-woman with a child on her back, shewing fairly the fashion of cutting
-and ornamenting the dresses of the females in this tribe; which,
-without further comment, is all I shall say at this time, of the
-valorous tribe of Crees or Knisteneaux.
-
-The Ojibbeways I have briefly mentioned in a former place, and of them
-should say more; which will be done at a proper time, after I shall
-have visited other branches of this great and scattered family.
-
-The chief of that part of the Ojibbeway tribe who inhabit these
-northern regions (+plate+ 35), and whose name is Sha-co-pay (the Six),
-is a man of huge size; with dignity of manner, and pride and vanity,
-just about in proportion to his bulk. He sat for his portrait in a most
-beautiful dress, fringed with scalp locks in profusion; which he had
-snatched, in his early life from his enemies’ heads, and now wears as
-proud trophies and proofs of what his arm has accomplished in battles
-with his enemies. His shirt of buckskin is beautifully embroidered and
-painted in curious hieroglyphics, the history of his battles and charts
-of his life. This, and also each and every article of his varied dress,
-had been manufactured by his wives, of which he had several; and one,
-though not the most agreeable (+plate+ 36), is seen represented by his
-side.
-
-I have much to see of these people yet, and much consequently to write;
-so for the present I close my book.
-
-  [1] Several years since writing the above, I held a conversation
-  with Major Pilcher (a strictly correct and honourable man, who was
-  then the agent for these people, who has lived amongst them, and is
-  at this time superintendent of Indian affairs at St. Louis), who
-  informed me, much to my surprise, that the Blackfeet were not far
-  from 60,000 in numbers, including all the confederacy of which I
-  have just spoken.
-
-
-
-
-                             LETTER—No. 9.
-
-                MOUTH OF YELLOW STONE, _UPPER MISSOURI_.
-
-
-Since the dates of my other Letters from this place, I have been taking
-some wild rambles about this beautiful country of green fields; jolted
-and tossed about, on horseback and on foot, where pen, ink, and paper
-never thought of going; and of course the most that I saw and have
-learned, and would tell to the world, is yet to be written. It is not
-probable, however, that I shall again date a letter at this place, as I
-commence, in a few days, my voyage down the river in a canoe; but yet
-I may give you many a retrospective glance at this fairy land and its
-amusements.
-
-A traveller on his tour through such a country as this, has no time to
-write, and scarcely time enough to moralize. It is as much as he can
-_well_ do to “look out for his _scalp_,” and “for _something to eat_.”
-Impressions, however, of the most vivid kind, are rapidly and indelibly
-made by the fleeting incidents of savage life; and for the mind that
-can ruminate upon them with pleasure, there are abundant materials
-clinging to it for its endless entertainment in driving the quill
-when he gets back. The mind susceptible of such impressions catches
-volumes of incidents which are easy to write—it is but to unfold a web
-which the fascinations of this _shorn_ country and its allurements
-have spun over the soul—it is but to paint the splendid panorama of a
-world entirely different from anything seen or painted before; with its
-thousands of miles, and tens of thousands of grassy hills and dales,
-where nought but silence reigns, and where the soul of a contemplative
-mould is seemingly lifted up to its Creator. What man in the world,
-I would ask, ever ascended to the pinnacle of one of Missouri’s
-green-carpeted bluffs, a thousand miles severed from his own familiar
-land, and giddily gazed over the interminable and boundless ocean of
-grass-covered hills and valleys which lie beneath him, where the gloom
-of _silence_ is complete—where not even the voice of the sparrow or
-cricket is heard—without feeling a sweet melancholy come over him,
-which seemed to drown his sense of everything beneath and on a level
-with him?
-
-It is but to paint a vast country of green fields, where the _men_
-are all _red_—where _meat_ is the staff of life—where no _laws_, but
-those of _honour_, are known—where the oak and the pine give way
-to the cotton-wood and peccan—where the buffaloes range, the elk,
-mountain-sheep, and the fleet-bounding antelope—where the magpie and
-chattering parroquettes supply the place of the red-breast and the
-blue-bird—where wolves are white and bears grizzly—where pheasants are
-hens of the prairie, and frogs have horns!—where the rivers are yellow,
-and white men are turned savages in looks. Through the whole of this
-strange land the dogs are all wolves—women all slaves—men all lords.
-The _sun_ and _rats_ alone (of all the list of old acquaintance), could
-be recognised in this country of strange metamorphose. The former shed
-everywhere his familiar rays; and Monsr. Ratapon was hailed as an old
-acquaintance, which it gave me pleasure to meet; though he had grown a
-little more _savage_ in his look.
-
-In traversing the immense regions of the _classic_ West, the mind of
-a philanthropist is filled to the brim with feelings of admiration;
-but to reach this country, one is obliged to descend from the light
-and glow of civilized atmosphere, through the different grades of
-civilization, which gradually sink to the most deplorable condition
-along the extreme frontier; thence through the most pitiable misery
-and wretchedness of savage degradation; where the genius of natural
-liberty and independence have been blasted and destroyed by the
-contaminating vices and dissipations introduced by the immoral part of
-_civilized_ society. Through this dark and sunken vale of wretchedness
-one hurries, as through a pestilence, until he gradually rises again
-into the proud and chivalrous pale of savage society, in its state of
-original nature, beyond the reach of civilized contamination; here he
-finds much to fix his enthusiasm upon, and much to admire. Even here,
-the predominant passions of the savage breast, of ferocity and cruelty,
-are often found; yet _restrained_, and frequently _subdued_, by the
-noblest traits, of honour and magnanimity,—a race of men who live and
-enjoy life and its luxuries, and practice its virtues, very far beyond
-the usual estimation of the world, who are apt to judge the savage and
-his virtues from the poor, degraded, and humbled specimens which alone
-can be seen along our frontiers. From the first settlements of our
-Atlantic coast to the present day, the bane of this _blasting frontier_
-has regularly crowded upon them, from the northern to the southern
-extremities of our country; and, like the fire in a prairie, which
-destroys everything where it passes, it has blasted and sunk them, and
-all but their names, into oblivion, wherever it has travelled. It is to
-this tainted class alone that the epithet of “poor, naked, and drunken
-savage,” can be, with propriety, applied; for all those numerous tribes
-which I have visited, and are yet uncorrupted by the vices of civilized
-acquaintance, are well clad, in many instances cleanly, and in the
-full enjoyment of life and its luxuries. It is for the character and
-preservation of these noble fellows that I am an enthusiast; and it is
-for these uncontaminated people that I would be willing to devote the
-energies of my life. It is a sad and melancholy truth to contemplate,
-that all the numerous tribes who inhabited our vast Atlantic States
-_have not_ “fled to the West;”—that they are not to be found here—that
-they have been blasted by the fire which has passed over them—have
-sunk into their graves, and everything but their names travelled into
-oblivion.
-
-[Illustration: 33]
-
-[Illustration: 34]
-
-[Illustration: 35]
-
-[Illustration: 36]
-
-The distinctive character of all these Western Indians, as well as
-their traditions relative to their ancient locations, prove beyond a
-doubt, that they have been for a very long time located on the soil
-which they now possess; and in most respects, distinct and unlike those
-nations who formerly inhabited the Atlantic coast, and who (according
-to the erroneous opinion of a great part of the world), have fled to
-the West.
-
-It is for these inoffensive and unoffending people, yet unvisited by
-the vices of civilized society, that I would proclaim to the world,
-that it is time, for the honour of our country—for the honour of
-every citizen of the republic—and for the sake of humanity, that our
-government should raise her strong arm to save the remainder of them
-from the pestilence which is rapidly advancing upon them. We have
-gotten from them territory enough, and the country which they now
-inhabit is most of it too barren of timber for the use of civilized
-man; it affords them, however, the means and luxuries of savage life;
-and it is to be hoped that our government will not acquiesce in the
-continued wilful destruction of these happy people.
-
-My heart has sometimes almost bled with pity for them, while amongst
-them, and witnessing their innocent amusements, as I have contemplated
-the inevitable bane that was rapidly advancing upon them; without that
-check from the protecting arm of government, and which alone could
-shield them from destruction.
-
-What degree of happiness these sons of Nature may attain to in the
-world, in their own way; or in what proportion they may relish the
-pleasures of life, compared to the sum of happiness belonging to
-civilized society, has long been a subject of much doubt, and one which
-I cannot undertake to decide at this time. I would say thus much,
-however, that if the thirst for knowledge has entailed everlasting
-miseries on mankind from the beginning of the world; if refined
-and intellectual pains increase in proportion to our intellectual
-pleasures, I do not see that we gain much advantage over them on that
-score; and judging from the full-toned enjoyment which beams from their
-happy faces, I should give it as my opinion, that their lives were
-much more happy than ours; that is, if the word happiness is properly
-applied to the enjoyments of those who have not experienced the light
-of the Christian religion. I have long looked with the eye of a critic,
-into the jovial faces of these sons of the forest, unfurrowed with
-cares—where the agonizing feeling of poverty had never stamped distress
-upon the brow. I have watched the bold, intrepid step—the proud, yet
-dignified deportment of Nature’s man, in fearless freedom, with a soul
-unalloyed by mercenary lusts, too great to yield to laws or power
-except from God. As these independent fellows are all joint-tenants of
-the soil, they are all rich, and none of the steepings of comparative
-poverty can strangle their just claims to renown. Who (I would ask)
-can look without admiring, into a society where peace and harmony
-prevail—where virtue is cherished—where rights are protected, and
-wrongs are redressed—with no laws, but the laws of honour, which are
-the supreme laws of their land. Trust the boasted virtues of civilized
-society for awhile, with all its intellectual refinements, to such a
-tribunal, and then write down the degradation of the “lawless savage,”
-and our trancendent virtues.
-
-As these people have no laws, the sovereign right of summary redress
-lies in the breast of the party (or friends of the party) aggrieved;
-and infinitely more dreaded is the certainty of cruel revenge from
-the licensed hands of an offended savage, than the slow and uncertain
-vengeance of the law.
-
-If you think me _enthusiast_, be it so; for I deny it not. It has
-ever been the predominant passion of my soul to seek Nature’s wildest
-haunts, and give my hand to Nature’s men. Legends of _these_, and
-visits to _those_, filled the earliest page of my juvenile impressions.
-
-The tablet has stood, and I am an enthusiast for God’s works as He left
-them.
-
-The sad tale of my native “valley,”[2] has been beautifully sung; and
-from the flight of “Gertrude’s” soul, my young imagination closely
-traced the savage to his deep retreats, and gazed upon him in dreadful
-horror, until pity pleaded, and admiration worked a charm.
-
-A journey of 4000 miles from the Atlantic shore, regularly receding
-from the centre of civilized society to the extreme wilderness of
-Nature’s original work, and back again, opens a book for many an
-interesting tale to be sketched; and the mind which lives, but to
-relish the works of Nature, reaps a reward on such a tour of a much
-higher order than can arise from the selfish expectations of pecuniary
-emolument. Notwithstanding all that has been written and said, there is
-scarcely any subject on which the _knowing_ people of the East, are yet
-less informed and instructed than on the character and amusements of
-the West: by this I mean the “Far West;”—the country whose fascinations
-spread a charm over the mind almost dangerous to civilized pursuits.
-Few people even know the true definition of the term “West;” and where
-is its location?—phantom-like it flies before us as we travel, and on
-our way is continually gilded, before us, as we approach the setting
-sun.
-
-In the commencement of my Tour, several of my travelling companions
-from the city of New York, found themselves at a frightful distance
-to the West, when we arrived at Niagara Falls; and hastened back to
-amuse their friends with tales and scenes of the West. At Buffalo a
-steam-boat was landing with 400 passengers, and twelve days out—“Where
-from?” “From the West.” In the rich state of Ohio, hundreds were
-selling their farms and going—to the West. In the beautiful city of
-Cincinnati, people said to me, “Our town has passed the days of its
-most rapid growth, it is not far enough West.”—In St. Louis, 1400 miles
-west of New York, my landlady assured me that I would be pleased with
-her boarders, for they were nearly all merchants from the “West.” I
-there asked,—“Whence come those steam-boats, laden with pork, honey,
-hides, &c.?”
-
-From the West.
-
-Whence those ponderous bars of silver, which those men have been for
-hours shouldering and putting on board that boat?
-
-They come from Santa Fee, from the West.
-
-Where goes this steam-boat so richly laden with dry goods,
-steam-engines, &c.?
-
-She goes to Jefferson city.
-
-Jefferson city?—Where is that?
-
-Far to the West.
-
-And where goes that boat laden down to her gunnels, the Yellow Stone?
-
-She goes still farther to the West—“Then,” said I, “I’ll go to the
-West.”
-
-I went on the Yellow Stone— *    *    *    *
-
-*    *    *    Two thousand miles on her, and we were at the mouth of
-Yellow Stone river—at the West. What! invoices, bills of lading, &c., a
-wholesale establishment so far to the West! And those strange looking,
-long-haired gentlemen, who have just arrived, and are relating the
-adventures of their long and tedious journey. Who are they?
-
-Oh! they are some of our merchants just arrived from the West.
-
-And that keel-boat, that Mackinaw-boat, and that formidable caravan,
-all of which are richly laden with goods.
-
-These, Sir, are outfits starting for the _West_.
-
-Going to the _West_, ha? “Then” said I, “I’ll try it again. I will try
-and see if I can go to the West.”
-
-  *    *    *    What, a Fort here, too?
-
-Oui, Monsieur—oui, Monsieur (as a dauntless, and
-_semibarbarian_-looking, jolly fellow, dashed forth in advance of his
-party on his wild horse to meet me.)
-
-What distance are you west of Yellow Stone here, my good fellow?
-
-Comment?
-
-What distance?—(stop)—quel distance?
-
-Pardón, Monsieur, je ne sais pas, Monsieur.
-
-Ne parlez vous l’Anglais?
-
-Non, Monsr. I speaks de French and de Americaine; mais je ne parle pas
-l’Anglais.
-
-“Well then, my good fellow, I will speak English, and you may speak
-Americaine.”
-
-Pardón, pardón, Monsieur.
-
-Well, then we will both speak Americaine.
-
-Val, sare, je suis bien content, pour for I see dat you speaks putty
-coot Americaine.
-
-What may I call your name?
-
-Ba’tiste, Monsieur.
-
-What Indians are those so splendidly dressed, and with such fine
-horses, encamped on the plain yonder?
-
-Ils sont Corbeaux.
-
-Crows, ha?
-
-Yes, sare, Monsieur.
-
-We are then in the Crow country?
-
-Non, Monsieur, not putty éxact; we are in de coontrae of de dam Pieds
-noirs.
-
-Blackfeet, ha?
-
-Oui.
-
-What blue mountain is that which we see in the distance yonder?
-
-Ha, quel Montaigne? cela est la Montaigne du (pardón).
-
-Du Rochers, I suppose?
-
-Oui, Monsieur, de Rock Montaigne.
-
-You live here, I suppose?
-
-Non, Monsieur, I comes fair from de West.
-
-What, from the West! Where under the heavens is that?
-
-Wat, diable! de West? well you shall see, Monsieur, he is putty fair
-off, súppose. Monsieur Pierre Chouteau can give you de histoire de ma
-vie—il bien sait que je prends les castors, very fair in de West.
-
-You carry goods, I suppose, to trade with the Snake Indians beyond the
-mountains, and trap beaver also?
-
-Oui, Monsieur.
-
-Do you see anything of the “Flat-heads” in your country?
-
-Non, Monsieur, ils demeurent very, _very_ fair to de West.
-
-Well, Ba’tiste, I’ll lay my course back again for the present, and at
-some future period, endeavour to go to the “West.” But you say you
-trade with the Indians and trap beavers; you are in the employment of
-the American Fur Company, I suppose?
-
-Non, Monsieur, not quite éxact; mais, súppose, I am “_free trappare_,”
-free, Monsr. free.
-
-Free trapper, what’s that? I don’t understand you, Ba’tiste.
-
-Well, Monsr. súppose he is easy pour understand—you shall know all.
-In de first place, I am enlist for tree year in de Fur Comp in St.
-Louis—for bounté—pour bounté, eighty dollare (understand, ha?) den I
-am go for wages, et I ave come de Missouri up, et I am trap castors
-putty much for six years, you see, until I am learn very much; and den
-you see, Monsr. M‘Kenzie is give me tree horse—one pour ride, et two
-pour pack (mais he is not buy, him not give, he is lend), and he is
-lend twelve trap; and I ave make start into de Rocky Montaigne, et I am
-live all álone on de leet rivares pour prendre les castors. Sometime
-six months—sometime five month, and I come back to Yel Stone, et Monsr.
-M‘Kenzie is give me coot price pour all.
-
-So Mr. M‘Kenzie fits you out, and takes your beaver of you at a certain
-price?
-
-Oui, Monsr. oui.
-
-What price does he pay you for your beaver, Ba’tiste?
-
-Ha! súppose one dollare pour one beavare.
-
-A dollar per skin, ah?
-
-Oui.
-
-Well, you must live a lonesome and hazardous sort of life; can you make
-anything by it?
-
-Oh! oui, Monsr. putty coot, mais if it is not pour for de dam rascalité
-Riccaree, et de dam Pieds noirs, de Blackfoot Ingin, I am make very
-much monnair, mais (sacré), I am rob—rob—rob too much!
-
-What, do the Blackfeet rob you of your furs?
-
-Oui, Monsr. rob, súppose, five time! I am been free trappare seven
-year, et I am rob five time—I am someting left not at all—he is take
-all; he is take all de horse—he is take my gun—he is take all my
-clothes—he is takee de castors—et I am come back with foot. So in
-de Fort, some cloths is cost putty much monnair, et some whiskey is
-give sixteen dollares pour gall; so you see I am owe de Fur Comp 600
-dollare, by Gar!
-
-Well, Ba’tiste, this then is what you call being a free trapper is it?
-
-Oui, Monsr. “free trappare,” free!
-
-You seem to be going down towards the Yellow Stone, and probably have
-been out on a trapping excursion.
-
-Oui, Monsr. c’est vrai.
-
-Have you been robbed this time, Ba’tiste?
-
-Oui, Monsr. by de dam Pieds noirs—I am loose much; I am loose all—very
-all——eh bien——pour le dernier—c’est le dernier fois, Monsr. I am go to
-Yel Stone—I am go le Missouri down, I am go to St. Louis.
-
-Well, Ba’tiste, I am to figure about in this part of the world a few
-weeks longer, and then I shall descend the Missouri from the mouth of
-Yellow Stone, to St. Louis; and I should like exceedingly to employ
-just such a man as you are as a voyageur with me—I will give you good
-wages, and pay all your expenses; what say you?
-
-Avec tout mon cour, Monsr. remercie, remercie.
-
-It’s a bargain then, Ba’tiste; I will see you at the mouth of Yellow
-Stone.
-
-Oui, Monsr. in de Yel Stone, bon soir, bon soir, Monsr.
-
-But stop, Ba’tiste, you told me those were Crows encamped yonder.
-
-Oui, Monsieur, oui, des Corbeaux.
-
-And I suppose you are their interpreter?
-
-Non, Monsieur.
-
-But you speak the Crow language?
-
-Ouis, Monsieur.
-
-Well then, turn about; I am going to pay them a visit, and you can
-render me a service.—Bien, Monsieur, allons.
-
-  [2] Wyöming.
-
-
-
-
-                             LETTER—No. 10.
-
-                   MANDAN VILLAGE, _UPPER MISSOURI_.
-
-
-Soon after the writing of my last Letter, which was dated at the Mouth
-of Yellow Stone, I embarked on the river for this place, where I landed
-safely; and have resided for a couple of weeks, a guest in this almost
-subterraneous city—the strangest place in the world; where one sees
-in the most rapid succession, scenes which force him to mirth—to pity
-and compassion—to admiration—disgust; to fear and astonishment. But
-before I proceed to reveal them, I must give you a brief sketch of my
-voyage down the river from the Mouth of the Yellow Stone river to this
-place, a distance of 200 miles; and which my little note-book says, was
-performed somewhat in the following manner:
-
-When I had completed my rambles and my sketches in those regions, and
-Ba’tiste and Bogard had taken their last spree, and fought their last
-battles, and forgotten them in the final and affectionate embrace and
-farewell (all of which are habitual with these game-fellows, when
-settling up their long-standing accounts with their fellow-trappers
-of the mountain streams); and after Mr. M‘Kenzie had procured for me
-a snug little craft, that was to waft us down the mighty torrent; we
-launched off one fine morning, taking our leave of the Fort, and the
-friends within it; and also, for ever, of the beautiful green fields,
-and hills, and dales, and prairie bluffs, that encompass the enchanting
-shores of the Yellow Stone.
-
-Our canoe, which was made of green timber, was heavy and awkward; but
-our course being with the current, promised us a fair and successful
-voyage. Ammunition was laid in in abundance—a good stock of dried
-buffalo tongues—a dozen or two of beavers’ tails—and a good supply of
-pemican. Bogard and Ba’tiste occupied the middle and bow, with their
-paddles in their hands; and I took my seat in the stern of the boat,
-at the steering oar. Our larder was as I have said; and added to that,
-some few pounds of fresh buffalo meat.
-
-Besides which, and ourselves, our little craft carried several
-packs of Indian dresses and other articles, which I had purchased
-of the Indians; and also my canvass and easel, and our culinary
-articles, which were few and simple; consisting of three tin cups, a
-coffee-pot—one plate—a frying-pan—and a tin kettle.
-
-Thus fitted out and embarked, we swept off at a rapid rate under the
-shouts of the savages, and the cheers of our friends, who lined the
-banks as we gradually lost sight of them, and turned our eyes towards
-St. Louis, which was 2000 miles below us, with nought intervening, save
-the widespread and wild regions, inhabited by the roaming savage.
-
-At the end of our first day’s journey, we found ourselves handily
-encamping with several thousand Assinneboins, who had pitched their
-tents upon the bank of the river, and received us with every mark of
-esteem and friendship.
-
-In the midst of this group, was my friend Wi-jun-jon (the pigeon’s
-egg head), still lecturing on the manners and customs of the “pale
-faces.” Continuing to relate without any appearance of exhaustion, the
-marvellous scenes which he had witnessed amongst the white people, on
-his tour to Washington City.
-
-Many were the gazers who seemed to be the whole time crowding around
-him, to hear his recitals; and the plight which he was in rendered his
-appearance quite ridiculous. His beautiful military dress, of which I
-before spoke, had been so shockingly tattered and metamorphosed, that
-his appearance was truly laughable.
-
-His keg of whiskey had dealt out to his friends all its charms—his
-frock-coat, which his wife had thought was of no earthly use below
-the waist, had been cut off at that place, and the nether half of it
-supplied her with a beautiful pair of leggings; and his silver-laced
-hat-band had been converted into a splendid pair of garters for the
-same. His umbrella the poor fellow still affectionately held on to,
-and kept spread at all times. As I before said, his theme seemed to
-be exhaustless, and he, in the estimation of his tribe, to be an
-unexampled liar.
-
-Of the village of Assinneboins we took leave on the following morning,
-and rapidly made our way down the river. The rate of the current
-being four or five miles per hour, through one continued series of
-picturesque grass-covered bluffs and knolls, which everywhere had the
-appearance of an old and highly-cultivated country, with houses and
-fences removed.
-
-There is, much of the way, on one side or the other, a bold and abrupt
-precipice of three or four hundred feet in elevation, presenting itself
-in an exceedingly rough and picturesque form, to the shore of the
-river; sloping down from the summit level of the prairies above, which
-sweep off from the brink of the precipice, almost level, to an unknown
-distance.
-
-It is along the rugged and wild fronts of these cliffs, whose sides are
-generally formed of hard clay, that the mountain-sheep dwell, and are
-often discovered in great numbers. Their habits are much like those
-of the goat; and in every respect they are like that animal, except
-in the horns, which resemble those of the ram; sometimes making two
-entire circles in their coil; and at the roots, each horn is, in some
-instances, from five to six inches in breadth.
-
-On the second day of our voyage we discovered a number of these
-animals skipping along the sides of the precipice, always keeping
-about equi-distant between the top and bottom of the ledge; leaping
-and vaulting in the most extraordinary manner from point to point, and
-seeming to cling actually, to the sides of the wall, where neither man
-nor beast could possibly follow them.
-
-We landed our canoe, and endeavoured to shoot one of these sagacious
-animals; and after he had led us a long and fruitless chase, amongst
-the cliffs, we thought we had fairly entrapped him in such a way as to
-be sure to bring him, at last, within the command of our rifles; when
-he suddenly bounded from his narrow foot-hold in the ledge, and tumbled
-down a distance of more than a hundred feet, amongst the fragments of
-rocks and clay, where I thought we must certainly find his carcass
-without further trouble; when, to my great surprise, I saw him bounding
-off, and he was almost instantly out of my sight.
-
-Bogard, who was an old hunter, and well acquainted with these
-creatures, shouldered his rifle, and said to me—“the game is up; and
-you now see the use of those big horns; when they fall by accident, or
-find it necessary to quit their foot-hold in the crevice, they fall
-upon their head at a great distance unharmed, even though it should be
-on the solid rock.”
-
-Being on shore, and our canoe landed secure, we whiled away the greater
-part of this day amongst the wild and ragged cliffs, into which we had
-entered; and a part of our labours were vainly spent in the pursuit
-of a war-eagle. This noble bird is the one which the Indians in these
-regions, value so highly for their tail feathers, which are used as
-the most valued plumes for decorating the heads and dresses of their
-warriors. It is a beautiful bird, and, the Indians tell me, conquers
-all other varieties of eagles in the country; from which circumstance,
-the Indians respect the bird, and hold it in the highest esteem, and
-value its quills. I am unable so say to what variety it belongs; but
-I am sure it is not to be seen in any of our museums; nor is it to be
-found in America (I think), until one gets near to the base of the
-Rocky Mountains. This bird has often been called the calumet eagle and
-war-eagle; the last of which appellations I have already accounted
-for; and the other has arisen from the fact, that the Indians almost
-invariably ornament their calumets or pipes of peace with its quills.
-
-Our day’s loitering brought us through many a wild scene; occasionally
-across the tracks of the grizzly bear, and, in sight merely of a band
-of buffaloes; “which got the wind of us,” and were out of the way,
-leaving us to return to our canoe at night, with a mere speck of good
-luck. Just before we reached the river, I heard the crack of a rifle,
-and in a few moments Bogard came in sight, and threw down from his
-shoulders a fine antelope; which added to our larder, and we were
-ready to proceed. We embarked and travelled until nightfall, when
-we encamped on a beautiful little prairie at the base of a series of
-grass-covered bluffs; and the next morning cooked our breakfast and
-ate it, and rowed on until late in the afternoon; when we stopped at
-the base of some huge clay bluffs, forming one of the most curious
-and romantic scenes imaginable. At this spot the river expands itself
-into the appearance somewhat of a beautiful lake; and in the midst of
-it, and on and about its sand-bars, floated and stood, hundreds and
-thousands of white swans and pelicans.
-
-Though the scene in front of our encampment at this place was placid
-and beautiful; with its flowing water—its wild fowl—and its almost
-endless variety of gracefully sloping hills and green prairies in the
-distance; yet it was not less wild and picturesque in our rear, where
-the rugged and various coloured bluffs were grouped in all the wildest
-fancies and rudeness of Nature’s accidental varieties.
-
-The whole country behind us seemed to have been dug and thrown up into
-huge piles, as if some giant mason had been there mixing his mortar
-and paints, and throwing together his rude models for some sublime
-structure of a colossal city;—with its walls—its domes—its ramparts—its
-huge porticos and galleries—its castles—its fosses and ditches;—and in
-the midst of his progress, he had abandoned his works to the destroying
-hand of time, which had already done much to tumble them down, and
-deface their noble structure; by jostling them together, with all their
-vivid colours, into an unsystematic and unintelligible mass of sublime
-ruins.
-
-To this group of clay bluffs, which line the river for many miles in
-distance, the voyageurs have very appropriately given the name of “the
-Brick-kilns;” owing to their red appearance, which may be discovered in
-a clear day at the distance of many leagues.
-
-By the action of water, or other power, the country seems to have been
-graded away; leaving occasionally a solitary mound or bluff, rising in
-a conical form to the height of two or three hundred feet, generally
-pointed or rounded at the top, and in some places grouped together
-in great numbers; some of which having a tabular surface on the top,
-and covered with a green turf. This fact (as all of those which are
-horizontal on their tops, and corresponding exactly with the summit
-level of the wide-spreading prairies in distance) clearly shows, that
-their present isolated and rounded forms have been produced by the
-action of waters: which have carried away the intervening earth, and
-left them in the picturesque shapes in which they are now seen.
-
-A similar formation (or _de_formation) may be seen in hundreds of
-places on the shores of the Missouri river, and the actual progress
-of the operation by which it is produced; leaving yet for the
-singularity of this place, the peculiar feature, that nowhere else
-(to my knowledge) occurs; that the superstratum, forming the tops of
-these mounds (where they remain high enough to support anything of
-the original surface) is composed, for the depth of fifteen feet, of
-red pumice; terminating at its bottom, in a layer of several feet of
-sedimentary deposite, which is formed into endless conglomerates of
-basaltic crystals.
-
-This strange feature in the country arrests the eye of a traveller
-suddenly, and as instantly brings him to the conclusion, that he stands
-in the midst of the ruins of an extinguished volcano.
-
-As will be seen in the drawings (+plate+ 37, a near view, and +plate+
-38, a distant view), the sides of these conical bluffs (which are
-composed of strata of different coloured clays), are continually
-washing down by the effect of the rains and melting of the frost; and
-the superincumbent masses of pumice and basalt are crumbling off, and
-falling down to their bases; and from thence, in vast quantities, by
-the force of the gorges of water which are often cutting their channels
-between them—carried into the river, which is close by; and wafted for
-thousands of miles, floating as light as a cork upon its surface, and
-lodging in every pile of drift-wood from this place to the ocean.
-
-The upper part of this layer of pumice is of a brilliant red; and when
-the sun is shining upon it, is as bright and vivid as vermilion. It is
-porous and open, and its specific gravity but trifling. These curious
-bluffs must be seen as they are in nature; or else in a painting, where
-their colours are faithfully given, or they lose their picturesque
-beauty, which consists in the variety of their vivid tints. The strata
-of clay are alternating from red to yellow—white—brown and dark blue;
-and so curiously arranged, as to form the most pleasing and singular
-effects.
-
-During the day that I loitered about this strange scene, I left my
-men stretched upon the grass, by the canoe; and taking my rifle and
-sketch-book in my hand, I wandered and clambered through the rugged
-defiles between the bluffs; passing over and under the immense blocks
-of the pumice, that had fallen to their bases; determined, if possible,
-to find the crater, or source, from whence these strange phenomena
-had sprung; but after clambering and squeezing about for some time,
-I unfortunately came upon the enormous tracks of a grizzly bear,
-which, apparently, was travelling in the same direction (probably for
-a very different purpose) but a few moments before me; and my ardour
-for exploring was instantly so cooled down, that I hastily retraced
-my steps, and was satisfied with making my drawings, and collecting
-specimens of the lava and other minerals in its vicinity.
-
-After strolling about during the day, and contemplating the beauty of
-the scenes that were around me, while I sat upon the pinnacles of these
-pumice-capped mounds; most of which time, Bogard and Ba’tiste laid
-enjoying the pleasure of a “mountaineer’s nap”—we met together—took
-our coffee and dried buffalo tongues—spread our buffalo robes upon the
-grass, and enjoyed during the night the luxury of sleep, that belongs
-so peculiarly to the tired voyageur in these realms of pure air and
-dead silence.
-
-[Illustration: 37]
-
-[Illustration: 38]
-
-In the morning, and before sunrise, as usual, Bogard (who was a Yankee,
-and a “wide-awake-fellow,” just retiring from a ten years’ siege of
-hunting and trapping in the Rocky Mountains,) thrust his head out from
-under the robe, rubbing his eyes open, and exclaiming as he grasped
-for his gun, “By darn, look at old Cale! will you!” Ba’tiste, who was
-more fond of his dreams, snored away, muttering something that I could
-not understand, when Bogard seized him with a grip, that instantly
-shook off his iron slumbers. I rose at the same time, and all eyes
-were turned at once upon _Caleb_ (as the grizzly bear is familiarly
-called by the trappers in the Rocky Mountains—or more often “Cale,” for
-brevity’s sake), who was sitting up in the dignity and fury of her sex,
-within a few rods, and gazing upon us, with her two little cubs at her
-side! here was a “_fix_,” and a subject for the painter; but I had no
-time to sketch it—I turned my eyes to the canoe which had been fastened
-at the shore a few paces from us; and saw that everything had been
-pawed out of it, and all eatables had been without ceremony devoured.
-My packages of dresses and Indian curiosities had been drawn out upon
-the bank, and deliberately opened and inspected. Every thing had been
-scraped and pawed out, to the bottom of the boat; and even the rawhide
-thong, with which it was tied to a stake, had been chewed, and no doubt
-swallowed, as there was no trace of it remaining. Nor was this peep
-into the secrets of our luggage enough for her insatiable curiosity—we
-saw by the prints of her huge paws, that were left in the ground, that
-she had been perambulating our humble mattresses, smelling at our toes
-and our noses, without choosing to molest us; verifying a trite saying
-of the country, “That man lying down is _medicine_ to the grizzly
-bear;” though it is a well-known fact, that man and beast, upon their
-feet, are sure to be attacked when they cross the path of this grizzly
-and grim monster, which is the terror of all this country; often
-growing to the enormous size of eight hundred or one thousand pounds.
-
-Well—whilst we sat in the dilemma which I have just described, each
-one was hastily preparing his weapons for defence, when I proposed the
-mode of attack; by which means I was in hopes to destroy her—capture
-her young ones, and bring her skin home as a trophy. My plans, however,
-entirely failed, though we were well armed; for Bogard and Ba’tiste
-both remonstrated with a vehemence that was irresistible; saying that
-the standing rule in the mountains was “never to fight Caleb, except
-in self-defence.” I was almost induced, however, to attack her alone,
-with my rifle in hand, and a pair of heavy pistols; with a tomahawk
-and scalping-knife in my belt; when Ba’tiste suddenly thrust his arm
-over my shoulder and pointing in another direction, exclaimed in an
-emphatic tone, “Voila! voila un corps de reserve—Monsr. Cataline—voila
-sa mari! allons—allons! déscendons la riviére, toute de suite! toute
-de suite! Monsr.” to which Bogard added, “these darned animals are too
-much for us, and we had better be off;” at which my courage cooled, and
-we packed up and re-embarked as fast as possible; giving each one of
-them the contents of our rifles as we drifted off in the current; which
-brought the she-monster, in all her rage and fury, to the spot where
-we, a few moments before, had passed our most prudent resolve.
-
-During the rest of this day, we passed on rapidly, gazing upon and
-admiring the beautiful shores, which were continually changing, from
-the high and ragged cliffs, to the graceful and green slopes of the
-prairie bluffs; and then to the wide expanded meadows, with their long
-waving grass, enamelled with myriads of wild flowers.
-
-The scene was one of enchantment the whole way; our chief conversation
-was about grizzly bears and hair’s-breadth escapes; of the histories
-of which my companions had volumes in store.—Our breakfast was a late
-one—cooked and eaten about five in the afternoon; at which time our
-demolished larder was luckily replenished by the unerring rifle of
-Bogard, which brought down a fine antelope, as it was innocently gazing
-at us, from the bank of the river. We landed our boat, and took in
-our prize; but there being no wood for our fire, we shoved off, and
-soon ran upon the head of an island, that was covered with immense
-quantities of raft and drift wood, where we easily kindled a huge fire
-and ate our delicious meal from a clean peeled log, astride of which
-we comfortably sat, making it answer admirably the double purpose of
-chairs and a table. After our meal was finished, we plied the paddles,
-and proceeded several miles further on our course; leaving our fire
-burning, and dragging our canoe upon the shore, in the dark, in a wild
-and unknown spot; and silently spreading our robes for our slumbers,
-which it is not generally considered prudent to do by the side of our
-fires, which might lead a war-party upon us, who often are prowling
-about and seeking an advantage over their enemy.
-
-The scenery of this day’s travel, as I have before said, was
-exceedingly beautiful; and our canoe was often run to the shore,
-upon which we stepped to admire the endless variety of wild flowers,
-“wasting their sweetness on the desert air,” and the abundance of
-delicious fruits that were about us. Whilst wandering through the high
-grass, the wild sun-flowers and voluptuous lilies were constantly
-taunting us by striking our faces; whilst here and there, in every
-direction, there were little copses and clusters of plum trees and
-gooseberries, and wild currants, loaded down with their fruit; and
-amongst these, to sweeten the atmosphere and add a charm to the
-effect, the wild rose bushes seemed planted in beds and in hedges, and
-everywhere were decked out in all the glory of their delicate tints,
-and shedding sweet aroma to every breath of the air that passed over
-them.
-
-In addition to these, we had the luxury of service-berries, without
-stint; and the buffalo bushes, which are peculiar to these northern
-regions, lined the banks of the river and defiles in the bluffs,
-sometimes for miles together; forming almost impassable hedges,
-so loaded with the weight of their fruit, that their boughs were
-everywhere gracefully bending down and resting on the ground.
-
-This last shrub (_shepperdia_), which may be said to be the most
-beautiful ornament that decks out the wild prairies, forms a striking
-contrast to the rest of the foliage, from the blue appearance of its
-leaves, by which it can be distinguished for miles in distance. The
-fruit which it produces in such incredible profusion, hanging in
-clusters to every limb and to every twig, is about the size of ordinary
-currants, and not unlike them in colour and even in flavour; being
-exceedingly acid, and almost unpalatable, until they are bitten by the
-frost of autumn, when they are sweetened, and their flavour delicious;
-having, to the taste, much the character of grapes, and I am inclined
-to think, would produce excellent wine.
-
-The shrub which bears them resembles some varieties of the thorn,
-though (as I have said) differs entirely in the colour of its leaves.
-It generally grows to the height of six or seven feet, and often to
-ten or twelve; and in groves or hedges, in some places, for miles in
-extent. While gathering the fruit, and contemplating it as capable of
-producing good wine, I asked my men this question, “Suppose we three
-had ascended the river to this point in the spring of the year, and in
-a timbered bottom had pitched our little encampment; and one of you two
-had been a boat-builder, and the other a cooper—the one to have got out
-your staves and constructed the wine casks, and the other to have built
-a mackinaw-boat, capable of carrying fifty or a hundred casks; and I
-had been a good hunter, capable of supplying the little encampment with
-meat; and we should have started off about this time, to float down
-the current, stopping our boat wherever we saw the finest groves of
-the buffalo bush, collecting the berries and expressing the juice, and
-putting it into our casks for fermentation while on the water for two
-thousand miles; how many bushels of these berries could you two gather
-in a day, provided I watched the boat and cooked your meals? and how
-many barrels of good wine do you think we could offer for sale in St.
-Louis when we should arrive there?”
-
-This idea startled my two men exceedingly, and Ba’tiste gabbled so
-fast in French, that I could not translate; and I am almost willing
-to believe, that but for the want of the requisite tools for the
-enterprize, I should have lost the company of Bogard and Ba’tiste; or
-that I should have been under the necessity of submitting to one of the
-unpleasant alternatives which are often regulated by the _majority_, in
-this strange and singular wilderness.
-
-I at length, however, got their opinions on the subject; when they
-mutually agreed that they could gather thirty bushels of this fruit
-per day; and I gave it then, and I offer it now, as my own also,
-that their estimate was not out of the way, and judged so from the
-experiments which we made in the following manner:—We several times
-took a large mackinaw blanket which I had in the canoe, and spreading
-it on the ground under the bushes, where they were the most abundantly
-loaded with fruit; and by striking the stalk of the tree with a club,
-we received the whole contents of its branches in an instant on the
-blanket, which was taken up by the corners, and not unfrequently would
-produce us, from one blow, the eighth part of a bushel of this fruit;
-when the boughs relieved of their burden, instantly flew up to their
-native position.
-
-Of this beautiful native, which I think would form one of the loveliest
-ornamental shrubs for a gentleman’s park or pleasure grounds, I
-procured a number of the roots; but which, from the many accidents and
-incidents that our unlucky bark was subjected to on our rough passage,
-I lost them (and almost the recollection of them) as well as many other
-curiosities I had collected on our way down the river.
-
-On the morning of the next day, and not long after we had stopped and
-taken our breakfast, and while our canoe was swiftly gliding along
-under the shore of a beautiful prairie, I saw in the grass, on the
-bank above me, what I supposed to be the back of a fine elk, busy at
-his grazing. I let our craft float silently by for a little distance,
-when I communicated the intelligence to my men, and slily ran in, to
-the shore. I pricked the priming of my firelock, and taking a bullet
-or two in my mouth, stepped ashore, and trailing my rifle in my hand,
-went back under the bank, carefully crawling up in a little ravine,
-quite sure of my game; when, to my utter surprise and violent alarm,
-I found the elk to be no more nor less than an Indian pony, getting
-his breakfast! and a little beyond him, a number of others grazing;
-and nearer to me, on the left, a war-party reclining around a little
-fire; and yet nearer, and within twenty paces of the muzzle of my gun,
-the naked shoulders if a brawny Indian, who seemed busily engaged in
-cleaning his gun. From this critical dilemma, the reader can easily
-imagine that I vanished with all the suddenness and secrecy that was
-possible, bending my course towards my canoe. Bogard and Ba’tiste
-correctly construing the expression of my face, and the agitation of
-my hurried retreat, prematurely unmoored from the shore; and the force
-of the current carrying them around a huge pile of drift wood, threw
-me back for some distance upon my own resources; though they finally
-got in, near the shore, and I into the boat, with the steering oar in
-my hand; when we plied our sinews with effect and in silence, till we
-were wafted far from the ground which we deemed critical and dangerous
-to our lives; for we had been daily in dread of meeting a war-party of
-the revengeful Riccarees, which we had been told was on the river, in
-search of the Mandans. From and after this exciting occurrence, the
-entries in my journal for the rest of the voyage to the village of the
-Mandans, were as follow:—
-
-Saturday, fifth day of our voyage from the mouth of Yellow Stone, at
-eleven o’clock.—Landed our canoe in the Grand Détour (or Big Bend) as
-it is called, at the base of a stately clay mound, and ascended, all
-hands, to the summit level, to take a glance at the picturesque and
-magnificent works of Nature that were about us. Spent the remainder
-of the day in painting a view of this grand scene; for which purpose
-Ba’tiste and Bogard carried my easel and canvass to the top of a huge
-mound, where they left me at my work; and I painted my picture (+plate+
-39), whilst they amused themselves with their rifles, decoying a flock
-of antelopes, of which they killed several, and abundantly added to the
-stock of our provisions.
-
-Scarcely anything in nature can be found, I am sure, more exceedingly
-picturesque than the view from this place; exhibiting the wonderful
-manner in which the gorges of the river have cut out its deep channel
-through these walls of clay on either side, of two or three hundred
-feet in elevation; and the imposing features of the high table-lands
-in distance, standing as a perpetual anomaly in the country, and
-producing the indisputable, though astounding evidence of the fact,
-that there has been at some ancient period, a _super_ surface to this
-country, corresponding with the elevation of these tabular hills, whose
-surface, for half a mile or more, on their tops, is perfectly level;
-being covered with a green turf, and yet one hundred and fifty or two
-hundred feet elevated above what may now be properly termed the summit
-level of all this section of country; as will be seen stretching off at
-their base, without furnishing other instances in hundreds of miles,
-of anything rising one foot above its surface, excepting the solitary
-group which is shewn in the painting.
-
-The fact, that _there_ was once the summit level of this great valley,
-is a stubborn one, however difficult it may be to reconcile it with
-reasonable causes and results; and the mind of feeble man is at once
-almost paralyzed in endeavouring to comprehend the process by which the
-adjacent country, from this to the base of the Rocky Mountains, as well
-as in other directions, could have been swept away; and equally so, for
-knowledge of the place where its mighty deposits have been carried.
-
-I recollect to have seen on my way up the river, at the distance of
-six or eight hundred miles below, a place called “the Square Hills,”
-and another denominated “the Bijou Hills;” which are the only features
-on the river, seeming to correspond with this strange _remain_, and
-which, on my way down, I shall carefully examine; and not fail to
-add their testimonies (if I am not mistaken in their character) to
-further speculations on this interesting feature of the geology of the
-great valley of the Missouri. Whilst my men were yet engaged in their
-sporting excursions, I left my easel and travelled to the base and
-summit of these tabular hills; which, to my great surprise, I found to
-be several miles from the river, and a severe journey to accomplish
-getting back to our encampment at nightfall. I found by their sides
-that they were evidently of an alluvial deposite, composed of a great
-variety of horizontal layers of clays of different colours—of granitic
-sand and pebbles (many of which furnished me beautiful specimens of
-agate, jasper and carnelians), and here and there large fragments of
-pumice and cinders, which gave, as instances above-mentioned, evidences
-of volcanic remains.
-
-The mode by which Bogard and Ba’tiste had been entrapping the timid
-and sagacious antelopes was one which is frequently and successfully
-practised in this country; and on this day had afforded them fine
-sport.
-
-The antelope of this country, I believe to be different from all
-other known varieties, and forms one of the most pleasing, living
-ornaments to this western world. They are seen in some places in great
-numbers sporting and playing about the hills and dales; and often, in
-flocks of fifty or a hundred, will follow the boat of the descending
-voyageur, or the travelling caravan, for hours together; keeping off
-at a safe distance, on the right or left, galloping up and down the
-hills, snuffing their noses and stamping their feet; as if they were
-endeavouring to remind the traveller of the wicked trespass he was
-making on their own hallowed ground.
-
-This little animal seems to be endowed, like many other gentle and
-sweet-breathing creatures, with an undue share of curiosity, which
-often leads them to destruction; and the hunter who wishes to entrap
-them, saves himself the trouble of travelling after them. When he has
-been discovered, he has only to elevate above the tops of the grass,
-his red or yellow handkerchief on the end of his gun-rod (+plate+ 40),
-which he sticks in the ground, and to which they are sure to advance,
-though with great coyness and caution; whilst he lies close, at a
-little distance, with his rifle in hand; when it is quite an easy
-matter to make sure of two or three at a shot, which he gets in range
-of his eye, to be pierced with one bullet.
-
-On Sunday, departed from our encampment in the Grand Détour; and having
-passed for many miles, through a series of winding and ever-varying
-bluffs and fancied ruins, like such as have already been described, our
-attention was more than usually excited by the stupendous scene (+plate+
-41), called by the voyageurs “the Grand Dome,” which was lying in full
-view before us.
-
-Our canoe was here hauled ashore, and a day whiled away again, amongst
-these clay built ruins.
-
-We clambered to their summits and enjoyed the distant view of the
-Missouri for many miles below, wending its way through the countless
-groups of clay and grass-covered hills; and we wandered back on the
-plains, in a toilsome and unsuccessful pursuit of a herd of buffaloes,
-which we discovered at some distance. Though we were disappointed
-in the results of the chase; yet we were in a measure repaid in
-amusements, which we found in paying a visit to an extensive village of
-prairie dogs, and of which I should render some account.
-
-I have subjoined a sketch (+plate+ 42) of one of these _sub-terra_
-communities; though it was taken in a former excursion, when my party
-was on horseback, and near the mouth of the Yellow Stone River; yet
-it answers for this place as well as any other, for their habits are
-one and the same wherever they are found; their houses or burrows
-are all alike, and as their location is uniformly on a level and
-desolate prairie, without timber, there is little room for variety or
-dissimilarity.
-
-The prairie dog of the American Prairies is undoubtedly a variety
-of the marmot; and probably not unlike those which inhabit the vast
-Steppes of Asia. It bears no resemblance to any variety of dogs,
-except in the sound of its voice, when excited by the approach of
-danger, which is something like that of a very small dog, and still
-much more resembling the barking of a grey squirrel.
-
-[Illustration: 39]
-
-[Illustration: 40]
-
-The size of these curious little animals is not far from that of a
-very large rat, and they are not unlike in their appearance. As I have
-said, their burrows, are uniformly built in a lonely desert; and away,
-both from the proximity of timber and water. Each individual, or each
-family, dig their hole in the prairie to the depth of eight or ten
-feet, throwing up the dirt from each excavation, in a little pile, in
-the form of a cone, which forms the only elevation for them to ascend;
-where they sit, to bark and chatter when an enemy is approaching their
-village. These villages are sometimes of several miles in extent;
-containing (I would almost say) myriads of their excavations and little
-dirt hillocks, and to the ears of their visitors, the din of their
-barkings is too confused and too peculiar to be described.
-
-In the present instance, we made many endeavours to shoot them, but
-finding our efforts to be entirely in vain. As we were approaching them
-at a distance, each one seemed to be perched up, on his hind feet,
-on his appropriate domicil, with a significant jerk of his tail at
-every bark, positively disputing our right of approach. I made several
-attempts to get near enough to “draw a bead” upon one of them; and
-just before I was ready to fire (and as if they knew the utmost limits
-of their safety), they sprang down into their holes, and instantly
-turning their bodies, shewed their ears and the ends of their noses, as
-they were peeping out at me; which position they would hold, until the
-shortness of the distance subjected their scalps to danger again, from
-the aim of a rifle; when they instantly disappeared from our sight,
-and all was silence thereafter, about their premises, as I passed them
-over; until I had so far advanced by them, that their ears were again
-discovered, and at length themselves, at full length, perched on the
-tops of their little hillocks and threatening as before; thus gradually
-sinking and rising like a wave before and behind me.
-
-The holes leading down to their burrows, are four or five inches in
-diameter, and run down nearly perpendicular; where they undoubtedly
-communicate into something like a subterraneous city (as I have
-formerly learned from fruitless endeavours to dig them out), undermined
-and vaulted; by which means, they can travel for a great distance under
-the ground, without danger from pursuit.
-
-Their food is simply the grass in the immediate vicinity of their
-burrows, which is cut close to the ground by their flat, shovel teeth;
-and, as they sometimes live twenty miles from any water, it is to be
-supposed that they get moisture enough from the dew on the grass, on
-which they feed chiefly at night; or that (as is generally supposed)
-they sink wells from their under-ground habitations, by which they
-descend low enough to get their supply. In the winter, they are for
-several months invisible; existing, undoubtedly, in a torpid state,
-as they certainly lay by no food for that season—nor can they procure
-any. These curious little animals belong to almost every latitude in
-the vast plains of prairie in North America; and their villages, which
-I have sometimes encountered in my travels, have compelled my party to
-ride several miles out of our way to get by them; for their burrows are
-generally within a few feet of each other, and dangerous to the feet
-and the limbs of our horses.
-
-The sketch of the bluffs denominated “the Grand Dome,” of which I spoke
-but a few moments since, is a faithful delineation of the lines and
-character of that wonderful scene; and the reader has here a just and
-striking illustration of the ruin-like appearances, as I have formerly
-described, that are so often met with on the banks of this mighty river.
-
-This is, perhaps, one of the most grand and beautiful scenes of the
-kind to be met with in this country, owing to the perfect appearance
-of its several huge domes, turrets, and towers, which were everywhere
-as precise and as perfect in their forms as they are represented in
-the illustration. These stupendous works are produced by the continual
-washing down of the sides of these clay-formed hills; and although, in
-many instances, their sides, by exposure, have become so hardened, that
-their change is very slow; yet they are mostly subjected to continual
-phases, more or less, until ultimately their decomposition ceases,
-and their sides becoming seeded and covered with a green turf, which
-protects and holds them (and will hold them) unalterable: with carpets
-of green, and enamelled with flowers, to be gazed upon with admiration,
-by the hardy voyageur and the tourist, for ages and centuries to come.
-
-On Monday, the seventh day from the mouth of the Yellow Stone River,
-we floated away from this noble scene; looking back again and again
-upon it, wondering at its curious and endless changes, as the swift
-current of the river, hurried us by, and gradually out of sight of
-it. We took a sort of melancholy leave of it—but at every bend and
-turn in the stream, we were introduced to others—and others—and yet
-others, almost as strange and curious. At the base of one of these,
-although we had passed it, we with difficulty landed our canoe, and I
-ascended to its top, with some hours’ labour; having to cut a foot-hold
-in the clay with my hatchet for each step, a great part of the way up
-its sides. So curious was this solitary bluff, standing alone as it
-did, to the height of 250 feet (+plate+ 43), with its sides washed
-down into hundreds of variegated forms—with large blocks of indurated
-clay, remaining upon pedestals and columns as it were, and with such
-a variety of tints; that I looked upon it as a beautiful picture, and
-devoted an hour or two with my brush, in transferring it to my canvass.
-
-In the after part of this day we passed another extraordinary scene,
-which is denominated “the Three Domes” (+plate+ 44), forming an
-exceedingly pleasing group, though requiring no further description for
-the reader, who is now sufficiently acquainted with these scenes to
-understand them.
-
-[Illustration: 41]
-
-[Illustration: 42]
-
-[Illustration: 43]
-
-[Illustration: 44]
-
-On this day, just before night, we landed our little boat in front of
-the Mandan village; and amongst the hundreds and thousands who flocked
-towards the river to meet and to greet us, was Mr. Kipp, the agent of
-the American Fur Company, who has charge of their Establishment at this
-place. He kindly ordered my canoe to be taken care of, and my things to
-be carried to his quarters, which was at once done; and I am at this
-time reaping the benefits of his genuine politeness, and gathering the
-pleasures of his amusing and interesting society.
-
-
-
-
-                             LETTER—No. 11.
-
-                   MANDAN VILLAGE, _UPPER MISSOURI_.
-
-
-I said that I was here in the midst of a strange people, which is
-literally true; and I find myself surrounded by subjects and scenes
-worthy the pens of Irving or Cooper—of the pencils of Raphael or
-Hogarth; rich in legends and romances, which would require no aid of
-the imagination for a book or a picture.
-
-The Mandans (or See-pohs-kah-nu-mah-kah-kee, “people of the pheasants,”
-as they call themselves), are perhaps one of the most ancient tribes
-of Indians in our country. Their origin, like that of all the other
-tribes is from necessity, involved in mystery and obscurity. Their
-traditions and peculiarities I shall casually recite in this or future
-epistles; which when understood, will at once, I think, denominate them
-a peculiar and distinct race. They take great pride in relating their
-traditions, with regard to their origin; contending that they were the
-_first_ people created on earth. Their existence in these regions has
-not been from a very ancient period; and, from what I could learn of
-their traditions, they have, at a former period, been a very numerous
-and powerful nation; but by the continual wars which have existed
-between them and their neighbours, they have been reduced to their
-present numbers.
-
-This tribe is at present located on the west bank of the Missouri,
-about 1800 miles above St. Louis, and 200 below the Mouth of Yellow
-Stone river. They have two villages only, which are about two miles
-distant from each other; and number in all (as near as I can learn),
-about 2000 souls. Their present villages are beautifully located, and
-judiciously also, for defence against the assaults of their enemies.
-The site of the lower (or principal) town, in particular (+plate+
-45), is one of the most beautiful and pleasing that can be seen
-in the world, and even more beautiful than imagination could ever
-create. In the very midst of an extensive valley (embraced within a
-thousand graceful swells and parapets or mounds of interminable green,
-changing to blue, as they vanish in distance) is built the city, or
-principal town of the Mandans. On an extensive plain (which is covered
-with a green turf, as well as the hills and dales, as far as the eye
-can possibly range, without tree or bush to be seen) are to be seen
-rising from the ground, and towards the heavens, domes—(not “of gold,”
-but) of dirt—and the thousand spears (not “spires”) and scalp-poles,
-&c. &c., of the semi-subterraneous village of the hospitable and
-gentlemanly Mandans.
-
-[Illustration: 45]
-
-[Illustration: 46]
-
-These people formerly (and within the recollection of many of their
-oldest men) lived fifteen or twenty miles farther down the river, in
-ten contiguous villages; the marks or ruins of which are yet plainly
-to be seen. At that period, it is evident, as well from the number of
-lodges which their villages contained, as from their traditions, that
-their numbers were much greater than at the present day.
-
-There are other, and very interesting, traditions and historical facts
-relative to a still prior location and condition of these people,
-of which I shall speak more fully on a future occasion. From these,
-when they are promulged, I think there may be a pretty fair deduction
-drawn, that they formerly occupied the lower part of the Missouri, and
-even the Ohio and Muskingum, and have gradually made their way up the
-Missouri to where they now are.
-
-There are many remains on the river below this place (and, in fact,
-to be seen nearly as low down as St. Louis), which shew clearly the
-peculiar construction of Mandan lodges, and consequently carry a strong
-proof of the above position. While descending the river, however, which
-I shall commence in a few weeks, in a canoe, this will be a subject of
-interest; and I shall give it close examination.
-
-The ground on which the Mandan village is at present built, was
-admirably selected for defence; being on a bank forty or fifty feet
-above the bed of the river. The greater part of this bank is nearly
-perpendicular, and of solid rock. The river, suddenly changing its
-course to a right-angle, protects two sides of the village, which is
-built upon this promontory or angle; they have therefore but one side
-to protect, which is effectually done by a strong piquet, and a ditch
-inside of it, of three or four feet in depth. The piquet is composed
-of timbers of a foot or more in diameter, and eighteen feet high, set
-firmly in the ground at sufficient distances from each other to admit
-of guns and other missiles to be fired between them. The ditch (unlike
-that of civilized modes of fortification) is inside of the piquet, in
-which their warriors screen their bodies from the view and weapons of
-their enemies, whilst they are reloading and discharging their weapons
-through the piquets.
-
-The Mandans are undoubtedly secure in their villages, from the attacks
-of any Indian nation, and have nothing to fear, except when they meet
-their enemy on the prairie. Their village has a most novel appearance
-to the eye of a stranger; their lodges are closely grouped together,
-leaving but just room enough for walking and riding between them; and
-appear from without, to be built entirely of dirt; but one is surprised
-when he enters them, to see the neatness, comfort, and spacious
-dimensions of these earth-covered dwellings. They all have a circular
-form, and are from forty to sixty feet in diameter. Their foundations
-are prepared by digging some two feet in the ground, and forming the
-floor of earth, by levelling the requisite size for the lodge. These
-floors or foundations are all perfectly circular, and varying in size
-in proportion to the number of inmates, or of the quality or standing
-of the families which are to occupy them. The superstructure is then
-produced, by arranging, inside of this circular excavation, firmly
-fixed in the ground and resting against the bank, a barrier or wall of
-timbers, some eight or nine inches in diameter, of equal height (about
-six feet) placed on end, and resting against each other, supported by
-a formidable embankment of earth raised against them outside; then,
-resting upon the tops of these timbers or piles, are others of equal
-size and equal in numbers, of twenty or twenty-five feet in length,
-resting firmly against each other, and sending their upper or smaller
-ends towards the centre and top of the lodge; rising at an angle of
-forty-five degrees to the apex or sky-light, which is about three or
-four feet in diameter, answering as a chimney and a sky-light at the
-same time. The roof of the lodge being thus formed, is supported by
-beams passing around the inner part of the lodge about the middle of
-these poles or timbers, and themselves upheld by four or five large
-posts passing down to the floor of the lodge. On the top of, and over
-the poles forming the roof, is placed a complete mat of willow-boughs,
-of half a foot or more in thickness, which protects the timbers from
-the dampness of the earth, with which the lodge is covered from bottom
-to top, to the depth of two or three feet; and then with a hard or
-tough clay, which is impervious to water, and which with long use
-becomes quite hard, and a lounging place for the whole family in
-pleasant weather—for sage—for wooing lovers—for dogs and all; an airing
-place—a look-out—a place for gossip and mirth—a seat for the solitary
-gaze and meditations of the stern warrior, who sits and contemplates
-the peaceful mirth and happiness that is breathed beneath him, fruits
-of his hard-fought battles, on fields of desperate combat with
-bristling Red Men.
-
-The floors of these dwellings are of earth, but so hardened by use,
-and swept so clean, and tracked by bare and moccassined feet, that
-they have almost a polish, and would scarcely soil the whitest linen.
-In the centre, and immediately under the sky-light (+plate+ 46) is the
-fire-place—a hole of four or five feet in diameter, of a circular form,
-sunk a foot or more below the surface, and curbed around with stone.
-Over the fire-place, and suspended from the apex of diverging props or
-poles, is generally seen the pot or kettle, filled with buffalo meat;
-and around it are the family, reclining in all the most picturesque
-attitudes and groups, resting on their buffalo-robes and beautiful mats
-of rushes. These cabins are so spacious, that they hold from twenty
-to forty persons—a family and all their connexions. They all sleep on
-bedsteads similar in form to ours, but generally not quite so high;
-made of round poles rudely lashed together with thongs. A buffalo skin,
-fresh stripped from the animal, is stretched across the bottom poles,
-and about two feet from the floor; which, when it dries, becomes much
-contracted, and forms a perfect sacking-bottom. The fur side of this
-skin is placed uppermost, on which they lie with great comfort, with
-a buffalo-robe folded up for a pillow, and others drawn over them
-instead of blankets. These beds, as far as I have seen them (and I have
-visited almost every lodge in the village), are uniformly screened with
-a covering of buffalo or elk skins, oftentimes beautifully dressed
-and placed over the upright poles or frame, like a suit of curtains;
-leaving a hole in front, sufficiently spacious for the occupant to pass
-in and out, to and from his or her bed. Some of these coverings or
-curtains are exceedingly beautiful, being cut tastefully into fringe,
-and handsomely ornamented with porcupine’s quills and picture writings
-or hieroglyphics.
-
-From the great number of inmates in these lodges, they are necessarily
-very spacious, and the number of beds considerable. It is no uncommon
-thing to see these lodges fifty feet in diameter inside (which is an
-immense room), with a row of these curtained beds extending quite
-around their sides, being some ten or twelve of them, placed four or
-five feet apart, and the space between them occupied by a large post,
-fixed quite firm in the ground, and six or seven feet high, with large
-wooden pegs or bolts in it, on which are hung and grouped, with a wild
-and startling taste, the arms and armour of the respective proprietor;
-consisting of his whitened shield, embossed and emblazoned with the
-figure of his protecting _medicine_ (or mystery), his bow and quiver,
-his war-club or battle-axe, his dart or javelin—his tobacco pouch and
-pipe—his medicine-bag—and his eagle—ermine or raven head-dress; and
-over all, and on the top of the post (as if placed by some conjuror
-or Indian magician, to guard and protect the spell of wildness that
-reigns in this strange place), stands forth and in full relief the head
-and horns of a buffalo, which is, by a village regulation, owned and
-possessed by every man in the nation, and hung at the head of his bed,
-which he uses as a mask when called upon by the chiefs, to join in the
-buffalo-dance, of which I shall say more in a future epistle.
-
-This arrangement of beds, of arms, &c., combining the most vivid
-display and arrangement of colours, of furs, of trinkets—of barbed and
-glistening points and steel—of mysteries and hocus pocus, together
-with the sombre and smoked colour of the roof and sides of the
-lodge; and the wild, and rude and red—the graceful (though uncivil)
-conversational, garrulous, story-telling and happy, though ignorant
-and untutored groups, that are smoking their pipes—wooing their
-sweethearts, and embracing their little ones about their peaceful and
-endeared fire-sides; together with their pots and kettles, spoons,
-and other culinary articles of their own manufacture, around them;
-present altogether, one of the most picturesque scenes to the eye of a
-stranger, that can be possibly seen; and far more wild and vivid than
-could ever be imagined.
-
-Reader, I said these people were garrulous, story-telling and happy;
-this is true, and literally so; and it belongs to me to establish the
-fact, and correct the error which seems to have gone forth to the world
-on this subject.
-
-As I have before observed, there is no subject that I know of within
-the scope and reach of human wisdom, on which the civilized world in
-this enlightened age are more incorrectly informed, than upon that
-of the true manners and customs, and moral condition, rights and
-abuses, of the North American Indians; and that, as I have also before
-remarked, chiefly on account of the difficulty of our cultivating a
-fair and honourable acquaintance with them, and doing them the justice,
-and ourselves the credit, of a fair and impartial investigation of
-their true character. The present age of refinement and research has
-brought every thing else that I know of (and a vast deal more than
-the most enthusiastic mind ever dreamed of) within the scope and fair
-estimation of refined intellect and of science; while the wild and
-timid savage, with his interesting customs and modes has vanished, or
-his character has become changed, at the approach of the enlightened
-and intellectual world; who follow him like a phantom for awhile, and
-in ignorance of his true character at last turn back to the common
-business and social transactions of life.
-
-Owing to the above difficulties, which have stood in the way, the world
-have fallen into many egregious errors with regard to the true modes
-and meaning of the savage, which I am striving to set forth and correct
-in the course of these epistles. And amongst them all, there is none
-more common, nor more entirely erroneous, nor more easily refuted,
-than the current one, that “the Indian is a sour, morose, reserved and
-taciturn man.” I have heard this opinion advanced a thousand times and
-I believed it; but such certainly, is not uniformly nor generally the
-case.
-
-I have observed in all my travels amongst the Indian tribes, and
-more particularly amongst these unassuming people, that they are a
-far more talkative and conversational race than can easily be seen
-in the civilized world. This assertion, like many others I shall
-occasionally make, will somewhat startle the folks at the East, yet
-it is true. No one can look into the wigwams of these people, or into
-any little momentary group of them, without being at once struck with
-the conviction that small-talk, gossip, garrulity, and story-telling,
-are the leading passions with them, who have little else to do in
-the world, but to while away their lives in the innocent and endless
-amusement of the exercise of those talents with which Nature has
-liberally endowed them, for their mirth and enjoyment.
-
-One has but to walk or ride about this little town and its environs
-for a few hours in a pleasant day, and overlook the numerous games and
-gambols, where their notes and yelps of exultation are unceasingly
-vibrating in the atmosphere; or peep into their wigwams (and watch
-the glistening fun that’s beaming from the noses, cheeks, and chins,
-of the crouching, cross-legged, and prostrate groups around the fire;
-where the pipe is passed, and jokes and anecdote, and laughter are
-excessive) to become convinced that it is natural to laugh and be
-merry. Indeed it would be strange if a race of people like these, who
-have little else to do or relish in life, should be curtailed in that
-source of pleasure and amusement; and it would be also strange, if a
-life-time of indulgence and practice in so innocent and productive a
-mode of amusement, free from the cares and anxieties of business or
-professions, should not advance them in their modes, and enable them to
-draw far greater pleasure from such sources, than we in the civilized
-and business world can possibly feel. If the uncultivated condition of
-their minds curtails the number of their enjoyments; yet they are free
-from, and independent of, a thousand cares and jealousies, which arise
-from mercenary motives in the civilized world; and are yet far a-head
-of us (in my opinion) in the real and uninterrupted enjoyment of their
-simple natural faculties.
-
-They live in a country and in communities, where it is not customary
-to look forward into the future with concern, for they live without
-incurring the expenses of life, which are absolutely necessary and
-unavoidable in the enlightened world; and of course their inclinations
-and faculties are solely directed to the enjoyment of the present day,
-without the sober reflections on the past or apprehensions of the
-future.
-
-With minds thus unexpanded and uninfluenced by the thousand passions
-and ambitions of civilized life, it is easy and natural to concentrate
-their thoughts and their conversation upon the little and trifling
-occurrences of their lives. They are fond of fun and good cheer, and
-can laugh easily and heartily at a slight joke, of which their peculiar
-modes of life furnish them an inexhaustible fund, and enable them to
-cheer their little circle about the wigwam fire-side with endless
-laughter and garrulity.
-
-It may be thought, that I am taking a great deal of pains to establish
-this fact, and I am dwelling longer upon it than I otherwise should,
-inasmuch as I am opposing an error that seems to have become current
-through the world; and which, if it be once corrected, removes a
-material difficulty, which has always stood in the way of a fair and
-just estimation of the Indian character. For the purpose of placing
-the Indian in a proper light before the world, as I hope to do in
-many respects, it is of importance to me—it is but justice to the
-savage—and justice to my readers also, that such points should be
-cleared up as I proceed; and for the world who enquire for correct and
-just information, they must take my words for the truth, or else come
-to this country and look for themselves, into these grotesque circles
-of never-ending laughter and fun, instead of going to Washington
-City to gaze on the poor embarrassed Indian who is called there by
-his “Great Father,” to contend with the sophistry of the learned and
-acquisitive world, in bartering away his lands with the graves and the
-hunting grounds of his ancestors. There is not the proper place to
-study the Indian character; yet it is the place where the sycophant and
-the scribbler go to gaze and frown upon him—to learn his character,
-and write his history! and because he does not speak, and quaffs the
-delicious beverage which he receives from white men’s hands, “he’s a
-speechless brute and a drunkard.” An Indian is a beggar in Washington
-City, and a white man is almost equally so in the Mandan village. An
-Indian in Washington is mute, is dumb and embarrassed; and so is a
-white man (and for the very same reasons) in this place—he has nobody
-to talk to.
-
-A wild Indian, to reach the civilized world, must needs travel
-some thousands of miles in vehicles of conveyance, to which he is
-unaccustomed—through latitudes and longitudes which are new to
-him—living on food that he is unused to—stared and gazed at by the
-thousands and tens of thousands whom he cannot talk to—his heart
-grieving and his body sickening at the exhibition of white men’s wealth
-and luxuries, which are enjoyed on the land, and over the bones of
-his ancestors. And at the end of his journey he stands (like a caged
-animal) to be scanned—to be criticised—to be pitied—and heralded to the
-world as a mute—as a brute, and a beggar.
-
-A white man, to reach this village, must travel by steam-boat—by
-canoes—on horseback and on foot; swim rivers—wade quagmires—fight
-mosquitoes—patch his moccasins, and patch them again and again, and his
-breeches; live on meat alone—sleep on the ground the whole way, and
-think and dream of his friends he has left behind; and when he gets
-here, half-starved, and half-naked, and more than half sick, he finds
-himself a beggar for a place to sleep, and for something to eat; a
-mute amongst thousands who flock about him, to look and to criticise,
-and to laugh at him for his jaded appearance, and to speak of him as
-they do of all white men (without distinction) as liars. These people
-are in the habit of seeing no white men in their country but Traders,
-and know of no other; deeming us all alike, and receiving us all under
-the presumption that we come to trade or barter; applying to us all,
-indiscriminately, the epithet of “liars” or Traders.
-
-The reader will therefore see, that we mutually suffer in each other’s
-estimation from the unfortunate ignorance, which distance has chained
-us in; and (as I can vouch, and the Indian also, who has visited
-the civilized world) that the historian who would record justly and
-correctly the character and customs of a people, must go and live among
-them.
-
-
-
-
-                             LETTER—No. 12.
-
-                    MANDAN VILLAGE, UPPER MISSOURI.
-
-
-In my last, I gave some account of the village, and the customs, and
-appearances of this strange people,—and I will now proceed to give
-further details on that subject.
-
-I have this morning, perched myself upon the top of one of the
-earth-covered lodges, which I have before described, and having the
-whole village beneath and about me (+plate+ 47), with its sachems—its
-warriors—its dogs—and its horses in motion—its medicines (or mysteries)
-and scalp-poles waving over my head—its piquets—its green fields and
-prairies, and river in full view, with the din and bustle of the
-thrilling panorama that is about me. I shall be able, I hope, to give
-some sketches more to the life than I could have done from any effort
-of recollection.
-
-I said that the lodges or wigwams were covered with earth—were of forty
-or sixty feet in diameter, and so closely grouped that there was but
-just room enough to walk and ride between them,—that they had a door by
-which to enter them, and a hole in the top for the admission of light,
-and for the smoke to escape,—that the inmates were at times grouped
-upon their tops in conversations and other amusements, &c.; and yet
-you know not exactly how they look, nor what is the precise appearance
-of the strange world that is about me. There is really a newness
-and rudeness in every thing that is to be seen. There are several
-hundred houses or dwellings about me, and they are purely unique—they
-are all covered with dirt—the people are all red, and yet distinct
-from all other red folks I have seen. The horses are wild—every dog
-is a wolf—the whole moving mass are strangers to me: the living, in
-everything, carry an air of intractable wildness about them, and the
-dead are not buried, but dried upon scaffolds.
-
-The groups of lodges around me present a very curious and pleasing
-appearance, resembling in shape (more nearly than anything else I
-can compare them to) so many potash-kettles inverted. On the tops
-of these are to be seen groups standing and reclining, whose wild
-and picturesque appearance it would be difficult to describe. Stern
-warriors, like statues, standing in dignified groups, wrapped in their
-painted robes, with their heads decked and plumed with quills of the
-war-eagle; extending their long arms to the east or the west, the
-scenes of their battles, which they are recounting over to each other.
-In another direction, the wooing lover, softening the heart of his fair
-Taih-nah-tai-a with the notes of his simple lute. On other lodges, and
-beyond these, groups are engaged in games of the “moccasin,” or the
-“platter.” Some are to be seen manufacturing robes and dresses, and
-others, fatigued with amusements or occupations, have stretched their
-limbs to enjoy the luxury of sleep, whilst basking in the sun. With
-all this wild and varied medley of living beings are mixed their dogs,
-which seem to be so near an Indian’s heart, as almost to constitute a
-material link of his existence.
-
-In the centre of the village is an open space, or public area, of 150
-feet in diameter, and circular in form, which is used for all public
-games and festivals, shews and exhibitions; and also for their “annual
-religious ceremonies,” which are soon to take place, and of which I
-shall hereafter give some account. The lodges around this open space
-front in, with their doors towards the centre; and in the middle of
-this circle stands an object of great religious veneration, as I am
-told, on account of the importance it has in the conduction of those
-annual religious rites.
-
-This object is in form of a large hogshead, some eight or ten feet
-high, made of planks and hoops, containing within it some of their
-choicest medicines or mysteries, and religiously preserved unhacked or
-scratched, as a symbol of the “Big Canoe,” as they call it.
-
-One of the lodges fronting on this circular area, and facing this
-strange object of their superstition, is called the “Medicine Lodge,”
-or council house. It is in this sacred building that these wonderful
-ceremonies, in commemoration of the flood, take place. I am told by the
-Traders that the cruelties of these scenes are frightful and abhorrent
-in the extreme; and that this huge wigwam, which is now closed, has
-been built exclusively for this grand celebration. I am every day
-reminded of the near approach of the season for this strange affair,
-and as I have not yet seen any thing of it, I cannot describe it; I
-know it only from the relations of the Traders who have witnessed parts
-of it; and their descriptions are of so extraordinary a character, that
-I would not be willing to describe until I can see for myself,—which
-will, in all probability, be in a few days.
-
-In ranging the eye over the village from where I am writing, there
-is presented to the view the strangest mixture and medley of
-unintelligible trash (independent of the living beings that are in
-motion), that can possibly be imagined. On the roofs of the lodges,
-besides the groups of living, are buffaloes’ skulls, skin canoes,
-pots and pottery; sleds and sledges—and suspended on poles, erected
-some twenty feet above the doors of their wigwams, are displayed in a
-pleasant day, the scalps of warriors, preserved as trophies; and thus
-proudly exposed as evidence of their warlike deeds. In other parts are
-raised on poles the warriors’ pure and whitened shields and quivers,
-with medicine-bags attached; and here and there a sacrifice of red
-cloth, or other costly stuff, offered up to the Great Spirit, over
-the door of some benignant chief, in humble gratitude for the blessings
-which he is enjoying. Such is a part of the strange medley that is
-before and around me; and amidst them and the blue streams of smoke
-that are rising from the tops of these hundred “coal-pits,” can be
-seen in distance, the green and boundless, treeless, bushless prairie;
-and on it, and contiguous to the piquet which encloses the village, a
-hundred scaffolds on which their “dead live,” as they term it.
-
-[Illustration: 47]
-
-[Illustration: 48]
-
-These people never bury the dead, but place the bodies on slight
-scaffolds just above the reach of human hands, and out of the way of
-wolves and dogs; and they are there left to moulder and decay. This
-cemetery, or place of deposite for the dead, is just back of the
-village, on a level prairie (+plate+ 48); and with all its appearances,
-history, forms, ceremonies, &c. is one of the strangest and most
-interesting objects to be described in the vicinity of this peculiar
-race.
-
-Whenever a person dies in the Mandan village, and the customary honours
-and condolence are paid to his remains, and the body dressed in its
-best attire, painted, oiled, feasted, and supplied with bow and quiver,
-shield, pipe and tobacco—knife, flint and steel, and provisions enough
-to last him a few days on the journey which he is to perform; a fresh
-buffalo’s skin, just taken from the animal’s back, is wrapped around
-the body, and tightly bound and wound with thongs of raw hide from head
-to foot. Then other robes are soaked in water, till they are quite
-soft and elastic, which are also bandaged around the body in the same
-manner, and tied fast with thongs, which are wound with great care and
-exactness, so as to exclude the action of the air from all parts of the
-body.
-
-There is then a separate scaffold erected for it, constructed of four
-upright posts, a little higher than human hands can reach; and on the
-tops of these are small poles passing around from one post to the
-others; across which a number of willow-rods just strong enough to
-support the body, which is laid upon them on its back, with its feet
-carefully presented towards the rising sun.
-
-There are a great number of these bodies resting exactly in a similar
-way; excepting in some instances where a chief, or medicine-man, may
-be seen with a few yards of scarlet or blue cloth spread over his
-remains, as a mark of public respect and esteem. Some hundreds of these
-bodies may be seen reposing in this manner in this curious place, which
-the Indians call, “the village of the dead;” and the traveller, who
-visits this country to study and learn, will not only be struck with
-the novel appearance of the scene; but if he will give attention to
-the respect and devotions that are paid to this sacred place, he will
-draw many a moral deduction that will last him through life: he will
-learn, at least, that filial, conjugal, and paternal affection are not
-necessarily the results of civilization; but that the Great Spirit
-has given them to man in his native state; and that the spices and
-improvements of the enlightened world have never refined upon them.
-
-There is not a day in the year in which one may not see in this place
-evidences of this fact, that will wring tears from his eyes, and kindle
-in his bosom a spark of respect and sympathy for the poor Indian, if
-he never felt it before. Fathers, mothers, wives, and children, may
-be seen lying under these scaffolds, prostrated upon the ground, with
-their faces in the dirt, howling forth incessantly the most piteous
-and heart-broken cries and lamentations for the misfortunes of their
-kindred; tearing their hair—cutting their flesh with their knives,
-and doing other penance to appease the spirits of the dead, whose
-misfortunes they attribute to some sin or omission of their own, for
-which they sometimes inflict the most excruciating self-torture.
-
-When the scaffolds on which the bodies rest, decay and fall to the
-ground, the nearest relations having buried the rest of the bones,
-take the skulls, which are perfectly bleached and purified, and place
-them in circles of an hundred or more on the prairie—placed at equal
-distances apart (some eight or nine inches from each other), with the
-faces all looking to the centre; where they are religiously protected
-and preserved in their precise positions from year to year, as objects
-of religious and affectionate veneration (+plate+ 48).
-
-There are several of these “Golgothas” or circles of twenty or thirty
-feet in diameter, and in the centre of each ring or circle is a
-little mound of three feet high, on which uniformly rest two buffalo
-skulls (a male and female); and in the centre of the little mound is
-erected a “medicine pole,” about twenty feet high, supporting many
-curious articles of mystery and superstition, which they suppose have
-the power of guarding and protecting this sacred arrangement. Here
-then, to this strange place do these people again resort, to evince
-their further affections for the dead—not in groans and lamentations
-however, for several years have cured the anguish; but fond affections
-and endearments are here renewed, and conversations are here held and
-cherished with the dead.
-
-Each one of these skulls is placed upon a bunch of wild sage, which
-has been pulled and placed under it. The wife knows (by some mark or
-resemblance) the skull of her husband or her child, which lies in this
-group; and there seldom passes a day that she does not visit it, with
-a dish of the best cooked food that her wigwam affords, which she sets
-before the skull at night, and returns for the dish in the morning.
-As soon as it is discovered that the sage on which the skull rests is
-beginning to decay, the woman cuts a fresh bunch, and places the skull
-carefully upon it, removing that which was under it.
-
-Independent of the above-named duties, which draw the women to this
-spot, they visit it from inclination, and linger upon it to hold
-converse and company with the dead. There is scarcely an hour in a
-pleasant day, but more or less of these women may be seen sitting or
-laying by the skull of their child or husband—talking to it in the most
-pleasant and endearing language that they can use (as they were wont
-to do in former days) and seemingly getting an answer back. It is not
-unfrequently the case, that the woman brings her needle-work with her,
-spending the greater part of the day, sitting by the side of the skull
-of her child, chatting incessantly with it, while she is embroidering
-or garnishing a pair of moccasins; and perhaps, overcome with fatigue,
-falls asleep, with her arms encircled around it, forgetting herself for
-hours; after which she gathers up her things and returns to the village.
-
-There is something exceedingly interesting and impressive in these
-scenes, which are so strikingly dissimilar, and yet within a few rods
-of each other; the one is the place where they pour forth the frantic
-anguish of their souls—and afterwards pay their visits to the other, to
-jest and gossip with the dead.
-
-The great variety of shapes and characters exhibited in these groups
-of crania, render them a very interesting study for the craniologist
-and phrenologist; but I apprehend that it would be a matter of great
-difficulty (if not of impossibility) to procure them at this time, for
-the use and benefit of the scientific world.
-
-
-
-
-                             LETTER—No. 13.
-
-                    MANDAN VILLAGE, UPPER MISSOURI.
-
-
-In several of my former Letters I have given sketches of the village,
-and some few of the customs of these peculiar people; and I have many
-more yet in store; some of which will induce the readers to laugh, and
-others almost dispose them to weep. But at present, I drop them, and
-introduce a few of the wild and gentlemanly Mandans themselves; and
-first, Ha-na-tah-nu-mauh, the wolf chief (+plate+ 49). This man is
-head-chief of the nation, and familiarly known by the name of “Chef
-de Loup,” as the French Traders call him; a haughty, austere, and
-overbearing man, respected and feared by his people rather than loved.
-The tenure by which this man holds his office, is that by which the
-head-chiefs of most of the tribes claim, that of inheritance. It is
-a general, though not an infallible rule amongst the numerous tribes
-of North American Indians, that the office of chief belongs to the
-eldest son of a chief; provided he shews himself, by his conduct, to be
-equally worthy of it as any other in the nation: making it hereditary
-on a very proper condition—in default of which requisites, or others
-which may happen, the office is elective.
-
-The dress of this chief was one of great extravagance, and some beauty;
-manufactured of skins, and a great number of quills of the raven,
-forming his stylish head-dress.
-
-The next and second chief of the tribe, is Mah-to-toh-pa (the four
-bears). This extraordinary man, though second in office is undoubtedly
-the first and most popular man in the nation. Free, generous, elegant
-and gentlemanly in his deportment—handsome, brave and valiant; wearing
-a robe on his back, with the history of his battles emblazoned on it;
-which would fill a book of themselves, if properly translated. This,
-readers, is the most extraordinary man, perhaps, who lives at this day,
-in the atmosphere of Nature’s noblemen; and I shall certainly tell you
-more of him anon.
-
-After him, there are Mah-tahp-ta-ha, he who rushes through the middle
-(+plate+ 50); Seehk-hee-da, the mouse-coloured feather (+plate+ 51);
-San-ja-ka-ko-kah (the deceiving wolf); Mah-to-he-ha (the old bear), and
-others, distinguished as chiefs and warriors—and there are belles also;
-such as Mi-neek-e-sunk-te-ca, the mink (+plate+ 53); and the little
-gray-haired Sha-ko-ka, mint (+plate+ 52); and fifty others, who are
-famous for their conquests, not with the bow or the javelin, but
-with their small black eyes, which shoot out from under their unfledged
-brows, and pierce the boldest, fiercest chieftain to the heart.
-
-[Illustration: 49]
-
-[Illustration: 50 51]
-
-[Illustration: 52 53]
-
-The Mandans are certainly a very interesting and pleasing people in
-their personal appearance and manners; differing in many respects, both
-in looks and customs, from all other tribes which I have seen. They
-are not a warlike people; for they seldom, if ever, carry war into
-their enemies’ country; but when invaded, shew their valour and courage
-to be equal to that of any people on earth. Being a small tribe, and
-unable to contend on the wide prairies with the Sioux and other roaming
-tribes, who are ten times more numerous; they have very judiciously
-located themselves in a permanent village, which is strongly fortified,
-and ensures their preservation. By this means they have advanced
-further in the arts of manufacture; have supplied their lodges more
-abundantly with the comforts, and even luxuries of life, than any
-Indian nation I know of. The consequence of this is, that this tribe
-have taken many steps ahead of other tribes in manners and refinements
-(if I may be allowed to apply the word refinement to Indian life); and
-are therefore familiarly (and correctly) denominated, by the Traders
-and others, who have been amongst them, “the polite and friendly
-Mandans.”
-
-There is certainly great justice in the remark; and so forcibly have
-I been struck with the peculiar ease and elegance of these people,
-together with the diversity of complexions, the various colours of
-their hair and eyes; the singularity of their language, and their
-peculiar and unaccountable customs, that I am fully convinced that
-they have sprung from some other origin than that of the other North
-American tribes, or that they are an amalgam of natives with some
-civilized race.
-
-Here arises a question of very great interest and importance for
-discussion; and, after further familiarity with their character,
-customs, and traditions, if I forget it not, I will eventually give it
-further consideration. Suffice it then, for the present, that their
-_personal appearance_ alone, independent of their modes and customs,
-pronounces them at once, as more or less, than savage.
-
-A stranger in the Mandan village is first struck with the different
-shades of complexion, and various colours of hair which he sees in a
-crowd about him; and is at once almost disposed to exclaim that “these
-are not Indians.”
-
-There are a great many of these people whose complexions appear as
-light as half breeds; and amongst the women particularly, there are
-many whose skins are almost white, with the most pleasing symmetry
-and proportion of features; with hazel, with grey, and with blue
-eyes,—with mildness and sweetness of expression, and excessive modesty
-of demeanour, which render them exceedingly pleasing and beautiful.
-
-Why this diversity of complexion I cannot tell, nor can they
-themselves account for it. Their traditions, so far as I have yet
-learned them, afford us no information of their having had any
-knowledge of white men before the visit of Lewis and Clarke, made to
-their village thirty-three years ago. Since that time there have been
-but very few visits from white men to this place, and surely not enough
-to have changed the complexions and the customs of a nation. And I
-recollect perfectly well that Governor Clarke told me, before I started
-for this place, that I would find the Mandans a strange people and half
-white.
-
-The diversity in the colour of hair is also equally as great as that
-in the complexion; for in a numerous group of these people (and more
-particularly amongst the females, who never take pains to change its
-natural colour, as the men often do), there may be seen every shade and
-colour of hair that can be seen in our own country, with the exception
-of red or auburn, which is not to be found.
-
-And there is yet one more strange and unaccountable peculiarity, which
-can probably be seen nowhere else on earth; nor on any rational grounds
-accounted for,—other than it is a freak or order of Nature, for which
-she has not seen fit to assign a reason. There are very many, of both
-sexes, and of every age, from infancy to manhood and old age, with hair
-of a bright silvery grey; and in some instances almost perfectly white.
-
-This singular and eccentric appearance is much oftener seen among the
-women than it is with the men; for many of the latter who have it,
-seem ashamed of it, and artfully conceal it, by filling their hair
-with glue and black and red earth. The women, on the other hand, seem
-proud of it, and display it often in an almost incredible profusion,
-which spreads over their shoulders and falls as low as the knee. I have
-ascertained, on a careful enquiry, that about one in ten or twelve of
-the whole tribe are what the French call “cheveux gris,” or greyhairs;
-and that this strange and unaccountable phenomenon is not the result of
-disease or habit; but that it is unquestionably a hereditary character
-which runs in families, and indicates no inequality in disposition or
-intellect. And by passing this hair through my hands, as I often have,
-I have found it uniformly to be as coarse and harsh as a horse’s mane;
-differing materially from the hair of other colours, which amongst the
-Mandans, is generally as fine and as soft as silk.
-
-The reader will at once see, by the above facts, that there is enough
-upon the faces and heads of these people to stamp them peculiar,—when
-he meets them in the heart of this almost boundless wilderness,
-presenting such diversities of colour in the complexion and hair; when
-he knows from what he has seen, and what he has read, that all other
-primitive tribes known in America, are dark copper-coloured, with jet
-black hair.
-
-From these few facts alone, the reader will see that I am amongst a
-strange and interesting people, and know how to pardon me, if I lead
-him through a maze of novelty and mysteries to the knowledge of a
-strange, yet kind and hospitable, people, whose fate, like that of all
-their race is sealed;— whose doom is fixed, to live just long enough
-to be imperfectly known, and then to fall before the fell disease or
-sword of civilizing devastation.
-
-The stature of the Mandans is rather below the ordinary size of
-man, with beautiful symmetry of form and proportion, and wonderful
-suppleness and elasticity; they are pleasingly erect and graceful,
-both in their walk and their attitudes; and the hair of the men,
-which generally spreads over their backs, falling down to the hams,
-and sometimes to the ground, is divided into plaits or slabs of two
-inches in width, and filled with a profusion of glue and red earth or
-vermilion, at intervals of an inch or two, which becoming very hard,
-remains in and unchanged from year to year.
-
-This mode of dressing the hair is curious, and gives to the Mandans the
-most singular appearance. The hair of the men is uniformly all laid
-over from the forehead backwards; carefully kept above and resting on
-the ear, and thence falling down over the back, in these flattened
-bunches, and painted red, extending oftentimes quite on to the calf
-of the leg, and sometimes in such profusion as almost to conceal the
-whole figure from the person walking behind them. In the portrait
-of San-ja-ka-ko-kah (the deceiving wolf, +plate+ 54), where he is
-represented at full length, with several others of his family around
-him in a group, there will be seen a fair illustration of these and
-other customs of these people.
-
-The hair of the women is also worn as long as they can possibly
-cultivate it, oiled very often, which preserves on it a beautiful gloss
-and shows its natural colour. They often braid it in two large plaits,
-one falling down just back of the ear, on each side of the head; and
-on any occasion which requires them to “put on their best looks,” they
-pass their fingers through it, drawing it out of braid, and spreading
-it over their shoulders. The Mandan women observe strictly the same
-custom, which I observed amongst the Crows and Blackfeet (and, in fact,
-all other tribes I have seen, without a single exception), of parting
-the hair on the forehead, and always keeping the crease or separation
-filled with vermilion or other red paint. This is one of the very few
-little (and apparently trivial) customs which I have found amongst the
-Indians, without being able to assign any cause for it, other than that
-“they are Indians,” and that this is an Indian fashion.
-
-In mourning, like the Crows and most other tribes the women are obliged
-to crop their hair all off; and the usual term of that condolence is
-until the hair has grown again to its former length.
-
-When a man mourns for the death of a near relation the case is quite
-different; his long, valued tresses, are of much greater importance,
-and only a lock or two can be spared. Just enough to tell of his grief
-to his friends, without destroying his most valued ornament, is doing
-just reverence and respect to the dead.
-
-To repeat what I have said before, the Mandans are a pleasing and
-friendly race of people, of whom it is proverbial amongst the Traders
-and all who ever have known them that their treatment of white men
-in their country has been friendly and kind ever since their first
-acquaintance with them—they have ever met and received them, on the
-prairie or in their villages, with hospitality and honour.
-
-They are handsome, straight and elegant in their forms—not tall,
-but quick and graceful; easy and polite in their manners, neat in
-their persons and beautifully clad. When I say “neat in person and
-beautifully clad,” however, I do not intend my readers to understand
-that such is the case with them all, for among them and most other
-tribes, as with the enlightened world, there are different grades of
-society—those who care but little for their personal appearance, and
-those who take great pains to please themselves and their friends.
-Amongst this class of personages, such as chiefs and braves, or
-warriors of distinction, and their families, and dandies or exquisites
-(a class of beings of whom I shall take due time to speak in a future
-Letter), the strictest regard to decency, and cleanliness and elegance
-of dress is observed; and there are few people, perhaps, who take more
-pains to keep their persons neat and cleanly than they do.
-
-At the distance of half a mile or so above the village, is the
-customary place where the women and girls resort every morning in the
-summer months, to bathe in the river. To this spot they repair by
-hundreds, every morning at sunrise, where, on a beautiful beach, they
-can be seen running and glistening in the sun, whilst they are playing
-their innocent gambols and leaping into the stream. They all learn to
-swim well, and the poorest swimmer amongst them will dash fearlessly
-into the boiling and eddying current of the Missouri, and cross it with
-perfect ease. At the distance of a quarter of a mile back from the
-river, extends a terrace or elevated prairie, running north from the
-village, and forming a kind of semi-circle around this bathing-place;
-and on this terrace, which is some twenty or thirty feet higher than
-the meadow between it and the river, are stationed every morning
-several sentinels, with their bows and arrows in hand, to guard and
-protect this sacred ground from the approach of boys or men from any
-directions.
-
-At a little distance below the village, also, is the place where
-the men and boys go to bathe and learn to swim. After this morning
-ablution, they return to their village, wipe their limbs dry, and use a
-profusion of bear’s grease through their hair and over their bodies.
-
-The art of swimming is known to all the American Indians; and perhaps
-no people on earth have taken more pains to learn it, nor any who turn
-it to better account. There certainly are no people whose avocations
-of life more often call for the use of their limbs in this way; as
-many of the tribes spend their lives on the shores of our vast lakes
-and rivers, paddling about from their childhood in their fragile bark
-canoes, which are liable to continual accidents, which often throw the
-Indian upon his natural resources for the preservation of his life.
-
-There are many times also, when out upon their long marches in the
-prosecution of their almost continued warfare, when it becomes
-necessary to plunge into and swim across the wildest streams and
-rivers, at times when they have no canoes or craft in which to cross
-them. I have as yet seen no tribe where this art is neglected. It is
-learned at a very early age by both sexes, and enables the strong and
-hardy muscles of the squaws to take their child upon the back, and
-successfully to pass any river that lies in their way.
-
-[Illustration: 54]
-
-The mode of swimming amongst the Mandans, as well as amongst most of
-the other tribes, is quite different from that practiced in those parts
-of the civilized world, which I have had the pleasure yet to visit. The
-Indian, instead of parting his hands simultaneously under the chin, and
-making the stroke outward, in a horizontal direction, causing thereby
-a serious strain upon the chest, throws his body alternately upon the
-left and the right side, raising one arm entirely above the water and
-reaching as far forward as he can, to dip it, whilst his whole weight
-and force are spent upon the one that is passing under him, and like a
-paddle propelling him along; whilst this arm is making a half circle,
-and is being raised out of the water behind him, the opposite arm is
-describing a similar arch in the air over his head, to be dipped in the
-water as far as he can reach before him, with the hand turned under,
-forming a sort of bucket, to act most effectively as it passes in its
-turn underneath him.
-
-By this bold and powerful mode of swimming, which may want the grace
-that many would wish to see, I am quite sure, from the experience I
-have had, that much of the fatigue and strain upon the breast and spine
-are avoided, and that a man will preserve his strength and his breath
-much longer in this alternate and rolling motion, than he can in the
-usual mode of swimming, in the polished world.
-
-In addition to the modes of bathing which I have above described,
-the Mandans have another, which is a much greater luxury, and often
-resorted to by the sick, but far more often by the well and sound, as
-a matter of luxury only, or perhaps for the purpose of hardening their
-limbs and preparing them for the thousand exposures and vicissitudes
-of life to which they are continually liable. I allude to their vapour
-baths, or _sudatories_, of which each village has several, and which
-seem to be a kind of public property—accessible to all, and resorted to
-by all, male and female, old and young, sick and well.
-
-In every Mandan lodge is to be seen a crib or basket, much in the shape
-of a bathing-tub, curiously woven with willow boughs, and sufficiently
-large to receive any person of the family in a reclining or recumbent
-posture; which, when any one is to take a bath, is carried by the squaw
-to the sudatory for the purpose, and brought back to the wigwam again
-after it has been used.
-
-These sudatories are always near the village, above or below it, on
-the bank of the river. They are generally built of skins (in form of
-a Crow or Sioux lodge which I have before described), covered with
-buffalo skins sewed tight together, with a kind of furnace in the
-centre; or in other words, in the centre of the lodge are two walls of
-stone about six feet long and two and a half apart, and about three
-feet high; across and over this space, between the two walls, are laid
-a number of round sticks, on which the bathing crib is placed (vide
-+plate+ 71). Contiguous to the lodge, and outside of it, is a little
-furnace something similar, in the side of the bank, where the woman
-kindles a hot fire, and heats to a red heat a number of large stones,
-which are kept at these places for this particular purpose; and having
-them all in readiness, she goes home or sends word to inform her
-husband or other one who is waiting, that all is ready; when he makes
-his appearance entirely naked, though with a large buffalo robe wrapped
-around him. He then enters the lodge and places himself in the crib or
-basket, either on his back or in a sitting posture (the latter of which
-is generally preferred), with his back towards the door of the lodge;
-when the squaw brings in a large stone red hot, between two sticks
-(lashed together somewhat in the form of a pair of tongs) and, placing
-it under him, throws cold water upon it, which raises a profusion of
-vapour about him. He is at once enveloped in a cloud of steam, and a
-woman or child will sit at a little distance and continue to dash water
-upon the stone, whilst the matron of the lodge is out, and preparing to
-make her appearance with another heated stone: or he will sit and dip
-from a wooden bowl, with a ladle made of the mountain-sheep’s horn, and
-throw upon the heated stones, with his own hands, the water which he is
-drawing through his lungs and pores, in the next moment, in the most
-delectable and exhilarating vapours, as it distils through the mat of
-wild sage and other medicinal and aromatic herbs, which he has strewed
-over the bottom of his basket, and on which he reclines.
-
-During all this time the lodge is shut perfectly tight, and he quaffs
-this delicious and renovating draught to his lungs with deep drawn
-sighs, and with extended nostrils, until he is drenched in the most
-profuse degree of perspiration that can be produced; when he makes a
-kind of strangled signal, at which the lodge is opened, and he darts
-forth with the speed of a frightened deer, and plunges headlong into
-the river, from which he instantly escapes again, wraps his robe around
-him and “leans” as fast as possible for home. Here his limbs are wiped
-dry, and wrapped close and tight within the fur of the buffalo robes,
-in which he takes his nap, with his feet to the fire; then oils his
-limbs and hair with bear’s grease, dresses and plumes himself for a
-visit—a feast—a parade, or a council; or slicks down his long hair,
-and rubs his oiled limbs to a polish, with a piece of soft buckskin,
-prepared to join in games of bail or Tchung-kee.
-
-Such is the sudatory or the vapour bath of the Mandans, and as I before
-observed, it is resorted to both as an every-day luxury by those who
-have the time and energy or industry to indulge in it; and also used
-by the sick as a remedy for nearly all the diseases which are known
-amongst them. Fevers are very rare, and in fact almost unknown amongst
-these people: but in the few cases of fever which have been known, this
-treatment has been applied, and without the fatal consequences which
-we would naturally predict. The greater part of their diseases are
-inflammatory rheumatisms, and other chronic diseases; and for these,
-this mode of treatment, with their modes of life, does admirably well.
-This custom is similar amongst nearly all of these Missouri Indians,
-and amongst the Pawnees, Omahas, and Punchas and other tribes, who have
-suffered with the small-pox (the dread destroyer of the Indian race),
-this mode was practiced by the poor creatures, who fled by hundreds
-to the river’s edge, and by hundreds died before they could escape
-from the waves, into which they had plunged in the heat and rage of a
-burning fever. Such will yet be the scourge, and such the misery of
-these poor unthinking people, and each tribe to the Rocky Mountains,
-as it has been with every tribe between here and the Atlantic
-Ocean. White men—whiskey—tomahawks—scalping knives—guns, powder and
-ball—small-pox—debauchery—extermination.
-
-
-
-
-                             LETTER No. 14.
-
-                    MANDAN VILLAGE, UPPER MISSOURI.
-
-
-The Mandans in many instances dress very neatly, and some of them
-splendidly. As they are in their native state, their dresses are all
-of their own manufacture; and of course, altogether made of skins of
-different animals belonging to those regions. There is, certainly,
-a reigning and striking similarity of costume amongst most of the
-North Western tribes; and I cannot say that the dress of the Mandans
-is decidedly distinct from that of the Crows or the Blackfeet, the
-Assinneboins or the Sioux; yet there are modes of stitching or
-embroidering, in every tribe, which may at once enable the traveller,
-who is familiar with their modes, to detect or distinguish the dress
-of any tribe. These differences consist generally in the fashions of
-constructing the head-dress, or of garnishing their dresses with the
-porcupine quills, which they use in great profusion.
-
-Amongst so many different and distinct nations, always at war with
-each other, and knowing nothing at all of each other’s languages; and
-amongst whom, fashions in dress seldom if ever change; it may seem
-somewhat strange that we should find these people so nearly following,
-or imitating each other, in the forms and modes of their dress and
-ornaments. This must however, be admitted, and I think may be accounted
-for in a manner, without raising the least argument in favour of the
-theory of their having all sprung from one stock or one family; for in
-their continual warfare, when chiefs or warriors fall, their clothes
-and weapons usually fall into the possession of the victors, who wear
-them; and the rest of the tribe would naturally more or less often
-copy from or imitate them; and so also in their repeated councils or
-treaties of peace, such articles of dress and other manufactures are
-customarily exchanged, which are equally adopted by the other tribe;
-and consequently, eventually lead to the similarity which we find
-amongst the modes of dress, &c. of the different tribes.
-
-The tunic or shirt of the Mandan men is very similar in shape to that
-of the Blackfeet—made of two skins of deer or mountain-sheep, strung
-with scalp-locks, beads, and ermine. The leggings, like those of the
-other tribes, of whom I have spoken, are made of deer skins, and shaped
-to fit the leg, embroidered with porcupine quills, and fringed with
-scalps from their enemies heads. Their moccasins are made of buckskin,
-and neatly ornamented with porcupine quills—over their shoulders (or
-in other words, over one shoulder and passing under the other), they
-very gracefully wear a robe from the young buffalo’s back, oftentimes
-cut down to about half its original size, to make it handy and easy
-for use. Many of these are also fringed on one side with scalp-locks;
-and the flesh side of the skin curiously ornamented with pictured
-representations of the creditable events and battles of their lives.
-
-Their head-dresses are of various sorts, and many of them exceedingly
-picturesque and handsome; generally made of war-eagles’ or ravens
-quills and ermine. These are the most costly part of an Indian’s dress
-in all this country, owing to the difficulty of procuring the quills
-and the fur. The war-eagle being the “_rara avis_,” and the ermine the
-rarest animal that is found in the country. The tail of a war-eagle
-in this village, provided it is a perfect one, containing some six or
-eight quills, which are denominated first-rate plumes, and suitable to
-arrange in a head-dress, will purchase a tolerable good horse (horses,
-however, are much cheaper here than they are in most other countries).
-I have had abundant opportunities of learning the great value which
-these people sometimes attach to such articles of dress and ornament,
-as I have been purchasing a great many, which I intend to exhibit in
-my Gallery of Indian Paintings, that the world may examine them for
-themselves, and thereby be enabled to judge of the fidelity of my
-works, and the ingenuity of Indian manufactures.
-
-In these purchases I have often been surprised at the prices demanded
-by them; and perhaps I could not recite a better instance of the kind,
-than one which occurred here a few days since:—One of the chiefs, whom
-I had painted at full length, in a beautiful costume, with head-dress
-of war-eagles’ quills and ermine, extending quite down to his feet;
-and whom I was soliciting for the purchase of his dress complete, was
-willing to sell to me all but the head-dress; saying, that “he could
-not part with that, as he would never be able to get quills and ermine
-of so good a quality to make another like it.” I agreed with him,
-however, for the rest of the dress, and importuned him, from day to
-day, for the head-dress, until he at length replied, that, if I must
-have it, he must have two horses for it; the bargain was instantly
-struck—the horses were procured of the Traders at twenty-five dollars
-each, and the head-dress secured for my Collection.
-
-There is occasionally, a chief or a warrior of so extraordinary renown,
-that he is allowed to wear horns on his head-dress, which give to his
-aspect a strange and majestic effect. These are made of about a third
-part of the horn of a buffalo bull; the horn having been split from end
-to end, and a third part of it taken and shaved thin and light, and
-highly polished. These are attached to the top of the head-dress on
-each side, in the same place that they rise and stand on the head of
-a buffalo; rising out of a mat of ermine skins and tails, which hang
-over the top of the head-dress, somewhat in the form that the large and
-profuse locks of hair hang and fall over the head of a buffalo bull.
-See head-dress in +plates+ 14, 64, and 91, of three different tribes.
-
-The same custom I have found observed amongst the Sioux,—the Crows—the
-Blackfeet and Assinneboins, and it is one of so striking a character
-as needs a few more words of observation. There is a peculiar meaning
-or importance (in their estimation) to this and many other curious and
-unaccountable appearances in the habits of Indians, upon which the
-world generally look as things that are absurd and ridiculous, merely
-because they are beyond the world’s comprehension, or because we do not
-stop to enquire or learn their uses or meaning.
-
-I find that the principal cause why we underrate and despise the
-savage, is generally because we do not understand him; and the reason
-why we are ignorant of him and his modes, is that we do not stop to
-investigate—the world have been too much in the habit of looking
-upon him as altogether inferior—as a beast, a brute; and unworthy
-of more than a passing notice. If they stop long enough to form
-an acquaintance, it is but to take advantage of his ignorance and
-credulities—to rob him of the wealth and resources of his country;—to
-make him drunk with whiskey, and visit him with abuses which in his
-ignorance he never thought of. By this method his first visitors
-entirely overlook and never understand the meaning of his thousand
-interesting and characteristic customs; and at the same time, by
-changing his native modes and habits of life, blot them out from the
-view of the enquiring world for ever.
-
-It is from the observance of a thousand little and apparently trivial
-modes and tricks of Indian life, that the Indian character must be
-learned; and, in fact, it is just the same with us if the subject were
-reversed: excepting that the system of civilized life would furnish
-ten apparently useless and ridiculous trifles to one which is found in
-Indian life; and at least twenty to one which are purely nonsensical
-and unmeaning.
-
-The civilized world look upon a group of Indians, in their classic
-dress, with their few and simple oddities, all of which have their
-moral or meaning, and laugh at them excessively, because they are not
-like ourselves—we ask, “why do the silly creatures wear such great
-bunches of quills on their heads?—Such loads and streaks of paint upon
-their bodies—and bear’s grease? abominable!” and a thousand other
-equally silly questions, without ever stopping to think that Nature
-taught them to do so—and that they all have some definite importance
-or meaning which an Indian could explain to us at once, if he were
-asked and felt disposed to do so—that each quill in his head stood,
-in the eyes of his whole tribe, as the symbol of an enemy who had
-fallen by his hand—that every streak of red paint covered a wound
-which he had got in honourable combat—and that the bear’s grease with
-which he carefully anoints his body every morning, from head to foot,
-cleanses and purifies the body, and protects his skin from the bite of
-mosquitoes, and at the same time preserves him from colds and coughs
-which are usually taken through the pores of the skin.
-
-At the same time, an Indian looks among the civilized world, no doubt,
-with equal, if not much greater, astonishment, at our apparently, as
-well as _really_, ridiculous customs and fashions; but he laughs not,
-nor ridicules, nor questions,—for his natural good sense and good
-manners forbid him,—until he is reclining about the fire-side of his
-wigwam companions, when he vents forth his just criticisms upon the
-learned world, who are a rich and just theme for Indian criticism and
-Indian gossip.
-
-An Indian will not ask a white man the reason why he does not oil his
-skin with bears’ grease, or why he does not paint his body—or why he
-wears a hat on his head, or why he has buttons on the back part of
-his coat, where they never can be used—or why he wears whiskers, and
-a shirt collar up to his eyes—or why he sleeps with his head towards
-the fire instead of his feet—why he walks with his toes out instead of
-turning them in—or why it is that hundreds of white folks will flock
-and crowd round a table to see an Indian eat—but he will go home to his
-wigwam fire-side, and “make the welkin ring” with jokes and fun upon
-the ignorance and folly of the knowing world.
-
-A wild Indian thrown into the civilized atmosphere will see a man
-occasionally moving in society, wearing a cocked hat; and another with
-a laced coat and gold or silver epaulettes upon his shoulders, without
-knowing or enquiring the meaning of them, or the objects for which they
-are worn. Just so a white man travels amongst a wild and untaught tribe
-of Indians, and sees occasionally one of them parading about their
-village, with a head-dress of eagles’ quills and ermine, and elevated
-above it a pair of beautifully polished buffalo horns; and just as
-ignorant is he also, of their meaning or importance; and more so, for
-the first will admit the presumption that epaulettes and cocked hats
-amongst the civilized world, are made for some important purpose,—but
-the latter will presume that horns on an Indian’s head are nothing more
-nor less (nor can they be in their estimation), than Indian nonsense
-and stupidity.
-
-This brings us to the “corned crest” again, and if the poor Indian
-scans epaulettes and cocked hats, without enquiring their meaning,
-and explaining them to his tribe, it is no reason why I should have
-associated with the noble dignitaries of these western regions, with
-horns and ermine on their heads, and then to have introduced the
-subject without giving some further clue to their importance and
-meaning. For me, this negligence would be doubly unpardonable, as I
-travel, not to _trade_ but to _herald_ the Indian and his dying customs
-to posterity.
-
-This custom then, which I have before observed belongs to all the
-north-western tribes, is one no doubt of very ancient origin, having
-a purely classic meaning. No one wears the head-dress surmounted with
-horns except the dignitaries who are very high in authority, and whose
-exceeding valour, worth, and power is admitted by all the nation.
-
-He may wear them, however, who is not a _chief_; but a brave, or
-warrior of such remarkable character, that he is esteemed universally
-in the tribe, as a man whose “voice is as loud in council” as that of a
-chief of the first grade, and consequently his _power_ as great.
-
-This head-dress with horns is used only on certain occasions, and they
-are very seldom. When foreign chiefs, Indian agents, or other important
-personages visit a tribe; or at war parades, at the celebration of
-a victory, at public festivals, &c. they are worn; but on no other
-occasions—unless, sometimes, when a chief sees fit to lead a war-party
-to battle, he decorates his head with this symbol of power, to
-stimulate his men; and throws himself into the foremost of the battle,
-inviting his enemy to concentrate their shafts upon him.
-
-The horns on these head-dresses are but loosely attached at the bottom,
-so that they easily fall back or forward, according as the head is
-inclined forward or backward; and by an ingenious motion of the head,
-which is so slight as to be almost imperceptible—they are made to
-balance to and fro, and sometimes, one backward and the other forward
-like a horse’s ears, giving a vast deal of expression and force of
-character, to the appearance of the chief who is wearing them. This,
-reader, is a remarkable instance (like hundreds of others), for its
-striking similarity to _Jewish customs_, to the kerns (or keren, in
-Hebrew), the horns worn by the Abysinian chiefs and Hebrews, as a
-_symbol of power_ and command; worn at great parades and celebrations
-of victories.
-
-“The false prophet Zedekiah, made him horns of iron” (1 Kings xxii.
-11). “Lift not your horns on high; speak not with a stiff neck” (Ps.
-lxxv. 5).
-
-This last citation seems so exactly to convey to my mind the mode of
-raising and changing the position of the horns by a motion of the head,
-as I have above described, that I am irresistibly led to believe that
-this custom is now practiced amongst these tribes very nearly as it
-was amongst the Jews; and that it has been, like many other customs of
-which I shall speak more in future epistles, handed down and preserved
-with very little innovation or change from that ancient people.
-
-The reader will see this custom exemplified in the portrait of
-Mah-to-toh-pa (+plate+ 64). This man, although the second chief, was
-the only man in the nation who was allowed to wear the horns; and
-all, I found, looked upon him as the leader, who had the power to
-lead all the warriors in time of war; and that, in consequence of the
-extraordinary battles which he had fought.
-
-
-
-
-                             LETTER—No. 15.
-
-                    MANDAN VILLAGE, UPPER MISSOURI.
-
-
-A week or more has elapsed since the date of my last Letter, and
-nothing as yet of the great and curious event—or the _Mandan religious
-ceremony_. There is evidently much preparation making for it,
-however; and from what I can learn, no one in the nation, save the
-_medicine-men_, have any knowledge of the exact day on which it is to
-commence. I am informed by the chiefs, that it takes place as soon as
-the willow-tree is in full leaf; for, say they, “the twig which the
-bird brought in was a willow bough, and had full-grown leaves on it.”
-So it seems that this celebration has some relation to the Flood.
-
-This great occasion is close at hand, and will, undoubtedly, commence
-in a few days; in the meantime I will give a few notes and memorandums,
-which I have made since my last.
-
-I have been continually at work with my brush, with fine and
-picturesque subjects before me; and from the strange, whimsical,
-and superstitious notions which they have of an art so novel and
-unaccountable to them, I have been initiated into many of their
-mysteries—have witnessed many very curious incidents, and preserved
-several anecdotes, some of which I must relate.
-
-Perhaps nothing ever more completely astonished these people than the
-operations of my _brush_. The art of portrait-painting was a subject
-entirely new to them, and of course, unthought of; and my appearance
-here has commenced a new era in the arcana of _medicine_ or mystery.
-Soon after arriving here, I commenced and finished the portraits of
-the two principal chiefs. This was done without having awakened the
-curiosity of the villagers, as they had heard nothing of what was going
-on, and even the chiefs themselves seemed to be ignorant of my designs,
-until the pictures were completed. No one else was admitted into my
-lodge during the operation; and when finished, it was exceedingly
-amusing to see them mutually recognizing each other’s likeness, and
-assuring each other of the striking resemblance which they bore to the
-originals. Both of these pressed their hand over their mouths awhile
-in dead silence (a custom amongst most tribes, when anything surprises
-them very much); looking attentively upon the portraits and myself, and
-upon the palette and colours with which these unaccountable effects had
-been produced.
-
-They then walked up to me in the most gentle manner, taking me in
-turn by the hand, with a firm grip; with head and eyes inclined
-downwards, and in a tone a little above a whisper—pronounced the words
-“te-ho-pe-nee Wash-ee!” and walked off.
-
-Readers, at that moment I was christened with a new and a great
-name—one by which I am now familiarly hailed, and talked of in this
-village; and no doubt will be, as long as traditions last in this
-strange community.
-
-That moment conferred an honour on me, which you as yet do not
-understand. I took the degree (not of Doctor of Laws, nor Bachelor of
-Arts) of Master of Arts—of mysteries—of magic, and of hocus pocus.
-I was recognized in that short sentence as a “great _medicine white
-man_;” and since that time, have been regularly installed _medicine_ or
-mystery, which is the most honourable degree that could be conferred
-upon me here; and I now hold a place amongst the most eminent and
-envied personages, the doctors and conjurati of this titled community.
-
-Te-ho-pe-nee Wash-ee (or medicine white man) is the name I now go by,
-and it will prove to me, no doubt, of more value than gold, for I have
-been called upon and feasted by the doctors, who are all mystery-men;
-and it has been an easy and successful passport already to many strange
-and mysterious places; and has put me in possession of a vast deal of
-curious and interesting information, which I am sure I never should
-have otherwise learned. I am daily growing in the estimation of the
-medicine-men and the chiefs; and by assuming all the gravity and
-circumspection due from so high a dignitary (and even considerably
-more); and endeavouring to perform now and then some art or trick that
-is unfathomable, I am in hopes of supporting my standing, until the
-great annual ceremony commences; on which occasion, I may possibly be
-allowed a seat in the _medicine-lodge_ by the doctors, who are the sole
-conductors of this great source and fountain of all priestcraft and
-conjuration in this country.
-
-After I had finished the portraits of the two chiefs, and they had
-returned to their wigwams, and deliberately seated themselves by their
-respective fire-sides, and silently smoked a pipe or two (according
-to an universal custom), they gradually began to tell what had taken
-place; and at length crowds of gaping listeners, with mouths wide open,
-thronged their lodges; and a throng of women and girls were about my
-house, and through every crack and crevice I could see their glistening
-eyes, which were piercing my hut in a hundred places, from a natural
-and restless propensity, a curiosity to see what was going on within.
-An hour or more passed in this way, and the soft and silken throng
-continually increased, until some hundreds of them were clung, and
-piled about my wigwam like a swarm of bees hanging on the front and
-sides of their hive.
-
-During this time, not a man made his appearance about the
-premises—after awhile, however, they could be seen, folded in their
-robes, gradually _siding_ up towards the lodge, with a silly look upon
-their faces, which confessed at once that curiosity was leading them
-reluctantly, where their pride checked and forbade them to go. The
-rush soon after became general, and the chiefs and medicine-men took
-possession of my room, placing _soldiers_ (braves with spears in their
-hands) at the door, admitting no one, but such as were allowed by the
-chiefs, to come in.
-
-Monsr. Kipp (the agent of the Fur Company, who has lived here eight
-years, and to whom, for his politeness and hospitality, I am much
-indebted), at this time took a seat with the chiefs, and, speaking
-their language fluently, he explained to them my views and the objects
-for which I was painting these portraits; and also expounded to them
-the manner in which they were made,—at which they seemed all to be very
-much pleased. The necessity at this time of exposing the portraits to
-the view of the crowds who were assembled around the house, became
-imperative, and they were held up together over the door, so that
-the whole village had a chance to see and recognize their chiefs.
-The effect upon so mixed a multitude, who as yet had heard no way of
-accounting for them, was novel and really laughable. The likenesses
-were instantly recognized, and many of the gaping multitude commenced
-yelping; some were stamping off in the jarring dance—others were
-singing, and others again were crying—hundreds covered their mouths
-with their hands and were mute; others, indignant, drove their spears
-frightfully into the ground, and some threw a reddened arrow at the
-sun, and went home to their wigwams.
-
-The pictures seen,—the next curiosity was to see the man who made them,
-and I was called forth. Readers! if you have any imagination, save me
-the trouble of painting this scene.    *    *    *    *    *    *    *
-*    *    I stepped forth, and was instantly hemmed in in the throng.
-Women were gaping and gazing—and warriors and braves were offering me
-their hands,—whilst little boys and girls, by dozens, were struggling
-through the crowd to touch me with the ends of their fingers; and
-whilst I was engaged, from the waist upwards, in fending off the throng
-and shaking hands, my legs were assailed (not unlike the nibbling of
-little fish, when I have been standing in deep water) by children, who
-were creeping between the legs of the bystanders for the curiosity or
-honour of touching me with the end of their finger. The eager curiosity
-and expression of astonishment with which they gazed upon me, plainly
-shewed that they looked upon me as some strange and unaccountable
-being. They pronounced me the greatest _medicine-man_ in the world;
-for they said I had made _living beings_,—they said they could see
-their chiefs alive, in two places—those that I had made were a _little_
-alive—they could see their eyes move—could see them smile and laugh,
-and that if they could laugh they could certainly speak, if they should
-try, and they must therefore have _some life_ in them.
-
-The squaws generally agreed, that they had discovered life enough in
-them to render my _medicine_ too great for the Mandans; saying that
-such an operation could not be performed without taking away from the
-original something of his existence, which I put in the picture, and
-they could see it move, could see it stir.
-
-This curtailing of the natural existence, for the purpose of
-instilling life into the secondary one, they decided to be an useless
-and destructive operation, and one which was calculated to do great
-mischief in their happy community; and they commenced a mournful and
-doleful chaunt against me, crying and weeping bitterly through the
-village, proclaiming me a most “dangerous man; one who could make
-living persons by looking at them; and at the same time, could, as
-a matter of course, destroy life in the same way, if I chose. That
-my medicine was dangerous to their lives, and that I must leave the
-village immediately. That bad luck would happen to those whom I
-painted—that I was to take a part of the existence of those whom I
-painted, and carry it home with me amongst the white people, and that
-when they died they would never sleep quiet in their graves.”
-
-In this way the women and some old quack medicine-men together,
-had succeeded in raising an opposition against me; and the reasons
-they assigned were so plausible and so exactly suited for their
-superstitious feelings, that they completely succeeded in exciting
-fears and a general panic in the minds of a number of chiefs who had
-agreed to sit for their portraits, and my operations were, of course,
-for several days completely at a stand. A grave council was held on
-the subject from day to day, and there seemed great difficulty in
-deciding what was to be done with me and the dangerous art which I was
-practicing; and which had far exceeded their original expectations.
-I finally got admittance to their sacred conclave, and assured them
-that I was but a man like themselves,—that my art had no _medicine_ or
-mystery about it, but could be learned by any of them if they would
-practice it as long as I had—that my intentions towards them were of
-the most friendly kind, and that in the country where I lived, brave
-men never allowed their squaws to frighten them with their foolish
-whims and stories. They all immediately arose, shook me by the hand,
-and dressed themselves for their pictures. After this, there was no
-further difficulty about sitting; all were ready to be painted,—the
-squaws were silent, and my painting-room a continual resort for the
-chiefs, and braves, and medicine-men; where they waited with impatience
-for the completion of each one’s picture,—that they could decide as to
-the likeness as it came from under the brush; that they could laugh,
-and yell, and sing a new song, and smoke a fresh pipe to the health and
-success of him who had just been safely delivered from the hands and
-the mystic operation of the “_white medicine_.”
-
-In each of these operations, as they successfully took place, I
-observed that a pipe or two were well filled, and as soon as I
-commenced painting, the chiefs and braves, who sat around the sides
-of the lodge, commenced smoking for the success of the picture (and
-probably as much or more so for the safe deliverance of the sitter from
-harm while under the operation); and so they continued to pass the
-pipe around until the portrait was completed.
-
-In this way I progressed with my portraits, stopping occasionally
-very suddenly as if something was wrong, and taking a tremendous puff
-or two at the pipe, and streaming the smoke through my nostrils,
-exhibiting in my looks and actions an evident relief; enabling me to
-proceed with more facility and success,—by flattering and complimenting
-each one on his good looks after I had got it done, and taking them
-according to rank, or standing, making it a matter of honour with them,
-which pleased them exceedingly, and gave me and my art the stamp of
-respectability at once.
-
-I was then taken by the arm by the chiefs, and led to their lodges,
-where feasts were prepared for me in elegant style, _i. e._ in the
-best manner which this country affords; and being led by the arm, and
-welcomed to them by _gentlemen_ of high and exalted feelings, rendered
-them in my estimation truly elegant.
-
-I was waited upon in due form and ceremony by the _medicine-men_, who
-received me upon the old adage, “Similis simili gaudet.” I was invited
-to a feast, and they presented me a _she-shee-quoi_, or a doctor’s
-rattle, and also a magical wand, or a doctor’s staff, strung with
-claws of the grizzly bear, with hoofs of the antelope—with ermine—with
-wild sage and bat’s wings—and perfumed withal with the _choice_ and
-_savoury_ odour of the pole-cat—a dog was sacrificed and hung by
-the legs over my wigwam, and I was therefore and thereby initiated
-into (and countenanced in the practice of) the arcana of medicine
-or mystery, and considered a Fellow of the Extraordinary Society of
-_Conjurati_.
-
-Since this signal success and good fortune in my operations, things
-have gone on very pleasantly, and I have had a great deal of amusement.
-Some altercation has taken place, however, amongst the chiefs and
-braves, with regard to standing or rank, of which they are exceedingly
-jealous; and they must sit (if at all) in regular order, according to
-that rank; the trouble is all settled at last, however, and I have had
-no want of subjects, though a great many have become again alarmed,
-and are unwilling to sit, for fear, as some say, that they will die
-prematurely if painted; and as others say, that if they are painted,
-the picture will live after they are dead, and they cannot sleep quiet
-in their graves.
-
-I have had several most remarkable occurrences in my painting-room, of
-this kind, which have made me some everlasting enemies here; though
-the minds and feelings of the chiefs and medicine-men have not been
-affected by them. There has been three or four instances where proud
-and aspiring young men have been in my lodge, and after gazing at the
-portraits of the head chief across the room (which sits looking them
-in the eyes), have raised their hands before their faces and walked
-around to the side of the lodge, on the right or left, from whence to
-take a long and fair side-look at the chief, instead of staring him
-full in the face (which is a most unpardonable offence in all Indian
-tribes); and after having got in that position, and cast their eyes
-again upon the portrait which was yet looking them full in the face,
-have thrown their robes over their heads and bolted out of the wigwam,
-filled equally with astonishment and indignation; averring, as they
-always will in a sullen mood, that they “saw the eyes move,”—that as
-they walked around the room “the eyes of the portrait followed them.”
-With these unfortunate gentlemen, repeated efforts have been made by
-the Traders, and also by the chiefs and doctors, who understand the
-illusion, to convince them of their error, by explaining the mystery;
-but they will not hear to any explanation whatever; saying, that “what
-they see with their eyes is always evidence enough for them;” that they
-always “believe their own eyes sooner than a hundred tongues,” and all
-efforts to get them a second time to my room, or into my company in any
-place, have proved entirely unsuccessful.
-
-I had trouble brewing also the other day from another source; one of
-the “_medicines_” commenced howling and haranguing around my domicil,
-amongst the throng that was outside, proclaiming that all who were
-inside and being painted were fools and would soon die; and very
-materially affecting thereby my popularity. I however sent for him
-and called him in the next morning, when I was alone, having only the
-interpreter with me; telling him that I had had my eye upon him for
-several days, and had been so well pleased with his looks, that I had
-taken great pains to find out his history, which had been explained by
-all as one of a most extraordinary kind, and his character and standing
-in his tribe as worthy of my particular notice; and that I had several
-days since resolved that as soon as I had practiced my hand long enough
-upon the others, to get the stiffness out of it (after paddling my
-canoe so far as I had) and make it to work easily and successfully,
-I would begin on his portrait, which I was then prepared to commence
-on that day, and that I felt as if I could do him justice. He shook
-me by the hand, giving me the “Doctor’s grip,” and beckoned me to sit
-down, which I did, and we smoked a pipe together. After this was over,
-he told me, that “he had no inimical feelings towards me, although he
-had been telling the chiefs that they were all fools, and all would
-die who had their portraits painted—that although he had set the old
-women and children all crying, and even made some of the young warriors
-tremble, yet he had no unfriendly feelings towards me, nor any fear
-or dread of my art.” “I know you are a good man (said he), I know you
-will do no harm to any one, your medicine is great and you are a great
-‘medicine-man.’ I would like to see myself very well—and so would all
-of the chiefs; but they have all been many days in this medicine-house,
-and they all know me well, and they have not asked me to come in and be
-_made alive_ with paints—my friend, I am glad that my people have told
-you who I am—my heart is glad—I will go to my wigwam and eat, and in
-a little while I will come, and you may go to work;”—another pipe was
-lit and smoked, and he got up and went off. I prepared my canvass and
-palette, and whistled away the time until twelve o’clock, before he
-made his appearance; having used the whole of the fore-part of the day
-at his toilette, arranging his dress and ornamenting his body for his
-picture.
-
-[Illustration: 55]
-
-At that hour then, bedaubed and streaked with paints of various
-colours, with bear’s grease and charcoal, with medicine-pipes in his
-hands and foxes tails attached to his heels, entered Mah-to-he-ha (the
-old bear, +plate+ 55), with a train of his own profession, who seated
-themselves around him; and also a number of boys, whom it was requested
-should remain with him, and whom I supposed it possible might have been
-pupils, whom he was instructing in the mysteries of _materia medica_
-and _hoca poca_. He took his position in the middle of the room, waving
-his eagle calumets in each hand, and singing his medicine-song which
-he sings over his dying patient, looking me full in the face until I
-completed his picture, which I painted at full length. His vanity has
-been completely gratified in the operation; he lies for hours together,
-day after day, in my room, in front of his picture, gazing intensely
-upon it; lights my pipe for me while I am painting—shakes hands with
-me a dozen times on each day, and talks of me, and enlarges upon my
-_medicine_ virtues and my talents, wherever he goes; so that this new
-difficulty is now removed, and instead of preaching against me, he
-is one of my strongest and most enthusiastic friends and aids in the
-country.
-
-There is yet to be described another sort of personage, that is often
-seen stalking about in all Indian communities, a kind of nondescript,
-with whom I have been somewhat annoyed, and still more amused, since I
-came to this village, of whom (or of _which_) I shall give some account
-in my next epistle.
-
-
-
-
-                             LETTER—No. 16.
-
-                    MANDAN VILLAGE, UPPER MISSOURI.
-
-
-Besides chiefs, and braves and doctors, of whom I have heretofore
-spoken, there is yet another character of whom I must say a few words
-before I proceed to other topics. The person I allude to, is the one
-mentioned at the close of my last Letter, and familiarly known and
-countenanced in every tribe as an Indian _beau_ or _dandy_. Such
-personages may be seen on every pleasant day, strutting and parading
-around the village in the most beautiful and unsoiled dresses, without
-the honourable trophies however of scalp locks and claws of the grizzly
-bear, attached to their costume, for with such things they deal not.
-They are not peculiarly anxious to hazard their lives in equal and
-honourable combat with the one, or disposed to cross the path of the
-other; but generally remain about the village, to take care of the
-women, and attire themselves in the skins of such animals as they can
-easily kill, without seeking the rugged cliffs for the war-eagle,
-or visiting the haunts of the grizzly bear. They plume themselves
-with swan’s-down and quills of ducks, with braids and plaits of
-sweet-scented grass and other harmless and unmeaning ornaments, which
-have no other merit than they themselves have, that of looking pretty
-and ornamental.
-
-These clean and elegant gentlemen, who are very few in each tribe, are
-held in very little estimation by the chiefs and braves; inasmuch as it
-is known by all, that they have a most horrible aversion to arms, and
-are denominated “faint hearts” or “old women” by the whole tribe, and
-are therefore but little respected. They seem, however, to be tolerably
-well contented with the appellation, together with the celebrity
-they have acquired amongst the women and children for the beauty and
-elegance of their personal appearance; and most of them seem to take
-and enjoy their share of the world’s pleasures, although they are
-looked upon as drones in society.
-
-These gay and tinselled bucks may be seen in a pleasant day in all
-their plumes, astride of their pied or dappled ponies, with a fan in
-the right hand, made of a turkey’s tail—with whip and a fly-brush
-attached to the wrist of the same hand, and underneath them a white and
-beautiful and soft pleasure-saddle, ornamented with porcupine quills
-and ermine, parading through and lounging about the village for an hour
-or so, when they will cautiously bend their course to the suburbs of
-the town, where they will sit or recline upon their horses for an hour
-or two, overlooking the beautiful games where the braves and the young
-aspirants are contending in manly and athletic amusements;—when they
-are fatigued with this severe effort, they wend their way back again,
-lift off their fine white saddle of doe’s-skin, which is wadded with
-buffalo’s hair, turn out their pony—take a little refreshment, smoke a
-pipe, fan themselves to sleep, and doze away the rest of the day.
-
-Whilst I have been painting, from day to day, there have been two or
-three of these fops continually strutting and taking their attitudes
-in front of my door; decked out in all their finery, without receiving
-other benefit or other information, than such as they could discover
-through the cracks and seams of my cabin. The chiefs, I observed,
-passed them by without notice, and of course, without inviting them
-in; and they seemed to figure about my door from day to day in their
-best dresses and best attitudes, as if in hopes that I would select
-them as models, for my canvass. It was natural that I should do so,
-for their costume and personal appearance was entirely more beautiful
-than anything else to be seen in the village. My plans were laid,
-and one day when I had got through with all of the head men, who
-were willing to sit to be painted, and there were two or three of
-the chiefs lounging in my room, I stepped to the door and tapped one
-of these fellows on the shoulder, who took the hint, and stepped in,
-well-pleased and delighted with the signal and honourable notice I had
-at length taken of him and his beautiful dress. Readers, you cannot
-imagine what was the expression of gratitude which beamed forth in
-this poor fellow’s face, and how high his heart beat with joy and
-pride at the idea of my selecting him to be immortal, alongside of the
-chiefs and worthies whose portraits he saw arranged around the room;
-and by which honour he, undoubtedly, considered himself well paid for
-two or three weeks of regular painting, and greasing, and dressing,
-and standing alternately on one leg and the other at the door of my
-premises.
-
-Well, I placed him before me, and a canvass on my easel, and “chalked
-him out” at full length. He was truly a beautiful subject for the
-brush, and I was filled with enthusiasm—his dress from head to foot was
-of the skins of the mountain-goat, and dressed so neatly, that they
-were almost as soft and as white as Canton crape—around the bottom and
-the sides it was trimmed with ermine, and porcupine quills of beautiful
-dyes garnished it in a hundred parts;—his hair which was long, and
-spread over his back and shoulders, extending nearly to the ground, was
-all combed back and parted on his forehead like that of a woman. He
-was a tall and fine figure, with ease and grace in his movements, that
-were well worthy of a man of better caste. In his left hand he held a
-beautiful pipe—and in his right hand he plied his fan, and on his wrist
-was still attached his whip of elk’s horn, and his fly-brush, made of
-the buffalo’s tail. There was nought about him of the terrible, and
-nought to shock the finest, chastest intellect.
-
-I had thus far progressed, with high-wrought feelings of pleasure,
-when the two or three chiefs, who had been seated around the lodge,
-and whose portraits I had before painted, arose suddenly, and wrapping
-themselves tightly in their robes, crossed my room with a quick and
-heavy step, and took an informal leave of my cabin. I was apprehensive
-of their displeasure, though I continued my work; and in a few moments
-the interpreter came furiously into my room, addressing me thus:—“My
-God, Sir! this never will do; you have given great offence to the
-chiefs—they have made complaint of your conduct to me—they tell me
-this is a worthless fellow—a man of no account in the nation, and if
-you paint his picture, you must instantly destroy theirs; you have no
-alternative, my dear Sir—and the quicker this chap is out of your lodge
-the better.”
-
-The same matter was explained to my sitter by the interpreter, when
-he picked up his robe, wrapped himself in it, plied his fan nimbly
-about his face, and walked out of the lodge in silence, but with quite
-a consequential smile, taking his old position in front of the door
-for awhile, after which he drew himself quietly off without further
-exhibition. So highly do Mandan braves and worthies value the honour
-of being painted; and so little do they value a man, however lavishly
-Nature may have bestowed her master touches upon him, who has not the
-pride and noble bearing of a warrior.
-
-I spoke in a former Letter of Mah-to-toh-pa (the four bears), the
-second chief of the nation, and the most popular man of the Mandans—a
-high-minded and gallant warrior, as well as a polite and polished
-gentleman. Since I painted his portrait, as I before described, I
-have received at his hands many marked and signal attentions; some
-of which I must name to you, as the very relation of them will put
-you in possession of many little forms and modes of Indian life, that
-otherwise might not have been noted.
-
-About a week since, this noble fellow stepped into my painting-room
-about twelve o’clock in the day, in full and splendid dress, and
-passing his arm through mine, pointed the way, and led me in the most
-gentlemanly manner, through the village and into his own lodge, where
-a feast was prepared in a careful manner and waiting our arrival. The
-lodge in which he dwelt was a room of immense size, some forty or fifty
-feet in diameter, in a circular form, and about twenty feet high—with a
-sunken curb of stone in the centre, of five or six feet in diameter and
-one foot deep, which contained the fire over which the pot was boiling.
-I was led near the edge of this curb, and seated on a very handsome
-robe, most ingeniously garnished and painted with hieroglyphics; and he
-seated himself gracefully on another one at a little distance from me;
-with the feast prepared in several dishes, resting on a beautiful rush
-mat, which was placed between us (+plate+ 62).
-
-The simple feast which was spread before us consisted of three dishes
-only, two of which were served in wooden bowls, and the third in
-an earthen vessel of their own manufacture, somewhat in shape of a
-bread-tray in our own country. This last contained a quantity of
-_pem-i-can_ and _marrow-fat_; and one of the former held a fine
-brace of buffalo ribs, delightfully roasted; and the other was filled
-with a kind of paste or pudding, made of the flour of the “_pomme
-blanche_,” as the French call it, a delicious turnip of the prairie,
-finely flavoured with the buffalo berries, which are collected in great
-quantities in this country, and used with divers dishes in cooking,
-as we in civilized countries use dried currants, which they very much
-resemble.
-
-[Illustration: 62]
-
-A handsome pipe and a tobacco-pouch made of the otter skin, filled with
-k’nick-k’neck (Indian tobacco), laid by the side of the feast; and when
-we were seated, mine host took up his pipe, and deliberately filled
-it; and instead of lighting it by the fire, which he could easily have
-done, he drew from his pouch his flint and steel, and raised a spark
-with which he kindled it. He drew a few strong whiffs through it, and
-presented the stem of it to my mouth, through which I drew a whiff or
-two while he held the stem in his hands. This done, he laid down the
-pipe, and drawing his knife from his belt, cut off a very small piece
-of the meat from the ribs, and pronouncing the words “Ho-pe-ne-chee
-wa-pa-shee” (meaning a _medicine_ sacrifice), threw it into the fire.
-
-He then (by signals) requested me to eat, and I commenced, after
-drawing out from my belt my knife (which it is supposed that every man
-in this country carries about him, for at an Indian feast a knife is
-never offered to a guest). Reader, be not astonished that I sat and ate
-my dinner _alone_, for such is the custom of this strange land. In all
-tribes in these western regions it is an invariable rule that a chief
-never eats with his guests invited to a feast; but while they eat, he
-sits by, at their service, and ready to wait upon them; deliberately
-charging and lighting the pipe which is to be passed around after the
-feast is over. Such was the case in the present instance, and while
-I was eating, Mah-to-toh-pa sat cross-legged before me, cleaning his
-pipe and preparing it for a cheerful smoke when I had finished my meal.
-For this ceremony I observed he was making unusual preparation, and I
-observed as I ate, that after he had taken enough of the k’nick-k’neck
-or bark of the red willow, from his pouch, he rolled out of it also a
-piece of the “_castor_,” which it is customary amongst these folks to
-carry in their tobacco-sack to give it a flavour; and, shaving off a
-small quantity of it, mixed it with the bark, with which he charged his
-pipe. This done, he drew also from his sack a small parcel containing a
-fine powder, which was made of dried buffalo dung, a little of which he
-spread over the top, (according also to custom,) which was like tinder,
-having no other effect than that of lighting the pipe with ease and
-satisfaction. My appetite satiated, I straightened up, and with a whiff
-the pipe was lit, and we enjoyed together for a quarter of an hour the
-most delightful exchange of good feelings, amid clouds of smoke and
-pantomimic signs and gesticulations.
-
-The dish of “pemican and marrow-fat,” of which I spoke, was thus:—The
-first, an article of food used throughout this country, as familiarly
-as we use bread in the civilized world. It is made of buffalo meat
-dried very hard, and afterwards pounded in a large wooden mortar until
-it is made nearly as fine as sawdust, then packed in this dry state in
-bladders or sacks of skin, and is easily carried to any part of the
-world in good order. “Marrow-fat” is collected by the Indians from
-the buffalo bones which they break to pieces, yielding a prodigious
-quantity of marrow, which is boiled out and put into buffalo bladders
-which have been distended; and after it cools, becomes quite hard like
-tallow, and has the appearance, and very nearly the flavour, of the
-richest yellow butter. At a feast, chunks of this marrow-fat are cut
-off and placed in a tray or bowl, with the pemican, and eaten together;
-which we civilized folks in these regions consider a very good
-substitute for (and indeed we generally so denominate it) “bread and
-butter.” In this dish laid a spoon made of the buffalo’s horn, which
-was black as jet, and beautifully polished; in one of the others there
-was another of still more ingenious and beautiful workmanship, made of
-the horn of the mountain-sheep, or “Gros corn,” as the French trappers
-call them; it was large enough to hold of itself two or three pints,
-and was almost entirely transparent.
-
-I spoke also of the earthen dishes or bowls in which these viands were
-served out; they are a familiar part of the culinary furniture of
-every Mandan lodge, and are manufactured by the women of this tribe
-in great quantities, and modelled into a thousand forms and tastes.
-They are made by the hands of the women, from a tough black clay, and
-baked in kilns which are made for the purpose, and are nearly equal in
-hardness to our own manufacture of pottery; though they have not yet
-got the art of glazing, which would be to them a most valuable secret.
-They make them so strong and serviceable, however, that they hang them
-over the fire as we do our iron pots, and boil their meat in them with
-perfect success. I have seen some few specimens of such manufacture,
-which have been dug up in Indian mounds and tombs in the southern and
-middle states, placed in our Eastern Museums and looked upon as a great
-wonder, when here this novelty is at once done away with, and the whole
-mystery; where women can be seen handling and using them by hundreds,
-and they can be seen every day in the summer also, moulding them into
-many fanciful forms, and passing them through the kiln where they are
-hardened.
-
-Whilst sitting at this feast the wigwam was as silent as death,
-although we were not alone in it. This chief, like most others, had a
-plurality of wives, and all of them (some six or seven) were seated
-around the sides of the lodge, upon robes or mats placed upon the
-ground, and not allowed to speak, though they were in readiness to obey
-his orders or commands, which were uniformly given by signs manual, and
-executed in the neatest and most silent manner.
-
-When I arose to return, the pipe through which we had smoked was
-presented to me; and the robe on which I had sat, he gracefully raised
-by the corners and tendered it to me, explaining by signs that the
-paintings which were on it were the representations of the battles of
-his life, where he had fought and killed with his own hand fourteen
-of his enemies; that he had been two weeks engaged in painting it for
-me, and that he had invited me here on this occasion to present it to
-me. The robe, readers, which I shall describe in a future epistle, I
-took upon my shoulder, and he took me by the arm and led me back to my
-painting-room.
-
-
-
-
-                             LETTER—No. 17.
-
-                   MANDAN VILLAGE, _UPPER MISSOURI_.
-
-
-I mentioned in the foregoing epistle, that the chiefs of the Mandans
-frequently have a plurality of wives. Such is the custom amongst all of
-these North Western tribes, and a few general remarks on this subject
-will apply to them all, and save the trouble of repeating them.
-
-Polygamy is countenanced amongst all of the North American Indians, so
-far as I have visited them; and it is no uncommon thing to find a chief
-with six, eight, or ten, and some with twelve or fourteen wives in his
-lodge. Such is an ancient custom, and in their estimation is right as
-well as necessary. Women in a savage state, I believe, are always held
-in a rank inferior to that of the men, in relation to whom in many
-respects they stand rather in the light of menials and slaves than
-otherwise; and as they are the “hewers of wood and drawers of water,”
-it becomes a matter of necessity for a chief (who must be liberal,
-keep open doors, and entertain, for the support of his popularity) to
-have in his wigwam a sufficient number of such handmaids or menials to
-perform the numerous duties and drudgeries of so large and expensive an
-establishment.
-
-There are two other reasons for this custom which operate with
-equal, if not with greater force than the one above assigned. In the
-first place, these people, though far behind the civilized world in
-acquisitiveness, have still more or less passion for the accumulation
-of wealth, or, in other words, for the luxuries of life; and a
-chief, excited by a desire of this kind, together with a wish to be
-able to furnish his lodge with something more than ordinary for the
-entertainment of his own people, as well as strangers who fall upon his
-hospitality, sees fit to marry a number of wives, who are kept at hard
-labour during most of the year; and the avails of that labour enable
-him to procure those luxuries, and give to his lodge the appearance
-of respectability which is not ordinarily seen. Amongst those tribes
-who trade with the Fur Companies, this system is carried out to a
-great extent, and the women are kept for the greater part of the
-year, dressing buffalo robes and other skins for the market; and the
-brave or chief, who has the greatest number of wives, is considered
-the most affluent and envied man in the tribe; for his table is most
-bountifully supplied, and his lodge the most abundantly furnished with
-the luxuries of civilized manufacture, who has at the year’s end the
-greatest number of robes to vend to the Fur Company.
-
-The manual labour amongst savages is all done by the women; and as
-there are no daily labourers or persons who will “_hire out_” to labour
-for another, it becomes necessary for him who requires more than the
-labour or services of one, to add to the number by legalizing and
-compromising by the ceremony of marriage, his stock of labourers; who
-can thus, and thus alone, be easily enslaved, and the results of their
-labour turned to good account.
-
-There is yet the other inducement, which probably is more effective
-than either; the natural inclination which belongs to man, who
-stands high in the estimation of his people and wields the sceptre
-of power—surrounded by temptations which he considers it would be
-unnatural to resist, where no law or regulation of society stands
-in the way of his enjoyment. Such a custom amongst savage nations
-can easily be excused too, and we are bound to excuse it, when
-we behold man in a state of nature, as he was made, following a
-natural inclination, which is sanctioned by ancient custom and by
-their religion, without a law or regulation of their society to
-discountenance it; and when, at the same time, such an accumulation of
-a man’s household, instead of quadrupling his expenses (as would be
-the case in the civilized world), actually becomes his wealth, as the
-results of their labour abundantly secure to him all the necessaries
-and luxuries of life.
-
-There are other and very rational grounds on which the propriety
-of such a custom may be urged, one of which is as follows:—as all
-nations of Indians in their natural condition are unceasingly at war
-with the tribes that are about them, for the adjustment of ancient
-and never-ending feuds, as well as from a love of glory, to which in
-Indian life the battle-field is almost the only road, their warriors
-are killed off to that extent, that in many instances two and sometimes
-three women to a man are found in a tribe. In such instances I have
-found that the custom of polygamy has kindly helped the community to an
-evident relief from a cruel and prodigious calamity.
-
-The instances of which I have above spoken, are generally confined to
-the chiefs and medicine-men; though there is no regulation prohibiting
-a poor or obscure individual from marrying several wives, other than
-the personal difficulties which lie between him and the hand which he
-wishes in vain to get, for want of sufficient celebrity in society, or
-from a still more frequent objection, that of his inability (from want
-of worldly goods) to deal in the customary way with the fathers of the
-girls whom he would appropriate to his own household.
-
-There are very few instances indeed, to be seen in these regions, where
-a poor or ordinary citizen has more than one wife; but amongst chiefs
-and braves of great reputation, and doctors, it is common to see some
-six or eight living under one roof, and all apparently quiet and
-contented; seemingly harmonizing, and enjoying the modes of life and
-treatment that falls to their lot.
-
-Wives in this country are mostly treated for with the father, as in all
-instances they are regularly bought and sold. In many cases the bargain
-is made with the father alone, without ever consulting the inclinations
-of the girl, and seems to be conducted on his part as a mercenary
-contract entirely, where he stands out for the highest price he can
-possibly command for her. There are other instances to be sure, where
-the parties approach each other, and from the expression of a mutual
-fondness, make their own arrangements, and pass their own mutual vows,
-which are quite as sacred and inviolable as similar assurances when
-made in the civilized world. Yet even in such cases, the marriage is
-never consummated without the necessary form of making presents to the
-father of the girl.
-
-It becomes a matter of policy and almost of absolute necessity, for the
-white men who are Traders in these regions to connect themselves in
-this way, to one or more of the most influential families in the tribe,
-which in a measure identifies their interest with that of the nation,
-and enables them, with the influence of their new family connexions,
-to carry on successfully their business transactions with them. The
-young women of the best families only can aspire to such an elevation;
-and the most of them are exceedingly ambitious for such a connexion,
-inasmuch as they are certain of a delightful exemption from the slavish
-duties that devolve upon them when married under other circumstances;
-and expect to be, as they generally are, allowed to lead a life of ease
-and idleness, covered with mantles of blue and scarlet cloth—with beads
-and trinkets, and ribbons, in which they flounce and flirt about, the
-envied and tinselled belles of every tribe.
-
-These connexions, however, can scarcely be called marriages, for I
-believe they are generally entered into without the form or solemnizing
-ceremony of a marriage, and on the part of the father of the girls,
-conducted purely as a mercenary or business transaction; in which
-they are very expert, and practice a deal of shrewdness in exacting
-an adequate price from a purchaser whom they consider possessed of
-so large and so rich a stock of the world’s goods; and who they deem
-abundantly able to pay liberally for so delightful a commodity.
-
-Almost every Trader and every clerk who commences in the business of
-this country, speedily enters into such an arrangement, which is done
-with as little ceremony as he would bargain for a horse, and just as
-unceremoniously do they annul and abolish this connexion when they
-wish to leave the country, or change their positions from one tribe to
-another; at which time the woman is left, a fair and proper candidate
-for matrimony or speculation, when another applicant comes along, and
-her father equally desirous for another horse or gun, &c. which he can
-easily command at her second espousal.
-
-From the enslaved and degraded condition in which the women are held in
-the Indian country, the world would naturally think that theirs must
-be a community formed of incongruous and unharmonizing materials; and
-consequently destitute of the fine, reciprocal feelings and attachments
-which flow from the domestic relations in the civilized world; yet it
-would be untrue, and doing injustice to the Indians, to say that they
-were in the least behind us in conjugal, in filial, and in paternal
-affection. There is no trait in the human character which is more
-universal than the attachments which flow from these relations, and
-there is no part of the human species who have a stronger affection and
-a higher regard for them than the North American Indians.
-
-There is no subject in the Indian character of more importance to be
-rightly understood than this, and none either that has furnished me
-more numerous instances and more striking proofs, of which I shall
-make use on a future occasion, when I shall say a vast deal more of
-marriage—of divorce—of polygamy—and of Indian domestic relations. For
-the present I am scribbling about the looks and usages of the Indians
-who are about me and under my eye; and I must not digress too much into
-general remarks, lest I lose sight of those who are near me, and the
-first to be heralded.
-
-Such, then, are the Mandans—their women are beautiful and modest,—and
-amongst the respectable families, virtue is as highly cherished and
-as inapproachable, as in any society whatever; yet at the same time a
-chief may marry a dozen wives if he pleases, and so may a white man;
-and if either wishes to marry the most beautiful and modest girl in the
-tribe, she is valued only equal, perhaps, to two horses, a gun with
-powder and ball for a year, five or six pounds of beads, a couple of
-gallons of whiskey, and a handful of awls.
-
-The girls of this tribe, like those of most of these north-western
-tribes, marry at the age of twelve or fourteen, and some at the age of
-eleven years; and their beauty, from this fact, as well as from the
-slavish life they lead, soon after marriage vanishes. Their occupations
-are almost continual, and they seem to go industriously at them, as if
-from choice or inclination, without a murmur.
-
-The principal occupations of the women in this village, consist in
-procuring wood and water, in cooking, dressing robes and other skins,
-in drying meat and wild fruit, and raising corn (maize). The Mandans
-are somewhat of agriculturists, as they raise a great deal of corn and
-some pumpkins and squashes. This is all done by the women, who make
-their hoes of the shoulder-blade of the buffalo or the elk, and dig the
-ground over instead of ploughing it, which is consequently done with a
-vast deal of labour. They raise a very small sort of corn, the ears of
-which are not longer than a man’s thumb. This variety is well adapted
-to their climate, as it ripens sooner than other varieties, which would
-not mature in so cold a latitude. The green corn season is one of great
-festivity with them, and one of much importance. The greater part of
-their crop is eaten during these festivals, and the remainder is
-gathered and dried on the cob, before it has ripened, and packed away
-in “_caches_” (as the French call them), holes dug in the ground, some
-six or seven feet deep, the insides of which are somewhat in the form
-of a jug, and tightly closed at the top. The corn, and even dried meat
-and pemican, are placed in these _caches_, being packed tight around
-the sides., with prairie grass, and effectually preserved through the
-severest winters.
-
-Corn and dried meat are generally laid in in the fall, in sufficient
-quantities to support them through the winter. These are the principal
-articles of food during that long and inclement season; and in addition
-to them, they oftentimes have in store great quantities of dried
-squashes and dried “_pommes blanches_,” a kind of turnip which grows in
-great abundance in these regions, and of which I have before spoken.
-These are dried in great quantities, and pounded into a sort of meal,
-and cooked with the dried meat and corn. Great quantities also of wild
-fruit of different kinds are dried and laid away in store for the
-winter season, such as buffalo berries, service berries, strawberries,
-and wild plums.
-
-The buffalo meat, however, is the great staple and “staff of life” in
-this country, and seldom (if ever) fails to afford them an abundant and
-wholesome means of subsistence. There are, from a fair computation,
-something like 250,000 Indians in these western regions, who live
-almost exclusively on the flesh of these animals, through every part of
-the year. During the summer and fall months they use the meat fresh,
-and cook it in a great variety of ways, by roasting, broiling, boiling,
-stewing, smoking, &c.; and by boiling the ribs and joints with the
-marrow in them, make a delicious soup, which is universally used, and
-in vast quantities. The Mandans, I find, have no regular or stated
-times for their meals, but generally eat about twice in the twenty-four
-hours. The pot is always boiling over the fire, and any one who is
-hungry (either of the household or from any other part of the village)
-has a right to order it taken off, and to fall to eating as he pleases.
-Such is an unvarying custom amongst the North American Indians, and I
-very much doubt, whether the civilized world have in their institutions
-any system which can properly be called more humane and charitable.
-Every man, woman, or child in Indian communities is allowed to enter
-any one’s lodge, and even that of the chief of the nation, and eat when
-they are hungry, provided misfortune or necessity has driven them to
-it. Even so can the poorest and most worthless drone of the nation; if
-he is too lazy to hunt or to supply himself, he can walk into any lodge
-and everyone will share with him as long as there is anything to eat.
-He, however, who thus begs when he is able to hunt, pays dear for his
-meat, for he is stigmatized with the disgraceful epithet of a poltroon
-and a beggar.
-
-The Mandans, like all other tribes, sit at their meals cross-legged,
-or rather with their ancles crossed in front of them, and both feet
-drawn close under their bodies; or, which is very often the case also,
-take their meals in a reclining posture, with the legs thrown out, and
-the body resting on one elbow and fore-arm, which are under them. The
-dishes from which they eat are invariably on the ground or floor of
-the lodge, and the group resting on buffalo robes or mats of various
-structure and manufacture.
-
-The position in which the women sit at their meals and on other
-occasions is different from that of the men, and one which they
-take and rise from again, with great ease and much grace, by merely
-bending the knees both together, inclining the body back and the head
-and shoulders quite forward, they squat entirely down to the ground,
-inclining both feet either to the right or the left. In this position
-they always rest while eating, and it is both modest and graceful, for
-they seem, with apparent ease, to assume the position and rise out of
-it, without using their hands in any way to assist them.
-
-These women, however, although graceful and civil, and ever so
-beautiful or ever so hungry, are not allowed to sit in the same group
-with the men while at their meals. So far as I have yet travelled in
-the Indian country, I never have seen an Indian woman eating with
-her husband. Men form the first group at the banquet, and women, and
-children and dogs all come together at the next, and these gormandize
-and glut themselves to an enormous extent, though the men very seldom
-do.
-
-It is time that an error on this subject, which has gone generally
-abroad in the world, was corrected. It is everywhere asserted, and
-almost universally believed, that the Indians are “enormous eaters;”
-but comparatively speaking, I assure my readers that this is an error.
-I venture to say that there are no persons on earth who practice
-greater prudence and self-denial, than the men do (amongst the wild
-Indians), who are constantly in war and in the chase, or in their
-athletic sports and exercises; for all of which they are excited by
-the highest ideas of pride and honour, and every kind of excess is
-studiously avoided; and for a very great part of their lives, the most
-painful abstinence is enforced upon themselves, for the purpose of
-preparing their bodies and their limbs for these extravagant exertions.
-Many a man who has been a few weeks along the frontier, amongst the
-drunken, naked and beggared part of the Indian race, and run home
-and written a book on Indians, has, no doubt, often seen them eat to
-beastly excess; and he has seen them also guzzle whiskey (and perhaps
-_sold_ it to them) till he has seen them glutted and besotted, without
-will or energy to move; and many and thousands of such things can
-always be seen, where white people have made beggars of them, and they
-have nothing to do but lie under a fence and beg a whole week to get
-meat and whiskey enough for one feast and one carouse; but amongst the
-wild Indians in this country there are no beggars—no drunkards—and
-every man, from a beautiful natural precept, studies to keep his body
-and mind in such a healthy shape and condition as will at all times
-enable him to use his weapons in self-defence, or struggle for the
-prize in their manly games.
-
-As I before observed, these men generally eat but twice a day, and many
-times not more than once, and those meals are light and simple compared
-with the meals that are swallowed in the civilized world; and by the
-very people also, who sit at the festive board three times a day,
-making a jest of the Indian for his eating, when they actually guzzle
-more liquids, besides their eating, than would fill the stomach of an
-Indian.
-
-There are, however, many seasons and occasions in the year with all
-Indians, when they fast for several days in succession; and others
-where they can _get_ nothing to eat; and at such times (their habits
-are such) they may be seen to commence with an enormous meal, and
-because they do so, it is an insufficient reason why we should for ever
-remain under so egregious an error with regard to a single custom of
-these people.
-
-I have seen so many of these, and lived with them, and travelled with
-them, and oftentimes felt as if I should starve to death on an equal
-allowance, that I am fully convinced I am correct in saying that the
-North American Indians, taking them in the aggregate, even where they
-have an abundance to subsist on, eat less than any civilized population
-of equal numbers, that I have ever travelled amongst.
-
-Their mode of curing and preserving the buffalo meat is somewhat
-curious, and in fact it is almost incredible also; for it is all cured
-or dried in the sun, without the aid of salt or smoke! The method of
-doing this is the same amongst all the tribes, from this to the Mexican
-Provinces, and is as follows:—The choicest parts of the flesh from the
-buffalo are cut out by the squaws, and carried home on their backs or
-on horses, and there cut “_across the grain_,” in such a manner as will
-take alternately the layers of lean and fat; and having prepared it
-all in this way, in strips about half an inch in thickness, it is hung
-up by hundreds and thousands of pounds on poles resting on crotches,
-out of the reach of dogs or wolves, and exposed to the rays of the sun
-for several days, when it becomes so effectually dried, that it can
-be carried to any part of the world without damage. This seems almost
-an unaccountable thing, and the more so, as it is done in the hottest
-months of the year, and also in all the different latitudes of an
-Indian country.
-
-So singular a fact as this can only be accounted for, I consider, on
-the ground of the extraordinary rarity and purity of the air which
-we meet with in these vast tracts of country, which are now properly
-denominated “the great buffalo plains,” a series of exceedingly
-elevated plateaus of _steppes_ or _prairies_, lying at and near the
-base of the Rocky Mountains.
-
-It is a fact then, which I presume will be new to most of the world,
-that meat can be cured in the sun without the aid of smoke or salt;
-and it is a fact equally true and equally surprising also, that none
-of these tribes use salt in any way, although their country abounds
-in salt springs; and in many places, in the frequent walks of the
-Indian, the prairie may be seen, for miles together, covered with an
-incrustation of salt as white as the drifted snow.
-
-I have, in travelling with Indians, encamped by such places, where they
-have cooked and eaten their meat, when I have been unable to prevail on
-them to use salt in any quantity whatever. The Indians cook their meat
-more than the civilized people do, and I have long since learned, from
-necessity, that meat thus cooked can easily be eaten and relished too,
-without salt or other condiment.
-
-The fact above asserted applies exclusively to those tribes of Indians
-which I have found in their primitive state, living entirely on meat;
-but everywhere along our Frontier, where the game of the country
-has long since been chiefly destroyed, and these people have become
-semi-civilized, raising and eating, as we do, a variety of vegetable
-food, they use (and no doubt require), a great deal of salt; and in
-many instances use it even to destructive excess.
-
-
-
-
-                             LETTER—No. 18.
-
-                    MANDAN VILLAGE, UPPER MISSOURI.
-
-
-The Mandans, like all other tribes, lead lives of idleness and
-leisure; and of course, devote a great deal of time to their sports
-and amusements, of which they have a great variety. Of these, dancing
-is one of the principal, and may be seen in a variety of forms: such
-as the buffalo dance, the boasting dance, the begging dance, the scalp
-dance, and a dozen other kinds of dances, all of which have their
-peculiar characters and meanings or objects.
-
-These exercises are exceedingly grotesque in their appearance, and to
-the eye of a traveller who knows not their meaning or importance, they
-are an uncouth and frightful display of starts, and jumps, and yelps,
-and jarring gutturals, which are sometimes truly terrifying. But when
-one gives them a little attention, and has been lucky enough to be
-initiated into their mysterious meaning, they become a subject of the
-most intense and exciting interest. Every dance has its peculiar step,
-and every step has its meaning; every dance also has its peculiar song,
-and that is so intricate and mysterious oftentimes, that not one in ten
-of the young men who are dancing and singing it, know the meaning of
-the song which they are chanting over. None but the medicine-men are
-allowed to understand them; and even they are generally only initiated
-into these secret arcana, on the payment of a liberal stipend for their
-tuition, which requires much application and study. There is evidently
-a set song and sentiment for every dance, for the songs are perfectly
-measured, and sung in exact time with the beat of the drum; and always
-with an uniform and invariable set of sounds and expressions, which
-clearly indicate certain sentiments, which are expressed by the voice,
-though sometimes not given in any known language whatever.
-
-They have other dances and songs which are not so mystified, but which
-are sung and understood by every person in the tribe, being sung in
-their own language, with much poetry in them, and perfectly metred, but
-without rhyme. On these subjects I shall take another occasion to say
-more; and will for the present turn your attention to the style and
-modes in which some of these curious transactions are conducted.
-
-My ears have been almost continually ringing since I came here, with
-the din of yelping and beating of the drums; but I have for several
-days past been peculiarly engrossed, and my senses almost confounded
-with the stamping, and grunting, and bellowing of the _buffalo dance_,
-which closed a few days since at sunrise (thank Heaven), and which I
-must needs describe to you.
-
-Buffaloes, it is known, are a sort of roaming creatures, congregating
-occasionally in huge masses, and strolling away about the country from
-east to west, or from north to south, or just where their whims or
-strange fancies may lead them; and the Mandans are sometimes, by this
-means, most unceremoniously left without any thing to eat; and being a
-small tribe, and unwilling to risk their lives by going far from home
-in the face of their more powerful enemies, are oftentimes left almost
-in a state of starvation. In any emergency of this kind, every man
-musters and brings out of his lodge his mask (the skin of a buffalo’s
-head with the horns on), which he is obliged to keep in readiness
-for this occasion; and then commences the buffalo dance, of which I
-have above spoken, which is held for the purpose of making “buffalo
-come” (as they term it), of inducing the buffalo herds to change the
-direction of their wanderings, and bend their course towards the Mandan
-village, and graze about on the beautiful hills and bluffs in its
-vicinity, where the Mandans can shoot them down and cook them as they
-want them for food.
-
-For the most part of the year, the young warriors and hunters, by
-riding out a mile or two from the village, can kill meat in abundance;
-and sometimes large herds of these animals may be seen grazing in
-full view of the village. There are other seasons also when the young
-men have ranged about the country as far as they are willing to risk
-their lives, on account of their enemies, without finding meat. This
-sad intelligence is brought back to the chiefs and doctors, who sit in
-solemn council, and consult on the most expedient measures to be taken,
-until they are sure to decide upon the old and only expedient which
-“never has failed.”
-
-The chief issues his order to his runners or criers, who proclaim it
-through the village—and in a few minutes the dance begins. The place
-where this strange operation is carried on is in the public area in the
-centre of the village, and in front of the great medicine or mystery
-lodge. About ten or fifteen Mandans at a time join in the dance, each
-one with the skin of the buffalo’s head (or mask) with the horns on,
-placed over his head, and in his hand his favourite bow or lance, with
-which he is used to slay the buffalo.
-
-I mentioned that this dance always had the desired effect, that it
-never fails, nor can it, for it cannot be stopped (but is going
-incessantly day and night) until “buffalo come.” Drums are beating and
-rattles are shaken, and songs and yells incessantly are shouted, and
-lookers-on stand ready with masks on their heads, and weapons in hand,
-to take the place of each one as he becomes fatigued, and jumps out of
-the ring.
-
-During this time of general excitement, spies or “_lookers_” are kept
-on the hills in the neighbourhood of the village, who, when they
-discover buffaloes in sight, give the appropriate signal, by “throwing
-their robes,” which is instantly seen in the village, and understood by
-the whole tribe. At this joyful intelligence there is a shout of thanks
-to the Great Spirit, and more especially to the mystery-man, and the
-dancers, _who have been the immediate cause of their success_! There is
-then a brisk preparation for the chase—a grand hunt takes place. The
-choicest pieces of the victims are sacrificed to the Great Spirit, and
-then a surfeit and a carouse.
-
-These dances have sometimes been continued in this village two and
-three weeks without stopping an instant, until the joyful moment when
-buffaloes made their appearance. So they _never fail_; and they think
-they have been the means of bringing them in.
-
-Every man in the Mandan village (as I have before said) is obliged by
-a village regulation, to keep the mask of the buffalo, hanging on a
-post at the head of his bed, which he can use on his head whenever he
-is called upon by the chiefs, to dance for the coming of buffaloes.
-The mask is put over the head, and generally has a strip of the skin
-hanging to it, of the whole length of the animal, with the tail
-attached to it, which, passing down over the back of the dancer, is
-dragging on the ground (+plate+ 56). When one becomes fatigued of the
-exercise, he signifies it by bending quite forward, and sinking his
-body towards the ground; when another draws a bow upon him and hits
-him with a blunt arrow, and he falls like a buffalo—is seized by the
-bye-standers, who drag him out of the ring by the heels, brandishing
-their knives about him; and having gone through the motions of skinning
-and cutting him up, they let him off, and his place is at once supplied
-by another, who dances into the ring with his mask on; and by this
-taking of places, the scene is easily kept up night and day, until the
-desired effect has been produced, that of “making buffalo come.”
-
-The day before yesterday however, readers, which, though it commenced
-in joy and thanksgiving to the Great Spirit for the signal success
-which had attended their several days of dancing and supplication,
-ended in a calamity which threw the village of the Mandans into
-mourning and repentant tears, and that at a time of scarcity and great
-distress. The signal was given into the village on that morning from
-the top of a distant bluff, that a band of buffaloes were in sight,
-though at a considerable distance off, and every heart beat with joy,
-and every eye watered and glistened with gladness.
-
-The dance had lasted some three or four days, and now, instead of the
-doleful tap of the drum and the begging chaunts of the dancers, the
-stamping of horses was heard as they were led and galloped through the
-village—young men were throwing off their robes and their shirts,—were
-seen snatching a handful of arrows from their quivers, and stringing
-their sinewy bows, glancing their eyes and their smiles at their
-sweethearts, and mounting their ponies.    *    *    *
-
-   *    *    A few minutes there had been of bustle and boasting,
-whilst bows were twanging and spears were polishing by running their
-blades into the ground—every face and every eye was filled with joy and
-gladness—horses were pawing and snuffing in fury for the outset, when
-Louison Frénié, an interpreter of the Fur Company, galloped through the
-village with his rifle in his hand and his powder-horn at his side; his
-head and waist were bandaged with handkerchiefs, and his shirt sleeves
-rolled up to his shoulders—the hunter’s yell issued from his lips and
-was repeated through the village; he flew to the bluffs, and behind
-him and over the graceful swells of the prairie, galloped the emulous
-youths, whose hearts were beating high and quick for the onset.
-
-[Illustration: 56]
-
-In the village, where hunger had reigned, and starvation was almost
-ready to look them in the face, all was instantly turned to joy and
-gladness. The chiefs and doctors who had been for some days dealing
-out minimum rations to the community from the public crib, now spread
-before their subjects the contents of their own private _caches_, and
-the last of every thing that could be mustered, that they might eat a
-thanksgiving to the Great Spirit for his goodness in sending them a
-supply of buffalo meat. A general carouse of banqueting ensued, which
-occupied the greater part of the day; and their hidden stores which
-might have fed an emergency for several weeks, were pretty nearly used
-up on the occasion—bones were half picked, and dishes half emptied and
-then handed to the dogs. _I_ was not forgotten neither, in the general
-surfeit; several large and generous wooden bowls of pemican and other
-palatable food were sent to my painting-room, and I received them in
-this time of scarcity with great pleasure.
-
-After this general indulgence was over, and the dogs had licked the
-dishes, their usual games and amusements ensued—and hilarity and mirth,
-and joy took possession of, and reigned in, every nook and corner of
-the village; and in the midst of this, screams and shrieks were heard!
-and echoed everywhere. Women and children scrambled to the tops of
-their wigwams, with their eyes and their hands stretched in agonizing
-earnestness to the prairie, whilst blackened warriors ran furiously
-through every winding maze of the village, and issuing their jarring
-gutturals of vengeance, as they snatched their deadly weapons from
-their lodges, and struck the reddened post as they furiously passed
-it by! Two of their hunters were bending their course down the sides
-of the bluff towards the village, and another broke suddenly out of a
-deep ravine, and yet another was seen dashing over and down the green
-hills, and all were goading on their horses at full speed! and then
-came another, and another, and all entered the village amid shouts and
-groans of the villagers who crowded around them; the story was told
-in their looks, for one was bleeding, and the blood that flowed from
-his naked breast had crimsoned his milk white steed as it had dripped
-over him; another grasped in his left hand a scalp that was reeking in
-blood—and in the other his whip—another grasped nothing, save the reins
-in one hand and the mane of the horse in the other, having thrown his
-bow and his arrows away, and trusted to the fleetness of his horse
-for his safety; yet the story was audibly told, and the fatal tragedy
-recited in irregular and almost suffocating ejaculations—the names
-of the dead were in turns pronounced and screams and shrieks burst
-forth at their recital—murmurs and groans ran through the village, and
-this happy little community were in a moment smitten with sorrow and
-distraction.
-
-Their proud band of hunters who had started full of glee and mirth in
-the morning, had been surrounded by their enemy, the Sioux, and eight
-of them killed. The Sioux, who had probably reconnoitred their village
-during the night, and ascertained that they were dancing for buffaloes,
-laid a stratagem to entrap them in the following manner:—Some six
-or eight of them appeared the next morning (on a distant bluff, in
-sight of their sentinel) under the skins of buffaloes, imitating the
-movements of those animals whilst grazing; and being discovered by
-the sentinel, the intelligence was telegraphed to the village, which
-brought out their hunters as I have described. The masked buffaloes
-were seen grazing on the top of a high bluff, and when the hunters had
-approached within half a mile or so of them, they suddenly disappeared
-over the hill. Louison Frénié, who was leading the little band of
-hunters, became at that moment suspicious of so strange a movement, and
-came to a halt    *    *    *
-
-   * “Look”! (said a Mandan, pointing to a little ravine to the right, and
-at the foot of the hill, from which suddenly broke some forty or fifty
-furious Sioux, on fleet horses and under full whip, who were rushing
-upon them); they wheeled, and in front of them came another band more
-furious from the other side of the hill! they started for home (poor
-fellows), and strained every nerve; but the Sioux were too fleet for
-them; and every now and then, the whizzing arrow and the lance were
-heard to rip the flesh of their naked backs, and a grunt and a groan,
-as they tumbled from their horses. Several miles were run in this
-desperate race; and Frénié got home, and several of the Mandans, though
-eight of them were killed and scalped by the way.
-
-So ended that day and the hunt; but many a day and sad, will last the
-grief of those whose hearts were broken on that unlucky occasion.
-
-_This_ day, though, my readers, has been one of a more joyful kind, for
-the Great Spirit, who was indignant at so flagrant an injustice, has
-sent the Mandans an abundance of buffaloes; and all hearts have joined
-in a general thanksgiving to Him for his goodness and justice.
-
-[Illustration: 57]
-
-
-
-
-                             LETTER—No. 19.
-
-                   MANDAN VILLAGE, _UPPER MISSOURI_.
-
-
-In my last Letter I gave an account of the buffalo dance, and in future
-epistles may give some descriptions of a dozen other kinds of dance,
-which these people have in common with other tribes; but in the present
-Letter I shall make an endeavour to confine my observations to several
-other customs and forms, which are very curious and peculiar to the
-Mandans.
-
-Of these, one of the most pleasing is the _sham-fight_ and sham
-scalp-dance of the Mandan boys, which is a part of their regular
-exercise, and constitutes a material branch of their education.
-During the pleasant mornings of the summer, the little boys between
-the age of seven and fifteen are called out, to the number of several
-hundred, and being divided into two companies, each of which is headed
-by some experienced warrior, who leads them on, in the character
-of a teacher; they are led out into the prairie at sunrise, where
-this curious discipline is regularly taught them (+plate+ 57). Their
-bodies are naked, and each one has a little bow in his left hand and
-a number of arrows made of large spears of grass, which are harmless
-in their effects. Each one has also a little belt or girdle around
-his waist, in which he carries a knife made of a piece of wood and
-equally harmless—on the tops of their heads are slightly attached
-small tufts of grass, which answer as scalps, and in this plight,
-they follow the dictates of their experienced leaders, who lead them
-through the judicious evolutions of Indian warfare—of feints—of
-retreats—of attacks—and at last to a general fight. Many manœuvres are
-gone through, and eventually they are brought up face to face, within
-fifteen or twenty feet of each other, with their leaders at their head
-stimulating them on. Their bows are bent upon each other and their
-missiles flying, whilst they are dodging and fending them off.
-
-If any one is struck with an arrow on any vital part of his body, he is
-obliged to fall, and his adversary rushes up to him, places his foot
-upon him, and snatching from his belt his wooden knife, grasps hold of
-his victim’s scalp-lock of grass, and making a feint at it with his
-wooden knife, twitches it off and puts it into his belt, and enters
-again into the ranks and front of battle.
-
-This mode of training generally lasts an hour or more in the morning,
-and is performed on an empty stomach, affording them a rigid and
-wholesome exercise, whilst they are instructed in the important science
-of war. Some five or six miles of ground are run over during these
-evolutions, giving suppleness to their limbs and strength to their
-muscles, which last and benefit them through life.
-
-After this exciting exhibition is ended, they all return to their
-village, where the chiefs and braves pay profound attention to their
-vaunting, and applaud them for their artifice and valour.
-
-Those who have taken scalps then step forward, brandishing them and
-making their boast as they enter into the _scalp-dance_ (in which
-they are also instructed by their leaders or teachers), jumping and
-yelling—brandishing their scalps, and reciting their _sanguinary
-deeds_, to the great astonishment of their tender aged sweethearts, who
-are gazing with wonder upon them.
-
-The games and amusements of these people are in most respects like
-those of the other tribes, consisting of ball plays—game of the
-moccasin, of the platter—feats of archery—horse-racing, &c.; and they
-have yet another, which may be said to be their favourite amusement,
-and unknown to the other tribes about them. The game of Tchung-kee, a
-beautiful athletic exercise, which they seem to be almost unceasingly
-practicing whilst the weather is fair, and they have nothing else
-of moment to demand their attention. This game is decidedly their
-favourite amusement, and is played near to the village on a pavement
-of clay, which has been used for that purpose until it has become as
-smooth and hard as a floor. For this game two champions form their
-respective parties, by choosing alternately the most famous players,
-until their requisite numbers are made up. Their bettings are then
-made, and their stakes are held by some of the chiefs or others
-present. The play commences (+plate+ 59) with two (one from each
-party), who start off upon a trot, abreast of each other, and one of
-them rolls in advance of them, on the pavement, a little ring of two
-or three inches in diameter, cut out of a stone; and each one follows
-it up with his “tchung-kee” (a stick of six feet in length, with
-little bits of leather projecting from its sides of an inch or more in
-length), which he throws before him as he runs, sliding it along upon
-the ground after the ring, endeavouring to place it in such a position
-when it stops, that the ring may fall upon it, and receive one of the
-little projections of leather through it, which counts for game, one,
-or two, or four, according to the position of the leather on which the
-ring is lodged. The last winner always has the rolling of the ring,
-and both start and throw the tchung-kee together; if either fails to
-receive the ring or to lie in a certain position, it is a forfeiture
-of the amount of the number he was nearest to, and he loses his throw;
-when another steps into his place. This game is a very difficult one
-to describe, so as to give an exact idea of it, unless one can see it
-played—it is a game of great beauty and fine bodily exercise, and these
-people become excessively fascinated with it; often gambling away every
-thing they possess, and even sometimes, when everything else was gone,
-have been known to stake their liberty upon the issue of these games,
-offering themselves as slaves to their opponents in case they get
-beaten.
-
-_Feasting_ and _fasting_ are important customs observed by the Mandans,
-as well as by most other tribes, at stated times and for particular
-purposes. These observances are strictly religious and rigidly
-observed. There are many of these forms practiced amongst the Mandans,
-some of which are exceedingly interesting, and important also, in
-forming a correct estimate of the Indian character; and I shall at a
-future period take particular pains to lay them before my readers.
-
-_Sacrificing_ is also a religious custom with these people, and is
-performed in many different modes, and on numerous occasions. Of
-this custom I shall also speak more fully hereafter, merely noticing
-at present, some few of the hundred modes in which these offerings
-are made to the Good and Evil Spirits. Human sacrifices have never
-been made by the Mandans, nor by any of the north western tribes (so
-far as I can learn), excepting the Pawnees of the Platte; who have,
-undoubtedly, observed such an inhuman practice in former times, though
-they have relinquished it of late. The Mandans sacrifice their fingers
-to the Great Spirit, and of their worldly goods, the best and the most
-costly; if a horse or a dog, it must be the favourite one; if it is
-an arrow from their quiver, they will select the most perfect one as
-the most effective gift; if it is meat, it is the choicest piece cut
-from the buffalo or other animal; if it is anything from the stores of
-the Traders, it is the most costly—it is blue or scarlet cloth, which
-costs them in this country an enormous price, and is chiefly used for
-the purpose of hanging over their wigwams to decay, or to cover the
-scaffolds where rest the bones of their departed relations.
-
-Of these kinds of sacrifices there are three of an interesting nature,
-erected over the great medicine-lodge in the centre of the village—they
-consist of ten or fifteen yards of blue and black cloth each, purchased
-from the Fur Company at fifteen or twenty dollars per yard, which are
-folded up so as to resemble human figures, with quills in their heads
-and masks on their faces. These singular-looking figures, like “_scare
-crows_” (+plate+ 47), are erected on poles about thirty feet high, over
-the door of the mystery-lodge, and there are left to decay. There hangs
-now by the side of them another, which was added to the number a few
-days since, of the skin of a white buffalo, which will remain there
-until it decays and falls to pieces.
-
-This beautiful and costly skin, when its history is known, will
-furnish a striking proof of the importance which they attach to these
-propitiatory offerings. But a few weeks since, a party of Mandans
-returned from the Mouth of the Yellow Stone, two hundred miles above,
-with information that a party of Blackfeet were visiting that place on
-business with the American Fur Company; and that they had with them
-a white buffalo robe for sale. This was looked upon as a subject of
-great importance by the chiefs, and one worthy of public consideration.
-A white buffalo robe is a great curiosity, even in the country of
-buffaloes, and will always command an almost incredible price, from its
-extreme scarcity; and then, from its being the most costly article of
-traffic in these regions, it is usually converted into a _sacrifice_,
-being offered to the Great Spirit, as the most acceptable gift that can
-be procured. Amongst the vast herds of buffaloes which graze on these
-boundless prairies, there is not one in an hundred thousand, perhaps,
-that is white; and when such an one is obtained, it is considered great
-_medicine_ or mystery.
-
-On the receipt of the intelligence above-mentioned, the chiefs convened
-in council, and deliberated on the expediency of procuring the white
-robe from the Blackfeet; and also of appropriating the requisite means,
-and devising the proper mode of procedure for effecting the purchase.
-At the close of their deliberations, eight men were fitted out on eight
-of their best horses, who took from the Fur Company’s store, on the
-credit of the chiefs, goods exceeding even the value of their eight
-horses; and they started for the Mouth of the Yellow Stone, where
-they arrived in due time, and made the purchase, by leaving the eight
-horses and all the goods which they carried; returning on foot to their
-own village, bringing home with them the white robe, which was looked
-upon by all eyes of the villagers as a thing that was vastly curious,
-and containing (as they express it) something of the Great Spirit.
-This wonderful anomaly laid several days in the chief’s lodge, until
-public curiosity was gratified; and then it was taken by the doctors or
-high-priests, and with a great deal of form and mystery consecrated,
-and raised on the top of a long pole over the _medicine-lodge_; where
-it now stands in a group with the others, and will stand as an offering
-to the Great Spirit, until it decays and falls to the ground.
-
-This Letter, as I promised in its commencement, being devoted to some
-of the customs peculiar to the Mandans, and all of which will be new
-to the world, I shall close, after recording in it an account of a
-laughable farce, which was enacted in this village when I was on my
-journey up the river, and had stopped on the way to spend a day or two
-in the Mandan village.
-
-Readers, did you ever hear of “_Rain Makers_?” If not, sit still, and
-read on; but laugh not—keep cool and sober, or else you may laugh in
-the _beginning_, and cry at the _end_ of my story. Well, I introduce
-to you a new character—not a _doctor_ or a _high-priest_, yet a
-_medicine-man_, and one of the highest and most respectable order, a
-“_Rain Maker_!” Such dignitaries live in the Mandan nation, aye, and
-“_rain stoppers_” too; and even those also amongst their _conjurati_,
-who, like Joshua of old, have even essayed to stop the sun in his
-course; but from the inefficiency of their medicine or mystery, have
-long since descended into insignificance.
-
-Well, the story begins thus:—The Mandans, as I have said in a former
-Letter, raise a great deal of corn; and sometimes a most disastrous
-drought will be visited on the land, destructive to their promised
-harvest. Such was the case when I arrived at the Mandan village
-on the steam-boat, Yellow-Stone. Rain had not fallen for many a day,
-and the dear little girls and the ugly old squaws, altogether (all of
-whom had fields of corn), were groaning and crying to their lords, and
-imploring them to intercede for rain, that their little respective
-patches, which were now turning pale and yellow, might not be withered,
-and they be deprived of the pleasure of their customary annual
-festivity, and the joyful occasion of the “roasting ears,” and the
-“green corn dance.”
-
-[Illustration: 58]
-
-[Illustration: 59]
-
-The chiefs and doctors sympathized with the plaints of the women, and
-recommended patience. Great deliberation, they said, was necessary in
-these cases; and though they resolved on making the attempt to produce
-rain for the benefit of the corn; yet they very wisely resolved that
-to begin too soon might ensure their entire defeat in the endeavour;
-and that the longer they put it off, the more certain they would
-feel of ultimate success. So, after a few days of further delay,
-when the importunities of the women had become clamorous, and even
-mournful, and almost insupportable, the _medicine-men_ assembled in
-the council-house, with all their mystery apparatus about them—with an
-abundance of wild sage, and other aromatic herbs, with a fire prepared
-to burn them, that their savoury odours might be sent forth to the
-Great Spirit. The lodge was closed to all the villagers, except some
-ten or fifteen young men, who were willing to hazard the dreadful
-alternative of making it rain, or suffer the everlasting disgrace of
-having made a fruitless essay.
-
-They, only, were allowed as witnesses to the _hocus pocus_ and
-_conjuration_ devised by the doctors inside of the medicine-lodge; and
-they were called up by lot, each one in his turn, to spend a day upon
-the top of the lodge, to test the potency of his medicine; or, in other
-words, to see how far his voice might be heard and obeyed amongst the
-clouds of the heavens; whilst the doctors were burning incense in the
-wigwam below, and with their songs and prayers to the Great Spirit for
-success, were sending forth grateful fumes and odours to Him “who lives
-in the sun and commands the thunders of Heaven.” Wah-kee (the shield)
-was the first who ascended the wigwam at sunrise; and he stood all day,
-and looked foolish, as he was counting over and over his string of
-mystery-beads—the whole village were assembled around him, and praying
-for his success. Not a cloud appeared—the day was calm and hot; and at
-the setting of the sun, he descended from the lodge and went home—“his
-_medicine_ was not good,” nor can he ever be a _medicine-man_.
-
-Om-pah (the elk) was the next; he ascended the lodge at sunrise the
-next morning. His body was entirely naked, being covered with yellow
-clay. On his left arm he carried a beautiful shield, and a long lance
-in his right; and on his head the skin of a raven, the bird that soars
-amidst the clouds, and above the lightning’s glare—he flourished his
-shield and brandished his lance, and raised his voice, but in vain; for
-at sunset the ground was dry and the sky was clear; the squaws were
-crying, and their corn was withering at its roots.
-
-War-rah-pa (the beaver) was the next; he also spent his breath in vain
-upon the empty air, and came down at night—and Wak-a-dah-ha-hee (the
-white buffalo’s hair) took the stand the next morning. He is a small,
-but beautifully proportioned young man. He was dressed in a tunic and
-leggings of the skins of the mountain-sheep, splendidly garnished
-with quills of the porcupine, and fringed with locks of hair taken
-by his own hand from the heads of his enemies. On his arm he carried
-his shield, made of the buffalo’s hide—its boss was the head of the
-war-eagle—and its front was ornamented with “red chains of lightning.”
-In his left hand he clenched his sinewy bow and one single arrow. The
-villagers were all gathered about him; when he threw up a feather to
-decide on the course of the wind, and he commenced thus:—“My friends!
-people of the pheasants! you see me here a sacrifice—I shall this
-day relieve you from great distress, and bring joy amongst you; or I
-shall descend from this lodge when the sun goes down, and live amongs
-the dogs and old women all my days. My friends! you saw which way the
-feather flew, and I hold my shield this day in the direction where the
-wind comes—the lightning on my shield will draw a great cloud, and
-this arrow, which is selected from my quiver, and which is feathered
-with the quill of the white swan, will make a hole in it. My friends!
-this hole in the lodge at my feet, shows me the medicine-men, who
-are seated in the lodge below me and crying to the Great Spirit; and
-through it comes and passes into my nose delightful odours, which
-you see rising in the smoke to the Great Spirit above, who rides in
-the clouds and commands the winds! Three days they have sat here, my
-friends, and nothing has been done to relieve your distress. On the
-first day was Wah-kee (the shield), he could do nothing; he counted his
-beads and came down—his medicine was not good—his name was bad, and
-it kept off the rain. The next was Om-pah (the elk); on his head the
-raven was seen, who flies _above_ the storm, and he failed. War-rah-pa
-(the beaver) was the next, my friends; the beaver lives _under_ the
-_water_, and he never wants it to rain. My friends! I see you are in
-great distress, and nothing has yet been done; this shield belonged to
-my father the White Buffalo; and the lightning you see on it is red; it
-was taken from a black cloud, and that cloud will come over us to-day.
-I am the white buffalo’s hair—and I am the son of my father.”
-
-In this manner flourished and manœuvred Wak-a-dah-ha-hee (the white
-buffalo’s hair), alternately addressing the audience and the heaven—and
-holding converse with the winds and the “_je-bi_” (spirits) that are
-floating about in them—stamping his foot over the heads of the _magi_,
-who were involved in mysteries beneath him, and invoking the spirits of
-darkness and light to send rain, to gladden the hearts of the Mandans.
-
-It happened on this memorable day about noon, that the steam-boat
-Yellow Stone, on her first trip up the Missouri River, approached and
-landed at the Mandan Village, as I have described in a former epistle.
-I was lucky enough to be a passenger on this boat, and helped to fire
-a salute of twenty guns of twelve pounds calibre, when we first came
-in sight of the village, some three or four miles below. These guns
-introduced a _new sound_ into this strange country, which the Mandans
-at first supposed to be thunder; and the young man upon the lodge, who
-turned it to good account, was gathering fame in rounds of applause,
-which were repeated and echoed through the whole village; all eyes
-were centred upon him—chiefs envied him—mothers’ hearts were beating
-high whilst they were decorating and leading up their fair daughters
-to offer him in marriage, on his signal success. The medicine-men had
-left the lodge, and came out to bestow upon him the envied title of
-“_medicine-man_,” or “_doctor_,” which he had so deservedly won—wreaths
-were prepared to decorate his brows, and eagle’s plumes and calumets
-were in readiness for him; his friends were all rejoiced—his enemies
-wore on their faces a silent gloom and hatred; and his old sweethearts,
-who had formerly cast him off, gazed intensely upon him, as they glowed
-with the burning fever of repentance.
-
-During all this excitement, Wak-a-dah-ha-hee kept his position,
-assuming the most commanding and threatening attitudes; brandishing his
-shield in the direction of the thunder (+plate+ 58), although there
-was not a cloud to be seen, until he (poor fellow), being elevated
-above the rest of the village, espied, to his inexpressible amazement,
-the steam-boat ploughing its way up the windings of the river below;
-puffing her steam from her pipes, and sending forth the thunder from
-a twelve-pounder on her deck!    *    *    *    The White Buffalo’s
-Hair stood motionless and turned pale, he looked awhile, and turned to
-the chief and to the multitude, and addressed them with a trembling
-lip—“My friends, we will get no rain!—there are, you see, no clouds;
-but my medicine is great—I have brought a _thunder boat_! look and see
-it! the thunder you hear is out of her mouth, and the lightning which
-you see is on the waters!”
-
-At this intelligence, the whole village flew to the tops of their
-wigwams, or to the bank of the river, from whence the steamer was in
-full view, and ploughing along, to their utter dismay and confusion.
-
-In this promiscuous throng of chiefs, doctors, women, children and
-dogs, was mingled Wak-a-dah-ha-hee (the white buffalo’s hair), having
-descended from his high place to mingle with the frightened throng.
-
-Dismayed at the approach of so strange and unaccountable an object, the
-Mandans stood their ground but a few moments; when, by an order of the
-chiefs, all hands were ensconced within the piquets of their village,
-and all the warriors armed for desperate defence. A few moments brought
-the boat in front of the village, and all was still and quiet as death;
-not a Mandan was to be seen upon the banks. The steamer was moored, and
-three or four of the chiefs soon after, walked boldly down the bank and
-on to her deck, with a spear in one hand and the calumet or pipe of
-peace in the other. The moment they stepped on board they met (to their
-great surprise and joy) their old friend, Major Sanford, their agent,
-which circumstance put an instant end to all their fears. The villagers
-were soon apprized of the fact, and the whole race of the beautiful and
-friendly Mandans was paraded on the bank of the river, in front of the
-steamer.
-
-The “rain maker,” whose apprehensions of a public calamity brought
-upon the nation by his extraordinary _medicine_, had, for the better
-security of his person from apprehended vengeance, secreted himself in
-some secure place, and was the last to come forward, and the last to
-be convinced that this visitation was a friendly one from the white
-people; and that his _medicine_ had not in the least been instrumental
-in bringing it about. This information, though received by him with
-much caution and suspicion, at length gave him great relief, and
-quieted his mind as to his danger. Yet still in his breast there was a
-rankling thorn, though he escaped the dreaded vengeance which he had a
-few moments before apprehended as at hand; as he had the mortification
-and disgrace of having failed in his mysterious operations. He set
-up, however (during the day, in his conversation about the strange
-arrival), his _medicines_, as the cause of its approach; asserting
-everywhere and to everybody, that he knew of its coming, and that he
-had by his magic brought the occurrence about. This plea, however, did
-not get him much audience; and in fact, everything else was pretty
-much swallowed up in the guttural talk, and bustle, and gossip about
-the mysteries of the “thunder-boat;” and so passed the day, until just
-at the approach of evening, when the “White Buffalo’s Hair” (more
-watchful of such matters on this occasion than most others) observed
-that a black cloud had been jutting up in the horizon, and was almost
-directly over the village! In an instant his shield was on his arm, and
-his bow in his hand, and he again upon the lodge! stiffened and braced
-to the last sinew, he stood, with his face and his shield presented to
-the cloud, and his bow drawn. He drew the eyes of the whole village
-upon him as he vaunted forth his super-human powers, and at the same
-time commanding the cloud to come nearer, that he might draw down
-its contents upon the heads and the corn-fields of the Mandans! In
-this wise he stood, waving his shield over his head, stamping his
-foot and frowning as he drew his bow and threatened the heavens,
-commanding it to rain—his bow was bent, and the arrow drawn to its
-head, was sent to the cloud, and he exclaimed, “My friends, it is done!
-Wak-a-dah-ha-hee’s arrow has entered that black cloud, and the Mandans
-will be wet with the water of the skies!” His predictions were true;—in
-a few moments the cloud was over the village, and the rain fell in
-torrents. He stood for some time wielding his weapons and presenting
-his shield to the sky, while he boasted of his power and the efficacy
-of his _medicine_, to those who had been about him, but were now driven
-to the shelter of their wigwams. He, at length, finished his vaunts and
-his threats, and descended from his high place (in which he had been
-perfectly drenched), prepared to receive the honours and the homage
-that were due to one so potent in his mysteries; and to receive the
-style and title of “_medicine-man_.” This is one of a hundred different
-modes in which a man in Indian countries acquires the honourable
-appellation.
-
-This man had “made it rain,” and of course was to receive more than
-usual honours, as he had done much more than ordinary men could do. All
-eyes were upon him, and all were ready to admit that he was skilled
-in the magic art; and must be so nearly allied to the Great or Evil
-Spirit, that he must needs be a man of great and powerful influence in
-the nation, and well entitled to the style of doctor or _medicine-man_.
-
-Readers, there are two facts relative to these strange transactions,
-which are infallibly true, and should needs be made known. The first
-is, that when the Mandans undertake to make it rain, _they never fail
-to succeed_, for their ceremonies never stop until rain begins to fall.
-The second is equally true, and is this:—that he who has once “_made
-it rain_,” never attempts it again; his medicine is undoubted—and on
-future occasions of the kind, he stands aloof, who has once done it in
-presence of the whole village, giving an opportunity to other young men
-who are ambitious to signalize themselves in the same way.
-
-During the memorable night of which I have just spoken, the steam-boat
-remained by the side of the Mandan village, and the rain that had
-commenced falling continued to pour down its torrents until midnight;
-black thunder roared, and livid lightning flashed until the heavens
-appeared to be lit up with one unceasing and appalling glare. In
-this frightful moment of consternation, a flash of lightning buried
-itself in one of the earth-covered lodges of the Mandans, and killed a
-beautiful girl. Here was food and fuel fresh for their superstitions;
-and a night of vast tumult and excitement ensued. The dreams of the
-new-made medicine-man were troubled, and he had dreadful apprehensions
-for the coming day—for he knew that he was subject to the irrevocable
-decree of the chiefs and doctors, who canvass every strange and
-unaccountable event, with close and superstitious scrutiny, and let
-their vengeance fall without mercy upon its immediate cause.
-
-He looked upon his well-earned fame as likely to be withheld from him;
-and also considered that his life might perhaps be demanded as the
-forfeit for this girl’s death, which would certainly be charged upon
-him. He looked upon himself as culpable, and supposed the accident
-to have been occasioned by his criminal desertion of his post, when
-the steam-boat was approaching the village. Morning came, and he soon
-learned from some of his friends, the opinions of the wise men; and
-also the nature of the tribunal that was preparing for him; he sent to
-the prairie for his three horses, which were brought in, and he mounted
-the _medicine-lodge_, around which, in a few moments, the villagers
-were all assembled. “My friends! (said he) I see you all around me, and
-I am before you; my medicine, you see, is great—it is _too great_—I
-am young, and I was too fast—I knew not when to stop. The wigwam of
-Mah-sish is laid low, and many are the eyes that weep for Ko-ka (the
-antelope;) Wak-a-dah-ha-hee gives three horses to gladden the hearts of
-those who weep for Ko-ka; his medicine was great—his arrow pierced the
-black cloud, and the lightning came, and the _thunder-boat_ also! who
-says the medicine of Wak-a-dah-ha-hee is not strong?”
-
-At the end of this sentence an unanimous shout of approbation ran
-through the crowd, and the “Hair of the White Buffalo” descended
-amongst them, where he was greeted by shakes of the hand; and amongst
-whom he now lives and thrives under the familiar and honourable
-appellation of the “+Big Double Medicine+.”
-
-
-
-
-                             LETTER—No. 20.
-
-                   MANDAN VILLAGE, _UPPER MISSOURI_.
-
-
-This day has been one of unusual mirth and amusement amongst the
-Mandans, and whether on account of some annual celebration or not, I
-am as yet unable to say, though I think such is the case; for these
-people have many days which, like this, are devoted to festivities and
-amusements.
-
-Their lives, however, are lives of idleness and ease, and almost all
-their days and hours are spent in innocent amusements. Amongst a people
-who have no office hours to attend to—no professions to study, and of
-whom but very little time is required in the chase, to supply their
-families with food, it would be strange if they did not practice many
-games and amusements, and also become exceedingly expert in them.
-
-I have this day been a spectator of games and plays until I am fatigued
-with looking on; and also by lending a hand, which I have done; but
-with so little success as only to attract general observation, and
-as generally to excite the criticisms and laughter of the squaws and
-little children.
-
-I have seen a fair exhibition of their archery this day, in a favourite
-amusement which they call the “_game of the arrow_” (see +plate+ 60),
-where the young men who are the most distinguished in this exercise,
-assemble on the prairie at a little distance from the village, and
-having paid, each one, his “entrance-fee,” such as a shield, a robe,
-a pipe, or other article, step forward in turn, shooting their arrows
-into the air, endeavouring to see who can get the greatest number
-flying in the air at one time, thrown from the same bow. For this, the
-number of eight or ten arrows are clenched in the left hand with the
-bow, and the first one which is thrown is elevated to such a degree
-as will enable it to remain the longest time possible in the air, and
-while it is flying, the others are discharged as rapidly as possible;
-and he who succeeds in getting the greatest number up at once, is
-“best,” and takes the goods staked.
-
-In looking on at this amusement, the spectator is surprised; not at
-the great distance to which the arrows are actually sent; but at
-the quickness of fixing them on the string, and discharging them in
-succession; which is no doubt, the result of great practice, and
-enables the most expert of them to get as many as eight arrows up
-before the first one reaches the ground.
-
-For the successful use of the bow, as it is used through all this
-region of country on horseback, and that invariably at full speed, the
-great object of practice is to enable the bowman to draw the bow with
-suddenness and instant effect; and also to repeat the shots in the most
-rapid manner. As their game is killed from their horses’ backs while
-at the swiftest rate—and their enemies fought in the same way; and as
-the horse is the swiftest animal of the prairie, and always able to
-bring his rider alongside, within a few paces of his victim; it will
-easily be seen that the Indian has little use in throwing his arrow
-more than a few paces; when he leans quite low on his horse’s side, and
-drives it with astonishing force, capable of producing instant death
-to the buffalo, or any other animal in the country. The bows which are
-generally in use in these regions I have described in a former Letter,
-and the effects produced by them at the distance of a few paces is
-almost beyond belief, considering their length, which is not often over
-three,—and sometimes not exceeding two and a half feet. It can easily
-be seen, from what has been said, that the Indian has little use or
-object in throwing the arrow to any great distance. And as it is very
-seldom that they can be seen shooting at a target, I doubt very much
-whether their skill in such practice would compare with that attained
-to in many parts of the civilized world; but with the same weapon,
-and dashing forward at fullest speed on the wild horse, without the
-use of the rein, when the shot is required to be made with the most
-instantaneous effect, I scarcely think it possible that any people can
-be found more skilled, and capable of producing more deadly effects
-with the bow.
-
-The horses which the Indians ride in this country are invariably the
-wild horses, which are found in great numbers on the prairies; and
-have, unquestionably, strayed from the Mexican borders, into which they
-were introduced by the Spanish invaders of that country; and now range
-and subsist themselves, in winter and summer, over the vast plains of
-prairie that stretch from the Mexican frontiers to Lake Winnipeg on
-the North, a distance of 3000 miles. These horses are all of small
-stature, of the pony order; but a very hardy and tough animal, being
-able to perform for the Indians a continual and essential service.
-They are taken with the _laso_, which is a long halter or thong, made
-of rawhide, of some fifteen or twenty yards in length, and which the
-Indians throw with great dexterity; with a noose at one end of it,
-which drops over the head of the animal they wish to catch, whilst
-running at full speed—when the Indian dismounts from his own horse, and
-holding to the end of the laso, choaks the animal down, and afterwards
-tames and converts him to his own use.
-
-Scarcely a man in these regions is to be found, who is not the owner of
-one or more of these horses; and in many instances of eight, ten, or
-even twenty, which he values as his own personal property.
-
-[Illustration: 60]
-
-[Illustration: 61]
-
-The Indians are hard and cruel masters; and, added to their cruelties
-is the sin that is familiar in the Christian world, of sporting with
-the limbs, and the lives of these noble animals. _Horse-racing_ here,
-as in all more enlightened communities, is one of the most exciting
-amusements, and one of the most extravagant modes of gambling.
-
-I have been this day a spectator to scenes of this kind, which have
-been enacted in abundance, on a course which they have, just back of
-their village; and although I never had the least taste for this cruel
-amusement in my own country, yet, I must say, I have been not a little
-amused and pleased with the thrilling effect which these exciting
-scenes have produced amongst so wild and picturesque a group.
-
-I have made a sketch of the ground and the group, as near as I could
-(+plate+ 61); shewing the manner of “starting” and “coming out,” which
-vary a little from the customs of the _knowing_ world; but in other
-respects, I believe, a horse-race is the same all the world over.
-
-Besides these, many have been the amusements of this day, to which I
-have been an eye-witness; and since writing the above, I have learned
-the cause of this unusual expression of hilarity and mirth; which was
-no more nor less than the safe return of a small war-party, who had
-been so long out without any tidings having been received of them—that
-they had long since been looked upon as sacrificed to the fates of
-war and lost. This party was made up of the most distinguished and
-desperate young men of the tribe, who had sallied out against the
-Riccarees, and taken the most solemn oath amongst themselves never
-to return without achieving a victory. They had wandered long and
-faithfully about the country, following the trails of their enemy; when
-they were attacked by a numerous party, and lost several of their men
-and all their horses. In this condition, to evade the scrutiny of their
-enemy, who were closely investing the natural route to their village;
-they took a circuitous range of the country, to enable them to return
-with their lives, to their village.
-
-In this plight, it seems, I had dropped my little canoe alongside of
-them, while descending from the Mouth of Yellow Stone to this place,
-not many weeks since; where they had bivouacked or halted, to smoke
-and consult on the best and safest mode of procedure. At the time of
-meeting them, not knowing anything of their language, they were unable
-to communicate their condition to me, and more probably were afraid
-to do so even if they could have done it, from apprehension that we
-might have given some account of them to their enemies. I rested my
-canoe an hour or so with them, during which time they treated us with
-an indifferent reserve, yet respectfully; and we passed on our way,
-without further information of them or their plans than the sketch that
-I there made (+plate+ 63), and which I shall preserve and value as one
-of the most pleasing groups I ever have had the pleasure to see. Seated
-on their buffalo robes, which were spread upon the grass, with their
-respective weapons laying about them, and lighting their pipes at a
-little fire which was kindled in the centre—the chief or leader of the
-party, with his arms stacked behind him, and his long head-dress of
-war-eagles’ quills and ermine falling down over his back, whilst he sat
-in a contemplative and almost desponding mood, was surely one of the
-most striking and beautiful illustrations of a natural hero that I ever
-looked upon.
-
-These gallant fellows got safely home to their village, and the
-numerous expressions of joy for their return, which I have this day
-witnessed, have much fatigued me that I write brief, and close my
-Letter here.
-
-[Illustration: 63]
-
-
-
-
-                             LETTER—No. 21.
-
-                   MANDAN VILLAGE, _UPPER MISSOURI_.
-
-
-In a former Letter I gave some account of Mah-to-toh-pa (the four
-bears), second chief of the Mandans, whom I said I had painted at
-full length, in a splendid costume. I therein said, also, that “this
-extraordinary man, though second in office, is undoubtedly the first
-and most popular man in the nation. Free, generous, elegant, and
-gentlemanly in his deportment—handsome, brave and valiant; wearing a
-robe on his back, with the history of all his battles painted on it,
-which would fill a book of themselves if they were properly enlarged
-and translated.”
-
-I gave you also, in another epistle, an account of the manner in
-which he invited me to a feast in his hospitable wigwam, at the same
-time presenting me a beautifully garnished robe; and I promised to
-say more of him on a future occasion. My readers will therefore
-pardon me for devoting a Letter or two at this time, to a sketch of
-this extraordinary man, which I will give in as brief a manner as
-possible, by describing the costume in which I painted his portrait;
-and afterwards reciting the most remarkable incidents of his life,
-as I had them from the Traders and the Indian agents, and afterwards
-corroborated by his own words, translated to me as he spoke, whilst I
-was writing them down.
-
-The dress of Mah-to-toh-pa then, the greater part of which I have
-represented in his full-length portrait, and which I shall now
-describe, was purchased of him after I had painted his picture; and
-every article of it can be seen in my Indian Gallery by the side of
-the portrait, provided I succeed in getting them home to the civilized
-world without injury.
-
-Mah-to-toh-pa had agreed to stand before me for his portrait at an
-early hour of the next morning, and on that day I sat with my palette
-of colours prepared, and waited till twelve o’clock, before he could
-leave his toilette with feelings of satisfaction as to the propriety of
-his looks and the arrangement of his equipments; and at that time it
-was announced, that “Mah-to-toh-pa was coming in full dress!” I looked
-out of the door of the wigwam, and saw him approaching with a firm and
-elastic step, accompanied by a great crowd of women and children, who
-were gazing on him with admiration, and escorting him to my room. No
-tragedian ever trod the stage, nor gladiator ever entered the Roman
-Forum, with more grace and manly dignity than did Mah-to-toh-pa enter
-the wigwam, where I was in readiness to receive him. He took his
-attitude before me (+plate+ 64), and with the sternness of a Brutus
-and the stillness of a statue, he stood until the darkness of night
-broke upon the solitary stillness. His dress, which was a very splendid
-one, was complete in all its parts, and consisted of a shirt or tunic,
-leggings, moccasins, head-dress, necklace, shield, bow and quiver,
-lance, tobacco-sack, and pipe; robe, belt, and knife; medicine-bag,
-tomahawk, and war-club, or _po-ko-mo-kon_.
-
-The shirt, of which I have spoken, was made of two skins of the
-mountain-sheep, beautifully dressed, and sewed together by seams which
-rested upon the arms; one skin hanging in front, upon the breast, and
-the other falling down upon the back; the head being passed between
-them, and they falling over and resting on the shoulders. Across each
-shoulder, and somewhat in the form of an epaulette, was a beautiful
-band; and down each arm from the neck to the hand was a similar one,
-of two inches in width (and crossing the other at right angles on the
-shoulder) beautifully embroidered with porcupine quills worked on the
-dress, and covering the seams. To the lower edge of these bands the
-whole way, at intervals of half an inch, were attached long locks of
-black hair, which he had taken with his own hand from the heads of
-his enemies whom he had slain in battle, and which he thus wore as a
-trophy, and also as an ornament to his dress. The front and back of
-the shirt were curiously garnished in several parts with porcupine
-quills and paintings of the battles he had fought, and also with
-representations of the victims that had fallen by his hand. The bottom
-of the dress was bound or hemmed with ermine skins, and tassels of
-ermines’ tails were suspended from the arms and the shoulders.
-
-The _Leggings_, which were made of deer skins, beautifully dressed,
-and fitting tight to the leg, extended from the feet to the hips, and
-were fastened to a belt which was passed around the waist. These, like
-the shirt, had a similar band, worked with porcupine quills of richest
-dyes, passing down the seam on the outer part of the leg, and fringed
-also the whole length of the leg, with the scalp-locks taken from his
-enemies’ heads.
-
-The _Moccasins_ were of buckskin, and covered in almost every part with
-the beautiful embroidery of porcupines’ quills.
-
-The _Head-dress_, which was superb and truly magnificent, consisted
-of a crest of war-eagles’ quills, gracefully falling back from the
-forehead over the back part of the head, and extending quite down to
-his feet; set the whole way in a profusion of ermine, and surmounted
-on the top of the head, with the horns of the buffalo, shaved thin and
-highly polished.
-
-The _Necklace_ was made of fifty huge claws or nails of the grizzly
-bear, ingeniously arranged on the skin of an otter, and worn, like the
-scalp-locks, as a trophy—as an evidence unquestionable, that he had
-contended with and overcome that desperate enemy in open combat.
-
-His _Shield_ was made of the hide of the buffalo’s neck, and hardened
-with the glue that was taken from its hoofs; its boss was the skin of
-a pole-cat, and its edges were fringed with rows of eagles’ quills and
-hoofs of the antelope.
-
-His _Bow_ was of bone, and as white and beautiful as ivory; over its
-back was laid, and firmly attached to it, a coating of deers’
-sinews, which gave it its elasticity, and of course death to all that
-stood inimically before it. Its string was three stranded and twisted
-of sinews, which many a time had twanged and sent the whizzing death to
-animal and to human victims.
-
-[Illustration: 64]
-
-The _Quiver_ was made of a panther’s skin and hung upon his back,
-charged with its deadly arrows; some were poisoned and some were not;
-they were feathered with hawks’ and eagles’ quills; some were clean and
-innocent, and pure, and others were stained all over, with animal and
-human blood that was dried upon them. Their blades or points were of
-flints, and some of steel; and altogether were a deadly magazine.
-
-The _Lance_ or spear was held in his left hand; its blade was two-edged
-and of polished steel, and the blood of several human victims was seen
-dried upon it, one over the other; its shaft was of the toughest ash,
-and ornamented at intervals with tufts of war-eagles’ quills.
-
-His _Tobacco-sack_ was made of the skin of an otter, and tastefully
-garnished with quills of the porcupine; in it was carried his _k’nick
-k’neck_, (the bark of the red willow, which is smoked as a substitute
-for tobacco), it contained also his flint and steel, and spunk for
-lighting——
-
-His _Pipe_, which was ingeniously carved out of the red steatite (or
-pipe-stone), the stem of which was three feet long and two inches
-wide, made from the stalk of the young ash; about half its length was
-wound with delicate braids of the porcupine’s quills, so ingeniously
-wrought as to represent figures of men and animals upon it. It was
-also ornamented with the skins and beaks of wood-peckers’ heads, and
-the hair of the white buffalo’s tail. The lower half of the stem was
-painted red, and on its edges it bore the notches he had recorded for
-the snows (or years) of his life.
-
-His _Robe_ was made of the skin of a young buffalo bull, with the fur
-on one side, and the other finely and delicately dressed; with all the
-battles of his life emblazoned on it by his own hand.
-
-His _Belt_, which was of a substantial piece of buckskin, was firmly
-girded around his waist; and in it were worn his tomahawk and
-scalping-knife.
-
-His _Medicine-bag_ was the skin of a beaver, curiously ornamented
-with hawks’ bills and ermine. It was held in his right hand, and his
-_po-ko-mo-kon_ (or war-club) which was made of a round stone, tied up
-in a piece of rawhide, and attached to the end of a stick, somewhat in
-the form of a sling, was laid with others of his weapons at his feet.
-
-Such was the dress of Mah-to-toh-pa when he entered my wigwam to stand
-for his picture; but such I have not entirely represented it in his
-portrait; having rejected such trappings and ornaments as interfered
-with the grace and simplicity of the figure. He was beautifully and
-extravagantly dressed; and in this he was not alone, for hundreds of
-others are equally elegant. In plumes, and arms, and ornaments, he is
-not singular; but in laurels and wreaths he stands unparalleled. His
-breast has been bared and scarred in defence of his country, and his
-brows crowned with honours that elevate him conspicuous above all of
-his nation. There is no man amongst the Mandans so generally loved,
-nor any one who wears a robe so justly famed and honourable as that of
-Mah-to-toh-pa.
-
-I said his robe was of the skin of a young buffalo bull, and that the
-battles of his life were emblazoned on it; and on a former occasion,
-that he presented me a beautiful robe, containing all the battles
-of his life, which he had spent two weeks’ time in copying from his
-original one, which he wore on his shoulders.
-
-This robe, with his tracings on it, is the chart of his military life;
-and when explained, will tell more of Mah-to-toh-pa.
-
-Some days after this robe was presented, he called upon me with Mr.
-Kipp, the trader and interpreter for the Mandans, and gave me of each
-battle there pourtrayed the following history, which was interpreted
-by Mr. Kipp, from his own lips, and written down by me, as we three
-sat upon the robe. Mr. Kipp, who is a gentleman of respectability and
-truth; and who has lived with these people ten years, assured me, that
-nearly every one of these narrations were of events that had happened
-whilst he had lived with them, and had been familiarly known to him;
-and that every word that he asserted was true.
-
-And again, reader, in this country where, of all countries I ever
-was in, men are the most jealous of rank and of standing; and in a
-community so small also, that every man’s deeds of honour and chivalry
-are familiarly known to all; it would not be reputable, or even safe
-to life, for a warrior to wear upon his back the representations of
-battles he never had fought; professing to have done what every child
-in the village would know he never had done.
-
-So then I take the records of battles on the robe of Mah-to-toh-pa
-to be matter of historical fact; and I proceed to give them as I
-wrote them down from his own lips. Twelve battle-scenes are there
-represented, where he has contended with his enemy, and in which he has
-taken fourteen of their scalps. The groups are drawn according to his
-own rude ideas of the arts; and I proceed to describe them in turn, as
-they were explained to me.
-
-
-                  ROBE OF MAH-TO-TOH-PA (+Plate+ 65).
-
-1. Mah-to-toh-pa kills a Sioux chief—the three heads represent the
-three Riccarees, whom the Sioux chief had previously killed. The Sioux
-chief is seen with war-paint black on his face. Mah-to-toh-pa is seen
-with the scalp of the Sioux in one hand, and his knife in the other,
-with his bow and quiver lying behind him.[3]
-
-2. A Shienne chief, who sent word to Mah-to-toh-pa that he wished to
-fight him—was killed by Mah-to-toh-pa with a lance, in presence of a
-large party of Mandans and Shiennes. Mah-to-toh-pa is here known
-by his lance with eagles’ quills on it.
-
-[Illustration: 65]
-
-[Illustration]
-
-[Illustration]
-
-3. A Shienne killed by Mah-to-toh-pa after Mah-to-toh-pa had been left
-by his party, badly wounded and bleeding; the twenty-five or thirty
-foot-tracks around, represent the number of Shiennes, who were present
-when the battle took place; and the bullets from their guns represented
-as flying all around the head of Mah-to-toh-pa.
-
-4. Shienne chief with war-eagle head-dress, and a beautiful shield,
-ornamented with eagles’ quills, killed by Mah-to-toh-pa. In this
-battle the wife of the Shienne rushed forward in a desperate manner to
-his assistance; but arriving too late, fell a victim. In this battle
-Mah-to-toh-pa obtained two scalps.
-
-5. Mah-to-toh-pa, with a party of Riccarees, fired at by a party of
-Sioux; the Riccarees fled—Mah-to-toh-pa dismounted and drove his horse
-back, facing the enemy alone and killing one of them. Mah-to-toh-pa is
-here represented with a beautiful head-dress of war-eagles’ quills,
-and one on his horse’s head of equal beauty; his shield is on his arm,
-and the party of Sioux is represented in front of him by the number of
-horse tracks.
-
-6. The brother of Mah-to-toh-pa killed by a Riccaree, who shot him with
-an arrow, and then running a lance through his body, left it there.
-Mah-to-toh-pa was the first to find his brother’s body with the lance
-in it: he drew the lance from the body, kept it four years with the
-blood dried on its blade, and then, according to his oath, killed the
-same Riccaree with the same lance; the dead body of his brother is here
-seen with the arrow and lance remaining in it, and the tracks of the
-Riccaree’s horses in front.
-
-The following was, perhaps, one of the most extraordinary exploits
-of this remarkable man’s life, and is well attested by Mr. Kipp, and
-several white men, who were living in the Mandan village at the time of
-its occurrence. In a skirmish, near the Mandan village, when they were
-set upon by their enemies, the Riccarees, the brother of Mah-to-toh-pa
-was missing for several days, when Mah-to-toh-pa found the body
-shockingly mangled, and a handsome spear left piercing the body through
-the heart. The spear was by him brought into the Mandan village, where
-it was recognized by many as a famous weapon belonging to a noted brave
-of the Riccarees, by the name of Won-ga-tap. This spear was brandished
-through the Mandan village by Mah-to-toh-pa (with the blood of his
-brother dried on its blade), crying most piteously, and swearing that
-he would some day revenge the death of his brother with the same weapon.
-
-It is almost an incredible fact, that he kept this spear with great
-care in his wigwam for the space of four years, in the fruitless
-expectation of an opportunity to use it upon the breast of its owner;
-when his indignant soul, impatient of further delay, burst forth in the
-most uncontroullable frenzy and fury; he again brandished it through
-the village, and said, that the blood of his brother’s heart which was
-seen on its blade was yet fresh, and called loudly for revenge. “Let
-every Mandan (said he) be silent, and let no one sound the name of
-Mah-to-toh-pa—let no one ask for him, nor where he has gone, until you
-hear him sound the war-cry in front of the village, when he will enter
-it and shew you the blood of Won-ga-tap. The blade of this lance shall
-drink the heart’s blood of Won-ga-tap, or Mah-to-toh-pa mingles his
-shadow with that of his brother.”
-
-With this he sallied forth from the village, and over the plains,
-with the lance in his hand; his direction was towards the Riccaree
-village, and all eyes were upon him, though none dared to speak till he
-disappeared over the distant grassy bluffs. He travelled the distance
-of two hundred miles entirely alone, with a little parched corn in
-his pouch, making his marches by night, and laying secreted by days,
-until he reached the Riccaree village; where (being acquainted with
-its shapes and its habits, and knowing the position of the wigwam of
-his doomed enemy) he loitered about in disguise, mingling himself in
-the obscure throng; and at last, silently and alone, observed through
-the rents of the wigwam, the last motions and movements of his victim,
-as he retired to bed with his wife: he saw him light his last pipe and
-smoke it “to its end”—he saw the last whiff, and saw the last curl of
-blue smoke that faintly steeped from its bowl—he saw the village awhile
-in darkness and silence, and the embers that were covered in the middle
-of the wigwam gone nearly out, and the last flickering light which had
-been gently playing over them; when he walked softly, but not slyly,
-into the wigwam and seated himself by the fire, over which was hanging
-a large pot, with a quantity of cooked meat remaining in it; and by
-the side of the fire, the pipe and tobacco-pouch which had just been
-used; and knowing that the twilight of the wigwam was not sufficient to
-disclose the features of his face to his enemy, he very deliberately
-turned to the pot and completely satiated the desperate appetite, which
-he had got in a journey of six or seven days, with little or nothing
-to eat; and then, as deliberately, charged and lighted the pipe, and
-sent (no doubt, in every whiff that he drew through its stem) a prayer
-to the Great Spirit for a moment longer for the consummation of his
-design. Whilst eating and smoking, the wife of his victim, while laying
-in bed, several times enquired of her husband, what man it was who was
-eating in their lodge? to which, he as many times replied, “It’s no
-matter; let him eat, for he is probably hungry.”
-
-Mah-to-toh-pa knew full well that his appearance would cause no other
-reply than this, from the dignitary of the nation; for, from an
-invariable custom amongst these Northern Indians, any one who is hungry
-is allowed to walk into any man’s lodge and eat. Whilst smoking his
-last gentle and tremulous whiffs on the pipe, Mah-to-toh-pa (leaning
-back, and turning gradually on his side, to get a better view of the
-position of his enemy, and to see a little more distinctly the shapes
-of things) stirred the embers with his toes (readers, I had every
-word of this from his own lips, and every attitude and gesture acted
-out with his own limbs), until he saw his way was clear; at which
-moment, with his lance in his hands, he rose and drove it through the
-body of his enemy, and snatching the scalp from his head, he darted
-from the lodge—and quick as lightning, with the lance in one hand,
-and the scalp in the other, made his way to the prairie! The village
-was in an uproar, but he was off, and no one knew the enemy who had
-struck the blow. Mah-to-toh-pa ran all night, and lay close during the
-days; thanking the Great Spirit for strengthening his heart and his
-arm to this noble revenge; and prayed fervently for a continuance of
-his aid and protection till he should get back to his own village. His
-prayers were heard; and on the sixth morning, at sunrise, Mah-to-toh-pa
-descended the bluffs, and entered the village amidst deafening shouts
-of applause, while he brandished and shewed to his people the blade of
-his lance, with the blood of his victim dried upon it, over that of his
-brother; and the scalp of Won-ga-tap suspended from its handle.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-Such was the feat represented by Mah-to-toh-pa on his robe—and the
-lance, of which I have just spoken, is seen in the hand of his
-portrait, which will stand in my Gallery, and of which I have thus
-formerly spoken:—“The lance or spear of Mah-to-toh-pa, when he stood
-for his portrait, was held in his left hand; its blade was two-edged,
-and of polished steel, and the blood of several human victims was
-seen dried upon its surface, one over the other; its shaft was of the
-toughest ash, and ornamented at intervals with tufts of war-eagle’s
-quills.”
-
-In the portrait, of which I am speaking, there will be seen an eagle’s
-quill balanced on the hilt of the lance, severed from its original
-position, and loose from the weapon. When I painted his portrait,
-he brought that quill to my wigwam in his left hand, and carefully
-balancing it on the lance, as seen in the painting; he desired me to be
-very exact with it, to have it appear as separate from, and unconnected
-with, the lance; and to represent a spot of blood which was visible
-upon it. I indulged him in his request, and then got from him the
-following explanation:—“That quill (said he) is great _medicine_! it
-belongs to the Great Spirit, and not to me—when I was running out of
-the lodge of Won-ga-tap, I looked back and saw that quill hanging to
-the wound in his side; I ran back, and pulling it out, brought it home
-in my left hand, and I have kept it for the Great Spirit to this day!”
-
-“Why do you not then tie it on to the lance again, where it came off?”
-
-“Hush-sh (said he), if the Great Spirit had wished it to be tied on in
-that place, it never would have come off; he has been kind to me, and I
-will not offend him.”
-
-7. A Riccaree killed by Mah-to-toh-pa in revenge of the death of a
-white man killed by a Riccaree in the Fur Traders’ Fort, a short time
-previous.
-
-8. Mah-to-toh-pa, or four bears, kills a Shienne chief, who challenged
-him to single combat, in presence of the two war-parties; they fought
-on horseback with guns, until Mah-to-toh-pa’s powder-horn was shot
-away; they then fought with bows and arrows, until their quivers were
-emptied, when they dismounted and fought single-handed. The Shienne
-drew his knife, and Mah-to-toh-pa had left his; they struggled for the
-knife, which Mah-to-toh-pa wrested from the Shienne, and killed him
-with it; in the struggle, the blade of the knife was several times
-drawn through the hand of Mah-to-toh-pa, and the blood is seen running
-from the wound.
-
-This extraordinary occurrence also, was one which admits of, and
-deserves a more elaborate description, which I will here give as it
-was translated from his own lips, while he sat upon the robe, pointing
-to his painting of it; and at the same time brandishing the identical
-knife which he drew from his belt, as he was shewing how the fatal blow
-was given; and exhibiting the wounds inflicted in his hand, as the
-blade of the knife was several times drawn through it before he wrested
-it from his antagonist.
-
-A party of about 150 Shienne warriors had made an assault upon the
-Mandan village at an early hour in the morning, and driven off a
-considerable number of horses, and taken one scalp. Mah-to-toh-pa,
-who was then a young man, but famed as one of the most valiant of the
-Mandans, took the lead of a party of fifty warriors, all he could at
-that time muster, and went in pursuit of the enemy; about noon of the
-second day, they came in sight of the Shiennes; and the Mandans seeing
-their enemy much more numerous than they had expected, were generally
-disposed to turn about and return without attacking them. They started
-to go back, when Mah-to-toh-pa galloped out in front upon the prairie,
-and plunged his lance into the ground; the blade was driven into the
-earth to its hilt—he made another circuit around, and in that circuit
-tore from his breast his reddened sash, which he hung upon its handle
-as a flag, calling out to the Mandans, “What! have we come to this?
-we have dogged our enemy two days, and now when we have found them,
-are we to turn about and go back like cowards? Mah-to-toh-pa’s lance,
-which is red with the blood of brave men, has led you to the sight of
-your enemy, and you have followed it; it now stands firm in the ground,
-where the earth will drink the blood of Mah-to-toh-pa! you may all go
-back, and Mah-to-toh-pa will fight them alone!”
-
-During this manœuvre, the Shiennes, who had discovered the Mandans
-behind them, had turned about and were gradually approaching, in order
-to give them battle; the chief of the Shienne war-party seeing and
-understanding the difficulty, and admiring the gallant conduct of
-Mah-to-toh-pa, galloped his horse forward within hailing distance, in
-front of the Mandans, and called out to know “who he was who had stuck
-down his lance and defied the whole enemy alone?”
-
-“I am Mah-to-toh-pa, second in command of the brave and valiant
-Mandans.”
-
-“I have heard often of Mah-to-toh-pa, he is a great warrior—dares
-Mah-to-toh-pa to come forward and fight this battle with me alone, and
-our warriors will look on?”
-
-“Is he a chief who speaks to Mah-to-toh-pa?”
-
-[Illustration: 66]
-
-“My scalps you see hanging to my horse’s bits, and here is my lance
-with the ermine skins and the war-eagle’s tail!”
-
-“You have said enough.”
-
-The Shienne chief made a circuit or two at full gallop on a beautiful
-white horse, when he struck his lance into the ground, and left it
-standing by the side of the lance of Mah-to-toh-pa, both of which were
-waving together their little red flags, tokens of blood and defiance.
-
-The two parties then drew nearer, on a beautiful prairie, and the
-two full-plumed chiefs, at full speed, drove furiously upon each
-other! both firing their guns at the same moment. They passed each
-other a little distance and wheeled, when Mah-to-toh-pa drew off his
-powder-horn, and by holding it up, shewed his adversary that the
-bullet had shattered it to pieces and destroyed his ammunition; he
-then threw it from him, and his gun also—drew his bow from his quiver,
-and an arrow, and his shield upon his left arm! The Shienne instantly
-did the same; _his_ horn was thrown off, and his gun was thrown into
-the air—his shield was balanced on his arm—his bow drawn, and quick
-as lightning, they were both on the wing for a deadly combat! Like
-two soaring eagles in the open air, they made their circuits around,
-and the twangs of their sinewy bows were heard, and the war-whoop, as
-they dashed by each other, parrying off the whizzing arrows with their
-shields! Some lodged in their legs and others in their arms; but both
-protected their _bodies_ with their bucklers of bull’s hide. Deadly and
-many were the shafts that fled from their murderous bows. At length the
-horse of Mah-to-toh-pa fell to the ground with an arrow in his heart;
-his rider sprang upon his feet prepared to renew the combat; but the
-Shienne, seeing his adversary dismounted, sprang from his horse, and
-driving him back, presented the face of his shield towards his enemy,
-inviting him to come on!—a few shots more were exchanged thus, when the
-Shienne, having discharged all his arrows, held up his empty quiver and
-dashing it furiously to the ground, with his bow and his shield; drew
-and brandished his naked knife!
-
-“Yes!” said Mah-to-toh-pa, as he threw _his_ shield and quiver to the
-earth, and was rushing up—_he_ grasped for his knife, but his belt
-had it not; he had left it at home! his bow was in his hand, with
-which he parried his antagonist’s blow and felled him to the ground! A
-desperate struggle now ensued for the knife—the blade of it was several
-times drawn through the right hand of Mah-to-toh-pa, inflicting the
-most frightful wounds, while he was severely wounded in several parts
-of the body. He at length succeeded however, in wresting it from his
-adversary’s hand, and plunged it to his heart.
-
-By this time the two parties had drawn up in close view of each other,
-and at the close of the battle, Mah-to-toh-pa held up, and claimed in
-deadly silence, the knife and scalp of the noble Shienne chief.[4]
-
-9. Several hundred Minatarees and Mandans attacked by a party of
-Assinneboins—all fled but Mah-to-toh-pa, who stood his ground,
-fired, and killed one of the enemy, putting the rest of them to
-flight, and driving off sixty horses! He is here seen with his lance
-and shield—foot-tracks of his enemy in front, and his own party’s
-horse-tracks behind him, and a shower of bullets flying around his
-head; here he got the name of “_the four bears_,” as the Assinneboins
-said he rushed on like four bears.
-
-10. Mah-to-toh-pa gets from his horse and kills two Ojibbeway women,
-and takes their scalps; done by the side of an Ojibbeway village, where
-they went to the river for water. He is here seen with his lance in
-one hand and his knife in the other—an eagle’s plume head-dress on his
-horse, and his shield left on his horse’s back. I incurred his ill-will
-for awhile by asking him, whether it was manly to boast of taking
-the scalps of women? and his pride prevented him from giving me any
-explanation or apology. The interpreter, however, explained to me that
-he had secreted himself in the most daring manner, in full sight of the
-Ojibbeway village, seeking to revenge a murder, where he remained six
-days without sustenance, and then killed the two women in full view of
-the tribe, and made his escape, which entitled him to the credit of a
-victory, though his victims were women.
-
-11. A large party of Assinneboins entrenched near the Mandan
-village attacked by the Mandans and Minatarees, who were driven
-back—Mah-to-toh-pa rushes into the entrenchment alone—an Indian fires
-at him and burns his face with the muzzle of his gun, which burst—the
-Indian retreats, leaving his exploded gun, and Mah-to-toh-pa shoots
-him through the shoulders as he runs, and kills him with his tomahawk;
-the gun of the Assinneboin is seen falling to the ground, and in front
-of him the heads of the Assinneboins in the entrenchment; the horse of
-Mah-to-toh-pa is seen behind him.
-
-12. Mah-to-toh-pa between his enemy the Sioux, and his own people, with
-an arrow shot through him, after standing the fire of the Sioux for a
-long time alone. In this battle he took no scalps, yet his valour was
-so extraordinary that the chiefs and braves awarded him the honour of a
-victory.
-
-This feat is seen in the centre of the robe—head-dress of war-eagles’
-quills on his own and his horse’s head—the tracks of his enemies’
-horses are seen in front of him, and bullets flying both ways all
-around him. With his whip in his hand, he is seen urging his horse
-forward, and an arrow is seen flying, and bloody, as it has passed
-through his body. For this wound, and the several others mentioned
-above, he bears the honourable scars on his body, which he generally
-keeps covered with red paint.
-
-Such are the battles traced upon the robe of Mah-to-toh-pa or four
-bears, interpreted by J. Kipp from the words of the hero while sitting
-upon the robe, explaining each battle as represented.
-
-  [3] The reader will see in +plate+ 65, an accurate drawing of this
-  curious robe, which now hangs in the +Indian Gallery+, and on the
-  following pages, each group numbered, and delineated on a larger
-  scale, which are _fac-similes_ of the drawings on the robe.
-
-
-  [4] This celebrated weapon with the blood of several victims
-  dried upon its blade, now hangs in the +Indian Gallery+, with
-  satisfactory certificates of its identity and its remarkable
-  history, and an exact drawing of it and its scabbard can be seen in
-  +plate+ 99, _a_.
-
-
-
-
-                             LETTER—No. 22.
-
-                   MANDAN VILLAGE, _UPPER MISSOURI_.
-
-
-Oh! “_horribile visu—et mirabile dictu!_” Thank God, it is over, that I
-have seen it, and am able to tell it to the world.
-
-The _annual religious ceremony_, of four days, of which I have so often
-spoken, and which I have so long been wishing to see, has at last been
-enacted in this village; and I have, fortunately, been able to see and
-to understand it in most of its bearings, which was more than I had
-reason to expect; for no white man, in all probability, has ever been
-before admitted to the _medicine-lodge_ during these most remarkable
-and appalling scenes.
-
-Well and truly has it been said, that the Mandans are a strange and
-peculiar people; and most correctly had I been informed, that this
-was an important and interesting scene, by those who had, on former
-occasions, witnessed such parts of it as are transacted out of doors,
-and in front of the _medicine-lodge_.
-
-Since the date of my last Letter, I was lucky enough to have painted
-the _medicine-man_, who was high-priest on this grand occasion, or
-conductor of the ceremonies, who had me regularly installed doctor or
-“_medicine_;” and who, on the morning when these grand refinements
-in mysteries commenced, took me by the arm, and led me into the
-_medicine-lodge_, where the Fur Trader, Mr. Kipp, and his two clerks
-accompanied me in close attendance for four days; all of us going to
-our own quarters at sun-down, and returning again at sun-rise the next
-morning.
-
-I took my sketch-book with me, and have made many and faithful drawings
-of what we saw, and full notes of everything as translated to me by
-the interpreter; and since the close of that horrid and frightful
-scene, which was a week ago or more, I have been closely ensconced
-in an earth-covered wigwam, with a fine sky-light over my head, with
-my palette and brushes, endeavouring faithfully to put the whole
-of what we saw upon canvass, which my companions all agree to be
-critically correct, and of the fidelity of which they have attached
-their certificates to the backs of the paintings. I have made four
-paintings of these strange scenes, containing several hundred figures,
-representing the transactions of each day; and if I live to get them
-home, they will be found to be exceedingly curious and interesting.
-
-I shudder at the relation, or even at the thought of these barbarous
-and cruel scenes, and am almost ready to shrink from the task of
-reciting them after I have so long promised some account of them.
-I entered the _medicine-house_ of these scenes, as I would have
-entered a church, and expected to see something extraordinary and
-strange, but yet in the form of worship or devotion; but alas! little
-did I expect to see the interior of their holy temple turned into a
-_slaughter-house_, and its floor strewed with the blood of its fanatic
-devotees. Little did I think that I was entering a house of God, where
-His blinded worshippers were to pollute its sacred interior with their
-blood, and propitiatory suffering and tortures—surpassing, if possible,
-the cruelty of the rack or the inquisition; but such the scene has
-been, and as such I will endeavour to describe it.
-
-The “_Mandan religious ceremony_” then, as I believe it is very justly
-denominated, is an annual transaction, held in their _medicine-lodge_
-once a year, as a great religious anniversary, and for several distinct
-objects, as I shall in a few minutes describe; during and after which,
-they look with implicit reliance for the justification and approval of
-the Great Spirit.
-
-All of the Indian tribes, as I have before observed, are religious—are
-worshipful—and many of them go to almost incredible lengths (as will
-be seen in the present instance, and many others I may recite) in
-worshipping the Great Spirit; denying and humbling themselves before
-Him for the same purpose, and in the same hope as we do, perhaps in a
-more rational and acceptable way.
-
-The tribes, so far as I have visited them, all distinctly believe in
-the existence of a Great (or Good) Spirit, an Evil (or Bad) Spirit,
-and also in a future existence and future accountability, according
-to their virtues and vices in this world. So far the North American
-Indians would seem to be one family, and such an unbroken theory
-amongst them; yet with regard to the manner and form, and time and
-place of that accountability—to the constructions of virtues and vices,
-and the modes of appeasing and propitiating the Good and Evil Spirits,
-they are found with all the changes and variety which fortuitous
-circumstances, and fictions, and fables have wrought upon them.
-
-If from their superstitions and their ignorance, there are oftentimes
-obscurities and mysteries thrown over and around their system, yet
-these affect not the theory itself, which is everywhere essentially
-the same—and which, if it be not correct, has this much to command
-the admiration of the enlightened world, that they worship with great
-sincerity, and all according to one creed.
-
-The Mandans believe in the existence of a Great (or Good) Spirit, and
-also of an Evil Spirit, who they say existed long before the Good
-Spirit, and is far superior in power. They all believe also in a
-future state of existence, and a future administration of rewards and
-punishments, and (so do all other tribes that I have yet visited) they
-believe those punishments are not eternal, but commensurate with their
-sins.
-
-These people living in a climate where they suffer from cold in the
-severity of their winters, have very naturally reversed our ideas of
-Heaven and Hell. The latter they describe to be a country very far
-to the north, of barren and hideous aspect, and covered with eternal
-snows and ice. The torments of this freezing place they describe as
-most excruciating; whilst Heaven they suppose to be in a warmer and
-delightful latitude, where nothing is felt but the keenest enjoyment,
-and where the country abounds in buffaloes and other luxuries of life.
-The Great or Good Spirit they believe dwells in the former place for
-the purpose of there meeting those who have offended him; increasing
-the agony of their sufferings, by being himself present, administering
-the penalties. The Bad or Evil Spirit they at the same time suppose to
-reside in Paradise, still tempting the happy; and those who have gone
-to the regions of punishment they believe to be tortured for a time
-proportioned to the amount of their transgressions, and that they are
-then to be transferred to the land of the happy, where they are again
-liable to the temptations of the Evil Spirit, and answerable again at a
-future period for their new offences.
-
-Such is the religious creed of the Mandans, and for the purpose of
-appeasing the Good and Evil Spirits, and to secure their entrance into
-those “fields Elysian,” or beautiful hunting grounds, do the young
-men subject themselves to the horrid and sickening cruelties to be
-described in the following pages.
-
-There are other three distinct objects (yet to be named) for which
-these religious ceremonies are held, which are as follow:—
-
-_First_, they are held annually as a celebration of the event of
-the subsiding of the Flood, which they call _Mee-nee-ro-ka-ha-sha_,
-(sinking down or settling of the waters.)
-
-_Secondly_, for the purpose of dancing what they call,
-_Bel-lohck-na-pic_ (the bull-dance); to the strict observance of which
-they attribute the coming of buffaloes to supply them with food during
-the season; and
-
-_Thirdly_ and lastly, for the purpose of conducting all the young men
-of the tribe, as they annually arrive to the age of manhood, through
-an ordeal of privation and torture, which, while it is supposed
-to harden their muscles and prepare them for extreme endurance,
-enables the chiefs who are spectators to the scene, to decide upon
-their comparative bodily strength and ability to endure the extreme
-privations and sufferings that often fall to the lots of Indian
-warriors; and that they may decide who is the most hardy and best able
-to lead a war-party in case of extreme exigency.
-
-This part of the ceremony, as I have just witnessed it, is truly
-shocking to behold, and will almost stagger the belief of the world
-when they read of it. The scene is too terrible and too revolting to
-be seen or to be told, were it not an essential part of a whole, which
-will be new to the civilized world, and therefore worth their knowing.
-
-The bull-dance, and many other parts of these ceremonies are
-exceedingly grotesque and amusing, and that part of them which has a
-relation to the Deluge is harmless and full of interest.
-
-In the centre of the Mandan village is an open, circular area of 150
-feet diameter, kept always clear, as a public ground, for the display
-of all their public feasts, parades, &c. and around it are their
-wigwams placed as near to each other as they can well stand, their
-doors facing the centre of this public area.
-
-In the middle of this ground, which is trodden like a hard pavement,
-is a curb (somewhat like a large hogshead standing on its end) made
-of planks (and bound with hoops), some eight or nine feet high, which
-they religiously preserve and protect from year to year, free from
-mark or scratch, and which they call the “big canoe”—it is undoubtedly
-a symbolic representation of a part of their traditional history of
-the Flood; which it is very evident, from this and numerous other
-features of this grand ceremony, they have in some way or other
-received, and are here endeavouring to perpetuate by vividly impressing
-it on the minds of the whole nation. This object of superstition,
-from its position, as the very centre of the village is the rallying
-point of the whole nation. To it their devotions are paid on various
-occasions of feasts and religious exercises during the year; and in
-this extraordinary scene it was often the nucleus of their mysteries
-and cruelties, as I shall shortly describe them, and becomes an object
-worth bearing in mind, and worthy of being understood.
-
-This exciting and appalling scene, then, which is familiarly (and no
-doubt correctly) called the “Mandan religious ceremony,” commences,
-not on a particular day of the year, (for these people keep no record
-of days or weeks), but at a particular season, which is designated by
-the full expansion of the willow leaves under the bank of the river;
-for according to their tradition, “the twig that the bird brought home
-was a willow bough, and had full-grown leaves on it,” and the bird to
-which they allude, is the mourning or turtle-dove, which they took
-great pains to point out to me, as it is often to be seen feeding on
-the sides of their earth-covered lodges, and which, being, as they call
-it, a _medicine-bird_, is not to be destroyed or harmed by any one, and
-even their dogs are instructed not to do it injury.
-
-On the morning on which this strange transaction commenced, I was
-sitting at breakfast in the house of the Trader, Mr. Kipp, when at
-sun-rise, we were suddenly startled by the shrieking and screaming
-of the women, and barking and howling of dogs, as if an enemy were
-actually storming their village.
-
-“Now we have it!” (exclaimed _mine host_, as he sprang from the table,)
-the grand ceremony has commenced!—“drop your knife and fork, Monsr. and
-get your sketch-book as soon as possible, that you may lose nothing,
-for the very moment of _commencing_ is as curious as anything else of
-this strange affair.” I seized my sketch-book, and all hands of us
-were in an instant in front of the medicine-lodge, ready to see and
-to hear all that was to take place. Groups of women and children were
-gathered on the tops of their earth-covered wigwams, and all were
-screaming, and dogs were howling, and all eyes directed to the prairies
-in the West, where was beheld at a mile distant, a solitary individual
-descending a prairie bluff, and making his way in a direct line towards
-the village!
-
-The whole community joined in the general expression of great alarm,
-as if they were in danger of instant destruction; bows were strung and
-thrumed to test their elasticity—their horses were caught upon the
-prairie and run into the village—warriors were blackening their faces,
-and dogs were muzzled, and every preparation made, as if for instant
-combat.
-
-During this deafening din and confusion within the piquets of the
-village of the Mandans, the figure discovered on the prairie continued
-to approach with a dignified step and in a right line towards the
-village; all eyes were upon him, and he at length made his appearance
-(without opposition) within the piquets, and proceeded towards the
-centre of the village, where all the chiefs and braves stood ready to
-receive him, which they did in a cordial manner, by shaking hands with
-him, recognizing him as an old acquaintance, and pronouncing his name
-_Nu-mohk-muck-a-nah_ (the first or only man). The body of this strange
-personage, which was chiefly naked, was painted with white clay, so as
-to resemble at a little distance, a white man; he wore a robe of four
-white wolf skins falling back over his shoulders; on his head he had a
-splendid head-dress made of two ravens’ skins, and in his left hand he
-cautiously carried a large pipe, which he seemed to watch and guard as
-something of great importance. After passing the chiefs and braves as
-described, he approached the _medicine_ or mystery lodge, which he had
-the means of opening, and which had been religiously closed during the
-year except for the performance of these religious rites.
-
-Having opened and entered it, he called in four men whom he appointed
-to clean it out, and put it in readiness for the ceremonies, by
-sweeping it and strewing a profusion of green willow-boughs over its
-floor, and with them decorating its sides. Wild sage also, and many
-other aromatic herbs they gathered from the prairies, and scattered
-over its floor; and over these were arranged a curious group of buffalo
-and human skulls, and other articles, which were to be used during this
-strange and unaccountable transaction.
-
-During the whole of this day, and while these preparations were
-making in the _medicine-lodge_, Nu-mohk-muck-a-nah (the first or only
-man) travelled through the village, stopping in front of every man’s
-lodge, and crying until the owner of the lodge came out, and asked
-who he was, and what was the matter? to which he replied by relating
-the sad catastrophe which had happened on the earth’s surface by the
-overflowing of the waters, saying that “he was the only person saved
-from the universal calamity; that he landed his big canoe on a high
-mountain in the west, where he now resides; that he had come to open
-the _medicine-lodge_, which must needs receive a present of some
-edged-tool from the owner of every wigwam, that it may be sacrificed
-to the water;” for he says, “if this is not done, there will be another
-flood, and no one will be saved, as it was with such tools that the big
-canoe was made.”
-
-Having visited every lodge or wigwam in the village, during the day,
-and having received such a present at each, as a hatchet, a knife, &c.
-(which is undoubtedly always prepared and ready for the occasion), he
-returned at evening and deposited them in the _medicine-lodge_, where
-they remained until the afternoon of the last day of the ceremony,
-when, as the final or closing scene, they were thrown into the river
-in a deep place, from a bank thirty feet high, and in presence of the
-whole village; from whence they can never be recovered, and where they
-were, undoubtedly, _sacrificed_ to the Spirit of the Water.
-
-During the first night of this strange character in the village, no
-one could tell where he slept; and every person, both old and young,
-and dogs, and all living things were kept within doors, and dead
-silence reigned every where. On the next morning at sunrise, however,
-he made his appearance again, and entered the _medicine-lodge_; and
-at his heels (in “_Indian file_,” _i. e._ single file, one following
-in another’s tracks) all the young men who were candidates for the
-self-tortures which were to be inflicted, and for the honours that were
-to be bestowed by the chiefs on those who could most manfully endure
-them. There were on this occasion about fifty young men who entered
-the lists, and as they went into the sacred lodge, each one’s body was
-chiefly naked, and covered with clay of different colours; some were
-red, others were yellow, and some were covered with white clay, giving
-them the appearance of white men. Each one of them carried in his right
-hand his _medicine-bag_—on his left arm, his shield of the bull’s
-hide—in his left hand, his bow and arrows, with his quiver slung on his
-back.
-
-When all had entered the lodge, they placed themselves in reclining
-postures around its sides, and each one had suspended over his head his
-respective weapons and _medicine_, presenting altogether, one of the
-most wild and picturesque scenes imaginable.
-
-Nu-mohk-muck-a-nah (the first or only man) was in the midst of them,
-and having lit and smoked his medicine-pipe for their success; and
-having addressed them in a short speech, stimulating and encouraging
-them to trust to the Great Spirit for His protection during the severe
-ordeal they were about to pass through; he called into the lodge
-an old medicine or mystery-man, whose body was painted yellow, and
-whom he appointed master of ceremonies during this occasion, whom
-they denominated in their language _O-kee-pah Ka-se-kah_ (keeper or
-conductor of the ceremonies). He was appointed, and the authority
-passed by the presentation of the medicine-pipe, on which they consider
-hangs all the power of holding and conducting all these rites.
-
-After this delegated authority had thus passed over to the
-medicine-man; Nu-mohk-muck-a-nah shook hands with him, and bade him
-good bye, saying “that he was going back to the mountains in the west,
-from whence he should assuredly return in just a year from that time,
-to open the lodge again.” He then went out of the lodge, and passing
-through the village, took formal leave of the chiefs in the same
-manner, and soon disappeared over the bluffs from whence he came. No
-more was seen of this surprising character during the occasion; but I
-shall have something yet to say of him and his strange office before I
-get through the Letter.
-
-To return to the lodge,—the medicine or mystery-man just appointed,
-and who had received his injunctions from Nu-mohk-muck-a-nah, was left
-sole conductor and keeper; and according to those injunctions, it was
-his duty to lie by a small fire in the centre of the lodge, with his
-medicine-pipe in his hand, crying to the Great Spirit incessantly,
-watching the young men, and preventing entirely their escape from the
-lodge, and all communication whatever with people outside, for the
-space of four days and nights, during which time they were not allowed
-to _eat_, to _drink_, or to _sleep_, preparatory to the excruciating
-self-tortures which they were to endure on the fourth day.
-
-I mentioned that I had made four paintings of these strange scenes,
-and the first one exhibits the interior of the medicine-lodge at
-this moment; with the young men all reclining around its sides, and
-the conductor or mystery-man lying by the fire, crying to the Great
-Spirit (+plate+ 66). It was just at this juncture that I was ushered
-into this sacred temple of their worship, with my companions, which
-was, undoubtedly, the first time that their devotions had ever been
-trespassed upon by the presence of pale faces; and in this instance had
-been brought about in the following strange and unexpected manner.
-
-I had most luckily for myself, painted a full-length portrait of this
-great magician or high-priest, but a day previous to the commencement
-of the ceremonies (in which I had represented him in the performance of
-some of his mysteries), with which he had been so exceedingly pleased
-as well as astonished (as “he could see its eyes move”), that I must
-needs be, in his opinion, deeply skilled in magic and mysteries, and
-well-entitled to a respectable rank in the craft, to which I had been
-at once elevated by the unanimous voice of the doctors, and regularly
-initiated, and styled _Te-ho-pee-nee-wash-ee-waska-pooska_, the _white
-medicine_ (or Spirit) _painter_.
-
-With this very honourable degree which had just been conferred upon me,
-I was standing in front of the medicine-lodge early in the morning,
-with my companions by my side, endeavouring to get a peep, if possible,
-into its sacred interior; when this _master of ceremonies_, guarding
-and conducting its secrets, as I before described, came out of the door
-and taking me with a firm _professional_ affection by the arm, led me
-into this _sanctum sanctorum_, which was strictly guarded from, even
-a peep or a gaze from the vulgar, by a vestibule of eight or ten feet
-in length, guarded with a double screen or door, and two or three dark
-and frowning centinels with spears or war-clubs in their hands. I gave
-the wink to my companions as I was passing in, and the potency of my
-_medicine_ was such as to gain them a quiet admission, and all of us
-were comfortably placed on elevated seats, which our conductor soon
-prepared for us.
-
-We were then in full view of everything that transpired in the lodge,
-having before us the scene exactly, which is represented in the first
-of the four pictures. To this seat we returned every morning at
-sunrise, and remained until sun-down for four days, the whole time
-which these strange scenes occupied.
-
-In addition to the preparations and arrangements of the interior of
-this sanctuary, as above described, there was a curious, though a very
-strict arrangement of buffalo and human skulls placed on the floor of
-the lodge, and between them (which were divided into two parcels),
-and in front of the reclining group of young candidates, was a small
-and very delicate scaffold, elevated about five feet from the ground,
-made of four posts or crotches, not larger than a gun-rod, and placed
-some four or five feet apart, supporting four equally delicate rods,
-resting in the crotches; thus forming the frame of the scaffold, which
-was completed by a number of still smaller and more delicate sticks,
-transversely resting upon them. On the centre of this little frame
-rested some small object, which I could not exactly understand from
-the distance of twenty or thirty feet which intervened between it and
-my eye. I started several times from my seat to approach it, but all
-eyes were instantly upon me, and every mouth in the assembly sent forth
-a hush—sh—! which brought me back to my seat again; and I at length
-quieted my stifled curiosity as well as I could, upon learning the
-fact, that so sacred was that object, and so important its secrets or
-mysteries, that not _I_ alone, but even the young men, who were passing
-the ordeal, and all the village, save the conductor of the mysteries,
-were stopped from approaching it, or knowing what it was.
-
-This little mystery-thing, whatever it was, had the appearance from
-where I sat, of a small tortoise or frog lying on its back, with
-its head and legs quite extended, and wound and tasselled off with
-exceedingly delicate red and blue, and yellow ribbons or tassels, and
-other bright coloured ornaments; and seemed, from the devotions paid
-to it, to be the very nucleus of their mysteries—the _sanctissimus
-sanctorum_, from which seemed to emanate all the sanctity of their
-proceedings, and to which, all seemed to be paying the highest
-devotional respect.
-
-This strange, yet important _essence_ of their mysteries, I made every
-enquiry about; but got no further information of, than what I could
-learn by my eyes, at the distance at which I saw it, and from the
-silent respect which I saw paid to it. I tried with the doctors, and
-all of the _fraternity_ answered me, that that was “_great medicine_,”
-assuring me that it “could not be told.” So I quieted my curiosity
-as well as I could, by the full conviction that I had a _degree_ or
-two yet to take before I could fathom all the arcana of Indian
-superstitions; and that this little, seemingly wonderful, relic of
-antiquity, symbol of some grand event, or “secret too valuable to be
-told,” might have been at last nothing but a silly bunch of strings
-and toys, to which they pay some great peculiar regard; giving thereby
-to some favourite Spirit or essence an ideal existence, and which,
-when called upon to describe, they refuse to do so, calling it “_Great
-Medicine_,” for the very reason that there is nothing in it to reveal
-or describe.
-
-[Illustration: 67]
-
-Immediately under the little frame or scaffold described, and on the
-floor of the lodge was placed a knife, and by the side of it a bundle
-of splints or skewers, which were kept in readiness for the infliction
-of the cruelties directly to be explained. There were seen also, in
-this stage of the affair, a number of cords of rawhide hanging down
-from the top of the lodge, and passing through its roof, with which
-the young men were to be suspended by the splints passed through their
-flesh, and drawn up by men placed on the top of the lodge for the
-purpose, as will be described in a few moments.
-
-There were also four articles of great veneration and importance
-lying on the floor of the lodge, which were sacks, containing in
-each some three or four gallons of water. These also were objects of
-superstitious regard, and made with great labour and much ingenuity;
-each one of them being constructed of the skin of the buffalo’s neck,
-and most elaborately sewed together in the form of a large tortoise
-lying on its back, with a bunch of eagle’s quills appended to it as a
-tail; and each of them having a stick, shaped like a drum-stick, lying
-on them, with which, in a subsequent stage of these ceremonies, as will
-be seen, they are beaten upon by several of their mystery-men, as a
-part of the music for their strange dances and mysteries. By the side
-of these sacks which they call _Eeh-teeh-ka_, are two other articles of
-equal importance, which they call _Eeh-na-dee_ (rattles), in the form
-of a gourd-shell made also of dried skins, and used at the same time
-as the others, in the music (or rather _noise_ and _din_) for their
-dances, &c.
-
-These four sacks of water have the appearance of very great
-antiquity; and by enquiring of my very ingenious friend and patron,
-the _medicine-man_, after the ceremonies were over, he very gravely
-told me, that “those four tortoises contained the waters from the
-four quarters of the world—that these waters had been contained
-therein ever since the settling down of the waters!” I did not think
-it best to advance any argument against so ridiculous a theory, and
-therefore could not even enquire or learn, at what period they had been
-instituted, or how often, or on what occasions, the water in them had
-been changed or replenished.
-
-I made several propositions, through my friend Mr. Kipp, the trader
-and interpreter, to purchase one of these strange things by offering
-them a very liberal price; to which I received in answer that these,
-and all the very numerous articles used in these ceremonies, being a
-_society property_ were _medicine_, and could not be sold for any
-consideration; so I abandoned all thoughts of obtaining anything,
-except what I have done by the _medicine_ operation of my pencil, which
-was applied to everything, and even upon that they looked with decided
-distrust and apprehension, as a sort of theft or sacrilege.
-
-Such then was the group, and such the appearance of the interior of the
-medicine-lodge during the three first, and part of the fourth day also,
-of the Mandan religious ceremonies. The medicine-man with a group about
-him, of young aspirants who were under his sole controul, as was every
-article and implement to be used, and the sanctity of this solitary and
-gloomy looking place, which could not be trespassed upon by any man’s
-presence without his most sovereign permission.
-
-During the three first days of this solemn conclave, there were many
-very curious forms and amusements enacted in the open area in the
-middle of the village, and in front of the medicine-lodge, by other
-members of the community, one of which formed a material part or
-link of these strange ceremonials. This very curious and exceedingly
-grotesque part of their performance, which they denominated _Bel-lohck
-nah-pick_ (the bull-dance) of which I have before spoken, as one of
-the avowed objects for which they held this annual fête; and to the
-strictest observance of which they attribute the coming of buffaloes to
-supply them with food during the season—is repeated four times during
-the first day, eight times on the second day, twelve times on the third
-day, and sixteen times on the fourth day; and always around the curb,
-or “_big canoe_,” of which I have before spoken.
-
-This subject I have selected for my second picture, and the principal
-actors in it were eight men, with the entire skins of buffaloes thrown
-over their backs, with the horns and hoofs and tails remaining on;
-their bodies in a horizontal position, enabling them to imitate the
-actions of the buffalo, whilst they were looking out of its eyes as
-through a mask (+plate+ 67).
-
-The bodies of these men were chiefly naked and all painted in the most
-extraordinary manner, with the nicest adherence to exact similarity;
-their limbs, bodies and faces, being in every part covered, either
-with black, red, or white paint. Each one of these strange characters
-had also a lock of buffalo’s hair tied around his ancles—in his right
-hand a rattle, and a slender white rod or staff, six feet long, in the
-other; and carried on his back, a bunch of green willow boughs about
-the usual size of a bundle of straw. These eight men, being divided
-into four pairs, took their positions on the four different sides of
-the curb or big canoe, representing thereby the four cardinal points;
-and between each group of them, with the back turned to the big canoe,
-was another figure, engaged in the same dance, keeping step with them,
-with a similar staff or wand in one hand and a rattle in the other, and
-(being four in number) answering again to the four cardinal points. The
-bodies of these four young men were chiefly naked, with no other dress
-upon them than a beautiful kelt (or quartz-quaw), around the waist,
-made of eagles quills and ermine, and very splendid head-dresses
-made of the same materials. Two of these figures were painted entirely
-black with pounded charcoal and grease, whom they called the “firmament
-or night,” and the numerous white spots which were dotted all over
-their bodies, they called “stars.” The other two were painted from
-head to foot as red as vermilion could make them; these they said
-represented the day, and the white streaks which were painted up and
-down over their bodies, were “ghosts which the morning rays were
-chasing away.”
-
-[Illustration: 68]
-
-These twelve are the only persons actually engaged in this strange
-dance, which is each time repeated in the same form, without the
-slightest variation. There are, however, a great number of characters
-engaged in giving the whole effect and wildness to this strange and
-laughable scene, each one acting well his part, and whose offices,
-strange and inexplicable as they are, I will endeavour to point out
-and explain as well as I can, from what I saw, elucidated by their own
-descriptions.
-
-This most remarkable scene, then, which is witnessed more or less often
-on each day, takes place in presence of the whole nation, who are
-generally gathered around, on the tops of the wigwams or otherwise,
-as spectators, whilst the young men are reclining and fasting in the
-lodge as above described. On the first day, this “_bull-dance_” is
-given _once_ to each of the cardinal points, and the medicine-man
-smokes his pipe in those directions. On the second day, _twice_ to
-each; _three times_ to each on the third day, and _four times_ to each
-on the fourth. As a signal for the dancers and other characters (as
-well as the public) to assemble, the old man, master of ceremonies,
-with the medicine-pipe in hand, dances out of the lodge, singing (or
-rather crying) forth a most pitiful lament, until he approaches the big
-canoe, against which he leans, with the pipe in his hand, and continues
-to cry. At this instant, four very aged and patriarchal looking men,
-whose bodies are painted red, and who have been guarding the four sides
-of the lodge, enter it and bring out the four sacks of water, which
-they place near the big canoe, where they seat themselves by the side
-of them and commence thumping on them with the mallets or drumsticks
-which have been lying on them; and another brandishes and shakes the
-_eeh-na-dees_ or rattles, and all unite to them their voices, raised
-to the highest pitch possible, as the music for the _bull-dance_,
-which is then commenced and continued for fifteen minutes or more in
-perfect time, and without cessation or intermission. When the music and
-dancing stop, which are always perfectly simultaneous, the whole nation
-raise the huzza! and a deafening shout of approbation; the master of
-ceremonies dances back to the medicine-lodge, and the old men return to
-their former place; the sacks of water, and all rest as before, until
-by the same method, they are again called into a similar action.
-
-The supernumeraries or other characters who play their parts in this
-grand spectacle, are numerous and well worth description. By the
-side of the big canoe are seen two men with the skins of grizzly
-bears thrown over them, using the skins as a mask, over their heads.
-These ravenous animals are continually growling and threatening to
-devour everything before them and interfering with the forms of their
-religious ceremony. To appease them, the women are continually bringing
-and placing before them dishes of meat, which are as often snatched up
-and carried to the prairie, by two men whose bodies are painted black
-and their heads white, whom they call bald eagles, who are darting by
-them and grasping their food from before them as they pass. These are
-again chased upon the plains by a hundred or more small boys, who are
-naked, with their bodies painted yellow and their heads white, whom
-they call _Cabris_ or antelopes; who at length get the food away from
-them and devour it; thereby inculcating (perhaps) the beautiful moral,
-that by the dispensations of Providence, his bountiful gifts will fall
-at last to the hands of the innocent.
-
-During the intervals between these dances, all these characters, except
-those from the medicine-lodge, retire to a wigwam close by, which they
-use on the occasion also as a sacred place, being occupied exclusively
-by them while they are at rest, and also for the purpose of painting
-and ornamenting their bodies for the occasion.
-
-During each and every one of these dances, the old men who beat upon
-the sacks and sing, are earnestly chanting forth their supplications
-to the Great Spirit, for the continuation of his influence in sending
-them buffaloes to supply them with food during the year; they are
-administering courage and fortitude to the young men in the lodge,
-by telling them, that “the Great Spirit has opened his ears in their
-behalf—that the very atmosphere all about them is peace—that their
-women and children can hold the mouth of the grizzly bear—that they
-have invoked from day to day O-kee-hee-de (the Evil Spirit)—that they
-are still challenging him to come, and yet he has not dared to make his
-appearance!”
-
-But alas! in the last of these dances, on the fourth day, in the midst
-of all their mirth and joy, and about noon, and in the height of all
-these exultations, an instant scream burst forth from the tops of the
-lodges!—men, women, dogs and all, seemed actually to howl and shudder
-with alarm, as they fixed their glaring eye-balls upon the prairie
-bluff, about a mile in the west, down the side of which a man was seen
-descending at full speed towards the village! This strange character
-darted about in a zig-zag course in all directions on the prairie,
-like a boy in pursuit of a butterfly, until he approached the piquets
-of the village, when it was discovered that his body was entirely
-naked, and painted as black as a negro, with pounded charcoal and
-bear’s grease; his body was therefore everywhere of a shining black,
-except occasionally white rings of an inch or more in diameter, which
-were marked here and there all over him; and frightful indentures of
-white around his mouth, resembling canine teeth. Added to his hideous
-appearance, he gave the most frightful shrieks and screams as he
-dashed through the village and entered the terrified group, which was
-composed (in that quarter) chiefly of females, who had assembled to
-witness the amusements which were transpiring around the “big canoe.”
-
-This unearthly looking creature carried in his two hands a wand or
-staff of eight or nine feet in length, with a red ball at the end of
-it, which he continually slid on the ground a-head of him as he ran.
-All eyes in the village, save those of the persons engaged in the
-dance, were centred upon him, and he made a desperate rush towards
-the women, who screamed for protection as they were endeavouring to
-retreat; and falling in groups upon each other as they were struggling
-to get out of his reach. In this moment of general terror and alarm
-there was an instant check! and all for a few moments were as silent as
-death.
-
-The old master of ceremonies, who had run from his position at the
-big canoe, had met this monster of fiends, and having thrust the
-_medicine-pipe_ before him, held him still and immoveable under its
-charm! This check gave the females an opportunity to get out of his
-reach, and when they were free from their danger, though all hearts
-beat yet with the instant excitement, their alarm soon cooled down
-into the most exorbitant laughter and shouts of applause at his sudden
-defeat, and the awkward and ridiculous posture in which he was stopped
-and held. The old man was braced stiff by his side, with his eye-balls
-glaring him in the face, whilst the medicine-pipe held in its mystic
-chains his _Satanic_ Majesty, annulling all the powers of his magical
-wand, and also depriving him of the powers of locomotion! Surely no
-two human beings ever presented a more striking group than these two
-individuals did for a few moments, with their eye-balls set in direst
-mutual hatred upon each other; both struggling for the supremacy,
-relying on the potency of their medicine or mystery. The one held in
-check, with his body painted black, representing (or rather assuming
-to be) his sable majesty, O-kee-hee-de (the Evil Spirit), frowning
-everlasting vengeance on the other, who sternly gazed him back with a
-look of exultation and contempt, as he held him in check and disarmed
-under the charm of his sacred mystery-pipe.
-
-When the superior powers of the medicine-pipe (on which hang all these
-annual mysteries) had been thus fully tested and acknowledged, and
-the women had had requisite time to withdraw from the reach of this
-fiendish monster, the pipe was very gradually withdrawn from before
-him, and he seemed delighted to recover the use of his limbs again,
-and power of changing his position from the exceedingly unpleasant and
-really ridiculous one he appeared in, and was compelled to maintain,
-a few moments before; rendered more superlatively ridiculous and
-laughable, from the further information, which I am constrained to
-give, of the plight in which this demon of terror and vulgarity made
-his _entrée_ into the midst of the Mandan village, and to the centre
-and nucleus of their first and greatest religious ceremony.
-
-Then, to proceed: I said that this strange personage’s body was
-naked—was painted jet black with charcoal and bear’s grease, with a
-wand in his hands of eight feet in length with a red ball at the end
-of it, which he was rubbing about on the ground in front of him as he
-ran. In addition to this he had—_ung gee ah waheea notch,t oheks teha,
-ung gee an ung hutch tow a tow ah ches menny. Ung gee ah to to wun nee,
-ahkst to wan ee eigh’ s ta w._
-
-In this plight, in which I have not dared fully to represent him in
-the picture, he pursued the groups of females, spreading dismay and
-alarm wherever he went, and consequently producing the awkward and
-exceedingly laughable predicament in which he was placed by the sudden
-check from the medicine-pipe, as I have above stated, when all eyes
-were intently fixed upon him, and all joined in rounds of applause for
-the success of the magic spell that was placed upon him; all voices
-were raised in shouts of satisfaction at his defeat, and all eyes
-gazed upon him; of chiefs and of warriors—matrons and even of their
-tender-aged and timid daughters, whose education had taught them to
-receive the _moral_ of these scenes without the shock of impropriety,
-that would have startled a more fastidious and consequently
-sensual-thinking people.
-
-After repeated attempts thus made, and thus defeated in several parts
-of the crowd, this blackened monster was retreating over the ground
-where the buffalo-dance was going on, and having (apparently, par
-accident) swaggered against one of the men placed under the skin of a
-buffalo and engaged in the “bull dance,” he started back, and placing
-himself in the attitude of a buffalo,—_hi ung ee a wahkstia, chee a
-nahk s tammee ung s towa; ee ung ee aht gwaht ee o nunghths tcha ho a,
-tummee oxt no ah, ughstono ah hi en en ah nahxt gwi aht gahtch gun ne.
-Gwee en on doatcht chee en aht gunne how how en ahxst tchu!_
-
-After this he paid his visits to three others of the eight, in
-succession, receiving as before the deafening shouts of approbation
-which pealed from every mouth in the multitude, who were all praying to
-the Great Spirit to send them buffaloes to supply them with food during
-the season, and who attribute the coming of buffaloes for this purpose
-entirely to the strict and critical observance of this ridiculous and
-disgusting part of the ceremonies.
-
-During the half hour or so that he had been jostled about amongst man
-and beasts, to the great amusement and satisfaction of the lookers-on,
-he seemed to have become exceedingly exhausted, and anxiously looking
-out for some feasible mode of escape.
-
-In this awkward predicament he became the laughing-stock and butt for
-the women, who being no longer afraid of him, were gathering in groups
-around, to tease and tantalize him; and in the midst of this dilemma,
-which soon became a very sad one—one of the women, who stole up behind
-him with both hands full of yellow dirt—dashed it into his face and
-eyes, and all over him, and his body being covered with grease, took
-instantly a different hue. He seemed heart-broken at this signal
-disgrace, and commenced crying most vehemently, when, _a l’instant_,
-another caught his _wand_ from his hand, and broke it across her knee.
-It was snatched for by others, who broke it still into bits, and then
-threw them at him. His power was now gone—his bodily strength was
-exhausted, and he made a bolt for the prairie—he dashed through the
-crowd, and made his way through the piquets on the back part of the
-village, where were placed for the purpose, an hundred or more women
-and girls, who escorted him as he ran on the prairie for half a mile
-or more, beating him with sticks, and stones, and dirt, and kicks, and
-cuffs, until he was at length seen escaping from their clutches, and
-making the best of his retreat over the prairie bluffs, from whence he
-first appeared.
-
-At the moment of this signal victory, and when all eyes lost sight of
-him as he disappeared over the bluffs, the whole village united their
-voices in shouts of satisfaction. The bull-dance then stopped, and
-preparations were instantly made for the commencement of the cruelties
-which were to take place within the lodge, leaving us to draw, from
-what had just transpired, the following beautiful moral:—
-
-That in the midst of their religious ceremonies, the Evil Spirit
-(O-kee-hee-de) made his entrée for the purpose of doing mischief, and
-of disturbing their worship—that he was held in check, and defeated
-by the superior influence and virtue of the _medicine-pipe_, and at
-last, driven in disgrace out of the village, by the very part of the
-community whom he came to abuse.
-
-At the close of this exciting scene, preparations were made, as above
-stated, by the return of the master of ceremonies and musicians to the
-medicine-lodge, where also were admitted at the same time a number
-of men, who were to be instruments of the cruelties to be inflicted;
-and also the chief and doctors of the tribe, who were to look on, and
-bear witness to, and decide upon, the comparative degree of fortitude,
-with which the young men sustain themselves in this most extreme and
-excruciating ordeal. The chiefs having seated themselves on one side
-of the lodge, dressed out in their robes and splendid head-dresses—the
-band of music seated and arranged themselves in another part; and the
-old master of ceremonies having placed himself in front of a small
-fire in the centre of the lodge, with his “big pipe” in his hands,
-and having commenced smoking to the Great Spirit, with all possible
-vehemence for the success of these aspirants, presented the subject for
-the third picture, which they call “_pohk-hong_,” the cutting scene
-(+plate+ 68). Around the sides of the lodge are seen, still reclining,
-as I have before mentioned, a part of the group, whilst others of them
-have passed the ordeal of self-tortures, and have been removed out of
-the lodge; and others still are seen in the very act of submitting
-to them, which were inflicted in the following manner:—After having
-removed the _sanctissimus sanctorum_, or little scaffold, of which I
-before spoke, and having removed also the buffalo and human skulls
-from the floor, and attached them to the posts of the lodge; and two
-men having taken their positions near the middle of the lodge, for the
-purpose of inflicting the tortures—the one with the scalping-knife, and
-the other with the bunch of splints (which I have before mentioned)
-in his hand; one at a time of the young fellows, already emaciated
-with fasting, and thirsting, and waking, for nearly four days and
-nights, advanced from the side of the lodge, and placed himself on his
-hands and feet, or otherwise, as best suited for the performance of
-the operation, where he submitted to the cruelties in the following
-manner:—An inch or more of the flesh on each shoulder, or each breast
-was taken up between the thumb and finger by the man who held the
-knife in his right hand; and the knife, which had been ground sharp on
-both edges, and then hacked and notched with the blade of another, to
-make it produce as much pain as possible, was forced through the flesh
-below the fingers, and being withdrawn, was followed with a splint or
-skewer, from the other, who held a bunch of such in his left hand, and
-was ready to force them through the wound. There were then two cords
-lowered down from the top of the lodge (by men who were placed on the
-lodge outside, for the purpose), which were fastened to these splints
-or skewers, and they instantly began to haul him up; he was thus raised
-until his body was suspended from the ground where he rested, until
-the knife and a splint were passed through the flesh or integuments in
-a similar manner on each arm below the shoulder (over the _brachialis
-externus_), below the elbow (over the _extensor carpi radialis_), on
-the thighs (over the _vastus externus_), and below the knees (over the
-_peroneus_).
-
-In some instances they remained in a reclining position on the ground
-until this painful operation was finished, which was performed, in all
-instances, exactly on the same parts of the body and limbs; and which,
-in its progress, occupied some five or six minutes.
-
-Each one was then instantly raised with the cords, until the weight of
-his body was suspended by them, and then, while the blood was streaming
-down their limbs, the bystanders hung upon the splints each man’s
-appropriate shield, bow and quiver, &c.; and in many instances, the
-skull of a buffalo with the horns on it, was attached to each lower arm
-and each lower leg, for the purpose, probably, of preventing by their
-great weight, the struggling, which might otherwise have taken place to
-their disadvantage whilst they were hung up.
-
-When these things were all adjusted, each one was raised higher by the
-cords, until these weights all swung clear from the ground, leaving
-his feet, in most cases, some six or eight feet above the ground. In
-this plight they at once became appalling and frightful to look at—the
-flesh, to support the weight of their bodies, with the additional
-weights which were attached to them, was raised six or eight inches by
-the skewers; and their heads sunk forward on the breasts, or thrown
-backwards, in a much more frightful condition, according to the way in
-which they were hung up.
-
-[Illustration: 69]
-
-The unflinching fortitude, with which every one of them bore this part
-of the torture surpassed credulity; each one as the knife was passed
-through his flesh sustained an unchangeable countenance; and several of
-them, seeing me making sketches, beckoned me to look at their faces,
-which I watched through all this horrid operation, without being able
-to detect anything but the pleasantest smiles as they looked me in
-the eye, while I could hear the knife rip through the flesh, and feel
-enough of it myself, to start involuntary and uncontroullable tears
-over my cheeks.
-
-When raised to the condition above described, and completely suspended
-by the cords, the sanguinary hands, through which he had just passed,
-turned back to perform a similar operation on another who was
-ready, and each one in his turn passed into the charge of others,
-who instantly introduced him to a new and improved stage of their
-refinements in cruelty.
-
-Surrounded by imps and demons as they appear, a dozen or more, who seem
-to be concerting and devising means for his exquisite agony, gather
-around him, when one of the number advances towards him in a sneering
-manner, and commences turning him around with a pole which he brings
-in his hand for the purpose. This is done in a gentle manner at first;
-but gradually increased, when the brave fellow, whose proud spirit
-can controul its agony no longer, burst out in the most lamentable
-and heart-rending cries that the human voice is capable of producing,
-crying forth a prayer to the Great Spirit to support and protect him
-in this dreadful trial; and continually repeating his confidence
-in his protection. In this condition he is continued to be turned,
-faster and faster—and there is no hope of escape from it, nor chance
-for the slightest relief, until by fainting, his voice falters, and
-his struggling ceases, and he hangs, apparently, a still and lifeless
-corpse! When he is, by turning, gradually brought to this condition,
-which is generally done within ten or fifteen minutes, there is a close
-scrutiny passed upon him among his tormentors, who are checking and
-holding each other back as long as the least struggling or tremour can
-be discovered, lest he should be removed before he is (as they term it)
-“entirely dead.”
-
-When brought to this alarming and most frightful condition, and the
-turning has gradually ceased, as his voice and his strength have given
-out, leaving him to hang entirely still, and apparently lifeless; when
-his tongue is distended from his mouth, and his _medicine-bag_, which
-he has affectionately and superstitiously clung to with his left hand,
-has dropped to the ground; the signal is given to the men on top of the
-lodge, by gently striking the cord with the pole below, when they very
-gradually and carefully lower him to the ground.
-
-In this helpless condition he lies, like a loathsome corpse to look
-at, though in the keeping (as they call it) of the Great Spirit, whom
-he trusts will protect him, and enable him to get up and walk away.
-As soon as he is lowered to the ground thus, one of the bystanders
-advances, and pulls out the two splints or pins from the breasts and
-shoulders, thereby disengaging him from the cords by which he has been
-hung up; but leaving all the others with their weights, &c. hanging to
-his flesh.
-
-In this condition he lies for six or eight minutes, until he gets
-strength to rise and move himself, for no one is allowed to assist or
-offer him aid, as he is here enjoying the most valued privilege which a
-Mandan can boast of, that of “trusting his life to the keeping of the
-Great Spirit,” in this time of extreme peril.
-
-As soon as he is seen to get strength enough to rise on his hands and
-feet, and drag his body around the lodge, he crawls with the weights
-still hanging to his body, to another part of the lodge, where there is
-another Indian sitting with a hatchet in his hand, and a dried buffalo
-skull before him; and here, in the most earnest and humble manner, by
-holding up the little finger of his left hand to the Great Spirit, he
-expresses to Him, in a speech of a few words, his willingness to give
-it as a sacrifice; when he lays it on the dried buffalo skull, where
-the other chops it off near the hand, with a blow of the hatchet!
-
-Nearly all of the young men whom I saw passing this horrid ordeal,
-gave in the above manner, the little finger of the left hand; and I
-saw also several, who immediately afterwards (and apparently with very
-little concern or emotion), with a similar speech, extended in the same
-way, the _fore_-finger of the same hand, and that too was struck off;
-leaving on the left hand only the two middle fingers and the thumb;
-all which they deem absolutely essential for holding the bow, the only
-weapon for the left hand.
-
-One would think that this mutilation had thus been carried quite far
-enough; but I have since examined several of the head chiefs and
-dignitaries of the tribe, who have also given, in this manner, the
-little finger of the right hand, which is considered by them to be a
-much greater sacrifice than both of the others; and I have found also
-a number of their most famous men, who furnish me incontestible proof,
-by five or six corresponding scars on each arm, and each breast, and
-each leg, that they had so many times in their lives submitted to this
-almost incredible operation, which seems to be optional with them;
-and the oftener they volunteer to go through it, the more famous they
-become in the estimation of their tribe.
-
-No bandages are applied to the fingers which have been amputated, nor
-any arteries taken up; nor is any attention whatever, paid to them or
-the other wounds; but they are left (as they say) “for the Great Spirit
-to cure, who will surely take good care of them.” It is a remarkable
-fact (which I learned from a close inspection of their wounds from day
-to day) that the bleeding is but very slight and soon ceases, probably
-from the fact of their extreme exhaustion and debility, caused by want
-of sustenance and sleep, which checks the natural circulation, and
-admirably at the same time prepares them to meet the severity of these
-tortures without the same degree of sensibility and pain, which, under
-other circumstances, might result in inflammation and death.
-
-During the whole of the time of this cruel part of these most
-extraordinary inflictions, the chiefs and dignitaries of the tribe are
-looking on, to decide who are the hardiest and “stoutest hearted”—who
-can hang the longest by his flesh before he faints, and who will be
-soonest up, after he has been down; that they may know whom to appoint
-to lead a war-party, or place at the most honourable and desperate
-post. The four old men are incessantly beating upon the sacks of water
-and singing the whole time, with their voices strained to the highest
-key, vaunting forth, for the encouragement of the young men, the power
-and efficacy of the _medicine-pipe_, which has disarmed the monster
-O-kee-hee-de (or Evil Spirit), and driven him from the village, and
-will be sure to protect them and watch over them through their present
-severe trial.
-
-As soon as six or eight had passed the ordeal as above described,
-they were led out of the lodge, with their weights hanging to their
-flesh, and dragging on the ground, to undergo another, and a still
-more appalling mode of suffering in the centre of the village, and in
-presence of the whole nation, in the manner as follows:—
-
-The signal for the commencement of this part of the cruelties was
-given by the old master of ceremonies, who again ran out as in
-the buffalo-dance, and leaning against the big canoe, with his
-_medicine-pipe_ in his hand, began to cry. This was done several times
-in the afternoon, as often as there were six or eight who had passed
-the ordeal just described within the lodge, who were then taken out in
-the open area, in the presence of the whole village, with the buffalo
-skulls and other weights attached to their flesh, and dragging on the
-ground! There were then in readiness, and prepared for the purpose,
-about twenty young men, selected of equal height and equal age; with
-their bodies chiefly naked, with beautiful (and similar) head-dresses
-of war-eagles’ quills, on their heads, and a wreath made of willow
-boughs held in the hands between them, connecting them in a chain or
-circle in which they ran around the big canoe, with all possible speed,
-raising their voices in screams and yelps to the highest pitch that was
-possible, and keeping the curb or _big canoe_ in the centre, as their
-nucleus.
-
-Then were led forward the young men who were further to suffer, and
-being placed at equal distances apart, and outside of the ring just
-described, each one was taken in charge of two athletic young men,
-fresh and strong, who stepped up to him, one on each side, and by
-wrapping a broad leather strap around his wrists, without tying it,
-grasped it firm underneath the hand, and stood prepared for what they
-call _Eh-ke-nah-ka-nah-pick_ (the last race, +plate+ 69). This, the
-spectator looking on would suppose was most correctly named, for he
-would think it was the last race they could possibly run in this world.
-
-In this condition they stand, pale and ghastly, from abstinence and
-loss of blood, until all are prepared, and the word is given, when
-all start and run around, outside of the other ring; and each poor
-fellow, with his weights dragging on the ground, and his furious
-conductors by his side, who hurry him forward by the wrists, struggles
-in the desperate emulation to run longer without “dying” (as they
-call it) than his comrades, who are fainting around him and sinking
-down, like himself, where their bodies are dragged with all possible
-speed, and often with their faces in the dirt. In the commencement of
-this dance or race they all start at a moderate pace, and their speed
-being gradually increased, the pain becomes so excruciating that their
-languid and exhausted frames give out, and they are dragged by their
-wrists until they are disengaged from the weights that were attached
-to their flesh, and this must be done by such violent force as to
-tear the flesh out with the splint, which (as they say) can never be
-pulled out endwise, without greatly offending the Great Spirit and
-defeating the object for which they have thus far suffered. The splints
-or skewers which are put through the breast and the shoulders, take
-up a part of the pectoral or trapezius muscle, which is necessary for
-the support of the great weight of their bodies, and which, as I have
-before mentioned, are withdrawn as soon as he is lowered down—but all
-the others, on the legs and arms, seem to be very ingeniously passed
-through the flesh and integuments without taking up the muscle, and
-even these, to be broken out, require so strong and so violent a force
-that most of the poor fellows fainted under the operation, and when
-they were freed from the last of the buffalo skulls and other weights,
-(which was often done by some of the bystanders throwing the weight of
-their bodies on to them as they were dragging on the ground) they were
-in every instance dropped by the persons who dragged them, and their
-bodies were left, appearing like nothing but a mangled and a loathsome
-corpse! At this strange and frightful juncture, the two men who had
-dragged them, fled through the crowd and away upon the prairie, as if
-they were guilty of some enormous crime, and were fleeing from summary
-vengeance.
-
-Each poor fellow, having thus patiently and manfully endured the
-privations and tortures devised for him, and (in this last struggle
-with the most appalling effort) torn himself loose from them and his
-tormentors, he lies the second time, in the “keeping (as he terms it)
-of the Great Spirit,” to whom he issues his repeated prayers, and
-entrusts his life: and in whom he reposes the most implicit confidence
-for his preservation and recovery. As an evidence of this, and of the
-high value which these youths set upon this privilege, there is no
-person, not a relation or a chief of the tribe, who is allowed, or who
-would dare, to step forward to offer an aiding hand, even to save his
-life; for not only the rigid customs of the nation, and the pride of
-the individual who has entrusted his life to the keeping of the Great
-Spirit, would sternly reject such a tender; but their superstition,
-which is the strongest of all arguments in an Indian community, would
-alone, hold all the tribe in fear and dread of interfering, when
-they consider they have so good a reason to believe that the Great
-Spirit has undertaken the special care and protection of his devoted
-worshippers.
-
-In this “last race,” which was the struggle that finally closed their
-sufferings, each one was dragged until he fainted, and was thus left,
-looking more like the dead than the living: and thus each one laid,
-until, by the aid of the Great Spirit, he was in a few minutes seen
-gradually rising, and at last reeling and staggering, like a drunken
-man, through the crowd (which made way for him) to his wigwam, where
-his friends and relatives stood ready to take him into hand and restore
-him.
-
-In this frightful scene, as in the buffalo-dance, the whole nation was
-assembled as spectators, and all raised the most piercing and violent
-yells and screams they could possibly produce, to drown the cries of
-the suffering ones, that no heart could even be touched with sympathy
-for them. I have mentioned before, that six or eight of the young men
-were brought from the medicine-lodge at a time, and when they were
-thus passed through this shocking ordeal, the medicine-men and the
-chiefs returned to the interior, where as many more were soon prepared,
-and underwent a similar treatment; and after that another batch, and
-another, and so on, until the whole number, some forty-five or fifty
-had run in this sickening circle, and, by leaving their weights, had
-opened the flesh for honourable scars. I said _all_, but there was one
-poor fellow though (and I shudder to tell it), who was dragged around
-and around the circle, with the skull of an elk hanging to the flesh
-on one of his legs,—several had jumped upon it, but to no effect, for
-the splint was under the sinew, which could not be broken. The dragging
-became every instant more and more furious, and the apprehensions for
-the poor fellow’s life, apparent by the piteous howl which was set up
-for him by the multitude around; and at last the medicine-man ran, with
-his medicine-pipe in his hand, and held them in check, when the body
-was dropped, and left upon the ground, with the skull yet hanging to
-it. The boy, who was an extremely interesting and fine-looking youth,
-soon recovered his senses and his strength, looking deliberately at
-his torn and bleeding limbs; and also with the most pleasant smile of
-defiance, upon the misfortune which had now fallen to his peculiar lot,
-crawled through the crowd (instead of walking, which they are never
-again at liberty to do until the flesh is torn out, and the article
-left) to the prairie, and over which, for the distance of half a mile,
-to a sequestered spot, without any attendant, where he laid three days
-and three nights, yet longer, without food, and praying to the Great
-Spirit, until suppuration took place in the wound, and by the decaying
-of the flesh the weight was dropped, and the splint also, which he dare
-not extricate in another way. At the end of this, he crawled back to
-the village on his hands and knees, being too much emaciated to walk,
-and begged for something to eat, which was at once given him, and he
-was soon restored to health.
-
-These extreme and difficult cases often occur, and I learn that in such
-instances the youth has it at his option to get rid of the weight that
-is thus left upon him, in such way as he may choose, and some of those
-modes are far more extraordinary than the one which I have just named.
-Several of the Traders, who have been for a number of years in the
-habit of seeing this part of the ceremony, have told me that two years
-since, when they were looking on, there was one whose flesh on the arms
-was so strong that the weights could not be left, and he dragged them
-with his body to the river by the side of the village, where he set a
-stake fast in the ground on the top of the bank, and fastening cords
-to it, he let himself half-way down a perpendicular wall of rock, of
-twenty-five or thirty feet, where the weight of his body was suspended
-by the two cords attached to the flesh of his arms. In this awful
-condition he hung for several days, equi-distant from the top of the
-rock and the deep water below, into which he at last dropped and saved
-himself by swimming ashore!
-
-I need record no more of these shocking and disgusting instances,
-of which I have already given enough to convince the world of the
-correctness of the established fact of the Indian’s superior stoicism
-and power of endurance, although some recent writers have, from motives
-of envy, from ignorance, or something else, taken great pains to cut
-the poor Indian short in everything, and in _this_, even as if it were
-a virtue.
-
-I am ready to accord to them in this particular, the palm; the credit
-of outdoing anything and everybody, and of enduring more than civilized
-man ever aspired to or ever thought of. My heart has sickened also
-with disgust for so abominable and ignorant a custom, and still I
-stand ready with all my heart, to excuse and forgive them for adhering
-so strictly to an ancient celebration, founded in superstitions and
-mysteries, of which they know not the origin, and constituting a
-material part and feature in the code and forms of their religion.
-
-Reader, I will return with you a moment to the medicine-lodge, which is
-just to be closed, and then we will indulge in some general reflections
-upon what has passed, and in what, and for what purposes this strange
-batch of mysteries has been instituted and perpetuated.
-
-After these young men, who had for the last four days occupied the
-medicine-lodge, had been operated on, in the manner above described,
-and taken out of it, the old medicine-man, master of ceremonies,
-returned, (still crying to the Great Spirit) sole tenant of that sacred
-place, and brought out the “edged tools,” which I before said had been
-collected at the door of every man’s wigwam, to be given as a sacrifice
-to the water, and leaving the lodge securely fastened, he approached
-the bank of the river, when all the medicine-men attended him, and all
-the nation were spectators; and in their presence he threw them from a
-high bank into very deep water, from which they cannot be recovered,
-and where they are, correctly speaking, made a sacrifice to the water.
-This part of the affair took place just exactly at sun-down, and closed
-the scene, being the end or finale of the _Mandan religious ceremony_.
-
-[Illustration: 70]
-
-[Illustration: 71]
-
-_The reader will forgive me for here inserting the Certificates which
-  I have just received from Mr. Kipp, of the city of New York, and two
-  others, who were with me; which I offer for the satisfaction of the
-  world, who read the above account._
-
-“_We hereby certify, that we witnessed, in company with Mr. Catlin, in
-the Mandan Village, the ceremonies represented in the four paintings,
-and described in his Notes, to which this Certificate refers; and that
-he has therein faithfully represented those scenes as we saw them
-transacted without any addition or exaggeration._
-
-                                 “+J. Kipp+, _Agent Amer. Fur Company_.
-                                  +L. Crawford+, _Clerk_.
-  “_Mandan Village, July 20, 1833._  +Abraham Bogard+.”
-
-The strange country that I am in—its excitements—its accidents and
-wild incidents which startle me at almost every moment, prevent me
-from any very elaborate disquisition upon the above remarkable events
-at present; and even had I all the time and leisure of a country
-gentleman, and all the additional information which I am daily
-procuring, and daily expect to procure hereafter in explanation of
-these unaccountable mysteries, yet do I fear that there would be
-that inexplicable difficulty that hangs over most of the customs and
-traditions of these simple people, who have no history to save facts
-and systems from falling into the most absurd and disjointed fable and
-ignorant fiction.
-
-What few plausible inferences I have as yet been able to draw from the
-above strange and peculiar transactions I will set forth, but with
-some diffidence, hoping and trusting that by further intimacy and
-familiarity with these people I may yet arrive at more satisfactory and
-important results.
-
-That these people should have a tradition of the Flood is by no means
-surprising; as I have learned from every tribe I have visited, that
-they all have some high mountain in their vicinity, where they insist
-upon it the big canoe landed; but that these people should hold an
-annual celebration of the event, and the season of that decided by such
-circumstances as the full leaf of the willow, and the medicine-lodge
-opened by such a man as Nu-mohk-muck-a-nah (who appears to be a white
-man), and making his appearance “from the high-mountains in the West;”
-and some other circumstances, is surely a very remarkable thing, and
-requires some extraordinary attention.
-
-This Nu-mohk-muck-a-nah (first or only man) is undoubtedly some mystery
-or medicine-man of the tribe, who has gone out on the prairie on the
-evening previous, and having dressed and painted himself for the
-occasion, comes into the village in the morning, endeavouring to keep
-up the semblance of reality; for their tradition says, that at a very
-ancient period such a man did actually come from the West—that his
-body was of the white colour, as this man’s body is represented—that
-he wore a robe of four white wolf skins—his head-dress was made of two
-raven’s skins—and in his left hand was a huge pipe. He said, “he was at
-one time the only man—he told them of the destruction of every thing on
-the earth’s surface by water—that he stopped in his _big canoe_ on a
-high mountain in the West, where he landed and was saved.”
-
-“That the Mandans, and all other people were bound to make yearly
-sacrifices of some edged-tools to the water, for of such things the
-big canoe was made. That he instructed the Mandans how to build
-their medicine-lodge, and taught them also the forms of these annual
-ceremonies; and told them that as long as they made these sacrifices,
-and performed their rites to the full letter, they might be assured of
-the fact, that they would be the favourite people of the Almighty, and
-would always have enough to eat and drink; and that so soon as they
-should depart in one tittle from these forms, they might be assured,
-that their race would decrease, and finally run out; and that they
-might date their nation’s calamity to that omission or neglect.”
-
-These people have, no doubt, been long living under the dread of such
-an injunction, and in the fear of departing from it; and while they are
-living in total ignorance of its origin, the world must remain equally
-ignorant of much of its meaning, as they needs must be of all Indian
-customs resting on ancient traditions, which soon run into fables,
-having lost all their system, by which they might have been construed.
-
-This strange and unaccountable custom, is undoubtedly peculiar to the
-Mandans; although, amongst the Minatarees, and some others of the
-neighbouring tribes, they have seasons of abstinence and self-torture,
-somewhat similar, but bearing no other resemblance to this than a mere
-feeble effort or form of imitation.
-
-It would seem from their tradition of the willow branch, and the dove,
-that these people must have had some proximity to some part of the
-civilized world; or that missionaries or others have been formerly
-among them, inculcating the Christian religion and the Mosaic account
-of the Flood; which is, in this and some other respects, decidedly
-different from the theory which most natural people have distinctly
-established of that event.
-
-There are other strong, and almost decisive proofs in my opinion, in
-support of the assertion, which are to be drawn from the diversity
-of colour in their hair and complexions, as I have before described,
-as well as from their tradition just related, of the “_first or only
-man_,” whose body was white, and who came from the West, telling them
-of the destruction of the earth by water, and instructing them in the
-forms of these mysteries; and, in addition to the above, I will add
-the two following very curious stories, which I had from several of
-their old and dignified chiefs, and which are, no doubt, standing and
-credited traditions of the tribe.
-
-“The Mandans (people of the pheasants) were the first people created
-in the world, and they originally lived inside of the earth; they
-raised many vines, and one of them had grown up through a hole in
-the earth, over head, and one of their young men climbed up it until
-he came out on the top of the ground, on the bank of the river, where
-the Mandan village stands. He looked around, and admired the beautiful
-country and prairies about him—saw many buffaloes—killed one with his
-bow and arrows, and found that its meat was good to eat. He returned,
-and related what he had seen; when a number of others went up the vine
-with him, and witnessed the same things. Amongst those who went up,
-were two very pretty young women, who were favourites of the chiefs,
-because they were virgins; and amongst those who were trying to get up,
-was a very large and fat woman, who was ordered by the chiefs not to go
-up, but whose curiosity led her to try it as soon as she got a secret
-opportunity, when there was no one present. When she got part of the
-way up, the vine broke under the great weight of her body, and let her
-down. She was very much hurt by the fall, but did not die. The Mandans
-were very sorry about this; and she was disgraced for being the cause
-of a very great calamity, which she had brought upon them, and which
-could never be averted; for no more could ever ascend, nor could those
-descend who had got up; but they built the Mandan village, where it
-formerly stood, a great ways below on the river; and the remainder of
-the people live under ground to this day.”
-
-The above tradition is told with great gravity by their chiefs and
-doctors or mystery-men; and the latter profess to hear their friends
-talk through the earth at certain times and places, and even consult
-them for their opinions and advice on many important occasions.
-
-The next tradition runs thus:—
-
-“At a very ancient period, O-kee-hee-de (the Evil Spirit, the black
-fellow mentioned in the religious ceremonies) came to the Mandan
-village with Nu-mohk-muck-a-nah (the first or only man) from the West,
-and sat down by a woman who had but one eye, and was hoeing corn. Her
-daughter, who was very pretty came up to her, and the Evil Spirit
-desired her to go and bring some water; but wished that before she
-started, she would come to him and eat some buffalo meat. He told her
-to take a piece out of his side, which she did and ate it, which proved
-to be buffalo-fat. She then went for the water, which she brought, and
-met them in the village where they had walked, and they both drank of
-it—nothing more was done.
-
-“The friends of the girl soon after endeavoured to disgrace her, by
-telling her that she was _enciente_, which she did not deny. She
-declared her innocence at the same time, and boldly defied any man
-in the village to come forward and accuse her. This raised a great
-excitement in the village, and as no one could stand forth to accuse
-her, she was looked upon as _great medicine_. She soon after went off
-secretly to the upper Mandan village, where the child was born.
-
-“Great search was made for her before she was found; as it was
-expected that the child would also be great _medicine_ or mystery,
-and of great importance to the existence and welfare of the tribe.
-They were induced to this belief from the very strange manner of its
-conception and birth, and were soon confirmed in it from the wonderful
-things which it did at an early age. They say, that amongst other
-miracles which he performed, when the Mandans were like to starve, he
-gave them four buffalo bulls, which filled the whole village—leaving as
-much meat as there was before they had eaten; saying that these four
-bulls would supply them for ever. Nu-mohk-muck-a-nah (the first or only
-man) was bent on the destruction of the child, and after making many
-fruitless searches for it, found it hidden in a dark place, and put it
-to death by throwing it into the river.
-
-“When O-kee-hee-de (the Evil Spirit) heard of the death of this child,
-he sought for Nu-mohk-muck-a-nah with intent to kill him. He traced
-him a long distance, and at length found him at _Heart River_, about
-seventy miles below the village, with the big medicine-pipe in his
-hand, the charm or mystery of which protects him from all of his
-enemies. They soon agreed, however, to become friends, smoked the big
-pipe together, and returned to the Mandan village. The Evil Spirit was
-satisfied; and Nu-mohk-muck-a-nah told the Mandans never to pass Heart
-River to live, for it was the centre of the world, and to live beyond
-it would be destruction to them; and he named it _Nat-com-pa-sa-hah_
-(heart or centre of the world).”
-
-Such are a few of the principal traditions of these people, which I
-have thought proper to give in this place, and I have given them in
-their own way, with all the imperfections and absurd inconsistencies
-which should be expected to characterize the history of all ignorant
-and superstitious people who live in a state of simple and untaught
-nature, with no other means of perpetuating historical events, than by
-oral traditions.
-
-I advance these vague stories then, as I have done, and shall do in
-other instances, not in support of any theory, but merely as I have
-heard them related by the Indians; and preserved them, as I have
-everything else that I could meet in the Indian habits and character,
-for the information of the world, who may get more time to theorize
-than I have at present; and who may consider better than I can, how far
-such traditions should be taken as evidence of the facts, that these
-people have for a long period preserved and perpetuated an imperfect
-knowledge of the Deluge—of the appearance and death of a Saviour—and of
-the transgressions of mother Eve.
-
-I am not yet able to learn from these people whether they have any
-distinct theory of the creation; as they seem to date nothing further
-back than their own existence as a people; saying (as I have before
-mentioned), that they were the first people created; involving the
-glaring absurdities that they were the only people on earth before
-the Flood, and the only one saved was a white man; or that they were
-created inside of the earth, as their tradition says; and that they did
-not make their appearance on its outer surface until after the Deluge.
-When an Indian story is told, it is like all other gifts, “to be taken
-for what it is worth,” and for any seeming inconsistency in their
-traditions there is no remedy; for as far as I have tried to reconcile
-them by reasoning with, or questioning them, I have been entirely
-defeated; and more than that, have generally incurred their distrust
-and ill-will. One of the Mandan doctors told me very gravely a few days
-since, that the earth was a large tortoise, that it carried the dirt on
-its back—that a tribe of people, who are now dead, and whose faces were
-white, used to dig down very deep in this ground to catch _badgers_;
-and that one day they stuck a knife through the tortoise-shell, and it
-sunk down so that the water ran over its back, and drowned all but one
-man. And on the next day while I was painting his portrait, he told me
-there were _four tortoises_,—one in the North—one in the East—one in
-the South, and one in the West; that each one of these rained ten days,
-and the water covered over the earth.
-
-These ignorant and conflicting accounts, and both from the same man,
-give as good a demonstration, perhaps, of what I have above mentioned,
-as to the inefficiency of Indian traditions as anything I could at
-present mention. They might, perhaps, have been in this instance
-however the creeds of different sects, or of different priests amongst
-them, who often advance diametrically opposite theories and traditions
-relative to history and mythology.
-
-And however ignorant and ridiculous they may seem, they are yet worthy
-of a little further consideration, as relating to a number of curious
-circumstances connected with the unaccountable religious ceremonies
-which I have just described.
-
-The Mandan chiefs and doctors, in all their feasts, where the pipe
-is lit and about to be passed around, deliberately propitiate the
-good-will and favour of the Great Spirit, by extending the stem of
-the pipe _upwards_ before they smoke it themselves; and also as
-deliberately and as strictly offering the stem to the four _cardinal
-points_ in succession, and then drawing a whiff through it, passing it
-around amongst the group.
-
-The _annual religious ceremony_ invariably lasts _four_ days, and
-the other following circumstances attending these strange forms, and
-seeming to have some allusion to the _four_ cardinal points, or the
-“four tortoises,” seem to me to be worthy of further notice. _Four_
-men are selected by Nu-mohk-muck-a-nah (as I have before said), to
-cleanse out and prepare the medicine-lodge for the occasion—one he
-calls from the _north_ part of the village—one from the _east_—one from
-the _south_, and one from the _west_. The _four_ sacks of water, in
-form of large tortoises, resting on the floor of the lodge and before
-described, would seem to be typical of the same thing; and also the
-_four_ buffalo, and the _four_ human skulls resting on the floor of the
-same lodge—the _four_ couples of dancers in the “bull-dance,” as before
-described, and also the _four_ intervening dancers in the same dance,
-and also described
-
-The bull-dance in front of the medicine-lodge, repeated on the _four_
-days, is danced _four_ times on the first day, _eight_ times on the
-second, _twelve_ times on the third, and _sixteen_ times on the
-_fourth_; (adding _four_ dances on each of the _four_ days,) which
-added together make _forty_, the exact number of days that it rained
-upon the earth, according to the Mosaic account, to produce the Deluge.
-There are _four_ sacrifices of black and blue cloths erected over the
-door of the medicine-lodge—the visits of O-kee-hee-de (or Evil Spirit)
-were paid to _four_ of the buffaloes in the buffalo-dance, as above
-described; and in every instance, the young men who underwent the
-tortures before explained, had _four_ splints or skewers run through
-the flesh on their legs—_four_ through the arms and _four_ through the
-body.
-
-Such is a brief account of these strange scenes which I have just been
-witnessing, and such my brief history of the Mandans. I might write
-much more on them, giving yet a volume on their stories and traditions;
-but it would be a volume of fables, and scarce worth recording. A
-nation of Indians in their primitive condition, where there are no
-historians, have but a temporary historical existence, for the reasons
-above advanced, and their history, what can be certainly learned of it,
-may be written in a very small compass.
-
-I have dwelt longer on the history and customs of these people than I
-have or shall on any other tribe, in all probability, and that from the
-fact that I have found them a very peculiar people, as will have been
-seen by my notes.
-
-From these very numerous and striking peculiarities in their personal
-appearance—their customs—traditions and language, I have been led
-conclusively to believe that they are a people of decidedly a different
-origin from that of any other tribe in these regions.
-
-From these reasons, as well as from the fact that they are a small and
-feeble tribe, against whom the powerful tribe of Sioux are waging a
-deadly war with the prospect of their extermination; and who with their
-limited numbers, are not likely to hold out long in their struggle for
-existence, I have taken more pains to pourtray their whole character,
-than my limited means will allow me to bestow upon other tribes.
-
-From the ignorant and barbarous and disgusting customs just recited,
-the world would naturally infer, that these people must be the most
-cruel and inhuman beings in the world—yet, such is not the case, and it
-becomes my duty to say it; a better, more honest, hospitable and kind
-people, as a community, are not to be found in the world. No set of men
-that ever I associated with have better hearts than the Mandans, and
-none are quicker to embrace and welcome a white man than they are—none
-will press him closer to his bosom, that the pulsation of his heart may
-be felt, than a Mandan; and no man in any country will keep his word
-and guard his honour more closely.
-
-The shocking and disgusting custom that I have just described, sickens
-the heart and even the stomach of a traveller in the country, and he
-weeps for their ignorance—he pities them with all his heart for their
-blindness, and laments that the light of civilization, of agriculture
-and religion cannot be extended to them, and that their hearts which
-are good enough, could not be turned to embrace something more rational
-and conducive to their true happiness.
-
-Many would doubtless ask, whether such a barbarous custom could be
-eradicated from these people? and whether their thoughts and tastes,
-being turned to agriculture and religion, could be made to abandon the
-dark and random channel in which they are drudging, and made to flow in
-the light and life of civilization?
-
-To this query I answer _yes_. Although this is a custom of long
-standing, being a part of their religion; and probably valued as one
-of their dearest rights; and notwithstanding the difficulty of making
-inroads upon the religion of a people in whose country there is no
-severence of opinions, and consequently no division into different
-sects, with different creeds to shake their faith; I still believe, and
-I _know_, that by a judicious and persevering effort, this abominable
-custom, and others, might be extinguished, and the beautiful green
-fields about the Mandan village might be turned into productive
-gardens, and the waving green bluffs that are spread in the surrounding
-distance, might be spotted with lowing kine, instead of the sneaking
-wolves and the hobbled war-horses that are now stalking about them.
-
-All ignorant and superstitious people, it is a well-known fact, are
-the most fixed and stubborn in their religious opinions, and perhaps
-the most difficult to divert from their established belief, from the
-very fact that they are the most difficult to reason with. Here is
-an ignorant race of human beings, who have from time immemorial been
-in the habit of worshipping in their own way, and of enjoying their
-religious opinions without ever having heard any one to question their
-correctness; and in those opinions they are quiet and satisfied, and
-it requires a patient, gradual, and untiring effort to convince such
-a people that they are wrong, and to work the desired change in their
-belief, and consequently in their actions.
-
-It is decidedly my opinion, however, that such a thing _can_ be done,
-and I do not believe there is a race of wild people on earth where the
-experiment could be more successfully made than amongst the kind and
-hospitable Mandans, nor any place where the Missionary labours of pious
-and industrious men would be more sure to succeed, or more certain to
-be rewarded in the world to come.
-
-I deem such a trial of patience and perseverance with these people of
-great importance, and well worth the experiment. One which I shall hope
-soon to see accomplished, and which, if properly conducted, I am sure
-will result in success. Severed as they are from the contaminating and
-counteracting vices which oppose and thwart most of the best efforts
-of the Missionaries along the frontier, and free from the almost fatal
-prejudices which they have there to contend with; they present a
-better field for the labours of such benevolent teachers than they
-have yet worked in, and a far better chance than they have yet had of
-proving to the world that the poor Indian is not a brute—that he is
-a human and humane being, that he is capable of improvement—and that
-his mind is a beautiful blank on which anything can be written if the
-proper means be taken.
-
-The Mandans being but a small tribe, of two thousand only, and living
-all in two villages, in sight of each other, and occupying these
-permanently, without roaming about like other neighbouring tribes,
-offer undoubtedly, the best opportunity for such an experiment of any
-tribe in the country. The land about their villages is of the best
-quality for ploughing and grazing, and the water just such as would
-be desired. Their villages are fortified with piquets or stockades,
-which protect them from the assaults of their enemies at home; and
-the introduction of agriculture (which would supply them with the
-necessaries and luxuries of life, without the necessity of continually
-exposing their lives to their more numerous enemies on the plains, when
-they are seeking in the chase the means of their subsistence) would
-save them from the continual wastes of life, to which, in their wars
-and the chase they are continually exposed, and which are calculated
-soon to result in their extinction.
-
-I deem it not folly nor idle to say that these people _can be saved_,
-nor officious to suggest to some of the very many excellent and
-pious men, who are almost throwing away the best energies of their
-lives along the debased frontier, that if they would introduce the
-ploughshare and their prayers amongst these people, who are so far
-separated from the taints and contaminating vices of the frontier, they
-would soon see their most ardent desires accomplished and be able to
-solve to the world the perplexing enigma, by presenting a nation of
-savages, civilized and christianized (and consequently _saved_), in the
-heart of the American wilderness.
-
-
-
-
-                             LETTER—No. 23.
-
-                  MINATAREE VILLAGE, _UPPER MISSOURI_.
-
-
-Soon after witnessing the curious scenes described in the former
-Letters, I changed my position to the place from whence I am now
-writing—to the village of the Minatarees, which is also located on
-the west bank of the Missouri river, and only eight miles above the
-Mandans. On my way down the river in my canoe, I passed this village
-without attending to their earnest and clamorous invitations for me to
-come ashore, and it will thus be seen that I am retrograding a little,
-to see all that is to be seen in this singular country.
-
-I have been residing here some weeks, and am able already to say of
-these people as follows:—
-
-The Minatarees (people of the willows) are a small tribe of about 1500
-souls, residing in three villages of earth-covered lodges, on the
-banks of Knife river; a small stream, so called, meandering through
-a beautiful and extensive prairie, and uniting its waters with the
-Missouri.
-
-This small community is undoubtedly a part of the tribe of Crows, of
-whom I have already spoken, living at the base of the Rocky Mountains,
-who have at some remote period, either in their war or hunting
-excursions, been run off by their enemy, and their retreat having been
-prevented, have thrown themselves upon the hospitality of the Mandans,
-to whom they have looked for protection, and under whose wing they are
-now living in a sort of confederacy, ready to intermarry and also to
-join, as they often have done, in the common defence of their country.
-
-In language and personal appearance, as well as in many of their
-customs, they are types of the Crows; yet having adopted and so long
-lived under its influence, the system of the Mandans, they are much
-like them in many respects, and continually assimilating to the modes
-of their patrons and protectors. Amongst their vague and various
-traditions they have evidently some disjointed authority for the manner
-in which they came here; but no account of the time. They say, that
-they came poor—without wigwams or horses—were nearly all women, as
-their warriors had been killed off in their flight; that the Mandans
-would not take them into their village, nor let them come nearer than
-where they are now living, and there assisted them to build their
-villages. From these circumstances their wigwams have been constructed
-exactly in the same manner as those of the Mandans, which I have
-already described, and entirely distinct from any custom to be seen in
-the Crow tribe.
-
-Notwithstanding the long familiarity in which they have lived with the
-Mandans, and the complete adoption of most of their customs, yet it is
-almost an unaccountable fact, that there is scarcely a man in the tribe
-who can speak half a dozen words of the Mandan language; although on
-the other hand, the Mandans are most of them able to converse in the
-Minataree tongue; leaving us to conclude, either that the Minatarees
-are a very inert and stupid people, or that the Mandan language (which
-is most probably the case) being different from any other language in
-the country, is an exceedingly difficult one to learn.
-
-The principal village of the Minatarees which is built upon the bank
-of the Knife river (+plate+ 70), contains forty or fifty earth-covered
-wigwams, from forty to fifty feet in diameter, and being elevated,
-overlooks the other two which are on lower ground and almost lost
-amidst their numerous corn fields and other profuse vegetation which
-cover the earth with their luxuriant growth.
-
-The scenery along the banks of this little river, from village to
-village, is quite peculiar and curious; rendered extremely so by the
-continual wild and garrulous groups of men, women, and children, who
-are wending their way along its winding shores, or dashing and plunging
-through its blue waves, enjoying the luxury of swimming, of which both
-sexes seem to be passionately fond. Others are paddling about in their
-tub-like canoes, made of the skins of buffaloes; and every now and
-then, are to be seen their sudatories, or vapour-baths (+plate+ 71),
-where steam is raised by throwing water on to heated stones; and the
-patient jumps from his sweating-house and leaps into the river in the
-highest state of perspiration, as I have more fully described whilst
-speaking of the bathing of the Mandans.
-
-The chief sachem of this tribe is a very ancient and patriarchal
-looking man, by the name of Eeh-tohk-pah-shee-pee-shah (the black
-moccasin), and counts, undoubtedly, more than an hundred _snows_. I
-have been for some days an inmate of his hospitable lodge, where he
-sits tottering with age, and silently reigns sole monarch of his little
-community around him, who are continually dropping in to cheer his
-sinking energies, and render him their homage. His voice and his sight
-are nearly gone; but the gestures of his hands are yet energetic and
-youthful, and freely speak the language of his kind heart.
-
-I have been treated in the kindest manner by this old chief; and have
-painted his portrait (+plate+ 72) as he was seated on the floor of his
-wigwam, smoking his pipe, whilst he was recounting over to me some of
-the extraordinary feats of his life, with a beautiful Crow robe wrapped
-around him, and his hair wound up in a conical form upon his head, and
-fastened with a small wooden pin, to keep it in its place.
-
-This man has many distinct recollections of Lewis and Clarke, who were
-the first explorers of this country, and who crossed the Rocky
-Mountains thirty years ago. It will be seen by reference to their very
-interesting history of their tour, that they were treated with great
-kindness by this man; and that they in consequence constituted him
-chief of the tribe, with the consent of his people; and he has remained
-their chief ever since. He enquired very earnestly for “Red Hair” and
-“Long Knife” (as he had ever since termed Lewis and Clarke), from the
-fact, that one had red hair (an unexampled thing in his country), and
-the other wore a broad sword which gained for him the appellation of
-“Long Knife.”
-
-[Illustration: 72]
-
-[Illustration: 73]
-
-[Illustration: 74]
-
-I have told him that “Long Knife” has been many years dead; and that
-“Red Hair” is yet living in St. Louis, and no doubt, would be glad to
-hear of him; at which he seemed much pleased, and has signified to me
-that he will make me bearer of some peculiar dispatches to him.[5]
-
-The name by which these people are generally called (Grosventres) is
-one given them by the French Traders, and has probably been applied to
-them with some degree of propriety or fitness, as contradistinguished
-from the Mandans, amongst whom these Traders were living; and who
-are a small race of Indians, being generally at or below the average
-stature of man; whilst the Minatarees are generally tall and heavily
-built. There is no tribe in the western wilds, perhaps, who are better
-entitled to the style of warlike, than the Minatarees; for they, unlike
-the Mandans, are continually carrying war into their enemies’ country;
-oftentimes drawing the poor Mandans into unnecessary broils, and
-suffering so much themselves in their desperate war-excursions, that I
-find the proportion of women to the number of men as two or three to
-one, through the tribe.
-
-The son of Black Moccasin, whose name is Ee-a-chin-che-a (the red
-thunder), and who is reputed one of the most desperate warriors of his
-tribe, I have also painted at full length, in his war-dress (+plate+
-73), with his bow in his hand, his quiver slung, and his shield upon
-his arm. In this plight, _sans_ head-dress, _sans_ robe, and _sans_
-everything that might be an useless incumbrance—with the body chiefly
-naked, and profusely bedaubed with red and black paint, so as to form
-an almost perfect disguise, the Indian warriors invariably sally forth
-to war; save the chief, who always plumes himself, and leads on his
-little band, tendering himself to his enemies a conspicuous mark, with
-all his ornaments and trophies upon him; that his enemies, if they get
-him, may get a prize worth the fighting for.
-
-Besides chiefs and warriors to be admired in this little tribe, there
-are many beautiful and voluptuous looking women, who are continually
-crowding in throngs, and gazing upon a stranger; and possibly shedding
-more bewitching smiles from a sort of necessity, growing out of the
-great disparity in numbers between them and the rougher sex, to which I
-have before alluded.
-
-From the very numerous groups of these that have from day to day
-constantly pressed upon me, overlooking the operations of my brush;
-I have been unable to get more than one who would consent to have
-her portrait painted, owing to some fear or dread of harm that might
-eventually ensue in consequence; or from a natural coyness or timidity,
-which is surpassing all description amongst these wild tribes, when in
-presence of strangers.
-
-The one whom I have painted (+plate+ 74) is a descendant from the old
-chief; and though not the most beautiful, is yet a fair sample of
-them, and dressed in a beautiful costume of the mountain-sheep skin,
-handsomely garnished with porcupine quills and beads. This girl was
-almost _compelled_ to stand for her picture by her relatives who urged
-her on, whilst she modestly declined, offering as her excuse that “she
-was not pretty enough, and that her picture would be laughed at.”
-This was either ignorance or excessive art on her part; for she was
-certainly more than comely, and the beauty of her name, Seet-se-be-a
-(the midday sun) is quite enough to make up for a deficiency, if there
-were any, in the beauty of her face.
-
-I mentioned that I found these people raising abundance of corn or
-maize; and I have happened to visit them in the season of their
-festivities, which annually take place when the ears of corn are of the
-proper size for eating. The green corn is considered a great luxury by
-all those tribes who cultivate it; and is ready for eating as soon as
-the ear is of full size, and the kernels are expanded to their full
-growth, but are yet soft and pulpy. In this green state of the corn,
-it is boiled and dealt out in great profusion to the whole tribe, who
-feast and surfeit upon it whilst it lasts; rendering thanks to the
-_Great Spirit_ for the return of this joyful season, which they do
-by making sacrifices, by dancing, and singing songs or thanksgiving.
-This joyful occasion is one valued alike, and conducted in a similar
-manner, by most of the tribes who raise the corn, however remote they
-may be from each other. It lasts but for a week or ten days; being
-limited to the longest term that the corn remains in this tender and
-palatable state; during which time all hunting, and all war-excursions,
-and all other avocations, are positively dispensed with; and all join
-in the most excessive indulgence of gluttony and conviviality that can
-possibly be conceived. The fields of corn are generally pretty well
-stripped during this excess; and the poor improvident Indian thanks the
-Great Spirit for the indulgence he has had, and is satisfied to ripen
-merely the few ears that are necessary for his next year’s planting,
-without reproaching himself for his wanton lavishness, which has laid
-waste his fine fields, and robbed him of the golden harvest, which
-might have gladdened his heart, with those of his wife and little
-children, through the cold and dreariness of winter.
-
-The most remarkable feature of these joyous occasion is the _green
-corn-dance_, which is always given as preparatory to the feast, and
-by most of the tribes in the following manner:—
-
-[Illustration: 75]
-
-At the usual season, and the time when from outward appearance of the
-stalks and ears of the corn, it is supposed to be nearly ready for
-use, several of the old women who are the owners of fields or patches
-of corn (for such are the proprietors and cultivators of all crops in
-Indian countries, the men never turning their hands to such degrading
-occupations) are delegated by the medicine-men to look at the corn
-fields every morning at sun-rise, and bring into the council-house,
-where the kettle is ready, several ears of corn, the husks of which the
-women are not allowed to break open or even to peep through. The women
-then are from day to day discharged and the doctors left to decide,
-until from repeated examinations they come to the decision that it
-will do; when they dispatch _runners_ or _criers_, announcing to every
-part of the village or tribe that the Great Spirit has been kind to
-them, and they must all meet on the next day to return thanks for his
-goodness. That all must empty their stomachs, and prepare for the feast
-that is approaching.
-
-On the day appointed by the doctors, the villagers are all assembled,
-and in the midst of the group a kettle is hung over a fire and filled
-with the green corn, which is well boiled, to be given to the Great
-Spirit, as a sacrifice necessary to be made before any one can indulge
-the cravings of his appetite. Whilst this first kettleful is boiling,
-four medicine-men, with a stalk of the corn in one hand and a rattle
-(she-she-quoi) in the other, with their bodies painted with white clay,
-dance around the kettle, chanting a song of thanksgiving to the Great
-Spirit to whom the offering is to be made (+plate+ 75). At the same
-time a number of warriors are dancing around in a more extended circle,
-with stalks of the corn in their hands, and joining also in the song of
-thanksgiving, whilst the villagers are all assembled and looking on.
-During this scene there is an arrangement of wooden bowls laid upon the
-ground, in which the feast is to be dealt out, each one having in it a
-spoon made of the buffalo or mountain-sheep’s horn.
-
-In this wise the dance continues until the doctors decide that the corn
-is sufficiently boiled; it then stops for a few moments, and again
-assumes a different form and a different song, whilst the doctors are
-placing the ears on a little scaffold of sticks, which they erect
-immediately over the fire where it is entirely consumed, as they join
-again in the dance around it.
-
-The fire is then removed, and with it the ashes, which together are
-buried in the ground, and _new fire_ is originated on the same spot
-where the old one was, by friction, which is done by a desperate and
-painful exertion by three men seated on the ground, facing each other
-and violently drilling the end of a stick into a hard block of wood by
-rolling it between the hands, each one catching it in turn from the
-others without allowing the motion to stop until smoke, and at last a
-spark of fire is seen and caught in a piece of spunk, when there is
-great rejoicing in the crowd. With this a fire is kindled, and the
-kettleful of corn again boiled for the feast, at which the chiefs,
-doctors, and warriors are seated; and after this an unlimited licence
-is given to the whole tribe, who surfeit upon it and indulge in all
-their favourite amusements and excesses, until the fields of corn are
-exhausted, or its ears have become too hard for their comfortable
-mastication.
-
-Such are the general features of the green corn festivity and dance
-amongst most of the tribes; and amongst some there are many additional
-forms and ceremonies gone through, preparatory to the indulgence in the
-feast.
-
-Some of the southern tribes concoct a most bitter and nauseating
-draught, which they call _asceola_ (the black drink), which they drink
-to excess for several days previous to the feast; ejecting everything
-from their stomachs and intestines, enabling them after this excessive
-and painful purgation, to commence with the green corn upon an empty
-and keen stomach.
-
-[Illustration: 76]
-
-  [5] About a year after writing the above, and whilst I was in St.
-  Louis, I had the pleasure of presenting the compliments of this old
-  veteran to General Clarke; and also of shewing to him the portrait,
-  which he instantly recognized amongst hundreds of others; saying,
-  that “they had considered the Black Moccasin quite an old man when
-  they appointed him chief thirty-two years ago.”
-
-
-
-
-                             LETTER—No. 24.
-
-                  MINATAREE VILLAGE, _UPPER MISSOURI_.
-
-
-Epistles from such a strange place as this, where I have no desk to
-write from, or mail to send them by, are hastily scribbled off in my
-note-book, as I can steal a little time from the gaze of the wild group
-that is continually about me; and instead of _sending_ them, _keeping_
-them to bring with me when I make my retreat from the country.
-
-The only place where I can satisfactorily make these entries is in
-the shade of some sequestered tree, to which I occasionally resort,
-or more often from my bed (from which I am now writing), enclosed by
-a sort of curtains made of the skins of elks or buffaloes, completely
-encompassing me, where I am reclining on a sacking-bottom, made of the
-buffalo’s hide; making my entries and notes of the incidents of the
-past day, amidst the roar and unintelligible din of savage conviviality
-that is going on under the same roof, and under my own eye, whenever I
-feel disposed to apply it to a small aperture which brings at once the
-whole interior and all its inmates within my view.
-
-There are at this time some distinguished guests, besides _myself_, in
-the lodge of the Black Moccasin; two chiefs or leaders of a party of
-Crows, who arrived here a few days since, on a visit to their ancient
-friends and relatives. The consequence has been, that feasting and
-carousing have been the “order of the day” here for some time; and I
-have luckily been a welcome participator in their entertainments. A
-distinguished chief of the Minatarees, with several others in company,
-has been for some months past on a visit to the Crows and returned,
-attended by some remarkably fine-looking fellows, all mounted on fine
-horses. I have said something of these fine specimens of the human race
-heretofore; and as I have been fastening more of them to the canvass
-within the few days past, I must use this occasion to add what follows:—
-
-I think I have said that no part of the human race could present a
-more picturesque and thrilling appearance on horseback than a party
-of Crows rigged out in all their plumes and trappings—galloping about
-and yelping, in what they call a war-parade, _i. e._ in a sort of
-tournament or sham-fight, passing rapidly through the evolutions of
-battle, and vaunting forth the wonderful character of their military
-exploits. This is an amusement, of which they are excessively fond; and
-great preparations are invariably made for these occasional shows.
-
-No tribe of Indians on the Continent are better able to produce a
-pleasing and thrilling effect in these scenes, nor any more vain,
-and consequently better prepared to draw pleasure and satisfaction
-from them, than the Crows. They may be justly said to be the most
-beautifully clad of all the Indians in these regions, and bringing
-from the base of the Rocky Mountains a fine and spirited breed of the
-wild horses, have been able to create a great sensation amongst the
-Minatarees, who have been paying them all attention and all honours for
-some days past.
-
-From amongst these showy fellows who have been entertaining us and
-pleasing themselves with their extraordinary feats of horsemanship,
-I have selected one of the most conspicuous, and transferred him and
-his horse, with arms and trappings, as faithfully as I could to the
-canvass, for the information of the world, who will learn vastly
-more from lines and colours than they could from oral or written
-delineations.
-
-I have painted him as he sat for me, balanced on his leaping wild horse
-(+plate+ 76) with his shield and quiver slung on his back, and his long
-lance decorated with the eagle’s quills, trailed in his right hand.
-His shirt and his leggings, and moccasins, were of the mountain-goat
-skins, beautifully dressed; and their seams everywhere fringed with a
-profusion of scalp-locks taken from the heads of his enemies slain in
-battle. His long hair, which reached almost to the ground whilst he was
-standing on his feet, was now lifted in the air, and floating in black
-waves over the hips of his leaping charger. On his head, and over his
-shining black locks, he wore a magnificent crest or head-dress, made of
-the quills of the war-eagle and ermine skins; and on his horse’s head
-also was another of equal beauty and precisely the same in pattern and
-material. Added to these ornaments there were yet many others which
-contributed to his picturesque appearance, and amongst them a beautiful
-netting of various colours, that completely covered and almost obscured
-the horse’s head and neck, and extended over its back and its hips,
-terminating in a most extravagant and magnificent crupper, embossed and
-fringed with rows of beautiful shells and porcupine quills of various
-colours.
-
-With all these picturesque ornaments and trappings upon and about
-him, with a noble figure, and the bold stamp of a wild _gentleman_
-on his face, added to the rage and spirit of his wild horse, in time
-with whose leaps he issued his startling (though smothered) yelps, as
-he gracefully leaned to and fro, leaving his plumes and his plumage,
-his long locks and his fringes, to float in the wind, he galloped
-about; and felt exceeding pleasure in displaying the extraordinary
-skill which a lifetime of practice and experiment had furnished him
-in the beautiful art of riding and managing his horse, as well as in
-displaying to advantage his weapons and ornaments of dress, by giving
-them the grace of motion, as they were brandished in the air and
-floating in the wind.
-
-[Illustration: 77]
-
-[Illustration: 78]
-
-[Illustration: 79]
-
-I have also secured the portraits of Ee-he-a-duck-chee-a (he who ties
-his hair before, +plate+ 78), and Pa-ris-ka-roo-pa (the two Crows,
-+plate+ 77); fine and fair specimens of this tribe, in both of which
-are exhibited the extraordinary instances of the natural hair reaching
-to the ground, peculiarities belonging almost exclusively to this
-tribe, and of which I have in a former Letter given some account. In
-presenting such instances as these, I offer them, (and the reader will
-take them of course) as extraordinary and rare occurrences amongst
-the tribe, who generally fall short of these in this peculiarity, and
-also in elegance of dress and ornament; although many others from
-their numbers might be selected of equal extravagance. The Crows are
-generally handsome, and comfortably clad; every man in the nation oils
-his hair with a profusion of bear’s grease, and promotes its growth to
-the utmost of his ability; and the greater part of them cultivate it
-down on to the calf of the leg, whilst a few are able to make it sweep
-the ground.
-
-In a former Letter I gave some account of the form of the head peculiar
-to this tribe which may well be recorded as a national characteristic,
-and worthy of further attention, which I shall give it on a future
-occasion. This striking peculiarity is quite conspicuous in the two
-portraits of which I have just spoken, exhibiting fairly, as they
-are both in profile, the _semi-lunar_ outline of the face of which I
-have before spoken, and which strongly characterizes them as distinct
-from any relationship or resemblance to, the Blackfeet, Shiennes,
-Knisteneaux, Mandans, or other tribes now existing in these regions.
-The peculiar character of which I am speaking, like all other national
-characteristics, is of course met by many exceptions in the tribe,
-though the greater part of the men are thus strongly marked with
-a bold and prominent anti-angular nose, with a clear and rounded
-arch, and a low and receding forehead; the frontal bone oftentimes
-appearing to have been compressed by some effort of art, in a certain
-degree approaching to the horrid distortion thus produced amongst the
-Flatheads beyond the Rocky Mountains. I learned however from repeated
-inquiries, that no such custom is practiced amongst them, but their
-heads, such as they are, are the results of a natural growth, and
-therefore may well be offered as the basis of a national or tribal
-_character_.
-
-I recollect to have seen in several publications on the antiquities of
-Mexico, many rude drawings made by the ancient Mexicans, of which the
-singular profiles of these people forcibly remind me, almost bringing
-me to the conclusion that these people may be the descendants of the
-race who have bequeathed those curious and inexplicable remains to the
-world, and whose scattered remnants, from dire and unknown necessities
-of those dark and veiled ages that have gone by, have been jostled and
-thrown along through the hideous and almost impenetrable labyrinths
-of the Rocky Mountains to the place of their destination where they
-now live. I am stopped, however, from advancing such as a _theory_,
-and much prefer to leave it to other hands, who may more easily get
-over difficulties which I should be afraid to encounter in the very
-outset, from the very important questions raised in my mind, as to the
-correctness of those rude and ignorant outlines, in truly establishing
-the looks and character of a people. Amongst a people so ignorant and
-so little advanced in the arts as the ancient Mexicans were, from whose
-tracings those very numerous drawings are copied, I think it would be
-assuming a great deal too much for satisfactory argument, to claim
-that such records were to set up to the world the looks and character
-of a people who have sunk into oblivion, when the heads of horses and
-other animals, drawn by the same hands, are so rude and so much out of
-drawing as scarcely to be distinguished, one from the other. I feel
-as if such rude outlines should be received with great caution and
-distrust, in establishing the character of a people; and for a fair
-illustration of the objection I am raising, I would refer the reader to
-a number of _fac-simile_ drawings which I have copied from some of the
-paintings of the Mandans (on the three plates following +plate+ 65),
-where most of the figures have the forehead and nose answering exactly
-to these Mexican outlines, and strikingly resembling the _living
-Crows_, also, when they have certainly borrowed nothing from either,
-nor have they any living outlines like them in their own tribe to have
-copied from.
-
-Since writing the above I have passed through many vicissitudes, and
-witnessed many curious scenes worthy of relating, some of which I will
-scribble now, and leave the rest for a more leisure occasion. I have
-witnessed many of the valued games and amusements of this tribe, and
-made sketches of them; and also have painted a number of portraits of
-distinguished warriors and braves which will be found in my collection.
-
-I have just been exceedingly amused with a formal and grave meeting
-which was called around me, formed by a number of young men, and even
-chiefs and doctors of the tribe, who, having heard that I was _great
-medicine_, and a great chief, took it upon themselves to suppose that
-I might (or perhaps must) be, a man of influence amongst the “pale
-faces,” and capable of rendering them some relief in a case of very
-great grievance, under which they represented that they were suffering.
-Several most profound speeches were made to me, setting forth these
-grievances, somewhat in the following manner:—They represented, that
-about five or six years ago, an unknown, small animal—not far differing
-in size from a ground squirrel, but with a long, round tail, shewed
-himself slily about one of the chief’s wigwams, peeping out from under
-the pots and kettles, and other such things; which they looked upon
-as great _medicine_—and no one dared to kill it; but hundreds came to
-watch and look at it. On one of these occasions, one of the spectators
-saw this strange animal catching and devouring a small “deer mouse,”
-of which little and very destructive animals their lodges contained
-many. It was then at once determined that this had been an act of the
-Great Spirit, as a means of putting a stop to the spoliations committed
-by these little sappers, who were cutting their clothing, and other
-manufactures to pieces in a lamentable manner. Councils had been called
-and solemn decrees issued for the countenance and protection of this
-welcome visitor and its progeny, which were soon ascertained to be
-rapidly increasing, and calculated soon to rid them of these thousands
-of little depredators. It was soon, however, learned from one of the
-Fur Traders, that this distinguished object of their superstition
-(which my man Ba’tiste familiarly calls “_Monsr. Ratapon_”) had, a
-short time before, landed himself from one of their keel boats, which
-had ascended the Missouri river for the distance of 1800 miles; and had
-taken up its residence, without introduction or invitation, in one of
-their earth-covered wigwams.
-
-This information, for a while, curtailed the extraordinary respect they
-had for some time been paying to it; but its continual war upon these
-little mice, which it was using for its food, in the absence of all
-other nutriment, continued to command their respect, in spite of the
-manner in which it had been introduced; being unwilling to believe that
-it had come from that source, even, without the agency in some way of
-the Great Spirit.
-
-Having been thus introduced and nurtured, and their numbers having been
-so wonderfully increased in the few last years, that every wigwam was
-infested with them,—that their _caches_, where they bury their corn
-and other provisions, were robbed and sacked; and the very pavements
-under their wigwams were so vaulted and sapped, that they were actually
-falling to the ground; they were now looked upon as a most disastrous
-nuisance, and a public calamity, to which it was the object of this
-meeting to call my attention, evidently in hopes that I might be able
-to designate some successful mode of relieving them from this real
-misfortune. I got rid of them at last, by assuring them of my deep
-regret for their situation, which was, to be sure, a very unpleasant
-one; and told them, that there was really a great deal of _medicine_
-in the thing, and that I should therefore be quite unwilling to have
-anything to do with it. Ba’tiste and Bogard, who are yet my daily and
-almost hourly companions, took to themselves a great deal of fun and
-amusement at the end of this interview, by suggesting many remedies
-for the evil, and enjoying many hearty laughs; after which, Ba’tiste,
-Bogard and I, took our hats; and I took my sketch-book in hand, and
-we started on a visit to the upper town of the Minatarees, which is
-half a mile or more distant, and on the other bank of the Knife River,
-which we crossed in the following manner:—The old chief, having learned
-that we were to cross the river, gave direction to one of the women
-of his numerous household, who took upon her head a skin-canoe (more
-familiarly called in this country, a bull-boat), made in the form of a
-large tub, of a buffalo’s skin, stretched on a frame of willow boughs,
-which she carried to the water’s edge; and placing it in the water,
-made signs for us three to get into it. When we were in, and seated
-flat on its bottom, with scarce room in any way to adjust our legs
-and our feet (as we sat necessarily facing each other), she stepped
-before the boat, and pulling it along, waded towards the deeper water,
-with her back towards us, carefully with the other hand attending to
-her dress, which seemed to be but a light slip, and floating upon the
-surface until the water was above her waist, when it was instantly
-turned off, over her head, and thrown ashore; and she boldly plunged
-forward, swimming and drawing the boat with one hand, which she did
-with apparent ease. In this manner we were conveyed to the middle of
-the stream, where we were soon surrounded by a dozen or more beautiful
-girls, from twelve to fifteen and eighteen years of age, who were at
-that time bathing on the opposite shore.
-
-They all swam in a bold and graceful manner, and as confidently as so
-many otters or beavers; and gathering around us, with their long black
-hair floating about on the water, whilst their faces were glowing with
-jokes and fun, which they were cracking about us, and which we could
-not understand.
-
-In the midst of this delightful little aquatic group, we three sat in
-our little skin-bound tub (like the “three wise men of Gotham, who
-went to sea in a bowl,” &c.), floating along down the current, losing
-sight, and all thoughts, of the shore, which was equi-distant from us
-on either side; whilst we were amusing ourselves with the playfulness
-of these dear little creatures who were floating about under the
-clear blue water, catching their hands on to the sides of our boat;
-occasionally raising one-half of their bodies out of the water, and
-sinking again, like so many mermaids.
-
-In the midst of this bewildering and tantalizing entertainment, in
-which poor Ba’tiste and Bogard, as well as myself, were all taking
-infinite pleasure, and which we supposed was all intended for our
-especial amusement; we found ourselves suddenly in the delightful
-dilemma of floating down the current in the middle of the river; and
-of being turned round and round to the excessive amusement of the
-villagers, who were laughing at us from the shore, as well as these
-little tyros, whose delicate hands were besetting our tub on all
-sides; and for an escape from whom, or for fending off, we had neither
-an oar, or anything else, that we could wield in self-defence, or
-for self-preservation. In this awkward predicament, our feelings of
-excessive admiration were immediately changed, to those of exceeding
-vexation, as we now learned that they had peremptorily discharged
-from her occupation our fair conductress, who had undertaken to ferry
-us safely across the river; and had also very ingeniously laid their
-plans, of which we had been ignorant until the present moment, to
-extort from us in this way, some little evidences of our liberality,
-which, in fact, it was impossible to refuse them, after so liberal and
-bewitching an exhibition on their part, as well as from the imperative
-obligation which the awkwardness of our situation had laid us under. I
-had some awls in my pockets, which I presented to them, and also a few
-strings of beautiful beads, which I placed over their delicate necks
-as they raised them out of the water by the side of our boat; after
-which they all joined in conducting our craft to the shore, by swimming
-by the sides of, and behind it, pushing it along in the direction where
-they designed to land it, until the water became so shallow, that their
-feet were upon the bottom, when they waded along with great coyness,
-dragging us towards the shore, as long as their bodies, in a crouching
-position, could possibly be half concealed under the water, when they
-gave our boat the last push for the shore, and raising a loud and
-exulting laugh, plunged back again into the river; leaving us the only
-alternative of sitting still where we were, or of stepping out into
-the water at half leg deep, and of wading to the shore, which we at
-once did, and soon escaped from the view of our little tormentors, and
-the numerous lookers-on, on our way to the upper village, which I have
-before mentioned.
-
-Here I was very politely treated by the _Yellow Moccasin_, quite an old
-man, and who seemed to be chief of this band or family, constituting
-their little community of thirty or forty lodges, averaging, perhaps,
-twenty persons to each. I was feasted in this man’s lodge—and
-afterwards invited to accompany him and several others to a beautiful
-prairie, a mile or so above the village, where the young men and young
-women of this town, and many from the village below, had assembled for
-their amusements; the chief of which seemed to be that of racing their
-horses. In the midst of these scenes, after I had been for some time
-a looker-on, and had felt some considerable degree of sympathy for a
-fine-looking young fellow, whose horse had been twice beaten on the
-course, and whose losses had been considerable; for which, his sister,
-a very modest and pretty girl, was most piteously howling and crying.
-I selected and brought forward an ordinary-looking pony, that was
-evidently too fat and too sleek to run against his fine-limbed little
-horse that had disappointed his high hopes; and I began to comment
-extravagantly upon its muscle, &c., when I discovered him evidently
-cheering up with the hope of getting me and my pony on to the turf with
-him; for which he soon made me a proposition; and I, having lauded the
-limbs of my little nag too much to “back out,” agreed to run a short
-race with him of half a mile, for three yards of scarlet cloth, a
-knife, and half a dozen strings of beads, which I was willing to stake
-against a handsome pair of leggings, which he was wearing at the time.
-The greatest imaginable excitement was now raised amongst the crowd by
-this arrangement; to see a white man preparing to run with an Indian
-jockey, and that with a scrub of a pony, in whose powers of running no
-Indian had the least confidence. Yet, there was no one in the crowd,
-who dared to take up the several other little bets I was willing to
-tender (merely for their amusement, and for their final exultation);
-owing, undoubtedly, to the bold and confident manner in which I had
-ventured on the merits of this little horse, which the tribe had all
-overlooked; and needs must have some _medicine_ about it.
-
-So far was this panic carried, that even my champion was ready to
-withdraw; but his friends encouraged him at length, and we galloped
-our horses off to the other end of the course, where we were to start;
-and where we were accompanied by a number of horsemen, who were to
-witness the “set off.” Some considerable delay here took place, from a
-_condition_, which was then named to me, and which I had not observed
-before, that in all the races of this day, every rider was to run
-entirely denuded, and ride a naked horse! Here I was completely balked,
-and having no one by me to interpret a word, I was quite at a loss to
-decide what was best to do. I found however, that remonstrance was of
-little avail; and as I had volunteered in this thing to gratify and
-flatter them, I thought it best not positively to displease them in
-this; so I laid off my clothes, and straddled the naked back of my
-round and glossy little pony, by the side of my competitor, who was
-also mounted and stripped to the skin, and panting with a restless
-anxiety for the start.
-
-Reader! did you ever imagine that in the _middle of a man’s life_
-there could be a thought or a feeling so _new_ to him, as to throw him
-instantly back to infancy; with a new world and a new genius before
-him—started afresh, to navigate and breathe the elements of naked and
-untasted liberty, which clothe him in their cool and silken robes that
-float about him; and wafting their life-inspiring folds to his inmost
-lungs? If you never have been inspired with such a feeling, and have
-been in the habit of believing that you have thought of, and imagined a
-little of every thing, try for a moment, to disrobe your mind and your
-body, and help me through feelings to which I cannot give utterance.
-Imagine yourselves as I was, with my trembling little horse underneath
-me, and the cool atmosphere that was floating about, and ready, more
-closely and familiarly to embrace me, as it did, at the next moment,
-when we “were off,” and struggling for the goal and the prize.
-
-Though my little Pegasus seemed to dart through the clouds, and I to
-be wafted on the wings of Mercury, yet my red adversary was leaving
-me too far behind for further competition; and I wheeled to the left,
-making a circuit on the prairie, and came in at the starting point,
-much to the satisfaction and exultation of the jockeys; but greatly
-to the murmuring disappointment of the women and children, who had
-assembled in a dense throng to witness the “coming out” of the “white
-medicine-man.” I clothed myself instantly, and came back, acknowledging
-my defeat, and the superior skill of my competitor, as well as the
-wonderful muscle of his little charger, which pleased him much; and
-his sisters’ lamentations were soon turned to joy, by the receipt of a
-beautiful scarlet robe, and a profusion of vari-coloured beads, which
-were speedily paraded on her copper-coloured neck.
-
-After I had seen enough of these amusements, I succeeded with some
-difficulty, in pulling Ba’tiste and Bogard from amongst the groups of
-women and girls, where they seemed to be successfully ingratiating
-themselves; and we trudged back to the little village of earth-covered
-lodges, which were hemmed in, and almost obscured from the eye, by
-the fields of corn and luxuriant growth of wild sun-flowers, and other
-vegetable productions of the soil, whose spontaneous growth had reared
-their heads in such profusion, as to appear all but like a dense and
-formidable forest.
-
-We loitered about this little village awhile, looking into most of its
-lodges, and tracing its winding avenues, after which we recrossed the
-river and wended our way back again to head-quarters, from whence we
-started in the morning, and where I am now writing. This day’s ramble
-shewed to us all the inhabitants of this little tribe, except a portion
-of their warriors who are out on a war excursion against the Riccarees;
-and I have been exceedingly pleased with their general behaviour and
-looks, as well as with their numerous games and amusements, in many of
-which I have given them great pleasure by taking a part.
-
-The Minatarees, as I have before said, are a bold, daring, and warlike
-tribe; quite different in these respects from their neighbours the
-Mandans, carrying war continually in their enemies’ country, thereby
-exposing their lives and diminishing the number of their warriors
-to that degree that I find two or three women to a man, through the
-tribe. They are bold and fearless in the chase also, and in their eager
-pursuits of the bison, or buffaloes, their feats are such as to excite
-the astonishment and admiration of all who behold them. Of these scenes
-I have witnessed many since I came into this country, and amongst
-them all, nothing have I seen to compare with one to which I was an
-eye-witness a few mornings since, and well worthy of being described.
-
-The Minatarees, as well as the Mandans, had suffered for some months
-past for want of meat, and had indulged in the most alarming fears,
-that the herds of buffaloes were emigrating so far off from them,
-that there was great danger of their actual starvation, when it was
-suddenly announced through the village one morning at an early hour,
-that a herd of buffaloes was in sight, when an hundred or more young
-men mounted their horses with weapons in hand and steered their course
-to the prairies. The chief informed me that one of his horses was in
-readiness for me at the door of his wigwam, and that I had better go
-and see the curious affair. I accepted his polite offer, and mounting
-the steed, galloped off with the hunters to the prairies, where we
-soon descried at a distance, a fine herd of buffaloes grazing, when
-a halt and a council were ordered, and the mode of attack was agreed
-upon. I had armed myself with my pencil and my sketch-book only, and
-consequently took my position generally in the rear, where I could see
-and appreciate every manœuvre.
-
-The plan of attack, which in this country is familiarly called a
-“_surround_,” was explicitly agreed upon, and the hunters who were all
-mounted on their “buffalo horses” and armed with bows and arrows or
-long lances, divided into two columns, taking opposite directions, and
-drew themselves gradually around the herd at a mile or more distance
-from them; thus forming a circle of horsemen at equal distances
-apart, who gradually closed in upon them with a moderate pace, at a
-signal given. The unsuspecting herd at length “got the wind” of the
-approaching enemy and fled in a mass in the greatest confusion. To
-the point where they were aiming to cross the line, the horsemen were
-seen at full speed, gathering and forming in a column, brandishing
-their weapons and yelling in the most frightful manner, by which means
-they turned the black and rushing mass which moved off in an opposite
-direction where they were again met and foiled in a similar manner,
-and wheeled back in utter confusion; by which time the horsemen had
-closed in from all directions, forming a continuous line around them,
-whilst the poor affrighted animals were eddying about in a crowded and
-confused mass, hooking and climbing upon each ether; when the work of
-death commenced. I had rode up in the rear and occupied an elevated
-position at a few rods distance, from which I could (like the general
-of a battle field) survey from my horse’s back, the nature and the
-progress of the grand mêlée; but (unlike him) without the power of
-issuing a command or in any way directing its issue.
-
-In this grand turmoil (+plate+ 79), a cloud of dust was soon raised,
-which in parts obscured the throng where the hunters were galloping
-their horses around and driving the whizzing arrows or their long
-lances to the hearts of these noble animals; which in many instances,
-becoming infuriated with deadly wounds in their sides, erected their
-shaggy manes over their bloodshot eyes and furiously plunged forwards
-at the sides of their assailants’ horses, sometimes goring them to
-death at a lunge, and putting their dismounted riders to flight for
-their lives; sometimes their dense crowd was opened, and the blinded
-horsemen, too intent on their prey amidst the cloud of dust, were
-hemmed and wedged in amidst the crowding beasts, over whose backs
-they were obliged to leap for security, leaving their horses to the
-fate that might await them in the results of this wild and desperate
-war. Many were the bulls that turned upon their assailants and met
-them with desperate resistance; and many were the warriors who were
-dismounted, and saved themselves by the superior muscles of their legs;
-some who were closely pursued by the bulls, wheeled suddenly around and
-snatching the part of a buffalo robe from around their waists, threw it
-over the horns and the eyes of the infuriated beast, and darting by its
-side drove the arrow or the lance to its heart. Others suddenly dashed
-off upon the prairies by the side of the affrighted animals which had
-escaped from the throng, and closely escorting them for a few rods,
-brought down their hearts blood in streams, and their huge carcasses
-upon the green and enamelled turf.
-
-In this way this grand hunt soon resolved itself into a desperate
-battle; and in the space of fifteen minutes, resulted in the total
-destruction of the whole herd, which in all their strength and fury
-were doomed, like every beast and living thing else, to fall before the
-destroying hands of mighty man.
-
-[Illustration: 80]
-
-I had sat in trembling silence upon my horse, and witnessed this
-extraordinary scene, which allowed not one of these animals to escape
-out of my sight. Many plunged off upon the prairie for a distance, but
-were overtaken and killed; and although I could not distinctly estimate
-the number that were slain, yet I am sure that some hundreds of these
-noble animals fell in this grand mêlée.
-
-The scene after the battle was over was novel and curious in the
-extreme; the hunters were moving about amongst the dead and dying
-animals, leading their horses by their halters, and claiming their
-victims by their private marks upon their arrows, which they were
-drawing from the wounds in the animals’ sides.
-
-Amongst the poor affrighted creatures that had occasionally dashed
-through the ranks of their enemy, and sought safety in flight upon the
-prairie (and in some instances, had undoubtedly gained it), I saw them
-stand awhile, looking back, when they turned, and, as if bent on their
-own destruction, retraced their steps, and mingled themselves and their
-deaths with those of the dying throng. Others had fled to a distance on
-the prairies and for want of company, of friends or of foes, had stood
-and gazed on till the battle-scene was over; seemingly taking pains to
-stay, and hold their lives in readiness for their destroyers, until
-the general destruction was over, when they fell easy victims to their
-weapons—making the slaughter complete.
-
-After this scene, and after arrows had been claimed and recovered, a
-general council was held, when all hands were seated on the ground, and
-a few pipes smoked; after which, all mounted their horses and rode back
-to the village.
-
-A deputation of several of the warriors was sent to the chief, who
-explained to him what had been their success; and the same intelligence
-was soon communicated by little squads to every family in the village;
-and preparations were at once made for securing the meat. For this
-purpose, some hundreds of women and children, to whose lots fall all
-the drudgeries of Indian life, started out upon the trail, which
-led them to the battle-field, where they spent the day in skinning
-the animals, and cutting up the meat, which was mostly brought into
-the villages on their backs, as they tugged and sweated under their
-enormous and cruel loads.
-
-I rode out to see this curious scene; and I regret exceedingly that I
-kept no memorandum of it in my sketch-book. Amidst the throng of women
-and children, that had been assembled, and all of whom seemed busily at
-work, were many superannuated and disabled nags, which they had brought
-out to assist in carrying in the meat; and at least, one thousand
-semi-loup dogs, and whelps, whose keen appetites and sagacity had
-brought them out, to claim their shares of this abundant and sumptuous
-supply.
-
-I staid and inspected this curious group for an hour or more,
-during which time, I was almost continually amused by the clamorous
-contentions that arose, and generally ended, in desperate combats;
-both amongst the dogs and women, who seemed alike tenacious of their
-local and recently acquired rights; and disposed to settle their claims
-by “tooth and nail”—by manual and brute force.
-
-When I had seen enough of this I rode to the top of a beautiful prairie
-bluff, a mile or two from the scene, where I was exceedingly amused by
-overlooking the route that laid between this and the village, which
-was over the undulating green fields for several miles, that laid
-beneath me; over which there seemed a continual string of women, dogs
-and horses, for the rest of the day, passing and repassing as they
-were busily bearing home their heavy burthens to their village, and in
-their miniature appearance, which the distance gave them, not unlike
-to a busy community of ants as they are sometimes seen, sacking and
-transporting the treasures of a cupboard, or the sweets of a sugar
-bowl.
-
-
-
-
-                             LETTER—No. 25.
-
-                LITTLE MANDAN VILLAGE, _UPPER MISSOURI_.
-
-
-In speaking of the Mandans, in a former Letter, I mentioned that they
-were living in two villages, which are about two miles apart. Of their
-principal village I have given a minute account, which precludes the
-necessity of my saying much of their smaller town, to which I descended
-a few days since, from the Minatarees; and where I find their modes
-and customs, precisely the same as I have heretofore described. This
-village contains sixty or eighty lodges, built in the same manner as
-those which I have already mentioned, and I have just learned that
-they have been keeping the annual ceremony here, precisely in the same
-manner as that which I witnessed in the lower or larger town, and have
-explained.
-
-I have been treated with the same hospitality here that was extended
-to me in the other village; and have painted the portraits of several
-distinguished persons, which has astonished and pleased them very much.
-The operation of my brush always gains me many enthusiastic friends
-wherever I go amongst these wild folks; and in this village I have been
-unusually honoured and even _afflicted_, by the friendly importunities
-of one of these reverencing parasites, who (amongst various other
-offices of hospitality and kindness which he has been bent upon
-extending to me), has insisted on, and for several nights been indulged
-in, the honour as he would term it, of offering his body for my
-pillow, which _I_ have not had the heart to reject, and of course _he_
-has not lacked the vanity to boast of, as an act of signal kindness
-and hospitality on his part, towards a _great_ and _a distinguished
-stranger_!
-
-I have been for several days suffering somewhat with an influenza,
-which has induced me to leave my bed, on the side of the lodge, and
-sleep on the floor, wrapped in a buffalo robe, with my feet to the
-fire in the centre of the room, to which place the genuine politeness
-of my constant and watchful friend has as regularly drawn him, where
-his irresistible importunities have brought me, night after night, to
-the only alternative of using his bedaubed and bear-greased body for a
-pillow.
-
-Being unwilling to deny the poor fellow the satisfaction he seemed to
-be drawing from this singular freak, I took some pains to inquire into
-his character; and learned that he was a Riccaree brave, by the name of
-Pah-too-ca-ra (he who strikes), who is here with several others of his
-tribe, on a friendly visit (though in a hostile village), and living
-as they are, unprotected, except by the mercy of their enemies. I
-think it probable, therefore, that he is ingeniously endeavouring thus
-to ingratiate himself in my affections, and consequently to insure my
-guardianship and influence for his protection. Be this as it may, he is
-rendering me many kind services, and I have in return traced him on my
-canvass for immortality (+plate+ 83).
-
-By the side of him (+plate+ 84), I have painted a beautiful little girl
-of the same tribe, whose name is Pshan-shaw (the sweet-scented grass),
-giving a very pretty specimen of the dress and fashion of the women
-in this tribe. The inner garment, which is like a slip or a frock, is
-entire in one piece, and beautifully ornamented with embroidery and
-beads, with a row of elks’ teeth passing across the breast, and a robe
-of the young buffalo’s skin, tastefully and elaborately embroidered,
-gracefully thrown over her shoulders, and hanging down to the ground
-behind her.
-
-+Plate+ 82 gives a portrait of one of the chiefs of this tribe by the
-name of Stan-au-pat (the bloody hand), and (+plate+ 81) of Kah-beck-a
-(the twin), a good-looking matron, who was painted a few weeks since in
-the principal Mandan village.
-
-The dresses in both of these portraits are very beautiful, and I have
-procured them, as well as the one before spoken of, for my collection.
-
-+Plate+ 80, gives a view of the Riccaree village, which is beautifully
-situated on the west bank of the river, 200 miles below the Mandans;
-and built very much in the same manner; being constituted of 150
-earth-covered lodges, which are in part surrounded by an imperfect and
-open barrier of piquets set firmly in the ground, and of ten or twelve
-feet in height.
-
-This village is built upon an open prairie, and the gracefully
-undulating hills that rise in distance behind it are everywhere covered
-with a verdant green turf, without a tree or a bush anywhere to be
-seen. This view was taken from the deck of the steamer when I was on my
-way up the river; and probably it was well that I took it then, for so
-hostile and deadly are the feelings of these people towards the _pale
-faces_, at this time, that it may be deemed most prudent for me to pass
-them on my way down the river, without stopping to make them a visit.
-They certainly are harbouring the most resentful feelings at this time
-towards the Traders, and others passing on the river; and no doubt,
-that there is great danger of the lives of any white men, who unluckily
-fall into their hands. They have recently sworn death and destruction
-to every white man, who comes in their way; and there is no doubt, that
-they are ready to execute their threats.
-
-When Lewis and Clarke first visited these people thirty years since,
-it will be found by a reference to their history, that the Riccarees
-received and treated them with great kindness and hospitality; but
-owing to the system of trade, and the manner in which it has been
-conducted in this country, they have been inflicted with real or
-imaginary abuses, of which they are themselves, and the Fur Traders,
-the best judges; and for which they are now harbouring the most
-inveterate feelings towards the whole civilized race.
-
-[Illustration: 81]
-
-[Illustration: 82]
-
-[Illustration: 83]
-
-[Illustration: 84]
-
-[Illustration: 85]
-
-The Riccarees are unquestionably a part of the tribe of Pawnees, living
-on the Platte River, some hundreds of miles below this, inasmuch
-as their language is nearly or quite the same; and their personal
-appearance and customs as similar as could be reasonably expected
-amongst a people so long since separated from their parent tribe, and
-continually subjected to innovations from the neighbouring tribes
-around them; amongst whom, in their erratic wanderings in search of a
-location, they have been jostled about in the character, alternately,
-of friends and of foes.
-
-I shall resume my voyage down the river in a few days in my canoe; and
-I may, perhaps, stop and pay these people a visit, and consequently, be
-able to say more of them; or, I may be _hauled in_, to the shore, and
-my boat plundered, and my “_scalp danced_,” as they have dealt quite
-recently with the _last trader_, who has dared for several years past,
-to continue his residence with them, after they had laid fatal hands on
-each one of his comrades before him, and divided and shared their goods.
-
-Of the Mandans, who are about me in this little village, I need say
-nothing, except that they are in every respect, the same as those
-I have described in the lower village—and in fact, I believe this
-little town is rather a _summer residence_ for a few of the noted
-families, than anything else; as I am told that none of their wigwams
-are tenanted through the winter. I shall leave them in the morning,
-and take up my residence a few days longer with my hospitable friends
-Mr. Kipp, Mah-to-toh-pa, &c. in the large village; and then with my
-canvass and easel, and paint-pots in my canoe; with Ba’tiste and Bogard
-to paddle, and my own oar to steer, wend my way again on the mighty
-Missouri towards my native land, bidding everlasting farewell to the
-kind and hospitable Mandans.
-
-In taking this final leave of them, which will be done with some
-decided feelings of regret, and in receding from their country, I shall
-look back and reflect upon them and their curious and peculiar modes
-with no small degree of pleasure, as well as surprise; inasmuch as
-their hospitality and friendly treatment have fully corroborated my
-fixed belief that the North American Indian in his primitive state is
-a high-minded, hospitable and honourable being—and their singular and
-peculiar customs have raised an irresistible belief in my mind that
-they have had a different origin, or are of a different compound of
-character from any other tribe that I have yet seen, or that can be
-probably seen in North America.
-
-In coming to such a conclusion as this, the mind is at once filled with
-a flood of enquiries as to the source from which they have sprung,
-and eagerly seeking for the evidence which is to lead it to the most
-probable and correct conclusion. Amongst these evidences of which there
-are many, and forcible ones to be met with amongst these people, and
-many of which I have named in my former epistles, the most striking
-ones are those which go, I think, decidedly to suggest the existence
-of looks and of customs amongst them, bearing incontestible proofs of
-an amalgam of civilized and savage; and that in the absence of all
-proof of any recent proximity of a civilized stock that could in any
-way have been engrafted upon them.
-
-These facts then, with the host of their peculiarities which stare
-a traveller in the face, lead the mind back in search of some more
-remote and rational cause for such striking singularities; and in this
-dilemma, I have been almost disposed (not to advance it as a _theory_,
-but) to enquire whether here may not be found, yet existing, the
-remains of the _Welsh colony_—the followers of Madoc; who history tells
-us, if I recollect right, started with ten ships, to colonize a country
-which he had discovered in the Western Ocean; whose expedition I think
-has been pretty clearly traced to the mouth of the Mississippi, or the
-coast of Florida, and whose fate further than this seems sealed in
-unsearchable mystery.
-
-I am travelling in this country as I have before said, not to advance
-or to prove _theories_, but to see all that I am able to see, and to
-tell it in the simplest and most intelligible manner I can to the
-world, for their own conclusions, or for theories I may feel disposed
-to advance, and be better able to defend after I get out of this
-singular country; where all the powers of ones faculties are required,
-and much better employed I consider, in helping him along and in
-gathering materials, than in stopping to draw too nice and delicate
-conclusions by the way.
-
-If my indefinite recollections of the fate of that colony, however,
-as recorded in history be correct, I see no harm in suggesting the
-inquiry, whether they did not sail up the Mississippi river in their
-ten ships, or such number of them as might have arrived safe in its
-mouth; and having advanced up the Ohio from its junction, (as they
-naturally would, it being the widest and most gentle current) to a
-rich and fertile country, planted themselves as agriculturalists on
-its rich banks, where they lived and flourished, and increased in
-numbers, until they were attacked, and at last besieged by the numerous
-hordes of savages who were jealous of their growing condition; and as
-a protection against their assaults, built those numerous _civilized_
-fortifications, the ruins of which are now to be seen on the Ohio
-and the Muskingum, in which they were at last all destroyed, except
-some few families who had intermarried with the Indians, and whose
-offspring, being half-breeds, were in such a manner allied to them
-that their lives were spared; and forming themselves into a small
-and separate community, took up their residence on the banks of the
-Missouri; on which, for the want of a permanent location, being on
-the lands of their more powerful enemies, were obliged repeatedly to
-remove; and continuing their course up the river, have in time migrated
-to the place where they are now living, and consequently found with the
-numerous and almost unaccountable peculiarities of which I have before
-spoken, so inconsonant with the general character of the North American
-Indians; with complexions of every shade; with hair of all the colours
-in civilized society, and many with hazel, with grey, and with blue
-eyes.
-
-The above is a suggestion of a _moment_; and I wish the reader to bear
-it in mind, that if I ever advance such as a _theory_, it will be
-after I have collected other proofs, which I shall take great pains
-to do; after I have taken a vocabulary of their language, and also
-in my transit down the river in my canoe, I may be able from my own
-examinations of the ground, to ascertain whether the shores of the
-Missouri bear evidences of their former locations; or whether amongst
-the tribes who inhabit the country below, there remain any satisfactory
-traditions of their residences in, and transit through their countries.
-
-I close here my book (and probably for some time, my remarks), on the
-friendly and hospitable Mandans.
-
-  +Note+—Several years having elapsed since the above account of the
-  Mandans was written, I open the book to convey to the reader the
-  melancholy intelligence of the _destruction_ of this interesting
-  tribe, which happened a short time after I left their country; and
-  the manner and causes of their misfortune I have explained in the
-  Appendix to the Second Volume of this Work; as well as some further
-  considerations of the subject just above-named, relative to their
-  early history, and the probable fate of the followers of _Madoc_,
-  to which I respectfully refer the reader before he goes further in
-  the body of the Work. See Appendix A.
-
-
-
-
-                             LETTER—No. 26.
-
-                MOUTH OF TETON RIVER, _UPPER MISSOURI_.
-
-
-Since writing the above Letter I have descended the Missouri, a
-distance of six or seven hundred miles, in my little bark, with
-Ba’tiste and Bogard, my old “_compagnons du voyage_,” and have much
-to say of what we three did and what we saw on our way, which will be
-given anon.
-
-I am now in the heart of the country belonging to the numerous tribe
-of Sioux or Dohcotas, and have Indian faces and Indian customs in
-abundance around me. This tribe is one of the most numerous in North
-America, and also one of the most vigorous and warlike tribes to be
-found, numbering some forty or fifty thousand, and able undoubtedly
-to muster, if the tribe could be moved simultaneously, at least eight
-or ten thousand warriors, well mounted and well armed. This tribe
-take vast numbers of the wild horses on the plains towards the Rocky
-Mountains, and many of them have been supplied with guns; but the
-greater part of them hunt with their bows and arrows and long lances,
-killing their game from their horses’ backs while at full speed.
-
-The name Sioux (pronounced _see-oo_) by which they are familiarly
-called, is one that has been given to them by the French traders, the
-meaning of which I never have learned; their own name being, in their
-language, Dah-co-ta. The personal appearance of these people is very
-fine and prepossessing, their persons tall and straight, and their
-movements elastic and graceful. Their stature is considerably above
-that of the Mandans and Riccarees, or Blackfeet; but about equal to
-that of the Crows, Assinneboins and Minatarees, furnishing at least one
-half of their warriors of six feet or more in height.
-
-I am here living with, and enjoying the hospitality of a gentleman by
-the name of _Laidlaw_, a Scotchman, who is attached to the American
-Fur Company, and who, in company with Mr. M‘Kenzie (of whom I have
-before spoken) and Lamont, has the whole agency of the Fur Company’s
-transactions in the regions of the Upper Missouri and the Rocky
-Mountains.
-
-This gentleman has a finely-built Fort here, of two or three hundred
-feet square, enclosing eight or ten of their factories, houses and
-stores, in the midst of which he occupies spacious and comfortable
-apartments, which are well supplied with the comforts and luxuries of
-life and neatly and respectably conducted by a fine looking, modest,
-and dignified Sioux woman, the kind and affectionate mother of his
-little flock of pretty and interesting children.
-
-[Illustration: 86]
-
-This Fort is undoubtedly one of the most important and productive
-of the American Fur Company’s posts, being in the centre of the
-great Sioux country, drawing from all quarters an immense and almost
-incredible number of buffalo robes, which are carried to the New York
-and other Eastern markets, and sold at a great profit. This post
-is thirteen hundred miles above St. Louis, on the west bank of the
-Missouri, on a beautiful plain near the mouth of the Teton river which
-empties into the Missouri from the West, and the Fort has received
-the name of Fort Pierre, in compliment to Monsr. Pierre Chouteau, who
-is one of the partners in the Fur Company, residing in St. Louis; and
-to whose politeness I am indebted, as I have before mentioned, for my
-passage in the Company’s steamer, on her first voyage to the Yellow
-Stone; and whose urbane and gentlemanly society, I have before said, I
-had during my passage.
-
-The country about this Fort is almost entirely prairie, producing along
-the banks of the river and streams only, slight skirtings of timber.
-No site could have been selected more pleasing or more advantageous
-than this; the Fort is in the centre of one of the Missouri’s most
-beautiful plains, and hemmed in by a series of gracefully undulating,
-grass-covered hills, on all sides; rising like a series of terraces, to
-the summit level of the prairies, some three or four hundred feet in
-elevation, which then stretches off in an apparently boundless ocean of
-gracefully swelling waves and fields of green. On my way up the river
-I made a painting of this lovely spot, taken from the summit of the
-bluffs, a mile or two distant (+plate+ 85), shewing an encampment of
-Sioux, of six hundred tents or skin lodges, around the Fort, where they
-had concentrated to make their spring trade; exchanging their furs and
-peltries for articles and luxuries of civilized manufactures.
-
-The great family of Sioux who occupy so vast a tract of country,
-extending from the banks of the Mississippi river to the base of
-the Rocky Mountains, are everywhere a migratory or roaming tribe,
-divided into forty-two bands or families, each having a chief who
-all acknowledge a superior or head chief, to whom they all are held
-subordinate. This subordination, however, I should rather record as
-their _former_ and _native_ regulation, of which there exists no
-doubt, than an _existing_ one, since the numerous innovations made
-amongst these people by the Fur Traders, as well as by the proximity
-of civilization along a great deal of their frontier, which soon upset
-and change many native regulations, and particularly those relating to
-their government and religion.
-
-There is one principal and familiar division of this tribe into what
-are called the _Mississippi_ and _Missouri_ Sioux. Those bordering
-on the banks of the Mississippi, concentrating at Prairie du Chien
-and Fort Snelling, for the purposes of trade, &c., are called the
-Mississippi Sioux. These are somewhat advanced towards civilization,
-and familiar with white people, with whom they have held intercourse
-for many years, and are consequently excessive whiskey drinkers, though
-constituting but a meagre proportion, and at the same time, but a very
-unfair and imperfect sample of the great mass of this tribe who inhabit
-the shores of the Missouri, and fearlessly roam on the vast plains
-intervening between it and the Rocky Mountains, and are still living
-entirely in their primitive condition.
-
-There is no tribe on the Continent, perhaps, of finer looking men than
-the Sioux; and few tribes who are better and more comfortably clad, and
-supplied with the necessaries of life. There are no parts of the great
-plains of America which are more abundantly stocked with buffaloes and
-wild horses, nor any people more bold in destroying the one for food,
-and appropriating the other to their use. There has gone abroad, from
-the many histories which have been written of these people, an opinion
-which is too current in the world, that the Indian is necessarily a
-poor, drunken, murderous wretch; which account is certainly unjust
-as regards the savage, and doing less than justice to the world for
-whom such histories have been prepared. I have travelled several years
-already amongst these people and I have not had my scalp taken, nor a
-blow struck me; nor had occasion to raise my hand against an Indian;
-nor has my property been stolen, as yet to my knowledge, to the value
-of a shilling; and that in a country where no man is punishable by
-law for the crime of stealing; still some of them steal, and murder
-too; and if white men did not do the same, and that in defiance of
-the laws of God and man, I might take satisfaction in stigmatizing
-the Indian character as thievish and murderous. That the Indians in
-their _native state_ are “_drunken_,” is false; for they are the only
-temperance people, literally speaking, that ever I saw in my travels,
-or ever expect to see. If the civilized world are startled at this,
-it is the _fact_ that they must battle with, not with me; for these
-people manufacture no spirituous liquor themselves, and know nothing
-of it until it is brought into their country and tendered to them by
-Christians. That these people are “_naked_” is equally untrue, and
-as easily disproved; for I am sure that with the paintings I have
-made amongst the Mandans and Crows, and other tribes; and with their
-beautiful costumes which I have procured and shall bring home, I shall
-be able to establish the fact that many of these people dress, not only
-with clothes comfortable for any latitude, but that they also dress
-with some considerable taste and elegance. Nor am I quite sure that
-they are entitled to the name of “_poor_,” who live in a boundless
-country of green fields, with good horses to ride; where they are
-all joint tenants of the soil, together; where the Great Spirit has
-supplied them with an abundance of food to eat—where they are all
-indulging in the pleasures and amusements of a lifetime of idleness
-and ease, with no business hours to attend to, or professions to
-learn—where they have no notes in bank or other debts to pay—no taxes,
-no tithes, no rents, nor beggars to touch and tax the sympathy of their
-souls at every step they go. Such might be poverty in the Christian
-world, but is sure to be a blessing where the pride and insolence of
-comparative wealth are unknown.
-
-[Illustration: 87]
-
-[Illustration: 88]
-
-I mentioned that this is the nucleus or place of concentration of the
-numerous tribe of the Sioux, who often congregate here in great masses
-to make their trades with the American Fur Company; and that on my way
-up the river, some months since, I found here encamped, six hundred
-families of Sioux, living in tents covered with buffalo hides. Amongst
-these there were twenty or more of the different bands, each one with
-their chief at their head, over whom was a _superior chief_ and leader,
-a middle-aged man, of middling stature, with a noble countenance, and a
-figure almost equalling the Apollo, and I painted his portrait (+plate+
-86). The name of this chief is Ha-wan-je-tah (the one horn) of the
-Mee-ne-cow-e-gee band, who has risen rapidly to the highest honours
-in the tribe, from his own extraordinary merits, even at so early an
-age. He told me that he took the name of “One Horn” (or shell) from a
-simple small shell that was hanging on his neck, which descended to
-him from his father, and which, he said, he valued more than anything
-he possessed; affording a striking instance of the living affection
-which these people often cherish for the dead, inasmuch as he chose
-to carry this name through life in preference to many others and more
-honourable ones he had a right to have taken, from different battles
-and exploits of his extraordinary life. He treated me with great
-kindness and attention, considering himself highly complimented by the
-signal and unprecedented honour I had conferred upon him by painting
-his portrait, and that before I had invited any other. His costume was
-a very handsome one, and will have a place in my +Indian Gallery+ by
-the side of his picture. It is made of elk skins beautifully dressed,
-and fringed with a profusion of porcupine quills and scalp-locks; and
-his hair, which is very long and profuse, divided into two parts, and
-lifted up and crossed, over the top of his head, with a simple tie,
-giving it somewhat the appearance of a Turkish turban.
-
-This extraordinary man, before he was raised to the dignity of chief,
-was the renowned of his tribe for his athletic achievements. In the
-chase he was foremost; he could run down a buffalo, which he often had
-done, on his own legs, and drive his arrow to the heart. He was the
-fleetest in the tribe; and in the races he had run, he had always taken
-the prize.
-
-It was proverbial in his tribe, that Ha-wan-je-tah’s bow never was
-drawn in vain, and his wigwam was abundantly furnished with scalps that
-he had taken from his enemies’ heads in battle.
-
-Having descended the river thus far, then, and having hauled out
-my canoe, and taken up my quarters for awhile with mine hospitable
-host, Mr. Laidlaw, as I have before said; and having introduced my
-readers to the country and the people, and more particularly to the
-chief dignitary of the Sioux; and having promised in the beginning of
-this Letter also, that I should give them some amusing and curious
-information that we picked up, and incidents that we met with, on
-our voyage from the Mandans to this place; I have again to beg that
-they will pardon me for withholding from them yet awhile longer, the
-incidents of that curious and most important part of my Tour, the
-absence of which, at this time, seems to make a “hole in the ballad,”
-though I promise my readers they are written, and will appear in the
-book in a proper and appropriate place.
-
-Taking it for granted then, that I will be indulged in this freak, I am
-taking the liberty of presuming on my readers’ patience in proposing
-another, which is to offer them here an extract from my Notes, which
-were made on my journey of 1300 miles from St. Louis to this place,
-where I stopped, as I have said, amongst several thousands of Sioux;
-where I remained for some time, and painted my numerous portraits of
-their chiefs, &c.; one of whom was the head and leader of the Sioux,
-whom I have already introduced. On the long and tedious route that lies
-between St. Louis and this place, I passed the Sacs and Ioways—the
-Konzas—the Omahaws, and the Otoes (making notes on them all, which are
-reserved for another place), and landed at the Puncahs, a small tribe
-residing in one village, on the west bank of the river, 300 miles below
-this, and 1000 from St. Louis.
-
-The Puncahs are all contained in seventy-five or eighty lodges, made of
-buffalo skins, in the form of tents; the frames for which are poles of
-fifteen or twenty feet in length, with the butt ends standing on the
-ground, and the small ends meeting at the top, forming a cone, which
-sheds off the rain and wind with perfect success. This small remnant
-of a tribe are not more than four or five hundred in numbers; and I
-should think, at least, two-thirds of those are women. This disparity
-in numbers having been produced by the continual losses which their
-men suffer, who are penetrating the buffalo country for meat, for
-which they are now obliged to travel a great way (as the buffaloes
-have recently left their country), exposing their lives to their more
-numerous enemies about them.
-
-The chief of this tribe, whose name is Shoo-de-ga-cha (smoke), I
-painted at full length (+plate+ 87), and his wife also, a young and
-very pretty woman (+plate+ 88), whose name is Hee-la’h-dee (the
-pure fountain); her neck and arms were curiously tattooed, which is
-a very frequent mode of ornamenting the body amongst this and some
-other tribes, which is done by pricking into the skin, gunpowder and
-vermilion.
-
-The chief, who was wrapped in a buffalo robe, is a noble specimen of
-native dignity and philosophy. I conversed much with him; and from his
-dignified manners, as well as from the soundness of his reasoning, I
-became fully convinced that he deserved to be the sachem of a more
-numerous and prosperous tribe. He related to me with great coolness
-and frankness, the poverty and distress of his nation; and with the
-method of a philosopher, predicted the certain and rapid extinction of
-his tribe, which he had not the power to avert. Poor, noble chief; who
-was equal to, and worthy of a greater empire! He sat upon the deck of
-the steamer, overlooking the little cluster of his wigwams mingled
-amongst the trees; and, like Caius Marius, weeping over the ruins
-of Carthage, shed tears as he was descanting on the poverty of his
-ill-fated little community, which he told me “had once been powerful
-and happy; that the buffaloes which the Great Spirit had given them
-for food, and which formerly spread all over their green prairies, had
-all been killed or driven out by the approach of white men, who wanted
-their skins; that their country was now entirely destitute of game,
-and even of roots for their food, as it was one continued prairie;
-and that his young men penetrating the countries of their enemies
-for buffaloes, which they were obliged to do, were cut to pieces and
-destroyed in great numbers. That his people had foolishly become fond
-of _fire-water_ (whiskey), and had given away everything in their
-country for it—that it had destroyed many of his warriors, and soon
-would destroy the rest—that his tribe was too small, and his warriors
-too few to go to war with the tribes around them; that they were met
-and killed by the Sioux on the North, by the Pawnees on the West; and
-by the Osages and Konzas on the South; and still more alarmed from the
-constant advance of the pale faces—their enemies from the East, with
-whiskey and small-pox, which already had destroyed four-fifths of his
-tribe, and soon would impoverish, and at last destroy the remainder of
-them.”
-
-[Illustration: 89]
-
-[Illustration: 90]
-
-In this way did this shrewd philosopher lament over the unlucky destiny
-of his tribe; and I pitied him with all my heart. I have no doubt of
-the correctness of his representations; and I believe there is no tribe
-on the frontier more in want, nor any more deserving of the sympathy
-and charity of the government and Christian societies of the civilized
-world.
-
-The son of this chief, a youth of eighteen years, and whose portrait I
-painted (+plate+ 90), distinguished himself in a singular manner the
-day before our steamer reached their village, by taking to him _four
-wives in one day_! This extraordinary and unprecedented freak of his,
-was just the thing to make him the greatest sort of _medicine_ in the
-eyes of his people; and probably he may date much of his success and
-greatness through life, to this bold and original step, which suddenly
-raised him into notice and importance.
-
-The old chief Shoo-de-ga-cha, of whom I have spoken above, considering
-his son to have arrived to the age of maturity, fitted him out for
-house-keeping, by giving him a handsome wigwam to live in, and nine
-horses, with many other valuable presents; when the boy, whose name
-is Hongs-kay-de (the great chief), soon laid his plans for the proud
-and pleasant epoch in his life, and consummated them in the following
-ingenious and amusing manner.
-
-Wishing to connect himself with, and consequently to secure the
-countenance of some of the most influential men in the tribe, he had
-held an interview with one of the most distinguished; and easily
-(being the son of a chief), made an arrangement for the hand of his
-daughter, which he was to receive on a certain day, and at a certain
-hour, for which he was to give two horses, a gun, and several pounds
-of tobacco. This was enjoined on the father as a profound secret, and
-as a condition of the espousal. In like manner he soon made similar
-arrangements with three other leading men of the tribe, each of whom
-had a young and beautiful daughter, of marriageable age. To each of
-the fathers he had promised two horses, and other presents similar
-to those stipulated for in the first instance, and all under the
-same injunctions of secrecy, until the hour approached, when he had
-announced to the whole tribe that he was to be married. At the time
-appointed, they all assembled, and all were in ignorance of the fair
-hand that was to be placed in his on this occasion. He had got some
-of his young friends who were prepared to assist him, to lead up
-the eight horses. He took two of them by the halters, and the other
-presents agreed upon in his other hand, and advancing to the first of
-the parents, whose daughter was standing by the side of him, saying
-to him, “you promised me the hand of your daughter on this day, for
-which I was to give you two horses.” The father assented with a “ugh!”
-receiving the presents, and giving his child; when some confusion
-ensued from the simultaneous remonstrances, which were suddenly made by
-the other three parents, who had brought their daughters forward, and
-were shocked at this sudden disappointment, as well as by the mutual
-declarations they were making, of similar contracts that each one had
-entered into with him! As soon as they could be pacified, and silence
-was restored, he exultingly replied, “You have all acknowledged in
-public your promises with me, which I shall expect you to fulfil. I am
-here to perform all the engagements which I have made, and I expect
-you all to do the same”—No more was said. He led up the two horses for
-each, and delivered the other presents; leading off to his wigwam his
-four brides—taking two in each hand, and commenced at once upon his new
-mode of life; reserving only one of his horses for his own daily use.
-
-I visited the wigwam of this young installed _medicine-man_ several
-times, and saw his four modest little wives seated around the fire,
-where all seemed to harmonize very well; and for aught I could
-discover, were entering very happily on the duties and pleasures of
-married life. I selected one of them for her portrait, and painted it
-(+plate+ 89), Mong-shong-shaw (the bending willow), in a very pretty
-dress of deer skins, and covered with a young buffalo’s robe, which was
-handsomely ornamented, and worn with much grace and pleasing effect.
-
-Mr. Chouteau of the Fur Company, and Major Sanford, the agent for the
-Upper Missouri Indians, were with me at this time; and both of these
-gentlemen, highly pleased with so ingenious and _innocent_ a freak,
-felt disposed to be liberal, and sent them many presents from the
-steamer.
-
-The ages of these young brides were probably all between twelve and
-fifteen years, the season of life in which most of the girls in this
-wild country contract marriage.
-
-[Illustration: 91]
-
-It is a surprising fact, that women mature in these regions at that
-early age, and there have been some instances where marriage has taken
-place, even at eleven; and the juvenile mother has been blest with her
-first offspring at the age of twelve!
-
-These facts are calculated to create surprise and almost incredulity
-in the mind of the reader, but there are circumstances for his
-consideration yet to be known, which will in a manner account for these
-extraordinary facts.
-
-There is not a doubt but there is a more early approach to maturity
-amongst the females of this country than in civilized communities,
-owing either to a natural and constitutional difference, or to the
-exposed and active life they lead. Yet there is another and more
-general cause of early marriages (and consequently apparent maturity),
-which arises out of the modes and forms of the country, where most
-of the marriages are contracted with the parents, hurried on by the
-impatience of the applicant, and prematurely accepted and consummated
-on the part of the parents, who are often impatient to be in receipt
-of the presents they are to receive as the price of their daughters.
-There is also the facility of dissolving the marriage contract in this
-country, which does away with one of the most serious difficulties
-which lies in the way in the civilized world, and calculated greatly
-to retard its consummation, which is not an equal objection in Indian
-communities. Education and accomplishments, again, in the fashionable
-world, and also a time and a season to flourish and show them off,
-necessarily engross that part of a young lady’s life, when the poor
-Indian girl, who finds herself weaned from the familiar embrace of her
-parents, with her mind and her body maturing, and her thoughts and her
-passions straying away in the world for some theme or some pleasure
-to cling to, easily follows their juvenile and ardent dictates,
-prematurely entering on that system of life, consisting in reciprocal
-dependence and protection.
-
-In the instance above described, the young man was in no way censured
-by his people, but most loudly applauded; for in this country polygamy
-is allowed; and in this tribe, where there are two or three times the
-number of women that there are of men, such an arrangement answers a
-good purpose, whereby so many of the females are provided for and taken
-care of; and particularly so, and to the great satisfaction of the
-tribe, as well as of the parties and families concerned, when so many
-fall to the lot of a chief, or the son of a chief, into whose wigwam it
-is considered an honour to be adopted, and where they are the most sure
-of protection.
-
-
-
-
-                             LETTER—No. 27.
-
-                MOUTH OF TETON RIVER, _UPPER MISSOURI_.
-
-
-When we were about to start on our way up the river from the village
-of the Puncahs, we found that they were packing up all their goods and
-preparing to start for the prairies, farther to the West, in pursuit
-of buffaloes, to dry meat for their winter’s supplies. They took down
-their wigwams of skins to carry with them, and all were flat to the
-ground and everything packing up ready for the start. My attention
-was directed by Major Sanford, the Indian Agent, to one of the most
-miserable and helpless looking objects that I ever had seen in my life,
-a very aged and emaciated man of the tribe, who he told me was to be
-_exposed_.
-
-The tribe were going where hunger and dire necessity compelled them
-to go, and this pitiable object, who had once been a chief, and a man
-of distinction in his tribe, who was now too old to travel, being
-reduced to mere skin and bones, was to be left to starve, or meet
-with such death as might fall to his lot, and his bones to be picked
-by the wolves! I lingered around this poor old forsaken patriarch for
-hours before we started, to indulge the tears of sympathy which were
-flowing for the sake of this poor benighted and decrepit old man,
-whose worn-out limbs were no longer able to support him; their kind
-and faithful offices having long since been performed, and his body
-and his mind doomed to linger into the withering agony of decay, and
-gradual solitary death. I wept, and it was a pleasure to weep, for the
-painful looks, and the dreary prospects of this old veteran, whose
-eyes were dimmed, whose venerable locks were whitened by an hundred
-years, whose limbs were almost naked, and trembling as he sat by a
-small fire which his friends had left him, with a few sticks of wood
-within his reach and a buffalo’s skin stretched upon some crotches over
-his head. Such was to be his only dwelling, and such the chances for
-his life, with only a few half-picked bones that were laid within his
-reach, and a dish of water, without weapons or means of any kind to
-replenish them, or strength to move his body from its fatal locality.
-In this sad plight I mournfully contemplated this miserable remnant
-of existence, who had unluckily outlived the fates and accidents of
-wars to die alone, at death’s leisure. His friends and his children
-had all left him, and were preparing in a little time to be on the
-march. He had told them to leave him, “he was old,” he said, “and too
-feeble to march.” “My children,” said he, “our nation is poor, and
-it is necessary that you should all go to the country where you can
-get meat,—my eyes are dimmed and my strength is no more; my days are
-nearly all numbered, and I am a burthen to my children—I cannot go, and
-I wish to die. Keep your hearts stout, and think not of me; I am no
-longer good for anything.” In this way they had finished the ceremony
-of _exposing_ him, and taken their final leave of him. I advanced to
-the old man, and was undoubtedly the last human being who held converse
-with him. I sat by the side of him, and though he could not distinctly
-see me, he shook me heartily by the hand and smiled, evidently aware
-that I was a white man, and that I sympathized with his inevitable
-misfortune. I shook hands again with him, and left him, steering my
-course towards the steamer which was a mile or more from me, and ready
-to resume her voyage up the Missouri.[6]
-
-This cruel custom of exposing their aged people, belongs, I think, to
-all the tribes who roam about the prairies, making severe marches,
-when such decrepit persons are totally unable to go, unable to ride or
-to walk,—when they have no means of carrying them. It often becomes
-absolutely necessary in such cases that they should be left; and they
-uniformly insist upon it, saying as this old man did, that they are
-old and of no further use—that they left their fathers in the same
-manner—that they wish to die, and their children must not mourn for
-them.
-
-From the Puncah village, our steamer made regular progress from day
-to day towards the mouth of the Teton, from where I am now writing;
-passing the whole way a country of green fields, that come sloping down
-to the river on either side, forming the loveliest scenes in the world.
-
-From day to day we advanced, opening our eyes to something new and
-more beautiful every hour that we progressed, until at last our boat
-was aground; and a day’s work of sounding told us at last, that there
-was no possibility of advancing further, until there should be a rise
-in the river, to enable the boat to get over the bar. After laying in
-the middle of the river about a week, in this unpromising dilemma, Mr.
-Chouteau started off twenty men on foot, to cross the plains for a
-distance of 200 miles to Laidlaw’s Fort, at the mouth of Teton river.
-To this expedition, I immediately attached myself; and having heard
-that a numerous party of Sioux were there encamped, and waiting to see
-the steamer, I packed on the backs, and in the hands of several of the
-men, such articles for painting, as I might want; canvass, paints, and
-brushes, with my sketch-book slung on my back, and my rifle in my hand,
-and I started off with them.
-
-We took leave of our friends on the boat, and mounting the green
-bluffs, steered our course from day to day over a level prairie,
-without a tree or a bush in sight, to relieve the painful monotony,
-filling our canteens at the occasional little streams that we passed,
-kindling our fires with dried buffalo dung, which we collected on the
-prairie, and stretching our tired limbs on the level turf whenever we
-were overtaken by night.
-
-We were six or seven days in performing this march; and it gave me a
-good opportunity of testing the muscles of my legs, with a number of
-half-breeds and Frenchmen, whose lives are mostly spent in this way,
-leading a novice, a cruel, and almost killing journey. Every rod of our
-way was over a continuous prairie, with a verdant green turf of wild
-grass of six or eight inches in height; and most of the way enamelled
-with wild flowers, and filled with a profusion of strawberries.
-
-For two or three of the first days, the scenery was monotonous, and
-became exceedingly painful from the fact, that we were (to use a
-phrase of the country) “out of sight of land,” _i. e._ out of sight
-of anything rising above the horizon, which was a perfect straight
-line around us, like that of the blue and boundless ocean. The
-pedestrian over such a discouraging sea of green, without a landmark
-before or behind him; without a beacon to lead him on, or define his
-progress, feels weak and overcome when night falls; and he stretches
-his exhausted limbs, apparently on the same spot where he has slept
-the night before, with the same prospect before and behind him; the
-same grass, and the same wild flowers beneath and about him; the same
-canopy over his head, and the same cheerless sea of green to start
-upon in the morning. It is difficult to describe the simple beauty
-and serenity of these scenes of solitude, or the feelings of feeble
-man, whose limbs are toiling to carry him through them—without a hill
-or tree to mark his progress, and convince him that he is not, like a
-squirrel in his cage, after all his toil, standing still. One commences
-on peregrinations like these, with a light heart, and a nimble foot,
-and spirits as buoyant as the very air that floats along by the side of
-him; but his spirit soon tires, and he lags on the way that is rendered
-more tedious and intolerable by the tantalizing _mirage_ that opens
-before him beautiful lakes, and lawns, and copses; or by the _looming_
-of the prairie ahead of him, that seems to rise in a parapet, and
-decked with its varied flowers, phantom-like, flies and moves along
-before him.
-
-I got on for a couple of days in tolerable condition, and with some
-considerable applause; but my half-bred, companions took the lead at
-length, and left me with several other novices far behind, which gave
-me additional pangs; and I at length felt like giving up the journey,
-and throwing myself upon the ground in hopeless despair. I was not
-alone in my misery, however, but was cheered and encouraged by looking
-back and beholding several of our party half a mile or more in the rear
-of me, jogging along, and suffering more agony in their new experiment
-than I was suffering myself. Their loitering and my murmurs, at length,
-brought our leaders to a halt, and we held a sort of council, in which
-I explained that the pain in my feet was so intolerable, that I felt as
-if I could go no further; when one of our half-breed leaders stepped
-up to me, and addressing me in French, told me that I must “_turn my
-toes in_” as the Indians do, and that I could then go on very well. We
-halted a half-hour, and took a little refreshment, whilst the little
-Frenchman was teaching his lesson to the rest of my fellow-novices,
-when we took up our march again; and I soon found upon trial, that by
-turning my toes in, my feet went more easily through the grass; and by
-turning the weight of my body more equally on the toes (enabling each
-one to support its proportionable part of the load, instead of throwing
-it all on to the joints of the big toes, which is done when the toes
-are turned out); I soon got relief, and made my onward progress very
-well. I rigidly adhered to this mode, and found no difficulty on the
-third and fourth days, of taking the lead of the whole party, which I
-constantly led until our journey was completed.[7]
-
-On this journey we saw immense herds of buffaloes; and although we had
-no horses to _run_ them, we successfully _approached_ them on foot,
-and supplied ourselves abundantly with fresh meat. After travelling
-for several days, we came in sight of a high range of blue hills in
-distance on our left, which rose to the height of several hundred
-feet above the level of the prairies. These hills were a conspicuous
-landmark at last, and some relief to us. I was told by our guide, that
-they were called the Bijou Hills, from a Fur Trader of that name, who
-had had his trading-house at the foot of them on the banks of the
-Missouri river, where he was at last destroyed by the Sioux Indians.
-
-Not many miles back of this range of hills, we came in contact with an
-immense saline, or “salt meadow,” as they are termed in this country,
-which turned us out of our path, and compelled us to travel several
-miles out of our way, to get by it; we came suddenly upon a great
-depression of the prairie, which extended for several miles, and as
-we stood upon its green banks, which were gracefully sloping down, we
-could overlook some hundreds of acres of the prairie which were covered
-with an incrustation of salt, that appeared the same as if the ground
-was everywhere covered with snow.
-
-These scenes, I am told are frequently to be met with in these regions,
-and certainly present the most singular and startling effect, by the
-sudden and unexpected contrast between their snow-white appearance,
-and the green fields that hem them in on all sides. Through each of
-these meadows there is a meandering small stream which arises from
-salt springs, throwing out in the spring of the year great quantities
-of water, which flood over these meadows to the depth of three or four
-feet; and during the heat of summer, being exposed to the rays of
-the sun, entirely evaporates, leaving the incrustation of _muriate_
-on the surface, to the depth of one or two inches. These places are
-the constant resort of buffaloes, which congregate in thousands about
-them, to lick up the salt; and on approaching the banks of this place
-we stood amazed at the almost incredible numbers of these animals,
-which were in sight on the opposite banks, at the distance of a mile or
-two from us, where they were lying in countless numbers, on the level
-prairie above, and stretching down by hundreds, to lick at the salt,
-forming in distance, large masses of black, most pleasingly to contrast
-with the snow white, and the vivid green, which I have before mentioned.
-
-After several days toil in the manner above-mentioned, all the way
-over soft and green fields, and amused with many pleasing incidents
-and accidents of the chase, we arrived, pretty well jaded, at Fort
-Pierre, mouth of Teton River, from whence I am now writing; where for
-the first time I was introduced to Mr. M‘Kenzie (of whom I have before
-spoken), to Mr. Laidlaw, mine host, and Mr. Halsey, a chief clerk in
-the establishment; and after, to the head chief and dignitaries of the
-great Sioux nation, who were here encamped about the Fort, in six or
-seven hundred skin lodges, and waiting for the arrival of the steamer,
-which they had heard, was on its way up the river, and which they had
-great curiosity to see.
-
-After resting a few days, and recovering from the fatigues of my
-journey, having taken a fair survey of the Sioux village, and explained
-my views to the Indians, as well as to the gentlemen whom I have
-above named; I commenced my operations with the brush, and first of
-all painted the portrait of the head-chief of the Sioux (the one
-horn), whom I have before spoken of. This truly noble fellow sat for
-his portrait, and it was finished before any one of the tribe knew
-anything of it; several of the chiefs and doctors were allowed to see
-it, and at last it was talked of through the village; and of course,
-the greater part of their numbers were at once gathered around me.
-Nothing short of hanging it out of doors on the side of my wigwam,
-would in any way answer them; and here I had the peculiar satisfaction
-of beholding, through a small hole I had made in my wigwam, the high
-admiration and respect they all felt for their chief, as well as
-the very great estimation in which they held me as a painter and a
-magician, conferring upon me at once the very distinguished appellation
-of Ee-cha-zoo-kah-ga-wa-kon (the medicine painter).
-
-After the exhibition of this chief’s picture, there was much excitement
-in the village about it; the doctors generally took a decided and noisy
-stand against the operations of my brush; haranguing the populace, and
-predicting bad luck, and premature death, to all who submitted to so
-strange and unaccountable an operation! My business for some days was
-entirely at a stand for want of sitters; for the doctors were opposing
-me with all their force; and the women and children were crying, with
-their hands over their mouths, making the most pitiful and doleful
-laments, which I never can explain to my readers; but for some just
-account of which, I must refer them to my friends M‘Kenzie and Halsey,
-who overlooked with infinite amusement, these curious scenes and are
-able, no doubt, to give them with truth and effect to the world.
-
-In this sad and perplexing dilemma, this noble chief stepped forward,
-and addressing himself to the chiefs and the doctors, to the braves and
-to the women and children, he told them to be quiet, and to treat me
-with friendship; that I had been travelling a great way to see them,
-and smoke with them; that I was great _medicine_, to be sure; that I
-was a great chief, and that I was the friend of Mr. Laidlaw and Mr.
-M‘Kenzie, who had prevailed upon him to sit for his picture, and fully
-assured him that there was no harm in it. His speech had the desired
-effect, and I was shaken hands with by hundreds of their worthies, many
-of whom were soon dressed and ornamented, prepared to sit for their
-portraits.[8]
-
-The first who then stepped forward for his portrait was Ee-ah-sa-pa
-(the Black Rock) chief of the Nee-caw-wee-gee band (+plate+ 91), a tall
-and fine looking man, of six feet or more in stature; in a splendid
-dress, with his lance in his hand; with his pictured robe thrown
-gracefully over his shoulders, and his head-dress made of war-eagles’
-quills and ermine skins, falling in a beautiful crest over his back,
-quite down to his feet, and surmounted on the top with a pair of horns
-denoting him (as I have explained in former instances) head leader or
-war-chief of his band.
-
-This man has been a constant and faithful friend of Mr. M‘Kenzie and
-others of the Fur Traders, who held him in high estimation, both as an
-honourable and valiant man, and an estimable companion.
-
-The next who sat to me was Tchan-dee, tobacco (+plate+ 92), a desperate
-warrior, and represented to me by the traders, as one of the most
-respectable and famous chiefs of the tribe. After him sat Toh-ki-ee-to,
-the stone with horns (+plate+ 93), chief of the Yanc-ton band, and
-reputed the principal and most eloquent _orator_ of the nation. The
-neck, and breast, and shoulders of this man, were curiously tattooed,
-by pricking in gunpowder and vermilion, which in this extraordinary
-instance, was put on in such elaborate profusion as to appear at a
-little distance like a beautifully embroidered dress. In his hand he
-held a handsome pipe, the stem of which was several feet long, and all
-the way wound with ornamented braids of the porcupine quills. Around
-his body was wrapped a valued robe, made of the skin of the grizzly
-bear, and on his neck several strings of _wampum_, an ornament seldom
-seen amongst the Indians in the Far West and the North.[9] I was
-much amused with the excessive vanity and egotism of this notorious
-man, who, whilst sitting for his picture, took occasion to have the
-interpreter constantly explaining to me the wonderful effects which his
-oratory had at different times produced on the minds of the chiefs and
-people of his tribe.
-
-[Illustration: 92 93]
-
-[Illustration: 94 95]
-
-[Illustration: 96]
-
-[Illustration: 97]
-
-He told me, that it was a very easy thing for him to set all the women
-of the tribe to crying: and that all the chiefs listened profoundly to
-his voice before they went to war; and at last, summed up by saying,
-that he was “the greatest orator in the Sioux nation,” by which he
-undoubtedly meant the greatest in the _world_.
-
-Besides these _distingués_ of this great and powerful tribe, I
-painted in regular succession, according to their rank and standing,
-Wan-ee-ton, chief of the _Susseton band_; Tah-zee-kah-da-cha (the torn
-belly), a brave of the _Yancton band_; Ka-pes-ka-day (the shell), a
-brave of the _O-gla-la band_; Wuk-mi-ser (corn), a warrior of the
-_Nee-cow-ee-gee band_; Cha-tee-wah-nee-chee (no heart), chief of the
-_Wah-nee-watch-to-nee-nah band_; Mah-to-ra-rish-nee-eeh-ee-rah (the
-grizzly bear that runs without regard), a brave of the _Onc-pa-pa
-band_; Mah-to-chee-ga (the little bear), a distinguished brave;
-Shon-ka (the dog), chief of the _Ca-za-zhee-ta_ (bad arrow points)
-_band_; Tah-teck-a-da-hair (the steep wind), a brave of the same
-band; Hah-ha-ra-pah (the elk’s head), chief of the _Ee-ta-sip-shov
-band_; Mah-to-een-nah-pa (the white bear that goes out), chief of the
-_Blackfoot Sioux band_; Shon-ga-ton-ga-chesh-en-day (the horse dung),
-chief of a band, a great conjuror and magician.
-
-The portraits of all the above dignitaries can be always seen, as large
-as life, in my very numerous Collection, provided I get them safe
-home; and also the portraits of two very pretty Sioux women (+plate+
-94), Wi-looh-tah-eeh-tchah-ta-mah-nee (the red thing that touches
-in marching), and (+plate+ 95), Tchon-su-mons-ka (the sand bar). The
-first of these women (+plate+ 94), is the daughter of the famous chief
-called Black Rock, of whom I have spoken, and whose portrait has been
-given (+plate+ 91). She is an unmarried girl, and much esteemed by the
-whole tribe, for her modesty, as well as beauty. She was beautifully
-dressed in skins, ornamented profusely with brass buttons and beads.
-Her hair was plaited, her ears supported a great profusion of curious
-beads—and over her other dress she wore a handsomely garnished buffalo
-robe.
-
-So highly was the Black Rock esteemed (as I have before mentioned), and
-his beautiful daughter admired and respected by the Traders, that Mr.
-M‘Kenzie employed me to make him copies of their two portraits, which
-he has hung up in Mr. Laidlaw’s trading-house, as valued ornaments and
-keepsakes.[10]
-
-The second of these women (+plate+ 95) was very richly dressed, the
-upper part of her garment being almost literally covered with brass
-buttons; and her hair, which was inimitably beautiful and soft, and
-glossy as silk, fell over her shoulders in great profusion, and in
-beautiful waves, produced by the condition in which it is generally
-kept in braids, giving to it, when combed out, a waving form, adding
-much to its native appearance, which is invariably straight and
-graceless.
-
-This woman is at present the wife of a white man by the name of
-Chardon, a Frenchman, who has been many years in the employment of the
-American Fur Company, in the character of a Trader and Interpreter;
-and who by his bold and daring nature, has not only carried dread and
-consternation amongst the Indian tribes wherever he has gone; but
-has commanded much respect, and rendered essential service to the
-Company in the prosecution of their dangerous and critical dealings
-with the Indian tribes. I have said something of this extraordinary
-man heretofore, and shall take future occasion to say more of him.
-For the present, suffice it to say, that although from his continual
-intercourse with the different tribes for twenty-five or thirty years,
-where he had always been put forward in the front of danger—sent
-as a sacrifice, or _forlorn hope_; still his cut and hacked limbs
-have withstood all the blows that have been aimed at them; and his
-unfaltering courage leads him to “beard the lion in his den,” whilst
-his liberal heart, as it always has, deals out to his friends (and even
-to strangers, if friends are not by) all the dear earnings which are
-continually bought with severest toil, and at the hazard of his life.
-
-I acknowledge myself a debtor to this good hearted fellow for much
-kindness and attention to me whilst in the Indian country, and also for
-a superb dress and robe, which had been manufactured and worn by his
-wife, and which he insisted on adding to my +Indian Gallery+ since her
-death, where it will long remain to be examined.[11]
-
-  [6] When passing by the site of the Puncah village a few months
-  after this, in my canoe, I went ashore with my men, and found the
-  poles and the buffalo skin, standing as they were left, over the
-  old man’s head. The firebrands were lying nearly as I had left
-  them, and I found at a few yards distant the skull, and others of
-  his bones, which had been picked and cleaned by the wolves; which
-  is probably all that any human being can ever know of his final and
-  melancholy fate.
-
-
-  [7] On this march we were all travelling in moccasins, which being
-  made without any soles, according to the Indian custom, had but
-  little support for the foot underneath; and consequently, soon
-  subjected us to excruciating pain, whilst walking according to the
-  civilized mode, with the toes turned out. From this very painful
-  experience I learned to my complete satisfaction, that man in a
-  state of nature who walks on his naked feet, _must_ walk with his
-  toes turned in, that each may perform the duties assigned to it in
-  proportion to its size and strength; and that civilized man _can_
-  walk with his toes turned out if he chooses, if he will use a stiff
-  sole under his feet, and will be content at last to put up with an
-  acquired deformity of the big toe joint which too many know to be a
-  frequent and painful occurrence.
-
-
-  [8] Several years after I painted the portrait of this
-  extraordinary man, and whilst I was delivering my Lectures in the
-  City of New York, I first received intelligence of his death,
-  in the following singular manner:—I was on the platform in my
-  Lecture-room, in the Stuyvesant Institute, with an audience of
-  twelve or fourteen hundred persons, in the midst of whom were
-  seated a delegation of thirty or forty Sioux Indians under the
-  charge of Major Pilcher, their agent; and I was successfully
-  passing before their eyes the portraits of a number of Sioux
-  chiefs, and making my remarks upon them. The Sioux instantly
-  recognized each one as it was exhibited, which they instantly
-  hailed by a sharp and startling yelp. But when the portrait of this
-  chief was placed before them, instead of the usual recognition,
-  each one placed his hand over his mouth, and gave a “hush—sh—” and
-  hung down their heads, their usual expressions of grief in case of
-  a death. From this sudden emotion, I knew instantly, that the chief
-  must be dead, and so expressed my belief to the audience. I stopped
-  my Lecture a few moments to converse with Major Pilcher who was by
-  my side, and who gave me the following extraordinary account of his
-  death, which I immediately related to the audience; and which being
-  translated to the Sioux Indians, their chief arose and addressed
-  himself to the audience, saying that the account was true, and that
-  Ha-wan-je-tah was killed but a few days before they left home.
-
-  The account which Major Pilcher gave was nearly as follows:—
-
-  “But a few weeks before I left the Sioux country with the
-  delegation, Ha-wan-je-tah (the one horn) had in some way been the
-  accidental cause of the death of his only son, a very fine youth;
-  and so great was the anguish of his mind at times, that he became
-  frantic and insane. In one of these moods he mounted his favourite
-  war-horse with his bow and his arrows in his hand, and dashed off
-  at full speed upon the prairies, repeating the most solemn oath,
-  ‘that he would slay the first living thing that fell in his way, be
-  it man or beast, or friend or foe.’
-
-  “No one dared to follow him, and after he had been absent an hour
-  or two, his horse came back to the village with two arrows in its
-  body, and covered with blood! Fears of the most serious kind were
-  now entertained for the fate of the chief, and a party of warriors
-  immediately mounted their horses, and retraced the animal’s tracks
-  to the place of the tragedy, where they found the body of their
-  chief horribly mangled and gored by a buffalo bull, whose carcass
-  was stretched by the side of him.
-
-  “A close examination of the ground was then made by the Indians,
-  who ascertained by the tracks, that their unfortunate chief, under
-  his unlucky resolve, had met a buffalo bull in the season when
-  they are very stubborn, and unwilling to run from any one; and
-  had incensed the animal by shooting a number of arrows into him,
-  which had brought him into furious combat. The chief had then
-  dismounted, and turned his horse loose, having given it a couple of
-  arrows from his bow, which sent it home at full speed, and then had
-  thrown away his bow and quiver, encountering the infuriated animal
-  with his knife alone, and the desperate battle resulted as I have
-  before-mentioned, in the death of both. Many of the bones of the
-  chief were broken, as he was gored and stamped to death, and his
-  huge antagonist had laid his body by the side of him, weltering in
-  blood from an hundred wounds made by the chief’s long and two-edged
-  knife.”
-
-  So died this elegant and high-minded nobleman of the wilderness,
-  whom I confidently had hoped to meet and admire again at some
-  future period of my life. (_Vide_ +plate+ 86).
-
-
-  [9] _Wampum_ is the Indian name of ornaments manufactured by the
-  Indians from vari-coloured shells, which they get on the shores of
-  the fresh water streams, and file or cut into bits of half an inch,
-  or an inch in length, and perforate (giving to them the shape of
-  pieces of broken pipe stems), which they string on deers’ sinews,
-  and wear on their necks in profusion; or weave them ingeniously
-  into war-belts for the waist.
-
-  Amongst the numerous tribes who have formerly inhabited the
-  Atlantic Coast, and that part of the country which now constitutes
-  the principal part of the United States, wampum has been invariably
-  manufactured, and highly valued as a circulating medium (instead of
-  coins, of which the Indians have no knowledge); so many strings, or
-  so many hands-breadth, being the fixed value of a horse, a gun, a
-  robe, &c.
-
-  In treaties, the wampum belt has been passed as the pledge of
-  friendship, and from time immemorial sent to hostile tribes, as the
-  messenger of peace; or paid by so many fathoms length, as tribute
-  to conquering enemies, and Indian kings.
-
-  It is a remarkable fact, and worthy of observation in this place,
-  that after I passed the Mississippi, I saw but very little wampum
-  used; and on ascending the Missouri, I do not recollect to have
-  seen it worn at all by the Upper Missouri Indians, although the
-  same materials for its manufacture are found in abundance through
-  those regions. I met with but very few strings of it amongst the
-  Missouri Sioux, and nothing of it amongst the tribes north and
-  west of them. Below the Sioux, and along the whole of our Western
-  frontier, the different tribes are found loaded and beautifully
-  ornamented with it, which they can now afford to do, for they
-  consider it of little value, as the Fur Traders have ingeniously
-  introduced a spurious imitation of it, manufactured by steam or
-  otherwise, of porcelain or some composition closely resembling it,
-  with which they have flooded the whole Indian country, and sold at
-  so reduced a price, as to cheapen, and consequently destroy, the
-  value and meaning of the original wampum, a string of which can now
-  but very rarely be found in any part of the country.
-
-
-  [10] Several years after I left the Sioux country, I saw Messrs.
-  Chardon and Piquot, two of the Traders from that country, who
-  recently had left it, and told me in St. Louis, whilst looking at
-  the portrait of this girl, that while staying in Mr. Laidlaw’s
-  Fort, the chief, Black Rock, entered the room suddenly where the
-  portrait of his daughter was hanging on the wall, and pointing to
-  it with a heavy heart, told Mr. Laidlaw, that whilst his band was
-  out on the prairies, where they had been for several months “making
-  meat,” his daughter had died, and was there buried. “My heart is
-  glad again,” said he, “when I see her here alive; and I want the
-  one the medicine-man made of her, which is now before me, that I
-  can see her, and talk to her. My band are all in mourning for her,
-  and at the gate of your Fort, which I have just passed, are ten
-  horses for you, and Ee-ah-sa-pa’s wigwam, which you know is the
-  best one in the Sioux nation. I wish you to take down my daughter
-  and give her to me.” Mr. Laidlaw, seeing the _unusually_ liberal
-  price that this nobleman was willing to pay for a portrait, and
-  the true grief that he expressed for the loss of his child, had
-  not the heart to abuse such noble feeling; and taking the painting
-  from the wall, placed it into his hands; telling him that it of
-  right belonged to him, and that his horses and wigwam he must take
-  back and keep them, to mend, as far as possible, his liberal heart,
-  which was broken by the loss of his only daughter.
-
-
-  [11] Several years since writing the above, I made a visit with
-  my wife, to the venerable parent of Mr. Chardon, who lives in her
-  snug and neat mansion, near the City of Philadelphia, where we were
-  treated with genuine politeness and hospitality. His mother and two
-  sisters, who are highly respectable, had many anxious questions
-  to ask about him; and had at the same time, living with them, a
-  fine-looking half-breed boy, about ten years old, the son of Monsr.
-  Chardon and his Indian wife, whom I have above spoken of. This fine
-  boy who had received the name of Bolivar, had been brought from the
-  Indian country by the father, and left here for his education, with
-  which they were taking great pains.
-
-
-
-
-                             LETTER—No. 28.
-
-                MOUTH OF TETON RIVER, _UPPER MISSOURI_.
-
-
-Whilst painting the portraits of the chiefs and braves of the Sioux,
-as described in my last epistle, my painting-room was the continual
-rendezvous of the worthies of the tribe; and I, the “lion of the day,”
-and my art, the _summum_ and _ne plus ultra_ of mysteries, which
-engaged the whole conversation of chiefs and sachems, as well as of
-women and children. I mentioned that I have been obliged to paint them
-according to rank, as they looked upon the operation as a very great
-honour, which I, as “a great chief and medicine-man,” was conferring on
-all who sat to me. Fortunate it was for me, however, that the honour
-was not a sufficient inducement for all to overcome their fears, which
-often stood in the way of their consenting to be painted; for if all
-had been willing to undergo the operation, I should have progressed
-but a very little way in the “_rank and file_” of their worthies; and
-should have had to leave many discontented, and (as they would think)
-neglected. About one in five or eight was willing to be painted, and
-the rest thought they would be much more sure of “sleeping quiet in
-their graves” after they were dead, if their pictures were not made. By
-this lucky difficulty I got great relief, and easily got through with
-those who were willing, and at the same time decided by the chiefs to
-be worthy, of so signal an honour.
-
-After I had done with the chiefs and braves, and proposed to paint a
-few of the women, I at once got myself into a serious perplexity, being
-heartily laughed at by the whole tribe, both by men and by women, for
-my exceeding and (to them) unaccountable condescension in seriously
-proposing to paint a woman; conferring on her the same honour that
-I had done the chiefs and braves. Those whom I had honoured, were
-laughed at by hundreds of the jealous, who had been decided unworthy
-the distinction, and were now amusing themselves with the _very
-enviable honour_ which the _great white medicine-man_ had conferred,
-_especially_ on _them_, and was now to confer equally upon the _squaws_!
-
-The first reply that I received from those whom I had painted, was,
-that if I was to paint women and children, the sooner I destroyed
-_their_ pictures, the better; for I had represented to them that I
-wanted their pictures to exhibit to white chiefs, to shew who were
-the most distinguished and worthy of the Sioux; and their women had
-never taken scalps, nor did anything better than make fires and dress
-skins. I was quite awkward in this dilemma, in explaining to them
-that I wanted the portraits of the women to hang _under_ those of
-their husbands, merely to shew how their women _looked_, and how they
-_dressed_, without saying any more of them. After some considerable
-delay of my operations, and much deliberation on the subject, through
-the village, I succeeded in getting a number of women’s portraits, of
-which the two above introduced are a couple.
-
-The vanity of these men, after they had agreed to be painted was beyond
-all description, and far surpassing that which is oftentimes immodest
-enough in civilized society, where the sitter generally leaves the
-picture, when it is done to speak for, and to take care of, itself;
-while an Indian often lays down, from morning till night, in front of
-his portrait, admiring his own beautiful face, and faithfully guarding
-it from day to day, to save it from accident or harm.
-
-This _watching_ or _guarding_ their portraits, I have observed during
-all of my travels amongst them as a very curious thing; and in many
-instances, where my colours were not dry, and subjected to so many
-accidents, from the crowds who were gathering about them, I have found
-this peculiar guardianship of essential service to me—relieving my mind
-oftentimes from a great deal of anxiety.
-
-I was for a long time at a loss for the true cause of so singular
-a peculiarity, but at last learned that it was owing to their
-superstitious notion, that there may be life to a certain extent in the
-picture; and that if harm or violence be done to it, it may in some
-mysterious way, affect their health or do them other injury.
-
-After I had been several weeks busily at work with my brush in this
-village, and pretty well used to the modes of life in these regions—and
-also familiarly acquainted with all the officers and clerks of the
-Establishment, it was announced one day, that the steamer which we had
-left, was coming in the river below, where all eyes were anxiously
-turned, and all ears were listening; when, at length, we discovered the
-puffing of her steam; and, at last, heard the thundering of her cannon,
-which were firing from her deck.
-
-The excitement and dismay caused amongst 6000 of these wild people,
-when the steamer came up in front of their village, was amusing in the
-extreme. The steamer was moored at the shore, however; and when Mr.
-Chouteau and Major Sanford, their old friend and agent, walked ashore,
-it seemed to restore their confidence and courage; and the whole
-village gathered in front of the boat, without showing much further
-amazement, or even curiosity about it.
-
-The steamer rested a week or two at this place before she started on
-her voyage for the head-waters of the Missouri; during which time,
-there was much hilarity and mirth indulged in amongst the Indians, as
-well as with the hands employed in the service of the Fur Company. The
-appearance of a steamer in this wild country was deemed a wonderful
-occurrence, and the time of her presence here, looked upon, and used
-as a holiday. Some sharp encounters amongst the trappers, who come
-in here from the mountains, loaded with packs of furs, with sinews
-hardened by long exposure, and seemingly impatient for a _fight_, which
-is soon given them by some bullying fisticuff-fellow, who steps forward
-and settles the matter in a ring, which is made and strictly preserved
-for _fair play_, until hard raps, and bloody noses, and blind eyes
-“_settle the hash_,” and satisfy his trappership to lay in bed a week
-or two, and then graduate, a sober and a civil man.
-
-Amongst the Indians we have had numerous sights and
-amusements to entertain and some to shock us. Shows of
-dances—ball-plays—horse-racing—foot-racing, and wrestling in abundance.
-Feasting—fasting, and prayers we have also had; and penance and
-tortures, and almost every thing short of self-immolation.
-
-Some few days after the steamer had arrived, it was announced that
-a grand feast was to be given to the _great white chiefs_, who were
-visitors amongst them; and preparations were made accordingly for it.
-The two chiefs, Ha-wan-je-tah and Tchan-dee, of whom I have before
-spoken, brought their two tents together, forming the two into a
-semi-circle (+plate+ 96), enclosing a space sufficiently large to
-accommodate 150 men; and sat down with that number of the principal
-chiefs and warriors of the Sioux nation; with Mr. Chouteau, Major
-Sanford, the Indian agent, Mr. M‘Kenzie, and myself, whom they had
-invited in due time, and placed on elevated seats in the centre of the
-crescent; while the rest of the company all sat upon the ground, and
-mostly cross-legged, preparatory to the feast being dealt out.
-
-In the centre of the semi-circle was erected a flag-staff, on which
-was waving a white flag, and to which also was tied the calumet, both
-expressive of their friendly feelings towards us. Near the foot of the
-flag-staff were placed in a row on the ground, six or eight kettles,
-with iron covers on them, shutting them tight, in which were prepared
-the viands for our _voluptuous_ feast. Near the kettles, and on the
-ground also, bottomside upwards, were a number of wooden bowls, in
-which the meat was to be served out. And in front, two or three men,
-who were there placed as waiters, to light the pipes for smoking, and
-also to deal out the food.
-
-In these positions things stood, and all sat, with thousands climbing
-and crowding around, for a peep at the grand pageant; when at length,
-Ha-wan-je-tah (the one horn), head chief of the nation, rose in front
-of the Indian agent, in a very handsome costume, and addressed him
-thus:—“My father, I am glad to see you here to-day—my heart is always
-glad to see my father when he comes—our Great Father, who sends him
-here is very rich, and we are poor. Our friend Mr. M‘Kenzie, who
-is here, we are also glad to see; we know him well, and we shall
-be sorry when he is gone. Our friend who is on your right-hand we
-all know is very rich; and we have heard that he owns the great
-_medicine-canoe_; he is a good man, and a friend to the red men. Our
-friend the _White Medicine_, who sits with you, we did not know—he
-came amongst us a stranger, and he has made me very well—all the women
-know it, and think it very good; he has done many curious things, and
-we have all been pleased with him—he has made us much amusement—and we
-know he is great medicine.
-
-[Illustration: 98]
-
-“My father, I hope you will have pity on us, we are very poor—we offer
-you to-day, not the best that we have got; for we have a plenty of good
-buffalo hump and marrow—but we give you our hearts in this feast—we
-have killed our faithful dogs to feed you—and the Great Spirit will
-seal our friendship. I have no more to say.”
-
-After these words he took off his beautiful war-eagle head-dress—his
-shirt and leggings—his necklace of grizzly bears’ claws and his
-moccasins; and tying them together, laid them gracefully down at the
-feet of the agent as a present; and laying a handsome pipe on top of
-them, he walked around into an adjoining lodge, where he got a buffalo
-robe to cover his shoulders, and returned to the feast, taking his seat
-which he had before occupied.
-
-Major Sanford then rose and made a short speech in reply, thanking
-him for the valuable present which he had made him, and for the very
-polite and impressive manner in which it had been done; and sent to the
-steamer for a quantity of tobacco and other presents, which were given
-to him in return. After this, and after several others of the chiefs
-had addressed him in a similar manner; and, like the first, disrobed
-themselves, and thrown their beautiful costumes at his feet, one of the
-three men in front deliberately lit a handsome pipe, and brought it to
-Ha-wan-je-tah to smoke. He took it, and after presenting the stem to
-the North—to the South—to the East, and the West—and then to the Sun
-that was over his head, and pronounced the words “How—how—how!” drew
-a whiff or two of smoke through it, and holding the bowl of it in one
-hand, and its stem in the other, he then held it to each of our mouths,
-as we successively smoked it; after which it was passed around through
-the whole group, who all smoked through it, or as far as its contents
-lasted, when another of the three waiters was ready with a second, and
-at length a third one, in the same way, which lasted through the hands
-of the whole number of guests. This smoking was conducted with the
-strictest adherence to exact and established form, and the feast the
-whole way, to the most positive silence. After the pipe is charged, and
-is being lit, until the time that the chief has drawn the smoke through
-it, it is considered an evil omen for any one to speak; and if any one
-break silence in that time, even in a whisper, the pipe is instantly
-dropped by the chief, and their superstition is such, that they would
-not dare to use it on this occasion; but another one is called for
-and used in its stead. If there is no accident of the kind during the
-smoking, the waiters then proceed to distribute the meat, which is soon
-devoured in the feast.
-
-In his case the lids were raised from the kettles, which were all
-filled with dogs’ meat alone. It being well-cooked, and made into a
-sort of a stew, sent forth a very savoury and pleasing smell, promising
-to be an acceptable and palatable food. Each of us civilized guests had
-a large wooden bowl placed before us, with a huge quantity of dogs’
-flesh floating in a profusion of soup, or rich gravy, with a large
-spoon resting in the dish, made of the buffalo’s horn. In this most
-difficult and painful dilemma we sat; all of us knowing the solemnity
-and good feeling in which it was given, and the absolute necessity of
-falling to, and devouring a little of it. We all tasted it a few times,
-and resigned our dishes, which were quite willingly taken, and passed
-around with others, to every part of the group, who all ate heartily of
-the _delicious viands_, which were soon dipped out of the kettles, and
-entirely devoured; after which each one arose as he felt disposed, and
-walked off without uttering a word. In this way the feast ended, and
-all retired silently, and gradually, until the ground was left vacant
-to the charge of the waiters or officers, who seemed to have charge of
-it during the whole occasion.
-
-This feast was unquestionably given to us, as the most undoubted
-evidence they could give us of their friendship; and we, who knew
-the spirit and feeling in which it was given, could not but treat it
-respectfully, and receive it as a very high and marked compliment.
-
-Since I witnessed it on this occasion, I have been honoured with
-numerous entertainments of the kind amongst the other tribes, which I
-have visited towards the sources of the Missouri, and all conducted in
-the same solemn and impressive manner; from which I feel authorized to
-pronounce the _dog-feast_ a truly religious ceremony, wherein the poor
-Indian sees fit to sacrifice his faithful companion to bear testimony
-to the sacredness of his vows of friendship, and invite his friend to
-partake of its flesh, to remind him forcibly of the reality of the
-sacrifice, and the solemnity of his professions.
-
-The dog, amongst all Indian tribes, is more esteemed and more valued
-than amongst any part of the civilized world; the Indian who has more
-time to devote to his company, and whose untutored mind more nearly
-assimilates to that of his faithful servant, keeps him closer company,
-and draws him nearer to his heart; they hunt together, and are equal
-sharers in the chase—their bed is one; and on the rocks, and on their
-coats of arms they carve his image as the symbol of fidelity. Yet, with
-all of these he will end his affection with this faithful follower, and
-with tears in his eyes, offer him as a sacrifice to seal the pledge he
-has made to man; because a feast of venison, or of buffalo meat, is
-what is due to every one who enters an Indian’s wigwam; and of course,
-conveys but a passive or neutral evidence, that generally goes for
-nothing.
-
-I have sat at many of these feasts, and never could but appreciate
-the moral and solemnity of them. I have seen the master take from the
-bowl the head of his victim, and descant on its former affection and
-fidelity with tears in his eyes. And I have seen guests at the same
-time by the side of me, jesting and sneering at the poor Indian’s folly
-and stupidity; and I have said in my heart, that they never deserved a
-name so good or so honourable as that of the poor animal whose bones
-they were picking.
-
-At the feast which I have been above describing, each of us tasted a
-little of the meat, and passed the dishes on to the Indians, who soon
-demolished everything they contained. We all agreed that the meat was
-well cooked, and seemed to be a well-flavoured and palatable food; and
-no doubt, could have been eaten with a good relish, if we had been
-hungry, and ignorant of the nature of the food we were eating.
-
-The flesh of these dogs, though apparently relished by the Indians,
-is, undoubtedly, inferior to the venison and buffalo’s meat, of which
-feasts are constantly made where friends are invited, as they are in
-civilized society, to a pleasant and convivial party; from which fact
-alone, it would seem clear, that they have some extraordinary motive,
-at all events, for feasting on the flesh of that useful and faithful
-animal; even when, as in the instance I have been describing, their
-village is well supplied with fresh and dried meat of the buffalo. The
-dog-feast is given, I believe, by all tribes in North America; and
-by them all, I think, this faithful animal, as well as the horse, is
-sacrificed in several different ways, to appease offended Spirits or
-Deities, whom it is considered necessary that they should conciliate in
-this way; and when done, is invariably done by giving the best in the
-herd or the kennel.
-
-
-
-
-                             LETTER—No. 29.
-
-                MOUTH OF TETON RIVER, _UPPER MISSOURI_.
-
-
-Another curious and disgusting scene I witnessed in the after part of
-the day on which we were honoured with the dog feast. In this I took no
-part, but was sufficiently near to it, when standing some rods off, and
-witnessing the cruel operation. I was called upon by one of the clerks
-in the Establishment to ride up a mile or so, near the banks of the
-Teton River, in a little plain at the base of the bluffs, where were
-grouped some fifteen or twenty lodges of the Ting-ta-to-ah band, to see
-a man (as they said) “_looking at the sun_!” We found him naked, except
-his breech-cloth, with splints or skewers run through the flesh on both
-breasts, leaning back and hanging with the weight of his body to the
-top of a pole which was fastened in the ground, and to the upper end
-of which he was fastened by a cord which was tied to the splints. In
-this position he was leaning back, with nearly the whole weight of his
-body hanging to the pole, the top of which was bent forward, allowing
-his body to sink about half-way to the ground (+plate+ 97). His feet
-were still upon the ground, supporting a small part of his weight; and
-he held in his left hand his favourite bow, and in his right, with a
-desperate grip, his medicine-bag. In this condition, with the blood
-trickling down over his body, which was covered with white and yellow
-clay, and amidst a great crowd who were looking on, sympathizing with
-and encouraging him, he was hanging and “looking at the sun,” without
-paying the least attention to any one about him. In the group that was
-reclining around him, were several mystery-men beating their drums
-and shaking their rattles, and singing as loud as they could yell, to
-encourage him and strengthen his heart to stand and look at the sun,
-from its rising in the morning ’till its setting at night; at which
-time, if his heart and his strength have not failed him, he is “cut
-down,” receives the liberal donation of presents (which have been
-thrown into a pile before him during the day), and also the name and
-the style of a doctor, or _medicine-man_, which lasts him, and ensures
-him respect, through life.
-
-This most extraordinary and cruel custom I never heard of amongst any
-other tribe, and never saw an instance of it before or after the one I
-have just named. It is a sort of worship, or penance, of great cruelty;
-disgusting and painful to behold, with only one palliating circumstance
-about it, which is, that it is a voluntary torture and of very rare
-occurrence. The poor and ignorant, misguided and superstitious man who
-undertakes it, puts his everlasting reputation at stake upon the issue;
-for when he takes his stand, he expects to face the sun and gradually
-turn his body in listless silence, till he sees it go down at night;
-and if he faints and falls, of which there is imminent danger, he loses
-his reputation as a brave or mystery-man, and suffers a signal disgrace
-in the estimation of the tribe, like all men who have the presumption
-to set themselves up for braves or mystery-men, and fail justly to
-sustain the character.
-
-The Sioux seem to have many modes of worshipping the Great or Good
-Spirit, and also of conciliating the Evil Spirit: they have numerous
-fasts and feasts, and many modes of sacrificing, but yet they seem
-to pay less strict attention to them than the Mandans do, which may
-perhaps be owing in a great measure to the wandering and predatory
-modes of life which they pursue, rendering it difficult to adhere so
-rigidly to the strict form and letter of their customs.
-
-There had been, a few days before I arrived at this place, a great
-medicine operation held on the prairie, a mile or so back of the Fort,
-and which, of course, I was not lucky enough to see. The poles were
-still standing, and the whole transaction was described to me by my
-friend Mr. Halsey, one of the clerks in the Establishment. From the
-account given of it, it seems to bear some slight resemblance to that
-of the _Mandan religious ceremony_, but no nearer to it than a feeble
-effort by so ignorant and superstitious a people, to copy a custom
-which they most probably have had no opportunity to see themselves, but
-have endeavoured to imitate from hearsay. They had an awning of immense
-size erected on the prairie which is yet standing, made of willow
-bushes supported by posts, with poles and willow boughs laid over;
-under the centre of which there was a pole set firmly in the ground,
-from which many of the young men had suspended their bodies by splints
-run through the flesh in different parts, the numerous scars of which
-were yet seen bleeding afresh from day to day, amongst the crowds that
-were about me.
-
-During my stay amongst the Sioux, as I was considered by them to
-be great _medicine_, I received many pipes and other little things
-from them as presents, given to me in token of respect for me, and
-as assurances of their friendship; and I, being desirous to collect
-and bring from their country every variety of their manufactures, of
-their costumes, their weapons, their pipes, and their mystery-things,
-purchased a great many others, for which, as I was “medicine” and a
-“great white chief!” I was necessarily obliged to pay very _liberal_
-prices.
-
-Of the various costumes (of this, as well as of other tribes), that I
-have collected, there will be seen fair and faithful representations in
-the numerous portraits; and of their war-clubs, pipes, &c. I have set
-forth in the following illustrations, a few of the most interesting of
-the very great numbers of those things which I have collected in this
-and other tribes which I have visited.
-
-The luxury of smoking is known to all the North American Indians,
-in their primitive state, and that before they have any knowledge
-of tobacco; which is only introduced amongst them by civilized
-adventurers, who teach them the use and luxury of whiskey at the same
-time.
-
-In their native state they are excessive smokers, and many of them (I
-would almost venture the assertion), would seem to be smoking one-half
-of their lives. There may be two good reasons for this, the first
-of which is, that the idle and leisure life that the Indian leads,
-(who has no trade or business to follow—no office hours to attend
-to, or profession to learn), induces him to look for occupation and
-amusement in so innocent a luxury, which again further tempts him
-to its excessive use, from its feeble and harmless effects on the
-system. There are many weeds and leaves, and barks of trees, which are
-narcotics, and of spontaneous growth in their countries, which the
-Indians dry and pulverize, and carry in pouches and smoke to great
-excess—and which in several of the languages, when thus prepared, is
-called _k’nick k’neck_.
-
-As smoking is a luxury so highly valued by the Indians, they have
-bestowed much pains, and not a little ingenuity, to the construction
-of their pipes. Of these I have procured a collection of several
-hundreds, and in +plate+ 98, have given fac-simile outlines of a number
-of the most curious. The bowls of these are generally made of the red
-steatite, or “pipe-stone” (as it is more familiarly called in this
-country), and many of them designed and carved with much taste and
-skill, with figures and groups in _alto relievo_, standing or reclining
-upon them.
-
-The red stone of which these pipe bowls are made, is, in my estimation,
-a great curiosity; inasmuch as I am sure it is a variety of steatite
-(if it be steatite), differing from that of any known European
-locality, and also from any locality known in America, other than the
-one from which all these pipes come; and which are all traceable I have
-found to one source; and that source as yet unvisited except by the
-red man who describes it, everywhere, as a place of vast importance to
-the Indians—as given to them by the Great Spirit, for their pipes, and
-strictly forbidden to be used for anything else.
-
-The source from whence all these pipes come, is, undoubtedly, somewhere
-between this place and the Mississippi River; and as the Indians all
-speak of it as a great _medicine_-place, I shall certainly lay my
-course to it, ere long, and be able to give the world some account of
-it and its mysteries.
-
-The Indians shape out the bowls of these pipes from the solid stone,
-which is not quite as hard as marble, with nothing but a knife. The
-stone which is of a cherry red, admits of a beautiful polish, and the
-Indian makes the hole in the bowl of the pipe, by drilling into it a
-hard stick, shaped to the desired size, with a quantity of sharp sand
-and water kept constantly in the hole, subjecting him therefore to a
-very great labour and the necessity of much patience.
-
-[Illustration: 99]
-
-The shafts or stems of these pipes, as will be seen in +plate+ 98, are
-from two to four feet long, sometimes round, but most generally flat;
-of an inch or two in breadth, and wound half their length or more with
-braids of porcupines’ quills; and often ornamented with the beaks and
-tufts from the wood-pecker’s head, with ermine skins and long red hair,
-dyed from white horse hair or the white buffalo’s tail.
-
-The stems of these pipes will be found to be carved in many ingenious
-forms, and in all cases they are perforated through the centre, quite
-staggering the wits of the enlightened world to _guess how_ the
-holes have been _bored_ through them; until it is simply and briefly
-explained, that the stems are uniformly made of the stalk of the young
-ash, which generally grows straight, and has a small pith through the
-centre, which is easily burned out with a hot wire or a piece of hard
-wood, by a much slower process.
-
-In +plate+ 98, the pipes marked _b_ are ordinary pipes, made and used
-for the _luxury_ only of smoking; and for this purpose, every Indian
-designs and constructs his own pipe. The _calumet_, or pipe of peace
-(+plate+ 98 _a_), ornamented with the war-eagle’s quills, is a sacred
-pipe, and never allowed to be used on any other occasion than that of
-_peace-making_; when the chief brings it into treaty, and unfolding the
-many bandages which are carefully kept around it—has it ready to be
-mutually smoked by the chiefs, after the terms of the treaty are agreed
-upon, as the means of _solemnizing_ or _signing_, by an illiterate
-people, who cannot draw up an instrument, and sign their names to it,
-as it is done in the civilized world.
-
-The mode of solemnizing is by passing the sacred stem to each chief,
-who draws one breath of smoke only through it, thereby passing the most
-inviolable pledge that they can possibly give, for the keeping of the
-peace. This sacred pipe is then carefully folded up, and stowed away in
-the chief’s lodge, until a similar occasion calls it out to be used in
-a similar manner.
-
-There is no custom more uniformly in constant use amongst the poor
-Indians than that of smoking, nor any other more highly valued. His
-pipe is his constant companion through life—his messenger of peace;
-he pledges his friends through its stem and its bowl—and when its
-care-drowning fumes cease to flow, it takes a place with him in his
-solitary grave, with his tomahawk and war-club, companions to his long
-fancied, “mild and beautiful hunting-grounds.”
-
-The weapons of these people, like their pipes, are numerous, and mostly
-manufactured by themselves. In a former place (+plate+ 18) I have
-described a part of these, such as the bows and arrows, lances, &c.,
-and they have yet many others, specimens of which I have collected
-from every tribe; and a number of which I have grouped together in
-+plate+ 99; consisting of knives, war-clubs, and tomahawks. I have
-here introduced the most general and established forms that are in
-use amongst the different tribes, which are all strictly copied
-from amongst the great variety of these articles to be found in my
-Collection.
-
-The scalping-knives _a_ and _b_, and tomahawks _e_ _e_ _e_ _e_ are
-of civilized manufacture, made expressly for Indian use, and carried
-into the Indian country by thousands and tens of thousands, and sold
-at an enormous price. The scabbards of the knives and handles for
-the tomahawks, the Indians construct themselves, according to their
-own taste, and oftentimes ornament them very handsomely. In his rude
-and unapproached condition, the Indian is a stranger to such weapons
-as these—he works not in the metals; and his untutored mind has not
-been ingenious enough to design or execute anything so _savage_ or
-destructive as these civilized _refinements on Indian barbarity_. In
-his native simplicity he shapes out his rude hatchet from a piece of
-stone, as in letter _f_, heads his arrows and spears with flints; and
-his knife is a sharpened bone, or the edge of a broken silex. The
-war-club _c_ is also another civilized refinement, with a blade of
-steel, of eight or ten inches in length, and set in a club, studded
-around and ornamented with some hundreds of brass nails.
-
-Their primitive clubs _d_ are curiously carved in wood, and fashioned
-out with some considerable picturesque form and grace; are admirably
-fitted to the hand, and calculated to deal a deadly blow with the spike
-of iron or bone which is imbedded in the ball or bulb at the end.
-
-Two of the tomahawks that I have named, marked _e_, are what are
-denominated “pipe-tomahawks,” as the heads of them are formed into
-bowls like a pipe, in which their tobacco is put, and they smoke
-through the handle. These are the most valued of an Indian’s weapons,
-inasmuch as they are a matter of luxury, and useful for cutting his
-fire-wood, &c. in time of peace; and deadly weapons in time of war,
-which they use in the hand, or throw with unerring and deadly aim.
-
-The scalping-knife _b_ in a beautiful scabbard, which is carried under
-the belt, is the form of knife most generally used in all parts of
-the Indian country, where knives have been introduced. It is a common
-and cheap butcher knife with one edge, manufactured at Sheffield, in
-England, perhaps, for sixpence; and sold to the poor Indian in these
-wild regions for a horse. If I should live to get home, and should ever
-cross the Atlantic with my Collection, a curious enigma would be solved
-for the English people, who may enquire for a scalping-knife, when they
-find that every one in my Collection (and hear also, that nearly every
-one that is to be seen in the Indian country, to the Rocky Mountains
-and the Pacific Ocean) bears on its blade the impress of G.R., which
-they will doubtless understand.
-
-The huge two-edged knife, with its scabbard of a part of the skin of a
-grizzly bear’s head, letter _a_, is one belonging to the famous chief
-of the Mandans, of whom I have before said much. The manufacture of
-this knife is undoubtedly American; and its shape differs altogether
-from those which are in general use.[12]
-
-[Illustration: 100]
-
-The above weapons, as well as the bow and lance, of which I have before
-spoken, are all carried and used on horseback with great effect. The
-Indians in this country of green fields, all _ride_ for their enemies,
-and also for their game, which is almost invariably killed whilst
-their horses are at full-speed. They are all cruel masters for their
-horses; and in war or the chase goad them on with a heavy and cruel
-whip (+plate+ 99 _g_), the handle of which is generally made of a large
-prong of the elk’s horn or of wood, and the lashes of rawhide are very
-heavy; being braided, or twisted, or cut into wide straps. These are
-invariably attached to the wrist of the right arm by a tough thong, so
-that they can be taken up and used at any moment, and dropped the next,
-without being lost.
-
-During the time that I was engaged in painting my portraits, I was
-occasionally inducing the young men to give me their dances, a great
-variety of which they gave me by being slightly paid; which I was glad
-to do, in order to enable me to study their character and expression
-thoroughly, which I am sure I have done; and I shall take pleasure in
-shewing them to the world when I get back. The dancing is generally
-done by the young men, and considered undignified for the chiefs or
-doctors to join in. Yet so great was my _medicine_, that chiefs and
-medicine-men turned out and agreed to compliment me with a dance
-(+plate+ 100). I looked on with great satisfaction; having been assured
-by the Interpreters and Traders, that this was the highest honour they
-had ever known them to pay to any stranger amongst them.
-
-In this dance, which I have called “the dance of the chiefs,” for want
-of a more significant title, was given by fifteen or twenty chiefs and
-doctors; many of whom were very old and venerable men. All of them came
-out in their head-dresses of war-eagle quills, with a spear or staff in
-the left hand, and a rattle in the right. It was given in the midst of
-the Sioux village, in front of the head chief’s lodge; and beside the
-medicine-man who beat on the drum, and sang for the dance, there were
-four young women standing in a row, and chanting a sort of chorus for
-the dancers; forming one of the very few instances that I ever have
-met, where the women are allowed to take any part in the dancing, or
-other game or amusement, with the men.
-
-This dance was a very spirited thing, and pleased me much, as well as
-all the village, who were assembled around to witness what most of them
-never before had seen, their aged and venerable chiefs united in giving
-a dance.
-
-As I have introduced the _scalping-knife_ above, it may be well for
-me to give some further account in this place of the custom and the
-mode of taking the scalp; a custom practiced by all the North American
-Indians, which is done when an enemy is killed in battle, by grasping
-the left hand into the hair on the crown of the head, and passing the
-knife around it through the skin, tearing off a piece of the skin with
-the hair, as large as the palm of the hand, or larger, which is dried,
-and often curiously ornamented and preserved, and highly valued as a
-trophy. The scalping is an operation not calculated of itself to take
-life, as it only removes the skin, without injuring the bone of the
-head; and necessarily, to be a genuine scalp, must contain and show the
-crown or centre of the head; that part of the skin which lies directly
-over what the phrenologists call “self-esteem,” where the hair divides
-and radiates from the centre; of which they all profess to be strict
-judges, and able to decide whether an effort has been made to produce
-two or more scalps from one head. Besides taking the scalp, the victor
-generally, if he has time to do it without endangering his own scalp,
-cuts off and brings home the rest of the hair, which his wife will
-divide into a great many small locks, and with them fringe off the
-seams of his shirt and his leggings, as will have been seen in many of
-the illustrations; which also are worn as trophies and ornaments to the
-dress, and then are familiarly called “_scalp-locks_.” Of these there
-are many dresses in my Collection, which exhibit a continuous row from
-the top of each shoulder, down the arms to the wrists, and down the
-seams of the leggings, from the hips to the feet, rendering them a very
-costly article to buy from the Indian who is not sure that his success
-in his military exploits will ever enable him to replace them.
-
-The scalp, then, is a patch of the skin taken from the head of an enemy
-killed in battle, and preserved and highly appreciated as the record of
-a death produced by the hand of the individual who possesses it; and
-may oftentimes during his life, be of great service to a man living
-in a community where there is no historian to enrol the names of the
-famous—to record the heroic deeds of the brave, who have gained their
-laurels in mortal combat with their enemies; where it is as lawful
-and as glorious to slay an enemy in battle, as it is in Christian
-communities, and where the poor Indian is bound to keep the record
-himself, or be liable to lose it and the honour, for no one in the
-tribe will keep it for him. As the scalp is taken then as the evidence
-of a death, it will easily be seen, that the Indian has no business or
-inclination to take it from the head of the living; which I venture to
-say is never done in North America, unless it be, as it sometimes has
-happened, where a man falls in the heat of battle, stunned with the
-blow of a weapon or a gunshot, and the Indian, rushing over his body,
-snatches off his scalp, supposing him dead, who afterwards rises from
-the field of battle, and easily recovers from this superficial wound
-of the knife, wearing a bald spot on his head during the remainder
-of his life, of which we have frequent occurrences on our Western
-frontiers. The scalp must be from the head of _an enemy_ also, or it
-subjects its possessor to disgrace and infamy who carries it. There
-may be many instances where an Indian is justified in the estimation
-of his tribe in taking the life of one of his own people; and their
-laws are such, as oftentimes make it his imperative duty; and yet no
-circumstances, however aggravating, will justify him or release him
-from the disgrace of taking the scalp.
-
-[Illustration: 101]
-
-There is no custom practised by the Indians, for which they are
-more universally condemned, than that of taking the scalp; and, at
-the same time, I think there is some excuse for them, inasmuch as
-it is a general custom of the country, and founded, like many other
-apparently absurd and ridiculous customs of these people, in one of
-the necessities of Indian life, which necessities we are free from in
-the civilized world, and which customs, of course, we need not and do
-not practice. From an ancient custom, “time out of mind,” the warriors
-of these tribes have been in the habit of going to war, expecting to
-take the scalps of their enemies whom they may slay in battle, and all
-eyes of the tribe are upon them, making it their duty to do it; so from
-custom it is every man’s right, and his duty also, to continue and keep
-up a regulation of his society, which it is not in his power as an
-individual, to abolish or correct, if he saw fit to do it.
-
-One of the principal denunciations against the custom of taking the
-scalp, is on account of its alleged _cruelty_, which it certainly has
-not; as the cruelty would be in the _killing_, and not in the act of
-cutting the skin from a man’s head after he is dead. To say the most of
-it, it is a disgusting custom, and I wish I could be quite sure that
-the civilized and Christian world (who kill hundreds, to where the poor
-Indians kill one), do not often treat their _enemies dead_, in equally
-as indecent and disgusting a manner, as the Indian does by taking the
-scalp.
-
-If the reader thinks that I am taking too much pains to defend the
-Indians for this, and others of their seemingly abominable customs,
-he will bear it in mind, that I have lived with these people, until I
-have learned the necessities of Indian life in which these customs are
-founded; and also, that I have met with so many acts of kindness and
-hospitality at the hands of the poor Indian, that I feel bound, when I
-can do it, to render what excuse I can for a people, who are dying with
-broken hearts, and never can speak in the civilized world in their own
-defence.
-
-And even yet, reader, if your education, and your reading of Indian
-cruelties and Indian barbarities—of scalps, and scalping-knives, and
-scalping, should have ossified a corner of your heart against these
-unfortunate people, and would shut out their advocate, I will annoy
-you no longer on this subject, but withdraw, and leave you to cherish
-the very beautiful, humane and parental moral that was carried out by
-the United States and British Governments during the last, and the
-revolutionary wars, when they mutually employed thousands of their
-“_Red children_,” to aid and to bleed, in fighting their battles, and
-paid them, according to contract, so many pounds, shillings and pence
-or so many dollars and cents for every “_scalp_” of a “red” or a “blue
-coat” they could bring in!
-
-In +plate+ 101, there will be seen the principal modes in which the
-scalps are prepared, and several of the uses to which they are put.
-The most usual way of preparing and dressing the scalp is that of
-stretching it on a little hoop at the end of a stick two or three feet
-long (letter _a_), for the purpose of “dancing it,” as they term it;
-which will be described in the _scalp-dance_, in a few moments. There
-are many again, which are small, and not “dressed;” sometimes not
-larger than a crown piece (letter _c_), and hung to different parts of
-the dress. In public shows and parades, they are often suspended from
-the bridle bits or halter when they are paraded and carried as trophies
-(letter _b_). Sometimes they are cut out, as it were into a string,
-the hair forming a beautiful fringe to line the handle of a war-club
-(letter _e_). Sometimes they are hung at the _end_ of a club (_letter
-d_), and at other times, by the order of the chief, are hung out, over
-the wigwams, suspended from a pole, which is called the “_scalp-pole_.”
-This is often done by the chief of a village, in a pleasant day, by his
-erecting over his wigwam a pole with all the scalps that he had taken,
-arranged upon it (letter _f_); at the sight of which all the chiefs and
-warriors of the tribe, who had taken scalps, “follow suit;” enabling
-every member of the community to stroll about the village on that day
-and “count scalps,” learning thereby the standing of every warrior,
-which is decided in a great degree by the number of scalps they have
-taken in battles with their enemies. Letters _g_, _g_, shew the usual
-manner of taking the scalp, and (letter _h_), exhibits the head of a
-man who had been scalped and recovered from the wound.
-
-So much for scalps and scalping, of which I shall yet say more, unless
-I should unluckily _lose one_ before I get out of the country.
-
-[Illustration: 101½]
-
-  [12] This celebrated knife is now in my +Indian Museum+, and
-  there is no doubt, from its authentic history, that it has been
-  several times plunged to the hearts of his enemies by the hand
-  of Mah-to-toh-pa, who wielded it. Several years after I left
-  that country, and one year after the destruction of the Mandans,
-  I received the following letter from Mr. M‘Kenzie, accompanying
-  the knife and other things sent to me by him from that country:
-  +Extract+—“The poor Mandans are gone, and amongst them your old
-  friend, Mah-to-toh-pa. I have been able to send you but a very few
-  things, as the Riccarees immediately took possession of everything
-  they had. Amongst the articles I have been able to procure, I send
-  you the war-knife of Mah-to-toh-pa, which is now looked upon as the
-  greatest _medicine_ in this country; and as you will recollect it,
-  it will be highly appreciated by you.”
-
-
-
-
-                             LETTER—No. 30.
-
-                MOUTH OF TETON RIVER, _UPPER MISSOURI_.
-
-
-In the last letter I gave an account of many of the weapons and
-other manufactures of these wild folks; and as this has been a day
-of _packing_ and _casing_ a great many of these things, which I have
-obtained of the Indians, to add to my _Musée Indienne_, I will name a
-few more, which I have just been handling over; some description of
-which may be necessary for the reader in endeavouring to appreciate
-some of their strange customs and amusements, which I am soon to
-unfold. In +plate+ 101½, letters _a_ and _b_, will be seen the _quiver_
-made of the fawn’s skin, and the Sioux _shield_ made of the skin of
-the buffalo’s neck, hardened with the glue extracted from the hoofs
-and joints of the same animal. The process of “_smoking the shield_”
-is a very curious, as well as an important one, in their estimation.
-For this purpose a young man about to construct him a shield, digs a
-hole of two feet in depth, in the ground, and as large in diameter
-as he designs to make his shield. In this he builds a fire, and over
-it, a few inches higher than the ground, he stretches the raw hide
-horizontally over the fire, with little pegs driven through holes made
-near the edges of the skin. This skin is at first, twice as large as
-the size of the required shield; but having got his particular and
-best friends (who are invited on the occasion,) into a ring, to dance
-and sing around it, and solicit the Great Spirit to instil into it the
-power to protect him harmless against his enemies, he spreads over
-it the glue, which is rubbed and dried in, as the skin is heated;
-and a second busily drives other and other pegs, inside of those in
-the ground, as they are gradually giving way and being pulled up
-by the contraction of the skin. By this curious process, which is
-most dexterously done, the skin is kept tight whilst it contracts to
-one-half of its size, taking up the glue and increasing in thickness
-until it is rendered as thick and hard as required (and his friends
-have pleaded long enough to make it arrow, and almost ball proof), when
-the dance ceases, and the fire is put out. When it is cooled and cut
-into the shape that he desires, it is often painted with his _medicine_
-or _totem_ upon it, the figure of an eagle, an owl, a buffalo or other
-animal, as the case may be, which he trusts will guard and protect him
-from harm; it is then fringed with eagles’ quills, or other ornaments
-he may have chosen, and _slung_ with a broad leather strap that crosses
-his breast. These shields are carried by all the warriors in these
-regions, for their protection in battles, which are almost invariably
-fought from their horses’ backs.
-
-Of _pipes_, and the custom of smoking, I have already spoken; and I
-then said, that the Indians use several substitutes for tobacco, which
-they call _K’nick K’neck_. For the carrying of this delicious weed or
-bark, and preserving its flavour, the women construct very curious
-pouches of otter, or beaver, or other skins (letters _c_, _c_, _c_,),
-which are ingeniously ornamented with porcupine quills and beads, and
-generally carried hanging across the left arm, containing a quantity of
-the precious _narcotic_, with flint and steel, and spunk, for lighting
-the pipe.
-
-The _musical instruments_ used amongst these people are few, and
-exceedingly rude and imperfect, consisting chiefly of rattles, drums,
-whistles, and lutes, all of which are used in the different tribes.
-
-In +plate+ 101½ (letters _d_, _d_,) will be seen the _rattles_ (or
-She-she-quois) most generally used, made of rawhide, which becomes
-very hard when dry, and charged with pebbles or something of the
-kind, which produce a shrill noise to mark the time in their dances
-and songs. Their _drums_ (letters _e_, _e_,) are made in a very rude
-manner, oftentimes with a mere piece of rawhide stretched over a hoop,
-very much in the shape of a tambourin; and at other times are made in
-the form of a keg, with a head of rawhide at each end; on these they
-beat with a drum-stick, which oftentimes itself is a rattle, the bulb
-or head of it being made of rawhide and filled with pebbles. In other
-instances the stick has, at its end, a little hoop wound and covered
-with buckskin, to soften the sound; with which they beat on the drum
-with great violence, as the chief and _heel-inspiring_ sound for all
-their dances, and also as an accompaniment for their numerous and
-never-ending songs of amusement, of thanksgiving, and _medicine_ or
-_metai_. The _mystery whistle_, (letter _f_,) is another instrument of
-their invention, and very ingeniously made, the sound being produced
-on a principle entirely different from that of any wind instrument
-known in civilized inventions; and the notes produced on it, by the
-sleight or trick of an Indian boy, in so simple and successful a
-manner, as to baffle entirely all civilized ingenuity, even when it
-is seen to be played. An Indian boy would stand and blow his notes on
-this repeatedly, for hundreds of white men who might be lookers-on, not
-one of whom could make the least noise on it, even by practising with
-it for hours. When I first saw this curious exhibition, I was charmed
-with the peculiar sweetness of its harmonic sounds, and completely
-perplexed, (as hundreds of white men have no doubt been before me, to
-the great amusement and satisfaction of the women and children,) as to
-the mode in which the sound was produced, even though it was repeatedly
-played immediately before my eyes, and handed to me for my vain and
-amusing endeavours. The sounds of this little simple toy are liquid and
-sweet beyond description; and, though here only given in harmonics,
-I am inclined to think, might, by some ingenious musician or musical
-instrument-maker, be modulated and converted into something very
-pleasing.
-
-The _War-whistle_ (letter _h_,) is a well known and valued little
-instrument, of six or nine inches in length, invariably made of
-the bone of the deer or turkey’s leg, and generally ornamented with
-porcupine quills of different colours which are wound around it. A
-chief or leader carries this to battle with him, suspended generally
-from his neck, and worn under his dress. This little instrument has
-but two notes, which are produced by blowing in the ends of it. The
-note produced in one end, being much more shrill than the other, gives
-the signal for battle, whilst the other sounds a retreat; a thing that
-is distinctly heard and understood by every man, even in the heat and
-noise of battle, where all are barking and yelling as loud as possible,
-and of course unable to hear the commands of their leader.
-
-[Illustration: 102]
-
-There is yet another wind instrument which I have added to my
-Collection, and from its appearance would seem to have been borrowed,
-in part, from the civilized world (letter _g_). This is what is often
-on the frontier called a “_deer-skin flute_,” a “Winnebago courting
-flute,” a “tsal-eet-quash-to,” &c.; it is perforated with holes for the
-fingers, sometimes for six, at others for four, and in some instances
-for three only, having only so many notes with their octaves. These
-notes are very irregularly graduated, showing clearly that they have
-very little taste or ear for melody. These instruments are blown in the
-end, and the sound produced much on the principle of a whistle.
-
-In the vicinity of the Upper Mississippi, I often and familiarly heard
-this instrument, called the Winnebago courting flute; and was credibly
-informed by traders and others in those regions, that the young men
-of that tribe meet with signal success, oftentimes, in wooing their
-sweethearts with its simple notes, which they blow for hours together,
-and from day to day, from the bank of some stream—some favourite rock
-or log on which they are seated, near to the wigwam which contains the
-object of their tender passion; until her soul is touched, and she
-responds by some welcome signal, that she is ready to repay the young
-_Orpheus_ for his pains, with the gift of her hand and her heart. How
-true these representations may have been made, I cannot say, but there
-certainly must have been some ground for the present cognomen by which
-it is known in that country.
-
-From these rude and exceedingly defective instruments, it will at once
-be seen, that music has made but little progress with these people; and
-the same fact will be still more clearly proved, to those who have an
-opportunity to hear their vocal exhibitions, which are daily and almost
-hourly serenading the ears of the traveller through their country.
-
-Dancing is one of the principal and most frequent amusements of all
-the tribes of Indians in America; and, in all of these, both vocal and
-instrumental music are introduced. These dances consist in about four
-different steps, which constitute all the different varieties: but the
-figures and forms of these scenes are very numerous, and produced by
-the most violent jumps and contortions, accompanied with the song and
-beats of the drum, which are given in exact time with their motions.
-It has been said by some travellers, that the Indian has neither
-harmony or melody in his music, but I am unwilling to subscribe to such
-an assertion; although I grant, that for the most part of their vocal
-exercises, there is a total absence of what the musical world would
-call melody; their songs being made up chiefly of a sort of violent
-chaunt of harsh and jarring gutturals, of yelps and barks, and screams,
-which are given out in perfect time, not only with “method (but with
-harmony) in their madness.” There are times too, as every traveller
-of the Indian country will attest, if he will recall them to his
-recollection, when the Indian lays down by his fire-side with his drum
-in his hand, which he lightly and almost imperceptibly touches over, as
-he accompanies it with his stifled voice of dulcet sounds that might
-come from the most tender and delicate female.
-
-These quiet and tender songs are very different from those which are
-sung at their dances, in full chorus and violent gesticulation; and
-many of them seem to be quite rich in plaintive expression and melody,
-though barren of change and variety.
-
-_Dancing_, I have before said, is one of the principal and most valued
-amusements of the Indians, and much more frequently practised by them
-than by any civilized society; inasmuch as it enters into their forms
-of worship, and is often their mode of appealing to the Great Spirit—of
-paying their usual devotions to their _medicine_—and of honouring and
-entertaining strangers of distinction in their country.
-
-Instead of the “giddy maze” of the quadrille or the country dance,
-enlivened by the cheering smiles and graces of silkened beauty, the
-Indian performs his rounds with jumps, and starts, and yells, much to
-the satisfaction of his own exclusive self, and infinite amusement
-of the gentler sex, who are always lookers on, but seldom allowed so
-great a pleasure, or so signal an honour, as that of joining with
-their lords in this or any other entertainment. Whilst staying with
-these people on my way up the river, I was repeatedly honoured with
-the dance, and I as often hired them to give them, or went to overlook
-where they were performing them at their own pleasure, in pursuance
-of their peculiar customs, or for their own amusement, that I might
-study and correctly herald them to future ages. I saw so many of their
-different varieties of dances amongst the Sioux, that I should almost
-be disposed to denominate them the “_dancing Indians_.” It would
-actually seem as if they had dances for every thing. And in so large a
-village, there was scarcely an hour in any day or night, but what the
-beat of the drum could somewhere be heard. These dances are almost as
-various and different in their character as they are numerous—some of
-them so exceedingly grotesque and laughable, as to keep the bystanders
-in an irresistible roar of laughter—others are calculated to excite his
-pity, and forcibly appeal to his sympathies, whilst others disgust,
-and yet others terrify and alarm him with their frightful threats and
-contortions.
-
-All the world have heard of the “_bear-dance_,” though I doubt whether
-more than a very small proportion have ever seen it; here it is (+plate+
-102). The Sioux, like all the others of these western tribes, are
-fond of bear’s meat, and must have good stores of the “bear’s-grease”
-laid in, to oil their long and glossy locks, as well as the surface of
-their bodies. And they all like the fine pleasure of a bear hunt, and
-also a participation in the bear dance, which is given several days
-in succession, previous to their starting out, and in which they all
-join in a song to the _Bear Spirit_; which they think holds somewhere
-an invisible existence, and must be consulted and conciliated before
-they can enter upon their excursion with any prospect of success. For
-this grotesque and amusing scene, one of the chief medicine-men, placed
-over his body the entire skin of a bear, with a war-eagle’s quill on
-his head, taking the lead in the dance, and looking through the skin
-which formed a masque that hung over his face. Many others in the dance
-wore masques on their faces, made of the skin from the bear’s head; and
-all, with the motions of their hands, closely imitated the movements
-of that animal; some representing its motion in running, and others
-the peculiar attitude and hanging of the paws, when it is sitting up
-on its hind feet, and looking out for the approach of an enemy. This
-grotesque and amusing masquerade oftentimes is continued at intervals,
-for several days previous to the starting of a party on the bear hunt,
-who would scarcely count upon a tolerable prospect of success, without
-a strict adherence to this most important and indispensible form!
-
-[Illustration: 103]
-
-Dancing is done here too, as it is oftentimes done in the enlightened
-world, to get favours—to buy the world’s goods; and in both countries
-danced with about equal merit, except that the Indian has surpassed
-us in honesty by christening it in his own country, the “_beggar’s
-dance_.” This spirited dance (+plate+ 103), was given, not by a set
-of _beggars_ though, literally speaking, but by the first and most
-independent young men in the tribe, beautifully dressed, (_i. e._ not
-dressed at all, except with their breech clouts or _kelts_, made of
-eagles’ and ravens’ quills,) with their lances, and pipes, and rattles
-in their hands, and a medicine-man beating the drum, and joining in the
-song at the highest key of his voice. In this dance every one sings as
-loud as he can halloo; uniting his voice with the others, in an appeal
-to the Great Spirit, to open the hearts of the bystanders to give to
-the poor, and not to themselves; assuring them that the Great Spirit
-will be kind to those who are kind to the helpless and poor.
-
-Of _scalps_, and of the modes and objects of scalping, I have before
-spoken; and I therein stated, “that most of the scalps were stretched
-on little hoops for the purpose of being used in the scalp-dance, of
-which I shall say more at a future time.”
-
-The _Scalp-dance_ (+plate+ 104) is given as a celebration of a victory;
-and amongst this tribe, as I learned whilst residing with them, danced
-in the night, by the light of their torches, and just before retiring
-to bed. When a war party returns from a war excursion, bringing home
-with them the scalps of their enemies, they generally “dance them” for
-fifteen nights in succession, vaunting forth the most extravagant
-boasts of their wonderful prowess in war, whilst they brandish their
-war weapons in their hands. A number of young women are selected to
-aid (though they do not actually join in the dance), by stepping into
-the centre of the ring, and holding up the scalps that have been
-recently taken, whilst the warriors dance (or rather _jump_), around
-in a circle, brandishing their weapons, and barking and yelping in
-the most frightful manner, all jumping on both feet at a time, with a
-simultaneous stamp, and blow, and thrust of their weapons; with which
-it would seem as if they were actually cutting and carving each other
-to pieces. During these frantic leaps, and yelps, and thrusts, every
-man distorts his face to the utmost of his muscles, darting about his
-glaring eye-balls and snapping his teeth, as if he were in the heat
-(and actually breathing through his inflated nostrils the very hissing
-death) of battle! No description that can be written, could ever convey
-more than a feeble outline of the frightful effects of these scenes
-enacted in the dead and darkness of night, under the glaring light of
-their blazing flambeaux; nor could all the years allotted to mortal
-man, in the least obliterate or deface the vivid impress that one scene
-of this kind would leave upon his memory.
-
-The precise object for which the scalp is taken, is one which is
-definitely understood, and has already been explained; but the motive
-(or motives) for which this strict ceremony is so scrupulously held
-by all the American tribes, over the scalp of an enemy, is a subject,
-as yet not satisfactorily settled in my mind. There is no doubt, but
-one great object in these exhibitions is public exultation; yet there
-are several conclusive evidences, that there are other and essential
-motives for thus formally and strictly displaying the scalp. Amongst
-some of the tribes, it is the custom to bury the scalps after they
-have gone through this series of public exhibitions; which may in a
-measure have been held for the purpose of giving them notoriety, and
-of awarding public credit to the persons who obtained them, and now,
-from a custom of the tribe, are obliged to part with them. The great
-respect which seems to be paid to them whilst they use them, as well as
-the pitying and mournful song which they howl to the _manes_ of their
-unfortunate victims; as well as the precise care and solemnity with
-which they afterwards bury the scalps, sufficiently convince me that
-they have a superstitious dread of the spirits of their slain enemies,
-and many conciliatory offices to perform, to ensure their own peace;
-one of which is the ceremony above described.
-
-[Illustration: 104]
-
-
-
-
-                             LETTER—No. 31.
-
-                MOUTH OF TETON RIVER, _UPPER MISSOURI_.
-
-
-In former Letters I have given some account of the _Bisons_, or (as
-they are more familiarly denominated in this country) _Buffaloes_,
-which inhabit these regions in numerous herds; and of which I must say
-yet a little more.
-
-These noble animals of the ox species, and which have been so well
-described in our books on Natural History, are a subject of curious
-interest and great importance in this vast wilderness; rendered
-peculiarly so at this time, like the history of the poor savage; and
-from the same consideration, that they are rapidly wasting away at the
-approach of civilized man—and like him and his character, in a very few
-years, to live only in books or on canvass.
-
-The word buffalo is undoubtedly most incorrectly applied to these
-animals, and I can scarcely tell why they have been so called; for
-they bear just about as much resemblance to the Eastern buffalo, as
-they do to a zebra or to a common ox. How nearly they may approach to
-the bison of Europe, which I never have had an opportunity to see, and
-which, I am inclined to think, is now nearly extinct, I am unable to
-say; yet if I were to judge from the numerous engravings I have seen
-of those animals, and descriptions I have read of them, I should be
-inclined to think, there was yet a wide difference between the bison
-of the American prairies, and those in the North of Europe and Asia.
-The American bison, or (as I shall hereafter call it) buffalo, is
-the largest of the ruminating animals that is now living in America;
-and seems to have been spread over the plains of this vast country,
-by the Great Spirit, for the use and subsistence of the red men, who
-live almost exclusively on their flesh, and clothe themselves with
-their skins. The reader, by referring back to +plates+ 7 and 8, in the
-beginning of this Work, will see faithful traces of the male and female
-of this huge animal, in their proud and free state of nature, grazing
-on the plains of the country to which they appropriately belong. Their
-colour is a dark brown, but changing very much as the season varies
-from warm to cold; their hair or fur, from its great length in the
-winter and spring, and exposure to the weather, turning quite light,
-and almost to a jet black, when the winter coat is shed off, and a new
-growth is shooting out.
-
-The buffalo bull often grows to the enormous weight of 2000 pounds, and
-shakes a long and shaggy black mane, that falls in great profusion and
-_confusion_, over his head and shoulders; and oftentimes falling down
-quite to the ground. The horns are short, but very large, and have but
-one turn, _i. e._ they are a simple arch, without the least approach to
-a spiral form, like those of the common ox, or of the goat species.
-
-The female is much smaller than the male, and always distinguishable
-by the peculiar shape of the horns, which are much smaller and more
-crooked, turning their points more in towards the centre of the
-forehead.
-
-One of the most remarkable characteristics of the buffalo, is the
-peculiar formation and expression of the eye, the ball of which is
-very large and white, and the iris jet black. The lids of the eye seem
-always to be strained quite open, and the ball rolling forward and
-down; so that a considerable part of the iris is hidden behind the
-lower lid, while the pure white of the eyeball glares out over it in an
-arch, in the shape of a moon at the end of its first quarter.
-
-These animals are, truly speaking, gregarious, but not migratory—they
-graze in immense and almost incredible numbers at times, and roam about
-and over vast tracts of country, from East to West, and from West to
-East, as often as from North to South; which has often been supposed
-they naturally and habitually did to accommodate themselves to the
-temperature of the climate in the different latitudes. The limits
-within which they are found in America, are from the 30th to the 55th
-degrees of North latitude; and their extent from East to West, which is
-from the border of our extreme Western frontier limits, to the Western
-verge of the Rocky Mountains, is defined by quite different causes,
-than those which the degrees of temperature have prescribed to them
-on the North and the South. Within these 25 degrees of latitude, the
-buffaloes seem to flourish, and get their living without the necessity
-of evading the rigour of the climate, for which Nature seems most
-wisely to have prepared them by the greater or less profusion of fur,
-with which she has clothed them.
-
-It is very evident that, as high North as Lake Winnepeg, seven or eight
-hundred miles North of this, the buffalo subsists itself through the
-severest winters; getting its food chiefly by browsing amongst the
-timber, and by pawing through the snow, for a bite at the grass, which
-in those regions is frozen up very suddenly in the beginning of the
-winter, with all its juices in it, and consequently furnishes very
-nutritious and efficient food; and often, if not generally, supporting
-the animal in better flesh during these difficult seasons of their
-lives, than they are found to be in, in the 30th degree of latitude,
-upon the borders of Mexico, where the severity of winter is not known,
-but during a long and tedious autumn, the herbage, under the influence
-of a burning sun, is gradually dried away to a mere husk, and its
-nutriment gone, leaving these poor creatures, even in the dead of
-winter, to bask in the warmth of a genial sun, without the benefit of a
-green or juicy thing to bite at.
-
-The place from which I am now writing, may be said to be the very heart
-or nucleus of the buffalo country, about equi-distant between the two
-extremes; and of course, the most congenial temperature for them to
-flourish in. The finest animals that graze on the prairies are to be
-found in this latitude; and I am sure I never could send from a better
-source, some further account of the death and destruction that is dealt
-among these noble animals, and hurrying on their final extinction.
-
-The Sioux are a bold and desperate set of horsemen, and great hunters;
-and in the heart of their country is one of the most extensive
-assortments of goods, of whiskey, and other saleable commodities, as
-well as a party of the most indefatigable men, who are constantly
-calling for every robe that can be stripped from these animals’ backs.
-
-These are the causes which lead so directly to their rapid destruction;
-and which open to the view of the traveller so freshly, so vividly, and
-so familiarly, the scenes of archery—of lancing, and of death-dealing,
-that belong peculiarly to this wild and shorn country.
-
-The almost countless herds of these animals that are sometimes met with
-on these prairies, have been often spoken of by other writers, and may
-yet be seen by any traveller who will take the pains to visit these
-regions. The “_running season_,” which is in August and September,
-is the time when they congregate into such masses in some places, as
-literally to blacken the prairies for miles together. It is no uncommon
-thing at this season, at these gatherings, to see several thousands
-in a mass, eddying and wheeling about under a cloud of dust, which
-is raised by the bulls as they are pawing in the dirt, or engaged in
-desperate combats, as they constantly are, plunging and butting at each
-other in the most furious manner (+plate+ 105). In these scenes, the
-males are continually following the females, and the whole mass are in
-constant motion; and all bellowing (or “roaring”) in deep and hollow
-sounds; which, mingled altogether, appear, at the distance of a mile or
-two, like the sound of distant thunder.
-
-During the season whilst they are congregated together in these dense
-and confused masses, the remainder of the country around for many
-miles, becomes entirely vacated; and the traveller may spend many a
-toilsome day, and many a hungry night, without being cheered by the
-sight of one; where, if he retraces his steps a few weeks after, he
-will find them dispersed, and grazing quietly in little families and
-flocks, and equally stocking the whole country. Of these quiet little
-herds, a fair representation will be seen in +plate+ 106, where some
-are grazing, others at play, or lying down, and others indulging in
-their “wallows.” “A bull in his wallow” is a frequent saying in this
-country; and has a very significant meaning with those who have ever
-seen a buffalo bull performing _ablution_, or rather endeavouring to
-cool his heated sides, by tumbling about in a mud puddle.
-
-In the heat of summer, these huge animals, which, no doubt, suffer very
-much with the great profusion of their long and shaggy hair or fur,
-often graze on the low grounds in the prairies, where there is a little
-stagnant water lying amongst the grass, and the ground underneath
-being saturated with it, is soft, into which the enormous bull, lowered
-down upon one knee, will plunge his horns, and at last his head,
-driving up the earth, and soon making an excavation in the ground, into
-which the water filters from amongst the grass, forming for him in a
-few moments, a cool and comfortable bath, into which he plunges like a
-hog in his mire.
-
-In this _delectable_ laver, he throws himself flat upon his side, and
-forcing himself violently around, with his horns and his huge hump
-on his shoulders presented to the sides, he ploughs up the ground by
-his rotary motion, sinking himself deeper and deeper in the ground,
-continually enlarging his pool, in which he at length becomes nearly
-immersed; and the water and mud about him mixed into a complete mortar,
-which changes his colour, and drips in streams from every part of him
-as he rises up upon his feet, a hideous monster of mud and ugliness,
-too frightful and too eccentric to be described!
-
-It is generally the leader of the herd that takes upon him to make
-this excavation; and if not (but another one opens the ground), the
-leader (who is conqueror) marches forward, and driving the other from
-it plunges himself into it; and having cooled his sides, and changed
-his colour to a walking mass of mud and mortar; he stands in the pool
-until inclination induces him to step out, and give place to the next
-in command, who stands ready; and another, and another, who advance
-forward in their turns, to enjoy the luxury of the wallow; until the
-whole band (sometimes an hundred or more) will pass through it in turn;
-each one throwing his body around in a similar manner; and each one
-adding a little to the dimensions of the pool, while he carries away in
-his hair an equal share of the clay, which dries to a grey or whitish
-colour, and gradually falls off. By this operation, which is done,
-perhaps, in the space of half an hour, a circular excavation of fifteen
-or twenty feet in diameter, and two feet in depth, is completed, and
-left for the water to run into, which soon fills it to the level of the
-ground.
-
-To these sinks, the waters lying on the surface of the prairies, are
-continually draining, and in them lodging their vegetable deposits;
-which, after a lapse of years, fill them up to the surface with a rich
-soil, which throws up an unusual growth of grass and herbage; forming
-conspicuous circles which arrest the eye of the traveller, and are
-calculated to excite his surprise for ages to come.
-
-Many travellers who have penetrated not quite far enough into the
-Western country to see the habits of these animals, and the manner
-in which these _mysterious_ circles are made; but who have seen the
-prairies strewed with their bleached bones, and have beheld these
-strange circles, which often occur in groups, and of different
-sizes—have come home with beautiful and ingenious theories (which _must
-needs be made_), for the origin of these singular and unaccountable
-appearances, which, for want of a rational theory, have generally
-been attributed to _fairy feet_, and gained the appellation of “_fairy
-circles_.”
-
-[Illustration: 105]
-
-[Illustration: 106]
-
-Many travellers, again, have supposed that these rings were produced
-by the dances of the Indians, which are oftentimes (and in fact
-most generally) performed in a circle; yet a moment’s consideration
-disproves such a probability, inasmuch as the Indians always select the
-ground for their dancing near the sites of their villages, and that
-always on a dry and hard foundation; when these “fairy circles” are
-uniformly found to be on low and wet ground.
-
-As my visit to these parts of the “_Great Far West_” has brought me
-into the heart of the buffalo country, where I have had abundant
-opportunities of seeing this noble animal in all its phases—its habits
-of life, and every mode of its death; I shall take the liberty of being
-yet a little more particular, and of rendering some further accounts of
-scenes which I have witnessed in following out my sporting propensities
-in these singular regions.
-
-The chief hunting amusement of the Indians in these parts consists in
-the chase of the buffalo, which is almost invariably done on horseback,
-with bow and lance. In this exercise, which is highly prized by them,
-as one of their most valued amusements, as well as for the principal
-mode of procuring meat for their subsistence, they become exceedingly
-expert; and are able to slay these huge animals with apparent ease.
-
-The Indians in these parts are all mounted on small, but serviceable
-horses, which are caught by them on the prairies, where they are often
-running wild in numerous bands. The Indian, then, mounted on his little
-wild horse, which has been through some years of training, dashes off
-at full speed amongst the herds of buffaloes, elks, or even antelopes,
-and deals his deadly arrows to their hearts from his horse’s back. The
-horse is the fleetest animal of the prairie, and easily brings his
-rider alongside of his game, which falls a certain prey to his deadly
-shafts, at the distance of a few paces.
-
-In the chase of the buffalo, or other animal, the Indian generally
-“strips” himself and his horse, by throwing off his shield and quiver,
-and every part of his dress, which might be an encumbrance to him in
-running; grasping his bow in his left hand, with five or six arrows
-drawn from his quiver, and ready for instant use. In his right hand (or
-attached to the wrist) is a heavy whip, which he uses without mercy,
-and forces his horse alongside of his game at the swiftest speed.
-
-These horses are so trained, that the Indian has little use for the
-rein, which hangs on the neck, whilst the horse approaches the animal
-on the right side (+plate+ 107), giving his rider the chance to throw
-his arrow to the left; which he does at the instant when the horse
-is passing—bringing him opposite to the heart, which receives the
-deadly weapon “to the feather.” When pursuing a large herd, the Indian
-generally rides close in the rear, until he selects the animal he
-wishes to kill, which he separates from the throng as soon as he can,
-by dashing his horse between it and the herd, and forcing it off by
-itself; where he can approach it without the danger of being trampled
-to death, to which he is often liable by too closely escorting the
-multitude.
-
-In +plate+ 107, I have fairly represented the mode of _approaching_,
-at the instant the arrow is to be thrown; and the striking disparity
-between the size of a huge bull of 2000 pounds weight, and the Indian
-horse, which, it will be borne in mind, is but a pony.
-
-No bridle whatever is used in this country by the Indians, as they have
-no knowledge of a bit. A short halter, however, which answers in place
-of a bridle, is in general use; of which they usually form a noose
-around the under jaw of the horse, by which they get great power over
-the animal; and which they use generally to _stop_ rather than _guide_
-the horse. This halter is called by the French Traders in the country,
-_l’arrêt_, the stop, and has great power in arresting the speed of a
-horse; though it is extremely dangerous to use too freely as a guide,
-interfering too much with the freedom of his limbs, for the certainty
-of his feet and security of his rider.
-
-When the Indian then has directed the course of his steed to the animal
-which he has selected, the training of the horse is such, that it knows
-the object of its rider’s selection, and exerts every muscle to give it
-close company; while the halter lies loose and untouched upon its neck,
-and the rider leans quite forward, and off from the side of his horse,
-with his bow drawn, and ready for the deadly shot, which is given
-at the instant he is opposite to the animal’s body. The horse being
-instinctively afraid of the animal (though he generally brings his
-rider within the reach of the end of his bow), keeps his eye strained
-upon the furious enemy he is so closely encountering; and the moment
-he has approached to the nearest distance required, and has passed the
-animal, whether the shot is given or not, he gradually sheers off, to
-prevent coming on to the horns of the infuriated beast, which often
-are instantly turned, and presented for the fatal reception of its
-too familiar attendant. These frightful collisions often take place,
-notwithstanding the sagacity of the horse, and the caution of its
-rider; for in these extraordinary (and inexpressible) exhilarations of
-chase, which seem to drown the prudence alike, of instinct and reason,
-both horse and rider often seem rushing on to destruction, as if it
-were mere pastime and amusement.[13]
-
-I have always counted myself a prudent man, yet I have often _waked_
-(as it were) out of the delirium of the chase (into which I had fallen,
-as into an agitated sleep, and through which I had passed as through
-a delightful dream), where to have died would have been but to have
-remained, riding on, without a struggle or a pang.
-
-In some of these, too, I have arisen from the prairie, covered with
-dirt and blood, having severed company with gun and horse, the one
-lying some twenty or thirty feet from me with a broken stalk, and the
-other coolly brousing on the grass at half a mile distance, without
-man, and without other beast remaining in sight.
-
-[Illustration: 107]
-
-[Illustration: 108]
-
-For the novice in these scenes there is much danger of his limbs and
-his life, and he finds it a hard and a desperate struggle that brings
-him in at _the death_ of these huge monsters, except where it has been
-produced by hands that have acquired more sleight and tact than his own.
-
-With the Indian, who has made this the every day sport and amusement of
-his life, there is less difficulty and less danger; he rides without
-“losing his breath,” and his unagitated hand deals _certainty_ in its
-deadly blows.
-
-In +plate+ 108, I have represented a party of Indians in chase of a
-herd some of whom are pursuing with lance and others with bows and
-arrows. The group in the foreground shews the attitude at the instant
-after the arrow has been thrown and driven to the heart; the Indian at
-full speed, and the _laso_ dragging behind his horse’s heels. The laso
-is a long thong of rawhide, of ten or fifteen yards in length, made of
-several braids or twists, and used chiefly to catch the wild horse,
-which is done by throwing over their necks a noose which is made at the
-end of the _laso_, with which they are “choked down.” In running the
-buffaloes, or in time of war, the _laso_ drags on the ground at the
-horse’s feet, and sometimes several rods behind, so that if a man is
-dismounted, which is often the case, by the tripping or stumbling of
-the horse, he has the power of grasping to the laso, and by stubbornly
-holding on to it, of stopping and securing his horse, on whose back he
-is instantly replaced, and continuing on in the chase.
-
-In the dead of the winters, which are very long and severely cold in
-this country, where horses cannot be brought into the chase with any
-avail, the Indian runs upon the surface of the snow by the aid of his
-snow shoes, which buoy him up, while the great weight of the buffaloes,
-sinks them down to the middle of their sides, and completely stopping
-their progress, ensures them certain and easy victims to the bow or
-lance of their pursuers, as in +plate+ 109. The snow in these regions
-often lies during the winter, to the depth of three and four feet,
-being blown away from the tops and sides of the hills in many places,
-which are left bare for the buffaloes to graze upon, whilst it is
-drifted in the hollows and ravines to a very great depth, and rendered
-almost entirely impassable to these huge animals, which, when closely
-pursued by their enemies, endeavour to plunge through it, but are soon
-wedged in and almost unable to move, where they fall an easy prey to
-the Indian, who runs up lightly upon his snow shoes and drives his
-lance to their hearts. The skins are then stripped off, to be sold to
-the Fur Traders, and the carcasses left to be devoured by the wolves.
-This is the season in which the greatest number of these animals are
-destroyed for their robes—they are most easily killed at this time, and
-their hair or fur being longer and more abundant, gives greater value
-to the robe.
-
-The Indians generally kill and dry meat enough in the fall, when it
-is fat and juicy, to last them through the winter; so that they have
-little other object for this unlimited slaughter, amid the drifts
-of snow, than that of procuring their robes for traffic with their
-Traders. The snow shoes are made in a great many forms, of two and
-three feet in length, and one foot or more in width, of a hoop or
-hoops bent around for the frame, with a netting or web woven across
-with strings of rawhide, on which the feet rest, and to which they are
-fastened with straps somewhat like a skate.[14] With these the Indian
-will glide over the snow with astonishing quickness, without sinking
-down, or scarcely leaving his track where he has gone.
-
-The poor buffaloes have their enemy _man_, besetting and beseiging them
-at all times of the year, and in all the modes that man in his superior
-wisdom has been able to devise for their destruction. They struggle in
-vain to evade his deadly shafts, when he dashes amongst them over the
-plains on his wild horse—they plunge into the snow-drifts where they
-yield themselves an easy prey to their destroyers, and they also stand
-unwittingly and behold him, unsuspected under the skin of a white wolf,
-insinuating himself and his fatal weapons into close company, when they
-are peaceably grazing on the level prairies, and shot down before they
-are aware of their danger (+plate+ 110).
-
-There are several varieties of the wolf species in this country, the
-most formidable and most numerous of which are white, often sneaking
-about in gangs or families of fifty or sixty in numbers, appearing in
-distance, on the green prairies like nothing but a flock of sheep.
-Many of these animals grow to a very great size, being I should think,
-quite a match for the largest Newfoundland dog. At present, whilst the
-buffaloes are so abundant, and these ferocious animals are glutted
-with the buffalo’s flesh, they are harmless, and everywhere sneak away
-from man’s presence; which I scarcely think will be the case after
-the buffaloes are all gone, and they are left, as they must be, with
-scarcely anything to eat. They always are seen following about in the
-vicinity of herds of buffaloes and stand ready to pick the bones of
-those that the hunters leave on the ground, or to overtake and devour
-those that are wounded, which fall an easy prey to them. While the herd
-of buffaloes are together, they seem to have little dread of the wolf,
-and allow them to come in close company with them. The Indian then has
-taken advantage of this fact, and often places himself under the skin
-of this animal, and crawls for half a mile or more on his hands and
-knees, until he approaches within a few rods of the unsuspecting group,
-and easily shoots down the fattest of the throng.
-
-The buffalo is a very timid animal, and shuns the vicinity of man with
-the keenest sagacity; yet, when overtaken, and harassed or wounded,
-turns upon its assailants with the utmost fury, who have only to seek
-safety in flight. In their desperate resistance the finest horses
-are often destroyed; but the Indian, with his superior sagacity and
-dexterity, generally finds some effective mode of escape, as in +plate+
-111.
-
-[Illustration: 109]
-
-[Illustration: 110]
-
-During the season of the year whilst the calves are young, the male
-seems to stroll about by the side of the dam, as if for the purpose
-of protecting the young, at which time it is exceedingly hazardous to
-attack them, as they are sure to turn upon their pursuers, who have
-often to fly to each others assistance (+plate+ 112). The buffalo calf,
-during the first six months is red, and has so much the appearance of
-a red calf in cultivated fields, that it could easily be mingled and
-mistaken amongst them. In the fall, when it changes its hair it takes a
-brown coat for the winter, which it always retains. In pursuing a large
-herd of buffaloes at the season when their calves are but a few weeks
-old, I have often been exceedingly amused with the curious manœuvres of
-these shy little things. Amidst the thundering confusion of a throng of
-several hundreds or several thousands of these animals, there will be
-many of the calves that lose sight of their dams; and being left behind
-by the throng, and the swift passing hunters, they endeavour to secrete
-themselves, when they are exceedingly put to it on a level prairie,
-where nought can be seen but the short grass of six or eight inches in
-height, save an occasional bunch of wild sage, a few inches higher, to
-which the poor affrighted things will run, and dropping on their knees,
-will push their noses under it, and into the grass, where they will
-stand for hours, with their eyes shut, imagining themselves securely
-hid, whilst they are standing up quite straight upon their hind feet
-and can easily be seen at several miles distance. It is a familiar
-amusement for us accustomed to these scenes, to retreat back over the
-ground where we have just escorted the herd, and approach these little
-trembling things, which stubbornly maintain their positions, with their
-noses pushed under the grass, and their eyes strained upon us, as we
-dismount from our horses and are passing around them. From this fixed
-position they are sure not to move, until hands are laid upon them,
-and then for the shins of a novice, we can extend our sympathy; or if
-he can preserve the skin on his bones from the furious buttings of its
-head, we know how to congratulate him on his signal success and good
-luck. In these desperate struggles, for a moment, the little thing
-is conquered, and makes no further resistance. And I have often, in
-concurrence with a known custom of the country, held my hands over the
-eyes of the calf, and breathed a few strong breaths into its nostrils;
-after which I have, with my hunting companions, rode several miles into
-our encampment, with the little prisoner busily following the heels
-of my horse the whole way, as closely and as affectionately as its
-instinct would attach it to the company of its dam!
-
-This is one of the most extraordinary things that I have met with
-in the habits of this wild country, and although I had often heard
-of it, and felt unable exactly to believe it, I am now willing to
-bear testimony to the fact, from the numerous instances which I have
-witnessed since I came into the country. During the time that I resided
-at this post, in the spring of the year, on my way up the river, I
-assisted (in numerous hunts of the buffalo, with the Fur Company’s
-men,) in bringing in, in the above manner, several of these little
-prisoners, which sometimes followed for five or six miles close to
-our horses’ heels, and even into the Fur Company’s Fort, and into the
-stable where our horses were led. In this way, before I left for the
-head waters of the Missouri, I think we had collected about a dozen,
-which Mr. Laidlaw was successfully raising with the aid of a good milch
-cow, and which were to be committed to the care of Mr. Chouteau to be
-transported by the return of the steamer, to his extensive plantation
-in the vicinity of St. Louis.[15]
-
-It is truly a melancholy contemplation for the traveller in this
-country, to anticipate the period which is not far distant, when the
-last of these noble animals, at the hands of white and red men, will
-fall victims to their cruel and improvident rapacity; leaving these
-beautiful green fields, a vast and idle waste, unstocked and unpeopled
-for ages to come, until the bones of the one and the traditions of the
-other will have vanished, and left scarce an intelligible trace behind.
-
-That the reader should not think me visionary in these contemplations,
-or romancing in making such assertions, I will hand him the following
-item of the extravagancies which are practiced in these regions, and
-rapidly leading to the results which I have just named.
-
-When I first arrived at this place, on my way up the river, which was
-in the month of May, in 1832, and had taken up my lodgings in the Fur
-Company’s Fort, Mr. Laidlaw, of whom I have before spoken, and also his
-chief clerk, Mr. Halsey, and many of their men, as well as the chiefs
-of the Sioux, told me, that only a few days before I arrived, (when an
-immense herd of buffaloes had showed themselves on the opposite side
-of the river, almost blackening the plains for a great distance,) a
-party of five or six hundred Sioux Indians on horseback, forded the
-river about mid-day, and spending a few hours amongst them, recrossed
-the river at sun-down and came into the Fort with _fourteen hundred
-fresh buffalo tongues_, which were thrown down in a mass, and for which
-they required but a few gallons of whiskey, which was soon demolished,
-indulging them in a little, and harmless carouse.
-
-This profligate waste of the lives of these noble and useful animals,
-when, from all that I could learn, not a skin or a pound of the
-meat (except the tongues), was brought in, fully supports me in
-the seemingly extravagant predictions that I have made as to
-their extinction, which I am certain is near at hand. In the above
-extravagant instance, at a season when their skins were without fur and
-not worth taking off, and their camp was so well stocked with fresh and
-dried meat, that they had no occasion for using the flesh, there is a
-fair exhibition of the improvident character of the savage, and also of
-his recklessness in catering for his appetite, so long as the present
-inducements are held out to him in his country, for its gratification.
-
-[Illustration: 111]
-
-[Illustration: 112]
-
-In this singular country, where the poor Indians have no laws or
-regulations of society, making it a vice or an impropriety to drink to
-excess, they think it no harm to indulge in the delicious beverage, as
-long as they are able to buy whiskey to drink. They look to white men
-as wiser than themselves, and able to set them examples—they see none
-of these in their country but sellers of whiskey, who are constantly
-tendering it to them, and most of them setting the example by using it
-themselves; and they easily acquire a taste, that to be catered for,
-where whiskey is sold at sixteen dollars per gallon, soon impoverishes
-them, and must soon strip the skin from the last buffalo’s back that
-lives in their country, to “be dressed by their squaws” and vended to
-the Traders for a pint of diluted alcohol.
-
-From the above remarks it will be seen, that not only the red men,
-but red men and white, have aimed destruction at the race of these
-animals; and with them, _beasts_ have turned hunters of buffaloes in
-this country, slaying them, however, in less numbers, and for far more
-laudable purpose than that of selling their skins. The white wolves, of
-which I have spoken in a former epistle, follow the herds of buffaloes
-as I have said, from one season to another, glutting themselves on the
-carcasses of those that fall by the deadly shafts of their enemies,
-or linger with disease or old age to be dispatched by these sneaking
-cormorants, who are ready at all times kindly to relieve them from the
-pangs of a lingering death.
-
-Whilst the herd is together, the wolves never attack them, as they
-instantly gather for combined resistance, which they effectually make.
-But when the herds are travelling, it often happens that an aged or
-wounded one, lingers at a distance behind, and when fairly out of sight
-of the herd, is set upon by these voracious hunters, which often gather
-to the number of fifty or more, and are sure at last to torture him
-to death, and use him up at a meal. The buffalo, however, is a huge
-and furious animal, and when his retreat is cut off, makes desperate
-and deadly resistance, contending to the last moment for the right of
-life—and oftentimes deals death by wholesale, to his canine assailants,
-which he is tossing into the air or stamping to death under his feet
-(+plate+ 113).
-
-During my travels in these regions, I have several times come across
-such a gang of these animals surrounding an old or a wounded bull,
-where it would seem, from appearances, that they had been for several
-days in attendance, and at intervals desperately engaged in the
-effort to take his life. But a short time since, as one of my hunting
-companions and myself were returning to our encampment with our horses
-loaded with meat, we discovered at a distance, a huge bull, encircled
-with a gang of white wolves; we rode up as near as we could without
-driving them away, and being within pistol shot, we had a remarkably
-good view, where I sat for a few moments and made a sketch in my
-note-book (+plate+ 114); after which, we rode up and gave the signal
-for them to disperse, which they instantly did, withdrawing themselves
-to the distance of fifty or sixty rods, when we found, to our great
-surprise, that the animal had made desperate resistance, until his
-eyes were entirely eaten out of his head—the grizzle of his nose was
-mostly gone—his tongue was half eaten off, and the skin and flesh of
-his legs torn almost literally into strings. In this tattered and torn
-condition, the poor old veteran stood bracing up in the midst of his
-devourers, who had ceased hostilities for a few minutes, to enjoy a
-sort of parley, recovering strength and preparing to resume the attack
-in a few moments again. In this group, some were reclining, to gain
-breath, whilst others were sneaking about and licking their chaps in
-anxiety for a renewal of the attack; and others, less lucky, had been
-crushed to death by the feet or the horns of the bull. I rode nearer
-to the pitiable object as he stood bleeding and trembling before me,
-and said to him, “Now is your time, old fellow, and you had better be
-off.” Though blind and nearly destroyed, there seemed evidently to be
-a recognition of a friend in me, as he straightened up, and, trembling
-with excitement, dashed off at full speed upon the prairie, in a
-straight line. We turned our horses and resumed our march, and when we
-had advanced a mile or more, we looked back, and on our left, where we
-saw again the ill-fated animal surrounded by his tormentors, to whose
-insatiable voracity he unquestionably soon fell a victim.
-
-Thus much I wrote of the buffaloes, and of the accidents that befall
-them, as well as of the fate that awaits them; and before I closed my
-book, I strolled out one day to the shade of a plum-tree, where I laid
-in the grass on a favourite bluff, and wrote thus:—
-
-“It is generally supposed, and familiarly said, that a man ‘_falls_’
-into a rêverie; but I seated myself in the shade a few minutes since,
-resolved to _force_ myself into one; and for this purpose I laid open a
-small pocket-map of North America, and excluding my thoughts from every
-other object in the world, I soon succeeded in producing the desired
-illusion. This little chart, over which I bent, was seen in all its
-parts, as nothing but the green and vivid reality. I was lifted up upon
-an imaginary pair of wings, which easily raised and held me floating
-in the open air, from whence I could behold beneath me the Pacific
-and the Atlantic Oceans—the great cities of the East, and the mighty
-rivers. I could see the blue chain of the great lakes at the North—the
-Rocky Mountains, and beneath them and near their base, the vast, and
-almost boundless plains of grass, which were speckled with the bands of
-grazing buffaloes!
-
-“The world turned gently around, and I examined its surface; continent
-after continent passed under my eye, and yet amidst them all, I saw
-not the vast and vivid green, that is spread like a carpet over the
-Western wilds of my own country. I saw not elsewhere in the world, the
-myriad herds of buffaloes—my eyes scanned in vain, for they were not.
-And when I turned again to the wilds of my native land, I beheld them
-all in motion! For the distance of several hundreds of miles from North
-to South, they were wheeling about in vast columns and herds—some were
-scattered, and ran with furious wildness—some lay dead, and others
-were pawing the earth for a hiding-place—some were sinking down and
-dying, gushing out their life’s blood in deep-drawn sighs—and others
-were contending in furious battle for the life they possessed, and
-the ground that they stood upon. They had long since assembled from
-the thickets, and secret haunts of the deep forest, into the midst of
-the treeless and bushless plains, as the place for their safety. I
-could see in an hundred places, amid the wheeling bands, and on their
-skirts and flanks, the leaping wild horse darting among them. I saw
-not the arrows, nor heard the twang of the sinewy bows that sent them;
-but I saw their victims fall!—on other steeds that rushed along their
-sides I saw the glistening lances, which seemed to lay across them;
-their blades were blazing in the sun, till dipped in blood, and then
-I lost them! In other parts (and there were many), the vivid flash of
-_fire-arms_ was seen—_their_ victims fell too, and over their dead
-bodies hung suspended in air, little clouds of whitened smoke, from
-under which the flying horsemen had darted forward to mingle again
-with, and deal death to, the trampling throng.
-
-[Illustration: 113]
-
-[Illustration: 114]
-
-“So strange were men mixed (both red and white) with the countless
-herds that wheeled and eddyed about, that all below seemed one vast
-extended field of battle—whole armies, in some places, seemed to
-blacken the earth’s surface;—in other parts, regiments, battalions,
-wings, platoons, rank and file, and “_Indian-file_”—all were in motion;
-and death and destruction seemed to be the watch-word amongst them. In
-their turmoil, they sent up great clouds of dust, and with them came
-the mingled din of groans and trampling hoofs, that seemed like the
-rumbling of a dreadful cataract, or the roaring of distant thunder.
-Alternate pity and admiration harrowed up in my bosom and my brain,
-many a hidden thought; and amongst them a few of the beautiful notes
-that were once sung, and exactly in point: ‘_Quadrupedante putrem
-sonitu quatit ungula campum._’ Even such was the din amidst the
-quadrupeds of these vast plains. And from the craggy cliffs of the
-Rocky Mountains also were seen descending into the valley, the myriad
-Tartars, who had not horses to ride, but before their well-drawn bows
-the fattest of the herds were falling. Hundreds and thousands were
-strewed upon the plains—they were flayed, and their reddened carcasses
-left; and about them bands of wolves, and dogs, and buzzards were seen
-devouring them. Contiguous, and in sight, were the distant and feeble
-smokes of wigwams and villages, where the skins were dragged, and
-dressed for white man’s luxury! where they were all sold for _whiskey_,
-and the poor Indians laid drunk, and were crying. I cast my eyes into
-the towns and cities of the East, and there I beheld buffalo robes
-hanging at almost every door for traffic; and I saw also the curling
-smokes of a thousand _Stills_—and I said, ‘Oh insatiable man, is thy
-avarice such! wouldst thou tear the skin from the back of the last
-animal of this noble race, _and rob thy fellow-man of his meat, and for
-it give him poison_!’”    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *
-
-Many are the rudenesses and wilds in Nature’s works, which are destined
-to fall before the deadly axe and desolating hands of cultivating man;
-and so amongst her ranks of _living_, of beast and human, we often find
-noble stamps, or beautiful colours, to which our admiration clings;
-and even in the overwhelming march of civilized improvements and
-refinements do we love to cherish their existence, and lend our efforts
-to preserve them in their primitive rudeness. Such of Nature’s works
-are always worthy of our preservation and protection; and the further
-we become separated (and the face of the country) from that pristine
-wildness and beauty, the more pleasure does the mind of enlightened man
-feel in recurring to those scenes, when he can have them preserved for
-his eyes and his mind to dwell upon.
-
-Of such “rudenesses and wilds,” Nature has no where presented more
-beautiful and lovely scenes, than those of the vast prairies of the
-West; and of _man_ and _beast_, no nobler specimens than those who
-inhabit them—the _Indian_ and the _buffalo_—joint and original tenants
-of the soil, and fugitives together from the approach of civilized
-man; they have fled to the great plains of the West, and there, under
-an equal doom, they have taken up their _last abode_, where their race
-will expire, and their bones will bleach together.
-
-It may be that _power_ is _right_, and _voracity_ a _virtue_; and that
-these people, and these noble animals, are _righteously_ doomed to an
-issue that _will_ not be averted. It can be easily proved—we have a
-civilized science that can easily do it, or anything else that may be
-required to cover the iniquities of civilized man in catering for his
-unholy appetites. It can be proved that the weak and ignorant have no
-_rights_—that there can be no virtue in darkness—that God’s gifts have
-no meaning or merit until they are appropriated by civilized man—by
-him brought into the light, and converted to his use and luxury. We
-have a mode of reasoning (I forget what it is called) by which all this
-can be proved, and even more. The _word_ and the _system_ are entirely
-of _civilized_ origin; and latitude is admirably given to them in
-proportion to the increase of civilized wants, which often require a
-_judge_ to overrule the laws of nature. I say that _we_ can prove such
-things; but an _Indian_ cannot. It is a mode of reasoning unknown to
-him in his nature’s simplicity, but admirably adapted to subserve the
-interests of the enlightened world, who are always their own judges,
-when dealing with the savage; and who, in the present refined age, have
-many appetites that can only be lawfully indulged, by proving God’s
-laws defective.
-
-It is not enough in this polished and extravagant age, that we get from
-the Indian his lands, and the very clothes from his back, but the food
-from their mouths must be stopped, to add a new and useless article to
-the fashionable world’s luxuries. The ranks must be thinned, and the
-race exterminated, of this noble animal, and the Indians of the great
-plains left without the means of supporting life, that white men may
-figure a few years longer, enveloped in buffalo robes—that they may
-spread them, for their pleasure and elegance, over the backs of their
-sleighs, and trail them ostentatiously amidst the busy throng, as
-things of beauty and elegance that had been made for them!
-
-Reader! listen to the following calculations, and forget them not.
-The buffaloes (the quadrupeds from whose backs your beautiful robes
-were taken, and whose myriads were once spread over the whole country,
-from the Rocky Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean) have recently fled
-before the appalling appearance of civilized man, and taken up their
-abode and pasturage amid the almost boundless prairies of the West.
-An instinctive dread of their deadly foes, who made an easy prey of
-them whilst grazing in the forest, has led them to seek the midst of
-the vast and treeless plains of grass, as the spot where they would be
-least exposed to the assaults of their enemies; and it is exclusively
-in those desolate fields of silence (yet of beauty) that they are to
-be found—and over these vast steppes, or prairies, have they fled,
-like the Indian, towards the “setting sun;” until their bands have
-been crowded together, and their limits confined to a narrow strip of
-country on this side of the Rocky Mountains.
-
-This strip of country, which extends from the province of Mexico to
-lake Winnepeg on the North, is almost one entire plain of grass, which
-is, and ever must be, useless to cultivating man. It is here, and
-here chiefly, that the buffaloes dwell; and with, and hovering about
-them, live and flourish the tribes of Indians, whom God made for the
-enjoyment of that fair land and its luxuries.
-
-It is a melancholy contemplation for one who has travelled as I have,
-through these realms, and seen this noble animal in all its pride and
-glory, to contemplate it so rapidly wasting from the world, drawing the
-irresistible conclusion too, which one must do, that its species is
-soon to be extinguished, and with it the peace and happiness (if not
-the actual existence) of the tribes of Indians who are joint tenants
-with them, in the occupancy of these vast and idle plains.
-
-And what a splendid contemplation too, when one (who has travelled
-these realms, and can duly appreciate them) imagines them as they
-_might_ in future be seen, (by some great protecting policy of
-government) preserved in their pristine beauty and wildness, in a
-_magnificent park_, where the world could see for ages to come, the
-native Indian in his classic attire, galloping his wild horse, with
-sinewy bow, and shield and lance, amid the fleeting herds of elks and
-buffaloes. What a beautiful and thrilling specimen for America to
-preserve and hold up to the view of her refined citizens and the world,
-in future ages! A _nation’s Park_, containing man and beast, in all the
-wild and freshness of their nature’s beauty!
-
-I would ask no other monument to my memory, nor any other enrolment of
-my name amongst the famous dead, than the reputation of having been the
-founder of such an institution.
-
-Such scenes might easily have been preserved, and still could be
-cherished on the great plains of the West, without detriment to
-the country or its borders; for the tracts of country on which the
-buffaloes have assembled, are uniformly sterile, and of no available
-use to cultivating man.
-
-It is on these plains, which are stocked with buffaloes, that the
-finest specimens of the Indian race are to be seen. It is here, that
-the savage is decorated in the richest costume. It is here, and here
-only, that his wants are all satisfied, and even the _luxuries_ of
-life are afforded him in abundance. And here also is he the proud and
-honourable man (before he has had teachers or laws), above the imported
-wants, which beget meanness and vice; stimulated by ideas of honour and
-virtue, in which the God of Nature has certainly not curtailed him.
-
-There are, by a fair calculation, more than 300,000 Indians, who are
-now subsisted on the flesh of the buffaloes, and by those animals
-supplied with all the luxuries of life which they desire, as they
-know of none others. The great variety of uses to which they convert
-the body and other parts of that animal, are almost incredible to
-the person who has not actually dwelt amongst these people, and
-closely studied their modes and customs. Every part of their flesh is
-converted into food, in one shape or another, and on it they entirely
-subsist. The robes of the animals are worn by the Indians instead of
-blankets—their skins when tanned, are used as coverings for their
-lodges, and for their beds; undressed, they are used for constructing
-canoes—for saddles, for bridles—l’arrêts, lasos, and thongs. The horns
-are shaped into ladles and spoons—the brains are used for dressing the
-skins—their bones are used for saddle trees—for war clubs, and scrapers
-for graining the robes—and others are broken up for the marrow-fat
-which is contained in them. Their sinews are used for strings and backs
-to their bows—for thread to string their beads and sew their dresses.
-The feet of the animals are boiled, with their hoofs, for the glue
-they contain, for fastening their arrow points, and many other uses.
-The hair from the head and shoulders, which is long, is twisted and
-braided into halters, and the tail is used for a fly brush. In this
-wise do these people convert and use the various parts of this useful
-animal, and with all these luxuries of life about them, and their
-numerous games, they are happy (God bless them) in the ignorance of the
-disastrous fate that awaits them.
-
-Yet this interesting community, with its sports, its wildnesses, its
-languages, and all its manners and customs, could be perpetuated, and
-also the buffaloes, whose numbers would increase and supply them with
-food for ages and centuries to come, if a system of non-intercourse
-could be established and preserved. But such is not to be the case—the
-buffalo’s doom is sealed, and with their extinction must assuredly sink
-into real despair and starvation, the inhabitants of these vast plains,
-which afford for the Indians, no other possible means of subsistence;
-and they must at last fall a prey to wolves and buzzards, who will have
-no other bones to pick.
-
-It seems hard and cruel, (does it not?) that we civilized people with
-all the luxuries and comforts of the world about us, should be drawing
-from the backs of these useful animals the skins for our luxury,
-leaving their carcasses to be devoured by the wolves—that we should
-draw from that country, some 150 or 200,000 of their robes annually,
-the greater part of which are taken from animals that are killed
-expressly for the robe, at a season when the meat is not cured and
-preserved, and for each of which skins the Indian has received but a
-pint of whiskey!
-
-Such is the fact, and that number or near it, are annually destroyed,
-in addition to the number that is necessarily killed for the
-subsistence of 300,000 Indians, who live entirely upon them. It may
-be said, perhaps, that the Fur Trade of these great western realms,
-which is now limited chiefly to the purchase of buffalo robes, is of
-great and national importance, and should and must be encouraged. To
-such a suggestion I would reply, by merely enquiring, (independently of
-the poor Indians’ disasters,) how much more advantageously would such
-a capital be employed, both for the weal of the country and for the
-owners, if it were invested in machines for the manufacture of _woollen
-robes_, of equal and superior value and beauty; thereby encouraging
-the growers of wool, and the industrious manufacturer, rather than
-cultivating a taste for the use of buffalo skins; which is just to be
-acquired, and then, from necessity, to be dispensed with, when a few
-years shall have destroyed the last of the animals producing them.
-
-It may be answered, perhaps, that the necessaries of life are given in
-exchange for these robes; but what, I would ask, are the necessities
-in Indian life, where they have buffaloes in abundance to live on?
-The Indian’s necessities are entirely artificial—are all created; and
-when the buffaloes shall have disappeared in his country, which will
-be within _eight_ or _ten_ years, I would ask, who is to supply him
-with the necessaries of life then? and I would ask, further, (and leave
-the question to be answered ten years hence), when the skin shall have
-been stripped from the back of the last animal, who is to resist the
-ravages of 300,000 starving savages; and in their trains, 1,500,000
-wolves, whom direst necessity will have driven from their desolate and
-gameless plains, to seek for the means of subsistence along our exposed
-frontier? God has everywhere supplied man in a state of Nature, with
-the necessaries of life, and before we destroy the game of his country,
-or teach him new desires, he has no wants that are not satisfied.
-
-Amongst the tribes who have been impoverished and repeatedly removed,
-the necessaries of life are extended with a better grace from the
-hands of civilized man; 90,000 of such have already been removed, and
-they draw from Government some 5 or 600,000 dollars annually in cash;
-_which money passes immediately into the hands of white men_, and for
-it the necessaries of life _may be_ abundantly furnished. But who, I
-would ask, are to furnish the Indians who have been instructed in this
-unnatural mode—living upon _such_ necessaries, and even luxuries of
-life, extended to them by the hands of white men, when those annuities
-are at an end, and the skin is stripped from the last of the animals
-which God gave them for their subsistence?
-
-Reader, I will stop here, lest you might forget to answer these
-important queries—these are questions which I know will puzzle the
-world—and, perhaps it is not right that I should ask them.   *    *
-  *    *    *    *    *    *    *
-
-  *    *    Thus much I wrote and painted at this place, whilst on my way up
-the river: after which I embarked on the steamer for the Yellow Stone,
-and the sources of the Missouri, through which interesting regions I
-have made a successful Tour; and have returned, as will have been seen
-by the foregoing narrations, in my canoe, to this place, from whence
-I am to descend the river still further in a few days. If I ever get
-time, I may give further Notes on this place, and of people and their
-doings, which I met with here; but at present, I throw my note-book,
-and canvass, and brushes into my canoe, which will be launched
-to-morrow morning, and on its way towards St. Louis, with myself at
-the steering-oar, as usual; and with Ba’tiste and Bogard to paddle, of
-whom, I beg the readers’ pardon for having said nothing of late, though
-they have been my constant companions. Our way is now over the foaming
-and muddy waters of the Missouri, and amid snags and drift logs (for
-there is a sweeping freshet on her waters), and many a day will pass
-before other Letters will come from me; and possibly, the reader may
-have to look to my biographer for the rest. Adieu.
-
-  [13] The reader will be further instructed on this subject, by
-  referring back to +plate+ 9, in the beginning of the book.
-
-
-  [14] The readers will look forward to +plates+ 240 and 243, in the
-  Second Volume, for snow shoes.
-
-
-  [15] The fate of these poor little prisoners, I was informed on my
-  return to St. Louis a year afterwards, was a very disastrous one.
-  The steamer having a distance of 1600 miles to perform, and lying
-  a week or two on sand bars, in a country where milk could not be
-  procured, they all perished but one, which is now flourishing in
-  the extensive fields of this gentleman.
-
-
-                             END OF VOL. I.
-
-
-  Transcriber’s Notes:
-
-    - Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).
-    - Text enclosed by equals is in antiqua (=antiqua=).
-    - Text enclosed by pluses is in small caps (+Small Caps+).
-    - Blank pages have been removed.
-    - Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected.
-    - All illustrations are attributed to _G. Catlin_.
-    - There is no illustration 23.
-    - “Plate” numbers on pages with illustrations are excluded from the
-      text version as they seem to serve no purpose. Plate number
-      references in the text are for the image numbers.
-
-*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE MANNERS,
-CUSTOMS, & CONDITION OF THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS, VOL. I (OF 2) ***
-
-Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will
-be renamed.
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-<p style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Illustrations of the manners, customs, &amp; condition of the North American Indians, Vol. I (of 2), by George Catlin</p>
-<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
-most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
-whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
-of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online
-at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you
-are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the
-country where you are located before using this eBook.
-</div>
-
-<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: Illustrations of the manners, customs, &amp; condition of the North American Indians, Vol. I (of 2)</p>
-<p style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:0; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:1em;'>With letters and notes, written during eight years of travel and adventure among the wildest and most remarkable tribes now existing</p>
-<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: George Catlin</p>
-<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: August 16, 2022 [eBook #68768]</p>
-<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</p>
-  <p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em; text-align:left'>Produced by: Richard Hulse, Robert Tonsing and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)</p>
-<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE MANNERS, CUSTOMS, &AMP; CONDITION OF THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS, VOL. I (OF 2) ***</div>
-  <figure class="illowp75 x-ebookmaker-drop">
-    <img src="images/cover.jpg" alt="" />
-  </figure>
-
-  <hr class="chap" />
-  <figure class="illowp75" id="i_frontis">
-    <img src="images/frontis.jpg" alt="" />
-    <figcaption><span class="small"><i>G. Catlin</i></span><br />
-      <i>The Author painting a Chief at the base of the Rocky Mountains.</i></figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <hr class="chap" />
-  <div class="titlepage">
-    <h1>ILLUSTRATIONS<br />
-      <span class="xsmall">OF THE</span><br />
-      <span class="xlarge normal"><i>MANNERS, CUSTOMS, &amp; CONDITION</i></span><br />
-      <span class="xsmall">OF THE</span><br />
-      <span class="xxxlarge">NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS.</span></h1>
-
-    <div class="antiqua" style="font-size: 170%;"><span class="gesperrt1">With Letters and Notes</span>,</div>
-
-    <div class="smcap mt2">Written during Eight Years of Travel and Adventure among the<br />
-      Wildest and most Remarkable Tribes now Existing.</div>
-
-    <div class="smcap xlarge mt3">By GEORGE CATLIN.</div>
-
-    <div class="lh1 mt3"><span class="small">WITH</span><br />
-      <span class="large"><i>THREE HUNDRED AND SIXTY COLOURED ENGRAVINGS</i></span><br />
-      <span class="small">FROM THE AUTHOR’S ORIGINAL PAINTINGS.</span></div>
-
-    <figure class="mt3">
-      <img class="illowp25" src="images/i_title.jpg" alt="" />
-    </figure>
-
-    <div class="large mt3">IN TWO VOLUMES.—VOL. <abbr title="1">I.</abbr></div>
-
-    <div class="large lh1 mt3"><span class="antiqua">London</span>:<br />
-      <b><span class="large gesperrt2">CHATTO &amp; WINDUS, PICCADILLY</span>.<br />
-      <span class="small">1876.</span></b></div>
-  </div>
-
-  <hr class="chap" />
-  <div class="titlepage">
-    <div class="xsmall lh1 mt10 mb10"><b>LONDON:<br />
-    <span class="gesperrt2">PRINTED BY J. OGDEN AND CO</span>.,<br />
-    172, <abbr title="Saint">ST.</abbr> JOHN STREET, E.C.</b></div>
-  </div>
-
-  <hr class="chap" />
-  <div class="chapter lh2">
-    <span class="pagenum" id="Page_iii">iii</span>
-    <h2 class="nobreak" id="CONTENTS">CONTENTS<br />
-      <span class="small">OF</span><br />THE FIRST VOLUME.</h2>
-  </div>
-
-  <div class="hang"><a href="#i_frontis"><span class="smcap">Frontispiece</span></a>:—<i>The Author painting a Chief in an Indian
-    Village.</i></div>
-
-  <div class="hang"><a href="#i_map"><span class="smcap">Map</span> <i>of</i> <span class="smcap">Indian Localities</span></a> <i>embraced within
-    the Author’s Travels</i>.</div>
-
-  <div class="center mt2"><a href="#LETTER_1">LETTER—<span class="smcap"><abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 1.</span></a></div>
-
-  <div class="hang">Wyöming, birth-place of the Author, <a href="#Page_2"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 2</a>.—His former Profession—First
-    cause of his Travels to the Indian Country—Delegation of Indians in
-    Philadelphia—First start to the Far West, in 1832, <a href="#Page_3"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 3</a>.—Design of
-    forming a National Gallery—Numbers of Tribes visited, and number of
-    Paintings and other things collected, <a href="#Page_4"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 4</a>.—Probable extinction of
-    the Indians, <a href="#Page_5"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 5</a>.—Former and present numbers of—The proper mode of
-    approaching them, and estimating their character, <a href="#Page_5"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 5–10</a>.</div>
-
-  <div class="hang"><span class="smcap">Certificates</span> <i>of Government Officers, Indian Agents and
-    others, as to the fidelity of the Portraits and other Paintings</i>, <a href="#Page_11"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 11–13</a>.</div>
-
-  <div class="center mt2"><a href="#LETTER_2">LETTER—<span class="smcap"><abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 2.</span></a></div>
-
-  <div class="hang">Mouth of Yellow Stone, <a href="#Page_14"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 14</a>, <a href="#i_003"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 3</a>.—Distance from <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr>
-    Louis—Difficulties of the Missouri—Politeness of Mr. Chouteau and
-    Major Sanford—Fur Company’s Fort—Indian Epicures—New and true School
-    for the Arts—Beautiful Models, <a href="#Page_14"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 14–16</a>.</div>
-
-  <div class="center mt2"><a href="#LETTER_3">LETTER—<span class="smcap"><abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 3, Mouth of Yellow Stone.</span></a></div>
-
-  <div class="hang">Character of Missouri River, <a href="#Page_18"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 18</a>, <a href="#i_004"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 4</a>.—Beautiful prairie shores, <a href="#Page_19"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr>
-    19</a>, <a href="#i_005"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 5</a>.—Picturesque clay bluffs, <a href="#Page_19"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 19</a>, <a href="#i_006"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 6</a>.—First appearance of
-    a steamer at the Yellow Stone, and curious conjectures of the Indians
-    about it, <a href="#Page_20"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 20</a>.—Fur Company’s Establishment at the mouth of Yellow
-    Stone—M‘Kenzie—His table and politeness, <a href="#Page_21"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 21</a>.—Indian tribes in this
-    vicinity, <a href="#Page_22"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 22</a>.</div>
-
-  <div class="center mt2"><a href="#LETTER_4">LETTER—<span class="smcap"><abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 4, Mouth of Yellow Stone</span></a></div>
-
-  <div class="hang">Upper Missouri Indians—General character, <a href="#Page_23"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 23</a>.—Buffaloes—Description
-    of, <a href="#Page_24"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 24</a>, pls. <a href="#i_007">7</a>, <a href="#i_008">8</a>.—Modes of killing them—Buffalo-hunt, <a href="#Page_25"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr>
-    25</a>.—Chardon’s Leap, <a href="#Page_26"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 26</a>, <a href="#i_009"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 9</a>.—Wounded bull, <a href="#Page_26"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 26</a>, <a href="#i_018"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr>
-    10</a>.—Extraordinary feat of Mr. M‘Kenzie, <a href="#Page_27"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 27</a>.—Return from the chase,
-    <a href="#Page_28"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 28</a>.</div>
-
-  <div class="hang"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_iv">iv</span></div>
-
-  <div class="center mt2"><a href="#LETTER_5">LETTER—<span class="smcap"><abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 5, Mouth of Yellow Stone.</span></a></div>
-
-  <div class="hang">Author’s painting-room, and characters in it, <a href="#Page_29"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 29</a>.—Blackfoot
-    chief, <a href="#Page_29"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 29</a>, <a href="#i_011"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 11</a>.—Other Blackfoot chiefs, and their costumes,
-    <a href="#Page_30"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 30</a>.—Blackfoot woman and child, <a href="#Page_30"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 30</a>, pls. <a href="#i_012">12</a>, <a href="#i_013">13</a>;—Scalps,
-    and objects for which taken—red pipes, and pipe-stone quarry, <a href="#Page_31"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr>
-    31</a>.—Blackfoot bows, shields, arrows and lances, <a href="#Page_32"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 32, 33</a>, <a href="#i_018"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr>
-    18</a>.—Several distinguished Blackfeet, <a href="#Page_34"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 34</a>, pls. <a href="#i_014">14</a>, <a href="#i_015">15</a>, <a href="#i_016">16</a>, <a href="#i_017">17</a>.</div>
-
-  <div class="center mt2"><a href="#LETTER_6">LETTER—<span class="smcap"><abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 6, Mouth of Yellow Stone.</span></a></div>
-
-  <div class="hang">Medicines or mysteries—medicine-bag—origin of the word medicine,
-    <a href="#Page_35"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 35</a>.—Mode of forming the medicine-bag, <a href="#Page_36"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 36</a>.—Value of the
-    medicine-bag to the Indian, and materials for their construction,
-    <a href="#Page_37"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 37</a>, <a href="#i_018"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 18</a>.—Blackfoot doctor or medicine-man—his mode of curing
-    the sick, <a href="#Page_39"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 39</a>, <a href="#i_019"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 19</a>.—Different offices and importance of
-    medicine-men, <a href="#Page_41"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 41</a>.</div>
-
-  <div class="center mt2"><a href="#LETTER_7">LETTER—<span class="smcap"><abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 7, Mouth of Yellow Stone.</span></a></div>
-
-  <div class="hang">Crews and Blackfeet—General character and appearance, <a href="#Page_42"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 42</a>.—Killing
-    and drying meat, <a href="#Page_43"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 43</a>, <a href="#i_022"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 22</a>.—Crow lodge or wigwam, <a href="#Page_43"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 43</a>, <a href="#i_020"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr>
-    20</a>.—Striking their tents and encampment moving, <a href="#Page_44"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 44</a>, <a href="#i_021"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 21</a>.—Mode
-    of dressing and smoking skins, <a href="#Page_45"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 45</a>.—Crows—Beauty of their
-    dresses—Horse-stealing or capturing—Reasons why they are called
-    rogues and robbers of the first order, &amp;c. <a href="#Page_46"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 46</a>.</div>
-
-  <div class="center mt2"><a href="#LETTER_8">LETTER—<span class="smcap"><abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 8, Mouth of Yellow Stone.</span></a></div>
-
-  <div class="hang">Further remarks on the Crows—Extraordinary length of hair, <a href="#Page_49"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr>
-    49</a>.—Peculiarities of the Crow head, and several portraits, <a href="#Page_50"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 50</a>,
-    pls. <a href="#i_024">24</a>, <a href="#i_024">25</a>, <a href="#i_026">26</a>, <a href="#i_026">27</a>.—Crow and Blackfeet women—Their modes of dressing
-    and painting, <a href="#Page_51"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 51</a>.—Differences between the Crow and Blackfoot
-    languages, <a href="#Page_51"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 51</a>.—Different hands—Different languages, and numbers
-    of the Blackfeet, <a href="#Page_52"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 52</a>.—Knisteneaux—Assinneboins, and Ojibbeways,
-    <a href="#Page_53"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 53</a>.—Assinneboins a part of the Sioux—Their mode of boiling meat,
-    <a href="#Page_54"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 54</a>.—Pipe-dance, <a href="#Page_55"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 55</a>, <a href="#i_052"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 52</a>.—Wi-jun-jon (a chief) and wife,
-    pls. <a href="#i_028">28</a>, <a href="#i_028">29</a>.—His visit to Washington, <a href="#Page_56"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 56</a>.—Dresses of women
-    and children of the Assinneboins, <a href="#Page_57"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 57</a>, <a href="#i_034"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 34</a>.—Knisteneaux (or
-    Crees)—character and numbers, and several portraits, <a href="#Page_57"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 57</a>, pls. <a href="#i_030">30</a>,
-    <a href="#i_030">31</a>.—Ojibbeways—Chief and wife, <a href="#Page_58"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 58</a>, pls. <a href="#i_035">35</a>, <a href="#i_036">36</a>.</div>
-
-  <div class="center mt2"><a href="#LETTER_9">LETTER—<span class="smcap"><abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 9, Mouth of Yellow Stone.</span></a></div>
-
-  <div class="hang">Contemplations of the Great Far West and its customs, <a href="#Page_59"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 59</a>.—Old
-    acquaintance, <a href="#Page_60"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 60</a>.—March and effects of civilization, <a href="#Page_60"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 60</a>.—The
-    “Far West”—The Author in search of it, <a href="#Page_62"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 62</a>.—Meeting with
-    “Ba’tiste,” a free trapper, <a href="#Page_63"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 63, 64</a>.</div>
-
-  <div class="center mt2"><a href="#LETTER_10">LETTER—<span class="smcap"><abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 10, Mandan Village, Upper Missouri.</span></a></div>
-
-  <div class="hang">A strange place—Voyage from Mouth of Yellow Stone down the river to
-    Mandans—Commencement—Leave M‘Kenzie’s Fort, <a href="#Page_66"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 66</a>.—Assinneboins
-    encamped on the river Wi-jun-jon lecturing on the customs of white
-    people—Mountain-sheep, <span class="pagenum" id="Page_v">v</span><a href="#Page_67"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 67</a>,—War-eagles—Grizzly bears, <a href="#Page_68"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 68</a>.—Clay
-    bluffs, “brick-kilns,” volcanic remains, <a href="#Page_69"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 69</a>, pls. <a href="#i_037">37</a>, <a href="#i_038">38</a>.—Red
-    pumice stone—A wild stroll—Mountaineer’s sleep, <a href="#Page_70"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 70</a>.—Grizzly bear
-    and cubs—Courageous attack—Canoe robbed, <a href="#Page_71"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 71</a>.—Eating our meals
-    on a pile of drift-wood—Encamping in the night—Voluptuous scene of
-    wild flowers, buffalo bush and berries, <a href="#Page_72"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 72</a>.—Adventure after an
-    elk—War-party discovered, <a href="#Page_74"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 74</a>.—Magnificent scenery in the “Grand
-    Détour”—Stupendous clay bluffs—Table land, <a href="#Page_75"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 75</a>, <a href="#i_039"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 39</a>.—Antelope
-    shooting, <a href="#Page_76"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 76</a>, <a href="#i_040"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 40</a>.—“Grand Dome”—Prairie dogs—Village—Fruitless
-    endeavours to shoot them, <a href="#Page_77"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 77</a>, <a href="#i_042"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 42</a>.—Pictured bluff and the Three
-    Domes, <a href="#Page_78"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 78</a>, pls. <a href="#i_043">43</a>, <a href="#i_044">44</a>.—Arrival at the Mandan village, <a href="#Page_79"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 79</a>.</div>
-
-  <div class="center mt2"><a href="#LETTER_11">LETTER—<span class="smcap"><abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 11, Mandan Village.</span></a></div>
-
-  <div class="hang">Location—Village, <a href="#Page_80"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 80</a>, <a href="#i_045"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 45</a>.—Former locations fortification of
-    their village—Description of village and mode of constructing their
-    wigwams, <a href="#Page_81"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 81, 82</a>.—Description of interior—Beds—Weapons—Family
-    groups, <a href="#Page_82"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 82, 83</a>, <a href="#i_046"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 46</a>.—Indian garrulity—Jokes—Fire-side fun and
-    story-telling, <a href="#Page_84"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 84</a>.—Causes of Indian taciturnity in civilized
-    society, <a href="#Page_85"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 85</a>.</div>
-
-  <div class="center mt2"><a href="#LETTER_12">LETTER—<span class="smcap"><abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 12, Mandan Village.</span></a></div>
-
-  <div class="hang">Bird’s-eye view of the village, <a href="#Page_87"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 87</a>, <a href="#i_047"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 47</a>.—The “big
-    canoe”—Medicine-lodge—A strange medley, <a href="#Page_88"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 88</a>.—Mode of depositing
-    the dead on scaffolds, <a href="#Page_89"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 89</a>.—Respect to the dead—Visiting the
-    dead—Feeding the dead—Converse with the dead—Bones of the dead, <a href="#Page_90"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr>
-    90</a>, <a href="#i_048"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 48</a>.</div>
-
-  <div class="center mt2"><a href="#LETTER_13">LETTER—<span class="smcap"><abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 13, Mandan Village.</span></a></div>
-
-  <div class="hang">The wolf-chief—Head-chief of the tribe, <a href="#Page_92"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 92</a>, <a href="#i_049"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr>
-    49</a>.—Several portraits, <a href="#Page_92"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 92</a>, pls. <a href="#i_050">50</a>, <a href="#i_050">51</a>, <a href="#i_052">52</a>, <a href="#i_052">53</a>.—Personal
-    appearance—Peculiarities—Complexion, <a href="#Page_93"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 93</a>.—“Cheveux gris,” <a href="#Page_94"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr>
-    94</a>.—Hair of the men—Hair of the women, <a href="#Page_95"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 95</a>, <a href="#i_054"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 54</a>.—Bathing and
-    swimming, <a href="#Page_96"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 96</a>.—Mode of swimming—Sudatories or vapour-baths, <a href="#Page_97"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr>
-    97–8</a>, <a href="#i_071"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 71</a>.</div>
-
-  <div class="center mt2"><a href="#LETTER_14">LETTER—<span class="smcap"><abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 14, Mandan Village.</span></a></div>
-
-  <div class="hang">Costumes of the Mandans—High value set upon them—Two horses for
-    a head-dress—Made of war-eagles’ quills and ermine, <a href="#Page_100"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 100,
-    101</a>.—Head-dresses with horns, <a href="#Page_103"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 103</a>.—A Jewish custom, <a href="#Page_104"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 104</a>.</div>
-
-  <div class="center mt2"><a href="#LETTER_15">LETTER—<span class="smcap"><abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 15, Mandan Village.</span></a></div>
-
-  <div class="hang">Astonishment of the Mandans at the operation of the Author’s
-    brush, <a href="#Page_105"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 105</a>.—The Author installed medicine or medicine-man,
-    <a href="#Page_106"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 106</a>.—Crowds around the Author—Curiosity to see and to touch
-    him, <a href="#Page_107"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 107</a>.—Superstitious fears for those who were painted, <a href="#Page_168"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr>
-    168</a>.—Objections raised to being painted, <a href="#Page_109"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 109</a>.—The Author’s
-    operations opposed by a Mandan doctor, or medicine-man, and how
-    brought over, <a href="#Page_110"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 110</a>, <a href="#i_055"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 55</a>.</div>
-
-  <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_vi">vi</span></p>
-
-  <div class="center mt2"><a href="#LETTER_16">LETTER—<span class="smcap"><abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 16, Mandan Village.</span></a></div>
-
-  <div class="hang">An Indian beau or dandy, <a href="#Page_112"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 112</a>.—A fruitless endeavour to paint one, <a href="#Page_113"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr>
-    113</a>.—Mah-to-toh-pa (the four bears), second chief of the tribe—The
-    Author feasted in his wigwam, <a href="#Page_114"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 114</a>, <a href="#i_062"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 62</a>.—Viands of the feast, <a href="#Page_115"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr>
-    115</a>.—Pemican and marrow-fat—Mandan pottery—Robe presented, <a href="#Page_116"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 116</a>.</div>
-
-  <div class="center mt2"><a href="#LETTER_17">LETTER—<span class="smcap"><abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 17, Mandan Village.</span></a></div>
-
-  <div class="hang">Polygamy—Reasons and excuses for it, <a href="#Page_118"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 118</a>.—Marriages, how
-    contracted—Wives bought and sold, <a href="#Page_120"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 120</a>.—Paternal and filial
-    affection—Virtue and modesty of women—Early marriages—Slavish lives
-    and occupations of the Indian women, <a href="#Page_121"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 121</a>.—Pomme blanche—Dried
-    meat—Caches—Modes of cooking, and times of eating—Attitudes in
-    eating, <a href="#Page_122"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 122</a>.—Separation of males and females in eating—the Indians
-    moderate eaters—Some exceptions, <a href="#Page_123"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 123</a>.—Curing meat in the sun,
-    without smoke or salt—The wild Indians eat no salt, <a href="#Page_124"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 124</a>.</div>
-
-  <div class="center mt2"><a href="#LETTER_18">LETTER—<span class="smcap"><abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 18. Mandan Village.</span></a></div>
-
-  <div class="hang">Indian dancing—“Buffalo dance,” <a href="#Page_127"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 127</a>, <a href="#i_056"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 56</a>.—Discovery of
-    buffaloes—Preparations for the chase—Start—A decoy—A retreat—Death
-    and scalping, <a href="#Page_129"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 129</a>.</div>
-
-  <div class="center mt2"><a href="#LETTER_19">LETTER—<span class="smcap"><abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 19, Mandan Village.</span></a></div>
-
-  <div class="hang">Sham fight and sham scalp dance of the Mandan boys, <a href="#Page_131"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 131</a>, <a href="#i_057"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr>
-    57</a>.—Game of Tchung-kee, <a href="#Page_132"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 132</a>, <a href="#i_059"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 59</a>.—Feasting—Fasting and
-    sacrificing—White buffalo robe—Its value <a href="#Page_133"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 133</a>, <a href="#i_047"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 47</a>.—Rain makers
-    and rain stoppers, <a href="#Page_131"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 131</a>.—Rain making, <a href="#Page_135"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 135</a>, <a href="#i_058"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 58</a>.—“The thunder
-    boat”—The big double medicine, <a href="#Page_140"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 140</a>.</div>
-
-  <div class="center mt2"><a href="#LETTER_20">LETTER—<span class="smcap"><abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 20, Mandan Village.</span></a></div>
-
-  <div class="hang">Mandan archery—“Game of the arrow,” <a href="#Page_141"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 141</a>, <a href="#i_060"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 60</a>.—Wild
-    horses—Horse-racing, <a href="#Page_142"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 142</a>, <a href="#i_061"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 61</a>.—Foot war-party in council, <a href="#Page_143"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr>
-    143</a>, <a href="#i_063"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 63</a>.</div>
-
-  <div class="center mt2"><a href="#LETTER_21">LETTER—<span class="smcap"><abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 21, Mandan Village, Upper Missouri.</span></a></div>
-
-  <div class="hang">Mah-to-toh-pa, (the Four Bears)—His costume and his portrait, <a href="#Page_145"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 145</a>,
-    <a href="#i_064"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 64</a>.—The robe of Mah-to-toh-pa, with all the battles of his life
-    painted on it, <a href="#Page_148"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 148</a>, <a href="#i_065"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 65</a>.</div>
-
-  <div class="center mt2"><a href="#LETTER_22">LETTER—<span class="smcap"><abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 22, Mandan Village.</span></a></div>
-
-  <div class="hang">Mandan religious ceremonies—Mandan religious creed, <a href="#Page_156"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 156</a>.—Three
-    objects of the ceremony, <a href="#Page_157"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 157</a>.—Place of holding the ceremony—Big
-    canoe—Season of commencing—and manner, <a href="#Page_158"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 158</a>.—Opening the medicine
-    lodge—Sacrifices to the water, <a href="#Page_159"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 159</a>.—Fasting scene for four
-    days and nights, <a href="#Page_161"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 161</a>, <a href="#i_066"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 66</a>.—Bei-lohck-nah-pick, (the bull
-    dance), <a href="#Page_164"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 164</a>, <a href="#i_067"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 67</a>.—Pohk-hong (the cutting or torturing scene),
-    <a href="#Page_169"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 169</a>, <a href="#i_068"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 68</a>.—Ah-ke-nah-ka-nah-pick,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_vii">[Pg vii]</span> (the last race) <a href="#Page_173"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 173</a>,
-    <a href="#i_069"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 69</a>.—Extraordinary instances of cruelty in self-torture, <a href="#Page_175"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr>
-    175</a>.—Sacrificing to the water, <a href="#Page_176"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 176</a>.—Certificates of the Mandan
-    ceremonies—Inferences drawn from these horrible cruelties, with
-    traditions, <a href="#Page_177"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 177</a>.—Tradition of O-kee-hee-de (the Evil Spirit), <a href="#Page_179"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr>
-    179</a>.—Mandans can be civilized, <a href="#Page_183"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 183</a>.</div>
-
-  <div class="center mt2"><a href="#LETTER_23">LETTER—<span class="smcap"><abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 23, Minataree Village.</span></a></div>
-
-  <div class="hang">Location and numbers—Origin, <a href="#Page_185"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 185</a>.—Principal village, <a href="#i_070"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 70</a>.—Vapour
-    baths, <a href="#i_071"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 71</a>.—Old chief, Black Moccasin, <a href="#Page_186"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 186</a>, <a href="#i_072"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 72</a>.—Two
-    portraits, man and woman, pls. <a href="#i_073">73</a>, <a href="#i_073">74</a>.—Green corn dance, <a href="#Page_189"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 189</a>, <a href="#i_075"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 75</a>.</div>
-
-  <div class="center mt2"><a href="#LETTER_24">LETTER—<span class="smcap"><abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 24, Minataree Village.</span></a></div>
-
-  <div class="hang">Crows, in the Minataree village, <a href="#Page_191"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 191</a>.—Crow chief on horseback,
-    in full dress, <a href="#Page_192"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 192</a>, <a href="#i_076"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 76</a>.—Peculiarities of the Crows—Long
-    hair—Semi-lunar faces, <a href="#Page_193"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 193</a>, pls. <a href="#i_077">77</a>, <a href="#i_073">78</a>.—Rats in the Minataree
-    village, <a href="#Page_195"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 195</a>.—Crossing Knife River in “bull boat”—Swimming of
-    Minataree girls, <a href="#Page_196"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 196</a>.—Horse-racing—A banter—Riding a “naked horse,”
-    <a href="#Page_197"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 197</a>.—Grand buffalo surround, <a href="#Page_199"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 199</a>, <a href="#i_079"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 79</a>.—Cutting up and
-    carrying in meat, <a href="#Page_201"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 201</a>.</div>
-
-  <div class="center mt2"><a href="#LETTER_25">LETTER—<span class="smcap"><abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 25, Little Mandan Village, Upper Missouri.</span></a></div>
-
-  <div class="hang">An Indian offering himself for a pillow, <a href="#Page_203"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 203</a>.—Portraits of
-    Riccarees, <a href="#Page_204"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 204</a>, pls. <a href="#i_081">83</a>, <a href="#i_084">84</a>, <a href="#i_082">82</a>,
-    <a href="#i_081">81</a>.—Riccaree village, <a href="#Page_204"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 204</a>, <a href="#i_080"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr>
-    80</a>.—Origin of the Mandans—Welsh colony—Expedition of Madoc, <a href="#Page_206"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 206–7</a>.</div>
-
-  <div class="center mt2"><a href="#LETTER_26">LETTER—<span class="smcap"><abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 26, Mouth of Teton River.</span></a></div>
-
-  <div class="hang">Sioux or (Dah-co-ta), <a href="#Page_208"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 208</a>.—Fort Pierre, <a href="#i_085"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 85</a>.—Mississippi
-    and Missouri Sioux, <a href="#Page_209"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 209</a>.—Ha-wan-je-tah (chief), <a href="#Page_211"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 211</a>, <a href="#i_086"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr>
-    86</a>.—Puncahs, Shoo-de-ga-cha (chief) and wife, <a href="#Page_212"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 212</a>, pls. <a href="#i_087">87</a>,
-    <a href="#i_088">88</a>.—Four wives taken at once, <a href="#Page_213"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 213</a>, <a href="#i_090"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 90</a>.—Portrait of one of the
-    wives, <a href="#Page_214"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 214</a>, <a href="#i_089"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 89</a>.—Early marriages—Causes of, <a href="#Page_215"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 215</a>.</div>
-
-  <div class="center mt2"><a href="#LETTER_27">LETTER—<span class="smcap"><abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 27, Mouth of Teton River.</span></a></div>
-
-  <div class="hang">Custom of exposing the aged, <a href="#Page_216"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 216</a>.—A tedious march on foot, <a href="#Page_218"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr>
-    218</a>.—Level prairies—“Out of sight of land”—Mirage—Looming of the
-    prairies, <a href="#Page_218"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 218</a>.—Turning the toes in—Bijou hills—Salt meadows,
-    <a href="#Page_219"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 219</a>.—Arrive at Fort Pierre—Great assemblage of Sioux—Paint the
-    portrait of the chief—Superstitious objections—Opposed by the
-    doctors, <a href="#Page_220"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 220</a>.—Difficulty settled—Death of Ha-wan-je-tah (the
-    chief)—Mode of, <a href="#Page_221"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 221</a>.—Portraits of other Sioux chiefs—Wampum,
-    <a href="#Page_222"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 222–3</a>, pls. <a href="#i_091">91</a>, <a href="#i_091">92</a>.—Beautiful Sioux women—Daughter of Black
-    Rock—Chardon, his Indian wife, <a href="#Page_224"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 224–5</a>, pls. <a href="#i_094">94</a>, <a href="#i_094">95</a>.</div>
-
-  <div class="center mt2"><a href="#LETTER_28">LETTER—<span class="smcap"><abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 28, Mouth of Teton River.</span></a></div>
-
-  <div class="hang">Difficulty of painting Indian women, <a href="#Page_226"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 226</a>.—Indian vanity—Watching
-    their portraits—Arrival of the first steamer amongst the Sioux, <a href="#Page_227"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr>
-    227</a>.—Dog-feast, <a href="#Page_228"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 228</a>, <a href="#i_096"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 96</a>.</div>
-
-  <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_viii">viii</span></p>
-
-  <div class="center mt2"><a href="#LETTER_29">LETTER—<span class="smcap"><abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 29, Mouth of Teton River.</span></a></div>
-
-  <div class="hang">Voluntary torture, “looking at the sun,” <a href="#Page_232"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 232</a>, <a href="#i_097"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 97</a>.—Religious
-    ceremony, <a href="#Page_233"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 233</a>.—Smoking “k’nick-k’neck”—Pipes, <a href="#Page_234"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 234</a>. <a href="#i_098"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr>
-    98</a>.—Calumets or pipes of peace, <a href="#Page_235"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 235</a>.—Tomahawks and scalping knives,
-    <a href="#Page_235"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 235–6</a>, <a href="#i_099"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 99</a>.—Dance of the chiefs, <a href="#Page_237"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 237</a>, <a href="#i_100"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 100</a>.—Scalps—Mode
-    of taking, and object, <a href="#Page_238"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 238–9</a>.—Modes of carrying and using the
-    scalps, <a href="#Page_240"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 240</a>, <a href="#i_101"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 101</a>.</div>
-
-  <div class="center mt2"><a href="#LETTER_30">LETTER—<span class="smcap"><abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 30, Mouth of Teton River.</span></a></div>
-
-  <div class="hang">Indian weapons and instruments of music, <a href="#Page_241"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 241</a>, <a href="#i_101a"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr>
-    101½</a>.—Quiver and shield—Smoking the shield, <a href="#Page_241"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 241</a>.—Tobacco
-    pouches—Drums—Rattles—Whistles—Lutes, <a href="#Page_242"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 242</a>, <a href="#i_101a"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 101½</a>.—Bear dance,
-    <a href="#Page_244"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 244</a>, <a href="#i_102"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 102</a>.—Beggars’ dance—Scalp dance, <a href="#Page_245"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 245</a>, <a href="#i_103">pls. 103, 104</a>.</div>
-
-  <div class="center mt2"><a href="#LETTER_31">LETTER—<span class="smcap"><abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 31, Mouth of Teton River.</span></a></div>
-
-  <div class="hang">Bisons (or buffaloes) description of, <a href="#Page_247"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 247</a>.—Habits of, <a href="#Page_248"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 248</a>.—Bulls’
-    fighting—Buffalo wallows—Fairy circles, <a href="#Page_249"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 249</a>, pls. <a href="#i_105">105</a>,
-    <a href="#i_106">106</a>.—Running the buffaloes, and throwing the arrow, <a href="#Page_251"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 251</a>, <abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr>
-    <a href="#i_107">107</a>.—Buffalo chase—Use of the laso, <a href="#Page_253"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 253</a>, pls. <a href="#i_108">108</a>, <a href="#i_109">109</a>.—Hunting
-    under masque of white wolfskins, <a href="#Page_254"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 254</a>, <a href="#i_110"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 110</a>.—Horses destroyed
-    in buffalo hunting, <a href="#Page_255"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 255</a>, <a href="#i_111"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 111</a>.—Buffalo calf—Mode of catching
-    and bringing in, <a href="#Page_255"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 255</a>, <a href="#i_112"><abbr title="plate">pl.</abbr> 112</a>.—Immense and wanton destruction of
-    buffaloes—1,400 killed, <a href="#Page_256"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 256</a>.—White wolves attacking buffaloes, <a href="#Page_257"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr>
-    257–8</a>, pls. <a href="#i_113">113</a>, <a href="#i_114">114</a>.—Contemplations on the probable extinction of
-    buffaloes and Indians, <a href="#Page_258"><abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 258, 264</a>.</div>
-
-  <hr class="chap" />
-  <figure id="i_map">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_map.jpg" alt="" />
-    <figcaption style="font-size: medium;">OUTLINE MAP<br />
-      <span class="xsmall"><i>OF</i></span><br />
-      INDIAN LOCALITIES<br />
-      <i>in 1833</i>.<br />
-      <hr class="short" />
-      In Vol. 2. see Map of<br />
-      <i>LOCALITIES in 1840,</i><br />
-      <i>since all the tribes have</i><br />
-      <i>been removed from the States,</i><br />
-      <i>W. of the Mississippi</i>
-      <hr class="short" />
-      [<a href="images/i_map_big.jpg">See larger version</a>]
-    </figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <hr class="chap" />
-  <div class="chapter">
-    <span class="pagenum" id="Page_1">1</span>
-    <h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_1">LETTER—<abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 1.</h2>
-  </div>
-
-  <p><span class="smcap">As</span> the following pages have been hastily compiled, at the urgent
-    request of a number of my friends, from a series of Letters and Notes
-    written by myself during several years’ residence and travel amongst
-    a number of the wildest and most remote tribes of the North American
-    Indians, I have thought it best to make this page the beginning of my
-    book; dispensing with Preface, and even with Dedication, other than
-    that which I hereby make of it, with all my heart, to those who will
-    take the pains to read it.</p>
-
-  <p>If it be necessary to render any apology for beginning thus
-    unceremoniously my readers will understand that I had no space in
-    these, my first volumes, to throw away; nor much time at my disposal,
-    which I could, in justice, use for introducing myself and my works to
-    the world.</p>
-
-  <p>Having commenced thus abruptly then, I will venture to take upon myself
-    the sin of calling this one of the series of Letters of which I have
-    spoken; although I am writing it several years later, and placing it
-    at the beginning of my book; by which means I will be enabled briefly
-    to introduce myself to my readers (who, as yet, know little or nothing
-    of me), and also the subjects of the following epistles, with such
-    explanations of the customs described in them, as will serve for a
-    key or glossary to the same, and prepare the reader’s mind for the
-    information they contain.</p>
-
-  <p>Amidst the multiplicity of books which are, in this enlightened age,
-    flooding the world, I feel it my duty, as early as possible, to beg
-    pardon for making a book at all; and in the next (if my readers should
-    become so much interested in my narrations, as to censure me for the
-    brevity of the work) to take some considerable credit for not having
-    trespassed too long upon their time and patience.</p>
-
-  <p>Leaving my readers, therefore, to find out what is in the book, without
-    promising them anything, I proceed to say—of <em>myself</em>, that I was
-    born in Wyöming, in North America, some thirty or forty years since,
-    of parents<span class="pagenum" id="Page_2">2</span> who entered that beautiful and famed valley soon after the
-    close of the revolutionary war, and the disastrous event of the “Indian
-    massacre.”</p>
-
-  <p>The early part of my life was whiled away, apparently, somewhat
-    in vain, with books reluctantly held in one hand, and a rifle or
-    fishing-pole firmly and affectionately grasped in the other.</p>
-
-  <p>At the urgent request of my father, who was a practising lawyer, I
-    was prevailed upon to abandon these favourite themes, and also my
-    occasional dabblings with the brush, which had secured already a corner
-    in my affections; and I commenced reading the law for a profession,
-    under the direction of Reeve and Gould, of Connecticut. I attended
-    the lectures of these learned judges for two years—was admitted
-    to the bar—and practised the law, as a sort of <em>Nimrodical</em>
-    lawyer, in my native land, for the term of two or three years; when
-    I very deliberately sold my law library and all (save my rifle and
-    fishing-tackle), and converting their proceeds into brushes and paint
-    pots; I commenced the art of painting in Philadelphia, without teacher
-    or adviser.</p>
-
-  <p>I there closely applied my hand to the labours of the art for several
-    years; during which time my mind was continually reaching for some
-    branch or enterprise of the art, on which to devote a whole life-time
-    of enthusiasm; when a delegation of some ten or fifteen noble and
-    dignified-looking Indians, from the wilds of the “Far West,” suddenly
-    arrived in the city, arrayed and equipped in all their classic
-    beauty,—with shield and helmet,—with tunic and manteau,—tinted and
-    tasselled off, exactly for the painter’s palette!</p>
-
-  <p>In silent and stoic dignity, these lords of the forest strutted about
-    the city for a few days, wrapped in their pictured robes, with their
-    brows plumed with the quills of the war-eagle, attracting the gaze
-    and admiration of all who beheld them. After this, they took their
-    leave for Washington City, and I was left to reflect and regret, which
-    I did long and deeply, until I came to the following deductions and
-    conclusions.</p>
-
-  <p>Black and blue cloth and civilization are destined, not only to
-    veil, but to obliterate the grace and beauty of Nature. Man, in the
-    simplicity and loftiness of his nature, unrestrained and unfettered
-    by the disguises of art, is surely the most beautiful model for the
-    painter,—and the country from which he hails is unquestionably the best
-    study or school of the arts in the world: such I am sure, from the
-    models I have seen, is the wilderness of North America. And the history
-    and customs of such a people, preserved by pictorial illustrations,
-    are themes worthy the life-time of one man, and nothing short of the
-    loss of my life, shall prevent me from visiting their country, and of
-    becoming their historian.</p>
-
-  <p>There was something inexpressibly delightful in the above resolve,
-    which was to bring me amidst such living models for my brush: and at
-    the same time to place in my hands again, for my living and protection,
-    the objects of my heart above-named; which had long been laid by to
-    rust and decay<span class="pagenum" id="Page_3">3</span> in the city, without the remotest prospect of again
-    contributing to my amusement.</p>
-
-  <p>I had fully resolved—I opened my views to my friends and relations,
-    but got not one advocate or abettor. I tried fairly and faithfully,
-    but it was in vain to reason with those whose anxieties were ready to
-    fabricate every difficulty and danger that could be imagined, without
-    being able to understand or appreciate the extent or importance of
-    my designs, and I broke from them all,—from my wife and my aged
-    parents,—myself my only adviser and protector.</p>
-
-  <p>With these views firmly fixed—armed, equipped, and supplied, I started
-    out in the year 1832, and penetrated the vast and pathless wilds
-    which are familiarly denominated the great “Far West” of the North
-    American Continent, with a light heart, inspired with an enthusiastic
-    hope and reliance that I could meet and overcome all the hazards
-    and privations of a life devoted to the production of a literal and
-    graphic delineation of the living manners, customs, and character of an
-    interesting race of people, who are rapidly passing away from the face
-    of the earth—lending a hand to a dying nation, who have no historians
-    or biographers of their own to pourtray with fidelity their native
-    looks and history; thus snatching from a hasty oblivion what could be
-    saved for the benefit of posterity, and perpetuating it, as a fair and
-    just monument, to the memory of a truly lofty and noble race.</p>
-
-  <p>I have spent about eight years already in the pursuit above-named,
-    having been for the most of that time immersed in the Indian country,
-    mingling with red men, and identifying myself with them as much as
-    possible, in their games and amusements; in order the better to
-    familiarize myself with their superstitions and mysteries, which are
-    the keys to Indian life and character.</p>
-
-  <p>It was during the several years of my life just mentioned, and whilst I
-    was in familiar participation with them in their sports and amusements,
-    that I penned the following series of epistles; describing only such
-    glowing or curious scenes and events as passed under my immediate
-    observation; leaving their early history, and many of their traditions,
-    language, &amp;c. for a subsequent and much more elaborate work, for which
-    I have procured the materials, and which I may eventually publish.</p>
-
-  <p>I set out on my arduous and perilous undertaking with the determination
-    of reaching, ultimately, every tribe of Indians on the Continent
-    of North America, and of bringing home faithful portraits of their
-    principal personages, both men and women, from each tribe; views of
-    their villages, games, &amp;c. and full notes on their character and
-    history. I designed, also, to procure their costumes, and a complete
-    collection of their manufactures and weapons, and to perpetuate them in
-    a <i>Gallery unique</i>, for the use and instruction of future ages.</p>
-
-  <p>I claim whatever merit there may have been in the originality of such
-    a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_4">4</span> design, as I was undoubtedly the first artist who ever set out upon
-    such a work, designing to carry his canvass to the Rocky Mountains;
-    and a considerable part of the following Letters were written and
-    published in the New York Papers, as early as the years 1832 and 1833;
-    long before the Tours of Washington Irving, and several others, whose
-    interesting narratives are before the world.</p>
-
-  <p>I have, as yet, by no means visited <em>all</em> the tribes; but I have
-    progressed a very great way with the enterprise, and with far greater
-    and more complete success than I expected.</p>
-
-  <p>I have visited forty-eight different tribes, the greater part of which
-    I found speaking different languages, and containing in all 400,000
-    souls. I have brought home safe, and in good order, 310 portraits in
-    oil, all painted in their native dress, and in their own wigwams;
-    and also 200 other paintings in oil, containing views of their
-    villages—their wigwams—their games and religious ceremonies—their
-    dances—their ball plays—their buffalo hunting, and other amusements
-    (containing in all, over 3000 full-length figures); and the landscapes
-    of the country they live in, as well as a very extensive and curious
-    collection of their costumes, and all their other manufactures, from
-    the size of a wigwam down to the size of a quill or a rattle.</p>
-
-  <p>A considerable part of the above-named paintings, and Indian
-    manufactures, will be found amongst the very numerous illustrations
-    in the following pages; having been, in every instance, faithfully
-    copied and reduced by my own hand, for the engraver, from my original
-    paintings; and the reader of this book who will take the pains to step
-    in to “<span class="smcap">Catlin’s North American Indian Gallery</span>,” will find
-    nearly every scene and custom which is described in this work, as well
-    as many others, carefully and correctly delineated, and displayed upon
-    the walls, and every weapon (and every “Sachem” and every “Sagamore”
-    who has wielded them) according to the tenor of the tales herein
-    recited.</p>
-
-  <p>So much of <em>myself</em> and of my <em>works</em>, which is all that I
-    wish to say at present.</p>
-
-  <p>Of the <span class="smcap">Indians</span>, I have much more to say, and to the following
-    delineations of them, and their character and customs, I shall make no
-    further apology for requesting the attention of my readers.</p>
-
-  <p>The Indians (as I shall call them), the savages or red men of the
-    forests and prairies of North America, are at this time a subject of
-    great interest and some importance to the civilized world; rendered
-    more particularly so in this age, from their relative position to, and
-    their rapid declension from, the civilized nations of the earth. A
-    numerous nation of human beings, whose origin is beyond the reach of
-    human investigation,—whose early history is lost—whose term of national
-    existence is nearly expired—three-fourths of whose country has fallen
-    into the possession of civilized man within the short space of 250
-    years—twelve millions of whose bodies have fattened the soil in the
-    mean time; who have fallen victims to whiskey, the small-pox, and the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_5">5</span>
-    bayonet; leaving at this time but a meagre proportion to live a short
-    time longer, in the certain apprehension of soon sharing a similar fate.</p>
-
-  <p>The writer who would undertake to embody the whole history of such a
-    people, with all their misfortunes and calamities, must needs have much
-    more space than I have allotted to this epitome; and he must needs
-    begin also (as I am doing) with those who are <em>living</em>, or he
-    would be very apt to dwell upon the preamble of his work, until the
-    present living remnants of the race should have passed away; and their
-    existence and customs, like those of ages gone bye, become subjects of
-    doubt and incredulity to the world for whom his book was preparing.
-    Such an historian also, to do them justice, must needs correct many
-    theories and opinions which have, either ignorantly or maliciously,
-    gone forth to the world in indelible characters; and gather and arrange
-    a vast deal which has been but imperfectly recorded, or placed to
-    the credit of a people who have not had the means of recording it
-    themselves; but have entrusted it, from necessity, to the honesty and
-    punctuality of their enemies.</p>
-
-  <p>In such an history should be embodied, also, a correct account of their
-    treatment, and the causes which have led to their rapid destruction;
-    and a plain and systematical prophecy as to the time and manner of
-    their final extinction, based upon the causes and the ratio of their
-    former and present declension.</p>
-
-  <p>So Herculean a task may fall to my lot at a future period, or it
-    may not: but I send forth these volumes at this time, fresh and
-    full of their living deeds and customs, as a familiar and unstudied
-    introduction (at least) to them and their native character; which I
-    confidently hope will repay the readers who read for information and
-    historical facts, as well as those who read but for amusement.</p>
-
-  <p>The world know generally, that the Indians of North America are
-    copper-coloured; that their eyes and their hair are black, &amp;c.; that
-    they are mostly uncivilized, and consequently unchristianized; that
-    they are nevertheless human beings, with features, thoughts, reason,
-    and sympathies like our own; but few yet know how they <em>live</em>, how
-    they <em>dress</em>, how they <em>worship</em>, what are their actions,
-    their customs, their religion, their amusements, &amp;c. as they practise
-    them in the uncivilized regions of their uninvaded country, which it is
-    the main object of this work, clearly and distinctly to set forth.</p>
-
-  <p>It would be impossible at the same time, in a book of these dimensions,
-    to explain <em>all</em> the manners and customs of these people; but as
-    far as they are narrated, they have been described by my pen, upon the
-    spot, as I have seen them transacted; and if some few of my narrations
-    should seem a <em>little too highly coloured</em>, I trust the world
-    will be ready to extend to me that pardon which it is customary to
-    yield to all artists whose main faults exist in the vividness of their
-    colouring, rather than in the drawing of their pictures; but there
-    is nothing else in them, I think, that I should ask pardon for, even
-    though some of them should stagger credulity, and incur<span class="pagenum" id="Page_6">6</span> for me the
-    censure of those critics, who sometimes, unthinkingly or unmercifully,
-    sit at home at their desks, enjoying the luxury of wine and a good
-    cigar, over the simple narration of the honest and weather-worn
-    traveller (who shortens his half-starved life in catering for the
-    world), to condemn him and his work to oblivion, and his wife and his
-    little children to poverty and starvation; merely because he describes
-    scenes which they have not beheld, and which, consequently, they are
-    unable to believe.</p>
-
-  <p>The Indians of North America, as I have before said, are
-    copper-coloured, with long black hair, black eyes, tall, straight, and
-    elastic forms—are less than two millions in number—were originally
-    the undisputed owners of the soil, and got their title to their lands
-    from the Great Spirit who created them on it,—were once a happy and
-    flourishing people, enjoying all the comforts and luxuries of life
-    which they knew of, and consequently cared for:—were sixteen millions
-    in numbers, and sent that number of daily prayers to the Almighty,
-    and thanks for his goodness and protection. Their country was entered
-    by white men, but a few hundred years since; and thirty millions of
-    these are now scuffling for the goods and luxuries of life, over
-    the bones and ashes of twelve millions of red men; six millions of
-    whom have fallen victims to the small-pox, and the remainder to the
-    sword, the bayonet, and whiskey; all of which means of their death and
-    destruction have been introduced and visited upon them by acquisitive
-    white men; and by white men, also, whose forefathers were welcomed
-    and embraced in the land where the poor Indian met and fed them with
-    “ears of green corn and with pemican.” Of the two millions remaining
-    alive at this time, about 1,400,000, are already the miserable living
-    victims and dupes of white man’s cupidity, degraded, discouraged and
-    lost in the bewildering maze that is produced by the use of whiskey and
-    its concomitant vices; and the remaining number are yet unroused and
-    unenticed from their wild haunts or their primitive modes, by the dread
-    or love of white man and his allurements.</p>
-
-  <p>It has been with these, mostly, that I have spent my time, and of
-    these, chiefly, and their customs, that the following Letters treat.
-    Their habits (and their’s alone) as we can see them transacted, are
-    native, and such as I have wished to fix and preserve for future ages.</p>
-
-  <p>Of the dead, and of those who are dying, of those who have suffered
-    death, and of those who are now trodden and kicked through it, I may
-    speak more fully in some deductions at the close of this book; or at
-    some future time, when I may find more leisure, and may be able to
-    speak of these scenes without giving offence to the world, or to any
-    body in it.</p>
-
-  <p>Such a portrait then as I have set forth in the following pages (taken
-    by myself from the free and vivid realities of life, instead of the
-    vague and uncertain imagery of recollection, or from the haggard
-    deformities and distortions of disease and death), I offer to the world
-    for their amusement, as well as for their information; and I trust they
-    will pardon me, if it should be thought<span class="pagenum" id="Page_7">7</span> that I have over-estimated the
-    Indian character, or at other times descended too much into the details
-    and minutiæ of Indian mysteries and absurdities.</p>
-
-  <p>The reader, then, to understand me rightly, and draw from these Letters
-    the information which they are intended to give, must follow me a vast
-    way from the civilized world; he must needs wend his way from the city
-    of New York, over the Alleghany, and far beyond the mighty Missouri,
-    and even to the base and summit of the Rocky Mountains, some two or
-    three thousand miles from the Atlantic coast. He should forget many
-    theories he has read in the books of Indian barbarities, of wanton
-    butcheries and murders; and divest himself, as far as possible of the
-    deadly prejudices which he has carried from his childhood, against this
-    most unfortunate and most abused part of the race of his fellow-man.</p>
-
-  <p>He should consider, that if he has seen the savages of North America
-    without making such a tour, he has fixed his eyes upon and drawn his
-    conclusions (in all probability) only from those who inhabit the
-    frontier; whose habits have been changed—whose pride has been cut
-    down—whose country has been ransacked—whose wives and daughters have
-    been shamefully abused—whose lands have been wrested from them—whose
-    limbs have become enervated and naked by the excessive use of
-    whiskey—whose friends and relations have been prematurely thrown into
-    their graves—whose native pride and dignity have at last given way to
-    the unnatural vices which civilized cupidity has engrafted upon them,
-    to be silently nurtured and magnified by a burning sense of injury and
-    injustice, and ready for that cruel vengeance which often falls from
-    the hand that is palsied by refined abuses, and yet unrestrained by the
-    glorious influences of refined and moral cultivation.—That if he has
-    laid up what he considers well-founded knowledge of these people, from
-    books which he has read, and from newspapers only, he should pause at
-    least, and withhold his sentence before he passes it upon the character
-    of a people, who are dying at the hands of their enemies, without the
-    means of recording their own annals—struggling in their nakedness with
-    their simple weapons, against guns and gunpowder—against whiskey and
-    steel, and disease, and mailed warriors who are continually trampling
-    them to the earth, and at last exultingly promulgating from the very
-    soil which they have wrested from the poor savage, the history of his
-    cruelties and barbarities, whilst his bones are quietly resting under
-    the very furrows which their ploughs are turning.</p>
-
-  <p>So great and unfortunate are the disparities between savage and civil,
-    in numbers—in weapons and defences—in enterprise, in craft, and in
-    education, that the former is almost universally the sufferer either in
-    peace or in war; and not less so after his pipe and his tomahawk have
-    retired to the grave with him, and his character is left to be entered
-    upon the pages of history, and that justice done to his memory which
-    from necessity, he has intrusted to his enemy.</p>
-
-  <p>Amongst the numerous historians, however, of these strange people, they
-    have had some friends who have done them justice; yet as a part of all
-    systems<span class="pagenum" id="Page_8">8</span> of justice whenever it is meted to the poor Indian, it comes
-    invariably too late, or is administered at an ineffectual distance; and
-    that too when his enemies are continually about him, and effectually
-    applying the means of his destruction.</p>
-
-  <p>Some writers, I have been grieved to see, have written down the
-    character of the North American Indian, as dark, relentless, cruel and
-    murderous in the last degree; with scarce a quality to stamp their
-    existence of a higher order than that of the brutes:—whilst others
-    have given them a high rank, as I feel myself authorized to do, as
-    honourable and highly-intellectual beings; and others, both friends and
-    foes to the red men, have spoken of them as an “anomaly in nature!”</p>
-
-  <p>In this place I have no time or inclination to reply to so
-    unaccountable an assertion as this; contenting myself with the belief,
-    that the term would be far more correctly applied to that part of the
-    human family who have strayed farthest from nature, than it could be to
-    those who are simply moving in, and filling the sphere for which they
-    were designed by the Great Spirit who made them.</p>
-
-  <p>From what I have seen of these people I feel authorized to say, that
-    there is nothing very strange or unaccountable in their character; but
-    that it is a simple one, and easy to be learned and understood, if the
-    right means be taken to familiarize ourselves with it. Although it has
-    its dark spots, yet there is much in it to be applauded, and much to
-    recommend it to the admiration of the enlightened world. And I trust
-    that the reader, who looks through these volumes with care, will be
-    disposed to join me in the conclusion that the North American Indian in
-    his native state, is an honest, hospitable, faithful, brave, warlike,
-    cruel, revengeful, relentless,—yet honourable, contemplative and
-    religious being.</p>
-
-  <p>If such be the case, I am sure there is enough in it to recommend it
-    to the fair perusal of the world, and charity enough in all civilized
-    countries, in this enlightened age, to extend a helping hand to a
-    dying race; provided that prejudice and fear can be removed, which
-    have heretofore constantly held the civilized portions in dread of the
-    savage—and away from that familiar and friendly embrace, in which alone
-    his true native character can be justly appreciated.</p>
-
-  <p>I am fully convinced, from a long familiarity with these people, that
-    the Indian’s misfortune has consisted chiefly in our ignorance of their
-    true native character and disposition, which has always held us at a
-    distrustful distance from them; inducing us to look upon them in no
-    other light than that of a hostile foe, and worthy only of that system
-    of continued warfare and abuse that has been for ever waged against
-    them.</p>
-
-  <p>There is no difficulty in approaching the Indian and getting acquainted
-    with him in his wild and unsophisticated state, and finding him an
-    honest and honourable man; with feelings to meet feelings, if the above
-    prejudice and dread can be laid aside, and any one will take the pains,
-    as I have done, to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_9">9</span> go and see him in the simplicity of his native
-    state, smoking his pipe under his own humble roof, with his wife and
-    children around him, and his faithful dogs and horses hanging about
-    his hospitable tenement.—So the world <em>may</em> see him and smoke
-    his friendly pipe, which will be invariably extended to them; and
-    share, with a hearty welcome, the best that his wigwam affords for the
-    appetite, which is always set out to a stranger the next moment after
-    he enters.</p>
-
-  <p>But so the mass of the world, most assuredly, will <em>not</em> see these
-    people; for they are too far off, and approachable to those only whose
-    avarice or cupidity alone lead them to those remote regions, and whose
-    shame prevents them from publishing to the world the virtues which they
-    have thrown down and trampled under foot.</p>
-
-  <p>The very use of the word savage, as it is applied in its general sense,
-    I am inclined to believe is an abuse of the word, and the people to
-    whom it is applied. The word, in its true definition, means no more
-    than <em>wild</em>, or <em>wild man</em>; and a wild man may have been
-    endowed by his Maker with all the humane and noble traits that inhabit
-    the heart of a tame man. Our ignorance and dread or fear of these
-    people, therefore, have given a new definition to the adjective; and
-    nearly the whole civilized world apply the word <em>savage</em>, as
-    expressive of the most ferocious, cruel, and murderous character that
-    can be described.</p>
-
-  <p>The grizzly bear is called savage, because he is blood-thirsty,
-    ravenous and cruel; and so is the tiger, and they, like the poor red
-    man, have been feared and dreaded (from the distance at which ignorance
-    and prejudice have kept us from them, or from resented abuses which we
-    have practised when we have come in close contact with them), until Van
-    Amburgh shewed the world, that even these ferocious and unreasoning
-    animals wanted only the friendship and close embrace of their master,
-    to respect and to love him.</p>
-
-  <p>As evidence of the hospitality of these ignorant and benighted people,
-    and also of their honesty and honour, there will be found recorded
-    many striking instances in the following pages. And also, as an offset
-    to these, many evidences of the dark and cruel, as well as ignorant
-    and disgusting excesses of passions, unrestrained by the salutary
-    influences of laws and Christianity.</p>
-
-  <p>I have roamed about from time to time during seven or eight years,
-    visiting and associating with some three or four hundred thousand of
-    these people, under an almost infinite variety of circumstances; and
-    from the very many and decided voluntary acts of their hospitality
-    and kindness, I feel bound to pronounce them, by nature, a kind and
-    hospitable people. I have been welcomed generally in their country,
-    and treated to the best that they could give me, without any charges
-    made for my board; they have often escorted me through their enemies’
-    country at some hazard to their own lives, and aided me in passing
-    mountains and rivers with my awkward baggage;<span class="pagenum" id="Page_10">10</span> and under all of these
-    circumstances of exposure, no Indian ever betrayed me, struck me a
-    blow, or stole from me a shilling’s worth of my property that I am
-    aware of.</p>
-
-  <p>This is saying a great deal, (and proving it too, if the reader will
-    believe me) in favour of the virtues of these people; when it is borne
-    in mind, as it should be, that there is no law in their land to punish
-    a man for theft—that locks and keys are not known in their country—that
-    the commandments have never been divulged amongst them; nor can any
-    human retribution fall upon the head of a thief, save the disgrace
-    which attaches as a stigma to his character, in the eyes of his people
-    about him.</p>
-
-  <p>And thus in these little communities, strange as it may seem, in the
-    absence of all systems of jurisprudence, I have often beheld peace
-    and happiness, and quiet, reigning supreme, for which even kings and
-    emperors might envy them. I have seen rights and virtue protected,
-    and wrongs redressed; and I have seen conjugal, filial and paternal
-    affection in the simplicity and contentedness of nature. I have
-    unavoidably, formed warm and enduring attachments to some of these
-    men which I do not wish to forget—who have brought me near to their
-    hearts, and in our final separation have embraced me in their arms, and
-    commended me and my affairs to the keeping of the Great Spirit.</p>
-
-  <p>For the above reasons, the reader will be disposed to forgive me for
-    dwelling so long and so strong on the justness of the claims of these
-    people; and for my occasional expressions of sadness, when my heart
-    bleeds for the fate that awaits the remainder of their unlucky race;
-    which is long to be outlived by the rocks, by the beasts, and even
-    birds and reptiles of the country they live in;—set upon by their
-    fellow-man, whose cupidity, it is feared, will fix no bounds to the
-    Indian’s earthly calamity, short of the grave.</p>
-
-  <p>I cannot help but repeat, before I close this Letter, that the tribes
-    of the red men of North America, as a nation of human beings, are on
-    their wane; that (to use their own very beautiful figure) “they are
-    fast travelling to the shades of their fathers, towards the setting
-    sun;” and that the traveller who would see these people in their native
-    simplicity and beauty, must needs be hastily on his way to the prairies
-    and Rocky Mountains, or he will see them only as they are now seen
-    on the frontiers, as a basket of <em>dead game</em>,—harassed, chased,
-    bleeding and dead; with their plumage and colours despoiled; to be
-    gazed amongst in vain for some system or moral, or for some scale by
-    which to estimate their true native character, other than that which
-    has too often recorded them but a dark and unintelligible mass of
-    cruelty and barbarity.</p>
-
-  <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_11">11</span></p>
-
-  <p>Without further comments I close this Letter, introducing my readers
-    at once to the heart of the Indian country, only asking their
-    forgiveness for having made it so long, and their patience whilst
-    travelling through the following pages (as I journeyed through those
-    remote realms) in search of information and rational amusement; in
-    tracing out the true character of that “<em>strange anomaly</em>” of man
-    in the simple elements of his nature, undissolved or compounded into
-    the mysteries of enlightened and fashionable life.</p>
-
-  <hr class="tb" />
-
-  <p class="center"><b>NOTE.</b></p>
-
-  <p><i>As the singular manners of the Country set forth in the following
-    pages, and the extraordinary scenes represented in the very numerous
-    illustrations, are of such a character as to require all possible aids
-    for the satisfaction of the readers; I hope they will excuse me for
-    intruding in this place the numerous Certificates which follow, and
-    which have been voluntarily furnished me by men whose lives, it will
-    be seen, have been spent, in great part, in the Indian Country, and in
-    familiarity with the men and manners set forth in the work</i>:</p>
-
-  <p class="center mt3">CERTIFICATES.</p>
-
-  <p>“I hereby certify, that the persons whose signatures are affixed to
-    the certificates here below, by Mr. <span class="smcap">Catlin</span>, are officers in
-    the service of the United States, as herein set forth; and that their
-    opinions of the accuracy of the likenesses, and correctness of the
-    views, &amp;c. exhibited by him in his ‘<span class="smcap">Indian Gallery</span>,’ are
-    entitled to full credit.</p>
-
-  <p class="right">“J. R. POINSETT, <i>Secretary of War, Washington</i>.”</p>
-
-  <p>“With regard to the gentlemen whose names are affixed to certificates
-    below, I am fully warranted in saying, that no individuals have had
-    better opportunities of acquiring a knowledge of the persons, habits,
-    costumes, and sports of the Indian tribes, or possess stronger claims
-    upon the public confidence in the statements they make, respecting
-    the correctness of delineations, &amp;c. of Mr. <span class="smcap">Catlin’s Indian
-    Gallery</span>; and I may add my own testimony, with regard to many
-    of those Indians whom I have seen, and whose likenesses are in the
-    collection, and sketched with fidelity and correctness.</p>
-
-  <p class="right">“C. A. HARRIS, <i>Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Washington</i>.”</p>
-
-  <hr class="tb" />
-
-  <p>“I have seen Mr. <span class="smcap">Catlin’s</span> Collection of Portraits of Indians,
-    east of the Rocky Mountains many of which were familiar to me, and
-    painted in my presence: and as far as they have included Indians of
-    my acquaintance, the <em>likenesses</em> are easily recognized, bearing
-    the most striking resemblance to the originals, as well as faithful
-    representations of their costumes.</p>
-
-  <p class="right">“W. CLARK, <i>Superintendent of Indian Affairs, <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Louis</i>.”</p>
-
-  <hr class="tb" />
-
-  <p>“I have examined Mr. <span class="smcap">Catlin’s</span> Collection of the Upper Missouri
-    Indians to the Rocky Mountains, all of which I am acquainted with;
-    and indeed most of them were painted when I was present, and I do
-    not hesitate to pronounce them correct likenesses, and readily to be
-    recognized. And I consider the <em>costumes</em>, as painted by him, to
-    be the <em>only correct representations</em> I have ever seen.</p>
-
-  <div class="right">
-    <div class="inline">
-      <div class="center">
-        “JOHN F. A. SANFORD,<br />
-        “<i>U. SS. Indian Agent for Mandans, Rickarees, Minatarees,</i><br />
-        <i>Crows, Knisteneaux, Assinneboins, Blackfeet, &amp;c.</i>”
-      </div>
-    </div>
-  </div>
-
-  <p class="pagenum" id="Page_12">12</p>
-
-  <hr class="tb" />
-
-  <p>“We have seen Mr. <span class="smcap">Catlin’s</span> Portraits of Indians east of the
-    Rocky Mountains, many of which are familiar to us; the likenesses are
-    easily recognized, bearing a strong resemblance to the originals, as
-    well as a faithful representation of their costumes.</p>
-
-  <div>
-    <span class="fright">“J. DOUGHERTY, <i>Indian Agent</i>.</span><br />
-    <span style="margin-left: 1em;">“<i>November 27th, 1837.</i></span><span class="fright" style="margin-right: 8em;">J. GANTT.”</span>
-  </div>
-
-  <hr class="tb" />
-
-  <p>“We hereby certify, that the Portraits of the Grand Pawnees, Republican
-    Pawnees, Pawnee Loups, Tappage Pawnees, Otoes, Omahaws, and Missouries,
-    which are in Mr. <span class="smcap">Catlin’s Indian Gallery</span>, were painted from
-    life by Mr. <span class="smcap">Geo. Catlin</span>, and that the individuals sat to him
-    in the costumes precisely in which they are painted.</p>
-
-  <div>
-    <span class="fright">“J. DOUGHERTY, <i>I. A. for Pawnees, Omahaws, and Otoes</i>.</span><br />
-    <span style="margin-left: 1em;">“<i>New York, 1837.</i></span><span class="fright" style="margin-right: 18.8em;">J. GANTT.”</span>
-  </div>
-
-  <hr class="tb" />
-
-  <p>“I have seen Mr. <span class="smcap">Catlin’s</span> Collection of Indian Portraits, many
-    of which were familiar to me, and painted in my presence at their own
-    villages. I have spent the greater part of my life amongst the tribes
-    and individuals he has represented, and I do not hesitate to pronounce
-    them correct likenesses, and easily recognized: also his sketches of
-    their <em>manners</em> and <em>customs</em>, I think, are excellent; and
-    the <em>landscape views</em> on the Missouri and Mississippi, are correct
-    representations.</p>
-
-  <p class="right">“K. M‘KENZIE, <i>of the Am. Fur Co. Mouth of Yellow Stone</i>.”</p>
-
-  <hr class="tb" />
-
-  <p>“We hereby certify, that the Portraits of Seminoles and Euchees, in Mr.
-    <span class="smcap">Catlin’s Gallery</span>, were painted by him, from the life, at Fort
-    Moultrie; that the Indians sat or stood in the costumes precisely in
-    which they are painted, and that the likenesses are remarkably good.</p>
-
-  <div>
-    <span style="margin-left: 1em;">“P. MORRISON, Capt. 4th Inft.</span><span class="fright">H. WHARTON, 2d. Lieut. 6th Inft.</span><br />
-    <span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">J. S. HATHAWAY, 2d Lieut. 1st Art.</span><span class="fright" style="margin-right: 0.8em;">F. WEEDON, Assistant Surgeon.</span><br />
-    <span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Fort Moultrie, Jan. 26, 1838.</i>”</span>
-  </div>
-
-  <hr class="tb" />
-
-  <p>“Having examined Mr. <span class="smcap">Catlin’s</span> Collection of Portraits of
-    Indians of the Missouri to the Rocky Mountains, I have no hesitation
-    in pronouncing them, so far as I am acquainted with the Individuals,
-    to be the best I have ever seen, both as regards the expression of
-    countenance, and the exact and complete manner in which the costume has
-    been painted by him.</p>
-
-  <p class="right">“J. L. BEAN, <i>S. Agent for Indian Affairs</i>.”</p>
-
-  <hr class="tb" />
-
-  <p>“I have been for many years past in familiar acquaintance with
-    the Indian tribes of the Upper Missouri to the Rocky Mountains,
-    and also with the landscape and other scenes represented in Mr.
-    <span class="smcap">Catlin’s</span> Collection; and it gives me great pleasure to assure
-    the world, that on looking them over, I found the likenesses of my
-    old friends easily to be recognized; and his sketches of Manners and
-    Customs to be pourtrayed with singular truth and correctness.</p>
-
-  <p class="right">“J. PILCHER, <i>Agent for Upper Missouri Indians</i>.”</p>
-
-  <hr class="tb" />
-
-  <p>“It gives me great pleasure in being enabled to add my name to the
-    list of those who have spontaneously expressed their approbation of
-    Mr. <span class="smcap">Catlin’s</span> Collection of Indian Paintings. His Collection
-    of materials place it in his power to throw much light on the Indian
-    character, and his portraits, so far as I have seen them, are drawn
-    with great fidelity as to character and likeness.</p>
-
-  <p class="right">“H. SCHOOLCRAFT, <i>Indian Agent for Wisconsin Territory</i>.”</p>
-
-  <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_13">13</span></p>
-
-  <hr class="tb" />
-
-  <p>“Having lived and dealt with the Black Feet Indians for five years
-    past, I was enabled to recognize <em>every one</em> of the Portraits of
-    those people, and of the Crows also, which Mr. <span class="smcap">Catlin</span> has in
-    his Collection, from the faithful likenesses they bore to the originals.</p>
-
-  <p class="right">“<i><abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Louis, 1835.</i> “J. E. BRAZEAU.”</p>
-
-  <hr class="tb" />
-
-  <p>“Having spent sixteen years in the continual acquaintance with the
-    Indians of the several tribes of the Missouri, represented in Mr.
-    <span class="smcap">Catlin’s</span> Gallery of Indian Paintings, I was enabled to judge
-    of the correctness of the likenesses, and I <em>instantly recognized
-    every one of them</em>, when I looked them over, from the striking
-    resemblance they bore to the originals—so also, of the Landscapes on
-    the Missouri.</p>
-
-  <p class="right">“HONORE PICOTTE.”</p>
-
-  <hr class="tb" />
-
-  <p>“The Portraits, in the possession of Mr. <span class="smcap">Catlin</span>, of Pawnee
-    Picts, Kioways, Camanches, Wecos, and Osages, were painted by him
-    <em>from life</em>, when on a tour to their country, with the United
-    States Dragoons. The <em>likenesses</em> are good, very easily to be
-    recognized, and the <em>costumes</em> faithfully represented.</p>
-
-  <div>
-    <span style="margin-left: 1em;">“HENRY DODGE, Col. of Drag.</span><span class="fright" style="margin-right: 2em;">D. PERKINS. Capt. of Drag.</span><br />
-    <span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">R. H. MASON, Major of Ditto.</span><span class="fright" style="margin-right: 3.8em;">M. DUNCAN,&#160; &#160; &#160; Ditto.</span><br />
-    <span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">D. HUNTER, Capt.</span><span style="margin-left: 2.4em;">Ditto.</span><span class="fright">T. B. WHEELOCK, Lieut. Drag.”</span>
-  </div>
-
-  <hr class="tb" />
-
-  <p>“The Landscapes, Buffalo-Hunting scenes, &amp;c. above-mentioned, I have
-    seen, and although it has been thirty years since I travelled over that
-    country; yet a considerable number of them I recognized as faithful
-    representations, and the remainder of them are so much in the peculiar
-    character of that country as to seem entirely familiar to me.</p>
-
-  <p class="right">“WM. CLARK, <i>Superintendent of Indian Affairs</i>.”</p>
-
-  <hr class="tb" />
-
-  <p>“The Landscape Views on the Missouri, Buffalo Hunts, and other scenes,
-    taken by my friend Mr. <span class="smcap">Catlin</span>, are correct delineations of the
-    scenes they profess to represent, as I am perfectly well acquainted
-    with the country, having passed through it more than a dozen times. And
-    further, I know, that they were taken on the spot, from nature, as I
-    was present when Mr. <span class="smcap">Catlin</span> visited that country.</p>
-
-  <p class="right">“JOHN F. A. SANFORD, <i>U. SS. Indian Agent</i>.”</p>
-
-  <hr class="tb" />
-
-  <p>“It gives me great pleasure to be able to pronounce the Landscape
-    Views, Views of Hunting, and other scenes, taken on the Upper Missouri
-    by Mr. <span class="smcap">Catlin</span>, to be correct delineations of the scenery they
-    profess to represent; and although I was not present when they were
-    taken in the field, I was able to identify almost every one between <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr>
-    Louis and the grand bend of the Missouri.</p>
-
-  <p class="right">“J. L. BEAN, <i>S. Agent of Indian Affairs</i>.”</p>
-
-  <hr class="tb" />
-
-  <p>“I have examined a series of paintings by Mr. <span class="smcap">Catlin</span>,
-    representing <em>Indian Buffalo Hunts, Landscapes, &amp;c.</em>, and from an
-    acquaintance of twenty-seven years with such scenes as are represented,
-    I feel qualified to judge them, and do unhesitatingly pronounce them
-    good and unexaggerated representations.</p>
-
-  <p class="right">“JNO. DOUGHERTY, <i>Indian Agent for Pawnees, Omahaws, and Otoes</i>.”</p>
-
-  <hr class="chap" />
-  <div class="chapter">
-    <span class="pagenum" id="Page_14">14</span>
-    <h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_2">LETTER—<abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 2.</h2>
-  </div>
-  <div class="subheadc">MOUTH OF YELLOW STONE, <i>UPPER MISSOURI</i>, 1832.</div>
-
-  <p><span class="smcap">I arrived</span> at this place yesterday in the steamer “Yellow Stone,”
-    after a voyage of nearly three months from <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Louis, a distance of
-    two thousand miles, the greater part of which has never before been
-    navigated by steam; and the almost insurmountable difficulties which
-    continually oppose the <i lang="fr">voyageur</i> on this turbid stream, have
-    been by degrees overcome by the indefatigable zeal of Mr. Chouteau, a
-    gentleman of great perseverance, and part proprietor of the boat. To
-    the politeness of this gentleman I am indebted for my passage from <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr>
-    Louis to this place, and I had also the pleasure of his <em>company</em>,
-    with that of Major Sanford, the government agent for the Missouri
-    Indians.</p>
-
-  <p>The American Fur Company have erected here, for their protection
-    against the savages, a very substantial Fort, 300 feet square, with
-    bastions armed with ordnance (<a href="#i_003"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 3</a>); and our approach
-    to it under the continued roar of cannon for half an hour, and the
-    shrill yells of the half-affrighted savages who lined the shores,
-    presented a scene of the most thrilling and picturesque appearance. A
-    voyage so full of incident, and furnishing so many novel scenes of the
-    picturesque and romantic, as we have passed the numerous villages of
-    the “astonished natives,” saluting them with the puffing of steam and
-    the thunder of artillery, would afford subject for many epistles; and I
-    cannot deny myself the pleasure of occasionally giving you some little
-    sketches of scenes that I have witnessed, and <em>am witnessing</em>; and
-    of the singular feelings that are excited in the breast of the stranger
-    travelling through this interesting country. Interesting (as I have
-    said) and <em>luxurious</em>, for this is truly the land of Epicures; we
-    are invited by the savages to feasts of <em>dog’s meat</em>, as the most
-    honourable food that can be presented to a stranger, and glutted with
-    the more delicious food of beavers’ tails, and buffaloes’ tongues. You
-    will, no doubt, be somewhat surprised on the receipt of a Letter from
-    me, so far strayed into the Western World; and still more startled,
-    when I tell you that I am here in the full enthusiasm and practice of
-    my art. That enthusiasm alone has brought me into this remote region,
-    3500 miles from my native soil; the last 2000 of which have furnished
-    me with almost unlimited models, both in landscape and the human
-    figure, exactly suited to my feelings. I am now in the full possession
-    and enjoyments of those conditions, on which alone I was induced to
-    pursue the art as a profession; and in anticipation of which alone, my
-    admiration for the art could ever have been kindled into a pure flame.
-    I mean the free use of nature’s undisguised models, with the privilege
-    of selecting for myself. If I am here losing the benefit of the
-    fleeting fashions of the day, and neglecting that elegant polish, which
-    the world say an artist should draw from a continual intercourse with
-    the polite world; yet have I this consolation, that in this country,
-    I am entirely divested of those dangerous steps and allurements which
-    beset an artist in fashionable life; and have little to steal my
-    thoughts away from the contemplation of the beautiful models that
-    are about me. If, also, I have not here the benefit of that feeling
-    of emulation, which is the life and spur to the arts, where artists
-    are associates together; yet am I surrounded by living models of such
-    elegance and beauty, that I feel an unceasing excitement of a much
-    higher order—the certainty that I am drawing knowledge from the true
-    source. My enthusiastic admiration of man in the honest and elegant
-    simplicity of nature, has always fed the warmest feelings of my bosom,
-    and shut half the avenues to my heart against the specious refinements
-    of the accomplished world. This feeling, together with the desire to
-    study my art, independently of the embarrassments which the ridiculous
-    fashions of civilized society have thrown in its way, has led me to the
-    wilderness for a while, as the true school of the arts.</p>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>3</i></div>
-  <figure id="i_003">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_003.jpg" alt="" />
-     <figcaption>3</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <figure class="mt2" id="i_004">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_004.jpg" alt="" />
-     <figcaption>4</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p>I have for a long time been of opinion, that the wilderness of our
-    country afforded models equal to those from which the Grecian sculptors
-    transferred to the marble such inimitable grace and beauty; and I am
-    now more confirmed in this opinion, since I have immersed myself in
-    the midst of thousands and tens of thousands of these knights of the
-    forest; whose whole lives are lives of chivalry, and whose daily feats,
-    with their naked limbs, might vie with those of the Grecian youths in
-    the beautiful rivalry of the Olympian games.</p>
-
-  <p>No man’s imagination, with all the aids of description that can be
-    given to it, can ever picture the beauty and wildness of scenes that
-    may be daily witnessed in this romantic country; of hundreds of these
-    graceful youths, without a care to wrinkle, or a fear to disturb
-    the full expression of pleasure and enjoyment that beams upon their
-    faces—their long black hair mingling with their horses’ tails, floating
-    in the wind, while they are flying over the carpeted prairie, and
-    dealing death with their spears and arrows, to a band of infuriated
-    buffaloes; or their splendid procession in a war-parade, arrayed in all
-    their gorgeous colours and trappings, moving with most exquisite grace
-    and manly beauty, added to that bold defiance which man carries on his
-    front, who acknowledges no superior on earth, and who is amenable to no
-    laws except the laws of God and honour.</p>
-
-  <p>In addition to the knowledge of human nature and of my art, which I
-    hope to acquire by this toilsome and expensive undertaking, I have
-    another in view, which, if it should not be of equal service to me,
-    will be of no less<span class="pagenum" id="Page_16">16</span> interest and value to posterity. I have, for many
-    years past, contemplated the noble races of red men who are now spread
-    over these trackless forests and boundless prairies, melting away
-    at the approach of civilization. Their rights invaded, their morals
-    corrupted, their lands wrested from them, their customs changed, and
-    therefore lost to the world; and they at last sunk into the earth, and
-    the ploughshare turning the sod over their graves, and I have flown
-    to their rescue—not of their lives or of their race (for they are
-    “<em>doomed</em>” and must perish), but to the rescue of their looks and
-    their modes, at which the acquisitive world may hurl their poison and
-    every besom of destruction, and trample them down and crush them to
-    death; yet, phœnix-like, they may rise from the “stain on a painter’s
-    palette,” and live again upon canvass, and stand forth for centuries
-    yet to come, the living monuments of a noble race. For this purpose,
-    I have designed to visit every tribe of Indians on the Continent, if
-    my life should be spared; for the purpose of procuring portraits of
-    distinguished Indians, of both sexes in each tribe, painted in their
-    native costume; accompanied with pictures of their villages, domestic
-    habits, games, mysteries, religious ceremonies, &amp;c. with anecdotes,
-    traditions, and history of their respective nations.</p>
-
-  <p>If I should live to accomplish my design, the result of my labours will
-    doubtless be interesting to future ages; who will have little else left
-    from which to judge of the original inhabitants of this simple race of
-    beings, who require but a few years more of the march of civilization
-    and death, to deprive them of all their native customs and character.
-    I have been kindly supplied by the Commander-in-Chief of the Army and
-    the Secretary of War, with letters to the commander of every military
-    post, and every Indian agent on the Western Frontier, with instructions
-    to render me all the facilities in their power, which will be of great
-    service to me in so arduous an undertaking. The opportunity afforded me
-    by familiarity with so many tribes of human beings in the simplicity of
-    nature, devoid of the deformities of art; of drawing fair conclusions
-    in the interesting sciences of physiognomy and phrenology; of manners
-    and customs, rites, ceremonies, &amp;c.; and the opportunity of examining
-    the geology and mineralogy of this western, and yet unexplored
-    country, will enable me occasionally to entertain you with much new
-    and interesting information, which I shall take equal pleasure in
-    communicating by an occasional Letter in my clumsy way.</p>
-
-  <hr class="chap" />
-  <div class="chapter">
-    <span class="pagenum" id="Page_17">17</span>
-    <h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_3">LETTER—<abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 3.</h2>
-  </div>
-  <div class="subheadc">MOUTH OF YELLOW STONE, <i>UPPER MISSOURI</i>.</div>
-
-  <p><span class="smcap">Since</span> the date of my former Letter, I have been so much engaged in
-    the amusements of the country, and the use of my brush, that I have
-    scarcely been able to drop you a line until the present moment.</p>
-
-  <p>Before I let you into the amusements and customs of this delightful
-    country however, (and which, as yet, are secrets to most of the world),
-    I must hastily travel with you over the tedious journey of 2000 miles,
-    from <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Louis to this place; over which distance one is obliged to
-    pass, before he can reach this wild and lovely spot.</p>
-
-  <p>The Missouri is, perhaps, different in appearance and character
-    from all other rivers in the world; there is a terror in its manner
-    which is sensibly felt, the moment we enter its muddy waters from
-    the Mississippi. From the mouth of the Yellow Stone River, which is
-    the place from whence I am now writing, to its junction with the
-    Mississippi, a distance of 2000 miles, the Missouri, with its boiling,
-    turbid waters, sweeps off, in one unceasing current; and in the whole
-    distance there is scarcely an eddy or resting-place for a canoe. Owing
-    to the continual falling in of its rich alluvial banks, its water is
-    always turbid and opaque; having, at all seasons of the year, the
-    colour of a cup of chocolate or coffee, with sugar and cream stirred
-    into it. To give a better definition of its density and opacity, I
-    have tried a number of simple experiments with it at this place, and
-    at other points below, at the results of which I was exceedingly
-    surprised. By placing a piece of silver (and afterwards a piece of
-    shell, which is a much whiter substance) in a tumbler of its water,
-    and looking through the side of the glass, I ascertained that those
-    substances could not be seen through the eighth part of an inch; this,
-    however, is in the spring of the year, when the freshet is upon the
-    river, rendering the water, undoubtedly, much more turbid than it would
-    be at other seasons; though it is always muddy and yellow, and from its
-    boiling and wild character and uncommon colour, a stranger would think,
-    even in its lowest state, that there was a freshet upon it.</p>
-
-  <p>For the distance of 1000 miles above <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Louis, the shores of this
-    river (and, in many places, the whole bed of the stream) are filled
-    with snags and raft, formed of trees of the largest size, which have
-    been undermined by the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_18">18</span> falling banks and cast into the stream;
-    their roots becoming fastened in the bottom of the river, with their
-    tops floating on the surface of the water, and pointing down the
-    stream, forming the most frightful and discouraging prospect for the
-    adventurous voyageur. (See <a href="#i_004"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 4</a>.)</p>
-
-  <p>Almost every island and sand-bar is covered with huge piles of these
-    floating trees, and when the river is flooded, its surface is almost
-    literally covered with floating raft and drift wood which bid positive
-    defiance to keel-boats and steamers, on their way up the river.</p>
-
-  <p>With what propriety this “Hell of waters” might he denominated the
-    “River Styx,” I will not undertake to decide; but nothing could be more
-    appropriate or innocent than to call it the River <em>of Sticks</em>.</p>
-
-  <p>The scene is not, however, all so dreary; there is a redeeming beauty
-    in the green and carpeted shores, which hem in this huge and terrible
-    deformity of waters. There is much of the way though, where the mighty
-    forests of stately cotton wood stand, and frown in horrid dark and
-    coolness over the filthy abyss below; into which they are ready to
-    plunge headlong, when the mud and soil in which they were germed and
-    reared have been washed out from underneath them, and with the rolling
-    current are mixed, and on their way to the ocean.</p>
-
-  <p>The greater part of the shores of this river, however, are without
-    timber, where the eye is delightfully relieved by wandering over the
-    beautiful prairies; most of the way gracefully sloping down to the
-    water’s edge, carpeted with the deepest green, and, in distance,
-    softening into velvet of the richest hues, entirely beyond the reach
-    of the artist’s pencil. Such is the character of the upper part of the
-    river especially; and as one advances towards its source, and through
-    its upper half, it becomes more pleasing to the eye, for snags and raft
-    are no longer to be seen; yet the current holds its stiff and onward
-    turbid character.</p>
-
-  <p>It has been, heretofore, very erroneously represented to the world,
-    that the scenery on this river was monotonous, and wanting in
-    picturesque beauty. This intelligence is surely incorrect, and that
-    because it has been brought perhaps, by men who are not the best
-    judges in the world, of Nature’s beautiful works; and if they were,
-    they always pass them by, in pain or desperate distress, in toil and
-    trembling fear for the safety of their furs and peltries, or for their
-    lives, which are at the mercy of the yelling savages who inhabit this
-    delightful country.</p>
-
-  <p>One thousand miles or more of the upper part of the river, was, to
-    my eye, like fairy-land; and during our transit through that part of
-    our voyage, I was most of the time rivetted to the deck of the boat,
-    indulging my eyes in the boundless and tireless pleasure of roaming
-    over the thousand hills, and bluffs, and dales, and ravines; where the
-    astonished herds of buffaloes, of elks, and antelopes, and sneaking
-    wolves, and mountain-goats, were to be seen bounding up and down and
-    over the green fields; each one and each tribe, band, and gang, taking
-    their own way, and using their own means to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_19">19</span> the greatest advantage
-    possible, to leave the sight and sound of the puffing of our boat;
-    which was, for the first time, saluting the green and wild shores of
-    the Missouri with the din of mighty steam.</p>
-
-  <p>From <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Louis to the falls of the Missouri, a distance of 2600 miles,
-    is one continued prairie; with the exception of a few of the bottoms
-    formed along the bank of the river, and the streams which are falling
-    into it, which are often covered with the most luxuriant growth of
-    forest timber.</p>
-
-  <p>The summit level of the great prairies stretching off to the west and
-    the east from the river, to an almost boundless extent, is from two to
-    three hundred feet above the level of the river; which has formed a bed
-    or valley for its course, varying in width from two to twenty miles.
-    This channel or valley has been evidently produced by the force of the
-    current, which has gradually excavated, in its floods and gorges, this
-    immense space, and sent its débris into the ocean. By the continual
-    overflowing of the river, its deposits have been lodged and left with a
-    horizontal surface, spreading the deepest and richest alluvion over the
-    surface of its meadows on either side; through which the river winds
-    its serpentine course, alternately running from one bluff to the other,
-    which present themselves to its shores in all the most picturesque and
-    beautiful shapes and colours imaginable—some with their green sides
-    gracefully slope down in the most lovely groups to the water’s edge
-    (<a href="#i_005"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 5</a>); whilst others, divested of their verdure, present
-    themselves in immense masses of clay of different colours, which arrest
-    the eye of the traveller, with the most curious views in the world.</p>
-
-  <p>These strange and picturesque appearances have been produced by the
-    rains and frosts, which are continually changing the dimensions, and
-    varying the thousand shapes of these denuded hills, by washing down
-    their sides and carrying them into the river.</p>
-
-  <p>Amongst these groups may be seen tens and hundreds of thousands of
-    different forms and figures, of the sublime and the picturesque; in
-    many places for miles together, as the boat glides along, there is
-    one continued appearance, before and behind us, of some ancient and
-    boundless city in ruins—ramparts, terraces, domes, towers, citadels
-    and castles may be seen,—cupolas, and magnificent porticos, and here
-    and there a solitary column and crumbling pedestal, and even spires
-    of clay which stand alone—and glistening in distance, as the sun’s
-    rays are refracted back by the thousand crystals of gypsum which are
-    imbedded in the clay of which they are formed (<a href="#i_006"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 6</a>). Over
-    and through these groups of domes and battlements (as one is compelled
-    to imagine them), the sun sends his long and gilding rays, at morn or
-    in the evening; giving life and light, by aid of shadows cast, to the
-    different glowing colours of these clay-built ruins; shedding a glory
-    over the solitude of this wild and pictured country, which no one can
-    realize unless he travels here and looks upon it.</p>
-
-  <p>It is amidst these wild and quiet haunts that the mountain-sheep, and
-    the fleet-bounding antelope sport and live in herds, secure from their
-    enemies,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_20">20</span> to whom the sides and slopes of these bluffs (around which
-    they fearlessly bound) are nearly inaccessible.</p>
-
-  <p>The grizzly bear also has chosen these places for his abode; he
-    sullenly sneaks through the gulphs and chasms, and ravines, and frowns
-    away the lurking Indian; whilst the mountain-sheep and antelope are
-    bounding over and around the hill tops, safe and free from harm of man
-    and beast.</p>
-
-  <p>Such is a hasty sketch of the river scenes and scenery for 2000 miles,
-    over which we tugged, and puffed, and blowed, and toiled for three
-    months, before we reached this place. Since we arrived here, the
-    steamer has returned and left me here to explore the country and visit
-    the tribes in this vicinity, and then descend the river from this place
-    to <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Louis; which Tour, if I live through it, will furnish material
-    for many a story and curious incident, which I may give you in detail
-    in future epistles, and when I have more leisure than I have at the
-    present moment. I will then undertake to tell how we astonished the
-    natives, in many an instance, which I can in this Letter but just
-    hint at and say adieu. If anything did ever literally and completely
-    “astonish (and astound) the natives,” it was the appearance of our
-    steamer, puffing and blowing, and paddling and rushing by their
-    villages which were on the banks of the river.</p>
-
-  <p>These poor and ignorant people for the distance of 2000 miles, had
-    never before seen or heard of a steam-boat, and in some places they
-    seemed at a loss to know what to do, or how to act; they could not,
-    as the Dutch did at Newburgh, on the Hudson River, take it to be a
-    “<em>floating saw-mill</em>”—and they had no name for it—so it was, like
-    every thing else (with them), which is mysterious and unaccountable,
-    called <em>medicine</em> (mystery). We had on board one twelve-pound
-    cannon and three or four eight-pound swivels, which we were taking up
-    to arm the Fur Company’s Fort at the mouth of Yellow Stone, and at the
-    approach to every village they were all discharged several times in
-    rapid succession, which threw the inhabitants into utter confusion and
-    amazement—some of them laid their faces to the ground, and cried to
-    the Great Spirit—some shot their horses and dogs, and sacrificed them
-    to appease the Great Spirit, whom they conceived was offended—some
-    deserted their villages and ran to the tops of the bluffs some miles
-    distant; and others, in some places, as the boat landed in front of
-    their villages, came with great caution, and peeped over the bank of
-    the river to see the fate of their chiefs whose duty it was (from the
-    nature of their office) to approach us, whether friends or foes, and
-    to go on board. Sometimes, in this plight, they were instantly thrown
-    ‘neck and heels’ over each other’s heads and shoulders—men, women
-    and children, and dogs—sage, sachem, old and young—all in a mass, at
-    the frightful discharge of the steam from the escape-pipe, which the
-    captain of the boat let loose upon them for his own fun and amusement.</p>
-
-  <p>There were many curious conjectures amongst their wise men, with regard
-    to the nature and powers of the steam-boat. Amongst the Mandans, some
-    called it the “big thunder canoe;” for when in distance below the
-    village,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_21">21</span> they saw the lightning flash from its sides, and heard
-    the thunder come from it; others called it the “big medicine canoe
-    with eyes;” it was <em>medicine</em> (mystery) because they could not
-    understand it; and it must have eyes, for said they, “it sees its own
-    way, and takes the deep water in the middle of the channel.”</p>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>4</i></div>
-  <figure id="i_005">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_005.jpg" alt="" />
-     <figcaption>5</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <figure class="mt2" id="i_006">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_006.jpg" alt="" />
-     <figcaption>6</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p>They had no idea of the boat being steered by the man at the wheel, and
-    well they might have been astonished at its taking the deepest water. I
-    may (if I do not forget it) hereafter give you an account of some other
-    curious incidents of this kind, which we met with in this voyage; for
-    we met many, and some of them were really laughable.</p>
-
-  <p>The Fort in which I am residing was built by Mr. M‘Kenzie, who now
-    occupies it. It is the largest and best-built establishment of the kind
-    on the river, being the great or principal head-quarters and depôt
-    of the Fur Company’s business in this region. A vast stock of goods
-    is kept on hand at this place; and at certain times of the year the
-    numerous out-posts concentrate here with the returns of their season’s
-    trade, and refit out with a fresh supply of goods to trade with the
-    Indians.</p>
-
-  <p>The site for the Fort is well selected, being a beautiful prairie
-    on the bank near the junction of the Missouri with the Yellow Stone
-    rivers; and its inmates and its stores well protected from Indian
-    assaults.</p>
-
-  <p>Mr. M‘Kenzie is a kind-hearted and high-minded Scotchman; and seems to
-    have charge of all the Fur Companies’ business in this region, and from
-    this to the Rocky Mountains. He lives in good and comfortable style,
-    inside of the Fort, which contains some eight or ten log-houses and
-    stores, and has generally forty or fifty men, and one hundred and fifty
-    horses about him.</p>
-
-  <p>He has, with the same spirit of liberality and politeness with
-    which Mons. Pierre Chouteau treated me on my passage up the river,
-    pronounced me welcome at his table, which groans under the luxuries of
-    the country; with buffalo meat and tongues, with beavers’ tails and
-    marrow-fat; but <i>sans</i> coffee, <i>sans</i> bread and butter. Good
-    cheer and good living we get at it however, and good wine also; for a
-    bottle of Madeira and one of excellent Port are set in a pail of ice
-    every day, and exhausted at dinner.</p>
-
-  <p>At the hospitable board of this gentleman I found also another, who
-    forms a happy companion for <em>mine host</em>; and whose intellectual
-    and polished society has added not a little to <em>my</em> pleasure and
-    amusement since I arrived here.</p>
-
-  <p>The gentleman of whom I am speaking is an Englishman, by the name
-    of Hamilton, of the most pleasing and entertaining conversation,
-    whose mind seems to be a complete store-house of ancient and modern
-    literature and art; and whose free and familiar acquaintance with the
-    manners and men of his country gives him the stamp of a gentleman, who
-    has had the curiosity to bring the embellishments of the enlightened
-    world, to contrast with the rude and the wild of these remote regions.</p>
-
-  <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_22">22</span></p>
-
-  <p>We three <i lang="fr">bons vivants</i> form the group about the dinner-table,
-    of which I have before spoken, and crack our jokes and fun over the
-    bottles of Port and Madeira, which I have named; and a considerable
-    part of which, this gentleman has brought with great and precious care
-    from his own country.</p>
-
-  <p>This post is the general rendezvous of a great number of Indian tribes
-    in these regions, who are continually concentrating here for the
-    purpose of trade; sometimes coming, the whole tribe together, in a
-    mass. There are now here, and encamped about the Fort, a great many,
-    and I am continually at work with my brush; we have around us at this
-    time the Knisteneaux, Crows, Assinneboins and Blackfeet, and in a few
-    days are to have large accessions.</p>
-
-  <p>The finest specimens of Indians on the Continent are in these regions;
-    and before I leave these parts, I shall make excursions into their
-    respective countries, to their own native fire-sides; and there study
-    their looks and peculiar customs; enabling me to drop you now and then
-    an interesting Letter. The tribes which I shall be enabled to see and
-    study by my visit to this region, are the Ojibbeways, the Assinneboins,
-    Knisteneaux, Blackfeet, Crows, Shiennes, Grosventres, Mandans, and
-    others; of whom and their customs, their history, traditions, costumes,
-    &amp;c., I shall in due season, give you further and minute accounts.</p>
-
-  <hr class="chap" />
-  <div class="chapter">
-    <span class="pagenum" id="Page_23">23</span>
-    <h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_4">LETTER—<abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 4.</h2>
-  </div>
-  <div class="subheadc">MOUTH OF YELLOW STONE.</div>
-
-  <p><span class="smcap">The</span> several tribes of Indians inhabiting the regions of the Upper
-    Missouri, and of whom I spoke in my last Letter, are undoubtedly the
-    finest looking, best equipped, and most beautifully costumed of any on
-    the Continent. They live in a country well-stocked with buffaloes and
-    wild horses, which furnish them an excellent and easy living; their
-    atmosphere is pure, which produces good health and long life; and they
-    are the most independent and the happiest races of Indians I have met
-    with: they are all entirely in a state of primitive wildness, and
-    consequently are picturesque and handsome, almost beyond description.
-    Nothing in the world, of its kind, can possibly surpass in beauty and
-    grace, some of their games and amusements—their gambols and parades, of
-    which I shall speak and paint hereafter.</p>
-
-  <p>As far as my travels have yet led me into the Indian country, I have
-    more than realized my former predictions that those Indians who could
-    be found most entirely in a state of nature, with the least knowledge
-    of civilized society, would be found to be the most cleanly in their
-    persons, elegant in their dress and manners, and enjoying life to the
-    greatest perfection. Of such tribes, perhaps the Crows and Blackfeet
-    stand first; and no one would be able to appreciate the richness and
-    elegance (and even taste too), with which some of these people dress,
-    without seeing them in their own country. I will do all I can, however,
-    to make their looks as well as customs known to the world; I will paint
-    with my brush and scribble with my pen, and bring their plumes and
-    plumage, dresses, weapons, &amp;c., and every thing but the Indian himself,
-    to prove to the world the assertions which I have made above.</p>
-
-  <p>Every one of these red sons of the forest (or rather of the prairie)
-    is a knight and lord—his squaws are his slaves; the only things which
-    he deems worthy of his exertions are to mount his snorting steed, with
-    his bow and quiver slung, his arrow-shield upon his arm, and his long
-    lance glistening in the war-parade; or, divested of all his plumes and
-    trappings, armed with a simple bow and quiver, to plunge his steed
-    amongst the flying herds of buffaloes, and with his sinewy bow, which
-    he seldom bends in vain, to drive deep to life’s fountain the whizzing
-    arrow.</p>
-
-  <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_24">24</span></p>
-
-  <p>The buffalo herds, which graze in almost countless numbers on these
-    beautiful prairies, afford them an abundance of meat; and so much is
-    it preferred to all other, that the deer, the elk, and the antelope
-    sport upon the prairies in herds in the greatest security; as the
-    Indians seldom kill them, unless they want their skins for a dress.
-    The buffalo (or more correctly speaking bison) is a noble animal,
-    that roams over the vast prairies, from the borders of Mexico on the
-    south, to Hudson’s Bay on the north. Their size is somewhat above
-    that of our common bullock, and their flesh of a delicious flavour,
-    resembling and equalling that of fat beef. Their flesh which is easily
-    procured, furnishes the savages of these vast regions the means of a
-    wholesome and good subsistence, and they live almost exclusively upon
-    it—converting the skins, horns, hoofs and bones, to the construction
-    of dresses, shields, bows, &amp;c. The buffalo bull is one of the most
-    formidable and frightful looking animals in the world when excited to
-    resistance; his long shaggy mane hangs in great profusion over his neck
-    and shoulders and often extends quite down to the ground (<a href="#i_007"><span class="smcap">plate</span>
-    7</a>). The cow is less in stature, and less ferocious; though not
-    much less wild and frightful in her appearance (<a href="#i_008"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 8</a>).</p>
-
-  <p>The mode in which these Indians kill this noble animal is spirited and
-    thrilling in the extreme; and I must in a future epistle, give you
-    a minute account of it. I have almost daily accompanied parties of
-    Indians to see the fun, and have often shared in it myself; but much
-    oftener ran my horse by their sides, to see how the thing was done—to
-    study the modes and expressions of these splendid scenes, which I am
-    industriously putting upon the canvass.</p>
-
-  <p>They are all (or nearly so) killed with arrows and the lance, while at
-    full speed; and the reader may easily imagine, that these scenes afford
-    the most spirited and picturesque views of the sporting kind that can
-    possibly be seen.</p>
-
-  <p>At present, I will give a little sketch of a bit of fun I joined in
-    yesterday, with Mr. M‘Kenzie and a number of his men, without the
-    company or aid of Indians.</p>
-
-  <p>I mentioned the other day, that M‘Kenzie’s table from day to day
-    groans under the weight of buffalo tongues and beavers’ tails, and
-    other luxuries of this western land. He has within his Fort a spacious
-    ice-house, in which he preserves his meat fresh for any length of time
-    required; and sometimes, when his larder runs low. he starts out,
-    rallying some five or six of his best hunters (not to hunt, but to “go
-    for meat”). He leads the party, mounted on his favourite buffalo horse
-    (<i>i. e.</i> the horse amongst his whole group which is best trained
-    to run the buffalo), trailing a light and short gun in his hand, such
-    an one as he can most easily reload whilst his horse is at full speed.</p>
-
-  <p>Such was the condition of the ice-house yesterday morning, which caused
-    these self-catering gentlemen to cast their eyes with a wishful look
-    over the prairies; and such was the plight in which our host took
-    the lead, and I,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_25">25</span> and then Mons. Chardon, and Ba’tiste Défonde and
-    Tullock (who is a trader amongst the Crows, and is here at this time,
-    with a large party of that tribe), and there were several others whose
-    names I do not know.</p>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>5</i></div>
-  <figure id="i_007">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_007.jpg" alt="" />
-     <figcaption>7</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <figure class="mt2" id="i_008">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_008.jpg" alt="" />
-     <figcaption>8</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p>As we were mounted and ready to start, M‘Kenzie called up some four
-    or five of his men, and told them to follow immediately on our trail,
-    with as many one-horse carts, which they were to harness up, to bring
-    home the meat; “ferry them across the river in the scow,” said he,
-    “and following our trail through the bottom, you will find us on the
-    plain yonder, between the Yellow Stone and the Missouri rivers, with
-    meat enough to load you home. My watch on yonder bluff has just told
-    us by his signals, that there are cattle a plenty on that spot, and we
-    are going there as fast as possible.” We all crossed the river, and
-    galloped away a couple of miles or so, when we mounted the bluff; and
-    to be sure, as was said, there was in full view of us a fine herd of
-    some four or five hundred buffaloes, perfectly at rest, and in their
-    own estimation (probably) perfectly secure. Some were grazing, and
-    others were lying down and sleeping; we advanced within a mile or so
-    of them in full view, and came to a halt. Mons. Chardon “tossed the
-    feather” (a custom always observed, to try the course of the wind),
-    and we commenced “stripping” as it is termed (<i>i. e.</i> every man
-    strips himself and his horse of every extraneous and unnecessary
-    appendage of dress, &amp;c. that might be an incumbrance in running): hats
-    are laid off, and coats—and bullet pouches; sleeves are rolled up,
-    a handkerchief tied tightly around the head, and another around the
-    waist—cartridges are prepared and placed in the waistcoat pocket, or
-    a half dozen bullets “throwed into the mouth,” &amp;c., &amp;c., all of which
-    takes up some ten or fifteen minutes, and is not, in appearance or
-    in effect, unlike a council of war. Our leader lays the whole plan
-    of the chase, and preliminaries all fixed, guns charged and ramrods
-    in our hands, we mount and start for the onset. The horses are all
-    trained for this business, and seem to enter into it with as much
-    enthusiasm, and with as restless a spirit as the riders themselves.
-    While “stripping” and mounting, they exhibit the most restless
-    impatience; and when “approaching”—(which is, all of us abreast,
-    upon a slow walk, and in a straight line towards the herd, until
-    they discover us and run), they all seem to have caught entirely the
-    spirit of the chase, for the laziest nag amongst them prances with
-    an elasticity in his step—champing his bit—his ears erect—his eyes
-    strained out of his head, and fixed upon the game before him, whilst
-    he trembles under the saddle of his rider. In this way we carefully
-    and silently marched, until within some forty or fifty rods; when the
-    herd discovering us, wheeled and laid their course in a mass. At this
-    instant we started! (and all <em>must</em> start, for no one could check
-    the fury of those steeds at that moment of excitement,) and away all
-    sailed, and over the prairie flew, in a cloud of dust which was raised
-    by their trampling hoofs. M‘Kenzie was foremost in the throng, and
-    soon dashed off amidst the dust and was out of sight—he was after the
-    fattest and the fastest. I had discovered a huge bull whose shoulders<span class="pagenum" id="Page_26">26</span>
-    towered above the whole band, and I picked my way through the crowd to
-    get alongside of him. I went not for “meat,” but for a <em>trophy</em>;
-    I wanted his head and horns. I dashed along through the thundering
-    mass, as they swept away over the plain, scarcely able to tell whether
-    I was on a buffalo’s back or my horse—hit, and hooked, and jostled
-    about, till at length I found myself alongside of my game, when I gave
-    him a shot, as I passed him. I saw guns flash in several directions
-    about me, but I heard them not. Amidst the trampling throng, Mons.
-    Chardon had wounded a stately bull, and at this moment was passing
-    him again with his piece levelled for another shot; they were both
-    at full speed and I also, within the reach of the muzzle of my gun,
-    when the bull instantly turned and receiving the horse upon his horns,
-    and the ground received poor Chardon, who made a frog’s leap of some
-    twenty feet or more over the bull’s back (<a href="#i_009"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 9</a>), and almost
-    under my horse’s heels. I wheeled my horse as soon as possible and
-    rode back, where lay poor Chardon, gasping to start his breath again;
-    and within a few paces of him his huge victim, with his heels high
-    in the air, and the horse lying across him. I dismounted instantly,
-    but Chardon was raising himself on his hands, with his eyes and
-    mouth full of dirt, and feeling for his gun, which lay about thirty
-    feet in advance of him. “Heaven spare you! are you hurt, Chardon?”
-    “hi—hic——hic———hic————hic—————hic——————no,——hic———no——no, I
-    believe not. Oh! this is not much, Mons. Cataline—this is nothing
-    new—but this is a d——d hard piece of ground here—hic—oh! hic!” At this
-    the poor fellow fainted, but in a few moments arose, picked up his gun,
-    took his horse by the bit; which then opened <em>its</em> eyes, and with
-    a <em>hic</em> and a <em>ugh</em>—<span class="allsmcap">UGHK</span>! sprang upon its feet—shook
-    off the dirt—and here we were, all upon our legs again, save the bull,
-    whose fate had been more sad than that of either.</p>
-
-  <p>I turned my eyes in the direction where the herd had gone, and
-    our companions in pursuit, and nothing could be seen of them, nor
-    indication, except the cloud of dust which they left behind them.
-    At a little distance on the right, however, I beheld my huge victim
-    endeavouring to make as much head-way as he possibly could, from this
-    dangerous ground, upon three legs. I galloped off to him, and at my
-    approach he wheeled around—and bristled up for battle; he seemed to
-    know perfectly well that he could not escape from me, and resolved to
-    meet his enemy and death as bravely as possible.</p>
-
-  <p>I found that my shot had entered him a little too far forward, breaking
-    one of his shoulders, and lodging in his breast, and from his very
-    great weight it was impossible for him to make much advance upon me.
-    As I rode up within a few paces of him, he would bristle up with fury
-    enough in his <em>looks</em> alone, almost to annihilate me (<a href="#i_010"><span class="smcap">plate</span>
-    10</a>); and making one lunge at me, would fall upon his neck and
-    nose, so that I found the sagacity of my horse alone enough to keep
-    me out of reach of danger: and I drew from my pocket my sketch-book,
-    laid my gun across my lap, and commenced taking his likeness. He stood
-    stiffened up, and swelling with awful<span class="pagenum" id="Page_27">27</span> vengeance, which was sublime
-    for a picture, but which he could not vent upon me. I rode around him
-    and sketched him in numerous attitudes, sometimes he would lie down,
-    and I would then sketch him; then throw my cap at him, and rousing him
-    on his legs, rally a new expression, and sketch him again.</p>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>6</i></div>
-  <figure id="i_009">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_009.jpg" alt="" />
-     <figcaption>9</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <figure class="mt2" id="i_010">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_010.jpg" alt="" />
-     <figcaption>10</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p>In this way I added to my sketch-book some invaluable sketches of
-    this grim-visaged monster, who knew not that he was standing for his
-    likeness.</p>
-
-  <p>No man on earth can imagine what is the look and expression of such a
-    subject before him as this was. I defy the world to produce another
-    animal than can look so frightful as a huge buffalo bull, when wounded
-    as he was, turned around for battle, and swelling with rage;—his eyes
-    bloodshot, and his long shaggy mane hanging to the ground,—his mouth
-    open, and his horrid rage hissing in streams of smoke and blood from
-    his mouth and through his nostrils, as he is bending forward to spring
-    upon his assailant.</p>
-
-  <p>After I had had the requisite time and opportunity for using my pencil,
-    M‘Kenzie and his companions came walking their exhausted horses back
-    from the chase, and in our rear came four or five carts to carry home
-    the meat. The party met from all quarters around me and my buffalo
-    bull, whom I then shot in the head and finished. And being seated
-    together for a few minutes, each one took a smoke of the pipe, and
-    recited his exploits, and his “coups” or deaths; when all parties had
-    a hearty laugh at me, as a novice, for having aimed at an old bull,
-    whose flesh was not suitable for food, and the carts were escorted on
-    the trail, to bring away the meat. I rode back with Mr. M‘Kenzie, who
-    pointed out five cows which he had killed, and all of them selected
-    as the fattest and slickest of the herd. This astonishing feat was
-    all performed within the distance of one mile—all were killed at full
-    speed, and every one shot through the heart. In the short space of time
-    required for a horse under “full whip,” to run the distance of one
-    mile, he had discharged his gun five, and loaded it four times—selected
-    his animals, and killed at every shot! There were six or eight others
-    killed at the same time, which altogether furnished, as will be seen,
-    abundance of freight for the carts; which returned, as well as several
-    packhorses, loaded with the choicest parts which were cut from the
-    animals, and the remainder of the carcasses left a prey for the wolves.</p>
-
-  <p>Such is the mode by which white men live in this country—such the way
-    in which they get their food, and such is one of their delightful
-    amusements—at the hazard of every bone in one’s body, to feel the fine
-    and thrilling exhilaration of the chase for a moment, and then as often
-    to upbraid and blame himself for his folly and imprudence.</p>
-
-  <p>From this scene we commenced leisurely wending our way back; and
-    dismounting at the place where we had stripped, each man dressed
-    himself again, or slung his extra articles of dress, &amp;c. across his
-    saddle, astride of which he sat; and we rode back to the Fort, reciting
-    as we rode, and for twenty-four hours afterwards, deeds of chivalry and
-    chase, and hair’s-breadth<span class="pagenum" id="Page_28">28</span> escapes which each and either had fought
-    and run on former occasions. M‘Kenzie, with all the true character
-    and dignity of a leader, was silent on these subjects; but smiled,
-    while those in his train were reciting for him the astonishing and
-    almost incredible deeds of his sinewy arms, which they had witnessed
-    in similar scenes; from which I learned (as well as from my own
-    observations), that he was reputed (and actually <em>was</em>) the
-    most distinguished of all the white men who have flourished in these
-    regions, in the pursuit and death of the buffalo.</p>
-
-  <p>On our return to the Fort, a bottle or two of wine were set forth
-    upon the table, and around them a half dozen parched throats were
-    soon moistened, and good cheer ensued. Ba’tiste Défonde, Chardon,
-    &amp;c., retired to their quarters, enlarging smoothly upon the events
-    of our morning’s work; which they were reciting to their wives and
-    sweethearts; when about this time the gate of the Fort was thrown open,
-    and the procession of carts and packhorses laden with buffalo meat made
-    its entrée; gladdening the hearts of a hundred women and children,
-    and tickling the noses of as many hungry dogs and puppies, who were
-    stealing in and smelling at the tail of the procession. The door of the
-    ice-house was thrown open, the meat was discharged into it, and I being
-    fatigued, went to sleep.</p>
-
-  <figure class="illowp75 mt2" id="i_011">
-    <div class="plate"><i>7</i></div>
-    <img src="images/i_011.jpg" alt="" />
-     <figcaption>11</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <hr class="chap" />
-  <div class="chapter">
-    <span class="pagenum" id="Page_29">29</span>
-    <h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_5">LETTER—<abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 5.</h2>
-  </div>
-  <div class="subheadc">MOUTH OF YELLOW STONE, <i>UPPER MISSOURI</i>.</div>
-
-  <p><span class="smcap">In</span> my former epistle I told you there were encamped about the Fort
-    a host of wild, incongruous spirits—chiefs and sachems—warriors,
-    braves, and women and children of different tribes—of Crows and
-    Blackfeet—Ojibbeways—Assinneboins—and Crees or Knisteneaux. Amongst
-    and in the midst of them am I, with my paint pots and canvass, snugly
-    ensconced in one of the bastions of the Fort, which I occupy as a
-    painting-room. My easel stands before me, and the cool breech of a
-    twelve-pounder makes me a comfortable seat, whilst her muzzle is
-    looking out at one of the port-holes. The operations of my brush are
-    <em>mysteries</em> of the highest order to these red sons of the prairie,
-    and my room the earliest and latest place of concentration of these
-    wild and jealous spirits, who all meet here to be amused and pay me
-    signal honours; but gaze upon each other, sending their sidelong looks
-    of deep-rooted hatred and revenge around the group. However, whilst in
-    the Fort, their weapons are placed within the arsenal, and naught but
-    looks and thoughts can be breathed here; but death and grim destruction
-    will visit back those looks upon each other, when these wild spirits
-    again are loose and free to breathe and act upon the plains.</p>
-
-  <p>I have this day been painting a portrait of the head chief of the
-    Blackfoot nation; he is a good-looking and dignified Indian, about
-    fifty years of age, and superbly dressed (<a href="#i_011"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 11</a>); whilst
-    sitting for his picture he has been surrounded by his own braves
-    and warriors, and also gazed at by his enemies, the Crows and the
-    Knisteneaux, Assinneboins and Ojibbeways; a number of distinguished
-    personages of each of which tribes, have laid all day around the sides
-    of my room; reciting to each other the battles they have fought, and
-    pointing to the scalp-locks, worn as proofs of their victories, and
-    attached to the seams of their shirts and leggings. This is a curious
-    scene to witness, when one sits in the midst of such inflammable and
-    combustible materials, brought together, unarmed, for the first time in
-    their lives; peaceably and calmly recounting over the deeds of their
-    lives, and smoking their pipes upon it, when a few weeks or days will
-    bring them on the plains again, where the war-cry will be raised, and
-    their deadly bows will again be drawn on each other.</p>
-
-  <p>The name of this dignitary, of whom I have just spoken, is
-    Stu-mick-o-sucks (the buffalo’s back fat), <i>i. e.</i> the “hump”
-    or “fleece,” the most delicious part of the buffalo’s flesh. I
-    have also painted, of the Blackfeet,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_30">30</span> Pe-toh-pee-kiss (the eagle
-    ribs), and Mix-ke-mote-skin-na (the iron horn), and Wun-nes-tou (the
-    white buffalo), and Tcha-aes-sa-ko-mah-pee (the bear’s child), and
-    In-ne-o-cose (the buffalo’s child), and half-a-dozen others, and all in
-    rich and costly dresses.</p>
-
-  <p>There is no tribe, perhaps, on the Continent, who dress more
-    comfortably, and more gaudily, than the Blackfeet, unless it be
-    the tribe of Crows. There is no great difference, however, in the
-    costliness or elegance of their costumes; nor in the materials of which
-    they are formed; though there is a distinctive mode in each tribe, of
-    stitching or ornamenting with the porcupine quills, which constitute
-    one of the principal ornaments to all their fine dresses; and which
-    can be easily recognized, by any one a little familiar with their
-    modes, as belonging to such or such a tribe. The dress, for instance of
-    the chief whom I have just mentioned, and whose portrait I have just
-    painted, consists of a shirt or tunic, made of two deer skins finely
-    dressed, and so placed together with the necks of the skins downwards,
-    and the skins of the hind legs stitched together, the seams running
-    down on each arm, from the neck to the knuckles of the hand; this
-    seam is covered with a band of two inches in width, of very beautiful
-    embroidery of porcupine quills, and suspended from the under edge of
-    this, from the shoulders to the hands, is a fringe of the locks of
-    black hair, which he has taken from the heads of victims slain by his
-    own hand in battle. The leggings are made also of the same material;
-    and down the outer side of the leg, from the hip to the feet, extends
-    also a similar band or belt of the same width; and wrought in the same
-    manner, with porcupine quills, and fringed with scalp locks. These
-    locks of hair are procured from scalps, and worn as trophies.</p>
-
-  <p>The wife (or squaw) of this dignitary Eeh-nis-kin (the crystal
-    stone), I have also placed upon my canvass (<a href="#i_013"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 13</a>); her
-    countenance is rather pleasing, which is an uncommon thing amongst
-    the Blackfeet—her dress is made of skins, and being the youngest of a
-    bevy of six or eight, and the last one taken under his guardianship,
-    was smiled upon with great satisfaction, whilst he exempted her from
-    the drudgeries of the camp; and keeping her continually in the halo of
-    his own person, watched and guarded her as the apple of his eye. The
-    grandson also of this sachem, a boy of six years of age, and too young
-    as yet to have acquired a name, has stood forth like a tried warrior;
-    and I have painted him at full length (<a href="#i_012"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 12</a>), with his
-    bow and quiver slung, and his robe made of a racoon skin. The history
-    of this child is somewhat curious and interesting; his father is dead,
-    and in case of the death of the chief, of whom I have spoken, he
-    becomes hereditary chief of the tribe. This boy has been twice stolen
-    away by the Crows by ingenious stratagems, and twice re-captured by
-    the Blackfeet, at considerable sacrifice of life, and at present he is
-    lodged with Mr. M‘Kenzie, for safe keeping and protection, until he
-    shall arrive at the proper age to take the office to which he is to
-    succeed, and able to protect himself.</p>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>8</i></div>
-  <div class="col50">
-    <figure id="i_013">
-      <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_013.jpg" alt="" />
-       <figcaption>13</figcaption>
-    </figure>
-  </div>
-  <div class="col50">
-    <figure id="i_012">
-      <img style="width: 99%;" src="images/i_012.jpg" alt="" />
-       <figcaption>12</figcaption>
-    </figure>
-  </div>
-
-  <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_31">31</span></p>
-
-  <p>The scalp of which I spoke above, is procured by cutting out a piece
-    of the skin of the head, the size of the palm of the hand or less,
-    containing the very centre or crown of the head, the place where the
-    hair radiates from a point, and exactly over what the phrenologists
-    call self-esteem. This patch then is kept and dried with great care, as
-    proof positive of the death of an enemy, and evidence of a man’s claims
-    as a warrior; and after having been formally “danced,” as the saying
-    is, (<i>i. e.</i> after it has been stuck up upon a pole or held up by
-    an “old woman,” and the warriors have danced around it for two or three
-    weeks at intervals,) it is fastened to the handle of a lance, or the
-    end of a war-club, or divided into a great many small locks and used
-    to fringe and ornament the victor’s dress. When these dresses are seen
-    bearing such trophies, it is of course a difficult matter to purchase
-    them of the Indian, for they often hold them above all price. I shall
-    hereafter take occasion to speak of the scalp-dance; describing it in
-    all its parts, and giving a long Letter, at the same time on scalps
-    and scalping, an interesting and general custom amongst all the North
-    American Indians.</p>
-
-  <p>In the chief’s dress, which I am describing, there are his moccasins,
-    made also of buckskin, and ornamented in a corresponding manner. And
-    over all, his robe, made of the skin of a young buffalo bull, with
-    the hair remaining on; and on the inner or flesh side, beautifully
-    garnished with porcupine quills, and the battles of his life very
-    ingeniously, though rudely, pourtrayed in pictorial representations.
-    In his hand he holds a very beautiful pipe, the stem of which is four
-    or five feet long, and two inches wide, curiously wound with braids
-    of the porcupine quills of various colours; and the bowl of the pipe
-    ingeniously carved by himself from a piece of red steatite of an
-    interesting character, and which they all tell me is procured somewhere
-    between this place and the Falls of <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Anthony, on the head waters of
-    the Mississippi.</p>
-
-  <p>This curious stone has many peculiar qualities, and has, undoubtedly,
-    but one origin in this country, and perhaps in the world. It is found
-    but in the hands of the savage, and every tribe, and nearly every
-    individual in the tribe has his pipe made of it. I consider this stone
-    a subject of great interest, and curiosity to the world; and I shall
-    most assuredly make it a point, during my Indian rambles, to visit the
-    place from whence it is brought. I have already got a number of most
-    remarkable traditions and stories relating to the “sacred quarry;”
-    of pilgrimages performed there to procure the stone, and of curious
-    transactions that have taken place on that ground. It seems, from all
-    I can learn, that all the tribes in these regions, and also of the
-    Mississippi and the Lakes, have been in the habit of going to that
-    place, and meeting their enemies there, whom they are obliged to treat
-    as friends, under an injunction of the Great Spirit.</p>
-
-  <p>So then is this sachem (the buffalo’s back fat) dressed; and in a very
-    similar manner, and almost the same, is each of the others above named;
-    and all are armed with bow and quiver, lance and shield. These north-western<span class="pagenum" id="Page_32">32</span>
-    tribes are all armed with the bow and lance, and protected with
-    the shield or arrow fender, which is carried outside of the left arm,
-    exactly as the Roman and Grecian shield was carried, and for the same
-    purpose.</p>
-
-  <p>There is an appearance purely classic in the plight and equipment of
-    these warriors and “knights of the lance.” They are almost literally
-    always on their horses’ backs, and they wield these weapons with
-    desperate effect upon the open plains; where they kill their game
-    while at full speed, and contend in like manner in battles with their
-    enemy. There is one prevailing custom in these respects, amongst all
-    the tribes who inhabit the great plains or prairies of these western
-    regions. These plains afford them an abundance of wild and fleet
-    horses, which are easily procured; and on their backs at full speed,
-    they can come alongside of any animal, which they easily destroy.</p>
-
-  <p>The bow with which they are armed is small, and apparently an
-    insignificant weapon, though one of great and almost incredible power
-    in the hands of its owner, whose sinews have been from childhood
-    habituated to its use and service. The length of these bows is
-    generally about three feet, and sometimes not more than two and a half
-    (<a href="#i_018"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 18</a> <i>a</i>). They have, no doubt, studied to get
-    the requisite power in the smallest compass possible, as it is more
-    easily and handily used on horseback than one of greater length. The
-    greater number of these bows are made of ash, or of “bois d’arc” (as
-    the French call it), and lined on the back with layers of buffalo or
-    deer’s sinews, which are inseparably attached to them, and give them
-    great elasticity. There are very many also (amongst the Blackfeet
-    and the Crows) which are made of bone, and others of the horn of the
-    mountain-sheep. Those made of bone are decidedly the most valuable, and
-    cannot in this country be procured of a good quality short of the price
-    of one or two horses. About these there is a mystery yet to be solved,
-    and I advance my opinion against all theories that I have heard in the
-    country where they are used and made. I have procured several very fine
-    specimens, and when purchasing them have inquired of the Indians, what
-    bone they were made of? and in every instance, the answer was, “That’s
-    medicine,” meaning that it was a mystery to them, or that they did not
-    wish to be questioned about them. The bone of which they are made is
-    certainly not the bone of any animal now grazing on the prairies, or
-    in the mountains between this place and the Pacific Ocean; for some
-    of these bows are three feet in length, of a solid piece of bone, and
-    that as close-grained—as hard—as white, and as highly polished as
-    any ivory; it cannot, therefore be made from the elks’ horn (as some
-    have supposed), which is of a dark colour and porous: nor can it come
-    from the buffalo. It is my opinion, therefore, that the Indians on
-    the Pacific coast procure the bone from the jaw of the sperm whale,
-    which is often stranded on that coast, and bringing the bone into the
-    mountains, trade it to the Blackfeet and Crows, who manufacture it into
-    these bows without knowing any more than we do, from what source it has
-    been procured.</p>
-
-  <figure class="illowp75 mt2" id="i_014">
-    <div class="plate"><i>9</i></div>
-    <img src="images/i_014.jpg" alt="" />
-     <figcaption>14</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_33">33</span></p>
-
-  <p>One of these little bows in the hands of an Indian, on a fleet and
-    well-trained horse, with a quiver of arrows slung on his back, is a
-    most effective and powerful weapon in the open plains. No one can
-    easily credit the force with which these missiles are thrown, and the
-    sanguinary effects produced by their wounds, until he has rode by
-    the side of a party of Indians in chase of a herd of buffaloes, and
-    witnessed the apparent ease and grace with which their supple arms have
-    drawn the bow, and seen these huge animals tumbling down and gushing
-    out their hearts’ blood from their mouths and nostrils.</p>
-
-  <p>Their bows are often made of bone and sinews, and their arrows headed
-    with flints or with bones, of their own construction (<a href="#i_018"><span class="smcap">plate</span>
-    18</a>, <i>c</i>), or with steel, as they are now chiefly furnished
-    by the Fur Traders quite to the Rocky Mountains (<a href="#i_018"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 18</a>,
-    <i>d</i>). The quiver, which is uniformly carried on the back, and
-    made of the panther or otter skins (<a href="#i_018"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 18</a>, <i>e</i>) is a
-    magazine of these deadly weapons, and generally contains two varieties.
-    The one to be drawn upon an enemy, generally poisoned, and with long
-    flukes or barbs, which are designed to hang the blade in the wound
-    after the shaft is withdrawn, in which they are but slightly glued;—the
-    other to be used for their game, with the blade firmly fastened to the
-    shaft, and the flukes inverted; that it may easily be drawn from the
-    wound, and used on a future occasion.</p>
-
-  <p>Such is the training of men and horses in this country, that this work
-    of death and slaughter is simple and easy. The horse is trained to
-    approach the animals on the <em>right</em> side, enabling its rider to
-    throw his arrows to the left; it runs and approaches without the use
-    of the halter, which is hanging loose upon its neck bringing the rider
-    within three or four paces of the animal, when the arrow is thrown with
-    great ease and certainty to the heart; and instances sometimes occur,
-    where the arrow passes entirely through the animal’s body.</p>
-
-  <p>An Indian, therefore, mounted on a fleet and well-trained horse, with
-    his bow in his hand, and his quiver slung on his back, containing an
-    hundred arrows, of which he can throw fifteen or twenty in a minute, is
-    a formidable and dangerous enemy. Many of them also ride with a lance
-    of twelve or fourteen feet in length (<a href="#i_018"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 18</a>, <i>b</i>),
-    with a blade of polished steel; and all of them (as a protection
-    for their vital parts), with a shield or arrow-fender made of the
-    skin of the buffalo’s neck, which has been smoked, and hardened with
-    glue extracted from the hoofs (<a href="#i_018"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 18</a>). These shields are
-    arrow-proof, and will glance off a rifle shot with perfect effect by
-    being turned obliquely, which they do with great skill.</p>
-
-  <p>This shield or arrow-fender is, in my opinion, made of similar
-    materials, and used in the same way, and for the same purpose, as was
-    the clypeus or small shield in the Roman and Grecian cavalry. They were
-    made in those days as a means of defence on horseback only—made small
-    and light, of bull’s hides; sometimes single, sometimes double and
-    tripled. Such was Hector’s shield, and of most of the Homeric heroes of
-    the Greek and Trojan wars. In those days also were darts or javelins
-    and lances; the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_34">34</span> same were also used by the Ancient Britons; and such
-    exactly are now in use amongst the Arabs and the North American Indians.</p>
-
-  <p>In this wise then, are all of these wild red knights of the prairie,
-    armed and equipped,—and while nothing can possibly be more picturesque
-    and thrilling than a troop or war-party of these fellows, galloping
-    over these green and endless prairies; there can be no set of mounted
-    men of equal numbers, so effective and so invincible in this country
-    as they would be, could they be inspired with confidence of their own
-    powers and their own superiority; yet this never can be done;—for the
-    Indian, as far as the name of white man has travelled, and long before
-    he has to try his strength with him, is trembling with fright and fear
-    of his approach; he hears of white man’s arts and artifice—his tricks
-    and cunning, and his hundred instruments of death and destruction—he
-    dreads his approach, shrinks from him with fear and trembling—his
-    heart sickens, and his pride and courage wither, at the thoughts of
-    contending with an enemy, whom he thinks may war and destroy with
-    weapons of <em>medicine</em> or mystery.</p>
-
-  <p>Of the Blackfeet, whom I mentioned in the beginning of this Letter,
-    and whose portraits are now standing in my room, there is another of
-    whom I must say a few words; Pe-toh-pee-kiss, the eagle ribs (<a href="#i_015"><span class="smcap">plate</span>
-    14</a>). This man is one of the extraordinary men of the Blackfoot
-    tribe; though not a chief, he stands here in the Fort, and deliberately
-    boasts of eight scalps, which he says he has taken from the heads of
-    trappers and traders with his own hand. His dress is really superb,
-    almost literally covered with scalp-locks, of savage and civil.</p>
-
-  <p>I have painted him at full length, with a head-dress made entirely
-    of ermine skins and horns of the buffalo. This custom of wearing
-    horns beautifully polished and surmounting the head-dress, is a very
-    curious one, being worn only by the bravest of the brave; by the most
-    extraordinary men in the nation. Of their importance and meaning, I
-    shall say more in a future epistle. When he stood for his picture, he
-    also held a lance and two “medicine-bags” in his hand; of lances I have
-    spoken,—but “medicine-bags” and “medicine” will be the text for my next
-    Letter.</p>
-
-  <p>Besides the chiefs and warriors above-named, I have also
-    transferred to my canvass the “looks and very resemblance”
-    of an aged chief, who combines with his high office, the
-    envied title of mystery or medicine-man, <i>i. e.</i>
-    doctor—magician—prophet—soothsayer—jongleur—and high priest, all
-    combined in one person, who necessarily is looked upon as “Sir
-    Oracle” of the nation. The name of this distinguished functionary is
-    Wun-nes-tou, the white buffalo (<a href="#i_015"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 15</a>); and on his left arm
-    he presents his mystery-drum or tambour, in which are concealed the
-    hidden and sacred mysteries of his healing art.</p>
-
-  <p>And there is also In-ne-o-cose, the iron-horn (<a href="#i_016"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 16</a>), at
-    full length, in a splendid dress, with his “medicine-bag” in his hand;
-    and Ah-kay-ee-pix-en, the woman who strikes many (<a href="#i_017"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 17</a>),
-    in a beautiful dress of the mountain-goats’ skin, and her robe of the
-    young buffalo’s hide.</p>
-
-  <figure class="illowp75 mt2" id="i_015">
-    <div class="plate"><i>10</i></div>
-    <img src="images/i_015.jpg" alt="" />
-     <figcaption>15</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>11</i></div>
-  <figure id="i_017">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_017.jpg" alt="" id="i_016" />
-    <figcaption><span class="col50">17</span><span class="col50">16</span></figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <hr class="chap" />
-  <div class="chapter">
-    <span class="pagenum" id="Page_35">35</span>
-    <h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_6">LETTER—<abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 6.</h2>
-  </div>
-  <div class="subheadc">MOUTH OF YELLOW STONE, <i>UPPER MISSOURI</i>.</div>
-
-  <p><span class="smcap">Now</span> for medicines or mysteries—for doctors, high-priests, for hocus
-    pocus, witchcraft, and animal magnetism!</p>
-
-  <p>In the last Letter I spoke of Pe-toh-pee-kiss (the eagle ribs), a
-    Blackfoot brave, whose portrait I had just painted at full length, in
-    a splendid dress. I mentioned also, that he held two medicine-bags in
-    his hand; as they are represented in the picture; both of them made of
-    the skins of otters, and curiously ornamented with ermine, and other
-    strange things.</p>
-
-  <p>I must needs stop here—my painting and every thing else, until I can
-    explain the word “<em>medicine</em>,” and “<em>medicine-bag</em>;” and
-    also some <em>medicine operations</em>, which I have seen transacted at
-    this place within a few days past. “Medicine” is a great word in this
-    country; and it is very necessary that one should know the meaning of
-    it, whilst he is scanning and estimating the Indian character, which is
-    made up, in a great degree, of mysteries and superstitions.</p>
-
-  <p>The word medicine, in its common acceptation here, means
-    <em>mystery</em>, and nothing else; and in that sense I <em>shall</em> use
-    it very frequently in my Notes on Indian Manners and Customs.</p>
-
-  <p>The Fur Traders in this country, are nearly all French; and in their
-    language, a doctor or physician, is called “<i lang="fr">Medecin</i>.” The Indian
-    country is full of doctors; and as they are all magicians, and skilled,
-    or profess to be skilled, in many mysteries, the word “medecin” has
-    become habitually applied to every thing mysterious or unaccountable;
-    and the English and Americans, who are also trading and passing through
-    this country, have easily and familiarly adopted the same word, with
-    a slight alteration, conveying the same meaning; and to be a little
-    more explicit, they have denominated these personages “medicine-men,”
-    which means something more than merely a doctor or physician. These
-    physicians, however, are all <em>medicine-men</em>, as they are all
-    supposed to deal more or less in mysteries and charms, which are aids
-    and handmaids in their practice. Yet it was necessary to give the
-    word or phrase a still more comprehensive meaning—as there were many
-    personages amongst them, and also amongst the white men who visit
-    the country, who could deal in mysteries, though not skilled in the
-    application of drugs and medicines; and they all range now, under the
-    comprehensive and accommodating phrase of “medicine-men.” For instance,
-    I am a “medicine-man” of the highest order amongst<span class="pagenum" id="Page_36">36</span> these superstitious
-    people, on account of the art which I practice; which is a strange and
-    unaccountable thing to them, and of course, called the greatest of
-    “medicine.” My gun and pistols, which have percussion-locks, are great
-    medicine; and no Indian can be prevailed on to fire them off, for they
-    say they have nothing to do with white man’s medicine.</p>
-
-  <p>The Indians do not use the word medicine, however; but in each tribe
-    they have a word of their own construction, synonimous with mystery or
-    mystery-man.</p>
-
-  <p>The “medicine-bag” then, is a mystery-bag; and its meaning and
-    importance necessary to be understood, as it may be said to be the
-    key to Indian life and Indian character. These bags are constructed
-    of the skins of animals, of birds, or of reptiles, and ornamented and
-    preserved in a thousand different ways, as suits the taste or freak of
-    the person who constructs them. These skins are generally attached to
-    some part of the clothing of the Indian, or carried in his hand—they
-    are oftentimes decorated in such a manner as to be exceedingly
-    ornamental to his person, and always are stuffed with grass, or moss,
-    or something of the kind; and generally without drugs or medicines
-    within them, as they are religiously closed and sealed, and seldom, if
-    ever, to be opened. I find that every Indian in his primitive state,
-    carries his medicine-bag in some form or other, to which he pays the
-    greatest homage, and to which he looks for safety and protection
-    through life—and in fact, it might almost be called a species of
-    idolatry; for it would seem in some instances, as if he actually
-    worshipped it. Feasts are often made, and dogs and horses sacrificed,
-    to a man’s medicine; and days, and even weeks, of fasting and penance
-    of various kinds are often suffered, to appease his medicine, which he
-    imagines he has in some way offended.</p>
-
-  <p>This curious custom has principally been done away with along the
-    frontier, where white men laugh at the Indian for the observance of so
-    ridiculous and useless a form; but in this country it is in full force,
-    and every male in the tribe carries this, his supernatural charm or
-    guardian, to which he looks for the preservation of his life, in battle
-    or in other danger; at which times it would be considered ominous of
-    bad luck and an ill fate to be without it.</p>
-
-  <p>The manner in which this curious and important article is instituted
-    is this: a boy, at the age of fourteen or fifteen years, is said to
-    be making or “forming his medicine,” when he wanders away from his
-    father’s lodge, and absents himself for the space of two or three, and
-    sometimes even four or five, days; lying on the ground in some remote
-    or secluded spot, crying to the Great Spirit, and fasting the whole
-    time. During this period of peril and abstinence, when he falls asleep,
-    the first animal, bird, or reptile, of which he dreams (or pretends to
-    have dreamed, perhaps), he considers the Great Spirit has designated
-    for his mysterious protector through life. He then returns home to
-    his father’s lodge, and relates his success; and after allaying his
-    thirst, and satiating his appetite, he sallies forth with weapons<span class="pagenum" id="Page_37">37</span> or
-    traps, until he can procure the animal or bird, the skin of which he
-    preserves entire, and ornaments it according to his own fancy, and
-    carries it with him through life, for “good luck” (as he calls it); as
-    his strength in battle—and in death his guardian <em>Spirit</em>, that
-    is buried with him, and which is to conduct him safe to the beautiful
-    hunting grounds, which he contemplates in the world to come.</p>
-
-  <p>The value of the medicine-bag to the Indian is beyond all price; for
-    to sell it, or give it away, would subject him to such signal disgrace
-    in his tribe, that he could never rise above it; and again, his
-    superstition would stand in the way of any such disposition of it, for
-    he considers it the gift of the Great Spirit. An Indian carries his
-    <em>medicine-bag</em> into battle, and trusts to it for his protection;
-    and if he loses it thus, when fighting ever so bravely for his country,
-    he suffers a disgrace scarcely less than that which occurs in case he
-    sells or gives it away; his enemy carries it off and displays it to his
-    own people as a trophy; whilst the loser is cut short of the respect
-    that is due to other young men of his tribe, and for ever subjected
-    to the degrading epithet of “a man without medicine,” or “he who has
-    lost his medicine,” until he can replace it again; which can only be
-    done, by rushing into battle and plundering one from an enemy whom he
-    slays with his own hand. This done, his medicine is restored, and he
-    is reinstated again in the estimation of his tribe; and even higher
-    than before, for such is called the best of medicine, or “<em>medicine
-     honourable</em>.”</p>
-
-  <p>It is a singular fact, that a man can institute his mystery or
-    medicine, but once in his life; and equally singular that he can
-    reinstate himself by the adoption of the medicine of his enemy; both
-    of which regulations are strong and violent inducements for him to
-    fight bravely in battle: the first, that he may protect and preserve
-    his medicine; and the second, in case he has been so unlucky as to
-    lose it, that he may restore it, and his reputation also, while he is
-    desperately contending for the protection of his community.</p>
-
-  <p>During my travels thus far, I have been unable to buy a medicine-bag of
-    an Indian, although I have offered them extravagant prices for them;
-    and even on the frontier, where they have been induced to abandon the
-    practice, though a white man may induce an Indian to relinquish his
-    medicine, yet he cannot <em>buy</em> it of him—the Indian in such case
-    will bury it, to please a white man, and save it from his sacrilegious
-    touch; and he will linger around the spot and at regular times visit it
-    and pay it his devotions, as long as he lives.</p>
-
-  <p>These curious appendages to the persons or wardrobe of an Indian
-    (<a href="#i_018"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 18</a>, <i>g</i>), are sometimes made of the skin of an
-    otter, a beaver, a musk-rat, a weazel, a racoon, a pole-cat, a snake,
-    a frog, a toad, a bat, a mouse, a mole, a hawk, an eagle, a magpie,
-    or a sparrow:—sometimes of the skin of an animal so large as a wolf;
-    and at others, of the skins of the lesser animals, so small that they
-    are hidden under the dress, and very difficult to be found, even if
-    searched for.</p>
-
-  <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_38">38</span></p>
-
-  <p>Such then is the medicine-bag—such its meaning and importance; and when
-    its owner dies, it is placed in his grave and decays with his body.</p>
-
-  <p>In the case of the portrait of which I spoke in the beginning
-    of this Letter, there are seen two medicine-bags in the hand of
-    Pe-toh-pee-kiss; the one was of his own instituting, and the other was
-    taken from his enemy, whom he had slain in battle; both of these he has
-    a right to display and boast of on such an occasion. This is but the
-    beginning or incipient stage of “medicines,” however, in this strange
-    and superstitious country; and if you have patience, I will carry you
-    a few degrees further into the mysteries of conjuration, before I
-    close this Letter. Sit still then and read, until I relate a scene of
-    a tragic, and yet of the most grotesque character, which took place in
-    this Fort a few days since, and to all of which I was an eye-witness.
-    The scene I will relate as it transpired precisely; and call it the
-    story of the “doctor,” or the “Blackfoot medicine-man.”</p>
-
-  <p>Not many weeks since, a party of Knisteneaux came here from the north,
-    for the purpose of making their summer’s trade with the Fur Company;
-    and, whilst here, a party of Blackfeet, their natural enemies (the
-    same who are here now), came from the west, also to trade. These two
-    belligerent tribes encamped on different sides of the Fort, and had
-    spent some weeks here in the Fort and about it, in apparently good
-    feeling and fellowship; unable in fact to act otherwise, for, according
-    to a regulation of the Fort their arms and weapons were all locked up
-    by M‘Kenzie in his “arsenal,” for the purpose of preserving the peace
-    amongst these fighting-cocks.</p>
-
-  <p>The Knisteneaux had completed their trade, and loitered about the
-    premises, until all, both Indians and white men, were getting tired of
-    their company, wishing them quietly off. When they were ready to start,
-    with their goods packed upon their backs, their arms were given them,
-    and they started; bidding everybody, both friends and foes, a hearty
-    farewell. They went out of the Fort, and though the party gradually
-    moved off, one of them undiscovered, loitered about the Fort, until he
-    got an opportunity to poke the muzzle of his gun through between the
-    piquets; when he fired it at one of the chiefs of the Blackfeet, who
-    stood within a few paces, talking with Mr. M‘Kenzie, and shot him with
-    two musket bullets through the centre of his body! The Blackfoot fell,
-    and rolled about upon the ground in the agonies of death. The Blackfeet
-    who were in the Fort seized their weapons and ran in a mass out of the
-    Fort, in pursuit of the Knisteneaux, who were rapidly retreating to the
-    bluffs. The Frenchmen in the Fort, also, at so flagrant and cowardly
-    an insult, seized their guns and ran out, joining the Blackfeet in
-    the pursuit. I, at that moment, ran to my painting-room in one of the
-    bastions overlooking the plain, where I had a fair view of the affair;
-    many shots were exchanged back and forward, and a skirmish ensued
-    which lasted half an hour; the parties, however, were so far apart
-    that little effect was produced; the Knisteneaux were driven off over
-    the bluffs, having lost one man and had several others wounded. The
-    Blackfeet and Frenchmen<span class="pagenum" id="Page_39">39</span> returned into the Fort, and then, I saw what
-    I never before saw in my life—I saw a “<em>medicine-man</em>” performing
-    his mysteries over a dying man. The man who had been shot was still
-    living, though two bullets had passed through the centre of his body,
-    about two inches apart from each other; he was lying on the ground in
-    the agonies of death, and no one could indulge the slightest hope of
-    his recovery; yet the <em>medicine-man</em> must needs be called (for
-    such a personage they had in their party), and hocus pocus applied to
-    the dying man, as the dernier resort, when all drugs and all specifics
-    were useless, and after all possibility of recovery was extinct!</p>
-
-  <figure class="illowp75 mt2" id="i_018">
-    <div class="plate"><i>12</i></div>
-    <img src="images/i_018.jpg" alt="" />
-     <figcaption>18</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p>I have mentioned that all tribes have their physicians, who are also
-    medicine (or mystery) men. These professional gentlemen are worthies
-    of the highest order in all tribes. They are regularly called and paid
-    as physicians, to prescribe for the sick; and many of them acquire
-    great skill in the medicinal world, and gain much celebrity in their
-    nation. Their first prescriptions are roots and herbs, of which they
-    have a great variety of species; and when these have all failed, their
-    last resort is to “<em>medicine</em>” or mystery; and for this purpose,
-    each one of them has a strange and unaccountable dress, conjured up
-    and constructed during a life-time of practice, in the wildest fancy
-    imaginable, in which he arrays himself, and makes his last visit to
-    his dying patient,—dancing over him, shaking his frightful rattles,
-    and singing songs of incantation, in hopes to cure him by a charm.
-    There are some instances, of course, where the exhausted patient
-    unaccountably recovers, under the application of these absurd forms;
-    and in such cases, this ingenious son of <em>Indian</em> Esculapius
-    will be seen for several days after, on the top of a wigwam, with his
-    right arm extended and waving over the gaping multitude, to whom he is
-    vaunting forth, without modesty, the surprising skill he has acquired
-    in his art, and the undoubted efficacy of his medicine or mystery. But
-    if, on the contrary, the patient dies, he soon changes his dress, and
-    joins in doleful lamentations with the mourners; and easily, with his
-    craft, and the ignorance and superstition of his people, protects his
-    reputation and maintains his influence over them; by assuring them,
-    that it was the will of the Great Spirit that his patient should die,
-    and when sent for, his feeble efforts must cease.</p>
-
-  <p>Such was the case, and such the extraordinary means resorted to in
-    the instance I am now relating. Several hundred spectators, including
-    Indians and traders, were assembled around the dying man, when it was
-    announced that the “<em>medicine-man</em>” was coming; we were required
-    to “form a ring,” leaving a space of some thirty or forty feet in
-    diameter around the dying man, in which the doctor could perform his
-    wonderful operations; and a space was also opened to allow him free
-    room to pass through the crowd without touching any one. This being
-    done, in a few moments his arrival was announced by the death-like
-    “hush——sh——” through the crowd; and nothing was to be heard, save the
-    light and casual tinkling of the rattles upon his dress, which was
-    scarcely perceptible to the ear, as he<span class="pagenum" id="Page_40">40</span> cautiously and slowly moved
-    through the avenue left for him; which at length brought him into the
-    ring, in view of the pitiable object over whom his mysteries were to be
-    performed.</p>
-
-  <p>Readers! you may have seen or read of the witch of Endor—or you may
-    imagine all the ghosts, and spirits, and furies, that ever ranked
-    amongst the “rank and file” of demonology; and yet you must see my
-    painting of this strange scene before you can form a just conception
-    of real frightful ugliness and Indian conjuration—yes, and even more:
-    you must see the magic <em>dress</em> of this Indian “big bug” (which I
-    have this day procured in all its parts), placed upon the back of some
-    person who can imitate the strides, and swells, the grunts, and spring
-    the rattles of an Indian magician.</p>
-
-  <p>His entrée and his garb were somewhat thus:—he approached the ring
-    with his body in a crouching position (<a href="#i_019"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 19</a>), with a slow
-    and tilting step—his body and head were entirely covered with the skin
-    of a yellow bear, the head of which (his own head being inside of it)
-    served as a mask; the huge claws of which also, were dangling on his
-    wrists and ancles; in one hand he shook a frightful rattle, and in the
-    other brandished his medicine-spear or magic wand; to the rattling din
-    and discord of all of which, he added the wild and startling jumps
-    and yelps of the Indian, and the horrid and appalling grunts, and
-    snarls, and growls of the grizzly bear, in ejaculatory and guttural
-    incantations to the Good and Bad Spirits, in behalf of his patient; who
-    was rolling and groaning in the agonies of death, whilst he was dancing
-    around him, jumping over him, and pawing him about, and rolling him in
-    every direction.</p>
-
-  <p>In this wise, this strange operation proceeded for half an hour, to the
-    surprise of a numerous and death-like silent audience, until the man
-    died; and the medicine-man danced off to his quarters, and packed up,
-    and tied and secured from the sight of the world, his mystery dress and
-    equipments.</p>
-
-  <p>This dress, in all its parts, is one of the greatest curiosities in the
-    whole collection of Indian manufactures which I have yet obtained in
-    the Indian country. It is the strangest medley and mixture, perhaps of
-    the mysteries of the animal and vegetable kingdoms that ever was seen.
-    Besides the skin of the yellow bear (which being almost an anomaly in
-    that country, is out of the regular order of nature, and, of course,
-    great medicine, and converted to a medicine use), there are attached to
-    it the skins of many animals, which are also anomalies or deformities,
-    which render them, in their estimation, <em>medicine</em>; and there are
-    also the skins of snakes, and frogs, and bats,—beaks and toes and tails
-    of birds,—hoofs of deer, goats, and antelopes; and, in fact, the “odds
-    and ends,” and fag ends, and tails, and tips of almost everything that
-    swims, flies, or runs, in this part of the wide world.</p>
-
-  <p>Such is a medicine-man or a physician, and such is one of his wild
-    and ridiculous manœuvres, which I have just witnessed in this strange
-    country.</p>
-
-  <p>These men, as I before remarked, are valued as dignitaries in the
-    tribe, and the greatest respect is paid to them by the whole community;
-    not only<span class="pagenum" id="Page_41">41</span> for their skill in their “materia medica;” but more
-    especially for their tact in magic and mysteries, in which they all
-    deal to a very great extent. I shall have much more to say of these
-    characters and their doings in future epistles, and barely observe in
-    the present place, that no tribe is without them;—that in all tribes
-    their doctors are conjurors—are magicians—are sooth-sayers, and I had
-    like to have said, high-priests, inasmuch as they superintend and
-    conduct all their religious ceremonies;—they are looked upon by all
-    as oracles of the nation. In all councils of war and peace, they have
-    a seat with the chiefs—are regularly consulted before any public step
-    is taken, and the greatest deference and respect is paid to their
-    opinions.</p>
-
-  <figure class="illowp75 mt2" id="i_019">
-    <div class="plate "><i>13</i></div>
-    <img src="images/i_019.jpg" alt="" />
-     <figcaption>19</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <hr class="chap" />
-  <div class="chapter">
-    <span class="pagenum" id="Page_42">42</span>
-    <h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_7">LETTER—<abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 7.</h2>
-  </div>
-  <div class="subheadc">MOUTH OF YELLOW STONE, <i>UPPER MISSOURI</i>.</div>
-
-  <p><span class="smcap">The</span> Letter which I gave you yesterday, on the subject of “medicines”
-    and “medicine-men,” has somewhat broken the “thread of my discourse;”
-    and left my painting-room (in the bastion), and all the Indians in it,
-    and portraits, and buffalo hunts, and landscapes of these beautiful
-    regions, to be taken up and discussed; which I will now endeavour to
-    do, beginning just where I left (or digressed) off.</p>
-
-  <p>I was seated on the cool breech of a twelve-pounder, and had my easel
-    before me, and Crows and Blackfeet, and Assinneboins, whom I was
-    tracing upon the canvass. And so I have been doing to-day, and shall
-    be for several days to come. My painting-room has become so great a
-    lounge, and I so great a “medicine-man,” that all other amusements are
-    left, and all other topics of conversation and gossip are postponed
-    for future consideration. The chiefs have had to place “soldiers”
-    (as they are called) at my door, with spears in hand to protect me
-    from the throng, who otherwise would press upon me; and none but the
-    worthies are allowed to come into my medicine apartments, and none to
-    be painted, except such as are decided by the chiefs to be worthy of so
-    high an honour.</p>
-
-  <p>The Crows and Blackfeet who are here together, are enemies of the
-    most deadly kind while out on the plains; but here they sit and smoke
-    quietly together, yet with a studied and dignified reserve.</p>
-
-  <p>The Blackfeet are, perhaps, one of the most (if not entirely the most)
-    numerous and warlike tribes on the Continent. They occupy the whole of
-    the country about the sources of the Missouri, from this place to the
-    Rocky Mountains; and their numbers, from the best computations, are
-    something like forty or fifty thousand—they are (like all other tribes
-    whose numbers are sufficiently large to give them boldness) warlike
-    and ferocious, <i>i. e.</i> they are predatory, are roaming fearlessly
-    about the country, even into and through every part of the Rocky
-    Mountains, and carrying war amongst their enemies, who are, of course,
-    every tribe who inhabit the country about them.</p>
-
-  <p>The Crows who live on the head waters of Yellow Stone, and extend from
-    this neighbourhood also to the base of the Rocky Mountains, are similar
-    in the above respects to the Blackfeet; roaming about a great part of
-    the year—and seeking their enemies wherever they can find them.</p>
-
-  <p>They are a much smaller tribe than the Blackfeet, with whom they are
-    <span class="pagenum" id="Page_43">43</span>always at war, and from whose great numbers they suffer prodigiously
-    in battle; and probably will be in a few years entirely destroyed by
-    them.</p>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>14</i></div>
-  <figure id="i_020">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_020.jpg" alt="" />
-     <figcaption>20</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p>The Crows have not, perhaps, more than 7000 in their nation, and
-    probably not more than eight hundred warriors or fighting men. Amongst
-    the more powerful tribes, like the Sioux and Blackfeet, who have been
-    enabled to preserve their warriors, it is a fair calculation to count
-    one in five as warriors; but among the Crows and Minatarees, and
-    Puncahs, and several other small but warlike tribes, this proportion
-    cannot exist; as in some of these I have found two or three women to
-    a man in the nation; in consequence of the continual losses sustained
-    amongst their men in war, and also whilst pursuing the buffaloes on the
-    plains for food, where their lives are exceedingly exposed.</p>
-
-  <p>The Blackfeet and the Crows, like the Sioux and Assinneboins, have
-    nearly the same mode of constructing their wigwam or lodge; in which
-    tribes it is made of buffalo skins sewed together, after being dressed,
-    and made into the form of a tent; supported within by some twenty
-    or thirty pine poles of twenty-five feet in height, with an apex or
-    aperture at the top, through which the smoke escapes and the light
-    is admitted. These lodges, or tents, are taken down in a few minutes
-    by the squaws, when they wish to change their location, and easily
-    transported to any part of the country where they wish to encamp;
-    and they generally move some six or eight times in the course of the
-    summer; following the immense herds of buffaloes, as they range over
-    these vast plains, from east to west, and north to south. The objects
-    for which they do this are two-fold,—to procure and dress their skins,
-    which are brought in, in the fall and winter, and sold to the Fur
-    Company, for white man’s luxury; and also for the purpose of killing
-    and drying buffalo meat (<a href="#i_022"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 22</a>), which they bring in from
-    their hunts, packed on their horses’ backs, in great quantities; making
-    pemican, and preserving the marrow-fat for their winter quarters; which
-    are generally taken up in some heavy-timbered bottom, on the banks of
-    some stream, deep imbedded within the surrounding bluffs, which break
-    off the winds, and make their long and tedious winter tolerable and
-    supportable. They then sometimes erect their skin lodges amongst the
-    timber, and dwell in them during the winter months; but more frequently
-    cut logs and make a miserable and rude sort of log cabin, in which they
-    can live much warmer and better protected from the assaults of their
-    enemies, in case they are attacked; in which case a log cabin is a
-    tolerable fort against Indian weapons.</p>
-
-  <p>The Crows, of all the tribes in this region, or on the Continent, make
-    the most beautiful lodge. As I have before mentioned, they construct
-    them as the Sioux do, and make them of the same material; yet they
-    oftentimes dress the skins of which they are composed almost as white
-    as linen, and beautifully garnish them with porcupine quills, and
-    paint and ornament them in such a variety of ways, as renders them
-    exceedingly picturesque and agreeable to the eye. I have procured
-    a very beautiful one of this description<span class="pagenum" id="Page_44">44</span> (<a href="#i_020"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 20</a>),
-    highly-ornamented, and fringed with scalp-locks, and sufficiently large
-    for forty men to dine under. The poles which support it are about
-    thirty in number, of pine, and all cut in the Rocky Mountains, having
-    been some hundred years, perhaps, in use. This tent, when erected, is
-    about twenty-five feet high, and has a very pleasing effect; with the
-    Great or Good Spirit painted on one side, and the Evil Spirit on the
-    other. If I can ever succeed in transporting it to New York and other
-    eastern cities, it will be looked upon as a beautiful and exceedingly
-    interesting specimen.</p>
-
-  <p>The manner in which an encampment of Indians strike their tents and
-    transport them is curious, and to the traveller in this country a very
-    novel and unexpected sight, when he first beholds it. Whilst ascending
-    the river to this place, I saw an encampment of Sioux, consisting of
-    six hundred of these lodges, struck, and all things packed and on the
-    move in a very few minutes. The chief sends his runners or criers (for
-    such all chiefs keep in their employment) through the village, a few
-    hours before they are to start; announcing his determination to move,
-    and the hour fixed upon, and the necessary preparations are in the
-    meantime making; and at the time announced, the lodge of the chief is
-    seen flapping in the wind, a part of the poles having been taken out
-    from under it; this is the signal, and in one minute, six hundred of
-    them (on a level and beautiful prairie), which before had been strained
-    tight and fixed, were seen waving and flapping in the wind, and in one
-    minute more all were flat upon the ground. Their horses and dogs, of
-    which they had a vast number, had all been secured upon the spot, in
-    readiness; and each one was speedily loaded with the burthen allotted
-    to it, and ready to fall into the grand procession.</p>
-
-  <p>For this strange cavalcade, preparation is made in the following
-    manner: the poles of a lodge are divided into two bunches, and the
-    little ends of each bunch fastened upon the shoulders or withers of a
-    horse, leaving the butt ends to drag behind on the ground on either
-    side. Just behind the horse, a brace or pole is tied across, which
-    keeps the poles in their respective places; and then upon that and
-    the poles behind the horse, is placed the lodge or tent, which is
-    rolled up, and also numerous other articles of household and domestic
-    furniture, and on the top of all, two, three, and even (sometimes) four
-    women and children! Each one of these horses has a conductress, who
-    sometimes walks before and leads it, with a tremendous pack upon her
-    own back; and at others she sits astride of its back, with a child,
-    perhaps, at her breast, and another astride of the horse’s back behind
-    her, clinging to her waist with one arm, while it affectionately
-    embraces a sneaking dog-pup in the other.</p>
-
-  <p>In this way five or six hundred wigwams, with all their furniture
-    (<a href="#i_021"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 21</a>), may be seen drawn out for miles, creeping over the
-    grass-covered plains of this country; and three times that number of
-    men, on good horses, strolling along in front or on the flank; and, in
-    some tribes, in the rear of this heterogeneous caravan, at least five
-    times that number of dogs, which<span class="pagenum" id="Page_45">45</span> fall into the rank, and follow in
-    the train and company of the women, and every cur of them, who is large
-    enough, and not too cunning to be enslaved, is encumbered with a car or
-    sled (or whatever it may be better called), on which he patiently drags
-    his load—a part of the household goods and furniture of the lodge to
-    which he belongs. Two poles, about fifteen feet long, are placed upon
-    the dog’s shoulder, in the same manner as the lodge poles are attached
-    to the horses, leaving the larger ends to drag upon the ground behind
-    him; on which is placed a bundle or wallet which is allotted to him to
-    carry, and with which he trots off amid the throng of dogs and squaws;
-    faithfully and cheerfully dragging his load ’till night, and by the way
-    loitering and occasionally</p>
-
-  <div class="center-container">
-    <div class="poetry">
-      <div class="stanza">
-        <div class="i0">“Catching at little bits of fun and glee</div>
-        <div class="i1">That’s played on dogs enslaved by dog that’s free.”</div>
-      </div>
-    </div>
-  </div>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>15</i></div>
-  <figure id="i_021">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_021.jpg" alt="" />
-     <figcaption>21</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <figure class="mt2" id="i_022">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_022.jpg" alt="" />
-     <figcaption>22</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p>The Crows, like the Blackfeet, are beautifully costumed, and perhaps
-    with somewhat more of taste and elegance; inasmuch as the skins of
-    which their dresses are made are more delicately and whitely dressed.
-    The art of dressing skins belongs to the Indians in all countries;
-    and the Crows surpass the civilized world in the beauty of their
-    skin-dressing. The art of tanning is unknown to them, so far as
-    civilized habits and arts have not been taught them; yet the art of
-    dressing skins, so far as we have it in the civilized world, has been
-    (like hundreds of other ornamental and useful customs which we are
-    practising), borrowed from the savage; without our ever stopping to
-    enquire from whence they come, or by whom invented.</p>
-
-  <p>The usual mode of dressing the buffalo, and other skins, is by
-    immersing them for a few days under a lye from ashes and water, until
-    the hair can be removed; when they are strained upon a frame or upon
-    the ground, with stakes or pins driven through the edges into the
-    earth; where they remain for several days, with the brains of the
-    buffalo or elk spread upon and over them; and at last finished by
-    “graining,” as it is termed, by the squaws; who use a sharpened bone,
-    the shoulder-blade or other large bone of the animal, sharpened at the
-    edge, somewhat like an adze; with the edge of which they scrape the
-    fleshy side of the skin; bearing on it with the weight of their bodies,
-    thereby drying and softening the skin, and fitting it for use.</p>
-
-  <p>The greater part of these skins, however, go through still another
-    operation afterwards, which gives them a greater value, and renders
-    them much more serviceable—that is, the process of smoking. For this,
-    a small hole is dug in the ground, and a fire is built in it with
-    rotten wood, which will produce a great quantity of smoke without
-    much blaze; and several small poles of the proper length stuck in the
-    ground around it, and drawn and fastened together at the top, around
-    which a skin is wrapped in form of a tent, and generally sewed together
-    at the edges to secure the smoke within it;<span class="pagenum" id="Page_46">46</span> within this the skins
-    to be smoked are placed, and in this condition the tent will stand a
-    day or so, enclosing the heated smoke; and by some chemical process
-    or other, which I do not understand, the skins thus acquire a quality
-    which enables them, after being ever so many times wet, to dry soft
-    and pliant as they were before, which secret I have never yet seen
-    practiced in my own country; and for the lack of which, all of our
-    dressed skins when once wet, are, I think, chiefly ruined.</p>
-
-  <p>An Indian’s dress of deer skins, which is wet a hundred times upon his
-    back, dries soft; and his lodge also, which stands in the rains, and
-    even through the severity of winter, is taken down as soft and as clean
-    as when it was first put up.</p>
-
-  <p>A Crow is known wherever he is met by his beautiful white dress, and
-    his tall and elegant figure; the greater part of the men being six
-    feet high. The Blackfeet on the other hand, are more of the Herculean
-    make—about middling stature, with broad shoulders, and great expansion
-    of chest; and the skins of which their dresses are made, are chiefly
-    dressed black, or of a dark brown colour; from which circumstance, in
-    all probability, they having black leggings or moccasins, have got the
-    name of Blackfeet.</p>
-
-  <p>The Crows are very handsome and gentlemanly Indians in their personal
-    appearance: and have been always reputed, since the first acquaintance
-    made with them, very civil and friendly.</p>
-
-  <p>These people to be sure, have in some instances plundered and robbed
-    trappers and travellers in their country; and for that I have sometimes
-    heard them called rascals and thieves, and rogues of the first order,
-    &amp;c.; yet they do not consider themselves such; for thieving in their
-    estimation is a high crime, and considered the most disgraceful act
-    that a man can possibly do. They call this <em>capturing</em>, where
-    they sometimes run off a Trader’s horses, and make their boast of it;
-    considering it a kind of retaliation or summary justice, which they
-    think it right and honourable that they should administer. And why
-    not? for the unlicensed trespass committed through their country from
-    one end to the other, by mercenary white men, who are destroying the
-    game, and catching all the beaver and other rich and valuable furs
-    out of their country, without paying them an equivalent, or, in fact,
-    anything at all, for it; and this too, when they have been warned time
-    and again of the danger they would be in, if they longer persisted in
-    the practice. Reader, I look upon the Indian as the most honest and
-    honourable race of people that I ever lived amongst in my life; and in
-    their native state, I pledge you my honour they are the last of all
-    the human family to pilfer or to steal, if you trust to their honour;
-    and for this never-ending and boundless system of theft and plunder,
-    and debauchery, that is practiced off upon these rightful owners of
-    the soil, by acquisitive white men, I consider the infliction, or
-    retaliation, by driving off and appropriating a few horses, but a
-    lenient punishment, which those persons at least should expect; and
-    which, in fact, none but a very honourable and high-minded people
-    could inflict, instead<span class="pagenum" id="Page_47">47</span> of a much severer one; which they could easily
-    practice upon the few white men in their country, without rendering
-    themselves amenable to any law.</p>
-
-  <p>Mr. M‘Kenzie has repeatedly told me, within the four last weeks, while
-    in conversation relative to the Crows, that they were friendly and
-    honourable in their dealing with the whites, and that he considered
-    them the finest Indians of his acquaintance.</p>
-
-  <p>I recollect whilst in <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Louis, and other places at the East, to have
-    heard it often said, that the Crows were a rascally and thieving set of
-    vagabonds, highway robbers, &amp;c. &amp;c.; and I have been told since, that
-    this information has become current in the world, from the fact that
-    they made some depredations upon the camp of Messrs. Crooks and Hunt of
-    the Fur Company; and drove off a number of their horses, when they were
-    passing through the Crow country, on their way to Astoria. This was no
-    doubt true; and equally true, would these very Indians tell us, was the
-    fact, that they had a good and sufficient reason for it.</p>
-
-  <p>These gentlemen, with their party, were crossing the Crow country
-    with a large stock of goods, of guns, and ammunition, of knives, and
-    spears, arrowheads, &amp;c.; and stopped for some time and encamped in the
-    midst of the Crow country (and I think wintered there), when the Crows
-    assembled in large numbers about them, and treated them in a kind and
-    friendly manner; and at the same time proposed to trade with them for
-    guns and ammunition, &amp;c. (according to these gentlemen’s own account,)
-    of which they were in great want, and for which they brought a great
-    many horses, and offered them repeatedly in trade; which they refused
-    to take, persisting in their determination of carrying their goods
-    to their destined place, across the mountains; thereby disappointing
-    these Indians, by denying them the arms and weapons which were in
-    their possession, whilst they were living upon them, and exhausting
-    the game and food of their country. No doubt, these gentlemen told the
-    Crows, that these goods were going to Astoria, of which place they knew
-    nothing; and of course, it was enough for them that they were going to
-    take them farther west; which they would at once suppose was to the
-    Blackfeet, their principal enemy, having eight or ten warriors to one
-    of the Crows; where they supposed the white men could get a greater
-    price for their weapons, and arm their enemies in such a way as would
-    enable them to turn upon the Crows, and cut them to pieces without
-    mercy. Under these circumstances, the Crows rode off, and to show their
-    indignation, drove off some of the Company’s horses, for which they
-    have ever since been denominated a band of thieves and highway robbers.
-    It is a custom, and a part of the system of jurisprudence amongst all
-    savages, to revenge upon the person or persons who give the offence,
-    if they can; and if not, to let that punishment fall upon the head of
-    the first white man who comes in their way, provided the offender was a
-    white man. And I would not be surprised, therefore, if I get robbed of
-    my horse; and you too, readers, if you go into that country, for that
-    very (supposed) offence.</p>
-
-  <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_48">48</span></p>
-
-  <p>I have conversed often and much with Messrs. Sublette and Campbell,
-    two gentlemen of the highest respectability, who have traded with the
-    Crows for several years, and they tell me they are one of the most
-    honourable, honest, and high-minded races of people on earth; and with
-    Mr. Tullock, also, a man of the strictest veracity, who is now here
-    with a party of them; and, he says, they never steal,—have a high
-    sense of honour,—and being fearless and proud, are quick to punish or
-    retaliate.</p>
-
-  <p>So much for the character of the Crows for the present, a subject which
-    I shall assuredly take up again, when I shall have seen more of them
-    myself.</p>
-
-  <hr class="chap" />
-  <div class="chapter">
-    <span class="pagenum" id="Page_49">49</span>
-    <h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_8">LETTER—<abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 8.</h2>
-  </div>
-  <div class="subheadc">MOUTH OF YELLOW STONE, <i>UPPER MISSOURI</i>.</div>
-
-  <p><span class="smcap">Since</span> my last Letter, nothing of great moment has transpired at this
-    place; but I have been continually employed in painting my portraits
-    and making notes on the character and customs of the wild folks who
-    are about me. I have just been painting a number of the Crows, fine
-    looking and noble gentlemen. They are really a handsome and well-formed
-    set of men as can be seen in any part of the world. There is a sort of
-    ease and grace added to their dignity of manners, which gives them the
-    air of gentlemen at once. I observed the other day, that most of them
-    were over six feet high, and very many of these have cultivated their
-    natural hair to such an almost incredible length, that it sweeps the
-    ground as they walk; there are frequent instances of this kind amongst
-    them, and in some cases, a foot or more of it will drag on the grass
-    as they walk, giving exceeding grace and beauty to their movements.
-    They usually oil their hair with a profusion of bear’s grease every
-    morning, which is no doubt one cause of the unusual length to which
-    their hair extends; though it cannot be the sole cause of it, for the
-    other tribes throughout this country use the bear’s grease in equal
-    profusion without producing the same results. The Mandans, however, and
-    the Sioux, of whom I shall speak in future epistles, have cultivated
-    a very great growth of the hair, as many of them are seen whose hair
-    reaches near to the ground.</p>
-
-  <p>This extraordinary length of hair amongst the Crows is confined to the
-    men alone; for the women, though all of them with glossy and beautiful
-    hair, and a great profusion of it, are unable to cultivate it to so
-    great a length; or else they are not allowed to compete with their
-    lords in a fashion so ornamental (and on which the men so highly pride
-    themselves), and are obliged in many cases to cut it short off.</p>
-
-  <p>The fashion of long hair amongst the men, prevails throughout all the
-    Western and North Western tribes, after passing the Sacs and Foxes; and
-    the Pawnees of the Platte, who, with two or three other tribes only,
-    are in the habit of shaving nearly the whole head.</p>
-
-  <p>The present chief of the Crows, who is called “Long-hair,” and has
-    received his name as well as his office from the circumstance of
-    having the longest hair of any man in the nation, I have not yet
-    seen: but I hope I yet may, ere I leave this part of the country.
-    This extraordinary man is known to several gentlemen with whom I am
-    acquainted, and particularly to Messrs. Sublette and Campbell, of whom
-    I have before spoken, who<span class="pagenum" id="Page_50">50</span> told me they had lived in his hospitable
-    lodge for months together; and assured me that they had measured his
-    hair by a correct means, and found it to be ten feet and seven inches
-    in length; closely inspecting every part of it at the same time, and
-    satisfying themselves that it was the natural growth.</p>
-
-  <p>On ordinary occasions it is wound with a broad leather strap, from his
-    head to its extreme end, and then folded up into a budget or block, of
-    some ten or twelve inches in length, and of some pounds weight; which
-    when he walks is carried under his arm, or placed in his bosom, within
-    the folds of his robe; but on any great parade or similar occasion, his
-    pride is to unfold it, oil it with bear’s grease and let it drag behind
-    him, some three or four feet of it spread out upon the grass, and black
-    and shining like a raven’s wing.</p>
-
-  <p>It is a common custom amongst most of these upper tribes, to splice or
-    add on several lengths of hair, by fastening them with glue; probably
-    for the purpose of imitating the Crows, upon whom alone Nature has
-    bestowed this conspicuous and signal ornament.</p>
-
-  <p>Amongst the Crows of distinction now at this place, I have painted
-    the portraits of several, who exhibit some striking peculiarities.
-    Amongst whom is Chah-ee-chopes, the four wolves (<a href="#i_024"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 24</a>);
-    a fine looking fellow, six feet in stature, and whose natural hair
-    sweeps the grass as he walks; he is beautifully clad, and carries
-    himself with the most graceful and manly mien—he is in mourning for
-    a brother; and according to their custom, has cut off a number of
-    locks of his long hair, which is as much as a man can well spare of
-    so valued an ornament, which he has been for the greater part of his
-    life cultivating; whilst a woman who mourns for a husband or child, is
-    obliged to crop her hair short to her head, and so remain till it grows
-    out again; ceasing gradually to mourn as her hair approaches to its
-    former length.</p>
-
-  <p>Duhk-pits-a-ho-shee, the red bear (<a href="#i_026"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 26</a>), a distinguished
-    warrior; and Oo-je-en-a-he-ha, the woman who lives in the bear’s den
-    (<a href="#i_024"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 25</a>). I have also painted Pa-ris-ka-roo-pa (two crows)
-    the younger (<a href="#i_026"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 27</a>), one of the most extraordinary men in
-    the Crow nation; not only for his looks, from the form of his head,
-    which seems to be distortion itself—and curtailed of all its fair
-    proportions; but from his extraordinary sagacity as a counsellor and
-    orator, even at an early stage of his life.</p>
-
-  <p>There is something very uncommon in this outline, and sets forth the
-    striking peculiarity of the Crow tribe, though rather in an exaggerated
-    form. The semi-lunar outline of the Crow head, with an exceedingly low
-    and retreating forehead, is certainly a very peculiar and striking
-    characteristic; and though not so strongly marked in most of the tribe
-    as in the present instance, is sufficient for their detection whenever
-    they are met; and will be subject for further comment in another place.</p>
-
-  <p>The Crow women (and Blackfeet also) are not handsome, and I shall at
-    <span class="pagenum" id="Page_51">51</span>present say but little of them. They are, like all other Indian
-    women, the slaves of their husbands: being obliged to perform all the
-    domestic duties and drudgeries of the tribe, and not allowed to join
-    in their religious rites or ceremonies, nor in the dance or other
-    amusements.</p>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>16</i></div>
-  <figure id="i_024">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_024.jpg" alt="" />
-    <figcaption><span class="col50">24</span><span class="col50">25</span></figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <figure class="mt2" id="i_026">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_026.jpg" alt="" />
-    <figcaption><span class="col50">26</span><span class="col50">27</span></figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p>The women in all these upper and western tribes are decently dressed,
-    and many of them with great beauty and taste; their dresses are all of
-    deer or goat skins, extending from their chins quite down to the feet;
-    these dresses are in many instances trimmed with ermine, and ornamented
-    with porcupine quills and beads with exceeding ingenuity.</p>
-
-  <p>The Crow and Blackfeet women, like all others I ever saw in any Indian
-    tribe, divide the hair on the forehead, and paint the separation or
-    crease with vermilion or red earth. For what purpose this little, but
-    universal, custom is observed, I never have been able to learn.</p>
-
-  <p>The men amongst the Blackfeet tribe, have a fashion equally simple, and
-    probably of as little meaning, which seems strictly to be adhered to
-    by every man in the tribe; they separate the hair in two places on the
-    forehead, leaving a lock between the two, of an inch or two in width,
-    which is carefully straightened down on to the bridge of the nose, and
-    there cut square off. It is more than probable that this is done for
-    the purpose of distinction; that they may thereby be free from the
-    epithet of effeminacy, which might otherwise attach to them.</p>
-
-  <p>These two tribes, whom I have spoken of connectedly, speak two distinct
-    and entirely dissimilar languages; and the language of each is
-    different, and radically so, from that of all other tribes about them.
-    As these people are always at war, and have been, time out of mind,
-    they do not intermarry or hold converse with each other, by which any
-    knowledge of each other’s language could be acquired. It would be the
-    work of a man’s life-time to collect the languages of all the different
-    tribes which I am visiting; and I shall, from necessity, leave this
-    subject chiefly for others, who have the time to devote to them, to
-    explain them to the world. I have, however, procured a brief vocabulary
-    of their words and sentences in these tribes; and shall continue to do
-    so amongst the tribes I shall visit, which will answer as a specimen
-    or sample in each; and which, in the sequel to these Letters (if they
-    should ever be published), will probably be arranged.</p>
-
-  <p>The Blackfeet are, perhaps, the most powerful tribe of Indians on
-    the Continent; and being sensible of their strength, have stubbornly
-    resisted the Traders in their country, who have been gradually forming
-    an acquaintance with them, and endeavouring to establish a permanent
-    and profitable system of trade. Their country abounds in beaver and
-    buffalo, and most of the fur-bearing animals of North America; and
-    the American Fur Company, with an unconquerable spirit of trade and
-    enterprize, has pushed its establishments into their country; and the
-    numerous parties of trappers are tracing up their streams and rivers,
-    rapidly destroying the beavers which<span class="pagenum" id="Page_52">52</span> dwell in them. The Blackfeet
-    have repeatedly informed the Traders of the Company, that if their
-    men persisted in trapping beavers in their country, they should kill
-    them whenever they met them. They have executed their threats in many
-    instances, and the Company loses some fifteen or twenty men annually,
-    who fall by the hands of these people, in defence of what they deem
-    their property and their rights. Trinkets and whiskey, however, will
-    soon spread their charms amongst these, as they have amongst other
-    tribes; and white man’s voracity will sweep the prairies and the
-    streams of their wealth, to the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Ocean;
-    leaving the Indians to inhabit, and at last to starve upon, a dreary
-    and solitary waste.</p>
-
-  <p>The Blackfeet, therefore, having been less traded with, and less seen
-    by white people than most of the other tribes, are more imperfectly
-    understood; and it yet remains a question to be solved—whether there
-    are twenty, or forty or fifty thousand of them? for no one, as yet, can
-    correctly estimate their real strength. From all I can learn, however,
-    which is the best information that can be got from the Traders, there
-    are not far from 40,000 Indians (altogether), who range under the
-    general denomination of Blackfeet.</p>
-
-  <p>From our slight and imperfect knowledge of them, and other tribes
-    occupying the country about the sources of the Missouri, there is no
-    doubt in my mind, that we are in the habit of bringing more Indians
-    into the computation, than are entitled justly to the appellation of
-    “Blackfeet.”</p>
-
-  <p>Such, for instance, are the “Grosventres de Prairie” and Cotonnés,
-    neither of which speak the Blackfeet language; but hunt, and eat,
-    and fight, and intermarry with the Blackfeet; living therefore in a
-    state of confederacy and friendship with them, but speaking their own
-    language, and practicing their own customs.</p>
-
-  <p>The Blackfeet proper are divided into four bands or families, as
-    follow:—the “Pe-a-gans,” of 500 lodges; the “Blackfoot” band, of 450
-    lodges; the “Blood” band, of 450 lodges; and the “Small Robes,” of 250
-    lodges. These four bands constituting about 1650 lodges, averaging ten
-    to the lodge, amount to about 16,500 souls.</p>
-
-  <p>There are then of the other tribes above-mentioned (and whom we,
-    perhaps, incorrectly denominate Blackfeet), Grosventres des Prairies,
-    430 lodges, with language entirely distinct; Circees, of 220 lodges,
-    and Cotonnés, of 250 lodges, with language also distinct from either.<a id="FNanchor_1" href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p>
-
-  <p>There is in this region a rich and interesting field for the linguist
-    of the antiquarian; and stubborn facts, I think, if they could be well
-    procured, that would do away the idea which many learned gentlemen
-    entertain, that the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_53">53</span>
-    Indian languages of North America can all be traced to two or three
-    roots. The language of the Dohcotas is entirely and radically distinct
-    from that of the Mandans, and theirs equally so from the Blackfoot and
-    the Crows. And from the lips of Mr. Brazeau, a gentleman of education
-    and strict observation, who has lived several years with the Blackfeet
-    and Shiennes, and who speaks the language of tribes on either side
-    of them, assures me that these languages are radically distinct and
-    dissimilar, as I have above stated; and also, that although he has
-    been several years amongst those tribes, he has not been able to trace
-    the slightest resemblance between the Circee, Cotonné, and Blackfoot,
-    and Shienne, and Crow, and Mandan tongues; and from a great deal
-    of corroborating information, which I have got from other persons
-    acquainted with these tribes, I am fully convinced of the correctness
-    of his statements.</p>
-
-  <p>Besides the Blackfeet and Crows, whom I told you were assembled at
-    this place, are also the Knisteneaux (or Crees, as they are commonly
-    called), a very pretty and pleasing tribe of Indians, of about 3000
-    in number, living on the north of this, and also the Assinneboins and
-    Ojibbeways; both of which tribes also inhabit the country to the north
-    and north-east of the mouth of Yellow Stone.</p>
-
-  <p>The Knisteneaux are of small stature, but well-built for strength and
-    activity combined; are a people of wonderful prowess for their numbers,
-    and have waged an unceasing warfare with the Blackfeet, who are their
-    neighbours and enemies on the west. From their disparity in numbers
-    they are rapidly thinning the ranks of their warriors, who bravely
-    sacrifice their lives in contentions with their powerful neighbours.
-    This tribe occupy the country from the mouth of the Yellow Stone, in
-    a north-western direction, far into the British territory, and trade
-    principally at the British N. W. Company’s Posts.</p>
-
-  <p>The Assinneboins of seven thousand, and the Ojibbeways of six thousand,
-    occupy a vast extent of country, in a north-eastern direction from
-    this; extending also into the British possessions as high north as
-    Lake Winnepeg; and trading principally with the British Company. These
-    three tribes are in a state of nature, living as neighbours, and are
-    also on terms of friendship with each other. This friendship, however,
-    is probably but a temporary arrangement, brought about by the Traders
-    amongst them; and which, like most Indian peace establishments, will be
-    of short duration.</p>
-
-  <p>The Ojibbeways are, undoubtedly, a part of the tribe of Chippeways,
-    with whom we are more familiarly acquainted, and who inhabit the
-    south-west shore of Lake Superior. Their language is the same, though
-    they are separated several hundred miles from any of them, and seem to
-    have no knowledge of them, or traditions of the manner in which, or of
-    the time when, they became severed from each other.</p>
-
-  <p>The Assinneboins are a part of the Dohcotas, or Sioux, undoubtedly; for
-    their personal appearance as well as their language is very similar.</p>
-
-  <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_54">54</span></p>
-
-  <p>At what time, or in what manner, these two parts of a nation got
-    strayed away from each other is a mystery; yet such cases have often
-    occurred, of which I shall say more in future. Large parties who
-    are straying off in pursuit of game, or in the occupation of war,
-    are oftentimes intercepted by their enemy; and being prevented from
-    returning, are run off to a distant region, where they take up their
-    residence and establish themselves as a nation.</p>
-
-  <p>There is a very curious custom amongst the Assinneboins, from which
-    they have taken their name; a name given them by their neighbours,
-    from a singular mode they have of boiling their meat, which is done in
-    the following manner:—when they kill meat, a hole is dug in the ground
-    about the size of a common pot, and a piece of the raw hide of the
-    animal, as taken from the back, is put over the hole, and then pressed
-    down with the hands close around the sides, and filled with water. The
-    meat to be boiled is then put in this hole or pot of water; and in a
-    fire, which is built near by, several large stones are heated to a red
-    heat, which are successively dipped and held in the water until the
-    meat is boiled; from which singular and peculiar custom, the Ojibbeways
-    have given them the appellation of Assinneboins or stone boilers.</p>
-
-  <p>This custom is a very awkward and tedious one, and used only as an
-    ingenious means of boiling their meat, by a tribe who was too rude and
-    ignorant to construct a kettle or pot.</p>
-
-  <p>The Traders have recently supplied these people with pots; and even
-    long before that, the Mandans had instructed them in the secret of
-    manufacturing very good and serviceable earthen pots; which together
-    have entirely done away the custom, excepting at public festivals;
-    where they seem, like all others of the human family, to take pleasure
-    in cherishing and perpetuating their ancient customs.</p>
-
-  <p>Of these three tribes, I have also lined my painting-room with a number
-    of very interesting portraits of the distinguished and brave men; and
-    also representations of their games and ceremonies, which will be found
-    in my <span class="smcap">Indian Gallery</span>, if I live, and they can be preserved
-    until I get home.</p>
-
-  <p>The Assinneboins, or stone boilers, are a fine and noble looking race
-    of Indians; bearing, both in their looks and customs, a striking
-    resemblance to the Dohcotas or Sioux, from whom they have undoubtedly
-    sprung. The men are tall, and graceful in their movements; and wear
-    their pictured robes of the buffalo hide with great skill and pleasing
-    effect. They are good hunters, and tolerably supplied with horses;
-    and living in a country abounding with buffaloes, are well supplied
-    with the necessaries of Indian life, and may be said to live well.
-    Their games and amusements are many, of which the most valued one is
-    the ball-play; and in addition to which, they have the game of the
-    moccasin, horse-racing, and dancing; some one of which, they seem to be
-    almost continually practicing, and of all of which I shall hereafter
-    give the reader (as well as of many others of their amusements) a
-    minute account.</p>
-
-  <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_55">55</span></p>
-
-  <p>Their dances, which were frequent and varied, were generally exactly
-    the same as those of the Sioux, of which I have given a faithful
-    account in my Notes on the Sioux, and which the reader will soon meet
-    with. There was one of these scenes, however, that I witnessed the
-    other day, which appeared to me to be peculiar to this tribe, and
-    exceedingly picturesque in its effect; which was described to me as
-    the <em>pipe-dance</em>, and was as follows:—On a hard-trodden pavement
-    in front of their village, which place is used for all their public
-    meetings, and many of their amusements, the young men, who were
-    to compose the dance, had gathered themselves around a small fire
-    (<a href="#i_032"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 32</a>), and each one seated on a buffalo-robe spread upon
-    the ground. In the centre and by the fire, was seated a dignitary, who
-    seemed to be a chief (perhaps a doctor or medicine-man), with a long
-    pipe in his hand, which he lighted at the fire and smoked incessantly,
-    grunting forth at the same time, in half-strangled gutturals, a sort
-    of song, which I did not get translated to my satisfaction, and which
-    might have been susceptible of none. While this was going on, another
-    grim-visaged fellow in another part of the group, commenced beating
-    on a drum or tambourine, accompanied by his voice; when one of the
-    young men seated, sprang instantly on his feet, and commenced singing
-    in time with the taps of the drum, and leaping about on one foot and
-    the other in the most violent manner imaginable. In this way he went
-    several times around the circle, bowing and brandishing his fists in
-    the faces of each one who was seated, until at length he grasped one of
-    them by the hands, and jerked him forcibly up upon his feet; who joined
-    in the dance for a moment, leaving the one who had pulled him up, to
-    continue his steps and his song in the centre of the ring; whilst he
-    danced around in a similar manner, jerking up another, and then joining
-    his companion in the centre; leaving the third and the fourth, and
-    so on to drag into the ring, each one his man, until all were upon
-    their feet; and at last joined in the most frightful gesticulations
-    and yells that seemed almost to make the earth quake under our feet.
-    This strange manœuvre, which I did but partially understand, lasted
-    for half or three-quarters of an hour; to the great amusement of the
-    gaping multitude who were assembled around, and broke up with the most
-    piercing yells and barks like those of so many affrighted dogs.</p>
-
-  <p>The Assinneboins, somewhat like the Crows, cultivate their hair to
-    a very great length, in many instances reaching down nearly to the
-    ground; but in most instances of this kind, I find the great length is
-    produced by splicing or adding on several lengths, which are fastened
-    very ingeniously by means of glue, and the joints obscured by a sort
-    of paste of red earth and glue, with which the hair is at intervals of
-    every two or three inches filled, and divided into locks and slabs of
-    an inch or so in breadth, and falling straight down over the back to
-    the heels.</p>
-
-  <p>I have painted the portrait of a very distinguished young man, and son
-    of the chief (<a href="#i_028"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 28</a>); his dress is a very handsome one, and
-    in every<span class="pagenum" id="Page_56">56</span> respect answers well to the descriptions I have given above.
-    The name of this man is Wi-jun-jon (the pigeon’s egg head), and by the
-    side of him (<a href="#i_028"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 29</a>) will be seen the portrait of his wife,
-    Chin-cha-pee (the fire bug that creeps), a fine looking squaw, in a
-    handsome dress of the mountain-sheep skin, holding in her hand a stick
-    curiously carved, with which every woman in this country is supplied;
-    for the purpose of digging up the “Pomme Blanche,” or prairie turnip,
-    which is found in great quantities in these northern prairies, and
-    furnishes the Indians with an abundant and nourishing food. The women
-    collect these turnips by striking the end of the stick into the ground,
-    and prying them out; after which they are dried and preserved in their
-    wigwams for use during the season.</p>
-
-  <p>I have just had the satisfaction of seeing this travelled-gentleman
-    (Wi-jun-jon) meet his tribe, his wife and his little children; after an
-    absence of a year or more, on his journey of 6000 miles to Washington
-    City, and back again (in company with Major Sanford, the Indian agent);
-    where he has been spending the winter amongst the fashionables in the
-    polished circles of civilized society. And I can assure you, readers,
-    that his entrée amongst his own people, in the dress and with the airs
-    of a civilized beau, was one of no ordinary occurrence; and produced no
-    common sensation amongst the red-visaged Assinneboins, or in the minds
-    of those who were travellers, and but spectators to the scene.</p>
-
-  <p>On his way home from <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Louis to this place, a distance of 2000 miles,
-    I travelled with this gentleman, on the steamer Yellow-Stone; and saw
-    him step ashore (on a beautiful prairie, where several thousands of
-    his people were encamped), with a complete suit <i lang="fr">en militaire</i>,
-    a colonel’s uniform of blue, presented to him by the President of
-    the United States, with a beaver hat and feather, with epaulettes of
-    gold—with sash and belt, and broad sword; with high-heeled boots—with
-    a keg of whiskey under his arm, and a blue umbrella in his hand. In
-    this plight and metamorphose, he took his position on the bank, amongst
-    his friends—his wife and other relations; not one of whom exhibited,
-    for an half-hour or more, the least symptoms of recognition, although
-    they knew well who was before them. He also gazed upon them—upon his
-    wife and parents, and little children, who were about, as if they were
-    foreign to him, and he had not a feeling or thought to interchange with
-    them. Thus the mutual gazings upon and from this would-be-stranger,
-    lasted for full half an hour; when a gradual, but cold and exceedingly
-    formal recognition began to take place, and an acquaintance ensued,
-    which ultimately and smoothly resolved itself, without the least
-    apparent emotion, into its former state; and the mutual kindred
-    intercourse seemed to flow on exactly where it had been broken off,
-    as if it had been but for a moment, and nothing had transpired in the
-    interim to check or change its character or expression.</p>
-
-  <p>Such is one of the stoic instances of a custom which belongs to all the
-    North American Indians, forming one of the most striking features in
-    their<span class="pagenum" id="Page_57">57</span> character; valued, cherished and practiced, like many others
-    of their strange notions, for reasons which are difficult to be learned
-    or understood; and which probably will never be justly appreciated by
-    others than themselves.</p>
-
-  <figure class="mt2" id="i_028">
-    <div class="plate"><i>17</i></div>
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_028.jpg" alt="" />
-    <figcaption><span class="col50">29</span><span class="col50">28</span></figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <figure class="mt2" id="i_030">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_030.jpg" alt="" />
-    <figcaption><span class="col50">30</span><span class="col50">31</span></figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>18</i></div>
-  <figure id="i_032">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_032.jpg" alt="" />
-     <figcaption>32</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p>This man, at this time, is creating a wonderful sensation amongst
-    his tribe, who are daily and nightly gathered in gaping and listless
-    crowds around him, whilst he is descanting upon what he has seen in the
-    fashionable world; and which to them is unintelligible and beyond their
-    comprehension; for which I find they are already setting him down as a
-    liar and impostor.</p>
-
-  <p>What may be the final results of his travels and initiation into the
-    fashionable world, and to what disasters his incredible narrations
-    may yet subject the poor fellow in this strange land, time only will
-    develop.</p>
-
-  <p>He is now in disgrace, and spurned by the leading men of the tribe, and
-    rather to be pitied than envied, for the advantages which one might
-    have supposed would have flown from his fashionable tour. More of this
-    curious occurrence and of this extraordinary man, I will surely give in
-    some future epistles.</p>
-
-  <p>The women of this tribe are often comely, and sometimes pretty; in
-    <a href="#i_034"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 34</a>, will be seen a fair illustration of the dresses of
-    the women and children, which are usually made of the skins of the
-    mountain-goat, and ornamented with porcupine’s quills and rows of elk’s
-    teeth.</p>
-
-  <p>The Knisteneaux (or Crees, as they are more familiarly called in this
-    country) are a very numerous tribe, extending from this place as high
-    north as the shores of Lake Winnepeg; and even much further in a
-    north-westerly direction, towards, and even through, a great part of
-    the Rocky Mountains.</p>
-
-  <p>I have before said of these, that they were about 3000 in numbers—by
-    that, I meant but a small part of this extensive tribe, who are in the
-    habit of visiting the American Fur Company’s Establishment, at this
-    place, to do their trading; and who themselves, scarcely know anything
-    of the great extent of country over which this numerous and scattered
-    family range. Their customs may properly be said to be primitive, as no
-    inroads of civilized habits have been as yet successfully made amongst
-    them. Like the other tribes in these regions, they dress in skins, and
-    gain their food, and conduct their wars in a very similar manner. They
-    are a very daring and most adventurous tribe; roaming vast distances
-    over the prairies and carrying war into their enemy’s country. With the
-    numerous tribe of Blackfeet, they are always waging an uncompromising
-    warfare; and though fewer in numbers and less in stature, they have
-    shewn themselves equal in sinew, and not less successful in mortal
-    combats.</p>
-
-  <p>Amongst the foremost and most renowned of their warriors, is
-    Bro-cas-sie, the broken arm (<a href="#i_030"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 30</a>), in a handsome dress;
-    and by the side of him (<a href="#i_030"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 31</a>), his wife, a simple and
-    comely looking woman. In <a href="#i_033"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 33</a>, will be seen the full
-    length portrait of a young woman with a child on her back, shewing
-    fairly the fashion of cutting and ornamenting the dresses<span class="pagenum" id="Page_58">58</span> of the
-    females in this tribe; which, without further comment, is all I shall
-    say at this time, of the valorous tribe of Crees or Knisteneaux.</p>
-
-  <p>The Ojibbeways I have briefly mentioned in a former place, and of them
-    should say more; which will be done at a proper time, after I shall
-    have visited other branches of this great and scattered family.</p>
-
-  <p>The chief of that part of the Ojibbeway tribe who inhabit these
-    northern regions (<a href="#i_035"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 35</a>), and whose name is Sha-co-pay (the
-    Six), is a man of huge size; with dignity of manner, and pride and
-    vanity, just about in proportion to his bulk. He sat for his portrait
-    in a most beautiful dress, fringed with scalp locks in profusion; which
-    he had snatched, in his early life from his enemies’ heads, and now
-    wears as proud trophies and proofs of what his arm has accomplished
-    in battles with his enemies. His shirt of buckskin is beautifully
-    embroidered and painted in curious hieroglyphics, the history of his
-    battles and charts of his life. This, and also each and every article
-    of his varied dress, had been manufactured by his wives, of which
-    he had several; and one, though not the most agreeable (<a href="#i_036"><span class="smcap">plate</span>
-    36</a>), is seen represented by his side.</p>
-
-  <p>I have much to see of these people yet, and much consequently to write;
-    so for the present I close my book.</p>
-
-  <div class="footnotes">
-    <div class="footnote">
-      <a id="Footnote_1" href="#FNanchor_1" class="label">[1]</a> Several years since writing the above, I held a
-        conversation with Major Pilcher (a strictly correct and honourable man,
-        who was then the agent for these people, who has lived amongst them,
-        and is at this time superintendent of Indian affairs at <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Louis), who
-        informed me, much to my surprise, that the Blackfeet were not far from
-        60,000 in numbers, including all the confederacy of which I have just
-        spoken.
-    </div>
-  </div>
-
-  <hr class="chap" />
-  <div class="chapter">
-    <span class="pagenum" id="Page_59">59</span>
-    <h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_9">LETTER—<abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 9.</h2>
-  </div>
-  <div class="subheadc">MOUTH OF YELLOW STONE, <i>UPPER MISSOURI</i>.</div>
-
-  <p><span class="smcap">Since</span> the dates of my other Letters from this place, I have been taking
-    some wild rambles about this beautiful country of green fields; jolted
-    and tossed about, on horseback and on foot, where pen, ink, and paper
-    never thought of going; and of course the most that I saw and have
-    learned, and would tell to the world, is yet to be written. It is not
-    probable, however, that I shall again date a letter at this place, as I
-    commence, in a few days, my voyage down the river in a canoe; but yet
-    I may give you many a retrospective glance at this fairy land and its
-    amusements.</p>
-
-  <p>A traveller on his tour through such a country as this, has no time
-    to write, and scarcely time enough to moralize. It is as much as
-    he can <em>well</em> do to “look out for his <em>scalp</em>,” and “for
-    <em>something to eat</em>.” Impressions, however, of the most vivid kind,
-    are rapidly and indelibly made by the fleeting incidents of savage
-    life; and for the mind that can ruminate upon them with pleasure, there
-    are abundant materials clinging to it for its endless entertainment
-    in driving the quill when he gets back. The mind susceptible of such
-    impressions catches volumes of incidents which are easy to write—it is
-    but to unfold a web which the fascinations of this <em>shorn</em> country
-    and its allurements have spun over the soul—it is but to paint the
-    splendid panorama of a world entirely different from anything seen or
-    painted before; with its thousands of miles, and tens of thousands of
-    grassy hills and dales, where nought but silence reigns, and where the
-    soul of a contemplative mould is seemingly lifted up to its Creator.
-    What man in the world, I would ask, ever ascended to the pinnacle of
-    one of Missouri’s green-carpeted bluffs, a thousand miles severed from
-    his own familiar land, and giddily gazed over the interminable and
-    boundless ocean of grass-covered hills and valleys which lie beneath
-    him, where the gloom of <em>silence</em> is complete—where not even
-    the voice of the sparrow or cricket is heard—without feeling a sweet
-    melancholy come over him, which seemed to drown his sense of everything
-    beneath and on a level with him?</p>
-
-  <p>It is but to paint a vast country of green fields, where the <em>men</em>
-    are all <em>red</em>—where <em>meat</em> is the staff of life—where
-    no <em>laws</em>, but those of <em>honour</em>, are known—where the
-    oak and the pine give way to the cotton-wood and peccan—where the
-    buffaloes range, the elk, mountain-sheep, and the fleet-bounding<span class="pagenum" id="Page_60">60</span>
-    antelope—where the magpie and chattering parroquettes supply the
-    place of the red-breast and the blue-bird—where wolves are white and
-    bears grizzly—where pheasants are hens of the prairie, and frogs have
-    horns!—where the rivers are yellow, and white men are turned savages
-    in looks. Through the whole of this strange land the dogs are all
-    wolves—women all slaves—men all lords. The <em>sun</em> and <em>rats</em>
-    alone (of all the list of old acquaintance), could be recognised in
-    this country of strange metamorphose. The former shed everywhere his
-    familiar rays; and Monsr. Ratapon was hailed as an old acquaintance,
-    which it gave me pleasure to meet; though he had grown a little more
-    <em>savage</em> in his look.</p>
-
-  <p>In traversing the immense regions of the <em>classic</em> West, the mind
-    of a philanthropist is filled to the brim with feelings of admiration;
-    but to reach this country, one is obliged to descend from the light
-    and glow of civilized atmosphere, through the different grades of
-    civilization, which gradually sink to the most deplorable condition
-    along the extreme frontier; thence through the most pitiable misery
-    and wretchedness of savage degradation; where the genius of natural
-    liberty and independence have been blasted and destroyed by the
-    contaminating vices and dissipations introduced by the immoral part
-    of <em>civilized</em> society. Through this dark and sunken vale of
-    wretchedness one hurries, as through a pestilence, until he gradually
-    rises again into the proud and chivalrous pale of savage society,
-    in its state of original nature, beyond the reach of civilized
-    contamination; here he finds much to fix his enthusiasm upon, and much
-    to admire. Even here, the predominant passions of the savage breast,
-    of ferocity and cruelty, are often found; yet <em>restrained</em>,
-    and frequently <em>subdued</em>, by the noblest traits, of honour and
-    magnanimity,—a race of men who live and enjoy life and its luxuries,
-    and practice its virtues, very far beyond the usual estimation of the
-    world, who are apt to judge the savage and his virtues from the poor,
-    degraded, and humbled specimens which alone can be seen along our
-    frontiers. From the first settlements of our Atlantic coast to the
-    present day, the bane of this <em>blasting frontier</em> has regularly
-    crowded upon them, from the northern to the southern extremities of our
-    country; and, like the fire in a prairie, which destroys everything
-    where it passes, it has blasted and sunk them, and all but their
-    names, into oblivion, wherever it has travelled. It is to this tainted
-    class alone that the epithet of “poor, naked, and drunken savage,”
-    can be, with propriety, applied; for all those numerous tribes which
-    I have visited, and are yet uncorrupted by the vices of civilized
-    acquaintance, are well clad, in many instances cleanly, and in the
-    full enjoyment of life and its luxuries. It is for the character and
-    preservation of these noble fellows that I am an enthusiast; and it is
-    for these uncontaminated people that I would be willing to devote the
-    energies of my life. It is a sad and melancholy truth to contemplate,
-    that all the numerous tribes who inhabited our vast Atlantic States
-    <em>have not</em> “fled to the West;”—that they are not to be found
-    here—that they have been blasted by the fire which<span class="pagenum" id="Page_61">61</span> has passed
-    over them—have sunk into their graves, and everything but their names
-    travelled into oblivion.</p>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>19</i></div>
-  <div class="col50">
-    <figure id="i_033">
-      <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_033.jpg" alt="" />
-       <figcaption>33</figcaption>
-    </figure>
-  </div>
-  <div class="col50">
-    <figure id="i_034">
-      <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_034.jpg" alt="" />
-       <figcaption>34</figcaption>
-    </figure>
-  </div>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>20</i></div>
-  <div class="col50">
-    <figure id="i_035">
-      <img style="width: 99.4%;" src="images/i_035.jpg" alt="" />
-       <figcaption>35</figcaption>
-    </figure>
-  </div>
-  <div class="col50">
-    <figure id="i_036">
-      <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_036.jpg" alt="" />
-       <figcaption>36</figcaption>
-    </figure>
-  </div>
-
-  <p>The distinctive character of all these Western Indians, as well as
-    their traditions relative to their ancient locations, prove beyond a
-    doubt, that they have been for a very long time located on the soil
-    which they now possess; and in most respects, distinct and unlike those
-    nations who formerly inhabited the Atlantic coast, and who (according
-    to the erroneous opinion of a great part of the world), have fled to
-    the West.</p>
-
-  <p>It is for these inoffensive and unoffending people, yet unvisited by
-    the vices of civilized society, that I would proclaim to the world,
-    that it is time, for the honour of our country—for the honour of
-    every citizen of the republic—and for the sake of humanity, that our
-    government should raise her strong arm to save the remainder of them
-    from the pestilence which is rapidly advancing upon them. We have
-    gotten from them territory enough, and the country which they now
-    inhabit is most of it too barren of timber for the use of civilized
-    man; it affords them, however, the means and luxuries of savage life;
-    and it is to be hoped that our government will not acquiesce in the
-    continued wilful destruction of these happy people.</p>
-
-  <p>My heart has sometimes almost bled with pity for them, while amongst
-    them, and witnessing their innocent amusements, as I have contemplated
-    the inevitable bane that was rapidly advancing upon them; without that
-    check from the protecting arm of government, and which alone could
-    shield them from destruction.</p>
-
-  <p>What degree of happiness these sons of Nature may attain to in the
-    world, in their own way; or in what proportion they may relish the
-    pleasures of life, compared to the sum of happiness belonging to
-    civilized society, has long been a subject of much doubt, and one which
-    I cannot undertake to decide at this time. I would say thus much,
-    however, that if the thirst for knowledge has entailed everlasting
-    miseries on mankind from the beginning of the world; if refined
-    and intellectual pains increase in proportion to our intellectual
-    pleasures, I do not see that we gain much advantage over them on that
-    score; and judging from the full-toned enjoyment which beams from their
-    happy faces, I should give it as my opinion, that their lives were
-    much more happy than ours; that is, if the word happiness is properly
-    applied to the enjoyments of those who have not experienced the light
-    of the Christian religion. I have long looked with the eye of a critic,
-    into the jovial faces of these sons of the forest, unfurrowed with
-    cares—where the agonizing feeling of poverty had never stamped distress
-    upon the brow. I have watched the bold, intrepid step—the proud, yet
-    dignified deportment of Nature’s man, in fearless freedom, with a soul
-    unalloyed by mercenary lusts, too great to yield to laws or power
-    except from God. As these independent fellows are all joint-tenants of
-    the soil, they are all rich, and none of the steepings of comparative
-    poverty can strangle their just claims to renown. Who (I would<span class="pagenum" id="Page_62">62</span> ask)
-    can look without admiring, into a society where peace and harmony
-    prevail—where virtue is cherished—where rights are protected, and
-    wrongs are redressed—with no laws, but the laws of honour, which are
-    the supreme laws of their land. Trust the boasted virtues of civilized
-    society for awhile, with all its intellectual refinements, to such a
-    tribunal, and then write down the degradation of the “lawless savage,”
-    and our trancendent virtues.</p>
-
-  <p>As these people have no laws, the sovereign right of summary redress
-    lies in the breast of the party (or friends of the party) aggrieved;
-    and infinitely more dreaded is the certainty of cruel revenge from
-    the licensed hands of an offended savage, than the slow and uncertain
-    vengeance of the law.</p>
-
-  <p>If you think me <em>enthusiast</em>, be it so; for I deny it not. It has
-    ever been the predominant passion of my soul to seek Nature’s wildest
-    haunts, and give my hand to Nature’s men. Legends of <em>these</em>,
-    and visits to <em>those</em>, filled the earliest page of my juvenile
-    impressions.</p>
-
-  <p>The tablet has stood, and I am an enthusiast for God’s works as He left
-    them.</p>
-
-  <p>The sad tale of my native “valley,”<a id="FNanchor_2" href="#Footnote_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> has been beautifully sung; and
-    from the flight of “Gertrude’s” soul, my young imagination closely
-    traced the savage to his deep retreats, and gazed upon him in dreadful
-    horror, until pity pleaded, and admiration worked a charm.</p>
-
-  <p>A journey of 4000 miles from the Atlantic shore, regularly receding
-    from the centre of civilized society to the extreme wilderness of
-    Nature’s original work, and back again, opens a book for many an
-    interesting tale to be sketched; and the mind which lives, but to
-    relish the works of Nature, reaps a reward on such a tour of a much
-    higher order than can arise from the selfish expectations of pecuniary
-    emolument. Notwithstanding all that has been written and said, there
-    is scarcely any subject on which the <em>knowing</em> people of the
-    East, are yet less informed and instructed than on the character and
-    amusements of the West: by this I mean the “Far West;”—the country
-    whose fascinations spread a charm over the mind almost dangerous to
-    civilized pursuits. Few people even know the true definition of the
-    term “West;” and where is its location?—phantom-like it flies before us
-    as we travel, and on our way is continually gilded, before us, as we
-    approach the setting sun.</p>
-
-  <p>In the commencement of my Tour, several of my travelling companions
-    from the city of New York, found themselves at a frightful distance
-    to the West, when we arrived at Niagara Falls; and hastened back to
-    amuse their friends with tales and scenes of the West. At Buffalo a
-    steam-boat was landing with 400 passengers, and twelve days out—“Where
-    from?” “From the West.” In the rich state of Ohio, hundreds were
-    selling their farms and going—to the West. In the beautiful city of
-    Cincinnati, people said to me, “Our town has passed the days of its
-    most rapid growth, it is not far enough West.”—In <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Louis, 1400 miles
-    west of New York, my landlady assured <span class="pagenum" id="Page_63">63</span>me that I would be pleased with
-    her boarders, for they were nearly all merchants from the “West.” I
-    there asked,—“Whence come those steam-boats, laden with pork, honey,
-    hides, &amp;c.?”</p>
-
-  <p>From the West.</p>
-
-  <p>Whence those ponderous bars of silver, which those men have been for
-    hours shouldering and putting on board that boat?</p>
-
-  <p>They come from Santa Fee, from the West.</p>
-
-  <p>Where goes this steam-boat so richly laden with dry goods,
-    steam-engines, &amp;c.?</p>
-
-  <p>She goes to Jefferson city.</p>
-
-  <p>Jefferson city?—Where is that?</p>
-
-  <p>Far to the West.</p>
-
-  <p>And where goes that boat laden down to her gunnels, the Yellow Stone?</p>
-
-  <p>She goes still farther to the West—“Then,” said I, “I’ll go to the
-    West.”</p>
-
-  <p>I went on the Yellow Stone— <span class="gesperrtstar">* * * *</span></p>
-
-  <p><span class="gesperrtstar">* * *</span> Two thousand miles on her, and we were at the mouth of Yellow
-    Stone river—at the West. What! invoices, bills of lading, &amp;c., a
-    wholesale establishment so far to the West! And those strange looking,
-    long-haired gentlemen, who have just arrived, and are relating the
-    adventures of their long and tedious journey. Who are they?</p>
-
-  <p>Oh! they are some of our merchants just arrived from the West.</p>
-
-  <p>And that keel-boat, that Mackinaw-boat, and that formidable caravan,
-    all of which are richly laden with goods.</p>
-
-  <p>These, Sir, are outfits starting for the <em>West</em>.</p>
-
-  <p>Going to the <em>West</em>, ha? “Then” said I, “I’ll try it again. I will
-    try and see if I can go to the West.”</p>
-
-  <p><span class="gesperrtstar">* * *</span> What, a Fort here, too?</p>
-
-  <p>Oui, Monsieur—oui, Monsieur (as a dauntless, and
-    <em>semibarbarian</em>-looking, jolly fellow, dashed forth in advance of
-    his party on his wild horse to meet me.)</p>
-
-  <p>What distance are you west of Yellow Stone here, my good fellow?</p>
-
-  <p>Comment?</p>
-
-  <p>What distance?—(stop)—quel distance?</p>
-
-  <p>Pardón, Monsieur, je ne sais pas, Monsieur.</p>
-
-  <p>Ne parlez vous l’Anglais?</p>
-
-  <p>Non, Monsr. I speaks de French and de Americaine; mais je ne parle pas
-    l’Anglais.</p>
-
-  <p>“Well then, my good fellow, I will speak English, and you may speak
-    Americaine.”</p>
-
-  <p>Pardón, pardón, Monsieur.</p>
-
-  <p>Well, then we will both speak Americaine.</p>
-
-  <p>Val, sare, je suis bien content, pour for I see dat you speaks putty
-    coot Americaine.</p>
-
-  <p>What may I call your name?</p>
-
-  <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_64">64</span></p>
-
-  <p>Ba’tiste, Monsieur.</p>
-
-  <p>What Indians are those so splendidly dressed, and with such fine
-    horses, encamped on the plain yonder?</p>
-
-  <p>Ils sont Corbeaux.</p>
-
-  <p>Crows, ha?</p>
-
-  <p>Yes, sare, Monsieur.</p>
-
-  <p>We are then in the Crow country?</p>
-
-  <p>Non, Monsieur, not putty éxact; we are in de coontrae of de dam Pieds
-    noirs.</p>
-
-  <p>Blackfeet, ha?</p>
-
-  <p>Oui.</p>
-
-  <p>What blue mountain is that which we see in the distance yonder?</p>
-
-  <p>Ha, quel Montaigne? cela est la Montaigne du (pardón).</p>
-
-  <p>Du Rochers, I suppose?</p>
-
-  <p>Oui, Monsieur, de Rock Montaigne.</p>
-
-  <p>You live here, I suppose?</p>
-
-  <p>Non, Monsieur, I comes fair from de West.</p>
-
-  <p>What, from the West! Where under the heavens is that?</p>
-
-  <p>Wat, diable! de West? well you shall see, Monsieur, he is putty fair
-    off, súppose. Monsieur Pierre Chouteau can give you de histoire de ma
-    vie—il bien sait que je prends les castors, very fair in de West.</p>
-
-  <p>You carry goods, I suppose, to trade with the Snake Indians beyond the
-    mountains, and trap beaver also?</p>
-
-  <p>Oui, Monsieur.</p>
-
-  <p>Do you see anything of the “Flat-heads” in your country?</p>
-
-  <p>Non, Monsieur, ils demeurent very, <em>very</em> fair to de West.</p>
-
-  <p>Well, Ba’tiste, I’ll lay my course back again for the present, and at
-    some future period, endeavour to go to the “West.” But you say you
-    trade with the Indians and trap beavers; you are in the employment of
-    the American Fur Company, I suppose?</p>
-
-  <p>Non, Monsieur, not quite éxact; mais, súppose, I am “<em>free
-    trappare</em>,” free, Monsr. free.</p>
-
-  <p>Free trapper, what’s that? I don’t understand you, Ba’tiste.</p>
-
-  <p>Well, Monsr. súppose he is easy pour understand—you shall know all.
-    In de first place, I am enlist for tree year in de Fur Comp in <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr>
-    Louis—for bounté—pour bounté, eighty dollare (understand, ha?) den I
-    am go for wages, et I ave come de Missouri up, et I am trap castors
-    putty much for six years, you see, until I am learn very much; and den
-    you see, Monsr. M‘Kenzie is give me tree horse—one pour ride, et two
-    pour pack (mais he is not buy, him not give, he is lend), and he is
-    lend twelve trap; and I ave make start into de Rocky Montaigne, et I am
-    live all álone on de leet rivares pour prendre les castors. Sometime
-    six months—sometime five month, and I come back to Yel Stone, et Monsr.
-    M‘Kenzie is give me coot price pour all.</p>
-
-  <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_65">65</span></p>
-
-  <p>So Mr. M‘Kenzie fits you out, and takes your beaver of you at a certain
-    price?</p>
-
-  <p>Oui, Monsr. oui.</p>
-
-  <p>What price does he pay you for your beaver, Ba’tiste?</p>
-
-  <p>Ha! súppose one dollare pour one beavare.</p>
-
-  <p>A dollar per skin, ah?</p>
-
-  <p>Oui.</p>
-
-  <p>Well, you must live a lonesome and hazardous sort of life; can you make
-    anything by it?</p>
-
-  <p>Oh! oui, Monsr. putty coot, mais if it is not pour for de dam rascalité
-    Riccaree, et de dam Pieds noirs, de Blackfoot Ingin, I am make very
-    much monnair, mais (sacré), I am rob—rob—rob too much!</p>
-
-  <p>What, do the Blackfeet rob you of your furs?</p>
-
-  <p>Oui, Monsr. rob, súppose, five time! I am been free trappare seven
-    year, et I am rob five time—I am someting left not at all—he is take
-    all; he is take all de horse—he is take my gun—he is take all my
-    clothes—he is takee de castors—et I am come back with foot. So in
-    de Fort, some cloths is cost putty much monnair, et some whiskey is
-    give sixteen dollares pour gall; so you see I am owe de Fur Comp 600
-    dollare, by Gar!</p>
-
-  <p>Well, Ba’tiste, this then is what you call being a free trapper is it?</p>
-
-  <p>Oui, Monsr. “free trappare,” free!</p>
-
-  <p>You seem to be going down towards the Yellow Stone, and probably have
-    been out on a trapping excursion.</p>
-
-  <p>Oui, Monsr. c’est vrai.</p>
-
-  <p>Have you been robbed this time, Ba’tiste?</p>
-
-  <p>Oui, Monsr. by de dam Pieds noirs—I am loose much; I am loose all—very
-    all——eh bien——pour le dernier—c’est le dernier fois, Monsr. I am go to
-    Yel Stone—I am go le Missouri down, I am go to <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Louis.</p>
-
-  <p>Well, Ba’tiste, I am to figure about in this part of the world a few
-    weeks longer, and then I shall descend the Missouri from the mouth of
-    Yellow Stone, to <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Louis; and I should like exceedingly to employ
-    just such a man as you are as a voyageur with me—I will give you good
-    wages, and pay all your expenses; what say you?</p>
-
-  <p>Avec tout mon cour, Monsr. remercie, remercie.</p>
-
-  <p>It’s a bargain then, Ba’tiste; I will see you at the mouth of Yellow
-    Stone.</p>
-
-  <p>Oui, Monsr. in de Yel Stone, bon soir, bon soir, Monsr.</p>
-
-  <p>But stop, Ba’tiste, you told me those were Crows encamped yonder.</p>
-
-  <p>Oui, Monsieur, oui, des Corbeaux.</p>
-
-  <p>And I suppose you are their interpreter?</p>
-
-  <p>Non, Monsieur.</p>
-
-  <p>But you speak the Crow language?</p>
-
-  <p>Ouis, Monsieur.</p>
-
-  <p>Well then, turn about; I am going to pay them a visit, and you can
-    render me a service.—Bien, Monsieur, allons.</p>
-
-  <div class="footnotes">
-    <div class="footnote">
-      <a id="Footnote_2" href="#FNanchor_2" class="label">[2]</a> Wyöming.
-    </div>
-  </div>
-
-  <hr class="chap" />
-  <div class="chapter">
-    <span class="pagenum" id="Page_66">66</span>
-    <h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_10">LETTER—<abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 10.</h2>
-  </div>
-  <div class="subheadc">MANDAN VILLAGE, <i>UPPER MISSOURI</i>.</div>
-
-  <p><span class="smcap">Soon</span> after the writing of my last Letter, which was dated at the Mouth
-    of Yellow Stone, I embarked on the river for this place, where I landed
-    safely; and have resided for a couple of weeks, a guest in this almost
-    subterraneous city—the strangest place in the world; where one sees
-    in the most rapid succession, scenes which force him to mirth—to pity
-    and compassion—to admiration—disgust; to fear and astonishment. But
-    before I proceed to reveal them, I must give you a brief sketch of my
-    voyage down the river from the Mouth of the Yellow Stone river to this
-    place, a distance of 200 miles; and which my little note-book says, was
-    performed somewhat in the following manner:</p>
-
-  <p>When I had completed my rambles and my sketches in those regions, and
-    Ba’tiste and Bogard had taken their last spree, and fought their last
-    battles, and forgotten them in the final and affectionate embrace and
-    farewell (all of which are habitual with these game-fellows, when
-    settling up their long-standing accounts with their fellow-trappers
-    of the mountain streams); and after Mr. M‘Kenzie had procured for me
-    a snug little craft, that was to waft us down the mighty torrent; we
-    launched off one fine morning, taking our leave of the Fort, and the
-    friends within it; and also, for ever, of the beautiful green fields,
-    and hills, and dales, and prairie bluffs, that encompass the enchanting
-    shores of the Yellow Stone.</p>
-
-  <p>Our canoe, which was made of green timber, was heavy and awkward; but
-    our course being with the current, promised us a fair and successful
-    voyage. Ammunition was laid in in abundance—a good stock of dried
-    buffalo tongues—a dozen or two of beavers’ tails—and a good supply of
-    pemican. Bogard and Ba’tiste occupied the middle and bow, with their
-    paddles in their hands; and I took my seat in the stern of the boat,
-    at the steering oar. Our larder was as I have said; and added to that,
-    some few pounds of fresh buffalo meat.</p>
-
-  <p>Besides which, and ourselves, our little craft carried several
-    packs of Indian dresses and other articles, which I had purchased
-    of the Indians; and also my canvass and easel, and our culinary
-    articles, which were few and simple;<span class="pagenum" id="Page_67">67</span> consisting of three tin cups, a
-    coffee-pot—one plate—a frying-pan—and a tin kettle.</p>
-
-  <p>Thus fitted out and embarked, we swept off at a rapid rate under the
-    shouts of the savages, and the cheers of our friends, who lined the
-    banks as we gradually lost sight of them, and turned our eyes towards
-    <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Louis, which was 2000 miles below us, with nought intervening, save
-    the widespread and wild regions, inhabited by the roaming savage.</p>
-
-  <p>At the end of our first day’s journey, we found ourselves handily
-    encamping with several thousand Assinneboins, who had pitched their
-    tents upon the bank of the river, and received us with every mark of
-    esteem and friendship.</p>
-
-  <p>In the midst of this group, was my friend Wi-jun-jon (the pigeon’s
-    egg head), still lecturing on the manners and customs of the “pale
-    faces.” Continuing to relate without any appearance of exhaustion, the
-    marvellous scenes which he had witnessed amongst the white people, on
-    his tour to Washington City.</p>
-
-  <p>Many were the gazers who seemed to be the whole time crowding around
-    him, to hear his recitals; and the plight which he was in rendered his
-    appearance quite ridiculous. His beautiful military dress, of which I
-    before spoke, had been so shockingly tattered and metamorphosed, that
-    his appearance was truly laughable.</p>
-
-  <p>His keg of whiskey had dealt out to his friends all its charms—his
-    frock-coat, which his wife had thought was of no earthly use below
-    the waist, had been cut off at that place, and the nether half of it
-    supplied her with a beautiful pair of leggings; and his silver-laced
-    hat-band had been converted into a splendid pair of garters for the
-    same. His umbrella the poor fellow still affectionately held on to,
-    and kept spread at all times. As I before said, his theme seemed to
-    be exhaustless, and he, in the estimation of his tribe, to be an
-    unexampled liar.</p>
-
-  <p>Of the village of Assinneboins we took leave on the following morning,
-    and rapidly made our way down the river. The rate of the current
-    being four or five miles per hour, through one continued series of
-    picturesque grass-covered bluffs and knolls, which everywhere had the
-    appearance of an old and highly-cultivated country, with houses and
-    fences removed.</p>
-
-  <p>There is, much of the way, on one side or the other, a bold and abrupt
-    precipice of three or four hundred feet in elevation, presenting itself
-    in an exceedingly rough and picturesque form, to the shore of the
-    river; sloping down from the summit level of the prairies above, which
-    sweep off from the brink of the precipice, almost level, to an unknown
-    distance.</p>
-
-  <p>It is along the rugged and wild fronts of these cliffs, whose sides are
-    generally formed of hard clay, that the mountain-sheep dwell, and are
-    often discovered in great numbers. Their habits are much like those
-    of the goat; and in every respect they are like that animal, except
-    in the horns, which resemble those of the ram; sometimes making two
-    entire circles in their<span class="pagenum" id="Page_68">68</span> coil; and at the roots, each horn is, in some
-    instances, from five to six inches in breadth.</p>
-
-  <p>On the second day of our voyage we discovered a number of these
-    animals skipping along the sides of the precipice, always keeping
-    about equi-distant between the top and bottom of the ledge; leaping
-    and vaulting in the most extraordinary manner from point to point, and
-    seeming to cling actually, to the sides of the wall, where neither man
-    nor beast could possibly follow them.</p>
-
-  <p>We landed our canoe, and endeavoured to shoot one of these sagacious
-    animals; and after he had led us a long and fruitless chase, amongst
-    the cliffs, we thought we had fairly entrapped him in such a way as to
-    be sure to bring him, at last, within the command of our rifles; when
-    he suddenly bounded from his narrow foot-hold in the ledge, and tumbled
-    down a distance of more than a hundred feet, amongst the fragments of
-    rocks and clay, where I thought we must certainly find his carcass
-    without further trouble; when, to my great surprise, I saw him bounding
-    off, and he was almost instantly out of my sight.</p>
-
-  <p>Bogard, who was an old hunter, and well acquainted with these
-    creatures, shouldered his rifle, and said to me—“the game is up; and
-    you now see the use of those big horns; when they fall by accident, or
-    find it necessary to quit their foot-hold in the crevice, they fall
-    upon their head at a great distance unharmed, even though it should be
-    on the solid rock.”</p>
-
-  <p>Being on shore, and our canoe landed secure, we whiled away the greater
-    part of this day amongst the wild and ragged cliffs, into which we had
-    entered; and a part of our labours were vainly spent in the pursuit
-    of a war-eagle. This noble bird is the one which the Indians in these
-    regions, value so highly for their tail feathers, which are used as
-    the most valued plumes for decorating the heads and dresses of their
-    warriors. It is a beautiful bird, and, the Indians tell me, conquers
-    all other varieties of eagles in the country; from which circumstance,
-    the Indians respect the bird, and hold it in the highest esteem, and
-    value its quills. I am unable so say to what variety it belongs; but
-    I am sure it is not to be seen in any of our museums; nor is it to be
-    found in America (I think), until one gets near to the base of the
-    Rocky Mountains. This bird has often been called the calumet eagle and
-    war-eagle; the last of which appellations I have already accounted
-    for; and the other has arisen from the fact, that the Indians almost
-    invariably ornament their calumets or pipes of peace with its quills.</p>
-
-  <p>Our day’s loitering brought us through many a wild scene; occasionally
-    across the tracks of the grizzly bear, and, in sight merely of a band
-    of buffaloes; “which got the wind of us,” and were out of the way,
-    leaving us to return to our canoe at night, with a mere speck of good
-    luck. Just before we reached the river, I heard the crack of a rifle,
-    and in a few moments Bogard came in sight, and threw down from his
-    shoulders a fine antelope; which added to our larder, and we were
-    ready to proceed. We embarked<span class="pagenum" id="Page_69">69</span> and travelled until nightfall, when
-    we encamped on a beautiful little prairie at the base of a series of
-    grass-covered bluffs; and the next morning cooked our breakfast and
-    ate it, and rowed on until late in the afternoon; when we stopped at
-    the base of some huge clay bluffs, forming one of the most curious
-    and romantic scenes imaginable. At this spot the river expands itself
-    into the appearance somewhat of a beautiful lake; and in the midst of
-    it, and on and about its sand-bars, floated and stood, hundreds and
-    thousands of white swans and pelicans.</p>
-
-  <p>Though the scene in front of our encampment at this place was placid
-    and beautiful; with its flowing water—its wild fowl—and its almost
-    endless variety of gracefully sloping hills and green prairies in the
-    distance; yet it was not less wild and picturesque in our rear, where
-    the rugged and various coloured bluffs were grouped in all the wildest
-    fancies and rudeness of Nature’s accidental varieties.</p>
-
-  <p>The whole country behind us seemed to have been dug and thrown up into
-    huge piles, as if some giant mason had been there mixing his mortar
-    and paints, and throwing together his rude models for some sublime
-    structure of a colossal city;—with its walls—its domes—its ramparts—its
-    huge porticos and galleries—its castles—its fosses and ditches;—and in
-    the midst of his progress, he had abandoned his works to the destroying
-    hand of time, which had already done much to tumble them down, and
-    deface their noble structure; by jostling them together, with all their
-    vivid colours, into an unsystematic and unintelligible mass of sublime
-    ruins.</p>
-
-  <p>To this group of clay bluffs, which line the river for many miles in
-    distance, the voyageurs have very appropriately given the name of “the
-    Brick-kilns;” owing to their red appearance, which may be discovered in
-    a clear day at the distance of many leagues.</p>
-
-  <p>By the action of water, or other power, the country seems to have been
-    graded away; leaving occasionally a solitary mound or bluff, rising in
-    a conical form to the height of two or three hundred feet, generally
-    pointed or rounded at the top, and in some places grouped together
-    in great numbers; some of which having a tabular surface on the top,
-    and covered with a green turf. This fact (as all of those which are
-    horizontal on their tops, and corresponding exactly with the summit
-    level of the wide-spreading prairies in distance) clearly shows, that
-    their present isolated and rounded forms have been produced by the
-    action of waters: which have carried away the intervening earth, and
-    left them in the picturesque shapes in which they are now seen.</p>
-
-  <p>A similar formation (or <em>de</em>formation) may be seen in hundreds of
-    places on the shores of the Missouri river, and the actual progress
-    of the operation by which it is produced; leaving yet for the
-    singularity of this place, the peculiar feature, that nowhere else
-    (to my knowledge) occurs; that the superstratum, forming the tops of
-    these mounds (where they remain high enough to support anything of
-    the original surface) is composed, for the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_70">70</span> depth of fifteen feet, of
-    red pumice; terminating at its bottom, in a layer of several feet of
-    sedimentary deposite, which is formed into endless conglomerates of
-    basaltic crystals.</p>
-
-  <p>This strange feature in the country arrests the eye of a traveller
-    suddenly, and as instantly brings him to the conclusion, that he stands
-    in the midst of the ruins of an extinguished volcano.</p>
-
-  <p>As will be seen in the drawings (<a href="#i_037"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 37</a>, a near view,
-    and <a href="#i_038"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 38</a>, a distant view), the sides of these conical
-    bluffs (which are composed of strata of different coloured clays), are
-    continually washing down by the effect of the rains and melting of the
-    frost; and the superincumbent masses of pumice and basalt are crumbling
-    off, and falling down to their bases; and from thence, in vast
-    quantities, by the force of the gorges of water which are often cutting
-    their channels between them—carried into the river, which is close by;
-    and wafted for thousands of miles, floating as light as a cork upon its
-    surface, and lodging in every pile of drift-wood from this place to the
-    ocean.</p>
-
-  <p>The upper part of this layer of pumice is of a brilliant red; and when
-    the sun is shining upon it, is as bright and vivid as vermilion. It is
-    porous and open, and its specific gravity but trifling. These curious
-    bluffs must be seen as they are in nature; or else in a painting, where
-    their colours are faithfully given, or they lose their picturesque
-    beauty, which consists in the variety of their vivid tints. The strata
-    of clay are alternating from red to yellow—white—brown and dark blue;
-    and so curiously arranged, as to form the most pleasing and singular
-    effects.</p>
-
-  <p>During the day that I loitered about this strange scene, I left my
-    men stretched upon the grass, by the canoe; and taking my rifle and
-    sketch-book in my hand, I wandered and clambered through the rugged
-    defiles between the bluffs; passing over and under the immense blocks
-    of the pumice, that had fallen to their bases; determined, if possible,
-    to find the crater, or source, from whence these strange phenomena
-    had sprung; but after clambering and squeezing about for some time,
-    I unfortunately came upon the enormous tracks of a grizzly bear,
-    which, apparently, was travelling in the same direction (probably for
-    a very different purpose) but a few moments before me; and my ardour
-    for exploring was instantly so cooled down, that I hastily retraced
-    my steps, and was satisfied with making my drawings, and collecting
-    specimens of the lava and other minerals in its vicinity.</p>
-
-  <p>After strolling about during the day, and contemplating the beauty of
-    the scenes that were around me, while I sat upon the pinnacles of these
-    pumice-capped mounds; most of which time, Bogard and Ba’tiste laid
-    enjoying the pleasure of a “mountaineer’s nap”—we met together—took
-    our coffee and dried buffalo tongues—spread our buffalo robes upon the
-    grass, and enjoyed during the night the luxury of sleep, that belongs
-    so peculiarly to the tired voyageur in these realms of pure air and
-    dead silence.</p>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>21</i></div>
-  <figure id="i_037">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_037.jpg" alt="" />
-     <figcaption>37</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <figure class="mt2" id="i_038">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_038.jpg" alt="" />
-     <figcaption>38</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_71">71</span></p>
-
-  <p>In the morning, and before sunrise, as usual, Bogard (who was a Yankee,
-    and a “wide-awake-fellow,” just retiring from a ten years’ siege of
-    hunting and trapping in the Rocky Mountains,) thrust his head out from
-    under the robe, rubbing his eyes open, and exclaiming as he grasped
-    for his gun, “By darn, look at old Cale! will you!” Ba’tiste, who was
-    more fond of his dreams, snored away, muttering something that I could
-    not understand, when Bogard seized him with a grip, that instantly
-    shook off his iron slumbers. I rose at the same time, and all eyes were
-    turned at once upon <em>Caleb</em> (as the grizzly bear is familiarly
-    called by the trappers in the Rocky Mountains—or more often “Cale,”
-    for brevity’s sake), who was sitting up in the dignity and fury of her
-    sex, within a few rods, and gazing upon us, with her two little cubs
-    at her side! here was a “<em>fix</em>,” and a subject for the painter;
-    but I had no time to sketch it—I turned my eyes to the canoe which had
-    been fastened at the shore a few paces from us; and saw that everything
-    had been pawed out of it, and all eatables had been without ceremony
-    devoured. My packages of dresses and Indian curiosities had been drawn
-    out upon the bank, and deliberately opened and inspected. Every thing
-    had been scraped and pawed out, to the bottom of the boat; and even
-    the rawhide thong, with which it was tied to a stake, had been chewed,
-    and no doubt swallowed, as there was no trace of it remaining. Nor was
-    this peep into the secrets of our luggage enough for her insatiable
-    curiosity—we saw by the prints of her huge paws, that were left in the
-    ground, that she had been perambulating our humble mattresses, smelling
-    at our toes and our noses, without choosing to molest us; verifying a
-    trite saying of the country, “That man lying down is <em>medicine</em> to
-    the grizzly bear;” though it is a well-known fact, that man and beast,
-    upon their feet, are sure to be attacked when they cross the path of
-    this grizzly and grim monster, which is the terror of all this country;
-    often growing to the enormous size of eight hundred or one thousand
-    pounds.</p>
-
-  <p>Well—whilst we sat in the dilemma which I have just described, each
-    one was hastily preparing his weapons for defence, when I proposed the
-    mode of attack; by which means I was in hopes to destroy her—capture
-    her young ones, and bring her skin home as a trophy. My plans, however,
-    entirely failed, though we were well armed; for Bogard and Ba’tiste
-    both remonstrated with a vehemence that was irresistible; saying that
-    the standing rule in the mountains was “never to fight Caleb, except
-    in self-defence.” I was almost induced, however, to attack her alone,
-    with my rifle in hand, and a pair of heavy pistols; with a tomahawk
-    and scalping-knife in my belt; when Ba’tiste suddenly thrust his arm
-    over my shoulder and pointing in another direction, exclaimed in an
-    emphatic tone, “Voila! voila un corps de reserve—Monsr. Cataline—voila
-    sa mari! allons—allons! déscendons la riviére, toute de suite! toute
-    de suite! Monsr.” to which Bogard added, “these darned animals are too
-    much for us, and we had better be off;” at which my courage cooled, and
-    we packed up and re-embarked as fast as<span class="pagenum" id="Page_72">72</span> possible; giving each one of
-    them the contents of our rifles as we drifted off in the current; which
-    brought the she-monster, in all her rage and fury, to the spot where
-    we, a few moments before, had passed our most prudent resolve.</p>
-
-  <p>During the rest of this day, we passed on rapidly, gazing upon and
-    admiring the beautiful shores, which were continually changing, from
-    the high and ragged cliffs, to the graceful and green slopes of the
-    prairie bluffs; and then to the wide expanded meadows, with their long
-    waving grass, enamelled with myriads of wild flowers.</p>
-
-  <p>The scene was one of enchantment the whole way; our chief conversation
-    was about grizzly bears and hair’s-breadth escapes; of the histories
-    of which my companions had volumes in store.—Our breakfast was a late
-    one—cooked and eaten about five in the afternoon; at which time our
-    demolished larder was luckily replenished by the unerring rifle of
-    Bogard, which brought down a fine antelope, as it was innocently gazing
-    at us, from the bank of the river. We landed our boat, and took in
-    our prize; but there being no wood for our fire, we shoved off, and
-    soon ran upon the head of an island, that was covered with immense
-    quantities of raft and drift wood, where we easily kindled a huge fire
-    and ate our delicious meal from a clean peeled log, astride of which
-    we comfortably sat, making it answer admirably the double purpose of
-    chairs and a table. After our meal was finished, we plied the paddles,
-    and proceeded several miles further on our course; leaving our fire
-    burning, and dragging our canoe upon the shore, in the dark, in a wild
-    and unknown spot; and silently spreading our robes for our slumbers,
-    which it is not generally considered prudent to do by the side of our
-    fires, which might lead a war-party upon us, who often are prowling
-    about and seeking an advantage over their enemy.</p>
-
-  <p>The scenery of this day’s travel, as I have before said, was
-    exceedingly beautiful; and our canoe was often run to the shore,
-    upon which we stepped to admire the endless variety of wild flowers,
-    “wasting their sweetness on the desert air,” and the abundance of
-    delicious fruits that were about us. Whilst wandering through the high
-    grass, the wild sun-flowers and voluptuous lilies were constantly
-    taunting us by striking our faces; whilst here and there, in every
-    direction, there were little copses and clusters of plum trees and
-    gooseberries, and wild currants, loaded down with their fruit; and
-    amongst these, to sweeten the atmosphere and add a charm to the
-    effect, the wild rose bushes seemed planted in beds and in hedges, and
-    everywhere were decked out in all the glory of their delicate tints,
-    and shedding sweet aroma to every breath of the air that passed over
-    them.</p>
-
-  <p>In addition to these, we had the luxury of service-berries, without
-    stint; and the buffalo bushes, which are peculiar to these northern
-    regions, lined the banks of the river and defiles in the bluffs,
-    sometimes for miles together; forming almost impassable hedges,
-    so loaded with the weight of their fruit, that their boughs were
-    everywhere gracefully bending down and resting on the ground.</p>
-
-  <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_73">73</span></p>
-
-  <p>This last shrub (<i>shepperdia</i>), which may be said to be the most
-    beautiful ornament that decks out the wild prairies, forms a striking
-    contrast to the rest of the foliage, from the blue appearance of its
-    leaves, by which it can be distinguished for miles in distance. The
-    fruit which it produces in such incredible profusion, hanging in
-    clusters to every limb and to every twig, is about the size of ordinary
-    currants, and not unlike them in colour and even in flavour; being
-    exceedingly acid, and almost unpalatable, until they are bitten by the
-    frost of autumn, when they are sweetened, and their flavour delicious;
-    having, to the taste, much the character of grapes, and I am inclined
-    to think, would produce excellent wine.</p>
-
-  <p>The shrub which bears them resembles some varieties of the thorn,
-    though (as I have said) differs entirely in the colour of its leaves.
-    It generally grows to the height of six or seven feet, and often to
-    ten or twelve; and in groves or hedges, in some places, for miles in
-    extent. While gathering the fruit, and contemplating it as capable of
-    producing good wine, I asked my men this question, “Suppose we three
-    had ascended the river to this point in the spring of the year, and in
-    a timbered bottom had pitched our little encampment; and one of you two
-    had been a boat-builder, and the other a cooper—the one to have got out
-    your staves and constructed the wine casks, and the other to have built
-    a mackinaw-boat, capable of carrying fifty or a hundred casks; and I
-    had been a good hunter, capable of supplying the little encampment with
-    meat; and we should have started off about this time, to float down
-    the current, stopping our boat wherever we saw the finest groves of
-    the buffalo bush, collecting the berries and expressing the juice, and
-    putting it into our casks for fermentation while on the water for two
-    thousand miles; how many bushels of these berries could you two gather
-    in a day, provided I watched the boat and cooked your meals? and how
-    many barrels of good wine do you think we could offer for sale in <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr>
-    Louis when we should arrive there?”</p>
-
-  <p>This idea startled my two men exceedingly, and Ba’tiste gabbled so
-    fast in French, that I could not translate; and I am almost willing
-    to believe, that but for the want of the requisite tools for the
-    enterprize, I should have lost the company of Bogard and Ba’tiste;
-    or that I should have been under the necessity of submitting to one
-    of the unpleasant alternatives which are often regulated by the
-    <em>majority</em>, in this strange and singular wilderness.</p>
-
-  <p>I at length, however, got their opinions on the subject; when they
-    mutually agreed that they could gather thirty bushels of this fruit
-    per day; and I gave it then, and I offer it now, as my own also,
-    that their estimate was not out of the way, and judged so from the
-    experiments which we made in the following manner:—We several times
-    took a large mackinaw blanket which I had in the canoe, and spreading
-    it on the ground under the bushes, where they were the most abundantly
-    loaded with fruit; and by striking the stalk of the tree with a club,
-    we received the whole contents of its branches in an instant on the
-    blanket, which was taken up by the corners, and not unfrequently<span class="pagenum" id="Page_74">74</span> would
-    produce us, from one blow, the eighth part of a bushel of this fruit;
-    when the boughs relieved of their burden, instantly flew up to their
-    native position.</p>
-
-  <p>Of this beautiful native, which I think would form one of the loveliest
-    ornamental shrubs for a gentleman’s park or pleasure grounds, I
-    procured a number of the roots; but which, from the many accidents and
-    incidents that our unlucky bark was subjected to on our rough passage,
-    I lost them (and almost the recollection of them) as well as many other
-    curiosities I had collected on our way down the river.</p>
-
-  <p>On the morning of the next day, and not long after we had stopped and
-    taken our breakfast, and while our canoe was swiftly gliding along
-    under the shore of a beautiful prairie, I saw in the grass, on the
-    bank above me, what I supposed to be the back of a fine elk, busy at
-    his grazing. I let our craft float silently by for a little distance,
-    when I communicated the intelligence to my men, and slily ran in, to
-    the shore. I pricked the priming of my firelock, and taking a bullet
-    or two in my mouth, stepped ashore, and trailing my rifle in my hand,
-    went back under the bank, carefully crawling up in a little ravine,
-    quite sure of my game; when, to my utter surprise and violent alarm,
-    I found the elk to be no more nor less than an Indian pony, getting
-    his breakfast! and a little beyond him, a number of others grazing;
-    and nearer to me, on the left, a war-party reclining around a little
-    fire; and yet nearer, and within twenty paces of the muzzle of my gun,
-    the naked shoulders if a brawny Indian, who seemed busily engaged in
-    cleaning his gun. From this critical dilemma, the reader can easily
-    imagine that I vanished with all the suddenness and secrecy that was
-    possible, bending my course towards my canoe. Bogard and Ba’tiste
-    correctly construing the expression of my face, and the agitation of
-    my hurried retreat, prematurely unmoored from the shore; and the force
-    of the current carrying them around a huge pile of drift wood, threw
-    me back for some distance upon my own resources; though they finally
-    got in, near the shore, and I into the boat, with the steering oar in
-    my hand; when we plied our sinews with effect and in silence, till we
-    were wafted far from the ground which we deemed critical and dangerous
-    to our lives; for we had been daily in dread of meeting a war-party of
-    the revengeful Riccarees, which we had been told was on the river, in
-    search of the Mandans. From and after this exciting occurrence, the
-    entries in my journal for the rest of the voyage to the village of the
-    Mandans, were as follow:—</p>
-
-  <p>Saturday, fifth day of our voyage from the mouth of Yellow Stone, at
-    eleven o’clock.—Landed our canoe in the Grand Détour (or Big Bend) as
-    it is called, at the base of a stately clay mound, and ascended, all
-    hands, to the summit level, to take a glance at the picturesque and
-    magnificent works of Nature that were about us. Spent the remainder
-    of the day in painting a view of this grand scene; for which purpose
-    Ba’tiste and Bogard carried my easel and canvass to the top of a
-    huge mound, where they left me at my<span class="pagenum" id="Page_75">75</span> work; and I painted my picture
-    (<a href="#i_039"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 39</a>), whilst they amused themselves with their rifles,
-    decoying a flock of antelopes, of which they killed several, and
-    abundantly added to the stock of our provisions.</p>
-
-  <p>Scarcely anything in nature can be found, I am sure, more exceedingly
-    picturesque than the view from this place; exhibiting the wonderful
-    manner in which the gorges of the river have cut out its deep channel
-    through these walls of clay on either side, of two or three hundred
-    feet in elevation; and the imposing features of the high table-lands in
-    distance, standing as a perpetual anomaly in the country, and producing
-    the indisputable, though astounding evidence of the fact, that there
-    has been at some ancient period, a <em>super</em> surface to this
-    country, corresponding with the elevation of these tabular hills, whose
-    surface, for half a mile or more, on their tops, is perfectly level;
-    being covered with a green turf, and yet one hundred and fifty or two
-    hundred feet elevated above what may now be properly termed the summit
-    level of all this section of country; as will be seen stretching off at
-    their base, without furnishing other instances in hundreds of miles,
-    of anything rising one foot above its surface, excepting the solitary
-    group which is shewn in the painting.</p>
-
-  <p>The fact, that <em>there</em> was once the summit level of this great
-    valley, is a stubborn one, however difficult it may be to reconcile
-    it with reasonable causes and results; and the mind of feeble man is
-    at once almost paralyzed in endeavouring to comprehend the process
-    by which the adjacent country, from this to the base of the Rocky
-    Mountains, as well as in other directions, could have been swept away;
-    and equally so, for knowledge of the place where its mighty deposits
-    have been carried.</p>
-
-  <p>I recollect to have seen on my way up the river, at the distance of
-    six or eight hundred miles below, a place called “the Square Hills,”
-    and another denominated “the Bijou Hills;” which are the only features
-    on the river, seeming to correspond with this strange <em>remain</em>,
-    and which, on my way down, I shall carefully examine; and not fail to
-    add their testimonies (if I am not mistaken in their character) to
-    further speculations on this interesting feature of the geology of the
-    great valley of the Missouri. Whilst my men were yet engaged in their
-    sporting excursions, I left my easel and travelled to the base and
-    summit of these tabular hills; which, to my great surprise, I found to
-    be several miles from the river, and a severe journey to accomplish
-    getting back to our encampment at nightfall. I found by their sides
-    that they were evidently of an alluvial deposite, composed of a great
-    variety of horizontal layers of clays of different colours—of granitic
-    sand and pebbles (many of which furnished me beautiful specimens of
-    agate, jasper and carnelians), and here and there large fragments of
-    pumice and cinders, which gave, as instances above-mentioned, evidences
-    of volcanic remains.</p>
-
-  <p>The mode by which Bogard and Ba’tiste had been entrapping the timid
-    and sagacious antelopes was one which is frequently and successfully
-    practised in this country; and on this day had afforded them fine
-    sport.</p>
-
-  <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_76">76</span></p>
-
-  <p>The antelope of this country, I believe to be different from all
-    other known varieties, and forms one of the most pleasing, living
-    ornaments to this western world. They are seen in some places in great
-    numbers sporting and playing about the hills and dales; and often, in
-    flocks of fifty or a hundred, will follow the boat of the descending
-    voyageur, or the travelling caravan, for hours together; keeping off
-    at a safe distance, on the right or left, galloping up and down the
-    hills, snuffing their noses and stamping their feet; as if they were
-    endeavouring to remind the traveller of the wicked trespass he was
-    making on their own hallowed ground.</p>
-
-  <p>This little animal seems to be endowed, like many other gentle and
-    sweet-breathing creatures, with an undue share of curiosity, which
-    often leads them to destruction; and the hunter who wishes to entrap
-    them, saves himself the trouble of travelling after them. When he has
-    been discovered, he has only to elevate above the tops of the grass,
-    his red or yellow handkerchief on the end of his gun-rod (<a href="#i_040"><span class="smcap">plate</span>
-    40</a>), which he sticks in the ground, and to which they are sure to
-    advance, though with great coyness and caution; whilst he lies close,
-    at a little distance, with his rifle in hand; when it is quite an easy
-    matter to make sure of two or three at a shot, which he gets in range
-    of his eye, to be pierced with one bullet.</p>
-
-  <p>On Sunday, departed from our encampment in the Grand Détour; and having
-    passed for many miles, through a series of winding and ever-varying
-    bluffs and fancied ruins, like such as have already been described,
-    our attention was more than usually excited by the stupendous scene
-    (<a href="#i_041"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 41</a>), called by the voyageurs “the Grand Dome,” which
-    was lying in full view before us.</p>
-
-  <p>Our canoe was here hauled ashore, and a day whiled away again, amongst
-    these clay built ruins.</p>
-
-  <p>We clambered to their summits and enjoyed the distant view of the
-    Missouri for many miles below, wending its way through the countless
-    groups of clay and grass-covered hills; and we wandered back on the
-    plains, in a toilsome and unsuccessful pursuit of a herd of buffaloes,
-    which we discovered at some distance. Though we were disappointed
-    in the results of the chase; yet we were in a measure repaid in
-    amusements, which we found in paying a visit to an extensive village of
-    prairie dogs, and of which I should render some account.</p>
-
-  <p>I have subjoined a sketch (<a href="#i_042"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 42</a>) of one of these
-    <i>sub-terra</i> communities; though it was taken in a former
-    excursion, when my party was on horseback, and near the mouth of the
-    Yellow Stone River; yet it answers for this place as well as any other,
-    for their habits are one and the same wherever they are found; their
-    houses or burrows are all alike, and as their location is uniformly on
-    a level and desolate prairie, without timber, there is little room for
-    variety or dissimilarity.</p>
-
-  <p>The prairie dog of the American Prairies is undoubtedly a variety
-    of the marmot; and probably not unlike those which inhabit the vast
-    Steppes of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_77">77</span> Asia. It bears no resemblance to any variety of dogs,
-    except in the sound of its voice, when excited by the approach of
-    danger, which is something like that of a very small dog, and still
-    much more resembling the barking of a grey squirrel.</p>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>22</i></div>
-  <figure id="i_039">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_039.jpg" alt="" />
-     <figcaption>39</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <figure class="mt2" id="i_040">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_040.jpg" alt="" />
-     <figcaption>40</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p>The size of these curious little animals is not far from that of a
-    very large rat, and they are not unlike in their appearance. As I have
-    said, their burrows, are uniformly built in a lonely desert; and away,
-    both from the proximity of timber and water. Each individual, or each
-    family, dig their hole in the prairie to the depth of eight or ten
-    feet, throwing up the dirt from each excavation, in a little pile, in
-    the form of a cone, which forms the only elevation for them to ascend;
-    where they sit, to bark and chatter when an enemy is approaching their
-    village. These villages are sometimes of several miles in extent;
-    containing (I would almost say) myriads of their excavations and little
-    dirt hillocks, and to the ears of their visitors, the din of their
-    barkings is too confused and too peculiar to be described.</p>
-
-  <p>In the present instance, we made many endeavours to shoot them, but
-    finding our efforts to be entirely in vain. As we were approaching them
-    at a distance, each one seemed to be perched up, on his hind feet,
-    on his appropriate domicil, with a significant jerk of his tail at
-    every bark, positively disputing our right of approach. I made several
-    attempts to get near enough to “draw a bead” upon one of them; and
-    just before I was ready to fire (and as if they knew the utmost limits
-    of their safety), they sprang down into their holes, and instantly
-    turning their bodies, shewed their ears and the ends of their noses, as
-    they were peeping out at me; which position they would hold, until the
-    shortness of the distance subjected their scalps to danger again, from
-    the aim of a rifle; when they instantly disappeared from our sight,
-    and all was silence thereafter, about their premises, as I passed them
-    over; until I had so far advanced by them, that their ears were again
-    discovered, and at length themselves, at full length, perched on the
-    tops of their little hillocks and threatening as before; thus gradually
-    sinking and rising like a wave before and behind me.</p>
-
-  <p>The holes leading down to their burrows, are four or five inches in
-    diameter, and run down nearly perpendicular; where they undoubtedly
-    communicate into something like a subterraneous city (as I have
-    formerly learned from fruitless endeavours to dig them out), undermined
-    and vaulted; by which means, they can travel for a great distance under
-    the ground, without danger from pursuit.</p>
-
-  <p>Their food is simply the grass in the immediate vicinity of their
-    burrows, which is cut close to the ground by their flat, shovel teeth;
-    and, as they sometimes live twenty miles from any water, it is to be
-    supposed that they get moisture enough from the dew on the grass, on
-    which they feed chiefly at night; or that (as is generally supposed)
-    they sink wells from their under-ground habitations, by which they
-    descend low enough to get their supply. In the winter, they are for
-    several months invisible; existing, undoubtedly,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_78">78</span> in a torpid state,
-    as they certainly lay by no food for that season—nor can they procure
-    any. These curious little animals belong to almost every latitude in
-    the vast plains of prairie in North America; and their villages, which
-    I have sometimes encountered in my travels, have compelled my party to
-    ride several miles out of our way to get by them; for their burrows are
-    generally within a few feet of each other, and dangerous to the feet
-    and the limbs of our horses.</p>
-
-  <p>The sketch of the bluffs denominated “the Grand Dome,” of which I spoke
-    but a few moments since, is a faithful delineation of the lines and
-    character of that wonderful scene; and the reader has here a just and
-    striking illustration of the ruin-like appearances, as I have formerly
-    described, that are so often met with on the banks of this mighty river.</p>
-
-  <p>This is, perhaps, one of the most grand and beautiful scenes of the
-    kind to be met with in this country, owing to the perfect appearance
-    of its several huge domes, turrets, and towers, which were everywhere
-    as precise and as perfect in their forms as they are represented in
-    the illustration. These stupendous works are produced by the continual
-    washing down of the sides of these clay-formed hills; and although, in
-    many instances, their sides, by exposure, have become so hardened, that
-    their change is very slow; yet they are mostly subjected to continual
-    phases, more or less, until ultimately their decomposition ceases,
-    and their sides becoming seeded and covered with a green turf, which
-    protects and holds them (and will hold them) unalterable: with carpets
-    of green, and enamelled with flowers, to be gazed upon with admiration,
-    by the hardy voyageur and the tourist, for ages and centuries to come.</p>
-
-  <p>On Monday, the seventh day from the mouth of the Yellow Stone River,
-    we floated away from this noble scene; looking back again and again
-    upon it, wondering at its curious and endless changes, as the swift
-    current of the river, hurried us by, and gradually out of sight of it.
-    We took a sort of melancholy leave of it—but at every bend and turn in
-    the stream, we were introduced to others—and others—and yet others,
-    almost as strange and curious. At the base of one of these, although
-    we had passed it, we with difficulty landed our canoe, and I ascended
-    to its top, with some hours’ labour; having to cut a foot-hold in the
-    clay with my hatchet for each step, a great part of the way up its
-    sides. So curious was this solitary bluff, standing alone as it did,
-    to the height of 250 feet (<a href="#i_043"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 43</a>), with its sides washed
-    down into hundreds of variegated forms—with large blocks of indurated
-    clay, remaining upon pedestals and columns as it were, and with such
-    a variety of tints; that I looked upon it as a beautiful picture, and
-    devoted an hour or two with my brush, in transferring it to my canvass.</p>
-
-  <p>In the after part of this day we passed another extraordinary scene,
-    which is denominated “the Three Domes” (<a href="#i_044"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 44</a>), forming an
-    exceedingly pleasing group, though requiring no further description for
-    the reader, who is now sufficiently acquainted with these scenes to
-    understand them.</p>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>23</i></div>
-  <figure id="i_041">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_041.jpg" alt="" />
-     <figcaption>41</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <figure class="mt2" id="i_042">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_042.jpg" alt="" />
-     <figcaption>42</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>24</i></div>
-  <figure id="i_043">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_043.jpg" alt="" />
-     <figcaption>43</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <figure class="mt2" id="i_044">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_044.jpg" alt="" />
-     <figcaption>44</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_79">79</span></p>
-
-  <p>On this day, just before night, we landed our little boat in front of
-    the Mandan village; and amongst the hundreds and thousands who flocked
-    towards the river to meet and to greet us, was Mr. Kipp, the agent of
-    the American Fur Company, who has charge of their Establishment at this
-    place. He kindly ordered my canoe to be taken care of, and my things to
-    be carried to his quarters, which was at once done; and I am at this
-    time reaping the benefits of his genuine politeness, and gathering the
-    pleasures of his amusing and interesting society.</p>
-
-  <hr class="chap" />
-  <div class="chapter">
-    <span class="pagenum" id="Page_80">80</span>
-    <h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_11">LETTER—<abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 11.</h2>
-  </div>
-  <div class="subheadc">MANDAN VILLAGE, <i>UPPER MISSOURI</i>.</div>
-
-  <p><span class="smcap">I said</span> that I was here in the midst of a strange people, which is
-    literally true; and I find myself surrounded by subjects and scenes
-    worthy the pens of Irving or Cooper—of the pencils of Raphael or
-    Hogarth; rich in legends and romances, which would require no aid of
-    the imagination for a book or a picture.</p>
-
-  <p>The Mandans (or See-pohs-kah-nu-mah-kah-kee, “people of the pheasants,”
-    as they call themselves), are perhaps one of the most ancient tribes
-    of Indians in our country. Their origin, like that of all the other
-    tribes is from necessity, involved in mystery and obscurity. Their
-    traditions and peculiarities I shall casually recite in this or future
-    epistles; which when understood, will at once, I think, denominate
-    them a peculiar and distinct race. They take great pride in relating
-    their traditions, with regard to their origin; contending that they
-    were the <em>first</em> people created on earth. Their existence in these
-    regions has not been from a very ancient period; and, from what I could
-    learn of their traditions, they have, at a former period, been a very
-    numerous and powerful nation; but by the continual wars which have
-    existed between them and their neighbours, they have been reduced to
-    their present numbers.</p>
-
-  <p>This tribe is at present located on the west bank of the Missouri,
-    about 1800 miles above <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Louis, and 200 below the Mouth of Yellow
-    Stone river. They have two villages only, which are about two miles
-    distant from each other; and number in all (as near as I can learn),
-    about 2000 souls. Their present villages are beautifully located, and
-    judiciously also, for defence against the assaults of their enemies.
-    The site of the lower (or principal) town, in particular (<a href="#i_045"><span class="smcap">plate</span>
-    45</a>), is one of the most beautiful and pleasing that can be seen
-    in the world, and even more beautiful than imagination could ever
-    create. In the very midst of an extensive valley (embraced within a
-    thousand graceful swells and parapets or mounds of interminable green,
-    changing to blue, as they vanish in distance) is built the city, or
-    principal town of the Mandans. On an extensive plain (which is covered
-    with a green turf, as well as the hills and dales, as far as the eye
-    can possibly range, without tree or bush to be seen) are to be seen
-    rising from the ground, and towards the heavens, domes—(not “of gold,”
-    but) of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_81">81</span> dirt—and the thousand spears (not “spires”) and scalp-poles,
-    &amp;c. &amp;c., of the semi-subterraneous village of the hospitable and
-    gentlemanly Mandans.</p>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>25</i></div>
-  <figure id="i_045">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_045.jpg" alt="" />
-     <figcaption>45</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <figure class="mt2" id="i_046">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_046.jpg" alt="" />
-     <figcaption>46</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p>These people formerly (and within the recollection of many of their
-    oldest men) lived fifteen or twenty miles farther down the river, in
-    ten contiguous villages; the marks or ruins of which are yet plainly
-    to be seen. At that period, it is evident, as well from the number of
-    lodges which their villages contained, as from their traditions, that
-    their numbers were much greater than at the present day.</p>
-
-  <p>There are other, and very interesting, traditions and historical facts
-    relative to a still prior location and condition of these people,
-    of which I shall speak more fully on a future occasion. From these,
-    when they are promulged, I think there may be a pretty fair deduction
-    drawn, that they formerly occupied the lower part of the Missouri, and
-    even the Ohio and Muskingum, and have gradually made their way up the
-    Missouri to where they now are.</p>
-
-  <p>There are many remains on the river below this place (and, in fact,
-    to be seen nearly as low down as <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Louis), which shew clearly the
-    peculiar construction of Mandan lodges, and consequently carry a strong
-    proof of the above position. While descending the river, however, which
-    I shall commence in a few weeks, in a canoe, this will be a subject of
-    interest; and I shall give it close examination.</p>
-
-  <p>The ground on which the Mandan village is at present built, was
-    admirably selected for defence; being on a bank forty or fifty feet
-    above the bed of the river. The greater part of this bank is nearly
-    perpendicular, and of solid rock. The river, suddenly changing its
-    course to a right-angle, protects two sides of the village, which is
-    built upon this promontory or angle; they have therefore but one side
-    to protect, which is effectually done by a strong piquet, and a ditch
-    inside of it, of three or four feet in depth. The piquet is composed
-    of timbers of a foot or more in diameter, and eighteen feet high, set
-    firmly in the ground at sufficient distances from each other to admit
-    of guns and other missiles to be fired between them. The ditch (unlike
-    that of civilized modes of fortification) is inside of the piquet, in
-    which their warriors screen their bodies from the view and weapons of
-    their enemies, whilst they are reloading and discharging their weapons
-    through the piquets.</p>
-
-  <p>The Mandans are undoubtedly secure in their villages, from the attacks
-    of any Indian nation, and have nothing to fear, except when they meet
-    their enemy on the prairie. Their village has a most novel appearance
-    to the eye of a stranger; their lodges are closely grouped together,
-    leaving but just room enough for walking and riding between them; and
-    appear from without, to be built entirely of dirt; but one is surprised
-    when he enters them, to see the neatness, comfort, and spacious
-    dimensions of these earth-covered dwellings. They all have a circular
-    form, and are from forty to sixty feet in diameter. Their foundations
-    are prepared by digging some two feet in the ground, and forming the
-    floor of earth, by levelling the requisite size for<span class="pagenum" id="Page_82">82</span> the lodge. These
-    floors or foundations are all perfectly circular, and varying in size
-    in proportion to the number of inmates, or of the quality or standing
-    of the families which are to occupy them. The superstructure is then
-    produced, by arranging, inside of this circular excavation, firmly
-    fixed in the ground and resting against the bank, a barrier or wall of
-    timbers, some eight or nine inches in diameter, of equal height (about
-    six feet) placed on end, and resting against each other, supported by
-    a formidable embankment of earth raised against them outside; then,
-    resting upon the tops of these timbers or piles, are others of equal
-    size and equal in numbers, of twenty or twenty-five feet in length,
-    resting firmly against each other, and sending their upper or smaller
-    ends towards the centre and top of the lodge; rising at an angle of
-    forty-five degrees to the apex or sky-light, which is about three or
-    four feet in diameter, answering as a chimney and a sky-light at the
-    same time. The roof of the lodge being thus formed, is supported by
-    beams passing around the inner part of the lodge about the middle of
-    these poles or timbers, and themselves upheld by four or five large
-    posts passing down to the floor of the lodge. On the top of, and over
-    the poles forming the roof, is placed a complete mat of willow-boughs,
-    of half a foot or more in thickness, which protects the timbers from
-    the dampness of the earth, with which the lodge is covered from bottom
-    to top, to the depth of two or three feet; and then with a hard or
-    tough clay, which is impervious to water, and which with long use
-    becomes quite hard, and a lounging place for the whole family in
-    pleasant weather—for sage—for wooing lovers—for dogs and all; an airing
-    place—a look-out—a place for gossip and mirth—a seat for the solitary
-    gaze and meditations of the stern warrior, who sits and contemplates
-    the peaceful mirth and happiness that is breathed beneath him, fruits
-    of his hard-fought battles, on fields of desperate combat with
-    bristling Red Men.</p>
-
-  <p>The floors of these dwellings are of earth, but so hardened by use, and
-    swept so clean, and tracked by bare and moccassined feet, that they
-    have almost a polish, and would scarcely soil the whitest linen. In the
-    centre, and immediately under the sky-light (<a href="#i_046"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 46</a>) is the
-    fire-place—a hole of four or five feet in diameter, of a circular form,
-    sunk a foot or more below the surface, and curbed around with stone.
-    Over the fire-place, and suspended from the apex of diverging props or
-    poles, is generally seen the pot or kettle, filled with buffalo meat;
-    and around it are the family, reclining in all the most picturesque
-    attitudes and groups, resting on their buffalo-robes and beautiful mats
-    of rushes. These cabins are so spacious, that they hold from twenty
-    to forty persons—a family and all their connexions. They all sleep on
-    bedsteads similar in form to ours, but generally not quite so high;
-    made of round poles rudely lashed together with thongs. A buffalo skin,
-    fresh stripped from the animal, is stretched across the bottom poles,
-    and about two feet from the floor; which, when it dries, becomes much
-    contracted, and forms a perfect sacking-bottom. The fur side of this
-    skin is placed uppermost, on which they lie with great comfort, with
-    a buffalo-robe<span class="pagenum" id="Page_83">83</span> folded up for a pillow, and others drawn over them
-    instead of blankets. These beds, as far as I have seen them (and I have
-    visited almost every lodge in the village), are uniformly screened with
-    a covering of buffalo or elk skins, oftentimes beautifully dressed
-    and placed over the upright poles or frame, like a suit of curtains;
-    leaving a hole in front, sufficiently spacious for the occupant to pass
-    in and out, to and from his or her bed. Some of these coverings or
-    curtains are exceedingly beautiful, being cut tastefully into fringe,
-    and handsomely ornamented with porcupine’s quills and picture writings
-    or hieroglyphics.</p>
-
-  <p>From the great number of inmates in these lodges, they are necessarily
-    very spacious, and the number of beds considerable. It is no uncommon
-    thing to see these lodges fifty feet in diameter inside (which is an
-    immense room), with a row of these curtained beds extending quite
-    around their sides, being some ten or twelve of them, placed four or
-    five feet apart, and the space between them occupied by a large post,
-    fixed quite firm in the ground, and six or seven feet high, with
-    large wooden pegs or bolts in it, on which are hung and grouped, with
-    a wild and startling taste, the arms and armour of the respective
-    proprietor; consisting of his whitened shield, embossed and emblazoned
-    with the figure of his protecting <em>medicine</em> (or mystery), his
-    bow and quiver, his war-club or battle-axe, his dart or javelin—his
-    tobacco pouch and pipe—his medicine-bag—and his eagle—ermine or raven
-    head-dress; and over all, and on the top of the post (as if placed
-    by some conjuror or Indian magician, to guard and protect the spell
-    of wildness that reigns in this strange place), stands forth and in
-    full relief the head and horns of a buffalo, which is, by a village
-    regulation, owned and possessed by every man in the nation, and hung at
-    the head of his bed, which he uses as a mask when called upon by the
-    chiefs, to join in the buffalo-dance, of which I shall say more in a
-    future epistle.</p>
-
-  <p>This arrangement of beds, of arms, &amp;c., combining the most vivid
-    display and arrangement of colours, of furs, of trinkets—of barbed and
-    glistening points and steel—of mysteries and hocus pocus, together
-    with the sombre and smoked colour of the roof and sides of the
-    lodge; and the wild, and rude and red—the graceful (though uncivil)
-    conversational, garrulous, story-telling and happy, though ignorant
-    and untutored groups, that are smoking their pipes—wooing their
-    sweethearts, and embracing their little ones about their peaceful and
-    endeared fire-sides; together with their pots and kettles, spoons,
-    and other culinary articles of their own manufacture, around them;
-    present altogether, one of the most picturesque scenes to the eye of a
-    stranger, that can be possibly seen; and far more wild and vivid than
-    could ever be imagined.</p>
-
-  <p>Reader, I said these people were garrulous, story-telling and happy;
-    this is true, and literally so; and it belongs to me to establish the
-    fact, and correct the error which seems to have gone forth to the world
-    on this subject.</p>
-
-  <p>As I have before observed, there is no subject that I know of within
-    the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_84">84</span> scope and reach of human wisdom, on which the civilized world in
-    this enlightened age are more incorrectly informed, than upon that
-    of the true manners and customs, and moral condition, rights and
-    abuses, of the North American Indians; and that, as I have also before
-    remarked, chiefly on account of the difficulty of our cultivating a
-    fair and honourable acquaintance with them, and doing them the justice,
-    and ourselves the credit, of a fair and impartial investigation of
-    their true character. The present age of refinement and research has
-    brought every thing else that I know of (and a vast deal more than
-    the most enthusiastic mind ever dreamed of) within the scope and fair
-    estimation of refined intellect and of science; while the wild and
-    timid savage, with his interesting customs and modes has vanished, or
-    his character has become changed, at the approach of the enlightened
-    and intellectual world; who follow him like a phantom for awhile, and
-    in ignorance of his true character at last turn back to the common
-    business and social transactions of life.</p>
-
-  <p>Owing to the above difficulties, which have stood in the way, the world
-    have fallen into many egregious errors with regard to the true modes
-    and meaning of the savage, which I am striving to set forth and correct
-    in the course of these epistles. And amongst them all, there is none
-    more common, nor more entirely erroneous, nor more easily refuted,
-    than the current one, that “the Indian is a sour, morose, reserved and
-    taciturn man.” I have heard this opinion advanced a thousand times and
-    I believed it; but such certainly, is not uniformly nor generally the
-    case.</p>
-
-  <p>I have observed in all my travels amongst the Indian tribes, and
-    more particularly amongst these unassuming people, that they are a
-    far more talkative and conversational race than can easily be seen
-    in the civilized world. This assertion, like many others I shall
-    occasionally make, will somewhat startle the folks at the East, yet
-    it is true. No one can look into the wigwams of these people, or into
-    any little momentary group of them, without being at once struck with
-    the conviction that small-talk, gossip, garrulity, and story-telling,
-    are the leading passions with them, who have little else to do in
-    the world, but to while away their lives in the innocent and endless
-    amusement of the exercise of those talents with which Nature has
-    liberally endowed them, for their mirth and enjoyment.</p>
-
-  <p>One has but to walk or ride about this little town and its environs
-    for a few hours in a pleasant day, and overlook the numerous games and
-    gambols, where their notes and yelps of exultation are unceasingly
-    vibrating in the atmosphere; or peep into their wigwams (and watch
-    the glistening fun that’s beaming from the noses, cheeks, and chins,
-    of the crouching, cross-legged, and prostrate groups around the fire;
-    where the pipe is passed, and jokes and anecdote, and laughter are
-    excessive) to become convinced that it is natural to laugh and be
-    merry. Indeed it would be strange if a race of people like these, who
-    have little else to do or relish in life, should be curtailed in that
-    source of pleasure and amusement; and it<span class="pagenum" id="Page_85">85</span> would be also strange, if a
-    life-time of indulgence and practice in so innocent and productive a
-    mode of amusement, free from the cares and anxieties of business or
-    professions, should not advance them in their modes, and enable them to
-    draw far greater pleasure from such sources, than we in the civilized
-    and business world can possibly feel. If the uncultivated condition of
-    their minds curtails the number of their enjoyments; yet they are free
-    from, and independent of, a thousand cares and jealousies, which arise
-    from mercenary motives in the civilized world; and are yet far a-head
-    of us (in my opinion) in the real and uninterrupted enjoyment of their
-    simple natural faculties.</p>
-
-  <p>They live in a country and in communities, where it is not customary
-    to look forward into the future with concern, for they live without
-    incurring the expenses of life, which are absolutely necessary and
-    unavoidable in the enlightened world; and of course their inclinations
-    and faculties are solely directed to the enjoyment of the present day,
-    without the sober reflections on the past or apprehensions of the
-    future.</p>
-
-  <p>With minds thus unexpanded and uninfluenced by the thousand passions
-    and ambitions of civilized life, it is easy and natural to concentrate
-    their thoughts and their conversation upon the little and trifling
-    occurrences of their lives. They are fond of fun and good cheer, and
-    can laugh easily and heartily at a slight joke, of which their peculiar
-    modes of life furnish them an inexhaustible fund, and enable them to
-    cheer their little circle about the wigwam fire-side with endless
-    laughter and garrulity.</p>
-
-  <p>It may be thought, that I am taking a great deal of pains to establish
-    this fact, and I am dwelling longer upon it than I otherwise should,
-    inasmuch as I am opposing an error that seems to have become current
-    through the world; and which, if it be once corrected, removes a
-    material difficulty, which has always stood in the way of a fair and
-    just estimation of the Indian character. For the purpose of placing
-    the Indian in a proper light before the world, as I hope to do in
-    many respects, it is of importance to me—it is but justice to the
-    savage—and justice to my readers also, that such points should be
-    cleared up as I proceed; and for the world who enquire for correct and
-    just information, they must take my words for the truth, or else come
-    to this country and look for themselves, into these grotesque circles
-    of never-ending laughter and fun, instead of going to Washington
-    City to gaze on the poor embarrassed Indian who is called there by
-    his “Great Father,” to contend with the sophistry of the learned and
-    acquisitive world, in bartering away his lands with the graves and the
-    hunting grounds of his ancestors. There is not the proper place to
-    study the Indian character; yet it is the place where the sycophant and
-    the scribbler go to gaze and frown upon him—to learn his character,
-    and write his history! and because he does not speak, and quaffs the
-    delicious beverage which he receives from white men’s hands, “he’s a
-    speechless brute and a drunkard.” An Indian is a beggar in Washington
-    City, and a white man is<span class="pagenum" id="Page_86">86</span> almost equally so in the Mandan village. An
-    Indian in Washington is mute, is dumb and embarrassed; and so is a
-    white man (and for the very same reasons) in this place—he has nobody
-    to talk to.</p>
-
-  <p>A wild Indian, to reach the civilized world, must needs travel
-    some thousands of miles in vehicles of conveyance, to which he is
-    unaccustomed—through latitudes and longitudes which are new to
-    him—living on food that he is unused to—stared and gazed at by the
-    thousands and tens of thousands whom he cannot talk to—his heart
-    grieving and his body sickening at the exhibition of white men’s wealth
-    and luxuries, which are enjoyed on the land, and over the bones of
-    his ancestors. And at the end of his journey he stands (like a caged
-    animal) to be scanned—to be criticised—to be pitied—and heralded to the
-    world as a mute—as a brute, and a beggar.</p>
-
-  <p>A white man, to reach this village, must travel by steam-boat—by
-    canoes—on horseback and on foot; swim rivers—wade quagmires—fight
-    mosquitoes—patch his moccasins, and patch them again and again, and his
-    breeches; live on meat alone—sleep on the ground the whole way, and
-    think and dream of his friends he has left behind; and when he gets
-    here, half-starved, and half-naked, and more than half sick, he finds
-    himself a beggar for a place to sleep, and for something to eat; a
-    mute amongst thousands who flock about him, to look and to criticise,
-    and to laugh at him for his jaded appearance, and to speak of him as
-    they do of all white men (without distinction) as liars. These people
-    are in the habit of seeing no white men in their country but Traders,
-    and know of no other; deeming us all alike, and receiving us all under
-    the presumption that we come to trade or barter; applying to us all,
-    indiscriminately, the epithet of “liars” or Traders.</p>
-
-  <p>The reader will therefore see, that we mutually suffer in each other’s
-    estimation from the unfortunate ignorance, which distance has chained
-    us in; and (as I can vouch, and the Indian also, who has visited
-    the civilized world) that the historian who would record justly and
-    correctly the character and customs of a people, must go and live among
-    them.</p>
-
-  <hr class="chap" />
-  <div class="chapter">
-    <span class="pagenum" id="Page_87">87</span>
-    <h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_12">LETTER—<abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 12.</h2>
-  </div>
-  <div class="subheadc">MANDAN VILLAGE, UPPER MISSOURI.</div>
-
-  <p><span class="smcap">In</span> my last, I gave some account of the village, and the customs, and
-    appearances of this strange people,—and I will now proceed to give
-    further details on that subject.</p>
-
-  <p>I have this morning, perched myself upon the top of one of the
-    earth-covered lodges, which I have before described, and having the
-    whole village beneath and about me (<a href="#i_047"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 47</a>), with its
-    sachems—its warriors—its dogs—and its horses in motion—its medicines
-    (or mysteries) and scalp-poles waving over my head—its piquets—its
-    green fields and prairies, and river in full view, with the din and
-    bustle of the thrilling panorama that is about me. I shall be able, I
-    hope, to give some sketches more to the life than I could have done
-    from any effort of recollection.</p>
-
-  <p>I said that the lodges or wigwams were covered with earth—were of forty
-    or sixty feet in diameter, and so closely grouped that there was but
-    just room enough to walk and ride between them,—that they had a door by
-    which to enter them, and a hole in the top for the admission of light,
-    and for the smoke to escape,—that the inmates were at times grouped
-    upon their tops in conversations and other amusements, &amp;c.; and yet
-    you know not exactly how they look, nor what is the precise appearance
-    of the strange world that is about me. There is really a newness
-    and rudeness in every thing that is to be seen. There are several
-    hundred houses or dwellings about me, and they are purely unique—they
-    are all covered with dirt—the people are all red, and yet distinct
-    from all other red folks I have seen. The horses are wild—every dog
-    is a wolf—the whole moving mass are strangers to me: the living, in
-    everything, carry an air of intractable wildness about them, and the
-    dead are not buried, but dried upon scaffolds.</p>
-
-  <p>The groups of lodges around me present a very curious and pleasing
-    appearance, resembling in shape (more nearly than anything else I
-    can compare them to) so many potash-kettles inverted. On the tops
-    of these are to be seen groups standing and reclining, whose wild
-    and picturesque appearance it would be difficult to describe. Stern
-    warriors, like statues, standing in dignified groups, wrapped in their
-    painted robes, with their heads decked and plumed with quills of the
-    war-eagle; extending their long arms to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_88">88</span> the east or the west, the
-    scenes of their battles, which they are recounting over to each other.
-    In another direction, the wooing lover, softening the heart of his fair
-    Taih-nah-tai-a with the notes of his simple lute. On other lodges, and
-    beyond these, groups are engaged in games of the “moccasin,” or the
-    “platter.” Some are to be seen manufacturing robes and dresses, and
-    others, fatigued with amusements or occupations, have stretched their
-    limbs to enjoy the luxury of sleep, whilst basking in the sun. With
-    all this wild and varied medley of living beings are mixed their dogs,
-    which seem to be so near an Indian’s heart, as almost to constitute a
-    material link of his existence.</p>
-
-  <p>In the centre of the village is an open space, or public area, of 150
-    feet in diameter, and circular in form, which is used for all public
-    games and festivals, shews and exhibitions; and also for their “annual
-    religious ceremonies,” which are soon to take place, and of which I
-    shall hereafter give some account. The lodges around this open space
-    front in, with their doors towards the centre; and in the middle of
-    this circle stands an object of great religious veneration, as I am
-    told, on account of the importance it has in the conduction of those
-    annual religious rites.</p>
-
-  <p>This object is in form of a large hogshead, some eight or ten feet
-    high, made of planks and hoops, containing within it some of their
-    choicest medicines or mysteries, and religiously preserved unhacked or
-    scratched, as a symbol of the “Big Canoe,” as they call it.</p>
-
-  <p>One of the lodges fronting on this circular area, and facing this
-    strange object of their superstition, is called the “Medicine Lodge,”
-    or council house. It is in this sacred building that these wonderful
-    ceremonies, in commemoration of the flood, take place. I am told by the
-    Traders that the cruelties of these scenes are frightful and abhorrent
-    in the extreme; and that this huge wigwam, which is now closed, has
-    been built exclusively for this grand celebration. I am every day
-    reminded of the near approach of the season for this strange affair,
-    and as I have not yet seen any thing of it, I cannot describe it; I
-    know it only from the relations of the Traders who have witnessed parts
-    of it; and their descriptions are of so extraordinary a character, that
-    I would not be willing to describe until I can see for myself,—which
-    will, in all probability, be in a few days.</p>
-
-  <p>In ranging the eye over the village from where I am writing, there
-    is presented to the view the strangest mixture and medley of
-    unintelligible trash (independent of the living beings that are in
-    motion), that can possibly be imagined. On the roofs of the lodges,
-    besides the groups of living, are buffaloes’ skulls, skin canoes,
-    pots and pottery; sleds and sledges—and suspended on poles, erected
-    some twenty feet above the doors of their wigwams, are displayed in a
-    pleasant day, the scalps of warriors, preserved as trophies; and thus
-    proudly exposed as evidence of their warlike deeds. In other parts are
-    raised on poles the warriors’ pure and whitened shields and quivers,
-    with medicine-bags attached; and here and there a sacrifice of red
-    <span class="pagenum" id="Page_89">89</span>cloth, or other costly stuff, offered up to the Great Spirit, over
-    the door of some benignant chief, in humble gratitude for the blessings
-    which he is enjoying. Such is a part of the strange medley that is
-    before and around me; and amidst them and the blue streams of smoke
-    that are rising from the tops of these hundred “coal-pits,” can be
-    seen in distance, the green and boundless, treeless, bushless prairie;
-    and on it, and contiguous to the piquet which encloses the village, a
-    hundred scaffolds on which their “dead live,” as they term it.</p>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>26</i></div>
-  <figure id="i_047">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_047.jpg" alt="" />
-     <figcaption>47</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <figure class="mt2" id="i_048">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_048.jpg" alt="" />
-     <figcaption>48</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p>These people never bury the dead, but place the bodies on slight
-    scaffolds just above the reach of human hands, and out of the way of
-    wolves and dogs; and they are there left to moulder and decay. This
-    cemetery, or place of deposite for the dead, is just back of the
-    village, on a level prairie (<a href="#i_048"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 48</a>); and with all its
-    appearances, history, forms, ceremonies, &amp;c. is one of the strangest
-    and most interesting objects to be described in the vicinity of this
-    peculiar race.</p>
-
-  <p>Whenever a person dies in the Mandan village, and the customary honours
-    and condolence are paid to his remains, and the body dressed in its
-    best attire, painted, oiled, feasted, and supplied with bow and quiver,
-    shield, pipe and tobacco—knife, flint and steel, and provisions enough
-    to last him a few days on the journey which he is to perform; a fresh
-    buffalo’s skin, just taken from the animal’s back, is wrapped around
-    the body, and tightly bound and wound with thongs of raw hide from head
-    to foot. Then other robes are soaked in water, till they are quite
-    soft and elastic, which are also bandaged around the body in the same
-    manner, and tied fast with thongs, which are wound with great care and
-    exactness, so as to exclude the action of the air from all parts of the
-    body.</p>
-
-  <p>There is then a separate scaffold erected for it, constructed of four
-    upright posts, a little higher than human hands can reach; and on the
-    tops of these are small poles passing around from one post to the
-    others; across which a number of willow-rods just strong enough to
-    support the body, which is laid upon them on its back, with its feet
-    carefully presented towards the rising sun.</p>
-
-  <p>There are a great number of these bodies resting exactly in a similar
-    way; excepting in some instances where a chief, or medicine-man, may
-    be seen with a few yards of scarlet or blue cloth spread over his
-    remains, as a mark of public respect and esteem. Some hundreds of these
-    bodies may be seen reposing in this manner in this curious place, which
-    the Indians call, “the village of the dead;” and the traveller, who
-    visits this country to study and learn, will not only be struck with
-    the novel appearance of the scene; but if he will give attention to
-    the respect and devotions that are paid to this sacred place, he will
-    draw many a moral deduction that will last him through life: he will
-    learn, at least, that filial, conjugal, and paternal affection are not
-    necessarily the results of civilization; but that the Great Spirit
-    has given them to man in his native state; and that the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_90">90</span> spices and
-    improvements of the enlightened world have never refined upon them.</p>
-
-  <p>There is not a day in the year in which one may not see in this place
-    evidences of this fact, that will wring tears from his eyes, and kindle
-    in his bosom a spark of respect and sympathy for the poor Indian, if
-    he never felt it before. Fathers, mothers, wives, and children, may
-    be seen lying under these scaffolds, prostrated upon the ground, with
-    their faces in the dirt, howling forth incessantly the most piteous
-    and heart-broken cries and lamentations for the misfortunes of their
-    kindred; tearing their hair—cutting their flesh with their knives,
-    and doing other penance to appease the spirits of the dead, whose
-    misfortunes they attribute to some sin or omission of their own, for
-    which they sometimes inflict the most excruciating self-torture.</p>
-
-  <p>When the scaffolds on which the bodies rest, decay and fall to the
-    ground, the nearest relations having buried the rest of the bones,
-    take the skulls, which are perfectly bleached and purified, and place
-    them in circles of an hundred or more on the prairie—placed at equal
-    distances apart (some eight or nine inches from each other), with the
-    faces all looking to the centre; where they are religiously protected
-    and preserved in their precise positions from year to year, as objects
-    of religious and affectionate veneration (<a href="#i_048"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 48</a>).</p>
-
-  <p>There are several of these “Golgothas” or circles of twenty or thirty
-    feet in diameter, and in the centre of each ring or circle is a
-    little mound of three feet high, on which uniformly rest two buffalo
-    skulls (a male and female); and in the centre of the little mound is
-    erected a “medicine pole,” about twenty feet high, supporting many
-    curious articles of mystery and superstition, which they suppose have
-    the power of guarding and protecting this sacred arrangement. Here
-    then, to this strange place do these people again resort, to evince
-    their further affections for the dead—not in groans and lamentations
-    however, for several years have cured the anguish; but fond affections
-    and endearments are here renewed, and conversations are here held and
-    cherished with the dead.</p>
-
-  <p>Each one of these skulls is placed upon a bunch of wild sage, which
-    has been pulled and placed under it. The wife knows (by some mark or
-    resemblance) the skull of her husband or her child, which lies in this
-    group; and there seldom passes a day that she does not visit it, with
-    a dish of the best cooked food that her wigwam affords, which she sets
-    before the skull at night, and returns for the dish in the morning.
-    As soon as it is discovered that the sage on which the skull rests is
-    beginning to decay, the woman cuts a fresh bunch, and places the skull
-    carefully upon it, removing that which was under it.</p>
-
-  <p>Independent of the above-named duties, which draw the women to this
-    spot, they visit it from inclination, and linger upon it to hold
-    converse and company with the dead. There is scarcely an hour in a
-    pleasant day, but<span class="pagenum" id="Page_91">91</span> more or less of these women may be seen sitting or
-    laying by the skull of their child or husband—talking to it in the most
-    pleasant and endearing language that they can use (as they were wont
-    to do in former days) and seemingly getting an answer back. It is not
-    unfrequently the case, that the woman brings her needle-work with her,
-    spending the greater part of the day, sitting by the side of the skull
-    of her child, chatting incessantly with it, while she is embroidering
-    or garnishing a pair of moccasins; and perhaps, overcome with fatigue,
-    falls asleep, with her arms encircled around it, forgetting herself for
-    hours; after which she gathers up her things and returns to the village.</p>
-
-  <p>There is something exceedingly interesting and impressive in these
-    scenes, which are so strikingly dissimilar, and yet within a few rods
-    of each other; the one is the place where they pour forth the frantic
-    anguish of their souls—and afterwards pay their visits to the other, to
-    jest and gossip with the dead.</p>
-
-  <p>The great variety of shapes and characters exhibited in these groups
-    of crania, render them a very interesting study for the craniologist
-    and phrenologist; but I apprehend that it would be a matter of great
-    difficulty (if not of impossibility) to procure them at this time, for
-    the use and benefit of the scientific world.</p>
-
-  <hr class="chap" />
-  <div class="chapter">
-    <span class="pagenum" id="Page_92">92</span>
-    <h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_13">LETTER—<abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 13.</h2>
-  </div>
-  <div class="subheadc">MANDAN VILLAGE, UPPER MISSOURI.</div>
-
-  <p><span class="smcap">In</span> several of my former Letters I have given sketches of the village,
-    and some few of the customs of these peculiar people; and I have many
-    more yet in store; some of which will induce the readers to laugh, and
-    others almost dispose them to weep. But at present, I drop them, and
-    introduce a few of the wild and gentlemanly Mandans themselves; and
-    first, Ha-na-tah-nu-mauh, the wolf chief (<a href="#i_049"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 49</a>). This
-    man is head-chief of the nation, and familiarly known by the name of
-    “Chef de Loup,” as the French Traders call him; a haughty, austere, and
-    overbearing man, respected and feared by his people rather than loved.
-    The tenure by which this man holds his office, is that by which the
-    head-chiefs of most of the tribes claim, that of inheritance. It is
-    a general, though not an infallible rule amongst the numerous tribes
-    of North American Indians, that the office of chief belongs to the
-    eldest son of a chief; provided he shews himself, by his conduct, to be
-    equally worthy of it as any other in the nation: making it hereditary
-    on a very proper condition—in default of which requisites, or others
-    which may happen, the office is elective.</p>
-
-  <p>The dress of this chief was one of great extravagance, and some beauty;
-    manufactured of skins, and a great number of quills of the raven,
-    forming his stylish head-dress.</p>
-
-  <p>The next and second chief of the tribe, is Mah-to-toh-pa (the four
-    bears). This extraordinary man, though second in office is undoubtedly
-    the first and most popular man in the nation. Free, generous, elegant
-    and gentlemanly in his deportment—handsome, brave and valiant; wearing
-    a robe on his back, with the history of his battles emblazoned on it;
-    which would fill a book of themselves, if properly translated. This,
-    readers, is the most extraordinary man, perhaps, who lives at this day,
-    in the atmosphere of Nature’s noblemen; and I shall certainly tell you
-    more of him anon.</p>
-
-  <p>After him, there are Mah-tahp-ta-ha, he who rushes through the
-    middle (<a href="#i_050"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 50</a>); Seehk-hee-da, the mouse-coloured
-    feather (<a href="#i_050"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 51</a>); San-ja-ka-ko-kah (the deceiving wolf);
-    Mah-to-he-ha (the old bear), and others, distinguished as chiefs and
-    warriors—and there are belles also; such as Mi-neek-e-sunk-te-ca, the
-    mink (<a href="#i_052"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 53</a>); and the little gray-haired Sha-ko-ka, mint
-    (<a href="#i_052"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 52</a>); and fifty others, who are famous for
-    <span class="pagenum" id="Page_93">93</span>their
-    conquests, not with the bow or the javelin, but with their small black
-    eyes, which shoot out from under their unfledged brows, and pierce the
-    boldest, fiercest chieftain to the heart.</p>
-
-  <figure class="mt2 illowp75" id="i_049">
-    <div class="plate"><i>27</i></div>
-    <img src="images/i_049.jpg" alt="" />
-     <figcaption>49</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>28</i></div>
-  <figure id="i_050">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_050.jpg" alt="" />
-    <figcaption><span class="col50">50</span><span class="col50">51</span></figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <figure class="mt2" id="i_052">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_052.jpg" alt="" />
-    <figcaption><span class="col50">52</span><span class="col50">53</span></figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p>The Mandans are certainly a very interesting and pleasing people in
-    their personal appearance and manners; differing in many respects, both
-    in looks and customs, from all other tribes which I have seen. They
-    are not a warlike people; for they seldom, if ever, carry war into
-    their enemies’ country; but when invaded, shew their valour and courage
-    to be equal to that of any people on earth. Being a small tribe, and
-    unable to contend on the wide prairies with the Sioux and other roaming
-    tribes, who are ten times more numerous; they have very judiciously
-    located themselves in a permanent village, which is strongly fortified,
-    and ensures their preservation. By this means they have advanced
-    further in the arts of manufacture; have supplied their lodges more
-    abundantly with the comforts, and even luxuries of life, than any
-    Indian nation I know of. The consequence of this is, that this tribe
-    have taken many steps ahead of other tribes in manners and refinements
-    (if I may be allowed to apply the word refinement to Indian life); and
-    are therefore familiarly (and correctly) denominated, by the Traders
-    and others, who have been amongst them, “the polite and friendly
-    Mandans.”</p>
-
-  <p>There is certainly great justice in the remark; and so forcibly have
-    I been struck with the peculiar ease and elegance of these people,
-    together with the diversity of complexions, the various colours of
-    their hair and eyes; the singularity of their language, and their
-    peculiar and unaccountable customs, that I am fully convinced that
-    they have sprung from some other origin than that of the other North
-    American tribes, or that they are an amalgam of natives with some
-    civilized race.</p>
-
-  <p>Here arises a question of very great interest and importance for
-    discussion; and, after further familiarity with their character,
-    customs, and traditions, if I forget it not, I will eventually give it
-    further consideration. Suffice it then, for the present, that their
-    <em>personal appearance</em> alone, independent of their modes and
-    customs, pronounces them at once, as more or less, than savage.</p>
-
-  <p>A stranger in the Mandan village is first struck with the different
-    shades of complexion, and various colours of hair which he sees in a
-    crowd about him; and is at once almost disposed to exclaim that “these
-    are not Indians.”</p>
-
-  <p>There are a great many of these people whose complexions appear as
-    light as half breeds; and amongst the women particularly, there are
-    many whose skins are almost white, with the most pleasing symmetry
-    and proportion of features; with hazel, with grey, and with blue
-    eyes,—with mildness and sweetness of expression, and excessive modesty
-    of demeanour, which render them exceedingly pleasing and beautiful.</p>
-
-  <p>Why this diversity of complexion I cannot tell, nor can they
-    themselves<span class="pagenum" id="Page_94">94</span> account for it. Their traditions, so far as I have yet
-    learned them, afford us no information of their having had any
-    knowledge of white men before the visit of Lewis and Clarke, made to
-    their village thirty-three years ago. Since that time there have been
-    but very few visits from white men to this place, and surely not enough
-    to have changed the complexions and the customs of a nation. And I
-    recollect perfectly well that Governor Clarke told me, before I started
-    for this place, that I would find the Mandans a strange people and half
-    white.</p>
-
-  <p>The diversity in the colour of hair is also equally as great as that
-    in the complexion; for in a numerous group of these people (and more
-    particularly amongst the females, who never take pains to change its
-    natural colour, as the men often do), there may be seen every shade and
-    colour of hair that can be seen in our own country, with the exception
-    of red or auburn, which is not to be found.</p>
-
-  <p>And there is yet one more strange and unaccountable peculiarity, which
-    can probably be seen nowhere else on earth; nor on any rational grounds
-    accounted for,—other than it is a freak or order of Nature, for which
-    she has not seen fit to assign a reason. There are very many, of both
-    sexes, and of every age, from infancy to manhood and old age, with hair
-    of a bright silvery grey; and in some instances almost perfectly white.</p>
-
-  <p>This singular and eccentric appearance is much oftener seen among the
-    women than it is with the men; for many of the latter who have it,
-    seem ashamed of it, and artfully conceal it, by filling their hair
-    with glue and black and red earth. The women, on the other hand, seem
-    proud of it, and display it often in an almost incredible profusion,
-    which spreads over their shoulders and falls as low as the knee. I have
-    ascertained, on a careful enquiry, that about one in ten or twelve of
-    the whole tribe are what the French call “cheveux gris,” or greyhairs;
-    and that this strange and unaccountable phenomenon is not the result of
-    disease or habit; but that it is unquestionably a hereditary character
-    which runs in families, and indicates no inequality in disposition or
-    intellect. And by passing this hair through my hands, as I often have,
-    I have found it uniformly to be as coarse and harsh as a horse’s mane;
-    differing materially from the hair of other colours, which amongst the
-    Mandans, is generally as fine and as soft as silk.</p>
-
-  <p>The reader will at once see, by the above facts, that there is enough
-    upon the faces and heads of these people to stamp them peculiar,—when
-    he meets them in the heart of this almost boundless wilderness,
-    presenting such diversities of colour in the complexion and hair; when
-    he knows from what he has seen, and what he has read, that all other
-    primitive tribes known in America, are dark copper-coloured, with jet
-    black hair.</p>
-
-  <p>From these few facts alone, the reader will see that I am amongst a
-    strange and interesting people, and know how to pardon me, if I lead
-    him through a maze of novelty and mysteries to the knowledge of a
-    strange, yet kind and hospitable, people, whose fate, like that of all
-    their race is sealed;—<span class="pagenum" id="Page_95">95</span> whose doom is fixed, to live just long enough
-    to be imperfectly known, and then to fall before the fell disease or
-    sword of civilizing devastation.</p>
-
-  <p>The stature of the Mandans is rather below the ordinary size of
-    man, with beautiful symmetry of form and proportion, and wonderful
-    suppleness and elasticity; they are pleasingly erect and graceful,
-    both in their walk and their attitudes; and the hair of the men,
-    which generally spreads over their backs, falling down to the hams,
-    and sometimes to the ground, is divided into plaits or slabs of two
-    inches in width, and filled with a profusion of glue and red earth or
-    vermilion, at intervals of an inch or two, which becoming very hard,
-    remains in and unchanged from year to year.</p>
-
-  <p>This mode of dressing the hair is curious, and gives to the Mandans the
-    most singular appearance. The hair of the men is uniformly all laid
-    over from the forehead backwards; carefully kept above and resting on
-    the ear, and thence falling down over the back, in these flattened
-    bunches, and painted red, extending oftentimes quite on to the calf
-    of the leg, and sometimes in such profusion as almost to conceal the
-    whole figure from the person walking behind them. In the portrait of
-    San-ja-ka-ko-kah (the deceiving wolf, <a href="#i_054"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 54</a>), where he is
-    represented at full length, with several others of his family around
-    him in a group, there will be seen a fair illustration of these and
-    other customs of these people.</p>
-
-  <p>The hair of the women is also worn as long as they can possibly
-    cultivate it, oiled very often, which preserves on it a beautiful gloss
-    and shows its natural colour. They often braid it in two large plaits,
-    one falling down just back of the ear, on each side of the head; and
-    on any occasion which requires them to “put on their best looks,” they
-    pass their fingers through it, drawing it out of braid, and spreading
-    it over their shoulders. The Mandan women observe strictly the same
-    custom, which I observed amongst the Crows and Blackfeet (and, in fact,
-    all other tribes I have seen, without a single exception), of parting
-    the hair on the forehead, and always keeping the crease or separation
-    filled with vermilion or other red paint. This is one of the very few
-    little (and apparently trivial) customs which I have found amongst the
-    Indians, without being able to assign any cause for it, other than that
-    “they are Indians,” and that this is an Indian fashion.</p>
-
-  <p>In mourning, like the Crows and most other tribes the women are obliged
-    to crop their hair all off; and the usual term of that condolence is
-    until the hair has grown again to its former length.</p>
-
-  <p>When a man mourns for the death of a near relation the case is quite
-    different; his long, valued tresses, are of much greater importance,
-    and only a lock or two can be spared. Just enough to tell of his grief
-    to his friends, without destroying his most valued ornament, is doing
-    just reverence and respect to the dead.</p>
-
-  <p>To repeat what I have said before, the Mandans are a pleasing and
-    friendly race of people, of whom it is proverbial amongst the Traders
-    and all who ever have known them that their treatment of white men
-    in their<span class="pagenum" id="Page_96">96</span> country has been friendly and kind ever since their first
-    acquaintance with them—they have ever met and received them, on the
-    prairie or in their villages, with hospitality and honour.</p>
-
-  <p>They are handsome, straight and elegant in their forms—not tall,
-    but quick and graceful; easy and polite in their manners, neat in
-    their persons and beautifully clad. When I say “neat in person and
-    beautifully clad,” however, I do not intend my readers to understand
-    that such is the case with them all, for among them and most other
-    tribes, as with the enlightened world, there are different grades of
-    society—those who care but little for their personal appearance, and
-    those who take great pains to please themselves and their friends.
-    Amongst this class of personages, such as chiefs and braves, or
-    warriors of distinction, and their families, and dandies or exquisites
-    (a class of beings of whom I shall take due time to speak in a future
-    Letter), the strictest regard to decency, and cleanliness and elegance
-    of dress is observed; and there are few people, perhaps, who take more
-    pains to keep their persons neat and cleanly than they do.</p>
-
-  <p>At the distance of half a mile or so above the village, is the
-    customary place where the women and girls resort every morning in the
-    summer months, to bathe in the river. To this spot they repair by
-    hundreds, every morning at sunrise, where, on a beautiful beach, they
-    can be seen running and glistening in the sun, whilst they are playing
-    their innocent gambols and leaping into the stream. They all learn to
-    swim well, and the poorest swimmer amongst them will dash fearlessly
-    into the boiling and eddying current of the Missouri, and cross it with
-    perfect ease. At the distance of a quarter of a mile back from the
-    river, extends a terrace or elevated prairie, running north from the
-    village, and forming a kind of semi-circle around this bathing-place;
-    and on this terrace, which is some twenty or thirty feet higher than
-    the meadow between it and the river, are stationed every morning
-    several sentinels, with their bows and arrows in hand, to guard and
-    protect this sacred ground from the approach of boys or men from any
-    directions.</p>
-
-  <p>At a little distance below the village, also, is the place where
-    the men and boys go to bathe and learn to swim. After this morning
-    ablution, they return to their village, wipe their limbs dry, and use a
-    profusion of bear’s grease through their hair and over their bodies.</p>
-
-  <p>The art of swimming is known to all the American Indians; and perhaps
-    no people on earth have taken more pains to learn it, nor any who turn
-    it to better account. There certainly are no people whose avocations
-    of life more often call for the use of their limbs in this way; as
-    many of the tribes spend their lives on the shores of our vast lakes
-    and rivers, paddling about from their childhood in their fragile bark
-    canoes, which are liable to continual accidents, which often throw the
-    Indian upon his natural resources for the preservation of his life.</p>
-
-  <p>There are many times also, when out upon their long marches in the
-    prosecution of their almost continued warfare, when it becomes
-    necessary to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_97">97</span> plunge into and swim across the wildest streams and
-    rivers, at times when they have no canoes or craft in which to cross
-    them. I have as yet seen no tribe where this art is neglected. It is
-    learned at a very early age by both sexes, and enables the strong and
-    hardy muscles of the squaws to take their child upon the back, and
-    successfully to pass any river that lies in their way.</p>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>29</i></div>
-  <figure id="i_054">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_054.jpg" alt="" />
-     <figcaption>54</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p>The mode of swimming amongst the Mandans, as well as amongst most of
-    the other tribes, is quite different from that practiced in those parts
-    of the civilized world, which I have had the pleasure yet to visit. The
-    Indian, instead of parting his hands simultaneously under the chin, and
-    making the stroke outward, in a horizontal direction, causing thereby
-    a serious strain upon the chest, throws his body alternately upon the
-    left and the right side, raising one arm entirely above the water and
-    reaching as far forward as he can, to dip it, whilst his whole weight
-    and force are spent upon the one that is passing under him, and like a
-    paddle propelling him along; whilst this arm is making a half circle,
-    and is being raised out of the water behind him, the opposite arm is
-    describing a similar arch in the air over his head, to be dipped in the
-    water as far as he can reach before him, with the hand turned under,
-    forming a sort of bucket, to act most effectively as it passes in its
-    turn underneath him.</p>
-
-  <p>By this bold and powerful mode of swimming, which may want the grace
-    that many would wish to see, I am quite sure, from the experience I
-    have had, that much of the fatigue and strain upon the breast and spine
-    are avoided, and that a man will preserve his strength and his breath
-    much longer in this alternate and rolling motion, than he can in the
-    usual mode of swimming, in the polished world.</p>
-
-  <p>In addition to the modes of bathing which I have above described,
-    the Mandans have another, which is a much greater luxury, and often
-    resorted to by the sick, but far more often by the well and sound, as
-    a matter of luxury only, or perhaps for the purpose of hardening their
-    limbs and preparing them for the thousand exposures and vicissitudes
-    of life to which they are continually liable. I allude to their vapour
-    baths, or <em>sudatories</em>, of which each village has several, and
-    which seem to be a kind of public property—accessible to all, and
-    resorted to by all, male and female, old and young, sick and well.</p>
-
-  <p>In every Mandan lodge is to be seen a crib or basket, much in the shape
-    of a bathing-tub, curiously woven with willow boughs, and sufficiently
-    large to receive any person of the family in a reclining or recumbent
-    posture; which, when any one is to take a bath, is carried by the squaw
-    to the sudatory for the purpose, and brought back to the wigwam again
-    after it has been used.</p>
-
-  <p>These sudatories are always near the village, above or below it, on
-    the bank of the river. They are generally built of skins (in form of
-    a Crow or Sioux lodge which I have before described), covered with
-    buffalo skins<span class="pagenum" id="Page_98">98</span> sewed tight together, with a kind of furnace in the
-    centre; or in other words, in the centre of the lodge are two walls of
-    stone about six feet long and two and a half apart, and about three
-    feet high; across and over this space, between the two walls, are laid
-    a number of round sticks, on which the bathing crib is placed (vide
-    <a href="#i_071"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 71</a>). Contiguous to the lodge, and outside of it, is a
-    little furnace something similar, in the side of the bank, where the
-    woman kindles a hot fire, and heats to a red heat a number of large
-    stones, which are kept at these places for this particular purpose; and
-    having them all in readiness, she goes home or sends word to inform her
-    husband or other one who is waiting, that all is ready; when he makes
-    his appearance entirely naked, though with a large buffalo robe wrapped
-    around him. He then enters the lodge and places himself in the crib or
-    basket, either on his back or in a sitting posture (the latter of which
-    is generally preferred), with his back towards the door of the lodge;
-    when the squaw brings in a large stone red hot, between two sticks
-    (lashed together somewhat in the form of a pair of tongs) and, placing
-    it under him, throws cold water upon it, which raises a profusion of
-    vapour about him. He is at once enveloped in a cloud of steam, and a
-    woman or child will sit at a little distance and continue to dash water
-    upon the stone, whilst the matron of the lodge is out, and preparing to
-    make her appearance with another heated stone: or he will sit and dip
-    from a wooden bowl, with a ladle made of the mountain-sheep’s horn, and
-    throw upon the heated stones, with his own hands, the water which he is
-    drawing through his lungs and pores, in the next moment, in the most
-    delectable and exhilarating vapours, as it distils through the mat of
-    wild sage and other medicinal and aromatic herbs, which he has strewed
-    over the bottom of his basket, and on which he reclines.</p>
-
-  <p>During all this time the lodge is shut perfectly tight, and he quaffs
-    this delicious and renovating draught to his lungs with deep drawn
-    sighs, and with extended nostrils, until he is drenched in the most
-    profuse degree of perspiration that can be produced; when he makes a
-    kind of strangled signal, at which the lodge is opened, and he darts
-    forth with the speed of a frightened deer, and plunges headlong into
-    the river, from which he instantly escapes again, wraps his robe around
-    him and “leans” as fast as possible for home. Here his limbs are wiped
-    dry, and wrapped close and tight within the fur of the buffalo robes,
-    in which he takes his nap, with his feet to the fire; then oils his
-    limbs and hair with bear’s grease, dresses and plumes himself for a
-    visit—a feast—a parade, or a council; or slicks down his long hair,
-    and rubs his oiled limbs to a polish, with a piece of soft buckskin,
-    prepared to join in games of bail or Tchung-kee.</p>
-
-  <p>Such is the sudatory or the vapour bath of the Mandans, and as I before
-    observed, it is resorted to both as an every-day luxury by those who
-    have the time and energy or industry to indulge in it; and also used
-    by the sick as a remedy for nearly all the diseases which are known
-    amongst them.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_99">99</span> Fevers are very rare, and in fact almost unknown amongst
-    these people: but in the few cases of fever which have been known, this
-    treatment has been applied, and without the fatal consequences which
-    we would naturally predict. The greater part of their diseases are
-    inflammatory rheumatisms, and other chronic diseases; and for these,
-    this mode of treatment, with their modes of life, does admirably well.
-    This custom is similar amongst nearly all of these Missouri Indians,
-    and amongst the Pawnees, Omahas, and Punchas and other tribes, who have
-    suffered with the small-pox (the dread destroyer of the Indian race),
-    this mode was practiced by the poor creatures, who fled by hundreds
-    to the river’s edge, and by hundreds died before they could escape
-    from the waves, into which they had plunged in the heat and rage of a
-    burning fever. Such will yet be the scourge, and such the misery of
-    these poor unthinking people, and each tribe to the Rocky Mountains,
-    as it has been with every tribe between here and the Atlantic
-    Ocean. White men—whiskey—tomahawks—scalping knives—guns, powder and
-    ball—small-pox—debauchery—extermination.</p>
-
-  <hr class="chap" />
-  <div class="chapter">
-    <span class="pagenum" id="Page_100">100</span>
-    <h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_14">LETTER—<abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 14.</h2>
-  </div>
-  <div class="subheadc">MANDAN VILLAGE, UPPER MISSOURI.</div>
-
-  <p>The Mandans in many instances dress very neatly, and some of them
-    splendidly. As they are in their native state, their dresses are all
-    of their own manufacture; and of course, altogether made of skins of
-    different animals belonging to those regions. There is, certainly,
-    a reigning and striking similarity of costume amongst most of the
-    North Western tribes; and I cannot say that the dress of the Mandans
-    is decidedly distinct from that of the Crows or the Blackfeet, the
-    Assinneboins or the Sioux; yet there are modes of stitching or
-    embroidering, in every tribe, which may at once enable the traveller,
-    who is familiar with their modes, to detect or distinguish the dress
-    of any tribe. These differences consist generally in the fashions of
-    constructing the head-dress, or of garnishing their dresses with the
-    porcupine quills, which they use in great profusion.</p>
-
-  <p>Amongst so many different and distinct nations, always at war with
-    each other, and knowing nothing at all of each other’s languages; and
-    amongst whom, fashions in dress seldom if ever change; it may seem
-    somewhat strange that we should find these people so nearly following,
-    or imitating each other, in the forms and modes of their dress and
-    ornaments. This must however, be admitted, and I think may be accounted
-    for in a manner, without raising the least argument in favour of the
-    theory of their having all sprung from one stock or one family; for in
-    their continual warfare, when chiefs or warriors fall, their clothes
-    and weapons usually fall into the possession of the victors, who wear
-    them; and the rest of the tribe would naturally more or less often
-    copy from or imitate them; and so also in their repeated councils or
-    treaties of peace, such articles of dress and other manufactures are
-    customarily exchanged, which are equally adopted by the other tribe;
-    and consequently, eventually lead to the similarity which we find
-    amongst the modes of dress, &amp;c. of the different tribes.</p>
-
-  <p>The tunic or shirt of the Mandan men is very similar in shape to that
-    of the Blackfeet—made of two skins of deer or mountain-sheep, strung
-    with scalp-locks, beads, and ermine. The leggings, like those of the
-    other tribes, of whom I have spoken, are made of deer skins, and shaped
-    to fit the leg, embroidered with porcupine quills, and fringed with
-    scalps from their enemies heads. Their moccasins are made of buckskin,
-    and neatly ornamented<span class="pagenum" id="Page_101">101</span> with porcupine quills—over their shoulders (or
-    in other words, over one shoulder and passing under the other), they
-    very gracefully wear a robe from the young buffalo’s back, oftentimes
-    cut down to about half its original size, to make it handy and easy
-    for use. Many of these are also fringed on one side with scalp-locks;
-    and the flesh side of the skin curiously ornamented with pictured
-    representations of the creditable events and battles of their lives.</p>
-
-  <p>Their head-dresses are of various sorts, and many of them exceedingly
-    picturesque and handsome; generally made of war-eagles’ or ravens
-    quills and ermine. These are the most costly part of an Indian’s dress
-    in all this country, owing to the difficulty of procuring the quills
-    and the fur. The war-eagle being the “<i>rara avis</i>,” and the ermine
-    the rarest animal that is found in the country. The tail of a war-eagle
-    in this village, provided it is a perfect one, containing some six or
-    eight quills, which are denominated first-rate plumes, and suitable to
-    arrange in a head-dress, will purchase a tolerable good horse (horses,
-    however, are much cheaper here than they are in most other countries).
-    I have had abundant opportunities of learning the great value which
-    these people sometimes attach to such articles of dress and ornament,
-    as I have been purchasing a great many, which I intend to exhibit in
-    my Gallery of Indian Paintings, that the world may examine them for
-    themselves, and thereby be enabled to judge of the fidelity of my
-    works, and the ingenuity of Indian manufactures.</p>
-
-  <p>In these purchases I have often been surprised at the prices demanded
-    by them; and perhaps I could not recite a better instance of the kind,
-    than one which occurred here a few days since:—One of the chiefs, whom
-    I had painted at full length, in a beautiful costume, with head-dress
-    of war-eagles’ quills and ermine, extending quite down to his feet;
-    and whom I was soliciting for the purchase of his dress complete, was
-    willing to sell to me all but the head-dress; saying, that “he could
-    not part with that, as he would never be able to get quills and ermine
-    of so good a quality to make another like it.” I agreed with him,
-    however, for the rest of the dress, and importuned him, from day to
-    day, for the head-dress, until he at length replied, that, if I must
-    have it, he must have two horses for it; the bargain was instantly
-    struck—the horses were procured of the Traders at twenty-five dollars
-    each, and the head-dress secured for my Collection.</p>
-
-  <p>There is occasionally, a chief or a warrior of so extraordinary renown,
-    that he is allowed to wear horns on his head-dress, which give to his
-    aspect a strange and majestic effect. These are made of about a third
-    part of the horn of a buffalo bull; the horn having been split from end
-    to end, and a third part of it taken and shaved thin and light, and
-    highly polished. These are attached to the top of the head-dress on
-    each side, in the same place that they rise and stand on the head of
-    a buffalo; rising out of a mat<span class="pagenum" id="Page_102">102</span> of ermine skins and tails, which hang
-    over the top of the head-dress, somewhat in the form that the large and
-    profuse locks of hair hang and fall over the head of a buffalo bull.
-    See head-dress in <span class="smcap">plates</span> <a href="#i_014">14</a>, <a href="#i_064">64</a>, and <a href="#i_091">91</a>, of three different
-    tribes.</p>
-
-  <p>The same custom I have found observed amongst the Sioux,—the Crows—the
-    Blackfeet and Assinneboins, and it is one of so striking a character
-    as needs a few more words of observation. There is a peculiar meaning
-    or importance (in their estimation) to this and many other curious and
-    unaccountable appearances in the habits of Indians, upon which the
-    world generally look as things that are absurd and ridiculous, merely
-    because they are beyond the world’s comprehension, or because we do not
-    stop to enquire or learn their uses or meaning.</p>
-
-  <p>I find that the principal cause why we underrate and despise the
-    savage, is generally because we do not understand him; and the reason
-    why we are ignorant of him and his modes, is that we do not stop to
-    investigate—the world have been too much in the habit of looking
-    upon him as altogether inferior—as a beast, a brute; and unworthy
-    of more than a passing notice. If they stop long enough to form
-    an acquaintance, it is but to take advantage of his ignorance and
-    credulities—to rob him of the wealth and resources of his country;—to
-    make him drunk with whiskey, and visit him with abuses which in his
-    ignorance he never thought of. By this method his first visitors
-    entirely overlook and never understand the meaning of his thousand
-    interesting and characteristic customs; and at the same time, by
-    changing his native modes and habits of life, blot them out from the
-    view of the enquiring world for ever.</p>
-
-  <p>It is from the observance of a thousand little and apparently trivial
-    modes and tricks of Indian life, that the Indian character must be
-    learned; and, in fact, it is just the same with us if the subject were
-    reversed: excepting that the system of civilized life would furnish
-    ten apparently useless and ridiculous trifles to one which is found in
-    Indian life; and at least twenty to one which are purely nonsensical
-    and unmeaning.</p>
-
-  <p>The civilized world look upon a group of Indians, in their classic
-    dress, with their few and simple oddities, all of which have their
-    moral or meaning, and laugh at them excessively, because they are not
-    like ourselves—we ask, “why do the silly creatures wear such great
-    bunches of quills on their heads?—Such loads and streaks of paint upon
-    their bodies—and bear’s grease? abominable!” and a thousand other
-    equally silly questions, without ever stopping to think that Nature
-    taught them to do so—and that they all have some definite importance
-    or meaning which an Indian could explain to us at once, if he were
-    asked and felt disposed to do so—that each quill in his head stood,
-    in the eyes of his whole tribe, as the symbol of an enemy who had
-    fallen by his hand—that every streak of red paint covered a wound
-    which he had got in honourable combat—and that the bear’s grease with
-    which he carefully anoints his body every morning, from<span class="pagenum" id="Page_103">103</span> head to foot,
-    cleanses and purifies the body, and protects his skin from the bite of
-    mosquitoes, and at the same time preserves him from colds and coughs
-    which are usually taken through the pores of the skin.</p>
-
-  <p>At the same time, an Indian looks among the civilized world, no doubt,
-    with equal, if not much greater, astonishment, at our apparently, as
-    well as <em>really</em>, ridiculous customs and fashions; but he laughs
-    not, nor ridicules, nor questions,—for his natural good sense and good
-    manners forbid him,—until he is reclining about the fire-side of his
-    wigwam companions, when he vents forth his just criticisms upon the
-    learned world, who are a rich and just theme for Indian criticism and
-    Indian gossip.</p>
-
-  <p>An Indian will not ask a white man the reason why he does not oil his
-    skin with bears’ grease, or why he does not paint his body—or why he
-    wears a hat on his head, or why he has buttons on the back part of
-    his coat, where they never can be used—or why he wears whiskers, and
-    a shirt collar up to his eyes—or why he sleeps with his head towards
-    the fire instead of his feet—why he walks with his toes out instead of
-    turning them in—or why it is that hundreds of white folks will flock
-    and crowd round a table to see an Indian eat—but he will go home to his
-    wigwam fire-side, and “make the welkin ring” with jokes and fun upon
-    the ignorance and folly of the knowing world.</p>
-
-  <p>A wild Indian thrown into the civilized atmosphere will see a man
-    occasionally moving in society, wearing a cocked hat; and another with
-    a laced coat and gold or silver epaulettes upon his shoulders, without
-    knowing or enquiring the meaning of them, or the objects for which they
-    are worn. Just so a white man travels amongst a wild and untaught tribe
-    of Indians, and sees occasionally one of them parading about their
-    village, with a head-dress of eagles’ quills and ermine, and elevated
-    above it a pair of beautifully polished buffalo horns; and just as
-    ignorant is he also, of their meaning or importance; and more so, for
-    the first will admit the presumption that epaulettes and cocked hats
-    amongst the civilized world, are made for some important purpose,—but
-    the latter will presume that horns on an Indian’s head are nothing more
-    nor less (nor can they be in their estimation), than Indian nonsense
-    and stupidity.</p>
-
-  <p>This brings us to the “corned crest” again, and if the poor Indian
-    scans epaulettes and cocked hats, without enquiring their meaning,
-    and explaining them to his tribe, it is no reason why I should have
-    associated with the noble dignitaries of these western regions, with
-    horns and ermine on their heads, and then to have introduced the
-    subject without giving some further clue to their importance and
-    meaning. For me, this negligence would be doubly unpardonable, as I
-    travel, not to <em>trade</em> but to <em>herald</em> the Indian and his
-    dying customs to posterity.</p>
-
-  <p>This custom then, which I have before observed belongs to all the
-    north-western tribes, is one no doubt of very ancient origin, having
-    a purely classic meaning. No one wears the head-dress surmounted with
-    horns except<span class="pagenum" id="Page_104">104</span> the dignitaries who are very high in authority, and whose
-    exceeding valour, worth, and power is admitted by all the nation.</p>
-
-  <p>He may wear them, however, who is not a <em>chief</em>; but a brave, or
-    warrior of such remarkable character, that he is esteemed universally
-    in the tribe, as a man whose “voice is as loud in council” as that of a
-    chief of the first grade, and consequently his <em>power</em> as great.</p>
-
-  <p>This head-dress with horns is used only on certain occasions, and they
-    are very seldom. When foreign chiefs, Indian agents, or other important
-    personages visit a tribe; or at war parades, at the celebration of
-    a victory, at public festivals, &amp;c. they are worn; but on no other
-    occasions—unless, sometimes, when a chief sees fit to lead a war-party
-    to battle, he decorates his head with this symbol of power, to
-    stimulate his men; and throws himself into the foremost of the battle,
-    inviting his enemy to concentrate their shafts upon him.</p>
-
-  <p>The horns on these head-dresses are but loosely attached at the bottom,
-    so that they easily fall back or forward, according as the head is
-    inclined forward or backward; and by an ingenious motion of the head,
-    which is so slight as to be almost imperceptible—they are made to
-    balance to and fro, and sometimes, one backward and the other forward
-    like a horse’s ears, giving a vast deal of expression and force of
-    character, to the appearance of the chief who is wearing them. This,
-    reader, is a remarkable instance (like hundreds of others), for its
-    striking similarity to <em>Jewish customs</em>, to the kerns (or keren,
-    in Hebrew), the horns worn by the Abysinian chiefs and Hebrews, as
-    a <em>symbol of power</em> and command; worn at great parades and
-    celebrations of victories.</p>
-
-  <p>“The false prophet Zedekiah, made him horns of iron” (1 Kings <abbr title="22">xxii</abbr>.
-    11). “Lift not your horns on high; speak not with a stiff neck” (Ps.
-    <abbr title="75">lxxv.</abbr> 5).</p>
-
-  <p>This last citation seems so exactly to convey to my mind the mode of
-    raising and changing the position of the horns by a motion of the head,
-    as I have above described, that I am irresistibly led to believe that
-    this custom is now practiced amongst these tribes very nearly as it
-    was amongst the Jews; and that it has been, like many other customs of
-    which I shall speak more in future epistles, handed down and preserved
-    with very little innovation or change from that ancient people.</p>
-
-  <p>The reader will see this custom exemplified in the portrait of
-    Mah-to-toh-pa (<a href="#i_064"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 64</a>). This man, although the second chief,
-    was the only man in the nation who was allowed to wear the horns; and
-    all, I found, looked upon him as the leader, who had the power to
-    lead all the warriors in time of war; and that, in consequence of the
-    extraordinary battles which he had fought.</p>
-
-  <hr class="chap" />
-  <div class="chapter">
-    <span class="pagenum" id="Page_105">105</span>
-    <h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_15">LETTER—<abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 15.</h2>
-  </div>
-  <div class="subheadc">MANDAN VILLAGE, UPPER MISSOURI.</div>
-
-  <p><span class="smcap">A week</span> or more has elapsed since the date of my last Letter, and
-    nothing as yet of the great and curious event—or the <em>Mandan
-    religious ceremony</em>. There is evidently much preparation making for
-    it, however; and from what I can learn, no one in the nation, save the
-    <em>medicine-men</em>, have any knowledge of the exact day on which it is
-    to commence. I am informed by the chiefs, that it takes place as soon
-    as the willow-tree is in full leaf; for, say they, “the twig which the
-    bird brought in was a willow bough, and had full-grown leaves on it.”
-    So it seems that this celebration has some relation to the Flood.</p>
-
-  <p>This great occasion is close at hand, and will, undoubtedly, commence
-    in a few days; in the meantime I will give a few notes and memorandums,
-    which I have made since my last.</p>
-
-  <p>I have been continually at work with my brush, with fine and
-    picturesque subjects before me; and from the strange, whimsical,
-    and superstitious notions which they have of an art so novel and
-    unaccountable to them, I have been initiated into many of their
-    mysteries—have witnessed many very curious incidents, and preserved
-    several anecdotes, some of which I must relate.</p>
-
-  <p>Perhaps nothing ever more completely astonished these people than
-    the operations of my <em>brush</em>. The art of portrait-painting
-    was a subject entirely new to them, and of course, unthought of;
-    and my appearance here has commenced a new era in the arcana of
-    <em>medicine</em> or mystery. Soon after arriving here, I commenced and
-    finished the portraits of the two principal chiefs. This was done
-    without having awakened the curiosity of the villagers, as they had
-    heard nothing of what was going on, and even the chiefs themselves
-    seemed to be ignorant of my designs, until the pictures were completed.
-    No one else was admitted into my lodge during the operation; and
-    when finished, it was exceedingly amusing to see them mutually
-    recognizing each other’s likeness, and assuring each other of the
-    striking resemblance which they bore to the originals. Both of these
-    pressed their hand over their mouths awhile in dead silence (a custom
-    amongst most tribes, when anything surprises them very much); looking
-    attentively upon the portraits and myself, and upon the palette and
-    colours with which these unaccountable effects had been produced.</p>
-
-  <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_106">106</span></p>
-
-  <p>They then walked up to me in the most gentle manner, taking me in
-    turn by the hand, with a firm grip; with head and eyes inclined
-    downwards, and in a tone a little above a whisper—pronounced the words
-    “te-ho-pe-nee Wash-ee!” and walked off.</p>
-
-  <p>Readers, at that moment I was christened with a new and a great
-    name—one by which I am now familiarly hailed, and talked of in this
-    village; and no doubt will be, as long as traditions last in this
-    strange community.</p>
-
-  <p>That moment conferred an honour on me, which you as yet do not
-    understand. I took the degree (not of Doctor of Laws, nor Bachelor of
-    Arts) of Master of Arts—of mysteries—of magic, and of hocus pocus.
-    I was recognized in that short sentence as a “great <em>medicine
-    white man</em>;” and since that time, have been regularly installed
-    <em>medicine</em> or mystery, which is the most honourable degree that
-    could be conferred upon me here; and I now hold a place amongst the
-    most eminent and envied personages, the doctors and conjurati of this
-    titled community.</p>
-
-  <p>Te-ho-pe-nee Wash-ee (or medicine white man) is the name I now go by,
-    and it will prove to me, no doubt, of more value than gold, for I have
-    been called upon and feasted by the doctors, who are all mystery-men;
-    and it has been an easy and successful passport already to many strange
-    and mysterious places; and has put me in possession of a vast deal of
-    curious and interesting information, which I am sure I never should
-    have otherwise learned. I am daily growing in the estimation of the
-    medicine-men and the chiefs; and by assuming all the gravity and
-    circumspection due from so high a dignitary (and even considerably
-    more); and endeavouring to perform now and then some art or trick that
-    is unfathomable, I am in hopes of supporting my standing, until the
-    great annual ceremony commences; on which occasion, I may possibly be
-    allowed a seat in the <em>medicine-lodge</em> by the doctors, who are the
-    sole conductors of this great source and fountain of all priestcraft
-    and conjuration in this country.</p>
-
-  <p>After I had finished the portraits of the two chiefs, and they had
-    returned to their wigwams, and deliberately seated themselves by their
-    respective fire-sides, and silently smoked a pipe or two (according
-    to an universal custom), they gradually began to tell what had taken
-    place; and at length crowds of gaping listeners, with mouths wide open,
-    thronged their lodges; and a throng of women and girls were about my
-    house, and through every crack and crevice I could see their glistening
-    eyes, which were piercing my hut in a hundred places, from a natural
-    and restless propensity, a curiosity to see what was going on within.
-    An hour or more passed in this way, and the soft and silken throng
-    continually increased, until some hundreds of them were clung, and
-    piled about my wigwam like a swarm of bees hanging on the front and
-    sides of their hive.</p>
-
-  <p>During this time, not a man made his appearance about the
-    premises—after awhile, however, they could be seen, folded in their
-    robes, gradually <em>siding</em> up towards the lodge, with a silly look
-    upon their faces, which confessed at<span class="pagenum" id="Page_107">107</span> once that curiosity was leading
-    them reluctantly, where their pride checked and forbade them to go. The
-    rush soon after became general, and the chiefs and medicine-men took
-    possession of my room, placing <em>soldiers</em> (braves with spears in
-    their hands) at the door, admitting no one, but such as were allowed by
-    the chiefs, to come in.</p>
-
-  <p>Monsr. Kipp (the agent of the Fur Company, who has lived here eight
-    years, and to whom, for his politeness and hospitality, I am much
-    indebted), at this time took a seat with the chiefs, and, speaking
-    their language fluently, he explained to them my views and the objects
-    for which I was painting these portraits; and also expounded to them
-    the manner in which they were made,—at which they seemed all to be very
-    much pleased. The necessity at this time of exposing the portraits to
-    the view of the crowds who were assembled around the house, became
-    imperative, and they were held up together over the door, so that
-    the whole village had a chance to see and recognize their chiefs.
-    The effect upon so mixed a multitude, who as yet had heard no way of
-    accounting for them, was novel and really laughable. The likenesses
-    were instantly recognized, and many of the gaping multitude commenced
-    yelping; some were stamping off in the jarring dance—others were
-    singing, and others again were crying—hundreds covered their mouths
-    with their hands and were mute; others, indignant, drove their spears
-    frightfully into the ground, and some threw a reddened arrow at the
-    sun, and went home to their wigwams.</p>
-
-  <p>The pictures seen,—the next curiosity was to see the man who made them,
-    and I was called forth. Readers! if you have any imagination, save me
-    the trouble of painting this scene. <span class="gesperrtstar">* * * * * * *</span> I stepped forth, and
-    was instantly hemmed in in the throng. Women were gaping and gazing—and
-    warriors and braves were offering me their hands,—whilst little boys
-    and girls, by dozens, were struggling through the crowd to touch me
-    with the ends of their fingers; and whilst I was engaged, from the
-    waist upwards, in fending off the throng and shaking hands, my legs
-    were assailed (not unlike the nibbling of little fish, when I have been
-    standing in deep water) by children, who were creeping between the legs
-    of the bystanders for the curiosity or honour of touching me with the
-    end of their finger. The eager curiosity and expression of astonishment
-    with which they gazed upon me, plainly shewed that they looked upon
-    me as some strange and unaccountable being. They pronounced me the
-    greatest <em>medicine-man</em> in the world; for they said I had made
-    <em>living beings</em>,—they said they could see their chiefs alive, in
-    two places—those that I had made were a <em>little</em> alive—they could
-    see their eyes move—could see them smile and laugh, and that if they
-    could laugh they could certainly speak, if they should try, and they
-    must therefore have <em>some life</em> in them.</p>
-
-  <p>The squaws generally agreed, that they had discovered life enough in
-    them to render my <em>medicine</em> too great for the Mandans; saying
-    that such an<span class="pagenum" id="Page_108">108</span> operation could not be performed without taking away from
-    the original something of his existence, which I put in the picture,
-    and they could see it move, could see it stir.</p>
-
-  <p>This curtailing of the natural existence, for the purpose of
-    instilling life into the secondary one, they decided to be an useless
-    and destructive operation, and one which was calculated to do great
-    mischief in their happy community; and they commenced a mournful and
-    doleful chaunt against me, crying and weeping bitterly through the
-    village, proclaiming me a most “dangerous man; one who could make
-    living persons by looking at them; and at the same time, could, as
-    a matter of course, destroy life in the same way, if I chose. That
-    my medicine was dangerous to their lives, and that I must leave the
-    village immediately. That bad luck would happen to those whom I
-    painted—that I was to take a part of the existence of those whom I
-    painted, and carry it home with me amongst the white people, and that
-    when they died they would never sleep quiet in their graves.”</p>
-
-  <p>In this way the women and some old quack medicine-men together,
-    had succeeded in raising an opposition against me; and the reasons
-    they assigned were so plausible and so exactly suited for their
-    superstitious feelings, that they completely succeeded in exciting
-    fears and a general panic in the minds of a number of chiefs who had
-    agreed to sit for their portraits, and my operations were, of course,
-    for several days completely at a stand. A grave council was held on
-    the subject from day to day, and there seemed great difficulty in
-    deciding what was to be done with me and the dangerous art which I was
-    practicing; and which had far exceeded their original expectations. I
-    finally got admittance to their sacred conclave, and assured them that
-    I was but a man like themselves,—that my art had no <em>medicine</em> or
-    mystery about it, but could be learned by any of them if they would
-    practice it as long as I had—that my intentions towards them were of
-    the most friendly kind, and that in the country where I lived, brave
-    men never allowed their squaws to frighten them with their foolish
-    whims and stories. They all immediately arose, shook me by the hand,
-    and dressed themselves for their pictures. After this, there was no
-    further difficulty about sitting; all were ready to be painted,—the
-    squaws were silent, and my painting-room a continual resort for the
-    chiefs, and braves, and medicine-men; where they waited with impatience
-    for the completion of each one’s picture,—that they could decide as to
-    the likeness as it came from under the brush; that they could laugh,
-    and yell, and sing a new song, and smoke a fresh pipe to the health and
-    success of him who had just been safely delivered from the hands and
-    the mystic operation of the “<em>white medicine</em>.”</p>
-
-  <p>In each of these operations, as they successfully took place, I
-    observed that a pipe or two were well filled, and as soon as I
-    commenced painting, the chiefs and braves, who sat around the sides
-    of the lodge, commenced smoking for the success of the picture (and
-    probably as much or more so for the safe deliverance of the sitter from
-    harm while under the operation);<span class="pagenum" id="Page_109">109</span> and so they continued to pass the
-    pipe around until the portrait was completed.</p>
-
-  <p>In this way I progressed with my portraits, stopping occasionally
-    very suddenly as if something was wrong, and taking a tremendous puff
-    or two at the pipe, and streaming the smoke through my nostrils,
-    exhibiting in my looks and actions an evident relief; enabling me to
-    proceed with more facility and success,—by flattering and complimenting
-    each one on his good looks after I had got it done, and taking them
-    according to rank, or standing, making it a matter of honour with them,
-    which pleased them exceedingly, and gave me and my art the stamp of
-    respectability at once.</p>
-
-  <p>I was then taken by the arm by the chiefs, and led to their lodges,
-    where feasts were prepared for me in elegant style, <i>i. e.</i> in
-    the best manner which this country affords; and being led by the arm,
-    and welcomed to them by <em>gentlemen</em> of high and exalted feelings,
-    rendered them in my estimation truly elegant.</p>
-
-  <p>I was waited upon in due form and ceremony by the <em>medicine-men</em>,
-    who received me upon the old adage, “Similis simili gaudet.” I was
-    invited to a feast, and they presented me a <i lang="mhq">she-shee-quoi</i>,
-    or a doctor’s rattle, and also a magical wand, or a doctor’s staff,
-    strung with claws of the grizzly bear, with hoofs of the antelope—with
-    ermine—with wild sage and bat’s wings—and perfumed withal with the
-    <em>choice</em> and <em>savoury</em> odour of the pole-cat—a dog was
-    sacrificed and hung by the legs over my wigwam, and I was therefore and
-    thereby initiated into (and countenanced in the practice of) the arcana
-    of medicine or mystery, and considered a Fellow of the Extraordinary
-    Society of <em>Conjurati</em>.</p>
-
-  <p>Since this signal success and good fortune in my operations, things
-    have gone on very pleasantly, and I have had a great deal of amusement.
-    Some altercation has taken place, however, amongst the chiefs and
-    braves, with regard to standing or rank, of which they are exceedingly
-    jealous; and they must sit (if at all) in regular order, according to
-    that rank; the trouble is all settled at last, however, and I have had
-    no want of subjects, though a great many have become again alarmed,
-    and are unwilling to sit, for fear, as some say, that they will die
-    prematurely if painted; and as others say, that if they are painted,
-    the picture will live after they are dead, and they cannot sleep quiet
-    in their graves.</p>
-
-  <p>I have had several most remarkable occurrences in my painting-room, of
-    this kind, which have made me some everlasting enemies here; though
-    the minds and feelings of the chiefs and medicine-men have not been
-    affected by them. There has been three or four instances where proud
-    and aspiring young men have been in my lodge, and after gazing at the
-    portraits of the head chief across the room (which sits looking them
-    in the eyes), have raised their hands before their faces and walked
-    around to the side of the lodge, on the right or left, from whence to
-    take a long and fair side-look at the chief, instead of staring him
-    full in the face (which is a most unpardonable offence<span class="pagenum" id="Page_110">110</span> in all Indian
-    tribes); and after having got in that position, and cast their eyes
-    again upon the portrait which was yet looking them full in the face,
-    have thrown their robes over their heads and bolted out of the wigwam,
-    filled equally with astonishment and indignation; averring, as they
-    always will in a sullen mood, that they “saw the eyes move,”—that as
-    they walked around the room “the eyes of the portrait followed them.”
-    With these unfortunate gentlemen, repeated efforts have been made by
-    the Traders, and also by the chiefs and doctors, who understand the
-    illusion, to convince them of their error, by explaining the mystery;
-    but they will not hear to any explanation whatever; saying, that “what
-    they see with their eyes is always evidence enough for them;” that they
-    always “believe their own eyes sooner than a hundred tongues,” and all
-    efforts to get them a second time to my room, or into my company in any
-    place, have proved entirely unsuccessful.</p>
-
-  <p>I had trouble brewing also the other day from another source; one of
-    the “<em>medicines</em>” commenced howling and haranguing around my
-    domicil, amongst the throng that was outside, proclaiming that all who
-    were inside and being painted were fools and would soon die; and very
-    materially affecting thereby my popularity. I however sent for him
-    and called him in the next morning, when I was alone, having only the
-    interpreter with me; telling him that I had had my eye upon him for
-    several days, and had been so well pleased with his looks, that I had
-    taken great pains to find out his history, which had been explained by
-    all as one of a most extraordinary kind, and his character and standing
-    in his tribe as worthy of my particular notice; and that I had several
-    days since resolved that as soon as I had practiced my hand long enough
-    upon the others, to get the stiffness out of it (after paddling my
-    canoe so far as I had) and make it to work easily and successfully,
-    I would begin on his portrait, which I was then prepared to commence
-    on that day, and that I felt as if I could do him justice. He shook
-    me by the hand, giving me the “Doctor’s grip,” and beckoned me to sit
-    down, which I did, and we smoked a pipe together. After this was over,
-    he told me, that “he had no inimical feelings towards me, although he
-    had been telling the chiefs that they were all fools, and all would
-    die who had their portraits painted—that although he had set the old
-    women and children all crying, and even made some of the young warriors
-    tremble, yet he had no unfriendly feelings towards me, nor any fear
-    or dread of my art.” “I know you are a good man (said he), I know you
-    will do no harm to any one, your medicine is great and you are a great
-    ‘medicine-man.’ I would like to see myself very well—and so would all
-    of the chiefs; but they have all been many days in this medicine-house,
-    and they all know me well, and they have not asked me to come in and be
-    <em>made alive</em> with paints—my friend, I am glad that my people have
-    told you who I am—my heart is glad—I will go to my wigwam and eat, and
-    in a little while I will come, and you may go to work;”—another pipe
-    was lit and smoked, and he got up and went off. I prepared my canvass
-    and palette,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_111">111</span> and whistled away the time until twelve o’clock, before
-    he made his appearance; having used the whole of the fore-part of the
-    day at his toilette, arranging his dress and ornamenting his body for
-    his picture.</p>
-
-  <figure class="mt2 illowp75" id="i_055">
-  <div class="plate"><i>30</i></div>
-    <img src="images/i_055.jpg" alt="" />
-     <figcaption>55</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p>At that hour then, bedaubed and streaked with paints of various
-    colours, with bear’s grease and charcoal, with medicine-pipes in his
-    hands and foxes tails attached to his heels, entered Mah-to-he-ha (the
-    old bear, <a href="#i_055"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 55</a>), with a train of his own profession, who
-    seated themselves around him; and also a number of boys, whom it was
-    requested should remain with him, and whom I supposed it possible
-    might have been pupils, whom he was instructing in the mysteries of
-    <i>materia medica</i> and <i>hoca poca</i>. He took his position in
-    the middle of the room, waving his eagle calumets in each hand, and
-    singing his medicine-song which he sings over his dying patient,
-    looking me full in the face until I completed his picture, which I
-    painted at full length. His vanity has been completely gratified in
-    the operation; he lies for hours together, day after day, in my room,
-    in front of his picture, gazing intensely upon it; lights my pipe for
-    me while I am painting—shakes hands with me a dozen times on each day,
-    and talks of me, and enlarges upon my <em>medicine</em> virtues and my
-    talents, wherever he goes; so that this new difficulty is now removed,
-    and instead of preaching against me, he is one of my strongest and most
-    enthusiastic friends and aids in the country.</p>
-
-  <p>There is yet to be described another sort of personage, that is often
-    seen stalking about in all Indian communities, a kind of nondescript,
-    with whom I have been somewhat annoyed, and still more amused, since I
-    came to this village, of whom (or of <em>which</em>) I shall give some
-    account in my next epistle.</p>
-
-  <hr class="chap" />
-  <div class="chapter">
-    <span class="pagenum" id="Page_112">112</span>
-    <h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_16">LETTER—<abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 16.</h2>
-  </div>
-  <div class="subheadc">MANDAN VILLAGE, UPPER MISSOURI.</div>
-
-  <p><span class="smcap">Besides</span> chiefs, and braves and doctors, of whom I have heretofore
-    spoken, there is yet another character of whom I must say a few words
-    before I proceed to other topics. The person I allude to, is the one
-    mentioned at the close of my last Letter, and familiarly known and
-    countenanced in every tribe as an Indian <i lang="fr">beau</i> or <em>dandy</em>.
-    Such personages may be seen on every pleasant day, strutting and
-    parading around the village in the most beautiful and unsoiled dresses,
-    without the honourable trophies however of scalp locks and claws of
-    the grizzly bear, attached to their costume, for with such things they
-    deal not. They are not peculiarly anxious to hazard their lives in
-    equal and honourable combat with the one, or disposed to cross the path
-    of the other; but generally remain about the village, to take care of
-    the women, and attire themselves in the skins of such animals as they
-    can easily kill, without seeking the rugged cliffs for the war-eagle,
-    or visiting the haunts of the grizzly bear. They plume themselves
-    with swan’s-down and quills of ducks, with braids and plaits of
-    sweet-scented grass and other harmless and unmeaning ornaments, which
-    have no other merit than they themselves have, that of looking pretty
-    and ornamental.</p>
-
-  <p>These clean and elegant gentlemen, who are very few in each tribe, are
-    held in very little estimation by the chiefs and braves; inasmuch as it
-    is known by all, that they have a most horrible aversion to arms, and
-    are denominated “faint hearts” or “old women” by the whole tribe, and
-    are therefore but little respected. They seem, however, to be tolerably
-    well contented with the appellation, together with the celebrity
-    they have acquired amongst the women and children for the beauty and
-    elegance of their personal appearance; and most of them seem to take
-    and enjoy their share of the world’s pleasures, although they are
-    looked upon as drones in society.</p>
-
-  <p>These gay and tinselled bucks may be seen in a pleasant day in all
-    their plumes, astride of their pied or dappled ponies, with a fan in
-    the right hand, made of a turkey’s tail—with whip and a fly-brush
-    attached to the wrist of the same hand, and underneath them a white and
-    beautiful and soft pleasure-saddle, ornamented with porcupine quills
-    and ermine, parading through and lounging about the village for an hour
-    or so, when they will cautiously bend their course to the suburbs of
-    the town, where they will sit<span class="pagenum" id="Page_113">113</span> or recline upon their horses for an hour
-    or two, overlooking the beautiful games where the braves and the young
-    aspirants are contending in manly and athletic amusements;—when they
-    are fatigued with this severe effort, they wend their way back again,
-    lift off their fine white saddle of doe’s-skin, which is wadded with
-    buffalo’s hair, turn out their pony—take a little refreshment, smoke a
-    pipe, fan themselves to sleep, and doze away the rest of the day.</p>
-
-  <p>Whilst I have been painting, from day to day, there have been two or
-    three of these fops continually strutting and taking their attitudes
-    in front of my door; decked out in all their finery, without receiving
-    other benefit or other information, than such as they could discover
-    through the cracks and seams of my cabin. The chiefs, I observed,
-    passed them by without notice, and of course, without inviting them
-    in; and they seemed to figure about my door from day to day in their
-    best dresses and best attitudes, as if in hopes that I would select
-    them as models, for my canvass. It was natural that I should do so,
-    for their costume and personal appearance was entirely more beautiful
-    than anything else to be seen in the village. My plans were laid,
-    and one day when I had got through with all of the head men, who
-    were willing to sit to be painted, and there were two or three of
-    the chiefs lounging in my room, I stepped to the door and tapped one
-    of these fellows on the shoulder, who took the hint, and stepped in,
-    well-pleased and delighted with the signal and honourable notice I had
-    at length taken of him and his beautiful dress. Readers, you cannot
-    imagine what was the expression of gratitude which beamed forth in
-    this poor fellow’s face, and how high his heart beat with joy and
-    pride at the idea of my selecting him to be immortal, alongside of the
-    chiefs and worthies whose portraits he saw arranged around the room;
-    and by which honour he, undoubtedly, considered himself well paid for
-    two or three weeks of regular painting, and greasing, and dressing,
-    and standing alternately on one leg and the other at the door of my
-    premises.</p>
-
-  <p>Well, I placed him before me, and a canvass on my easel, and “chalked
-    him out” at full length. He was truly a beautiful subject for the
-    brush, and I was filled with enthusiasm—his dress from head to foot was
-    of the skins of the mountain-goat, and dressed so neatly, that they
-    were almost as soft and as white as Canton crape—around the bottom and
-    the sides it was trimmed with ermine, and porcupine quills of beautiful
-    dyes garnished it in a hundred parts;—his hair which was long, and
-    spread over his back and shoulders, extending nearly to the ground, was
-    all combed back and parted on his forehead like that of a woman. He
-    was a tall and fine figure, with ease and grace in his movements, that
-    were well worthy of a man of better caste. In his left hand he held a
-    beautiful pipe—and in his right hand he plied his fan, and on his wrist
-    was still attached his whip of elk’s horn, and his fly-brush, made of
-    the buffalo’s tail. There was nought about him of the terrible, and
-    nought to shock the finest, chastest intellect.</p>
-
-  <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_114">114</span></p>
-
-  <p>I had thus far progressed, with high-wrought feelings of pleasure,
-    when the two or three chiefs, who had been seated around the lodge,
-    and whose portraits I had before painted, arose suddenly, and wrapping
-    themselves tightly in their robes, crossed my room with a quick and
-    heavy step, and took an informal leave of my cabin. I was apprehensive
-    of their displeasure, though I continued my work; and in a few moments
-    the interpreter came furiously into my room, addressing me thus:—“My
-    God, Sir! this never will do; you have given great offence to the
-    chiefs—they have made complaint of your conduct to me—they tell me
-    this is a worthless fellow—a man of no account in the nation, and if
-    you paint his picture, you must instantly destroy theirs; you have no
-    alternative, my dear Sir—and the quicker this chap is out of your lodge
-    the better.”</p>
-
-  <p>The same matter was explained to my sitter by the interpreter, when
-    he picked up his robe, wrapped himself in it, plied his fan nimbly
-    about his face, and walked out of the lodge in silence, but with quite
-    a consequential smile, taking his old position in front of the door
-    for awhile, after which he drew himself quietly off without further
-    exhibition. So highly do Mandan braves and worthies value the honour
-    of being painted; and so little do they value a man, however lavishly
-    Nature may have bestowed her master touches upon him, who has not the
-    pride and noble bearing of a warrior.</p>
-
-  <p>I spoke in a former Letter of Mah-to-toh-pa (the four bears), the
-    second chief of the nation, and the most popular man of the Mandans—a
-    high-minded and gallant warrior, as well as a polite and polished
-    gentleman. Since I painted his portrait, as I before described, I
-    have received at his hands many marked and signal attentions; some
-    of which I must name to you, as the very relation of them will put
-    you in possession of many little forms and modes of Indian life, that
-    otherwise might not have been noted.</p>
-
-  <p>About a week since, this noble fellow stepped into my painting-room
-    about twelve o’clock in the day, in full and splendid dress, and
-    passing his arm through mine, pointed the way, and led me in the most
-    gentlemanly manner, through the village and into his own lodge, where
-    a feast was prepared in a careful manner and waiting our arrival. The
-    lodge in which he dwelt was a room of immense size, some forty or fifty
-    feet in diameter, in a circular form, and about twenty feet high—with a
-    sunken curb of stone in the centre, of five or six feet in diameter and
-    one foot deep, which contained the fire over which the pot was boiling.
-    I was led near the edge of this curb, and seated on a very handsome
-    robe, most ingeniously garnished and painted with hieroglyphics; and he
-    seated himself gracefully on another one at a little distance from me;
-    with the feast prepared in several dishes, resting on a beautiful rush
-    mat, which was placed between us (<a href="#i_062"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 62</a>).</p>
-
-  <p>The simple feast which was spread before us consisted of three dishes
-    only, two of which were served in wooden bowls, and the third in
-    an earthen vessel of their own manufacture, somewhat in shape of a
-    bread-tray in our own country. This last contained a quantity of
-    <em>pem-i-can</em> and <em>marrow-fat</em>;<span class="pagenum" id="Page_115">115</span> and one of the former held
-    a fine brace of buffalo ribs, delightfully roasted; and the other
-    was filled with a kind of paste or pudding, made of the flour of the
-    “<i lang="fr">pomme blanche</i>,” as the French call it, a delicious turnip of
-    the prairie, finely flavoured with the buffalo berries, which are
-    collected in great quantities in this country, and used with divers
-    dishes in cooking, as we in civilized countries use dried currants,
-    which they very much resemble.</p>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>31</i></div>
-  <figure id="i_062">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_062.jpg" alt="" />
-     <figcaption>62</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p>A handsome pipe and a tobacco-pouch made of the otter skin, filled with
-    k’nick-k’neck (Indian tobacco), laid by the side of the feast; and when
-    we were seated, mine host took up his pipe, and deliberately filled
-    it; and instead of lighting it by the fire, which he could easily have
-    done, he drew from his pouch his flint and steel, and raised a spark
-    with which he kindled it. He drew a few strong whiffs through it, and
-    presented the stem of it to my mouth, through which I drew a whiff or
-    two while he held the stem in his hands. This done, he laid down the
-    pipe, and drawing his knife from his belt, cut off a very small piece
-    of the meat from the ribs, and pronouncing the words “Ho-pe-ne-chee
-    wa-pa-shee” (meaning a <em>medicine</em> sacrifice), threw it into the
-    fire.</p>
-
-  <p>He then (by signals) requested me to eat, and I commenced, after
-    drawing out from my belt my knife (which it is supposed that every man
-    in this country carries about him, for at an Indian feast a knife is
-    never offered to a guest). Reader, be not astonished that I sat and
-    ate my dinner <em>alone</em>, for such is the custom of this strange
-    land. In all tribes in these western regions it is an invariable rule
-    that a chief never eats with his guests invited to a feast; but while
-    they eat, he sits by, at their service, and ready to wait upon them;
-    deliberately charging and lighting the pipe which is to be passed
-    around after the feast is over. Such was the case in the present
-    instance, and while I was eating, Mah-to-toh-pa sat cross-legged before
-    me, cleaning his pipe and preparing it for a cheerful smoke when I had
-    finished my meal. For this ceremony I observed he was making unusual
-    preparation, and I observed as I ate, that after he had taken enough
-    of the k’nick-k’neck or bark of the red willow, from his pouch, he
-    rolled out of it also a piece of the “<em>castor</em>,” which it is
-    customary amongst these folks to carry in their tobacco-sack to give it
-    a flavour; and, shaving off a small quantity of it, mixed it with the
-    bark, with which he charged his pipe. This done, he drew also from his
-    sack a small parcel containing a fine powder, which was made of dried
-    buffalo dung, a little of which he spread over the top, (according also
-    to custom,) which was like tinder, having no other effect than that of
-    lighting the pipe with ease and satisfaction. My appetite satiated,
-    I straightened up, and with a whiff the pipe was lit, and we enjoyed
-    together for a quarter of an hour the most delightful exchange of good
-    feelings, amid clouds of smoke and pantomimic signs and gesticulations.</p>
-
-  <p>The dish of “pemican and marrow-fat,” of which I spoke, was thus:—The
-    first, an article of food used throughout this country, as familiarly
-    as we use<span class="pagenum" id="Page_116">116</span> bread in the civilized world. It is made of buffalo meat
-    dried very hard, and afterwards pounded in a large wooden mortar until
-    it is made nearly as fine as sawdust, then packed in this dry state in
-    bladders or sacks of skin, and is easily carried to any part of the
-    world in good order. “Marrow-fat” is collected by the Indians from
-    the buffalo bones which they break to pieces, yielding a prodigious
-    quantity of marrow, which is boiled out and put into buffalo bladders
-    which have been distended; and after it cools, becomes quite hard like
-    tallow, and has the appearance, and very nearly the flavour, of the
-    richest yellow butter. At a feast, chunks of this marrow-fat are cut
-    off and placed in a tray or bowl, with the pemican, and eaten together;
-    which we civilized folks in these regions consider a very good
-    substitute for (and indeed we generally so denominate it) “bread and
-    butter.” In this dish laid a spoon made of the buffalo’s horn, which
-    was black as jet, and beautifully polished; in one of the others there
-    was another of still more ingenious and beautiful workmanship, made of
-    the horn of the mountain-sheep, or “Gros corn,” as the French trappers
-    call them; it was large enough to hold of itself two or three pints,
-    and was almost entirely transparent.</p>
-
-  <p>I spoke also of the earthen dishes or bowls in which these viands were
-    served out; they are a familiar part of the culinary furniture of
-    every Mandan lodge, and are manufactured by the women of this tribe
-    in great quantities, and modelled into a thousand forms and tastes.
-    They are made by the hands of the women, from a tough black clay, and
-    baked in kilns which are made for the purpose, and are nearly equal in
-    hardness to our own manufacture of pottery; though they have not yet
-    got the art of glazing, which would be to them a most valuable secret.
-    They make them so strong and serviceable, however, that they hang them
-    over the fire as we do our iron pots, and boil their meat in them with
-    perfect success. I have seen some few specimens of such manufacture,
-    which have been dug up in Indian mounds and tombs in the southern and
-    middle states, placed in our Eastern Museums and looked upon as a great
-    wonder, when here this novelty is at once done away with, and the whole
-    mystery; where women can be seen handling and using them by hundreds,
-    and they can be seen every day in the summer also, moulding them into
-    many fanciful forms, and passing them through the kiln where they are
-    hardened.</p>
-
-  <p>Whilst sitting at this feast the wigwam was as silent as death,
-    although we were not alone in it. This chief, like most others, had a
-    plurality of wives, and all of them (some six or seven) were seated
-    around the sides of the lodge, upon robes or mats placed upon the
-    ground, and not allowed to speak, though they were in readiness to obey
-    his orders or commands, which were uniformly given by signs manual, and
-    executed in the neatest and most silent manner.</p>
-
-  <p>When I arose to return, the pipe through which we had smoked was
-    presented to me; and the robe on which I had sat, he gracefully raised
-    by the corners and tendered it to me, explaining by signs that the
-    paintings<span class="pagenum" id="Page_117">117</span> which were on it were the representations of the battles of
-    his life, where he had fought and killed with his own hand fourteen
-    of his enemies; that he had been two weeks engaged in painting it for
-    me, and that he had invited me here on this occasion to present it to
-    me. The robe, readers, which I shall describe in a future epistle, I
-    took upon my shoulder, and he took me by the arm and led me back to my
-    painting-room.</p>
-
-  <hr class="chap" />
-  <div class="chapter">
-    <span class="pagenum" id="Page_118">118</span>
-    <h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_17">LETTER—<abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 17.</h2>
-  </div>
-  <div class="subheadc">MANDAN VILLAGE, <i>UPPER MISSOURI</i>.</div>
-
-  <p><span class="smcap">I mentioned</span> in the foregoing epistle, that the chiefs of the Mandans
-    frequently have a plurality of wives. Such is the custom amongst all of
-    these North Western tribes, and a few general remarks on this subject
-    will apply to them all, and save the trouble of repeating them.</p>
-
-  <p>Polygamy is countenanced amongst all of the North American Indians, so
-    far as I have visited them; and it is no uncommon thing to find a chief
-    with six, eight, or ten, and some with twelve or fourteen wives in his
-    lodge. Such is an ancient custom, and in their estimation is right as
-    well as necessary. Women in a savage state, I believe, are always held
-    in a rank inferior to that of the men, in relation to whom in many
-    respects they stand rather in the light of menials and slaves than
-    otherwise; and as they are the “hewers of wood and drawers of water,”
-    it becomes a matter of necessity for a chief (who must be liberal,
-    keep open doors, and entertain, for the support of his popularity) to
-    have in his wigwam a sufficient number of such handmaids or menials to
-    perform the numerous duties and drudgeries of so large and expensive an
-    establishment.</p>
-
-  <p>There are two other reasons for this custom which operate with
-    equal, if not with greater force than the one above assigned. In the
-    first place, these people, though far behind the civilized world in
-    acquisitiveness, have still more or less passion for the accumulation
-    of wealth, or, in other words, for the luxuries of life; and a
-    chief, excited by a desire of this kind, together with a wish to be
-    able to furnish his lodge with something more than ordinary for the
-    entertainment of his own people, as well as strangers who fall upon his
-    hospitality, sees fit to marry a number of wives, who are kept at hard
-    labour during most of the year; and the avails of that labour enable
-    him to procure those luxuries, and give to his lodge the appearance
-    of respectability which is not ordinarily seen. Amongst those tribes
-    who trade with the Fur Companies, this system is carried out to a
-    great extent, and the women are kept for the greater part of the
-    year, dressing buffalo robes and other skins for the market; and the
-    brave or chief, who has the greatest number of wives, is considered
-    the most affluent and envied man in the tribe; for his table is most
-    bountifully supplied, and his lodge the most abundantly furnished with
-    the luxuries<span class="pagenum" id="Page_119">119</span> of civilized manufacture, who has at the year’s end the
-    greatest number of robes to vend to the Fur Company.</p>
-
-  <p>The manual labour amongst savages is all done by the women; and as
-    there are no daily labourers or persons who will “<em>hire out</em>” to
-    labour for another, it becomes necessary for him who requires more than
-    the labour or services of one, to add to the number by legalizing and
-    compromising by the ceremony of marriage, his stock of labourers; who
-    can thus, and thus alone, be easily enslaved, and the results of their
-    labour turned to good account.</p>
-
-  <p>There is yet the other inducement, which probably is more effective
-    than either; the natural inclination which belongs to man, who
-    stands high in the estimation of his people and wields the sceptre
-    of power—surrounded by temptations which he considers it would be
-    unnatural to resist, where no law or regulation of society stands
-    in the way of his enjoyment. Such a custom amongst savage nations
-    can easily be excused too, and we are bound to excuse it, when
-    we behold man in a state of nature, as he was made, following a
-    natural inclination, which is sanctioned by ancient custom and by
-    their religion, without a law or regulation of their society to
-    discountenance it; and when, at the same time, such an accumulation of
-    a man’s household, instead of quadrupling his expenses (as would be
-    the case in the civilized world), actually becomes his wealth, as the
-    results of their labour abundantly secure to him all the necessaries
-    and luxuries of life.</p>
-
-  <p>There are other and very rational grounds on which the propriety
-    of such a custom may be urged, one of which is as follows:—as all
-    nations of Indians in their natural condition are unceasingly at war
-    with the tribes that are about them, for the adjustment of ancient
-    and never-ending feuds, as well as from a love of glory, to which in
-    Indian life the battle-field is almost the only road, their warriors
-    are killed off to that extent, that in many instances two and sometimes
-    three women to a man are found in a tribe. In such instances I have
-    found that the custom of polygamy has kindly helped the community to an
-    evident relief from a cruel and prodigious calamity.</p>
-
-  <p>The instances of which I have above spoken, are generally confined to
-    the chiefs and medicine-men; though there is no regulation prohibiting
-    a poor or obscure individual from marrying several wives, other than
-    the personal difficulties which lie between him and the hand which he
-    wishes in vain to get, for want of sufficient celebrity in society, or
-    from a still more frequent objection, that of his inability (from want
-    of worldly goods) to deal in the customary way with the fathers of the
-    girls whom he would appropriate to his own household.</p>
-
-  <p>There are very few instances indeed, to be seen in these regions, where
-    a poor or ordinary citizen has more than one wife; but amongst chiefs
-    and braves of great reputation, and doctors, it is common to see some
-    six or<span class="pagenum" id="Page_120">120</span> eight living under one roof, and all apparently quiet and
-    contented; seemingly harmonizing, and enjoying the modes of life and
-    treatment that falls to their lot.</p>
-
-  <p>Wives in this country are mostly treated for with the father, as in all
-    instances they are regularly bought and sold. In many cases the bargain
-    is made with the father alone, without ever consulting the inclinations
-    of the girl, and seems to be conducted on his part as a mercenary
-    contract entirely, where he stands out for the highest price he can
-    possibly command for her. There are other instances to be sure, where
-    the parties approach each other, and from the expression of a mutual
-    fondness, make their own arrangements, and pass their own mutual vows,
-    which are quite as sacred and inviolable as similar assurances when
-    made in the civilized world. Yet even in such cases, the marriage is
-    never consummated without the necessary form of making presents to the
-    father of the girl.</p>
-
-  <p>It becomes a matter of policy and almost of absolute necessity, for the
-    white men who are Traders in these regions to connect themselves in
-    this way, to one or more of the most influential families in the tribe,
-    which in a measure identifies their interest with that of the nation,
-    and enables them, with the influence of their new family connexions,
-    to carry on successfully their business transactions with them. The
-    young women of the best families only can aspire to such an elevation;
-    and the most of them are exceedingly ambitious for such a connexion,
-    inasmuch as they are certain of a delightful exemption from the slavish
-    duties that devolve upon them when married under other circumstances;
-    and expect to be, as they generally are, allowed to lead a life of ease
-    and idleness, covered with mantles of blue and scarlet cloth—with beads
-    and trinkets, and ribbons, in which they flounce and flirt about, the
-    envied and tinselled belles of every tribe.</p>
-
-  <p>These connexions, however, can scarcely be called marriages, for I
-    believe they are generally entered into without the form or solemnizing
-    ceremony of a marriage, and on the part of the father of the girls,
-    conducted purely as a mercenary or business transaction; in which
-    they are very expert, and practice a deal of shrewdness in exacting
-    an adequate price from a purchaser whom they consider possessed of
-    so large and so rich a stock of the world’s goods; and who they deem
-    abundantly able to pay liberally for so delightful a commodity.</p>
-
-  <p>Almost every Trader and every clerk who commences in the business of
-    this country, speedily enters into such an arrangement, which is done
-    with as little ceremony as he would bargain for a horse, and just as
-    unceremoniously do they annul and abolish this connexion when they
-    wish to leave the country, or change their positions from one tribe to
-    another; at which time the woman is left, a fair and proper candidate
-    for matrimony or speculation, when another applicant comes along, and
-    her father equally desirous for another horse or gun, &amp;c. which he can
-    easily command at her second espousal.</p>
-
-  <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_121">121</span></p>
-
-  <p>From the enslaved and degraded condition in which the women are held in
-    the Indian country, the world would naturally think that theirs must
-    be a community formed of incongruous and unharmonizing materials; and
-    consequently destitute of the fine, reciprocal feelings and attachments
-    which flow from the domestic relations in the civilized world; yet it
-    would be untrue, and doing injustice to the Indians, to say that they
-    were in the least behind us in conjugal, in filial, and in paternal
-    affection. There is no trait in the human character which is more
-    universal than the attachments which flow from these relations, and
-    there is no part of the human species who have a stronger affection and
-    a higher regard for them than the North American Indians.</p>
-
-  <p>There is no subject in the Indian character of more importance to be
-    rightly understood than this, and none either that has furnished me
-    more numerous instances and more striking proofs, of which I shall
-    make use on a future occasion, when I shall say a vast deal more of
-    marriage—of divorce—of polygamy—and of Indian domestic relations. For
-    the present I am scribbling about the looks and usages of the Indians
-    who are about me and under my eye; and I must not digress too much into
-    general remarks, lest I lose sight of those who are near me, and the
-    first to be heralded.</p>
-
-  <p>Such, then, are the Mandans—their women are beautiful and modest,—and
-    amongst the respectable families, virtue is as highly cherished and
-    as inapproachable, as in any society whatever; yet at the same time a
-    chief may marry a dozen wives if he pleases, and so may a white man;
-    and if either wishes to marry the most beautiful and modest girl in the
-    tribe, she is valued only equal, perhaps, to two horses, a gun with
-    powder and ball for a year, five or six pounds of beads, a couple of
-    gallons of whiskey, and a handful of awls.</p>
-
-  <p>The girls of this tribe, like those of most of these north-western
-    tribes, marry at the age of twelve or fourteen, and some at the age of
-    eleven years; and their beauty, from this fact, as well as from the
-    slavish life they lead, soon after marriage vanishes. Their occupations
-    are almost continual, and they seem to go industriously at them, as if
-    from choice or inclination, without a murmur.</p>
-
-  <p>The principal occupations of the women in this village, consist in
-    procuring wood and water, in cooking, dressing robes and other skins,
-    in drying meat and wild fruit, and raising corn (maize). The Mandans
-    are somewhat of agriculturists, as they raise a great deal of corn and
-    some pumpkins and squashes. This is all done by the women, who make
-    their hoes of the shoulder-blade of the buffalo or the elk, and dig the
-    ground over instead of ploughing it, which is consequently done with a
-    vast deal of labour. They raise a very small sort of corn, the ears of
-    which are not longer than a man’s thumb. This variety is well adapted
-    to their climate, as it ripens sooner than other varieties, which
-    would not mature in so cold a latitude. The green corn season is one
-    of great festivity with them, and one of much importance. The greater
-    part of their crop is eaten during these festivals,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_122">122</span> and the remainder
-    is gathered and dried on the cob, before it has ripened, and packed
-    away in “<i lang="fr">caches</i>” (as the French call them), holes dug in the
-    ground, some six or seven feet deep, the insides of which are somewhat
-    in the form of a jug, and tightly closed at the top. The corn, and even
-    dried meat and pemican, are placed in these <i lang="fr">caches</i>, being packed
-    tight around the sides., with prairie grass, and effectually preserved
-    through the severest winters.</p>
-
-  <p>Corn and dried meat are generally laid in in the fall, in sufficient
-    quantities to support them through the winter. These are the principal
-    articles of food during that long and inclement season; and in addition
-    to them, they oftentimes have in store great quantities of dried
-    squashes and dried “<i lang="fr">pommes blanches</i>,” a kind of turnip which
-    grows in great abundance in these regions, and of which I have before
-    spoken. These are dried in great quantities, and pounded into a sort of
-    meal, and cooked with the dried meat and corn. Great quantities also of
-    wild fruit of different kinds are dried and laid away in store for the
-    winter season, such as buffalo berries, service berries, strawberries,
-    and wild plums.</p>
-
-  <p>The buffalo meat, however, is the great staple and “staff of life” in
-    this country, and seldom (if ever) fails to afford them an abundant and
-    wholesome means of subsistence. There are, from a fair computation,
-    something like 250,000 Indians in these western regions, who live
-    almost exclusively on the flesh of these animals, through every part of
-    the year. During the summer and fall months they use the meat fresh,
-    and cook it in a great variety of ways, by roasting, broiling, boiling,
-    stewing, smoking, &amp;c.; and by boiling the ribs and joints with the
-    marrow in them, make a delicious soup, which is universally used, and
-    in vast quantities. The Mandans, I find, have no regular or stated
-    times for their meals, but generally eat about twice in the twenty-four
-    hours. The pot is always boiling over the fire, and any one who is
-    hungry (either of the household or from any other part of the village)
-    has a right to order it taken off, and to fall to eating as he pleases.
-    Such is an unvarying custom amongst the North American Indians, and I
-    very much doubt, whether the civilized world have in their institutions
-    any system which can properly be called more humane and charitable.
-    Every man, woman, or child in Indian communities is allowed to enter
-    any one’s lodge, and even that of the chief of the nation, and eat when
-    they are hungry, provided misfortune or necessity has driven them to
-    it. Even so can the poorest and most worthless drone of the nation; if
-    he is too lazy to hunt or to supply himself, he can walk into any lodge
-    and everyone will share with him as long as there is anything to eat.
-    He, however, who thus begs when he is able to hunt, pays dear for his
-    meat, for he is stigmatized with the disgraceful epithet of a poltroon
-    and a beggar.</p>
-
-  <p>The Mandans, like all other tribes, sit at their meals cross-legged,
-    or rather with their ancles crossed in front of them, and both feet
-    drawn close under their bodies; or, which is very often the case also,
-    take their meals in a reclining<span class="pagenum" id="Page_123">123</span> posture, with the legs thrown out, and
-    the body resting on one elbow and fore-arm, which are under them. The
-    dishes from which they eat are invariably on the ground or floor of
-    the lodge, and the group resting on buffalo robes or mats of various
-    structure and manufacture.</p>
-
-  <p>The position in which the women sit at their meals and on other
-    occasions is different from that of the men, and one which they
-    take and rise from again, with great ease and much grace, by merely
-    bending the knees both together, inclining the body back and the head
-    and shoulders quite forward, they squat entirely down to the ground,
-    inclining both feet either to the right or the left. In this position
-    they always rest while eating, and it is both modest and graceful, for
-    they seem, with apparent ease, to assume the position and rise out of
-    it, without using their hands in any way to assist them.</p>
-
-  <p>These women, however, although graceful and civil, and ever so
-    beautiful or ever so hungry, are not allowed to sit in the same group
-    with the men while at their meals. So far as I have yet travelled in
-    the Indian country, I never have seen an Indian woman eating with
-    her husband. Men form the first group at the banquet, and women, and
-    children and dogs all come together at the next, and these gormandize
-    and glut themselves to an enormous extent, though the men very seldom
-    do.</p>
-
-  <p>It is time that an error on this subject, which has gone generally
-    abroad in the world, was corrected. It is everywhere asserted, and
-    almost universally believed, that the Indians are “enormous eaters;”
-    but comparatively speaking, I assure my readers that this is an error.
-    I venture to say that there are no persons on earth who practice
-    greater prudence and self-denial, than the men do (amongst the wild
-    Indians), who are constantly in war and in the chase, or in their
-    athletic sports and exercises; for all of which they are excited by
-    the highest ideas of pride and honour, and every kind of excess is
-    studiously avoided; and for a very great part of their lives, the most
-    painful abstinence is enforced upon themselves, for the purpose of
-    preparing their bodies and their limbs for these extravagant exertions.
-    Many a man who has been a few weeks along the frontier, amongst the
-    drunken, naked and beggared part of the Indian race, and run home
-    and written a book on Indians, has, no doubt, often seen them eat to
-    beastly excess; and he has seen them also guzzle whiskey (and perhaps
-    <em>sold</em> it to them) till he has seen them glutted and besotted,
-    without will or energy to move; and many and thousands of such things
-    can always be seen, where white people have made beggars of them, and
-    they have nothing to do but lie under a fence and beg a whole week to
-    get meat and whiskey enough for one feast and one carouse; but amongst
-    the wild Indians in this country there are no beggars—no drunkards—and
-    every man, from a beautiful natural precept, studies to keep his body
-    and mind in such a healthy shape and condition as will at all times
-    enable him to use his weapons in self-defence, or struggle for the
-    prize in their manly games.</p>
-
-  <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_124">124</span></p>
-
-  <p>As I before observed, these men generally eat but twice a day, and many
-    times not more than once, and those meals are light and simple compared
-    with the meals that are swallowed in the civilized world; and by the
-    very people also, who sit at the festive board three times a day,
-    making a jest of the Indian for his eating, when they actually guzzle
-    more liquids, besides their eating, than would fill the stomach of an
-    Indian.</p>
-
-  <p>There are, however, many seasons and occasions in the year with all
-    Indians, when they fast for several days in succession; and others
-    where they can <em>get</em> nothing to eat; and at such times (their
-    habits are such) they may be seen to commence with an enormous meal,
-    and because they do so, it is an insufficient reason why we should for
-    ever remain under so egregious an error with regard to a single custom
-    of these people.</p>
-
-  <p>I have seen so many of these, and lived with them, and travelled with
-    them, and oftentimes felt as if I should starve to death on an equal
-    allowance, that I am fully convinced I am correct in saying that the
-    North American Indians, taking them in the aggregate, even where they
-    have an abundance to subsist on, eat less than any civilized population
-    of equal numbers, that I have ever travelled amongst.</p>
-
-  <p>Their mode of curing and preserving the buffalo meat is somewhat
-    curious, and in fact it is almost incredible also; for it is all cured
-    or dried in the sun, without the aid of salt or smoke! The method
-    of doing this is the same amongst all the tribes, from this to the
-    Mexican Provinces, and is as follows:—The choicest parts of the flesh
-    from the buffalo are cut out by the squaws, and carried home on their
-    backs or on horses, and there cut “<em>across the grain</em>,” in such a
-    manner as will take alternately the layers of lean and fat; and having
-    prepared it all in this way, in strips about half an inch in thickness,
-    it is hung up by hundreds and thousands of pounds on poles resting on
-    crotches, out of the reach of dogs or wolves, and exposed to the rays
-    of the sun for several days, when it becomes so effectually dried, that
-    it can be carried to any part of the world without damage. This seems
-    almost an unaccountable thing, and the more so, as it is done in the
-    hottest months of the year, and also in all the different latitudes of
-    an Indian country.</p>
-
-  <p>So singular a fact as this can only be accounted for, I consider, on
-    the ground of the extraordinary rarity and purity of the air which
-    we meet with in these vast tracts of country, which are now properly
-    denominated “the great buffalo plains,” a series of exceedingly
-    elevated plateaus of <em>steppes</em> or <em>prairies</em>, lying at and
-    near the base of the Rocky Mountains.</p>
-
-  <p>It is a fact then, which I presume will be new to most of the world,
-    that meat can be cured in the sun without the aid of smoke or salt;
-    and it is a fact equally true and equally surprising also, that none
-    of these tribes use salt in any way, although their country abounds
-    in salt springs; and in many places, in the frequent walks of the
-    Indian, the prairie may be seen, for miles together, covered with an
-    incrustation of salt as white as the drifted snow.</p>
-
-  <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_125">125</span></p>
-
-  <p>I have, in travelling with Indians, encamped by such places, where they
-    have cooked and eaten their meat, when I have been unable to prevail on
-    them to use salt in any quantity whatever. The Indians cook their meat
-    more than the civilized people do, and I have long since learned, from
-    necessity, that meat thus cooked can easily be eaten and relished too,
-    without salt or other condiment.</p>
-
-  <p>The fact above asserted applies exclusively to those tribes of Indians
-    which I have found in their primitive state, living entirely on meat;
-    but everywhere along our Frontier, where the game of the country
-    has long since been chiefly destroyed, and these people have become
-    semi-civilized, raising and eating, as we do, a variety of vegetable
-    food, they use (and no doubt require), a great deal of salt; and in
-    many instances use it even to destructive excess.</p>
-
-  <hr class="chap" />
-  <div class="chapter">
-    <span class="pagenum" id="Page_126">126</span>
-    <h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_18">LETTER—<abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 18.</h2>
-  </div>
-  <div class="subheadc">MANDAN VILLAGE, UPPER MISSOURI.</div>
-
-  <p><span class="smcap">The</span> Mandans, like all other tribes, lead lives of idleness and
-    leisure; and of course, devote a great deal of time to their sports
-    and amusements, of which they have a great variety. Of these, dancing
-    is one of the principal, and may be seen in a variety of forms: such
-    as the buffalo dance, the boasting dance, the begging dance, the scalp
-    dance, and a dozen other kinds of dances, all of which have their
-    peculiar characters and meanings or objects.</p>
-
-  <p>These exercises are exceedingly grotesque in their appearance, and to
-    the eye of a traveller who knows not their meaning or importance, they
-    are an uncouth and frightful display of starts, and jumps, and yelps,
-    and jarring gutturals, which are sometimes truly terrifying. But when
-    one gives them a little attention, and has been lucky enough to be
-    initiated into their mysterious meaning, they become a subject of the
-    most intense and exciting interest. Every dance has its peculiar step,
-    and every step has its meaning; every dance also has its peculiar song,
-    and that is so intricate and mysterious oftentimes, that not one in ten
-    of the young men who are dancing and singing it, know the meaning of
-    the song which they are chanting over. None but the medicine-men are
-    allowed to understand them; and even they are generally only initiated
-    into these secret arcana, on the payment of a liberal stipend for their
-    tuition, which requires much application and study. There is evidently
-    a set song and sentiment for every dance, for the songs are perfectly
-    measured, and sung in exact time with the beat of the drum; and always
-    with an uniform and invariable set of sounds and expressions, which
-    clearly indicate certain sentiments, which are expressed by the voice,
-    though sometimes not given in any known language whatever.</p>
-
-  <p>They have other dances and songs which are not so mystified, but which
-    are sung and understood by every person in the tribe, being sung in
-    their own language, with much poetry in them, and perfectly metred, but
-    without rhyme. On these subjects I shall take another occasion to say
-    more; and will for the present turn your attention to the style and
-    modes in which some of these curious transactions are conducted.</p>
-
-  <p>My ears have been almost continually ringing since I came here, with
-    the din of yelping and beating of the drums; but I have for several
-    days<span class="pagenum" id="Page_127">127</span> past been peculiarly engrossed, and my senses almost confounded
-    with the stamping, and grunting, and bellowing of the <em>buffalo
-    dance</em>, which closed a few days since at sunrise (thank Heaven), and
-    which I must needs describe to you.</p>
-
-  <p>Buffaloes, it is known, are a sort of roaming creatures, congregating
-    occasionally in huge masses, and strolling away about the country from
-    east to west, or from north to south, or just where their whims or
-    strange fancies may lead them; and the Mandans are sometimes, by this
-    means, most unceremoniously left without any thing to eat; and being a
-    small tribe, and unwilling to risk their lives by going far from home
-    in the face of their more powerful enemies, are oftentimes left almost
-    in a state of starvation. In any emergency of this kind, every man
-    musters and brings out of his lodge his mask (the skin of a buffalo’s
-    head with the horns on), which he is obliged to keep in readiness
-    for this occasion; and then commences the buffalo dance, of which I
-    have above spoken, which is held for the purpose of making “buffalo
-    come” (as they term it), of inducing the buffalo herds to change the
-    direction of their wanderings, and bend their course towards the Mandan
-    village, and graze about on the beautiful hills and bluffs in its
-    vicinity, where the Mandans can shoot them down and cook them as they
-    want them for food.</p>
-
-  <p>For the most part of the year, the young warriors and hunters, by
-    riding out a mile or two from the village, can kill meat in abundance;
-    and sometimes large herds of these animals may be seen grazing in
-    full view of the village. There are other seasons also when the young
-    men have ranged about the country as far as they are willing to risk
-    their lives, on account of their enemies, without finding meat. This
-    sad intelligence is brought back to the chiefs and doctors, who sit in
-    solemn council, and consult on the most expedient measures to be taken,
-    until they are sure to decide upon the old and only expedient which
-    “never has failed.”</p>
-
-  <p>The chief issues his order to his runners or criers, who proclaim it
-    through the village—and in a few minutes the dance begins. The place
-    where this strange operation is carried on is in the public area in the
-    centre of the village, and in front of the great medicine or mystery
-    lodge. About ten or fifteen Mandans at a time join in the dance, each
-    one with the skin of the buffalo’s head (or mask) with the horns on,
-    placed over his head, and in his hand his favourite bow or lance, with
-    which he is used to slay the buffalo.</p>
-
-  <p>I mentioned that this dance always had the desired effect, that it
-    never fails, nor can it, for it cannot be stopped (but is going
-    incessantly day and night) until “buffalo come.” Drums are beating and
-    rattles are shaken, and songs and yells incessantly are shouted, and
-    lookers-on stand ready with masks on their heads, and weapons in hand,
-    to take the place of each one as he becomes fatigued, and jumps out of
-    the ring.</p>
-
-  <p>During this time of general excitement, spies or “<em>lookers</em>” are
-    kept on the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_128">128</span> hills in the neighbourhood of the village, who, when they
-    discover buffaloes in sight, give the appropriate signal, by “throwing
-    their robes,” which is instantly seen in the village, and understood by
-    the whole tribe. At this joyful intelligence there is a shout of thanks
-    to the Great Spirit, and more especially to the mystery-man, and the
-    dancers, <em>who have been the immediate cause of their success</em>!
-    There is then a brisk preparation for the chase—a grand hunt takes
-    place. The choicest pieces of the victims are sacrificed to the Great
-    Spirit, and then a surfeit and a carouse.</p>
-
-  <p>These dances have sometimes been continued in this village two and
-    three weeks without stopping an instant, until the joyful moment when
-    buffaloes made their appearance. So they <em>never fail</em>; and they
-    think they have been the means of bringing them in.</p>
-
-  <p>Every man in the Mandan village (as I have before said) is obliged by
-    a village regulation, to keep the mask of the buffalo, hanging on a
-    post at the head of his bed, which he can use on his head whenever he
-    is called upon by the chiefs, to dance for the coming of buffaloes.
-    The mask is put over the head, and generally has a strip of the skin
-    hanging to it, of the whole length of the animal, with the tail
-    attached to it, which, passing down over the back of the dancer, is
-    dragging on the ground (<a href="#i_056"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 56</a>). When one becomes fatigued
-    of the exercise, he signifies it by bending quite forward, and sinking
-    his body towards the ground; when another draws a bow upon him and hits
-    him with a blunt arrow, and he falls like a buffalo—is seized by the
-    bye-standers, who drag him out of the ring by the heels, brandishing
-    their knives about him; and having gone through the motions of skinning
-    and cutting him up, they let him off, and his place is at once supplied
-    by another, who dances into the ring with his mask on; and by this
-    taking of places, the scene is easily kept up night and day, until the
-    desired effect has been produced, that of “making buffalo come.”</p>
-
-  <p>The day before yesterday however, readers, which, though it commenced
-    in joy and thanksgiving to the Great Spirit for the signal success
-    which had attended their several days of dancing and supplication,
-    ended in a calamity which threw the village of the Mandans into
-    mourning and repentant tears, and that at a time of scarcity and great
-    distress. The signal was given into the village on that morning from
-    the top of a distant bluff, that a band of buffaloes were in sight,
-    though at a considerable distance off, and every heart beat with joy,
-    and every eye watered and glistened with gladness.</p>
-
-  <p>The dance had lasted some three or four days, and now, instead of the
-    doleful tap of the drum and the begging chaunts of the dancers, the
-    stamping of horses was heard as they were led and galloped through the
-    village—young men were throwing off their robes and their shirts,—were
-    seen snatching a handful of arrows from their quivers, and stringing
-    their sinewy bows, glancing their eyes and their smiles at their
-    sweethearts, and mounting their ponies. <span class="gesperrtstar">* * *</span></p>
-
-  <p><span class="gesperrtstar">* *</span> A few minutes there had been of bustle and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_129">129</span> boasting, whilst
-    bows were twanging and spears were polishing by running their blades
-    into the ground—every face and every eye was filled with joy and
-    gladness—horses were pawing and snuffing in fury for the outset, when
-    Louison Frénié, an interpreter of the Fur Company, galloped through the
-    village with his rifle in his hand and his powder-horn at his side; his
-    head and waist were bandaged with handkerchiefs, and his shirt sleeves
-    rolled up to his shoulders—the hunter’s yell issued from his lips and
-    was repeated through the village; he flew to the bluffs, and behind
-    him and over the graceful swells of the prairie, galloped the emulous
-    youths, whose hearts were beating high and quick for the onset.</p>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>32</i></div>
-  <figure id="i_056">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_056.jpg" alt="" />
-     <figcaption>56</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p>In the village, where hunger had reigned, and starvation was almost
-    ready to look them in the face, all was instantly turned to joy and
-    gladness. The chiefs and doctors who had been for some days dealing
-    out minimum rations to the community from the public crib, now spread
-    before their subjects the contents of their own private <i lang="fr">caches</i>,
-    and the last of every thing that could be mustered, that they might eat
-    a thanksgiving to the Great Spirit for his goodness in sending them a
-    supply of buffalo meat. A general carouse of banqueting ensued, which
-    occupied the greater part of the day; and their hidden stores which
-    might have fed an emergency for several weeks, were pretty nearly used
-    up on the occasion—bones were half picked, and dishes half emptied and
-    then handed to the dogs. <em>I</em> was not forgotten neither, in the
-    general surfeit; several large and generous wooden bowls of pemican and
-    other palatable food were sent to my painting-room, and I received them
-    in this time of scarcity with great pleasure.</p>
-
-  <p>After this general indulgence was over, and the dogs had licked the
-    dishes, their usual games and amusements ensued—and hilarity and mirth,
-    and joy took possession of, and reigned in, every nook and corner of
-    the village; and in the midst of this, screams and shrieks were heard!
-    and echoed everywhere. Women and children scrambled to the tops of
-    their wigwams, with their eyes and their hands stretched in agonizing
-    earnestness to the prairie, whilst blackened warriors ran furiously
-    through every winding maze of the village, and issuing their jarring
-    gutturals of vengeance, as they snatched their deadly weapons from
-    their lodges, and struck the reddened post as they furiously passed
-    it by! Two of their hunters were bending their course down the sides
-    of the bluff towards the village, and another broke suddenly out of a
-    deep ravine, and yet another was seen dashing over and down the green
-    hills, and all were goading on their horses at full speed! and then
-    came another, and another, and all entered the village amid shouts and
-    groans of the villagers who crowded around them; the story was told
-    in their looks, for one was bleeding, and the blood that flowed from
-    his naked breast had crimsoned his milk white steed as it had dripped
-    over him; another grasped in his left hand a scalp that was reeking in
-    blood—and in the other his whip—another grasped nothing, save the reins
-    in one hand and the mane of the horse in the other, having thrown his
-    bow and his arrows<span class="pagenum" id="Page_130">130</span> away, and trusted to the fleetness of his horse
-    for his safety; yet the story was audibly told, and the fatal tragedy
-    recited in irregular and almost suffocating ejaculations—the names
-    of the dead were in turns pronounced and screams and shrieks burst
-    forth at their recital—murmurs and groans ran through the village, and
-    this happy little community were in a moment smitten with sorrow and
-    distraction.</p>
-
-  <p>Their proud band of hunters who had started full of glee and mirth in
-    the morning, had been surrounded by their enemy, the Sioux, and eight
-    of them killed. The Sioux, who had probably reconnoitred their village
-    during the night, and ascertained that they were dancing for buffaloes,
-    laid a stratagem to entrap them in the following manner:—Some six
-    or eight of them appeared the next morning (on a distant bluff, in
-    sight of their sentinel) under the skins of buffaloes, imitating the
-    movements of those animals whilst grazing; and being discovered by
-    the sentinel, the intelligence was telegraphed to the village, which
-    brought out their hunters as I have described. The masked buffaloes
-    were seen grazing on the top of a high bluff, and when the hunters had
-    approached within half a mile or so of them, they suddenly disappeared
-    over the hill. Louison Frénié, who was leading the little band of
-    hunters, became at that moment suspicious of so strange a movement, and
-    came to a halt <span class="gesperrtstar">* * *</span></p>
-
-  <p>* “Look”! (said a Mandan, pointing to a little ravine to the right, and
-    at the foot of the hill, from which suddenly broke some forty or fifty
-    furious Sioux, on fleet horses and under full whip, who were rushing
-    upon them); they wheeled, and in front of them came another band more
-    furious from the other side of the hill! they started for home (poor
-    fellows), and strained every nerve; but the Sioux were too fleet for
-    them; and every now and then, the whizzing arrow and the lance were
-    heard to rip the flesh of their naked backs, and a grunt and a groan,
-    as they tumbled from their horses. Several miles were run in this
-    desperate race; and Frénié got home, and several of the Mandans, though
-    eight of them were killed and scalped by the way.</p>
-
-  <p>So ended that day and the hunt; but many a day and sad, will last the
-    grief of those whose hearts were broken on that unlucky occasion.</p>
-
-  <p><em>This</em> day, though, my readers, has been one of a more joyful
-    kind, for the Great Spirit, who was indignant at so flagrant an
-    injustice, has sent the Mandans an abundance of buffaloes; and all
-    hearts have joined in a general thanksgiving to Him for his goodness
-    and justice.</p>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>33</i></div>
-  <figure id="i_057">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_057.jpg" alt="" />
-     <figcaption>57</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <hr class="chap" />
-  <div class="chapter">
-    <span class="pagenum" id="Page_131">131</span>
-    <h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_19">LETTER—<abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 19.</h2>
-  </div>
-  <div class="subheadc">MANDAN VILLAGE, <i>UPPER MISSOURI</i>.</div>
-
-  <p><span class="smcap">In</span> my last Letter I gave an account of the buffalo dance, and in future
-    epistles may give some descriptions of a dozen other kinds of dance,
-    which these people have in common with other tribes; but in the present
-    Letter I shall make an endeavour to confine my observations to several
-    other customs and forms, which are very curious and peculiar to the
-    Mandans.</p>
-
-  <p>Of these, one of the most pleasing is the <em>sham-fight</em> and sham
-    scalp-dance of the Mandan boys, which is a part of their regular
-    exercise, and constitutes a material branch of their education.
-    During the pleasant mornings of the summer, the little boys between
-    the age of seven and fifteen are called out, to the number of several
-    hundred, and being divided into two companies, each of which is headed
-    by some experienced warrior, who leads them on, in the character of
-    a teacher; they are led out into the prairie at sunrise, where this
-    curious discipline is regularly taught them (<a href="#i_057"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 57</a>). Their
-    bodies are naked, and each one has a little bow in his left hand and
-    a number of arrows made of large spears of grass, which are harmless
-    in their effects. Each one has also a little belt or girdle around
-    his waist, in which he carries a knife made of a piece of wood and
-    equally harmless—on the tops of their heads are slightly attached
-    small tufts of grass, which answer as scalps, and in this plight,
-    they follow the dictates of their experienced leaders, who lead them
-    through the judicious evolutions of Indian warfare—of feints—of
-    retreats—of attacks—and at last to a general fight. Many manœuvres are
-    gone through, and eventually they are brought up face to face, within
-    fifteen or twenty feet of each other, with their leaders at their head
-    stimulating them on. Their bows are bent upon each other and their
-    missiles flying, whilst they are dodging and fending them off.</p>
-
-  <p>If any one is struck with an arrow on any vital part of his body, he is
-    obliged to fall, and his adversary rushes up to him, places his foot
-    upon him, and snatching from his belt his wooden knife, grasps hold of
-    his victim’s scalp-lock of grass, and making a feint at it with his
-    wooden knife, twitches it off and puts it into his belt, and enters
-    again into the ranks and front of battle.</p>
-
-  <p>This mode of training generally lasts an hour or more in the morning,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_132">132</span>
-    and is performed on an empty stomach, affording them a rigid and
-    wholesome exercise, whilst they are instructed in the important science
-    of war. Some five or six miles of ground are run over during these
-    evolutions, giving suppleness to their limbs and strength to their
-    muscles, which last and benefit them through life.</p>
-
-  <p>After this exciting exhibition is ended, they all return to their
-    village, where the chiefs and braves pay profound attention to their
-    vaunting, and applaud them for their artifice and valour.</p>
-
-  <p>Those who have taken scalps then step forward, brandishing them and
-    making their boast as they enter into the <em>scalp-dance</em> (in which
-    they are also instructed by their leaders or teachers), jumping and
-    yelling—brandishing their scalps, and reciting their <em>sanguinary
-    deeds</em>, to the great astonishment of their tender aged sweethearts,
-    who are gazing with wonder upon them.</p>
-
-  <p>The games and amusements of these people are in most respects like
-    those of the other tribes, consisting of ball plays—game of the
-    moccasin, of the platter—feats of archery—horse-racing, &amp;c.; and they
-    have yet another, which may be said to be their favourite amusement,
-    and unknown to the other tribes about them. The game of Tchung-kee, a
-    beautiful athletic exercise, which they seem to be almost unceasingly
-    practicing whilst the weather is fair, and they have nothing else
-    of moment to demand their attention. This game is decidedly their
-    favourite amusement, and is played near to the village on a pavement
-    of clay, which has been used for that purpose until it has become as
-    smooth and hard as a floor. For this game two champions form their
-    respective parties, by choosing alternately the most famous players,
-    until their requisite numbers are made up. Their bettings are then
-    made, and their stakes are held by some of the chiefs or others
-    present. The play commences (<a href="#i_059"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 59</a>) with two (one from each
-    party), who start off upon a trot, abreast of each other, and one of
-    them rolls in advance of them, on the pavement, a little ring of two
-    or three inches in diameter, cut out of a stone; and each one follows
-    it up with his “tchung-kee” (a stick of six feet in length, with
-    little bits of leather projecting from its sides of an inch or more in
-    length), which he throws before him as he runs, sliding it along upon
-    the ground after the ring, endeavouring to place it in such a position
-    when it stops, that the ring may fall upon it, and receive one of the
-    little projections of leather through it, which counts for game, one,
-    or two, or four, according to the position of the leather on which the
-    ring is lodged. The last winner always has the rolling of the ring,
-    and both start and throw the tchung-kee together; if either fails to
-    receive the ring or to lie in a certain position, it is a forfeiture
-    of the amount of the number he was nearest to, and he loses his throw;
-    when another steps into his place. This game is a very difficult one
-    to describe, so as to give an exact idea of it, unless one can see it
-    played—it is a game of great beauty and fine bodily exercise, and these
-    people become excessively fascinated with it; often gambling away every
-    thing they possess, and even sometimes, when everything else was gone,
-    have been known to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_133">133</span> stake their liberty upon the issue of these games,
-    offering themselves as slaves to their opponents in case they get
-    beaten.</p>
-
-  <p><em>Feasting</em> and <em>fasting</em> are important customs observed by
-    the Mandans, as well as by most other tribes, at stated times and for
-    particular purposes. These observances are strictly religious and
-    rigidly observed. There are many of these forms practiced amongst the
-    Mandans, some of which are exceedingly interesting, and important also,
-    in forming a correct estimate of the Indian character; and I shall at a
-    future period take particular pains to lay them before my readers.</p>
-
-  <p><em>Sacrificing</em> is also a religious custom with these people, and
-    is performed in many different modes, and on numerous occasions. Of
-    this custom I shall also speak more fully hereafter, merely noticing
-    at present, some few of the hundred modes in which these offerings
-    are made to the Good and Evil Spirits. Human sacrifices have never
-    been made by the Mandans, nor by any of the north western tribes (so
-    far as I can learn), excepting the Pawnees of the Platte; who have,
-    undoubtedly, observed such an inhuman practice in former times, though
-    they have relinquished it of late. The Mandans sacrifice their fingers
-    to the Great Spirit, and of their worldly goods, the best and the most
-    costly; if a horse or a dog, it must be the favourite one; if it is
-    an arrow from their quiver, they will select the most perfect one as
-    the most effective gift; if it is meat, it is the choicest piece cut
-    from the buffalo or other animal; if it is anything from the stores of
-    the Traders, it is the most costly—it is blue or scarlet cloth, which
-    costs them in this country an enormous price, and is chiefly used for
-    the purpose of hanging over their wigwams to decay, or to cover the
-    scaffolds where rest the bones of their departed relations.</p>
-
-  <p>Of these kinds of sacrifices there are three of an interesting nature,
-    erected over the great medicine-lodge in the centre of the village—they
-    consist of ten or fifteen yards of blue and black cloth each, purchased
-    from the Fur Company at fifteen or twenty dollars per yard, which
-    are folded up so as to resemble human figures, with quills in their
-    heads and masks on their faces. These singular-looking figures, like
-    “<em>scare crows</em>” (<a href="#i_047"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 47</a>), are erected on poles about
-    thirty feet high, over the door of the mystery-lodge, and there are
-    left to decay. There hangs now by the side of them another, which was
-    added to the number a few days since, of the skin of a white buffalo,
-    which will remain there until it decays and falls to pieces.</p>
-
-  <p>This beautiful and costly skin, when its history is known, will
-    furnish a striking proof of the importance which they attach to these
-    propitiatory offerings. But a few weeks since, a party of Mandans
-    returned from the Mouth of the Yellow Stone, two hundred miles
-    above, with information that a party of Blackfeet were visiting that
-    place on business with the American Fur Company; and that they had
-    with them a white buffalo robe for sale. This was looked upon as a
-    subject of great importance by the chiefs, and one worthy of public
-    consideration. A white buffalo robe is a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_134">134</span> great curiosity, even in the
-    country of buffaloes, and will always command an almost incredible
-    price, from its extreme scarcity; and then, from its being the most
-    costly article of traffic in these regions, it is usually converted
-    into a <em>sacrifice</em>, being offered to the Great Spirit, as the
-    most acceptable gift that can be procured. Amongst the vast herds of
-    buffaloes which graze on these boundless prairies, there is not one in
-    an hundred thousand, perhaps, that is white; and when such an one is
-    obtained, it is considered great <em>medicine</em> or mystery.</p>
-
-  <p>On the receipt of the intelligence above-mentioned, the chiefs convened
-    in council, and deliberated on the expediency of procuring the white
-    robe from the Blackfeet; and also of appropriating the requisite means,
-    and devising the proper mode of procedure for effecting the purchase.
-    At the close of their deliberations, eight men were fitted out on eight
-    of their best horses, who took from the Fur Company’s store, on the
-    credit of the chiefs, goods exceeding even the value of their eight
-    horses; and they started for the Mouth of the Yellow Stone, where
-    they arrived in due time, and made the purchase, by leaving the eight
-    horses and all the goods which they carried; returning on foot to their
-    own village, bringing home with them the white robe, which was looked
-    upon by all eyes of the villagers as a thing that was vastly curious,
-    and containing (as they express it) something of the Great Spirit.
-    This wonderful anomaly laid several days in the chief’s lodge, until
-    public curiosity was gratified; and then it was taken by the doctors or
-    high-priests, and with a great deal of form and mystery consecrated,
-    and raised on the top of a long pole over the <em>medicine-lodge</em>;
-    where it now stands in a group with the others, and will stand as an
-    offering to the Great Spirit, until it decays and falls to the ground.</p>
-
-  <p>This Letter, as I promised in its commencement, being devoted to some
-    of the customs peculiar to the Mandans, and all of which will be new
-    to the world, I shall close, after recording in it an account of a
-    laughable farce, which was enacted in this village when I was on my
-    journey up the river, and had stopped on the way to spend a day or two
-    in the Mandan village.</p>
-
-  <p>Readers, did you ever hear of “<em>Rain Makers</em>?” If not, sit still,
-    and read on; but laugh not—keep cool and sober, or else you may laugh
-    in the <em>beginning</em>, and cry at the <em>end</em> of my story.
-    Well, I introduce to you a new character—not a <em>doctor</em> or a
-    <em>high-priest</em>, yet a <em>medicine-man</em>, and one of the highest
-    and most respectable order, a “<em>Rain Maker</em>!” Such dignitaries
-    live in the Mandan nation, aye, and “<em>rain stoppers</em>” too; and
-    even those also amongst their <em>conjurati</em>, who, like Joshua of
-    old, have even essayed to stop the sun in his course; but from the
-    inefficiency of their medicine or mystery, have long since descended
-    into insignificance.</p>
-
-  <p>Well, the story begins thus:—The Mandans, as I have said in a former
-    Letter, raise a great deal of corn; and sometimes a most disastrous
-    drought will be visited on the land, destructive to their promised
-    harvest. Such<span class="pagenum" id="Page_135">135</span> was the case when I arrived at the Mandan village
-    on the steam-boat, Yellow-Stone. Rain had not fallen for many a day,
-    and the dear little girls and the ugly old squaws, altogether (all of
-    whom had fields of corn), were groaning and crying to their lords, and
-    imploring them to intercede for rain, that their little respective
-    patches, which were now turning pale and yellow, might not be withered,
-    and they be deprived of the pleasure of their customary annual
-    festivity, and the joyful occasion of the “roasting ears,” and the
-    “green corn dance.”</p>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>34</i></div>
-  <figure id="i_058">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_058.jpg" alt="" />
-     <figcaption>58</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <figure class="mt2" id="i_059">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_059.jpg" alt="" />
-     <figcaption>59</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p>The chiefs and doctors sympathized with the plaints of the women, and
-    recommended patience. Great deliberation, they said, was necessary in
-    these cases; and though they resolved on making the attempt to produce
-    rain for the benefit of the corn; yet they very wisely resolved that
-    to begin too soon might ensure their entire defeat in the endeavour;
-    and that the longer they put it off, the more certain they would feel
-    of ultimate success. So, after a few days of further delay, when the
-    importunities of the women had become clamorous, and even mournful,
-    and almost insupportable, the <em>medicine-men</em> assembled in the
-    council-house, with all their mystery apparatus about them—with an
-    abundance of wild sage, and other aromatic herbs, with a fire prepared
-    to burn them, that their savoury odours might be sent forth to the
-    Great Spirit. The lodge was closed to all the villagers, except some
-    ten or fifteen young men, who were willing to hazard the dreadful
-    alternative of making it rain, or suffer the everlasting disgrace of
-    having made a fruitless essay.</p>
-
-  <p>They, only, were allowed as witnesses to the <em>hocus pocus</em> and
-    <em>conjuration</em> devised by the doctors inside of the medicine-lodge;
-    and they were called up by lot, each one in his turn, to spend a day
-    upon the top of the lodge, to test the potency of his medicine; or, in
-    other words, to see how far his voice might be heard and obeyed amongst
-    the clouds of the heavens; whilst the doctors were burning incense in
-    the wigwam below, and with their songs and prayers to the Great Spirit
-    for success, were sending forth grateful fumes and odours to Him “who
-    lives in the sun and commands the thunders of Heaven.” Wah-kee (the
-    shield) was the first who ascended the wigwam at sunrise; and he stood
-    all day, and looked foolish, as he was counting over and over his
-    string of mystery-beads—the whole village were assembled around him,
-    and praying for his success. Not a cloud appeared—the day was calm and
-    hot; and at the setting of the sun, he descended from the lodge and
-    went home—“his <em>medicine</em> was not good,” nor can he ever be a
-    <em>medicine-man</em>.</p>
-
-  <p>Om-pah (the elk) was the next; he ascended the lodge at sunrise the
-    next morning. His body was entirely naked, being covered with yellow
-    clay. On his left arm he carried a beautiful shield, and a long lance
-    in his right; and on his head the skin of a raven, the bird that soars
-    amidst the clouds, and above the lightning’s glare—he flourished his
-    shield and brandished his lance, and raised his voice, but in vain; for
-    at sunset the ground<span class="pagenum" id="Page_136">136</span> was dry and the sky was clear; the squaws were
-    crying, and their corn was withering at its roots.</p>
-
-  <p>War-rah-pa (the beaver) was the next; he also spent his breath in vain
-    upon the empty air, and came down at night—and Wak-a-dah-ha-hee (the
-    white buffalo’s hair) took the stand the next morning. He is a small,
-    but beautifully proportioned young man. He was dressed in a tunic and
-    leggings of the skins of the mountain-sheep, splendidly garnished
-    with quills of the porcupine, and fringed with locks of hair taken
-    by his own hand from the heads of his enemies. On his arm he carried
-    his shield, made of the buffalo’s hide—its boss was the head of the
-    war-eagle—and its front was ornamented with “red chains of lightning.”
-    In his left hand he clenched his sinewy bow and one single arrow. The
-    villagers were all gathered about him; when he threw up a feather to
-    decide on the course of the wind, and he commenced thus:—“My friends!
-    people of the pheasants! you see me here a sacrifice—I shall this
-    day relieve you from great distress, and bring joy amongst you; or I
-    shall descend from this lodge when the sun goes down, and live amongs
-    the dogs and old women all my days. My friends! you saw which way the
-    feather flew, and I hold my shield this day in the direction where the
-    wind comes—the lightning on my shield will draw a great cloud, and this
-    arrow, which is selected from my quiver, and which is feathered with
-    the quill of the white swan, will make a hole in it. My friends! this
-    hole in the lodge at my feet, shows me the medicine-men, who are seated
-    in the lodge below me and crying to the Great Spirit; and through it
-    comes and passes into my nose delightful odours, which you see rising
-    in the smoke to the Great Spirit above, who rides in the clouds and
-    commands the winds! Three days they have sat here, my friends, and
-    nothing has been done to relieve your distress. On the first day was
-    Wah-kee (the shield), he could do nothing; he counted his beads and
-    came down—his medicine was not good—his name was bad, and it kept off
-    the rain. The next was Om-pah (the elk); on his head the raven was
-    seen, who flies <em>above</em> the storm, and he failed. War-rah-pa (the
-    beaver) was the next, my friends; the beaver lives <em>under</em> the
-    <em>water</em>, and he never wants it to rain. My friends! I see you are
-    in great distress, and nothing has yet been done; this shield belonged
-    to my father the White Buffalo; and the lightning you see on it is
-    red; it was taken from a black cloud, and that cloud will come over us
-    to-day. I am the white buffalo’s hair—and I am the son of my father.”</p>
-
-  <p>In this manner flourished and manœuvred Wak-a-dah-ha-hee (the white
-    buffalo’s hair), alternately addressing the audience and the heaven—and
-    holding converse with the winds and the “<i lang="mhq">je-bi</i>” (spirits) that
-    are floating about in them—stamping his foot over the heads of the
-    <em>magi</em>, who were involved in mysteries beneath him, and invoking
-    the spirits of darkness and light to send rain, to gladden the hearts
-    of the Mandans.</p>
-
-  <p>It happened on this memorable day about noon, that the steam-boat<span class="pagenum" id="Page_137">137</span>
-    Yellow Stone, on her first trip up the Missouri River, approached and
-    landed at the Mandan Village, as I have described in a former epistle.
-    I was lucky enough to be a passenger on this boat, and helped to fire
-    a salute of twenty guns of twelve pounds calibre, when we first came
-    in sight of the village, some three or four miles below. These guns
-    introduced a <em>new sound</em> into this strange country, which the
-    Mandans at first supposed to be thunder; and the young man upon the
-    lodge, who turned it to good account, was gathering fame in rounds of
-    applause, which were repeated and echoed through the whole village;
-    all eyes were centred upon him—chiefs envied him—mothers’ hearts
-    were beating high whilst they were decorating and leading up their
-    fair daughters to offer him in marriage, on his signal success. The
-    medicine-men had left the lodge, and came out to bestow upon him the
-    envied title of “<em>medicine-man</em>,” or “<em>doctor</em>,” which he
-    had so deservedly won—wreaths were prepared to decorate his brows, and
-    eagle’s plumes and calumets were in readiness for him; his friends were
-    all rejoiced—his enemies wore on their faces a silent gloom and hatred;
-    and his old sweethearts, who had formerly cast him off, gazed intensely
-    upon him, as they glowed with the burning fever of repentance.</p>
-
-  <p>During all this excitement, Wak-a-dah-ha-hee kept his position,
-    assuming the most commanding and threatening attitudes; brandishing his
-    shield in the direction of the thunder (<a href="#i_058"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 58</a>), although
-    there was not a cloud to be seen, until he (poor fellow), being
-    elevated above the rest of the village, espied, to his inexpressible
-    amazement, the steam-boat ploughing its way up the windings of the
-    river below; puffing her steam from her pipes, and sending forth the
-    thunder from a twelve-pounder on her deck! <span class="gesperrtstar">* * *</span> The White Buffalo’s
-    Hair stood motionless and turned pale, he looked awhile, and turned to
-    the chief and to the multitude, and addressed them with a trembling
-    lip—“My friends, we will get no rain!—there are, you see, no clouds;
-    but my medicine is great—I have brought a <em>thunder boat</em>! look and
-    see it! the thunder you hear is out of her mouth, and the lightning
-    which you see is on the waters!”</p>
-
-  <p>At this intelligence, the whole village flew to the tops of their
-    wigwams, or to the bank of the river, from whence the steamer was in
-    full view, and ploughing along, to their utter dismay and confusion.</p>
-
-  <p>In this promiscuous throng of chiefs, doctors, women, children and
-    dogs, was mingled Wak-a-dah-ha-hee (the white buffalo’s hair), having
-    descended from his high place to mingle with the frightened throng.</p>
-
-  <p>Dismayed at the approach of so strange and unaccountable an object, the
-    Mandans stood their ground but a few moments; when, by an order of the
-    chiefs, all hands were ensconced within the piquets of their village,
-    and all the warriors armed for desperate defence. A few moments brought
-    the boat in front of the village, and all was still and quiet as death;
-    not a Mandan was to be seen upon the banks. The steamer was moored, and
-    three or four of the chiefs soon after, walked boldly down the bank and
-    on to her<span class="pagenum" id="Page_138">138</span> deck, with a spear in one hand and the calumet or pipe of
-    peace in the other. The moment they stepped on board they met (to their
-    great surprise and joy) their old friend, Major Sanford, their agent,
-    which circumstance put an instant end to all their fears. The villagers
-    were soon apprized of the fact, and the whole race of the beautiful and
-    friendly Mandans was paraded on the bank of the river, in front of the
-    steamer.</p>
-
-  <p>The “rain maker,” whose apprehensions of a public calamity brought
-    upon the nation by his extraordinary <em>medicine</em>, had, for the
-    better security of his person from apprehended vengeance, secreted
-    himself in some secure place, and was the last to come forward, and the
-    last to be convinced that this visitation was a friendly one from the
-    white people; and that his <em>medicine</em> had not in the least been
-    instrumental in bringing it about. This information, though received
-    by him with much caution and suspicion, at length gave him great
-    relief, and quieted his mind as to his danger. Yet still in his breast
-    there was a rankling thorn, though he escaped the dreaded vengeance
-    which he had a few moments before apprehended as at hand; as he had
-    the mortification and disgrace of having failed in his mysterious
-    operations. He set up, however (during the day, in his conversation
-    about the strange arrival), his <em>medicines</em>, as the cause of
-    its approach; asserting everywhere and to everybody, that he knew
-    of its coming, and that he had by his magic brought the occurrence
-    about. This plea, however, did not get him much audience; and in fact,
-    everything else was pretty much swallowed up in the guttural talk, and
-    bustle, and gossip about the mysteries of the “thunder-boat;” and so
-    passed the day, until just at the approach of evening, when the “White
-    Buffalo’s Hair” (more watchful of such matters on this occasion than
-    most others) observed that a black cloud had been jutting up in the
-    horizon, and was almost directly over the village! In an instant his
-    shield was on his arm, and his bow in his hand, and he again upon the
-    lodge! stiffened and braced to the last sinew, he stood, with his face
-    and his shield presented to the cloud, and his bow drawn. He drew the
-    eyes of the whole village upon him as he vaunted forth his super-human
-    powers, and at the same time commanding the cloud to come nearer, that
-    he might draw down its contents upon the heads and the corn-fields of
-    the Mandans! In this wise he stood, waving his shield over his head,
-    stamping his foot and frowning as he drew his bow and threatened the
-    heavens, commanding it to rain—his bow was bent, and the arrow drawn
-    to its head, was sent to the cloud, and he exclaimed, “My friends, it
-    is done! Wak-a-dah-ha-hee’s arrow has entered that black cloud, and
-    the Mandans will be wet with the water of the skies!” His predictions
-    were true;—in a few moments the cloud was over the village, and the
-    rain fell in torrents. He stood for some time wielding his weapons and
-    presenting his shield to the sky, while he boasted of his power and
-    the efficacy of his <em>medicine</em>, to those who had been about him,
-    but were now driven to the shelter of their wigwams. He, at length,
-    finished his vaunts and his threats, and descended<span class="pagenum" id="Page_139">139</span> from his high place
-    (in which he had been perfectly drenched), prepared to receive the
-    honours and the homage that were due to one so potent in his mysteries;
-    and to receive the style and title of “<em>medicine-man</em>.” This is
-    one of a hundred different modes in which a man in Indian countries
-    acquires the honourable appellation.</p>
-
-  <p>This man had “made it rain,” and of course was to receive more than
-    usual honours, as he had done much more than ordinary men could do.
-    All eyes were upon him, and all were ready to admit that he was
-    skilled in the magic art; and must be so nearly allied to the Great
-    or Evil Spirit, that he must needs be a man of great and powerful
-    influence in the nation, and well entitled to the style of doctor or
-    <em>medicine-man</em>.</p>
-
-  <p>Readers, there are two facts relative to these strange transactions,
-    which are infallibly true, and should needs be made known. The first
-    is, that when the Mandans undertake to make it rain, <em>they never
-    fail to succeed</em>, for their ceremonies never stop until rain begins
-    to fall. The second is equally true, and is this:—that he who has
-    once “<em>made it rain</em>,” never attempts it again; his medicine is
-    undoubted—and on future occasions of the kind, he stands aloof, who has
-    once done it in presence of the whole village, giving an opportunity to
-    other young men who are ambitious to signalize themselves in the same
-    way.</p>
-
-  <p>During the memorable night of which I have just spoken, the steam-boat
-    remained by the side of the Mandan village, and the rain that had
-    commenced falling continued to pour down its torrents until midnight;
-    black thunder roared, and livid lightning flashed until the heavens
-    appeared to be lit up with one unceasing and appalling glare. In
-    this frightful moment of consternation, a flash of lightning buried
-    itself in one of the earth-covered lodges of the Mandans, and killed a
-    beautiful girl. Here was food and fuel fresh for their superstitions;
-    and a night of vast tumult and excitement ensued. The dreams of the
-    new-made medicine-man were troubled, and he had dreadful apprehensions
-    for the coming day—for he knew that he was subject to the irrevocable
-    decree of the chiefs and doctors, who canvass every strange and
-    unaccountable event, with close and superstitious scrutiny, and let
-    their vengeance fall without mercy upon its immediate cause.</p>
-
-  <p>He looked upon his well-earned fame as likely to be withheld from him;
-    and also considered that his life might perhaps be demanded as the
-    forfeit for this girl’s death, which would certainly be charged upon
-    him. He looked upon himself as culpable, and supposed the accident
-    to have been occasioned by his criminal desertion of his post, when
-    the steam-boat was approaching the village. Morning came, and he soon
-    learned from some of his friends, the opinions of the wise men; and
-    also the nature of the tribunal that was preparing for him; he sent
-    to the prairie for his three horses, which were brought in, and he
-    mounted the <em>medicine-lodge</em>, around which, in a few moments, the
-    villagers were all assembled. “My friends! (said he) I see you all
-    around me, and I am before you; my medicine, you see, is great—it is<span class="pagenum" id="Page_140">140</span>
-    <em>too great</em>—I am young, and I was too fast—I knew not when to
-    stop. The wigwam of Mah-sish is laid low, and many are the eyes that
-    weep for Ko-ka (the antelope;) Wak-a-dah-ha-hee gives three horses
-    to gladden the hearts of those who weep for Ko-ka; his medicine was
-    great—his arrow pierced the black cloud, and the lightning came, and
-    the <em>thunder-boat</em> also! who says the medicine of Wak-a-dah-ha-hee
-    is not strong?”</p>
-
-  <p>At the end of this sentence an unanimous shout of approbation ran
-    through the crowd, and the “Hair of the White Buffalo” descended
-    amongst them, where he was greeted by shakes of the hand; and amongst
-    whom he now lives and thrives under the familiar and honourable
-    appellation of the “<span class="smcap">Big Double Medicine</span>.”</p>
-
-  <hr class="chap" />
-  <div class="chapter">
-    <span class="pagenum" id="Page_141">141</span>
-    <h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_20">LETTER—<abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 20.</h2>
-  </div>
-  <div class="subheadc">MANDAN VILLAGE, <i>UPPER MISSOURI</i>.</div>
-
-  <p><span class="smcap">This</span> day has been one of unusual mirth and amusement amongst the
-    Mandans, and whether on account of some annual celebration or not, I
-    am as yet unable to say, though I think such is the case; for these
-    people have many days which, like this, are devoted to festivities and
-    amusements.</p>
-
-  <p>Their lives, however, are lives of idleness and ease, and almost all
-    their days and hours are spent in innocent amusements. Amongst a people
-    who have no office hours to attend to—no professions to study, and of
-    whom but very little time is required in the chase, to supply their
-    families with food, it would be strange if they did not practice many
-    games and amusements, and also become exceedingly expert in them.</p>
-
-  <p>I have this day been a spectator of games and plays until I am fatigued
-    with looking on; and also by lending a hand, which I have done; but
-    with so little success as only to attract general observation, and
-    as generally to excite the criticisms and laughter of the squaws and
-    little children.</p>
-
-  <p>I have seen a fair exhibition of their archery this day, in a favourite
-    amusement which they call the “<em>game of the arrow</em>” (see <a href="#i_060"><span class="smcap">plate</span>
-    60</a>), where the young men who are the most distinguished in
-    this exercise, assemble on the prairie at a little distance from
-    the village, and having paid, each one, his “entrance-fee,” such as
-    a shield, a robe, a pipe, or other article, step forward in turn,
-    shooting their arrows into the air, endeavouring to see who can get the
-    greatest number flying in the air at one time, thrown from the same
-    bow. For this, the number of eight or ten arrows are clenched in the
-    left hand with the bow, and the first one which is thrown is elevated
-    to such a degree as will enable it to remain the longest time possible
-    in the air, and while it is flying, the others are discharged as
-    rapidly as possible; and he who succeeds in getting the greatest number
-    up at once, is “best,” and takes the goods staked.</p>
-
-  <p>In looking on at this amusement, the spectator is surprised; not at
-    the great distance to which the arrows are actually sent; but at
-    the quickness of fixing them on the string, and discharging them in
-    succession; which is no doubt, the result of great practice, and
-    enables the most expert<span class="pagenum" id="Page_142">142</span> of them to get as many as eight arrows up
-    before the first one reaches the ground.</p>
-
-  <p>For the successful use of the bow, as it is used through all this
-    region of country on horseback, and that invariably at full speed, the
-    great object of practice is to enable the bowman to draw the bow with
-    suddenness and instant effect; and also to repeat the shots in the most
-    rapid manner. As their game is killed from their horses’ backs while
-    at the swiftest rate—and their enemies fought in the same way; and as
-    the horse is the swiftest animal of the prairie, and always able to
-    bring his rider alongside, within a few paces of his victim; it will
-    easily be seen that the Indian has little use in throwing his arrow
-    more than a few paces; when he leans quite low on his horse’s side, and
-    drives it with astonishing force, capable of producing instant death
-    to the buffalo, or any other animal in the country. The bows which are
-    generally in use in these regions I have described in a former Letter,
-    and the effects produced by them at the distance of a few paces is
-    almost beyond belief, considering their length, which is not often over
-    three,—and sometimes not exceeding two and a half feet. It can easily
-    be seen, from what has been said, that the Indian has little use or
-    object in throwing the arrow to any great distance. And as it is very
-    seldom that they can be seen shooting at a target, I doubt very much
-    whether their skill in such practice would compare with that attained
-    to in many parts of the civilized world; but with the same weapon,
-    and dashing forward at fullest speed on the wild horse, without the
-    use of the rein, when the shot is required to be made with the most
-    instantaneous effect, I scarcely think it possible that any people can
-    be found more skilled, and capable of producing more deadly effects
-    with the bow.</p>
-
-  <p>The horses which the Indians ride in this country are invariably the
-    wild horses, which are found in great numbers on the prairies; and
-    have, unquestionably, strayed from the Mexican borders, into which they
-    were introduced by the Spanish invaders of that country; and now range
-    and subsist themselves, in winter and summer, over the vast plains of
-    prairie that stretch from the Mexican frontiers to Lake Winnipeg on
-    the North, a distance of 3000 miles. These horses are all of small
-    stature, of the pony order; but a very hardy and tough animal, being
-    able to perform for the Indians a continual and essential service.
-    They are taken with the <em>laso</em>, which is a long halter or thong,
-    made of rawhide, of some fifteen or twenty yards in length, and which
-    the Indians throw with great dexterity; with a noose at one end of it,
-    which drops over the head of the animal they wish to catch, whilst
-    running at full speed—when the Indian dismounts from his own horse, and
-    holding to the end of the laso, choaks the animal down, and afterwards
-    tames and converts him to his own use.</p>
-
-  <p>Scarcely a man in these regions is to be found, who is not the owner of
-    one or more of these horses; and in many instances of eight, ten, or
-    even twenty, which he values as his own personal property.</p>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>35</i></div>
-  <figure id="i_060">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_060.jpg" alt="" />
-     <figcaption>60</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>36</i></div>
-  <figure id="i_061">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_061.jpg" alt="" />
-     <figcaption>61</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_143">143</span></p>
-
-  <p>The Indians are hard and cruel masters; and, added to their cruelties
-    is the sin that is familiar in the Christian world, of sporting with
-    the limbs, and the lives of these noble animals. <em>Horse-racing</em>
-    here, as in all more enlightened communities, is one of the most
-    exciting amusements, and one of the most extravagant modes of gambling.</p>
-
-  <p>I have been this day a spectator to scenes of this kind, which have
-    been enacted in abundance, on a course which they have, just back of
-    their village; and although I never had the least taste for this cruel
-    amusement in my own country, yet, I must say, I have been not a little
-    amused and pleased with the thrilling effect which these exciting
-    scenes have produced amongst so wild and picturesque a group.</p>
-
-  <p>I have made a sketch of the ground and the group, as near as I could
-    (<a href="#i_061"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 61</a>); shewing the manner of “starting” and “coming out,”
-    which vary a little from the customs of the <em>knowing</em> world; but
-    in other respects, I believe, a horse-race is the same all the world
-    over.</p>
-
-  <p>Besides these, many have been the amusements of this day, to which I
-    have been an eye-witness; and since writing the above, I have learned
-    the cause of this unusual expression of hilarity and mirth; which was
-    no more nor less than the safe return of a small war-party, who had
-    been so long out without any tidings having been received of them—that
-    they had long since been looked upon as sacrificed to the fates of
-    war and lost. This party was made up of the most distinguished and
-    desperate young men of the tribe, who had sallied out against the
-    Riccarees, and taken the most solemn oath amongst themselves never
-    to return without achieving a victory. They had wandered long and
-    faithfully about the country, following the trails of their enemy; when
-    they were attacked by a numerous party, and lost several of their men
-    and all their horses. In this condition, to evade the scrutiny of their
-    enemy, who were closely investing the natural route to their village;
-    they took a circuitous range of the country, to enable them to return
-    with their lives, to their village.</p>
-
-  <p>In this plight, it seems, I had dropped my little canoe alongside of
-    them, while descending from the Mouth of Yellow Stone to this place,
-    not many weeks since; where they had bivouacked or halted, to smoke
-    and consult on the best and safest mode of procedure. At the time of
-    meeting them, not knowing anything of their language, they were unable
-    to communicate their condition to me, and more probably were afraid
-    to do so even if they could have done it, from apprehension that we
-    might have given some account of them to their enemies. I rested my
-    canoe an hour or so with them, during which time they treated us with
-    an indifferent reserve, yet respectfully; and we passed on our way,
-    without further information of them or their plans than the sketch that
-    I there made (<a href="#i_063"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 63</a>), and which I shall preserve and value
-    as one of the most pleasing groups I ever have had the pleasure to see.
-    Seated on their buffalo robes, which were spread upon the grass, with
-    their respective weapons laying about them, and lighting their pipes at
-    a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_144">144</span> little fire which was kindled in the centre—the chief or leader of
-    the party, with his arms stacked behind him, and his long head-dress of
-    war-eagles’ quills and ermine falling down over his back, whilst he sat
-    in a contemplative and almost desponding mood, was surely one of the
-    most striking and beautiful illustrations of a natural hero that I ever
-    looked upon.</p>
-
-  <p>These gallant fellows got safely home to their village, and the
-    numerous expressions of joy for their return, which I have this day
-    witnessed, have much fatigued me that I write brief, and close my
-    Letter here.</p>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>37</i></div>
-  <figure id="i_063">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_063.jpg" alt="" />
-     <figcaption>63</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <hr class="chap" />
-  <div class="chapter">
-    <span class="pagenum" id="Page_145">145</span>
-    <h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_21">LETTER—<abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 21.</h2>
-  </div>
-  <div class="subheadc">MANDAN VILLAGE, <i>UPPER MISSOURI</i>.</div>
-
-  <p><span class="smcap">In</span> a former Letter I gave some account of Mah-to-toh-pa (the four
-    bears), second chief of the Mandans, whom I said I had painted at
-    full length, in a splendid costume. I therein said, also, that “this
-    extraordinary man, though second in office, is undoubtedly the first
-    and most popular man in the nation. Free, generous, elegant, and
-    gentlemanly in his deportment—handsome, brave and valiant; wearing a
-    robe on his back, with the history of all his battles painted on it,
-    which would fill a book of themselves if they were properly enlarged
-    and translated.”</p>
-
-  <p>I gave you also, in another epistle, an account of the manner in
-    which he invited me to a feast in his hospitable wigwam, at the same
-    time presenting me a beautifully garnished robe; and I promised to
-    say more of him on a future occasion. My readers will therefore
-    pardon me for devoting a Letter or two at this time, to a sketch of
-    this extraordinary man, which I will give in as brief a manner as
-    possible, by describing the costume in which I painted his portrait;
-    and afterwards reciting the most remarkable incidents of his life,
-    as I had them from the Traders and the Indian agents, and afterwards
-    corroborated by his own words, translated to me as he spoke, whilst I
-    was writing them down.</p>
-
-  <p>The dress of Mah-to-toh-pa then, the greater part of which I have
-    represented in his full-length portrait, and which I shall now
-    describe, was purchased of him after I had painted his picture; and
-    every article of it can be seen in my Indian Gallery by the side of
-    the portrait, provided I succeed in getting them home to the civilized
-    world without injury.</p>
-
-  <p>Mah-to-toh-pa had agreed to stand before me for his portrait at an
-    early hour of the next morning, and on that day I sat with my palette
-    of colours prepared, and waited till twelve o’clock, before he could
-    leave his toilette with feelings of satisfaction as to the propriety of
-    his looks and the arrangement of his equipments; and at that time it
-    was announced, that “Mah-to-toh-pa was coming in full dress!” I looked
-    out of the door of the wigwam, and saw him approaching with a firm and
-    elastic step, accompanied by a great crowd of women and children, who
-    were gazing on him with admiration, and escorting him to my room. No
-    tragedian ever trod the stage, nor gladiator ever entered the Roman
-    Forum, with more grace and manly dignity than did Mah-to-toh-pa enter
-    the wigwam, where I was in readiness to receive him. He took his
-    attitude before me (<a href="#i_064"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 64</a>), and with the sternness of a
-    Brutus and the stillness of a statue, he stood until the darkness<span class="pagenum" id="Page_146">146</span>
-    of night broke upon the solitary stillness. His dress, which was a
-    very splendid one, was complete in all its parts, and consisted of a
-    shirt or tunic, leggings, moccasins, head-dress, necklace, shield,
-    bow and quiver, lance, tobacco-sack, and pipe; robe, belt, and knife;
-    medicine-bag, tomahawk, and war-club, or <i lang="mhq">po-ko-mo-kon</i>.</p>
-
-  <p>The shirt, of which I have spoken, was made of two skins of the
-    mountain-sheep, beautifully dressed, and sewed together by seams which
-    rested upon the arms; one skin hanging in front, upon the breast, and
-    the other falling down upon the back; the head being passed between
-    them, and they falling over and resting on the shoulders. Across each
-    shoulder, and somewhat in the form of an epaulette, was a beautiful
-    band; and down each arm from the neck to the hand was a similar one,
-    of two inches in width (and crossing the other at right angles on the
-    shoulder) beautifully embroidered with porcupine quills worked on the
-    dress, and covering the seams. To the lower edge of these bands the
-    whole way, at intervals of half an inch, were attached long locks of
-    black hair, which he had taken with his own hand from the heads of
-    his enemies whom he had slain in battle, and which he thus wore as a
-    trophy, and also as an ornament to his dress. The front and back of
-    the shirt were curiously garnished in several parts with porcupine
-    quills and paintings of the battles he had fought, and also with
-    representations of the victims that had fallen by his hand. The bottom
-    of the dress was bound or hemmed with ermine skins, and tassels of
-    ermines’ tails were suspended from the arms and the shoulders.</p>
-
-  <p>The <em>Leggings</em>, which were made of deer skins, beautifully
-    dressed, and fitting tight to the leg, extended from the feet to the
-    hips, and were fastened to a belt which was passed around the waist.
-    These, like the shirt, had a similar band, worked with porcupine quills
-    of richest dyes, passing down the seam on the outer part of the leg,
-    and fringed also the whole length of the leg, with the scalp-locks
-    taken from his enemies’ heads.</p>
-
-  <p>The <em>Moccasins</em> were of buckskin, and covered in almost every part
-    with the beautiful embroidery of porcupines’ quills.</p>
-
-  <p>The <em>Head-dress</em>, which was superb and truly magnificent,
-    consisted of a crest of war-eagles’ quills, gracefully falling back
-    from the forehead over the back part of the head, and extending quite
-    down to his feet; set the whole way in a profusion of ermine, and
-    surmounted on the top of the head, with the horns of the buffalo,
-    shaved thin and highly polished.</p>
-
-  <p>The <em>Necklace</em> was made of fifty huge claws or nails of the
-    grizzly bear, ingeniously arranged on the skin of an otter, and worn,
-    like the scalp-locks, as a trophy—as an evidence unquestionable, that
-    he had contended with and overcome that desperate enemy in open combat.</p>
-
-  <p>His <em>Shield</em> was made of the hide of the buffalo’s neck, and
-    hardened with the glue that was taken from its hoofs; its boss was the
-    skin of a pole-cat, and its edges were fringed with rows of eagles’
-    quills and hoofs of the antelope.</p>
-
-  <p>His <em>Bow</em> was of bone, and as white and beautiful as ivory; over
-    its back<span class="pagenum" id="Page_147">147</span> was laid, and firmly attached to it, a coating of deers’
-    sinews, which gave it its elasticity, and of course death to all that
-    stood inimically before it. Its string was three stranded and twisted
-    of sinews, which many a time had twanged and sent the whizzing death to
-    animal and to human victims.</p>
-
-  <figure class="mt2 illowp75" id="i_064">
-    <div class="plate "><i>38</i></div>
-    <img src="images/i_064.jpg" alt="" />
-     <figcaption>64</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p>The <em>Quiver</em> was made of a panther’s skin and hung upon his back,
-    charged with its deadly arrows; some were poisoned and some were not;
-    they were feathered with hawks’ and eagles’ quills; some were clean and
-    innocent, and pure, and others were stained all over, with animal and
-    human blood that was dried upon them. Their blades or points were of
-    flints, and some of steel; and altogether were a deadly magazine.</p>
-
-  <p>The <em>Lance</em> or spear was held in his left hand; its blade was
-    two-edged and of polished steel, and the blood of several human victims
-    was seen dried upon it, one over the other; its shaft was of the
-    toughest ash, and ornamented at intervals with tufts of war-eagles’
-    quills.</p>
-
-  <p>His <em>Tobacco-sack</em> was made of the skin of an otter, and
-    tastefully garnished with quills of the porcupine; in it was carried
-    his <i lang="mhq">k’nick k’neck</i>, (the bark of the red willow, which is smoked
-    as a substitute for tobacco), it contained also his flint and steel,
-    and spunk for lighting——</p>
-
-  <p>His <em>Pipe</em>, which was ingeniously carved out of the red steatite
-    (or pipe-stone), the stem of which was three feet long and two inches
-    wide, made from the stalk of the young ash; about half its length was
-    wound with delicate braids of the porcupine’s quills, so ingeniously
-    wrought as to represent figures of men and animals upon it. It was
-    also ornamented with the skins and beaks of wood-peckers’ heads, and
-    the hair of the white buffalo’s tail. The lower half of the stem was
-    painted red, and on its edges it bore the notches he had recorded for
-    the snows (or years) of his life.</p>
-
-  <p>His <em>Robe</em> was made of the skin of a young buffalo bull, with the
-    fur on one side, and the other finely and delicately dressed; with all
-    the battles of his life emblazoned on it by his own hand.</p>
-
-  <p>His <em>Belt</em>, which was of a substantial piece of buckskin, was
-    firmly girded around his waist; and in it were worn his tomahawk and
-    scalping-knife.</p>
-
-  <p>His <em>Medicine-bag</em> was the skin of a beaver, curiously ornamented
-    with hawks’ bills and ermine. It was held in his right hand, and his
-    <i lang="mhq">po-ko-mo-kon</i> (or war-club) which was made of a round stone, tied
-    up in a piece of rawhide, and attached to the end of a stick, somewhat
-    in the form of a sling, was laid with others of his weapons at his feet.</p>
-
-  <p>Such was the dress of Mah-to-toh-pa when he entered my wigwam to stand
-    for his picture; but such I have not entirely represented it in his
-    portrait; having rejected such trappings and ornaments as interfered
-    with the grace and simplicity of the figure. He was beautifully and
-    extravagantly dressed; and in this he was not alone, for hundreds of
-    others are equally elegant. In plumes, and arms, and ornaments, he is
-    not singular; but in laurels and wreaths he stands unparalleled. His
-    breast has been bared and scarred in defence of his country, and his
-    brows crowned with honours<span class="pagenum" id="Page_148">148</span> that elevate him conspicuous above all of
-    his nation. There is no man amongst the Mandans so generally loved,
-    nor any one who wears a robe so justly famed and honourable as that of
-    Mah-to-toh-pa.</p>
-
-  <p>I said his robe was of the skin of a young buffalo bull, and that the
-    battles of his life were emblazoned on it; and on a former occasion,
-    that he presented me a beautiful robe, containing all the battles
-    of his life, which he had spent two weeks’ time in copying from his
-    original one, which he wore on his shoulders.</p>
-
-  <p>This robe, with his tracings on it, is the chart of his military life;
-    and when explained, will tell more of Mah-to-toh-pa.</p>
-
-  <p>Some days after this robe was presented, he called upon me with Mr.
-    Kipp, the trader and interpreter for the Mandans, and gave me of each
-    battle there pourtrayed the following history, which was interpreted
-    by Mr. Kipp, from his own lips, and written down by me, as we three
-    sat upon the robe. Mr. Kipp, who is a gentleman of respectability and
-    truth; and who has lived with these people ten years, assured me, that
-    nearly every one of these narrations were of events that had happened
-    whilst he had lived with them, and had been familiarly known to him;
-    and that every word that he asserted was true.</p>
-
-  <p>And again, reader, in this country where, of all countries I ever
-    was in, men are the most jealous of rank and of standing; and in a
-    community so small also, that every man’s deeds of honour and chivalry
-    are familiarly known to all; it would not be reputable, or even safe
-    to life, for a warrior to wear upon his back the representations of
-    battles he never had fought; professing to have done what every child
-    in the village would know he never had done.</p>
-
-  <p>So then I take the records of battles on the robe of Mah-to-toh-pa
-    to be matter of historical fact; and I proceed to give them as I
-    wrote them down from his own lips. Twelve battle-scenes are there
-    represented, where he has contended with his enemy, and in which he has
-    taken fourteen of their scalps. The groups are drawn according to his
-    own rude ideas of the arts; and I proceed to describe them in turn, as
-    they were explained to me.</p>
-
-  <h3>ROBE OF MAH-TO-TOH-PA (<a href="#i_065"><span class="smcap">Plate</span> 65</a>).</h3>
-
-  <p>1. Mah-to-toh-pa kills a Sioux chief—the three heads represent the
-    three Riccarees, whom the Sioux chief had previously killed. The Sioux
-    chief is seen with war-paint black on his face. Mah-to-toh-pa is seen
-    with the scalp of the Sioux in one hand, and his knife in the other,
-    with his bow and quiver lying behind him.<a id="FNanchor_3" href="#Footnote_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p>
-
-  <p>2. A Shienne chief, who sent word to Mah-to-toh-pa that he wished to
-    fight him—was killed by Mah-to-toh-pa with a lance, in presence of a
-    large <span class="pagenum" id="Page_149">149</span>party of Mandans and Shiennes. Mah-to-toh-pa is here known
-    by his lance with eagles’ quills on it.</p>
-
-  <figure class="mt2 illowp75" id="i_065">
-    <div class="plate"><i>39</i></div>
-    <img src="images/i_065.jpg" alt="" />
-     <figcaption>65</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <figure class="mt2 illowp75">
-    <div class="plate"><i>40</i></div>
-    <img src="images/i_065a.jpg" alt="" />
-  </figure>
-
-  <figure class="mt2 illowp75">
-    <div class="plate"><i>41</i></div>
-    <img src="images/i_065b.jpg" alt="" />
-  </figure>
-
-  <p>3. A Shienne killed by Mah-to-toh-pa after Mah-to-toh-pa had been left
-    by his party, badly wounded and bleeding; the twenty-five or thirty
-    foot-tracks around, represent the number of Shiennes, who were present
-    when the battle took place; and the bullets from their guns represented
-    as flying all around the head of Mah-to-toh-pa.</p>
-
-  <p>4. Shienne chief with war-eagle head-dress, and a beautiful shield,
-    ornamented with eagles’ quills, killed by Mah-to-toh-pa. In this
-    battle the wife of the Shienne rushed forward in a desperate manner to
-    his assistance; but arriving too late, fell a victim. In this battle
-    Mah-to-toh-pa obtained two scalps.</p>
-
-  <p>5. Mah-to-toh-pa, with a party of Riccarees, fired at by a party of
-    Sioux; the Riccarees fled—Mah-to-toh-pa dismounted and drove his horse
-    back, facing the enemy alone and killing one of them. Mah-to-toh-pa is
-    here represented with a beautiful head-dress of war-eagles’ quills,
-    and one on his horse’s head of equal beauty; his shield is on his arm,
-    and the party of Sioux is represented in front of him by the number of
-    horse tracks.</p>
-
-  <p>6. The brother of Mah-to-toh-pa killed by a Riccaree, who shot him with
-    an arrow, and then running a lance through his body, left it there.
-    Mah-to-toh-pa was the first to find his brother’s body with the lance
-    in it: he drew the lance from the body, kept it four years with the
-    blood dried on its blade, and then, according to his oath, killed the
-    same Riccaree with the same lance; the dead body of his brother is here
-    seen with the arrow and lance remaining in it, and the tracks of the
-    Riccaree’s horses in front.</p>
-
-  <p>The following was, perhaps, one of the most extraordinary exploits
-    of this remarkable man’s life, and is well attested by Mr. Kipp, and
-    several white men, who were living in the Mandan village at the time of
-    its occurrence. In a skirmish, near the Mandan village, when they were
-    set upon by their enemies, the Riccarees, the brother of Mah-to-toh-pa
-    was missing for several days, when Mah-to-toh-pa found the body
-    shockingly mangled, and a handsome spear left piercing the body through
-    the heart. The spear was by him brought into the Mandan village, where
-    it was recognized by many as a famous weapon belonging to a noted brave
-    of the Riccarees, by the name of Won-ga-tap. This spear was brandished
-    through the Mandan village by Mah-to-toh-pa (with the blood of his
-    brother dried on its blade), crying most piteously, and swearing that
-    he would some day revenge the death of his brother with the same weapon.</p>
-
-  <p>It is almost an incredible fact, that he kept this spear with great
-    care in his wigwam for the space of four years, in the fruitless
-    expectation of an opportunity to use it upon the breast of its owner;
-    when his indignant soul, impatient of further delay, burst forth in the
-    most uncontroullable frenzy and fury; he again brandished it through
-    the village, and said, that the blood of his brother’s heart which was
-    seen on its blade was yet fresh,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_150">150</span>
-    and called loudly for revenge. “Let
-    every Mandan (said he) be silent, and let no one sound the name of
-    Mah-to-toh-pa—let no one ask for him, nor where he has gone, until you
-    hear him sound the war-cry in front of the village, when he will enter
-    it and shew you the blood of Won-ga-tap. The blade of this lance shall
-    drink the heart’s blood of Won-ga-tap, or Mah-to-toh-pa mingles his
-    shadow with that of his brother.”</p>
-
-  <p>With this he sallied forth from the village, and over the plains,
-    with the lance in his hand; his direction was towards the Riccaree
-    village, and all eyes were upon him, though none dared to speak till he
-    disappeared over the distant grassy bluffs. He travelled the distance
-    of two hundred miles entirely alone, with a little parched corn in
-    his pouch, making his marches by night, and laying secreted by days,
-    until he reached the Riccaree village; where (being acquainted with
-    its shapes and its habits, and knowing the position of the wigwam of
-    his doomed enemy) he loitered about in disguise, mingling himself in
-    the obscure throng; and at last, silently and alone, observed through
-    the rents of the wigwam, the last motions and movements of his victim,
-    as he retired to bed with his wife: he saw him light his last pipe and
-    smoke it “to its end”—he saw the last whiff, and saw the last curl of
-    blue smoke that faintly steeped from its bowl—he saw the village awhile
-    in darkness and silence, and the embers that were covered in the middle
-    of the wigwam gone nearly out, and the last flickering light which had
-    been gently playing over them; when he walked softly, but not slyly,
-    into the wigwam and seated himself by the fire, over which was hanging
-    a large pot, with a quantity of cooked meat remaining in it; and by
-    the side of the fire, the pipe and tobacco-pouch which had just been
-    used; and knowing that the twilight of the wigwam was not sufficient to
-    disclose the features of his face to his enemy, he very deliberately
-    turned to the pot and completely satiated the desperate appetite, which
-    he had got in a journey of six or seven days, with little or nothing
-    to eat; and then, as deliberately, charged and lighted the pipe, and
-    sent (no doubt, in every whiff that he drew through its stem) a prayer
-    to the Great Spirit for a moment longer for the consummation of his
-    design. Whilst eating and smoking, the wife of his victim, while laying
-    in bed, several times enquired of her husband, what man it was who was
-    eating in their lodge? to which, he as many times replied, “It’s no
-    matter; let him eat, for he is probably hungry.”</p>
-
-  <p>Mah-to-toh-pa knew full well that his appearance would cause no other
-    reply than this, from the dignitary of the nation; for, from an
-    invariable custom amongst these Northern Indians, any one who is hungry
-    is allowed to walk into any man’s lodge and eat. Whilst smoking his
-    last gentle and tremulous whiffs on the pipe, Mah-to-toh-pa (leaning
-    back, and turning gradually on his side, to get a better view of the
-    position of his enemy, and to see a little more distinctly the shapes
-    of things) stirred the embers with his toes (readers, I had every
-    word of this from his own lips, and every attitude and gesture acted
-    out with his own limbs), until he saw his<span class="pagenum" id="Page_151">151</span> way was clear; at which
-    moment, with his lance in his hands, he rose and drove it through the
-    body of his enemy, and snatching the scalp from his head, he darted
-    from the lodge—and quick as lightning, with the lance in one hand,
-    and the scalp in the other, made his way to the prairie! The village
-    was in an uproar, but he was off, and no one knew the enemy who had
-    struck the blow. Mah-to-toh-pa ran all night, and lay close during the
-    days; thanking the Great Spirit for strengthening his heart and his
-    arm to this noble revenge; and prayed fervently for a continuance of
-    his aid and protection till he should get back to his own village. His
-    prayers were heard; and on the sixth morning, at sunrise, Mah-to-toh-pa
-    descended the bluffs, and entered the village amidst deafening shouts
-    of applause, while he brandished and shewed to his people the blade of
-    his lance, with the blood of his victim dried upon it, over that of his
-    brother; and the scalp of Won-ga-tap suspended from its handle.</p>
-
-  <figure class="mt2 illowp75">
-  <div class="plate"><i>42</i></div>
-    <img src="images/i_065c.jpg" alt="" />
-  </figure>
-
-  <p>Such was the feat represented by Mah-to-toh-pa on his robe—and the
-    lance, of which I have just spoken, is seen in the hand of his
-    portrait, which will stand in my Gallery, and of which I have thus
-    formerly spoken:—“The lance or spear of Mah-to-toh-pa, when he stood
-    for his portrait, was held in his left hand; its blade was two-edged,
-    and of polished steel, and the blood of several human victims was
-    seen dried upon its surface, one over the other; its shaft was of the
-    toughest ash, and ornamented at intervals with tufts of war-eagle’s
-    quills.”</p>
-
-  <p>In the portrait, of which I am speaking, there will be seen an eagle’s
-    quill balanced on the hilt of the lance, severed from its original
-    position, and loose from the weapon. When I painted his portrait,
-    he brought that quill to my wigwam in his left hand, and carefully
-    balancing it on the lance, as seen in the painting; he desired me to be
-    very exact with it, to have it appear as separate from, and unconnected
-    with, the lance; and to represent a spot of blood which was visible
-    upon it. I indulged him in his request, and then got from him the
-    following explanation:—“That quill (said he) is great <em>medicine</em>!
-    it belongs to the Great Spirit, and not to me—when I was running out of
-    the lodge of Won-ga-tap, I looked back and saw that quill hanging to
-    the wound in his side; I ran back, and pulling it out, brought it home
-    in my left hand, and I have kept it for the Great Spirit to this day!”</p>
-
-  <p>“Why do you not then tie it on to the lance again, where it came off?”</p>
-
-  <p>“Hush-sh (said he), if the Great Spirit had wished it to be tied on in
-    that place, it never would have come off; he has been kind to me, and I
-    will not offend him.”</p>
-
-  <p>7. A Riccaree killed by Mah-to-toh-pa in revenge of the death of a
-    white man killed by a Riccaree in the Fur Traders’ Fort, a short time
-    previous.</p>
-
-  <p>8. Mah-to-toh-pa, or four bears, kills a Shienne chief, who challenged
-    him to single combat, in presence of the two war-parties; they fought
-    on horseback with guns, until Mah-to-toh-pa’s powder-horn was shot
-    away; they then fought with bows and arrows, until their quivers were
-    emptied, when they<span class="pagenum" id="Page_152">152</span> dismounted and fought single-handed. The Shienne
-    drew his knife, and Mah-to-toh-pa had left his; they struggled for the
-    knife, which Mah-to-toh-pa wrested from the Shienne, and killed him
-    with it; in the struggle, the blade of the knife was several times
-    drawn through the hand of Mah-to-toh-pa, and the blood is seen running
-    from the wound.</p>
-
-  <p>This extraordinary occurrence also, was one which admits of, and
-    deserves a more elaborate description, which I will here give as it
-    was translated from his own lips, while he sat upon the robe, pointing
-    to his painting of it; and at the same time brandishing the identical
-    knife which he drew from his belt, as he was shewing how the fatal blow
-    was given; and exhibiting the wounds inflicted in his hand, as the
-    blade of the knife was several times drawn through it before he wrested
-    it from his antagonist.</p>
-
-  <p>A party of about 150 Shienne warriors had made an assault upon the
-    Mandan village at an early hour in the morning, and driven off a
-    considerable number of horses, and taken one scalp. Mah-to-toh-pa,
-    who was then a young man, but famed as one of the most valiant of the
-    Mandans, took the lead of a party of fifty warriors, all he could at
-    that time muster, and went in pursuit of the enemy; about noon of the
-    second day, they came in sight of the Shiennes; and the Mandans seeing
-    their enemy much more numerous than they had expected, were generally
-    disposed to turn about and return without attacking them. They started
-    to go back, when Mah-to-toh-pa galloped out in front upon the prairie,
-    and plunged his lance into the ground; the blade was driven into the
-    earth to its hilt—he made another circuit around, and in that circuit
-    tore from his breast his reddened sash, which he hung upon its handle
-    as a flag, calling out to the Mandans, “What! have we come to this?
-    we have dogged our enemy two days, and now when we have found them,
-    are we to turn about and go back like cowards? Mah-to-toh-pa’s lance,
-    which is red with the blood of brave men, has led you to the sight of
-    your enemy, and you have followed it; it now stands firm in the ground,
-    where the earth will drink the blood of Mah-to-toh-pa! you may all go
-    back, and Mah-to-toh-pa will fight them alone!”</p>
-
-  <p>During this manœuvre, the Shiennes, who had discovered the Mandans
-    behind them, had turned about and were gradually approaching, in order
-    to give them battle; the chief of the Shienne war-party seeing and
-    understanding the difficulty, and admiring the gallant conduct of
-    Mah-to-toh-pa, galloped his horse forward within hailing distance, in
-    front of the Mandans, and called out to know “who he was who had stuck
-    down his lance and defied the whole enemy alone?”</p>
-
-  <p>“I am Mah-to-toh-pa, second in command of the brave and valiant
-    Mandans.”</p>
-
-  <p>“I have heard often of Mah-to-toh-pa, he is a great warrior—dares
-    Mah-to-toh-pa to come forward and fight this battle with me alone, and
-    our warriors will look on?”</p>
-
-  <p>“Is he a chief who speaks to Mah-to-toh-pa?”</p>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>43</i></div>
-  <figure id="i_066">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_066.jpg" alt="" />
-     <figcaption>66</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_153">153</span></p>
-
-  <p>“My scalps you see hanging to my horse’s bits, and here is my lance
-    with the ermine skins and the war-eagle’s tail!”</p>
-
-  <p>“You have said enough.”</p>
-
-  <p>The Shienne chief made a circuit or two at full gallop on a beautiful
-    white horse, when he struck his lance into the ground, and left it
-    standing by the side of the lance of Mah-to-toh-pa, both of which were
-    waving together their little red flags, tokens of blood and defiance.</p>
-
-  <p>The two parties then drew nearer, on a beautiful prairie, and the
-    two full-plumed chiefs, at full speed, drove furiously upon each
-    other! both firing their guns at the same moment. They passed each
-    other a little distance and wheeled, when Mah-to-toh-pa drew off his
-    powder-horn, and by holding it up, shewed his adversary that the bullet
-    had shattered it to pieces and destroyed his ammunition; he then threw
-    it from him, and his gun also—drew his bow from his quiver, and an
-    arrow, and his shield upon his left arm! The Shienne instantly did
-    the same; <em>his</em> horn was thrown off, and his gun was thrown into
-    the air—his shield was balanced on his arm—his bow drawn, and quick
-    as lightning, they were both on the wing for a deadly combat! Like
-    two soaring eagles in the open air, they made their circuits around,
-    and the twangs of their sinewy bows were heard, and the war-whoop,
-    as they dashed by each other, parrying off the whizzing arrows with
-    their shields! Some lodged in their legs and others in their arms; but
-    both protected their <em>bodies</em> with their bucklers of bull’s hide.
-    Deadly and many were the shafts that fled from their murderous bows. At
-    length the horse of Mah-to-toh-pa fell to the ground with an arrow in
-    his heart; his rider sprang upon his feet prepared to renew the combat;
-    but the Shienne, seeing his adversary dismounted, sprang from his
-    horse, and driving him back, presented the face of his shield towards
-    his enemy, inviting him to come on!—a few shots more were exchanged
-    thus, when the Shienne, having discharged all his arrows, held up his
-    empty quiver and dashing it furiously to the ground, with his bow and
-    his shield; drew and brandished his naked knife!</p>
-
-  <p>“Yes!” said Mah-to-toh-pa, as he threw <em>his</em> shield and quiver to
-    the earth, and was rushing up—<em>he</em> grasped for his knife, but his
-    belt had it not; he had left it at home! his bow was in his hand, with
-    which he parried his antagonist’s blow and felled him to the ground! A
-    desperate struggle now ensued for the knife—the blade of it was several
-    times drawn through the right hand of Mah-to-toh-pa, inflicting the
-    most frightful wounds, while he was severely wounded in several parts
-    of the body. He at length succeeded however, in wresting it from his
-    adversary’s hand, and plunged it to his heart.</p>
-
-  <p>By this time the two parties had drawn up in close view of each other,
-    and at the close of the battle, Mah-to-toh-pa held up, and claimed in
-    deadly silence, the knife and scalp of the noble Shienne chief.<a id="FNanchor_4" href="#Footnote_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p>
-
-  <p>9. Several hundred Minatarees and Mandans attacked by a party of
-    Assinneboins—all fled but Mah-to-toh-pa, who stood his ground,
-    fired, and killed one of the enemy, putting the rest of them to
-    flight, and driving off sixty horses! He is here seen with his lance
-    and shield—foot-tracks of his enemy in front, and his own party’s
-    horse-tracks behind him, and a shower of bullets flying around
-    his head; here he got the name of “<em>the four bears</em>,” as the
-    Assinneboins said he rushed on like four bears.</p>
-
-  <p>10. Mah-to-toh-pa gets from his horse and kills two Ojibbeway women,
-    and takes their scalps; done by the side of an Ojibbeway village, where
-    they went to the river for water. He is here seen with his lance in
-    one hand and his knife in the other—an eagle’s plume head-dress on his
-    horse, and his shield left on his horse’s back. I incurred his ill-will
-    for awhile by asking him, whether it was manly to boast of taking
-    the scalps of women? and his pride prevented him from giving me any
-    explanation or apology. The interpreter, however, explained to me that
-    he had secreted himself in the most daring manner, in full sight of the
-    Ojibbeway village, seeking to revenge a murder, where he remained six
-    days without sustenance, and then killed the two women in full view of
-    the tribe, and made his escape, which entitled him to the credit of a
-    victory, though his victims were women.</p>
-
-  <p>11. A large party of Assinneboins entrenched near the Mandan
-    village attacked by the Mandans and Minatarees, who were driven
-    back—Mah-to-toh-pa rushes into the entrenchment alone—an Indian fires
-    at him and burns his face with the muzzle of his gun, which burst—the
-    Indian retreats, leaving his exploded gun, and Mah-to-toh-pa shoots
-    him through the shoulders as he runs, and kills him with his tomahawk;
-    the gun of the Assinneboin is seen falling to the ground, and in front
-    of him the heads of the Assinneboins in the entrenchment; the horse of
-    Mah-to-toh-pa is seen behind him.</p>
-
-  <p>12. Mah-to-toh-pa between his enemy the Sioux, and his own people, with
-    an arrow shot through him, after standing the fire of the Sioux for a
-    long time alone. In this battle he took no scalps, yet his valour was
-    so extraordinary that the chiefs and braves awarded him the honour of a
-    victory.</p>
-
-  <p>This feat is seen in the centre of the robe—head-dress of war-eagles’
-    quills on his own and his horse’s head—the tracks of his enemies’
-    horses are seen in front of him, and bullets flying both ways all
-    around him. With his whip in his hand, he is seen urging his horse
-    forward, and an arrow is seen flying, and bloody, as it has passed
-    through his body. For this wound, and the several others mentioned
-    above, he bears the honourable scars on his body, which he generally
-    keeps covered with red paint.</p>
-
-  <p>Such are the battles traced upon the robe of Mah-to-toh-pa or four
-    bears, interpreted by J. Kipp from the words of the hero while sitting
-    upon the robe, explaining each battle as represented.</p>
-
-  <div class="footnotes">
-    <div class="footnote">
-      <a id="Footnote_3" href="#FNanchor_3" class="label">[3]</a> The reader will see in <a href="#i_065"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 65</a>, an accurate
-        drawing of this curious robe, which now hangs in the <span class="smcap">Indian
-        Gallery</span>, and on the following pages, each group numbered, and
-        delineated on a larger scale, which are <i>fac-similes</i> of the
-        drawings on the robe.
-    </div>
-
-    <div class="footnote">
-      <a id="Footnote_4" href="#FNanchor_4" class="label">[4]</a> This celebrated weapon with the blood of several victims
-        dried upon its blade, now<span class="pagenum" id="Page_154">154</span> hangs in the <span class="smcap">Indian Gallery</span>, with
-        satisfactory certificates of its identity and its remarkable history,
-        and an exact drawing of it and its scabbard can be seen in <a href="#i_099"><span class="smcap">plate</span>
-        99</a>, <i>a</i>.
-    </div>
-  </div>
-
-  <hr class="chap" />
-  <div class="chapter">
-    <span class="pagenum" id="Page_155">155</span>
-    <h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_22">LETTER—<abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 22.</h2>
-  </div>
-  <div class="subheadc">MANDAN VILLAGE, <i>UPPER MISSOURI</i>.</div>
-
-  <p><span class="smcap">Oh!</span> “<i lang="fr">horribile visu—et mirabile dictu!</i>” Thank God, it is over,
-    that I have seen it, and am able to tell it to the world.</p>
-
-  <p>The <em>annual religious ceremony</em>, of four days, of which I have so
-    often spoken, and which I have so long been wishing to see, has at last
-    been enacted in this village; and I have, fortunately, been able to
-    see and to understand it in most of its bearings, which was more than
-    I had reason to expect; for no white man, in all probability, has ever
-    been before admitted to the <em>medicine-lodge</em> during these most
-    remarkable and appalling scenes.</p>
-
-  <p>Well and truly has it been said, that the Mandans are a strange and
-    peculiar people; and most correctly had I been informed, that this
-    was an important and interesting scene, by those who had, on former
-    occasions, witnessed such parts of it as are transacted out of doors,
-    and in front of the <em>medicine-lodge</em>.</p>
-
-  <p>Since the date of my last Letter, I was lucky enough to have painted
-    the <em>medicine-man</em>, who was high-priest on this grand occasion, or
-    conductor of the ceremonies, who had me regularly installed doctor or
-    “<em>medicine</em>;” and who, on the morning when these grand refinements
-    in mysteries commenced, took me by the arm, and led me into the
-    <em>medicine-lodge</em>, where the Fur Trader, Mr. Kipp, and his two
-    clerks accompanied me in close attendance for four days; all of us
-    going to our own quarters at sun-down, and returning again at sun-rise
-    the next morning.</p>
-
-  <p>I took my sketch-book with me, and have made many and faithful drawings
-    of what we saw, and full notes of everything as translated to me by
-    the interpreter; and since the close of that horrid and frightful
-    scene, which was a week ago or more, I have been closely ensconced
-    in an earth-covered wigwam, with a fine sky-light over my head, with
-    my palette and brushes, endeavouring faithfully to put the whole
-    of what we saw upon canvass, which my companions all agree to be
-    critically correct, and of the fidelity of which they have attached
-    their certificates to the backs of the paintings. I have made four
-    paintings of these strange scenes, containing several hundred figures,
-    representing the transactions of each day; and if I live to get them
-    home, they will be found to be exceedingly curious and interesting.</p>
-
-  <p>I shudder at the relation, or even at the thought of these barbarous
-    and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_156">156</span> cruel scenes, and am almost ready to shrink from the task of
-    reciting them after I have so long promised some account of them. I
-    entered the <em>medicine-house</em> of these scenes, as I would have
-    entered a church, and expected to see something extraordinary and
-    strange, but yet in the form of worship or devotion; but alas! little
-    did I expect to see the interior of their holy temple turned into a
-    <em>slaughter-house</em>, and its floor strewed with the blood of its
-    fanatic devotees. Little did I think that I was entering a house of
-    God, where His blinded worshippers were to pollute its sacred interior
-    with their blood, and propitiatory suffering and tortures—surpassing,
-    if possible, the cruelty of the rack or the inquisition; but such the
-    scene has been, and as such I will endeavour to describe it.</p>
-
-  <p>The “<em>Mandan religious ceremony</em>” then, as I believe it is
-    very justly denominated, is an annual transaction, held in their
-    <em>medicine-lodge</em> once a year, as a great religious anniversary,
-    and for several distinct objects, as I shall in a few minutes describe;
-    during and after which, they look with implicit reliance for the
-    justification and approval of the Great Spirit.</p>
-
-  <p>All of the Indian tribes, as I have before observed, are religious—are
-    worshipful—and many of them go to almost incredible lengths (as will
-    be seen in the present instance, and many others I may recite) in
-    worshipping the Great Spirit; denying and humbling themselves before
-    Him for the same purpose, and in the same hope as we do, perhaps in a
-    more rational and acceptable way.</p>
-
-  <p>The tribes, so far as I have visited them, all distinctly believe in
-    the existence of a Great (or Good) Spirit, an Evil (or Bad) Spirit,
-    and also in a future existence and future accountability, according
-    to their virtues and vices in this world. So far the North American
-    Indians would seem to be one family, and such an unbroken theory
-    amongst them; yet with regard to the manner and form, and time and
-    place of that accountability—to the constructions of virtues and vices,
-    and the modes of appeasing and propitiating the Good and Evil Spirits,
-    they are found with all the changes and variety which fortuitous
-    circumstances, and fictions, and fables have wrought upon them.</p>
-
-  <p>If from their superstitions and their ignorance, there are oftentimes
-    obscurities and mysteries thrown over and around their system, yet
-    these affect not the theory itself, which is everywhere essentially
-    the same—and which, if it be not correct, has this much to command
-    the admiration of the enlightened world, that they worship with great
-    sincerity, and all according to one creed.</p>
-
-  <p>The Mandans believe in the existence of a Great (or Good) Spirit, and
-    also of an Evil Spirit, who they say existed long before the Good
-    Spirit, and is far superior in power. They all believe also in a
-    future state of existence, and a future administration of rewards and
-    punishments, and (so do all other tribes that I have yet visited) they
-    believe those punishments are not eternal, but commensurate with their
-    sins.</p>
-
-  <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_157">157</span></p>
-
-  <p>These people living in a climate where they suffer from cold in the
-    severity of their winters, have very naturally reversed our ideas of
-    Heaven and Hell. The latter they describe to be a country very far
-    to the north, of barren and hideous aspect, and covered with eternal
-    snows and ice. The torments of this freezing place they describe as
-    most excruciating; whilst Heaven they suppose to be in a warmer and
-    delightful latitude, where nothing is felt but the keenest enjoyment,
-    and where the country abounds in buffaloes and other luxuries of life.
-    The Great or Good Spirit they believe dwells in the former place for
-    the purpose of there meeting those who have offended him; increasing
-    the agony of their sufferings, by being himself present, administering
-    the penalties. The Bad or Evil Spirit they at the same time suppose to
-    reside in Paradise, still tempting the happy; and those who have gone
-    to the regions of punishment they believe to be tortured for a time
-    proportioned to the amount of their transgressions, and that they are
-    then to be transferred to the land of the happy, where they are again
-    liable to the temptations of the Evil Spirit, and answerable again at a
-    future period for their new offences.</p>
-
-  <p>Such is the religious creed of the Mandans, and for the purpose of
-    appeasing the Good and Evil Spirits, and to secure their entrance into
-    those “fields Elysian,” or beautiful hunting grounds, do the young
-    men subject themselves to the horrid and sickening cruelties to be
-    described in the following pages.</p>
-
-  <p>There are other three distinct objects (yet to be named) for which
-    these religious ceremonies are held, which are as follow:—</p>
-
-  <p><em>First</em>, they are held annually as a celebration of
-    the event of the subsiding of the Flood, which they call
-    <i lang="mhq">Mee-nee-ro-ka-ha-sha</i>, (sinking down or settling of the waters.)</p>
-
-  <p><em>Secondly</em>, for the purpose of dancing what they call,
-    <i lang="mhq">Bel-lohck-na-pic</i> (the bull-dance); to the strict observance of
-    which they attribute the coming of buffaloes to supply them with food
-    during the season; and</p>
-
-  <p><em>Thirdly</em> and lastly, for the purpose of conducting all the young
-    men of the tribe, as they annually arrive to the age of manhood,
-    through an ordeal of privation and torture, which, while it is supposed
-    to harden their muscles and prepare them for extreme endurance,
-    enables the chiefs who are spectators to the scene, to decide upon
-    their comparative bodily strength and ability to endure the extreme
-    privations and sufferings that often fall to the lots of Indian
-    warriors; and that they may decide who is the most hardy and best able
-    to lead a war-party in case of extreme exigency.</p>
-
-  <p>This part of the ceremony, as I have just witnessed it, is truly
-    shocking to behold, and will almost stagger the belief of the world
-    when they read of it. The scene is too terrible and too revolting to
-    be seen or to be told, were it not an essential part of a whole, which
-    will be new to the civilized world, and therefore worth their knowing.</p>
-
-  <p>The bull-dance, and many other parts of these ceremonies are
-    exceedingly<span class="pagenum" id="Page_158">158</span> grotesque and amusing, and that part of them which has a
-    relation to the Deluge is harmless and full of interest.</p>
-
-  <p>In the centre of the Mandan village is an open, circular area of 150
-    feet diameter, kept always clear, as a public ground, for the display
-    of all their public feasts, parades, &amp;c. and around it are their
-    wigwams placed as near to each other as they can well stand, their
-    doors facing the centre of this public area.</p>
-
-  <p>In the middle of this ground, which is trodden like a hard pavement,
-    is a curb (somewhat like a large hogshead standing on its end) made
-    of planks (and bound with hoops), some eight or nine feet high, which
-    they religiously preserve and protect from year to year, free from
-    mark or scratch, and which they call the “big canoe”—it is undoubtedly
-    a symbolic representation of a part of their traditional history of
-    the Flood; which it is very evident, from this and numerous other
-    features of this grand ceremony, they have in some way or other
-    received, and are here endeavouring to perpetuate by vividly impressing
-    it on the minds of the whole nation. This object of superstition,
-    from its position, as the very centre of the village is the rallying
-    point of the whole nation. To it their devotions are paid on various
-    occasions of feasts and religious exercises during the year; and in
-    this extraordinary scene it was often the nucleus of their mysteries
-    and cruelties, as I shall shortly describe them, and becomes an object
-    worth bearing in mind, and worthy of being understood.</p>
-
-  <p>This exciting and appalling scene, then, which is familiarly (and no
-    doubt correctly) called the “Mandan religious ceremony,” commences, not
-    on a particular day of the year, (for these people keep no record of
-    days or weeks), but at a particular season, which is designated by the
-    full expansion of the willow leaves under the bank of the river; for
-    according to their tradition, “the twig that the bird brought home was
-    a willow bough, and had full-grown leaves on it,” and the bird to which
-    they allude, is the mourning or turtle-dove, which they took great
-    pains to point out to me, as it is often to be seen feeding on the
-    sides of their earth-covered lodges, and which, being, as they call it,
-    a <em>medicine-bird</em>, is not to be destroyed or harmed by any one,
-    and even their dogs are instructed not to do it injury.</p>
-
-  <p>On the morning on which this strange transaction commenced, I was
-    sitting at breakfast in the house of the Trader, Mr. Kipp, when at
-    sun-rise, we were suddenly startled by the shrieking and screaming
-    of the women, and barking and howling of dogs, as if an enemy were
-    actually storming their village.</p>
-
-  <p>“Now we have it!” (exclaimed <em>mine host</em>, as he sprang from the
-    table,) the grand ceremony has commenced!—“drop your knife and fork,
-    Monsr. and get your sketch-book as soon as possible, that you may lose
-    nothing, for the very moment of <em>commencing</em> is as curious as
-    anything else of this strange affair.” I seized my sketch-book, and all
-    hands of us were in an instant in front of the medicine-lodge, ready
-    to see and to hear all that was to take place. Groups of women and
-    children were gathered on the tops of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_159">159</span> their earth-covered wigwams, and
-    all were screaming, and dogs were howling, and all eyes directed to the
-    prairies in the West, where was beheld at a mile distant, a solitary
-    individual descending a prairie bluff, and making his way in a direct
-    line towards the village!</p>
-
-  <p>The whole community joined in the general expression of great alarm,
-    as if they were in danger of instant destruction; bows were strung and
-    thrumed to test their elasticity—their horses were caught upon the
-    prairie and run into the village—warriors were blackening their faces,
-    and dogs were muzzled, and every preparation made, as if for instant
-    combat.</p>
-
-  <p>During this deafening din and confusion within the piquets of the
-    village of the Mandans, the figure discovered on the prairie continued
-    to approach with a dignified step and in a right line towards the
-    village; all eyes were upon him, and he at length made his appearance
-    (without opposition) within the piquets, and proceeded towards the
-    centre of the village, where all the chiefs and braves stood ready to
-    receive him, which they did in a cordial manner, by shaking hands with
-    him, recognizing him as an old acquaintance, and pronouncing his name
-    <i lang="mhq">Nu-mohk-muck-a-nah</i> (the first or only man). The body of this
-    strange personage, which was chiefly naked, was painted with white
-    clay, so as to resemble at a little distance, a white man; he wore a
-    robe of four white wolf skins falling back over his shoulders; on his
-    head he had a splendid head-dress made of two ravens’ skins, and in
-    his left hand he cautiously carried a large pipe, which he seemed to
-    watch and guard as something of great importance. After passing the
-    chiefs and braves as described, he approached the <em>medicine</em> or
-    mystery lodge, which he had the means of opening, and which had been
-    religiously closed during the year except for the performance of these
-    religious rites.</p>
-
-  <p>Having opened and entered it, he called in four men whom he appointed
-    to clean it out, and put it in readiness for the ceremonies, by
-    sweeping it and strewing a profusion of green willow-boughs over its
-    floor, and with them decorating its sides. Wild sage also, and many
-    other aromatic herbs they gathered from the prairies, and scattered
-    over its floor; and over these were arranged a curious group of buffalo
-    and human skulls, and other articles, which were to be used during this
-    strange and unaccountable transaction.</p>
-
-  <p>During the whole of this day, and while these preparations were making
-    in the <em>medicine-lodge</em>, Nu-mohk-muck-a-nah (the first or only
-    man) travelled through the village, stopping in front of every man’s
-    lodge, and crying until the owner of the lodge came out, and asked
-    who he was, and what was the matter? to which he replied by relating
-    the sad catastrophe which had happened on the earth’s surface by the
-    overflowing of the waters, saying that “he was the only person saved
-    from the universal calamity; that he landed his big canoe on a high
-    mountain in the west, where he now resides; that he had come to open
-    the <em>medicine-lodge</em>, which must needs receive a present of some
-    edged-tool from the owner of every wigwam, that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_160">160</span> it may be sacrificed
-    to the water;” for he says, “if this is not done, there will be another
-    flood, and no one will be saved, as it was with such tools that the big
-    canoe was made.”</p>
-
-  <p>Having visited every lodge or wigwam in the village, during the day,
-    and having received such a present at each, as a hatchet, a knife, &amp;c.
-    (which is undoubtedly always prepared and ready for the occasion), he
-    returned at evening and deposited them in the <em>medicine-lodge</em>,
-    where they remained until the afternoon of the last day of the
-    ceremony, when, as the final or closing scene, they were thrown into
-    the river in a deep place, from a bank thirty feet high, and in
-    presence of the whole village; from whence they can never be recovered,
-    and where they were, undoubtedly, <em>sacrificed</em> to the Spirit of
-    the Water.</p>
-
-  <p>During the first night of this strange character in the village, no one
-    could tell where he slept; and every person, both old and young, and
-    dogs, and all living things were kept within doors, and dead silence
-    reigned every where. On the next morning at sunrise, however, he made
-    his appearance again, and entered the <em>medicine-lodge</em>; and at his
-    heels (in “<em>Indian file</em>,” <i>i. e.</i> single file, one following
-    in another’s tracks) all the young men who were candidates for the
-    self-tortures which were to be inflicted, and for the honours that were
-    to be bestowed by the chiefs on those who could most manfully endure
-    them. There were on this occasion about fifty young men who entered
-    the lists, and as they went into the sacred lodge, each one’s body was
-    chiefly naked, and covered with clay of different colours; some were
-    red, others were yellow, and some were covered with white clay, giving
-    them the appearance of white men. Each one of them carried in his right
-    hand his <em>medicine-bag</em>—on his left arm, his shield of the bull’s
-    hide—in his left hand, his bow and arrows, with his quiver slung on his
-    back.</p>
-
-  <p>When all had entered the lodge, they placed themselves in reclining
-    postures around its sides, and each one had suspended over his head his
-    respective weapons and <em>medicine</em>, presenting altogether, one of
-    the most wild and picturesque scenes imaginable.</p>
-
-  <p>Nu-mohk-muck-a-nah (the first or only man) was in the midst of them,
-    and having lit and smoked his medicine-pipe for their success; and
-    having addressed them in a short speech, stimulating and encouraging
-    them to trust to the Great Spirit for His protection during the severe
-    ordeal they were about to pass through; he called into the lodge an
-    old medicine or mystery-man, whose body was painted yellow, and whom
-    he appointed master of ceremonies during this occasion, whom they
-    denominated in their language <i lang="mhq">O-kee-pah Ka-se-kah</i> (keeper or
-    conductor of the ceremonies). He was appointed, and the authority
-    passed by the presentation of the medicine-pipe, on which they consider
-    hangs all the power of holding and conducting all these rites.</p>
-
-  <p>After this delegated authority had thus passed over to the
-    medicine-man; Nu-mohk-muck-a-nah shook hands with him, and bade him
-    good<span class="pagenum" id="Page_161">161</span> bye, saying “that he was going back to the mountains in the west,
-    from whence he should assuredly return in just a year from that time,
-    to open the lodge again.” He then went out of the lodge, and passing
-    through the village, took formal leave of the chiefs in the same
-    manner, and soon disappeared over the bluffs from whence he came. No
-    more was seen of this surprising character during the occasion; but I
-    shall have something yet to say of him and his strange office before I
-    get through the Letter.</p>
-
-  <p>To return to the lodge,—the medicine or mystery-man just appointed,
-    and who had received his injunctions from Nu-mohk-muck-a-nah, was left
-    sole conductor and keeper; and according to those injunctions, it was
-    his duty to lie by a small fire in the centre of the lodge, with his
-    medicine-pipe in his hand, crying to the Great Spirit incessantly,
-    watching the young men, and preventing entirely their escape from the
-    lodge, and all communication whatever with people outside, for the
-    space of four days and nights, during which time they were not allowed
-    to <em>eat</em>, to <em>drink</em>, or to <em>sleep</em>, preparatory to the
-    excruciating self-tortures which they were to endure on the fourth day.</p>
-
-  <p>I mentioned that I had made four paintings of these strange scenes,
-    and the first one exhibits the interior of the medicine-lodge at this
-    moment; with the young men all reclining around its sides, and the
-    conductor or mystery-man lying by the fire, crying to the Great Spirit
-    (<a href="#i_066"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 66</a>). It was just at this juncture that I was ushered
-    into this sacred temple of their worship, with my companions, which
-    was, undoubtedly, the first time that their devotions had ever been
-    trespassed upon by the presence of pale faces; and in this instance had
-    been brought about in the following strange and unexpected manner.</p>
-
-  <p>I had most luckily for myself, painted a full-length portrait of this
-    great magician or high-priest, but a day previous to the commencement
-    of the ceremonies (in which I had represented him in the performance of
-    some of his mysteries), with which he had been so exceedingly pleased
-    as well as astonished (as “he could see its eyes move”), that I must
-    needs be, in his opinion, deeply skilled in magic and mysteries, and
-    well-entitled to a respectable rank in the craft, to which I had been
-    at once elevated by the unanimous voice of the doctors, and regularly
-    initiated, and styled <i lang="mhq">Te-ho-pee-nee-wash-ee-waska-pooska</i>, the
-    <em>white medicine</em> (or Spirit) <em>painter</em>.</p>
-
-  <p>With this very honourable degree which had just been conferred upon me,
-    I was standing in front of the medicine-lodge early in the morning,
-    with my companions by my side, endeavouring to get a peep, if possible,
-    into its sacred interior; when this <em>master of ceremonies</em>,
-    guarding and conducting its secrets, as I before described, came out
-    of the door and taking me with a firm <em>professional</em> affection by
-    the arm, led me into this <i>sanctum sanctorum</i>, which was strictly
-    guarded from, even a peep or a gaze from the vulgar, by a vestibule
-    of eight or ten feet in length, guarded with a double screen or door,
-    and two or three dark and frowning centinels with spears<span class="pagenum" id="Page_162">162</span> or war-clubs
-    in their hands. I gave the wink to my companions as I was passing in,
-    and the potency of my <em>medicine</em> was such as to gain them a quiet
-    admission, and all of us were comfortably placed on elevated seats,
-    which our conductor soon prepared for us.</p>
-
-  <p>We were then in full view of everything that transpired in the lodge,
-    having before us the scene exactly, which is represented in the first
-    of the four pictures. To this seat we returned every morning at
-    sunrise, and remained until sun-down for four days, the whole time
-    which these strange scenes occupied.</p>
-
-  <p>In addition to the preparations and arrangements of the interior of
-    this sanctuary, as above described, there was a curious, though a very
-    strict arrangement of buffalo and human skulls placed on the floor of
-    the lodge, and between them (which were divided into two parcels),
-    and in front of the reclining group of young candidates, was a small
-    and very delicate scaffold, elevated about five feet from the ground,
-    made of four posts or crotches, not larger than a gun-rod, and placed
-    some four or five feet apart, supporting four equally delicate rods,
-    resting in the crotches; thus forming the frame of the scaffold, which
-    was completed by a number of still smaller and more delicate sticks,
-    transversely resting upon them. On the centre of this little frame
-    rested some small object, which I could not exactly understand from
-    the distance of twenty or thirty feet which intervened between it and
-    my eye. I started several times from my seat to approach it, but all
-    eyes were instantly upon me, and every mouth in the assembly sent forth
-    a hush—sh—! which brought me back to my seat again; and I at length
-    quieted my stifled curiosity as well as I could, upon learning the
-    fact, that so sacred was that object, and so important its secrets or
-    mysteries, that not <em>I</em> alone, but even the young men, who were
-    passing the ordeal, and all the village, save the conductor of the
-    mysteries, were stopped from approaching it, or knowing what it was.</p>
-
-  <p>This little mystery-thing, whatever it was, had the appearance from
-    where I sat, of a small tortoise or frog lying on its back, with
-    its head and legs quite extended, and wound and tasselled off with
-    exceedingly delicate red and blue, and yellow ribbons or tassels, and
-    other bright coloured ornaments; and seemed, from the devotions paid
-    to it, to be the very nucleus of their mysteries—the <i>sanctissimus
-    sanctorum</i>, from which seemed to emanate all the sanctity of
-    their proceedings, and to which, all seemed to be paying the highest
-    devotional respect.</p>
-
-  <p>This strange, yet important <em>essence</em> of their mysteries, I made
-    every enquiry about; but got no further information of, than what I
-    could learn by my eyes, at the distance at which I saw it, and from
-    the silent respect which I saw paid to it. I tried with the doctors,
-    and all of the <em>fraternity</em> answered me, that that was “<em>great
-    medicine</em>,” assuring me that it “could not be told.” So I quieted
-    my curiosity as well as I could, by the full conviction that I had
-    a <em>degree</em> or two yet to take before I could fathom all<span class="pagenum" id="Page_163">163</span> the
-    arcana of Indian superstitions; and that this little, seemingly
-    wonderful, relic of antiquity, symbol of some grand event, or “secret
-    too valuable to be told,” might have been at last nothing but a silly
-    bunch of strings and toys, to which they pay some great peculiar
-    regard; giving thereby to some favourite Spirit or essence an ideal
-    existence, and which, when called upon to describe, they refuse to do
-    so, calling it “<em>Great Medicine</em>,” for the very reason that there
-    is nothing in it to reveal or describe.</p>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>44</i></div>
-  <figure id="i_067">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_067.jpg" alt="" />
-     <figcaption>67</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p>Immediately under the little frame or scaffold described, and on the
-    floor of the lodge was placed a knife, and by the side of it a bundle
-    of splints or skewers, which were kept in readiness for the infliction
-    of the cruelties directly to be explained. There were seen also, in
-    this stage of the affair, a number of cords of rawhide hanging down
-    from the top of the lodge, and passing through its roof, with which
-    the young men were to be suspended by the splints passed through their
-    flesh, and drawn up by men placed on the top of the lodge for the
-    purpose, as will be described in a few moments.</p>
-
-  <p>There were also four articles of great veneration and importance
-    lying on the floor of the lodge, which were sacks, containing in
-    each some three or four gallons of water. These also were objects of
-    superstitious regard, and made with great labour and much ingenuity;
-    each one of them being constructed of the skin of the buffalo’s neck,
-    and most elaborately sewed together in the form of a large tortoise
-    lying on its back, with a bunch of eagle’s quills appended to it as a
-    tail; and each of them having a stick, shaped like a drum-stick, lying
-    on them, with which, in a subsequent stage of these ceremonies, as
-    will be seen, they are beaten upon by several of their mystery-men,
-    as a part of the music for their strange dances and mysteries. By
-    the side of these sacks which they call <i lang="mhq">Eeh-teeh-ka</i>, are two
-    other articles of equal importance, which they call <i lang="mhq">Eeh-na-dee</i>
-    (rattles), in the form of a gourd-shell made also of dried skins,
-    and used at the same time as the others, in the music (or rather
-    <em>noise</em> and <em>din</em>) for their dances, &amp;c.</p>
-
-  <p>These four sacks of water have the appearance of very great
-    antiquity; and by enquiring of my very ingenious friend and patron,
-    the <em>medicine-man</em>, after the ceremonies were over, he very
-    gravely told me, that “those four tortoises contained the waters from
-    the four quarters of the world—that these waters had been contained
-    therein ever since the settling down of the waters!” I did not think
-    it best to advance any argument against so ridiculous a theory, and
-    therefore could not even enquire or learn, at what period they had been
-    instituted, or how often, or on what occasions, the water in them had
-    been changed or replenished.</p>
-
-  <p>I made several propositions, through my friend Mr. Kipp, the trader and
-    interpreter, to purchase one of these strange things by offering them a
-    very liberal price; to which I received in answer that these, and all
-    the very numerous articles used in these ceremonies, being a <em>society
-    property</em> were<span class="pagenum" id="Page_164">164</span> <em>medicine</em>, and could not be sold for any
-    consideration; so I abandoned all thoughts of obtaining anything,
-    except what I have done by the <em>medicine</em> operation of my pencil,
-    which was applied to everything, and even upon that they looked with
-    decided distrust and apprehension, as a sort of theft or sacrilege.</p>
-
-  <p>Such then was the group, and such the appearance of the interior of the
-    medicine-lodge during the three first, and part of the fourth day also,
-    of the Mandan religious ceremonies. The medicine-man with a group about
-    him, of young aspirants who were under his sole controul, as was every
-    article and implement to be used, and the sanctity of this solitary and
-    gloomy looking place, which could not be trespassed upon by any man’s
-    presence without his most sovereign permission.</p>
-
-  <p>During the three first days of this solemn conclave, there were
-    many very curious forms and amusements enacted in the open area
-    in the middle of the village, and in front of the medicine-lodge,
-    by other members of the community, one of which formed a material
-    part or link of these strange ceremonials. This very curious and
-    exceedingly grotesque part of their performance, which they denominated
-    <i lang="mhq">Bel-lohck nah-pick</i> (the bull-dance) of which I have before
-    spoken, as one of the avowed objects for which they held this annual
-    fête; and to the strictest observance of which they attribute the
-    coming of buffaloes to supply them with food during the season—is
-    repeated four times during the first day, eight times on the second
-    day, twelve times on the third day, and sixteen times on the fourth
-    day; and always around the curb, or “<em>big canoe</em>,” of which I have
-    before spoken.</p>
-
-  <p>This subject I have selected for my second picture, and the principal
-    actors in it were eight men, with the entire skins of buffaloes thrown
-    over their backs, with the horns and hoofs and tails remaining on;
-    their bodies in a horizontal position, enabling them to imitate the
-    actions of the buffalo, whilst they were looking out of its eyes as
-    through a mask (<a href="#i_067"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 67</a>).</p>
-
-  <p>The bodies of these men were chiefly naked and all painted in the most
-    extraordinary manner, with the nicest adherence to exact similarity;
-    their limbs, bodies and faces, being in every part covered, either
-    with black, red, or white paint. Each one of these strange characters
-    had also a lock of buffalo’s hair tied around his ancles—in his right
-    hand a rattle, and a slender white rod or staff, six feet long, in the
-    other; and carried on his back, a bunch of green willow boughs about
-    the usual size of a bundle of straw. These eight men, being divided
-    into four pairs, took their positions on the four different sides of
-    the curb or big canoe, representing thereby the four cardinal points;
-    and between each group of them, with the back turned to the big canoe,
-    was another figure, engaged in the same dance, keeping step with them,
-    with a similar staff or wand in one hand and a rattle in the other, and
-    (being four in number) answering again to the four cardinal points. The
-    bodies of these four young men were chiefly naked, with no other dress
-    upon them than a beautiful kelt (or quartz-quaw), around the waist,
-    made of eagles<span class="pagenum" id="Page_165">165</span> quills and ermine, and very splendid head-dresses
-    made of the same materials. Two of these figures were painted entirely
-    black with pounded charcoal and grease, whom they called the “firmament
-    or night,” and the numerous white spots which were dotted all over
-    their bodies, they called “stars.” The other two were painted from
-    head to foot as red as vermilion could make them; these they said
-    represented the day, and the white streaks which were painted up and
-    down over their bodies, were “ghosts which the morning rays were
-    chasing away.”</p>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>45</i></div>
-  <figure id="i_068">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_068.jpg" alt="" />
-     <figcaption>68</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p>These twelve are the only persons actually engaged in this strange
-    dance, which is each time repeated in the same form, without the
-    slightest variation. There are, however, a great number of characters
-    engaged in giving the whole effect and wildness to this strange and
-    laughable scene, each one acting well his part, and whose offices,
-    strange and inexplicable as they are, I will endeavour to point out
-    and explain as well as I can, from what I saw, elucidated by their own
-    descriptions.</p>
-
-  <p>This most remarkable scene, then, which is witnessed more or less often
-    on each day, takes place in presence of the whole nation, who are
-    generally gathered around, on the tops of the wigwams or otherwise,
-    as spectators, whilst the young men are reclining and fasting in the
-    lodge as above described. On the first day, this “<em>bull-dance</em>” is
-    given <em>once</em> to each of the cardinal points, and the medicine-man
-    smokes his pipe in those directions. On the second day, <em>twice</em>
-    to each; <em>three times</em> to each on the third day, and <em>four
-    times</em> to each on the fourth. As a signal for the dancers and other
-    characters (as well as the public) to assemble, the old man, master
-    of ceremonies, with the medicine-pipe in hand, dances out of the
-    lodge, singing (or rather crying) forth a most pitiful lament, until
-    he approaches the big canoe, against which he leans, with the pipe in
-    his hand, and continues to cry. At this instant, four very aged and
-    patriarchal looking men, whose bodies are painted red, and who have
-    been guarding the four sides of the lodge, enter it and bring out the
-    four sacks of water, which they place near the big canoe, where they
-    seat themselves by the side of them and commence thumping on them
-    with the mallets or drumsticks which have been lying on them; and
-    another brandishes and shakes the <i lang="mhq">eeh-na-dees</i> or rattles, and
-    all unite to them their voices, raised to the highest pitch possible,
-    as the music for the <em>bull-dance</em>, which is then commenced and
-    continued for fifteen minutes or more in perfect time, and without
-    cessation or intermission. When the music and dancing stop, which are
-    always perfectly simultaneous, the whole nation raise the huzza! and a
-    deafening shout of approbation; the master of ceremonies dances back to
-    the medicine-lodge, and the old men return to their former place; the
-    sacks of water, and all rest as before, until by the same method, they
-    are again called into a similar action.</p>
-
-  <p>The supernumeraries or other characters who play their parts in this
-    grand spectacle, are numerous and well worth description. By the
-    side of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_166">166</span> big canoe are seen two men with the skins of grizzly
-    bears thrown over them, using the skins as a mask, over their heads.
-    These ravenous animals are continually growling and threatening to
-    devour everything before them and interfering with the forms of their
-    religious ceremony. To appease them, the women are continually bringing
-    and placing before them dishes of meat, which are as often snatched up
-    and carried to the prairie, by two men whose bodies are painted black
-    and their heads white, whom they call bald eagles, who are darting by
-    them and grasping their food from before them as they pass. These are
-    again chased upon the plains by a hundred or more small boys, who are
-    naked, with their bodies painted yellow and their heads white, whom
-    they call <em>Cabris</em> or antelopes; who at length get the food away
-    from them and devour it; thereby inculcating (perhaps) the beautiful
-    moral, that by the dispensations of Providence, his bountiful gifts
-    will fall at last to the hands of the innocent.</p>
-
-  <p>During the intervals between these dances, all these characters, except
-    those from the medicine-lodge, retire to a wigwam close by, which they
-    use on the occasion also as a sacred place, being occupied exclusively
-    by them while they are at rest, and also for the purpose of painting
-    and ornamenting their bodies for the occasion.</p>
-
-  <p>During each and every one of these dances, the old men who beat upon
-    the sacks and sing, are earnestly chanting forth their supplications
-    to the Great Spirit, for the continuation of his influence in sending
-    them buffaloes to supply them with food during the year; they are
-    administering courage and fortitude to the young men in the lodge,
-    by telling them, that “the Great Spirit has opened his ears in their
-    behalf—that the very atmosphere all about them is peace—that their
-    women and children can hold the mouth of the grizzly bear—that they
-    have invoked from day to day O-kee-hee-de (the Evil Spirit)—that they
-    are still challenging him to come, and yet he has not dared to make his
-    appearance!”</p>
-
-  <p>But alas! in the last of these dances, on the fourth day, in the midst
-    of all their mirth and joy, and about noon, and in the height of all
-    these exultations, an instant scream burst forth from the tops of the
-    lodges!—men, women, dogs and all, seemed actually to howl and shudder
-    with alarm, as they fixed their glaring eye-balls upon the prairie
-    bluff, about a mile in the west, down the side of which a man was seen
-    descending at full speed towards the village! This strange character
-    darted about in a zig-zag course in all directions on the prairie,
-    like a boy in pursuit of a butterfly, until he approached the piquets
-    of the village, when it was discovered that his body was entirely
-    naked, and painted as black as a negro, with pounded charcoal and
-    bear’s grease; his body was therefore everywhere of a shining black,
-    except occasionally white rings of an inch or more in diameter, which
-    were marked here and there all over him; and frightful indentures of
-    white around his mouth, resembling canine teeth. Added to his hideous
-    appearance, he gave the most frightful shrieks and screams as he
-    dashed through the village<span class="pagenum" id="Page_167">167</span> and entered the terrified group, which was
-    composed (in that quarter) chiefly of females, who had assembled to
-    witness the amusements which were transpiring around the “big canoe.”</p>
-
-  <p>This unearthly looking creature carried in his two hands a wand or
-    staff of eight or nine feet in length, with a red ball at the end of
-    it, which he continually slid on the ground a-head of him as he ran.
-    All eyes in the village, save those of the persons engaged in the
-    dance, were centred upon him, and he made a desperate rush towards
-    the women, who screamed for protection as they were endeavouring to
-    retreat; and falling in groups upon each other as they were struggling
-    to get out of his reach. In this moment of general terror and alarm
-    there was an instant check! and all for a few moments were as silent as
-    death.</p>
-
-  <p>The old master of ceremonies, who had run from his position at the
-    big canoe, had met this monster of fiends, and having thrust the
-    <em>medicine-pipe</em> before him, held him still and immoveable under
-    its charm! This check gave the females an opportunity to get out of
-    his reach, and when they were free from their danger, though all
-    hearts beat yet with the instant excitement, their alarm soon cooled
-    down into the most exorbitant laughter and shouts of applause at his
-    sudden defeat, and the awkward and ridiculous posture in which he was
-    stopped and held. The old man was braced stiff by his side, with his
-    eye-balls glaring him in the face, whilst the medicine-pipe held in its
-    mystic chains his <em>Satanic</em> Majesty, annulling all the powers of
-    his magical wand, and also depriving him of the powers of locomotion!
-    Surely no two human beings ever presented a more striking group than
-    these two individuals did for a few moments, with their eye-balls
-    set in direst mutual hatred upon each other; both struggling for the
-    supremacy, relying on the potency of their medicine or mystery. The one
-    held in check, with his body painted black, representing (or rather
-    assuming to be) his sable majesty, O-kee-hee-de (the Evil Spirit),
-    frowning everlasting vengeance on the other, who sternly gazed him back
-    with a look of exultation and contempt, as he held him in check and
-    disarmed under the charm of his sacred mystery-pipe.</p>
-
-  <p>When the superior powers of the medicine-pipe (on which hang all these
-    annual mysteries) had been thus fully tested and acknowledged, and
-    the women had had requisite time to withdraw from the reach of this
-    fiendish monster, the pipe was very gradually withdrawn from before
-    him, and he seemed delighted to recover the use of his limbs again,
-    and power of changing his position from the exceedingly unpleasant and
-    really ridiculous one he appeared in, and was compelled to maintain,
-    a few moments before; rendered more superlatively ridiculous and
-    laughable, from the further information, which I am constrained to
-    give, of the plight in which this demon of terror and vulgarity made
-    his <i lang="fr">entrée</i> into the midst of the Mandan village, and to the
-    centre and nucleus of their first and greatest religious ceremony.</p>
-
-  <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_168">168</span></p>
-
-  <p>Then, to proceed: I said that this strange personage’s body was
-    naked—was painted jet black with charcoal and bear’s grease, with a
-    wand in his hands of eight feet in length with a red ball at the end of
-    it, which he was rubbing about on the ground in front of him as he ran.
-    In addition to this he had—<i lang="mhq">ung gee ah waheea notch,t oheks teha, ung
-    gee an ung hutch tow a tow ah ches menny. Ung gee ah to to wun nee,
-    ahkst to wan ee eigh’ s ta w.</i></p>
-
-  <p>In this plight, in which I have not dared fully to represent him
-    in the picture, he pursued the groups of females, spreading dismay
-    and alarm wherever he went, and consequently producing the awkward
-    and exceedingly laughable predicament in which he was placed by the
-    sudden check from the medicine-pipe, as I have above stated, when
-    all eyes were intently fixed upon him, and all joined in rounds of
-    applause for the success of the magic spell that was placed upon
-    him; all voices were raised in shouts of satisfaction at his defeat,
-    and all eyes gazed upon him; of chiefs and of warriors—matrons and
-    even of their tender-aged and timid daughters, whose education had
-    taught them to receive the <em>moral</em> of these scenes without the
-    shock of impropriety, that would have startled a more fastidious and
-    consequently sensual-thinking people.</p>
-
-  <p>After repeated attempts thus made, and thus defeated in several parts
-    of the crowd, this blackened monster was retreating over the ground
-    where the buffalo-dance was going on, and having (apparently, par
-    accident) swaggered against one of the men placed under the skin of a
-    buffalo and engaged in the “bull dance,” he started back, and placing
-    himself in the attitude of a buffalo,—<i lang="mhq">hi ung ee a wahkstia, chee a
-    nahk s tammee ung s towa; ee ung ee aht gwaht ee o nunghths tcha ho a,
-    tummee oxt no ah, ughstono ah hi en en ah nahxt gwi aht gahtch gun ne.
-    Gwee en on doatcht chee en aht gunne how how en ahxst tchu!</i></p>
-
-  <p>After this he paid his visits to three others of the eight, in
-    succession, receiving as before the deafening shouts of approbation
-    which pealed from every mouth in the multitude, who were all praying to
-    the Great Spirit to send them buffaloes to supply them with food during
-    the season, and who attribute the coming of buffaloes for this purpose
-    entirely to the strict and critical observance of this ridiculous and
-    disgusting part of the ceremonies.</p>
-
-  <p>During the half hour or so that he had been jostled about amongst man
-    and beasts, to the great amusement and satisfaction of the lookers-on,
-    he seemed to have become exceedingly exhausted, and anxiously looking
-    out for some feasible mode of escape.</p>
-
-  <p>In this awkward predicament he became the laughing-stock and butt
-    for the women, who being no longer afraid of him, were gathering in
-    groups around, to tease and tantalize him; and in the midst of this
-    dilemma, which soon became a very sad one—one of the women, who stole
-    up behind him with both hands full of yellow dirt—dashed it into his
-    face and eyes, and all<span class="pagenum" id="Page_169">169</span> over him, and his body being covered with
-    grease, took instantly a different hue. He seemed heart-broken at this
-    signal disgrace, and commenced crying most vehemently, when, <i lang="fr">a
-    l’instant</i>, another caught his <em>wand</em> from his hand, and broke
-    it across her knee. It was snatched for by others, who broke it still
-    into bits, and then threw them at him. His power was now gone—his
-    bodily strength was exhausted, and he made a bolt for the prairie—he
-    dashed through the crowd, and made his way through the piquets on the
-    back part of the village, where were placed for the purpose, an hundred
-    or more women and girls, who escorted him as he ran on the prairie for
-    half a mile or more, beating him with sticks, and stones, and dirt,
-    and kicks, and cuffs, until he was at length seen escaping from their
-    clutches, and making the best of his retreat over the prairie bluffs,
-    from whence he first appeared.</p>
-
-  <p>At the moment of this signal victory, and when all eyes lost sight of
-    him as he disappeared over the bluffs, the whole village united their
-    voices in shouts of satisfaction. The bull-dance then stopped, and
-    preparations were instantly made for the commencement of the cruelties
-    which were to take place within the lodge, leaving us to draw, from
-    what had just transpired, the following beautiful moral:—</p>
-
-  <p>That in the midst of their religious ceremonies, the Evil Spirit
-    (O-kee-hee-de) made his entrée for the purpose of doing mischief, and
-    of disturbing their worship—that he was held in check, and defeated by
-    the superior influence and virtue of the <em>medicine-pipe</em>, and at
-    last, driven in disgrace out of the village, by the very part of the
-    community whom he came to abuse.</p>
-
-  <p>At the close of this exciting scene, preparations were made, as above
-    stated, by the return of the master of ceremonies and musicians to the
-    medicine-lodge, where also were admitted at the same time a number
-    of men, who were to be instruments of the cruelties to be inflicted;
-    and also the chief and doctors of the tribe, who were to look on, and
-    bear witness to, and decide upon, the comparative degree of fortitude,
-    with which the young men sustain themselves in this most extreme and
-    excruciating ordeal. The chiefs having seated themselves on one side
-    of the lodge, dressed out in their robes and splendid head-dresses—the
-    band of music seated and arranged themselves in another part; and the
-    old master of ceremonies having placed himself in front of a small
-    fire in the centre of the lodge, with his “big pipe” in his hands,
-    and having commenced smoking to the Great Spirit, with all possible
-    vehemence for the success of these aspirants, presented the subject
-    for the third picture, which they call “<i lang="mhq">pohk-hong</i>,” the cutting
-    scene (<a href="#i_068"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 68</a>). Around the sides of the lodge are seen,
-    still reclining, as I have before mentioned, a part of the group,
-    whilst others of them have passed the ordeal of self-tortures, and
-    have been removed out of the lodge; and others still are seen in the
-    very act of submitting to them, which were inflicted in the following
-    manner:—After having removed the <i>sanctissimus sanctorum</i>, or
-    little scaffold, of which I before spoke, and having<span class="pagenum" id="Page_170">170</span> removed also the
-    buffalo and human skulls from the floor, and attached them to the posts
-    of the lodge; and two men having taken their positions near the middle
-    of the lodge, for the purpose of inflicting the tortures—the one with
-    the scalping-knife, and the other with the bunch of splints (which I
-    have before mentioned) in his hand; one at a time of the young fellows,
-    already emaciated with fasting, and thirsting, and waking, for nearly
-    four days and nights, advanced from the side of the lodge, and placed
-    himself on his hands and feet, or otherwise, as best suited for the
-    performance of the operation, where he submitted to the cruelties in
-    the following manner:—An inch or more of the flesh on each shoulder,
-    or each breast was taken up between the thumb and finger by the man
-    who held the knife in his right hand; and the knife, which had been
-    ground sharp on both edges, and then hacked and notched with the blade
-    of another, to make it produce as much pain as possible, was forced
-    through the flesh below the fingers, and being withdrawn, was followed
-    with a splint or skewer, from the other, who held a bunch of such in
-    his left hand, and was ready to force them through the wound. There
-    were then two cords lowered down from the top of the lodge (by men who
-    were placed on the lodge outside, for the purpose), which were fastened
-    to these splints or skewers, and they instantly began to haul him up;
-    he was thus raised until his body was suspended from the ground where
-    he rested, until the knife and a splint were passed through the flesh
-    or integuments in a similar manner on each arm below the shoulder (over
-    the <i>brachialis externus</i>), below the elbow (over the <i>extensor
-    carpi radialis</i>), on the thighs (over the <i>vastus externus</i>),
-    and below the knees (over the <i>peroneus</i>).</p>
-
-  <p>In some instances they remained in a reclining position on the ground
-    until this painful operation was finished, which was performed, in all
-    instances, exactly on the same parts of the body and limbs; and which,
-    in its progress, occupied some five or six minutes.</p>
-
-  <p>Each one was then instantly raised with the cords, until the weight of
-    his body was suspended by them, and then, while the blood was streaming
-    down their limbs, the bystanders hung upon the splints each man’s
-    appropriate shield, bow and quiver, &amp;c.; and in many instances, the
-    skull of a buffalo with the horns on it, was attached to each lower arm
-    and each lower leg, for the purpose, probably, of preventing by their
-    great weight, the struggling, which might otherwise have taken place to
-    their disadvantage whilst they were hung up.</p>
-
-  <p>When these things were all adjusted, each one was raised higher by the
-    cords, until these weights all swung clear from the ground, leaving
-    his feet, in most cases, some six or eight feet above the ground. In
-    this plight they at once became appalling and frightful to look at—the
-    flesh, to support the weight of their bodies, with the additional
-    weights which were attached to them, was raised six or eight inches by
-    the skewers; and their heads sunk forward on the breasts, or thrown
-    backwards, in a much more frightful condition, according to the way in
-    which they were hung up.</p>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>46</i></div>
-  <figure id="i_069">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_069.jpg" alt="" />
-     <figcaption>69</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_171">171</span></p>
-
-  <p>The unflinching fortitude, with which every one of them bore this part
-    of the torture surpassed credulity; each one as the knife was passed
-    through his flesh sustained an unchangeable countenance; and several of
-    them, seeing me making sketches, beckoned me to look at their faces,
-    which I watched through all this horrid operation, without being able
-    to detect anything but the pleasantest smiles as they looked me in
-    the eye, while I could hear the knife rip through the flesh, and feel
-    enough of it myself, to start involuntary and uncontroullable tears
-    over my cheeks.</p>
-
-  <p>When raised to the condition above described, and completely suspended
-    by the cords, the sanguinary hands, through which he had just passed,
-    turned back to perform a similar operation on another who was
-    ready, and each one in his turn passed into the charge of others,
-    who instantly introduced him to a new and improved stage of their
-    refinements in cruelty.</p>
-
-  <p>Surrounded by imps and demons as they appear, a dozen or more, who seem
-    to be concerting and devising means for his exquisite agony, gather
-    around him, when one of the number advances towards him in a sneering
-    manner, and commences turning him around with a pole which he brings
-    in his hand for the purpose. This is done in a gentle manner at first;
-    but gradually increased, when the brave fellow, whose proud spirit
-    can controul its agony no longer, burst out in the most lamentable
-    and heart-rending cries that the human voice is capable of producing,
-    crying forth a prayer to the Great Spirit to support and protect him
-    in this dreadful trial; and continually repeating his confidence
-    in his protection. In this condition he is continued to be turned,
-    faster and faster—and there is no hope of escape from it, nor chance
-    for the slightest relief, until by fainting, his voice falters, and
-    his struggling ceases, and he hangs, apparently, a still and lifeless
-    corpse! When he is, by turning, gradually brought to this condition,
-    which is generally done within ten or fifteen minutes, there is a close
-    scrutiny passed upon him among his tormentors, who are checking and
-    holding each other back as long as the least struggling or tremour can
-    be discovered, lest he should be removed before he is (as they term it)
-    “entirely dead.”</p>
-
-  <p>When brought to this alarming and most frightful condition, and the
-    turning has gradually ceased, as his voice and his strength have given
-    out, leaving him to hang entirely still, and apparently lifeless; when
-    his tongue is distended from his mouth, and his <em>medicine-bag</em>,
-    which he has affectionately and superstitiously clung to with his left
-    hand, has dropped to the ground; the signal is given to the men on top
-    of the lodge, by gently striking the cord with the pole below, when
-    they very gradually and carefully lower him to the ground.</p>
-
-  <p>In this helpless condition he lies, like a loathsome corpse to look
-    at, though in the keeping (as they call it) of the Great Spirit, whom
-    he trusts will protect him, and enable him to get up and walk away.
-    As soon as he is lowered to the ground thus, one of the bystanders
-    advances, and pulls out the two splints or pins from the breasts and
-    shoulders, thereby disengaging<span class="pagenum" id="Page_172">172</span> him from the cords by which he has been
-    hung up; but leaving all the others with their weights, &amp;c. hanging to
-    his flesh.</p>
-
-  <p>In this condition he lies for six or eight minutes, until he gets
-    strength to rise and move himself, for no one is allowed to assist or
-    offer him aid, as he is here enjoying the most valued privilege which a
-    Mandan can boast of, that of “trusting his life to the keeping of the
-    Great Spirit,” in this time of extreme peril.</p>
-
-  <p>As soon as he is seen to get strength enough to rise on his hands and
-    feet, and drag his body around the lodge, he crawls with the weights
-    still hanging to his body, to another part of the lodge, where there is
-    another Indian sitting with a hatchet in his hand, and a dried buffalo
-    skull before him; and here, in the most earnest and humble manner, by
-    holding up the little finger of his left hand to the Great Spirit, he
-    expresses to Him, in a speech of a few words, his willingness to give
-    it as a sacrifice; when he lays it on the dried buffalo skull, where
-    the other chops it off near the hand, with a blow of the hatchet!</p>
-
-  <p>Nearly all of the young men whom I saw passing this horrid ordeal, gave
-    in the above manner, the little finger of the left hand; and I saw also
-    several, who immediately afterwards (and apparently with very little
-    concern or emotion), with a similar speech, extended in the same way,
-    the <em>fore</em>-finger of the same hand, and that too was struck off;
-    leaving on the left hand only the two middle fingers and the thumb;
-    all which they deem absolutely essential for holding the bow, the only
-    weapon for the left hand.</p>
-
-  <p>One would think that this mutilation had thus been carried quite far
-    enough; but I have since examined several of the head chiefs and
-    dignitaries of the tribe, who have also given, in this manner, the
-    little finger of the right hand, which is considered by them to be a
-    much greater sacrifice than both of the others; and I have found also
-    a number of their most famous men, who furnish me incontestible proof,
-    by five or six corresponding scars on each arm, and each breast, and
-    each leg, that they had so many times in their lives submitted to this
-    almost incredible operation, which seems to be optional with them;
-    and the oftener they volunteer to go through it, the more famous they
-    become in the estimation of their tribe.</p>
-
-  <p>No bandages are applied to the fingers which have been amputated, nor
-    any arteries taken up; nor is any attention whatever, paid to them or
-    the other wounds; but they are left (as they say) “for the Great Spirit
-    to cure, who will surely take good care of them.” It is a remarkable
-    fact (which I learned from a close inspection of their wounds from day
-    to day) that the bleeding is but very slight and soon ceases, probably
-    from the fact of their extreme exhaustion and debility, caused by want
-    of sustenance and sleep, which checks the natural circulation, and
-    admirably at the same time prepares them to meet the severity of these
-    tortures without the same degree of sensibility and pain, which, under
-    other circumstances, might result in inflammation and death.</p>
-
-  <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_173">173</span></p>
-
-  <p>During the whole of the time of this cruel part of these most
-    extraordinary inflictions, the chiefs and dignitaries of the tribe are
-    looking on, to decide who are the hardiest and “stoutest hearted”—who
-    can hang the longest by his flesh before he faints, and who will be
-    soonest up, after he has been down; that they may know whom to appoint
-    to lead a war-party, or place at the most honourable and desperate
-    post. The four old men are incessantly beating upon the sacks of water
-    and singing the whole time, with their voices strained to the highest
-    key, vaunting forth, for the encouragement of the young men, the power
-    and efficacy of the <em>medicine-pipe</em>, which has disarmed the
-    monster O-kee-hee-de (or Evil Spirit), and driven him from the village,
-    and will be sure to protect them and watch over them through their
-    present severe trial.</p>
-
-  <p>As soon as six or eight had passed the ordeal as above described,
-    they were led out of the lodge, with their weights hanging to their
-    flesh, and dragging on the ground, to undergo another, and a still
-    more appalling mode of suffering in the centre of the village, and in
-    presence of the whole nation, in the manner as follows:—</p>
-
-  <p>The signal for the commencement of this part of the cruelties was
-    given by the old master of ceremonies, who again ran out as in
-    the buffalo-dance, and leaning against the big canoe, with his
-    <em>medicine-pipe</em> in his hand, began to cry. This was done several
-    times in the afternoon, as often as there were six or eight who had
-    passed the ordeal just described within the lodge, who were then taken
-    out in the open area, in the presence of the whole village, with the
-    buffalo skulls and other weights attached to their flesh, and dragging
-    on the ground! There were then in readiness, and prepared for the
-    purpose, about twenty young men, selected of equal height and equal
-    age; with their bodies chiefly naked, with beautiful (and similar)
-    head-dresses of war-eagles’ quills, on their heads, and a wreath made
-    of willow boughs held in the hands between them, connecting them
-    in a chain or circle in which they ran around the big canoe, with
-    all possible speed, raising their voices in screams and yelps to
-    the highest pitch that was possible, and keeping the curb or <em>big
-    canoe</em> in the centre, as their nucleus.</p>
-
-  <p>Then were led forward the young men who were further to suffer, and
-    being placed at equal distances apart, and outside of the ring just
-    described, each one was taken in charge of two athletic young men,
-    fresh and strong, who stepped up to him, one on each side, and by
-    wrapping a broad leather strap around his wrists, without tying it,
-    grasped it firm underneath the hand, and stood prepared for what they
-    call <i lang="mhq">Eh-ke-nah-ka-nah-pick</i> (the last race, <a href="#i_069"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 69</a>).
-    This, the spectator looking on would suppose was most correctly named,
-    for he would think it was the last race they could possibly run in this
-    world.</p>
-
-  <p>In this condition they stand, pale and ghastly, from abstinence and
-    loss of blood, until all are prepared, and the word is given, when
-    all start and run around, outside of the other ring; and each poor
-    fellow, with his weights<span class="pagenum" id="Page_174">174</span> dragging on the ground, and his furious
-    conductors by his side, who hurry him forward by the wrists, struggles
-    in the desperate emulation to run longer without “dying” (as they
-    call it) than his comrades, who are fainting around him and sinking
-    down, like himself, where their bodies are dragged with all possible
-    speed, and often with their faces in the dirt. In the commencement of
-    this dance or race they all start at a moderate pace, and their speed
-    being gradually increased, the pain becomes so excruciating that their
-    languid and exhausted frames give out, and they are dragged by their
-    wrists until they are disengaged from the weights that were attached
-    to their flesh, and this must be done by such violent force as to
-    tear the flesh out with the splint, which (as they say) can never be
-    pulled out endwise, without greatly offending the Great Spirit and
-    defeating the object for which they have thus far suffered. The splints
-    or skewers which are put through the breast and the shoulders, take
-    up a part of the pectoral or trapezius muscle, which is necessary for
-    the support of the great weight of their bodies, and which, as I have
-    before mentioned, are withdrawn as soon as he is lowered down—but all
-    the others, on the legs and arms, seem to be very ingeniously passed
-    through the flesh and integuments without taking up the muscle, and
-    even these, to be broken out, require so strong and so violent a force
-    that most of the poor fellows fainted under the operation, and when
-    they were freed from the last of the buffalo skulls and other weights,
-    (which was often done by some of the bystanders throwing the weight of
-    their bodies on to them as they were dragging on the ground) they were
-    in every instance dropped by the persons who dragged them, and their
-    bodies were left, appearing like nothing but a mangled and a loathsome
-    corpse! At this strange and frightful juncture, the two men who had
-    dragged them, fled through the crowd and away upon the prairie, as if
-    they were guilty of some enormous crime, and were fleeing from summary
-    vengeance.</p>
-
-  <p>Each poor fellow, having thus patiently and manfully endured the
-    privations and tortures devised for him, and (in this last struggle
-    with the most appalling effort) torn himself loose from them and his
-    tormentors, he lies the second time, in the “keeping (as he terms it)
-    of the Great Spirit,” to whom he issues his repeated prayers, and
-    entrusts his life: and in whom he reposes the most implicit confidence
-    for his preservation and recovery. As an evidence of this, and of the
-    high value which these youths set upon this privilege, there is no
-    person, not a relation or a chief of the tribe, who is allowed, or who
-    would dare, to step forward to offer an aiding hand, even to save his
-    life; for not only the rigid customs of the nation, and the pride of
-    the individual who has entrusted his life to the keeping of the Great
-    Spirit, would sternly reject such a tender; but their superstition,
-    which is the strongest of all arguments in an Indian community, would
-    alone, hold all the tribe in fear and dread of interfering, when
-    they consider they have so good a reason to believe that the Great
-    Spirit has undertaken the special care and protection of his devoted
-    worshippers.</p>
-
-  <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_175">175</span></p>
-
-  <p>In this “last race,” which was the struggle that finally closed their
-    sufferings, each one was dragged until he fainted, and was thus left,
-    looking more like the dead than the living: and thus each one laid,
-    until, by the aid of the Great Spirit, he was in a few minutes seen
-    gradually rising, and at last reeling and staggering, like a drunken
-    man, through the crowd (which made way for him) to his wigwam, where
-    his friends and relatives stood ready to take him into hand and restore
-    him.</p>
-
-  <p>In this frightful scene, as in the buffalo-dance, the whole nation
-    was assembled as spectators, and all raised the most piercing and
-    violent yells and screams they could possibly produce, to drown the
-    cries of the suffering ones, that no heart could even be touched with
-    sympathy for them. I have mentioned before, that six or eight of the
-    young men were brought from the medicine-lodge at a time, and when
-    they were thus passed through this shocking ordeal, the medicine-men
-    and the chiefs returned to the interior, where as many more were soon
-    prepared, and underwent a similar treatment; and after that another
-    batch, and another, and so on, until the whole number, some forty-five
-    or fifty had run in this sickening circle, and, by leaving their
-    weights, had opened the flesh for honourable scars. I said <em>all</em>,
-    but there was one poor fellow though (and I shudder to tell it), who
-    was dragged around and around the circle, with the skull of an elk
-    hanging to the flesh on one of his legs,—several had jumped upon it,
-    but to no effect, for the splint was under the sinew, which could not
-    be broken. The dragging became every instant more and more furious, and
-    the apprehensions for the poor fellow’s life, apparent by the piteous
-    howl which was set up for him by the multitude around; and at last the
-    medicine-man ran, with his medicine-pipe in his hand, and held them in
-    check, when the body was dropped, and left upon the ground, with the
-    skull yet hanging to it. The boy, who was an extremely interesting and
-    fine-looking youth, soon recovered his senses and his strength, looking
-    deliberately at his torn and bleeding limbs; and also with the most
-    pleasant smile of defiance, upon the misfortune which had now fallen to
-    his peculiar lot, crawled through the crowd (instead of walking, which
-    they are never again at liberty to do until the flesh is torn out, and
-    the article left) to the prairie, and over which, for the distance of
-    half a mile, to a sequestered spot, without any attendant, where he
-    laid three days and three nights, yet longer, without food, and praying
-    to the Great Spirit, until suppuration took place in the wound, and
-    by the decaying of the flesh the weight was dropped, and the splint
-    also, which he dare not extricate in another way. At the end of this,
-    he crawled back to the village on his hands and knees, being too much
-    emaciated to walk, and begged for something to eat, which was at once
-    given him, and he was soon restored to health.</p>
-
-  <p>These extreme and difficult cases often occur, and I learn that in such
-    instances the youth has it at his option to get rid of the weight that
-    is thus left upon him, in such way as he may choose, and some of those
-    modes are<span class="pagenum" id="Page_176">176</span> far more extraordinary than the one which I have just named.
-    Several of the Traders, who have been for a number of years in the
-    habit of seeing this part of the ceremony, have told me that two years
-    since, when they were looking on, there was one whose flesh on the arms
-    was so strong that the weights could not be left, and he dragged them
-    with his body to the river by the side of the village, where he set a
-    stake fast in the ground on the top of the bank, and fastening cords
-    to it, he let himself half-way down a perpendicular wall of rock, of
-    twenty-five or thirty feet, where the weight of his body was suspended
-    by the two cords attached to the flesh of his arms. In this awful
-    condition he hung for several days, equi-distant from the top of the
-    rock and the deep water below, into which he at last dropped and saved
-    himself by swimming ashore!</p>
-
-  <p>I need record no more of these shocking and disgusting instances,
-    of which I have already given enough to convince the world of the
-    correctness of the established fact of the Indian’s superior stoicism
-    and power of endurance, although some recent writers have, from motives
-    of envy, from ignorance, or something else, taken great pains to cut
-    the poor Indian short in everything, and in <em>this</em>, even as if it
-    were a virtue.</p>
-
-  <p>I am ready to accord to them in this particular, the palm; the credit
-    of outdoing anything and everybody, and of enduring more than civilized
-    man ever aspired to or ever thought of. My heart has sickened also
-    with disgust for so abominable and ignorant a custom, and still I
-    stand ready with all my heart, to excuse and forgive them for adhering
-    so strictly to an ancient celebration, founded in superstitions and
-    mysteries, of which they know not the origin, and constituting a
-    material part and feature in the code and forms of their religion.</p>
-
-  <p>Reader, I will return with you a moment to the medicine-lodge, which is
-    just to be closed, and then we will indulge in some general reflections
-    upon what has passed, and in what, and for what purposes this strange
-    batch of mysteries has been instituted and perpetuated.</p>
-
-  <p>After these young men, who had for the last four days occupied the
-    medicine-lodge, had been operated on, in the manner above described,
-    and taken out of it, the old medicine-man, master of ceremonies,
-    returned, (still crying to the Great Spirit) sole tenant of that sacred
-    place, and brought out the “edged tools,” which I before said had been
-    collected at the door of every man’s wigwam, to be given as a sacrifice
-    to the water, and leaving the lodge securely fastened, he approached
-    the bank of the river, when all the medicine-men attended him, and all
-    the nation were spectators; and in their presence he threw them from a
-    high bank into very deep water, from which they cannot be recovered,
-    and where they are, correctly speaking, made a sacrifice to the water.
-    This part of the affair took place just exactly at sun-down, and
-    closed the scene, being the end or finale of the <em>Mandan religious
-    ceremony</em>.</p>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>47</i></div>
-  <figure id="i_070">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_070.jpg" alt="" />
-     <figcaption>70</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <figure class="mt2" id="i_071">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_071.jpg" alt="" />
-     <figcaption>71</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_177">177</span></p>
-
-  <p class="hang"><i>The reader will forgive me for here inserting the Certificates which
-    I have just received from Mr. Kipp, of the city of New York, and two
-    others, who were with me; which I offer for the satisfaction of the
-    world, who read the above account.</i></p>
-
-  <p class="mt2">“<i>We hereby certify, that we witnessed, in company with Mr. Catlin,
-    in the Mandan Village, the ceremonies represented in the four
-    paintings, and described in his Notes, to which this Certificate
-    refers; and that he has therein faithfully represented those scenes as
-    we saw them transacted without any addition or exaggeration.</i></p>
-
-  <div>
-    <span class="fright">“<span class="smcap">J. Kipp</span>, <i>Agent Amer. Fur Company</i>.</span><br />
-    <span class="fright" style="margin-right: 5.7em;"><span class="smcap">L. Crawford</span>, <i>Clerk</i>.</span><br />
-    <span>“<i>Mandan Village, July 20, 1833.</i></span><span class="fright" style="margin-right: 5.9em;"><span class="smcap">Abraham Bogard</span>.”</span>
-  </div>
-
-  <p class="mt2">The strange country that I am in—its excitements—its accidents and
-    wild incidents which startle me at almost every moment, prevent me
-    from any very elaborate disquisition upon the above remarkable events
-    at present; and even had I all the time and leisure of a country
-    gentleman, and all the additional information which I am daily
-    procuring, and daily expect to procure hereafter in explanation of
-    these unaccountable mysteries, yet do I fear that there would be
-    that inexplicable difficulty that hangs over most of the customs and
-    traditions of these simple people, who have no history to save facts
-    and systems from falling into the most absurd and disjointed fable and
-    ignorant fiction.</p>
-
-  <p>What few plausible inferences I have as yet been able to draw from the
-    above strange and peculiar transactions I will set forth, but with
-    some diffidence, hoping and trusting that by further intimacy and
-    familiarity with these people I may yet arrive at more satisfactory and
-    important results.</p>
-
-  <p>That these people should have a tradition of the Flood is by no means
-    surprising; as I have learned from every tribe I have visited, that
-    they all have some high mountain in their vicinity, where they insist
-    upon it the big canoe landed; but that these people should hold an
-    annual celebration of the event, and the season of that decided by such
-    circumstances as the full leaf of the willow, and the medicine-lodge
-    opened by such a man as Nu-mohk-muck-a-nah (who appears to be a white
-    man), and making his appearance “from the high-mountains in the West;”
-    and some other circumstances, is surely a very remarkable thing, and
-    requires some extraordinary attention.</p>
-
-  <p>This Nu-mohk-muck-a-nah (first or only man) is undoubtedly some mystery
-    or medicine-man of the tribe, who has gone out on the prairie on the
-    evening previous, and having dressed and painted himself for the
-    occasion, comes into the village in the morning, endeavouring to keep
-    up the semblance of reality; for their tradition says, that at a very
-    ancient period such a man did actually come from the West—that his
-    body was of the white colour, as<span class="pagenum" id="Page_178">178</span> this man’s body is represented—that
-    he wore a robe of four white wolf skins—his head-dress was made of two
-    raven’s skins—and in his left hand was a huge pipe. He said, “he was at
-    one time the only man—he told them of the destruction of every thing on
-    the earth’s surface by water—that he stopped in his <em>big canoe</em> on
-    a high mountain in the West, where he landed and was saved.”</p>
-
-  <p>“That the Mandans, and all other people were bound to make yearly
-    sacrifices of some edged-tools to the water, for of such things the
-    big canoe was made. That he instructed the Mandans how to build
-    their medicine-lodge, and taught them also the forms of these annual
-    ceremonies; and told them that as long as they made these sacrifices,
-    and performed their rites to the full letter, they might be assured of
-    the fact, that they would be the favourite people of the Almighty, and
-    would always have enough to eat and drink; and that so soon as they
-    should depart in one tittle from these forms, they might be assured,
-    that their race would decrease, and finally run out; and that they
-    might date their nation’s calamity to that omission or neglect.”</p>
-
-  <p>These people have, no doubt, been long living under the dread of such
-    an injunction, and in the fear of departing from it; and while they are
-    living in total ignorance of its origin, the world must remain equally
-    ignorant of much of its meaning, as they needs must be of all Indian
-    customs resting on ancient traditions, which soon run into fables,
-    having lost all their system, by which they might have been construed.</p>
-
-  <p>This strange and unaccountable custom, is undoubtedly peculiar to the
-    Mandans; although, amongst the Minatarees, and some others of the
-    neighbouring tribes, they have seasons of abstinence and self-torture,
-    somewhat similar, but bearing no other resemblance to this than a mere
-    feeble effort or form of imitation.</p>
-
-  <p>It would seem from their tradition of the willow branch, and the dove,
-    that these people must have had some proximity to some part of the
-    civilized world; or that missionaries or others have been formerly
-    among them, inculcating the Christian religion and the Mosaic account
-    of the Flood; which is, in this and some other respects, decidedly
-    different from the theory which most natural people have distinctly
-    established of that event.</p>
-
-  <p>There are other strong, and almost decisive proofs in my opinion, in
-    support of the assertion, which are to be drawn from the diversity of
-    colour in their hair and complexions, as I have before described, as
-    well as from their tradition just related, of the “<em>first or only
-    man</em>,” whose body was white, and who came from the West, telling
-    them of the destruction of the earth by water, and instructing them in
-    the forms of these mysteries; and, in addition to the above, I will add
-    the two following very curious stories, which I had from several of
-    their old and dignified chiefs, and which are, no doubt, standing and
-    credited traditions of the tribe.</p>
-
-  <p>“The Mandans (people of the pheasants) were the first people created
-    in the world, and they originally lived inside of the earth; they
-    raised many<span class="pagenum" id="Page_179">179</span> vines, and one of them had grown up through a hole in
-    the earth, over head, and one of their young men climbed up it until
-    he came out on the top of the ground, on the bank of the river, where
-    the Mandan village stands. He looked around, and admired the beautiful
-    country and prairies about him—saw many buffaloes—killed one with his
-    bow and arrows, and found that its meat was good to eat. He returned,
-    and related what he had seen; when a number of others went up the vine
-    with him, and witnessed the same things. Amongst those who went up,
-    were two very pretty young women, who were favourites of the chiefs,
-    because they were virgins; and amongst those who were trying to get up,
-    was a very large and fat woman, who was ordered by the chiefs not to go
-    up, but whose curiosity led her to try it as soon as she got a secret
-    opportunity, when there was no one present. When she got part of the
-    way up, the vine broke under the great weight of her body, and let her
-    down. She was very much hurt by the fall, but did not die. The Mandans
-    were very sorry about this; and she was disgraced for being the cause
-    of a very great calamity, which she had brought upon them, and which
-    could never be averted; for no more could ever ascend, nor could those
-    descend who had got up; but they built the Mandan village, where it
-    formerly stood, a great ways below on the river; and the remainder of
-    the people live under ground to this day.”</p>
-
-  <p>The above tradition is told with great gravity by their chiefs and
-    doctors or mystery-men; and the latter profess to hear their friends
-    talk through the earth at certain times and places, and even consult
-    them for their opinions and advice on many important occasions.</p>
-
-  <p>The next tradition runs thus:—</p>
-
-  <p>“At a very ancient period, O-kee-hee-de (the Evil Spirit, the black
-    fellow mentioned in the religious ceremonies) came to the Mandan
-    village with Nu-mohk-muck-a-nah (the first or only man) from the West,
-    and sat down by a woman who had but one eye, and was hoeing corn. Her
-    daughter, who was very pretty came up to her, and the Evil Spirit
-    desired her to go and bring some water; but wished that before she
-    started, she would come to him and eat some buffalo meat. He told her
-    to take a piece out of his side, which she did and ate it, which proved
-    to be buffalo-fat. She then went for the water, which she brought, and
-    met them in the village where they had walked, and they both drank of
-    it—nothing more was done.</p>
-
-  <p>“The friends of the girl soon after endeavoured to disgrace her, by
-    telling her that she was <i lang="fr">enciente</i>, which she did not deny. She
-    declared her innocence at the same time, and boldly defied any man
-    in the village to come forward and accuse her. This raised a great
-    excitement in the village, and as no one could stand forth to accuse
-    her, she was looked upon as <em>great medicine</em>. She soon after went
-    off secretly to the upper Mandan village, where the child was born.</p>
-
-  <p>“Great search was made for her before she was found; as it was
-    expected<span class="pagenum" id="Page_180">180</span> that the child would also be great <em>medicine</em> or
-    mystery, and of great importance to the existence and welfare of the
-    tribe. They were induced to this belief from the very strange manner
-    of its conception and birth, and were soon confirmed in it from
-    the wonderful things which it did at an early age. They say, that
-    amongst other miracles which he performed, when the Mandans were like
-    to starve, he gave them four buffalo bulls, which filled the whole
-    village—leaving as much meat as there was before they had eaten; saying
-    that these four bulls would supply them for ever. Nu-mohk-muck-a-nah
-    (the first or only man) was bent on the destruction of the child, and
-    after making many fruitless searches for it, found it hidden in a dark
-    place, and put it to death by throwing it into the river.</p>
-
-  <p>“When O-kee-hee-de (the Evil Spirit) heard of the death of this child,
-    he sought for Nu-mohk-muck-a-nah with intent to kill him. He traced
-    him a long distance, and at length found him at <em>Heart River</em>,
-    about seventy miles below the village, with the big medicine-pipe
-    in his hand, the charm or mystery of which protects him from all of
-    his enemies. They soon agreed, however, to become friends, smoked
-    the big pipe together, and returned to the Mandan village. The Evil
-    Spirit was satisfied; and Nu-mohk-muck-a-nah told the Mandans never
-    to pass Heart River to live, for it was the centre of the world,
-    and to live beyond it would be destruction to them; and he named it
-    <i lang="mhq">Nat-com-pa-sa-hah</i> (heart or centre of the world).”</p>
-
-  <p>Such are a few of the principal traditions of these people, which I
-    have thought proper to give in this place, and I have given them in
-    their own way, with all the imperfections and absurd inconsistencies
-    which should be expected to characterize the history of all ignorant
-    and superstitious people who live in a state of simple and untaught
-    nature, with no other means of perpetuating historical events, than by
-    oral traditions.</p>
-
-  <p>I advance these vague stories then, as I have done, and shall do in
-    other instances, not in support of any theory, but merely as I have
-    heard them related by the Indians; and preserved them, as I have
-    everything else that I could meet in the Indian habits and character,
-    for the information of the world, who may get more time to theorize
-    than I have at present; and who may consider better than I can, how far
-    such traditions should be taken as evidence of the facts, that these
-    people have for a long period preserved and perpetuated an imperfect
-    knowledge of the Deluge—of the appearance and death of a Saviour—and of
-    the transgressions of mother Eve.</p>
-
-  <p>I am not yet able to learn from these people whether they have any
-    distinct theory of the creation; as they seem to date nothing further
-    back than their own existence as a people; saying (as I have before
-    mentioned), that they were the first people created; involving the
-    glaring absurdities that they were the only people on earth before
-    the Flood, and the only one saved was a white man; or that they were
-    created inside of the earth, as their tradition says; and that they
-    did not make their appearance on its<span class="pagenum" id="Page_181">181</span> outer surface until after the
-    Deluge. When an Indian story is told, it is like all other gifts, “to
-    be taken for what it is worth,” and for any seeming inconsistency in
-    their traditions there is no remedy; for as far as I have tried to
-    reconcile them by reasoning with, or questioning them, I have been
-    entirely defeated; and more than that, have generally incurred their
-    distrust and ill-will. One of the Mandan doctors told me very gravely
-    a few days since, that the earth was a large tortoise, that it carried
-    the dirt on its back—that a tribe of people, who are now dead, and
-    whose faces were white, used to dig down very deep in this ground to
-    catch <em>badgers</em>; and that one day they stuck a knife through the
-    tortoise-shell, and it sunk down so that the water ran over its back,
-    and drowned all but one man. And on the next day while I was painting
-    his portrait, he told me there were <em>four tortoises</em>,—one in the
-    North—one in the East—one in the South, and one in the West; that each
-    one of these rained ten days, and the water covered over the earth.</p>
-
-  <p>These ignorant and conflicting accounts, and both from the same man,
-    give as good a demonstration, perhaps, of what I have above mentioned,
-    as to the inefficiency of Indian traditions as anything I could at
-    present mention. They might, perhaps, have been in this instance
-    however the creeds of different sects, or of different priests amongst
-    them, who often advance diametrically opposite theories and traditions
-    relative to history and mythology.</p>
-
-  <p>And however ignorant and ridiculous they may seem, they are yet worthy
-    of a little further consideration, as relating to a number of curious
-    circumstances connected with the unaccountable religious ceremonies
-    which I have just described.</p>
-
-  <p>The Mandan chiefs and doctors, in all their feasts, where the pipe
-    is lit and about to be passed around, deliberately propitiate the
-    good-will and favour of the Great Spirit, by extending the stem of
-    the pipe <em>upwards</em> before they smoke it themselves; and also as
-    deliberately and as strictly offering the stem to the four <em>cardinal
-    points</em> in succession, and then drawing a whiff through it, passing
-    it around amongst the group.</p>
-
-  <p>The <em>annual religious ceremony</em> invariably lasts <em>four</em>
-    days, and the other following circumstances attending these strange
-    forms, and seeming to have some allusion to the <em>four</em> cardinal
-    points, or the “four tortoises,” seem to me to be worthy of further
-    notice. <em>Four</em> men are selected by Nu-mohk-muck-a-nah (as I
-    have before said), to cleanse out and prepare the medicine-lodge
-    for the occasion—one he calls from the <em>north</em> part of the
-    village—one from the <em>east</em>—one from the <em>south</em>, and one
-    from the <em>west</em>. The <em>four</em> sacks of water, in form of large
-    tortoises, resting on the floor of the lodge and before described,
-    would seem to be typical of the same thing; and also the <em>four</em>
-    buffalo, and the <em>four</em> human skulls resting on the floor of the
-    same lodge—the <em>four</em> couples of dancers in the “bull-dance,” as
-    before described, and also the <em>four</em> intervening dancers in the
-    same dance, and also described</p>
-
-  <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_182">182</span></p>
-
-  <p>The bull-dance in front of the medicine-lodge, repeated on the
-    <em>four</em> days, is danced <em>four</em> times on the first day,
-    <em>eight</em> times on the second, <em>twelve</em> times on the third,
-    and <em>sixteen</em> times on the <em>fourth</em>; (adding <em>four</em>
-    dances on each of the <em>four</em> days,) which added together make
-    <em>forty</em>, the exact number of days that it rained upon the earth,
-    according to the Mosaic account, to produce the Deluge. There are
-    <em>four</em> sacrifices of black and blue cloths erected over the door
-    of the medicine-lodge—the visits of O-kee-hee-de (or Evil Spirit)
-    were paid to <em>four</em> of the buffaloes in the buffalo-dance, as
-    above described; and in every instance, the young men who underwent
-    the tortures before explained, had <em>four</em> splints or skewers
-    run through the flesh on their legs—<em>four</em> through the arms and
-    <em>four</em> through the body.</p>
-
-  <p>Such is a brief account of these strange scenes which I have just been
-    witnessing, and such my brief history of the Mandans. I might write
-    much more on them, giving yet a volume on their stories and traditions;
-    but it would be a volume of fables, and scarce worth recording. A
-    nation of Indians in their primitive condition, where there are no
-    historians, have but a temporary historical existence, for the reasons
-    above advanced, and their history, what can be certainly learned of it,
-    may be written in a very small compass.</p>
-
-  <p>I have dwelt longer on the history and customs of these people than I
-    have or shall on any other tribe, in all probability, and that from the
-    fact that I have found them a very peculiar people, as will have been
-    seen by my notes.</p>
-
-  <p>From these very numerous and striking peculiarities in their personal
-    appearance—their customs—traditions and language, I have been led
-    conclusively to believe that they are a people of decidedly a different
-    origin from that of any other tribe in these regions.</p>
-
-  <p>From these reasons, as well as from the fact that they are a small and
-    feeble tribe, against whom the powerful tribe of Sioux are waging a
-    deadly war with the prospect of their extermination; and who with their
-    limited numbers, are not likely to hold out long in their struggle for
-    existence, I have taken more pains to pourtray their whole character,
-    than my limited means will allow me to bestow upon other tribes.</p>
-
-  <p>From the ignorant and barbarous and disgusting customs just recited,
-    the world would naturally infer, that these people must be the most
-    cruel and inhuman beings in the world—yet, such is not the case, and it
-    becomes my duty to say it; a better, more honest, hospitable and kind
-    people, as a community, are not to be found in the world. No set of men
-    that ever I associated with have better hearts than the Mandans, and
-    none are quicker to embrace and welcome a white man than they are—none
-    will press him closer to his bosom, that the pulsation of his heart may
-    be felt, than a Mandan; and no man in any country will keep his word
-    and guard his honour more closely.</p>
-
-  <p>The shocking and disgusting custom that I have just described, sickens<span class="pagenum" id="Page_183">183</span>
-    the heart and even the stomach of a traveller in the country, and he
-    weeps for their ignorance—he pities them with all his heart for their
-    blindness, and laments that the light of civilization, of agriculture
-    and religion cannot be extended to them, and that their hearts which
-    are good enough, could not be turned to embrace something more rational
-    and conducive to their true happiness.</p>
-
-  <p>Many would doubtless ask, whether such a barbarous custom could be
-    eradicated from these people? and whether their thoughts and tastes,
-    being turned to agriculture and religion, could be made to abandon the
-    dark and random channel in which they are drudging, and made to flow in
-    the light and life of civilization?</p>
-
-  <p>To this query I answer <em>yes</em>. Although this is a custom of long
-    standing, being a part of their religion; and probably valued as one
-    of their dearest rights; and notwithstanding the difficulty of making
-    inroads upon the religion of a people in whose country there is no
-    severence of opinions, and consequently no division into different
-    sects, with different creeds to shake their faith; I still believe,
-    and I <em>know</em>, that by a judicious and persevering effort, this
-    abominable custom, and others, might be extinguished, and the beautiful
-    green fields about the Mandan village might be turned into productive
-    gardens, and the waving green bluffs that are spread in the surrounding
-    distance, might be spotted with lowing kine, instead of the sneaking
-    wolves and the hobbled war-horses that are now stalking about them.</p>
-
-  <p>All ignorant and superstitious people, it is a well-known fact, are
-    the most fixed and stubborn in their religious opinions, and perhaps
-    the most difficult to divert from their established belief, from the
-    very fact that they are the most difficult to reason with. Here is
-    an ignorant race of human beings, who have from time immemorial been
-    in the habit of worshipping in their own way, and of enjoying their
-    religious opinions without ever having heard any one to question their
-    correctness; and in those opinions they are quiet and satisfied, and
-    it requires a patient, gradual, and untiring effort to convince such
-    a people that they are wrong, and to work the desired change in their
-    belief, and consequently in their actions.</p>
-
-  <p>It is decidedly my opinion, however, that such a thing <em>can</em> be
-    done, and I do not believe there is a race of wild people on earth
-    where the experiment could be more successfully made than amongst the
-    kind and hospitable Mandans, nor any place where the Missionary labours
-    of pious and industrious men would be more sure to succeed, or more
-    certain to be rewarded in the world to come.</p>
-
-  <p>I deem such a trial of patience and perseverance with these people of
-    great importance, and well worth the experiment. One which I shall hope
-    soon to see accomplished, and which, if properly conducted, I am sure
-    will result in success. Severed as they are from the contaminating and
-    counteracting vices which oppose and thwart most of the best efforts
-    of the Missionaries along the frontier, and free from the almost fatal
-    prejudices which they have<span class="pagenum" id="Page_184">184</span> there to contend with; they present a
-    better field for the labours of such benevolent teachers than they
-    have yet worked in, and a far better chance than they have yet had of
-    proving to the world that the poor Indian is not a brute—that he is
-    a human and humane being, that he is capable of improvement—and that
-    his mind is a beautiful blank on which anything can be written if the
-    proper means be taken.</p>
-
-  <p>The Mandans being but a small tribe, of two thousand only, and living
-    all in two villages, in sight of each other, and occupying these
-    permanently, without roaming about like other neighbouring tribes,
-    offer undoubtedly, the best opportunity for such an experiment of any
-    tribe in the country. The land about their villages is of the best
-    quality for ploughing and grazing, and the water just such as would
-    be desired. Their villages are fortified with piquets or stockades,
-    which protect them from the assaults of their enemies at home; and
-    the introduction of agriculture (which would supply them with the
-    necessaries and luxuries of life, without the necessity of continually
-    exposing their lives to their more numerous enemies on the plains, when
-    they are seeking in the chase the means of their subsistence) would
-    save them from the continual wastes of life, to which, in their wars
-    and the chase they are continually exposed, and which are calculated
-    soon to result in their extinction.</p>
-
-  <p>I deem it not folly nor idle to say that these people <em>can be
-    saved</em>, nor officious to suggest to some of the very many excellent
-    and pious men, who are almost throwing away the best energies of their
-    lives along the debased frontier, that if they would introduce the
-    ploughshare and their prayers amongst these people, who are so far
-    separated from the taints and contaminating vices of the frontier, they
-    would soon see their most ardent desires accomplished and be able to
-    solve to the world the perplexing enigma, by presenting a nation of
-    savages, civilized and christianized (and consequently <em>saved</em>),
-    in the heart of the American wilderness.</p>
-
-  <hr class="chap" />
-  <div class="chapter">
-    <span class="pagenum" id="Page_185">185</span>
-    <h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_23">LETTER—<abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 23.</h2>
-  </div>
-  <div class="subheadc">MINATAREE VILLAGE, <i>UPPER MISSOURI</i>.</div>
-
-  <p><span class="smcap">Soon</span> after witnessing the curious scenes described in the former
-    Letters, I changed my position to the place from whence I am now
-    writing—to the village of the Minatarees, which is also located on
-    the west bank of the Missouri river, and only eight miles above the
-    Mandans. On my way down the river in my canoe, I passed this village
-    without attending to their earnest and clamorous invitations for me to
-    come ashore, and it will thus be seen that I am retrograding a little,
-    to see all that is to be seen in this singular country.</p>
-
-  <p>I have been residing here some weeks, and am able already to say of
-    these people as follows:—</p>
-
-  <p>The Minatarees (people of the willows) are a small tribe of about 1500
-    souls, residing in three villages of earth-covered lodges, on the
-    banks of Knife river; a small stream, so called, meandering through
-    a beautiful and extensive prairie, and uniting its waters with the
-    Missouri.</p>
-
-  <p>This small community is undoubtedly a part of the tribe of Crows, of
-    whom I have already spoken, living at the base of the Rocky Mountains,
-    who have at some remote period, either in their war or hunting
-    excursions, been run off by their enemy, and their retreat having been
-    prevented, have thrown themselves upon the hospitality of the Mandans,
-    to whom they have looked for protection, and under whose wing they are
-    now living in a sort of confederacy, ready to intermarry and also to
-    join, as they often have done, in the common defence of their country.</p>
-
-  <p>In language and personal appearance, as well as in many of their
-    customs, they are types of the Crows; yet having adopted and so long
-    lived under its influence, the system of the Mandans, they are much
-    like them in many respects, and continually assimilating to the modes
-    of their patrons and protectors. Amongst their vague and various
-    traditions they have evidently some disjointed authority for the manner
-    in which they came here; but no account of the time. They say, that
-    they came poor—without wigwams or horses—were nearly all women, as
-    their warriors had been killed off in their flight; that the Mandans
-    would not take them into their village, nor let them come nearer than
-    where they are now living, and there assisted them to build their
-    villages. From these circumstances their wigwams have been constructed
-    exactly in the same manner as those of the Mandans, which I<span class="pagenum" id="Page_186">186</span> have
-    already described, and entirely distinct from any custom to be seen in
-    the Crow tribe.</p>
-
-  <p>Notwithstanding the long familiarity in which they have lived with the
-    Mandans, and the complete adoption of most of their customs, yet it is
-    almost an unaccountable fact, that there is scarcely a man in the tribe
-    who can speak half a dozen words of the Mandan language; although on
-    the other hand, the Mandans are most of them able to converse in the
-    Minataree tongue; leaving us to conclude, either that the Minatarees
-    are a very inert and stupid people, or that the Mandan language (which
-    is most probably the case) being different from any other language in
-    the country, is an exceedingly difficult one to learn.</p>
-
-  <p>The principal village of the Minatarees which is built upon the bank
-    of the Knife river (<a href="#i_070"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 70</a>), contains forty or fifty
-    earth-covered wigwams, from forty to fifty feet in diameter, and being
-    elevated, overlooks the other two which are on lower ground and almost
-    lost amidst their numerous corn fields and other profuse vegetation
-    which cover the earth with their luxuriant growth.</p>
-
-  <p>The scenery along the banks of this little river, from village to
-    village, is quite peculiar and curious; rendered extremely so by the
-    continual wild and garrulous groups of men, women, and children, who
-    are wending their way along its winding shores, or dashing and plunging
-    through its blue waves, enjoying the luxury of swimming, of which
-    both sexes seem to be passionately fond. Others are paddling about in
-    their tub-like canoes, made of the skins of buffaloes; and every now
-    and then, are to be seen their sudatories, or vapour-baths (<a href="#i_071"><span class="smcap">plate</span>
-    71</a>), where steam is raised by throwing water on to heated stones;
-    and the patient jumps from his sweating-house and leaps into the river
-    in the highest state of perspiration, as I have more fully described
-    whilst speaking of the bathing of the Mandans.</p>
-
-  <p>The chief sachem of this tribe is a very ancient and patriarchal
-    looking man, by the name of Eeh-tohk-pah-shee-pee-shah (the black
-    moccasin), and counts, undoubtedly, more than an hundred <em>snows</em>.
-    I have been for some days an inmate of his hospitable lodge, where he
-    sits tottering with age, and silently reigns sole monarch of his little
-    community around him, who are continually dropping in to cheer his
-    sinking energies, and render him their homage. His voice and his sight
-    are nearly gone; but the gestures of his hands are yet energetic and
-    youthful, and freely speak the language of his kind heart.</p>
-
-  <p>I have been treated in the kindest manner by this old chief; and have
-    painted his portrait (<a href="#i_072"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 72</a>) as he was seated on the floor
-    of his wigwam, smoking his pipe, whilst he was recounting over to me
-    some of the extraordinary feats of his life, with a beautiful Crow robe
-    wrapped around him, and his hair wound up in a conical form upon his
-    head, and fastened with a small wooden pin, to keep it in its place.</p>
-
-  <p>This man has many distinct recollections of Lewis and Clarke, who were
-    <span class="pagenum" id="Page_187">187</span>the first explorers of this country, and who crossed the Rocky
-    Mountains thirty years ago. It will be seen by reference to their very
-    interesting history of their tour, that they were treated with great
-    kindness by this man; and that they in consequence constituted him
-    chief of the tribe, with the consent of his people; and he has remained
-    their chief ever since. He enquired very earnestly for “Red Hair” and
-    “Long Knife” (as he had ever since termed Lewis and Clarke), from the
-    fact, that one had red hair (an unexampled thing in his country), and
-    the other wore a broad sword which gained for him the appellation of
-    “Long Knife.”</p>
-
-  <figure class="mt2 illowp75" id="i_072">
-    <div class="plate"><i>48</i></div>
-    <img src="images/i_072.jpg" alt="" />
-     <figcaption>72</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>49</i></div>
-  <div class="col50">
-    <figure id="i_073">
-      <img style="width: 99.4%;" src="images/i_073.jpg" alt="" />
-       <figcaption>73</figcaption>
-    </figure>
-  </div>
-  <div class="col50">
-    <figure id="i_074">
-      <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_074.jpg" alt="" />
-       <figcaption>74</figcaption>
-    </figure>
-  </div>
-
-  <p>I have told him that “Long Knife” has been many years dead; and that
-    “Red Hair” is yet living in <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Louis, and no doubt, would be glad to
-    hear of him; at which he seemed much pleased, and has signified to me
-    that he will make me bearer of some peculiar dispatches to him.<a id="FNanchor_5" href="#Footnote_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></p>
-
-  <p>The name by which these people are generally called (Grosventres) is
-    one given them by the French Traders, and has probably been applied to
-    them with some degree of propriety or fitness, as contradistinguished
-    from the Mandans, amongst whom these Traders were living; and who
-    are a small race of Indians, being generally at or below the average
-    stature of man; whilst the Minatarees are generally tall and heavily
-    built. There is no tribe in the western wilds, perhaps, who are better
-    entitled to the style of warlike, than the Minatarees; for they, unlike
-    the Mandans, are continually carrying war into their enemies’ country;
-    oftentimes drawing the poor Mandans into unnecessary broils, and
-    suffering so much themselves in their desperate war-excursions, that I
-    find the proportion of women to the number of men as two or three to
-    one, through the tribe.</p>
-
-  <p>The son of Black Moccasin, whose name is Ee-a-chin-che-a (the red
-    thunder), and who is reputed one of the most desperate warriors of his
-    tribe, I have also painted at full length, in his war-dress (<a href="#i_073"><span class="smcap">plate</span>
-    73</a>), with his bow in his hand, his quiver slung, and his shield
-    upon his arm. In this plight, <i>sans</i> head-dress, <i>sans</i> robe,
-    and <i>sans</i> everything that might be an useless incumbrance—with
-    the body chiefly naked, and profusely bedaubed with red and black
-    paint, so as to form an almost perfect disguise, the Indian warriors
-    invariably sally forth to war; save the chief, who always plumes
-    himself, and leads on his little band, tendering himself to his enemies
-    a conspicuous mark, with all his ornaments and trophies upon him; that
-    his enemies, if they get him, may get a prize worth the fighting for.</p>
-
-  <p>Besides chiefs and warriors to be admired in this little tribe, there
-    are many beautiful and voluptuous looking women, who are continually
-    crowding in throngs, and gazing upon a stranger; and possibly shedding
-    more bewitching<span class="pagenum" id="Page_188">188</span> smiles from a sort of necessity, growing out of the
-    great disparity in numbers between them and the rougher sex, to which I
-    have before alluded.</p>
-
-  <p>From the very numerous groups of these that have from day to day
-    constantly pressed upon me, overlooking the operations of my brush;
-    I have been unable to get more than one who would consent to have
-    her portrait painted, owing to some fear or dread of harm that might
-    eventually ensue in consequence; or from a natural coyness or timidity,
-    which is surpassing all description amongst these wild tribes, when in
-    presence of strangers.</p>
-
-  <p>The one whom I have painted (<a href="#i_074"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 74</a>) is a descendant from
-    the old chief; and though not the most beautiful, is yet a fair sample
-    of them, and dressed in a beautiful costume of the mountain-sheep skin,
-    handsomely garnished with porcupine quills and beads. This girl was
-    almost <em>compelled</em> to stand for her picture by her relatives who
-    urged her on, whilst she modestly declined, offering as her excuse that
-    “she was not pretty enough, and that her picture would be laughed at.”
-    This was either ignorance or excessive art on her part; for she was
-    certainly more than comely, and the beauty of her name, Seet-se-be-a
-    (the midday sun) is quite enough to make up for a deficiency, if there
-    were any, in the beauty of her face.</p>
-
-  <p>I mentioned that I found these people raising abundance of corn or
-    maize; and I have happened to visit them in the season of their
-    festivities, which annually take place when the ears of corn are of the
-    proper size for eating. The green corn is considered a great luxury by
-    all those tribes who cultivate it; and is ready for eating as soon as
-    the ear is of full size, and the kernels are expanded to their full
-    growth, but are yet soft and pulpy. In this green state of the corn,
-    it is boiled and dealt out in great profusion to the whole tribe, who
-    feast and surfeit upon it whilst it lasts; rendering thanks to the
-    <em>Great Spirit</em> for the return of this joyful season, which they do
-    by making sacrifices, by dancing, and singing songs or thanksgiving.
-    This joyful occasion is one valued alike, and conducted in a similar
-    manner, by most of the tribes who raise the corn, however remote they
-    may be from each other. It lasts but for a week or ten days; being
-    limited to the longest term that the corn remains in this tender and
-    palatable state; during which time all hunting, and all war-excursions,
-    and all other avocations, are positively dispensed with; and all join
-    in the most excessive indulgence of gluttony and conviviality that can
-    possibly be conceived. The fields of corn are generally pretty well
-    stripped during this excess; and the poor improvident Indian thanks the
-    Great Spirit for the indulgence he has had, and is satisfied to ripen
-    merely the few ears that are necessary for his next year’s planting,
-    without reproaching himself for his wanton lavishness, which has laid
-    waste his fine fields, and robbed him of the golden harvest, which
-    might have gladdened his heart, with those of his wife and little
-    children, through the cold and dreariness of winter.</p>
-
-  <p>The most remarkable feature of these joyous occasion is the <em>green
-    corn-dance</em><span class="pagenum" id="Page_189">189</span>, which is always given as preparatory to the feast,
-    and by most of the tribes in the following manner:—</p>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>50</i></div>
-  <figure id="i_075">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_075.jpg" alt="" />
-     <figcaption>75</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p>At the usual season, and the time when from outward appearance of the
-    stalks and ears of the corn, it is supposed to be nearly ready for
-    use, several of the old women who are the owners of fields or patches
-    of corn (for such are the proprietors and cultivators of all crops in
-    Indian countries, the men never turning their hands to such degrading
-    occupations) are delegated by the medicine-men to look at the corn
-    fields every morning at sun-rise, and bring into the council-house,
-    where the kettle is ready, several ears of corn, the husks of which the
-    women are not allowed to break open or even to peep through. The women
-    then are from day to day discharged and the doctors left to decide,
-    until from repeated examinations they come to the decision that it will
-    do; when they dispatch <em>runners</em> or <em>criers</em>, announcing to
-    every part of the village or tribe that the Great Spirit has been kind
-    to them, and they must all meet on the next day to return thanks for
-    his goodness. That all must empty their stomachs, and prepare for the
-    feast that is approaching.</p>
-
-  <p>On the day appointed by the doctors, the villagers are all assembled,
-    and in the midst of the group a kettle is hung over a fire and filled
-    with the green corn, which is well boiled, to be given to the Great
-    Spirit, as a sacrifice necessary to be made before any one can indulge
-    the cravings of his appetite. Whilst this first kettleful is boiling,
-    four medicine-men, with a stalk of the corn in one hand and a rattle
-    (she-she-quoi) in the other, with their bodies painted with white clay,
-    dance around the kettle, chanting a song of thanksgiving to the Great
-    Spirit to whom the offering is to be made (<a href="#i_075"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 75</a>). At the
-    same time a number of warriors are dancing around in a more extended
-    circle, with stalks of the corn in their hands, and joining also in
-    the song of thanksgiving, whilst the villagers are all assembled and
-    looking on. During this scene there is an arrangement of wooden bowls
-    laid upon the ground, in which the feast is to be dealt out, each one
-    having in it a spoon made of the buffalo or mountain-sheep’s horn.</p>
-
-  <p>In this wise the dance continues until the doctors decide that the corn
-    is sufficiently boiled; it then stops for a few moments, and again
-    assumes a different form and a different song, whilst the doctors are
-    placing the ears on a little scaffold of sticks, which they erect
-    immediately over the fire where it is entirely consumed, as they join
-    again in the dance around it.</p>
-
-  <p>The fire is then removed, and with it the ashes, which together are
-    buried in the ground, and <em>new fire</em> is originated on the same
-    spot where the old one was, by friction, which is done by a desperate
-    and painful exertion by three men seated on the ground, facing each
-    other and violently drilling the end of a stick into a hard block of
-    wood by rolling it between the hands, each one catching it in turn
-    from the others without allowing the motion to stop until smoke, and
-    at last a spark of fire is seen and caught in a piece of spunk, when
-    there is great rejoicing in the crowd. With this a fire is kindled,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_190">190</span>
-    and the kettleful of corn again boiled for the feast, at which the
-    chiefs, doctors, and warriors are seated; and after this an unlimited
-    licence is given to the whole tribe, who surfeit upon it and indulge in
-    all their favourite amusements and excesses, until the fields of corn
-    are exhausted, or its ears have become too hard for their comfortable
-    mastication.</p>
-
-  <p>Such are the general features of the green corn festivity and dance
-    amongst most of the tribes; and amongst some there are many additional
-    forms and ceremonies gone through, preparatory to the indulgence in the
-    feast.</p>
-
-  <p>Some of the southern tribes concoct a most bitter and nauseating
-    draught, which they call <em>asceola</em> (the black drink), which they
-    drink to excess for several days previous to the feast; ejecting
-    everything from their stomachs and intestines, enabling them after this
-    excessive and painful purgation, to commence with the green corn upon
-    an empty and keen stomach.</p>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>51</i></div>
-  <figure id="i_076">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_076.jpg" alt="" />
-     <figcaption>76</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <div class="footnotes">
-    <div class="footnote">
-      <a id="Footnote_5" href="#FNanchor_5" class="label">[5]</a> About a year after writing the above, and whilst I was in
-        <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Louis, I had the pleasure of presenting the compliments of this old
-        veteran to General Clarke; and also of shewing to him the portrait,
-        which he instantly recognized amongst hundreds of others; saying, that
-        “they had considered the Black Moccasin quite an old man when they
-        appointed him chief thirty-two years ago.”
-    </div>
-  </div>
-
-  <hr class="chap" />
-  <div class="chapter">
-    <span class="pagenum" id="Page_191">191</span>
-    <h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_24">LETTER—<abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 24.</h2>
-  </div>
-  <div class="subheadc">MINATAREE VILLAGE, <i>UPPER MISSOURI</i>.</div>
-
-  <p><span class="smcap">Epistles</span> from such a strange place as this, where I have no desk to
-    write from, or mail to send them by, are hastily scribbled off in my
-    note-book, as I can steal a little time from the gaze of the wild group
-    that is continually about me; and instead of <em>sending</em> them,
-    <em>keeping</em> them to bring with me when I make my retreat from the
-    country.</p>
-
-  <p>The only place where I can satisfactorily make these entries is in
-    the shade of some sequestered tree, to which I occasionally resort,
-    or more often from my bed (from which I am now writing), enclosed by
-    a sort of curtains made of the skins of elks or buffaloes, completely
-    encompassing me, where I am reclining on a sacking-bottom, made of the
-    buffalo’s hide; making my entries and notes of the incidents of the
-    past day, amidst the roar and unintelligible din of savage conviviality
-    that is going on under the same roof, and under my own eye, whenever I
-    feel disposed to apply it to a small aperture which brings at once the
-    whole interior and all its inmates within my view.</p>
-
-  <p>There are at this time some distinguished guests, besides
-    <em>myself</em>, in the lodge of the Black Moccasin; two chiefs or
-    leaders of a party of Crows, who arrived here a few days since, on a
-    visit to their ancient friends and relatives. The consequence has been,
-    that feasting and carousing have been the “order of the day” here for
-    some time; and I have luckily been a welcome participator in their
-    entertainments. A distinguished chief of the Minatarees, with several
-    others in company, has been for some months past on a visit to the
-    Crows and returned, attended by some remarkably fine-looking fellows,
-    all mounted on fine horses. I have said something of these fine
-    specimens of the human race heretofore; and as I have been fastening
-    more of them to the canvass within the few days past, I must use this
-    occasion to add what follows:—</p>
-
-  <p>I think I have said that no part of the human race could present a
-    more picturesque and thrilling appearance on horseback than a party
-    of Crows rigged out in all their plumes and trappings—galloping about
-    and yelping, in what they call a war-parade, <i>i. e.</i> in a sort of
-    tournament or sham-fight, passing rapidly through the evolutions of
-    battle, and vaunting forth the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_192">192</span> wonderful character of their military
-    exploits. This is an amusement, of which they are excessively fond; and
-    great preparations are invariably made for these occasional shows.</p>
-
-  <p>No tribe of Indians on the Continent are better able to produce a
-    pleasing and thrilling effect in these scenes, nor any more vain,
-    and consequently better prepared to draw pleasure and satisfaction
-    from them, than the Crows. They may be justly said to be the most
-    beautifully clad of all the Indians in these regions, and bringing
-    from the base of the Rocky Mountains a fine and spirited breed of the
-    wild horses, have been able to create a great sensation amongst the
-    Minatarees, who have been paying them all attention and all honours for
-    some days past.</p>
-
-  <p>From amongst these showy fellows who have been entertaining us and
-    pleasing themselves with their extraordinary feats of horsemanship,
-    I have selected one of the most conspicuous, and transferred him and
-    his horse, with arms and trappings, as faithfully as I could to the
-    canvass, for the information of the world, who will learn vastly
-    more from lines and colours than they could from oral or written
-    delineations.</p>
-
-  <p>I have painted him as he sat for me, balanced on his leaping wild horse
-    (<a href="#i_076"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 76</a>) with his shield and quiver slung on his back,
-    and his long lance decorated with the eagle’s quills, trailed in his
-    right hand. His shirt and his leggings, and moccasins, were of the
-    mountain-goat skins, beautifully dressed; and their seams everywhere
-    fringed with a profusion of scalp-locks taken from the heads of his
-    enemies slain in battle. His long hair, which reached almost to the
-    ground whilst he was standing on his feet, was now lifted in the air,
-    and floating in black waves over the hips of his leaping charger. On
-    his head, and over his shining black locks, he wore a magnificent crest
-    or head-dress, made of the quills of the war-eagle and ermine skins;
-    and on his horse’s head also was another of equal beauty and precisely
-    the same in pattern and material. Added to these ornaments there were
-    yet many others which contributed to his picturesque appearance, and
-    amongst them a beautiful netting of various colours, that completely
-    covered and almost obscured the horse’s head and neck, and extended
-    over its back and its hips, terminating in a most extravagant and
-    magnificent crupper, embossed and fringed with rows of beautiful shells
-    and porcupine quills of various colours.</p>
-
-  <p>With all these picturesque ornaments and trappings upon and about him,
-    with a noble figure, and the bold stamp of a wild <em>gentleman</em>
-    on his face, added to the rage and spirit of his wild horse, in time
-    with whose leaps he issued his startling (though smothered) yelps, as
-    he gracefully leaned to and fro, leaving his plumes and his plumage,
-    his long locks and his fringes, to float in the wind, he galloped
-    about; and felt exceeding pleasure in displaying the extraordinary
-    skill which a lifetime of practice and experiment had furnished him
-    in the beautiful art of riding and managing his horse, as well as in
-    displaying to advantage his weapons and ornaments of dress, by giving
-    <span class="pagenum" id="Page_193">193</span>them the grace of motion, as they were brandished in the air and
-    floating in the wind.</p>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>52</i></div>
-  <div class="col50">
-    <figure id="i_077">
-      <img style="width: 99.5%;" src="images/i_077.jpg" alt="" />
-       <figcaption>77</figcaption>
-    </figure>
-  </div>
-  <div class="col50">
-    <figure id="i_078">
-      <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_078.jpg" alt="" />
-       <figcaption>78</figcaption>
-    </figure>
-  </div>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>53</i></div>
-  <figure id="i_079">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_079.jpg" alt="" />
-     <figcaption>79</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p>I have also secured the portraits of Ee-he-a-duck-chee-a (he who ties
-    his hair before, <a href="#i_078"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 78</a>), and Pa-ris-ka-roo-pa (the two
-    Crows, <a href="#i_077"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 77</a>); fine and fair specimens of this tribe, in
-    both of which are exhibited the extraordinary instances of the natural
-    hair reaching to the ground, peculiarities belonging almost exclusively
-    to this tribe, and of which I have in a former Letter given some
-    account. In presenting such instances as these, I offer them, (and the
-    reader will take them of course) as extraordinary and rare occurrences
-    amongst the tribe, who generally fall short of these in this
-    peculiarity, and also in elegance of dress and ornament; although many
-    others from their numbers might be selected of equal extravagance. The
-    Crows are generally handsome, and comfortably clad; every man in the
-    nation oils his hair with a profusion of bear’s grease, and promotes
-    its growth to the utmost of his ability; and the greater part of them
-    cultivate it down on to the calf of the leg, whilst a few are able to
-    make it sweep the ground.</p>
-
-  <p>In a former Letter I gave some account of the form of the head peculiar
-    to this tribe which may well be recorded as a national characteristic,
-    and worthy of further attention, which I shall give it on a future
-    occasion. This striking peculiarity is quite conspicuous in the two
-    portraits of which I have just spoken, exhibiting fairly, as they
-    are both in profile, the <em>semi-lunar</em> outline of the face of
-    which I have before spoken, and which strongly characterizes them
-    as distinct from any relationship or resemblance to, the Blackfeet,
-    Shiennes, Knisteneaux, Mandans, or other tribes now existing in these
-    regions. The peculiar character of which I am speaking, like all other
-    national characteristics, is of course met by many exceptions in the
-    tribe, though the greater part of the men are thus strongly marked
-    with a bold and prominent anti-angular nose, with a clear and rounded
-    arch, and a low and receding forehead; the frontal bone oftentimes
-    appearing to have been compressed by some effort of art, in a certain
-    degree approaching to the horrid distortion thus produced amongst the
-    Flatheads beyond the Rocky Mountains. I learned however from repeated
-    inquiries, that no such custom is practiced amongst them, but their
-    heads, such as they are, are the results of a natural growth, and
-    therefore may well be offered as the basis of a national or tribal
-    <em>character</em>.</p>
-
-  <p>I recollect to have seen in several publications on the antiquities of
-    Mexico, many rude drawings made by the ancient Mexicans, of which the
-    singular profiles of these people forcibly remind me, almost bringing
-    me to the conclusion that these people may be the descendants of the
-    race who have bequeathed those curious and inexplicable remains to the
-    world, and whose scattered remnants, from dire and unknown necessities
-    of those dark and veiled ages that have gone by, have been jostled and
-    thrown along through the hideous and almost impenetrable labyrinths of
-    the Rocky Mountains to the place of their<span class="pagenum" id="Page_194">194</span> destination where they now
-    live. I am stopped, however, from advancing such as a <em>theory</em>,
-    and much prefer to leave it to other hands, who may more easily get
-    over difficulties which I should be afraid to encounter in the very
-    outset, from the very important questions raised in my mind, as to the
-    correctness of those rude and ignorant outlines, in truly establishing
-    the looks and character of a people. Amongst a people so ignorant and
-    so little advanced in the arts as the ancient Mexicans were, from whose
-    tracings those very numerous drawings are copied, I think it would be
-    assuming a great deal too much for satisfactory argument, to claim
-    that such records were to set up to the world the looks and character
-    of a people who have sunk into oblivion, when the heads of horses and
-    other animals, drawn by the same hands, are so rude and so much out of
-    drawing as scarcely to be distinguished, one from the other. I feel
-    as if such rude outlines should be received with great caution and
-    distrust, in establishing the character of a people; and for a fair
-    illustration of the objection I am raising, I would refer the reader
-    to a number of <em>fac-simile</em> drawings which I have copied from
-    some of the paintings of the Mandans (on the three plates following
-    <a href="#i_065"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 65</a>), where most of the figures have the forehead and
-    nose answering exactly to these Mexican outlines, and strikingly
-    resembling the <em>living Crows</em>, also, when they have certainly
-    borrowed nothing from either, nor have they any living outlines like
-    them in their own tribe to have copied from.</p>
-
-  <p>Since writing the above I have passed through many vicissitudes, and
-    witnessed many curious scenes worthy of relating, some of which I will
-    scribble now, and leave the rest for a more leisure occasion. I have
-    witnessed many of the valued games and amusements of this tribe, and
-    made sketches of them; and also have painted a number of portraits of
-    distinguished warriors and braves which will be found in my collection.</p>
-
-  <p>I have just been exceedingly amused with a formal and grave meeting
-    which was called around me, formed by a number of young men, and even
-    chiefs and doctors of the tribe, who, having heard that I was <em>great
-    medicine</em>, and a great chief, took it upon themselves to suppose
-    that I might (or perhaps must) be, a man of influence amongst the “pale
-    faces,” and capable of rendering them some relief in a case of very
-    great grievance, under which they represented that they were suffering.
-    Several most profound speeches were made to me, setting forth these
-    grievances, somewhat in the following manner:—They represented, that
-    about five or six years ago, an unknown, small animal—not far differing
-    in size from a ground squirrel, but with a long, round tail, shewed
-    himself slily about one of the chief’s wigwams, peeping out from under
-    the pots and kettles, and other such things; which they looked upon as
-    great <em>medicine</em>—and no one dared to kill it; but hundreds came to
-    watch and look at it. On one of these occasions, one of the spectators
-    saw this strange animal catching and devouring a small “deer mouse,”
-    of which little and very destructive animals their lodges contained
-    many. It was then at once determined that this had<span class="pagenum" id="Page_195">195</span> been an act of the
-    Great Spirit, as a means of putting a stop to the spoliations committed
-    by these little sappers, who were cutting their clothing, and other
-    manufactures to pieces in a lamentable manner. Councils had been called
-    and solemn decrees issued for the countenance and protection of this
-    welcome visitor and its progeny, which were soon ascertained to be
-    rapidly increasing, and calculated soon to rid them of these thousands
-    of little depredators. It was soon, however, learned from one of the
-    Fur Traders, that this distinguished object of their superstition
-    (which my man Ba’tiste familiarly calls “<em>Monsr. Ratapon</em>”) had, a
-    short time before, landed himself from one of their keel boats, which
-    had ascended the Missouri river for the distance of 1800 miles; and had
-    taken up its residence, without introduction or invitation, in one of
-    their earth-covered wigwams.</p>
-
-  <p>This information, for a while, curtailed the extraordinary respect they
-    had for some time been paying to it; but its continual war upon these
-    little mice, which it was using for its food, in the absence of all
-    other nutriment, continued to command their respect, in spite of the
-    manner in which it had been introduced; being unwilling to believe that
-    it had come from that source, even, without the agency in some way of
-    the Great Spirit.</p>
-
-  <p>Having been thus introduced and nurtured, and their numbers having
-    been so wonderfully increased in the few last years, that every wigwam
-    was infested with them,—that their <i lang="fr">caches</i>, where they bury
-    their corn and other provisions, were robbed and sacked; and the very
-    pavements under their wigwams were so vaulted and sapped, that they
-    were actually falling to the ground; they were now looked upon as a
-    most disastrous nuisance, and a public calamity, to which it was the
-    object of this meeting to call my attention, evidently in hopes that
-    I might be able to designate some successful mode of relieving them
-    from this real misfortune. I got rid of them at last, by assuring them
-    of my deep regret for their situation, which was, to be sure, a very
-    unpleasant one; and told them, that there was really a great deal of
-    <em>medicine</em> in the thing, and that I should therefore be quite
-    unwilling to have anything to do with it. Ba’tiste and Bogard, who are
-    yet my daily and almost hourly companions, took to themselves a great
-    deal of fun and amusement at the end of this interview, by suggesting
-    many remedies for the evil, and enjoying many hearty laughs; after
-    which, Ba’tiste, Bogard and I, took our hats; and I took my sketch-book
-    in hand, and we started on a visit to the upper town of the Minatarees,
-    which is half a mile or more distant, and on the other bank of the
-    Knife River, which we crossed in the following manner:—The old chief,
-    having learned that we were to cross the river, gave direction to
-    one of the women of his numerous household, who took upon her head
-    a skin-canoe (more familiarly called in this country, a bull-boat),
-    made in the form of a large tub, of a buffalo’s skin, stretched on a
-    frame of willow boughs, which she carried to the water’s edge; and
-    placing it in the water, made signs for us three to get into it. When
-    we were in, and seated flat on its bottom, with scarce room in any
-    way to adjust<span class="pagenum" id="Page_196">196</span> our legs and our feet (as we sat necessarily facing
-    each other), she stepped before the boat, and pulling it along, waded
-    towards the deeper water, with her back towards us, carefully with the
-    other hand attending to her dress, which seemed to be but a light slip,
-    and floating upon the surface until the water was above her waist, when
-    it was instantly turned off, over her head, and thrown ashore; and she
-    boldly plunged forward, swimming and drawing the boat with one hand,
-    which she did with apparent ease. In this manner we were conveyed to
-    the middle of the stream, where we were soon surrounded by a dozen or
-    more beautiful girls, from twelve to fifteen and eighteen years of age,
-    who were at that time bathing on the opposite shore.</p>
-
-  <p>They all swam in a bold and graceful manner, and as confidently as so
-    many otters or beavers; and gathering around us, with their long black
-    hair floating about on the water, whilst their faces were glowing with
-    jokes and fun, which they were cracking about us, and which we could
-    not understand.</p>
-
-  <p>In the midst of this delightful little aquatic group, we three sat in
-    our little skin-bound tub (like the “three wise men of Gotham, who
-    went to sea in a bowl,” &amp;c.), floating along down the current, losing
-    sight, and all thoughts, of the shore, which was equi-distant from us
-    on either side; whilst we were amusing ourselves with the playfulness
-    of these dear little creatures who were floating about under the
-    clear blue water, catching their hands on to the sides of our boat;
-    occasionally raising one-half of their bodies out of the water, and
-    sinking again, like so many mermaids.</p>
-
-  <p>In the midst of this bewildering and tantalizing entertainment, in
-    which poor Ba’tiste and Bogard, as well as myself, were all taking
-    infinite pleasure, and which we supposed was all intended for our
-    especial amusement; we found ourselves suddenly in the delightful
-    dilemma of floating down the current in the middle of the river; and
-    of being turned round and round to the excessive amusement of the
-    villagers, who were laughing at us from the shore, as well as these
-    little tyros, whose delicate hands were besetting our tub on all
-    sides; and for an escape from whom, or for fending off, we had neither
-    an oar, or anything else, that we could wield in self-defence, or
-    for self-preservation. In this awkward predicament, our feelings of
-    excessive admiration were immediately changed, to those of exceeding
-    vexation, as we now learned that they had peremptorily discharged
-    from her occupation our fair conductress, who had undertaken to ferry
-    us safely across the river; and had also very ingeniously laid their
-    plans, of which we had been ignorant until the present moment, to
-    extort from us in this way, some little evidences of our liberality,
-    which, in fact, it was impossible to refuse them, after so liberal and
-    bewitching an exhibition on their part, as well as from the imperative
-    obligation which the awkwardness of our situation had laid us under. I
-    had some awls in my pockets, which I presented to them, and also a few
-    strings of beautiful beads, which I placed over their delicate<span class="pagenum" id="Page_197">197</span> necks
-    as they raised them out of the water by the side of our boat; after
-    which they all joined in conducting our craft to the shore, by swimming
-    by the sides of, and behind it, pushing it along in the direction where
-    they designed to land it, until the water became so shallow, that their
-    feet were upon the bottom, when they waded along with great coyness,
-    dragging us towards the shore, as long as their bodies, in a crouching
-    position, could possibly be half concealed under the water, when they
-    gave our boat the last push for the shore, and raising a loud and
-    exulting laugh, plunged back again into the river; leaving us the only
-    alternative of sitting still where we were, or of stepping out into
-    the water at half leg deep, and of wading to the shore, which we at
-    once did, and soon escaped from the view of our little tormentors, and
-    the numerous lookers-on, on our way to the upper village, which I have
-    before mentioned.</p>
-
-  <p>Here I was very politely treated by the <em>Yellow Moccasin</em>,
-    quite an old man, and who seemed to be chief of this band or family,
-    constituting their little community of thirty or forty lodges,
-    averaging, perhaps, twenty persons to each. I was feasted in this man’s
-    lodge—and afterwards invited to accompany him and several others to
-    a beautiful prairie, a mile or so above the village, where the young
-    men and young women of this town, and many from the village below, had
-    assembled for their amusements; the chief of which seemed to be that
-    of racing their horses. In the midst of these scenes, after I had been
-    for some time a looker-on, and had felt some considerable degree of
-    sympathy for a fine-looking young fellow, whose horse had been twice
-    beaten on the course, and whose losses had been considerable; for
-    which, his sister, a very modest and pretty girl, was most piteously
-    howling and crying. I selected and brought forward an ordinary-looking
-    pony, that was evidently too fat and too sleek to run against his
-    fine-limbed little horse that had disappointed his high hopes; and I
-    began to comment extravagantly upon its muscle, &amp;c., when I discovered
-    him evidently cheering up with the hope of getting me and my pony on
-    to the turf with him; for which he soon made me a proposition; and
-    I, having lauded the limbs of my little nag too much to “back out,”
-    agreed to run a short race with him of half a mile, for three yards
-    of scarlet cloth, a knife, and half a dozen strings of beads, which I
-    was willing to stake against a handsome pair of leggings, which he was
-    wearing at the time. The greatest imaginable excitement was now raised
-    amongst the crowd by this arrangement; to see a white man preparing to
-    run with an Indian jockey, and that with a scrub of a pony, in whose
-    powers of running no Indian had the least confidence. Yet, there was no
-    one in the crowd, who dared to take up the several other little bets I
-    was willing to tender (merely for their amusement, and for their final
-    exultation); owing, undoubtedly, to the bold and confident manner in
-    which I had ventured on the merits of this little horse, which the
-    tribe had all overlooked; and needs must have some <em>medicine</em>
-    about it.</p>
-
-  <p>So far was this panic carried, that even my champion was ready to
-    withdraw;<span class="pagenum" id="Page_198">198</span> but his friends encouraged him at length, and we galloped
-    our horses off to the other end of the course, where we were to start;
-    and where we were accompanied by a number of horsemen, who were to
-    witness the “set off.” Some considerable delay here took place, from
-    a <em>condition</em>, which was then named to me, and which I had not
-    observed before, that in all the races of this day, every rider was to
-    run entirely denuded, and ride a naked horse! Here I was completely
-    balked, and having no one by me to interpret a word, I was quite at a
-    loss to decide what was best to do. I found however, that remonstrance
-    was of little avail; and as I had volunteered in this thing to gratify
-    and flatter them, I thought it best not positively to displease them
-    in this; so I laid off my clothes, and straddled the naked back of my
-    round and glossy little pony, by the side of my competitor, who was
-    also mounted and stripped to the skin, and panting with a restless
-    anxiety for the start.</p>
-
-  <p>Reader! did you ever imagine that in the <em>middle of a man’s life</em>
-    there could be a thought or a feeling so <em>new</em> to him, as to throw
-    him instantly back to infancy; with a new world and a new genius before
-    him—started afresh, to navigate and breathe the elements of naked and
-    untasted liberty, which clothe him in their cool and silken robes that
-    float about him; and wafting their life-inspiring folds to his inmost
-    lungs? If you never have been inspired with such a feeling, and have
-    been in the habit of believing that you have thought of, and imagined a
-    little of every thing, try for a moment, to disrobe your mind and your
-    body, and help me through feelings to which I cannot give utterance.
-    Imagine yourselves as I was, with my trembling little horse underneath
-    me, and the cool atmosphere that was floating about, and ready, more
-    closely and familiarly to embrace me, as it did, at the next moment,
-    when we “were off,” and struggling for the goal and the prize.</p>
-
-  <p>Though my little Pegasus seemed to dart through the clouds, and I to
-    be wafted on the wings of Mercury, yet my red adversary was leaving
-    me too far behind for further competition; and I wheeled to the left,
-    making a circuit on the prairie, and came in at the starting point,
-    much to the satisfaction and exultation of the jockeys; but greatly
-    to the murmuring disappointment of the women and children, who had
-    assembled in a dense throng to witness the “coming out” of the “white
-    medicine-man.” I clothed myself instantly, and came back, acknowledging
-    my defeat, and the superior skill of my competitor, as well as the
-    wonderful muscle of his little charger, which pleased him much; and
-    his sisters’ lamentations were soon turned to joy, by the receipt of a
-    beautiful scarlet robe, and a profusion of vari-coloured beads, which
-    were speedily paraded on her copper-coloured neck.</p>
-
-  <p>After I had seen enough of these amusements, I succeeded with some
-    difficulty, in pulling Ba’tiste and Bogard from amongst the groups of
-    women and girls, where they seemed to be successfully ingratiating
-    themselves; and we trudged back to the little village of earth-covered
-    lodges, which were<span class="pagenum" id="Page_199">199</span> hemmed in, and almost obscured from the eye, by
-    the fields of corn and luxuriant growth of wild sun-flowers, and other
-    vegetable productions of the soil, whose spontaneous growth had reared
-    their heads in such profusion, as to appear all but like a dense and
-    formidable forest.</p>
-
-  <p>We loitered about this little village awhile, looking into most of its
-    lodges, and tracing its winding avenues, after which we recrossed the
-    river and wended our way back again to head-quarters, from whence we
-    started in the morning, and where I am now writing. This day’s ramble
-    shewed to us all the inhabitants of this little tribe, except a portion
-    of their warriors who are out on a war excursion against the Riccarees;
-    and I have been exceedingly pleased with their general behaviour and
-    looks, as well as with their numerous games and amusements, in many of
-    which I have given them great pleasure by taking a part.</p>
-
-  <p>The Minatarees, as I have before said, are a bold, daring, and warlike
-    tribe; quite different in these respects from their neighbours the
-    Mandans, carrying war continually in their enemies’ country, thereby
-    exposing their lives and diminishing the number of their warriors
-    to that degree that I find two or three women to a man, through the
-    tribe. They are bold and fearless in the chase also, and in their eager
-    pursuits of the bison, or buffaloes, their feats are such as to excite
-    the astonishment and admiration of all who behold them. Of these scenes
-    I have witnessed many since I came into this country, and amongst
-    them all, nothing have I seen to compare with one to which I was an
-    eye-witness a few mornings since, and well worthy of being described.</p>
-
-  <p>The Minatarees, as well as the Mandans, had suffered for some months
-    past for want of meat, and had indulged in the most alarming fears,
-    that the herds of buffaloes were emigrating so far off from them,
-    that there was great danger of their actual starvation, when it was
-    suddenly announced through the village one morning at an early hour,
-    that a herd of buffaloes was in sight, when an hundred or more young
-    men mounted their horses with weapons in hand and steered their course
-    to the prairies. The chief informed me that one of his horses was in
-    readiness for me at the door of his wigwam, and that I had better go
-    and see the curious affair. I accepted his polite offer, and mounting
-    the steed, galloped off with the hunters to the prairies, where we
-    soon descried at a distance, a fine herd of buffaloes grazing, when
-    a halt and a council were ordered, and the mode of attack was agreed
-    upon. I had armed myself with my pencil and my sketch-book only, and
-    consequently took my position generally in the rear, where I could see
-    and appreciate every manœuvre.</p>
-
-  <p>The plan of attack, which in this country is familiarly called a
-    “<em>surround</em>,” was explicitly agreed upon, and the hunters who were
-    all mounted on their “buffalo horses” and armed with bows and arrows or
-    long lances, divided into two columns, taking opposite directions, and
-    drew themselves gradually around the herd at a mile or more distance
-    from them; thus forming a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_200">200</span> circle of horsemen at equal distances
-    apart, who gradually closed in upon them with a moderate pace, at a
-    signal given. The unsuspecting herd at length “got the wind” of the
-    approaching enemy and fled in a mass in the greatest confusion. To
-    the point where they were aiming to cross the line, the horsemen were
-    seen at full speed, gathering and forming in a column, brandishing
-    their weapons and yelling in the most frightful manner, by which means
-    they turned the black and rushing mass which moved off in an opposite
-    direction where they were again met and foiled in a similar manner,
-    and wheeled back in utter confusion; by which time the horsemen had
-    closed in from all directions, forming a continuous line around them,
-    whilst the poor affrighted animals were eddying about in a crowded and
-    confused mass, hooking and climbing upon each ether; when the work of
-    death commenced. I had rode up in the rear and occupied an elevated
-    position at a few rods distance, from which I could (like the general
-    of a battle field) survey from my horse’s back, the nature and the
-    progress of the grand mêlée; but (unlike him) without the power of
-    issuing a command or in any way directing its issue.</p>
-
-  <p>In this grand turmoil (<a href="#i_079"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 79</a>), a cloud of dust was soon
-    raised, which in parts obscured the throng where the hunters were
-    galloping their horses around and driving the whizzing arrows or
-    their long lances to the hearts of these noble animals; which in many
-    instances, becoming infuriated with deadly wounds in their sides,
-    erected their shaggy manes over their bloodshot eyes and furiously
-    plunged forwards at the sides of their assailants’ horses, sometimes
-    goring them to death at a lunge, and putting their dismounted riders to
-    flight for their lives; sometimes their dense crowd was opened, and the
-    blinded horsemen, too intent on their prey amidst the cloud of dust,
-    were hemmed and wedged in amidst the crowding beasts, over whose backs
-    they were obliged to leap for security, leaving their horses to the
-    fate that might await them in the results of this wild and desperate
-    war. Many were the bulls that turned upon their assailants and met
-    them with desperate resistance; and many were the warriors who were
-    dismounted, and saved themselves by the superior muscles of their legs;
-    some who were closely pursued by the bulls, wheeled suddenly around and
-    snatching the part of a buffalo robe from around their waists, threw it
-    over the horns and the eyes of the infuriated beast, and darting by its
-    side drove the arrow or the lance to its heart. Others suddenly dashed
-    off upon the prairies by the side of the affrighted animals which had
-    escaped from the throng, and closely escorting them for a few rods,
-    brought down their hearts blood in streams, and their huge carcasses
-    upon the green and enamelled turf.</p>
-
-  <p>In this way this grand hunt soon resolved itself into a desperate
-    battle; and in the space of fifteen minutes, resulted in the total
-    destruction of the whole herd, which in all their strength and fury
-    were doomed, like every beast and living thing else, to fall before the
-    destroying hands of mighty man.</p>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>54</i></div>
-  <figure id="i_080">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_080.jpg" alt="" />
-     <figcaption>80</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_201">201</span></p>
-
-  <p>I had sat in trembling silence upon my horse, and witnessed this
-    extraordinary scene, which allowed not one of these animals to escape
-    out of my sight. Many plunged off upon the prairie for a distance, but
-    were overtaken and killed; and although I could not distinctly estimate
-    the number that were slain, yet I am sure that some hundreds of these
-    noble animals fell in this grand mêlée.</p>
-
-  <p>The scene after the battle was over was novel and curious in the
-    extreme; the hunters were moving about amongst the dead and dying
-    animals, leading their horses by their halters, and claiming their
-    victims by their private marks upon their arrows, which they were
-    drawing from the wounds in the animals’ sides.</p>
-
-  <p>Amongst the poor affrighted creatures that had occasionally dashed
-    through the ranks of their enemy, and sought safety in flight upon the
-    prairie (and in some instances, had undoubtedly gained it), I saw them
-    stand awhile, looking back, when they turned, and, as if bent on their
-    own destruction, retraced their steps, and mingled themselves and their
-    deaths with those of the dying throng. Others had fled to a distance on
-    the prairies and for want of company, of friends or of foes, had stood
-    and gazed on till the battle-scene was over; seemingly taking pains to
-    stay, and hold their lives in readiness for their destroyers, until
-    the general destruction was over, when they fell easy victims to their
-    weapons—making the slaughter complete.</p>
-
-  <p>After this scene, and after arrows had been claimed and recovered, a
-    general council was held, when all hands were seated on the ground, and
-    a few pipes smoked; after which, all mounted their horses and rode back
-    to the village.</p>
-
-  <p>A deputation of several of the warriors was sent to the chief, who
-    explained to him what had been their success; and the same intelligence
-    was soon communicated by little squads to every family in the village;
-    and preparations were at once made for securing the meat. For this
-    purpose, some hundreds of women and children, to whose lots fall all
-    the drudgeries of Indian life, started out upon the trail, which
-    led them to the battle-field, where they spent the day in skinning
-    the animals, and cutting up the meat, which was mostly brought into
-    the villages on their backs, as they tugged and sweated under their
-    enormous and cruel loads.</p>
-
-  <p>I rode out to see this curious scene; and I regret exceedingly that I
-    kept no memorandum of it in my sketch-book. Amidst the throng of women
-    and children, that had been assembled, and all of whom seemed busily at
-    work, were many superannuated and disabled nags, which they had brought
-    out to assist in carrying in the meat; and at least, one thousand
-    semi-loup dogs, and whelps, whose keen appetites and sagacity had
-    brought them out, to claim their shares of this abundant and sumptuous
-    supply.</p>
-
-  <p>I staid and inspected this curious group for an hour or more,
-    during which time, I was almost continually amused by the clamorous
-    contentions<span class="pagenum" id="Page_202">202</span> that arose, and generally ended, in desperate combats;
-    both amongst the dogs and women, who seemed alike tenacious of their
-    local and recently acquired rights; and disposed to settle their claims
-    by “tooth and nail”—by manual and brute force.</p>
-
-  <p>When I had seen enough of this I rode to the top of a beautiful prairie
-    bluff, a mile or two from the scene, where I was exceedingly amused by
-    overlooking the route that laid between this and the village, which
-    was over the undulating green fields for several miles, that laid
-    beneath me; over which there seemed a continual string of women, dogs
-    and horses, for the rest of the day, passing and repassing as they
-    were busily bearing home their heavy burthens to their village, and in
-    their miniature appearance, which the distance gave them, not unlike
-    to a busy community of ants as they are sometimes seen, sacking and
-    transporting the treasures of a cupboard, or the sweets of a sugar
-    bowl.</p>
-
-  <hr class="chap" />
-  <div class="chapter">
-    <span class="pagenum" id="Page_203">203</span>
-    <h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_25">LETTER—<abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 25.</h2>
-  </div>
-  <div class="subheadc">LITTLE MANDAN VILLAGE, <i>UPPER MISSOURI</i>.</div>
-
-  <p><span class="smcap">In</span> speaking of the Mandans, in a former Letter, I mentioned that they
-    were living in two villages, which are about two miles apart. Of their
-    principal village I have given a minute account, which precludes the
-    necessity of my saying much of their smaller town, to which I descended
-    a few days since, from the Minatarees; and where I find their modes
-    and customs, precisely the same as I have heretofore described. This
-    village contains sixty or eighty lodges, built in the same manner as
-    those which I have already mentioned, and I have just learned that
-    they have been keeping the annual ceremony here, precisely in the same
-    manner as that which I witnessed in the lower or larger town, and have
-    explained.</p>
-
-  <p>I have been treated with the same hospitality here that was extended
-    to me in the other village; and have painted the portraits of several
-    distinguished persons, which has astonished and pleased them very much.
-    The operation of my brush always gains me many enthusiastic friends
-    wherever I go amongst these wild folks; and in this village I have
-    been unusually honoured and even <em>afflicted</em>, by the friendly
-    importunities of one of these reverencing parasites, who (amongst
-    various other offices of hospitality and kindness which he has been
-    bent upon extending to me), has insisted on, and for several nights
-    been indulged in, the honour as he would term it, of offering his body
-    for my pillow, which <em>I</em> have not had the heart to reject, and of
-    course <em>he</em> has not lacked the vanity to boast of, as an act of
-    signal kindness and hospitality on his part, towards a <em>great</em> and
-    <em>a distinguished stranger</em>!</p>
-
-  <p>I have been for several days suffering somewhat with an influenza,
-    which has induced me to leave my bed, on the side of the lodge, and
-    sleep on the floor, wrapped in a buffalo robe, with my feet to the
-    fire in the centre of the room, to which place the genuine politeness
-    of my constant and watchful friend has as regularly drawn him, where
-    his irresistible importunities have brought me, night after night, to
-    the only alternative of using his bedaubed and bear-greased body for a
-    pillow.</p>
-
-  <p>Being unwilling to deny the poor fellow the satisfaction he seemed to
-    be drawing from this singular freak, I took some pains to inquire into
-    his character; and learned that he was a Riccaree brave, by the name of
-    Pah-too-ca-ra (he who strikes), who is here with several others of his
-    tribe, on a friendly visit (though in a hostile village), and living
-    as they are, unprotected,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_204">204</span> except by the mercy of their enemies. I
-    think it probable, therefore, that he is ingeniously endeavouring thus
-    to ingratiate himself in my affections, and consequently to insure my
-    guardianship and influence for his protection. Be this as it may, he is
-    rendering me many kind services, and I have in return traced him on my
-    canvass for immortality (<a href="#i_083"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 83</a>).</p>
-
-  <p>By the side of him (<a href="#i_084"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 84</a>), I have painted a beautiful
-    little girl of the same tribe, whose name is Pshan-shaw (the
-    sweet-scented grass), giving a very pretty specimen of the dress and
-    fashion of the women in this tribe. The inner garment, which is like
-    a slip or a frock, is entire in one piece, and beautifully ornamented
-    with embroidery and beads, with a row of elks’ teeth passing across
-    the breast, and a robe of the young buffalo’s skin, tastefully and
-    elaborately embroidered, gracefully thrown over her shoulders, and
-    hanging down to the ground behind her.</p>
-
-  <p><a href="#i_082"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 82</a> gives a portrait of one of the chiefs of this tribe
-    by the name of Stan-au-pat (the bloody hand), and (<a href="#i_081"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 81</a>)
-    of Kah-beck-a (the twin), a good-looking matron, who was painted a few
-    weeks since in the principal Mandan village.</p>
-
-  <p>The dresses in both of these portraits are very beautiful, and I have
-    procured them, as well as the one before spoken of, for my collection.</p>
-
-  <p><a href="#i_080"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 80</a>, gives a view of the Riccaree village, which is
-    beautifully situated on the west bank of the river, 200 miles below the
-    Mandans; and built very much in the same manner; being constituted of
-    150 earth-covered lodges, which are in part surrounded by an imperfect
-    and open barrier of piquets set firmly in the ground, and of ten or
-    twelve feet in height.</p>
-
-  <p>This village is built upon an open prairie, and the gracefully
-    undulating hills that rise in distance behind it are everywhere covered
-    with a verdant green turf, without a tree or a bush anywhere to be
-    seen. This view was taken from the deck of the steamer when I was on my
-    way up the river; and probably it was well that I took it then, for so
-    hostile and deadly are the feelings of these people towards the <em>pale
-    faces</em>, at this time, that it may be deemed most prudent for me to
-    pass them on my way down the river, without stopping to make them a
-    visit. They certainly are harbouring the most resentful feelings at
-    this time towards the Traders, and others passing on the river; and no
-    doubt, that there is great danger of the lives of any white men, who
-    unluckily fall into their hands. They have recently sworn death and
-    destruction to every white man, who comes in their way; and there is no
-    doubt, that they are ready to execute their threats.</p>
-
-  <p>When Lewis and Clarke first visited these people thirty years since,
-    it will be found by a reference to their history, that the Riccarees
-    received and treated them with great kindness and hospitality; but
-    owing to the system of trade, and the manner in which it has been
-    conducted in this country, they have been inflicted with real or
-    imaginary abuses, of which they are themselves, and the Fur Traders,
-    the best judges; and for which they are<span class="pagenum" id="Page_205">205</span> now harbouring the most
-    inveterate feelings towards the whole civilized race.</p>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>55</i></div>
-  <div class="col50">
-    <figure id="i_081">
-      <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_081.jpg" alt="" />
-       <figcaption>81</figcaption>
-    </figure>
-  </div>
-  <div class="col50">
-    <figure id="i_082">
-      <img style="width: 99.2%;" src="images/i_082.jpg" alt="" />
-       <figcaption>82</figcaption>
-    </figure>
-  </div>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>56</i></div>
-  <div class="col50">
-    <figure id="i_083">
-      <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_083.jpg" alt="" />
-       <figcaption>83</figcaption>
-    </figure>
-  </div>
-  <div class="col50">
-    <figure id="i_084">
-      <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_084.jpg" alt="" />
-       <figcaption>84</figcaption>
-    </figure>
-  </div>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>57</i></div>
-  <figure id="i_085">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_085.jpg" alt="" />
-     <figcaption>85</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p>The Riccarees are unquestionably a part of the tribe of Pawnees, living
-    on the Platte River, some hundreds of miles below this, inasmuch
-    as their language is nearly or quite the same; and their personal
-    appearance and customs as similar as could be reasonably expected
-    amongst a people so long since separated from their parent tribe, and
-    continually subjected to innovations from the neighbouring tribes
-    around them; amongst whom, in their erratic wanderings in search of a
-    location, they have been jostled about in the character, alternately,
-    of friends and of foes.</p>
-
-  <p>I shall resume my voyage down the river in a few days in my canoe; and
-    I may, perhaps, stop and pay these people a visit, and consequently, be
-    able to say more of them; or, I may be <em>hauled in</em>, to the shore,
-    and my boat plundered, and my “<em>scalp danced</em>,” as they have dealt
-    quite recently with the <em>last trader</em>, who has dared for several
-    years past, to continue his residence with them, after they had laid
-    fatal hands on each one of his comrades before him, and divided and
-    shared their goods.</p>
-
-  <p>Of the Mandans, who are about me in this little village, I need say
-    nothing, except that they are in every respect, the same as those
-    I have described in the lower village—and in fact, I believe this
-    little town is rather a <em>summer residence</em> for a few of the noted
-    families, than anything else; as I am told that none of their wigwams
-    are tenanted through the winter. I shall leave them in the morning,
-    and take up my residence a few days longer with my hospitable friends
-    Mr. Kipp, Mah-to-toh-pa, &amp;c. in the large village; and then with my
-    canvass and easel, and paint-pots in my canoe; with Ba’tiste and Bogard
-    to paddle, and my own oar to steer, wend my way again on the mighty
-    Missouri towards my native land, bidding everlasting farewell to the
-    kind and hospitable Mandans.</p>
-
-  <p>In taking this final leave of them, which will be done with some
-    decided feelings of regret, and in receding from their country, I shall
-    look back and reflect upon them and their curious and peculiar modes
-    with no small degree of pleasure, as well as surprise; inasmuch as
-    their hospitality and friendly treatment have fully corroborated my
-    fixed belief that the North American Indian in his primitive state is
-    a high-minded, hospitable and honourable being—and their singular and
-    peculiar customs have raised an irresistible belief in my mind that
-    they have had a different origin, or are of a different compound of
-    character from any other tribe that I have yet seen, or that can be
-    probably seen in North America.</p>
-
-  <p>In coming to such a conclusion as this, the mind is at once filled with
-    a flood of enquiries as to the source from which they have sprung,
-    and eagerly seeking for the evidence which is to lead it to the most
-    probable and correct conclusion. Amongst these evidences of which there
-    are many, and forcible ones to be met with amongst these people, and
-    many of which I have named in my former epistles, the most striking
-    ones are those which go, I think, decidedly<span class="pagenum" id="Page_206">206</span> to suggest the existence
-    of looks and of customs amongst them, bearing incontestible proofs of
-    an amalgam of civilized and savage; and that in the absence of all
-    proof of any recent proximity of a civilized stock that could in any
-    way have been engrafted upon them.</p>
-
-  <p>These facts then, with the host of their peculiarities which stare
-    a traveller in the face, lead the mind back in search of some more
-    remote and rational cause for such striking singularities; and in
-    this dilemma, I have been almost disposed (not to advance it as a
-    <em>theory</em>, but) to enquire whether here may not be found, yet
-    existing, the remains of the <em>Welsh colony</em>—the followers of
-    Madoc; who history tells us, if I recollect right, started with ten
-    ships, to colonize a country which he had discovered in the Western
-    Ocean; whose expedition I think has been pretty clearly traced to the
-    mouth of the Mississippi, or the coast of Florida, and whose fate
-    further than this seems sealed in unsearchable mystery.</p>
-
-  <p>I am travelling in this country as I have before said, not to advance
-    or to prove <em>theories</em>, but to see all that I am able to see,
-    and to tell it in the simplest and most intelligible manner I can
-    to the world, for their own conclusions, or for theories I may feel
-    disposed to advance, and be better able to defend after I get out of
-    this singular country; where all the powers of ones faculties are
-    required, and much better employed I consider, in helping him along and
-    in gathering materials, than in stopping to draw too nice and delicate
-    conclusions by the way.</p>
-
-  <p>If my indefinite recollections of the fate of that colony, however,
-    as recorded in history be correct, I see no harm in suggesting the
-    inquiry, whether they did not sail up the Mississippi river in their
-    ten ships, or such number of them as might have arrived safe in its
-    mouth; and having advanced up the Ohio from its junction, (as they
-    naturally would, it being the widest and most gentle current) to a
-    rich and fertile country, planted themselves as agriculturalists
-    on its rich banks, where they lived and flourished, and increased
-    in numbers, until they were attacked, and at last besieged by the
-    numerous hordes of savages who were jealous of their growing condition;
-    and as a protection against their assaults, built those numerous
-    <em>civilized</em> fortifications, the ruins of which are now to be
-    seen on the Ohio and the Muskingum, in which they were at last all
-    destroyed, except some few families who had intermarried with the
-    Indians, and whose offspring, being half-breeds, were in such a manner
-    allied to them that their lives were spared; and forming themselves
-    into a small and separate community, took up their residence on the
-    banks of the Missouri; on which, for the want of a permanent location,
-    being on the lands of their more powerful enemies, were obliged
-    repeatedly to remove; and continuing their course up the river, have in
-    time migrated to the place where they are now living, and consequently
-    found with the numerous and almost unaccountable peculiarities of which
-    I have before spoken, so inconsonant with the general character of the
-    North American Indians; with complexions of every shade; with hair<span class="pagenum" id="Page_207">207</span> of
-    all the colours in civilized society, and many with hazel, with grey,
-    and with blue eyes.</p>
-
-  <p>The above is a suggestion of a <em>moment</em>; and I wish the reader to
-    bear it in mind, that if I ever advance such as a <em>theory</em>, it
-    will be after I have collected other proofs, which I shall take great
-    pains to do; after I have taken a vocabulary of their language, and
-    also in my transit down the river in my canoe, I may be able from my
-    own examinations of the ground, to ascertain whether the shores of the
-    Missouri bear evidences of their former locations; or whether amongst
-    the tribes who inhabit the country below, there remain any satisfactory
-    traditions of their residences in, and transit through their countries.</p>
-
-  <p>I close here my book (and probably for some time, my remarks), on the
-    friendly and hospitable Mandans.</p>
-
-  <blockquote>
-    <p><span class="smcap">Note</span>—Several years having elapsed since the above account
-      of the Mandans was written, I open the book to convey to the
-      reader the melancholy intelligence of the <em>destruction</em> of
-      this interesting tribe, which happened a short time after I left
-      their country; and the manner and causes of their misfortune
-      I have explained in the Appendix to the Second Volume of this
-      Work; as well as some further considerations of the subject just
-      above-named, relative to their early history, and the probable fate
-      of the followers of <em>Madoc</em>, to which I respectfully refer the
-      reader before he goes further in the body of the Work. See Appendix A.</p>
-  </blockquote>
-
-  <hr class="chap" />
-  <div class="chapter">
-    <span class="pagenum" id="Page_208">208</span>
-    <h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_26">LETTER—<abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 26.</h2>
-  </div>
-  <div class="subheadc">MOUTH OF TETON RIVER, <i>UPPER MISSOURI</i>.</div>
-
-  <p><span class="smcap">Since</span> writing the above Letter I have descended the Missouri, a
-    distance of six or seven hundred miles, in my little bark, with
-    Ba’tiste and Bogard, my old “<i lang="fr">compagnons du voyage</i>,” and have
-    much to say of what we three did and what we saw on our way, which will
-    be given anon.</p>
-
-  <p>I am now in the heart of the country belonging to the numerous tribe
-    of Sioux or Dohcotas, and have Indian faces and Indian customs in
-    abundance around me. This tribe is one of the most numerous in North
-    America, and also one of the most vigorous and warlike tribes to be
-    found, numbering some forty or fifty thousand, and able undoubtedly
-    to muster, if the tribe could be moved simultaneously, at least eight
-    or ten thousand warriors, well mounted and well armed. This tribe
-    take vast numbers of the wild horses on the plains towards the Rocky
-    Mountains, and many of them have been supplied with guns; but the
-    greater part of them hunt with their bows and arrows and long lances,
-    killing their game from their horses’ backs while at full speed.</p>
-
-  <p>The name Sioux (pronounced <i>see-oo</i>) by which they are familiarly
-    called, is one that has been given to them by the French traders, the
-    meaning of which I never have learned; their own name being, in their
-    language, Dah-co-ta. The personal appearance of these people is very
-    fine and prepossessing, their persons tall and straight, and their
-    movements elastic and graceful. Their stature is considerably above
-    that of the Mandans and Riccarees, or Blackfeet; but about equal to
-    that of the Crows, Assinneboins and Minatarees, furnishing at least one
-    half of their warriors of six feet or more in height.</p>
-
-  <p>I am here living with, and enjoying the hospitality of a gentleman
-    by the name of <i>Laidlaw</i>, a Scotchman, who is attached to the
-    American Fur Company, and who, in company with Mr. M‘Kenzie (of whom
-    I have before spoken) and Lamont, has the whole agency of the Fur
-    Company’s transactions in the regions of the Upper Missouri and the
-    Rocky Mountains.</p>
-
-  <p>This gentleman has a finely-built Fort here, of two or three hundred
-    feet square, enclosing eight or ten of their factories, houses and
-    stores, in the midst of which he occupies spacious and comfortable
-    apartments, which are well supplied with the comforts and luxuries of
-    life and neatly and respectably conducted by a fine looking, modest,
-    and dignified Sioux<span class="pagenum" id="Page_209">209</span> woman, the kind and affectionate mother of his
-    little flock of pretty and interesting children.</p>
-
-  <figure class="illowp75 mt2" id="i_086">
-    <div class="plate"><i>58</i></div>
-    <img src="images/i_086.jpg" alt="" />
-     <figcaption>86</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p>This Fort is undoubtedly one of the most important and productive
-    of the American Fur Company’s posts, being in the centre of the
-    great Sioux country, drawing from all quarters an immense and almost
-    incredible number of buffalo robes, which are carried to the New York
-    and other Eastern markets, and sold at a great profit. This post
-    is thirteen hundred miles above <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Louis, on the west bank of the
-    Missouri, on a beautiful plain near the mouth of the Teton river which
-    empties into the Missouri from the West, and the Fort has received
-    the name of Fort Pierre, in compliment to Monsr. Pierre Chouteau, who
-    is one of the partners in the Fur Company, residing in <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Louis; and
-    to whose politeness I am indebted, as I have before mentioned, for my
-    passage in the Company’s steamer, on her first voyage to the Yellow
-    Stone; and whose urbane and gentlemanly society, I have before said, I
-    had during my passage.</p>
-
-  <p>The country about this Fort is almost entirely prairie, producing along
-    the banks of the river and streams only, slight skirtings of timber.
-    No site could have been selected more pleasing or more advantageous
-    than this; the Fort is in the centre of one of the Missouri’s most
-    beautiful plains, and hemmed in by a series of gracefully undulating,
-    grass-covered hills, on all sides; rising like a series of terraces,
-    to the summit level of the prairies, some three or four hundred feet
-    in elevation, which then stretches off in an apparently boundless
-    ocean of gracefully swelling waves and fields of green. On my way
-    up the river I made a painting of this lovely spot, taken from the
-    summit of the bluffs, a mile or two distant (<a href="#i_085"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 85</a>),
-    shewing an encampment of Sioux, of six hundred tents or skin lodges,
-    around the Fort, where they had concentrated to make their spring
-    trade; exchanging their furs and peltries for articles and luxuries of
-    civilized manufactures.</p>
-
-  <p>The great family of Sioux who occupy so vast a tract of country,
-    extending from the banks of the Mississippi river to the base of
-    the Rocky Mountains, are everywhere a migratory or roaming tribe,
-    divided into forty-two bands or families, each having a chief who
-    all acknowledge a superior or head chief, to whom they all are held
-    subordinate. This subordination, however, I should rather record as
-    their <em>former</em> and <em>native</em> regulation, of which there exists
-    no doubt, than an <em>existing</em> one, since the numerous innovations
-    made amongst these people by the Fur Traders, as well as by the
-    proximity of civilization along a great deal of their frontier, which
-    soon upset and change many native regulations, and particularly those
-    relating to their government and religion.</p>
-
-  <p>There is one principal and familiar division of this tribe into what
-    are called the <em>Mississippi</em> and <em>Missouri</em> Sioux. Those
-    bordering on the banks of the Mississippi, concentrating at Prairie du
-    Chien and Fort Snelling, for the purposes of trade, &amp;c., are called the
-    Mississippi Sioux. These are somewhat advanced towards civilization,
-    and familiar with white people, with<span class="pagenum" id="Page_210">210</span> whom they have held intercourse
-    for many years, and are consequently excessive whiskey drinkers, though
-    constituting but a meagre proportion, and at the same time, but a very
-    unfair and imperfect sample of the great mass of this tribe who inhabit
-    the shores of the Missouri, and fearlessly roam on the vast plains
-    intervening between it and the Rocky Mountains, and are still living
-    entirely in their primitive condition.</p>
-
-  <p>There is no tribe on the Continent, perhaps, of finer looking men than
-    the Sioux; and few tribes who are better and more comfortably clad, and
-    supplied with the necessaries of life. There are no parts of the great
-    plains of America which are more abundantly stocked with buffaloes and
-    wild horses, nor any people more bold in destroying the one for food,
-    and appropriating the other to their use. There has gone abroad, from
-    the many histories which have been written of these people, an opinion
-    which is too current in the world, that the Indian is necessarily a
-    poor, drunken, murderous wretch; which account is certainly unjust
-    as regards the savage, and doing less than justice to the world for
-    whom such histories have been prepared. I have travelled several years
-    already amongst these people and I have not had my scalp taken, nor a
-    blow struck me; nor had occasion to raise my hand against an Indian;
-    nor has my property been stolen, as yet to my knowledge, to the value
-    of a shilling; and that in a country where no man is punishable by
-    law for the crime of stealing; still some of them steal, and murder
-    too; and if white men did not do the same, and that in defiance of
-    the laws of God and man, I might take satisfaction in stigmatizing
-    the Indian character as thievish and murderous. That the Indians in
-    their <em>native state</em> are “<em>drunken</em>,” is false; for they are
-    the only temperance people, literally speaking, that ever I saw in my
-    travels, or ever expect to see. If the civilized world are startled at
-    this, it is the <em>fact</em> that they must battle with, not with me;
-    for these people manufacture no spirituous liquor themselves, and know
-    nothing of it until it is brought into their country and tendered to
-    them by Christians. That these people are “<em>naked</em>” is equally
-    untrue, and as easily disproved; for I am sure that with the paintings
-    I have made amongst the Mandans and Crows, and other tribes; and with
-    their beautiful costumes which I have procured and shall bring home, I
-    shall be able to establish the fact that many of these people dress,
-    not only with clothes comfortable for any latitude, but that they also
-    dress with some considerable taste and elegance. Nor am I quite sure
-    that they are entitled to the name of “<em>poor</em>,” who live in a
-    boundless country of green fields, with good horses to ride; where they
-    are all joint tenants of the soil, together; where the Great Spirit
-    has supplied them with an abundance of food to eat—where they are all
-    indulging in the pleasures and amusements of a lifetime of idleness
-    and ease, with no business hours to attend to, or professions to
-    learn—where they have no notes in bank or other debts to pay—no taxes,
-    no tithes, no rents, nor beggars to touch and tax the sympathy of their
-    souls at every step they go. Such might be poverty in the Christian
-    world, but<span class="pagenum" id="Page_211">211</span> is sure to be a blessing where the pride and insolence of
-    comparative wealth are unknown.</p>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>59</i></div>
-  <div class="col50">
-    <figure id="i_087">
-      <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_087.jpg" alt="" />
-       <figcaption>87</figcaption>
-    </figure>
-  </div>
-  <div class="col50">
-    <figure id="i_088">
-      <img style="width: 96.6%;" src="images/i_088.jpg" alt="" />
-       <figcaption>88</figcaption>
-    </figure>
-  </div>
-
-  <p>I mentioned that this is the nucleus or place of concentration of
-    the numerous tribe of the Sioux, who often congregate here in great
-    masses to make their trades with the American Fur Company; and that
-    on my way up the river, some months since, I found here encamped,
-    six hundred families of Sioux, living in tents covered with buffalo
-    hides. Amongst these there were twenty or more of the different bands,
-    each one with their chief at their head, over whom was a <em>superior
-    chief</em> and leader, a middle-aged man, of middling stature, with
-    a noble countenance, and a figure almost equalling the Apollo, and
-    I painted his portrait (<a href="#i_086"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 86</a>). The name of this chief
-    is Ha-wan-je-tah (the one horn) of the Mee-ne-cow-e-gee band, who
-    has risen rapidly to the highest honours in the tribe, from his own
-    extraordinary merits, even at so early an age. He told me that he
-    took the name of “One Horn” (or shell) from a simple small shell that
-    was hanging on his neck, which descended to him from his father, and
-    which, he said, he valued more than anything he possessed; affording
-    a striking instance of the living affection which these people often
-    cherish for the dead, inasmuch as he chose to carry this name through
-    life in preference to many others and more honourable ones he had
-    a right to have taken, from different battles and exploits of his
-    extraordinary life. He treated me with great kindness and attention,
-    considering himself highly complimented by the signal and unprecedented
-    honour I had conferred upon him by painting his portrait, and that
-    before I had invited any other. His costume was a very handsome one,
-    and will have a place in my <span class="smcap">Indian Gallery</span> by the side of
-    his picture. It is made of elk skins beautifully dressed, and fringed
-    with a profusion of porcupine quills and scalp-locks; and his hair,
-    which is very long and profuse, divided into two parts, and lifted up
-    and crossed, over the top of his head, with a simple tie, giving it
-    somewhat the appearance of a Turkish turban.</p>
-
-  <p>This extraordinary man, before he was raised to the dignity of chief,
-    was the renowned of his tribe for his athletic achievements. In the
-    chase he was foremost; he could run down a buffalo, which he often had
-    done, on his own legs, and drive his arrow to the heart. He was the
-    fleetest in the tribe; and in the races he had run, he had always taken
-    the prize.</p>
-
-  <p>It was proverbial in his tribe, that Ha-wan-je-tah’s bow never was
-    drawn in vain, and his wigwam was abundantly furnished with scalps that
-    he had taken from his enemies’ heads in battle.</p>
-
-  <p>Having descended the river thus far, then, and having hauled out
-    my canoe, and taken up my quarters for awhile with mine hospitable
-    host, Mr. Laidlaw, as I have before said; and having introduced my
-    readers to the country and the people, and more particularly to the
-    chief dignitary of the Sioux; and having promised in the beginning of
-    this Letter also, that I should give them some amusing and curious
-    information that we picked up,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_212">212</span> and incidents that we met with, on
-    our voyage from the Mandans to this place; I have again to beg that
-    they will pardon me for withholding from them yet awhile longer, the
-    incidents of that curious and most important part of my Tour, the
-    absence of which, at this time, seems to make a “hole in the ballad,”
-    though I promise my readers they are written, and will appear in the
-    book in a proper and appropriate place.</p>
-
-  <p>Taking it for granted then, that I will be indulged in this freak, I am
-    taking the liberty of presuming on my readers’ patience in proposing
-    another, which is to offer them here an extract from my Notes, which
-    were made on my journey of 1300 miles from <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Louis to this place,
-    where I stopped, as I have said, amongst several thousands of Sioux;
-    where I remained for some time, and painted my numerous portraits of
-    their chiefs, &amp;c.; one of whom was the head and leader of the Sioux,
-    whom I have already introduced. On the long and tedious route that lies
-    between <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Louis and this place, I passed the Sacs and Ioways—the
-    Konzas—the Omahaws, and the Otoes (making notes on them all, which are
-    reserved for another place), and landed at the Puncahs, a small tribe
-    residing in one village, on the west bank of the river, 300 miles below
-    this, and 1000 from <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Louis.</p>
-
-  <p>The Puncahs are all contained in seventy-five or eighty lodges, made of
-    buffalo skins, in the form of tents; the frames for which are poles of
-    fifteen or twenty feet in length, with the butt ends standing on the
-    ground, and the small ends meeting at the top, forming a cone, which
-    sheds off the rain and wind with perfect success. This small remnant
-    of a tribe are not more than four or five hundred in numbers; and I
-    should think, at least, two-thirds of those are women. This disparity
-    in numbers having been produced by the continual losses which their
-    men suffer, who are penetrating the buffalo country for meat, for
-    which they are now obliged to travel a great way (as the buffaloes
-    have recently left their country), exposing their lives to their more
-    numerous enemies about them.</p>
-
-  <p>The chief of this tribe, whose name is Shoo-de-ga-cha (smoke), I
-    painted at full length (<a href="#i_087"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 87</a>), and his wife also, a young
-    and very pretty woman (<a href="#i_088"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 88</a>), whose name is Hee-la’h-dee
-    (the pure fountain); her neck and arms were curiously tattooed, which
-    is a very frequent mode of ornamenting the body amongst this and some
-    other tribes, which is done by pricking into the skin, gunpowder and
-    vermilion.</p>
-
-  <p>The chief, who was wrapped in a buffalo robe, is a noble specimen of
-    native dignity and philosophy. I conversed much with him; and from his
-    dignified manners, as well as from the soundness of his reasoning, I
-    became fully convinced that he deserved to be the sachem of a more
-    numerous and prosperous tribe. He related to me with great coolness
-    and frankness, the poverty and distress of his nation; and with the
-    method of a philosopher, predicted the certain and rapid extinction of
-    his tribe, which he had not the power to avert. Poor, noble chief; who
-    was equal to, and worthy of a greater empire! He sat upon the deck of
-    the steamer, overlooking the little<span class="pagenum" id="Page_213">213</span> cluster of his wigwams mingled
-    amongst the trees; and, like Caius Marius, weeping over the ruins
-    of Carthage, shed tears as he was descanting on the poverty of his
-    ill-fated little community, which he told me “had once been powerful
-    and happy; that the buffaloes which the Great Spirit had given them
-    for food, and which formerly spread all over their green prairies, had
-    all been killed or driven out by the approach of white men, who wanted
-    their skins; that their country was now entirely destitute of game,
-    and even of roots for their food, as it was one continued prairie;
-    and that his young men penetrating the countries of their enemies
-    for buffaloes, which they were obliged to do, were cut to pieces and
-    destroyed in great numbers. That his people had foolishly become fond
-    of <em>fire-water</em> (whiskey), and had given away everything in their
-    country for it—that it had destroyed many of his warriors, and soon
-    would destroy the rest—that his tribe was too small, and his warriors
-    too few to go to war with the tribes around them; that they were met
-    and killed by the Sioux on the North, by the Pawnees on the West; and
-    by the Osages and Konzas on the South; and still more alarmed from the
-    constant advance of the pale faces—their enemies from the East, with
-    whiskey and small-pox, which already had destroyed four-fifths of his
-    tribe, and soon would impoverish, and at last destroy the remainder of
-    them.”</p>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>60</i></div>
-  <div class="col50">
-    <figure id="i_089">
-      <img style="width: 98.7%;" src="images/i_089.jpg" alt="" />
-       <figcaption>89</figcaption>
-    </figure>
-  </div>
-  <div class="col50">
-    <figure id="i_090">
-      <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_090.jpg" alt="" />
-       <figcaption>90</figcaption>
-    </figure>
-  </div>
-
-  <p>In this way did this shrewd philosopher lament over the unlucky destiny
-    of his tribe; and I pitied him with all my heart. I have no doubt of
-    the correctness of his representations; and I believe there is no tribe
-    on the frontier more in want, nor any more deserving of the sympathy
-    and charity of the government and Christian societies of the civilized
-    world.</p>
-
-  <p>The son of this chief, a youth of eighteen years, and whose portrait
-    I painted (<a href="#i_090"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 90</a>), distinguished himself in a singular
-    manner the day before our steamer reached their village, by taking to
-    him <em>four wives in one day</em>! This extraordinary and unprecedented
-    freak of his, was just the thing to make him the greatest sort of
-    <em>medicine</em> in the eyes of his people; and probably he may date
-    much of his success and greatness through life, to this bold and
-    original step, which suddenly raised him into notice and importance.</p>
-
-  <p>The old chief Shoo-de-ga-cha, of whom I have spoken above, considering
-    his son to have arrived to the age of maturity, fitted him out for
-    house-keeping, by giving him a handsome wigwam to live in, and nine
-    horses, with many other valuable presents; when the boy, whose name
-    is Hongs-kay-de (the great chief), soon laid his plans for the proud
-    and pleasant epoch in his life, and consummated them in the following
-    ingenious and amusing manner.</p>
-
-  <p>Wishing to connect himself with, and consequently to secure the
-    countenance of some of the most influential men in the tribe, he had
-    held an interview with one of the most distinguished; and easily
-    (being the son of a chief), made an arrangement for the hand of his
-    daughter, which he was<span class="pagenum" id="Page_214">214</span> to receive on a certain day, and at a certain
-    hour, for which he was to give two horses, a gun, and several pounds
-    of tobacco. This was enjoined on the father as a profound secret, and
-    as a condition of the espousal. In like manner he soon made similar
-    arrangements with three other leading men of the tribe, each of whom
-    had a young and beautiful daughter, of marriageable age. To each of
-    the fathers he had promised two horses, and other presents similar
-    to those stipulated for in the first instance, and all under the
-    same injunctions of secrecy, until the hour approached, when he had
-    announced to the whole tribe that he was to be married. At the time
-    appointed, they all assembled, and all were in ignorance of the fair
-    hand that was to be placed in his on this occasion. He had got some
-    of his young friends who were prepared to assist him, to lead up
-    the eight horses. He took two of them by the halters, and the other
-    presents agreed upon in his other hand, and advancing to the first of
-    the parents, whose daughter was standing by the side of him, saying
-    to him, “you promised me the hand of your daughter on this day, for
-    which I was to give you two horses.” The father assented with a “ugh!”
-    receiving the presents, and giving his child; when some confusion
-    ensued from the simultaneous remonstrances, which were suddenly made by
-    the other three parents, who had brought their daughters forward, and
-    were shocked at this sudden disappointment, as well as by the mutual
-    declarations they were making, of similar contracts that each one had
-    entered into with him! As soon as they could be pacified, and silence
-    was restored, he exultingly replied, “You have all acknowledged in
-    public your promises with me, which I shall expect you to fulfil. I am
-    here to perform all the engagements which I have made, and I expect
-    you all to do the same”—No more was said. He led up the two horses for
-    each, and delivered the other presents; leading off to his wigwam his
-    four brides—taking two in each hand, and commenced at once upon his new
-    mode of life; reserving only one of his horses for his own daily use.</p>
-
-  <p>I visited the wigwam of this young installed <em>medicine-man</em>
-    several times, and saw his four modest little wives seated around the
-    fire, where all seemed to harmonize very well; and for aught I could
-    discover, were entering very happily on the duties and pleasures of
-    married life. I selected one of them for her portrait, and painted it
-    (<a href="#i_089"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 89</a>), Mong-shong-shaw (the bending willow), in a very
-    pretty dress of deer skins, and covered with a young buffalo’s robe,
-    which was handsomely ornamented, and worn with much grace and pleasing
-    effect.</p>
-
-  <p>Mr. Chouteau of the Fur Company, and Major Sanford, the agent for the
-    Upper Missouri Indians, were with me at this time; and both of these
-    gentlemen, highly pleased with so ingenious and <em>innocent</em> a
-    freak, felt disposed to be liberal, and sent them many presents from
-    the steamer.</p>
-
-  <p>The ages of these young brides were probably all between twelve and
-    fifteen years, the season of life in which most of the girls in this
-    wild country contract marriage.</p>
-
-  <figure class="illowp75 mt2" id="i_091">
-    <div class="plate"><i>61</i></div>
-    <img src="images/i_091.jpg" alt="" />
-     <figcaption>91</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_215">215</span></p>
-
-  <p>It is a surprising fact, that women mature in these regions at that
-    early age, and there have been some instances where marriage has taken
-    place, even at eleven; and the juvenile mother has been blest with her
-    first offspring at the age of twelve!</p>
-
-  <p>These facts are calculated to create surprise and almost incredulity
-    in the mind of the reader, but there are circumstances for his
-    consideration yet to be known, which will in a manner account for these
-    extraordinary facts.</p>
-
-  <p>There is not a doubt but there is a more early approach to maturity
-    amongst the females of this country than in civilized communities,
-    owing either to a natural and constitutional difference, or to the
-    exposed and active life they lead. Yet there is another and more
-    general cause of early marriages (and consequently apparent maturity),
-    which arises out of the modes and forms of the country, where most
-    of the marriages are contracted with the parents, hurried on by the
-    impatience of the applicant, and prematurely accepted and consummated
-    on the part of the parents, who are often impatient to be in receipt
-    of the presents they are to receive as the price of their daughters.
-    There is also the facility of dissolving the marriage contract in this
-    country, which does away with one of the most serious difficulties
-    which lies in the way in the civilized world, and calculated greatly
-    to retard its consummation, which is not an equal objection in Indian
-    communities. Education and accomplishments, again, in the fashionable
-    world, and also a time and a season to flourish and show them off,
-    necessarily engross that part of a young lady’s life, when the poor
-    Indian girl, who finds herself weaned from the familiar embrace of her
-    parents, with her mind and her body maturing, and her thoughts and her
-    passions straying away in the world for some theme or some pleasure
-    to cling to, easily follows their juvenile and ardent dictates,
-    prematurely entering on that system of life, consisting in reciprocal
-    dependence and protection.</p>
-
-  <p>In the instance above described, the young man was in no way censured
-    by his people, but most loudly applauded; for in this country polygamy
-    is allowed; and in this tribe, where there are two or three times the
-    number of women that there are of men, such an arrangement answers a
-    good purpose, whereby so many of the females are provided for and taken
-    care of; and particularly so, and to the great satisfaction of the
-    tribe, as well as of the parties and families concerned, when so many
-    fall to the lot of a chief, or the son of a chief, into whose wigwam it
-    is considered an honour to be adopted, and where they are the most sure
-    of protection.</p>
-
-  <hr class="chap" />
-  <div class="chapter">
-    <span class="pagenum" id="Page_216">216</span>
-    <h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_27">LETTER—<abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 27.</h2>
-  </div>
-  <div class="subheadc">MOUTH OF TETON RIVER, <i>UPPER MISSOURI</i>.</div>
-
-  <p><span class="smcap">When</span> we were about to start on our way up the river from the village
-    of the Puncahs, we found that they were packing up all their goods and
-    preparing to start for the prairies, farther to the West, in pursuit
-    of buffaloes, to dry meat for their winter’s supplies. They took down
-    their wigwams of skins to carry with them, and all were flat to the
-    ground and everything packing up ready for the start. My attention
-    was directed by Major Sanford, the Indian Agent, to one of the most
-    miserable and helpless looking objects that I ever had seen in my life,
-    a very aged and emaciated man of the tribe, who he told me was to be
-    <em>exposed</em>.</p>
-
-  <p>The tribe were going where hunger and dire necessity compelled them
-    to go, and this pitiable object, who had once been a chief, and a man
-    of distinction in his tribe, who was now too old to travel, being
-    reduced to mere skin and bones, was to be left to starve, or meet
-    with such death as might fall to his lot, and his bones to be picked
-    by the wolves! I lingered around this poor old forsaken patriarch for
-    hours before we started, to indulge the tears of sympathy which were
-    flowing for the sake of this poor benighted and decrepit old man,
-    whose worn-out limbs were no longer able to support him; their kind
-    and faithful offices having long since been performed, and his body
-    and his mind doomed to linger into the withering agony of decay, and
-    gradual solitary death. I wept, and it was a pleasure to weep, for the
-    painful looks, and the dreary prospects of this old veteran, whose
-    eyes were dimmed, whose venerable locks were whitened by an hundred
-    years, whose limbs were almost naked, and trembling as he sat by a
-    small fire which his friends had left him, with a few sticks of wood
-    within his reach and a buffalo’s skin stretched upon some crotches over
-    his head. Such was to be his only dwelling, and such the chances for
-    his life, with only a few half-picked bones that were laid within his
-    reach, and a dish of water, without weapons or means of any kind to
-    replenish them, or strength to move his body from its fatal locality.
-    In this sad plight I mournfully contemplated this miserable remnant
-    of existence, who had unluckily outlived the fates and accidents of
-    wars to die alone, at death’s leisure. His friends and his children
-    had all left him, and were preparing in a little time to be on the
-    march. He had told<span class="pagenum" id="Page_217">217</span> them to leave him, “he was old,” he said, “and too
-    feeble to march.” “My children,” said he, “our nation is poor, and it
-    is necessary that you should all go to the country where you can get
-    meat,—my eyes are dimmed and my strength is no more; my days are nearly
-    all numbered, and I am a burthen to my children—I cannot go, and I wish
-    to die. Keep your hearts stout, and think not of me; I am no longer
-    good for anything.” In this way they had finished the ceremony of
-    <em>exposing</em> him, and taken their final leave of him. I advanced to
-    the old man, and was undoubtedly the last human being who held converse
-    with him. I sat by the side of him, and though he could not distinctly
-    see me, he shook me heartily by the hand and smiled, evidently aware
-    that I was a white man, and that I sympathized with his inevitable
-    misfortune. I shook hands again with him, and left him, steering my
-    course towards the steamer which was a mile or more from me, and ready
-    to resume her voyage up the Missouri.<a id="FNanchor_6" href="#Footnote_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a></p>
-
-  <p>This cruel custom of exposing their aged people, belongs, I think, to
-    all the tribes who roam about the prairies, making severe marches,
-    when such decrepit persons are totally unable to go, unable to ride or
-    to walk,—when they have no means of carrying them. It often becomes
-    absolutely necessary in such cases that they should be left; and they
-    uniformly insist upon it, saying as this old man did, that they are
-    old and of no further use—that they left their fathers in the same
-    manner—that they wish to die, and their children must not mourn for
-    them.</p>
-
-  <p>From the Puncah village, our steamer made regular progress from day
-    to day towards the mouth of the Teton, from where I am now writing;
-    passing the whole way a country of green fields, that come sloping down
-    to the river on either side, forming the loveliest scenes in the world.</p>
-
-  <p>From day to day we advanced, opening our eyes to something new and
-    more beautiful every hour that we progressed, until at last our boat
-    was aground; and a day’s work of sounding told us at last, that there
-    was no possibility of advancing further, until there should be a rise
-    in the river, to enable the boat to get over the bar. After laying in
-    the middle of the river about a week, in this unpromising dilemma, Mr.
-    Chouteau started off twenty men on foot, to cross the plains for a
-    distance of 200 miles to Laidlaw’s Fort, at the mouth of Teton river.
-    To this expedition, I immediately attached myself; and having heard
-    that a numerous party of Sioux were there encamped, and waiting to see
-    the steamer, I packed on the backs, and in the hands of several of the
-    men, such articles for painting, as I might want; canvass, paints, and
-    brushes, with my sketch-book slung on my back, and my rifle in my hand,
-    and I started off with them.</p>
-
-  <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_218">218</span></p>
-
-  <p>We took leave of our friends on the boat, and mounting the green
-    bluffs, steered our course from day to day over a level prairie,
-    without a tree or a bush in sight, to relieve the painful monotony,
-    filling our canteens at the occasional little streams that we passed,
-    kindling our fires with dried buffalo dung, which we collected on the
-    prairie, and stretching our tired limbs on the level turf whenever we
-    were overtaken by night.</p>
-
-  <p>We were six or seven days in performing this march; and it gave me a
-    good opportunity of testing the muscles of my legs, with a number of
-    half-breeds and Frenchmen, whose lives are mostly spent in this way,
-    leading a novice, a cruel, and almost killing journey. Every rod of our
-    way was over a continuous prairie, with a verdant green turf of wild
-    grass of six or eight inches in height; and most of the way enamelled
-    with wild flowers, and filled with a profusion of strawberries.</p>
-
-  <p>For two or three of the first days, the scenery was monotonous,
-    and became exceedingly painful from the fact, that we were (to use
-    a phrase of the country) “out of sight of land,” <i>i. e.</i> out
-    of sight of anything rising above the horizon, which was a perfect
-    straight line around us, like that of the blue and boundless ocean. The
-    pedestrian over such a discouraging sea of green, without a landmark
-    before or behind him; without a beacon to lead him on, or define his
-    progress, feels weak and overcome when night falls; and he stretches
-    his exhausted limbs, apparently on the same spot where he has slept
-    the night before, with the same prospect before and behind him; the
-    same grass, and the same wild flowers beneath and about him; the same
-    canopy over his head, and the same cheerless sea of green to start
-    upon in the morning. It is difficult to describe the simple beauty
-    and serenity of these scenes of solitude, or the feelings of feeble
-    man, whose limbs are toiling to carry him through them—without a hill
-    or tree to mark his progress, and convince him that he is not, like a
-    squirrel in his cage, after all his toil, standing still. One commences
-    on peregrinations like these, with a light heart, and a nimble foot,
-    and spirits as buoyant as the very air that floats along by the side
-    of him; but his spirit soon tires, and he lags on the way that is
-    rendered more tedious and intolerable by the tantalizing <em>mirage</em>
-    that opens before him beautiful lakes, and lawns, and copses; or by
-    the <em>looming</em> of the prairie ahead of him, that seems to rise in
-    a parapet, and decked with its varied flowers, phantom-like, flies and
-    moves along before him.</p>
-
-  <p>I got on for a couple of days in tolerable condition, and with some
-    considerable applause; but my half-bred, companions took the lead at
-    length, and left me with several other novices far behind, which gave
-    me additional pangs; and I at length felt like giving up the journey,
-    and throwing myself upon the ground in hopeless despair. I was not
-    alone in my misery, however, but was cheered and encouraged by looking
-    back and beholding several of our party half a mile or more in the rear
-    of me, jogging along, and suffering more agony in their new experiment
-    than I was suffering myself. Their loitering and my murmurs, at length,
-    brought our leaders to a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_219">219</span> halt, and we held a sort of council, in which
-    I explained that the pain in my feet was so intolerable, that I felt as
-    if I could go no further; when one of our half-breed leaders stepped
-    up to me, and addressing me in French, told me that I must “<em>turn my
-    toes in</em>” as the Indians do, and that I could then go on very well.
-    We halted a half-hour, and took a little refreshment, whilst the little
-    Frenchman was teaching his lesson to the rest of my fellow-novices,
-    when we took up our march again; and I soon found upon trial, that by
-    turning my toes in, my feet went more easily through the grass; and by
-    turning the weight of my body more equally on the toes (enabling each
-    one to support its proportionable part of the load, instead of throwing
-    it all on to the joints of the big toes, which is done when the toes
-    are turned out); I soon got relief, and made my onward progress very
-    well. I rigidly adhered to this mode, and found no difficulty on the
-    third and fourth days, of taking the lead of the whole party, which I
-    constantly led until our journey was completed.<a id="FNanchor_7" href="#Footnote_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></p>
-
-  <p>On this journey we saw immense herds of buffaloes; and although we
-    had no horses to <em>run</em> them, we successfully <em>approached</em>
-    them on foot, and supplied ourselves abundantly with fresh meat. After
-    travelling for several days, we came in sight of a high range of blue
-    hills in distance on our left, which rose to the height of several
-    hundred feet above the level of the prairies. These hills were a
-    conspicuous landmark at last, and some relief to us. I was told by our
-    guide, that they were called the Bijou Hills, from a Fur Trader of that
-    name, who had had his trading-house at the foot of them on the banks of
-    the Missouri river, where he was at last destroyed by the Sioux Indians.</p>
-
-  <p>Not many miles back of this range of hills, we came in contact with an
-    immense saline, or “salt meadow,” as they are termed in this country,
-    which turned us out of our path, and compelled us to travel several
-    miles out of our way, to get by it; we came suddenly upon a great
-    depression of the prairie, which extended for several miles, and as
-    we stood upon its green banks, which were gracefully sloping down, we
-    could overlook some hundreds of acres of the prairie which were covered
-    with an incrustation of salt, that appeared the same as if the ground
-    was everywhere covered with snow.</p>
-
-  <p>These scenes, I am told are frequently to be met with in these regions,
-    and certainly present the most singular and startling effect, by the
-    sudden<span class="pagenum" id="Page_220">220</span>
-    and unexpected contrast between their snow-white appearance, and the
-    green fields that hem them in on all sides. Through each of these
-    meadows there is a meandering small stream which arises from salt
-    springs, throwing out in the spring of the year great quantities of
-    water, which flood over these meadows to the depth of three or four
-    feet; and during the heat of summer, being exposed to the rays of the
-    sun, entirely evaporates, leaving the incrustation of <em>muriate</em>
-    on the surface, to the depth of one or two inches. These places are
-    the constant resort of buffaloes, which congregate in thousands about
-    them, to lick up the salt; and on approaching the banks of this place
-    we stood amazed at the almost incredible numbers of these animals,
-    which were in sight on the opposite banks, at the distance of a mile or
-    two from us, where they were lying in countless numbers, on the level
-    prairie above, and stretching down by hundreds, to lick at the salt,
-    forming in distance, large masses of black, most pleasingly to contrast
-    with the snow white, and the vivid green, which I have before mentioned.</p>
-
-  <p>After several days toil in the manner above-mentioned, all the way
-    over soft and green fields, and amused with many pleasing incidents
-    and accidents of the chase, we arrived, pretty well jaded, at Fort
-    Pierre, mouth of Teton River, from whence I am now writing; where for
-    the first time I was introduced to Mr. M‘Kenzie (of whom I have before
-    spoken), to Mr. Laidlaw, mine host, and Mr. Halsey, a chief clerk in
-    the establishment; and after, to the head chief and dignitaries of the
-    great Sioux nation, who were here encamped about the Fort, in six or
-    seven hundred skin lodges, and waiting for the arrival of the steamer,
-    which they had heard, was on its way up the river, and which they had
-    great curiosity to see.</p>
-
-  <p>After resting a few days, and recovering from the fatigues of my
-    journey, having taken a fair survey of the Sioux village, and explained
-    my views to the Indians, as well as to the gentlemen whom I have
-    above named; I commenced my operations with the brush, and first of
-    all painted the portrait of the head-chief of the Sioux (the one
-    horn), whom I have before spoken of. This truly noble fellow sat for
-    his portrait, and it was finished before any one of the tribe knew
-    anything of it; several of the chiefs and doctors were allowed to see
-    it, and at last it was talked of through the village; and of course,
-    the greater part of their numbers were at once gathered around me.
-    Nothing short of hanging it out of doors on the side of my wigwam,
-    would in any way answer them; and here I had the peculiar satisfaction
-    of beholding, through a small hole I had made in my wigwam, the high
-    admiration and respect they all felt for their chief, as well as
-    the very great estimation in which they held me as a painter and a
-    magician, conferring upon me at once the very distinguished appellation
-    of Ee-cha-zoo-kah-ga-wa-kon (the medicine painter).</p>
-
-  <p>After the exhibition of this chief’s picture, there was much excitement
-    in the village about it; the doctors generally took a decided and noisy
-    stand against the operations of my brush; haranguing the populace, and
-    predicting<span class="pagenum" id="Page_221">221</span> bad luck, and premature death, to all who submitted to so
-    strange and unaccountable an operation! My business for some days was
-    entirely at a stand for want of sitters; for the doctors were opposing
-    me with all their force; and the women and children were crying, with
-    their hands over their mouths, making the most pitiful and doleful
-    laments, which I never can explain to my readers; but for some just
-    account of which, I must refer them to my friends M‘Kenzie and Halsey,
-    who overlooked with infinite amusement, these curious scenes and are
-    able, no doubt, to give them with truth and effect to the world.</p>
-
-  <p>In this sad and perplexing dilemma, this noble chief stepped forward,
-    and addressing himself to the chiefs and the doctors, to the braves and
-    to the women and children, he told them to be quiet, and to treat me
-    with friendship; that I had been travelling a great way to see them,
-    and smoke with them; that I was great <em>medicine</em>, to be sure; that
-    I was a great chief, and that I was the friend of Mr. Laidlaw and Mr.
-    M‘Kenzie, who had prevailed upon him to sit for his picture, and fully
-    assured him that there was no harm in it. His speech had the desired
-    effect, and I was shaken hands with by hundreds of their worthies, many
-    of whom were soon dressed and ornamented, prepared to sit for their
-    portraits.<a id="FNanchor_8" href="#Footnote_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a></p>
-
-  <p>The first who then stepped forward for his portrait was Ee-ah-sa-pa
-    (the Black Rock) chief of the Nee-caw-wee-gee band (<a href="#i_091"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 91</a>),
-    a tall and fine looking man, of six feet or more in stature; in a
-    splendid dress, with his lance in his hand; with his pictured robe
-    thrown gracefully over his shoulders, and his head-dress made of
-    war-eagles’ quills and ermine skins, falling in a beautiful crest over
-    his back, quite down to his feet, and surmounted on the top with a pair
-    of horns denoting him (as I have explained in former instances) head
-    leader or war-chief of his band.</p>
-
-  <p>This man has been a constant and faithful friend of Mr. M‘Kenzie and
-    others of the Fur Traders, who held him in high estimation, both as an
-    honourable and valiant man, and an estimable companion.</p>
-
-  <p>The next who sat to me was Tchan-dee, tobacco (<a href="#i_092"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 92</a>),
-    a desperate warrior, and represented to me by the traders, as one
-    of the most respectable and famous chiefs of the tribe. After him
-    sat Toh-ki-ee-to, the stone with horns (<a href="#i_092"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 93</a>), chief
-    of the Yanc-ton band, and reputed the principal and most eloquent
-    <em>orator</em> of the nation. The neck, and breast, and shoulders
-    of this man, were curiously tattooed, by pricking in gunpowder and
-    vermilion, which in this extraordinary instance, was put on in
-    such elaborate profusion as to appear at a little distance like a
-    beautifully embroidered dress. In his hand he held a handsome pipe,
-    the stem of which was several feet long, and all the way wound with
-    ornamented braids of the porcupine quills. Around his body was wrapped
-    a valued robe, made of the skin of the grizzly bear, and on his neck
-    several strings of <em>wampum</em>, an ornament seldom seen amongst the
-    Indians in the Far West and the North.<a id="FNanchor_9" href="#Footnote_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> I was much amused with the
-    excessive vanity and egotism of this notorious man, who, whilst sitting
-    for his picture, took occasion to have the interpreter constantly
-    explaining to me the wonderful effects which his oratory had at
-    different times produced on the minds of the chiefs and people of his
-    tribe.</p>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>62</i></div>
-  <figure id="i_092">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_092.jpg" alt="" />
-    <figcaption><span class="col50">92</span><span class="col50">93</span></figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <figure class="mt2" id="i_094">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_094.jpg" alt="" />
-    <figcaption><span class="col50">94</span><span class="col50">95</span></figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>63</i></div>
-  <figure id="i_096">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_096.jpg" alt="" />
-     <figcaption>96</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <figure class="mt2" id="i_097">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_097.jpg" alt="" />
-     <figcaption>97</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_223">223</span></p>
-
-  <p>He told me, that it was a very easy thing for him to set all the women
-    of the tribe to crying: and that all the chiefs listened profoundly to
-    his voice before they went to war; and at last, summed up by saying,
-    that he was “the greatest orator in the Sioux nation,” by which he
-    undoubtedly meant the greatest in the <em>world</em>.</p>
-
-  <p>Besides these <i lang="fr">distingués</i> of this great and powerful tribe, I
-    painted in regular succession, according to their rank and standing,
-    Wan-ee-ton, chief of the <em>Susseton band</em>; Tah-zee-kah-da-cha
-    (the torn belly), a brave of the <em>Yancton band</em>; Ka-pes-ka-day
-    (the shell), a brave of the <em>O-gla-la band</em>; Wuk-mi-ser (corn),
-    a warrior of the <em>Nee-cow-ee-gee band</em>; Cha-tee-wah-nee-chee
-    (no heart), chief of the <em>Wah-nee-watch-to-nee-nah band</em>;
-    Mah-to-ra-rish-nee-eeh-ee-rah (the grizzly bear that runs without
-    regard), a brave of the <em>Onc-pa-pa band</em>; Mah-to-chee-ga (the
-    little bear), a distinguished brave; Shon-ka (the dog), chief of the
-    <em>Ca-za-zhee-ta</em> (bad arrow points) <em>band</em>; Tah-teck-a-da-hair
-    (the steep wind), a brave of the same band; Hah-ha-ra-pah (the elk’s
-    head), chief of the <em>Ee-ta-sip-shov band</em>; Mah-to-een-nah-pa (the
-    white bear that goes out), chief of the <em>Blackfoot Sioux band</em>;
-    Shon-ga-ton-ga-chesh-en-day (the horse dung), chief of a band, a great
-    conjuror and magician.</p>
-
-  <p>The portraits of all the above dignitaries can be always seen, as large
-    as life, in my very numerous Collection, provided I get them safe
-    home; and also the portraits of two very pretty Sioux women (<a href="#i_094"><span class="smcap">plate</span>
-    94</a>), Wi-looh-tah-eeh-tchah-ta-mah-nee (the red thing that touches
-    in marching), and (<a href="#i_094"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 95</a>), Tchon-su-mons-ka (the sand bar).
-    The first of these women<span class="pagenum" id="Page_224">224</span>
-    (<a href="#i_094"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 94</a>), is the daughter of the famous chief called
-    Black Rock, of whom I have spoken, and whose portrait has been given
-    (<a href="#i_091"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 91</a>). She is an unmarried girl, and much esteemed by the
-    whole tribe, for her modesty, as well as beauty. She was beautifully
-    dressed in skins, ornamented profusely with brass buttons and beads.
-    Her hair was plaited, her ears supported a great profusion of curious
-    beads—and over her other dress she wore a handsomely garnished buffalo robe.</p>
-
-  <p>So highly was the Black Rock esteemed (as I have before mentioned), and
-    his beautiful daughter admired and respected by the Traders, that Mr.
-    M‘Kenzie employed me to make him copies of their two portraits, which
-    he has hung up in Mr. Laidlaw’s trading-house, as valued ornaments and
-    keepsakes.<a id="FNanchor_10" href="#Footnote_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a></p>
-
-  <p>The second of these women (<a href="#i_094"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 95</a>) was very richly dressed,
-    the upper part of her garment being almost literally covered with brass
-    buttons; and her hair, which was inimitably beautiful and soft, and
-    glossy as silk, fell over her shoulders in great profusion, and in
-    beautiful waves, produced by the condition in which it is generally
-    kept in braids, giving to it, when combed out, a waving form, adding
-    much to its native appearance, which is invariably straight and
-    graceless.</p>
-
-  <p>This woman is at present the wife of a white man by the name of
-    Chardon, a Frenchman, who has been many years in the employment of the
-    American Fur Company, in the character of a Trader and Interpreter;
-    and who by his bold and daring nature, has not only carried dread and
-    consternation amongst the Indian tribes wherever he has gone; but
-    has commanded much respect, and rendered essential service to the
-    Company in the prosecution of their dangerous and critical dealings
-    with the Indian tribes. I have said something of this extraordinary
-    man heretofore, and shall take future occasion to say more of him.
-    For the present, suffice it to say, that <span class="pagenum" id="Page_225">225</span>although from his continual
-    intercourse with the different tribes for twenty-five or thirty years,
-    where he had always been put forward in the front of danger—sent as
-    a sacrifice, or <em>forlorn hope</em>; still his cut and hacked limbs
-    have withstood all the blows that have been aimed at them; and his
-    unfaltering courage leads him to “beard the lion in his den,” whilst
-    his liberal heart, as it always has, deals out to his friends (and even
-    to strangers, if friends are not by) all the dear earnings which are
-    continually bought with severest toil, and at the hazard of his life.</p>
-
-  <p>I acknowledge myself a debtor to this good hearted fellow for much
-    kindness and attention to me whilst in the Indian country, and also for
-    a superb dress and robe, which had been manufactured and worn by his
-    wife, and which he insisted on adding to my <span class="smcap">Indian Gallery</span>
-    since her death, where it will long remain to be examined.<a id="FNanchor_11" href="#Footnote_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a></p>
-
-  <div class="footnotes">
-    <div class="footnote">
-      <a id="Footnote_6" href="#FNanchor_6" class="label">[6]</a> When passing by the site of the Puncah village a few
-        months after this, in my canoe, I went ashore with my men, and found
-        the poles and the buffalo skin, standing as they were left, over the
-        old man’s head. The firebrands were lying nearly as I had left them,
-        and I found at a few yards distant the skull, and others of his bones,
-        which had been picked and cleaned by the wolves; which is probably all
-        that any human being can ever know of his final and melancholy fate.
-    </div>
-
-    <div class="footnote">
-      <a id="Footnote_7" href="#FNanchor_7" class="label">[7]</a> On this march we were all travelling in moccasins, which
-        being made without any soles, according to the Indian custom, had
-        but little support for the foot underneath; and consequently, soon
-        subjected us to excruciating pain, whilst walking according to the
-        civilized mode, with the toes turned out. From this very painful
-        experience I learned to my complete satisfaction, that man in a state
-        of nature who walks on his naked feet, <em>must</em> walk with his
-        toes turned in, that each may perform the duties assigned to it in
-        proportion to its size and strength; and that civilized man <em>can</em>
-        walk with his toes turned out if he chooses, if he will use a stiff
-        sole under his feet, and will be content at last to put up with an
-        acquired deformity of the big toe joint which too many know to be a
-        frequent and painful occurrence.
-    </div>
-
-    <div class="footnote">
-      <a id="Footnote_8" href="#FNanchor_8" class="label">[8]</a> Several years after I painted the portrait of this
-        extraordinary man, and whilst I was delivering my Lectures in the
-        City of New York, I first received intelligence of his death, in the
-        following singular manner:—I was on the platform in my Lecture-room,
-        in the Stuyvesant Institute, with an audience of twelve or fourteen
-        hundred persons, in the midst of whom were seated a delegation of
-        thirty or forty Sioux Indians under the charge of Major Pilcher, their
-        agent; and I was successfully passing before their eyes the portraits
-        of a number of Sioux chiefs, and making my remarks upon them. The Sioux
-        instantly recognized each one as it was exhibited, which they instantly
-        hailed by a sharp and startling yelp. But when the portrait of this
-        chief was placed before them, instead of the usual recognition, each
-        one placed his hand over his mouth, and gave a “hush—sh—” and hung
-        down their heads, their usual expressions of grief in case of a death.
-        From this sudden emotion, I knew instantly, that the chief must be
-        dead, and so expressed my belief to the audience. I stopped my Lecture
-        a few moments to converse with Major Pilcher who was by my side, and
-        who gave me the following extraordinary account of his death, which I
-        immediately related to the audience; and which being translated to the
-        Sioux Indians, their chief arose and addressed himself to the audience,
-        saying that the account was true, and that Ha-wan-je-tah was killed but
-        a few days before they left home.
-
-      <p>The account which Major Pilcher gave was nearly as follows:—</p>
-
-      <p>“But a few weeks before I left the Sioux country with the delegation,
-        Ha-wan-je-tah (the one horn) had in some way been the accidental cause
-        of the death of his only son, a very fine youth; and so great was the
-        anguish of his mind at times, that he became frantic and insane. In one
-        of these moods he mounted his favourite war-horse with his bow and his
-        arrows in his hand, and dashed off at full speed upon the prairies,
-        repeating the most solemn oath, ‘that he would slay the first living
-        thing that fell in his way, be it man or beast, or friend or foe.’</p>
-
-      <p>“No one dared to follow him, and after he had been absent an hour
-        or two, his horse came back to the village with two arrows in its
-        body, and covered with blood! Fears of the most serious kind were
-        now entertained for the fate of the chief, and a party of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_222">222</span> warriors
-        immediately mounted their horses, and retraced the animal’s tracks to
-        the place of the tragedy, where they found the body of their chief
-        horribly mangled and gored by a buffalo bull, whose carcass was
-        stretched by the side of him.</p>
-
-      <p>“A close examination of the ground was then made by the Indians, who
-        ascertained by the tracks, that their unfortunate chief, under his
-        unlucky resolve, had met a buffalo bull in the season when they are
-        very stubborn, and unwilling to run from any one; and had incensed
-        the animal by shooting a number of arrows into him, which had brought
-        him into furious combat. The chief had then dismounted, and turned
-        his horse loose, having given it a couple of arrows from his bow,
-        which sent it home at full speed, and then had thrown away his bow and
-        quiver, encountering the infuriated animal with his knife alone, and
-        the desperate battle resulted as I have before-mentioned, in the death
-        of both. Many of the bones of the chief were broken, as he was gored
-        and stamped to death, and his huge antagonist had laid his body by the
-        side of him, weltering in blood from an hundred wounds made by the
-        chief’s long and two-edged knife.”</p>
-
-      <p>So died this elegant and high-minded nobleman of the wilderness, whom I
-        confidently had hoped to meet and admire again at some future period of
-        my life. (<i>Vide</i> <a href="#i_086"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 86</a>).</p>
-    </div>
-
-    <div class="footnote">
-      <a id="Footnote_9" href="#FNanchor_9" class="label">[9]</a> <em>Wampum</em> is the Indian name of ornaments
-        manufactured by the Indians from vari-coloured shells, which they get
-        on the shores of the fresh water streams, and file or cut into bits
-        of half an inch, or an inch in length, and perforate (giving to them
-        the shape of pieces of broken pipe stems), which they string on deers’
-        sinews, and wear on their necks in profusion; or weave them ingeniously
-        into war-belts for the waist.
-
-      <p>Amongst the numerous tribes who have formerly inhabited the Atlantic
-        Coast, and that part of the country which now constitutes the principal
-        part of the United States, wampum has been invariably manufactured, and
-        highly valued as a circulating medium (instead of coins, of which the
-        Indians have no knowledge); so many strings, or so many hands-breadth,
-        being the fixed value of a horse, a gun, a robe, &amp;c.</p>
-
-      <p>In treaties, the wampum belt has been passed as the pledge of
-        friendship, and from time immemorial sent to hostile tribes, as the
-        messenger of peace; or paid by so many fathoms length, as tribute to
-        conquering enemies, and Indian kings.</p>
-
-      <p>It is a remarkable fact, and worthy of observation in this place, that
-        after I passed the Mississippi, I saw but very little wampum used; and
-        on ascending the Missouri, I do not recollect to have seen it worn at
-        all by the Upper Missouri Indians, although the same materials for its
-        manufacture are found in abundance through those regions. I met with
-        but very few strings of it amongst the Missouri Sioux, and nothing of
-        it amongst the tribes north and west of them. Below the Sioux, and
-        along the whole of our Western frontier, the different tribes are found
-        loaded and beautifully ornamented with it, which they can now afford
-        to do, for they consider it of little value, as the Fur Traders have
-        ingeniously introduced a spurious imitation of it, manufactured by
-        steam or otherwise, of porcelain or some composition closely resembling
-        it, with which they have flooded the whole Indian country, and sold at
-        so reduced a price, as to cheapen, and consequently destroy, the value
-        and meaning of the original wampum, a string of which can now but very
-        rarely be found in any part of the country.</p>
-    </div>
-
-    <div class="footnote">
-      <a id="Footnote_10" href="#FNanchor_10" class="label">[10]</a> Several years after I left the Sioux country, I saw
-        Messrs. Chardon and Piquot, two of the Traders from that country, who
-        recently had left it, and told me in <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Louis, whilst looking at the
-        portrait of this girl, that while staying in Mr. Laidlaw’s Fort, the
-        chief, Black Rock, entered the room suddenly where the portrait of
-        his daughter was hanging on the wall, and pointing to it with a heavy
-        heart, told Mr. Laidlaw, that whilst his band was out on the prairies,
-        where they had been for several months “making meat,” his daughter
-        had died, and was there buried. “My heart is glad again,” said he,
-        “when I see her here alive; and I want the one the medicine-man made
-        of her, which is now before me, that I can see her, and talk to her.
-        My band are all in mourning for her, and at the gate of your Fort,
-        which I have just passed, are ten horses for you, and Ee-ah-sa-pa’s
-        wigwam, which you know is the best one in the Sioux nation. I wish you
-        to take down my daughter and give her to me.” Mr. Laidlaw, seeing the
-        <em>unusually</em> liberal price that this nobleman was willing to pay
-        for a portrait, and the true grief that he expressed for the loss of
-        his child, had not the heart to abuse such noble feeling; and taking
-        the painting from the wall, placed it into his hands; telling him that
-        it of right belonged to him, and that his horses and wigwam he must
-        take back and keep them, to mend, as far as possible, his liberal
-        heart, which was broken by the loss of his only daughter.
-    </div>
-
-    <div class="footnote">
-      <a id="Footnote_11" href="#FNanchor_11" class="label">[11]</a> Several years since writing the above, I made a visit
-        with my wife, to the venerable parent of Mr. Chardon, who lives in her
-        snug and neat mansion, near the City of Philadelphia, where we were
-        treated with genuine politeness and hospitality. His mother and two
-        sisters, who are highly respectable, had many anxious questions to ask
-        about him; and had at the same time, living with them, a fine-looking
-        half-breed boy, about ten years old, the son of Monsr. Chardon and
-        his Indian wife, whom I have above spoken of. This fine boy who had
-        received the name of Bolivar, had been brought from the Indian country
-        by the father, and left here for his education, with which they were
-        taking great pains.
-    </div>
-  </div>
-
-  <hr class="chap" />
-  <div class="chapter">
-    <span class="pagenum" id="Page_226">226</span>
-    <h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_28">LETTER—<abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 28.</h2>
-  </div>
-  <div class="subheadc">MOUTH OF TETON RIVER, <i>UPPER MISSOURI</i>.</div>
-
-  <p><span class="smcap">Whilst</span> painting the portraits of the chiefs and braves of the Sioux,
-    as described in my last epistle, my painting-room was the continual
-    rendezvous of the worthies of the tribe; and I, the “lion of the day,”
-    and my art, the <i lang="fr">summum</i> and <i lang="fr">ne plus ultra</i> of mysteries,
-    which engaged the whole conversation of chiefs and sachems, as well
-    as of women and children. I mentioned that I have been obliged to
-    paint them according to rank, as they looked upon the operation as a
-    very great honour, which I, as “a great chief and medicine-man,” was
-    conferring on all who sat to me. Fortunate it was for me, however, that
-    the honour was not a sufficient inducement for all to overcome their
-    fears, which often stood in the way of their consenting to be painted;
-    for if all had been willing to undergo the operation, I should have
-    progressed but a very little way in the “<em>rank and file</em>” of their
-    worthies; and should have had to leave many discontented, and (as they
-    would think) neglected. About one in five or eight was willing to be
-    painted, and the rest thought they would be much more sure of “sleeping
-    quiet in their graves” after they were dead, if their pictures were
-    not made. By this lucky difficulty I got great relief, and easily got
-    through with those who were willing, and at the same time decided by
-    the chiefs to be worthy, of so signal an honour.</p>
-
-  <p>After I had done with the chiefs and braves, and proposed to paint a
-    few of the women, I at once got myself into a serious perplexity, being
-    heartily laughed at by the whole tribe, both by men and by women, for
-    my exceeding and (to them) unaccountable condescension in seriously
-    proposing to paint a woman; conferring on her the same honour that I
-    had done the chiefs and braves. Those whom I had honoured, were laughed
-    at by hundreds of the jealous, who had been decided unworthy the
-    distinction, and were now amusing themselves with the <em>very enviable
-    honour</em> which the <em>great white medicine-man</em> had conferred,
-    <em>especially</em> on <em>them</em>, and was now to confer equally upon
-    the <em>squaws</em>!</p>
-
-  <p>The first reply that I received from those whom I had painted, was,
-    that if I was to paint women and children, the sooner I destroyed
-    <em>their</em> pictures, the better; for I had represented to them
-    that I wanted their pictures to exhibit to white chiefs, to shew who
-    were the most distinguished and worthy of the Sioux; and their women
-    had never taken scalps, nor did anything<span class="pagenum" id="Page_227">227</span> better than make fires and
-    dress skins. I was quite awkward in this dilemma, in explaining to
-    them that I wanted the portraits of the women to hang <em>under</em>
-    those of their husbands, merely to shew how their women <em>looked</em>,
-    and how they <em>dressed</em>, without saying any more of them. After
-    some considerable delay of my operations, and much deliberation on
-    the subject, through the village, I succeeded in getting a number of
-    women’s portraits, of which the two above introduced are a couple.</p>
-
-  <p>The vanity of these men, after they had agreed to be painted was beyond
-    all description, and far surpassing that which is oftentimes immodest
-    enough in civilized society, where the sitter generally leaves the
-    picture, when it is done to speak for, and to take care of, itself;
-    while an Indian often lays down, from morning till night, in front of
-    his portrait, admiring his own beautiful face, and faithfully guarding
-    it from day to day, to save it from accident or harm.</p>
-
-  <p>This <em>watching</em> or <em>guarding</em> their portraits, I have
-    observed during all of my travels amongst them as a very curious thing;
-    and in many instances, where my colours were not dry, and subjected
-    to so many accidents, from the crowds who were gathering about them,
-    I have found this peculiar guardianship of essential service to
-    me—relieving my mind oftentimes from a great deal of anxiety.</p>
-
-  <p>I was for a long time at a loss for the true cause of so singular
-    a peculiarity, but at last learned that it was owing to their
-    superstitious notion, that there may be life to a certain extent in the
-    picture; and that if harm or violence be done to it, it may in some
-    mysterious way, affect their health or do them other injury.</p>
-
-  <p>After I had been several weeks busily at work with my brush in this
-    village, and pretty well used to the modes of life in these regions—and
-    also familiarly acquainted with all the officers and clerks of the
-    Establishment, it was announced one day, that the steamer which we had
-    left, was coming in the river below, where all eyes were anxiously
-    turned, and all ears were listening; when, at length, we discovered the
-    puffing of her steam; and, at last, heard the thundering of her cannon,
-    which were firing from her deck.</p>
-
-  <p>The excitement and dismay caused amongst 6000 of these wild people,
-    when the steamer came up in front of their village, was amusing in the
-    extreme. The steamer was moored at the shore, however; and when Mr.
-    Chouteau and Major Sanford, their old friend and agent, walked ashore,
-    it seemed to restore their confidence and courage; and the whole
-    village gathered in front of the boat, without showing much further
-    amazement, or even curiosity about it.</p>
-
-  <p>The steamer rested a week or two at this place before she started on
-    her voyage for the head-waters of the Missouri; during which time,
-    there was much hilarity and mirth indulged in amongst the Indians, as
-    well as with the hands employed in the service of the Fur Company. The
-    appearance of a steamer in this wild country was deemed a wonderful
-    occurrence, and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_228">228</span> the time of her presence here, looked upon, and used
-    as a holiday. Some sharp encounters amongst the trappers, who come
-    in here from the mountains, loaded with packs of furs, with sinews
-    hardened by long exposure, and seemingly impatient for a <em>fight</em>,
-    which is soon given them by some bullying fisticuff-fellow, who steps
-    forward and settles the matter in a ring, which is made and strictly
-    preserved for <em>fair play</em>, until hard raps, and bloody noses, and
-    blind eyes “<em>settle the hash</em>,” and satisfy his trappership to lay
-    in bed a week or two, and then graduate, a sober and a civil man.</p>
-
-  <p>Amongst the Indians we have had numerous sights and
-    amusements to entertain and some to shock us. Shows of
-    dances—ball-plays—horse-racing—foot-racing, and wrestling in abundance.
-    Feasting—fasting, and prayers we have also had; and penance and
-    tortures, and almost every thing short of self-immolation.</p>
-
-  <p>Some few days after the steamer had arrived, it was announced that
-    a grand feast was to be given to the <em>great white chiefs</em>, who
-    were visitors amongst them; and preparations were made accordingly
-    for it. The two chiefs, Ha-wan-je-tah and Tchan-dee, of whom I have
-    before spoken, brought their two tents together, forming the two into a
-    semi-circle (<a href="#i_096"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 96</a>), enclosing a space sufficiently large
-    to accommodate 150 men; and sat down with that number of the principal
-    chiefs and warriors of the Sioux nation; with Mr. Chouteau, Major
-    Sanford, the Indian agent, Mr. M‘Kenzie, and myself, whom they had
-    invited in due time, and placed on elevated seats in the centre of the
-    crescent; while the rest of the company all sat upon the ground, and
-    mostly cross-legged, preparatory to the feast being dealt out.</p>
-
-  <p>In the centre of the semi-circle was erected a flag-staff, on which
-    was waving a white flag, and to which also was tied the calumet, both
-    expressive of their friendly feelings towards us. Near the foot of the
-    flag-staff were placed in a row on the ground, six or eight kettles,
-    with iron covers on them, shutting them tight, in which were prepared
-    the viands for our <em>voluptuous</em> feast. Near the kettles, and on
-    the ground also, bottomside upwards, were a number of wooden bowls, in
-    which the meat was to be served out. And in front, two or three men,
-    who were there placed as waiters, to light the pipes for smoking, and
-    also to deal out the food.</p>
-
-  <p>In these positions things stood, and all sat, with thousands climbing
-    and crowding around, for a peep at the grand pageant; when at length,
-    Ha-wan-je-tah (the one horn), head chief of the nation, rose in front
-    of the Indian agent, in a very handsome costume, and addressed him
-    thus:—“My father, I am glad to see you here to-day—my heart is always
-    glad to see my father when he comes—our Great Father, who sends him
-    here is very rich, and we are poor. Our friend Mr. M‘Kenzie, who
-    is here, we are also glad to see; we know him well, and we shall
-    be sorry when he is gone. Our friend who is on your right-hand we
-    all know is very rich; and we<span class="pagenum" id="Page_229">229</span> have heard that he owns the great
-    <em>medicine-canoe</em>; he is a good man, and a friend to the red men.
-    Our friend the <em>White Medicine</em>, who sits with you, we did not
-    know—he came amongst us a stranger, and he has made me very well—all
-    the women know it, and think it very good; he has done many curious
-    things, and we have all been pleased with him—he has made us much
-    amusement—and we know he is great medicine.</p>
-
-  <figure class="illowp75 mt2" id="i_098">
-    <div class="plate"><i>64</i></div>
-    <img src="images/i_098.jpg" alt="" />
-     <figcaption>98</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p>“My father, I hope you will have pity on us, we are very poor—we offer
-    you to-day, not the best that we have got; for we have a plenty of good
-    buffalo hump and marrow—but we give you our hearts in this feast—we
-    have killed our faithful dogs to feed you—and the Great Spirit will
-    seal our friendship. I have no more to say.”</p>
-
-  <p>After these words he took off his beautiful war-eagle head-dress—his
-    shirt and leggings—his necklace of grizzly bears’ claws and his
-    moccasins; and tying them together, laid them gracefully down at the
-    feet of the agent as a present; and laying a handsome pipe on top of
-    them, he walked around into an adjoining lodge, where he got a buffalo
-    robe to cover his shoulders, and returned to the feast, taking his seat
-    which he had before occupied.</p>
-
-  <p>Major Sanford then rose and made a short speech in reply, thanking
-    him for the valuable present which he had made him, and for the very
-    polite and impressive manner in which it had been done; and sent to the
-    steamer for a quantity of tobacco and other presents, which were given
-    to him in return. After this, and after several others of the chiefs
-    had addressed him in a similar manner; and, like the first, disrobed
-    themselves, and thrown their beautiful costumes at his feet, one of the
-    three men in front deliberately lit a handsome pipe, and brought it to
-    Ha-wan-je-tah to smoke. He took it, and after presenting the stem to
-    the North—to the South—to the East, and the West—and then to the Sun
-    that was over his head, and pronounced the words “How—how—how!” drew
-    a whiff or two of smoke through it, and holding the bowl of it in one
-    hand, and its stem in the other, he then held it to each of our mouths,
-    as we successively smoked it; after which it was passed around through
-    the whole group, who all smoked through it, or as far as its contents
-    lasted, when another of the three waiters was ready with a second, and
-    at length a third one, in the same way, which lasted through the hands
-    of the whole number of guests. This smoking was conducted with the
-    strictest adherence to exact and established form, and the feast the
-    whole way, to the most positive silence. After the pipe is charged, and
-    is being lit, until the time that the chief has drawn the smoke through
-    it, it is considered an evil omen for any one to speak; and if any one
-    break silence in that time, even in a whisper, the pipe is instantly
-    dropped by the chief, and their superstition is such, that they would
-    not dare to use it on this occasion; but another one is called for
-    and used in its stead. If there is no accident of the kind during the
-    smoking, the waiters then proceed to distribute the meat, which is soon
-    devoured in the feast.</p>
-
-  <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_230">230</span></p>
-
-  <p>In his case the lids were raised from the kettles, which were all
-    filled with dogs’ meat alone. It being well-cooked, and made into a
-    sort of a stew, sent forth a very savoury and pleasing smell, promising
-    to be an acceptable and palatable food. Each of us civilized guests had
-    a large wooden bowl placed before us, with a huge quantity of dogs’
-    flesh floating in a profusion of soup, or rich gravy, with a large
-    spoon resting in the dish, made of the buffalo’s horn. In this most
-    difficult and painful dilemma we sat; all of us knowing the solemnity
-    and good feeling in which it was given, and the absolute necessity of
-    falling to, and devouring a little of it. We all tasted it a few times,
-    and resigned our dishes, which were quite willingly taken, and passed
-    around with others, to every part of the group, who all ate heartily of
-    the <em>delicious viands</em>, which were soon dipped out of the kettles,
-    and entirely devoured; after which each one arose as he felt disposed,
-    and walked off without uttering a word. In this way the feast ended,
-    and all retired silently, and gradually, until the ground was left
-    vacant to the charge of the waiters or officers, who seemed to have
-    charge of it during the whole occasion.</p>
-
-  <p>This feast was unquestionably given to us, as the most undoubted
-    evidence they could give us of their friendship; and we, who knew
-    the spirit and feeling in which it was given, could not but treat it
-    respectfully, and receive it as a very high and marked compliment.</p>
-
-  <p>Since I witnessed it on this occasion, I have been honoured with
-    numerous entertainments of the kind amongst the other tribes, which I
-    have visited towards the sources of the Missouri, and all conducted in
-    the same solemn and impressive manner; from which I feel authorized
-    to pronounce the <em>dog-feast</em> a truly religious ceremony, wherein
-    the poor Indian sees fit to sacrifice his faithful companion to bear
-    testimony to the sacredness of his vows of friendship, and invite his
-    friend to partake of its flesh, to remind him forcibly of the reality
-    of the sacrifice, and the solemnity of his professions.</p>
-
-  <p>The dog, amongst all Indian tribes, is more esteemed and more valued
-    than amongst any part of the civilized world; the Indian who has more
-    time to devote to his company, and whose untutored mind more nearly
-    assimilates to that of his faithful servant, keeps him closer company,
-    and draws him nearer to his heart; they hunt together, and are equal
-    sharers in the chase—their bed is one; and on the rocks, and on their
-    coats of arms they carve his image as the symbol of fidelity. Yet, with
-    all of these he will end his affection with this faithful follower, and
-    with tears in his eyes, offer him as a sacrifice to seal the pledge he
-    has made to man; because a feast of venison, or of buffalo meat, is
-    what is due to every one who enters an Indian’s wigwam; and of course,
-    conveys but a passive or neutral evidence, that generally goes for
-    nothing.</p>
-
-  <p>I have sat at many of these feasts, and never could but appreciate
-    the moral and solemnity of them. I have seen the master take from the
-    bowl the head of his victim, and descant on its former affection and
-    fidelity with<span class="pagenum" id="Page_231">231</span> tears in his eyes. And I have seen guests at the same
-    time by the side of me, jesting and sneering at the poor Indian’s folly
-    and stupidity; and I have said in my heart, that they never deserved a
-    name so good or so honourable as that of the poor animal whose bones
-    they were picking.</p>
-
-  <p>At the feast which I have been above describing, each of us tasted a
-    little of the meat, and passed the dishes on to the Indians, who soon
-    demolished everything they contained. We all agreed that the meat was
-    well cooked, and seemed to be a well-flavoured and palatable food; and
-    no doubt, could have been eaten with a good relish, if we had been
-    hungry, and ignorant of the nature of the food we were eating.</p>
-
-  <p>The flesh of these dogs, though apparently relished by the Indians,
-    is, undoubtedly, inferior to the venison and buffalo’s meat, of which
-    feasts are constantly made where friends are invited, as they are in
-    civilized society, to a pleasant and convivial party; from which fact
-    alone, it would seem clear, that they have some extraordinary motive,
-    at all events, for feasting on the flesh of that useful and faithful
-    animal; even when, as in the instance I have been describing, their
-    village is well supplied with fresh and dried meat of the buffalo. The
-    dog-feast is given, I believe, by all tribes in North America; and
-    by them all, I think, this faithful animal, as well as the horse, is
-    sacrificed in several different ways, to appease offended Spirits or
-    Deities, whom it is considered necessary that they should conciliate in
-    this way; and when done, is invariably done by giving the best in the
-    herd or the kennel.</p>
-
-  <hr class="chap" />
-  <div class="chapter">
-    <span class="pagenum" id="Page_232">232</span>
-    <h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_29">LETTER—<abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 29.</h2>
-  </div>
-  <div class="subheadc">MOUTH OF TETON RIVER, <i>UPPER MISSOURI</i>.</div>
-
-  <p><span class="smcap">Another</span> curious and disgusting scene I witnessed in the after part of
-    the day on which we were honoured with the dog feast. In this I took no
-    part, but was sufficiently near to it, when standing some rods off, and
-    witnessing the cruel operation. I was called upon by one of the clerks
-    in the Establishment to ride up a mile or so, near the banks of the
-    Teton River, in a little plain at the base of the bluffs, where were
-    grouped some fifteen or twenty lodges of the Ting-ta-to-ah band, to see
-    a man (as they said) “<em>looking at the sun</em>!” We found him naked,
-    except his breech-cloth, with splints or skewers run through the flesh
-    on both breasts, leaning back and hanging with the weight of his body
-    to the top of a pole which was fastened in the ground, and to the upper
-    end of which he was fastened by a cord which was tied to the splints.
-    In this position he was leaning back, with nearly the whole weight
-    of his body hanging to the pole, the top of which was bent forward,
-    allowing his body to sink about half-way to the ground (<a href="#i_097"><span class="smcap">plate</span>
-    97</a>). His feet were still upon the ground, supporting a small part
-    of his weight; and he held in his left hand his favourite bow, and in
-    his right, with a desperate grip, his medicine-bag. In this condition,
-    with the blood trickling down over his body, which was covered with
-    white and yellow clay, and amidst a great crowd who were looking on,
-    sympathizing with and encouraging him, he was hanging and “looking at
-    the sun,” without paying the least attention to any one about him.
-    In the group that was reclining around him, were several mystery-men
-    beating their drums and shaking their rattles, and singing as loud as
-    they could yell, to encourage him and strengthen his heart to stand
-    and look at the sun, from its rising in the morning ’till its setting
-    at night; at which time, if his heart and his strength have not failed
-    him, he is “cut down,” receives the liberal donation of presents (which
-    have been thrown into a pile before him during the day), and also the
-    name and the style of a doctor, or <em>medicine-man</em>, which lasts
-    him, and ensures him respect, through life.</p>
-
-  <p>This most extraordinary and cruel custom I never heard of amongst any
-    other tribe, and never saw an instance of it before or after the one I
-    have just named. It is a sort of worship, or penance, of great cruelty;
-    disgusting and painful to behold, with only one palliating circumstance
-    about it, which is, that it is a voluntary torture and of very rare
-    occurrence. The<span class="pagenum" id="Page_233">233</span> poor and ignorant, misguided and superstitious man who
-    undertakes it, puts his everlasting reputation at stake upon the issue;
-    for when he takes his stand, he expects to face the sun and gradually
-    turn his body in listless silence, till he sees it go down at night;
-    and if he faints and falls, of which there is imminent danger, he loses
-    his reputation as a brave or mystery-man, and suffers a signal disgrace
-    in the estimation of the tribe, like all men who have the presumption
-    to set themselves up for braves or mystery-men, and fail justly to
-    sustain the character.</p>
-
-  <p>The Sioux seem to have many modes of worshipping the Great or Good
-    Spirit, and also of conciliating the Evil Spirit: they have numerous
-    fasts and feasts, and many modes of sacrificing, but yet they seem
-    to pay less strict attention to them than the Mandans do, which may
-    perhaps be owing in a great measure to the wandering and predatory
-    modes of life which they pursue, rendering it difficult to adhere so
-    rigidly to the strict form and letter of their customs.</p>
-
-  <p>There had been, a few days before I arrived at this place, a great
-    medicine operation held on the prairie, a mile or so back of the
-    Fort, and which, of course, I was not lucky enough to see. The poles
-    were still standing, and the whole transaction was described to me by
-    my friend Mr. Halsey, one of the clerks in the Establishment. From
-    the account given of it, it seems to bear some slight resemblance to
-    that of the <em>Mandan religious ceremony</em>, but no nearer to it
-    than a feeble effort by so ignorant and superstitious a people, to
-    copy a custom which they most probably have had no opportunity to see
-    themselves, but have endeavoured to imitate from hearsay. They had an
-    awning of immense size erected on the prairie which is yet standing,
-    made of willow bushes supported by posts, with poles and willow boughs
-    laid over; under the centre of which there was a pole set firmly in the
-    ground, from which many of the young men had suspended their bodies by
-    splints run through the flesh in different parts, the numerous scars of
-    which were yet seen bleeding afresh from day to day, amongst the crowds
-    that were about me.</p>
-
-  <p>During my stay amongst the Sioux, as I was considered by them to be
-    great <em>medicine</em>, I received many pipes and other little things
-    from them as presents, given to me in token of respect for me, and
-    as assurances of their friendship; and I, being desirous to collect
-    and bring from their country every variety of their manufactures, of
-    their costumes, their weapons, their pipes, and their mystery-things,
-    purchased a great many others, for which, as I was “medicine”
-    and a “great white chief!” I was necessarily obliged to pay very
-    <em>liberal</em> prices.</p>
-
-  <p>Of the various costumes (of this, as well as of other tribes), that I
-    have collected, there will be seen fair and faithful representations in
-    the numerous portraits; and of their war-clubs, pipes, &amp;c. I have set
-    forth in the following illustrations, a few of the most interesting of
-    the very great numbers of those things which I have collected in this
-    and other tribes which I have visited.</p>
-
-  <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_234">234</span></p>
-
-  <p>The luxury of smoking is known to all the North American Indians,
-    in their primitive state, and that before they have any knowledge
-    of tobacco; which is only introduced amongst them by civilized
-    adventurers, who teach them the use and luxury of whiskey at the same
-    time.</p>
-
-  <p>In their native state they are excessive smokers, and many of them (I
-    would almost venture the assertion), would seem to be smoking one-half
-    of their lives. There may be two good reasons for this, the first
-    of which is, that the idle and leisure life that the Indian leads,
-    (who has no trade or business to follow—no office hours to attend
-    to, or profession to learn), induces him to look for occupation and
-    amusement in so innocent a luxury, which again further tempts him
-    to its excessive use, from its feeble and harmless effects on the
-    system. There are many weeds and leaves, and barks of trees, which are
-    narcotics, and of spontaneous growth in their countries, which the
-    Indians dry and pulverize, and carry in pouches and smoke to great
-    excess—and which in several of the languages, when thus prepared, is
-    called <i lang="mhq">k’nick k’neck</i>.</p>
-
-  <p>As smoking is a luxury so highly valued by the Indians, they have
-    bestowed much pains, and not a little ingenuity, to the construction
-    of their pipes. Of these I have procured a collection of several
-    hundreds, and in <a href="#i_098"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 98</a>, have given fac-simile outlines of
-    a number of the most curious. The bowls of these are generally made of
-    the red steatite, or “pipe-stone” (as it is more familiarly called in
-    this country), and many of them designed and carved with much taste
-    and skill, with figures and groups in <i>alto relievo</i>, standing or
-    reclining upon them.</p>
-
-  <p>The red stone of which these pipe bowls are made, is, in my estimation,
-    a great curiosity; inasmuch as I am sure it is a variety of steatite
-    (if it be steatite), differing from that of any known European
-    locality, and also from any locality known in America, other than the
-    one from which all these pipes come; and which are all traceable I have
-    found to one source; and that source as yet unvisited except by the
-    red man who describes it, everywhere, as a place of vast importance to
-    the Indians—as given to them by the Great Spirit, for their pipes, and
-    strictly forbidden to be used for anything else.</p>
-
-  <p>The source from whence all these pipes come, is, undoubtedly, somewhere
-    between this place and the Mississippi River; and as the Indians all
-    speak of it as a great <em>medicine</em>-place, I shall certainly lay my
-    course to it, ere long, and be able to give the world some account of
-    it and its mysteries.</p>
-
-  <p>The Indians shape out the bowls of these pipes from the solid stone,
-    which is not quite as hard as marble, with nothing but a knife. The
-    stone which is of a cherry red, admits of a beautiful polish, and the
-    Indian makes the hole in the bowl of the pipe, by drilling into it a
-    hard stick, shaped to the desired size, with a quantity of sharp sand
-    and water kept constantly in the hole, subjecting him therefore to a
-    very great labour and the necessity of much patience.</p>
-
-  <figure class="illowp75 mt2" id="i_099">
-    <div class="plate"><i>65</i></div>
-    <img src="images/i_099.jpg" alt="" />
-     <figcaption>99</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_235">235</span></p>
-
-  <p>The shafts or stems of these pipes, as will be seen in <a href="#i_098"><span class="smcap">plate</span>
-    98</a>, are from two to four feet long, sometimes round, but most
-    generally flat; of an inch or two in breadth, and wound half their
-    length or more with braids of porcupines’ quills; and often ornamented
-    with the beaks and tufts from the wood-pecker’s head, with ermine skins
-    and long red hair, dyed from white horse hair or the white buffalo’s
-    tail.</p>
-
-  <p>The stems of these pipes will be found to be carved in many ingenious
-    forms, and in all cases they are perforated through the centre, quite
-    staggering the wits of the enlightened world to <em>guess how</em> the
-    holes have been <em>bored</em> through them; until it is simply and
-    briefly explained, that the stems are uniformly made of the stalk of
-    the young ash, which generally grows straight, and has a small pith
-    through the centre, which is easily burned out with a hot wire or a
-    piece of hard wood, by a much slower process.</p>
-
-  <p>In <a href="#i_098"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 98</a>, the pipes marked <i>b</i> are ordinary
-    pipes, made and used for the <em>luxury</em> only of smoking; and
-    for this purpose, every Indian designs and constructs his own
-    pipe. The <em>calumet</em>, or pipe of peace (<a href="#i_098"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 98</a>
-    <i>a</i>), ornamented with the war-eagle’s quills, is a sacred
-    pipe, and never allowed to be used on any other occasion than that
-    of <em>peace-making</em>; when the chief brings it into treaty, and
-    unfolding the many bandages which are carefully kept around it—has
-    it ready to be mutually smoked by the chiefs, after the terms of
-    the treaty are agreed upon, as the means of <em>solemnizing</em> or
-    <em>signing</em>, by an illiterate people, who cannot draw up an
-    instrument, and sign their names to it, as it is done in the civilized
-    world.</p>
-
-  <p>The mode of solemnizing is by passing the sacred stem to each chief,
-    who draws one breath of smoke only through it, thereby passing the most
-    inviolable pledge that they can possibly give, for the keeping of the
-    peace. This sacred pipe is then carefully folded up, and stowed away in
-    the chief’s lodge, until a similar occasion calls it out to be used in
-    a similar manner.</p>
-
-  <p>There is no custom more uniformly in constant use amongst the poor
-    Indians than that of smoking, nor any other more highly valued. His
-    pipe is his constant companion through life—his messenger of peace;
-    he pledges his friends through its stem and its bowl—and when its
-    care-drowning fumes cease to flow, it takes a place with him in his
-    solitary grave, with his tomahawk and war-club, companions to his long
-    fancied, “mild and beautiful hunting-grounds.”</p>
-
-  <p>The weapons of these people, like their pipes, are numerous, and mostly
-    manufactured by themselves. In a former place (<a href="#i_018"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 18</a>) I
-    have described a part of these, such as the bows and arrows, lances,
-    &amp;c., and they have yet many others, specimens of which I have collected
-    from every tribe; and a number of which I have grouped together in
-    <a href="#i_099"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 99</a>; consisting of knives, war-clubs, and tomahawks. I
-    have here introduced the most general and established forms that are
-    in use amongst the different tribes, which are all strictly copied
-    from amongst the great variety of these articles to be found in my
-    Collection.</p>
-
-  <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_236">236</span></p>
-
-  <p>The scalping-knives <i>a</i> and <i>b</i>, and tomahawks <i>e</i>
-    <i>e</i> <i>e</i> <i>e</i> are of civilized manufacture, made expressly
-    for Indian use, and carried into the Indian country by thousands
-    and tens of thousands, and sold at an enormous price. The scabbards
-    of the knives and handles for the tomahawks, the Indians construct
-    themselves, according to their own taste, and oftentimes ornament them
-    very handsomely. In his rude and unapproached condition, the Indian
-    is a stranger to such weapons as these—he works not in the metals;
-    and his untutored mind has not been ingenious enough to design or
-    execute anything so <em>savage</em> or destructive as these civilized
-    <em>refinements on Indian barbarity</em>. In his native simplicity
-    he shapes out his rude hatchet from a piece of stone, as in letter
-    <i>f</i>, heads his arrows and spears with flints; and his knife is a
-    sharpened bone, or the edge of a broken silex. The war-club <i>c</i> is
-    also another civilized refinement, with a blade of steel, of eight or
-    ten inches in length, and set in a club, studded around and ornamented
-    with some hundreds of brass nails.</p>
-
-  <p>Their primitive clubs <i>d</i> are curiously carved in wood, and
-    fashioned out with some considerable picturesque form and grace; are
-    admirably fitted to the hand, and calculated to deal a deadly blow with
-    the spike of iron or bone which is imbedded in the ball or bulb at the
-    end.</p>
-
-  <p>Two of the tomahawks that I have named, marked <i>e</i>, are what
-    are denominated “pipe-tomahawks,” as the heads of them are formed
-    into bowls like a pipe, in which their tobacco is put, and they smoke
-    through the handle. These are the most valued of an Indian’s weapons,
-    inasmuch as they are a matter of luxury, and useful for cutting his
-    fire-wood, &amp;c. in time of peace; and deadly weapons in time of war,
-    which they use in the hand, or throw with unerring and deadly aim.</p>
-
-  <p>The scalping-knife <i>b</i> in a beautiful scabbard, which is carried
-    under the belt, is the form of knife most generally used in all
-    parts of the Indian country, where knives have been introduced. It
-    is a common and cheap butcher knife with one edge, manufactured at
-    Sheffield, in England, perhaps, for sixpence; and sold to the poor
-    Indian in these wild regions for a horse. If I should live to get
-    home, and should ever cross the Atlantic with my Collection, a curious
-    enigma would be solved for the English people, who may enquire for a
-    scalping-knife, when they find that every one in my Collection (and
-    hear also, that nearly every one that is to be seen in the Indian
-    country, to the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Ocean) bears on its
-    blade the impress of G.R., which they will doubtless understand.</p>
-
-  <p>The huge two-edged knife, with its scabbard of a part of the skin of a
-    grizzly bear’s head, letter <i>a</i>, is one belonging to the famous
-    chief of the Mandans, of whom I have before said much. The manufacture
-    of this knife is undoubtedly American; and its shape differs altogether
-    from those which are in general use.<a id="FNanchor_12" href="#Footnote_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a></p>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>66</i></div>
-  <figure id="i_100">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_100.jpg" alt="" />
-     <figcaption>100</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_237">237</span></p>
-
-  <p>The above weapons, as well as the bow and lance, of which I have before
-    spoken, are all carried and used on horseback with great effect. The
-    Indians in this country of green fields, all <em>ride</em> for their
-    enemies, and also for their game, which is almost invariably killed
-    whilst their horses are at full-speed. They are all cruel masters
-    for their horses; and in war or the chase goad them on with a heavy
-    and cruel whip (<a href="#i_099"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 99</a> <i>g</i>), the handle of which is
-    generally made of a large prong of the elk’s horn or of wood, and the
-    lashes of rawhide are very heavy; being braided, or twisted, or cut
-    into wide straps. These are invariably attached to the wrist of the
-    right arm by a tough thong, so that they can be taken up and used at
-    any moment, and dropped the next, without being lost.</p>
-
-  <p>During the time that I was engaged in painting my portraits, I was
-    occasionally inducing the young men to give me their dances, a great
-    variety of which they gave me by being slightly paid; which I was glad
-    to do, in order to enable me to study their character and expression
-    thoroughly, which I am sure I have done; and I shall take pleasure in
-    shewing them to the world when I get back. The dancing is generally
-    done by the young men, and considered undignified for the chiefs or
-    doctors to join in. Yet so great was my <em>medicine</em>, that chiefs
-    and medicine-men turned out and agreed to compliment me with a dance
-    (<a href="#i_100"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 100</a>). I looked on with great satisfaction; having been
-    assured by the Interpreters and Traders, that this was the highest
-    honour they had ever known them to pay to any stranger amongst them.</p>
-
-  <p>In this dance, which I have called “the dance of the chiefs,” for want
-    of a more significant title, was given by fifteen or twenty chiefs and
-    doctors; many of whom were very old and venerable men. All of them came
-    out in their head-dresses of war-eagle quills, with a spear or staff in
-    the left hand, and a rattle in the right. It was given in the midst of
-    the Sioux village, in front of the head chief’s lodge; and beside the
-    medicine-man who beat on the drum, and sang for the dance, there were
-    four young women standing in a row, and chanting a sort of chorus for
-    the dancers; forming one of the very few instances that I ever have
-    met, where the women are allowed to take any part in the dancing, or
-    other game or amusement, with the men.</p>
-
-  <p>This dance was a very spirited thing, and pleased me much, as well as
-    all the village, who were assembled around to witness what most of them
-    never before had seen, their aged and venerable chiefs united in giving
-    a dance.</p>
-
-  <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_238">238</span></p>
-
-  <p>As I have introduced the <em>scalping-knife</em> above, it may be well
-    for me to give some further account in this place of the custom and the
-    mode of taking the scalp; a custom practiced by all the North American
-    Indians, which is done when an enemy is killed in battle, by grasping
-    the left hand into the hair on the crown of the head, and passing the
-    knife around it through the skin, tearing off a piece of the skin with
-    the hair, as large as the palm of the hand, or larger, which is dried,
-    and often curiously ornamented and preserved, and highly valued as a
-    trophy. The scalping is an operation not calculated of itself to take
-    life, as it only removes the skin, without injuring the bone of the
-    head; and necessarily, to be a genuine scalp, must contain and show the
-    crown or centre of the head; that part of the skin which lies directly
-    over what the phrenologists call “self-esteem,” where the hair divides
-    and radiates from the centre; of which they all profess to be strict
-    judges, and able to decide whether an effort has been made to produce
-    two or more scalps from one head. Besides taking the scalp, the victor
-    generally, if he has time to do it without endangering his own scalp,
-    cuts off and brings home the rest of the hair, which his wife will
-    divide into a great many small locks, and with them fringe off the
-    seams of his shirt and his leggings, as will have been seen in many of
-    the illustrations; which also are worn as trophies and ornaments to the
-    dress, and then are familiarly called “<em>scalp-locks</em>.” Of these
-    there are many dresses in my Collection, which exhibit a continuous row
-    from the top of each shoulder, down the arms to the wrists, and down
-    the seams of the leggings, from the hips to the feet, rendering them
-    a very costly article to buy from the Indian who is not sure that his
-    success in his military exploits will ever enable him to replace them.</p>
-
-  <p>The scalp, then, is a patch of the skin taken from the head of an enemy
-    killed in battle, and preserved and highly appreciated as the record of
-    a death produced by the hand of the individual who possesses it; and
-    may oftentimes during his life, be of great service to a man living
-    in a community where there is no historian to enrol the names of the
-    famous—to record the heroic deeds of the brave, who have gained their
-    laurels in mortal combat with their enemies; where it is as lawful
-    and as glorious to slay an enemy in battle, as it is in Christian
-    communities, and where the poor Indian is bound to keep the record
-    himself, or be liable to lose it and the honour, for no one in the
-    tribe will keep it for him. As the scalp is taken then as the evidence
-    of a death, it will easily be seen, that the Indian has no business or
-    inclination to take it from the head of the living; which I venture to
-    say is never done in North America, unless it be, as it sometimes has
-    happened, where a man falls in the heat of battle, stunned with the
-    blow of a weapon or a gunshot, and the Indian, rushing over his body,
-    snatches off his scalp, supposing him dead, who afterwards rises from
-    the field of battle, and easily recovers from this superficial wound
-    of the knife, wearing a bald spot on his head during the remainder
-    of his life, of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_239">239</span> which we have frequent occurrences on our Western
-    frontiers. The scalp must be from the head of <em>an enemy</em> also, or
-    it subjects its possessor to disgrace and infamy who carries it. There
-    may be many instances where an Indian is justified in the estimation
-    of his tribe in taking the life of one of his own people; and their
-    laws are such, as oftentimes make it his imperative duty; and yet no
-    circumstances, however aggravating, will justify him or release him
-    from the disgrace of taking the scalp.</p>
-
-  <figure class="illowp75 mt2" id="i_101">
-    <div class="plate"><i>67</i></div>
-    <img src="images/i_101.jpg" alt="" />
-     <figcaption>101</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p>There is no custom practised by the Indians, for which they are
-    more universally condemned, than that of taking the scalp; and, at
-    the same time, I think there is some excuse for them, inasmuch as
-    it is a general custom of the country, and founded, like many other
-    apparently absurd and ridiculous customs of these people, in one of
-    the necessities of Indian life, which necessities we are free from in
-    the civilized world, and which customs, of course, we need not and do
-    not practice. From an ancient custom, “time out of mind,” the warriors
-    of these tribes have been in the habit of going to war, expecting to
-    take the scalps of their enemies whom they may slay in battle, and all
-    eyes of the tribe are upon them, making it their duty to do it; so from
-    custom it is every man’s right, and his duty also, to continue and keep
-    up a regulation of his society, which it is not in his power as an
-    individual, to abolish or correct, if he saw fit to do it.</p>
-
-  <p>One of the principal denunciations against the custom of taking the
-    scalp, is on account of its alleged <em>cruelty</em>, which it certainly
-    has not; as the cruelty would be in the <em>killing</em>, and not in the
-    act of cutting the skin from a man’s head after he is dead. To say the
-    most of it, it is a disgusting custom, and I wish I could be quite sure
-    that the civilized and Christian world (who kill hundreds, to where the
-    poor Indians kill one), do not often treat their <em>enemies dead</em>,
-    in equally as indecent and disgusting a manner, as the Indian does by
-    taking the scalp.</p>
-
-  <p>If the reader thinks that I am taking too much pains to defend the
-    Indians for this, and others of their seemingly abominable customs,
-    he will bear it in mind, that I have lived with these people, until I
-    have learned the necessities of Indian life in which these customs are
-    founded; and also, that I have met with so many acts of kindness and
-    hospitality at the hands of the poor Indian, that I feel bound, when I
-    can do it, to render what excuse I can for a people, who are dying with
-    broken hearts, and never can speak in the civilized world in their own
-    defence.</p>
-
-  <p>And even yet, reader, if your education, and your reading of Indian
-    cruelties and Indian barbarities—of scalps, and scalping-knives, and
-    scalping, should have ossified a corner of your heart against these
-    unfortunate people, and would shut out their advocate, I will annoy
-    you no longer on this subject, but withdraw, and leave you to cherish
-    the very beautiful, humane and parental moral that was carried out by
-    the United States and British Governments during the last, and the
-    revolutionary wars, when they mutually employed thousands of their
-    “<em>Red children</em>,” to aid and to bleed, in fighting<span class="pagenum" id="Page_240">240</span> their battles,
-    and paid them, according to contract, so many pounds, shillings and
-    pence or so many dollars and cents for every “<em>scalp</em>” of a “red”
-    or a “blue coat” they could bring in!</p>
-
-  <p>In <a href="#i_101"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 101</a>, there will be seen the principal modes in which
-    the scalps are prepared, and several of the uses to which they are
-    put. The most usual way of preparing and dressing the scalp is that
-    of stretching it on a little hoop at the end of a stick two or three
-    feet long (letter <i>a</i>), for the purpose of “dancing it,” as they
-    term it; which will be described in the <em>scalp-dance</em>, in a few
-    moments. There are many again, which are small, and not “dressed;”
-    sometimes not larger than a crown piece (letter <i>c</i>), and hung to
-    different parts of the dress. In public shows and parades, they are
-    often suspended from the bridle bits or halter when they are paraded
-    and carried as trophies (letter <i>b</i>). Sometimes they are cut out,
-    as it were into a string, the hair forming a beautiful fringe to line
-    the handle of a war-club (letter <i>e</i>). Sometimes they are hung at
-    the <em>end</em> of a club (<em>letter d</em>), and at other times, by the
-    order of the chief, are hung out, over the wigwams, suspended from a
-    pole, which is called the “<em>scalp-pole</em>.” This is often done by
-    the chief of a village, in a pleasant day, by his erecting over his
-    wigwam a pole with all the scalps that he had taken, arranged upon it
-    (letter <i>f</i>); at the sight of which all the chiefs and warriors of
-    the tribe, who had taken scalps, “follow suit;” enabling every member
-    of the community to stroll about the village on that day and “count
-    scalps,” learning thereby the standing of every warrior, which is
-    decided in a great degree by the number of scalps they have taken in
-    battles with their enemies. Letters <i>g</i>, <i>g</i>, shew the usual
-    manner of taking the scalp, and (letter <i>h</i>), exhibits the head of
-    a man who had been scalped and recovered from the wound.</p>
-
-  <p>So much for scalps and scalping, of which I shall yet say more, unless
-    I should unluckily <em>lose one</em> before I get out of the country.</p>
-
-  <figure class="illowp75 mt2" id="i_101a">
-    <div class="plate"><i>68</i></div>
-    <img src="images/i_101a.jpg" alt="" />
-    <figcaption>101½</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <div class="footnotes">
-    <div class="footnote">
-      <a id="Footnote_12" href="#FNanchor_12" class="label">[12]</a> This celebrated knife is now in my <span class="smcap">Indian
-        Museum</span>, and there is no doubt, from its authentic history, that
-        it has been several times plunged to the hearts of his enemies by the
-        hand of Mah-to-toh-pa, who wielded it. Several years after I left that
-        country, and one year after the destruction of the Mandans, I received
-        the following letter from Mr. M‘Kenzie, accompanying the knife and
-        other things sent to me by him from that country: <span class="smcap">Extract</span>—“The
-        poor Mandans are gone, and amongst them your old friend, Mah-to-toh-pa.
-        I have been able to send you but a very few things, as the Riccarees
-        immediately took possession of everything they had. Amongst the
-        articles I have been able to procure, I send you the war-knife of
-        Mah-to-toh-pa, which is now looked upon as the greatest <em>medicine</em>
-        in this country; and as you will recollect it, it will be highly
-        appreciated by you.”
-    </div>
-  </div>
-
-  <hr class="chap" />
-  <div class="chapter">
-    <span class="pagenum" id="Page_241">241</span>
-    <h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_30">LETTER—<abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 30.</h2>
-  </div>
-  <div class="subheadc">MOUTH OF TETON RIVER, <i>UPPER MISSOURI</i>.</div>
-
-  <p><span class="smcap">In</span> the last letter I gave an account of many of the weapons and other
-    manufactures of these wild folks; and as this has been a day of
-    <em>packing</em> and <em>casing</em> a great many of these things, which
-    I have obtained of the Indians, to add to my <i lang="fr">Musée Indienne</i>,
-    I will name a few more, which I have just been handling over; some
-    description of which may be necessary for the reader in endeavouring
-    to appreciate some of their strange customs and amusements, which I am
-    soon to unfold. In <a href="#i_101a"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 101½</a>, letters <i>a</i> and <i>b</i>,
-    will be seen the <em>quiver</em> made of the fawn’s skin, and the Sioux
-    <em>shield</em> made of the skin of the buffalo’s neck, hardened with
-    the glue extracted from the hoofs and joints of the same animal. The
-    process of “<em>smoking the shield</em>” is a very curious, as well as
-    an important one, in their estimation. For this purpose a young man
-    about to construct him a shield, digs a hole of two feet in depth, in
-    the ground, and as large in diameter as he designs to make his shield.
-    In this he builds a fire, and over it, a few inches higher than the
-    ground, he stretches the raw hide horizontally over the fire, with
-    little pegs driven through holes made near the edges of the skin. This
-    skin is at first, twice as large as the size of the required shield;
-    but having got his particular and best friends (who are invited on
-    the occasion,) into a ring, to dance and sing around it, and solicit
-    the Great Spirit to instil into it the power to protect him harmless
-    against his enemies, he spreads over it the glue, which is rubbed and
-    dried in, as the skin is heated; and a second busily drives other and
-    other pegs, inside of those in the ground, as they are gradually giving
-    way and being pulled up by the contraction of the skin. By this curious
-    process, which is most dexterously done, the skin is kept tight whilst
-    it contracts to one-half of its size, taking up the glue and increasing
-    in thickness until it is rendered as thick and hard as required (and
-    his friends have pleaded long enough to make it arrow, and almost ball
-    proof), when the dance ceases, and the fire is put out. When it is
-    cooled and cut into the shape that he desires, it is often painted with
-    his <em>medicine</em> or <em>totem</em> upon it, the figure of an eagle,
-    an owl, a buffalo or other animal, as the case may be, which he trusts
-    will guard and protect him from harm; it is then fringed with eagles’
-    quills, or other ornaments he may have chosen, and <em>slung</em> with a
-    broad leather strap that crosses his breast. These shields are carried
-    by all the warriors in these regions, for their protection in battles,
-    which are almost invariably fought from their horses’ backs.</p>
-
-  <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_242">242</span></p>
-
-  <p>Of <em>pipes</em>, and the custom of smoking, I have already spoken; and
-    I then said, that the Indians use several substitutes for tobacco,
-    which they call <i>K’nick K’neck</i>. For the carrying of this
-    delicious weed or bark, and preserving its flavour, the women construct
-    very curious pouches of otter, or beaver, or other skins (letters
-    <i>c</i>, <i>c</i>, <i>c</i>,), which are ingeniously ornamented with
-    porcupine quills and beads, and generally carried hanging across the
-    left arm, containing a quantity of the precious <em>narcotic</em>, with
-    flint and steel, and spunk, for lighting the pipe.</p>
-
-  <p>The <em>musical instruments</em> used amongst these people are few, and
-    exceedingly rude and imperfect, consisting chiefly of rattles, drums,
-    whistles, and lutes, all of which are used in the different tribes.</p>
-
-  <p>In <a href="#i_101a"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 101½</a> (letters <i>d</i>, <i>d</i>,) will be seen
-    the <em>rattles</em> (or She-she-quois) most generally used, made of
-    rawhide, which becomes very hard when dry, and charged with pebbles
-    or something of the kind, which produce a shrill noise to mark the
-    time in their dances and songs. Their <em>drums</em> (letters <i>e</i>,
-    <i>e</i>,) are made in a very rude manner, oftentimes with a mere
-    piece of rawhide stretched over a hoop, very much in the shape of a
-    tambourin; and at other times are made in the form of a keg, with a
-    head of rawhide at each end; on these they beat with a drum-stick,
-    which oftentimes itself is a rattle, the bulb or head of it being made
-    of rawhide and filled with pebbles. In other instances the stick has,
-    at its end, a little hoop wound and covered with buckskin, to soften
-    the sound; with which they beat on the drum with great violence, as
-    the chief and <em>heel-inspiring</em> sound for all their dances, and
-    also as an accompaniment for their numerous and never-ending songs of
-    amusement, of thanksgiving, and <em>medicine</em> or <em>metai</em>. The
-    <em>mystery whistle</em>, (letter <i>f</i>,) is another instrument of
-    their invention, and very ingeniously made, the sound being produced
-    on a principle entirely different from that of any wind instrument
-    known in civilized inventions; and the notes produced on it, by the
-    sleight or trick of an Indian boy, in so simple and successful a
-    manner, as to baffle entirely all civilized ingenuity, even when it
-    is seen to be played. An Indian boy would stand and blow his notes on
-    this repeatedly, for hundreds of white men who might be lookers-on, not
-    one of whom could make the least noise on it, even by practising with
-    it for hours. When I first saw this curious exhibition, I was charmed
-    with the peculiar sweetness of its harmonic sounds, and completely
-    perplexed, (as hundreds of white men have no doubt been before me, to
-    the great amusement and satisfaction of the women and children,) as to
-    the mode in which the sound was produced, even though it was repeatedly
-    played immediately before my eyes, and handed to me for my vain and
-    amusing endeavours. The sounds of this little simple toy are liquid and
-    sweet beyond description; and, though here only given in harmonics,
-    I am inclined to think, might, by some ingenious musician or musical
-    instrument-maker, be modulated and converted into something very
-    pleasing.</p>
-
-  <p>The <em>War-whistle</em> (letter <i>h</i>,) is a well known and valued
-    little instrument,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_243">243</span> of six or nine inches in length, invariably made
-    of the bone of the deer or turkey’s leg, and generally ornamented with
-    porcupine quills of different colours which are wound around it. A
-    chief or leader carries this to battle with him, suspended generally
-    from his neck, and worn under his dress. This little instrument has
-    but two notes, which are produced by blowing in the ends of it. The
-    note produced in one end, being much more shrill than the other, gives
-    the signal for battle, whilst the other sounds a retreat; a thing that
-    is distinctly heard and understood by every man, even in the heat and
-    noise of battle, where all are barking and yelling as loud as possible,
-    and of course unable to hear the commands of their leader.</p>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>69</i></div>
-  <figure id="i_102">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_102.jpg" alt="" />
-     <figcaption>102</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p>There is yet another wind instrument which I have added to my
-    Collection, and from its appearance would seem to have been borrowed,
-    in part, from the civilized world (letter <i>g</i>). This is what is
-    often on the frontier called a “<em>deer-skin flute</em>,” a “Winnebago
-    courting flute,” a “tsal-eet-quash-to,” &amp;c.; it is perforated with
-    holes for the fingers, sometimes for six, at others for four, and in
-    some instances for three only, having only so many notes with their
-    octaves. These notes are very irregularly graduated, showing clearly
-    that they have very little taste or ear for melody. These instruments
-    are blown in the end, and the sound produced much on the principle of a
-    whistle.</p>
-
-  <p>In the vicinity of the Upper Mississippi, I often and familiarly heard
-    this instrument, called the Winnebago courting flute; and was credibly
-    informed by traders and others in those regions, that the young men
-    of that tribe meet with signal success, oftentimes, in wooing their
-    sweethearts with its simple notes, which they blow for hours together,
-    and from day to day, from the bank of some stream—some favourite rock
-    or log on which they are seated, near to the wigwam which contains the
-    object of their tender passion; until her soul is touched, and she
-    responds by some welcome signal, that she is ready to repay the young
-    <em>Orpheus</em> for his pains, with the gift of her hand and her heart.
-    How true these representations may have been made, I cannot say, but
-    there certainly must have been some ground for the present cognomen by
-    which it is known in that country.</p>
-
-  <p>From these rude and exceedingly defective instruments, it will at once
-    be seen, that music has made but little progress with these people; and
-    the same fact will be still more clearly proved, to those who have an
-    opportunity to hear their vocal exhibitions, which are daily and almost
-    hourly serenading the ears of the traveller through their country.</p>
-
-  <p>Dancing is one of the principal and most frequent amusements of all
-    the tribes of Indians in America; and, in all of these, both vocal and
-    instrumental music are introduced. These dances consist in about four
-    different steps, which constitute all the different varieties: but the
-    figures and forms of these scenes are very numerous, and produced by
-    the most violent jumps and contortions, accompanied with the song and
-    beats of the drum, which are given in exact time with their motions.
-    It has been said by some travellers, that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_244">244</span> the Indian has neither
-    harmony or melody in his music, but I am unwilling to subscribe to such
-    an assertion; although I grant, that for the most part of their vocal
-    exercises, there is a total absence of what the musical world would
-    call melody; their songs being made up chiefly of a sort of violent
-    chaunt of harsh and jarring gutturals, of yelps and barks, and screams,
-    which are given out in perfect time, not only with “method (but with
-    harmony) in their madness.” There are times too, as every traveller
-    of the Indian country will attest, if he will recall them to his
-    recollection, when the Indian lays down by his fire-side with his drum
-    in his hand, which he lightly and almost imperceptibly touches over, as
-    he accompanies it with his stifled voice of dulcet sounds that might
-    come from the most tender and delicate female.</p>
-
-  <p>These quiet and tender songs are very different from those which are
-    sung at their dances, in full chorus and violent gesticulation; and
-    many of them seem to be quite rich in plaintive expression and melody,
-    though barren of change and variety.</p>
-
-  <p><em>Dancing</em>, I have before said, is one of the principal and most
-    valued amusements of the Indians, and much more frequently practised by
-    them than by any civilized society; inasmuch as it enters into their
-    forms of worship, and is often their mode of appealing to the Great
-    Spirit—of paying their usual devotions to their <em>medicine</em>—and of
-    honouring and entertaining strangers of distinction in their country.</p>
-
-  <p>Instead of the “giddy maze” of the quadrille or the country dance,
-    enlivened by the cheering smiles and graces of silkened beauty, the
-    Indian performs his rounds with jumps, and starts, and yells, much to
-    the satisfaction of his own exclusive self, and infinite amusement
-    of the gentler sex, who are always lookers on, but seldom allowed so
-    great a pleasure, or so signal an honour, as that of joining with
-    their lords in this or any other entertainment. Whilst staying with
-    these people on my way up the river, I was repeatedly honoured with
-    the dance, and I as often hired them to give them, or went to overlook
-    where they were performing them at their own pleasure, in pursuance
-    of their peculiar customs, or for their own amusement, that I might
-    study and correctly herald them to future ages. I saw so many of their
-    different varieties of dances amongst the Sioux, that I should almost
-    be disposed to denominate them the “<em>dancing Indians</em>.” It would
-    actually seem as if they had dances for every thing. And in so large a
-    village, there was scarcely an hour in any day or night, but what the
-    beat of the drum could somewhere be heard. These dances are almost as
-    various and different in their character as they are numerous—some of
-    them so exceedingly grotesque and laughable, as to keep the bystanders
-    in an irresistible roar of laughter—others are calculated to excite his
-    pity, and forcibly appeal to his sympathies, whilst others disgust,
-    and yet others terrify and alarm him with their frightful threats and
-    contortions.</p>
-
-  <p>All the world have heard of the “<em>bear-dance</em>,” though I doubt
-    whether more than a very small proportion have ever seen it; here it
-    is (<a href="#i_102"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 102</a>).<span class="pagenum" id="Page_245">245</span> The Sioux, like all the others of these
-    western tribes, are fond of bear’s meat, and must have good stores
-    of the “bear’s-grease” laid in, to oil their long and glossy locks,
-    as well as the surface of their bodies. And they all like the fine
-    pleasure of a bear hunt, and also a participation in the bear dance,
-    which is given several days in succession, previous to their starting
-    out, and in which they all join in a song to the <em>Bear Spirit</em>;
-    which they think holds somewhere an invisible existence, and must be
-    consulted and conciliated before they can enter upon their excursion
-    with any prospect of success. For this grotesque and amusing scene,
-    one of the chief medicine-men, placed over his body the entire skin
-    of a bear, with a war-eagle’s quill on his head, taking the lead in
-    the dance, and looking through the skin which formed a masque that
-    hung over his face. Many others in the dance wore masques on their
-    faces, made of the skin from the bear’s head; and all, with the motions
-    of their hands, closely imitated the movements of that animal; some
-    representing its motion in running, and others the peculiar attitude
-    and hanging of the paws, when it is sitting up on its hind feet,
-    and looking out for the approach of an enemy. This grotesque and
-    amusing masquerade oftentimes is continued at intervals, for several
-    days previous to the starting of a party on the bear hunt, who would
-    scarcely count upon a tolerable prospect of success, without a strict
-    adherence to this most important and indispensible form!</p>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>70</i></div>
-  <figure id="i_103">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_103.jpg" alt="" />
-     <figcaption>103</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p>Dancing is done here too, as it is oftentimes done in the enlightened
-    world, to get favours—to buy the world’s goods; and in both countries
-    danced with about equal merit, except that the Indian has surpassed
-    us in honesty by christening it in his own country, the “<em>beggar’s
-    dance</em>.” This spirited dance (<a href="#i_103"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 103</a>), was given, not by
-    a set of <em>beggars</em> though, literally speaking, but by the first
-    and most independent young men in the tribe, beautifully dressed,
-    (<i>i. e.</i> not dressed at all, except with their breech clouts or
-    <em>kelts</em>, made of eagles’ and ravens’ quills,) with their lances,
-    and pipes, and rattles in their hands, and a medicine-man beating the
-    drum, and joining in the song at the highest key of his voice. In this
-    dance every one sings as loud as he can halloo; uniting his voice with
-    the others, in an appeal to the Great Spirit, to open the hearts of
-    the bystanders to give to the poor, and not to themselves; assuring
-    them that the Great Spirit will be kind to those who are kind to the
-    helpless and poor.</p>
-
-  <p>Of <em>scalps</em>, and of the modes and objects of scalping, I have
-    before spoken; and I therein stated, “that most of the scalps were
-    stretched on little hoops for the purpose of being used in the
-    scalp-dance, of which I shall say more at a future time.”</p>
-
-  <p>The <em>Scalp-dance</em> (<a href="#i_104"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 104</a>) is given as a celebration
-    of a victory; and amongst this tribe, as I learned whilst residing
-    with them, danced in the night, by the light of their torches, and
-    just before retiring to bed. When a war party returns from a war
-    excursion, bringing home with them the scalps of their enemies, they
-    generally “dance them” for fifteen nights in succession,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_246">246</span> vaunting
-    forth the most extravagant boasts of their wonderful prowess in war,
-    whilst they brandish their war weapons in their hands. A number of
-    young women are selected to aid (though they do not actually join in
-    the dance), by stepping into the centre of the ring, and holding up the
-    scalps that have been recently taken, whilst the warriors dance (or
-    rather <em>jump</em>), around in a circle, brandishing their weapons,
-    and barking and yelping in the most frightful manner, all jumping on
-    both feet at a time, with a simultaneous stamp, and blow, and thrust
-    of their weapons; with which it would seem as if they were actually
-    cutting and carving each other to pieces. During these frantic leaps,
-    and yelps, and thrusts, every man distorts his face to the utmost of
-    his muscles, darting about his glaring eye-balls and snapping his
-    teeth, as if he were in the heat (and actually breathing through his
-    inflated nostrils the very hissing death) of battle! No description
-    that can be written, could ever convey more than a feeble outline of
-    the frightful effects of these scenes enacted in the dead and darkness
-    of night, under the glaring light of their blazing flambeaux; nor could
-    all the years allotted to mortal man, in the least obliterate or deface
-    the vivid impress that one scene of this kind would leave upon his
-    memory.</p>
-
-  <p>The precise object for which the scalp is taken, is one which is
-    definitely understood, and has already been explained; but the motive
-    (or motives) for which this strict ceremony is so scrupulously held
-    by all the American tribes, over the scalp of an enemy, is a subject,
-    as yet not satisfactorily settled in my mind. There is no doubt, but
-    one great object in these exhibitions is public exultation; yet there
-    are several conclusive evidences, that there are other and essential
-    motives for thus formally and strictly displaying the scalp. Amongst
-    some of the tribes, it is the custom to bury the scalps after they
-    have gone through this series of public exhibitions; which may in a
-    measure have been held for the purpose of giving them notoriety, and of
-    awarding public credit to the persons who obtained them, and now, from
-    a custom of the tribe, are obliged to part with them. The great respect
-    which seems to be paid to them whilst they use them, as well as the
-    pitying and mournful song which they howl to the <em>manes</em> of their
-    unfortunate victims; as well as the precise care and solemnity with
-    which they afterwards bury the scalps, sufficiently convince me that
-    they have a superstitious dread of the spirits of their slain enemies,
-    and many conciliatory offices to perform, to ensure their own peace;
-    one of which is the ceremony above described.</p>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>71</i></div>
-  <figure id="i_104">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_104.jpg" alt="" />
-     <figcaption>104</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <hr class="chap" />
-  <div class="chapter">
-    <span class="pagenum" id="Page_247">247</span>
-    <h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_31">LETTER—<abbr title="Number">No.</abbr> 31.</h2>
-  </div>
-  <div class="subheadc">MOUTH OF TETON RIVER, <i>UPPER MISSOURI</i>.</div>
-
-  <p><span class="smcap">In</span> former Letters I have given some account of the <em>Bisons</em>,
-    or (as they are more familiarly denominated in this country)
-    <em>Buffaloes</em>, which inhabit these regions in numerous herds; and of
-    which I must say yet a little more.</p>
-
-  <p>These noble animals of the ox species, and which have been so well
-    described in our books on Natural History, are a subject of curious
-    interest and great importance in this vast wilderness; rendered
-    peculiarly so at this time, like the history of the poor savage; and
-    from the same consideration, that they are rapidly wasting away at the
-    approach of civilized man—and like him and his character, in a very few
-    years, to live only in books or on canvass.</p>
-
-  <p>The word buffalo is undoubtedly most incorrectly applied to these
-    animals, and I can scarcely tell why they have been so called; for
-    they bear just about as much resemblance to the Eastern buffalo, as
-    they do to a zebra or to a common ox. How nearly they may approach to
-    the bison of Europe, which I never have had an opportunity to see, and
-    which, I am inclined to think, is now nearly extinct, I am unable to
-    say; yet if I were to judge from the numerous engravings I have seen
-    of those animals, and descriptions I have read of them, I should be
-    inclined to think, there was yet a wide difference between the bison
-    of the American prairies, and those in the North of Europe and Asia.
-    The American bison, or (as I shall hereafter call it) buffalo, is the
-    largest of the ruminating animals that is now living in America; and
-    seems to have been spread over the plains of this vast country, by the
-    Great Spirit, for the use and subsistence of the red men, who live
-    almost exclusively on their flesh, and clothe themselves with their
-    skins. The reader, by referring back to <span class="smcap">plates</span> <a href="#i_007">7</a> and <a href="#i_008">8</a>, in the
-    beginning of this Work, will see faithful traces of the male and female
-    of this huge animal, in their proud and free state of nature, grazing
-    on the plains of the country to which they appropriately belong. Their
-    colour is a dark brown, but changing very much as the season varies
-    from warm to cold; their hair or fur, from its great length in the
-    winter and spring, and exposure to the weather, turning quite light,
-    and almost to a jet black, when the winter coat is shed off, and a new
-    growth is shooting out.</p>
-
-  <p>The buffalo bull often grows to the enormous weight of 2000 pounds, and
-    shakes a long and shaggy black mane, that falls in great profusion and
-    <em>confusion</em>,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_248">248</span> over his head and shoulders; and oftentimes falling
-    down quite to the ground. The horns are short, but very large, and have
-    but one turn, <i>i. e.</i> they are a simple arch, without the least
-    approach to a spiral form, like those of the common ox, or of the goat
-    species.</p>
-
-  <p>The female is much smaller than the male, and always distinguishable
-    by the peculiar shape of the horns, which are much smaller and more
-    crooked, turning their points more in towards the centre of the
-    forehead.</p>
-
-  <p>One of the most remarkable characteristics of the buffalo, is the
-    peculiar formation and expression of the eye, the ball of which is
-    very large and white, and the iris jet black. The lids of the eye seem
-    always to be strained quite open, and the ball rolling forward and
-    down; so that a considerable part of the iris is hidden behind the
-    lower lid, while the pure white of the eyeball glares out over it in an
-    arch, in the shape of a moon at the end of its first quarter.</p>
-
-  <p>These animals are, truly speaking, gregarious, but not migratory—they
-    graze in immense and almost incredible numbers at times, and roam about
-    and over vast tracts of country, from East to West, and from West to
-    East, as often as from North to South; which has often been supposed
-    they naturally and habitually did to accommodate themselves to the
-    temperature of the climate in the different latitudes. The limits
-    within which they are found in America, are from the 30th to the 55th
-    degrees of North latitude; and their extent from East to West, which is
-    from the border of our extreme Western frontier limits, to the Western
-    verge of the Rocky Mountains, is defined by quite different causes,
-    than those which the degrees of temperature have prescribed to them
-    on the North and the South. Within these 25 degrees of latitude, the
-    buffaloes seem to flourish, and get their living without the necessity
-    of evading the rigour of the climate, for which Nature seems most
-    wisely to have prepared them by the greater or less profusion of fur,
-    with which she has clothed them.</p>
-
-  <p>It is very evident that, as high North as Lake Winnepeg, seven or eight
-    hundred miles North of this, the buffalo subsists itself through the
-    severest winters; getting its food chiefly by browsing amongst the
-    timber, and by pawing through the snow, for a bite at the grass, which
-    in those regions is frozen up very suddenly in the beginning of the
-    winter, with all its juices in it, and consequently furnishes very
-    nutritious and efficient food; and often, if not generally, supporting
-    the animal in better flesh during these difficult seasons of their
-    lives, than they are found to be in, in the 30th degree of latitude,
-    upon the borders of Mexico, where the severity of winter is not known,
-    but during a long and tedious autumn, the herbage, under the influence
-    of a burning sun, is gradually dried away to a mere husk, and its
-    nutriment gone, leaving these poor creatures, even in the dead of
-    winter, to bask in the warmth of a genial sun, without the benefit of a
-    green or juicy thing to bite at.</p>
-
-  <p>The place from which I am now writing, may be said to be the very heart
-    or<span class="pagenum" id="Page_249">249</span> nucleus of the buffalo country, about equi-distant between the two
-    extremes; and of course, the most congenial temperature for them to
-    flourish in. The finest animals that graze on the prairies are to be
-    found in this latitude; and I am sure I never could send from a better
-    source, some further account of the death and destruction that is dealt
-    among these noble animals, and hurrying on their final extinction.</p>
-
-  <p>The Sioux are a bold and desperate set of horsemen, and great hunters;
-    and in the heart of their country is one of the most extensive
-    assortments of goods, of whiskey, and other saleable commodities, as
-    well as a party of the most indefatigable men, who are constantly
-    calling for every robe that can be stripped from these animals’ backs.</p>
-
-  <p>These are the causes which lead so directly to their rapid destruction;
-    and which open to the view of the traveller so freshly, so vividly, and
-    so familiarly, the scenes of archery—of lancing, and of death-dealing,
-    that belong peculiarly to this wild and shorn country.</p>
-
-  <p>The almost countless herds of these animals that are sometimes met with
-    on these prairies, have been often spoken of by other writers, and may
-    yet be seen by any traveller who will take the pains to visit these
-    regions. The “<em>running season</em>,” which is in August and September,
-    is the time when they congregate into such masses in some places, as
-    literally to blacken the prairies for miles together. It is no uncommon
-    thing at this season, at these gatherings, to see several thousands
-    in a mass, eddying and wheeling about under a cloud of dust, which
-    is raised by the bulls as they are pawing in the dirt, or engaged in
-    desperate combats, as they constantly are, plunging and butting at each
-    other in the most furious manner (<a href="#i_105"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 105</a>). In these scenes,
-    the males are continually following the females, and the whole mass are
-    in constant motion; and all bellowing (or “roaring”) in deep and hollow
-    sounds; which, mingled altogether, appear, at the distance of a mile or
-    two, like the sound of distant thunder.</p>
-
-  <p>During the season whilst they are congregated together in these dense
-    and confused masses, the remainder of the country around for many
-    miles, becomes entirely vacated; and the traveller may spend many a
-    toilsome day, and many a hungry night, without being cheered by the
-    sight of one; where, if he retraces his steps a few weeks after, he
-    will find them dispersed, and grazing quietly in little families and
-    flocks, and equally stocking the whole country. Of these quiet little
-    herds, a fair representation will be seen in <a href="#i_106"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 106</a>, where
-    some are grazing, others at play, or lying down, and others indulging
-    in their “wallows.” “A bull in his wallow” is a frequent saying in this
-    country; and has a very significant meaning with those who have ever
-    seen a buffalo bull performing <em>ablution</em>, or rather endeavouring
-    to cool his heated sides, by tumbling about in a mud puddle.</p>
-
-  <p>In the heat of summer, these huge animals, which, no doubt, suffer very
-    much with the great profusion of their long and shaggy hair or fur,
-    often graze on the low grounds in the prairies, where there is a little
-    stagnant<span class="pagenum" id="Page_250">250</span> water lying amongst the grass, and the ground underneath
-    being saturated with it, is soft, into which the enormous bull, lowered
-    down upon one knee, will plunge his horns, and at last his head,
-    driving up the earth, and soon making an excavation in the ground, into
-    which the water filters from amongst the grass, forming for him in a
-    few moments, a cool and comfortable bath, into which he plunges like a
-    hog in his mire.</p>
-
-  <p>In this <em>delectable</em> laver, he throws himself flat upon his side,
-    and forcing himself violently around, with his horns and his huge hump
-    on his shoulders presented to the sides, he ploughs up the ground by
-    his rotary motion, sinking himself deeper and deeper in the ground,
-    continually enlarging his pool, in which he at length becomes nearly
-    immersed; and the water and mud about him mixed into a complete mortar,
-    which changes his colour, and drips in streams from every part of him
-    as he rises up upon his feet, a hideous monster of mud and ugliness,
-    too frightful and too eccentric to be described!</p>
-
-  <p>It is generally the leader of the herd that takes upon him to make
-    this excavation; and if not (but another one opens the ground), the
-    leader (who is conqueror) marches forward, and driving the other from
-    it plunges himself into it; and having cooled his sides, and changed
-    his colour to a walking mass of mud and mortar; he stands in the pool
-    until inclination induces him to step out, and give place to the next
-    in command, who stands ready; and another, and another, who advance
-    forward in their turns, to enjoy the luxury of the wallow; until the
-    whole band (sometimes an hundred or more) will pass through it in turn;
-    each one throwing his body around in a similar manner; and each one
-    adding a little to the dimensions of the pool, while he carries away in
-    his hair an equal share of the clay, which dries to a grey or whitish
-    colour, and gradually falls off. By this operation, which is done,
-    perhaps, in the space of half an hour, a circular excavation of fifteen
-    or twenty feet in diameter, and two feet in depth, is completed, and
-    left for the water to run into, which soon fills it to the level of the
-    ground.</p>
-
-  <p>To these sinks, the waters lying on the surface of the prairies, are
-    continually draining, and in them lodging their vegetable deposits;
-    which, after a lapse of years, fill them up to the surface with a rich
-    soil, which throws up an unusual growth of grass and herbage; forming
-    conspicuous circles which arrest the eye of the traveller, and are
-    calculated to excite his surprise for ages to come.</p>
-
-  <p>Many travellers who have penetrated not quite far enough into the
-    Western country to see the habits of these animals, and the manner
-    in which these <em>mysterious</em> circles are made; but who have seen
-    the prairies strewed with their bleached bones, and have beheld
-    these strange circles, which often occur in groups, and of different
-    sizes—have come home with beautiful and ingenious theories (which
-    <em>must needs be made</em>), for the origin of these singular and
-    unaccountable appearances, which, for want of a rational<span class="pagenum" id="Page_251">251</span> theory,
-    have generally been attributed to <em>fairy feet</em>, and gained the
-    appellation of “<em>fairy circles</em>.”</p>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>72</i></div>
-  <figure id="i_105">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_105.jpg" alt="" />
-     <figcaption>105</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <figure class="mt2" id="i_106">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_106.jpg" alt="" />
-     <figcaption>106</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p>Many travellers, again, have supposed that these rings were produced
-    by the dances of the Indians, which are oftentimes (and in fact
-    most generally) performed in a circle; yet a moment’s consideration
-    disproves such a probability, inasmuch as the Indians always select the
-    ground for their dancing near the sites of their villages, and that
-    always on a dry and hard foundation; when these “fairy circles” are
-    uniformly found to be on low and wet ground.</p>
-
-  <p>As my visit to these parts of the “<em>Great Far West</em>” has brought
-    me into the heart of the buffalo country, where I have had abundant
-    opportunities of seeing this noble animal in all its phases—its habits
-    of life, and every mode of its death; I shall take the liberty of being
-    yet a little more particular, and of rendering some further accounts of
-    scenes which I have witnessed in following out my sporting propensities
-    in these singular regions.</p>
-
-  <p>The chief hunting amusement of the Indians in these parts consists in
-    the chase of the buffalo, which is almost invariably done on horseback,
-    with bow and lance. In this exercise, which is highly prized by them,
-    as one of their most valued amusements, as well as for the principal
-    mode of procuring meat for their subsistence, they become exceedingly
-    expert; and are able to slay these huge animals with apparent ease.</p>
-
-  <p>The Indians in these parts are all mounted on small, but serviceable
-    horses, which are caught by them on the prairies, where they are often
-    running wild in numerous bands. The Indian, then, mounted on his little
-    wild horse, which has been through some years of training, dashes off
-    at full speed amongst the herds of buffaloes, elks, or even antelopes,
-    and deals his deadly arrows to their hearts from his horse’s back. The
-    horse is the fleetest animal of the prairie, and easily brings his
-    rider alongside of his game, which falls a certain prey to his deadly
-    shafts, at the distance of a few paces.</p>
-
-  <p>In the chase of the buffalo, or other animal, the Indian generally
-    “strips” himself and his horse, by throwing off his shield and quiver,
-    and every part of his dress, which might be an encumbrance to him in
-    running; grasping his bow in his left hand, with five or six arrows
-    drawn from his quiver, and ready for instant use. In his right hand (or
-    attached to the wrist) is a heavy whip, which he uses without mercy,
-    and forces his horse alongside of his game at the swiftest speed.</p>
-
-  <p>These horses are so trained, that the Indian has little use for the
-    rein, which hangs on the neck, whilst the horse approaches the animal
-    on the right side (<a href="#i_107"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 107</a>), giving his rider the chance
-    to throw his arrow to the left; which he does at the instant when the
-    horse is passing—bringing him opposite to the heart, which receives the
-    deadly weapon “to the feather.” When pursuing a large herd, the Indian
-    generally rides close in the rear, until he selects the animal he
-    wishes to kill, which he separates from the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_252">252</span> throng as soon as he can,
-    by dashing his horse between it and the herd, and forcing it off by
-    itself; where he can approach it without the danger of being trampled
-    to death, to which he is often liable by too closely escorting the
-    multitude.</p>
-
-  <p>In <a href="#i_107"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 107</a>, I have fairly represented the mode of
-    <em>approaching</em>, at the instant the arrow is to be thrown; and the
-    striking disparity between the size of a huge bull of 2000 pounds
-    weight, and the Indian horse, which, it will be borne in mind, is but a
-    pony.</p>
-
-  <p>No bridle whatever is used in this country by the Indians, as they have
-    no knowledge of a bit. A short halter, however, which answers in place
-    of a bridle, is in general use; of which they usually form a noose
-    around the under jaw of the horse, by which they get great power over
-    the animal; and which they use generally to <em>stop</em> rather than
-    <em>guide</em> the horse. This halter is called by the French Traders in
-    the country, <i lang="fr">l’arrêt</i>, the stop, and has great power in arresting
-    the speed of a horse; though it is extremely dangerous to use too
-    freely as a guide, interfering too much with the freedom of his limbs,
-    for the certainty of his feet and security of his rider.</p>
-
-  <p>When the Indian then has directed the course of his steed to the animal
-    which he has selected, the training of the horse is such, that it knows
-    the object of its rider’s selection, and exerts every muscle to give it
-    close company; while the halter lies loose and untouched upon its neck,
-    and the rider leans quite forward, and off from the side of his horse,
-    with his bow drawn, and ready for the deadly shot, which is given
-    at the instant he is opposite to the animal’s body. The horse being
-    instinctively afraid of the animal (though he generally brings his
-    rider within the reach of the end of his bow), keeps his eye strained
-    upon the furious enemy he is so closely encountering; and the moment
-    he has approached to the nearest distance required, and has passed the
-    animal, whether the shot is given or not, he gradually sheers off, to
-    prevent coming on to the horns of the infuriated beast, which often
-    are instantly turned, and presented for the fatal reception of its
-    too familiar attendant. These frightful collisions often take place,
-    notwithstanding the sagacity of the horse, and the caution of its
-    rider; for in these extraordinary (and inexpressible) exhilarations of
-    chase, which seem to drown the prudence alike, of instinct and reason,
-    both horse and rider often seem rushing on to destruction, as if it
-    were mere pastime and amusement.<a id="FNanchor_13" href="#Footnote_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a></p>
-
-  <p>I have always counted myself a prudent man, yet I have often
-    <em>waked</em> (as it were) out of the delirium of the chase (into which
-    I had fallen, as into an agitated sleep, and through which I had passed
-    as through a delightful dream), where to have died would have been but
-    to have remained, riding on, without a struggle or a pang.</p>
-
-  <p>In some of these, too, I have arisen from the prairie, covered with
-    dirt and <span class="pagenum" id="Page_253">253</span>blood, having severed company with gun and horse, the one
-    lying some twenty or thirty feet from me with a broken stalk, and the
-    other coolly brousing on the grass at half a mile distance, without
-    man, and without other beast remaining in sight.</p>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>73</i></div>
-  <figure id="i_107">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_107.jpg" alt="" />
-     <figcaption>107</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <figure class="mt2" id="i_108">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_108.jpg" alt="" />
-     <figcaption>108</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p>For the novice in these scenes there is much danger of his limbs and
-    his life, and he finds it a hard and a desperate struggle that brings
-    him in at <em>the death</em> of these huge monsters, except where it has
-    been produced by hands that have acquired more sleight and tact than
-    his own.</p>
-
-  <p>With the Indian, who has made this the every day sport and amusement of
-    his life, there is less difficulty and less danger; he rides without
-    “losing his breath,” and his unagitated hand deals <em>certainty</em> in
-    its deadly blows.</p>
-
-  <p>In <a href="#i_108"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 108</a>, I have represented a party of Indians in chase
-    of a herd some of whom are pursuing with lance and others with bows and
-    arrows. The group in the foreground shews the attitude at the instant
-    after the arrow has been thrown and driven to the heart; the Indian at
-    full speed, and the <em>laso</em> dragging behind his horse’s heels. The
-    laso is a long thong of rawhide, of ten or fifteen yards in length,
-    made of several braids or twists, and used chiefly to catch the wild
-    horse, which is done by throwing over their necks a noose which is made
-    at the end of the <em>laso</em>, with which they are “choked down.” In
-    running the buffaloes, or in time of war, the <em>laso</em> drags on the
-    ground at the horse’s feet, and sometimes several rods behind, so that
-    if a man is dismounted, which is often the case, by the tripping or
-    stumbling of the horse, he has the power of grasping to the laso, and
-    by stubbornly holding on to it, of stopping and securing his horse, on
-    whose back he is instantly replaced, and continuing on in the chase.</p>
-
-  <p>In the dead of the winters, which are very long and severely cold in
-    this country, where horses cannot be brought into the chase with any
-    avail, the Indian runs upon the surface of the snow by the aid of his
-    snow shoes, which buoy him up, while the great weight of the buffaloes,
-    sinks them down to the middle of their sides, and completely stopping
-    their progress, ensures them certain and easy victims to the bow or
-    lance of their pursuers, as in <a href="#i_109"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 109</a>. The snow in these
-    regions often lies during the winter, to the depth of three and four
-    feet, being blown away from the tops and sides of the hills in many
-    places, which are left bare for the buffaloes to graze upon, whilst
-    it is drifted in the hollows and ravines to a very great depth, and
-    rendered almost entirely impassable to these huge animals, which, when
-    closely pursued by their enemies, endeavour to plunge through it,
-    but are soon wedged in and almost unable to move, where they fall an
-    easy prey to the Indian, who runs up lightly upon his snow shoes and
-    drives his lance to their hearts. The skins are then stripped off, to
-    be sold to the Fur Traders, and the carcasses left to be devoured by
-    the wolves. This is the season in which the greatest number of these
-    animals are destroyed for their robes—they are most easily killed at
-    this time, and their hair or fur being longer and more abundant, gives
-    greater value to the robe.</p>
-
-  <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_254">254</span></p>
-
-  <p>The Indians generally kill and dry meat enough in the fall, when it
-    is fat and juicy, to last them through the winter; so that they have
-    little other object for this unlimited slaughter, amid the drifts
-    of snow, than that of procuring their robes for traffic with their
-    Traders. The snow shoes are made in a great many forms, of two and
-    three feet in length, and one foot or more in width, of a hoop or
-    hoops bent around for the frame, with a netting or web woven across
-    with strings of rawhide, on which the feet rest, and to which they are
-    fastened with straps somewhat like a skate.<a id="FNanchor_14" href="#Footnote_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> With these the Indian
-    will glide over the snow with astonishing quickness, without sinking
-    down, or scarcely leaving his track where he has gone.</p>
-
-  <p>The poor buffaloes have their enemy <em>man</em>, besetting and beseiging
-    them at all times of the year, and in all the modes that man in his
-    superior wisdom has been able to devise for their destruction. They
-    struggle in vain to evade his deadly shafts, when he dashes amongst
-    them over the plains on his wild horse—they plunge into the snow-drifts
-    where they yield themselves an easy prey to their destroyers, and they
-    also stand unwittingly and behold him, unsuspected under the skin of
-    a white wolf, insinuating himself and his fatal weapons into close
-    company, when they are peaceably grazing on the level prairies, and
-    shot down before they are aware of their danger (<a href="#i_110"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 110</a>).</p>
-
-  <p>There are several varieties of the wolf species in this country, the
-    most formidable and most numerous of which are white, often sneaking
-    about in gangs or families of fifty or sixty in numbers, appearing in
-    distance, on the green prairies like nothing but a flock of sheep.
-    Many of these animals grow to a very great size, being I should think,
-    quite a match for the largest Newfoundland dog. At present, whilst the
-    buffaloes are so abundant, and these ferocious animals are glutted
-    with the buffalo’s flesh, they are harmless, and everywhere sneak away
-    from man’s presence; which I scarcely think will be the case after
-    the buffaloes are all gone, and they are left, as they must be, with
-    scarcely anything to eat. They always are seen following about in the
-    vicinity of herds of buffaloes and stand ready to pick the bones of
-    those that the hunters leave on the ground, or to overtake and devour
-    those that are wounded, which fall an easy prey to them. While the herd
-    of buffaloes are together, they seem to have little dread of the wolf,
-    and allow them to come in close company with them. The Indian then has
-    taken advantage of this fact, and often places himself under the skin
-    of this animal, and crawls for half a mile or more on his hands and
-    knees, until he approaches within a few rods of the unsuspecting group,
-    and easily shoots down the fattest of the throng.</p>
-
-  <p>The buffalo is a very timid animal, and shuns the vicinity of man
-    with the <span class="pagenum" id="Page_255">255</span>keenest sagacity; yet, when overtaken, and harassed or
-    wounded, turns upon its assailants with the utmost fury, who have only
-    to seek safety in flight. In their desperate resistance the finest
-    horses are often destroyed; but the Indian, with his superior sagacity
-    and dexterity, generally finds some effective mode of escape, as in
-    <a href="#i_111"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 111</a>.</p>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>74</i></div>
-  <figure id="i_109">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_109.jpg" alt="" />
-     <figcaption>109</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <figure class="mt2" id="i_110">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_110.jpg" alt="" />
-     <figcaption>110</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p>During the season of the year whilst the calves are young, the male
-    seems to stroll about by the side of the dam, as if for the purpose
-    of protecting the young, at which time it is exceedingly hazardous
-    to attack them, as they are sure to turn upon their pursuers, who
-    have often to fly to each others assistance (<a href="#i_112"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 112</a>). The
-    buffalo calf, during the first six months is red, and has so much the
-    appearance of a red calf in cultivated fields, that it could easily be
-    mingled and mistaken amongst them. In the fall, when it changes its
-    hair it takes a brown coat for the winter, which it always retains.
-    In pursuing a large herd of buffaloes at the season when their calves
-    are but a few weeks old, I have often been exceedingly amused with the
-    curious manœuvres of these shy little things. Amidst the thundering
-    confusion of a throng of several hundreds or several thousands of
-    these animals, there will be many of the calves that lose sight
-    of their dams; and being left behind by the throng, and the swift
-    passing hunters, they endeavour to secrete themselves, when they are
-    exceedingly put to it on a level prairie, where nought can be seen but
-    the short grass of six or eight inches in height, save an occasional
-    bunch of wild sage, a few inches higher, to which the poor affrighted
-    things will run, and dropping on their knees, will push their noses
-    under it, and into the grass, where they will stand for hours, with
-    their eyes shut, imagining themselves securely hid, whilst they are
-    standing up quite straight upon their hind feet and can easily be seen
-    at several miles distance. It is a familiar amusement for us accustomed
-    to these scenes, to retreat back over the ground where we have just
-    escorted the herd, and approach these little trembling things, which
-    stubbornly maintain their positions, with their noses pushed under
-    the grass, and their eyes strained upon us, as we dismount from our
-    horses and are passing around them. From this fixed position they are
-    sure not to move, until hands are laid upon them, and then for the
-    shins of a novice, we can extend our sympathy; or if he can preserve
-    the skin on his bones from the furious buttings of its head, we know
-    how to congratulate him on his signal success and good luck. In these
-    desperate struggles, for a moment, the little thing is conquered,
-    and makes no further resistance. And I have often, in concurrence
-    with a known custom of the country, held my hands over the eyes of
-    the calf, and breathed a few strong breaths into its nostrils; after
-    which I have, with my hunting companions, rode several miles into our
-    encampment, with the little prisoner busily following the heels of my
-    horse the whole way, as closely and as affectionately as its instinct
-    would attach it to the company of its dam!</p>
-
-  <p>This is one of the most extraordinary things that I have met with
-    in the habits of this wild country, and although I had often heard
-    of it, and felt<span class="pagenum" id="Page_256">256</span> unable exactly to believe it, I am now willing to
-    bear testimony to the fact, from the numerous instances which I have
-    witnessed since I came into the country. During the time that I resided
-    at this post, in the spring of the year, on my way up the river, I
-    assisted (in numerous hunts of the buffalo, with the Fur Company’s
-    men,) in bringing in, in the above manner, several of these little
-    prisoners, which sometimes followed for five or six miles close to
-    our horses’ heels, and even into the Fur Company’s Fort, and into the
-    stable where our horses were led. In this way, before I left for the
-    head waters of the Missouri, I think we had collected about a dozen,
-    which Mr. Laidlaw was successfully raising with the aid of a good milch
-    cow, and which were to be committed to the care of Mr. Chouteau to be
-    transported by the return of the steamer, to his extensive plantation
-    in the vicinity of <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Louis.<a id="FNanchor_15" href="#Footnote_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a></p>
-
-  <p>It is truly a melancholy contemplation for the traveller in this
-    country, to anticipate the period which is not far distant, when the
-    last of these noble animals, at the hands of white and red men, will
-    fall victims to their cruel and improvident rapacity; leaving these
-    beautiful green fields, a vast and idle waste, unstocked and unpeopled
-    for ages to come, until the bones of the one and the traditions of the
-    other will have vanished, and left scarce an intelligible trace behind.</p>
-
-  <p>That the reader should not think me visionary in these contemplations,
-    or romancing in making such assertions, I will hand him the following
-    item of the extravagancies which are practiced in these regions, and
-    rapidly leading to the results which I have just named.</p>
-
-  <p>When I first arrived at this place, on my way up the river, which was
-    in the month of May, in 1832, and had taken up my lodgings in the Fur
-    Company’s Fort, Mr. Laidlaw, of whom I have before spoken, and also his
-    chief clerk, Mr. Halsey, and many of their men, as well as the chiefs
-    of the Sioux, told me, that only a few days before I arrived, (when an
-    immense herd of buffaloes had showed themselves on the opposite side of
-    the river, almost blackening the plains for a great distance,) a party
-    of five or six hundred Sioux Indians on horseback, forded the river
-    about mid-day, and spending a few hours amongst them, recrossed the
-    river at sun-down and came into the Fort with <em>fourteen hundred fresh
-    buffalo tongues</em>, which were thrown down in a mass, and for which
-    they required but a few gallons of whiskey, which was soon demolished,
-    indulging them in a little, and harmless carouse.</p>
-
-  <p>This profligate waste of the lives of these noble and useful animals,
-    when, from all that I could learn, not a skin or a pound of the
-    meat (except the tongues), was brought in, fully supports me in
-    the seemingly extravagant <span class="pagenum" id="Page_257">257</span>predictions that I have made as to
-    their extinction, which I am certain is near at hand. In the above
-    extravagant instance, at a season when their skins were without fur and
-    not worth taking off, and their camp was so well stocked with fresh and
-    dried meat, that they had no occasion for using the flesh, there is a
-    fair exhibition of the improvident character of the savage, and also of
-    his recklessness in catering for his appetite, so long as the present
-    inducements are held out to him in his country, for its gratification.</p>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>75</i></div>
-  <figure id="i_111">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_111.jpg" alt="" />
-     <figcaption>111</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <figure class="mt2" id="i_112">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_112.jpg" alt="" />
-     <figcaption>112</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p>In this singular country, where the poor Indians have no laws or
-    regulations of society, making it a vice or an impropriety to drink to
-    excess, they think it no harm to indulge in the delicious beverage, as
-    long as they are able to buy whiskey to drink. They look to white men
-    as wiser than themselves, and able to set them examples—they see none
-    of these in their country but sellers of whiskey, who are constantly
-    tendering it to them, and most of them setting the example by using it
-    themselves; and they easily acquire a taste, that to be catered for,
-    where whiskey is sold at sixteen dollars per gallon, soon impoverishes
-    them, and must soon strip the skin from the last buffalo’s back that
-    lives in their country, to “be dressed by their squaws” and vended to
-    the Traders for a pint of diluted alcohol.</p>
-
-  <p>From the above remarks it will be seen, that not only the red men, but
-    red men and white, have aimed destruction at the race of these animals;
-    and with them, <em>beasts</em> have turned hunters of buffaloes in this
-    country, slaying them, however, in less numbers, and for far more
-    laudable purpose than that of selling their skins. The white wolves, of
-    which I have spoken in a former epistle, follow the herds of buffaloes
-    as I have said, from one season to another, glutting themselves on the
-    carcasses of those that fall by the deadly shafts of their enemies,
-    or linger with disease or old age to be dispatched by these sneaking
-    cormorants, who are ready at all times kindly to relieve them from the
-    pangs of a lingering death.</p>
-
-  <p>Whilst the herd is together, the wolves never attack them, as they
-    instantly gather for combined resistance, which they effectually make.
-    But when the herds are travelling, it often happens that an aged or
-    wounded one, lingers at a distance behind, and when fairly out of sight
-    of the herd, is set upon by these voracious hunters, which often gather
-    to the number of fifty or more, and are sure at last to torture him
-    to death, and use him up at a meal. The buffalo, however, is a huge
-    and furious animal, and when his retreat is cut off, makes desperate
-    and deadly resistance, contending to the last moment for the right of
-    life—and oftentimes deals death by wholesale, to his canine assailants,
-    which he is tossing into the air or stamping to death under his feet
-    (<a href="#i_113"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 113</a>).</p>
-
-  <p>During my travels in these regions, I have several times come across
-    such a gang of these animals surrounding an old or a wounded bull,
-    where it would seem, from appearances, that they had been for several
-    days in attendance, and at intervals desperately engaged in the
-    effort to take his life. But a short time since, as one of my hunting
-    companions and myself were returning<span class="pagenum" id="Page_258">258</span> to our encampment with our horses
-    loaded with meat, we discovered at a distance, a huge bull, encircled
-    with a gang of white wolves; we rode up as near as we could without
-    driving them away, and being within pistol shot, we had a remarkably
-    good view, where I sat for a few moments and made a sketch in my
-    note-book (<a href="#i_114"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 114</a>); after which, we rode up and gave the
-    signal for them to disperse, which they instantly did, withdrawing
-    themselves to the distance of fifty or sixty rods, when we found, to
-    our great surprise, that the animal had made desperate resistance,
-    until his eyes were entirely eaten out of his head—the grizzle of his
-    nose was mostly gone—his tongue was half eaten off, and the skin and
-    flesh of his legs torn almost literally into strings. In this tattered
-    and torn condition, the poor old veteran stood bracing up in the midst
-    of his devourers, who had ceased hostilities for a few minutes, to
-    enjoy a sort of parley, recovering strength and preparing to resume
-    the attack in a few moments again. In this group, some were reclining,
-    to gain breath, whilst others were sneaking about and licking their
-    chaps in anxiety for a renewal of the attack; and others, less lucky,
-    had been crushed to death by the feet or the horns of the bull. I rode
-    nearer to the pitiable object as he stood bleeding and trembling before
-    me, and said to him, “Now is your time, old fellow, and you had better
-    be off.” Though blind and nearly destroyed, there seemed evidently
-    to be a recognition of a friend in me, as he straightened up, and,
-    trembling with excitement, dashed off at full speed upon the prairie,
-    in a straight line. We turned our horses and resumed our march, and
-    when we had advanced a mile or more, we looked back, and on our left,
-    where we saw again the ill-fated animal surrounded by his tormentors,
-    to whose insatiable voracity he unquestionably soon fell a victim.</p>
-
-  <p>Thus much I wrote of the buffaloes, and of the accidents that befall
-    them, as well as of the fate that awaits them; and before I closed my
-    book, I strolled out one day to the shade of a plum-tree, where I laid
-    in the grass on a favourite bluff, and wrote thus:—</p>
-
-  <p>“It is generally supposed, and familiarly said, that a man
-    ‘<em>falls</em>’ into a rêverie; but I seated myself in the shade a few
-    minutes since, resolved to <em>force</em> myself into one; and for this
-    purpose I laid open a small pocket-map of North America, and excluding
-    my thoughts from every other object in the world, I soon succeeded in
-    producing the desired illusion. This little chart, over which I bent,
-    was seen in all its parts, as nothing but the green and vivid reality.
-    I was lifted up upon an imaginary pair of wings, which easily raised
-    and held me floating in the open air, from whence I could behold
-    beneath me the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans—the great cities of the
-    East, and the mighty rivers. I could see the blue chain of the great
-    lakes at the North—the Rocky Mountains, and beneath them and near
-    their base, the vast, and almost boundless plains of grass, which were
-    speckled with the bands of grazing buffaloes!</p>
-
-  <p>“The world turned gently around, and I examined its surface; continent
-    <span class="pagenum" id="Page_259">259</span>after continent passed under my eye, and yet amidst them all, I saw
-    not the vast and vivid green, that is spread like a carpet over the
-    Western wilds of my own country. I saw not elsewhere in the world, the
-    myriad herds of buffaloes—my eyes scanned in vain, for they were not.
-    And when I turned again to the wilds of my native land, I beheld them
-    all in motion! For the distance of several hundreds of miles from North
-    to South, they were wheeling about in vast columns and herds—some were
-    scattered, and ran with furious wildness—some lay dead, and others
-    were pawing the earth for a hiding-place—some were sinking down and
-    dying, gushing out their life’s blood in deep-drawn sighs—and others
-    were contending in furious battle for the life they possessed, and
-    the ground that they stood upon. They had long since assembled from
-    the thickets, and secret haunts of the deep forest, into the midst of
-    the treeless and bushless plains, as the place for their safety. I
-    could see in an hundred places, amid the wheeling bands, and on their
-    skirts and flanks, the leaping wild horse darting among them. I saw
-    not the arrows, nor heard the twang of the sinewy bows that sent them;
-    but I saw their victims fall!—on other steeds that rushed along their
-    sides I saw the glistening lances, which seemed to lay across them;
-    their blades were blazing in the sun, till dipped in blood, and then
-    I lost them! In other parts (and there were many), the vivid flash of
-    <em>fire-arms</em> was seen—<em>their</em> victims fell too, and over their
-    dead bodies hung suspended in air, little clouds of whitened smoke,
-    from under which the flying horsemen had darted forward to mingle again
-    with, and deal death to, the trampling throng.</p>
-
-  <div class="plate mt2"><i>76</i></div>
-  <figure id="i_113">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_113.jpg" alt="" />
-     <figcaption>113</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <figure class="mt2" id="i_114">
-    <img class="illowp100" src="images/i_114.jpg" alt="" />
-     <figcaption>114</figcaption>
-  </figure>
-
-  <p>“So strange were men mixed (both red and white) with the countless
-    herds that wheeled and eddyed about, that all below seemed one vast
-    extended field of battle—whole armies, in some places, seemed to
-    blacken the earth’s surface;—in other parts, regiments, battalions,
-    wings, platoons, rank and file, and “<em>Indian-file</em>”—all were in
-    motion; and death and destruction seemed to be the watch-word amongst
-    them. In their turmoil, they sent up great clouds of dust, and with
-    them came the mingled din of groans and trampling hoofs, that seemed
-    like the rumbling of a dreadful cataract, or the roaring of distant
-    thunder. Alternate pity and admiration harrowed up in my bosom and my
-    brain, many a hidden thought; and amongst them a few of the beautiful
-    notes that were once sung, and exactly in point: ‘<i lang="la">Quadrupedante
-    putrem sonitu quatit ungula campum.</i>’ Even such was the din amidst
-    the quadrupeds of these vast plains. And from the craggy cliffs of the
-    Rocky Mountains also were seen descending into the valley, the myriad
-    Tartars, who had not horses to ride, but before their well-drawn bows
-    the fattest of the herds were falling. Hundreds and thousands were
-    strewed upon the plains—they were flayed, and their reddened carcasses
-    left; and about them bands of wolves, and dogs, and buzzards were
-    seen devouring them. Contiguous, and in sight, were the distant and
-    feeble smokes of wigwams and villages, where the skins were dragged,
-    and dressed for white man’s luxury! where they were all sold for
-    <em>whiskey</em>, and the poor<span class="pagenum" id="Page_260">260</span> Indians laid drunk, and were crying.
-    I cast my eyes into the towns and cities of the East, and there I
-    beheld buffalo robes hanging at almost every door for traffic; and I
-    saw also the curling smokes of a thousand <em>Stills</em>—and I said,
-    ‘Oh insatiable man, is thy avarice such! wouldst thou tear the skin
-    from the back of the last animal of this noble race, <em>and rob thy
-    fellow-man of his meat, and for it give him poison</em>!’” <span class="gesperrtstar">* * * * * * * * * * *</span></p>
-
-  <p>Many are the rudenesses and wilds in Nature’s works, which are destined
-    to fall before the deadly axe and desolating hands of cultivating man;
-    and so amongst her ranks of <em>living</em>, of beast and human, we
-    often find noble stamps, or beautiful colours, to which our admiration
-    clings; and even in the overwhelming march of civilized improvements
-    and refinements do we love to cherish their existence, and lend our
-    efforts to preserve them in their primitive rudeness. Such of Nature’s
-    works are always worthy of our preservation and protection; and the
-    further we become separated (and the face of the country) from that
-    pristine wildness and beauty, the more pleasure does the mind of
-    enlightened man feel in recurring to those scenes, when he can have
-    them preserved for his eyes and his mind to dwell upon.</p>
-
-  <p>Of such “rudenesses and wilds,” Nature has no where presented more
-    beautiful and lovely scenes, than those of the vast prairies of the
-    West; and of <em>man</em> and <em>beast</em>, no nobler specimens than
-    those who inhabit them—the <em>Indian</em> and the <em>buffalo</em>—joint
-    and original tenants of the soil, and fugitives together from the
-    approach of civilized man; they have fled to the great plains of the
-    West, and there, under an equal doom, they have taken up their <em>last
-    abode</em>, where their race will expire, and their bones will bleach
-    together.</p>
-
-  <p>It may be that <em>power</em> is <em>right</em>, and <em>voracity</em> a
-    <em>virtue</em>; and that these people, and these noble animals, are
-    <em>righteously</em> doomed to an issue that <em>will</em> not be averted.
-    It can be easily proved—we have a civilized science that can easily do
-    it, or anything else that may be required to cover the iniquities of
-    civilized man in catering for his unholy appetites. It can be proved
-    that the weak and ignorant have no <em>rights</em>—that there can be no
-    virtue in darkness—that God’s gifts have no meaning or merit until they
-    are appropriated by civilized man—by him brought into the light, and
-    converted to his use and luxury. We have a mode of reasoning (I forget
-    what it is called) by which all this can be proved, and even more. The
-    <em>word</em> and the <em>system</em> are entirely of <em>civilized</em>
-    origin; and latitude is admirably given to them in proportion to
-    the increase of civilized wants, which often require a <em>judge</em>
-    to overrule the laws of nature. I say that <em>we</em> can prove such
-    things; but an <em>Indian</em> cannot. It is a mode of reasoning unknown
-    to him in his nature’s simplicity, but admirably adapted to subserve
-    the interests of the enlightened world, who are always their own
-    judges, when dealing with the savage; and who, in the present refined
-    age, have many appetites that can only be lawfully indulged, by proving
-    God’s laws defective.</p>
-
-  <p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_261">261</span></p>
-
-  <p>It is not enough in this polished and extravagant age, that we get from
-    the Indian his lands, and the very clothes from his back, but the food
-    from their mouths must be stopped, to add a new and useless article to
-    the fashionable world’s luxuries. The ranks must be thinned, and the
-    race exterminated, of this noble animal, and the Indians of the great
-    plains left without the means of supporting life, that white men may
-    figure a few years longer, enveloped in buffalo robes—that they may
-    spread them, for their pleasure and elegance, over the backs of their
-    sleighs, and trail them ostentatiously amidst the busy throng, as
-    things of beauty and elegance that had been made for them!</p>
-
-  <p>Reader! listen to the following calculations, and forget them not.
-    The buffaloes (the quadrupeds from whose backs your beautiful robes
-    were taken, and whose myriads were once spread over the whole country,
-    from the Rocky Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean) have recently fled
-    before the appalling appearance of civilized man, and taken up their
-    abode and pasturage amid the almost boundless prairies of the West.
-    An instinctive dread of their deadly foes, who made an easy prey of
-    them whilst grazing in the forest, has led them to seek the midst of
-    the vast and treeless plains of grass, as the spot where they would be
-    least exposed to the assaults of their enemies; and it is exclusively
-    in those desolate fields of silence (yet of beauty) that they are to
-    be found—and over these vast steppes, or prairies, have they fled,
-    like the Indian, towards the “setting sun;” until their bands have
-    been crowded together, and their limits confined to a narrow strip of
-    country on this side of the Rocky Mountains.</p>
-
-  <p>This strip of country, which extends from the province of Mexico to
-    lake Winnepeg on the North, is almost one entire plain of grass, which
-    is, and ever must be, useless to cultivating man. It is here, and
-    here chiefly, that the buffaloes dwell; and with, and hovering about
-    them, live and flourish the tribes of Indians, whom God made for the
-    enjoyment of that fair land and its luxuries.</p>
-
-  <p>It is a melancholy contemplation for one who has travelled as I have,
-    through these realms, and seen this noble animal in all its pride and
-    glory, to contemplate it so rapidly wasting from the world, drawing the
-    irresistible conclusion too, which one must do, that its species is
-    soon to be extinguished, and with it the peace and happiness (if not
-    the actual existence) of the tribes of Indians who are joint tenants
-    with them, in the occupancy of these vast and idle plains.</p>
-
-  <p>And what a splendid contemplation too, when one (who has travelled
-    these realms, and can duly appreciate them) imagines them as they
-    <em>might</em> in future be seen, (by some great protecting policy of
-    government) preserved in their pristine beauty and wildness, in a
-    <em>magnificent park</em>, where the world could see for ages to come,
-    the native Indian in his classic attire, galloping his wild horse,
-    with sinewy bow, and shield and lance, amid the fleeting herds of elks
-    and buffaloes. What a beautiful and thrilling specimen for<span class="pagenum" id="Page_262">262</span> America to
-    preserve and hold up to the view of her refined citizens and the world,
-    in future ages! A <em>nation’s Park</em>, containing man and beast, in
-    all the wild and freshness of their nature’s beauty!</p>
-
-  <p>I would ask no other monument to my memory, nor any other enrolment of
-    my name amongst the famous dead, than the reputation of having been the
-    founder of such an institution.</p>
-
-  <p>Such scenes might easily have been preserved, and still could be
-    cherished on the great plains of the West, without detriment to
-    the country or its borders; for the tracts of country on which the
-    buffaloes have assembled, are uniformly sterile, and of no available
-    use to cultivating man.</p>
-
-  <p>It is on these plains, which are stocked with buffaloes, that the
-    finest specimens of the Indian race are to be seen. It is here, that
-    the savage is decorated in the richest costume. It is here, and here
-    only, that his wants are all satisfied, and even the <em>luxuries</em> of
-    life are afforded him in abundance. And here also is he the proud and
-    honourable man (before he has had teachers or laws), above the imported
-    wants, which beget meanness and vice; stimulated by ideas of honour and
-    virtue, in which the God of Nature has certainly not curtailed him.</p>
-
-  <p>There are, by a fair calculation, more than 300,000 Indians, who are
-    now subsisted on the flesh of the buffaloes, and by those animals
-    supplied with all the luxuries of life which they desire, as they
-    know of none others. The great variety of uses to which they convert
-    the body and other parts of that animal, are almost incredible to
-    the person who has not actually dwelt amongst these people, and
-    closely studied their modes and customs. Every part of their flesh is
-    converted into food, in one shape or another, and on it they entirely
-    subsist. The robes of the animals are worn by the Indians instead of
-    blankets—their skins when tanned, are used as coverings for their
-    lodges, and for their beds; undressed, they are used for constructing
-    canoes—for saddles, for bridles—l’arrêts, lasos, and thongs. The horns
-    are shaped into ladles and spoons—the brains are used for dressing the
-    skins—their bones are used for saddle trees—for war clubs, and scrapers
-    for graining the robes—and others are broken up for the marrow-fat
-    which is contained in them. Their sinews are used for strings and backs
-    to their bows—for thread to string their beads and sew their dresses.
-    The feet of the animals are boiled, with their hoofs, for the glue
-    they contain, for fastening their arrow points, and many other uses.
-    The hair from the head and shoulders, which is long, is twisted and
-    braided into halters, and the tail is used for a fly brush. In this
-    wise do these people convert and use the various parts of this useful
-    animal, and with all these luxuries of life about them, and their
-    numerous games, they are happy (God bless them) in the ignorance of the
-    disastrous fate that awaits them.</p>
-
-  <p>Yet this interesting community, with its sports, its wildnesses, its
-    languages, and all its manners and customs, could be perpetuated, and
-    also the buffaloes, whose numbers would increase and supply them with
-    food for ages and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_263">263</span> centuries to come, if a system of non-intercourse
-    could be established and preserved. But such is not to be the case—the
-    buffalo’s doom is sealed, and with their extinction must assuredly sink
-    into real despair and starvation, the inhabitants of these vast plains,
-    which afford for the Indians, no other possible means of subsistence;
-    and they must at last fall a prey to wolves and buzzards, who will have
-    no other bones to pick.</p>
-
-  <p>It seems hard and cruel, (does it not?) that we civilized people with
-    all the luxuries and comforts of the world about us, should be drawing
-    from the backs of these useful animals the skins for our luxury,
-    leaving their carcasses to be devoured by the wolves—that we should
-    draw from that country, some 150 or 200,000 of their robes annually,
-    the greater part of which are taken from animals that are killed
-    expressly for the robe, at a season when the meat is not cured and
-    preserved, and for each of which skins the Indian has received but a
-    pint of whiskey!</p>
-
-  <p>Such is the fact, and that number or near it, are annually destroyed,
-    in addition to the number that is necessarily killed for the
-    subsistence of 300,000 Indians, who live entirely upon them. It may
-    be said, perhaps, that the Fur Trade of these great western realms,
-    which is now limited chiefly to the purchase of buffalo robes, is of
-    great and national importance, and should and must be encouraged. To
-    such a suggestion I would reply, by merely enquiring, (independently
-    of the poor Indians’ disasters,) how much more advantageously would
-    such a capital be employed, both for the weal of the country and for
-    the owners, if it were invested in machines for the manufacture of
-    <em>woollen robes</em>, of equal and superior value and beauty; thereby
-    encouraging the growers of wool, and the industrious manufacturer,
-    rather than cultivating a taste for the use of buffalo skins; which is
-    just to be acquired, and then, from necessity, to be dispensed with,
-    when a few years shall have destroyed the last of the animals producing
-    them.</p>
-
-  <p>It may be answered, perhaps, that the necessaries of life are given in
-    exchange for these robes; but what, I would ask, are the necessities
-    in Indian life, where they have buffaloes in abundance to live on? The
-    Indian’s necessities are entirely artificial—are all created; and when
-    the buffaloes shall have disappeared in his country, which will be
-    within <em>eight</em> or <em>ten</em> years, I would ask, who is to supply
-    him with the necessaries of life then? and I would ask, further, (and
-    leave the question to be answered ten years hence), when the skin shall
-    have been stripped from the back of the last animal, who is to resist
-    the ravages of 300,000 starving savages; and in their trains, 1,500,000
-    wolves, whom direst necessity will have driven from their desolate and
-    gameless plains, to seek for the means of subsistence along our exposed
-    frontier? God has everywhere supplied man in a state of Nature, with
-    the necessaries of life, and before we destroy the game of his country,
-    or teach him new desires, he has no wants that are not satisfied.</p>
-
-  <p>Amongst the tribes who have been impoverished and repeatedly removed,
-    the necessaries of life are extended with a better grace from the
-    hands of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_264">264</span> civilized man; 90,000 of such have already been removed, and
-    they draw from Government some 5 or 600,000 dollars annually in cash;
-    <em>which money passes immediately into the hands of white men</em>, and
-    for it the necessaries of life <em>may be</em> abundantly furnished. But
-    who, I would ask, are to furnish the Indians who have been instructed
-    in this unnatural mode—living upon <em>such</em> necessaries, and even
-    luxuries of life, extended to them by the hands of white men, when
-    those annuities are at an end, and the skin is stripped from the last
-    of the animals which God gave them for their subsistence?</p>
-
-  <p>Reader, I will stop here, lest you might forget to answer these
-    important queries—these are questions which I know will puzzle the
-    world—and, perhaps it is not right that I should ask them. <span class="gesperrtstar">* * * * * * * * *</span></p>
-
-  <p><span class="gesperrtstar">* *</span> Thus much I wrote and painted at this place, whilst on my way up
-    the river: after which I embarked on the steamer for the Yellow Stone,
-    and the sources of the Missouri, through which interesting regions I
-    have made a successful Tour; and have returned, as will have been seen
-    by the foregoing narrations, in my canoe, to this place, from whence
-    I am to descend the river still further in a few days. If I ever get
-    time, I may give further Notes on this place, and of people and their
-    doings, which I met with here; but at present, I throw my note-book,
-    and canvass, and brushes into my canoe, which will be launched
-    to-morrow morning, and on its way towards <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Louis, with myself at
-    the steering-oar, as usual; and with Ba’tiste and Bogard to paddle, of
-    whom, I beg the readers’ pardon for having said nothing of late, though
-    they have been my constant companions. Our way is now over the foaming
-    and muddy waters of the Missouri, and amid snags and drift logs (for
-    there is a sweeping freshet on her waters), and many a day will pass
-    before other Letters will come from me; and possibly, the reader may
-    have to look to my biographer for the rest. Adieu.</p>
-
-  <div class="footnotes">
-    <div class="footnote">
-      <a id="Footnote_13" href="#FNanchor_13" class="label">[13]</a> The reader will be further instructed on this subject, by
-        referring back to <a href="#i_009"><span class="smcap">plate</span> 9</a>, in the beginning of the book.
-    </div>
-
-    <div class="footnote">
-      <a id="Footnote_14" href="#FNanchor_14" class="label">[14]</a> The readers will look forward to
-        <span class="smcap">plates</span> 240 and 243, in the Second Volume, for snow shoes.
-    </div>
-
-    <div class="footnote">
-      <a id="Footnote_15" href="#FNanchor_15" class="label">[15]</a> The fate of these poor little prisoners, I was informed
-        on my return to <abbr title="Saint">St.</abbr> Louis a year afterwards, was a very disastrous
-        one. The steamer having a distance of 1600 miles to perform, and lying
-        a week or two on sand bars, in a country where milk could not be
-        procured, they all perished but one, which is now flourishing in the
-        extensive fields of this gentleman.
-    </div>
-  </div>
-
-<div class="center small mt5">END OF VOL. I.</div>
-
-  <div class="transnote mt5">
-    <div class="large center"><b>Transcriber’s Notes:</b></div>
-    <ul class="spaced">
-      <li>Blank pages have been removed.</li>
-      <li>Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected.</li>
-      <li>All illustrations are attributed to <i>G. Catlin</i>.</li>
-      <li>There is no illustration 23, and some are out of sequence.</li>
-    </ul>
-  </div>
-
-<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE MANNERS, CUSTOMS, &AMP; CONDITION OF THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS, VOL. I (OF 2) ***</div>
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