CHAPTER VI.

CULTS OF THE MANDAN, HIDATSA, AND SAPONA.

AUTHORITIES.

§ 310. This chapter contains no original material, but is a compilation made from the following works for the convenience of the reader:

Byrd (Wm.), History of the Dividing line (1729), vol. I. Reprint: Richmond, Va., 1866.

U. S. Geol. and Geogr. Surv., Miscell. Publ., No. 7, 1877: Ethnog. and Philol. of Hidatsa Indians. By Washington Matthews.

James’s Account of Long’s Exped., to Rocky Mountains, Phil., 1823, vol. I.

Lewis and Clarke’s Exped., ed. Allen, Dublin, 1817, vol. I.

The George Catlin Indian Gallery * * * Thomas Donaldson: Smithson. Rept., 1885, pt. 2, appendix.

Travels in * * * North America, by Maximilian, Prince of Wied. Trans. by H. Evans Lloyd, London, 1843.

ALLEGED BELIEF IN A GREAT SPIRIT.

§ 311. As among the Dakota, so among the Mandan and Hidatsa, we find that some of the earlier writers assert that the religion of the Indians under consideration “consists in the belief in one Great Spirit.”[217]

But such assertions are closely followed by admissions which explain the mistake of the writer: “Great Spirit” is synonymous with “Great Medicine,” a name applied to everything which they do not comprehend. Among the Mandan, “each individual selects for himself the particular object of his devotion, which is termed his medicine, and is either some visible being, or more commonly some animal.”

THE GREAT MYSTERY A MODERN DEITY.

Matthews states of the Hidatsa:

Many claim that the Great Spirit, or, more properly, the Great Mystery, is a deity of the modern Indian only. I have certainly heard some old and very conservative Minnetarees speak of Mahopa as if they meant thereby an influence or power above all other things, but not attaching to it any ideas of personality. It would now be perhaps impossible to make a just analysis of their original conceptions in this matter.[218]

POLYTHEISM.

Instead of believing in one Great Spirit, the Mandan and Hidatsa “believe in a multitude of different beings in the heavenly bodies; offer sacrifices to them; invoke their assistance on every occasion; howl, lament, fast, inflict on themselves acts of penance to propitiate these spirits; and, above all, lay very great stress upon dreams.”[219]

§ 312. The most sacred objects in the eyes of the Crow or Absaroka, a nation closely related to the Hidatsa, are “the sun, the moon, and tobacco,” that is, the leaves of the genuine tobacco (_Nicotiana_); and all their children wear a small portion of this herb, well wrapped up, round their neck, by way of an amulet.[220]

WORSHIP.

§ 313. Full information respecting worship has not been obtained; but we know that among its accessories are the following: prayer, fasting, and sacrifice. The different writers tell us of petitions offered to the gods for help.

FASTING.

§ 314. When a young Mandan wishes to establish his reputation as a brave man, he fasts for four or seven days, as long as he is able, goes to the bluffs, cries to the Omahank-Numakshi, calls incessantly on the higher powers for aid, and goes home at night to sleep and dream. They fast before taking part in the Okipa, before organizing a war party, etc.[221]

SACRIFICE.

§ 315. Said a Mandan to Lewis and Clarke, “I was lately owner of seventeen horses, but I have offered them all up to my medicine, and am now poor.” He had taken all his horses to the plain, where he turned them loose, committing them to the care of his “medicine,” thus abandoning them forever.[222]

“Around the burial scaffolds of the Mandans were several high poles, with skins and other things hanging on them, as offerings to the lord of life, Omahank-Numakshi, or to the first man, Numank-Machana.”[223]

§ 316. _The Okipa._--That form of self-sacrifice called Okipa by the Mandan has been described in detail by Catlin and Maximilian. It differs in some respects from the sun dance of the Dakota and Ponka, as well as from the Daḣpike or Naḣpike of the Hidatsa.[224]

§ 317. _The Daḣpike._--According to Matthews, the most important ceremony of the Hidatsa is that of--

The Daḣpike or Naḣpike, which formerly took place regularly once a year, but is now celebrated every second or third year only. On the day when it is determined to begin this ceremony, some of the men, dressed and mounted as for a war-party, proceed to the woods. Here they select a tall, forked cottonwood, which they fell, trim, and bark; to this they tie lariats, and, by the aid of horses, drag it to the village. In the procession, the man who has most distinguished himself in battle, mounted on the horse on whose back he has done his bravest deeds, takes the lead; others follow in the order of the military distinction; as they drag the log along, they fire guns at it, strike it with sticks, and shout and sing songs of victory. The log, they say, is symbolical of a conquered enemy, whose body they are bringing into the camp in triumph. [See §§ 28, 42, 160.] When the log is set up, they again go to the woods to procure a quantity of willows. A temporary lodge of green willows is then built around the log, as the medicine lodge, wherein the ceremony is performed [see § 168.] The participants fast four days with food in sight, and, on the fourth day, submit to tortures which vary according to the whim of the sufferer or the advice of the shamans. Some have long strips of skin separated from different parts of their bodies, but not completely detached. Others have large pieces of the integument entirely removed, leaving the muscles exposed. Others have incisions made in their flesh, in which raw-hide strings are inserted; they then attach buffalo-skulls to the strings and run round with these until the strings becomes disengaged by tearing their way out of the flesh. Other have skewers inserted in their breasts, which skewers are secured by raw-hide cords to the central pole, as in the Dakota sun dance; the sufferer then throws himself back until he is released by the skewers tearing out of the flesh. Many other ingenious tortures are devised.[225]

§ 318. In the narrative of Long’s expedition to the Rocky Mountains, we find an account of the latter part of this ceremony, prepared, as Matthews thinks, from the statements of Mr. Dougherty or Mr. Lisa, as the expedition did not go near the Minnetaree country. All the torments there described, and more, are inflicted to this day. That account is as follows:[226]

Annually in the month of July the Minnetarees celebrate their great medicine dance. * * * On this occasion a considerable quantity of food is prepared. * * * The devotees then dance and sing to their music at intervals for three or four days together in full view of the victuals without attempting to taste them. But they do not, even at this time, forego their accustomed hospitality. And if a stranger enters, he is invited to eat, though no one partakes with him. On the third or fourth day, the severer * * * tortures commence. * * * An individual presents himself before one of the * * * magi, crying and lamenting, and requests him to cut a fillet of skin from his arm, which he extends for that purpose. The operator thrusts a sharp instrument through the skin near the wrists, then introduces the knife and cuts out a piece of the required length, sometimes extending the cut entirely to the shoulder. Another will request bands of skin to be cut from his arm. A third will have his breast flayed so as to represent a full-moon or crescent. A fourth submits to the removal of concentric arcs of skin from his breast. A fifth prays the operator to remove small pieces of skin from various indicated parts of his body. * * * An individual requests the operator to pierce a hole through the skin on each of his shoulders, and after passing a long cord through each hole, he repairs to a burial ground at some distance from the village, and selects one of the bison skulls collected there. To the chosen skull he affixes the ends of his cords, and drags it to the lodge, around which he must go with his burden before he can be released from it. No one is permitted to assist him, neither dare he to put his hands to the cords to alleviate his sufferings. If it should so happen that the horns of the skull get hooked under a root or other obstacle, he must extricate it in the best manner he can by pulling different ways, but he must not touch the cords or the skull with his hands, or in any respect attempt to relieve the strain upon his wound until his complete task is performed.

Some of the penitents have arrows thrust through various muscular parts of their bodies, as through the skin and superficial muscles of the arms, leg, breast, and back.

A devotee caused two arrows to be passed through the muscles of his breast, one on each side near the mammae. To these arrows cords were attached, the opposite ends of which were affixed to the upper part of a post which had been planted in the earth for the purpose. He then threw himself backward into an oblique position, his back within about 2 feet of the ground, so as to depend with the greater part of his weight by the cords. In this situation of agony he chanted and kept time to the music of the gong (sic), until he fainted from long abstinence and suffering. The bystanders then cried out, “Courage! courage!” After a short interval of insensibility, he revived and proceeded with his self-tortures as before, until nature being completely exhausted he again relapsed into insensibility, upon which he was loosed from the cords and carried off amidst the acclamations of the whole assembly.

Another Minnetaree in compliance with a vow he had made, caused a hole to be perforated through the muscles of each shoulder. Through these holes cords were passed, the opposite ends of which were attached as a bridle to a horse which had been penned up three or four days without food or water. In this manner he led the horse to the margin of the river. The horse, of course, endeavored to drink, but it was the province of the Indian to prevent him, and that only by straining at the cords with the muscles of the shoulder, without resorting to the assistance of his hands. And, notwithstanding all the exertions of the horse to drink, his master succeeded in preventing him, and returned with him to his lodge, having accomplished his painful task.

§ 319. In describing the Hidatsa, Prince Maximilian says:[227]

They likewise celebrate the Okippe (which they call Akupehri), but with several deviations. Thus, instead of a so-called ark, a kind of high pole with a fork on it, is planted in the center of the open circle. When the partisans (i. e. war captains) intend to go on some enterprise in May or June, the preparations are combined with the Okippe (i. e., Okipa) of several young men, who wish to obtain the rank of brave. A large medicine lodge is erected open above, with a division in the middle, in which the candidates take their places. Two pits are usually dug in the middle for the partisans, who lie in them four days and four nights, with only a piece of leather around the waist. The first partisan usually chooses the second, who undergoes the ceremony with him. There are always young people enough to submit their bodies to torture, in order to display their courage. They fast four days and nights, which leaves them faint. Many of them begin the tortures on the third day; but the fourth day is that properly set apart for them. To the forked pole of the medicine lodge is fastened a long piece of buffalo hide, with the head hanging down, and to this a strap is fastened. An old man is then chosen, who is to see to the torturing of the candidates, which is executed precisely in the same manner as among the Mandans. The sufferers often faint. They are then taken by the hands, lifted up, and encouraged, and they begin afresh. When they have dragged about the buffalo skull long enough, * * * a large circle is formed, as among the Mandans, in which they are made to run round till they drop down exhausted, when they are taken to the medicine lodge. The medicine man receives from one of the spectators the knife with which the operation is to be performed. The partisan is bound to build the medicine lodge.

During the ceremony the spectators eat and smoke; the candidates take nothing, and, like the partisans, are covered all over with white clay. The latter, when they dance during the ceremony, remain near their pits, and then move on the same spot, holding in their hands their medicines, a buffalo tail, a feather, or the like. None but the candidates dance, and the only music is striking a dried buffalo hide with willow rods. There have been instances of fathers subjecting their children, only 6 or 7 years of age, to these tortures. We ourselves saw one suspended by the muscles of the back, after having been compelled to fast four days. No application whatever is subsequently made for the cure of the wounds, which leave large swollen weals, and are much more conspicuous among the Hidatsa than among the Mandan. Most of the Hidatsa have three or four of these weals in parallel semicircular lines almost an inch thick, which cover the entire breast. There are similar transverse and longitudinal lines on the arms.

Referring to Maximilian’s description just given, Matthews observes:

At this time, the Hidatsa call the Mandan ceremony akupi (of which word probably akupehi is an old form); but they apply no such term to their own festival. Maximilian did not spend a summer among those Indians, and, therefore, knew of both ceremonies only from description.[228] If the Minnetaree festival to which he referred was, as is most likely, the Naḣpike, he is, to some extent, in error. The rites resemble one another only in their appalling fasts and tortures. In allegory, they seem to be radically different.

CULT OF THE YONI.

§ 320. An account of the great buffalo medicine feast of the Hidatsa (“instituted by the women”) has been recorded by Maximilian. Prayers are made for success in hunting and in battle. When the feast had continued two hours, the women began to act the part, which bore a slight resemblance to what Herodotus tells of the women in the temple of Mylitta.[229]

When the dance of the half-shorn head was sold by its Mandan possessors, they received in part payment the temporary use of the wives of the purchasers, each woman having the right to choose her consort.[230]

Lewis and Clarke have given accounts of two of the Mandan dances, the buffalo dance and the medicine dance, at the conclusion of which were rites that astonished the travelers, but they were told that in the medicine dance only virgins or young unmarried females took part.[231]

ABSAROKA FEAR OF A WHITE BUFFALO COW.

§ 321. The Absaroka or Crow Nation have a superstitious fear of a white buffalo cow. When a Crow meets one, he addresses the sun in the following words: “I will give her (i. e., the cow) to you.” He then endeavors to kill the animal, but leaves it untouched, and then says to the sun, “Take her, she is yours.” They never use the skin of such a cow, as the Mandan do.[232]

MANDAN CULTS.

MANDAN DIVINITIES.

§ 322. According to one of Maximilian’s informants, the Mandan believe in several superior beings. (1) The first is Ohmahank-Numakshi, the Lord of Life. He is the most powerful. He created the earth, man, and every existing object. They believe that he has a tail, and appears sometimes in the form of an aged man and, at others, in that of a young man. (2) Numank-Machana, the First Man, holds the second rank; he was created by the Lord of Life, but is likewise of a divine nature. He resembles Nanabush or Manabozho of the Ojibwa and cognate tribes. (3) Ohmahank-Ohika, the Lord of Evil, is a malignant spirit, who has much influence over men; but he is not as powerful as Ohmahank-Numakshi and Numank-Machana. (4) Rohanka-Tauibanka, who dwells in the planet Venus, protects mankind on earth. The name of the fifth power has not been gained, but he is ever moving, walking over the earth in human form. They call him, “The Lying Prairie Wolf.” (6) Ochkih-Hadda[233] is a spirit that it is difficult to class. They believe that one who dreams of him is sure to die very soon thereafter. This spirit is said to have come once into their villages and taught them many things, but since then he has not appeared. They fear him, offer him sacrifice, and in their villages they have a hideous image representing him.

§ 323. The sun is thought to be the residence of the Lord of Life. In the moon dwells, as they say, the Old Woman who Never Dies. They do not know much about her, but they sacrifice to her as well as to the other spirits. She has six children, three sons and three daughters, who inhabit certain stars. The eldest son is the Day, the second is the Sun, the third is the Night. The eldest daughter is the star that rises in the east, the Morning Star, called, “The Woman Who Wears a Plume.” The second daughter, called “The Striped Gourd,” is a star which revolves the polar star. The third daughter is the Evening Star, which is near the setting sun.[234]

§ 324. _The Old Woman who Never Dies._--The cult of this spirit is observed in what Say calls “the corn dance of the Manitaries.” Maximilian declares that Say is quite correct in his account of it, and that the Mandan practice it as well as the Hidatsa.

It is the consecration of the grain to be sown, and is called the corn dance feast of the woman. The Old Woman who Never Dies sends, in the spring, the waterfowl, swans, geese, and ducks, as symbols of the kinds of grain cultivated by the Indians. The wild goose signifies corn; the geese, the gourd, and the duck, beans. It is the old woman who causes these plants to grow, and, therefore, she sends these birds as her representatives. It is seldom that eleven wild geese are found together in the spring; but, if it happens, this is a sign that the crop of corn will be remarkably fine. The Indians keep a large quantity of dried meat in readiness for the time in the spring when the birds arrive, that they may immediately celebrate the corn feast of the women. They hang the meat before the village on long scaffolds made of poles, three or four rows, one above another, and this, with other articles of value, is considered as an offering to the Old Woman who Never Dies. The elderly women of the village, as representatives of that old woman, assemble about the scaffolds on a certain day, each carrying a stick, to one end of which an ear of corn is fastened. Sitting in a circle, they plant their sticks in the ground before them, and then dance around the scaffolds. Some old men beat the drum and shake the gourd rattles. The corn is not wetted or sprinkled, as many believe, but on the contrary, it is supposed that such a practice would be injurious. While the old women are performing their part, the younger ones come and put some dry pulverized meat into their mouths, for which each young woman receives in return a grain of the consecrated corn, which she eats. Three or four grains of the consecrated corn are put into their dish, and are afterwards carefully mixed with the seed corn, in order to make it yield an abundant crop. The dried meat on the scaffolds is the perquisite of the aged females, as the representatives of the Old Woman who Never Dies. But members of the Dog Society have the privilege of taking some of this meat from the scaffolds without opposition from anybody.

A similar corn feast is held in the autumn, but at that season it is held for the purpose of attracting the herds of buffaloes and of obtaining a large supply of meat. Each woman then carries an entire cornstalk with the ears attached, pulling up the stalk by the roots. They designate the corn as well as the birds by the name of the Old Woman who Never Dies, and call on them saying, “Mother, pity us; do not send the severe cold too soon, lest we do not gain enough meat. Prevent the game from departing, so that we may have something for the winter!”

In autumn, when the birds migrate to the south, or, as the Indians say, return to the Old Woman, they believe that they take with them the dried meat hung on the scaffolds, and they imagine that the Old Woman partakes of it.

The Old Woman who Never Dies has very large patches of corn, kept for her by the great stag and the white-tailed stag. She has, too, many blackbirds which help to guard her property. When she intends to feed these keepers, she summons them, and they fall on the corn, which they devour with greediness. As these corn patches are large, the Old Woman requires many laborers, hence she has the mice, moles, and stags to perform such work for her. The birds which fly from the seashore in the spring represent the Old Woman, who then travels to the north to visit the Old Man who Never Dies, who always resides there. She generally returns to the south in three or four days. In former times the Old Woman’s hut was near the Little Missouri River, where the Indians often visited her. One day twelve Hidatsa went to her, and she set before them a kettle of corn, which was so small that it did not appear sufficient to satisfy the hunger of one of the party. But she told them to eat, and, as soon as the kettle was emptied it was filled again, and all the men had enough.[235]

GUARDIAN SPIRITS.

§ 325. The Mandan undertake nothing without first invoking their guardian spirits, which appear to them in dreams (see § 236). When a man wishes to choose his guardian spirit, he fasts for three or four days, and sometimes longer, retires to a solitary place, does penance, and sometimes sacrifices joints of his fingers. He howls and cries to the Lord of Life, or to the First Man, beseeching him to point out the guardian spirit. He continues in this excited condition until he dreams, and the first animal or other object which appears in the dream is the guardian spirit. Each man has such a spirit. There is on the prairie a large hill, where they remain motionless many days, lamenting and fasting. Not far from this hill is a cave, into which they creep at night. The choice and adoration of guardian spirits is said to have been taught the people many years ago by the Ochkih-Hadda. It was he who taught them the art of tattooing, and who instituted medicine feasts.[236]

MANDAN BELIEF ABOUT SERPENTS AND GIANTS.

§ 326. The Mandan believe that there is a huge serpent which inhabits a lake three or four days’ journey from their village, and to which they make offerings. The tradition relates how two Mandan youths encountered a giant, who carried them to a village of giants. The latter part, which tells how one of the youths was changed into a huge serpent after killing and eating a serpent, resembles a Winnebago tradition.[237]

THUNDER LORE OF THE MANDAN.

§ 327. The Mandan believe that thunder is produced by the wings of a gigantic bird. When the bird flies softly, as is usually the case, he is not heard; but when he flaps his wings violently, he occasions a roaring noise. This bird is said to have two toes on each foot, one behind and one before. It dwells on the mountains, and builds nests there as large as one of the forts. It preys upon deer and other large animals, the horns of which are heaped up around the nest. The glance of its eyes produces lightning. It breaks through the clouds and makes way for the rain. The isolated and peculiarly loud claps of thunder are produced by a large tortoise which dwells in the clouds.

ASTRONOMICAL LORE.

§ 328. The stars are deceased men. When a child is born a star descends and appears on earth in human form; after death it reascends and appears again as a star in the heavens.

The rainbow is a spirit which accompanies the sun. Many affirm that the northern lights are occasioned by a large assembly of medicine men and distinguished warriors of several northern nations, who boil their prisoners and slain enemies in huge cauldrons.[238]

MYSTERY OBJECTS AND PLACES OF THE MANDAN AND HIDATSA.

§ 329. The mystery rock of the Mandan and Hidatsa is thus described by Lewis and Clarke:[239]

This medicine stone is the great oracle of the Mandans, and whatever it announces is believed with implicit confidence. Every spring and, on some occasions during the summer, a deputation visits the sacred spot, where there is a thick, porous stone 20 feet in circumference, with a smooth surface. Having reached the place, the ceremony of smoking to it is performed by the deputies, who alternately take a whiff themselves, and then present the pipe to the stone; after which they retire to an adjoining wood for the night, during which it may be safely presumed that all the embassy do not sleep. In the morning they read the destinies of the nation in the white marks on the stone, which those who made them are at no loss to decipher.

The same stone, as worshiped by the Hidatsa, is thus described by James:[240]

The Me-ma-ho-pa or medicine stone * * * is a large, naked, and insulated rock situated in the midst of a small prairie, about a two days’ journey southwest of the village of that nation. In shape it resembles the steep roof of a house. The Minnetarees resort to it for the purpose of propitiating their Man-ho-pa or Great Spirit by presents, by fasting and lamentation, during the space of from three to five days. An individual who intends to perform this ceremony takes some presents with him, * * * and also provides a smooth skin upon which hieroglyphics may be drawn, and repairs to the rock accompanied by his friends and the magi. On his arrival he deposits the presents there, and, after smoking to the rock, he washes a portion of its face clean, and retires with his fellow devotees to a specified distance. During the principal part of his stay, he cries aloud to his god to have pity on him, to grant him success in war and hunting, to favor his endeavors to take prisoners, horses, and scalps from the enemy. When the time for his * * * prayer has elapsed he returns to the rock; his presents are no longer there, and he believes them to have been accepted and carried off by the Man-ho-pa himself. Upon the part of the rock which he had washed he finds certain hieroglyphics traced with white clay, of which he can generally interpret the meaning, particularly when assisted by some of the magi, who are no doubt privy to the whole transaction. These representations are supposed to relate to his future fortune, or to that of his family or nation; he copies them off * * * upon the skin which he brought with him for that purpose, and returns home to read from them to the people the destiny of himself or them. If a bear be represented with its head directed toward the village, the approach of a war-party or the visitation of some evil is apprehended. If, on the contrary, the tail of the bear be toward the village, nothing but good is anticipated, and they rejoice. They say that an Indian on his return from the rock exhibited * * * on his * * * chart the representation of a strange building, as erected near the village. They were all much surprised and did not perfectly comprehend its meaning; but four months afterward the prediction was, as it happened, verified, and a stockade trading house was erected there by the French trader Jessaume.

Matthews refers thus to this “oracle” of the Hidatsa and Mandan:[241]

The famous holy stone or medicine rock (Mihopaś, or Mandan, Mihopiniś) * * * was some two or three days’ journey from their residence. The Hidatsa now seldom refer to it, and I do not think they ever visit it.

§ 330. According to Maximilian:[242]

The Mandans have many other medicine establishments in the vicinity of their villages, all of which are dedicated to the superior powers. * * * Of those near Mitutahankuś, one consists of four poles placed in the form of a square; the two foremost have a heap of earth and green turf thrown up round them, and four buffalo skulls laid in a line between them, while twenty-six human skulls are placed in a row from one of the rear poles to the other, and on some of these skulls are painted single red stripes. Behind the whole two knives are stuck into the ground, and a bundle of twigs is fastened at the top of the poles with a kind of comb, or rake, painted red. The Indians repair to such places when they desire to make offerings or petitions; they howl, lament, and make loud entreaties, often for many days together, to the Omahank-Numakshi. Another “medicine establishment” consisted of a couple of human figures, very clumsily made of skins, fixed on poles, and representing, as was told to Maximilian, the sun and moon, but in his opinion, probably the Omahank-Numakshi and the Old Woman that Never Dies.

§ 331. If a Mandan possesses a “medicine pipe” (i. e., what the Omaha and Ponka call a niniba weawaⁿ) he sometimes decides to adopt a “medicine son.” The young man whom he is to choose appears to him in a dream; but it is necessary that he should be of a good family, or have performed some exploit.[243]

DREAMS.

§ 332. Dreams afford the motives for many of their actions, even for the penances which they impose on themselves. They think that all which appears in their dreams must be true. Before they became acquainted with firearms, a Mandan dreamed of a weapon with which they could kill their enemies at a great distance, and soon after the white men brought them the first gun. In like manner they dreamed of horses before they obtained any. In many cases the guardian spirit is revealed to the fasting youth in a dream. If the Lord of Life makes him dream of a piece of cherry wood or of an animal, it is a good omen. The young men who follow such a dreamer to the battle have great confidence in his guardian spirit or “medicine.”[244]

ORACLES.

§ 333. The Mandan and Hidatsa consider the large gray owl a mystery bird, with whom they pretend to converse and to understand its attitudes and voice. Such owls are often kept alive in lodges, being regarded as soothsayers. They have a similar opinion of eagles.[245]

FETICHES.

§ 334. The skin of a white buffalo cow is an eminent fetich in the estimation of the Mandan and Hidatsa. The hide must be that of a young cow not over 2 years old, and be taken off complete, and tanned, with horns, nose, hoofs, and tail. It is worn on rare occasions.

When the owner wishes to sacrifice such a skin to the Omahank-Numakshi or to the Numank-Machana, he rolls it up, after adding some artemisia or an ear of corn, and then the skin remains suspended on a pole until it decays.[246]

Besides the white buffalo skins hung on tall poles as sacrifices, there were other strange objects hung on tall poles near the villages of the Mandan and Hidatsa. These figures were composed of skin, grass, and twigs, which seemed to represent the sun, moon, and perhaps the Omahank-Numakshi and the Numank-Machana. The Indians resorted to them when they wished to petition for anything, and sometimes howled for days and weeks together.[247]

For a reference to trees and stones, see § 348.

“Charata-Numakshi (the Chief of Wolves),” a Mandan, had a painted buffalo dress, which was his fetich. He valued it highly as a souvenir of his brother, who had been shot by the enemy.[248]

FOLK-LORE.

§ 335. When a child is born the father must not bridle a horse, that is, he must not fasten a lariat to the horse’s lower jaw, otherwise the infant would die in convulsions. Should the wife be enceinte when the husband bridled the horse ill luck would be sure to follow, frequently in the form of a failure to kill any game. If an Indian in such cases wounds a buffalo without being able to kill it quickly, he tries to take the buffalo’s heart home and makes his wife shoot an arrow through it; then again he feels confidence in his weapons that they will kill speedily.

The Indians affirm that a pregnant woman is very lucky at a game resembling billiards. If a woman passes between several Mandan who are smoking together it is a bad omen. Should a woman recline on the ground between men who are smoking a piece of wood is laid across her to serve as a means of communication between the men.

The strongest man now living among the Mandan, who has been the victor in several wrestling matches with the white people, always takes hold of his pipe by the head, for were he to touch another part of it the blood would suddenly rush from his nostrils. As soon as he bleeds in this manner he empties his pipe, throwing the contents into the fire, where it explodes like gunpowder, and the bleeding stops immediately. They say that nobody can touch this man’s face without bleeding at nose and mouth.

A certain Mandan affirms that whenever another offers him a pipe to smoke, out of civility, his mouth becomes full of worms, which he throws into the fire by handfuls.

Among the Hidatsa, when a certain man smoked very slowly no person in the lodge was allowed to speak nor to move a single limb, except to grasp the pipe. Neither women, children, nor dogs were allowed to remain in the hut while the man was smoking, and some one was always placed as a guard at the entrance. If, however, there were just seven persons present to smoke none of these precautions were observed. When the particular man cleared his pipe and shook the ashes into the fire it blazed up, perhaps because he had put into the pipe some gunpowder or similar combustible. When any person had a painful or diseased place this same man put his pipe upon it and smoked. On such occasions he did not swallow the smoke, as is the Indian custom, but he affirmed that he could extract the disease by his smoking, and he pretended to seize it in his hand and to throw into the fire.[249]

SORCERY.

§ 336. They believe that a person whom they dislike must die, if they make a figure of wood or clay, substituting for the heart an awl, a needle, or a porcupine quill, and bury the image at the foot of one of their “medicine poles.”[250]

JUGGLERY.

§ 337. The “medicine of one man consists in making a snow ball, which he rolls a long time between his hands, so that at length it becomes hard and is changed into a white stone, which, when struck, emits a fire. Many persons, even whites, pretended they had seen this, and they can not be convinced to the contrary. The same man pretends that, during a dance, he plucked white feathers from a certain small bird, which he rolled between his hands, and formed of them in a short time a similar white stone. * * * A great many Mandan and Hidatsa believe that they have wild animals in their bodies; one, for instance, affirmed that he had a buffalo calf, the kicking of which he often felt; others said that they had tortoises, frogs, lizards, birds, etc. * * * Among the Hidatsa were seen medicine dances of the women, where one claimed to have an ear of corn in her body, which she ejected from her mouth during the dance, and then ate, after it had been mixed with Artemisia. * * * Another female dancer caused blood to gush from her mouth at will.”[251]

GHOST LORE.

§ 338. The Mandan believe that each person has several spirits dwelling within him; one of which is black, another brown, and a third light-colored, the last alone returning to the Lord of Life. They think that after death they go to the south, to several villages which are visited by the gods; that their existence there is dependent on their course of life while in this world; that the brave and kind-hearted carry on the same occupation, eat similar food, have wives, and enjoy the pleasures of war and the chase. Some of the Mandan are said not to believe all these particulars, but to suppose that after death their spirits will dwell in the sun or in certain stars.

THE FUTURE LIFE.

§ 339. The Mandan belief in a future state is connected with the tradition of their origin: The whole nation resided in one large village under ground, near a subterraneous lake. Some of the people climbed up to this earth by means of a grape-vine, which broke when a corpulent woman essayed to climb it. Therefore the rest of the people remained in the subterranean village. When the Mandan die they expect to return to the original seats of their forefathers, the good reaching the ancient village by means of the lake, which the burden of the sins of the wicked will not enable them to cross.[252] The concluding clause of the last sentence can hardly be of Indian origin; it is very probably due to white influence.

FOUR AS A MYSTIC NUMBER AMONG THE MANDAN.

§ 340. According to Catlin:[253]

The Okipa invariably lasts four days; four men are selected by the first man to cleanse out and prepare the mystic lodge for the occasion; one of these men is called from the north part of the village, another from the east, a third from the south, and the fourth from the west (see § 373). The four sacks of water, in the forms of large tortoises, resting on the floor of the lodge, seem to typify the four cardinal points. The four buffalo skulls and as many human skulls on the floor of the lodge, the four couples of dancers in the buffalo dance and the four intervening dancers in the same dance, deserve our study. The buffalo dance in front of the mystic 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. There are four sacrifices of black and blue cloths erected over the entrance of the mystic lodge. The visits of the Evil Spirit were paid to four of the buffalo in the buffalo dance. In every instance the young man who submitted to torture in the Okipa had four splints or skewers run through the flesh on his leg, four through his arms, and four through his body.

HIDATSA CULTS.

HIDATSA DIVINITIES.

§ 341. The Hidatsa believe in the Man who Never Dies, or Lord of Life, Ehsicka-Wahaddish,[254] literally, the first man, who dwells in the Rocky Mountains. He made all things. Another being whom they venerate is called the Grandmother. She roams over the earth. She had some share in creation, though an inferior one, for she created the toad and the sand-rat. She gave the Hidatsa two kettles, which they still preserve as a sacred treasure and employ as charms or fetiches on certain occasions. She directed the ancestors of the present Indians to preserve the kettles and to remember the great waters, whence came all the animals dancing. The red-shouldered oriole (_Psaracolius phoeniceus_) came at that time out of the water, as well as the other birds which still sing along the banks of rivers. The Hidatsa, therefore, look on all these birds as “medicine” for their corn patches, and attend to their songs. When these birds sing the Hidatsa, remembering the direction of the Grandmother, fill the two kettles with water, dance and bathe, in order to commemorate the great flood. When their fields are threatened with a great drought they celebrate a “medicine” feast with the two kettles, as they beg for rain. The shamans are still paid, on such occasions, to sing for four days together in the huts, while the kettles remain full of water.

§ 342. The sun, or as they term it, “the sun of the day,” is a great power. They do not know what it really is, but when they are about to undertake some enterprise they sacrifice to it and also to the moon, which they call “the sun of the night.” The morning star, Venus, they regard as the child of the moon, and they account it as a great power. They affirm that it was originally a Hidatsa, being the grandson of the Old Woman who Never Dies.[255]

§ 343. Matthews[256] found that the object of the greatest reverence among the Hidatsa was, perhaps, the Itsika-mahidiś, the First Made, or First in Existence. They assert that he made all things, the stars, sun, the earth, the first representatives of each species of animals and plants, but that no one made him. He also, they say, instructed the forefathers of the tribes in all the ceremonies and mysteries now known to them. They sometimes designate him as Itaka-te-taś, or Old Man Immortal.

ANIMISM.

§ 344. If we use the term worship in its most extended sense it may be said that * * * (the Hidatsa) worship everything in nature. Not man alone, but the sun, the moon, the stars, all the lower animals, all trees and plants, rivers and lakes, many bowlders and other separated rocks, even some hills and buttes which stand alone--in short, everything not made by human hands, which has an independent being, or can be individualized, possesses a spirit, or, more properly, a shade.

To these shades some respect or consideration is due, but not equally to all. For instance, the shade of the cottonwood, the greatest tree of the Upper Missouri Valley, is supposed to possess an intelligence which may, if properly approached, assist them in certain undertakings; but the shades of shrubs and grasses are of little importance. When the Missouri, in its spring-time freshets, cuts down its bank and sweeps some tall tree into its current, it is said that the spirit of the tree cries while the roots yet cling to the land and until the tree falls into the water. Formerly it was considered wrong to cut down one of these great trees, and, when large logs were needed, only such as were found fallen were used; and to-day some of the more credulous old men declare that many of the misfortunes of the people are the result of their modern disregard for the rights of the living cottonwood. The sun is held in great veneration, and many valuable sacrifices are made to it.[257]

WORSHIP OF THE ELEMENTS, ETC.

§ 345. This is in substantial accord with what Maximilian was told, as will be seen from the following:

In the sweat bath the shaman, after cutting off a joint of the devotee’s fingers, takes a willow twig, goes to the dishes containing food, dips the twig in each and throws a part of the contents in the direction of the four winds, as offerings to the Lord of Life, the fire, and the divers superhuman powers.[258]

SERPENT WORSHIP.

§ 346. The Hidatsa make occasional offerings to the great serpent that dwells in the Missouri River by placing poles in the river and attaching to them sundry robes or colored blankets. The tradition of this great serpent resembles the Mandan tradition, but with some differences.[259]

§ 347. _Daimonism._--The Hidatsa believe neither a hell nor in a devil, but believe that there are one or more evil genii, in female shape, who inhabit this earth, and may harm the Indian in this life, but possess no power beyond the grave. Such a power or powers they call Mahopa-miiś. The Mahopa-miiś dwells in the woods and delights in doing evil. She is supposed to strangle such children as, through parental ignorance or carelessness, are smothered in bed.[260]

FETICHES.

§ 348. Among the fetiches of the Hidatsa are the skins of every kind, of fox and wolf, especially the latter; and, therefore, when they go to war, they always wear the stripe off the back of a wolf skin, with the tail hanging down the shoulders. They make a slit in the skin through which the warrior puts his head, so that the skin of the wolf’s head hangs down upon his breast.

_Tribal fetiches._--Buffalo heads also are fetiches. In one of their villages they preserved the neck bones of the buffalo, as do the Crow or Absaroka, and this is done with a view to prevent the buffalo herds from removing to too great a distance from them. At times they perform the following ceremony with these bones: They take a potsherd with live coals, throw sweet-smelling grass upon it, and fumigate the bones with the smoke.

There are certain trees and stones which are fetiches, as among the Mandan. At such places they offer red cloth, red paint, and other articles to the superhuman powers.[261] (See § 334.)

In the principal Hidatsa village, when Maximilian visited it, was a long pole set up, on which was a figure of a woman, doubtless representing the Grandmother, who first gave them kettles. A bundle of brushwood was hung on the pole, to which were attached the leathern dress and leggins of a woman. The head of the figure was made of _Artemisia_, and on it was a cap of feathers.[262]

§ 349. _Personal fetiches._--Matthews uses the term amulet instead of personal fetich, in speaking of the Hidatsa:

Every man in this tribe, as in all neighboring tribes, has his personal medicine, which is usually some animal. On all war parties, and often on hunts and other excursions, he carries the head, claws, stuffed skin, or other representative of his medicine with him, and seems to regard it in much the same light that Europeans in former days regarded--and in some cases still regard--protective charms. To insure the fleetness of some promising young colt, they tie to the colt’s neck a small piece of deer or antelope horn. The rodent teeth of the beaver are regarded as potent charms, and are worn by little girls on their necks to make them industrious.[263]

The “Medicine Rock” of the Mandan and Hidatsa has been described in § 329.

§ 350. _Oracles._--Matthews speaks of another oracle, to which the Hidatsa now often refer, the Makadistati, or house of infants, a cavern near Knife River, which they supposed extended far into the earth, but whose entrance was only a span wide. It was resorted to by the childless husband or the barren wife. There are those among them who imagine that in some way or other their children come from the Makadistati; and marks of contusion on an infant, arising from tight swaddling or other causes, are gravely attributed to kicks received from his former comrades when he was ejected from his subterranean home.[264]

§ 351. James says:

At the distance of the journey of one day and a half from Knife Creek * * * are two conical hills, separated by about the distance of a mile. One of these hills was supposed to impart a prolific virtue to such squaws as resorted to it for the purpose of lamenting their barrenness. A person one day walking near the other hill, fancied he observed on the top of it two very small children. Thinking that they had strayed from the village, he ran towards them to induce them to return home, but they immediately fled from him. * * * and in a short time they eluded his sight. Returning to the village, the relation of his story excited much interest, and an Indian set out the next day, mounted on a fleet horse, to take the little strangers. On the approach of this person to the hill he also saw the children, who ran away as before, and though he tried to overtake them by lashing the horse to his utmost swiftness, the children left him far behind. These children are no longer to be seen, and the hill once of such singular efficacy in rendering the human species prolific has lost this remarkable property.[265]

Matthews[266] says that this account seems to refer to the Makadistati, but, if such is the case, he believes that the account is incorrect in some respects.

DREAMS.

§ 352. The Hidatsa have much faith in dreams, but usually regard as oracular only those which come after prayer, sacrifice, and fasting.[267]

BERDACHES.

§ 353. The French Canadians call those men berdaches who dress in women’s clothing and perform the duties usually allotted to women in an Indian camp. By most whites these berdaches are incorrectly supposed to be hermaphrodites. They are called miati by the Hidatsa, from mia, a woman, and the ending, ti, to feel an involuntary inclination, i. e., to be impelled against his will to act the woman. See the Omaha miⁿquga, the Kansa miⁿquge, and the Dakota wiŋkta and wiŋkte (§§ 30, 212.)

ASTRONOMICAL LORE.

§ 354. Ursa major is said to be an ermine, the several stars of that constellation indicating, in their opinion, the burrow, the head, the feet, and the tail of that animal. They call the milky way the “ashy way.”

They think that thunder is caused by the flapping of the wings of the large bird, which causes rain, and that the lightning is the glance of his eye when he seeks prey.

They call the rainbow, “the cap of the water,” or “the cap of the rain.” Once, say they, an Indian caught in the autumn a red bird that had mocked him, releasing it after binding its feet together with a fish line. The bird saw a hare and pounced upon it, but the hare crept into the skull of a buffalo lying on the prairie, and as the line hanging from the bird’s claws formed a semicircle, they imagine that the rainbow is still caused by that occurrence.[268]

FOOD LORE.

§ 355. They have queer notions respecting the effects of different articles of diet; thus: an expectant mother believes that if she eats a part of a mole or shrew, her child will have small eyes; that if she eats a piece of porcupine, her child will be inclined to sleep too much when it grows up; that if she partakes of the flesh of the turtle, her offspring will be slow or lazy, etc.; but they do not suppose that such articles of food affect the immediate consumer.

FOUR SOULS IN EACH HUMAN BEING.

§ 356. “It is believed by some of the Hidatsa that every human being has four souls in one. They account for the phenomena of gradual death where the extremities are apparently dead while consciousness remains, by supposing the four souls to depart, one after another, at different times. When dissolution is complete, they say that all the souls are gone, and have joined together again outside of the body. I have heard a Minnetaree quietly discussing this doctrine with an Assinneboine, who believed in only one soul to each body.”[269]

SORCERY.

§ 357. “They have faith in witchcraft, and think that a sorcerer may injure a person, no matter how far distant, by acts upon an effigy or upon a lock of the victim’s hair.”[270]

DISPOSAL OF THE DEAD.

§ 358. The Hidatsa always lay their dead upon scaffolds. As the Lord of Life is displeased when they quarrel and kill one another, those who do so are buried in the earth, that they may be no longer seen. In this case a buffalo head is laid on the grave, that the herds of buffalo may not keep away, for, if they were to smell the wicked, they might remove and never return. The good are laid upon scaffolds, that they may be seen by the Lord of Life.[271]

The Crows have no fear of death, but they have a horror of being buried in the ground.[272]

HIDATSA BELIEF AS TO FUTURE EXISTENCE.

§ 359. They think that after death they will be restored to the mansions of their ancestors under ground, from which they are intercepted by a large and rapid watercourse. Over this river, which may be compared to the Styx of the ancients, they are obliged to pass on a very narrow footway. Those Indians who have been useful to the nation, such as brave warriors or good hunters, pass over with ease and arrive safely at A-pah-he, or ancient village. But the worthless Indians slip off from the bridge or footway into the stream which * * * hurries them into oblivion.[273]

Their faith concerning a future life is this: When a Hidatsa dies his shade lingers four nights around the camp or village in which he died, and then goes to the lodge of his departed kindred in the Village of the Dead. When he has arrived there, he is rewarded for his valor, self-denial, and ambition on earth by receiving the same regard in the one place as in the other; for there, as here, the brave man is honored and the coward despised. Some say that the ghosts of those who commit suicide occupy a separate part of the village, but that their condition differs in no wise from that of the others. In the next world, human shades hunt and live on the shades of the buffalo and other animals that have here died. There too there are four seasons, but they come in an inverse order to the terrestrial seasons. During the four nights that the ghost is supposed to linger near his former dwelling, those who disliked or feared the deceased, and do not wish a visit from the shade, scorch with red coals a pair of moccasins, which they leave at the door of the lodge. The smell of the burning leather, they claim, keeps the ghost out; but the true friends of the dead man take no such precautions. * * * They believe in the existence and advisability of human and other ghosts, yet they seem to have no terror of graveyards and but little of mortuary remains. You may frighten children after nightfall by shouting noḣidaḣi (ghost), but will not scare the aged.[274]

SAPONA CULTS.

§ 359½. The following account of the religion of the Sapona, a tribe related to the Tutelo, was given in 1729 by Col. William Byrd, of Westover, Va.[275] While much of it appears to be the white man’s amplification of the Indian’s narrative, it is plain that the account contains a few aboriginal beliefs. For this reason, and because it is the only known account of the Sapona religion, it is now given in full:

“In the evening we examined our friend Bearskin concerning the religion of his country, and he explained it to us, without any of that reserve to which his nation is subject. He told us he believed there was one supreme God, who had several subaltern deities under him. And that this Master-God made the world a long time ago. That He told the sun, the moon and stars their business in the beginning, which they, with good looking after, have faithfully perform’d ever since. That the same Power that made all things at first has taken care to keep them in the same method and motion ever since. He believed God had form’d many worlds before He form’d this, but that those worlds either grew old or ruinous, or were destroy’d for the dishonesty of the inhabitants. That God is very just and very good--ever well pleas’d with those men who possess those God-like qualities. That He takes good people under His safe protection, makes them very rich, fills their bellies plentifully, preserves them from sickness and from being surpriz’d or overcome by their enemies. But all such as tell lies and cheat * * * He never fails to punish with sickness, poverty and hunger, and after all that, suffers them to be knockt on the head and scalpt by those that fight against them. He believed that after death both good and bad people are conducted by a strong guard into a great road, in which departed souls travel together for some time till, at a certain distance this road forks into two paths[276], the one extremely levil, the other stony and mountainous. Here the good are parted from the bad by a flash of lightning, the first being hurry’d away to the right, the other to the left. The right hand road leads to a charming warm country, where the spring is everlasting, and every month is May; and as the year is always in its youth, so are the people, and particularly the women are bright as the stars, and never scold. That in this happy climate there are deer, turkeys, elk, and buffaloes innumerable, perpetually fat and gentle, while the trees are loaded with delicious fruit quite throughout the four seasons. That the soil brings forth corn spontaneously, without the curse of labour, and so very wholesome, that none who have the happiness to eat of it are ever sick, grow old or dy. Near the entrance into this blessed land sits a venerable old man on a mat richly woven, who examins strictly all that are brought before him, and if they have behav’d well, the guards are order’d to open the crystal gate and let them enter the land of delights. The left hand path is very rugged and uneven, leading to a dark and barren country, where it is always winter. The ground is the whole year round cover’d with snow, and nothing is seen upon the trees but icicles. All the people are hungry, yet have not a morsel to eat except a bitter kind of potato, that gives them the dry-gripes, and fills their whole body with loathsome ulcers, that stink and are insupportably painful. Here all the women are old and ugly, having claws like a panther, with which they fly upon the men that slight their passion. For it seems these haggard old furies are intolerably fond, and expect a vast amount of cherishing. They talk much, and exceedingly shrill, giving exquisite pain to the drum of the ear, which in that place of torment is so tender, that every sharp note wounds it to the quick. At the end of this path sits a dreadful old woman on a monstrous toadstool, whose head is cover’d with rattlesnakes instead of tresses, with glaring white eyes, that strike a terror unspeakable into all that behold her. This hag pronounces sentence of woe upon all the miserable wretches that hold up their hands at her tribunal. After this they are deliver’d over to huge turkey-buzzards like harpys, that fly away with them to the place above mentioned. Here, after they have been tormented a certain number of years, according to their several degrees of guilt, they are again driven back into this world, to try if they will mend their manners, and merit a place next time in the regions of bliss.”

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 217: Lewis and Clarke’s Exped., ed., Allen, vol. I, p. 174.]

[Footnote 218: U. S. Geol. and Geogr. Surv., Hayden, Miscell. Publ., No. 7, 1877: Ethnog. and Philol. of Hidatsa Indians, p. 48.]

[Footnote 219: Maximilian, Travels * * * in North America, p. 359.]

[Footnote 220: Ibid, p. 176.]

[Footnote 221: Ibid, pp. 369, 374, 386, 388, 400.]

[Footnote 222: Ibid, p. 174.]

[Footnote 223: Ibid, p. 173.]

[Footnote 224: Ibid, pp. 373, 377. O-kee-pa: A Religious Ceremony * * * by George Catlin, Phil., 1867, 25 pp. Smithson. Rept., 1885, pt. 2, pp. 353-368.]

[Footnote 225: U.S. Geol. and Geogr. Surv., Hayden, Miscell. Publ., No. 7, 1877: Ethnog. and Philol. of Hidatsa Indians, pp. 45, 46.]

[Footnote 226: James’s account of Long’s Expedition to Rocky Mountains, vol. I, pp. 276-278.]

[Footnote 227: Travels * * * in North America, pp. 400, 401.]

[Footnote 228: Yet Maximilian says, “We ourselves saw one suspended, etc.”]

[Footnote 229: Travels * * * in North America, pp. 419-422.]

[Footnote 230: Ibid, pp. 426-428.]

[Footnote 231: Ibid, vol. I, pp. 189, 190.]

[Footnote 232: Ibid, p. 175.]

[Footnote 233: O-kee-hee-dee of Catlin.]

[Footnote 234: Maximilian, Travels * * * in North America, pp. 359, 360.]

[Footnote 235: Maximilian, Travels * * * in North America, pp. 378-380.]

[Footnote 236: Maximilian, Travels * * * in North America, p. 369.]

[Footnote 237: Ibid., pp. 380, 381.]

[Footnote 238: Ibid., p. 361.]

[Footnote 239: Lewis and Clarke, Exped., ed. Allen, Vol. I, p. 205.]

[Footnote 240: James’s Account of Long’s Exped. to Rocky Mountains, Vol. I, p. 273.]

[Footnote 241: U. S. Geol. and Geogr. Surv., Hayden, Miscell. Pub., No. 7, 1877: Ethnog. and Philol. of Hidatsa Indians, pp. 50, 51.]

[Footnote 242: Travels * * * in North America, pp. 381, 382.]

[Footnote 243: Travels * * * in North America, p. 370.]

[Footnote 244: Ibid, pp. 382, 386.]

[Footnote 245: Ibid, pp. 383, 403.]

[Footnote 246: Ibid, pp. 371, 372.]

[Footnote 247: Ibid., p. 372.]

[Footnote 248: Travels * * * in North America, p. 178.]

[Footnote 249: Ibid., pp. 403, 404.]

[Footnote 250: Maximilian, Travels * * * in North America, p. 382.]

[Footnote 251: Ibid, pp. 382, 383, 423, 424.]

[Footnote 252: Lewis and Clarke, Expedition, ed. Allen, Vol. 1, p. 175.]

[Footnote 253: Catlin, in Smithsonian Rept., 1885, pt. 2, p. 372.]

[Footnote 254: So called by Maximilian, same as the Itsika-mahidiś of Matthews.]

[Footnote 255: Maximilian, Travels * * * in North America, p. 398.]

[Footnote 256: U. S. Geol. and Geogr. Surv., Hayden, Miscell. Publ., No. 7, 1877: Ethnog. and Philol. of Hidatsa Indians, p. 47.]

[Footnote 257: Ibid., pp. 48, 49.]

[Footnote 258: Maximilian, Travels * * * in North America, p. 402.]

[Footnote 259: Maximilian, Travels * * * in North America, p. 402.]

[Footnote 260: U. S. Geol. and Geogr. Surv., Hayden, Miscell. Publ. No. 7, 1877: Ethnol. and Philol. of Hidatsa Indians, pp. 49, 184.]

[Footnote 261: Maximilian, Travels * * * in North America, pp. 399-400.]

[Footnote 262: Ibid, p. 396.]

[Footnote 263: Maximilian, Travels * * * in North America, p. 50.]

[Footnote 264: Ibid, p. 51.]

[Footnote 265: James’s Account of Long’s Exped. to Rocky Mountains, vol. I, pp. 274, 275.]

[Footnote 266: U. S. Geol. and Geogr. Surv., Hayden, Miscell. Publ., No. 7, 1877: Ethnog. and Philol. of Hidatsa Indians, p. 51.]

[Footnote 267: Ibid, p. 50.]

[Footnote 268: Maximilian, Travels * * * in North America, p. 399.]

[Footnote 269: U. S. Geol. and Geogr. Surv., Hayden, Miscell. Publ., No. 7, 1877: Ethnog. and Philol. of Hidatsa Indians, p. 50.]

[Footnote 270: Ibid, p. 50.]

[Footnote 271: Maximilian, Travels * * * in North America, pp. 404, 405.]

[Footnote 272: Ibid, p. 176.]

[Footnote 273: Lewis and Clarke’s Exped., edited by Allen, vol. I, p. 280.]

[Footnote 274: U. S. Geol. and Geogr. Surv., Hayden, Miscell. Publ., No. 7, 1877: Ethnog. and Philol. of Hidatsa Indians, p. 49.]

[Footnote 275: Byrd, history of the dividing line (1729), vol. I, 106-108. Reprint: 1866.]

[Footnote 276: See the Omaha belief, in § 68.]