volume v, note 94.—ED.

Lewis and Clark inform us that the Mandans have a similar oracle.

At the distance of the journey of one day and a half from Knife-creek,[14] which divides the larger and smaller towns of the Minnetarees from each other, are situate 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 crying and lamenting, for the circumstance of their having no male issue.

[14] There are two streams in the Minitaree country now bearing the names respectively of Knife River and Little Knife River. The former flows from the west and debouches in Mercer County, North Dakota, just above Lewis and Clark's camp (Fort Mandan) in the winter of 1804-05. Little Knife River flows from the northeast; its mouth is at the northern line of the Fort Berthold Indian reservation.—ED.

A person one day walking near the other mount, fancied he observed upon the top of it, two very small children. Thinking they had strayed from the village, he ran towards them to induce them to return home; but they immediately fled from him, nor could his utmost speed overtake them, 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 next day, mounted on a fleet horse, to take the little strangers. On the approach of this individual to the mount, he also saw the children, who ran away as before, and although he endeavoured to overtake them by lashing the horse into {254} his utmost swiftness, the children left him far behind. But these children are no longer to be seen, and the hill once of singular efficacy in rendering the human species prolific, has lost this remarkable property—A change, which the magi attribute to the moral degeneracy of the present generation of the _Gros ventres_. Thus, like many of the asserted supernatural occurrences in the civilized world, these are referred back, in their obscure tradition, "out of harm's way."

Lewis and Clark, however, inform us, that the Sioux have a belief somewhat similar, respecting a hill near Whitestone River,[15] which they fable to be at present occupied by a small and dangerous race of people, about eighteen inches high, and with remarkably large heads, who, having killed three Omawhaws a few years since, have inspired all the neighbouring Indians with a superstitious dread. Although these intrepid travellers visited the haunted hill, they were happy enough to escape the vengeance of its Lilliputian inhabitants.

[15] The present Vermillion River, of Clay County, South Dakota.—ED.

With this absurd, but somewhat poetical fable, may be classed the asserted discovery of Lilliputian skeletons of men on the banks of the Merameg river, and the osteological acumen of the discoverers of those relics, may derive all the support which their theory is susceptible of receiving, from the story of these visionary beings.

Annually, in the month of July, the Minnetarees celebrate their great medicine dance, or dance of penitence, which may well be compared with the Currack-pooja of the expiatory tortures of the Hindoos, so often celebrated at Calcutta. On this occasion a considerable quantity of food is prepared, which is well cooked, and served up in their best manner. 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 of them. But they do not, even at this time, forego {255} 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 expiatory tortures commence, to which the preceding ceremonies were but preludes. An individual presents himself before one of the officiating magi, crying and lamenting, and requests him to cut a fillet of skin from his arm, which he extends for that purpose. The devout operator thrusts a sharp instrument through the skin near the wrist, then introduces the knife, and cuts out a piece of the required length, sometimes extending the excision 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; for this purpose an iron bodkin is thrust through the skin, and the piece is cut off, by passing the knife under the instrument.

Various are the forms of suffering which they inflict upon themselves. An individual requests the operator to pierce a hole through the skin of each of his shoulders, and after passing a long cord through each of these holes, he repairs to a Golgotha at some distance from the village, and selects one of the bison skulls collected there. To the chosen cranium he affixes the ends of his cords, and drags it in this painful manner to the lodge, round which he must go with his burden, before he can be released from it. No one is permitted to assist him, neither dares he to put his own hands to the cords, to alleviate his sufferings. If it should so happen that the horns of the cranium 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 rope or the head with his hands, or in any respect attempt to relieve the painful strain upon his wounds, until his complete task is performed.

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

A devotee caused two stout arrows to be passed through the muscles of his breast, one on each side, near the mammæ. To these arrows cords were attached, the opposite ends of which were affixed to the upper part of a post, which had been firmly implanted in the earth for the purpose. He then threw himself backward, into an oblique position, his back within about two feet of the soil, so as to depend with the greater portion of his weight by the cords. In this situation of excruciating agony, he continued to chaunt and to keep time to the music of the gong, until, from long abstinence and suffering, he fainted. The bystanders then cried out, "Courage, courage," with much shouting and noise; after a short interval of insensibility he revived, and proceeded with his self-inflicted 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, which were, at the opposite ends, attached by way of a bridle to a horse, that 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, endeavoured 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.

{257} The Wolf chief,[16] one of the most eminent of the warriors of the upper village of the Minnetarees, on one occasion, sat five days, singing and lamenting, without food, on a small insulated and naked rock in the Missouri river. And it is firmly believed that he did not even palliate his urgent wants by tasting the water during this long probation.

[16] See Bradbury's _Travels_, in our volume v, note 99.—ED.

Many of the Minnetarees believe that the bones of those bisons, which they have slain and divested of flesh, rise again clothed with renewed flesh, and quickened with life, and become fat, and fit for slaughtering the succeeding June. They assert that some of their nation, who were formerly on a hunting excursion, lost one of their party, a boy, and returned to the village lamenting his loss, and believing him to have been killed by the Sioux nation, with whom they were then at war. Some time afterward, a war party was assembled, that departed to revenge the supposed murder of the boy. During their journey, they espied a bison, which they pursued and killed. When lo! on opening the abdomen of the animal, what was their astonishment to observe the long-lost boy, alive and well, after having been imprisoned there one entire year. Relieved from his animated prison-house, he informed them, that, when he left his hunting companions, he proceeded onward a considerable distance, until he was so fortunate as to kill this bison. He removed the flesh from one side of the animal, and as a rainy inclement night was approaching, he concluded to take shelter within the body of the animal, in place of the viscera, which he had taken out. But during the night, whilst he slept, the flesh of the bison that he had cut off, grew over the side again, and effectually prevented his getting out, and the animal being restored to life, he had thus been pent up ever since.

Such anecdotes, however puerile and absurd they may be, if characteristic, lead us to a more accurate {258} and complete knowledge of the manners and habits of the people, than still more copious general remarks and reflections.

The Minnetarees, in common with several other nations of our Indians, have the strange tradition of their origin, that they formerly lived underground. "Two boys," say they, "strayed away from them, and absented themselves several days. At length they returned and informed the nation that they had discovered another world, situate above their present residence, where all was beautiful and light. They saw the sun, the earth, the Missouri, and the bison. This account so delighted the people, that they immediately abandoned their subterranean dwelling, and, led by the boys, arrived on the surface of the earth, at the spot which their villages now occupy, and where they have dwelt ever since.

"Soon after they had established themselves in this new world, a party of strange men appeared mounted on horses. They attacked these wonderful Centaurs with their bows and arrows, and succeeded in killing one of them, on which the others fled. Not at first perceiving that the man and horse were two distinct animals, they were surprised to see the former fall to the earth, as if one part of the compound animal was dead and the other part still active, having received no injury. They at length succeeded in securing the horse, and after admiring the beauty of his form, and becoming familiar with him, they proceeded to tie one of their young men upon his back with cords, that he might not fall off; the horse was then led cautiously by the bridle, until finally he became sufficiently fearless to ride alone."

They seem to have full faith in the notion that, at their 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 {259} 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 the A-pah-he, or ancient village. But the worthless Indians slip off from the bridge or footway, into the stream that foams beneath in the swiftness of its course, which hurries them into oblivion, or Lethe. The Mandans, according to Lewis and Clarke, have a tradition somewhat similar, and it strongly reminds us of the Alsirat of Mahomet, over which, it was supposed, that great leader was to conduct his Moslems to the bliss of futurity, whilst the unworthy were precipitated into the gulf which yawned beneath it.[17]

[17] On the history and traditions of the Hidatsa, see Matthews, "Ethnography and Philology of the Hidatsa Indians," in U. S. Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories, _Miscellaneous Publications_, No. 7 (Washington, 1877).—ED.