Diseases—Medical and Surgical Knowledge—Drunkenness, and other Vices—Ideas of God, and of a Future State—Superstition, and Practice of the Magi—Expiatory Tortures.

The Omawhaws endure sickness and pain with great fortitude; most of them, when thus afflicted, rarely uttering a murmur. Their catalogue of diseases, and morbid affections, is infinitely less extensive than that of civilized men.

Rheumatism is rare, and gout appears to be unknown. No case of phthisis or jaundice fell under our observation. King's-evil is not uncommon, and although they have no reliance on the sanative touch of a king or chief, yet, as their practice seems confined to an inefficacious ablution with common water, many fall victims to the disease. Many are also afflicted with ulcers, which sometimes terminate fatally. Decayed teeth are rare. Plica polonica is unknown. Baldness seems to be also unknown, the hair being always retained, however advanced the age of the individual.

Nymphomania occurred in the person of a widow, who was thus afflicted about two months; her symptoms were attended with an effusion of blood from the nose. On her recovery, she attributed the disorder to the operation of some potent mystic medicine.

Hypochondriasis seems to be unknown. Canine madness also appears to be without an example, their dogs not having yet been visited by the disease. [239] They are rarely afflicted with dysentery, though children are sometimes subject to it in consequence of eating unripe fruits, such as plums, grapes, and maize. They are never known to be subject to the coup de soleil,9 although they travel for days and even weeks over the unsheltered prairies, without any covering whatever for the head, which is consequently exposed to the full radiance of the sun, both in a state of activity and quiescence. White men residing with them, and who have partaken in their hunts, and consequent insolation, have been visited with this distressing affection, although their heads were protected invariably by hats or handkerchiefs.

The cuticle of these Indians is not known to have been acted upon by contact with poisonous plants, though white men travelling with them have experienced the effects of the usual deleterious properties of the poison vine (rhus radicans,) which is, to a certainty, abundant in proper situations in the Missouri country. What effects would result from the application of this plant to the only part of the body of the Indian which is never exposed to the direct influence of external causes, is a subject deserving of experimental inquiry.

The hare-lip sometimes occurs, but it may be properly considered as still more rare than amongst white people.

Frosted limbs are treated by immersion in cold water, so as gradually to restore the lost temperature of the part. The magi also perform over them their mystic rites, amongst which the only topical application is made by chewing some roots and blowing the fragments, and accompanying saliva violently upon the part, with many antic capers.

Goiture and wens are not known. Fevers, and fever and ague, are exceedingly rare. Ophthalmic diseases, and casualties affecting the eye, are frequent. The eyes of children are sometimes injured or destroyed by missiles, in incautious play or juvenile {240} rencontres. But blindness is more frequently the effect of the gradual operation of disease. The eyes become sore and the lids inflamed; white opake maculÆ, after some time, appear in the eye, which enlarge until they cover it entirely, and prevent the ingress of light. It is probable that they possessed no rational remedy for this evil previously to their acquaintance with the traders, excepting the extracting of blood from the temple by their process of cupping; the traders, however, have taught them to remove the opacity, by blowing burnt alum into the eye through a quill, a remedy so familiar in the veterinary art. To this disease children as well as adults are obnoxious.

Another ophthalmia, which also results in the destruction of the faculty of vision, commences with a superabundant secretion of the fluid of the lachrymal duct, succeeded by inflammation of the lids; the sight becomes gradually debilitated, until at length the pupil assumes an opake white appearance; probably fistula lachrymalis.

Temporary blindness, which sometimes eventuates in permanent loss of sight, occurs during the winter to incautious travellers who pass over the prairies covered with snow, from which the solar light is so brilliantly reflected. A party that accompanied Mr. Dougherty on a journey, being thus exposed, became unable to distinguish objects, and had not his sight been preserved, they might never have regained their stockade.

The blind are not neglected by their family and friends; on the contrary, we had several opportunities of observing them to be well clothed and fed, and much at their ease. When superannuated, however, they are not exempted from the fate attendant on that state.

An affection, or pain in the breast, distinguished by the name of Mong-ga-ne-a, seems to be the consequence of excessive indulgence in tobacco, and the {241} habitual inhaling of the smoke of it into the lungs. In their attempts to alleviate this complaint, the magi affect to extract from the part, by suction, balls and pellets of hair, and other extraneous substances, which they had previously concealed in their mouths for the purpose of deceiving the patient.

An individual applied to one of our party to cure him of this pain, but being advised to desist from the indulgence of tobacco smoking, he appeared rather willing to bear with his disease.

They sometimes say that their liver pains them, a disorder which they call Ta-pe-ne-a.

They are not exempt from catarrhs, the consequence of great exposure to sudden vicissitudes of temperature; a disease similar to the influenza is sometimes prevalent, and known by the name of Hoh-pa.

A deaf and dumb boy occurred in the Oto nation; an adult with a curved spine; and another with an inflexible knee, the leg forming a right angle with the thigh. But we have not observed any one of them with either eye deviating from the true line of vision.

The medical and surgical knowledge of the Omawhaws is very inconsiderable, and what there is, is so much blended with ceremonies, which to us appear superstitious, inert, and absurd, that it would seem, that, with the exception of a few instances, they have no reasonable mode of practice.

Sweating-baths are much in estimation, and are used for the cure of many ailments. These are temporary constructions, generally placed near the edge of a water-course; they are formed of osiers, or small pliant branches of trees, stuck into the soil in a circular arrangement, bent over at top so as to form a hemispherical figure, and covered in every part with bison robes. They are of different sizes, some are calculated to contain but a single individual, whilst others afford space for five or six at once. The invalid enters with a kettle of water and some heated {242} stones, on which the water is sprinkled until the steam produced is sufficient for his purpose. When they conceive that his perspiration has been as profuse as necessary, he is taken out and plunged into the water, and even if the stream be covered with ice, this is broken to admit the patient. He is not subjected a second time to the action of the steam, but covers himself with his robe and returns home.

We did not learn that they possessed any knowledge of cathartic or emetic medicines. But as a substitute for the latter, a feather is thrust down the throat, until its irritating effect produces vomiting.

For the cure of cholic, warm topical applications are made, and the abdomen is kneaded with the fist.

They have no substitute whatever for opium, and we do not know that they have any for mercury.

For the alleviation of an internal local pain, a severe remedy is sometimes resorted to. A portion of the medullary substance of a plant, is attached to the skin over the part affected, by means of a little spittle; it is then touched with fire, and burns slowly down to the skin, upon which a vesication is soon produced, and accomplishes the object intended, of removing, at least for a time, the internal pain to the surface. This seems to be the only species of actual cautery made use of.

The Indians, who reside in the upper regions of the Missouri, practise bleeding for various ailments. This operation is sometimes performed with a knife or arrow point. At other times, and not unusually, a sharp stone is placed upon the part from which blood is to be drawn, and it is then struck with a stick, much in the same manner that veterinarians operate with the phlegm. They thus bleed in the arm, thigh, leg, &c.

They never dissect the human body, expressly for the purpose of acquiring a knowledge of its structure; but they have a general idea of the position of the vitals and viscera, acquired upon the field of battle, {243} by their custom of hacking the carcasses of the slain; a knowledge which teaches them on what part of the body of an enemy to strike, in order that the wound may be mortal.

Gun-shot wounds are administered to by the magi, who powwow over them, rattle their gourds and sing, whilst they chew roots and blow out the fragments and saliva on the part. But the efficient practice in cases of wounds of this nature, is their system of depuration by means of suction; they apply their lips to the wound, and draw out the pus as it is secreted; by this mode of treatment they seem to be very successful in the cure of gun-shot wounds.

Amputation of limbs is not practised in their surgery.

The wound produced by the arrow, is treated much in the same manner with that of the gun-shot, after the weapon is thrust through the part, in the direction in which it entered; or, if this cannot be accomplished, the arrow is withdrawn, and the head or point being very slightly attached to the shaft, remains in the body, unless the wound is superficial, in which case it is cut out with a knife.

A broken limb is extended to its place, and enveloped with a leathern strap; the union generally takes place promptly, but the member usually remains more or less bent or crooked.

They have no rational mode of treating the scalp wound. A squaw who had been scalped, covered the part, after its edges had healed, with a peruke made of bison hair, until the hair on the other parts of her head became of sufficient length to conceal the deformity.

Dislocated members are reduced by extension, but with so little art, that they are frequently unsuccessful, and the limb remains permanently disjointed.

The Omawhaws are entirely destitute of all condiments, with the exception of salt, which, however, in their eating, they rarely use.

{244} Confirmed insanity appears to be unknown.

Every person, in any degree conversant with Indian manners and customs, is struck with their proneness to that most abominable and degrading of all vices, intoxication from the use of spirituous liquors. The Missouri Indians, collectively, form no exception to this general trait. A member of the Pawnee war party, which we so unfortunately encountered near the Konza village, was more solicitous to obtain a draft of this pernicious beverage, than to possess any other article within his view. We, however, persisted in refusing it to him, although he fell upon his knees, and laid his hands convulsively upon his breast and stomach, crying out, with a voice and manner of earnest supplication, "Whiskey, whiskey." The vice of drunkenness is yet, however, extremely rare in the Pawnee, as well as the Konza nation. But the Omawhaws are much addicted to it, and, with the exception of the chiefs, the indulgence does not, in any very considerable measure, degrade them in the estimation of their countrymen, who regard it as a delightful frolick; unless, indeed, the indulgence is permitted to grow into a habit.

To this cause, more especially than to any other, is perhaps attributable the depreciation of the influence of Ongpatonga, notwithstanding the efforts of his comparatively superior intellectual abilities.

The greatest offences and insults are overlooked if committed in this state, and even murder is palliated by it. The actions of drunken Indians, are as ridiculous and puerile as those of civilized drunkards; chiefs, warriors, and common men, roll indiscriminately on the earth together, or dance, caper, laugh, cry, shout, fight, or hug and kiss, and rub each other with their hands, in the most affectionate or stupid manner. If in the vicinity of white people, they appoint some of their number to remain sober, in order to prevent injury or insult being offered to them.

{245} The squaws sometimes tie them with cords, in order to preserve the peace, and are thanked for their precaution, when the subjects return to the dignity of reason.

Squaws, however, will themselves get drunk on certain occasions, and children are frequently intoxicated with liquor given them by the parents.

Whiskey, which is the only spirituous liquor they are acquainted with, is furnished to them freely by the traders; and the existing law of the United States, prohibiting the sale of it to the natives, is readily evaded, by presenting it to them with a view of securing their custom, not in direct, although implied exchange for their peltries. Nor is this greatest of evils in the power of the agent to remedy; and until traders are effectually interdicted, by law, from taking any whiskey into the country, even for their own consumption, it must, in defiance of his authority, continue to exist.

Whiskey is distinguished by the appellation of Pa-je-ne, or fire-water, the letter j having the French sound in pronunciation. The state of intoxication is called Ta-ne, a word which has a singular affinity with that by which they distinguish meat broth, or meat water; so great indeed is the similarity in sound between them, that to our ear they appear identical.

Intoxicating drinks do not appear to be ever made use of by the Omawhaws, for superstitious purposes.

This people believe firmly in an existence after death; but they do not appear to have any definite notions as to the state in which they shall then be. And although they say that many reappear after death to their relatives, yet such visitants communicate no information respecting futurity. They consist of those only who have been killed either in battle with the enemy, or in quarrels with individuals of their own nation, and their errand is to solicit vengeance on the perpetrators of the deed.

{246} Futurity has no terrors to the dying Omawhaw. as he has no idea of actual punishment beyond his present state of existence. He, however, regrets the parting from his family and friends, and sometimes expresses his fears that the former will be impoverished, when his exertions for their support shall be withdrawn.

The Wahconda is believed to be the greatest and best of beings, the creator and preserver of all things, and the fountain of mystic medicine. Omniscience, omnipresence, and vast power are attributed to him, and he is supposed to afflict them with sickness, poverty, or misfortune, for their evil deeds. In conversation he is frequently appealed to as an evidence of the truth of their asseverations, in the words Wahconda-wa-nah-kong, the Wahconda hears what I say; and they sometimes add Mun-ekuh-wa-nah-kong, the earth hears what I say.

Whatever may be the notions of other Indian nations, we did not learn that the Omawhaws have any distinct ideas of the existence of the devil; or at least we always experienced much difficulty and delay, when obtaining vocabularies of this and some other languages in ascertaining corresponding words for Devil and Hell: the Indians would consult together, and in one instance the interpreter told us they were coining a word.

They say that after death, those who have conducted themselves properly in this life, are received into the Wa-noch-a-te, or town of brave and generous spirits; but those who have not been useful to the nation or their own families, by killing their enemies, stealing horses, or by generosity, will have a residence prepared for them in the town of poor and useless spirits; where, as well as in the good town, their usual avocations are continued.

Their Wahconda seems to be a Protean god; he is supposed to appear to different persons under different forms. All those who are favoured with his {247} presence become medicine men or magicians, in consequence of thus having seen and conversed with the Wahconda, and of having received from him some particular medicine of wondrous efficacy.

He appeared to one in the shape of a grizzly bear, to another in that of a bison, to a third in that of a beaver, or owl, &c., and an individual attributed to an animal, from which he received his medicine, the form and features of the elephant.

All the magi, in the administration of their medicine to the sick or afflicted, mimic the action and voice, variously exaggerated and modified, of the animal, which, they say, is their respective medicine, or in other words, that in which the Wahconda appeared to them.

When a magician is called to attend a sick person, he makes preparations for the visit by washing and painting with red clay; some of them dress fantastically, but others retain their ordinary apparel, which does not distinguish them from their neighbours; they take with them a dried gourd or skin, in which are some pebbles or plumstones, to make a rattling noise; the medicine bag is also an indispensable requisite, not for the active properties of its contents, but for the mystic virtues ascribed to them.

When in presence of his patient, he assumes the proper gravity of deportment, and commences his operations by smoking his pipe, and talking to his Wahconda; after this preparatory ceremony, the medicine bag is opened, and the contents displayed, consisting of white and red earth, herbs entire or pulverized, &c. Portions of these are mixed with warm water, in small wooden cups, with which he is provided. Then, with a due degree of solemnity, he advances to his patient, and inquires into the nature of his ailment; he feels the part affected with his hand, and in case of local pain, he scarifies the part with a flint, and proceeds to suck out the blood, {248} having previously taken a small quantity of water in his mouth. He applies his lips to the wound, and sucks with great force, drawing a considerable quantity of blood, which he occasionally ejects into a bowl, in which some dirt or ashes had been previously sprinkled.

He makes much noise in the operation, by inhaling and expelling the air forcibly through his nostrils, and at the same time jerks his head from side to side, tugging at the part to facilitate the process. The depletion produced by this method, is sometimes so considerable that the patient becomes relaxed and pallid.

It has been remarked, that those practitioners have very tumid lips, and this remark is verified in those of Mon-cha-wahconda, or medicine grizzly bear, whom we have frequently seen.

If the patient has no local pain, the magician administers some of his simples, sometimes internally, but generally by friction between his warmed hands, and the breast or abdomen of the patient. At intervals during this operation, and after the termination of it, he rattles his gourd with violence, singing to it with great vehemence, and throwing himself into grotesque attitudes. All this is sometimes daily repeated, until the convalescence or death of the patient.

A wealthy man, when sick, will sometimes send to a great distance for a celebrated practitioner, who, if not already engaged, removes with his family and lodge to the vicinity of the afflicted.

The compensation for all this attendance and powwowing, is proportioned to the violence and duration of the complaint, and to the wealth of the individual; it is frequently exorbitant, and consists of horses, kettles, blankets, &c., which, although they are never demanded, yet the magician does not fail to allude to some of them as objects of his wishes, and {249} the gratitude of the patient seldom fails on this occasion. If the patient dies, notwithstanding all this necromancy, he is said to be summoned by the Wahconda, and the fee or present to the magician is made by the relatives or friends of the deceased.

These men sometimes pretend to the spirit of prophecy. One of them ventured to predict, that two squaws who had recently married white men, would die in the course of a very short time, which he specified. The squaws being much alarmed at the prospect of approaching death, took with them some tobacco and other presents, and went in search of the prophet in order to prevail upon him to intercede for them with the Wahconda, and avert their doom. The husband of one of the squaws, a citizen of the United States, hearing of the occurrence, went to the lodge of the magician. He was surprised to see there the squaws perfectly naked before the magician, who had provided himself with a large kettle of warm water, and was himself engaged in squirting the water from his mouth over their persons. The husband, incensed at what appeared to him to be nonsense and imposition, kicked over the kettle of holy water, and drove the squaws home to their lodges; but the magician, having received the presents, which were the objects of his swindling cunning, pretended that his incantation had had the desired effect with the Wahconda, inducing him to spare their lives.

Many are the impostures which these priests practise on the credulity of the people. And although they are frequently defeated in their attempts to deceive, and justly punished for their hypocritical villainy, yet the advantage of experience seems to profit them little, and deception, practised under a new garb, often attains its ends. How can we wonder at this facility, with which a simple people are blinded, through the medium of their superstitious faith, when we know that infinitely more {250} monstrous absurdities obtain the inconsiderate assent, or excite the fears of thousands of civilized men, in the most populous and enlightened cities of Europe and America, and that the horse-shoe, even at this day, is frequently seen attached to the threshold of a door, as a security against the entrance of a witch?

One of these magi acquired a high repute in several of the Missouri nations, by impressing them with the belief, that his body was indestructible to human power, and that if cut into a thousand fragments, and scattered to the winds, these portions would all promptly assemble together again, and become revivified, so that he would receive no injury from the operation. Trusting to his fame, on some slight provocation, he killed a squaw in the midst of her own people, and with the most unbounded confidence, surrendered himself to her exasperated relatives, declaring with exultation that they possessed not the power to harm him.

Unexpectedly, however, they put his vaunted supernatural constitution to the test, by dividing his body into pieces, and scattering them about the vicinity of the village.

They are so entirely habituated to practising the arts of deception, that it would seem they sometimes persuade themselves that what was at first only feigned, is in truth reality, and that their magic absolutely possesses its attributed healing virtue. One of these men, being on a visit to the Pawnee villages, was present at a kind of grand incantation, during which many extraordinary feats were exhibited. He there saw, for the first time, the mountebank trick, of appearing to cut off the tongue, and afterwards replacing the severed portion without a wound. "There," said Katterfelto, "your medicine is not strong enough to enable you to perform this operation." The stranger, jealous of his national honour, and unwilling to be exceeded, unhesitatingly {251} drew forth his knife, and actually cut off nearly the whole of his tongue, and bled to death before their eyes.

In the country of the Crow Indians, (Up-sa-ro-ka,)10 Mr. Dougherty saw a singular arrangement of the magi. The upper portion of a cotton-wood tree was implanted with its base in the earth, and around it was a sweat house, the upper part of the top of the tree arising through the roof. A gray bison skin, extended with oziers on the inside so as to exhibit a natural appearance, was suspended above the house, and on the branches were attached several pairs of children's mockasins and leggings, and from one of the limbs of the tree, a very large fan made of war eagle's feathers was dependent.

The Missouri Indians believe earthquakes to be the effect of supernatural agency, connected, like the thunder, with the immediate operations of the Master of Life. The earthquakes which, in the year 1811, almost destroyed the town of New Madrid of the Mississippi, were very sensibly felt on the upper portion of the Missouri country, and occasioned much superstitious dread amongst the Indians. During that period, a citizen of the United States resided in the village of the Otos, trading for the produce of their hunts. One day he was surprised by a visit of a number of Otos in anger. They said that a Frenchman, who was also trading in the village, had informed them, that the Big-knives had killed a son of the Master of Life; that they had seen him riding on a white horse in a forest country, and being of a sanguinary disposition, they had waylaid and shot him. And it was certainly owing to this act that the earth was now trembling before the anger of the great Wahconda. They believed the story implicitly, and it was with no little difficulty that the trader divested his own nation of the singular crimination.11

{252} As connected with the superstitions of the Missouri Indians, we may mention some anecdotes that came to our knowledge. First, of the Me-ma-ho-pa or medicine stone of the Gros ventres, or Minnetarees.12 This is a large, naked, and insulated rock, situate in the midst of a small prairie, at the distance of about 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, such as a gun, horse, or strouding, and also provides a smooth skin, upon which hieroglyphics may be drawn, and repairs to the rock accompanied by his friends and magi. On his arrival, he deposits the presents there, and after smoking to the rock, he washes a portion of the face of it 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 in hunting; to favour his endeavours to take prisoners, horses, and scalps from the enemy. When the appointed time for lamentation and 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 Manhopa 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 were 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 with pious care {253} and scrupulous exactness upon the skin which he brought for the purpose, and returns to his home, to read from them to the people, the destiny of himself or of them. If a bear be represented, with its head directed towards 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 towards the village, nothing but good is anticipated, and they rejoice. They say that an Indian, on his return from the rock, exhibited to his friends, on his hieroglyphical 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 afterwards, the prediction was, as it happened, verified, and a stockade trading house was erected there, by the French trader Jessaume.13

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.

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.

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.

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