CHAPTER XXVI
OBSERVATIONS ON THE TRIBE OF THE MANITARIES, OR GROS VENTRES

The name, Manitaries, by which this tribe is now generally known, was given by the Mandans, and signifies, "those who came over the water." The French give them the singular designation of Gros Ventres, which is no more appropriate to them than to any other of the Indian tribes: the Anglo-Americans also frequently use this name.[335] This people was formerly a part of the nation of the Crows, from which it is said they separated, in consequence of a dispute about a buffalo that had been killed, and removed to the Missouri.[336] They are near neighbours, and have been for many years allies of the Mandans. They have long resided in three villages on the Knife River, two on the left bank, and the third, which is much the largest, on the right bank.[337] Much confusion and misunderstanding have been occasioned by the variety of names given to these villages by the inhabitants, as well as by other tribes. At present the Manitaries live constantly in their villages, and do not roam about as they formerly did, when, like the Pawnees and other nations, they went in pursuit of the herds of buffaloes as soon as their fields were sown, returned in the autumn for the harvest, after which they again went into the prairie. In these wanderings they made use of leather tents, some of which are still standing by the side of their permanent dwellings. The more considerable part of the nation, the Crows, are still exclusively a people of hunters, who cultivate no kind of useful plants: even tobacco is now seldom planted, because they prefer that which they obtain from the traders. They still, however, preserve their own species of this plant for the purpose I have before mentioned.

The Manitaries do not much differ in their personal appearance from the Mandans; but it strikes a stranger that they are, in general, taller. Most of them are well-formed and stout; many are very tall, broad-shouldered, and muscular; the latter may, indeed, be said of the greater proportion of the men. Their noses are more or less arched, and sometimes quite straight. I also met with several whose countenances perfectly resembled those of the Botocudos.[338] The women {396} are much like the Mandans; many are tall and stout, but most of them are short and corpulent. There are some pretty faces among them, which, according to the Indian standard of beauty, may be called handsome. As they have long lived in close connexion with the Mandans, the two nations have adopted the same costume, though there is, at the same time, a greater attention to neatness and adornment among the Manitaries than their neighbours. Their necklaces of bears' claws, for which they often give a high price, are very large and well finished: they often contain forty claws, are attached to each shoulder, and form a semicircle across the breast. Their lock of hair on the temples is often long and curiously entwined with ornaments, and fringed at the point with small red feathers, or strips of ermine. They wear their hair in long flat braids, hanging down upon the back like the Mandans; sometimes it is plastered over with clay, and not unfrequently lengthened by gluing false locks to it. The flat ornament in the shape of the rule hanging from the back, which I have mentioned in speaking of the Mandans, is often very tastefully ornamented with porcupine quills, set in neat patterns. They seldom wear leather shirts, like the Crows and Blackfeet, but, generally speaking, have nothing under the buffalo robe: frequently their arms and whole body are variously painted. Their leggins do not differ from those of the Mandans. The breechcloth generally consists of a piece of white woollen cloth with dark blue stripes. Their leather shoes are ornamented in various ways, sometimes with a long stripe, or a rosette of dyed porcupine quills. The girdle is of leather, into which the knife and sheath are stuck at the back. They often wear narrow bright steel bracelets at the wrists, which they purchase from the Company. Much taste and extravagance are lavished on the buffalo robe, the main article of their attire. The style in which they are painted is similar to that of the Mandans, and very high prices are paid for these robes. Many of the men are tattooed, especially on one side of the body only, for instance, the right half of the breast, and the right arm, sometimes down to the wrist; nay, the old chief, Addih-Hiddish, had the whole of his right hand tattooed in stripes.[339] They paint their body in the same manner as the Mandans.

The Manitari villages are similarly arranged as those of the Mandans, except that they have no ark placed in the central space, and the figure of Ochkih-Hadda is not there. In the principal village, however, is the figure of a woman placed on a long pole, doubtless representing the grandmother, who presented them with the pots, of which I shall speak more hereafter. A bundle of brushwood is hung on this pole, to which are attached the leathern dress and leggins of a woman. The head is made of wormwood, and has a cap with feathers. The interior of their huts is arranged as among the Mandans: like them the Manitaries go, in winter, into the forests on both banks of the Missouri, where they find fuel, and, at the same time, protection against the inclement weather. Their winter villages are in the thickest of the forest, and the huts are built near to each other, promiscuously, and without any attempt at order or regularity.[340] {397} They have about 250 or 300 horses in their three villages, and a considerable number of dogs.

When a Manitari invites his friends to a feast which is especially devoted to the table, each guest brings a dish, which is filled, and which he is expected to empty; if he is unable to do this, he passes it on to his neighbour, and, as a sort of reward, gives him some tobacco. If his neighbour accepts it, he undertakes thereby the often not pleasant task of emptying the dish. At a war feast each guest is obliged to eat whatever is placed before him.[341] When a child is to be named they proceed as follows: the father first sets out on a buffalo hunt, and returns with a good deal of game. He loads himself with ten or twelve large pieces of meat, at the top of which he places the child. Stooping and panting under the burden, he proceeds to the hut of the medicine man who is to give the name, and to whom he delivers the meat as a present or fee.

Like the Mandans, the Manitaries have their bands, or unions, which are distinguished by their songs, dances, and badges. Of these bands there are eleven among the men and three among the women.

Besides these bands, they have two distinct dances:—1st. The dance of the old men, which is executed only by those who are far advanced in years, and no longer take the field. 2nd. The scalp dance; this is danced by the women, who carry the scalps upon poles.[342] In their hands they likewise bear guns, hatchets, clubs, &c. Some among the men beat the drum and rattle the schischikué; the warriors, meanwhile, sitting in a row, and beating time with their feet.

Their games, too, are like those of the Mandans, for if there were any with which they were not originally acquainted they have since adopted them. These people likewise set a high value on the hide of a white buffalo cow, for which they often give fifteen horses, guns, cloth, blankets, robes, and other articles of considerable value.[343] The owner having proclaimed, from the top of his hut, to the whole assembled village, that he has obtained such a robe, keeps it for about four years. The members of the family sometimes wear it on state occasions, and narrow strips are cut off and used as ornaments, especially as head bands. When this time is elapsed the hide is offered to one of the divinities, a medicine man being hired to perform the necessary ceremonies. During {398} the four years, valuable articles of all kinds, such as those before-mentioned, have been collected and are kept in readiness. A hut is built, to be used as a sudatory (as will be related below). A large quantity of food is distributed among the spectators; a bundle of brushwood is fastened to the top of a long pole, and the beautiful white hide is wrapped round it. It is then set up in some spot chosen by the owner, and there left to rot. The medicine man who performs the ceremonies receives, for his trouble, the valuables which have been mentioned—sometimes 150 robes, and other things, part of which he distributes among the persons present. Sometimes they ride, with the white hide, into the prairie, spread on the ground a blue or red blanket, and lay the hide upon it. If it is intended to offer a horse at the same time, they bind his feet together, put a muzzle on his mouth, and leave all together in this situation. If another Indian were to steal the horse, they would say he is a fool for robbing the lord of life. Other mysteries (medicines) and superstitions of the Manitaries are so interwoven with their early traditions and legends, that it is necessary to premise something on the subject.

Formerly there existed water only, and no earth: a large bird, with a red eye, dived. The man who does not die, or the lord of life (Ehsicka-Wahaddish, literally the first man),[344] who lives in the Rocky Mountains, had made all, and sent the great bird to fetch up earth. Another being, worthy of veneration, is the old woman whom they call grandmother, and who roams about all over the earth. She, too, has some share in the creation, though an inferior one, for she created the sand-rat and the toad. She gave the Manitaries a couple of pots, which they still preserve as a sacred treasure, and employ as medicines, or charms, on certain occasions. She directed the ancestors of these Indians to preserve the pots, and to remember the great waters, from which all animals came cheerful, or, as my old narrator expressed it, dancing. The red-shouldered oriole (Psaracolius phoeniceus) came, at that time, out of the water, as well as all the other birds which still sing on the banks of the rivers. The Manitaries, therefore, look on all these birds as medicine for their plantations of maize, and attend to their song. At the time when these birds sing, they were directed by the old woman to fill these pots with water, to be merry, to dance and bathe, in order to put them in mind of the great flood. When their fields are threatened with a great drought they are to celebrate a medicine feast with the old grandmother's pots, in order to beg for rain: this is, properly, the destination of the pots. The medicine men are still paid, on such occasions, to sing for four days together in the huts, while the pots remain filled with water.

The sun, or, as they call it, "the sun of the day," is likewise considered as a great medicine. They do not know what it really is, but that it serves to sustain and to warm the earth. When they are about to undertake some enterprise, they make offerings to it, as well as to the moon, which they call "the sun of the night." The morning star, Venus, they consider the child of the moon, and account it likewise a special medicine. They affirm that it was originally a {399} Manitari, and is the grandson of the old woman who never dies. The "great bear" 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 likewise call the "milky way" the ashy way; and, like the Mandans, believe that thunder is occasioned by the flapping of the wings of the large bird, which causes rain, and that the lightning is the glance of his eye, in search of prey. The rainbow is called by the Manitaries "the cap of the water," or "the cap of the rain." Once, say they, an Indian caught, in the autumn, a red bird, which mocked him; this gave offence to the man, who bound the feet of his prisoner together with a fish line, and then let him fly. The bird of prey saw a hare and pounced upon it, but the hare crept into the skull of a buffalo which was lying in the prairie, and as the line, hanging from the claws of the bird, formed a semicircle, they imagine that the rainbow is still thus caused.

The old chief, Addih-Hiddish, gave me the following account of the situation of men after death:—There are two villages, one large and the other smaller, whither the Manitaries go when they die. The wicked, or cowardly, go to the small village; the good, or brave, to the larger one.[345] A party of Manitaries once went to war, and one of their number, a chief, was killed by the enemy; he was buried and his grave covered with large trunks of trees. After his death he went to the large village, from whence a great many men came to meet him and to escort him into it. He was alarmed when he saw them coming towards him, and turned back, wounded as he was. A white man had given him, in that country, a paper, by means of which he was enabled to return to his own village on earth, and live there many years; but my informant was quite unable to tell me the contents of this paper. After this, when he played at what they call billiards, he rubbed his hands with the talisman, and nobody could ever win a game from him; he was always called by his fellows "the dead man."

When the Manitaries were created by the first man they formed one nation with the Crows. A medicine woman among them had three sons, each of whom built a village. The eldest went, with his people, down the Missouri, and it is not known what became of them. The second went to the mountains, and founded the village now inhabited by the Crows. The third established the tribe now called Manitaries by the Mandans, which tribe subsequently erected the three villages now existing. At that time their total number was only 1000 men.

The Manitaries are as superstitious, and have as much faith in their medicines, or charms, as the Mandans. Among these medicines are included every kind of wolf and fox, especially the former; and, therefore, when they go to war, they always wear the stripe off the back of a wolf's skin, with the tail hanging down over their shoulders. They make a slit in the skin, through which they put their head, so that the skin of the wolf's head hangs down upon their breast. Buffaloes' heads are likewise medicine. In one of their villages they preserve the neck bones of a buffalo, as the Crows also are said to do; and this is done with a view to prevent the buffalo herds {400} 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. They have medicine stones and medicine trees, like the Mandans, and offer to the heavenly powers at such places red cloth, red paint, and other things. Like the Mandans, too, they also offer articles of value, wail, moan, do penance to conciliate their favour, and to ask their aid to obtain certain wishes and objects. Say relates that the wolf chief of the Manitaries sat for five days together on an isolated rock, without taking any food.[346] This was done on the Prairie Hill, to which the Mandans also resort in similar cases. They hold out till their strength fails them, and creep by night into a neighbouring cave, where they sleep and dream. Among the original traditions of this people is that of the two children, which Say relates. A party going to war saw two children sitting on two isolated hills, who vanished when they endeavoured to approach them. These two hills, which are near together, are called the Children's Hills; they are not on Knife River, as Say says, but on Heart River. The women go to one of these hills to do penance and lament when they desire to have children.[347]

Mr. Say relates another tradition very correctly, of a boy who lived and grew in the belly of a buffalo. They also assert that the bones of the buffaloes in the prairie sometimes come to life again.[348] Say likewise describes the corn dance, or rather the corn feast, for the consecration of the crops. They adopted it from the Mandans, and now celebrate it in the same manner.[349] The great medicine feast for attracting the herds of buffaloes will be described in the next chapter, as well as some of the incantations of the women. They likewise celebrate the Okippe (which they call Akupehri), but with several deviations. Thus, instead of the so-called ark, a kind of high pole, with a fork on the summit, is planted in the centre of the open circle. When the partisans of the war parties intend to go on some enterprise in May or June, the preparations are combined with the Okippe of several young men, who wish to obtain the rank of the brave, or men. 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 about the waist. The first partisan usually chooses the second, who undergoes the ceremony with him. There are always young people enough ready to submit their bodies to torture, in order to display their courage and firm resolve. They fast four days and nights, which leaves them faint and weak. 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, hanging to their flesh and skin, a large circle is formed, as among {401} 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. He has called out to "have compassion with him, and to give him a knife," on which one of the persons standing round throws one at his feet. 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's tail, a feather, or the like. None but the candidates dance, and the only music is striking a dried buffalo's hide with willow rods. There have been instances of fathers subjecting their children, only six or seven 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 Manitaries than the Mandans. Most of the Manitaries have three or four of these weals, in parallel semicircular lines, almost an inch thick, which cover the entire breast. Similar transverse and longitudinal lines, arising from the same cause, are seen upon the arms, nay, the whole length of the limb is often disfigured by them.[350] The medicine stone has already been mentioned, when treating of the Mandans. Lewis and Clarke also speak of it, saying that "the Manitaries have a stone of a similar kind;" but this is not quite correct, for it is the self-same stone to which the two people have recourse, and make use of similar ceremonies with it.

Another very remarkable institution of the Manitaries is the sudatory. When a man intends to undertake anything, and to implore by medicine the aid of the higher powers, he builds a small sudatory of twigs, which is covered all over with buffalo hides. Before the entrance is a straight path, forty feet long and one broad, from which the turf is taken off and piled up in a heap at one end opposite the hut. Near this heap a fire is kindled, in which large stones are made red hot. Two rows of shoes, sometimes thirty or forty pair, are placed along the path. As soon as the stones are hot, they are borne into the hut, where a hearth has been dug, on which the hot stones are laid. The whole population sit as spectators on either side of the path, where are placed a number of dishes with provisions, such as boiled maize, beans, meat, &c. An old medicine man is appointed to conduct the ceremonies. He walks from the heap of turf over the shoes, taking care always to set his feet upon them, to the sudatory. The young man, for whom the ceremony is performed, stands with only his breechcloth at the entrance of the sudatory, where for some time he wails and laments. The medicine man comes out of the hut, with a knife or arrow head, and cuts off a joint of his finger, which he throws away, as an offering to the lord of life, or to some other object of superstition, in which the young man has placed his confidence. After this operation the magician takes a willow twig, goes to the dishes containing {402} the provisions, dips the twig in each, and throws a portion of the contents in the direction of the four cardinal points, for the lord of life, the fire, and the divers supernatural powers, of which he makes open proclamation. The provisions are then distributed among the men, women, and children who are present. The older men go into the sudatory, the women carefully cover it, and water is sprinkled with bunches of wormwood, from vessels standing ready without upon the hot stones, which throws the persons present into a profuse perspiration; the men, meanwhile, all singing at once to the rattling of the schischikué. When they are satisfied they call to the women on the outside to remove the hides. After this, a buffalo head, with the snout foremost, is carried over the row of shoes to the heap of turfs, where it is placed in the same direction. The ceremony is now complete. The robes with which the hut was covered, often sixty or eighty in number, are given by the young man to the magician for his trouble, who distributes some of them among the spectators. The persons who have submitted to the operation put on their robes, and remain in the open air till their bodies are dry, this medicine being generally performed in the summer. In the winter they prepare such steam baths in their own huts, but at that season they are not medicine, and the men and women assemble together. The grand ceremony just described is instituted especially when they wish to ask success for a military expedition, or for some other important enterprise. They then purchase a red blanket or a piece of blue cloth, which they offer to the divinity, hanging it on a pole behind the sudatory, where it is left to be destroyed by the wind and weather.

The Manitaries likewise make offerings at times to the great serpent which lives in the Missouri, by placing in the river poles, to which robes or coloured blankets are attached.[351] This practice is founded on a story like that which is current among the Mandans, but with some differences. A war party was on its way to the Upper Missouri to meet the enemy: when they had proceeded a considerable distance two young men turned back, and found, at a certain spot, a large serpent coiled up. After looking at the animal for some time, one of them kindled a fire, in which they burnt the serpent. The man who had made the fire took up the remains, smelt them, and affirmed that the smell was so inviting, he could not refrain from eating a part, and, though his comrade dissuaded him, he ate a small portion of the roasted flesh. In the evening, when they were going to lie down to rest for the night, he took off his shoes, and, to his great astonishment, found that his feet were striped like the serpent which they had killed. He told his friend, and said, "This is delightful; when I go home, I will pull off my shoes, and everybody will look at my feet." On the following day his legs were striped up to the knees. He said, laughing, "This is admirable; I shall no longer have occasion to mark my exploits by stripes, for nature herself furnishes me with them." On the third day he was striped up to his hips. They slept on the evening of that day, and on the fourth day he was completely converted into a serpent. "Be not afraid of me," said he to his friend, "I have neither arms nor legs, and cannot move from the spot; carry me {403} to the river." His friend dragged him to the Missouri, being unable to carry him on account of his length and weight. The serpent immediately swam, dived below the surface, and called to his friend, who was mourning on the bank, "Weep not, my friend; be comforted and go home in peace; four things, however, I must beg of you to bring me; first, bring me a white wolf; secondly, a polecat; thirdly, another painted red; and fourthly, a black pipe." His friend went home, and after some time returned with the objects required, and lamented a whole day on the bank of the river. The serpent then appeared: "It is well that you have kept your word," said he; "you will go to war and kill as many enemies as you have brought objects to me. But first come here and lament, for I am medicine for all futurity." The Indian went out the same day and killed an enemy; but the serpent had previously told him that its head would be at the old Mandan village, and its tail reach to the mouth of the Yellow Stone River; that with one ear it would be able to hear to the distance of the Maison du Chien, a hill in the prairie two days' journey from the north bank of the Missouri, and with the other to the Crête Côte, likewise two days' journey from the other bank. The friend went four times to war, and each time killed an enemy. The Manitaries, who firmly believe this story, still go to the river when the fancy strikes them, and set up an offering. They relate that a man once went to the river to see the serpent; he lamented for a long time, at length it appeared, on which he called it his father. But the serpent said, "You are not my son; I have only one son, whose name is——, he who has no arms; but you are the son of him who shall be chief of the village to which I have destined him. When you ride out to hunt the buffalo you will kill your enemies, and some of your people will likewise be killed."

In cases of difficult parturition, which, however, seldom occur, they are accustomed to give the medicine man one, two, or even four horses. He comes to the hut of the lying-in woman, smokes with her husband, then takes a fox or wolf skin cap, and strokes the woman with it on the back, or some other part of the body, singing, and rattling the schischikué. Often he touches or rubs her with a tortoise shell, as the Botocudos in Brazil do, often merely with a feather.

Like the Mandans they sometimes keep owls in their huts, which they consider as soothsayers, and whose notes they pretend to understand. This is the large grey owl, without doubt the Strix Virginiana. The war eagle (Aquila chrysactos) is likewise kept alive for the sake of the tail feathers, which they so highly prize. Some individuals among them have strange superstitious ideas and practices; thus, a certain man smokes very slowly, no person is allowed to speak nor to move a single limb of his body, except to take hold of the pipe. Neither women, children, nor dogs, are suffered to remain in the hut while he is smoking, and some one is always stationed to keep the door. If, however, there are exactly seven persons present to smoke, all these precautionary measures are done away with, and they may smoke as quickly as they please. {404} When he clears his pipe and shakes the ashes into the fire, it blazes up, doubtless because he puts some gunpowder, or similar combustible, into the pipe. When any person has a painful or a diseased place, the same man puts his pipe upon it and smokes. On these occasions he does not swallow the smoke, as is the Indian custom, but affirms that he can extract the disorder by his smoking, which he pretends to seize with his hand, and to throw into the fire.

The division of the year into months is not very dissimilar from that of the Mandans, though I have never been able to obtain two accounts which precisely correspond. But little is to be said of the hunting and war of the Manitaries which has not been already related of the Mandans. They are reported as being very skilful in making the cabri parks, which, in the month of April, they can do in half a day, though they have not made any such for some time past. The skin of the cabri is used for shoes.

The Manitaries are at present friendly towards the Whites in the vicinity of the Missouri; but, if a white man happens to encounter one of their war parties in the prairie, he is generally plundered. In the north, on the Red River, they often act in a hostile manner to the Whites and Half-breeds residing there. Their enemies properly so called are the Blackfeet, the Assiniboins, the Sioux, the Pawnees, the Arikkaras, the Shiennes or Chayennes, the Crees, and the Arrapahos; their allies are the Mandans and the Crows.

All these Indians treat the bodies of their slain enemies in the most barbarous manner. Charbonneau remembers that the Manitaries, for several months, kept the body of an Assiniboin, who was killed in the winter, which they daily used as a mark to shoot at. Mutilation is very common among them. Want of feeling towards their prisoners is common to all uncivilized people; the nations of hunters especially do not regard the tortures of living creatures; and the Brazilian savage does not in this respect differ from the North American, and the Gaucho in the south of this continent, or, indeed, from man in a state of nature in every part of the habitable globe.

The Manitaries appear to have but a very slight acquaintance with medicine; they mostly have recourse to the drum, the schischikué, and the singing of the medicine men, for the cure of diseases. As a remedy for wounds they burn scented grass (Anthoxanthum odoratum), hold their hands in the smoke, and then, at some distance, over the wound, after which they lay tallow upon it. The cure of some men who recovered after being scalped, and many large scars on the bodies of these Indians, are proofs of the natural vigour of their constitutions. The medicine men have a particular song, without words, which is employed as the last resource to recover a person at the point of death. The magician alone then sings, accompanied by his schischikué.

The Manitaries always lay their dead upon stages or scaffolds. As the lord of life is displeased when they quarrel and kill each other, those who do so are buried in the earth, that they {405} may be no longer seen. In this case a buffalo's head is laid upon the grave, in order that the buffalo herds may not keep away, for, if they were to smell the wicked, they might remove and never return. The good are laid upon stages, that they may be seen by the lord of life.

The language of the Manitaries is very different from that of the Mandans, and is far more difficult to pronounce correctly. Like that, it has many gutturals, especially the ch, as in Dutch and German. The difficulty of the pronunciation lies chiefly in the accent. What may in German be expressed in a few words, requires several; a proof of the poverty of the language. Lewis and Clarke say—"the dialect of the Mandans differs widely from those of the Arikkaras and Manitaries; but their long residence near each other has insensibly blended their manners, and occasioned some approximation in language, especially in objects of daily occurrence." This is correct, for I was assured by both nations that, when they first lived together, their languages were totally different, and respectively unintelligible to each other.

CHAPTER XXVII
A FEW WORDS RESPECTING THE ARIKKARAS

The Arikkaras on the Missouri are a tribe which, many years ago, separated from the Pawnees, and settled on the Lower Missouri, where they inhabited two villages.[352] At the time of Lewis and Clarke's travels these Indians lived on friendly terms with the Whites; but, in consequence of subsequent misunderstandings, they became their most inveterate enemies, and killed all the traders who ventured into the vicinity of their territory. After they had defeated the keel-boats of General Ashley, and the unsuccessful expedition of Colonel Leavenworth, they became more insolent than ever; and, as they had no longer any prospect of trading on the Missouri, and other circumstances unfavourable to them took place, they removed, in the year 1832, and settled at a great distance in the prairie, where they are said to dwell, on the road to Santa Fe, above the sources of the river La Platte. Their villages on the Missouri have been entirely abandoned and desolate since that time.[353]

The Arikkaras are tall, robust, well-made men; some of them are nearly six feet (Paris measure) in height. Their physiognomy does not materially differ from that of the neighbouring tribes, especially of the Mandans and Manitaries, and their women are said to be the handsomest on the Missouri, but also the most licentious.[354] Their costume is likewise not very different from that of the Mandans; their robes are mostly painted of a reddish-brown colour. They have renounced the costume, and the greater part of the customs of the Pawnees. At the time when they left the Missouri, they amounted to between 3000 and 4000 souls, of whom 500 were warriors, and possessed a great many horses and dogs; they can now bring 600 men into the field, and are still a warlike people. Ross Cox, in his journey to the Columbia, calls them a powerful tribe, which is, perhaps, rather too strong an expression. The most detailed accounts respecting this people, with which I am acquainted, are in Brackenridge's and Bradbury's travels;[355] yet they are very meagre, though the former had opportunities of observing them for {407} some time, on friendly terms. Perhaps he had not an interpreter sufficiently acquainted with the language. I will state what I have learned from some Mandans, especially from Mato-Topé, who lived a long time among the Arikkaras.

Brackenridge gives an imperfect description of the construction of their huts, which does not much differ from that of the Mandans. This writer says that the villages of the Arikkaras were very dirty, and compares them with some old European towns. As it must, however, be supposed that Brackenridge had never seen European towns, where the police are more strict than in American towns, his comparison does not hold good. Both Brackenridge and Bradbury were very well received by these people, and some white men were living among them, who served as interpreters. When a stranger was once in their villages he was hospitably treated, and invited to many of their festivals. When he left, however, he had to be on his guard, especially against the war parties, who seldom spared a white man.

The agriculture of the Arikkaras was the same as that of their neighbours. In the education of their children they are said to have been more strict, for, when the children behaved ill, they were severely corrected. Among the more northern nations also, a better system prevails than among the Mandans and Manitaries: it frequently happens, among the Chippeways, that, when a boy rudely passes before the older men, they take him by the arm and give him a good thrashing. If a young man is idle, and will not go hunting, his father has been known to drive him before him a mile, beating him all the way, and then telling him that, if he returns without any game, he shall be punished still more severely. Like most of the Indian tribes, the Arikkaras have their bands, or unions, and likewise distinct dances. They are as follows:—

1. The band of the bears. It consists of old men, who, in their dance, wear some parts of the bear's skin, a necklace of bears' claws, &c.

2. The mad wolves. They wear a wolf's skin on their back, with a slit, through which they put the head and arm.

3. The foxes wear fox skins on different parts of their body.

4. The mad dogs carry a schischikué in their hand when they dance.

5. The mad bulls. These are the most distinguished men, and wear, in their dance, the skin of a buffalo's head, with the horns.

6. The soldiers.

Besides these bands, the Arikkaras have, at least, seven different dances.

1. The hot dance, or the black arms.

2. The dance of the bird's egg. They wear, on the forehead, the skin of a screech-owl.

3. The dance of the youngest child. Both the young and the old bands may have this dance, and wear, at the back of the head, a piece of swan's skin, with a crow's feather.

4. The dance of the prairie foxes. They wear a kind of apron of red or blue cloth; behind, {408} the skin of a prairie fox; short leggins, just above the knee; at the back of the head, two crows' tails crossed; and on their leggins, bells, which they make themselves out of tin kettles.

5. The white earth dance. They wear a cap made of ermines' tails, hanging down; at the back of their head, two war eagles' feathers crossed; at the small of the back, a piece of leather like a tail, ornamented with strips of ermine and bells; they carry a large bow-lance, decorated with the feathers of the war eagles. Their robe is trimmed with fox skin and strips of ermine.

6. The dance of the spirits. A large cap of owls' feathers hangs down behind, and goes even round the body. They have a war pipe suspended round the neck, and in their hands the skin of their medicine animal.

7. The dance of the extended robe. If anything is given to them during this dance, they receive it with their guns pointed at the giver. They dress as if they were going to battle, and only the bravest warriors are admitted among them. If any one accepts a present, another, who has performed more exploits, pushes him away, enumerates his own deeds, till another comes and treats him in the same manner, and so on, till, at length, the bravest takes possession of the gift. They imitate in their dance the various attitudes of fighting, and, with one arm, hold their robe before them like a shield, as if to defend themselves. All the wounds they have received are marked on the body with red paint. These bands and dances are bought and sold in the same manner as among the Manitaries, Crows, and Mandans. The purchasers are obliged to offer and give up their wives to the discretion of the fathers, that is, the sellers.

Their games are nearly the same as among the other tribes. The skin of a young white buffalo cow is likewise highly valued by them. They have the same distinctions as the Mandans for their military exploits, and the partisans observe the same ceremonies, only the Arikkara partisan has a head of maize at his breast, which they consider as a great medicine. If they are obliged to retreat they never throw aside their girdle, as the other nations do, however hot the weather may be. It is said that when many Arikkaras are together they do not fight very well, but when there are only a few they show much more bravery. No tribe has killed so many white men as the Arikkaras. The Pawnees formerly tortured their prisoners, till their chief, Petulescharu, as Say relates,[356] abolished the custom,[357] and the Arikkaras likewise renounced it when they separated from the Pawnees.

Their religious ideas and traditions are in general the same as those of the Mandans. They give to the first man a name which is likewise the appellation of the wolf. They formerly reverenced the ark of the first man, but they have given up that custom. Like all the Indians on the Missouri, they have their medicine feasts and all manner of superstitious practices. The Okippe, properly speaking, is not known among them; they torture themselves, however, though {409} not so cruelly as their neighbours. All kinds of animals are considered by them as medicine, and they choose it as the other tribes do. They never fast so long as the Mandans and the Manitaries; at the most for one day. When they would do penance and kill buffaloes, they never load their horses with the flesh of the animals they may have killed, but often bring home a large quantity, on their head and back, from a great distance. He who bears the greatest burden sometimes gives the flesh to a poor old man, who then sings medicine songs for him, in order that he may have much success in hunting and in war, and by such actions he acquires great esteem. The lord of life told the Arikkaras that, if they gave to the poor in this manner, and laid burdens upon themselves, they would be successful in all their undertakings. It is said that they have given up all their former religious traditions except the last. This may, perhaps, be partly ascribed to the influence of the Whites—a conjecture which occurs to unprejudiced persons when they consider the simple mythology of the Mandans. The maize is one of the principal medicines of the Arikkaras, for which they show their reverence in various ways. One of their greatest medicine feasts is that of the bird case, which they have faithfully retained; they esteem this medicine as highly as Christians do the Bible. It is the general rule and law, according to which they govern themselves. This instrument is hung up in the medicine lodge of their villages, and accompanies them wherever they go. It consists of a four-cornered case, made of parchment, six or seven feet long, but narrow, strengthened at the top with a piece of wood. It opens at one end, and seven schischikués of gourds are fixed at the top, ornamented with a tuft of horse-hair dyed red. See the annexed[358] woodcut, designed by Mato-Topé. Inside of the box there are stuffed birds of all such kinds as they can procure; that is to say, only such species as are here in summer. Besides these the box contains a large and very celebrated medicine pipe, which is smoked only on extraordinary occasions and great festivals. If an Arikkara has even killed his brother, and then smoked this pipe, all ill-will towards him must be forgotten. With this singular apparatus a ceremony is performed as soon as the seed is sown and the first gourds are ripe. The blossoms of the gourd are guarded, that no one may injure them; and, as soon as the first fruit is ripe, some distinguished warriors are chosen, who must come to the assembly. Articles of value are presented to them; the first fruit is cut and given them to eat. For this they must take down and open the bird case, on which occasion medicine songs are sung, and the large pipe is smoked. In the summer-time, {410} when the trees are green, they take an evergreen tree, such as a red cedar, peel the trunk, and paint it with blue, red, and white rings, and then plant it before the medicine lodge; the case is taken down, and the ceremony performed. This bird case is of special efficacy in promoting the growth of the maize and other plants; and he who carries this magic case to a great distance, and with considerable exertion, obtains the highest place in the favour of the lord of life. The strongest men among these Indians are said sometimes to carry a whole buffalo, without the head and the intestines, to present it as an offering to the bird case. This offering is considered very meritorious; and, when they have made it four times, it is believed that they will never be in want of buffaloes. At the beginning of the world, the Mandans, it is said, inhabited the village of Ruhptare, together with the Arikkaras. At that time the lord of life came to them in the form of a child, and directed them to celebrate the Okippe every year, like the Mandans, but not their ceremony with the bird case. Quarrels and affrays arose on this subject between the Mandans of Ruhptare and the Arikkaras, during which the lord of life remained among the former. He thought of going to the other party, which he was advised not to do, because they would kill him; to which he answered, "They cannot kill me." He then went to a stream, took out of it a piece of salt, with which he rubbed his whole body, and threw a part of it among the Arikkaras, by which a great many of them were poisoned. The two parties afterwards separated; the Arikkaras retained their bird case, the Mandans the Okippe, as the lord of life had enjoined them. In consequence of this event the Arikkaras were angry with the lord of life, and called him "the prairie wolf."

This bird case is likewise a calendar for the Arikkaras, for they reckon the seven cold months by the seven schischikués, beginning to count by the middle one for the coldest month. On the left hand they reckon three months till the warm weather, which lasts five months, and which they pass over, to begin at the end of the schischikués with the other cold months, proceeding to the centre where the greatest degree of cold recurs. Leaving out the five months of warm weather, May, June, July, August, and September, those which are reckoned by the schischikués are—

1. The month in which the leaves fall; October.

2. The month of the nose of the little serpent; November.

3. The month of the nose of the great serpent; December.

4. The month of the seven cold nights; January.

5. The month which kills or carries off men; February.

6. The month in which the wild geese return; March.

7. The month in which vegetation begins; April.

The Arikkaras practise a number of strange tricks and juggleries. They are remarkably dexterous in sleight-of-hand performances, which they are said to have learned from a celebrated {412} juggler. They institute medicine feasts at which entire comedies are performed. One, for instance, disguised in a bear's skin, with the head and claws, imitates the motions and the voice of the animal so accurately that he cannot be distinguished from a real bear. He is shot; the wound is plainly to be seen, and blood flows; he drops down and dies; the skin is stripped off, and at last the man appears safe and sound. On another occasion, a man's head is cut off with a sabre and carried out. The body remains bleeding, without the head, and this headless trunk dances merrily about. The head is then replaced, but with the face at the back. The man continues to dance, but the head is seen in its right position, and the man who was beheaded dances as if nothing had happened to him. The bleeding wound is rubbed with the hand, it disappears, and all is in order again. Men are shot; the blood flows; the wounds are rubbed, and they come to life again. The Arikkaras perform all these tricks with such consummate address, that the illusion is complete, so that most of the French Canadians believe in the reality of all these wonders. No Arikkara will break a marrow-bone in his hut; this must always be done in the open air; they believe that, if they neglect this precaution, their horses will break their legs in the prairie.

These people have at present a great many enemies. The Mandans, the Manitaries, the Crows, the Sioux, the Blackfeet, the Assiniboins, the Arrapahos, and the Pawnees.

The Arikkaras affirm that God said to them that they were made of earth, and must return to earth; on which account they bury their dead in the ground. Various things are sometimes cast into the graves of eminent men; the corpse is dressed in the best clothes, the face painted red, and sometimes a good horse is killed on the grave. If the deceased has left a son, he receives his father's medicine apparatus; if not, it is buried with him in the grave.

The language of the Arikkaras differs totally from those of the Mandans and Manitaries; there is more harshness in the sound; the guttural ch occurs frequently, and there are very many German terminations, such as natsch, ratsch, ass, oss, uss, &c. &c., which are much harsher than the terminations of the Manitari language. Germans pronounce it easily and correctly. Many words again end with the syllable, hahn, rahn, wahn, pronounced as in German. Their manner of giving names to their children does not differ from that of the Mandans and other Indians of the Missouri, and the western plains at the foot of the Rocky Mountains. They are often harmonious, and are changed on special occasions, such, for instance, as having performed some feat of valour, when arrived at manhood.