136 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY . [ BULL, 77 
(Op. cit., pp. 425-426.) <A plan of the lodge is given on page 426, 
here reproduced as figure 8. 
The “great medicine feast” was to begin the evening of their 
arrival at the winter village and to last 40 nights. That evening 
“after seven o’clock we repaired to the medicine lodge; it was en- 
tirely cleared, except that some women sat along the walls; the fire — 
burned in the centre, before which we took our seats, near the parti- 
tion d d, with several distinguished men of the band of soldiers. At 
our left hand, the other soldiers, about twenty-five in number, were 
seated in a row; some of them were handsomely dressed, though the 
majority were in plain clothes. They had their arms in their hands, 
and in the centre were three men who beat the drum.” (Op. cit., pp. 
426-427.) The lengthy detailed account of what followed during 
the course of the “ feast” is most interesting, but will not be men- 
tioned in this sketch. 
As among the many neighboring tribes of the Missouri Valley, 
the buffalo served as the principal source of food for the Mandan. 
Often sufficient meat could be secured very near the towns; again it 
would be necessary to undertake long journeys in search of the mov- 
ing herds. It will be recalled that on January 13, 1805, when the 
mercury stood 34° below zero, Lewis and Clark saw “ nearly one half 
of the Mandan nation” pass down the frozen Missouri on a hunt to 
last several days. And a few years later, just at the beginning of 
summer, June 25, 1811, Brackenridge wrote: “At ten, passed an old 
Mandan village; and at some distance above, saw a great number of 
Mandan Indians on their march along the prairie. They sometimes 
go on hunting parties by whole villages, which is the case at present ; 
they are about five hundred in number, some on horseback, some on 
foot, their tents and baggage drawn by dogs. On these great hunt- 
ing parties, the women are employed in preserving the hides, drying 
the meat, and making a provision to keep. Very little of the buffalo 
is lost, for after taking the marrow, they pound the bones, boil them, 
and preserve the oil.” (Brackenridge, (1), p. 260.) On such trips 
away from their permanent earth-lodge villages the Mandan made 
use of the skin-covered tipi. 
In addition to the food supplied by the chase the people of the 
permanent villages had large gardens in which they raised quanti- 
ties of corn and beans of various sorts, gourds and sunflowers of 
several varieties, and of the seeds of the latter “ very nice cakes are 
made.” Many animals in addition to the buffalo, and various plants 
besides those cultivated in the gardens, served the Mandan for food. 
At the time of Catlin’s and Maximilian’s visits to the Mandan 
the latter were making and using their primitive forms of utensils 
such as had been in use for generations, Wooden mortars, bowls 
