86 THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 



wards ; carefully kept above aud rcstiug on the oar, and tlienco falliug down over the 

 back, In ihese flattened bunches, and painted red, extending oftentimes quite onto the 

 calf of the leg, and sometimes in such profusion as ahnost to conceal the whole figure 

 from the person walking behind them. In the portrait of San-ja-ka-ko-kah (the de- 

 ceiving wolf, Plate 54 ; No. 137), where he is represented at full length, with several 

 others of his family around him in a group, there will be seen a fair illustration of these 

 and other customs of these people. 



The hair of the women is also worn as long as they can possibly cultivate it, oiled 

 very often, which preserves on it a beautiful gloss and shows its natural color. They 

 often braid it in two large plaits, one falling down just back of the ear, on each side 

 of the head; and on any occasion which requires them to "put on their best looks," 

 they pass their fingers through it, drawing it out of braid, and si^reading it over their 

 shoulders. The Mandan women observe strictly the same custom, which I observed 

 amongst the Crows and Blackfeet (and, in fact, all other tribes I have seen, without 

 a single exception), of parting the hair on the forehead, and always keeping the crease 

 or separation filled with vermilion or other red paint. This is one of the very few 

 little (and apparently trivial) customs which I have found amongst the Indians with- 

 out being able to assign any cause for it, other than that "they are Indians," and 

 that this is an Indian fashion. 



In mourning, like the Crows and most other tribes, the women are obliged to crop 

 their hair all off; and the usual term of that condolence is until the hair has grown 

 again to its former length. 



When a man mourns for the death of a near relation the case is quite different ; his 

 long, valued tresses, are of much greater importance, and only a lock or two can be 

 spared. Just enough to tell of his grief to his friends, without destroying his most 

 valued ornament, is doing just reverence and respect to the dead. 



To repeat what I have said before, the Mandans are a pleasing and friendly race of 

 people, of whom it is proverbial amongst the traders and ail who ever have known 

 them, that their treatment of white men in their country has been friendly and kind 

 ever since their first acquaintance with them. They have ever met aud received them, 

 on the prairie or in their villages, with hospitality and honor. 



They are handsome, straight, and elegant in their forms ; not tall, but quick aud 

 graceful ; easy and polite in their manners, neat in their persons aud beautifully clad. 

 When I say "neat in person and beautifully clad," however, I do not intend my 

 readers to understand that such is the case with them all, for among them and most 

 other tribes, as with the enlightened world, there are different grades of society — 

 those who care but little for their personal apiiearance, aud those who take great 

 pains to please themselves and their friends. Amongst this class of personages, such 

 as chiefs and braves, or warriors of distinction and tl\eir families, and dandies or ex- 

 quisites (a class of beings of whom I shall take due time to speak in a future letter), 

 the strictest regard to decency and cleanliness and elegance of dress is observed; and 

 there are few people, perhaps, who take more pains to keep their persons neat and 

 cleanly than they do. 



At the distance of lialf a mile or so above the village is the customary place where 

 the women and girls resort every morning in the suramer months to bathe in the 

 river. To this spot they repair by hundreds, every morning at sunrise, where, on a 

 beautiful beach, they can be seen running and glistening in the sun, whilst they £ire 

 playing their innocent gambols and leaping into the stream. They all learn to swim 

 well, and the poorest swimmer amongst them will dash fearlessly into the boiling and 

 eddying current of the Missouri, and cross it with perfect ease. At the distance of a 

 quarter of a mile back from the river extends a terrace or elevated prairie, running 

 north from the village, and forming a kind of semicircle around this bathing-place, 

 and on this terrace, which is some twenty or thirty feet higher than the meadow be- 

 tween it and the river, are stationed every morning several sentinels, with their bows 

 and arrows in hand to guard and protect this sacred ground from the approach of 

 boys or of men from any direction. 



