350 THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY: 



robes, witli their heads decked and plumed with, quills of the war eagle ; extendiL g 

 their long arms to the east or the west, the scenes of their battles, which they are 

 recounting over to each other. In another direction, the wooing lover, softening the 

 heart of his fair Taih-nah-tai-a with the notes of his simple lute. On other lodges, 

 and beyond these, groups are engaged in games of the " moccasin," or the "platter." 

 Some are to be seen manufacturing robes and dresses, and others, fatigued with ainuse- 

 ments or occupations, have stretched their limbs to enjoy the luxury of sleep, whilst 

 basking in the sun. With all this wild and varied medley of living beings are mixed 

 their dogs, which seem to bo so near an Indian's heart as almost to constitute a ma- 

 terial link of his existence. 



In the center of the village is an open space or j)ublic area of one hundred and fifty 

 feet in diameter and circular in form, which is used for all public games and festivals, 

 shows, and exhibitions; and also for their ''annual religious ceremonies," which are 

 soon to take place, and of which I shall hereafter give some account. The lodges 

 around this open space front in with their doors towards the center, and in the mid- 

 dle of this circle stands an object of great religious veneration, as I am told, on ac- 

 couut of the importance it has in the conduction of those annual religious rites. 



This object is in form of a large hogshead, some eight or ten feet high, made of 

 planks and hoops, containing within it some of their choicest medicines or mysteries, 

 and religiously preserved unbacked or scratched as a symbol of the Big Canoe as they 

 call it. 



One of the lodges fronting on this circular area and facing this strange object of 

 their superstition, is called the medicine lodge, or council house. It is in this sacred 

 building that these wonderful ceremonies, in commemoration of the flood, take place. 

 I am told by the traders that the cruelties of these scenes are frightful and abhorrent 

 iu the extreme ; and that this huge wigwam, which is now closed, has been' built ex- 

 clusively for this grand celebration. I am every day reminded of the near approach 

 of the season for this strange aifair, and as I have not yet seen any thing of it, I can- 

 not describe it ; I know it only from the relations of the traders who have witnessed 

 parts of it; and their descriptions are of so extraordinary a character, that I would 

 not be willing to describe until I can see for myself, which will, in all probability, be 

 in a few days. 



In ranging the eye over the village from where I am writing, there is presented to 

 the view the strangest mixture and medley of unintelligible trash (independent of 

 the living beings that are motion), that can possibly be imagined. On the roofs of 

 the lodges, besides the groups of living, are buffaloes' skulls, skin canoes, pots and 

 pottery, sleds, and sledges, and suspended on poles, erected some twenty feet above 

 the doors of their wigwams, are displayed in a pleasant day, the scalps of warriors 

 preserved as trophies, and thus proudly exposed as evidence of their warlike deeds. 

 In other parts are raised on poles the warriors' pure and whitened shields and quivers, 

 with medicine-bags attached, and here and there a sacrifice of red cloth, or other 

 costly stuff, ofl:ered up to the Great Spirit, over the door of some benignant chief, in 

 humble gratitude for the blessings which he is enjoying. Such is a part of the 

 strange medley that is before and around me, and amidst them and the blue streams 

 of smoke that are rising from the tops of these hundred " coal-pits," can be seen in 

 distance, the green and boundless, treeless, bushless prairie, and on it, and contigu- 

 ous to the piquet which incloses the village, a hundred scaffolds on which their "dead 

 live," as they term it. — G. C. 



MANDAJSr RELIGIOUS CEREMONIES. 



Pictures Nos. 504, 505, 506, 507. 



The annual religious ceremony of four days, of which I have so often spoken, and 

 which I have so long been wishing to see, has at last been enacted in this village; 



* From letter 32, written from Mandan Village, Upper Missouri, July lC-20, 1832. 



