354 THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 



ENTEANCE OF THE FIUST OR ONLY MAN. 



During this deafeuing din and confusion within the piquets of the village of the 

 Mandans, the figure discovered on the prairie continued to approach with a dignified 

 step and in a right line towards the village ; all eyes were upon him, and he at length 

 made his appearance, without opposition, within the piquets, and iirocecded towards 

 the center of the village, where all the chiefs and braves stood ready to receive him, 

 which they did in a cordial manner, by shaking hands with hin:, recognizing him as 

 an old acquaintance, and pronouncing his name Nu-mohJc-nuick-a-nali (the first or only 

 man). 



HIS DRESS. 



The body of this strange personage, which was chiefly naked, was painted with 

 white clay, so as to resemble at a little distance a white man ; he wore a robe of four 

 white wolf sliins falling back over his shoulders ; on his head he had a splendid head- 

 dress made of two ravens' skins, and in his left hand he cautiously carried a large 

 pipe, which he seemed to watch and guard as something of great importance. 



HIS DUTIES. 



After passing the chiefs and braves, as described, he aijproached the medicine or 

 mystery lodge, which he had the means of opening, and which had been religiously 

 closed during the year except for the performance of these religious rites. 



Having opened and entered it, he called in four men, whom he appointed to clean 

 it out and put in readiness for the ceremony by sweeping it and strewing a j)rofusion 

 of green willow-boughs over its floor, and with them decorating its sides. Wild sage 

 also, and many other aromatic herbs they gathered from the prairies and scattered 

 over its floor; and over these were arranged a curious group of buffalo and human 

 skulls and other articles, which were to be used during this strange and' unaccounta- 

 ble transaction. 



During the whole of this day, and while these preparations were making in the 

 medicine-lodge, Nu-molilc-muclc-a-nali (the first or only man) traveled through the vil- 

 lage, stopping in front of every man's lodge and crying until the owner of the lodge 

 came out and asked who he was and what was the matter, to which he replied by re- 

 lating the sad catastroiihe which had happened on the earth's surface by the over- 

 flowing of the waters, saying that "he was the only person saved from the universal 

 calamity ; that he landed his big canoe on a high mountain in the west, where he now 

 resides; that he had to come to open the medicine-lodge, which must needs receive 

 a present of some edged tool from the owner of every wigwam, that it may be sacri- 

 ficed to the water": "for," he says, "if this is not done there will be another flood, 

 and no one will be saved, as it was with such tools that the big canoe was made." 



Having visited every -lodge or wigwam in the village during the day, and having 

 received such a present at each, as a hatchet, a knife, &.c. (which is, undoubtedly, al- 

 ways prepared and ready for the occasion), he returned at evening and deposited 

 them in the medicine-lodge, where they remained until the afternoon of the last day 

 of the ceremony, when, as the final or closing scene, they were thrown into the river 

 in a deep place from a bank 30 feet high, and in presence of the whole village, from 

 whence they can never be recovered, and where they were, undoubtedly, sacrificed to 

 the Spirit of the "Water. 



MYSTERY AS TO HIS ABODE. ' 



During the first night of this strange character in the village, no one could tell 

 where he slept ; and every person, both old and young, and dogs, and, all living 

 things, were ke]5t within doors, and dead silence reigned everywhere. 



CANDIDATES FOR TORTURE ENTER THE MEDICINE-LODGE THE SECOND DAY. 



On the next morning at sunrise, however, he made his appearance again, and en- 

 tered the mediciue-lodge ; and at Ms heels (in Indian file, i. e., single file, one follow- 



