THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 449 



acting iui jidequate price from a purchaser wlioni they consider possessed of so largo 

 and so ricli a stoclc of the world's goods, and who they deem abundantly able to pay 

 liberally for so delightful a commodity. 



Almost every trader and every clerk who commences in the business of this country 

 speedily enters into such an arrangement, which is done with as little ceremony as he 

 would bargain for a horse, and just as unceremoniously do they annul and abolish 

 this connection when they wish to leave the country or change their positions from 

 one tribe to another, at whicn time the woman is left a fair and i)roper candidate for 

 matrimony or speculation when another applicant comes along, and her father equally 

 desirous for another horse or gun, &c., which he can easily command at her second 

 espousal. — Pages 119, 120, 128, vol. 1, Catlin's Eight Years. 



MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE MANDANS, 1832. 



The Mandans, like all other tribes, lead lives of idleness and leisure, and, of 

 course, devote a great deal of time to their sports and amusements, of which they 

 have a great variety. Of these, dancing is one of the principal, and maybe seen in 

 a variety of forms, such as the buffalo dance, the boasting dance, the begging dance, 

 the scalp dance, and a dozen other kinds of dances, all of which have their peculiar 

 characters and meanings or objects. 



These exercises are exceedingly grotesque in their appearance, and to the eye of a 

 traveler, who knows not their meaning or importance, they are an uncouth and 

 frightful display of starts, and jumps, and yelps, and jarring gutterals, which, are 

 sometimes truly terrifying. 



(For a view of the lower or principal Mandan village, see Nos. 502, 

 392, and 379. For the interior of a Mandan lodge or house, see No. 503.) 



Feasting and fasting are important customs observed by the Mandans, as well as 

 by most other tribes, at stated times and for particular purposes. These observances 

 are strictly religious and rigidly observed. There are many of these forms practiced 

 amongst the Mandans, some of which are exceedingly interesting, and important also, 

 in forming a correct estimate of the Indian character, and I shall at a future period 

 take particular pains to lay them before my readers. 



Sacrificing is also a religious custom, with these peoj)le, and is performed in many 

 different modes and on numerous occasions. Of this custom I shall also speak more 

 fully hereafter, merely noticing at present some few of the hundred modes in which 

 these offerings are made to the Good and ]']vil Spirits. Human sacrifices have never 

 been made by the Mandans, nor hj any ni the Northwestern tribes (so far as I can 

 learn), excepting the Pawnees of the Platte, who have, undoubtedly, observed such 

 an inhuman practice in former times, though they have relinquished it of late. The 

 Mandans sacrifice their fingers to the Great Spirit, and of their worldly goods the 

 best and the most costly ; if a horse or a dog, it must bo the favorite one ; if it is an 

 arrow from their quiver, they will select the most perfect one as the most effective 

 gift ; if it is meat, it is the choicest piece cut from the buffalo or other animal ; if it 

 is anything from the stores of the traders, it is the most costly — it is blue or scarlet 

 cloth, which costs them in this country an enormous price, and is chiefly used for the 

 pnrpose of hanging over their wigwams to decay, or to cover the scaffolds where rest 

 the bones of their departed relations. [See Nos. 503-506.] 



Of these kinds of sacrifices there are three of an interesting nature, erected over 

 the great medicine-lodgo in tho center of the village. They consist of ten or fifteen 

 yards of blue and black cloth each, purchased from the Fur Company at fifteen or 

 twenty dollars per yard, which an* folded up so as to resemble human figures, with 

 quills in their heads and masks on their faces. These singular-looking figures, like 

 ^'scare-crows^' (Plate 47, No. 507), are erected on poles, about thirty feet high, over 

 tho door of the mystery-lodge, and there are left to decay. There hangs now by tho 

 Bide of them .inother, which was added to tlu* nuinl)er a few days since, of tho skin of 

 a white buffalo, which will remain there until it decays and falls to pieces. 

 G744 29 



