606 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1890. 



closing sentence, which, reads as follows: "The scenes described by Mr. 

 Catlin existed almost entirely in the fertile imagination of that gentle- 

 man." Thus by a pebble from the sling of a pigmy was our giant of 

 ethnography felled. And doubts are still cast on this work, although 

 witnesses abound who testify to its verity. Catlin took pains to secure 

 the certificates of Mr. Kipp and his assistants, and he published these 

 certificates. The year following Catlin's visit, the Prince of Wied so- 

 journed a whole winter among the Mandans, and, through interpreters, 

 obtained accounts of the ceremonies, corroborating those of Catlin. 

 All this was on record before Schoolcraft's day, but was not sufficient 

 to stay the publication of the quoted calumny. Siuce then (in 1860), 

 twenty-eight years after Catlin wrote, and twenty-two years after the 

 Mandans were supposed by Catlin to have been exterminated, Lieut. 

 H. E. Maynadier, of our Army, witnessed a part of the Okeepa and de- 

 scribes it much as Catlin did. But there is still another and a later 

 witness and this witness has the honor of addressing you this evening. 

 The portion of the ceremony which I saw and am prepared to testify 

 to will presently be illustrated. 



The picture which is now before us (PI. cxlvii) shows the inside of 

 the medicine lodge as it appeared during the first three days aud part of 

 the fourth day of the ceremony. The young candidates for warrior- 

 hood are seen reclining around the edge of the apartment. Above 

 each man's head are his shield and weapons and the walls are decorated 

 with fascicles of green willows. On a light frame, toward the back of 

 the lodge, is seen a sacred object, the holy of holies of this lodge, whose 

 appearance and nature Catlin was unable to discover. Under the 

 frame are the knife and skewers to be used in the cruel maimer de- 

 scribed later. In the center of the foreground is the circular fireplace; 

 on either side of the latter are the ancient turtle-shaped drums filled 

 with water, so say the shamans, from the four quarters of the world. 

 Behind the fireplace, the master of the lodge with upraised hand in- 

 vokes the mysterious powers. These young candidates are preparing 

 themselves by fasting aud praying for the appalling tortures they are 

 about to undergo. For four days and three nights they neither eat nor 

 drink. There are a goodly number of these candidates, the annual crop 

 of young men in those, the halcyon days of the tribe. 



In this picture (PI. cxlviii) we see the plaza or central assembly place 

 of the old Mandan village of Metutahankush as it appeared in 18313. 

 This village stood near the site of the present town of Mandan, 

 North Dakota. To the left we see the medicine lodge, with four poles 

 in front surrounded by sacred effigies aud, in the center of the square, 

 a cylindrical wooden structure, resembling a hogshead, which was 

 emblematic of the ark in which the Mandan counterpart of JSToah was 

 saved from the flood. Forty years after Catlin's time, when the rem- 

 nant of the Mandans had established themselves in a new village sixty 

 miles from the old one and resumed their tribal ceremonies, they built 



