Rocky Mountains. 273 



that a Frenchman, who was also trading in the village, had 

 informed them, that the Big-knives had killed a son of the 

 Master of Life; that they had seen him riding on a white 

 horse in a forest country, and being of a sanguinary disposi- 

 tion, they had waylaid and shot him. And it was certainly 

 owing to this act that the earth was now trembling before the 

 anger of the great Wahconda. They believed the story im- 

 plicitly, and it was with no little difficulty, that the trader 

 divested his own nation of the singular crimination.* 



As connected with the superstitions of the Missouri In- 

 dians, we may mention some anecdotes that came to our 

 knowledge. First, of the Me-ma-ho-pa or medicine stone of 

 the Gros ventres or Minnetarees. This is a large, naked, and 

 insulated rock, situate in the midst of a small prairie, at the 

 distance of about two days' journey, southwest of the village 

 of that nation. In shape it resembles the steep roof of a house. 

 The Minnetarees resort to it, for the purpose of propitiating 

 their Man-ho-pa or Great Spirit, by presents, by fasting, and 

 lamentation, during the space of from three to five days. 



An individual, who intends to perform this ceremony, takes 

 some presents with him, such as a gun, horse, or strouding, 

 and also provides a smooth skin, upon which hieroglyphics 

 may be drawn, and repairs to the rock accompanied by his 

 friends and magi. On his arrival, he deposits the presents 

 there, and after smoking to the rock, he washes a portion of 

 the face of it clean, and retires with his fellow devotees to a 

 specified distance. During the principal part of his stay, he 

 cries aloud to his God, to have pity on him, to grant him 

 success in war and in hunting, to favour his endeavours to 

 take prisoners, horses and scalps from the enemy. When the 



* Many individuals attach small bags, of the size of the end of the 

 thumb, to various parts of their dress, as talismanic preventives of person- 

 al injury. The custom of sacrificing- their clothes to the medicine is un- 

 known to the Omawhaws, but it is practised with the Upsaroka and some 

 other nations. 



VOL. I. 35 



