274 Expedition to the 



appointed time for lamentation and prayer has elapsed, he 

 returns to the rock; his presents are no longer there, and he 

 believes them to have been accepted, and carried off, by the 

 Manhopa himself. Upon the part of the rock, which he had 

 washed, he finds certain hieroglyphics traced with white clay, 

 of which he can generally interpret the meaning, particular- 

 ly when assisted by some of the magi, who were no doubt 

 privy to the whole transaction. These representations are 

 supposed to relate to his future fortune, or to that of his fa- 

 mily or nation; he copies them off, with pious care and scru- 

 pulous exactness, upon the skin which he brought for the pur- 

 pose, and returns to his home, to read from them to the peo- 

 ple, the destiny of himself or of them. If a bear be represent- 

 ed, with its head directed towards the village, the approach 

 of a war party, or the visitation of some evil, is apprehended. 

 If, on the contrary, the tail of the bear be towards the village, 

 nothing hut good is anticipated, and they rejoice. They say 

 that an Indian, on his return from the rock, exhibited to his 

 friends, on his hieroglyphical chart, the representation of a 

 strange building, as erected near the village; they were all 

 much surprised and did not perfectly comprehend its mean- 

 ing; but four months afterward, the prediction was, as it 

 happened, verified, and a stockade trading house was erected 

 there, bv the French trader Jessaume. 



Lewis and Clark inform us that the Mandans have a si- 

 milar oracle. 



At the distance of the journey of one day and a half from 

 Knife creek, which divides the larger and smaller towns of 

 the Minnetarees from each other, are situate two conical 

 hills, separated by about the distance of a mile. One of these 

 hills, was supposed to impart a prolific virtue, to such squaws 

 as resorted to it for the purpose of crying and lamenting, for 

 the circumstance of their having no male issue. 



A person one day walking near the other mount, fancied 

 he observed upon the top of it, two very small children. 



