THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 311 



tion for the chase — a grand hunt takes place. The choicest pieces of the victims are 

 sacrificed to the Great Spirit, and then a surfeit and a carouse. 



These dances have sometimes been continued in this village two or three weeks 

 without stopping an instant, until the joyful moment when buffaloes made their ap- 

 pearance. So they never fail ; and they think they have been the means of bringing 

 them in. 



Every man in the Man dan village (as I have before said) is obliged by a village 

 regulation to keep the mask of the buffalo hanging on a post at the head of his bed, 

 which he can use on his head whenever he is called upon by the chiefs to dance for 

 the coming of buffaloes. The mask is put over the head, and generally has a strip of 

 the skin hanging to it, of the whole length of the animal, with the tail attached 

 to it, which, passing down over the back of the dancer, is dragged on the ground. 

 "When one becomes fatigued of the exercise, he signifies it by bending quite forward, 

 and sinking his body towards the ground; when another draws a bow upon him 

 and hits him with a blunt arrow, and he falls like a buffalo — is seized by the by- 

 standers, who drag him out of the ring by the heels, brandishing their knives about 

 him ; and having gone through the motions of skinning and cutting him up, they let 

 him off, and his place is at once supplied by another, who dances into the ring with 

 his mask on ; and by this taking of places, the scene is easily kept up night and day, 

 until the desired effect has been produced, that of " making buffalo come." 



The day before yesterday however, readers, which, though it commenced in joy 

 and thanksgiving to the Great Spirit for the signal success which had attended their 

 several days of dancing and supplication, ended in a calamity which threw the vil- 

 lage of the Mandans into mourning and repentant tears, and that at a time of scarcity 

 and great distress. The signal was given into the village on that, morning from the 

 top of a distant bluff, that a band of buffaloes were in sight, though at a considerable 

 distance off, and every heart beat with joy, and every eye watered and glistened with 

 gladness. 



The dance had lasted some three or four days, and now, instead of the doleful tap of 

 the drum and the begging chants of the dancers, the stamping of horses was heard 

 as they were led and galloped through the village — young men were throwing off 

 their robes and their shirts, were seen snatching a handful of arrows from their 

 quivers, and stringing their sinewy bows, glancing their eyes and their smiles at 

 their sweethearts, and mounting their ponies. * * * A few minutes there had 

 been of bustle and boasting, whilst bows were twanging and spears were polishing 

 by running their blades into the ground — every face and every eye was filled with 

 joy and gladness — horses were pawing and snuffing in fury for the onset, when 

 Louison Frenie", an interpreter of the fur company, galloped through the village with 

 his rifle in his hand and his powder-horn at his side ; his head and waist were band- 

 aged with handkerchiefs, and his shirt sleeves rolled up to his shoulders — the hunter's 

 yell issued from his lips and was repeated through the villager ; he flew to the bluffs, 

 and behind him and over the graceful swells of the prairie, galloped the emulous 

 youths, whose hearts were beating high and quick for the onset. 



In the village, where hunger had reigned, and starvation was almost ready to look 

 them in the face, all was instantly turned to joy and gladness. The chiefs and doc- 

 tors who had been for some days dealing out minimum rations to the community 

 from the public crib, now spread before their subjects the contents of their own pri- 

 vate caches, and the last of every thing that could be mustered, that they might eat 

 a thanksgiving to the Great Spirit for his goodness in sending them a supply of buf- 

 falo meat. A general carouse of banqueting ensued, which occupied the greater part 

 of the day, and their hidden stores, which might have fed an emergency for several 

 weeks, were pretty nearly used up on the occasion — bones were half-picked, and 

 dishes half emptied and then handed to the dogs. I was not forgotten, neither, in 

 the general surfeit; several large and generous wooden bowls of pemican, and other 

 palatable food were sent to my painting-room, and I received them in this time of 

 scarcity with great pleasure. 



