352 THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 



If, from their superstitions and their ignorance, there are oftentimes obscurities 

 and mysteries thrown over and around their system, yet these affect not the theory 

 itself, which is everywhere essentially the same, and which, if it be not correct, has 

 this much to command the admiration of the enlightened world, that they worship 

 with great sincerity, and all according to one creed. 



MANDAN RELIGIOUS BELIEF. 



The Mandans believe in the existence of a Great (or Good) Spirit, and also of an 

 Evil Spirit, who they say existed long before the Good Spirit, and is far superior in 

 power. They all believe also in a future state of existence and a future administra- 

 tion of rewards and punishments, and (so do all other tribes that I have yet visited) 

 they believe those punishments are not eternal, but commensurate with their sins. 



These people living in a climate where they suffer from cold in the severity of their 

 winters have very naturally reversed our ideas of heaven and hell. The latter they 

 describe to be a country very far to the north, of barren and hideous aspect, and 

 covered with eternal snows and ice. The torments of this freezing place they de- 

 scribe as most excruciating; whilst heaven they suppose to be in a warmer and de- 

 lightful latitude, where nothing is felt but the keenest enjoyment, and where the 

 country abounds in buffaloes and other luxuries of life. The Great or Good Spirit 

 they believe dwells in the former place for the purpose of there meeting those who 

 have offended him, increasing the agony of their sufferings by being himself present, 

 administering the penalties. The Bad or Evil Spirit they at the same time suppose 

 to reside in paradise, still tempting the happy ; and those who have gone to the rer 

 gions of punishment they believe to be tortured for a time proportioned to the 

 amount of their transgressions, and that they are then to be transferred to the land 

 of the happy, where they are again liable to the temptations of the Evil Spirit, and 

 answerable again at a future period for their new offenses. 



OBJECTS OF MANDAN RELIGIOUS CEREMONIES. 



Such is the religious creed of the Mandans, and for the purpose of appeasing the 

 Good and Evil Spirits, and to secure their entrance into those fields Elysian, or beau- 

 tiful hunting grounds, do the young men subject themselves to the horrid and sick- 

 ening cruelties to be described in the following pages. 



There are other three distinct objects for which these religions ceremonies are held, 

 which are as follows : 



First, they are held annually as a celebration of the event of the subsiding of the 

 flood, which they call Alee-nee-ro-Tca-lia-sM (sinking down or settling of the waters). 



Secondly, for the purpose of dancing what they call Bel-lohck-na-pic (the bull-dance) ; 

 to the strict observance of which they attribute the coming of buffalos to supply 

 them with food the coming season. 



Thirdly, and lastly, for the purpose of conducting all the young men of the tribe, 

 as they annually arrive to the age of manhood, through an ordeal of privation and 

 torture, which, while it is supposed to harden their muscles and prepare them for ex- 

 treme endurance, enables the chiefs who are spectators to the scene, to decide upon 

 their comparative bodily strength and ability to endure the extreme privations and 

 sufferings that often fall to the lots of Indian warriors ; and that they may decide 

 who is the most hardy and best able to lead a war-party in case of extreme exigency. 



This part of the ceremony, as I have just witnessed it, is truly shocking to behold, 

 and will almost stagger the belief of the world when they read of it. The scene is 

 too terrible and too revolting to be seen or to be told, were it not an essential part of 

 a whole, which will be new to the civilized world, and therefore worth their know- 

 ing. 



The bull-dance (see No. 505), and many other parts of these ceremonies are exceed- 

 ingly grotesque and amusing, and that part of them which has a relation to the del- 

 uge is harmless and full of interest. 



