466 



THE GEOKGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY 



a striking similarity, and quite sufficient to excite surprise in the minds of the atten- 

 tive reader, if it could be proved that those resemblances were but the results of 

 accident between two foreign and distinct idioms : 



English. 



Mandan. 



Welsh. 



Pronounced. 



I. 



Me. 



Mi. 



Me. 



You. 



Ne. 



Chwi. 



Chwe. 



He. 



E. 



A. 



A. 



She. 



Ea. 



E. 



A. 



ft. 



Ount. 



Hwynt. 



Hooynt. 



We. 



Noo. 



Ni. 



Ne. 



They. 



Eonah. ) 



Hwna, mas. 

 Hona, fern. 



Hoona. 

 Hona. 



Those ones. 





Yrhai Hyna. 





No, or there is not. 



Megoyh. 



Nagoes. 

 Nage. 



Nagosh. 



No. 



] 



Nag. 



Na. 





Head. 



Pan. 



Pen. 



Pan 



The Great Spirit. 



Maho peneta. 



Mawr penaethir.* 



Maoor pan aether. 







Ysprid niawr.t 



Uspryd maoor. 



To act as a great chief, bead or principal, sovereign or supremo. 



With the Minatarees. 



t The Great Spirit. 



After witnessing tiie Mandan religious ceremonies, Mr. Catlin (see 

 data following) went to the village of the Minatarees (Gros Ventres), 8 

 miles above the upper Mandan village, on the west bank of the Mis- 

 souri, at or near the mouth of Knife River (now a station on the North- 

 ern Pacific Railroad). Here he remained several days. 



The series of portraits from No. 171 to No. 175, and the scenes Nos. 3S'd 

 409, and No. 446 were the results of this visit. 



He writes of these Indians : 



On my way down the river in my canoe, from Fort Union to 'upper Mandan village, 

 I passed this village without attending to their earnest and clamorous invitations for 

 me to come ashore, and it will thus he seen that I am retrograding a little to see all 

 that is to he seen in this singular country. 



The principal village of the Minatarees (there were three clustered together), whieh 

 is huilt upon the hank of the Knife River, contains forty or fifty earth-covered wig- 

 wams, from 40 to 50 feet in diameter, and, heiug elevated, overlooks the other two, 

 which are on lower ground and almost lost amidst their numerous corn-fields and other 

 profuse vegetation which cover the earth with their luxuriant growth. 



The scenery along the hanks of this little river, from village to village, is quite pe- 

 culiar and curious, rendered extremely so hy the continual wild and garrulous groups 

 of men, women, and children who are wending their way along its winding shores, or 

 dashing and plunging through its hlue waves, enjoying the luxury of swimming, of 

 which hoth sexes seem to he passionately fond. Others are paddling ahout in their 

 tuhlike canoes, made of the skins of buflaloes ; and every now and then are to he seeu 

 their sudatories, or vapor baths, where steam is raised hy throwing water on to heated 

 stories, and the patient jumps from his sweating horse and leaps into the river, in the 

 highest state of perspiration — as I have more fully described whilst speaking of the 

 bathing of the Mandans [page 186, vol. 1, Catlin's Eight Years]. 



Mr. Catlin painted a visiting band of Crows in this village. (See Nos. 

 162-170, and Plates 70, 77, Vol. 1, Catlin's Eight Years.) 



