and sufferings that fall to the lot of Indian warriors.

This

part of the ceremony is too shocking and revolting to be described to civilized ears.

The season of these ceremonies is fixed at the time when the willow is in full leaf; a reference to their traditional history of the flood, which, it is very evident from this and other features of the grand ceremony, they have in some way or other received, and are endeavoring to perpetuate, by vividly impressing it on the minds of the whole nation. This is not surprising, as in the vicinity of almost every Indian tribe there is some high mountain where they insist upon it the "big canoe" landed; but that these people should hold an annual celebration of the event, and the season should be decided by such circumstances as the full leaf of the willow, is truly remarkable. Their tradition is that "the twig that the bird brought home was a willow bough, and had full-grown leaves on it," and the bird to which they allude is the turtle dove, which is not to be destroyed or harmed by any one, and even their dogs are trained not to do it injury.

It would seem from these traditions that these people must have had some proximity to some part of the civilized world; or that missionaries or others have been formerly among them, inculcating the Christian religion and the Mosaic account of the flood, which is, in this and some other respects, decidedly different from the theory which most of the aborigines have regarding that event. This vague resemblance, how

ever, to the Mosaic account of the deluge, seems to be the only token that has been observed of any knowledge of any of the Christian Scriptures. Now, Madoc and his colony were men trained in the Christianity of their day, and took with them, doubtless, Christian ministers, and the symbols of the Christian faith. *

These accounts are mostly digested from Mr. Catlin's narrative. In the summer of 1838, however, after his visit there, while besieged by Sioux war-parties, the Mandan village was ravaged by small pox, and almost the whole population swept away. The fragment now existing is but a wreck in numbers and in spirit. They retain their old characteristics, however, as may be seen by the expression which we have quoted above from Mr. Vaughn's report of last

*Mr. Southey's remarks, in the preface to his poem, are in these words: "Madoc abandoned his barbarous country, and sailed away to the west, in search of some better resting-place. The land which he discovered pleased him he left there part of his people, and went back to Wales for a fresh supply of adventurers, with whom he again set sail, and was heard of no more. Strong evidence has been adduced that he reached America, and that his posterity exist there to this day, on the southern branches of the Missouri, retaining their complexion, their language, and, in some degree, their arts." This was written in 1805; but, in 1815, he added this note: "That country has now been fully explored, and, wherever Madoc may have settled, it is now certain that no Welsh Indians are to be found upon any branches of the Missouri."

The most plausible ground, perhaps, for an enthusiast in the Welsh origin of the Mandans to take, would be that they are the representatives, not of Madoc's large colony, but of the small party he left in possession after his first voyage. A Welsh colony of ten ships, fitted for settlement, would have left some sign, had they ever landed: a handful of seamen would be more easily absorbed.

year. They and the Arickarees and Gros-Ventres, who plant the soil, do not all together number more than two thousand two hundred and fifty souls.

South of the settlements of this unfortunate tribe, and ranging all along the Missouri river north of the Platte, are the Dahcotah or Sioux tribes. The names of the leading divisions have been given above. It must be understood, however, that these several bands unite under no central government, and acknowledge no common head. We copy Mr. Parkman's well-digested account of them, reminding the reader that this gentleman spent several weeks in the Ogillalah lodges.

They do not unite," he says, "even in their wars. The bands of the east fight the Ojibwas on the upper lakes; those of the north make incessant war upon the Snake Indians in the Rocky Mountains. As the whole people is divided into bands, so each band is divided into villages. Each village has a chief, who is honored and obeyed only so far as his personal qualities may command respect and fear. Sometimes he is a mere nominal chief; sometimes his authority is little short of absolute, and his fame and influence reach even beyond his own village; so that the whole band to which he belongs is ready to acknowledge him as their head. This was, a few years since, the case with the Ogillalah. Courage, address and enter

prise may raise any warrior to the highest honor, especially if he be the son of a former chief, or a member of a numer

THE DAHCOTAH OR SIOUX.

45

ous family, who will support him and avenge his quarrels. But, when he has reached the dignity of chief, and the old men and warriors, by a peculiar ceremony, have formally installed him, let it not be imagined that he assumes any of the outward semblances of rank and honor. He knows too well on how frail a tenure he holds his station. He must conciliate his uncertain subjects. Many a man in the village lives better, owns more squaws and more horses, and goes better clad than he. Like the Teutonic chiefs of old, he ingratiates himself with his young men by making them presents, thereby often impoverishing himself. Does he fail in gaining their favor, they will set his authority at naught, and may desert him at any moment; for the usages of his people have provided no sanctions by which he may enforce his authority. Very seldom does it happen, at least among these western bands, that a chief attains to much power, unless he is the head of a numerous family. Frequently the village is principally made up of his relatives and descendants, and the wandering community assumes much of the patriarchal character. A people so loosely united, torn, too, with rankling feuds and jealousies, can have little power or efficiency.

"The western Dahcotah have no fixed habitations. Hunting and fighting, they wander incessantly, through summer and winter. Some are following the herds of buffalo over the waste of prairies, others are traversing the Black Hills, thronging, on horseback and on foot, through

the dark gulfs and sombre gorges, beneath the vast splintering precipices, and emerging at last upon the Parks,' those beautiful but most perilous hunting-grounds. The buffalo supplies them with almost all the necessaries of life; with habitations, food, clothing and fuel; with strings for their bows; with thread, cordage and trail-ropes for their horses; with coverings for their saddles, with vessels to hold water, with boats to cross streams, with glue, and with the means of purchasing all that they desire from the traders. When the buffalo is extinct, they, too, must dwindle away.

"War is the breath of their nostrils. Against most of the neighboring tribes they cherish a deadly, rancorous hatred, transmitted from father to son, and inflamed by constant aggression and retaliation. Many times a year, in every village, the Great Spirit is called upon, fasts are made, the war-parade is celebrated, and the warriors go out by handfuls at a time against the enemy. This fierce and evil spirit awakens their most eager aspirations, and calls forth their greatest energies. It is chiefly this that saves them from lethargy and utter abasement. Without its powerful stimulus, they would be like the unwarlike tribes beyond the mountains, who are scattered among the caves and rocks like beasts, living on roots and reptiles. These latter have little of humanity except the form; but the proud and ambitious Dahcotah warrior can sometimes boast of heroic virtues. It is very seldom that distinction and influence are attained among them by any other course than