University of Virginia Library

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MANDAN RELIGIOUS CEREMONIES.

• 491 Interior of the Medicine Lodge—and all the young
  men who are candidates for these cruelties, reclining
  around the sides of the lodge, where they are
  to fast and thirst four days and nights, preparatory
  to the cruelties. The torture they are preparing
  to go through, is a voluntary one, being a kind of
  religious penance.

• 492 Continuation of the Mandan Religious Ceremonies.
  Scene outside of the Medicine Lodge, where
  eight men are dancing the Buffalo Dance, to
  which they attribute the coming of buffalo to supply
  them with food. This grotesque dance takes
  place several times on each day in presence of the
  whole village.

• 493 Continuation of the Mandan Religious Ceremony.—
  Scene of voluntary torture on the fourth day—the
  knife and splints are run through the flesh on the
  shoulders, the arms, and legs; and after their
  arms, and several buffalo skulls are attached to the
  splints, they are lifted up by the flesh on the shoulders,
  and suspended by cords; when they are
  turned round with a pole until they faint away—
  then they are lowered down, and afterwards
  crawl to a part of the lodge, where they sacrifice
  one or more of their fingers, by having it chopped
  off, on a buffalo skull, with a hatchet.

• 494 Mandan Ceremonies continued.—A scene in front of
  the Medicine Lodge, where each of the young
  men who have been hung up by the splints, is
  dragged about the curb or "Big Canoe," (as they
  call it) with all the weights attached to their
  wounds, until the flesh tears out, and these articles
  are left behind. They have then passed the ordeal
  which entitles them to the name and reputation of
  warriors and braves, who can undergo anything.