Thrilling adventures among the Indians- comprising the most remarkable personal narratives of events in the early Indian wars, as well as of incidents in the recent Indian hostilities in Mexico and (14596229217)

Identifier: thrillingadventu00fros_1 (find matches)
Title: Thrilling adventures among the Indians: comprising the most remarkable personal narratives of events in the early Indian wars, as well as of incidents in the recent Indian hostilities in Mexico and Texas
Year: 1850 (1850s)
Authors: Frost, John, 1800-1859
Subjects: Indians of North America Indian captivities
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Bradley Lowell, L. P. Crown
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress



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he big canoe was made. The tool isalways given, and deposited in the medicine lodge.During the night, no one is able to ascertain wherethis strange being sleeps; all living things are keptwithin doors, and dead silence reigns throughout thevillage. On the following morning he again appears,followed by the young men who are candidates fortorture, and who, with their leader, enter the medicinelodge. Here they remain for four days, fasting andpraying to the Great Spirit. During this period theyare cut off from intercourse with the villages, andmeanwhile, the Bull Dance takes place outside. Theceremony is thus described by Catlin This very curious and exceedingly grotesque partof their performance, one of the avowed objects forwhich they held this annual fete; and to the strictestobservance of which they attribute the coming ofbuffaloes to supply them with food during the season—is repeated four times during the first day, eight timeson the second day, twelve times on the third day, and
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MANDAN BULL DANCE. 361 sixteen times on the fourth day; and always aroundthe curb, or hig canoe, of which I have before spoken. The principal actors in it were eight men, withthe entire skins of buffaloes thrown over their backs,with the horns and hoofs and tails remaining on; theirbodies in a horizontal position, enabling them to imi-tate the actions of the buffalo, whilst they were look-ing out of its eyes as through a mask. The bodies of these men were chiefly naked, andall painted in the most extraordinary manner, withthe nicest adherence to exact similarity; their limbs,bodies, and faces, being in every part covered, eitherwith black, red, or white paint. Each one of thesestrange characters had also a lock of buffalos hairtied around his ancle—in his right hand a rattle, anda slender white rod or staff, six feet long, in the other;and carried on his back, a bunch of green willowboughs, about the usual size of a bundle of straw.These eight men, being divided into four pairs, too