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Show THE MANITARIES----THE AKUPEHRI-THE SUDATORY. 401 the Mandans, in which they are made to run round till they drop down exhausted, when they are taken to the medicine lodge. The medicine man receives from one of the spectators the knife with which the operation is to be performed. He has called out to " have compassion with him, and to give him a knife," on which one of the persons standing round throws one at his feet. The partisan is bound to build the medicine lodge. During the ceremony the spectators eat and smoke; the candidates take nothing, and, like the partisans, are covered all over with white clay. The latter, when they dance during the ceremony, remain near their pits, and then move on the same spot, holding in their hands their medicines, a buffalo's tail, a feather, or the like. None but the candidates dance, and the only music is striking a dried buffalo's hide with willow rods. There have been instances of fathers subjecting their children, only six or seven years of age, to these tortures. We ourselves saw one suspended by the muscles of the back, after having been compelled to fast four days. No application whatever is subsequently made for the cure of the wounds, which leave large swollen weals, and are much more conspicuous among the Manitaries than the Mandans. Most of the Manitaries have three or four of these weals, in parallel semicircular lines, almost an inch thick, which cover the entire breast. Similar transverse and longitudinal lines, arising from the same cause, are seen upon the arras, nay, the whole length of the limb is often disfigured by them. The medicine stone has already been mentioned, when treating of the Mandans. Lewis and Clarke also speak of it, saying that " the Manitaries have a stone of a similar kind;" but this is not quite correct, for it is the self-same stone to which the two people have recourse, and make use of similar ceremonies with it. Another very remarkable institution of the Manitaries is the sudatory. When a man intends to undertake anything, and to implore by medicine the aid of the higher powers, he builds a small sudatory of twigs, which is covered all over with buffalo hides. Before the entrance is a straight path, forty feet long and one broad, from which the turf is taken off and piled up in a heap at one end opposite the hut. Near this heap a fire is kindled, in which large stones are made red hot. Two rows of shoes, sometimes thirty or forty pair, are placed along the path. As soon as the stones are hot, they are borne into the hut, where a hearth has been dug, on which the hot stones are laid. The whole population sit as spectators on either side of the path, where are placed a number of dishes with provisions, such as boiled maize, beans, meat, &c. An old medicine man is appointed to conduct the ceremonies. He walks from the heap of turf over the shoes, taking care always to set his feet upon them, to the sudatory. The young man, for whom the ceremony is performed, stands with only his breechcloth at the entrance of the sudatory, where for some time he wails and laments. The medicine man comes out of the hut, with a knife or arrow head, and cuts off a joint of his finger, which he throws away, as an offering to the lord of life, or to some other object of superstition, in which the young man has placed his confidence. After this operation the magician takes a willow twig, goes to the dishes containing 3f |