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Show THE ARIKKARAS----JUGGLERS TRICKS----ENEMIES----LANGUAGE. 411 juggler. They institute medicine feasts at which entire comedies are performed. One, for instance, disguised in a bear's skin, with the head and claws, imitates the motions and the voice of the animal so accurately that he cannot be distinguished from a real bear. He is shot; the wound is plainly to be seen, and blood flows ; he drops down and dies ; the skin is stripped off, and at last the man appears safe and sound. On another occasion, a man's head is cut off with a sabre and carried out. The body remains bleeding, without the head, and this headless trunk dances merrily about. The head is then replaced, but with the face at the back. The man continues to dance, but the head is seen in its right position, and the man who was beheaded dances as if nothing had happened to him. The^ bleeding wound is rubbed with the hand, it disappears, and all is in order again. Men are shot; the blood flows ; the wounds are rubbed, and they come to life again. The Arikkaras perform all these tricks with such consummate address, that the illusion is complete, so that most of the French Canadians believe in the reality of all these wonders. No Arikkara will break a marrow-bone in his hut; this must always be done in the open air; they believe that, if they neglect this precaution, their horses will break their legs in the prairie. These people have at present a great many enemies. The Mandans, the Manitaries, the Crows, the Sioux, the Blackfeet, the Assiniboins, the Arrapahos, and the Pawnees. The Arikkaras affirm that God said to them that they were made of earth, and must return to earth; on which account they bury their dead in the ground. Various things are sometimes cast into the grave of eminent men; the corpse is dressed in the best clothes, the face painted red, and sometimes a good horse is killed on the grave. If the deceased has left a son, he receives his father's medicine apparatus; if not, it is buried with him in the grave. The language of the Arikkaras differs totally from those of the Mandans and Manitaries ; there is more harshness in the sound; the guttural ch occurs frequently, and there are very many German terminations, such as natsch, ratsch, ass, oss, uss, &c. &c, which are much harsher than the terminations of the Manitari language. Germans pronounce it easily and correctly. Many words again end with the syllable, hahn, rahn, wahn, pronounced as in German. Their manner of giving names to their children does not differ from that of the Mandans and other Indians of the Missouri, and the western plains at the foot of the Rocky Mountains. They are often harmonious, and are changed on special occasions, such, for instance, as having performed some feat of valour, when arrived at manhood. |