OCR Text |
Show 390 THE MANDANS--THEIR WEAPONS. with brass nails. Besides the ramrod belonging to the gun, the Indians always carry another long ramrod in their hand, which they generally use. The pouch is made of leather, or cloth, often beautifully ornamented with beads, or porcupine quills, and is hung on the back by a piece of skin, or a broad strip of cloth of some lively colour. Their clubs and tomahawks are of various kinds. Many have a thick egg-shaped stone fastened to a handle, covered with leather, or without leather. (See the woodcut). Others have small iron tomahawks (see portrait of Mato-Tope, Plate XIV.), but not tomahawks with pipes fixed to them. The large club with the broad iron point (Plate XLVIIL, Fig. 41) is called manha-okatanha, or mauna-schicha. A simple, knotty, wooden club is called mauna-panischa. (See the woodcut). Many Mandans likewise carry lances, and I was told that they had a remarkably handsome one, of which, however, I did not obtain a sight. These Indians have shields, which do not differ from those of the tribes already mentioned. They all wear, in their girdle, behind, their large knife, which is indispensable to them in hunting and in war. Some use, for the handle of the knife, the lower jaw of a bear, with the hair and teeth remaining. (Woodcut, page 234.) The bow and arrows are, even now, much esteemed by all the nations living on the Missouri, while those that have been entirely driven from that river (the Osages) greatly prefer the gun; the former, therefore, are capital archers, which cannot be affirmed of the Osages. The Mandans and Manitaries are said to fight well in their manner, and there have been frequent instances of individual bravery. One of their most distinguished warriors, at this time, is Mato-Tope, of whom we shall often have to speak in the sequel. He has killed more than five chiefs of other nations. The father of Mato-Tope, whose name was Suck-Schih (the handsome child), behaved exactly |