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Show THE ARIKKARAS----AGRICULTU RE----BANDS----DANCES. 407 some time, on friendly terms. Perhaps he had not an interpreter sufficiently acquainted with the language. I will state what I have learned from some Mandans, especially from Mato-Tope, who lived a long time among the Arikkaras. Brackenridge gives an imperfect description of the construction of their huts, which does not much differ from that of the Mandans. This writer says that the villages of the Arikkaras were very dirty, and compares them with some old European towns. As it must, however, be supposed that Brackenridge had never seen European towns, where the police are more strict than in American towns, his comparison does not hold good. Both Brackenridge and Bradbury were very well received by these people, and some white men were living among them, who served as interpreters. When a stranger was once in their villages he was hospitably treated, and invited to many of their festivals. When he left, however, he had to be on his guard, especially against the war parties, who seldom spared a white man. The agriculture of the Arikkaras was the same as that of their neighbours. In the education of their children they are said to have been more strict, for, when the children behaved ill, they were severely corrected. Among the more northern nations, also, a better system prevails than among the Mandans and Manitaries : it frequently happens, among the Chippeways, that, when a boy rudely passes before the older men, they take him by the arm and give him a good thrashing. If a young man is idle, and will not go hunting, his father has been known to drive him before him a mile, beating him all the way, and then telling him that, if he returns without any game, he shall be punished still more severely. Like most of the Indian tribes, the Arikkaras have their bands, or unions, and likewise distinct dances. They are as follows:- 1. The band of the bears. It consists of old men, who, in their dance, wear some parts of the bear's skin, a necklace of bears' claws, &c. 2. The mad wolves. They wear a wolf's skin on their back, with a slit, through which they put the head and arm. 3. The foxes wear fox skins on different parts of their body. 4. The mad dogs carry a schischikue in their hand when they dance. 5. The mad bulls. These are the most distinguished men, and wear, in their dance, the skin of a buffalo's head, with the horns. 6. The soldiers. Besides these bands, the Arikkaras have, at least, seven different dances. 1. The hot dance, or the black arms. 2. The dance of the bird's egg. They wear, on the forehead, the skin of a screech-owl. 3. The dance of the youngest child. Both the young and the old bands may have this dance, and wear, at the back of the head, a piece of swan's skin, with a crow's feather. 4. The dance of the prairie foxes. They wear a kind of apron of red or blue cloth ; behind, |