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Show II 432 DANCE OF THE WOMEN S BAND OF THE WHITE BUFFALO COW. and two men, with the drum and schischikue ; the first of these two men carried a gun in his hand. A stout elderly woman went first; she was wrapped in the hide of a white buffalo cow, and held, in her right arm, a bundle of twigs in the form of a cornucopia, with down feathers at the top, and at the lower end an eagle's wing, and a tin drinking vessel. Another woman carried a similar bundle. All these women wore round their heads a piece of buffalo's skin in the form of a hussar's cap, with a plume of owl's or raven's feathers in front, some of which were dyed red ; only two of them wore the skin of a polecat; all the men were bare-headed. The women were uniformly painted; the left cheek and eye were vermilion, and they had two blue spots on the temple near the right eye. (Vignette XXVIII). All except the first wore painted robes, and two of them only had the hairy side outwards. When they had formed a circle the music began in quick time ; the men sung, and the women who were dancing responded in a loud shrill voice. In their dances they rocked from side to side, always remaining on the same spot. After they had been dancing for some time there was a pause, when the dance recommenced. Only the oldest of these women, most of whom were exceedingly plain, had the tattooed stripes on the chin which are peculiar to this band. They had scarcely left us, after receiving a present, when three engages arrived with letters from Fort Union. They informed us that Mr. Me Kenzie had built a new fort at the mouth of the Riviere aux Trembles, which he had called Fort Jackson, and appointed Mr. Chardon director. Up to the 15th, when these messengers left Fort Union, the weather had been very mild; the river was quite free from ice, and no snow had fallen. Mr. Me Kenzie invited me to visit him at Fort Union, but the inclemency of the weather rendered such a journey extremely unpleasant. The wind had blown down all the pickets at Fort Union, and some Indians, probably Gros Ventres des Prairies, had shot a white man on the Yellow Stone. Information had been brought by some Indians that Doucette, when on a journey from Fort Me Kenzie to the Kutanas, had been shot by the Blood Indians. On the 26th of December the wind blew the snow into the air and obscured the sky. With a temperature of 12°, Fahrenheit, early in the morning we observed a rainbow among the clouds of snow, with a parhelion in the centre. We dispatched a number of letters, which were forwarded on the 27th by engages, from station to station, down the river. Four men, with two sledges, and a number of horses, were sent from the fort, two of whom were to receive a supply of fresh meat for us at the trading post of the Yanktonans, from which they were expected to return in four days. Sih-Chida brought us the paper which his father, at that time the first chief of the Mandans, had received from General Atkinson and Major O'Fallon, several years before, when a treaty of friendship and commerce was concluded with the Indians. This document was written on large paper in the English and Manitari languages. Most of the Indian names, which were doubtless given by Charbonneau, were incorrectly written. As we had now |