cases, as additional weights, several heavy buffalo heads, were hung.

Thus far the fortitude of the Indian sufficed to restrain all exhibition of pain; while the flesh was torn with the rude knife, and the wooden skewers were thrust in, a pleasant smile was frequently observable on the young warrior's countenance; but when in the horrible position above described, with his flesh stretched by the splints till it appeared about to give way, a number of attendants commenced turning him round and round with poles, he would "burst out in the most lamentable and heart-rending cries that the human voice is capable of producing, crying forth to the Great Spirit to support and protect him in this dreadful trial."

After hanging until total insensibility brought a temporary relief to his sufferings, he was lowered to the floor, the main supporting skewers were withdrawn, and he was left to crawl off, dragging the weights after him. The first movement, with returning consciousness, was to sacrifice to the Great Spirit one or more of the fingers of the left hand, after which the miserable wretch was taken out of the lodge. Within the court a new trial awaited him; the last, but most terrible of all. An active man took his position on each side of the weak and mutilated sufferer, and, passing a thong about his wrist, urged him forward at the top of his speed in a circle round the arena. When, faint. and weary, he sank on the ground, the tormentors dragged him furiously around the ring until the splints were torn out by the weights attached, and he lay motionless and apparently lifeless. If the splint should have been so deeply inserted that no force-even that of the weight of individuals in the crowd, thrown upon the trailing skulls could break the integuments, nothing remained but to crawl off to the prairie, and wait until it should give way by suppuration.. To draw the skewer out would be unpardonable sacrilege.

It is told of one man that he suspended himself from the precipitous river bank by two of these skewers, thrust through his arms, until, at the end of several days! he dropped into the water, and swam ashore. Throughout the whole ordeal, the chiefs and sages of the tribe critically observed the comparative fortitude and endurance of the candidates, and formed their conclusions thereupon as to which would be the worthiest to command in after time.

With all these frightful and hideous sights before his eyes, or fresh in his recollection, our author still maintains, and apparently upon good grounds, and in honest sincerity, his former eulogium upon the virtues and natural, noble endowments of these singular people. We have given, above, but a brief outline of the mysterious conjurations attendant upon the great annual festival: many of these lack interest from our ignorance of their signification.

A favorite theme for theorists, ever since the early ages of American colonization, has been found in the endeavor to trace a descent from the followers of the Welsh voyager, Prince Madoc, to sundry Indian tribes of the west. Vague accounts of Indians of light complexion, who could speak and understand the Welsh language, are given by various early writers. They were generally located by the narrator in some indeterminate region west of the Mississippi, at a considerable distance above New Orleans, but nowhere near the Missouri.

It is to be regretted that these ancient accounts are so loose and uncertain, as there can be no doubt but that they are founded upon striking and important facts. A list of Mandan words, compared with Welsh of the same signification, has been made public by Mr. Catlin, in which the resemblance is so clear, that almost any theory would be more credible than that such affinity was accidental. This author traced remains of the peculiar villages of the Man

dans nearly to the mouth of the Missouri, and describes others of similar character to the northward of Cincinnati.

He supposes that the adventurers, who sailed from Wales. in the year 1170, and were never thenceforth heard from, after landing at Florida, or near the mouth of the Mississippi, made their way to Ohio; that they there became involved in hostilities with the natives, and were eventually all cut off with the exception of the half-breeds, who had sprung up from connection with the women of the country; that these half-breeds had at one time formed a powerful tribe, but had gradually been reduced to those whom we have described, and had removed or been driven farther and farther up the Missouri. The arguments upon which this hypothesis is based are drawn from a careful examination of ancient western fortifications; from physical peculiarities, and the analogies in language above referred to; from certain arts of working in pottery, &c.; and from the remarkable and isolated position occupied by the tribe in question among hostile nations of indubitable aboriginal characteristics. The theory is, to say the least, plausible, and ably supported.

In the summer of 1838, the small-pox was communicated to the Mandans from some infected persons on board one of the steamers belonging to a company of fur-traders. So virulent was the disease, that in a few weeks it swept off the whole tribe, except a few who fell into the hands. of their enemies, the Ricarees. One principal reason for the excessive mortality is said to have been, that hostile bands of Indians had beset the village, and the inhabitants were consequently unable to separate, or to place the infected in an isolated position.

The scene of death, lamentation, and terror is said by those who witnessed it to have been frightful in the exGreat numbers perished by leaping into the river, in the paroxysm of fever, being too weak to swim out.

treme.

Those who died in the village lay in heaps upon the floors of the huts. Of the few secured by the Ricarees who took possession of the depopulated village, nearly all were said to have been killed during some subsequent hostilities, so that now scarce a vestige of the tribe can be supposed to remain.

The Mandans were probably all congregated at their principal village at the time of the great calamity: the other village was situated two miles below, was a small settlement, and was used, as we are led to infer, merely for a temporary summer residence for a few of the noted families."

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Mr. Catlin adds the following items to his account of the annihilation of this interesting tribe: "There is yet a melancholy part of the tale to be told, relating to the ravages of this frightful disease in that country on the same occasion, as it spread to other contiguous tribes, the Minatarrees, the Knisteneaux, the Blackfeet, the Chayennes, and the Crows, amongst whom twenty-five thousand perished in the course of four or five months, which most appalling facts I got from Major Pilcher, superintendent of Indian affairs at St. Louis, from Mr. McKenzie, and others."

CHAPTER III.

THE SIOUX CONTINUED. THEIR MODE OF LIFE. MATERNAL AFFECTION. - EXPOSURE OF THE AGED.—THE FAMOUS QUARRY OF RED PIPE-STONE. - NATURE OF THIS MATERIAL. - INDIAN SUPERSTITIONS RESPECTING IT. THE BISON OR BUFFALO. HORSES OF THE INDIANS. VARIOUS MODES OF HUNTING THE BUFFALO.— WASTEFUL DESTRUCTION OF THE herds.

THE Sioux proper, known among themselves and by other Indian tribes as Dahcotas, are one of the most extensively diffused nations of the west. From the Upper Mississippi, where they mingle with the northern race of Chippewas, to the Missouri, and far in the north-west towards the country of the Blackfeet, the tribes of this family occupy the boundless prairie.

Those living on the Mississippi and St. Peter's rely partially, as we have mentioned, upon agriculture, and their proximity to the white settlements has changed, and too often degraded their native character. The more distant tribes, subsisting almost entirely upon the flesh of the buffalo, clothed with skins, and using the native weapons of their race, still remain in a state of rude freedom and independence. Graphic descriptions of their wild life, their skill and dexterity in the chase, and innumerable amusing and striking incidents of travel, and portraitures of private and natural character, are to be found scattered through the pages of Catlin's interesting narrative.

One of the most remarkable and touching traits of character described by this author, as observable among the Sioux, is the strength of maternal affection. Infant children, according to the common custom of western Indians, are carried, for the first six or seven months of their existence, strapped immovably to a board, the hands and arms being generally left at liberty. A hoop protects the