Los Angeles herald., 1891-01-18

monies and acts of religious frenzy of the
very tribes of Indians of which the dane
ing and Messiah-seeking Sioux are in part
the descendants. That the North Ameri,
can Indian is occasionally led by his re-
ligious frenzy into acts Of self torture such
as the Hindoo devotees practice, Mr. Cat
lin established by personal observation;
yet his accounts were questioned by School
craft and others, and caused one of the
most bitter chronological discussions of re-
cent times.
The result of that discussion was a COM
plete triumph for Catlin, and the accuracy
of his accounts of the terrible immolations
of the Mandan Sioux is not now questioned
by any one 1t is remarkable coincidence
that Catlin made his most surprising dis
coveries of supefstitious degradation
among the very people and in the very re-
gion where a similar frenzy has of late
reused the curiosity and fears of the world
These pictures, hanging on the walls of the
Smithsonian, a huge surface of dark red
brown or yellow, thus take on new inter
est. They are the silent yet effective wit
nesses of the fact that the Messiah craze
and the effort of it's deluded victims to
dance themselves into a trance that they
may therein see the newly come Saviour
are the natural and legitimate outgrowth
of the religious traditions of their tribe.
There Is also some comfort to be derived
from the knowledge that this recent ebul-
lition of almost incredible fanaticism is by
no means SO fierce, so brutal, nor so terri
BILE as that Of which the grandfathers of
these devotees were seized in the time of
Catlin.
1t was in 1889 that Mr.. Catlin painted
these pictures. He was then in Mandan
village, on the west bank of the Missouri
river, in Dakota. AS chance would have
it, he was there during the annual four
days religious ceremony, and was lucky
enough to secure admission to the lodge in
which the most interesting and most
frightful Of these ceremonies were per-
formed. Catlin says he entered the lodge,
or medicine house, as he would church,
expecting to behold something extraor-
dinary and strange, yet little dreaming of
seeing their temple of worship changed
into slaughter house and the floor strewn
with the blood of fanatics.
He describes the Mandans as believing
In the existence of great or good spirit.
and also of an evil spirit, who, they say,
existed long before the good spirit, and is
superior to him IN power. They also be-
lieve in future reward and punishment,
the latter not eterhsl, but Commensurate
with their sins. Lining in cold country,
their idea of hell is tie reverse of that of
Christendom, or regioMe eternal ice and
snow and suffering fartov north. Their
heaven is a warm and delightful place,
Astounding in buffalo and o., Ter game.
On tho first day of the cerek sony the peo-
ple gathered in the open spac in front of
the village as If in great alark. Horses
were caught and run into the Wage, the
dogs were muzzled, bows were stts sng and
the warriors blackened their facesss if in
ant;cination OF an attack All this nepa-
ration was to afford fitting receptiont the
First or Only Man, who was soon seen nap-
proaching the village from the prairie. Nn
some respects heappsars to have correspont
ed to the emodern conception Of the Messiah
for his body, which was chiefly naked, wa
covered with white clay, SO that at littl
distance he resembled white man. III
wore robe of four white wolf skins hang
ing back over his shoulders, and on hi
head he had a splendid headdress made o
two ravens skins. The chiefs receives
this man with every mark of respect, AM
conducted him to the great medicine lodge
where he strewed the floor with willow
boughs, and arranged the buffalo skull
and human skulls in curious groups.
Then he went out in the village and In
formed the people that he was the onl