Note 350 — Chapter XXVI · OBSERVATIONS ON THE TRIBE OF THE MANITARIES, OR GROS VENTRES

See the description of this festival in our volume xv, pp. 61-63. Matthews (Hidatsa, pp. 45-47) thinks that Maximilian is here describing the Dahkipe (or Nahkipe), a ceremony analogous in its tortures to the Okippe of the Mandan, but in allegory radically different, that of the Minitaree being a preparation for bravery in war. Scarcely a Minitaree is to be seen without the wales made by some form of self-torture; see Henry-Thompson Journals, i, pp. 363-365.—Ed.