The Me-ma-ho-pa or medicine stone * * * is a large, naked, and insulated rock situated in the midst of a small prairie, about a two days’ journey southwest of the village of that nation. In shape it resembles the steep roof of a house. The Minnetarees resort to it for the purpose of propitiating their Man-ho-pa or Great Spirit by presents, by fasting and lamentation, during the space of from three to five days. An individual who intends to perform this ceremony takes some presents with him, * * * and also provides a smooth skin upon which hieroglyphics may be drawn, and repairs to the rock accompanied by his friends and the magi. On his arrival he deposits the presents there, and, after smoking to the rock, he washes a portion of its face clean, and retires with his fellow devotees to a specified distance. During the principal part of his stay, he cries aloud to his god to have pity on him, to grant him success in war and hunting, to favor his endeavors to take prisoners, horses, and scalps from the enemy. When the time for his * * * prayer has elapsed he returns to the rock; his presents are no longer there, and he believes them to have been accepted and carried off by the Man-ho-pa himself. Upon the part of the rock which he had washed he finds certain hieroglyphics traced with white clay, of which he can generally interpret the meaning, particularly when assisted by some of the magi, who are no doubt privy to the whole transaction. These representations are supposed to relate to his future fortune, or to that of his family or nation; he copies them off * * * upon the skin which he brought with him for that purpose, and returns home to read from them to the people the destiny of himself or them. If a bear be represented with its head directed toward the village, the approach of a war-party or the visitation of some evil is apprehended. If, on the contrary, the tail of the bear be toward the village, nothing but good is anticipated, and they rejoice. They say that an Indian on his return from the rock exhibited * * * on his * * * chart the representation of a strange building, as erected near the village. They were all much surprised and did not perfectly comprehend its meaning; but four months afterward the prediction was, as it happened, verified, and a stockade trading house was erected there by the French trader Jessaume. Matthews refers thus to this “oracle” of the Hidatsa and Mandan:[241] The famous holy stone or medicine rock (Mihopaś, or Mandan, Mihopiniś) * * * was some two or three days’ journey from their residence. The Hidatsa now seldom refer to it, and I do not think they ever visit it. § 330. According to Maximilian:[242]