Yet so sacred was the Greek character held by monastic schools, because the gospel was written in it, that many transcribers--and they were the book-makers--clung with a religious enthusiasm to it. Christianity was certainly introduced into the Island in the second century, the Greek forms in the Welsh language had not become lost, and it is likely that many parchment manuscripts were extant. Madoc's position as a member of the royal house of Wales, notwithstanding the scarcity and great cost of books in those times, would enable him to possess some of the most valuable, even those illuminated in rich, fixed colors, and which required many years of patient toil to manufacture. It is far more within the order of reason to believe that Madoc and his emigrants, upon leaving their own native shores, would take with them copies of the great book of books,--the king of books on the throne of letters,--than that they would leave them behind. Some of his followers, perhaps the most of them, were not able to read them then, but knew somewhat their contents. Under their new conditions of life, relapsing gradually from a civilized state, these manuscripts came at length to be invested with a certain sacred mystery, as the depository of their ancestors' religious faith. No wonder that they should be so carefully preserved. CHAPTER XI. THE MANDAN INDIANS: WHO ARE THEY? During the present century various travellers have called the attention of the civilized world to a small body of Indians inhabiting the banks of the Upper Missouri, called Mandans. They, with the Minatarees and Crows, are classed with the Dacotahs or Sioux, although it is known that their language bears no affinity whatever with the latter people. The Mandans are very light-colored. George Catlin, the well-known student of Indian life, character, language, and manners, was, without any doubt, more intimately acquainted with this people than any others who preceded him or have followed him.