[3] The reader will see in +plate+ 65, an accurate drawing of this curious robe, which now hangs in the +Indian Gallery+, and on the following pages, each group numbered, and delineated on a larger scale, which are _fac-similes_ of the drawings on the robe. [4] This celebrated weapon with the blood of several victims dried upon its blade, now hangs in the +Indian Gallery+, with satisfactory certificates of its identity and its remarkable history, and an exact drawing of it and its scabbard can be seen in +plate+ 99, _a_. LETTER—No. 22. MANDAN VILLAGE, _UPPER MISSOURI_. Oh! “_horribile visu—et mirabile dictu!_” Thank God, it is over, that I have seen it, and am able to tell it to the world. The _annual religious ceremony_, of four days, of which I have so often spoken, and which I have so long been wishing to see, has at last been enacted in this village; and I have, fortunately, been able to see and to understand it in most of its bearings, which was more than I had reason to expect; for no white man, in all probability, has ever been before admitted to the _medicine-lodge_ during these most remarkable and appalling scenes. Well and truly has it been said, that the Mandans are a strange and peculiar people; and most correctly had I been informed, that this was an important and interesting scene, by those who had, on former occasions, witnessed such parts of it as are transacted out of doors, and in front of the _medicine-lodge_. Since the date of my last Letter, I was lucky enough to have painted the _medicine-man_, who was high-priest on this grand occasion, or conductor of the ceremonies, who had me regularly installed doctor or “_medicine_;” and who, on the morning when these grand refinements in mysteries commenced, took me by the arm, and led me into the _medicine-lodge_, where the Fur Trader, Mr. Kipp, and his two clerks accompanied me in close attendance for four days; all of us going to our own quarters at sun-down, and returning again at sun-rise the next morning. I took my sketch-book with me, and have made many and faithful drawings of what we saw, and full notes of everything as translated to me by the interpreter; and since the close of that horrid and frightful scene, which was a week ago or more, I have been closely ensconced in an earth-covered wigwam, with a fine sky-light over my head, with my palette and brushes, endeavouring faithfully to put the whole of what we saw upon canvass, which my companions all agree to be critically correct, and of the fidelity of which they have attached their certificates to the backs of the paintings. I have made four paintings of these strange scenes, containing several hundred figures, representing the transactions of each day; and if I live to get them home, they will be found to be exceedingly curious and interesting.