The Mandans believe in the existence of a Great (or Good) Spirit, and also of an Evil Spirit, who they say existed long before the Good Spirit, and is far superior in power. They all believe also in a future state of existence, and a future administration of rewards and punishments, and (so do all other tribes that I have yet visited) they believe those punishments are not eternal, but commensurate with their sins. These people living in a climate where they suffer from cold in the severity of their winters, have very naturally reversed our ideas of Heaven and Hell. The latter they describe to be a country very far to the north, of barren and hideous aspect, and covered with eternal snows and ice. The torments of this freezing place they describe as most excruciating; whilst Heaven they suppose to be in a warmer and delightful latitude, where nothing is felt but the keenest enjoyment, and where the country abounds in buffaloes and other luxuries of life. The Great or Good Spirit they believe dwells in the former place for the purpose of there meeting those who have offended him; increasing the agony of their sufferings, by being himself present, administering the penalties. The Bad or Evil Spirit they at the same time suppose to reside in Paradise, still tempting the happy; and those who have gone to the regions of punishment they believe to be tortured for a time proportioned to the amount of their transgressions, and that they are then to be transferred to the land of the happy, where they are again liable to the temptations of the Evil Spirit, and answerable again at a future period for their new offences. Such is the religious creed of the Mandans, and for the purpose of appeasing the Good and Evil Spirits, and to secure their entrance into those “fields Elysian,” or beautiful hunting grounds, do the young men subject themselves to the horrid and sickening cruelties to be described in the following pages. There are other three distinct objects (yet to be named) for which these religious ceremonies are held, which are as follow:— _First_, they are held annually as a celebration of the event of the subsiding of the Flood, which they call _Mee-nee-ro-ka-ha-sha_, (sinking down or settling of the waters.) _Secondly_, for the purpose of dancing what they call, _Bel-lohck-na-pic_ (the bull-dance); to the strict observance of which they attribute the coming of buffaloes to supply them with food during the season; and