As the two boys, Dick and Roger, discovered for themselves, when fortune allowed them to spend some time in a Mandan village, these Indians had many ways in common with other tribes, even while in certain traits they differed greatly from the Blackfeet, the Sioux, the Shoshones, and the Pawnees. One of these consisted of the customary medicine-man, who was supposed to be in direct communication with Manitou, or the Great Spirit. When a storm came along, and the thunder roared, this old humbug would pretend to be talking with the Great Father above; and, of course, would interpret as he pleased what the Spirit was supposed to say in reply to his questions. He always dressed in a hideous costume, and looked as much like the Evil One as any person could imagine, with his paint, his buffalo tails, his fanciful adornments, and often the horns which he assumed for occasions. His principal office as the "doctor," or medicine-man, is to frighten away the devils that are supposed to be afflicting sick people. He would go through with a tremendous amount of nonsense, and, if the sick person got well, he had the credit of working a miracle; whereas, if he or she died, it was the will of the Great Spirit! Nor is the medicine-man confined to the Indian tribes of North America; for the same species of charlatan has been discovered in the heart of blackest Africa, among the negro nations inhabiting that region. NOTE 8 (PAGE 293) The Mandans had many strange habits, some of which must have come down to them from remote ancestors; while others were doubtless the result of their living in the country where wolves and coyotes abounded, and had to be guarded against, even in the disposal of the bodies of their dead. When a warrior died his body was wrapped in several buffalo skins, and the last one was tightly secured with thongs. Then the funeral cortege took up its line of march for the Indian cemetery, where, with fitting ceremonies, the body was secured to a platform erected on four posts, and usually some five or six feet from the ground. Here the widow would repair day after day, communing with the spirit of the departed one, and leaving a bowl of hot succotash, a mixture of corn and beans. This was intended as food to sustain the brave on his long journey to the Land of Shades. The steam arising and disappearing was believed to be inhaled by the unseen spirit; and, of course, when the bowl was found empty in the morning, having been cleaned out by wandering animals, the Indians chose to think that the dead warrior had in some way devoured its contents during the still hours of the night. NOTE 9 (PAGE 324)