The torture no doubt subserved this subsidiary purpose, but it appears to me that the original intention and idea was torture for the purpose of expiation, as in the ceremonies in ancient Greece.[207] Sundry incidents narrated by Catlin seem to establish this. They prepare themselves by fasting (p. 25); after having sunk under the infliction of these horrible tortures (and from every point of view they are truly horrible), "no one was allowed to offer them aid when they lay in this condition. They were here enjoying their inestimable privilege of voluntarily intrusting their lives to the keeping of the Great Spirit, and chose to remain there until the Great Spirit gave them strength to get up and walk away" (p. 28); and when so far recovered, "in each instance" they presented the little finger of the left hand, and some also the forefinger of the same hand and the little finger of the right hand (all tending to make them _pro tanto_ inefficient warriors) "as an offering to the Great Spirit, as a sacrifice for having listened to their prayers, and protected their lives in what they had just gone through" (p. 28). [207] _Supra_, p. 35. These tortures have their exact counterpart in India, _e.g._ the ceremony of the _Pota_ (compare Sanscrit, "pota" = boat), thus described by Hunter ("Rural Bengal," 1868, p. 463):--"Pota (hook-swinging), now stopped by Government, but still practised (1865) among the Northern Santals [who have the distinct tradition of the Deluge and dispersion referred to, _supra_] in _April or May_. Lasted about one month. Young men used to swing with hooks through their back [as seen in Catlin's illustrations], as in the Charak Puja of the Hindus. The swingers used _to fast_ the day preceding and the day following the operation, and to sleep the intermediate night on thorns." "On pleuroit et l'on s'attristoit dans les fêtes _les plus gayes et plus dissolues_; les cultes d'Isis et d'Osiris, ainsi que ceux _de Bacchus_, de Céres, d'Adonis, d'Atys, &c., étoient _accompagnés de macérations et de larmes_."--_Boulanger_, iii. 355. For the description of the _bull_-dance,[208] and for the subsequent history and final extinction of the Mandans, I must refer my readers to Mr Catlin's valuable testimony to the truth of Scripture, and important contributions to ethnological science. [208] Bryant ("Myth." ii. 432) says, "There were many arkite" (_i.e._ commemorative of ark) "ceremonies in different parts of the world, which were generally styled _Taurica_ sacra" (from taurus = _bull_). These mysteries were of old attended with acts of _great cruelty_. Of these "I have given instances, taken from different parts of the world; from Egypt, Syria, Cyprus, Crete, and Sicily."