Maximilian then referred briefly to the creation myth of the people with whom he was then resting. The entire surface was once covered with water. There were two beings: one a man who lived in the far Rocky Mountains who made all; the other was the old woman called grandmother by the members of the tribe. "She gave the Manitaries a couple of pots, which they still preserve as a sacred treasure," and "When their fields are threatened with a great drought they are to celebrate a medicine feast with the old grandmother's pots, in order to beg for rain: this is, properly, the destination of the pots. The medicine men are still paid, on such occasions, to sing for four days together in the huts, while the pots remain filled with water." Such were the superstitious beliefs of these strange people. November 26, 1833, Maximilian, Bodmer, and several others went from Fort Clark to the winter village to attend "a great medicine feast among the Manitaries." They passed the two Mandan towns and during the journey saw a large stone, "undoubtedly one of those isolated blocks of granite which are scattered over the whole prairie, and which the Indians, from some superstitious notion, paint with vermilion, and surround with little sticks, or rods, to which were attached some feathers." The little party had seen much of interest on the way, and it was late in the day when they arrived at the village, "the large huts of which were built so close to each other that it was sometimes difficult to pass between them." Herds of buffalo having been reported in the vicinity of the village, a party of Indians had decided to start after them the following day, and planned "to implore the blessings of heaven upon their undertaking by a great medicine feast." This appears to have been a ceremony arranged by the women of the village. The structure in which the dance took place was not one of the earth-covered lodges of the town, but a rather temporary shelter of unusual shape. As described by Maximilian: "Between the huts, in the centre of the village, an elliptical space, forty paces or more in length, was enclosed in a fence, ten or twelve feet high, consisting of reeds and willow twigs inclining inwards. (See the woodcut.) [Fig. 11.] An entrance was left at _a_; _b_ represents the fence; _d_ are the four fires, burning in the medicine lodge, which were kept up the whole time. At _e_ the elder and principal men had taken their seats; to the right sat the old chief, Lachpitzi-Sihrisch (the yellow bear); some parts of his face were painted red, and a bandage of yellow skin encircled his head. Places were assigned to us on the right hand of the yellow bear. At _f_, close to the fence, the spectators, especially the women, were seated: the men walked about, some of them handsomely dressed, others quite simply; children were seated round the fires, which they kept alive by throwing twigs of willow trees into them." Here follows a description of the