I now began to attend to some of the ceremonies of what may be called the initiation of warriors, this being the first time I had been on a war-party. For the three first times that a man accompanies a war-party, the customs of the Indians require some peculiar and painful observances from which old warriors may, if they choose, be exempted. The young warrior must constantly paint his face black; must wear a cap, or head dress of some kind; must never precede the older warriors, but follow them, stepping in their tracks. He must never scratch his head, or any other part of his body, with his fingers, but if he is compelled to scratch, he must use a small stick; the vessel he eats or drinks out of, or the knife he uses, must be touched by no other person. In the two last mentioned particulars, the observances of the young warriors are like those the females in some bands use during their earliest periods of menstruation. The young warrior, however long and fatiguing the march, must neither eat, nor drink, nor sit down by day. If he halts for a moment, he must turn his face towards his own country, that the Great Spirit may see that it is his wish to return home again.
At night they observe a certain order in their encampments. If there are bushes where they halt, the camp is enclosed by these stuck into the ground, so as to include a square, or oblong space, with a passage, or door, in one end, which is always that towards the enemy’s country. If there are not bushes, they mark the ground in the same manner, with small sticks, or the stalks of the weeds which grow in the prairie. Near the gate, or entrance to this camp, is the principal chief and the old warriors; next follow in order, according to age and reputation, the younger men. And last of all, in the extreme end of the camp, those with blacked faces, who are making their first excursion. All the warriors, both old and young, sleep with their faces towards their own country, and, on no consideration, however uneasy their position, or however great their fatigue, must make any change of attitude, nor must any two lie upon, or be covered by the same blanket. In their marches, the warriors, if they ever sit down, must not sit upon the naked ground, but must at least have some grass or bushes under them. They must, if possible, avoid wetting their feet, but if they are ever compelled to wade through a swamp, or to cross a stream, they must keep their clothes dry, and whip their legs with bushes or grass when they come out of the water. They must never walk in a beaten path if they can avoid it, but if they cannot at all times, then they must put medicine on their legs, which they carry for that purpose. Any article belonging to any of the party, such as his gun, his blanket, tomahawk, knife, or war club, must not be stepped over by any other person, neither must the legs, hands, or body of any one who is sitting or lying on the ground. Should this rule be inadvertently violated, it is the duty of the one to whom the article stepped over may belong, to seize the other and throw him on the ground, and the latter must suffer himself to be thrown down, even should he be much stronger than the other. The vessels which they carry to eat out of, are commonly small bowls of wood, or of birch bark. They are marked across the middle and the Indians have some mark by which they distinguish the two sides. In going out from home they drink invariably out of one side, and in returning, from the other. When on their way home, and within one day of the village, they suspend all these bowls on trees, or throw them away in the prairie. I should have mentioned that in their encampments at night, the chief who conducts the party sends some of his young men a little distance in advance to prepare what is called Pushkwaw-gumme-genahgun, the piece of cleared ground where the kozau-bun-zichegun, or divination by which the position of the enemy is to be discovered, is to be performed. This spot of cleared ground is prepared by removing the turf from a considerable surface, in form of a parallelogram, and with the hands breaking up the soil, to make it fine and soft, and which is so inclosed with poles that none can step on it. The chief, when he is informed that the place is ready, goes and sits down at the end opposite that of the enemy’s country. Then, after singing and praying, he places before him on the margin of the piece of ground, which may be compared to a bed in a garden, two small roundish stones. After the chief has remained here by himself for some time, entreating the Great Spirit to show him the path in which he ought to lead his young men, a crier goes to him from the camp, and then returning part way, he calls by name some of the principal men, saying, “come smoke.” Others also, if they wish it, who are not called, repair to the chief, and they then examine, by striking a light, the result of the kozau-bun-zichegun. The two stones which the chief placed on the margin of the bed have moved across to the opposite end, and it is from the appearance of the path they have left in passing over the soft ground, that they infer the course they are to pursue.
At this place of divination, the offerings of cloth, beads, and whatever other articles the chief and each man may carry for sacrifice, are exposed during the night on a pole; also, their je-bi-ug, or memorials of their dead friends, which are to be thrown away on the field of battle, or if, possible, thrust into the ripped up bowels of their enemies who may fall in the fight. If a warrior has lost, by death, a favourite child, he carries, if possible, some article of dress, or perhaps some toy, which belonged to the child, or more commonly a lock of his hair which they seek to throw away on the field of battle. The scouts who precede a war party into an enemy’s country, if they happen, in lurking about their lodges, or in their old encampments, to discover any of the toys that have been dropped by the children, such as little bows, or even a piece of a broken arrow, pick it up, and carefully preserve it until they return to the party. Then, if they know of a man who has lost his child, they throw it to him, saying, “your little son is in that place, we saw him playing with the children of our enemies. Will you go and see him?” The bereaved father commonly takes it up, and having looked upon it awhile, falls to crying, and is then ready and eager to go against the enemy. An Indian chief, when he leads out his war party, has no other means of control over the individuals composing it than his personal influence gives him. It is therefore necessary they should have some method of rousing and stimulating themselves to exertion.