coloured tribes, but not for the blacks of Africa, or the mixed progeny of the white and the negro amalgamations, because Dr. Hawks is himself an openly-avowed anti-abolitionist, and so were the greater number of those who formed his admiring and sympathizing audience.

CHAPTER VI.

Mr. Catlin's Museum of Indian Costumes, Weapons, and Paintings.-Course of Lectures on the Indian Tribes.-Names of Indians in Mr. Catlin's Gallery of Portraits.— Hunting Excursions among the Indians.—Skilful Management of the Horse by them. -Indian Games of Amusement.-Dances.-Horrid Character of their War-dances.Scalp-dance of the Sioux Tribe of Indians.-Bloody Scalps of their Enemies suspended by Women.-Dog-dance of the same Tribe.-Heart and Flesh eaten raw.— Flesh of Dogs served as Food at their greatest Festivals.

I HAD an opportunity of hearing much of the Indian tribes during our residence in this city from Mr. Catlin, who had travelled extensively in the "Far West," as the territories beyond the Mississippi are here called; and after a sojourn among the various tribes, from the eastern borders of the United States to the foot of the Rocky Mountains, near the Pacific, had returned to New-York with a collection of more than a hundred portraits of the most remarkable men and women in each tribe, with paintings of their landscape scenery, encampments, villages, hunting-parties, war-dances, religious festivals, games, tortures, and almost every occupation in which they engage; added to which, he had amassed a large collection of their dresses, weapons, and ornaments, which formed altogether the most complete museum of Indian curiosities that had ever, it was thought, been brought together into one spot.

Besides many private interviews with Mr. Catlin, in which he was most agreeably communicative, we attended a course of his lectures, delivered in the Stuyvesant Institute, where the portraits and other paintings were exhibited, and where the dresses, weapons, and ornaments were also shown, accompanied by a short explanation of each. I select a few of the most striking names of the warriors and others whose portraits were exhibited, each in his peculiar costume, and to the accuracy of which, in person and dress, the testimonies were abundant.

Gitch-ee-gau-ga-osh

He who is not afraid.
He who takes away.
The handsome Bird.
The black Hawk.
The running Fox.

The white Cloud (a Prophet).
The whirling Thunder.

He who cannot be thrown down.
Man of good sense.

The Bow and Quiver.
Mountain of Rocks.

Hair of the Bull's neck.

The smoked Shield.

He who fights with a Feather.

He who stands on both sides.
Torn Belly.

No heart.

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The Grisly Bear, that runs without regard.

He who ties his hair before.

The very sweet Man.

He who leaps over every one.
Long Finger Nails.

The broken Pot.

The one sitting in the Clouds.
The Earth standing.

He who sings the War-song.

He who goes far up the river.
The open Door.

He who sits everywhere.

He who walks on the sea.

The point that remains forever.

Wah-chee-hahs-ka (a Boxer) He who puts all out of doors.
Eeh-tou-wees-ka-zelt

He who has eyes behind him.

These were all the names of males, and were generally characteristic of some quality, achievement, or habit of the persons bearing them; this being, no doubt, the origin of names in all countries, and in none more than in England, where the Strongs and the Swifts are very abundant; the Riders and the Walkers are not less so; the Browns and the Blacks, and the Whites and the Greens scattered everywhere; the Swans and the Cocks, the Doves and the Wrens, the Sparrows and the Nightingales, happily mingled and blended with the Foxes and Hares, the Otters and Beavers, the Wolfs and the Bulls; and these again varied with the Salmons, the Sturgeons, the Cods, and the Herrings; while there is no end to the tribes of the Masons, the Tylers, the Carpenters, the Painters, the Taylors, and the Smiths; or to the Butchers, the Bakers, and the Brewers, who follow in their train.

The names given to the female Indians exhibited in this collection of Mr. Catlin's portraits were quite as remarka VOL. I.-K

7

ble, and generally very expressive of feminine softness, as well as of the admiration of the stronger sex. These are a

few:

In the course of his lectures Mr. Catlin related to us many interesting particulars respecting the manners and customs of the various Indian tribes among whom he had sojourned, and of most of these he exhibited pictorial representations, of which the following may be named as among the most remarkable.

In their hunting excursions, where they pursue the wild buffaloes either singly or in herds, they exhibit astonishing proofs of skill and horsemanship. Their aim is so unerring with the arrow that they never fail to pierce their victim; and such is the force as well as skill with which the arrow is sent out from the bow, that instances are not uncommon of their shooting it right through the trunk of a buffalo out on the other side: a fact testified to by many witnesses. The buffaloes being in natural enmity with the grisly bear, attack it wherever they meet; but the white wolves they permit to graze with their herds unmolested. The Indians, knowing this, often cover themselves with skins of the white wolf, previously prepared for the purpose, and under its cover creep towards them on all-fours, without exciting their suspicion, when, being within arrow-range, they draw their bow, and shoot their unsuspecting victim through the heart.

Another method of pursuing and decoying the buffaloes to destruction is thus related by Hinton, and its accuracy was confirmed by Mr. Catlin in all particulars. "The herds of buffaloes wander over the country in search of food, usually led by a bull most remarkable for its strength and fierceness. While feeding they are often scattered over a great extent of country; but when they move in a mass they form a dense and almost impenetrable column, which, once in motion, is scarcely to be impeded. Their line of march is seldom interrupted even by considerable rivers, across

which they swim without fear or hesitation, nearly in the order in which they traverse the plains. When flying be fore their pursuers, it would be in vain for the foremost to halt, or to attempt to obstruct the progress of the main body; as the throng in the rear still rush onward, the leaders must advance, although destruction awaits the movement. The Indians take advantage of this circumstance to destroy great quantities of this their favourite game; and certainly no mode could be resorted to more effectually destructive, nor could a more terrible devastation be produced, than by forcing a numerous herd of these large animals to leap together from the brink of a dreadful precipice upon a rocky and broken surface a hundred feet below. When the Indians determine to destroy a herd of buffaloes in this way, one of their swiftest-footed and most active young men is selected, who is disguised in a buffalo skin, having the head, ears, and horns adjusted to his own head, so as to make the deception very complete; and thus accoutred, he stations himself between the buffalo herd and some of the precipices, which often extend for several miles along the rivers. The Indians surround the herd as nearly as possible; when, at a given signal, they show themselves, and rush forward with loud yells. The animals being alarmed, and seeing no way open but in the direction of the disguised Indian, run to wards him, and he, taking flight, dashes on to the precipice, where he suddenly secures himself in some previously-ascer. tained crevice. The foremost of the herd arrives at the brink; there is no possibility of retreat, no chance of escape; the foremost may for an instant shrink with terror, but the crowd behind, who are terrified by the approaching hunters, rush forward with increasing impetuosity, and the aggregated force hurls them successively from the cliffs, where certain death awaits them."*

In the management of their horses the Indians seem to be as skilful as the Arabs or the Mamelukes of the East. Some pictures were shown to us, in which were delineated Indians of the Camanché tribe hanging over one side of their horses, and shooting their arrows over the saddle towards their enemies, while they were themselves completely sheltered from their attack by the interposing body of the horse covering their whole person, which was coiled or gathered up so as to fill only the space between the hanging stirrup and the upper part of the saddle.

* Hinton's Topography of the United States, 4to, vol. ii., p. 147.

Of their games or amusements the following were the most striking. Playing with the ball for stakes, or sums of money deposited on each side, is very frequent; and so much importance is attached to this game, that on the night previous to its performance four conjurers sit up to smoke to the Great Spirit at the point where the ball is to be started; and, while the stakeholders also sit up to guard the sums deposited, men and women dance around their respective stakes at intervals during the night. At some of these games the bodies of the one party are painted all over with white paint, while those of the other remain of the natural reddishbrown colour, to prevent their being mistaken or confounded.

Besides horse-racing, foot-racing, and course-racing, all of which are common, skill in archery is much cultivated, and with great success. In this they perhaps surpass all people in the world, bringing down single birds while flying at a great height, and shooting fish while darting with great rapidity in their rivers and lakes. In one of these games, the great object of the archers is to see who can accumulate the greatest number of arrows in the air, by the most rapid succession of shooting them, before the first arrow reaches the ground; and if the parties playing at this are numerous, the air becomes literally darkened with the showers of arrows that are sent forth.

Of dances they have a great variety. The "straw dance," among the tribe of the Sioux, consists in making young children dance naked, with burning straws tied to their bodies, to make them tough and brave. Another dance, among the tribes of the Sauks and Foxes, is called the "slave dance," and is performed by a very singular society of Indians, who volunteer to become slaves for two years, on the condition that they may elect their chief or master. Another dance, among the tribe of Ojibbeways, is called the "snow-shoe dance," from its taking place at the first fall of snow in the winter, and being danced in long snow-shoes, almost like small canoes, worn by all the party. The tribe of the Minnatarrees have a dance called "the green-corn dance," where they make an offering of the first-fruits to the Creator by "sacrificing the first kettle-full," to use their own language, "to the Great Spirit." The "buffalo dance" of the Mandans, another tribe, consists of men dressing themselves in the skins of buffaloes, two men erect generally sustaining the skin of one buffalo, placed horizontally above their heads, the sides of the skin falling around them and concealing their persons, and the head