500 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN mSTITUTION, 195 



The first glimpse James gives us of Seymour at work occurred at 

 Cave-in-Rock (30 miles below the Wabash) on May 29, 1819, where 

 the party had spent the night. "Early the next morning," the account 

 reads, "we went to visit the cave, of the entrance to which two views 

 were sketched by Mr. Seymour" (James, 1823, vol. 1, p. 32). On 

 June 6, when they were below Herculaneum on the Mississippi, 

 T. R. Peale noted in his journal that they passed under "the most 

 sublime bluffs of limestone rocks that I ever beheld. Nearly all of the 

 hills on the left shore were walled with these tremendous precipices 

 of from 1 to 300 feet perpendicular, resembling walls and towers, 

 some with bare tops and others capped with grass and shrub- 

 bery. . . . We being obliged to go directly at the foot of these hills, 

 were not able to take many views of them. Mr. Seymour, however, 

 succeeded in getting one or two" (Weese, 1947, p. 158) . None of these 

 sketches can be located. 



The party now proceeded to St. Louis, where they stayed 12 days. 

 From St. Charles, Mo., Seymour set out overland with Say, Jessup, 

 and Peale while the others continued up the Missouri by boat. 

 During this walk across the State of Missouri, there is no mention of 

 any sketches by Seymour. Above Fort Osage the artist found in a 

 Kansa village a subject to be used as his first contribution to the 

 published account. The journalist of the party made an interesting 

 report of this episode : 



Mr. Say's party were kindly received at the village they had left on the preced- 

 ing day. In the evening they had retired to rest in the lodge set apart for their 

 accommodation, when they were alarmed by a party of savages, rushing in 

 armed with bows, arrows and lances, shouting and yelling in a most fiightful 

 manner. The gentlemen of the party had immediate recourse to their arms, but 

 observing that some squaws, who were in the lodge, appeared unmoved, they 

 began to suspect that no molestation to them was intended. The Indians collected 

 around the fire in the centre of the lodge, yelling incessantly ; at length their 

 bowlings assumed something of a measured tone, and they began to accompany 

 their voices with a sort of drum and rattles. After singing for some time, one 

 who appeared to be their leader, struck the post over the fire with his lance, 

 and they all began to dance, keeping very exact time with the music. Each 

 warrior had, besides his arms, and rattles made of strings of deer's hoofs, some 

 part of the intestines of an animal inflated, and inclosing a few small stones, 

 which produced a sound like pebbles in a gourd shell. A^ter dancing round the 

 fire for some time, without appearing to notice the strangers, they departed, 

 raising the same wolfish howl, with which they had entered; but their music 

 and their yelling continued to be heard about the village during the night. 

 [James, 1823, vol. 1, p. 135.] 



This "dog dance," we are told, had been performed for the entertain- 

 ment of the guests. "Mr. Seymour took an opportunity to sketch the 

 attitude and dresses of the principal figures (ibid.) (pi. 2). On 

 publication the plate was incorrectly entitled "War Dance in the 

 Interior of a Konza Lodge." 



