DREAMS. 17 



of various animals, but has no name for "tail" in 

 general; he can speak of sunshine, candle, fire-flame, 

 &c., but "light" is an abstract term which he is 

 unable to grasp. Such is his confusion between a 

 thing and its symbol, that the name of a man is held 

 to be an integral part of himself ; he shrinks from 

 revealing his own, lest the man to whom he imparts 

 it injures him through it ; still more does he recoil 

 from naming the dead, or powers credited with bale- 

 ful influence. He dreads having his portrait taken, 

 feeling that some part of himself has gone in the 

 process ; the better the likeness, the more has " virtue 

 gone out of him." Catlin relates that he caused great 

 commotion among the Sioux by drawing one of their 

 chiefs in profile. " Why was half his face left out ? " 

 they asked ; ' ' Mahtoochega was never ashamed to look 

 a white man in the face." The chief himself did not 

 take offence, but Shonka, the Dog, taunted him, 

 saying, "The Englishman knows that you are but 

 half a man ; he has painted but one-half of your face, 

 and knows that the rest is good for nothing." Which 

 led to a quarrel, and in the end Mahtoochega was 

 shot, the bullet tearing away just that part of the 

 face which Catlin had not drawn. 



We may now more clearly understand how the 

 savage will interpret phenomena of a more complex 

 order, and why he can interpret these only in one way. 

 The phantasies which have flitted across the brain in 

 coherent order or unrelated succession when complete 

 sleep was lacking, leave the traces of their passage on 



