192 REVIEWS — WANCERtNGS OF AN ARTIST. 



Medicine-man, addressed to his higli miglitiness ; but, at tKe same' 

 'time, he stated that his pride had been wounded, and he had felt ex- 

 tremely mortified at being treated so before so many Indians. Tel- 

 low-cum accompanied the artist to his temporary study, and while 

 he was making a sketch, gave him a r'ecital of much of his priv^ate 

 history, some of the notes of which are of special interest. Much 

 of Mr. Kane's success depended on the universal reputation he 

 acquired as a Grreat Medicine-man from the practice of his art, and 

 the mysterious ideas associated with his life-like portraits, which 

 were regarded as sources of influence for good or evil over the origi- 

 nals, if not indeed a part of themselves. This superstitious estimate 

 of his art manifested itself in various ways. On one occasion he 

 tells us : 



" I visited the lodges of the Eus-a-nich Indians. The chief was very rich, and 

 had eight wives with him. I made him understand, by showing him some 

 sketches, that I wished to take his likeness. This was, however, opposed so vio- 

 lently by his ladies, that I was glad to escape out of reach of their tongues, as 

 they were all chattering together, while he sat like a grand Turk, evidently flat- 

 tered by the interest they showed for his welfare. A few days after I met the 

 chief some distance from his camp and alone, when he willingly consented to let 

 me take his likeness upon my giving him a piece of tobacco." 



Again he tells us of his success in securing the portrait of Shaw- 

 stun, the head chief of the Sinahomas, who attracted his attention 

 first by his pre-eminent ugliness. " He inquired very earnestly," he 

 adds, " if my sketching him would not involve the risk of his dying ; 

 and after I had finished the sketch, and given him a piece of tobacco, 

 he held it up for some moments and said it was a small recompense 

 for risking his life. He followed me afterwards for two or three 

 days, begging of me to destroy the picture ; and at last, to get rid of 

 him, I made a rough copy of it, which I tore up in his presence, pre- 

 tending it was the original." Repeatedly Mr. Kane was indebted 

 for his safety to the superstitious fears which his paintings excited ; 

 and in one case, when an Indian had pursued him for some days and 

 occasioned him great annoyance, he effectually subdued him by the 

 mere threat of taking his likeness. During his stay among the 

 Cowlitz Indians, a tribe of Flat-heads, Mr. Kane painted Caw-wa- 

 cham, a woman of the tribe, with her child under the process of hav- 

 ing its head flattened, and the picture forms one of the most curious 

 illustrations of the present volume. But he adds, '* It was with some 



