THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 45 



who are less than 6 feet in stature, and very many of them six and a half, and others 

 seven feet. They are at the same time well proportioned in their limbs, and good- 

 looking ; being rather narrow in the shoulders, and, like most all very tall people, a 

 little inclined to stoop ; not throwing the chest out and the head and shoulders back 

 quite as much as the Crows and Mandans, and other tribes amongst %hich I have 

 been familiar. Their movement is graceful and quick ; and in war and the chase I 

 think they are equal to any of the tribes about them. 



This tribe, though living as they long have, near the borders of the civilized com- 

 munity, have studiously rejected everything of civilized customs ; and are uniformly 

 dressed in skius of their own dressing — strictly maintaining their primitive looks 

 and manners, without the slightest appearance of innovations, excepting in the 

 blankets, which have been recently admitted to their use instead of the buffalo robes, 

 which are now getting scarce amongst them. 



The Osages are one of the tribes who shave the head, as I have before described 

 when speaking of the Pawnees and Konzas, and they decorate and paint it with great 

 care and some considerable taste. "There is a peculiarity in the heads of these people 

 which is very striking to the eye of a traveler, atd which I find is produced by arti- 

 ficial means in infancy. Their children, like those of all the other tribes, arcS carried 

 on a board, and slung upon the mother's back* The infants are lashed to the boards, 

 with their backs upon them, apparently in a very uncomfortable condition ; and with 

 the Osages, the head of the child bound down so tight to the board as to force iu 

 the occipital bone, and create an unnatural deficiency on the back part, and conse- 

 quently more than a natural elevation of the top of the head. This custom, they 

 told me, they practiced because "it pressed out a bold and manly appearance in front." 

 This, I think, from observation, to be rather imaginary than real; as I cannot see 

 that they exhibit any extraordinary development in the front ; though they evidently 

 show a striking deficiency on the back part, and also an unnatural elevation on the 

 top of the head, which is no doubt, produced by this custom. The diiference be- 

 tween this mode and the one practiced by the Flathead Indians beyond the Rocky 

 Mountains consists in this, that the Flatheads press the head betiveen two boards ; 

 the one pressing the frontal bone down, while the other is pressing the occipital up, 

 producing the most frightful deformity ; whilst the Osages merely press the occipital 

 iu, and that but to a moderate degree, occasioning but a slight, and in many cases 

 almost immaterial, departure from the symmetry of nature. 



These people, like all those tribes who shave the head, cut and slit the ears very 

 much, aud suspend from them great quantities of wampum and tinsel ornaments. 

 Their necks are generally ornamented also with a profusion of w^ampum and beads ; 

 and as they live in a warm climate, where there is not so much necessity for warm 

 clothing as amongst the more Northern tribes, of whom I have been heretofore speak- 

 ing, their shoulders, arms, and chests are generally naked, and jjainted in a great 

 variety of iiicturesque ways, with silver bauds on the wrists, and oftentimes a pro- 

 fusion of rings on the fingers. They reject whisky and refuse to use it. — 1834, George 

 Catliu, pages 40, 41, 42, vol. 2, Catlin's Eight Years. 



One admirable trait in their character is, however, worthy of remark, viz, their 

 aversion to ardent sxiirits. Such is their abhorrence of the "fire-water," as they term 

 it, that they cannot be induced to drink it. This may be thought strange, but it is 

 nevertheless true. It is generally supposed that all Indians are passionately fond of 

 it, those particularly who are brought more immediately into contact with the whites. 

 We note this fact as an exception to the general rule. 



They possess a great passion for thieving, which they gratify upon every occasion ; 

 and, like the Spartans, they deem it one of the attributes of a great man to pilfer 

 from his neighbor or friend and avoid detection. Any thing placed in their posses- 

 sion they will take the best care of and defend with their lives. When called upon, 

 it will be restored, but the next instant they will steal it, if they can do so without 

 being detected.— J. M. Stanley, 1843. 



