THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 85 



wliite, with tlie most pleasing symmetry ami propoitiou of features ; with hazel, with 

 gray, and with hlue eyes ; with mildness and sweetness of expression, and excessive 

 modesty of demeanpr, which render them exceedingly pleasing and beautiful. 



Why this diversity of complexion I cannot tell, nor can they themselves account 

 for it. Their traditions, so far as I have yet learned them, afford ns no informa- 

 tion of their having had any knowledge of white men before the visit of Lewis and 

 Clarke, made to their village thirty-three years ago. Since that time there have been 

 but very few visits of white men to this place^ and surely not enough to have changed 

 the complexions and custbms of a nation. And I recollect perfectly well that Gov- 

 ernor Clarke told me, before I started for this place, that I would find the Mandans a 

 strange people and half white. 



The diversity in the color of hair is also equally as great as that in the complex- 

 ion ; for in a numerous group of these people, and more particularly amongst the fe- 

 males, who never take pains to change its natural color, as the men often do, there 

 may be seen every shade and color of hair that can be seen in our own country, with 

 the exception of red or auburn, which is not to be found. 



And there is yet one more strange and unaccountable peculiarity, which can proba- 

 bly be seen nowhere else on earth, nor on any rational grounds accounted for, other 

 than it is a freak or order of Nature, for which she has not seen fit to assign a reason. 

 There are very many of both sexes and of every age, from infancy to manhood and 

 old age, with hair of a bright silvery gray, and in some instances almost perfectly 

 white. 



This singular and eccentric appearance is much oftener seen among the women than 

 it is with the men, for many of the latter who have it seem ashamed of it, and art- 

 fully conceal it, by filling their hair with glue and black and red earth. The women, 

 on the other hand, seem proud of it, and display it often in an almost incredible pro- 

 fusion, which spreads over their shoulders and falls as low as the knee. I have ascer- 

 tained, on a careful inquiry, that about one in ten or twelve of the whole tribe are 

 what the French call "cheveux gris," or grayhairs, and that this strange and unac- 

 countable phenomenon is not the result of disease or habit, but that it is unquestion- 

 ably a hereditary character which runs in families, and indicates no inequality in 

 disposition or intellect ; and by passing this hair through my hands, as I often have, 

 I have found it uniformly to be as coarse and harsh as a horse's mane, differing mate- 

 rially from the hair of other colors, which, amongst the Mandans, is generally as fine 

 and as soft as silk. 



The reader will at once see, by the above facts, that there is enough upon the faces 

 and heads of these people to stamp them peculiar, when he meets them in the heart 

 of this almost boundless wilderness, presenting such diversities of color in the com- 

 plexion and hair, when he knows, from what he has seen and what he has read, that 

 all other primitive tribes known in America are dark copper-colored, with jet black 

 hair. 



From these few facts alone the reader will see that I am amongst a strange and in- 

 teresting people, and kno,w how to pardon me if I lead him through a maze of nov- 

 elty and mysteries to the knowledge of a strange yet kind and hospitable people, 

 whose fat.e, like that of all their race, is sealed ; whose doom is fixed, to live just long 

 enough to be imperfectly known, and then to fall before the fell disease or sword of 

 civilizing devastation. 



The stature of the Mandans is rather below the ordinary size of man, with beautiful 

 symmetry of form and proportion, and wonderful suppleness and elasticity ; they are 

 pleasingly erect and graceful, both in their walk and their attitudes ; and the hair of 

 the men, which generally spreads over their backs, falling down to the hams, and some- 

 times to the ground, is divided into plaits or slabs of two inches in width, and filled 

 with a profusion of glue and red earth or vermilion, at intervals of an inch or two, 

 which becoming very hard, remains in and unchanged from year to year. 



This mode of dressing the hair is curious, and gives to the Mandans the most singular 

 appearance. The hair of the men Is uniformly all laid over from the forehead back- 



