148 THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 



ermine sTcins, medals, wampum, &,g., are the most valued ; and of these, next to the 

 Bcalp-locks, the most precious, because most difQcult to procure, the claws of that 

 most ferocious and dangerous animal, the grizzly bear, which, like the scalp-locks, 

 are worn as trophies — as proofs that the wearer has vanquished so formidable an 

 enemy. 



With the women. — Who never deal with scalps or grizzly bears, silver and tinsel 

 ornaments for the ears, brooches, wristbands, wampum, and elk's teeth, are the valued 

 ornaments. 



The wampum, which is worn in profuse strings around the necks of each of the 

 women, of a pleasing and graceful effect, is manufactured by their own hands, from 

 fresh- water shells, and valued, from the great labor required to produce it, above all 

 other ornaments about their persons. 



Modes of life. — This, like most of the other tribes, when they are found in their 

 primitive wilduess, live by the chase, following the herds of buffalo and other ani- 

 mals of the prairies, killing them from the backs of their running horses with lances 

 and arrows. Leading wild and hunter lives, and roaming over the undefined bound- 

 aries of their enemies' hunting-grounds, they keep alive ancient feuds, Avhich embroil 

 them in almost constant warfare with the tribes around them. This system, with 

 the other yet more destructive, that of supplying them with rum and whisky, teach- 

 ing them dissipation and its concomitant vices, with the introduction of the small- 

 pox, has recently reduced this brave and warlike tribe from ten or fifteen thousand 

 to their present number of two thousand or less. 



Religion. — The loways, like all the tribes I have visited in America, are decidedly 

 religious, distinctly believing in the existence of a Supreme Being — a great (or good) 

 and an evil spirit, and also in a future existence beyond the grave. Their modes of 

 worshipping the Great Spirit are superstitious, but sincere — by severe modes of pen- 

 ance and sacrifices of various kinds. They have no knowledge of the Christian re- 

 ligion except what has been recently taught them by the missionary efforts being 

 made among them, and, I am glad to learn, with the most pleasing and successful 

 results. 



Weapons, &c. — The weapons used in this tribe, and of which these people have 

 brought many, are very similar to those used in most of the uncivilized tribes of 

 North America, consisting of the bow and arrows, the lance and the javelin, war- 

 clubs, knives, &c., and with these, as a protection in battle, a leathern shield, made 

 of the hide of the buffalo bull, sufficiently thick and hard to arrest an arrow or to 

 turn the blade of a lance. 



Musical instruments. — All American Indians are poor in these, the principal of 

 •which, and the "heel-inspiring" one, is the drum or tambour. This is rudely but 

 ingeniously made by straining a piece of raw hide over a hoop or over the head of a 

 sort of keg, generally made by excavating away the inner part of a log of wood, 

 leaving a thin rim around its sides. In the bottom of this they always have a quan- 

 tity of water, which sends out a remarkably rich and liquid tone. Besides this they 

 use several kinds of rattles and whistles, some of which are for mystery purposes, 

 and others merely for the pleasing and exciting effects they produce in their dances. 



Encampment. — The houses, or wigwams, of these people are tents made of a num- 

 ber of buffalo hides sewed together and raised very neatly upon some twenty or thirty 

 pine poles, of twenty or twenty-five feet in height, crossing each other near the top 

 and forming at the apex an aperture, through which the smoke escapes and the light 

 ia admitted to light the interior. These are ornamented with numerous rude devices, 

 with red and black or blue paint, and form in the group a most wild and curious yet 

 pleasing effect. 



This party have brought with them, and will erect them in their encampment j 

 four of such, brought with all their poles, and all their equipments, and their ap- 

 pearance with their wild inmates are forming a novel and striking effect in the heart 

 of the civilized world. Those tribes who dwell in these skin lodges are in the habit 



