THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 201 



which is doue by severing the rim of the ear with a knife, and stretching it down by 

 wearing heavy weights attached to it at times, to elongate it as much as possible, 

 making a large orifice, through Avhich, on parades, &c., they often pass a bunch of 

 arrows or quills and wear them as ornaments. In this instance (which was not an 

 unusual one) the rims of the ears were so extended that they touched the shoulders, 

 making a ring through which the whole hand could easily be passed. 



278.* Kd-te-quavr, The Female Eagle; a fine-looking girl, daughter of the above 

 chief. (See No. 277, Lay-lilw-she-kaw.) 



(See Plate No. 212, page 117, vol. 2, Catlin's Eight Years.) 



Of this picture Mr. Catlin writes : 



The daughter of this old chief (La-Mw-she-kaw, No. 277), Ka-te-qua (The Female 

 Eagle, was an agreeable girl of fifteen years of age, and much thought of by the tribe. 



279. Ten-sqiiat-a-'way, The Open Door; called the "Shawnee Prophet," brother of 

 Tecumseh ; blind in one eye, holding his medicine or mystery fire in one 

 hand, and his ^'sacred string ofheans^' in the other, a great mijsterii-man. 

 (Plate No. 214, page 117, vol. 2, Catlin's Eight Years.) 

 Ten-squa-ta-ivay (The Open Door), called the Sliatvnee PropJiet, is perhaps one 

 of the most remarkable men who has flourished on these frontiers for some time 

 past. This man is brother of the famous Tecumseh, and quite equal in his medicines 

 or mysteries to what his brother was in arms ; he was blind in his left eye, and in 

 his right hand he was holding his medicine fij-e and his sacred string of beans in the 

 other. With these mysteries he made his way through most of the northwestern 

 tribes, enlisting warriors wherever he went to assist Tecumseh in effecting his great 

 scheme of forming a confederacy of all the Indians on the frontier to drive back the 

 whites and defend the Indians' rights, which he told them could never in any other 

 way be protected. His plan was certainly a correct one, if not a very great one, 

 and his brother, the Prophet, exercised his astonishing influence in raising men 

 for him to fight his battles and carry out his plans. For this purpose he started 

 upon an embassy to the various tribes on the Upper Missouri, nearly all of which he 

 visited with astonishing success ; exhibiting his mystery fire, and using his sacred 

 string of beans, which every young man who was willing to go to war was to touch, 

 thereby taking the solemn oath to start when called upon, and not to turn back. 



In this most surprising manner this ingenious" man entered the villages of most of 

 his inveterate enemies, and of others who never had heard of the name of his tribe, 

 and maneuvered in so successful a way as to make his medicines a safe passport for 

 him to all of their villages ; and also the means of enlisting in the different tribes 

 some eight or ten thousand warriors, who had solemnly sworn to return with him on 

 his way back, and to assist in the wars that Tecumseh was to wage against the 

 whites on the frontier. I found, on my visit to the Sioux, to the Puncahs, to the 

 Riccarees, and the Mandans, that he had been there, and even to the Blackfeet ; and 

 everywhere told them of the potency of his mysteries, and assured them that if they 

 allowed the fire to go out in their wigwams, it would prove fatal to them in every 

 case. He carried with him into every wigwam that he visited the image of a dead 

 person of the size of life, which was made ingeniously of some light material, and 

 always kept concealed under bandages of thin white muslin cloths and not to be 

 opened ; of this he made great mystery, and got his recruits to swear by touching a 

 sacred string of white beans, which he had attached to its neck or some other way 

 secreted about it. In this way, by his extraordinary cunning, he had carried terror 

 into the country as far as he went, and had actually enlisted some eight or ten 

 thousand men, who were sworn to follow him home; and in a few days would have 



* Lost or destroyed. 



