342 THE GEOEGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 



horn), head chief of the nation, rose in front of the Indian agent, in a very handsome 

 costume, and addressed him thus : 



"My father, I am glad to see yon here to-day; my heart is always glad to see my 

 father when he comes ; our great father who sends him here is very rich, and we are 

 poor. Our friend Mr. McKenzie, who is here, we are also glad to see ; we know him 

 well, and we shall be sorry when he is gone. Our friend who is on your right hand 

 we all know is very rich; and we have heard that he owns the great medicine-canoe ; 

 he is a good man, and a friend to the red man. Our friend the White Medicine, who sil s 

 with you, we did not know ; he came amongst us a stranger, and he has made me very 

 well ; all the women know it, and think it good ; he has done many curious things, 

 and we have all been pleased with him; he has made us much amusement and we 

 know he is great medicine. 



" My father, I hope you will have pity on us ; we are very poor. We offer you to-day, 

 not the best that we have got, for we have x>lenty of good buffalo hump and marrow, 

 but we give you our hearts in this feast; we have killed our faithful dogs to feed 

 you, and the Great Spirit will seal our friendship. I have no more to say." 



After these words he took off his beautiful war-eagle head-dress, his shirt and leg- 

 gins, his necklace of grizzly bears' claws, and his moccasins, and tying them to- 

 gether, laid them gracefully down at the feet of the agent as a. present, and laying 

 a handsome pipe on top of them, he walked around into an adjoining lodge, where he 

 got a buffalo robe to cover his shoulders, and returned to the feast, taking his seat 

 which he had before occupied. 



Major Sanford then rose and made a short speech in reply, thanking him for the 

 valuable present which he had made him, and for the very polite and impressive 

 manner in which it had been done, and sent to the steamer for a quantity of tobacco 

 and other presents, which were given to him in return. After this, and after several 

 others of the chiefs had addressed him in a similar manner, and, like the first, dis- 

 robed themselves and thrown their beautiful costumes at his feet, one of the three 

 men in front deliberately lit a handsome pipe and brought it to Ha-wan-je-tah to 

 smoke. He took it, and after presenting the stem to the north, to the south, to the 

 east, and the west, and then to the sun that was over his head, and pronounced the 

 words, "How ! how ! how !" drew a whiff or two of smoke through it, and holding the 

 bowl of it in one hand and its stem in the other, he then held it to each of our mouths 

 as we successively smoked it ; after which it was passed around through the whole- 

 group, who all smoked through it, or as far as its contents lasted, when another of 

 the three waiters was ready with a second, and at length a third one, in the same 

 way, which lasted through the hands of the whole number of guests. This smoking 

 was conducted with the strictest adherence to exact and established form, and the 

 feast the whole way to the most positive silence. After the pipe is charged and is 

 being lit, until the time that the chief has drawn the smoke through it, it is consid- 

 ered an evil omen for any one to speak ; and if any one break silence in that time, 

 even in a whisper, the pipe is instantly dropped by the chief, and their superstition 

 is such that they would not dare to use it on this occasion, but another one is called 

 for and used in its stead. If there is no accident of the kind during the smoking, the 

 waiters then proceed to distribute the meat, which is soon devoured in the feast. 



lu this case the lids were raised from the kettles, which were all filled with dog's 

 meat alone. It being well cooked, and made into a sort of a stew, sent forth a very 

 savory and pleasing smell, promising to be an acceptable and palatable food. Each 

 of us civilized guests had a large wooden bowl placed before us, with a huge quantity of 

 dogs' flesh floating in a profusion of soup, or rich gravy, with a large spoon resting in 

 the dish, made of the buffalo's horn. In this most difficult and painful dilemma we sat, 

 all of us knowing the solemnity and good feeling in which it was given, and the ab- 

 solute necessity of falling to and devouring a little of it. "We all tasted it a few 

 times, and resigned our dishes, which were quite willingly taken, and passed around 

 with others to every j)art of the group, who all ate heartily of the delicious viands, 

 which were soon dipped out of the kettles and entirely devoured ; after which each 



