362 THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 



greese, took instantly a different hue. He seemed heart-broken at tliis signal disgrace, 

 and commenced crying most veliemently, when a Vinstant, another caught his wand 

 from his hand and broke it across her knee. It was snatched for by others, who broke 

 it still into bits, and then threw them at him. His power was now gone, his bodily 

 strength was exhausted, and he made a bolt for the prairie; he dashed through the 

 crowd and made his way through the piquets on the back part of the village, where 

 were i^laced for the puri^ose an hundred or more women and girls, who escorted him as 

 he ran on the prairie for half a mile or more, beating him with sticks and stones, and 

 dirt, and kicks, and cuffs, until he was at length seen escaping from their clutches, 

 and making the best of his retreat over the prairie bluffs, from whence he first ap- 

 peared. 



MOEAL OF THE APrEARANCE OF O-KEE-HEE-DE (THE EVIL SPIPax). 



At the moment of this signal v^ictory, and when all eyes lost sight of him as he dis- 

 appeared over the bluffs, the whole village united their voices in shouts of satisfac- 

 tion. The bull-dance then stoi^ped and preparations were instantly made for the com- 

 mencement of the cruelties which were to take place within the lodge, leaving us to 

 draw, from what had just trans]3ired, the following beautiful moral : 



That in the midst of their religious ceremonies, the Evil Spirit (O-kee-hee-de)made 

 his entree for the purpose of doing mischief, and of disturbing their worship ; that 

 he was held in check and defeated by the superior influence and virtue of the medi- 

 cine-pipe, and at last driven in disgrace out of the village by the very part of the 

 community whom he came to abuse. 



infliction op cruelties in the medicine lodge— pohk-hong (the cutting 



scene). 



At the close of this exciting scene, preparations were made, as above stated, by 

 the return of the master of ceremonies and musicians to the medicine lodge, where 

 also were admitted at the same time a number of men who were to be instruments 

 of the cruelties to be inflicted ; and also the chief and doctors of the tribe, who were 

 to look on, and bear witness to and decide upon the comparative degree of fortitude 

 with which the young men sustain themselves in this most extreme and excruciating 

 ordeal. The chiefs having seated themselves on one side of the lodge, dressed out 

 iu their robes and splendid head-dresses, the band of music seated and arranged them- 

 selves in another part ; and the old master of ceremonies having placed himself in 

 front of a small fire in the center of the lodge, with his big pipe in his hands, and 

 having commenced smoking to the Great Spirit with all possible vehemence for the 

 success of these aspirants, presented the subject for the third picture, which they call 

 pohlc-liong, the cutting scene (No. 506, Plate No. 68). — G. C. 



506. Poiik-hong, the cutting scene. It shows the inside of the medicine lodge, the 

 same as is seen in the first picture (504). Painted in 1832. 

 (Plate No. 68, page 170, vol. 1, Catlin's Eight Years.) 



This is the fourth day of the ceremoniea, in the afternoon. A number of the young men are seen 

 reclining and fasting, as in the first picture ; others of them have been operated upon by the torturers, 

 and taken out of the lodge ; and others yet are seen in the midst of those horrid cruelties. One ifi seen 

 smiling whilst the knife and the splints are passing through his flesh. One is seen hanging by the 

 splints run through the flesh on his shoulders, and drawn up by men on the top of the lodge. Another 

 is seen hung up by the pectorial muscles, with four bufl'alo -skulls attached to splints through the flesh 

 on his arms and legs ; and each is turned round by another with a pole till he faints, and then lie is let 

 down. One is seen as he is lowered to the ground ; and another, who has been let down and got 

 strength enough to crawl to the front part of the lodge, where ho is offering to the G-reat Spirit the 

 little finger of the left hand, by laying it on a buffalo skull, where another chops it ofl" with a hatchet. 

 In the right of the picture are all the chiefs and dignitaries of the tribe looking on. 



