394 THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 



medicine of his euemy, both of wLich regulations are strong and violent inducements 

 for liim to fight bravely in battle, the first that he may protect and preserve his med- 

 icine, and the second, in case he has been so unlucky as to lose it, that he may restore 

 it and his reputation also while he is desperately contending for the protection of his 

 community. 



During my travels thus far I have been unable to buy a medicine-bag of an Indian, 

 although I have offered them extravagant prices for them ; and even on the frontier, 

 where they have been induced to abandon the practice, thougli a white man may in- 

 duce an Indian to relinquish his medicine, yet he cannot buy it of him ; the Indian in 

 such case will bury it to please a white man and save it from his sacrilegious touch, 

 and he will linger around the spot and at regular times visit it and pay it his devo- 

 tions as long as he lives. 



These curious appendages to the person or wardrobe of an Indian (Plate IS^r) are 

 sometimes made of the skin of an otter, a beaver, a muskrat, a weazel, a raccoon, a 

 polecat, a snake, a frog, a toad, a bat, a mouse, a mole, a hawk, an eagle, a magpie, 

 or a sparrow ; sometimes of the skin of an animal so large as a wolf, and at others of 

 the skins of the lesser animals, so small that they are hidden under the dress, and 

 very difficult to be found, even if searched for. 



Such, then, is the medicine-bag, such its meaning and importance, and when its 

 owner dies it is placed in his grave and decays with his body. — ^Pages 35-38, Plate 1, 

 Catlin's Eight Years. 



SIOUX SHIELDS, QUIVERS, DRUMS, ETC. 



[Letter from moutli of Teton Eiver, Upper Missouri, 1832.] 



This has been a day for packing and casing a great many of those things whicb I 

 have obtained of the Indians to add to my Mus^e Indienne. I will name a few more, 

 which I have just been handling over, some description of which may be necessary 

 for the reader, in endeavoring to appreciate some of their strange customs and amuse- 

 ments, which I am soon to unfold. In Plate 101|, letters a and &, will be seen the 

 quiver, made of the fawn's skin, and the Sioux shield, made of the skin of the buf- 

 falo's neck, hardened with the glue extracted from the hoofs and joints of the same 

 animal. The process of " smoking the shield" (see No. 477) is a very curious, as well as 

 an important one, in their estimation. For this purpose a young man about to con- 

 struct him a shield digs a hole of 2 feet in depth in the ground, and as large in diam- 

 eter as he designs to m ake his shield. In this he builds a fire, and over it, a few inches 

 higher than the ground, he stretches the rawhide horizontally over the fire, with 

 little pegs driven through holes made near the edges of the skin. This skin is at first 

 twice as large as the size of the required shield ; but having got his particular and 

 best friends (who are invited on the occasion) into a ring to dance and sing around 

 it, and solicit the Great Sj^irit to instill into it the power to protect him harmless 

 against his enemies, he spreads over it the glue, which is rubbed and dried in as the 

 skin is heated, and a second busily drives other and other pegs inside of those in the 

 ground, as they are gradually giving way and being pulled up by the contraction of 

 the skin. By this curious process, which is most dexterously done, the skin is kept 

 tight whilst it contracts to one-half of its size, taking up the glue and increasing in 

 thickness until it is rendered as thick and hard as required (and his friends have 

 pleaded long enough to make it arrow and almost ball proof), when the dance ceases, 

 and the fire is put out. When it is cooled and cut into the shape that he desires, it 

 is often painted with his medicine or totem upon it, the figure of an eagle, an owl, a 

 bufi"alo, or other animal, as the case may be, which he trusts will guard and protect 

 him from harm ; it is then fringed with eagles' quills or other ornaments he may 

 have chosen, and slung with a broad leather strap that crosses his breast. These 

 shields are carried by all the warriors in these regions for their protecti on in battles, 

 which are almost invariably fought from their horses' backs. 



