452 THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 



because they are beyond the world's comprehension, or because wc do jjot stoj) to 

 inquire or learn their uses or meaning. 



I find that the principal cause why we underrate and despise the savage is gener- 

 ally because we do not understand him, and the reason Avhy we are ignorant of him 

 and his modes is that we do not stop to investigate ; the world has been too much 

 in the habit of looking upon him as altogether inferior, as a beast, a brute, and un- 

 worthy of more than a passing notice. If they stop long enough to form an acquaint- 

 ance, it is but to take advantage of his ignorance and credulities, to rob him of the 

 wealth and resources of his country, to make him drunk with whisky, and visit him 

 with abuses which in his ignorance he never thought of. By this method his first vis- 

 itors entirely overlook and never understand the meaning of his thousand interesting 

 and characteristic customs, and, at the same time, by changing his native modes and 

 habits of life, blot them out from the view of the inquiring world forever. 



It is from the observance of a thousand little and apparently trivial modes and 

 tricks of Indian life, that the Indian character must be learned; a,ud, in fact, it is 

 just the same with us if the subject were reversed,' excepting that the system of civ- 

 ilized life would furnish ten apparently useless and ridiculous trifles to one which is 

 found in Indian life; and at least twenty to one which are purely nonsensical and 

 unmeaning. 



The civilized world look upon a group of Indians, in their classic dress, with their 

 few and simjjle oddities, all of which have their moral or meaning, and laugh at them 

 excessively, because they are not like ourselves. We ask, ' ' Why do the silly, creatures 

 wear such great bunches of quills on their heads? such loads a,nd streaks of paint 

 upon their bodies, and bear's grease? — abominable!" and a thousand other equally 

 silly questions, without ever stopping to think that nature taught them to do so^ 

 and that they all have some definite importance or meaning, which an Indian could 

 explain to us at once if he were asked and felt disposed to do so ; that each quill in 

 his head stood, in the eyes of his own tribe, as the symbol of an enemy who had 

 fallen by his hand ; that every streak of red paint covered a wound which he had 

 got in honorable cOmbat ; and that the bear's grease with which he carefully anoints 

 his body every morning, from head to foot, cleanses and purifies the body, and pro- 

 tects his skin from the bite of mosquitoes, and at the same time preserves him from 

 colds and coughs which are usually taken through the pores of the skin. 



At the same time an Indian looks among the civilized world, no doubt, with equal 

 if not much greater astonishment at our apparently, as well as really, ridiculous 

 customs and fashions ; but he laughs not, nor ridicules, nor questions — for his natural 

 good sense and good manners forbid him, until he is reclining about the fire-side of his 

 wigwam companions, when he vents forth his just criticisms upon the learned world, 

 who are a rich and just theme for Indian criticism and Indian gossip. 



An Indian will not ask a white man the reason why he does not oil his skin with 

 bear's grease, or why he does not paint his body ; or why he wears a hat on his head, 

 or why he has buttons on the back part of his coat, where they never can be used ; or 

 why he wears whiskers, and a shirt collar up to his eyes ; or why he sleeps with his 

 head towards the fire instead of his feet ; why he walks with his toes out instead of 

 turning them in; or why it is that hundreds of white folks will flock and crowd 

 round a table to see an Indian eat — but he will go home to his wigwam fire-side, and 

 " make the welkin ring " with jokes and fun upon the ignorance and folly of the 

 knowing world. 



A wild Indian thrown into the civilized atmosphere will see a man occasionally 

 moving in society, wearing a cocked hat, and another with a laced coat and gold or 

 silver epaulettes upon his shoulders, without knowing or inquiring the meaning of 

 them or the objects for which they are worn. Just so a white man travels amongst a 

 wild and untaught tribe of Indians, and sees occasionally oue of them parading about 

 their village, with a head-dress of eagles' quills and ermine, and elevated above it a 

 pair of beautifully polished buffalo horns; and just as ignorant is he also of their 



