THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 629 



(black-coais) had told amongst his people that there was such a place as hell, very low 

 under the earth, where the wicked would all go and forever be in the fire. He said 

 the gentleman asked him if he believed it? and that he told him he thought there might 

 be such a place for white people — he couldn't tell — but he didn't think the Indians 

 would go to it. He said the gentleman then asked him why he thought those poor 

 ignorant animals the hyenas would go there? And he replied to him that Chlppeliola* 

 said "the hyenas live by digging up the bodies of people after they are buried;" and 

 he therefore thought they were as wicked, as the white people, who also dig up the In- 

 dians' graves, and scatter their bones about all along our country;! and he thought such 

 white people would go to hell, and ought to go there. He said he also told the gentle- 

 man he had heard there were some hells under the city of London, and that he had been, 

 invited to go and see them; this, he said, made the gentleman laugh, and there was no 

 more said; that he had begun to think that this gentleman was a black-coat, but when 

 he saw him laugh he found out that he was not. ' ' Just the time you were mis- 

 taken," said Mr. Melody; "for that gentleman was a clergyman, and you have made a 

 very great fool of yourself" " I will risk all that," said Jim; " I have wanted all the 

 time to make a speech to some of them, but the chiefs wouldn't let me." 



JIM'S NOTIONS OF THE GLOBE. 



The pipe, during these conversations, was being handed around, and Jim's prolific 

 mind, while he was "thinking fast " (as he had called it), was now running upon the 

 elephant, and he was anxious to know where it came from. I told him it was from the 

 opposite side of the globe. He could not understand me, and to be more explicit I told 

 him that the ground we stood upon was part of the surface of the earth, which was 

 round like a ball, and many thousands of miles around; and that these huge animals 

 came Irom the side exactly opposite to us. I never could exactly believe that Jim, at 

 that moment, doubted my word; but in the richness of his imagination (particularly in 

 his thinking position), he so clearly saw elephants walking underside of the globe, with 

 their backs downwards, without falling, that he broke out into such a fiood of laughter 

 that he was obliged to shut out his thoughts, and roll over upon his hands and knees 

 until the spasms went gradually off. The rest of the group were as incredulous as Jim, 

 but laughed less vehemently; and as it was not a time to lecture further on astronomy 

 I thought it best to omit it until a better opportunity, merely waiting for Jim's pencil 

 sketch, and, no doubt, according to his first impression, which he was then drawing with 

 considerable tact; and with equal wit proposed I should adopt as my " arms " or totem 

 the globe with an inverted elephant. 



CHICKABOBBOO. 



ChicJcabobboo, though an Oj ibbeway word, had now become a frequent and favorite 

 theme with them, inasmuch as it was at this time an essential part of their dinners and 

 suppers, and as, in all their drives about town, they were looking into the "gin-palaces " 

 which they were every moment passing, and at the pretty maids who were hopping 

 about and across the streets, in all directions, both night and day, with pitchers of ale 

 in their hands. The elevated positions of the doctor and Jim, as they were alongside 

 the driver of the bus, enabling them, in the narrow streets, to peep into the splendid 

 interior of many of these, as they were brilliantly illuminated and generally gay with 

 bonnets and ribbons, and imagining a great deal of happiness and fun to reign in them, 

 they had several times ventured, very modestly, to suggest to me a wish to look into 

 some of them — " not to drink," as they said, " for they could get enough to drink at 

 home, but to see how they looked and how the people acted there." 



* Mr. Catlin. 



t One oflhc most violent cau.ses of the Indian's hatred of white men is that nearly every Indian 

 grave is opened by them on the frontier for theirskulls or for the weapons and trinkets buried with 

 them. 



