THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 669 



but it -would be best to say no more about it, tbougb if any of tiio party got sick, to 

 take great care what physicians were called to visit them." 



M. Vattemare, in his kind interest for all parties, here exerted his influence to a 

 little further degree, and persuaded the Indians to believe that those distinguished 

 men, the great philosopher M. Arago and others who were present, would be their 

 warmest friends, but that with these trauscendently great and wise men, their minds 

 and all their time were so engrossed with their profound studies, that they had no 

 time or desire to practice politeness ; that they were the eyes which the public used to 

 look deep into and through all things strange or new that came to Paris ; and that the 

 public wera after that polite and civil, in proportion as those learned men should de- 

 cide that they ought or ought not to be. 



JIM'S FAMOUS SPEECH, 



Jim here took a whiff or two on his pipe, and, turning over on his back and draw- 

 ing up his knees and clasping his hands across his stomach (Plate 17), said: 



"We know very well that the King and the Queen and all the royal family are jjleased 

 with us, and are our friends, and if that is not enough to make us respected we had 

 better go home. We believe that the King is a much greater man, and a much bet- 

 ter man, than any of those we saw there, and better than the whole of them put to- 

 gather. We know that there are many kind people in this great city who will be glad 

 to shake our hands in friendship, and there arc others who would like to get our 

 skins, and we think that we saw some such there to-day. We met some kind people 

 yesterday, where we went to dine; we love those people and do not fear them. If 

 we should get sick they would be kind to us, and we think much more of that kind 

 lady and gentleman than we do of all the great doctors we have seen this day; we 

 hope not to see them any more. This is the wish of the chiefs, and of our wives and 

 little children, who are all alarmed about them." 



OPENING OF EXHIBITION IN PARIS. 



The time had at length arrived for the opening of my collection and the commence- 

 ment of the illustrations of the Indians. It had been for some days announced, and 

 the hour had approached. The visitors were admitted into the rooms where my nu- 

 merous collections of 600 paintings and some thousands of articles of Indian manufact- 

 ures were subjects of new and curious interest to examine until the audience were 

 mostly assembled, when, at a signal, the Indians all entered the room from an ad- 

 joining apartment, advancing to and mounting the idatform, in Indian file, in full 

 dress and paint, and armed and equipped as if for a battle-field. They sounded the 

 war-whoop as they came in, and nothing could exceed the thrill of excitement that 

 ran through the crowd in every part of the hall. There was a rush to see who should 

 get nearest to the platform, and be enabled most closely to scan "Jes saurages liorri- 

 hles," " les Peax Bougcs," ou " les nouvelles Diahlcs h Paris." 



The chief led the party as they entered the room, and, having ascended the plat- 

 form, erected the flag of his tribe in the center, and in a moment the party were all 

 seated around it, and lighting their pipe to take a smoke, whilst I was introducing 

 them and their wives to the audience. This having been done in as brief a time as 

 possible, they finished their pipe and commenced their amusements in I'aris by giving 

 the discovery dance. This curious mode forms a part and the commencement of the 

 war-dance, and is generally led off by one of the war-chiefs, who dances forward alone, 

 pretending to bo skulking and hunting for the track of his enemy, and when ho dis- 

 covers it he beckons on his warriors, who steal into the dance behind him, and follow 

 him up as he advances, and pretends at length to discover the enemy in the distance, 

 ordering all to be ready for the attack. 



SENSATION PRODUCED P.Y THE DOCTOR. 



The Doctor was the one who opened the bal ou this occasion, and it was a proud 

 and important moment for him ; not that the fate of nations unborn, or the success ol 



