THE GEOEGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 679 



This wonderful place has been described by many travelers, and therefore needs but 

 a passing notice here. This wilderness of tombs, of houses or boxes of the dead, thrown 

 and jumbled together amidst its gloomy cypress groves and thickets, is perhaps one 

 of the most extraordinary scenes of the kind in the world ; beautiful in some respects 

 and absurd and ridiculous in others, it is still one of the wonders of Paris, and all 

 who see the one must needs visit the other. The scene was one peculiarly calcuated to 

 excite and please the Indians. The wild and gloomy and almost endless labyrinths 

 of the little mansions of the dead were pleasing contrasts to their imprisonment within 

 the dry andheated walls of the city; the varied and endless designs that recorded the 

 places and the deeds of the dead were themes of amusement to them, and the subject 

 altogether one that filled their minds with awe, and with admiration of the people 

 who treated their dead with so much respect. 



We wandered an hour through its intricate mazes of cypress, examining the tombs 

 of the rich and the poor so closely and curiously grouped together — a type even in the 

 solitudes of death of the great Babylon in which their days had been numbered and 

 spent. Whilst we were strolling through the endless mazes of this suh rosa city we 

 met an immense concourse of people, evidently bearing the body of some distinguished 

 person to the grave. The pompous display of mourning feathers and fringes, &c., 

 with hired mpurners, was matter of some surprise to the Indians; but when a friend 

 stepped forward to pronounce an eulogium on his character, recounting Lis many 

 virtues and heroic deeds, it reminded the Indians forcibly of the custom of their 

 own country, and they all said they liked to see that. 



We took them to the patched and vandalized tomb of Abelard and Eloisa ; but as 

 there was not time for so long a story, it lost its interest to them. They were evi- 

 dently struck with amazement at the system and beauty of this place, and frbm that 

 moment decided that they liked the French for the care they took of their old soldiers 

 and the dead. 



The poor fellows, the Indians, who were now j)roceediug daily and nightly with 

 their exciting and " astonishing" exhibitions, were becoming so confounded and con- 

 fused with the unaccountable sights and mysteries of Paris, which they were daily 

 visiting, that they began to believe there was no end to the curious and astonishing 

 works of civilized man ; and, instead of being any longer startled with excitement 

 and wonder, decided that it would be better to look at everything else as simple and 

 easy to be made by those that know how, and therefore divested of all further curi- 

 osity. This they told me they had altogether resolved upon; "they had no doubt 

 there were yet many strange things for them to see in Paris, and they would like to 

 follow me to see them all: but they would look with their eyes only half open, and 

 not trouble us with their surprise and their qnestious." 



INDIANS' IDEAS OF THE GUILLOTINE. 



The guillotine, which happened to be in our way, and which they had been prom- 

 ised a sight of, they thought was more like a Mississippi saw-mill than anything else 

 they had seen. It drew a murmur or two when explained to them how the victim 

 was placed, and his head rolled off when the knife fell, but seemed to have little fur- 

 ther effect upon them except when the actual number was mentioned to them whose 

 heads are there severed from their bodies annually, for their crimes committed in the 

 streets and houses of Paris. Our stay before this awful and bloody machine was 

 but short, and of course their remarks were few until they got home, and their dinner 

 was swallowed, and their cMclcahohboo, and, reclining on their buffalo robes, the pipe 

 was passing around. 



Their conversation was then with Daniel, who had been but the day before to see 

 the very same things, and they gained much further information than we did, which 

 he communicated to them. Ho entered in Jim's book, as he had desired, the numbers 

 of the illegitimates and foundlings of Paris, which seemed to be a valuable addition 

 to his estimates of the blessings of civilization; and also the number of annual vie- 



