690 THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 



After reciting this amusing incident, his Majgsty described to me the route v,hich 

 he and his brothers took from Buffalo to the falls of Niagara, and thence on horse- 

 back to Geneva, a small town at the foot of the Seneca Lake, where they sold their 

 horses, and having purchased a small boat, rowed it ninety miles to Ithaca, at the 

 head of the lake. From thence they traveled on foot, Vv^ith their luggage carried 

 on their backs, thirty miles to Tioga, ou the banks of the Susquehanna, where they 

 purchased a canoe from the Indians, and descended in it that romantic and beauti- 

 ful river to a small town called Wilkes Barre, in the valley of Wyoming. 



From thence, with their knapsacks on their backs, they crossed the Wilkes Barro 

 and Pokono Mountains to Easton, and from thence were conveyed in a coach to 

 Philadelphia. 



I here surprised his Majesty a little and his listeners, and seemed to add a fresh 

 interest to his narrative, by informing him that I was a native of Wilkes Barre, in 

 the valley of Wyoming, and that while his Majesty was there I was an infant in my 

 mother's arms, only a few months old. 



He related a number of pleasing recollections of his visit to my native valley, and 

 then gave us an account of an Indian ball-play among the Cherokees and Choctaws, 

 where he saw five or six hundred engaged during the whole day before the game was 

 decided, and he iironounced it one of the most exciting and beautiful scenes he had 

 ever beheld. 



After an hour or so spent in amusing us with the pleasing reminiscences of his wild 

 life in America he ex^pressed a wish to see my collection, and requested me to place 

 it in a large hall in the Louvre for the private view of the royal family, and also ap- 

 pointed a day and an hour when he would be glad to see the Ojibbeway Indians at 

 St. Cloud, and desired me to accompany them. 



From the palace my friend M. Gudin, at the request of the King, proceeded with me 

 to Paris and to the Louvre, with his majesty's command to M. de Caillaux, director of 

 the Louvre, to prepare the Salle de Stance for the reception of my collection, which 

 was ordered to be arranged in it. My return from thence to the Indians with the 

 information that they were to visit the King created a pleasing excitement among 

 them, and, as the reader can easily imagine, great joy and rejoicing. 



A DOG FEAST. 



This was an excitement and a piece of good news to the poor fellows that could not 

 be passed, over without some signal and unusual notice, and the result was that a dog 

 feast was to be the ceremony for the next day. Consequently a dog was i^rocured at 

 an early hour, and, according to the custom of their country, was roasted whole, and 

 when ready was partaken of with a due observance 6f all the forms used in their own 

 country on such occasions, it being strictly a religious ceremony. 



DINNER AT M. GUDIN'S. 



Their good friend M. Gudin appointed another day for the whole party to dine at 

 his house, and having a number of distinguished guests at his table, the scene was a 

 very brilliant and merry one. The orator of the party was the chiet Mauii-gua-daus, 

 though on this occasion the war chief, whose name was Say-say-gon (the Plail Storm), 

 arose at the table and addressed M. Gudin and his lady in a very affectionate manner, 

 thanking them for their kindness to them, who were strangers in Paris and a great 

 way from their homes, and at the same time proposing to give to his friend M. Gudin 

 a new name, saying that whenever the Indians made a new friend whom they Itved 

 very much they liked to call him by a name that had some meaning to it, and he 

 should hereafter call him by the name of Ken-ne-wah-a-min (the Sun that Guides as 

 through the Wilderness). 



There were several gentlemen of high rank and titles present, and all seemed much 

 entertained with the appearance and conduct of the Indians. 



