744 THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 



broken with a, sort of sledge-hammer, made of a rounded pebble of horn-stone, set in 

 a twisted withe, holding the stone and forming a, handle. 



The flint, at the indiscriminate blows of the sledge, is broken into a hundred pieces, 

 and such flakes selected as, from the angles of their fracture and thickness, will answer 

 as the basis of an arrow-head; and in the hands of the artisan they are shaped into 

 the beautiful forma and proportions which they desire, and which are to be seen in 

 most of our museums. 



The master workman, seated on the ground, lays one of these flakes on the palm of 

 his left hand, holding it firmly down with two or more fingers of the same hand, and 

 with his right hand, between the thumb and two forefingers, places his chisel (or 

 punch) on the point that is to be broken off; and a co-operator (a striker) sitting in 

 front of him, with a mallet of very hard wood, strikes the chisel (or punch) on the 

 upper end, flaking the flint off on the under side, below each projecting point that is 

 struck. The flint is then turned and chipped in the same manner from the opposite 

 side, and so turned and chipped until the required shape and. dimensions are obtained, 

 all the fractures being made on the palm of the hand. 



In selecting a flake for the arrow-head a nice judgment must be used or the attempt 

 will fail ; a flake with two opposite parallel, or nearly parallel, planes is found, and 

 of the thickness required for the center of the arrow-point. The first chipping reaches 

 near to the center of these planes but without quite breaking it away, and. each chip- 

 ping is shorter and shorter, until the shape and the edge of the arrow-head are formed. 



The yielding elasticity of the palm of the hand enables the chip to come off without 

 breaking the body of the flint, which would be the case if they were broken on a 

 hard substance. These people have no metallic instruments to work with, and the 

 instrument (punch) which they use I was told was a piece of bone ; but on examining 

 it I found it to be a substance much harder, made of the tooth (incisor) of the sperm 

 whale, or sea lion, which are often stranded on the coast of the Pacific. This punch 

 is about six or seven inches in length, and one inch in diameter, with one rounded 

 side and two plane sides ; therefore presenting one acute and two obtuse angles, to 

 suit the points to be broken. 



This operation is very curious, both the holder and the striker singing, and the 

 strokes of the mallet given exactly in time with the music, and with a sharp and re- 

 bounding blow, in which, the Indians tell us, is the great medicine (or mystery) of the 

 operation. 



The bows also of this tribe, as well as the arrow-heads, are made with great skill, 

 either of wood, and covered on the back with sinew or of bone, said to be brought 

 from the sea-coast, and probably from the sperm whale. These weapons, much like 

 those of the Sioux and Comanches, for use on horseback, are short, for convenience 

 of handling, and of great power, generally of two feet and a half in length, and their 

 mode of using them in war and the chase is not surpassed by any Indians on the con- 

 tinent. — "Last Rambles," pages 187 to 190. 



HIS ART. 



Mr. Catlin's art, as shown by tliis collection, bears no relation with 

 the art shown in the series of portraits on ivory now in the posses- 

 sion of his family. As a miniature painter, during the five years of his 

 residence in Philadelphia, from 1824 to 1829, he deservedly ranked 

 high. A miniature on ivory of his wife, in the possession of Miss C. S. 

 Catlin, done about 1830, is of the highest artistic excellence, and of a 

 beautiful woman. 



Mr. Catlin, it will be remembered, was entirely self-taught as an 

 artist. 



