THE CATLTN COLLECTION OF INDIAN PAINTINGS. 607 



just such another ark and erected similar poles aDd effigies. The 

 picture of the old village plaza would have done without alteration for 

 that of the new. 



While the youths are starving within, their kindred outside are not 

 idle. They are performing the buffalo dance, a rite rich in Indian 

 symbolism, to insure the increase and preservation of the bison. A 

 most successful dance it was, too, in attaining its object before the in- 

 troduction of powder and ball. This picture represents the dance at 

 the moment of the advent of the evil one, who, painted in black, is 

 seen entering the arena on the left. 



Knowing from observation that in the waxworks the chamber of 

 horrors is the most crowded part of the establishment, and that a fair 

 proportion of the crowd are ladies and children, I have little hesitancy 

 in exhibiting the next picture. What has gone before is but child's 

 play; now we come to the earnest work of the ceremony. 



With this preparation, I now place before you the scene in the med- 

 icine lodge on the fourth day (PI. oxlix). Around the wall in this 

 picture are seen some of the fasting candidates who are waiting for their 

 dread turn to come. Other young men who have passed the ordeal have 

 gone outside to participate in the last dance, which will next be exhib- 

 ited (PL cl). To the right is seen a youth on whom the torturers have 

 just commenced operations. The following is Catlin's description, 

 somewhat condensed, of this portion of the rites. 



An inch or more of the flesh ou each shoulder or each breast was taken up between 

 the thumb and finger, and the knife wbich had been ground sharp ou both edges and 

 then hacked to make it produce as much pain as possible, was forced through the 

 flesh below the fingers, and being withdrawn, was followed with a skewer from the 

 man who held a bunch of such in his left hand and was ready to force them through 

 the wound. There were then two cords lowered from the top of the lodge (by men 

 stationed outside) which were fastened to these splints or skewers, and they instantly 

 began to haul the victim up. He w r as thus raised until he was suspended from the 

 ground, where he rested until a knife and a skewer were passed through the flesh or 

 integuments in a similar manner on each side below the shoulder, below the elbow, on 

 the thigh, and below the knees. 



He was then instantly raised with the cords until the weight of his body was sus- 

 pended by them, and then while the blood was streaming down his limbs the bystand- 

 ers hung upon the splints his shield, bow, quiver, etc., and (in many instances) the 

 skull of a buffalo. When these things were all adjusted he w r as raised higher by the 

 c ords until those weights all swung clear from the ground. In this plight he at once 

 became appalling and frightful to look at. The flesh, to support the weight, was 

 raised six or eight inches by the skewers, and the head sunk forward on the breast or 

 thrown backward in a much more frightful condition. 



The unflinching fortitude with which every one of them bore this part of the tor- 

 ture surpassed credulity ; each one as the knife passed through the flesh sustained an 

 unchangeable countenance, and several of them, seeing me making sketches, beckoned 

 me to look at their faces, which I watched all through this horrid operation without 

 being able to detect anything but the pleasantest smiles as they looked me in the eye, 

 Avhile I could hear the knife rip through the flesh and feel enough of it myself to 

 start involuntary and uncontrollable tears over my cheeks. 



