THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. ' 137 



to a belief iu the Christian religion, and to au abandonment of the fatal habit of 

 whisky-drinking, which he strenuously represented as the bane that was to, destroy 

 them all if they did not entirely cease to use it. I went on the Sabbath to hear this 

 eloquent man preach, when he had his people assembled in the woods, and although 

 I could not understand his language, I was surprised and pleased with the natural 

 ease and emphasis and gesticulation, which carried their own evidence of the elo- 

 quence of his sermon. 



I was singularly struck with the noble efforts of this champion of the mere remnant 

 of a poisoned race, so strenuously laboring to rescue the remainder of his people from 

 the deadly bane that has been brought among them by enlightened Christians. 

 How far the efforts of this zealous man have succeeded in Christianizing I cannot tell, 

 but it is quite certain that his exemplary and constant endeavors have completely 

 abolished the practice of drinking whisky in his tribe, which alone is a very praise- 

 worthy achievement, and the first and indispensable stop towards all other improve- 

 ments. I was some time amongst these people, and was exceedingly pleased, and 

 surprised also, to witness their sobriety and their peaceable conduct, not having seen 

 an instance of drunkenness or seen or heard of any use made of spirituous liquors 

 whilst I was amongst the tribe. 



It was told to me in the tribe by the traders (though I am afraid to vouch for the 

 whole truth of it), that while a Methodist preacher was soliciting him for permission 

 to preach in his village, the Prophet refused him the privilege, but secretly took him 

 aside and supported him until ho learned from him his creed and his system of teach- 

 ing it to others, when he discharged him and commenced preaching amongst his 

 people himself, pretending to have had an interview with some superhuman mission 

 or inspired personage, ingeniously resolving that if there was any honor or emolu- 

 ment or influence to be gained by the promulgation of it, he might as well have it as 

 another person ; and with this view he commenced preaching and instituted a prayer, 

 which he ingeniously carved on a maple stick of an inch and a half in breadth, in 

 characters somewhat resembling Chinese letters. These sticks, with the prayers on 

 them, he has introduced into every family of the tribe and into the hands of every in- 

 dividual, and as he has necessarily the manufacturing of them all, he sells them at his 

 own price, and has thus added lucre to fame, and in two essential and effective ways 

 augmented his influence in his tribe. Every man, woman, and child in the tribe, so 

 far as I saw them, were in the habit of saying their prayer from this stick when 

 going to bed at night, and also when rising in the morning, which was invariably 

 done by placing the forefinger of the right hand under the upper character until 

 they repeat a sentence or two which it suggests to them, and then slipping it under 

 the next, and the next, and so on, to the bottom of the stick, which altogether re- 

 quired about ten minutes, as it was sung over in a Sort of a chant to the end. 



Many people have called all this an ingenious piece of hypocrisy on the part of the 

 Prophet, and whether it be so or not I cannot decide ; yet one thing I can vouch to 

 be true, that whether his motives and his life be as pure as he pretends or not, his 

 example has done much toward correcting the habits of his people, and has effectu- 

 ally turned their attention from the destructive habits of dissipation and vice to tem- 

 perance and industry in the pursuits of agriculture and the arts. The world may still 

 be unwilling to allow him much credit for this, but I am ready to award him a great 

 deal who can by his influence thus far arrest the miseries of dissipation and the hor- 

 rid deformities of vice in the descending prospects of a nation who have so long had, 

 and still have, the white-skin teachers of vices aud dissipation amongst them. 



241. Ah-ton-we-tuck, the Cock Turkey; repeating his prayer from the stick in his 

 hand, described above. Painted in 1831. 



(Plate No. 186, page 100, vol. 2, Catlin's Eight Years.) 



