248 THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 



" We love to go to the pipestone and get apiece for our pipes, but we ask tin- Great 

 Spirit first. If the white men go to it, they will take it out, and not fill up the holes 

 again, and the Great Spirit will he offended. (How ! how ! how !)" 



Another. "My friends, listen to me ! what I am to say will be the truth. (How!) 



" I brought a large piece of the pix^estone and gave it to a white man to make a pipe ; 

 he was our trader, and I wished him to have a good pipe. The next time I went to 

 his store I was unhappy when I saw that stone made into a dish! (Eugh !) 



"This is the way the white men would use the red pipestone if they could get it. 

 Such conduct would offend the Great Spirit, and make a red man's heart sick. 

 (How! how!) 



" Brothers, we do not wish to harm you. If you turn about and go hack you will 

 he well, both you and your horses ; you cannot go forward. (How ! how !) 



" We know that if* you go to the pipestone the Great Spirit looks upon you ; the 

 white people do not think of that. (How! how!) I have no more to say." 



These and a dozen other speeches to the same effect having been pronounced, I re- 

 plied in the following manner : 



" My friends, you have entirely mistaken us ; we are no officers, nor are we sent by 

 any one. The white men do not want the red pipe ; it is not worth their carrying 

 home so far if you were to give it all to them. Another thing, they don't use pipes; 

 they don't know how to smoke them. (How ! how !) 



" My friends, I think as you do, that the Great Spirit has given that place to the 

 red men for their pipes. (How! how! how!) 



"I give you great credit for the course you are taking to preserve and protect it; 

 and I will do as much as any man to keep white men from taking it away from you, 

 (How! how!) 



"But we have started to go and see it ; and we cannot think of heing stopped." 



Another rose (interrupting me) : 



"White men, your words are very smooth ; you have some object in view or yon 

 would not be so determined to go; you have no good design, and the quicker you 

 turn back the better. There is no use of talking any more about it ; if you think best 

 to go, try it ; that's all I have to say. (How ! how !)" 



During this scene the son of Monsieur Le Blanc was standing by, and seeing this man 

 threatening me so hard by putting his fist near my face, he several times stepped up 

 to him, and told him to stand back at a respectful distance, or that he would knock 

 him down. After their speaking was done I made a few remarks, stating that we 

 should go ahead; which we did the next morning, hy saddling our horses and riding 

 oil' through the midst of them, as I have before described. 



Le Blanc told us that these were the most disorderly and treacherous part of the 

 Sioux Nation ; that they had repeatedly threatened his life, and that he expected they 

 would take it. He advised us to go back as they ordered, but we heeded not his ad- 

 vice. 



On our way we were notified at several of their villages which we passed that we 

 must go back, but we proceeded on. — G. C. 



MR. CATLIN'S MUSINGS AT THE QUARRY. 



Thus far have I strolled, within the space of a few weeks, for the purpose of reach- 

 ing classic ground. 



Be not amazed if I have sought, in this distant realm, the Indian muse, for here 

 she dwells and here she must be invoked, nor he offended if my narratives from this 

 moment should savor of poetry or appear like romance. 



If I can catch the inspiration I may sing (or yell) a few epistles from this famed 

 ground before I leave it ; or at least I will prose a few of its leading characteristics 

 and mysterious legends. This place is great, not in history, for there is none of it, 

 but in traditions and stories, of which this Western world is full and rich,. 



"Here (according to their traditions) happened the mysterious birth of the red 



