308 THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 



rived about this time, however, and a dance was got up for their amusement ; and it 

 proved to be one of an unusual kind, and interesting to all. Considerable preparation 

 was made for the occasion, and the Indians informed me that if they could get a 

 couple of dogs that were of no use about the garrison they would give us their favor- 

 ite, the Dog dance. The two dogs were soon produced by the officers, and in presence 

 of the whole assemblage of spectators they butchered them and placed their two hearts 

 and livers entire and uncooked on a couple of crotches about as high as a man's 

 face (No. 437). These were then cut into strips, about an inch in width, and left 

 hanging in this condition, with the blood and smoke upon them. A spirited dance 

 then ensued ; and, in a confused manner, every one sung forth his own deeds of 

 bravery in ejaculatory gutturals, which were almost deafening ; and they danced up, 

 two at a time, to the stakes, and after spitting several times upon the liver and hearts 

 caught a piece in their mouths, bit it off, and swallowed it. This was all done with- 

 out losing the step (which was in time to their music), or interrupting the times of 

 their voices. 



Each and every one of them in this wise bit off and swallowed a piece of the livers, 

 until they were demolished, with the exception of the two last pieces hanging on the 

 stakes, which a couple of them carried in their mouths and communicated to the mouths 

 of the two musicians, who swallowed them. This is one of the most valued dances 

 amongst the Sioux, though by no means the most beautiful or most pleasing. The 

 beggar's dance, the discovery dance, and the eagle dance are far more graceful and 

 agreeable. The dog dance is one of distinction, inasmuch as it can only be danced 

 by those who have taken scalps from the enemy's heads, and come forward boasting 

 that they killed their enemy in battle and swallowed a piece of his heart in the same 

 manner. — G. C. 



438. Scalp dance, Sioux; women in the center, holding the scalps on poles, and 

 warriors dancing around, brandishing their war weapons in the most fright- 

 ful manner, and yelping as loud as they can scream. Painted in 1832 at 

 Sioux camp, mouth of Teton River, Upper Missouri. 

 (Plate No. 104, p. 245, vol. 1, Catlin's Eight Years. ) 



SCALP DANCE. 



The Scalp dance (No. 438) is given as a celebration of a victory, and amongst this 

 tribe, as I learned whilst residing with them, danced in the night by the light of 

 their torches and just before retiring to bed. When a war party returns from a war 

 excursion bringing home with them the scalps of their enemies they generally "dance 

 them" for fifteen nights in succession, vaunting forth the most extravagant boasts 

 of their wonderful prowess in war, whilst they brandish their war weapons in their 

 hands. A number of young women are selected to aid (though they do not actually 

 join in the dance) by stepping into the center of the ring and holding up the scalps 

 that have been recently taken whilst the warriors dance (or rather jump) around in 

 a circle, brandishing their weapons, and barking and yelping in the most frightful 

 manner, all jumping on both feet at a time with a simultaneous stamp and blow and 

 thrust of their weapons, with which it would seem as if they were actually cutting 

 and carving each other to pieces. During these frantic leaps, and yelps, and thrusts, 

 every man distorts his face to the utmost of his muscles, darting about his glaring 

 eye-balls and snapping his teeth as if he were ki the heat (and actually breathing 

 through his inflated nostrils the very hissing death) of battle. No description that 

 can be written could ever convey more than a feeble outline of the frightful effects of 

 these scenes enacted in the dead and darkness of night, under the glaring light of 

 their blazing flambeaux ; nor could all the years allotted to mortal man in the least 

 obliterate or deface the vivid impress that one scene of this kind would leave upon 

 his memory. 



