THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 315 



but are yet soft and pulpy. In this green state of the corn, it is boiled and dealt out 

 in great profusion to the whole tribe, who feast and surfeit upon it whilst it lasts; 

 rendering thanks to the Great Spirit for the return of this joyful season, which they 

 do by making sacrifices, by dancing, and singing songs of thanksgiving. This joyful 

 occasion is one valued alike, and conducted in a similar manner, by most of the tribes 

 who raise the corn, however remote. they may be from each other. It lasts but for a 

 week or ten days ; being limited to the longest term that the corn remains in this 

 tender and palatable state; during which time all hunting, and all war excursions, 

 and all other avocations, are positively dispensed with; and all join in the most ex- 

 cessive indulgence of gluttony and conviviality that can possibly be conceived. The 

 fields of corn are generally pretty well stripped during this excess, and the poor im- 

 provident Indian thanks the Great Spirit for the indulgence he has had, and is satis- 

 fied to ripen merely the few ears that are necessary for his next year's planting, with- 

 uot reproaching himself for his wanton lavishness, which has laid waste his fine 

 field, and robbed him of the golden harvest, which might have gladdened his heart, 

 with those of his wife and little children, through the cold and dreariness of winter. 



The most remarkable feature of these joyous occasions is the Green-corn dance, 

 which is always given as preparatory to the feast, and by most of the tribes in the. 

 following manner : 



At the usual season, and the time when from outward appearance of the stalks and 

 ears of corn it is supposed to be nearly ready for use, several of the old women who 

 are the owners of fields or patches of corn (for such are the proprietors and cultiva- 

 tors of all crops in Indian countries, the men never turn their hands to such degrading 

 occupations) are delegated by the medicine-men to look at the corn-fields every morn- 

 ing at sun-rise and bring into the council-house, where the kettle is ready, several 

 ears of corn, the husks of which the women are not allowed to break open or even to 

 peep through. The women then are from day to day discharged and the doctors 

 left to decide, until from repeated examinations they come to the decision that it 

 will do ; when they dispatch runners or criers, announcing to every part of the vil- 

 lage or tribe that the Great Spirit has been kind to them, and they must all meet on 

 the next day to return thanks for his goodness. That all must empty their stomachs 

 and prepare for the feast that is approaching. 



On the day appointed by the doctors, the villagers are all assembled, and in the 

 midst of the group a kettle is hung over the fire and filled with the green corn, which 

 is well boiled, to be given to the Great Spirit, as a sacrifice necessary to be made be- 

 fore any one can iudulge the cravings of his appetite. Whilst this first kettleful is 

 boiling, four medicine-men, with a stalk of the corn in one hand and a rattle fshe-she- 

 quoi) in the other, with their bodies painted with white clay, dance around the kettle, 

 chanting a song of thanksgiving to the Great Spirit to whom the offering is to be 

 made. (Plate 75, No. 446.) At the same time a number of warriors are dancing 

 around in a more extended circle, with stalks of the corn in their hands, and joining 

 also in the song of thanksgiving, whilst the villagers are all assembled and looking 

 on. During this scene there is an arrangement of wooden bowls laid upon the 

 ground, in which the feast is to be dealt out, each one having in it a spoon made of 

 the buffalo or mountain-sheep's horn. 



In this wise the dance continues until the doctors decide that the corn is sufficiently 

 boiled ; it then stops for a few moments, and again assumes a different form and a 

 different song, whilst the doctors are placing the ears on a little scaffold of little 

 sticks, which they erect immediately over the fire, where it is entirely consumed, as 

 they join again in the dance around it. 



The fire is then removed, and with it the ashes, which together are buried in the 

 ground, and new fire is originated on the same spot where the old one was, by friction, 

 which is done by a desperate and painful exertion by three ineu seated on the ground, 

 facing each other, and violently drilling the end of a stick iuto a hard block of wood 

 by rolling it between the hands, each one catching it in turn from the others without 

 allowing the motion to stop until smoke, and at last a spark of fire is seen and caught 



