320 THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 



and we passed on our way without further information of them or their plans than 

 the sketch that I there made (Plate 63), and which I shall preserve and value as one 

 of the most pleasing groups I ever had the pleasure to see. Seated on their buffalo 

 robes, which were spread upon the grass, with their respective weapons lying about 

 them, and lighting their pipes at a little fire which was kindled in the center, the chief 

 or leader of the party, with his arms stacked behind him and his long head-dress of 

 war-eagles' quills and ermine falling down over his back, whilst he sat in a contem- 

 plative and almost desponding mood, was surely one of the most striking and beauti- 

 ful illustrations of a natural hero that I ever looked upon. 



These gallant fellows got safely home to their village, and the numerous expressions 

 of joy for their return which I have this day witnessed have so much fatigued me 

 that I write brief, and close my letter here. — G. C. 



459. Camauchee War Party ; the chief discovering the enemy and urging on his 



men, at sunrise. Painted in 1634. (No plate.) 



460. Religous ceremony. A Sioux, with splints through his flesh, and his body 



hanging to a pole, with his medicine-bag in his hand, looks at the sun 

 from its rising to its setting. A voluntary cruel self-torture, which en- 

 titles him to great respect for the remainder of his life as a medicine or mys- 

 tery man. Painted in 1832 at Sioux camp, mouth of Teton River. 

 (Plate No. 97, page 232, vol. 1, Catlin's Eight Years.) 



Another curious and disgusting scene I witnessed in the after part of the day on 

 which we were honored with the dog feast. In this I took no part, but was suf- 

 ficiently near to it, when standing some rods off, and witnessing the cruel operation. 

 I was called upon by one of the clerks in the establishment to ride up a mile or so, 

 near the banks of the Teton River, in a little plain at the base of the bluffs, where 

 were grouped some fifteen or twenty lodges of the Tinyta-to-ah band, to see a man 

 (as they said) looking at the sun. We found him naked, except his breech-cloth, 

 with splints or skewers run through the flesh on both breasts, leaning back and 

 hanging with the weight of his body to the top of a pole which was fastened in the 

 ground, and to the upper end of which he was fastened by a cord which was tied to 

 the splints. In this position he was leaning back, with nearly the whole weight of 

 his body hanging to the pole, the top of which was bent forward, allowing his body 

 to sink about half way to the ground (Plate No. 460). His feet were still upon the 

 ground, supporting a small part of his weight ; and he held in his left hand his 

 favorite bow, and in his right, with a desperate grip, his medicine-bag. In this con- 

 dition, with the blood trickling down over his body, which was covered with white 

 and yellow clay, and amidst a great crowd who were looking on, sympathizing with 

 and encouraging him, he was hanging, and looking at the sun, without paying the 

 least attention to any one about him. In the group that was reclining around him 

 were several mystery-men, beating their drums and shaking their rattles, and singing 

 as loud as they could yell, to encourage him and strengthen his heart to stand and 

 look at the sun from its rising in the morning till its setting at night ; at which 

 time, if his heart and strength have not failed him, he is cut down, receives the 

 liberal donation of presents (which have been thrown into a pile before him during 

 the day), and also the name and the style of a doctor or medicine-man, which lasts 

 him and insures him respect through life. 



This most extraordinary and cruel custom I never heard of amongst any other 

 tribe, and never saw an instance of it before or after the one I have just named. It 

 is a sort of worship or penance of great cruelty ; disgusting and painful to behold, 

 with only one paliating circumstance about it, which is, that it is a voluntary tort- 

 ure and of very rare occurrence. The poor and ignorant, misguided, and supersti- 

 tious man who undertakes it puts his everlasting reputation at stake upon the issue, 



