THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 331 



jnaining evidence of his quondam greatness), he began in his sober moments to enter- 

 tain and instruct his people by honest and simple narratives of things and scenes he 

 had beheld during his tour to the East but which (unfortunately for him) ; were to 

 them too marvellous and improbable to be believed. He told the gaping multitude, 

 that were constantly gathering about him, of the distance he had traveled; of the as- 

 tonishing number of houses he had seen; of the towns and cities, with all their wealth 

 and splendor; of traveling on steamboats, in stages, and on railroads. He described 

 our forts and seventy-four gun ships which he had visited; their big guns; our 

 great bridges; our great council-house at Washington, and its doings; the curious 

 and wonderful machines in the Patent Office (which he pronounced the greatest medi- 

 cine place he had Been); he described the great war parade which he saw in the city 

 of Now York; the ascent of the balloon from Castle Garden; the numbers of tie 

 white people; the beauty of the white squaws ; their red cheeks, and many thousands 

 of other things, all of which were so much beyond their comprehension that they 

 could not be true,' and ' he must be the very greatest liar in the whole world.' * 



"But he was beginning to acquire a reputation of a different kind. He was de- 

 nominated a medicine-man, and one too of the most extraordinary character, for they 

 deemed him far above the ordinary sort of human beings, whose mind could invent 

 and conjure up for their amusement such an ingenious fabrication of novelty and 

 wonder. He steadily and unostentatiously persisted, however, in this way of enter- 

 taining his friends and his people, though he knew his standing was affected by it. 

 He hadau exhaustless theme to descant upon through the remainder of his life; and 

 he seemed satisfied to lecture all his life for the pleasure which it gave him. 



" So great was his medicine, however, that they began, chiefs and all. to look upon 

 him as a most extraordinary being, and the customary honors and forms began to be 

 applied to him, and the respect shown him that belongs to all men in the Indian 

 country who are distinguished for their medicine or mysteries. In short, when all be- 

 came familiar with the astonishing representations that he made, and with the won- 

 derful alacrity with which * he created them,' he was denominated the very greatest 

 of medicine, and not only that, but the lying medicine. That he should be the 

 greatest of medicine, and that for lying merely, rendered him a prodigy in mysteries 

 that commanded not only respect, but at length (when he was more maturely heard 

 and listened to") admiration, awe, and at last dread and terror, which altogether must 

 needs conspire to rid the world of a monster whose more than human talents must 

 be cut down to less than human measurement. 



" ' Wat ! Monsieur Cataline, dey ' av' not try to kill him ? ' 



" Yes, Ba'tiste, in this way the poor fellow had lived, and been for threo years past 

 continually relating the scenes he had beheld in his tour to the ' Far East, ' until his 

 medicine became so alarmingly great that they were unwilling he should live ; they 

 were disposed to kill him for a wizard. One of the young men of the tribe took the 

 duty upon himself, and, after much perplexity, hit upon the following plan, to wit: 

 He had fully resolved, in conjunction with others who were in the conspiracy, that 

 the medicine of Wi-juu-jon was too great for the ordinary mode, and that he was so 

 great a liar that a rifle bullet would not kill him. While the young man was in this 

 distressing dilemma, vrhich lasted for some weeks, he had a dream one night, which 

 solved all difficulties; and in consequence of which he loitered about the store in the 

 fort, at the mouth of the Yellowstone, until he could procure, by stealth (according 

 to the injunction of his dream), the handle of an iron pot, which he supposed to pos- 

 sess the requisite virtue, and taking it into the woods, he there spent a whole day in 

 straightening and filing it, to fit it into the barrel of his gun ; after which, he made 

 his appearance again in the fort, with his gun under his robe, charged with the pot 

 handle, and getting behind poor Wi-jun-jon, whilst he was talking with the trader 

 placed the muzzle behind his head and blow out his brains ! 



* Most unfortunately for this poor fellow, the other one of his trihe who traveled with him, and 

 could have borne testimony to the truth of his statements, died of the quinsy on his way home. 



