

344 THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 



497. Scalping Sioux, showing the mode of taking scalp. Painted in 1832. 



(Plate No. 106, page 240, vol. 1, Catlin's Eight Years. ) 



(See title Manners, Customs, &c., herein, for description, with plate.) 



498. Scalping, Mandans ; " Conqueror conquered." Painted in 1832. 



(No plate.) 



From a story of the Mandans, which took place in front of the Man- 

 dan village. 



499. Wild Horses at Play, Texas, of all colors, like a kennel of hounds. Painted 



in 1834, on First Dragoon Expedition. 



(Plate No. 160, page 59, vol. 21, Catlin's Eight Years.) 



500. Throwing the Lasso, with a noose, which falls over the horse's neck. Painted 



in 1834, on First Dragoon Expedition. 



(Plate No. 161, page 59, vol. 21, Catlin's Eight Years.) 



501. Breaking down the "Wild Horse, with hobbles on his fore feet, and the lasso 



around his under jaw. Painted in 1834, on First Dragoon Expedition. 

 (Plate No. 162, page 59-61, vol. 2, Catlin's Eight Years.) 



MR. CATLIN'S NOTES ON NOS. 499, 500, AND 501, AND ON THE WILD 

 HOESE OF THE COMANCHES. 



The tract of country over which we passed, between the False Washita and this 

 place, is stocked, not only with buffaloes, but with numerous bands of wild horses, 

 many of which we saw every day. There is no other animal on the prairies so wild 

 and so sagacious as the horse, and none other so difficult to come up with. So re- 

 markably keen is their eye that they will generally run 'at the sight' when they 

 are a mile distant, being no doubt able to distinguish the character of the enemy 

 that is approaching when at that distance, and when in motion will seldom stop 

 short of three or four miles. I made many attempts to approach them by stealth when 

 they were grazing and playing their gambols, without ever having been more than 

 once able to succeed. In this instance I left my horse and with my friend Chad- 

 w,ick skulked through a ravine for a couple of miles, until we were at length brought 

 within gun-shot of a fine herd of them, when I used my rjencil for some time, while 

 we were under cover of a little hedge of bushes which effectually screened us from 

 their view. In this herd we saw all the colors, nearly, that can be seen in a kennel 

 of English hounds. Some were milk white, some jet black ; others were sorrel, and 

 bay, and cream color; many were of an iron gray ; and others were pied, containing a 

 variety of colors on the same animal. Their manes were very profuse and hanging 

 in the wildest confusion over their necks and faces, and their long tails swept the 

 the ground. (See Plate 160, No. 499.) 



CREASING A WILD HORSE. 



After we had satisfied our curiosity in looking at these proud and playful animals 

 we agreed that we would try the experiment of ' creasing J one, as it is termed in 

 this country, which is done by shooting them through the gristle on the top of the 

 neck, which stuns them so that they fall and are secured with the hobbles on the 

 feet, after which they rise again without fatal injury. This is a practice often re- 

 sorted to by expert hunters, with good rifles, who are not able to take them in any 

 other way. My friend Joe and I were armed on this occasion each with alight fowl- 

 ing-piece, which have not quite the preciseness in throwing a bullet that a rifle has, 



