360 THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 



and all rest as before, until by the same method they are again called into a similar 

 action. 



The supernumeraries or other characters who play their parts in this grand spec- 

 tacle are numerous and well worth description. By the side of the big canoe (see 

 No. 502) are seen two men with the skins of grizzly bears thrown over them, using 

 the skins as a mask over their heads. These ravenous animals are continually growl- 

 ing and threatening to devour everything before them and interfering with the forms 

 of their religious ceremony. To appease them, the women are continually bringing 

 and placing before them dishes of meat, which are as often snatched up and carried 

 to the prairie by two men whose bodies are painted black and their heads white, 

 whom they call bald eagles, who are darting by them and grasping their food from 

 before them as they pass. These are again chased upon the plains by a hundred or 

 more small boys, who are naked, with their bodies painted yellow and their heads 

 white, whom they call Cabris, or antelopes, who at length get the food away from 

 them and devour it; thereby inculcating (perhaps) the beautiful moral, that by the 

 dispensations of Providence his bountiful gifts will fall at last to the hands of the 

 innocent. 



During the intervals between these dances, all these characters, except those from 

 the medicine-lodge, retire to a wigwam close by, which they use on the occasion also 

 as a sacred place, being occupied exclusively by them while they are at rest, and also 

 for the purpose of painting and ornamenting their bodies for the occasion. 



During each and every one of these dances, the old men who beat upon the sacks 

 and sing are earnestly chanting forth their supplications to the Great Spirit for the 

 continuation of his influence in sending them buffaloes to supply them with food dur- 

 ing the year ; they are administering courage and fortitude to the young men in the 

 lodge by telling them that "the Great Spirit has opened his ears in their behalf ; 

 that the very atmosphere all about them is peace ; that their women and children can 

 hold the mouth of the grizzly bear; that they have evoked, from day to day, O-ke- 

 liee-de (the Evil Spirit) ; that they are still challenging him to come, and yet he has 

 not dared to make his appearance !" 



THE FOURTH DAY CEREMONY, O-KEErHEE-DE (THE EVIL SPIRIT) 



But alas! in the last of these dances, on the fourth day, in the midst of all their 

 mirth and joy, and about noon, and in the height of all these exultations, an instant 

 scream burst forth from the tops of the lodges! — men, woman, dogs and all, seemed 

 actually to howl and shudder with alarm, as they fixed their glaring eye balls upon 

 the prairie bluff, about a mile in the west, down the side of which a man was seen 

 descending at full speed towards the village ! This strange character darted about 

 in a zig-zag course in all directions on the prairie, like a boy in pursuit of a butterfly, 

 until he approached the pickets of the village, when it was dicovered that his body 

 was entirely naked, and painted as black as a negro, with pounded charcoal and 

 bear's grease ; his body was therefore everywhere of a shining black, except occa- 

 sionally white rings of an inch or more in diameter, which were marked here and there 

 all over him; and frightful indentures of white around his mouth, resembling canine 

 teeth. Added to his hideous appearance, he gave the most frightful shrieks and 

 screams as he dashed through the village and entered the terrified group, which was 

 composed (in that quarter) chiefly of females, who had assembled to witness the 

 amusements which were transpiring around the big canoe. 



This unearthly looking creature carried in his two hands a w r and or staff of eight or 

 nine feet in length, with a red ball at the end of it, which he continually slid on 

 the ground ahead of him as he ran. All eyes in the village, save those of the persons 

 engaged in the dance, were centered upon him, and he made a desperate rush towards 

 the women, who screamed for protection as they were endeavoring to retreat, and 

 falling in groups upon each other as they were struggling to get out of his reach. 



