THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 407 

 METHOD OF CRADLING AND CARRYING CHILDREN. 



In 1835, at the Falls of Saint Anthony, Mr. Catlin was with the Mis- 

 sissippi Sioux. 



Many of the customs of these people create great surprise in the minds of the 

 travelers of the East, who here have the first satisfactory opportunity of seeing 

 them ; and none, I observe, has created more surprise, and pleasure also, particularly 

 amongst the ladies, than the mode of carrying their infants, slung on their backs, in 

 their beautifully ornamented cradles. 



The custom of carrying the child thus is not peculiar to this tribe, but belongs alike 

 to all, as far as I have yet visited them ; and also as far as I have been able to learn 

 from travelers who have been amongst tribes that I have not yet seen. The child 

 in its earliest infancy has its back lashed to a straight board, being fastened to it by 

 bandages, which pass around it in front, and on the back of the board they are tight- 

 ened to the necessary degree by lacing strings, which hold it in a straight and healthy 

 position, with its feet resting on a broad hoop, which passes around the foot of the 

 cradle, and the child's position (as it rides about on its mother's back, supported by 

 a broad strap that passes across her forehead), that of standing erect, which, no 

 doubt, has a tendency to produce straight limbs, sound lungs, and long life. 



In plate 232, letter d, is a correct drawing of a Sioux cradle, which is in my collec- 

 tion, and was purchased from a Sioux woman's back, as she was carrying her infant 

 in it, as is seen in letter d, of the same plate. 



In this instance, as is often the case, the bandages that pass around the cradle, 

 holding the child in, are all the way covered with a beautiful embroidery of porcupine 

 quills, with ingenious figures of horses, men, &c. A broad hoop of elastic wood passes 

 around in front of the child's face, to protect it in case of a fall, from the front of 

 which is suspended a little toy of exquisite embroidery, for the child to handle and 

 amuse itself with. To this and other little trinkets hanging in front of it there are 

 attached many little tinseled and tinkling things, of the brightest colors, to amuse 

 both the eyes and the ears of the child. Whilst traveling on horseback, the arms of 

 the child are fastened under the bandages, so as not to be endangered if the cradle 

 falls ; and when at rest, they are genorally taken out, allowing the infant to reach 

 and amuse itself with the little toys and trinkets that are placed before it, and within 

 its reach. This seems like a cruel mode, but I am inclined to believe that it is a very 

 good one for the people who use it, and well adapted to the circumstances under 

 which they live ; in support of which opinion, I offer the universality of the custom, 

 which has been practiced for centuries amongst all the tribes of North America, as a 

 legitimate and a very strong reason. 



It is not true that amongst all the tribes the cradle will be found as much orna- 

 mental as in the present instance but the model is essentially the same, as well as the 

 mode of carrying it. 



Along the frontiers, where the Indians have been ridiculed for the custom, as they 

 are for everything that is not civil about them, they have in many instances departed 

 from it ; but even there, they will generally be seen lugging their child about in this 

 way, when they have abandoned almost every other native custom, and are too poor 

 to cover it with more than rags and strings, which fasten it to its cradle. 



The infant is carried in this manner until it is five, six, or seven months old, after 

 which it is carried on the back' in the manner represented in two of the figures of the 

 same plate and held within the folds of the robe or blanket. 



The modes of carrying the infant when riding are also here shown, and the manner 

 in which the women ride, which, amongst all the tribes, is astride, in the same man- 

 ner as that practiced by the men. 



Letter &, in the same plate, is a mourning cradle, and opens to the view of the 

 reader another very curious and interesting custom. If the infant dies during the 

 time that is allotted to it to be carried in this cradle, it is buried, and the disconsolate 



