THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 611 



and quivers slung, and the choice tints upon their faces almost too carefully arranged 

 to be exposed to the breath of the dilapidating wind, expressed a decided shock when 

 the hour of twelve was mentioned. They smiled, and evidently thought it strange, and 

 that some mistake had been made. Their conjectures were many and curious; some 

 thought it was dinner that was meant instead of breakfast, and others thought so late 

 an hour was fixed that they might get their own breakfasts out of the way and then 

 give the Indians theirs by themselves. I answered, "No, my good fellows, it is just 

 the reverse of this; you are all wrong; it is to breakfast that you are invited, and 

 lest their family, and their friends whom they have invited to meet you, should not 

 have the honor of sitting down and eating with you, they have fixed the hour at twelve 

 o'clock, the time that the great and fashionable people take their breakfasts. You 

 must have your breakfasts at home at the usual hour, and take your usual drive before 

 you go, so you will have plenty of time for all, and be in good humor when you go 

 there, where you will see many fine ladies and be made very happy." 



THE DOCTOR AND WASH-KA-MON-YA. 



My remarks opened a new batch of difficulties to them that I had not apprehended, 

 some of which were exceedingly embarrassing. To wait four hours, and to eat and to 

 ride in the mean time, would be to derange the streaks of paint and also to soil many 

 articles of dress which could not be put on excepting on very particular occasions. To 

 take them off and put them on, and to go through the vexations of the toilet again at 

 eleven o'clock, was what several of the party could submit to and others could not. As 

 to the breakfasts of huge beefsteaks and coffee which was just coming up, I had felt no 

 apprehensions; but when it was on the table I learned that the old doctor and Wash- 

 ka-mon-ya and one or two others of the young men were adhering to a custom of their 

 country, and which in my rusticity (having been seven or eight years out of Indian 

 life) I had at the moment lost sight of. 



It is the habit»in their country, when an Indian is invited to a feast, to go as hungry 

 as he can, so as to be as fashionable as possible, by eating an enormous quantity, and 

 for this purpose the invitations are generally extended some time beforehand, paying 

 the valued compliment to the invited guest of allowing as much time as he can possibly 

 require for starving himself and preparing his stomach by tonics taken in bitter decoc- 

 tions of medicinal herbs. In this case the invitation had only been received the day 

 before, and of course allowed them much less than the usual time to prepare to be fash- 

 ionable. They had, however, received the information just in time for the doctor and 

 Wash-ka-mon-ya and the Roman Nose to avoid the annoyance of their dinners and suppers 

 on that day, and they had now laid themselves aside in further preparation for the feast 

 in which they were to be candidates for the mastery in emptying plates and handling 

 the knife and fork (or knife and fingers), the custom of their country. 



FASTING FOE THE OCCASION. 



In this condition, the doctor particularly was a subject for the freshest amusement, 

 or for the profoundest contemplation. With all his finery and his trinkets on, and his 

 red and yellow paint — with his shield and bow and quiver lying by his side, he was 

 straightened upon his back, with his feet crossed, as he rested in a corner of the room 

 upon his buffalo robe, which was spread upon the floor. His little looking-glass, which 

 was always suspended from his belt, he was holding in his hand, as he was still arrang- 

 ing his beautiful feathers, and contemplating the patches of red and yellow paint, and 

 the tout ensemble of the pigments and copper color with which he was to make a sensa- 

 tion where he was going to feast (as he had been told) with ladies, an occurrence not 

 known in the annals of the Indian country. He had resolved, on hearing the hour was 

 12, not to eat his breakfast (which he said might do for women and children), or to take 

 his usual ride in the bus, that he might not injure his growing appetite, or disturb a 



