THE GEORGE CATLIN JNDIAN GALLERY. 621 



keen, and his lips sounded their music in the ears of Lin-ta. She was lovely, she was 

 the wife of the son of the chief, and like the vine that clings around and through the 

 branches of the oak did she cling to Net-no-qua. They were happy, and many have 

 been the descendants that have sprung from the dreams of the son of Ti-ah-ka and the 

 beautiful Lin-ta (the river-born). 



' ' O-ne-ak'n was the brother of Net-no-qua, and Di-ag-gon was his cousin ; and they were 

 sick; and they sat upon the rock in the cove in the river; and the two sisters of Lin-ta 

 shone as they lifted their graceful forms above the wave, and their beautiful locks spread 

 as they floated on the surface. The two young warriors sighed as they gazed upon them. 

 The two sisters embraced each other as they glided through and above the waves. They 

 rose to full view, and had no shame. The river ' shed no tears, nor did the sparkling 

 waves hang in circles about their swelling hips and pressing knees;' and as they sank, 

 they beckoned the two young warriors, who followed them to their water-bound caves. 

 They stole back in the morning, and were ashamed and sick. Their tongues were not 

 silent, and others went. The two sisters again showed their lovely forms as they glided 

 above the water, and they beckoned all who came to their hidden caves, and all came 

 home in the morning sick and sad, while every morning saw the son of the chief and his 

 river-born Lin-ta calm and bright as the rising sun. Shame and fear they knew not, but 

 all was love and happiness with them; very different were the sisters of Lin-ta, who at 

 length ventured from their caves at night and strolled through the village; they were 

 hidden again at the return of the light. Their caves were the resorts of the young men, 

 but the fair daughters of Lin-ta knew them not. 



"Such was the story of Lin-ta (the river-born); she was the loved of her husband, 

 and the virtuous mother of her children. .Her beautiful sisters were the loved of all 

 men, but had no offspring. They live in their hidden caves to this day, and sometimes 

 in the day as well as in the night are seen walking through the village, though all the 

 Indians call them Chim-ee-gotch-es, that is, cold-bloods, or fish. ' ' 



Jim got a round of applause for his story, though the doctor thought he had left out 

 some of the most essential and funny parts of it. Jim, however, seemed well content 

 with the manner in which it was received, and continued to remark that he and the 

 doctor had come to the conclusion that those beautiful young women that they saw look- 

 ing back at the gentlemen in the streets, as well as those who were standing in front of 

 their windows and bowing to them and kissing their hands every day, must be "fish;" 

 and that in the great village of London, where so much chickabobboo is drunk, there must 

 be a great number of ' 'fish. " And they thought also that some of these they had seen 

 in the Egyptian Hall when they were giving their dances. 



EXPERIMENTS IN MESMERISM. 



Much merriment was produced amongst the Indians about this time by an appoint- 

 ment that had been made to see some experiments in mesmerism, to be performed by a 



Dr. M at the Indians' rooms. The doctor was received at the appointed hour, 



and brought with him a feeble and pale-looking girl of fourteen or fifteen years of age to 

 operate upon. This had taken the Indians rather by surprise, as no one had fully ex- 

 plained the nature of the operations to them. I got Jeffrey, however, to translate to 

 them, as near as he could, the nature of this extraordinary discovery, and the effects it 

 was to produce; and the doors being closed, and the young woman placed in a chair, 

 the mesmeriser commenced his mysterious operations. I had instructed the Indians to 

 remain perfectly still and not to laugh, lest they might hinder the operator, and prevent 

 the desired effect. With one knee upon the floor, in front of her, and placing both of 

 his extended thumbs (with his hands clenched) just in front of her two eyebrows, he 

 looked her steadily in the face. This eccentric position and expression disposed Jim to 

 laugh, and though he covered his huge mouth with his hand, and made no noise, still 

 the irresistible convulsions in his fat sides shook the floor we were standing on; and the 



