628 THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 



Jim asked, " What have all these poor animals and birds done that they should be 

 shut np to die? They never have murdered anybody; they have not been guilty of 

 stealing, and they owe no money; why should they be kept so and there to die ? " He 

 said it would afford him more pleasure to see one of them let loose and run away over 

 the fields than to see a hundred imprisoned as they were. The doctor took up the 

 gauntlet and reasoned the other way. He said they were altogether the happiest wild 

 animals he ever saw; they were perfectly prevented from destroying each other and had 

 enough to eat as long as they lived, and plenty of white men to wait upon them. He 

 did not see why they should not live as long there as anywhere else, and as happy. He 

 admitted, however, that his heart was sad at the desolate look of the old buffalo bull, 

 which he would liked to have seen turned loose on the prairies. 



The Roman Nose said he heard one of the parrots say " ." " So he did," 



said Jim; " and who could say otherwise, when the doctor poked his ugly face so sud- 

 denly in amongst them? They know how to speak English, and I don't wonder they 



INDIANS' REMARKS ON ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS. 



I here diverted their attention from the jokes they were beginning upon the doctors 

 by asking them how they liked the chickabobboo they got in the gardens, which they re- 

 collected with great pleasure, and which they pronounced to have been very good. Mr. 

 Cross had invited the whole party to a private view, and after showing us, with great 

 politeness, what he had curious, invited us into one of his delightful little refreshment 

 rooms and treated all to cold chickens, pork pies, pastries, and champagne, which the 

 Indians called chickabobboo; and as he did not know the meaning of the word, I related 

 the story of it, which pleased him very much. 



The doctor made some laugh by saying that " he was going over there again in a few 

 days, if he could find some strings long enough, to measure the elephant and the bones 

 of the whale, as he had got the dimensions of the giant man." Jim told him "he had 

 not got the measure of the giant man — he had only measured the giant woman, and get- 

 ting scared, he only half measured her ; and he was so much afraid of women that he 

 didn' t believe he could ever take the measure of one of them correct, if a hundred should 

 stand ever so still for him. ' ' The doctor smiled, and looked at me as if to know if I was 

 going to ask some question again. He was fortunately relieved at that moment, how- 

 ever, by Mr. Melody's question to Jim, "how he liked the looks of the hyenas, and 

 whether he would like him to buy one to carry home with him ? ' ' Jim rolled over on 

 to his back, and drew his knees up (the only position in which he could "think fast," 

 as he expressed it; evidently a peculiarity with him, and a position, ungraceful as it was, 

 which it was absolutely necessary for him to assume, if he was going to tell a story well, 

 or to make a speech) ; and after thinking much more profoundly than it required to an- 

 swer so simple a question, replied, ' ' Very well, very well, ' ' and kept thinking on. The 

 Little Wolf, who was lying by his side, asked him " what he was troubled about? — he 

 seemed to be thinking very strong. ' ' Jim replied to this, that ' ' he was thinking a great 

 way, and he had to think hard. ' ' 



JIM'S TALK WITH A CLERGYMAN. 



He said that when he was looking at the hyenas he said to Jeffrey that he thought 

 they were the wickedest looking animals he ever saw, and that he believed they would 

 go to hell; but that the gentleman who came to the garden with Mr. Melodyf said to 

 him, " No, my friend, none but the animals that laugh and cry can go to heaven or to 

 hell." He said that this gentleman then wanted to know how he had heard of hell, 

 and what idea he had of it. He said he told Jeffrey to say to him that some white men 



♦No Indian language in America affords the power of swearing, not being sufficiently rich and 

 refined, 

 t The reverend gentleman. 



