THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 631 



two companions outside stopped all further conversation, holding on to their fingers for 

 tens, hundreds, &c. The word chickabobbooag was now so rapidly repeated at times in- 

 side (and oftentimes by both parties at once), that the old chief found the greatest dif- 

 ficulty in keeping his record correct. The parties all kept at their posts and attended 

 strictly to their reckonings until they arrived at Blackwall. They cast up none of their 

 accounts there, but the old chief's record was full — there was no room for another 

 notch. He procured another stick for the returning memorandums, and the route back, 

 being much more prolific and much longer, filled each of the four corners of his new 

 stick, and when it was full he set down the rest of his sum in black marks with a pen- 

 cil and paper which Daniel took from his pocket. 



The reckoning when they got back, and their curious remarks upon the incidents of 

 their ride, were altogether very amusing, and so numerous and discordant were their 

 accounts that there was no final decision agreed upon as to the bets. 



Their results were brought in thus: 



War-chief notches... 446 



Jim oral (doubtful 60)... 432 



Doctor oral... 754 



Average 544 



What route they took I never was able to learn, but such were their accounts as they 

 brought them in; and as it was ascertained that the doctor had been adding to his ac- 

 count all the shops where he 3aw bottles in. the windows, it was decided to be a reason- 

 able calculation that he had brought into the account erroneously: 



Apothecaries and confectioners, say *... 800 



Leaving the average of all together (which was no d jubt very near the thing) chickabobbooags.. 450 



LAST EXHIBITION IN EGYPTIAN HALL. 



The night of this memorable day I had announced as the last night of the Indians at 

 the Egyptian Hall, arrangements having been effected for their exhibitions to be made 

 a few days in Vauxhall Gardens before leaving London for some of the provincial towns. 

 This announcement, of course, brought a dense crowd into the hall, and in it, as usual, 

 the jolly fat dame, and many of my old friends, to take their last gaze at the Indians. 



The amusements were proceeding this evening, as on former occasions, when a sudden 

 excitement was raised in the following manner: 



WAR-CHIEF RECOGNIZES BOBASHEELA. 



In the midst of one of their noisy dances, the war-chief threw himself with a violent 

 jump and a yell of the shrill war-whoop to the corner of the platform where he landed 

 on his feet in a half-crouching position with his eyes and one of his forefingers fixed upon 

 something that attracted his whole attention in a distant part of the crowd. The dance 

 stopped — the eyes of all the Indians, and of course those of most of the crowd, were at- 

 attracted to the same point; the eyes of the old war-chief were standing open and in a 

 full blaze upon the object before him, which nobody could well imagine, from his ex- 

 pression, to be anything less exciting than a huge panther, or a grizzly bear, in the act 

 of springing upon him. After staring awhile, and then shifting his weight upon the 

 other leg, and taking a moment to wink for the relief of his eyes, he resumed the inten- 

 sity of his gaze upon the object before him in the crowd, and was indulging during a 

 minute or two in a dead 3ilence, for the events of twenty or thirty years to run through 

 his mind, when he slowly straightened up to a more confident position, with his eyes 

 relaxed, but still fixed upon their object, when, in an emphatic and ejaculatory tone, he 

 pronounced the bewildering word of Bobasheela ! and repeated it, Bobasheela ? ' ' Yes 

 I'm Bobasheela, my good old fellow ! I knew your voice as soon as you spoke (though 



