THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 685 



In speaking of the ball in the gardens, "he didn't see anything so very bad in that, 

 but as for the masquerade, he looked upon it as a very immoral thing that so many 

 thousands of ladies should come there and be ashamed to show their faces, and have 

 the privilege of picking out just such men as they liked to go with them, and then 

 take hold of their arms, as he said he repeatedly saw them, and lead them out." 



AN INDIAN CUSTOM. 



Among the Indians, he said, they had a custom much like that, to be sure, but it 

 was only given once a year, and it was then only for the young married men to lend 

 their wives to the old ones. This was only one night in the year, and it was a mark 

 of respect that the young married men were willing to pay to the old warriors and 

 chiefs, and the young married women were willing to agree to it because it pleased 

 their husbands. On those occasions, he said, "none are admitted into the ring but 

 old married men, and then the youug married woman goes around and touches on 

 the left shoulder the one who she wishes to follow her into the bushes, and she does 

 it without being ashamed and obliged to cover her face." 



DEATH OF LITTLE WOLF'S WIFE. 



About this time a very friendly invitation had been given them and us by Colonel 

 Thorn, an American gentleman of great wealth residing in Paris, and all were antici- 

 pating much pleasure on the occasion when we were to dine at his house ; but, un- 

 luckily for the happiness and enjoyment of the whole party, on the morning of the 

 day of our invitation the wife of the Little Wolf suddenly and unexpectedly died. 

 Our engagement to dine was of course broken, and our exhibition and amusements 

 for some days delayed. This sad occurrence threw the party into great distress, but 

 they met the kindness of many sympathising friends, who administered in many 

 ways to their comfort, and joined in attending the poor woman's remains to the grave. 

 Her disease was the consumption of the lungs, and her decline had been rapid, though 

 her death at that time was unexpected. When it was discovered that her symptoms 

 were alarming, a Catholic priest was called in, and she received the baptism a few 

 moments before she breathed her last. Through the kindness of the excellent curd of 

 the Madeleine church, her remains were taken into that splendid temple, and the fun- 

 eral rites performed over them according to the rules of that church, in the presence 

 of some hundreds who were led there by sympathy and curiosity, and from thence her 

 body was taken to the cemetery of Montmartre, and interred. The poor, heart-broken, 

 noble fellow, the Little Wolf, shed the tears of bitterest sorrow to see her, from neces- 

 sity, laid among the rows of the dead in a foreign land ; and on every day that he after- 

 wards spent in Paris he ordered a cab to take him to the grave, that he could cry over it 

 and talk to the departed spirit of his wife, as he was leaving some little offering he 

 had brought with him. This was the second time we had seen him in grief; and we, 

 who had been by him in all his misfortunes, admired the deep affection he showed for 

 his little boy, and now for its mother, and at the same time the manly fortitude with 

 which he met the fate that had been decreed to him. On this sad occasion their good 

 friend M. Vattemare showed his kind sympathy for them, and took upon himself the 

 whole arrangements of her funeral, and did all that was in his power to console and 

 soothe the broken-hearted husband in the time of his affliction. He also proposed to 

 have a suitable and appropriate monument erected over her grave, and for its ac- 

 complishment procured a considerable sum by subscription, with which, I presume, 

 the monument has, ere this, been erected over her remains. The Little Wolf insisted 

 on it that the exhibition should proceed, as the daily expenses were so very great, and 

 in a few days, to give it all the interest it could have, resumed his part in the dance 

 that he had taken before his misfortune. 



RESOLVE TO RETURN TO AMERICA. 



Owing to letters received about this time from their tribe, and the misfortune that 

 had happened, the Indians were now all getting anxious to start for their own country, 



