THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 723 



grim destruction will visit back those looks upon each other when these wild spirits 

 again are loose and free to breathe and act upon the plains. 



INDIAN OBJECTIONS TO BEING PAINTED — RANK TO PRECEDE. 



Whilst painting the portraits of the chiefs and braves of the Sioux, as described in 

 my last epistle, my painting-room [at the mouth of Teton River, Upper Missouri, 1832] 

 was the continual rendezvous of the worthies of the tribe, and I the "lion of the 

 day," and my art the summum and neplus ultra of mysteries, which engaged the whole 

 conversation of chiefs and sachems, as well as of women and children. I mentioned 

 that I have been obliged to paint them according to rank, as they looked upon the 

 operation as a very great honor, which I, as " a great chief and medicine-man," was 

 conferring on all who sat to me. Fortunate it was for me, however, that the honor 

 was not a sufficient inducement for all to overcome their fears, which often stood in 

 the way of their consenting to be painted; for if all had been willing to undergo the 

 operation, I should have progressed but a very little way in the rank and file of their 

 worthies, and should have had to leave many discontented and (as they would think) 

 neglected. About one in five or eight was willing to be painted, and the rest thought 

 they would be much more sure of "sleeping quiet in their graves" after they were 

 dead if their pictures wore not made. By this lucky difficulty I got great relief, and 

 easily got through with those who were willing, and 'at the same time decided by the 

 chiefs to be worthy of so signal an honor. 



After I had done with the chiefs and braves and proposed to paint a few of the 

 women, I at once got myself into a serious perplexity, being heartily laughed at by 

 the whole tribe, both by men and by women, for my exceeding and (to them) unaccount- 

 able condescension in seriously proposing to paint a woman, conferring on her the 

 same honor that I had done the chiefs and braves. Those whom I had honored were 

 laughed at by hundreds of the jealous, who had been decided unworthy the distinc- 

 tion, and were now amusing themselves with the very enviable honor which the great 

 white medicine-man had conferred especially on them, and was now to confer equally 

 upon the squaws. 



The first reply that I received from those whom I had painted was, that if I was to 

 paint women and children, the sooner I destroyed their pictures the better, for I had 

 represented to them that I wanted their pictures to exhibit to white chiefs, to show 

 who were the most distinguished and worthy of the Sioux, and their women had 

 never taken scalps nor did anything better than make fires and dress skins. I was 

 quite awkward in this dilemma, in explaining to them that I wanted the portraits 

 of the women to hang under those of their husbands, merely to show how their women 

 looked and how they dressed, without saying any more of them. After some consid- 

 erable delay of my operations and much deliberation on the subject through the vil- 

 lage, I succeeded in getting a number of women's portraits, of which the two above 

 introduced are a couple. 



The vanity of these men, after they had agreed to be painted, was beyond all descrip- 

 tion, and far surpassing that which is oftentimes immodest enough in civilized society, 

 where the sitter generally leaves the picture, when it is done, to speak for and to take 

 care of itself, while an Indian often lays down from morning till night in front of his 

 portrait, admiring his own beautiful face, and faithfully guarding it from day to day 

 to save it from accident or harm. 



This watching or guarding their portraits I have observed during all of my travels 

 amongst them as a very curious thing, and in many instances where my colors were 

 not dry and subjected to so many accidents from the crowds who were gathering 

 about them, I have found this peculiar guardianship of essential service to me, re- 

 lieving my mind oftentimes from a great deal of anxiety. 



I was for a long time at a loss for the true cause of so singular a peculiarity, but 

 at last learned that it was owing to their superstitious notion that there may be life 

 to a certain extent in the picture, and that if harm or violence be done to it, it may 



