Adventures of the Ojibbeway and Ioway Indians in England, France, and Belgium; Vol. 2 (of 2): being Notes of Eight Years' Travels and Residence in Europe with his North American Indian CollectionCatlin, George
History
Adventures of the Ojibbeway and Ioway Indians in England, France, and Belgium; Vol. 2 (of 2): being Notes of Eight Years' Travels and Residence in Europe with his North American Indian Collection
Catlin, George
England -- Description and travel; France -- Description and travel; Indians of North America
We were then in the vicinity of the Surrey Theatre, where Mr. Carter,
"the lion-tamer," invited them several times to witness his wonderful
feat of going into the lion's cage. This scene was one of the most
impressive and exciting nature to them, and will probably be as long
recollected by them as the wonders opened to their minds at the
_fountain of chickabobboo_.
The Polytechnic Institution was one I took great pleasure in
accompanying them to; and a scene of much amusement for a numerous
audience as well as amusing and astonishing to themselves, was that
of their descending in the diving-bell. They were at first afraid of
it, but after the Doctor had made a descent with me, and come out
unhurt and unwet, several others went down with Mr. Melody, others with
Jeffrey--the old War-chief with his old friend _Bobasheela_, and so
on, until every one of the party, men, women, and children, went down
and experienced the curious sensation of that (to them) greatest of
_medicine affairs_.
In Vauxhall Gardens the Indians erected their four wig-wams of buffalo
hides, and in darting into and about them during their various games
and amusements, whilst the blue smoke was curling out of their tops,
presented one of the most complete and perfect illustrations of an
Indian encampment that could possibly have been designed. It was _the
thing itself_, and the very men, women, and children living and acting
on a similar green turf, as they do on the prairies of the Missouri.
In the amusements as there given, there was an addition to those which
had been made in _Lord's Cricket-ground_ some weeks before, having in
Vauxhall brought horses in to add, with equestrian exercises, to the
completion of all the modes practised by this tribe. The Ioways, like
most of the Indians of the prairies of America, subsist upon the food
of the buffalo, and kill them from their horses' backs, with their bows
and arrows, while running at full speed. In the same manner they meet
their enemies in battle, in which they carry their shield and lance.
Thus fully equipped, with their own native shields and lances, and
bows, and even the saddles and trappings for their horses, they all
mounted upon their backs, in the midst of their amusements, and dashing
off at full speed, illustrated their modes of drawing the bow as they
drove their arrows into the target, or made their warlike feints at it
with their long lances as they passed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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