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
I explained to the Indians that the lion was the king of beasts--and
they threw tobacco before him as a sacrifice. The hyenas attracted
their attention very much, and the leopards and tigers, of the nature
of all of which I promised to give them some fuller account after we
got home. They met the panther, which they instantly recognized, and
the recognition would seem to have been mutual, from its evident alarm,
evinced by its hissing and showing its teeth. _Jim_ called for the
Doctor "to see his brother," the wolf. The Doctor's _totem_ or _arms_
was the wolf--it was therefore _medicine_ to him. The Doctor advanced
with a smile, and offering it his hand, with a smirk of recognition,
he began, in a low and soft tone, to howl like a wolf. All were quiet
a moment, when the poor animal was led away by the Doctor's "_distant
howlings_," until it raised up its nose, with the most pitiable looks
of imploration for its liberty, and joined him in the chorus. He turned
to us with an exulting smile, but to his "poor imprisoned brother,"
as he called it, with a tear in his eye, and a plug of tobacco in his
hand, which he left by the side of its cage as a _peace-offering_.
The ostrich (of which there was a noble specimen there) and the
kangaroo excited the admiration and lively remarks of the Indians; but
when they met the poor distressed and ragged prisoner, the buffalo
from their own wild and free prairies, their spirits were overshadowed
with an instant gloom; forebodings, perhaps, of their own approaching
destiny. They sighed, and even wept, for this worn veteran, and walked
on. With the bears they would have shaken hands, if they could have
done it, "and embraced them too," said the Little-wolf, "for he had
hugged many a one." They threw tobacco to the rattlesnake, which is
_medicine_ with them, and not to be killed. The joker, _Jim_, made
us white men take off our hats as we passed the beaver, for it was
his relation; and as he had learned a little English, when he heard
the ducks cry "quack," he pointed to them and told the Doctor to go
there--he was called for.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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