it? and that he told him he thought there might be such a place for white people--he couldn't tell--but he didn't think the Indians would go to it. He said, the gentleman then asked him why he thought those poor ignorant animals the hyenas would go there? And he replied to him that _Chippehola_[22] said "the hyenas live by digging up the bodies of people after they are buried;" and he therefore thought they were as wicked as the white people, who also dig up the Indians' graves, and scatter their bones about, all along our country;[23] and he thought such white people would go to hell, and ought to go there. He said he also told the gentleman he had heard there were some hells under the city of London, and that he had been invited to go and see them: this, he said, made the gentleman laugh, and there was no more said: that he had begun to think that this gentleman was a _black coat_, but when he saw him laugh, he found out that he was not. "Just the time you were mistaken," said Mr. Melody; "for that gentleman _was_ a clergyman, and you have made a very great fool of yourself." "I will risk all that," said Jim; "I have wanted all the time to make a speech to some of them, but the chiefs wouldn't let me." [21] The reverend gentleman. [22] Mr. Catlin. [23] One of the most violent causes of the Indian's hatred of white men is, that nearly every Indian grave is opened by them on the frontier for their skulls or for the weapons and trinkets buried with them. The pipe, during these conversations, was being handed around, and Jim's prolific mind, while he was "thinking fast" (as he had called it), was now running upon the elephant, and he was anxious to know where it came from. I told him it was from the opposite side of the globe: he could not understand me, and to be more explicit, I told him that the ground we stood upon was part of the surface of the earth, which was round like a ball, and many thousands of miles around; and that these huge animals came from the side exactly opposite to us. I never could exactly believe that Jim, at the moment, doubted my word; but in the richness of his imagination (particularly in his thinking position) he so clearly saw elephants walking underside of the globe, with their backs downwards, without falling, that he broke out into such a flood of laughter, that he was obliged to shut out his thoughts, and roll over upon his hands and knees until the spasms went gradually off. The rest of the group were as incredulous as Jim, but laughed less vehemently; and as it was not a time to lecture further on astronomy, I thought it best to omit it until a better opportunity: merely waiting for Jim's pencil sketch (and no doubt according to his first impression), which he was then drawing, with considerable tact; and with equal wit, proposed I should adopt as my "arms" or _totem_, the globe with an inverted elephant.