Illustrations of the manners, customs, and condition of the North American Indians : with letters and notes written during eight years of travel and adventure among the wildest and most remarkable tribes now existing ; with 360 engravings, from the author's original paintings . re, in pur-suance of their peculiar customs, or for their own amusement, that I mightstudy and correctly herald them to future ages. I saw so many of their dif-lerent varieties of dances amongst the Sioux, that I should almost be disposedto denominate them the dancing Indians. It would actually seem as ifthey had dances
Illustrations of the manners, customs, and condition of the North American Indians : with letters and notes written during eight years of travel and adventure among the wildest and most remarkable tribes now existing ; with 360 engravings, from the author's original paintings . re, in pur-suance of their peculiar customs, or for their own amusement, that I mightstudy and correctly herald them to future ages. I saw so many of their dif-lerent varieties of dances amongst the Sioux, that I should almost be disposedto denominate them the dancing Indians. It would actually seem as ifthey had dances for every thing. And in so large a village, there wasscarcely an hour in any day or night, but what the beat of the drum couldsomewhere be heard. These dances are almost as various and different in theircharacter as they are numerous—some of them so exceedingly grotesque andlaughable, as to keep the bystanders in an irresistible roar of laughter—othersare calculated to excite his pity, and forcibly appeal to his sympathies, whilstothers disgust, and yet others terrify and alarm him with their frightfulthreats and contortions. All the world have heard of the bear-dance, though I doubt whethermore than a very small proportion have ever seen it; here it is (flate 102). * ^ 245 The Sioux, like all the others of these western tribes, are fond of bears meat,and must have good stores of the bears-grease laid in, to oil their Ion- andglossy locks, as well as the surface of their bodies. And they all like thefine pleasure of a bear hunt, and also a participation in the bear dance,which is given several days in succession, previous to their starting out, andin which they all join in a song to the Bear Spirit; which they think holdssomewhere an invisible existence, and must be consulted and conciliatedbefore they can enter upon their excursion with any prospect of this grotesque and amusing scene, one of the chief medicine-men, placedover his body the entire skin of a bea
Size: 1366px × 1829px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade185, booksubjectindiansofnorthamerica
