THE MANDAN CHIEF MAH-TO-TOH-PA AND WIFE.
(See [pages 1276], [1286], [1287].)

Such ornaments would at once be torn from them by the indignant warriors of the tribe, and they are forced to content themselves with mountain goat, doe, and ermine skins, swans’ down, porcupine quills, and similar articles—all more beautiful than the sombre eagle quills, bears’ claws, and scalp-locks that mark the brave.

They spend their whole lives in idleness, and do not even join the athletic games of which the Americans are exceedingly fond, but devote their whole energies to the adornment of their persons. They will occupy four of five hours in making their toilets, being fastidious as to the arrangement of every hair of their eyebrows, and trying by the mirror the effect of various expressions of countenance.

Having spent the whole morning in this occupation, they sally out on their horses, seated on white and soft saddles, beautifully ornamented with porcupine quills and ermine, and lounge about the village for an hour or two, displaying their handsome persons to the best advantage. They then saunter, still on horseback, to the place where the young warriors are practising athletic exercises, and watch them for an hour or two, plying all the while their turkey-tail fans. Fatigued with the effort, they lounge home again, turn their horses loose, take some refreshment, smoke a pipe, and fan themselves to sleep.

These men are utterly despised by the warriors, as Mr. Catlin found. He was anxious to procure a portrait of one of these men:—

“Whilst I have been painting, day by day, there have been two or three of these fops continually strutting and taking their attitudes in front of my door, decked out in all their finery, without receiving other information than such as they could discover through the seams and cracks of my cabin. The chiefs, I observed, passed them without notice, and, of course, without inviting them in; and they seemed to figure about my door from day to day in their best dresses and best attitudes, as if in hopes that I would select them as models for my canvas. It was natural that I should do so, for their costume and personal appearance were entirely more beautiful than anything else to be seen in the village.

“My plans were laid, and one day, when I had got through with all of the head men who were willing to sit to be painted, and there were two or three of the chiefs lounging in my room, I stepped to the door, and tapped one of these fellows on the shoulder, who took the hint, evidently well pleased and delighted with the signal and honorable notice I had at length taken of him and his beautiful dress. Readers, you cannot imagine what was the expression of gratitude which beamed forth in this poor fellow’s face, and how high his heart beat with joy and pride at the idea of my selecting him to be immortal alongside of the chiefs and worthies whose portraits he saw ranged around the room; and by which honor he undoubtedly considered himself well paid for two or three weeks of regular painting, and greasing, and dressing, and standing alternately on one leg and the other at the door of my premises.

“Well, I placed him before me, and a canvas on my easel, and chalked him out at full length. He was truly a beautiful subject for the brush, and I was filled with enthusiasm.

“His dress from head to foot was made of the skins of the mountain goat, dressed so neatly that they were almost as soft and white as Canton crape. Around the bottom and the sides it was trimmed with ermine, and porcupine quills of beautiful dyes garnished it in a hundred parts. His hair, which was long and spread over his back and shoulders, extending nearly to the ground, was all combed back, and parted on his forehead like that of a woman. He was a tall and fine figure, with ease and grace in his movements that were worthy of better caste. In his left hand he held a beautiful pipe, in his right hand he plied his fan, and on his wrist was attached his whip of elk-horn and his fly-brush, made of the buffalo’s tail. There was nought about him of the terrible, and nought to shock the finest and chastest intellect.”