OCR Text |
Show 150 WAHKTAGELI, OR THE BIG SOLDIER. neck, and turned back from the forehead. Younger people generally wore it parted, a large lock hanging down on the nose; young men had the upper part of the body only wrapped in their large white or painted buffalo hides. They had long strings of blue and white wampum shells in their ears; some of them wore one, two, or three feathers, which were partly stripped till towards the point. \\ Mr. Bodmer having expressed a wish, immediately on the arrival of the Big Soldier, to paint his portrait at full length, he appeared in his complete state dress. His face was painted red with vermilion, and with short, black, parallel, transverse stripes on the cheeks. On his head he wore long feathers of birds of prey, which were tokens of his warlike exploits, particularly of the enemies he had slain. They were fastened in a horizontal position with strips of red cloth. In his ears he wore long strings of blue glass beads, and, on his breast, suspended from his neck, the great silver medal of the United States. His leather leggins, painted with dark crosses and stripes, were very neatly ornamented with a broad embroidered stripe of yellow, red, and sky-blue figures, consisting of dyed porcupine quills, and his shoes were adorned in the same manner. His buffalo robe was tanned white, and he had his tomahawk or battle-axe in his hand. (See his portrait, which is a striking likeness, in Plate VIII). He appeared to stand very willingly as a |