HISTORY OF VERMONT. 187 



All the steps, figures, and motions of the dance, 

 are expressive ; and significant of the business 

 or transaction, it is designed to denote. If war 

 is to be proclaimed, the dance is expressive of 

 the resentment and rage they bear to their ene- 

 mies, and of the "hostile manner, in which they 

 mean to treat them. If a party are going forth 

 against their enemies, the dance of war is to be 

 performed. In tliis, the transactions of the 

 whole campaign are to be expressed. The 

 warriors are represented as departing from their 

 country, entering that of the enemy, surprising 

 and conquering their foes, seizing prisoners, 

 scalping the dead, and returning in triumph to 

 the applause of their country. The performers 

 appear to be agitated with all the natural pas- 

 sions and feelings, that take place in any of 

 these scenes. The caution, the secrecy, the 

 fierceness and cruelty of the warriors, is repre- 

 sented in a natural and animated manner. The 

 whole is designed to excite those passions and 

 feelings in the warrior, which it is designed to 

 represent. And so quick, exact, and dreadful, 

 is the representation, that the uninformed spec- 

 tator is struck with horror, and looks to see the 

 ground covered with mangled limbs, and 

 slaughtered bodies. If peace is made, this is 

 also celebrated by a dance. The ambassadors 

 and the warriors smoke in the same pipe, and 

 join together in the same dance. The dance is 

 adapted to signify that the hatchet is buried, 

 that the blood is all washed away, and that the 

 ghosts of the slain arc appeased, and at rest ; 

 and that both nations are now to live, in all the 

 friendship and familiarity ©f brotlierhoodt- 



