44 LIFE IN THE FAR WEST 



red and black, then appeared. These ranged themselves 

 round the outside of the square, the boys and children 

 of all ages, mounted on bare-backed horses, galloping 

 round and round, and screaming with eagerness, excite- 

 ment, and curiosity. 



Presently the braves and warriors made their appear- 

 ance, and squatted round the fire in two circles, those 

 who had been engaged on the expedition being in the 

 first or smaller one. One medicine man sat under the 

 scalp-pole, having a drum between his knees, which he 

 tapped at intervals with his hand, eliciting from the 

 instrument a hollow monotonous sound. A bevy of 

 women, shoulder .to shoulder, then advanced from the 

 four sides of the square, and some, shaking a rattle- 

 drum in time with their steps, commenced a jumping 

 jerking dance, now lifting one foot from the ground, 

 and now rising with both, accompanying the dance with 

 a chant, which swelled from a low whisper to the ut- 

 most extent of their voices now dying away, and again 

 bursting into vociferous measure. Thus they advanced 

 to the centre and retreated to their former positions ; 

 when six squaws, with their faces painted a dead black, 

 made their appearance from the crowd, chanting, in 

 soft and sweet measure, a lament for the braves the 

 nation had lost in the late battle : but soon as they 

 drew near the scalp-pole, their melancholy note changed 

 to the music (to them) of gratified revenge. In a suc- 

 cession of jumps, raising the feet alternately but a little 

 distance from the ground, they made their way, through 

 an interval left in the circle of warriors, to the grim 



