280 ON THE FRONTIER. 



The band reseated themselves. The dancers reformed. 

 It was, " As you were/' and " En avant." 



I stopped to see the second dance out, and the third 

 set form my object being to discover if there was any 

 partnership arrangement, whether the same couples danced 

 opposite each other ; but this did not appear to be the 

 case. It all seemed to be an entire matter of chance. The 

 whole performance was gone through, too, without any 

 levity, frolicking, or joking ; and I have no doubt it was to 

 the Indians a serious religious rite and sacrifice, upon the 

 due and thorough performance of which they believed the 

 increase and fruitfulness of the ensuing crop depended. 



One of the ancients of the barrel assured me that the 

 celebration would continue until all were so drunk that 

 none were able to sing or dance; but that there would be 

 plenty of time to get sober in, since no more mescal could 

 be made until the next season. 



The harvest full-moon dance of the Mojave Indians I 

 shall never see again. I am very glad I have seen it. I 

 would not take "a right smart chance of money" not to 

 have seen it. For, the lovely savanna, brilliant with such 

 a moonlight as is only seen in tropical climates the 

 encircling wall of foliage, of densest black where in the 

 shade, but with edges that glowed like burnished silver, 

 and through whose every crevasse gleamed and glinted 

 arrows of light the Rembrandt-looking group beneath the 

 spreading branches of the isolated tree the dancers and 

 the dance formed, taken all in all, a vision apart from 

 every other experience, as utterly separated from the rest of 

 my life as though I had had a peep into another world. 



