folk who had stood at the altar the 

 week before. 



With the assistance of Tom, a 

 very good fellow, we followed the 

 course of the ceremony. The music 

 was never allowed to stop and the 

 braves I forgot to say that they 

 were gaily painted with stripes and 

 spots of yellow, red, black and white 

 principally, over the face and body 

 would dance when the spirit moved 

 them and until they were tired. 

 There were always some of them 

 dancing in a kind of continuous 

 performance. One time Mak-ke-nah, 

 the Master of Ceremonies, came out 

 and made a long speech. He was 

 a scraggly looking old man, and he 

 became much excited, waved his 

 arms about wildly, stamped up and 

 down, fairly howled sometimes 

 looked as though he was making a 

 stump speech, and so he was. Tom 

 gave us a gist of it. He began: 



" Hear, hear listen to Mak-ke-nah 

 the Silver-tongued! All ye of the 

 mighty Nation of Absaroka, Greet- 

 ing." Then he went on to say that his 

 people had been great but were now 

 under the heel of the Whiteman. 



