THE BLACK BEAU. 97 



as the scene was exceedingly interesting, and would have 

 delighted the soul of an artist; for in the same groups 

 could be seen old men and women whose skins were like 

 rumpled parchment, and whose bones were apparently so 

 brittle that any attempt to use them in walking or other 

 exercise would result in an instantaneous breaking, and 

 young bucks and squaws who were ideal representatives 

 of savage strength and beauty. The lurid glare of the 

 fires on their faces; the darkness that reigned about 

 them; the scantiness and tawdriness of their costumes; 

 the mingling of all ages and sexes; and the crunching of 

 bones or tearing of meat between the fingers, made such 

 a scene as could not be witnessed outside the United 

 States, in all probability, and one which even there would 

 be worth travelling far to behold. Although my arm 

 ached badly, I went about among the groups, and enjoyed 

 the romantic strangeness of the picture they presented so 

 much that it was long past midnight ere I retired to rest. 



When the feasting was over, the young braves indulged 

 in rude songs and dances; but the latter were all alike, 

 consisting simply in jumping around in a circle and grunt- 

 ing as if they had a bad stomach-ache. Every dance 

 wound up with a tremendous scream or war-whoop, in 

 which all used the utmost power of their lungs to the 

 best advantage. The squaws and old men looked on with 

 approval at the Terpsichorean evolutions of the warriors, 

 and the latter sometimes gave them a word of encourage- 

 ment, or rated them for not performing a certain dance 

 in a proper manner. Some of the braves related their 

 own great deeds in the hunting-field, or those of their an- 

 cestors on the war-path, during the intervals between the 

 dances, and these were frequently interrupted with the 

 approbative intonations of " navy " by the auditors. When 

 my comrade and myself left the encampment, the orators 

 and Terpsichoreans were under full headway, and, I doubt 

 not, kept up their frolic until morning, as they seemed 

 bent on seeing it out. Their wild cries reached our tent 

 occasionally during the night, aud it was not until day- 



5 



