46 LIFE IN THE FAR WEST. 



representing the mental and corporeal qualities which were sup' 

 posed to characterize the braves to whom they belonged. 



From the center lodge, two or three "medicine men," fantas- 

 tically attired in the skins of wolves and bears, and bearing long 

 peeled wands of cherry in their hands, occasionally emerged to 

 tend a very small fire which they had kindled in the center of 

 the open space ; and, when a thin column of smoke arose, one of 

 them planted the scalp-pole obliquely across the fire. Squaws in 

 robes of white dressed buckskin, garnished with beads and por- 

 cupines' quills, and their faces painted bright 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, 

 excitement and curiosity. 



Presently the braves and warriors made their appearance, 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 in- 

 strument a hoUoAV, monotonous sound. A bevy of women, shoul- 

 der to shoulder, then advanced from the four sides of the square, 

 and some, shaking a rattle-drum in time with their steps, com- 

 menced 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 utmost extent 

 of their voices— -now dying away, and again bursting into vocifer- 

 ous measure. Thus they advanced to the center and retreated 

 to their former positions ; when six squaws, with their faces paint- 

 ed 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, 

 tl.eir melancholy note changed to the music (to them) of gratified 

 revenge. In a succession of jumps, raising the feet alternately 



