106 NARRATIVE OF A JOURNEY 



After supper was concluded, we sat ourselves down on a 

 buffalo robe at the entrance of the lodge, to see the Indians at 

 their devotions. The whole thirteen were soon collected at the 

 call of one whom they had chosen for their chief, and seated 

 with sober, sedate countenances around a large lire. After 

 remaining in perfect silence for perhaps fifteen minutes, the 

 chief commenced an harangue in a solemn and impressive tone, 

 reminding them of the object for which they were thus assembled, 

 that of worshipping the " Great Spirit who made the light and 

 the darkness, the fire and the water," and assured them that if they 

 offered up their prayers to him with but " one tongue," they 

 would certainly be accepted. He then rose from his squatting 

 position to his knees, and his example was followed by all the 

 others. In this situation he commenced a prayer, consisting of 

 short sentences uttered rapidly but with great apparent fervor, his 

 hands clasped upon his breast, and his eyes cast upwards with a 

 beseeching look towards heaven. At the conclusion of each 

 sentence, a choral response of a few words was made, accom- 

 panied frequently by low moaning. The prayer lasted about 

 twenty minutes. After its conclusion, the chief, still maintainin g 

 the same position of his body and hands, but with his head bent 

 to his breast, commenced a kind of psalm or sacred song, in 

 which the whole company presently joined. The song was a 

 simple expression of a few sounds, no intelligible words being 

 uttered. It resembled the words, Ho-ha-ho-ha-ho-ha-ha-a, com- 

 mencing in a low tone, and gradually swelling to a full, 

 round, and beautifully modulated chorus. During the song, the 

 clasped hands of the worshippers were moved rapidly across the 

 breast, and their bodies swung with great energy to the time of the 

 music. The chief ended the song that he had commenced, by a 

 kind of swelling groan, which was echoed in chorus. It was 

 then taken up by another, and the same routine was gone 



