2 THE HUPA. 
ones should forget the fashion thereof, there being then profound peace— 
the peace of a reservation— solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant. This dance 
is performed as follows: First they construct a semicircular wooden railing 
or row of palisades, inside of which the performers take their stations. 
These consist of two maidens, who seem to be priestesses, and about 
twenty-five men, all of them arrayed in all their glory—the maidens in 
fur chemises, with strings of glittering shells around their necks and sus- 
pended in various ways from their shoulders; the men in tasseled deer- 
skin robes, and broad coronets or headbands of the same material, spangled 
with the scarlet scalps of woodpeckers, to the value of scores of dollars 
on each headband. A fire is built on the ground in the center of the semi- 
circle, and the men and maids then take their places, confronted by two, 
three, sometimes four or five hundred spectators. A slow and solemn chant 
is begun in that weird monotone peculiar to the Indians, in which all the 
performers join. The exercise is not properly a dance, but rather resembles 
the strange maneuvers of the howling dervishes of Turkey. They stretch 
out their arms and brandish them in the air; they sway their bodies back- 
ward and forward; they drop suddenly almost into a squatting posture, 
then as quickly rise again; and at a certain turn of the ceremony all the 
men drop every article of clothing and stand before the audience perfectly 
nude. The maidens however conduct, themselves with modesty through- 
out. All this time the chant croons on in a solemn monotony, alternating 
with brief intervals of profound silence. 
By all these multiplied and rapid genuflections, and this strange infec- 
tious chanting, they gradually work themselves into a fanatic frenzy, almost 
equaling, that of the dervishes, and a reeking perspiration, though they 
generally keep their places. This continues a matter of two hours, and is 
renewed day by day until they are assured of the favor of the Great One 
Above by seeing Gard ascend from the ground in the form of a smoke. 
On this occasion the dance was held on the reservation, but an old 
man was stationed on the hill-side near the spot where Gard revealed him- 
self to his brother, to watch for the rising of the smoke. Day after day, 
week after week, he took up his vigil on the sacred lookout and watched, 
while the weird, wild droning of the incantation came up to him from the 
