TERRORIZING THE WOMEN—AMAZONS. 159 
the ruins of one which was reared in Potter Valley somewhere about the 
year 1860. The pit or cellar which made a part of it was circular, 63 feet 
in diameter, and about 6 feet deep, and all the enormous mass of earth 
excavated from it was gouged up with small fire-hardened sticks and carried 
away in baskets by both men and women, chiefly men. It was about 
18 feet high in the center, and the roof was supported on five posts, 
one a center-pole and four others standing around it, equidistant from it and 
the perimeter of the pit. Timbers from six to nine inches in diameter were 
laid from the edge of the pit to the middle posts, and from these to the cen- 
ter-poie. Over these were placed grass and brush, and the whole was heavily 
covered with earth. Allowing four square feet of space to each person, such 
a structure would contain upward of 700 people. In their palmy days hun- 
dreds and even thousands of Indians attended one of these grand dances. 
When the dance is held, twenty or thirty men array themselves in hatle- 
quin rig and barbaric paint, and put vessels of pitch on their heads; then 
they secretly go out into the surrounding mountains. These are to per- 
sonify the devils. A herald goes up to the top of the assembly-house, and 
makes a speech to the multitude. Ata signal agreed upon in the evening 
the masqueraders come in from the mountains, with the vessels of pitch 
flaming on their heads, and with all the frightful accessories of noise, motion, 
and costume which the savage mind can devise in representation of demons. 
The terrified women and children flee for life, the men huddle them 
inside a circle, and, on the principle of fighting the devil with fire, they 
swing blazing firebrands in the air, yell, whoop, and make frantic dashes at 
the marauding and blood-thirsty devils, so creating a terrific spectacle, and 
striking great fear into the hearts of the assembled hundreds of women, 
who are screaming and fainting and clinging to their valorous protectors. 
Finally the devils succeed in getting into the assembly-house, and the 
bravest of the men enter and hold a parley with them. As a conclusion of 
the whole farce, the men summon courage, the devils are expelled from the 
assembly-house, and with a prodigious row and racket of sham fighting 
are chased away into the mountains. 
After all these terrible doings have exercised their due effect upon the 
wanton feminine mind, another stage of the proceedings is entered upon. 
