210 THE KABINAPER. 
Thus they flocked to Clear Lake by hundreds. Some of them being 
‘‘apprenticed” to white men, had written leaves of absence and_ passes, 
ranging from twelve to twenty days. Like children, they greatly over- 
stayed their time. With an Ethiopian passion for the dance, all these 
hundreds yielded themselves up to it with an absolute infatuation, and 
week after week slipped away unperceived. The time was going by for 
the planting of their own small crops and those of the whites who depended 
on their labor. Their best friends earnestly warned them to have done. 
Men and timid women were scared at the unwonted multitude of dusky 
faces in a feeble settlement. Citizens banded together in places and chased 
them away. ‘The atmosphere began to be big with rumors of a removal to 
the dreaded reservation; but this cry of “wolf” had been so often sounded 
that the savages laughed it to scorn. The fascinations of the dance were 
irresistible, and Indians that had formerly been so industrious as to inspire 
their patrons with high hopes that they were reclaimed to civilization now 
danced all night for weeks together and slept all day. The haleyon 
days of savagery had returned, with all their pleasant and lazy witcheries. 
But at last, after several months had elapsed, and some in a neighboring 
valley had actually been sent to a reservation, better counsel prevailed, the 
dancers gradually dispersed, and the whites around Clear Lake once more 
slept secure. 
It only remains now to describe this dance, as I witnessed it one night 
among the Kabinapek Some acquaintances and myself were on the 
ground at nightfall, but it was fully an hour before anything was done 
toward collecting the dancers, who after so many weeks’ frenzied excite- 
ment were extremely sluggish until they got enlivened in the dance. A 
herald finally mounted half-way up the low dome of the assembly-hall, and 
with a hard and rattling loudness of voice made proclamation substantially 
as follows, uttering a sentence about once a minute : 
“He, come to the sweat-house! He, make haste to the dance! THe, 
make haste, everybody! He, be not angry with the strangers He, steal 
nothing from the strangers! He, give them plenty of food! He, make 
haste to the dance, men and women! He, do not steal the strangers’ things 
while they dance !” 
