A DANCE WHICH PROTECTS AGAINST RATTLESNAKES. 329 
except the wild, extravagant joy of this genial season. Collected in some 
sequestered mountain glade, where the grass is green and the trees throw a 
grateful shade around, with flowers in fillets encircling their heads and 
woven in their hair, and habited (aboriginally) only with narrow cinctures 
of woven bulrushes about the waists, a great company of girls join hands in 
a circle and begin a voluptuous, dithyrambic dance. Faster and faster, 
_ wilder and wilder grows the motion, keeping time with the accelerating 
chant, until finally they run riot over the whole place... They break asun- 
der with screams and laughter, and every one of the spectators finds him- 
self pelted with girls and flowers. 
The second act in the spectacle is the kaw’-da, a dance performed by 
men alone. After it is over, a number of women go around with baskets 
to solicit presents of acorn-bread, fish, shell-money, and other articles, 
wherewith to pay the singers, and on the liberality with which the specta- 
tors contribute depends their immunity from snake-bites during the coming 
summer. The third act, toward the close of the day, is the weda. A bevy 
of young maidens dance around two young men in succession, singing a 
very gay and lively chorus, and ever and anon they make a dash at him, 
catching him by the shoulders, laughing, stretching out their arms toward 
him, tantalizing him, etc. After this dance is ended, some old fellows go 
around among the women, soliciting presents for the singers, as above, and 
when the women are about to contribute, they are frequently seized them- 
selves by the old fellows and dragged along sportively, to the vast amuse- 
ment of the bystanders. 
But, with all this fun and horse-play, they entertain a very genuine 
terror of rattlesnakes. When an Indian is bitten by one, or lacerated by a 
bear, they exclude him rigorously from camp for certain days, believing 
that the bear or the snake, having tasted his blood, will follow him to camp 
and play havoe. 
On the American River and below there is an indoor dance called 
lo’-leh, held in the winter, simply for amusement. Then there is an acorn- 
dance (pai’-o) held in autumn, which is like the grass-dances above de- 
scribed, only there are different steps and choruses for each. It is made the 
occasion of a ‘ big eat”. 
