arly and distinctly upon the ear, mingled with the discordant
rumblings of a drum. The fantastic procession advances, forming a double
column, composed of men and women side by side. The former are stamping
and the latter tripping lightly, but all are keeping time. They
certainly present a weird appearance, tricked out in their gaudy apparel
and ornamented with flashy trinkets. The hair of the men is worn loose;
tufts of green and yellow feathers flutter over the forehead, while
around their necks and dangling over their naked chests are seen strings
of porcupine quills, shell beads, turquoises, bright pebbles, feldspar,
apatite,--anything in short that glitters and shines. Bunches of similar
material glisten in their ears. Fastened about the waist, and reaching
as low as the knee, a rude kilt-like garment composed of white cotton
cloth or of deerskin hangs and flaps. It is ornamented with an
embroidery of red and black threads, and quills of the porcupine. Below
the knee, garters of buckskin, tinged red and yellow, form a fringe to
which are attached tortoise-shell rattles and bunches of elk-hoofs. The
ankles are encased with strips of the white and black fur of the skunk,
and from the waist a fox-skin hangs, fastened to the back and reaching
almost as far as the heel. Each man carries a tuft of hawk's feathers in
his left hand, while the right grasps a rattle fashioned from a gourd
and filled with pebbles.

The women wear their ordinary dress, emphasized however with a profusion
of necklaces, wristbands, and ear pendants, while in each hand is borne
a bunch of pine twigs wagging from side to side as they move. But by far
the most striking feature of their costume is their headdress. It
consists of a piece of buffalo-hide scraped and flattened like a board,
about fifteen inches long and seven inches wide, one end of which is cut
square. The other terminates in what resembles a triple turret, squarely
notched. This is painted green, and decorated with symbolic figures in
red and yellow. White feathers flutter from each of the three
turret-shaped projections, and this peculiar headgear is held in place
by strips of buckskin attached to the squared end, and knotted about
meshes of the dark, streaming hair.

The faces of both sexes are generously daubed with white clay, in
addition to which the men have their naked chests, upper arms, and hands
also decorated with stripes and blotches of the same substance.

The processi