with evident gratification, satisfied that
her own get-up is handsomer than the one that the others so much admire,
while she soothes her injured vanity with haughty contempt for the taste
of those who see so much in her rival to admire.

The beat of the drum ceases, the wild song is hushed, and the dancers
break rank, seeking rest. They collect in groups or mingle with the
bystanders, chatting, laughing, panting. Their violent exercise has
played sad havoc with the paint upon their faces and bodies, rendering
them less fantastic but more ludicrous. The drummer occasionally raps
his instrument to satisfy himself that it is in order, otherwise there
is a lull of which all avail themselves to take part in the general
conversation. Children resume their sports in the court-yard.

Suddenly loud peals of laughter are heard on every side, and all eyes
turn simultaneously toward the passage-way whence are issuing half a
dozen strange-looking creatures. They do not walk into the polygon, but
rather tumble into it, running, hopping, stumbling, cutting capers, like
a troop of clumsy, ill-trained clowns. When they have reached the centre
of the open space, laughter becomes louder and more boisterous all
around. Such expressions of mirth do not merely signify amusement, but
are meant as demonstrations of applause. The Indian does not applaud by
clapping his hands or stamping his feet, but evinces his approbation by
laughter and smirks.

The appearance of the six men who have just tumbled into the arena is
not merely strange, it is positively disgusting. They are covered with
white paint, and with the exception of tattered breech-clouts are
absolutely naked. Their mouths and eyes are encircled with black rings;
their hair is gathered in knots upon the tops of their heads, from which
rise bunches of corn husks; a string of deer-hoofs dangles from each
wrist; fragments of fossil wood hang from the loins; and to the knees
are fastened tortoise-shells. Nothing is worn with a view to ornament.
These seeming monstrosities, frightful in their ugliness, move about
quite nimbly, and are boldly impudent to a degree approaching sublimity.
Notwithstanding their uncouth figures and mountebank tricks their
movements at times are undoubtedly graceful, and they appear to exercise
a certain authority over the entire pageant.

White is the symbolic paint of the Koshare; hence all the actors who
have performed their several parts, including the coa