lanted
in corn, but the harvest had stripped the plain, and now the trampling
of hundreds of feet erased all vestiges of the growth except for the
yellow-gray tint of the stubble, spreading out on every side to the
brown of the dense fallen leaves on the slopes where the forests began
to climb the mountain sides. Here and there fires were kindled where
some spectator felt the keen chill of the approaching winter, and more
than one meal was in progress,--perhaps such groups had come from far.
Pack-horses were in evidence laden with rich garments of fur, various
peltry, blankets, valuable gear of every sort to be staked on the result
of the game, and soon the men were betting heavily. All the various
tones of the gamut were on the air,--the deep bass guttural laugh of the
braves; the shrill callow yelping of boys; the absent-minded bawl of
spoiled pappooses interested in the stir, but with an ever-recurrent
recollection of the business of vocally disciplining their patient
mothers; the keen treble chatter of women,--all were suddenly resolved
into a strong dominant chord of sound as a tremendous shout arose upon
the appearance of the ball-players of Ioco. Fresh from the river, they
made a glittering show with the tossing feathers of their crested heads,
their faces painted curiously and fantastically in white, the bright
tints of their gaudy though scanty raiment, their bare arms and legs
suppled with unguents and shining in the sun. This note of welcome had
hardly died away and the echo of the encompassing mountains grown
silent, when an agitated murmur of excitement went sibilantly through
the throng.

A cloud of dust was approaching in the distance, heralding a band of
men. A new sound invoked the echoes. The breath was held to hear it. The
throb of a drum--faint--far. And here thunderously beating, hard at
hand, overpowering all lesser sounds, the drums of loco responded. To
the vibrations of these sonorous earthen cylinders, the sticks plied
with a will on the heads of wet deerskins tightly stretched, the
ball-players of Niowee advanced. In a diagonal direction and at a sturdy
trot they came for a space,--a sudden halt ensued, and eighty pairs of
muscular feet smote tumultuously on the ground. Then once more forward
diagonally, at that swinging jaunty pace, and the stamping pause as
before. The sound seemed to shake the ground, the impact of the feet
with the earth was heard despite the turmoil of the drums; the stam