Mandans, on a rough platform erected on
poles high up from the ground, the warriors danced before his wigwam,
and assigned to a few of their number the duty of seeing that his widow
and children, if he left any, should never be without food and shelter.

Kitty and Rudolph often looked on with, mingled feelings of terror and
delight, while some of these strange ceremonies were being enacted. It
was curious to see the stalwart warriors, with bent backs and glum
faces, and many a grunt or whoop, stamp through the measured dance.
Often Kitty would clutch her brother's arm in terror, when, in strange
concert, the savages would suddenly halt, and with fiendish look and
stealthy gesture, seem to be listening to the approach of an enemy.

Sometimes, too, the women danced, but always apart from the men. Even in
their games the warriors and squaws never played together. Among the
Crow Indians, famous for their long black hair, it was not uncommon for
a thousand young men to play in one game of ball for three or four
consecutive days without interruption. As soon as one player retired,
exhausted, another took his place. Often hundreds of women played
together, and they were generally as expert as the men in throwing and
catching the ball.

Another strange feature among Indian customs, was the importance
attached to the _medicine-bag_. Every warrior had one, and would no
sooner hunt, or go to battle, or appear among his tribe without it, than
he would neglect to wear his bow or his scalping-knife. Not that the bag
contained any medicine, such as we understand by the word--for it was
nothing but a small piece of skin sewed like a bag, curiously
ornamented, and stuffed with straw or leaves--but because he regarded it
as a _charm_. With him, "medicine" meant some mysterious power that
would protect and guide him, and propitiate the unseen powers in his
favor. When about to obtain his medicine, the young Indian went alone to
some solitary river or lake in the depths of the forest, or mounted to
some lonely peak. Here he fasted, and remained until, sleeping, he
dreamed. The first animal he dreamed about, whether it were a bear,
buffalo, deer, weasel, or bird or reptile of any kind, became his
"medicine" forever. He at once hunted until he found one, and obtained
its skin for a bag.

Rudolph and Kitty looked with awe upon many of the rare medicine-bags of
the tribe, though they were never on any account allowed to touch them.
Indeed