made up my mind, after I had seen enough
more of the Indian festival for the night, to accept the proffered
'field-bed' which was so conveniently nigh, and sleep, for the first
time, in a real 'sky parlor.'

I sat to look at the evening dances till very late. The blazing fire
through the darkness gave a new aspect and still more striking wildness
to the fantastic scene. Some ceremonies yet unattempted seemed to be
going on over the drinks in the deep cauldrons; and the figures around
them, with those of the dancers, reminded me of the witch scenes in
Macbeth, as conceived by Shakspeare, not by the actors of them upon the
stage. Four grim figures were stirring the cauldrons incessantly, with a
sort of humming incantation, the others dancing around. In one of their
dances they used a sort of small kettle-drum, with a guitar-like handle
to it. But after a while, the evening dances seemed to vary from the
devotional to the complimentary and to the diverting; but the daylight
ones were altogether devotional. Apotheola led one of the less lofty
order, and he is one of the most popular and respected of their chiefs.
Its music seemed to consist of an exclamation from him of Yo, ho, ho!
yo, ho, ho!--to which the response appeared as if complimentary, and to
contain only the animated and measured repetition of _Apotheo_LA!
_Apotheo_LA! Another dance, which excited most boisterous mirth, was led
by a chief who is called by the borderers Peter the Gambler. He is a
great humorist, and famous for his love of play,--famous even among the
Indians, who are all gamblers. Once throwing dice with a chief, he
staked himself against a negro slave, and won the negro. I never saw a
party more diverted than were the lookers-on at this dance. It was all
monkey capers, but all with a meaning to the Indians beyond the
perception of the whites. The Indian spectators made their remarks from
their couches as the solemn mockeries proceeded, and the object of the
remarks seemed to be to provoke the dancers to laugh by making fun, and
the object of the dancers to provoke the fun-makers to laugh by
performing extravagant caricatures with imperturbable gravity.

Our semi-civilized inviter got a bench for us. Some Indians, when it was
not entirely filled, tried to pull it away. Several young ones, as a
fellow was trying to tug it from under us, seemed vastly amused at Du
Bois for saying, 'Keep your seats! keep your seats!' and mimicked him
and laughed. Bu