silent until their accompaniment is required for the music of
the dance. The dresses of all the women were so long as nearly to
conceal the feet, but I saw that some had neither shoes nor stockings
on, while others were sandalled. The shawls were principally worn like
mantles. Broad ribbons, in great profusion and of every variety of hue,
hung from the back of each head to the ground, and, as they moved,
these, and the innumerable sparkling beads of glass and coral and gold,
gave the wearers an air of graceful and gorgeous, and, at the same time,
unique wildness.

The procession entered slowly, and wound around the central fire, which
still blazed gently there, although the cauldrons had been removed; and
the train continued to stretch itself out, till it extended to three
circles and a half. The shorter side then became stationary, and stood
facing the men, who were seated in that building which contained the
chanters. This last rank of dancers seemed to include the principal
wearers of the terrapin leg-bands, which they continued to rattle,
keeping time with the chant, without shifting their position. At each
end of their line was a leader, one an old woman and the other not
young, both bearing a little notched stick, with two feathers floating
from it. At a particular turn of the general figure of the dance, these
two broke off from their fixed rank, and made a circuit outside of all
the rest, and more briskly, while the main body of the dancers, the
three circles before mentioned, which had never ceased to move, still
proceeded slowly round and round, only turning at a given signal to face
the men, as the men had turned to face the emblem of the Deity, the
central fire. Every eye among the women was planted on the ground. I
never beheld such an air of universal modesty. It seemed a part of the
old men's privilege to make comments aloud, in order to surprise the
women into a laugh. These must often have been very droll, and always
personal, I understand, and not always the most delicate. I saw a few
instances among the young girls where they were obliged to smother a
smile by putting up their handkerchiefs. But it was conquered on the
instant. The young men said nothing; but the Indian men, whether old or
young, seemed all to take as much interest in the show as we. The chief,
Apotheola, had two daughters there. Both are very elegant girls, but the
eldest delighted me exceedingly. She seemed about seventeen or eightee