et
two Indian women on horseback, laden with water-melons. In answer to our
question of the road, they half covered a finger, to express that it was
half a mile further, and, smiling, added,'_sneezer_--_much_,' meaning
that we should find lots of our brethren, the sneezers, there, to keep
us company. We passed groups of Indian horses tied in the shade, with
cords long enough to let them graze freely. We then saw the American
flag--a gift from the government--floating over one of the hut-tops in
the square. We next passed numbers of visitors' horses and carriages,
and servants, and under the heels of one horse a drunken vagabond
Indian, or half-Indian, asleep. And, finally, we found ourselves at the
corner of the sacred square, where the aborigines were in the midst of
their devotions.

As soon as I left the carriage, seeing an elevation just outside of one
of the open corners of the sacred square, whence a clear view could be
obtained of what was going on within, I took my station there. I was
afterwards told that this mound was composed of ashes which had been
produced during many preceding years by such fires as were now blazing
in the center; and that ashes of the sort are never permitted to be
scattered, but must thus be gathered up, and carefully and religiously
preserved.

Before the solemnities begin,--and, some one said, though I am not sure
it was on good authority, ere new earth is placed,--the women dance in
the sacred square, and entirely by themselves. I missed seeing this.
They then separate from the men, and remain apart from them until after
the fasting and other religious forms are gone through, when they have
ceremonies of their own, of which I shall speak in due course.

As I gazed from my stand upon the corner mound, the sacred square
presented a most striking scene. Upon each of the notched masts, of
which I have already spoken as attached to each of the structures
within, was a stack of tall canes, hung all over with feathers, black
and white. There were rude paint-daubs about the posts and roof-beams of
the open house-fronts, and here and there they were festooned with gourd
vines. Chiefs were standing around, the sides and corners, alone, and
opposite to each other, their eyes riveted on the earth, and motionless
as statues. Every building was filled with crowds of silent
Indians,--those on the back rows seated in the Turkish fashion, but
those in front with their feet to the ground. All were