turbaned, all
fantastically painted, all in dresses varying in ornament but alike in
wildness. One chief wore a tall black hat, with a broad, massive silver
band around it, and a peacock's feather; another had a silver scull-cap,
with a deep silver bullion fringe down to his eyebrows, and plates of
silver from his breast to his knee, descending his tunic. Most of them
had the eagle plume, which only those may wear who have slain a foe;
numbers sported military plumes in various positions about their
turbans; and one had a tremendous tuft of black feathers declining from
the back of his head over his back; while another's head was all shaven
smooth, excepting a tuft across the center from the back to the front,
like the crest of a helmet.

I never saw an assembly more absorbed with what they regarded as the
solemnities of the occasion.

The first sounds I heard were a strange low, deep wail,--a sound of many
voices drawn out in perfect unison, and only dying away with the breath
itself, which indeed was longer sustained than could be done by any
singer I ever yet heard. This was followed by a second wail, in the same
style, but shrill, like the sound of musical glasses, and giving a
similar shiver to the nerves. And after a third wail in another key, the
statue-like figures moved and formed two diagonal lines opposite to each
other, their backs to opposite angles of the square. One by one, they
then approached the huge bowls in which the black drink was boiling,
and, in rotation, dipped a gourd, and took, with a most reverential
expression, a long, deep draught each. The next part of the ceremony
with them was somewhat curious; but the rapt expression of the
worshippers took away the effect which such an evolution would be apt to
produce on a fastidious stomach if connected with an uninterested head.
In short, these dignitaries, without moving a muscle of the face, or a
joint of the body, after a few seconds, and with great solemnity,
ejected what had been swallowed upon the ground. It seemed as if given
forth in the spirit of a libation among the ancients. The chiefs having
afterwards tasted, each replacing the gourd, and returning to his stand
before the next came forward, they all went to their seats, and two old
men approached and handed round gourds full to the other parties present
who had remained stationary. The looks on each side were as full of
solemn awe as I have ever seen at any Christian ceremony; and cert