as black on every side with their heads as they swam about,
playing all sorts of antics; the younger ones diving to fetch up pieces
of silver money which the visitors flung into the water, to put their
dexterity to the test.

Returning to the sacred square, they went through other dances around
the fire, varying in figure and accompaniment. All were generally led by
some aged chief, who uttered a low, broken sound, to which the others
responded in chorus. Sometimes the leader, as he went around, would
ejaculate a feeble, tremulous exclamation, like allelu_liah_,
allelu_liah_, laying the stress upon the last syllable, to which all
would respond in perfect accord, and with a deep, sonorous bass,
'allelu_liah_,' and the same alternation continued to the close, which
was invariably sudden, and after a long general whoop.

Each dance seemed to have a special form and significance;--one in
particular, where the dancers unstacked the tall canes with feathers
suspended from them, each taking one from the mast sustaining it; and
this one, I was told, meant to immortalize triumphs won at ball-plays.
The feathered canes are seized as markers of points gained by the
bearers in the ball-play, which is the main trial of strength and skill
among rival clans of the same tribe, in friendship, and even between
tribe and tribe, when in harmony. The effect of these canes and
feathers, as they glanced around, with an exulting chorus, was very
inspiriting, and the celebrants became almost wild with their delight as
it drew near its climax, ending their closing whoop with a general laugh
of triumphant recollection.

Other dances were represented as alluding to conquests over bears and
panthers, and even the buffalo, which last memorial is remarkable
enough, having among them survived all traces of the buffalo itself.
But, excepting these vague hints, I could not find any bystander capable
of giving me a further explanation of any point on which I inquired,
than that it was 'an old custom;' or, if they wished to be more
explicit, with a self-satisfied air, they would gravely remark that it
was 'the green-corn dance,'--which I knew as well as they. Could I have
been instructed even in their phrases and speeches, I might have made
valuable conjectures. But even their language, on these occasions,
seems, by their own admission, beyond the learning of the
'_linkisters_.' It is a poetical, mystical idiom, varying essentially
from that of trading