being made in the centre of the
house, giving at once light and warmth to the ball-room. The orchestra
was composed of about ten men, who played on a sort of tambourine,
formed of skin stretched across a hoop, and made a jingling noise with a
long stick to which the hoofs of deer and goats were hung; the third
instrument was a small skin bag with pebbles in it; these, with five or
six young men for the vocal part, made up the band. The women then came
forward, highly decorated; some with poles in their hands, on which were
hung the scalps of their enemies; others with guns, spears, or different
trophies taken in war by their husbands, brothers, or connections.

Having arranged themselves in two columns, one on each side of the fire,
as soon as the music began they danced towards each other till they met
in the centre, when the rattles were shaken, and they all shouted and
returned back to their places. They have no step, but shuffle along the
ground; nor does the music appear to be anything more than a confusion
of noises, distinguished only by hard or gentle blows upon the
buffalo-skin; the song is perfectly extemporaneous. In the pauses of the
dance some man of the company comes forward and recites, in a sort of
low guttural tone, some little story or incident, which is either
martial or ludicrous, or, as was the case this evening, voluptuous and
indecent; this is taken up by the orchestra and the dancers, who repeat
it in a higher strain and dance to it. Sometimes they alternate, the
orchestra first performing, and when it ceases the women raise their
voices, and make a music more agreeable, that is, less intolerable, than
that of the musicians.

The dances of the men, which are always separate from those of the
women, are conducted very nearly in the same way, except that the men
jump up and down instead of shuffling; and in the war-dances the
recitations are all of a military cast. The harmony of the entertainment
had nearly been disturbed by one of the musicians, who, thinking he had
not received a due share of the tobacco we had distributed during the
evening, put himself into a passion, broke one of the drums, threw two
of them into the fire, and left the band. They were taken out of the
fire; a buffalo robe, held in one hand, and beaten with the other by
several of the company, supplied the place of the lost drum or
tambourine, and no notice was taken of the offensive conduct of the man.
We stayed till twelve