circling band moves round and round.
Now slowly rise the swelling notes
When every crest more lively floats;
Now tossed on high with gesture proud,
Then lowly mid the circle bow'd;
While clanging arms grow louder still,
And every voice becomes more shrill;
Till fierce and strong the clamor grows,
And the wild war whoop bids it close.
Then starts Skunktonga forth, whose band
Came from far Huron's storm-beat strand,
And thus recounts his battle feats,
While his dark club the measure beats."

Major Long of the U.S. army, in his Expedition up the Missouri, gives an
account of a council which he held, at Council Bluff, with a party of
one hundred Ottoes, seventy Missouries, and fifty or sixty Soways. The
Otto nation is known by the name of Wah-toh-ta-na. Their principal
village is situated on the river Platte, about forty miles above its
junction with the Missouri. At the period of this visit, these Indians
had held little if any intercourse with the whites. After the council
was over, they performed a dance, in honor of their visitors, the
description of which will convey to the reader a very vivid picture of
this ceremony. We give it, in Major Long's own words.

"The amusement of dancing was commenced by striking up their rude
instrumental and vocal music; the former consisting of a gong made of a
large keg, over one of the ends of which, a skin was stretched, which
was struck by a small stick, and another instrument, consisting of a
stick of firm wood, notched like a saw, over the teeth of which a small
stick was rubbed forcibly backward and forward. With these, rude as they
were, very good time was preserved with the vocal performers, who sat
around them, and by all the natives as they sat, in the inflection of
their bodies, or the movements of their limbs. After the lapse of a
little time, three individuals leaped up, and danced around for a few
minutes; then, at a concerted signal of the master of ceremonies, the
music ceased and they retired to their seats, uttering a loud noise,
which, by patting the mouth rapidly with the hand, was broken into a
succession of similar sounds, somewhat like the hurried barking of a
dog. Several sets of dancers succeeded, each terminating as the first.
In the intervals of the dances, a warrior would step forward, and strike
a flag-staff they had erected, with a stick, whip, or other weapon, and
recount his martial deeds. This ceremony is termed _striking t