th of the youths shook their heads and acknowledged their ignorance.

"Well, it is a wild sort of dance, something like the dances among your
American Indians, with local variations to suit the climate and people.
The dancing is done by the men, who get themselves up in the most
fantastic manner imaginable with paint of various colors. They daub
their faces with pigments in streaks and patches, and trace their ribs
with white paint, so that they look more like walking skeletons than
like human beings. Generally at one of these dances they wear strips of
skin around their waists, and ornament their heads with feathers.

"I said that the dancing was done by the men, though this is not
absolutely the rule, as there are certain dances in which the women take
part, though not a very conspicuous one. Generally the dances are by the
people of one tribe, though there are a few in which several tribes take
part. As a usual thing, however, this kind of a dance ends in a fight,
as the dancers work themselves up to a condition of frenzy, and if there
is any ill feeling among them it is sure to crop out.

"The dances in the neighborhood of the telegraph station to which I
referred included men of several tribes, and we knew that mischief
would be likely to come of it. Two of our black fellows went as near to
the scene of the dance as they dared go, and from time to time brought
us particulars of the proceedings.

"We got revolvers and rifles ready, Mrs. Britton taking possession of
one of the revolvers, and loading it very carefully. All along during
the evening we could hear the yelling of the natives at their dance, but
an hour or so before midnight the noise diminished, and one of our black
fellows came in to tell us that they were preparing to attack the
station.

"The principal building of the station was a block house built for
defense against the blacks, and strong enough to resist any of their
weapons; but, of course, they would be able to overpower us by
surrounding the place and starving us out, though we had little fear of
that. The great danger was that they would come upon us in great
numbers, and as we were not sufficiently numerous to defend all parts of
the building at once, they could set it on fire and thus compel us to
come out and be slaughtered.

"The warning brought by our black fellow proved to be correct. The men
who had been engaged in the dance had left the scene of their
jollification and moved in th