boil more corn, I suppose.

_Hunter._ A fresh fire is made, a fresh kettle of corn is prepared,
and the dance goes on; the medicine men keeping close to the fire, and
the others capering and shouting in a larger circle, their energy
increasing as the feast approaches nearer and nearer. The chiefs and
medicine men then sit down to the feast, followed by the whole tribe,
keeping up their festivity day after day, till the corn-field has
little more grain remaining in it than what is necessary for seed. You
have heard the saying, "Wilful waste brings woful want." The truth of
this saying is often set forth, as well in civilized life as among the
Indians.

_Basil._ I wonder what dance will come next.

_Hunter._ I need not describe many others. If I run rapidly through
two or three, and dwell a little on the bear dance and the war dance,
you will then have heard quite enough about dances. The scalp dance is
in use among the Sioux or Dahcotas. It is rather a fearful exhibition;
for women, in the centre of a circle, hold up and wave about the
scalps which have been torn from the slaughtered foes of the tribe,
while the warriors draw around them in the most furious attitudes,
brandishing their war-clubs, uttering the most hideous howls and
screams. The Indians have many good qualities, but cruelty seems to
mingle with their very nature. Every thing is done among them that can
be done, to keep alive the desire to shed blood. The noblest act a red
man can perform, and that which he thinks the most useful to his tribe
and the most acceptable to the Great Spirit, is to destroy an enemy,
and to bear away his scalp as a trophy of his valour. If it were only
for this one trait in the Indian character, even this would be
sufficient to convince every humane person, and especially every
Christian, of the duty and great advantage of spreading among them the
merciful principles of Christianity. A holy influence is necessary to
teach the untutored red man to forgive his enemies, to subdue his
anger, to abate his pride, and to stay his hand in shedding human
blood. The new commandment must be put in his heart: "That ye love one
another." The Mandan boys used to join in a sham scalp dance, in which
they conducted themselves just like warriors returning from a
victorious enterprise against their enemies.

_Basil._ They are all sadly fond of fighting.

_Hunter._ In the brave dance, of the Ojibbeways, there is plenty of
swaggering: the dan