cers seem as if they knew not how to be proud
enough of their warlike exploits. The eagle dance, among the Choctaws,
is an elegant amusement; and the snow-shoe dance, of the Ojibbeways,
is a very amusing one.

_Brian._ Please to tell us about them both.

_Hunter._ I must not stay to describe them particularly: it will be
enough to say, that, in the one, the dancers are painted white, and
that they move about waving in their hands the tail of the eagle; in
the other--which is performed on the first fall of snow, in honour of
the Great Spirit--the dancers wear snow-shoes, which, projecting far
before and behind their feet, give them in the dance a most strange
and laughable appearance.

_Brian._ I should very much like to see that dance; there is nothing
cruel in it at all.

_Basil._ And I should like to see the eagle dance, for there is no
cruelty in that either.

_Hunter._ The straw dance is a Sioux dance of a very curious
description. Loose straws are tied to the bodies of naked children;
these straws are then set on fire, and the children are required to
dance, without uttering any expression of pain. This practice is
intended to make them hardy, that they may become the better warriors.

_Basil._ That is one of the strangest dances of all.

_Hunter._ I will now say a little about the bear dance, and the war
dance. The bear dance is performed by the Sioux before they set off on
a bear-hunt. If the bear dance were left unperformed, they would
hardly hope for success. The Bear spirit, if this honour were not paid
to him, would be offended, and would give them no success in the
chase.

_Austin._ What! do the Sioux think there is a Bear spirit?

[Illustration: Bear Dance.]

_Hunter._ Yes. The number of spirits of one kind or another, believed
in by the Indians, is very great. In the bear dance, the principal
performer has a bear-skin over him, the head of it hanging over his
head, and the paws over his hands. Others have masks of bears' faces;
and all of them, throughout the dance, imitate the actions of a bear.
They stoop down, they dangle their hands, and make frightful noises,
beside singing to the Bear spirit. If you can imagine twenty bears
dancing to the music of the rattle, whistle, and drum, making odd
gambols, and yelling out the most frightful noises, you will have some
notion of the bear dance.

_Brian._ Now for the war dance: that is come at last.

_Hunter._ It is hardly possible to conceiv