Music: SONG OF THE LAUGH.

_Ponka. He-dhu'-shka._

Ha, ha, ha ha ha! Ha ha! hi hi! ha ha! hi!]

So this was the meaning of the monotonous song that had accompanied
the opening dance I had seen at the He-dhu'-shka Society, where the
dancer, with body bent and with short rhythmic steps, had kept time to
the dramatic laugh of the song,--a song that had seemed so aimless to
me only the night before.

"Every song of the Society has its story which is the record of some
deed or achievement of its members," said another old man who was
lying beside the fire. "I will tell you one that was known to our
great-great-grandfathers," and rising upon his elbow he began:--

THE STORY AND SONG OF ISH'-I-BUZ-ZHI.

"Long ago there lived an old Omaha Indian couple who had an only
child, a son named Ish'-i-buz-zhi. From his birth he was peculiar. He
did not play like the other children; and, as he grew older, he kept
away from the boys of his own age, refusing to join in their sports or
to hunt with them for small game. He was silent and reserved with
every one but his mother and her friends. With them he chatted and was
quite at ease. So queer a little boy could not escape ridicule. The
people spoke of him as one 'having no sense,' and it seemed as though
he would have no friends except his parents and a few women intimates
of his mother.

"During the long winter evenings, when the old men who came to his
father's lodge talked of bygone times and told tales of ancient
heroes, this silent, seemingly heedless boy caught and treasured every
word. He noted that the stories said that the mighty men of early days
were armed only with clubs. He mused on this fact, and determined to
make himself such a weapon. So he fashioned a four-sided club,
practised with it in secret, and kept it constantly with him. He was
well laughed at because he clung always to his club and would not
learn the use of the bow; but he kept his own counsel, and, as the
years went on, no one knew that the Sparrow-hawk had talked to him in
a vision, and that he had become possessed of two of its sacred
feathers.

"One day when Ish'-i-buz-zhi had grown to be a man, he heard a group
of warriors discussing plans for an expedition against a tribal enemy.
He determined to go with them; but he said nothing, and silently
watched the men depart. That night he stole away and followed the
trail of the warriors. In the morning one of the servants of the war
party disc