“Ho-[=a]-[=a]!  Heiti-na!  Ho-[=a]-[=a]!  Heiti-na!”

breaks clearly and distinctly upon the ear, mingled with the discordant rumblings of a drum.  The fantastic procession advances, forming a double column, composed of men and women side by side.  The former are stamping and the latter tripping lightly, but all are keeping time.  They certainly present a weird appearance, tricked out in their gaudy apparel and ornamented with flashy trinkets.  The hair of the men is worn loose; tufts of green and yellow feathers flutter over the forehead, while around their necks and dangling over their naked chests are seen strings of porcupine quills, shell beads, turquoises, bright pebbles, feldspar, apatite,—­anything in short that glitters and shines.  Bunches of similar material glisten in their ears.  Fastened about the waist, and reaching as low as the knee, a rude kilt-like garment composed of white cotton cloth or of deerskin hangs and flaps.  It is ornamented with an embroidery of red and black threads, and quills of the porcupine.  Below the knee, garters of buckskin, tinged red and yellow, form a fringe to which are attached tortoise-shell rattles and bunches of elk-hoofs.  The ankles are encased with strips of the white and black fur of the skunk, and from the waist a fox-skin hangs, fastened to the back and reaching almost as far as the heel.  Each man carries a tuft of hawk’s feathers in his left hand, while the right grasps a rattle fashioned from a gourd and filled with pebbles.

The women wear their ordinary dress, emphasized however with a profusion of necklaces, wristbands, and ear pendants, while in each hand is borne a bunch of pine twigs wagging from side to side as they move.  But by far the most striking feature of their costume is their headdress.  It consists of a piece of buffalo-hide scraped and flattened like a board, about fifteen inches long and seven inches wide, one end of which is cut square.  The other terminates in what resembles a triple turret, squarely notched.  This is painted green, and decorated with symbolic figures in red and yellow.  White feathers flutter from each of the three turret-shaped projections, and this peculiar headgear is held in place by strips of buckskin attached to the squared end, and knotted about meshes of the dark, streaming hair.

The faces of both sexes are generously daubed with white clay, in addition to which the men have their naked chests, upper arms, and hands also decorated with stripes and blotches of the same substance.

The procession is a long one; couple follows couple, the men gravely stamping, the women gracefully tripping.  At the head are the tallest and most robust youths, the best developed and most buxom girls.  Following these, the dancers are less and less carefully assorted and matched, while boys and old women, little girls and old men, bring up the rear.