y grouped
into a promiscuous crowd, women carrying a pine twig in each hand and
the men a gourd rattle in the right hand and a pine twig in the left.
The men's bodies were painted white and were nude, excepting the silk
scarfs and mountain lion and other skins worn around the loins. Just
before the stamping of the feet in the beginning of the dance, a rattle
was shaken by all the male dancers, which was the signal for a peculiar
back motion of the right arm and body and one which preceded the actual
dancing. The six males lean their bodies to the right side extending the
right hand backward, and then bringing it forward in a circular under
sweep around to the mouth with a hoot. They then turn and face the east,
and bending their bodies toward the south perform the same motion as
before, when they turn to the west and repeat it in that direction. At
the same time the leader and follower repeat their peculiar performance
with the fawn skin and wands to the east and west. Dancing promiscuously
for a few moments to song and rattle, the men representing women singing
in feminine tones, they form again in two lines, the women as before on
the north side. The man at the west end of the male line and the woman
at the same end of the female line, meeting each other midway between
the lines she passes her right arm through the arm of her partner, his
arm being bent to receive it; they pass between the line and are met a
short distance from the other end of the line by Hasjelti and
Hostjoghon, who dance up to meet them, the movement resembling closely
the old-fashioned Virginia reel. The couple then dance backward between
the lines to their starting point, then down again, when they separate,
the man taking his place in the rear of the male line and the woman hers
in the rear of the female line. This couple starting down the second
time, the man and woman immediately next in line lock arms and pass down
in the same manner, Hasjelti and Hostjoghon scarcely waiting for the
first couple to separate before dancing up to meet the second couple;
the remaining couples following in like order until the first couple
find themselves in their former position at the head of the line. Now a
group dance is indulged in for a minute or two when lines are again
formed, and a second figure exactly like the first is danced. This
figure was again repeated without variation, after which the men and
women fell into single file, and, led by Hasjelti and f