ony of the greatest welcome, which was
only given at rare intervals, and then only when the best of news came
to them.

The room was quickly rearranged for the ceremony. The crowd in the
centre of the room was moved back, much to the discomfort of the women
and girls, some of whom were roughly ejected to make room for their
tyrants and masters. Then some drums were brought in, and between
twenty and thirty of the most active and agile young men, dressed, or
rather undressed, in their picturesque way, seated themselves closely
around the men who were to act as drummers. The first part of the
ceremony was supposed to be a kind of a concert, part musical and part
pantomime.

To describe it with its monotonous drumming and shrill songs, which they
said were words of welcome, is altogether beyond my powers. At certain
places in the songs, ten or twenty of the young men would spring up in
their places, and without moving their feet from the ground would go
through such strong, undulating, graceful motions, and yet all in such
perfect unison with each other and with the music, that I was almost
fascinated by the strange weird beauty of the scene.

Then their programme changed, and rapidly they glided around in simple
and intricate movements, but all in perfect time to the songs and drums.

Not satisfied with giving me the welcome of their own tribe, they also
gave me the still more exciting Sioux welcome, and also that of the wild
Crees in the Saskatchewan. Until long after midnight these scenes were
being enacted. Then word was passed round that the supply of tobacco
devoted to the welcome ceremonies was exhausted, for through all of
these scenes the pipes were only out of the mouths of the performers.
All the rest of the crowd smoked without apparent cessation.

This intimation of the exhaustion of the supply of tobacco abruptly
closed the ceremony. Such is their custom. Some more tea was made and
drunk by the chiefs. Then the Missionary's hand was shaken, and the
people quickly flitted away to their wigwams. A supper, consisting of
beautiful fish, called "gold eyes," which are caught by the young
Indians in the rapid river at the foot of the Rude Water Slide, was then
much enjoyed.

One of my faithful Indians brought in my camp bed, and unrolled it near
the council fire. I rolled myself up in a blanket and buffalo robe, and
there on the ground I soon fell asleep, for I was very weary. At
daybreak we arose