alo-skins with the heads on,
running through the village. They had had a dream, were supposed to
be possessed of spirits, and as they chased the villagers all ran
from them, affrighted lest some witchcraft be wrought by them.
Presently the church-bell rang at the missionary's tent, and fifty
Indians came in, gaudy in paints and wampum, ornaments, and dangling
queues tied up with mink-skins, the chief wearing a broken down
beaver hat with a faded weed upon it, and the rest supplied with fans
of eagles' wings, pipes, and other accompaniments of Indian
gentlemen. They listened with occasional grunts of approval during
worship, and filed out at the close with a cordial handshake, one
remaining, named from his height Touch-the-Clouds, to say that he
felt the importance of this new way, and that he wished for himself
and his people schools and churches. This was encouraging, but as the
evening came on there set up a hideous noise; a dance was in
progress, and all night long a relay of three Indians kept up the
hideous and monotonous tom-tom of their kettle-drums, while the
shrill scream of the women pierced the air.

The next morning were things equally painful. A young Indian woman,
with four children to care for, put away by her cruel husband for
another wife, came to beg the missionary's influence to secure for
her Government rations. A tent hard by was visited, where the family,
in accordance with Indian superstitions, were gathering, and had been
for a year or two, all sorts of valuable articles for presents in
honor of some deceased member of the household, intending by-and-by
to distribute all these things, leaving themselves beggared. And last
of all, in a neighboring village were seen three men and a boy, clad
with a few feathers in their hair, and yellow ochre on their bodies,
going through mummeries in the sight of a large company. They were
"making mystery," whatever that may be.

[Illustration: INDIAN GIRLS AT SANTEE NORMAL TRAINING SCHOOL.]

At Standing Rock were Sitting Bull and Chief Gall, with their bands.
Not many years ago they had been on the war path; they were concerned
in the Custer massacre; but now they are in wholesome awe of the
Government and dependent on Government favor for daily bread.
Consequently they are orderly and peaceable, and though a few years
since it would have been dangerous for three unarmed men to pass
through their reservations, it was perfectly safe last summer for a
missiona