lic service, and to
develop a wholesome ambition for the honors of a leader and feast-maker,
which can never be his unless he is truthful and generous, as well as
brave, and ever mindful of his personal chastity and honor. There were
many ceremonial customs which had a distinct moral influence; the woman
was rigidly secluded at certain periods, and the young husband was
forbidden to approach his own wife when preparing for war or for any
religious event. The public or tribal position of the Indian is entirely
dependent upon his private virtue, and he is never permitted to forget
that he does not live to himself alone, but to his tribe and his clan.
Thus habits of perfect self-control were early established, and there
were no unnatural conditions or complex temptations to beset him until
he was met and overthrown by a stronger race.

To keep the young men and young women strictly to their honor, there
were observed among us, within my own recollection, certain annual
ceremonies of a semi-religious nature. One of the most impressive of
these was the sacred "Feast of Virgins," which, when given for the
first time, was equivalent to the public announcement of a young girl's
arrival at a marriageable age. The herald, making the rounds of the
teepee village, would publish the feast something after this fashion:

"Pretty Weasel-woman, the daughter of Brave Bear, will kindle her first
maidens' fire to-morrow! All ye who have never yielded to the pleading
of man, who have not destroyed your innocency, you alone are invited, to
proclaim anew before the Sun and the Earth, before your companions
and in the sight of the Great Mystery, the chastity and purity of your
maidenhood. Come ye, all who have not known man!"

The whole village was at once aroused to the interest of the coming
event, which was considered next to the Sun Dance and the Grand Medicine
Dance in public importance. It always took place in midsummer, when
a number of different clans were gathered together for the summer
festivities, and was held in the centre of the great circular
encampment.

Here two circles were described, one within the other, about a rudely
heart-shaped rock which was touched with red paint, and upon either side
of the rock there were thrust into the ground a knife and two arrows.
The inner circle was for the maidens, and the outer one for their
grandmothers or chaperones, who were supposed to have passed the
climacteric. Upon the outskirts