here is no lack
of mirth and relaxation for Winona among her girl companions.

In summer, swimming and playing in the water is a favorite amusement.
She even imitates with the soles of her feet the peculiar, resonant
sound that the beaver makes with her large, flat tail upon the surface
of the water. She is a graceful swimmer, keeping the feet together and
waving them backward and forward like the tail of a fish.

Nearly all her games are different from those of the men. She has a
sport of wand-throwing which develops fine muscles of the shoulder and
back. The wands are about eight feet long, and taper gradually from
an inch and a half to half an inch in diameter. Some of them are
artistically made, with heads of bone and horn, so that it is remarkable
to what a distance they may be made to slide over the ground. In the
feminine game of ball, which is something like "shinny," the ball is
driven with curved sticks between two goals. It is played with from
two or three to a hundred on a side, and a game between two bands or
villages is a picturesque event.

A common indoor diversion is the "deer's foot" game, played with six
deer hoofs on a string, ending in a bone or steel awl. The object is to
throw it in such a way as to catch one or more hoofs on the point of the
awl, a feat which requires no little dexterity. Another is played with
marked plum-stones in a bowl, which are thrown like dice and count
according to the side that is turned uppermost.

Winona's wooing is a typical one. As with any other people, love-making
is more or less in vogue at all times of the year, but more especially
at midsummer, during the characteristic reunions and festivities of
that season. The young men go about usually in pairs, and the maidens do
likewise. They may meet by chance at any time of day, in the woods or
at the spring, but oftenest seek to do so after dark, just outside the
teepee. The girl has her companion, and he has his, for the sake of
propriety or protection. The conversation is carried on in a whisper, so
that even these chaperons do not hear.

At the sound of the drum on summer evenings, dances are begun within the
circular rows of teepees, but without the circle the young men promenade
in pairs. Each provides himself with the plaintive flute and plays the
simple cadences of his people, while his person is completely covered
with his fine robe, so that he cannot be recognized by the passerby. At
every pause in the m