e large ring; for at the distance kept by the
outsiders the area was one hundred and fifty feet in diameter.
The Apollonian emulators chanted the great deeds performed
by the Cheyenne warriors. As they ended, the dying strain
was caught up by the hundreds of the outside circle, who,
in fast-swelling, loud tones, poured out the burden of
their song. At this juncture the march was quickened,
the scalps of the slain were borne aloft and shaken with
wild delight, and shrill war-notes, rising above the
furious din, accelerated the pulsation and strung high
the nerves. Time-worn shields, careering in mad holders'
hands, clashed; and keen lances, once reeking in Pawnee
blood, clanged. Braves seized one another with an iron
grip, in the heat of excitement, or chimed more tenderly
in the chant, enveloped in the same robe with some maiden
as they approvingly stepped through one of their own
original polkas.

Thirty of the chiefs and principal men were ranged by the
pile of blazing logs. By their invitation, I sat down with
them and smoked death and its concomitant train of evils to
those audacious tribes who doubt the courage or supremacy
of the brave, the great and powerful, Cheyenne nation.

It is Indian etiquette that the first lodge a stranger enters on
visiting a village is his home as long as he remains the guest of the
tribe. It is all the same whether he be invited or not. Upon going in,
it is customary to place all your traps in the back part, which is the
most honoured spot. The proprietor always occupies that part of his
home, but invariably gives it up to a guest. With the Cheyennes, the
white man, when the tribe was at peace with him, was ever welcome, as
in the early days of the border he generally had a supply of coffee, of
which the savage is particularly fond--Mok-ta-bo-mah-pe, as they call
it. Their salutation to the stranger coming into the presence of the
owner of a lodge is "Hook-ah-hay! Num-whit,"--"How do you do? Stay with
us." Water is then handed by a squaw, as it is supposed a traveller is
thirsty after riding; then meat, for he must be hungry, too. A pipe is
offered, and conversation follows.

The lodge of the Cheyennes is formed of seventeen poles, about three
inches thick at the end whic