enerally not bigger than a silver dollar; but
no matter how small it may be, it entitles him to his feather. Among the
Sioux the killing of a full grown grizzly bear is equivalent to the
killing of an enemy, and entitles the victor to the same decoration. I
have known Indians who wore as many as sixteen feathers.

It is not alone the importance that these decorations give the wearer
which enters into their value. When he returns from the war path,
bearing scalps, he is received by all his band with demonstrations of
the greatest pride and honor. If you can imagine Dewey landing at New
York from the Philippines, you can form some idea of the honors that
would be heaped upon a victorious savage. If the weather is pleasant, he
strips to the waist, and paints his body jet black. He places on the top
of his head a round ball of pure white swan's down, about the size of a
large orange, and takes in his hand a staff, about five feet long, with
a buckskin fringe tacked on to the upper three feet of it. On the end of
each shred of the fringe is a piece of a deer's hoof, forming a rattle,
by striking together when shaken up and down. When arrayed in this
manner he marches up and down the village, recounting in a sort of a
chant the entire history of the events of the raid on the enemy, going
into the most minute details, and indulging in much imagination and
superstition. He tells what he dreamed, what animals he saw, and how all
these things influenced his conduct. He continues this ceremony for days
and days, and is the admiration of all his people. I have seen four or
five of them together promenading in this way, and have taken an
interpreter and marched with them by the hour listening to their
stories.

When this part of the performance is over, the scalps are tanned by the
women, as they would tan a buffalo-skin, the inside painted red, and the
whole stretched on a circular hoop, about the size of a barrel hoop, to
which is attached a straight handle, about four feet long, so that it
can be carried in the air above the heads of the people. It is also
decorated with all the trinkets found on the person of the slain.

Then begins the dancing. When night comes the men arrange themselves in
two lines, about fifteen feet apart, facing each other, all provided
with tom-toms, and musical instruments of all kinds known to the savage.
When everything is ready, they sing a kind of a weird chant, keeping
time with the instruments an