eggars' dance; for the dancers do not beg for themselves, but for
others.

_Hunter._ You see that the object of the dance is a good one; for many
a skin, or pouch, or pipe, or other necessary article, is given by the
spectators to those of their tribe who need them. It is not common
among the Indians for their aged men and mystery men to mingle in the
dance, and yet I have seen, on especial occasions, a score of them
jumping and capering in a way very creditable to their agility. The
Sioux have a dance that ought to be called the doctors' dance, or the
dance of the chiefs.

_Brian._ Why, do the doctors dance in it?

_Hunter._ Yes; while a medicine man beats his drum, and a party of
young women sing, the chiefs of the tribe and the doctors make their
appearance, splendidly attired in their costliest head-dresses,
carrying a spear in one hand and a rattle in the other. Every movement
is strictly regulated by the beat of the drum, and the dance by
degrees becomes more and more spirited, until you would suppose the
party must be exhausted: but men so much in the open air, and whose
limbs are so little restrained by bandages and tight clothing, can
bear a great deal of fatigue. The pipe dance is one of the most
animated amusements.

_Basil._ Oh! do tell us about the pipe dance.

_Hunter._ In the ground in the centre of the village a fire is
lighted, and a party assemble round it; every one smoking his pipe, as
he sits on his buffalo skin, as though nothing was farther from his
thoughts than dancing. While these are whiffing away at a distance
from the fire, a mystery man, who sits nearer to the flame, smokes a
longer pipe, grunting at the same time a kind of tune. Suddenly is
heard the rub-a-dub of a drum, or the beat of some other instrument of
the same kind; when instantly starts to his feet one of the smokers,
hopping like a parched pea, spinning round like a top, and starting
and jumping, at every beat of the drum, in a very violent manner. In
this way he goes round the smokers, seemingly threatening them all,
and at last pounces upon one of them, whom he compels to dance in the
same manner as himself. The new dancer acts his part like the former
one, capering and jumping round the smokers, and compelling another to
join them. Thus the dance continues, till all of them are occupied,
when the hopping, the jumping, the frightful postures into which they
throw themselves, together with the grunting, growling, singing,