Little is generally known of their religion or their customs. One must
live among them to induce them to impart any information concerning
their mode of life or religious faith; to a stranger they are
always reserved.

Their dances and feasts are not amusements. They all have an object and
meaning, and are celebrated year after year, under a belief that neglect
will be punished by the Great Spirit by means of disease, want, or the
attacks of enemies. All their fear of punishment is confined to what
they may suffer in this world. They have no fear of the anger of their
deities being continued after death. Revolting as the ceremony of
dancing round a scalp seems to us, an Indian believes it to be a sacred
duty to celebrate it. The dancing part is performed by the old and young
squaws. The medicine men sing, beat the drum, rattle the gourd, and use
such other instruments as they contrive. Anything is considered a
musical instrument that will assist in creating discordant sound. One of
these is a bone with notches on it, one end of which rests on a tin pan,
the other being held in the left hand, while, with a piece of bone in
the right, which a medicine man draws over the notches, sounds as
discordant and grating as possible are created.

The squaws dance around the scalps in concentric circles, in groups of
from four to twelve together, pressing their shoulders against each
other, and at every stroke of the drum raising themselves to their
utmost height, hopping and sliding a short distance to the left,
singing all the time with the medicine men. They keep time perfectly. In
the centre, the scalps are attached to a pole stuck in the ground, or
else carried on the shoulders of some of the squaws. The scalp is
stretched on a hoop, and the pole to which it is attached is several
feet long. It is also covered with vermilion or red earth, and