stay at Kiangan might be called a _cañao_, or, rather, it was made up
of _cañaos_. Now when Barton, two or three days before, refused to
_cañao_, the old women shook their heads, declaring that something
would happen, and the killings of the morning were at once summoned
as proof that they were right and he was wrong. However this may be,
not long after the _Princesa's_ dance we heard below us a cadenced
sound and saw a long column in file slowly approaching. Its head was
formed of warriors armed with spears and shields stained black with
white zig-zags across; the leading warrior walked backward, continually
making thrusts at the next man with his spear. A pig had immediately
preceded, trussed by his feet to a bamboo, and interfering mightily
with the music that followed. This was percussive in character, and
was produced by twenty-five or thirty men beating curved instruments,
made of very hard, resonant wood, with sticks. These musicians marched
along almost doubled over, and would lean in unison first to the right
and then to the left, striking first one end, then the other of their
instruments, which they held in the middle by a _bejuco_ string from
a hole made for the purpose. The note was not unmusical. Many of the
men had their head-baskets on their backs, and one or two of them the
palm-leaf rain-coat. I had never imagined that it was possible for
human beings to advance as slowly as did these warriors; in respect
of speed, our most dignified funerals would suffer by comparison. The
truth is, they were dancing. They got up the hill at last, however;
laid the pig down in the middle of the vast circle that had instantly
formed, and then began the ceremonious head-dance. Two or three men,
after various words had been said, would march around in stately
fashion, winding up at the pig, across whose body they would lay their
spears. On this an old man would run out, and remove the spears, when
the thing would be repeated. At last, a tall, handsome young man,
splendidly turned out in all his native embellishments, on reaching