The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1892-04-20
AN INDIAN DANCE.
A SIOUX CEREMONY IN THE
BLACK HILLS.
Savage Musicians Beating Time on
Drum-Brilliant1y Painted
Dancers-A Unique Salta.
torial Exhibition.

l. poAaSseS ~S5NSA "AASSS e~S AVA
lows in the Atlantic:
The Omaha House, in which the dance
is to be celebrated, is an octagonal log
house, some fifty feet in diameter. 1t
is situated about five miles from the
agency. We start after moonrise. The
night is clear and white, the air deli
ciously cool without being sharp. We
have an escort of Indian police riding on
either side of us like phantoms. We 60
swiftly and noiselessly over the prairie,
as though driving over well-kept lawn.
There is a group of buttes in the dis
tance, lighted in white from behind,
touched with silver along the top, and
casting a great black shadow clearly de-
fined on the ground. It has the appear
ance of a lonely Moorish town of white
domes and minarets. Lights are NOV
ing about from tepee to tepee, forming
queer consultations. The tepees them
selves, lighted from within, glow Like
night-lamps of fine porcelain. The
Omaha House is sending out of the open
ing in its roof column of yellow sparks.
AS we draw near we find the building
surrounded by large crowd of woman,
many of whom are draped in white
sheets, which cover their heads and are
drawn up over their mouths with q de-
cidedly Oriental effect. The shorter ones
are looking in between, The cracks, with
their faces fattened against the logs; the
taller ones lean over their shoulders, or
crane their necks to strike the level of a
higher crack. From within one sees an
unbroken line of eager black eyes along
the open space between the logs. In the
centre of the house is a roaring log fire,
which finds glimmering reflection in
all these eyes. The musicians are sta
toned in a corner. The orchestral in.
strument consists of a large drum sus-
pended from sticks that are driven in the
ground so as to insure the greatest pos
sible amount of vibration. Twelve3men
sit around it and beat time to spirited
motif in minor key, which lis repeated
without the slightest variation during the
entire entertainment. The dancers are
brilliantly painted in reds, yellows and
blacks, /. the yellows being singularly
effective. Their heads are bristling with
eagle feathers variously tinted. Their
ears are pierced all along the rim with
as many as ten or twelve holes, from
each of which hangs silver ring and
pendant. Anything in the way of
long beaded tab, or a war bonnet with
great streamers of eagle feathers, is at
tached at the back of the waist-a
reminiscence of the grasses of the lower
Missouri, no douEt-and trails on the
ground, emphasizing those movements of
the dance which are entirely from the
hips. At their knees and their ankles
are strings of sleigh-bells, which fern
something of a self-acting tambourine
accompaniment.
We are the only guests admitted into
the house. As soon as we have taken
our places one of the musicians thumps
the drum; then all twelve start in uni
son, with wild yelp, on high note in
a minor key. The rhythm is marked by
the most vigorous humping, and the
dancers spring to their feet.
My. attention is particularly attracted
to very old Indian, tho most conspic-
uously bedecked, and by no means the
least spirited of the dancers. His
dancing consists chiefly of prancing
sur la place, like race horse before the
signal for starting is given. he is tall
and gaunt, with face like the antique
mask OF Tragedy painted deep red.
His lips move in an incessant muttering,
and when he breaks into yelp his ex-
preston is singularly savage. The in
terpreter tells me that he is Iron Hawk,
and that he played an important part in
the Custer massacre. The Indians,
usually retlcent, it seems, in tieir refer
ences to that event, have frequently
spoken of his splendid "boast' made on
the battlefield strewn with the unfortu-
mates of the Seventh. He could be
heard, they say, within radius of
mile, as he walked about among the
dead and recounted his experiences of
the day.
When the dancers stop to take breath
the yelping and humping grow louder
and faster, urging them on into frenzy.
Their muscles become tense; their yelps
become more and more strident; they
prance and quiyer, until the musicians
finally call halt of their own accord.
Some squat along the walls and resume
their pipes; others throw themselves
down in superb reclining poses, resting
on their elbows, and screening their faces
from the fire with their curved hands.
From this reclining group a figure
rises suddenly and begins to pace the
length OF the building, turning on his
heel with the swaying movements of
lion in a cage. After the first turn or
two he begins his soliloquy, punctuated
by light taps of the drum. The tones of
this Sioux language are wonderfully i'm
pressive. It has the full vowel sounds
of the old spanish, all the strength of
its gutturals, and much of the pompous
grandeur of its infections. This partic-
ular "boast" must refer to great achieve
ments, if we are to judge by the grunts
of both musicians and dancers, and the
twinkling along the line of black eyes
peeping in between the logs.
The soliloquy finished, the music be-
gins with redoubled violence. The dance
now takes the form of a psntomime,
something that seems to indicate adora.
ton, ecstasy, which would do we'll as an
expression of sun or fire worship. 1t is
all directed to the clothes boiler where