The Red Cloud chief., 1901-07-05
WEIRD INDIAN DANCE
Mourning Ceremonies In Memory Of
q Deceased Chief.
Hiaeous ORGIES IN Horrible Self
InAictiOn Performed BY . BanA Of
California Redmen-Dans-
tag In the Fire.

inG In the Fire.
The Mesa Grande Indians of San
Diego county gave the widest fire.
dance that has ever been witnessed
in this part of the country near here
q short time ago says a southern Cal.
ifornia paper.
The ceremonial was. given to com.
memorate the death of Jose Clayto,
a prominent young chief of his tribe,
who was killed last year. Big mourn
ing ceremonies attended his burial,
but none of them were SO terrific as
the memorial orgies.
The dance was given at nine o'clock
At night in the large open square of
the fiesta grounds of the village.
In the middle Of the plaza q great
hre Of logs lighted up the weird
scene and threw q hickering and un.
certain illumination upon the wild
and excited faces and figures of hun
dreds of squatting squaws and stand
ing Indians, all hideously and gro
tesqnely painted and all grimly watch
ing the places where the dancers
were concealed.
About $3.50 o'clock two great Indi-
ans emerged from the deep mysteri-
u shadows of the ramadas about
20 yards from the spectators. and.
slowly crouching and STOPPING as
they came. approached the fire, ut
tering wild, strange gutteral cries.
They were naked to the waist. and
their great, dark. s%inuous bodies were
painted ~hideously with a white paste.
They wore n headdress of owl feath-
ers and a fcstoon Of eagle plumcs
draped from their shoulders to their
waists.
lr their strange, savage. crouch
ing position they danced slowly and
solemnly about the fire three times,
bowling, kneeling and g~csticulating TO
If with barbaric cries and yells and
then disappearing in the shadows
whence they came.
An interval of silence followed, dur
ing which the fire played fitfully
upon the set, tragic faces Of the spec
tators. The roar and cackle of the
burning lors was the only sound in
the great plaza.
At last a solitary Indian leapcd
from the shadOwy ramadas with n
wild. uncarthly cry and circled about
the fire with mad yells ard excited
gestures, three times. and then re-
turned with another strange cry into
the shadows.
He was followed by n band Of IL Tn.
dams who emerged from the dark
ness crawling slowly on their hands
and knees. As they came they ut
tered strange, low guttcral sounds in
their threats. They. like their pre-
decessors, were NAKED to their waists
and daubed with streaked and white
paint. Their 1.-THE brown legs were
bare, but their loins were encircled
with a short skirt of dark feathers.
They wore head dresses of black
crow feathers which fell to their
waists in dark festoons.
The procession of crawling Indians
was preceded by three braves, who
walked backward, and apparently
tried to herd the Others back. As the
procession slowly wound around the
FIRE ten of the crawling creatures
tried to roll into the blaze. but they
were prevented by the herders.
When the band had made the cir
Gle of the blazr three times it came
to n halt and the herders were hand
ed bowls Of a magic fluid by the med
icine men which they sprinkled upon
the heads and backs of the kneeling
savages with feathers.
During this ceremony not a sound
vas heard but a low, monotonous
chant which the squaws had begun as
the procession halted.
After the sprinkling the band
leaped up and began u furious dance,
accompanied by yells and shrieks Of
maddened excitement. As the dance
grew wilder the chants grew louder
and more frantic, the women Joined
in the chorus, and for ten hours the
braves danced until they could hard
ly stand. The women heaped up the
fire. the logs blazed up and illuminat-
ed the whole plaza, and the assembly
joined in the furious dance.
For a half hour this continued, and
then all but the original dancers
withdrew, led by old Sonone with his
medicine rattle.
Then came the most hideous part
of the whole hideous performance.
Suddenly, with deep grunts and gut
tural snarls of excitement, the whole
band sat down about the fire and
thrust their feet into the blaze.
The place was filed with the sick
ening odor of burning flesh, but not
one indian finched or moved his feet
from the fire.
The dance continued until the In
dams had danced the Goals out, when
they all fell on their knees where the
fire had been, and with frenzied ex'
element beat il out with their un,
protected hands.