Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (1907 Volume 29).djvu/342

 to follow the course which the Redeemer had marked out on earth. Having addressed them on the nature of the life they had proposed to adopt, they all without exception presented their children for baptism, to the number of eighty.

The day after this sacred ceremony, they called on me, requesting to be allowed to express in their own way, the excess of joy which they felt on account of this two-*fold victory. On returning from the late field of battle, the warriors, at the head of whom was a young chief, chanted songs of triumph, accompanied with the beating of drums; at each beat, they sent forth a wild and piercing shout; then followed the song, and so on alternately;—wild as the music was, it was not without harmony. It continued thus, during almost the whole of our route. We marched along the right bank of the Yellow-Stone River, having on our left a chain of mountains resembling those old portals to which history has given the name of "ancient chivalry."[193] We had scarcely arrived at the encampment, when the Black-Feet commenced, under the shade of a beautiful cluster of pines, their {305} arrangements for a dance, insisting, at the same time, upon showing the Black-gowns how highly they valued their presence among them, and how gratified they would be to have them witness this display. There was, indeed, nothing in it that could give occasion to offended modesty to turn aside and blush. I need not tell you it was not the polka, the waltz, or anything resembling the dances of modern civilized life. The women alone figure in it, old and young; from the youngest child capable of walking, to the oldest matron present. Among them I have seen