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 Rh fire of pitch pine wood was kindled; several musicians with Indian drums, and large gourds containing gravel, were seated to assist the players in keeping time in the dance. At a signal from the head chief, the intending competitors would begin what they called the training dance,—a succession of the most frantic movements and wriggling of the body and legs, contortions of the face, and screaming at the top of the voice, intended, like the military dances of the Greeks, to make the body active and strong, and to exhilirate the mind. It was also a sort of invocation to the Great Spirit for victory, and must have been of a character as terrible and expressive as the dances of the Furies. This dance was peculiarly attractive to the emotional Indian, who, like all barbarians, was a spontaneous dancer; sounds, however rude, intoxicating him with a passion for a spasmodic oscillation of the body. After performing for an hour or longer, the players, heated and perspiring, immediately plunged into the cold stream.

It was customary among some tribes to dance in a circle around a bonfire, with the crosses in hand; while others danced in their costume around the goals, rattling their sticks together and singing aloud