The dances of the Indians, even those at common festivals, are on an
extensive scale, requiring to a complete performance forty or fifty
persons, who execute their evolutions by following each other round
a great fire kindled in the centre. Their movements, monotonous but
violent, consist in stamping furiously on the ground, and often
brandishing their arms in a manner compared by an able writer to a
baker converting flour into dough. They keep good time; but the music
is so exceedingly simple that this implies little merit. They conclude
with a loud shout or howl, which echoes frightfully through the woods.
The dances in celebration of particular events are of a more varied
character, and often form a very expressive pantomime. The war-dance
is the most favourite and frequent. In this extraordinary performance,
a complete image is given of the terrible reality; the war-whoop is
sounded with the most frightful yells; the tomahawk is wildly brandished;
and the enemy are surprised, seized, and scalped, or carried off for
torture. The calumet-dance, which celebrates peace between nations,
and the marriage-dance, which represents domestic life, are much more
pleasing. Some mention is made of a mystic dance, carried on by the
jugglers or doctors, with strange superstitious ceremonies, and in which
a supernatural personage, termed by some the devil, rises and performs;
but it does not seem to have been witnessed by any European, and is said
to be now in a great measure disused.