Dancing was an important part of all religious observances, and
was practiced purely as a ceremonial, and never for pleasure or
recreation. Both men and women took part, the men executing a
peculiar shuffling step which involved a great deal of stamping
upon the ground with their bare feet, and the women performing a
curious sideways, swaying motion. Some of the dancers carried
wands or arrows, and indulged in wild gesticulations. They
usually circled slowly around a fire, and danced to the point of
exhaustion, when others would immediately take their places. The
ceremony was accompanied by the beating of rude drums, and by a
monotonous chant, which was joined in by all the dancers.
The great occasions for dancing were before going to war, and
when cremating the bodies of their dead. The war dance was
probably the most elaborate in costume and other details, and of
recent years the Indians have sometimes given public exhibitions
of what purported to be war dances, but these performances, like
everything else which they do from purely mercenary motives, are
very poor imitations of the originals, and it is doubtful if they
have ever allowed a genuine war dance to be witnessed by white
men.