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.