The troop then lead the way toward the village, dancing as they pass along, but giving the hapless victim almost no assistance in dragging her load. An innumerable multitude attend them to the place of sacrifice, and receive them with loud acclamations. They there relieve her of her burden and again place her in the hands of the guards, who, with voices harsh and quivering, chant the great deeds of their younger days and re-conduct her to her lodge. In the meantime the whole band assist to arrange the wood between two trees, after which they immediately disperse.
On the morning of the fourth day, before sunrise, a savage visits all the lodges to announce to each family, in the name of the Master of Life, that they must furnish two billets of wood about three feet long for the sacrifice.
Then thirty warriors issue from their lodges, decked in all sorts of accoutrements; their heads adorned with deer and buffalo horns, with the tails of horses and the plumes of the eagle and heron, interwoven with their scalplocks, while the tails of wolves and wild cats stream from various parts behind, as the wings of Mercury are represented, with pendants hanging from their noses and ears, so elongated by the weight of the ornaments suspended to them that they float about and strike against their shoulders. Glass beads, or necklaces of brass' or steel, adorn their necks, while highly-ornamented deer-skin leggins and curiously-painted buffalo skins, negligently thrown over their shoulders, com plete, their grotesque habiliments. Thus accoutred they present themselves at the but of their captive, who is already adorned with the most beautiful dress their fancy can devise, or the materials at their command produce. Her head-dress is composed of the feathers of the eagle and
five to sixty feet in length, and, although it is but about one inch in thickness, it is strong enough to bind the most powerful man. This they adorn with the quills of the porcupine and with little bells. The bells, besides for the sake of ornament, are intended to give notice in case the victim makes any efforts to escape. Author's Note.
9 Fr. pearls.