nature of the life they had proposed to adopt, they all without exception presented their children for baptism, to the number of eighty.
The day after this sacred ceremony, they called on me, requesting to be allowed to express in their own way the excess. of joy which they felt on account of this twofold victory. On returning from the late field of battle, the warriors, at the head of whom was a young chief, chanted songs of triumph, accompanied with the beating of drums;
. at each beat they sent forth a wild and piercing shout; then
followed the song, and so on alternately; - wild as the music was, it was not without harmony. It continued thus during almost the whole of our route. We marched up the right bank of the Yellowstone river, having on our left a chain of mountains resembling those old fortresses told
of in the histories of ancient chivalry. We had scarcely arrived at the encampment, when the Blackfeet commenced, under the shade of a beautiful cluster of pines, their arrangements for a dance, insisting, at the same time, upon showing the Black-robes how highly they valued their presence among them, and how gratified they would be to have them witness
this display. There was, indeed, nothing in it that could give occasion to offended modesty to turn aside and blush. I need not tell you it was not the polka, the waltz, or any
thing resembling the dances of modern civilized life. The women alone figure in it, old and young; from the youngest child capable of walking, to the oldest matron present. Among them I have seen several old women upward of eighty years, whose feeble limbs required the aid of a staff in their movements through the dance. Almost all appeared in the best costume of the warriors, which, however, was worn over their own dress, a sort of tunic they always wear, and which contributed also not a little to the modesty
of their appearance. Some carried the arms that had done most execution in battle, but the greater part held a green
bough in the hand. In proportion as the dresses increase in singularity, the colors in variety, and the jingling of the bells