THE GHOST DANJE.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2153, 22 January 1891, Page 3

THE GHOST DANJE.

The ghost dance, which is playing an important part in the present Indian rising, in flaming the enthusiasm of the warriors, has seldom been witnessed by a white man; but an American paper describes one of them as seen from a distance by an enterprising contributor who persuaded a friendly half-breed to take him to the spot. The camp in question was situate*? in a hollow between a narrow belt of hills. Many of the Sioux are farmers and freighters, and their waggons were corralled in the middle of the valley. Some of the older braves and squaws, who have neyer reconciled themselves to modern ways, had tents apart. The oxen, pigs, and poultry were cooped or tethered on the outskirts of the camp. The dance began at dark; and though the old squaws had carefully raked out the fires, a blaze arising from them now then revealed the fact that the braves were in full war-paint, The warriors formed in rows at the eastern end of the camp, those in front kneeling, with the young bucks and squaws standing behind them. At this point there was a pause of about ten minutes, during which perfect silence and absolute immobility prevailed. Then the old squaws joined hands and knelt down in the centre of the valley. They began chanting what sonnded like a dirge, varied by savagely triumphant yells. The', warriors advanced, and joined hands in a larger circle behind the old squaws, they began the ghost dance. They, too, chanted a dirge, but less shrilly than the squaws ; and then came the invocati on to the dead , braves to arise and exterminate the white man. The old wemen, meanwhile had each procured a burning ■tick that had apparently been dipped into some kind of pitch. Eeturning with these, they stole like shadows under the linked arms of the warriors and passed through the circle like a procession of sphinxes. This was repeated again and again, and is is said that the dance lasts till daylight, when everyone concerned in it is more or less exhausted.