Patriotic Plays and Pageants for Young People eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 140 pages of information about Patriotic Plays and Pageants for Young People.

Patriotic Plays and Pageants for Young People eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 140 pages of information about Patriotic Plays and Pageants for Young People.

INDIAN BRAVES.  The braves who follow Powhatan should wear costumes resembling those of the chief, save that they are less gorgeously painted, and wear fewer strings of beads and shells.  Their head-dresses, too, are shorter.  They should be of gray, black, and brown feathers.  Their faces are, of course, stained brown, their arms and necks likewise.  Red and black warpaint should also be on their faces.  Unless wigs of long hair are to be worn, the boys wearing the feathered head-dresses should be careful to see that their lack of long hair is concealed from view.  Often the Indian braves wore their long matted locks braided; and black cheesecloth cut into strips and then braided and fastened to a tight black cap will make a splendid wig of this sort—­the braids of hair should hang in front of the ears.  The Indian braves should carry bows, arrows, and tomahawks.

THE INDIAN MAIDENS.  The Indian maidens should wear tan fringed dresses, of the same length and fashion as that of Pocahontas.  Necklaces and bracelets of shells.  The necks of the dresses embroidered in beads and shells.  They wear their long black hair in two braids, the ends of the braids bound either with scarlet, corn-yellow, or vivid blue.  They have moccasins and tan-colored stockings.  Their bead’ embroidered footgear should be in striking color on a tan background.  But their chief glory is their blankets.  These should be barbarically glowing, since it is partly in their wild flare of color that the beauty of the Blanket Dance lies.  The following designs for them are taken from the Indian motifs and colorings studied from the collections in various museums of natural history, and however startling they may seem at first, their color-scheme should be faithfully carried out, as much of the success of the scene depends on them.  The material used may be canton flannel throughout.  They should be the size of the average, every-day blanket.

1.  Blanket made of equal halves of deep royal purple and pale turquoise blue.

2.  Blanket of deep cobalt blue.  Fastened in the center a great oval of orange.

3.  Blanket made of equal halves of pale lemon and black.

4.  Blanket made of equal halves of very dark green and very pale green.

5.  Blanket made of equal halves of deep violet and white.

6.  White blanket with disks of scarlet at each of its four corners.

7.  Blanket of equal halves of royal purple and pale lavender.

8.  Blanket of very pale green, with large white disk in center.

Each Indian maiden should wear a band of gay-colored cheesecloth, red, green, or blue, bound about her forehead.  This band should match the color that fastens her braids.  In the back of the head-band should be fastened a quill of contrasting shade.  It need hardly be added that the Indian maidens wear neither feather head-dresses nor war-paint.  Their arms, necks, and faces should be stained light brown.  The tan-colored stockings are to simulate bare skin.

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Patriotic Plays and Pageants for Young People from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.