When they have circled the fire twice, they begin to thrust their wands toward it.  Their object is to try to burn off the tip of eagle down.  They dash up to the fire, crawl up to it on their faces, run up holding their heads sidewise, dart up backward and approach it in all sorts of attitudes.  Suddenly, one approaching the flaming pile throws himself on his back, with his head to the fire, and swiftly thrusts his wand into the flames.  Many are the unsuccessful attempts, but at length, one by one, they all succeed in burning the downy balls from the end of their wands.  As each accomplishes his feat, it becomes necessary, as the next duty, to restore the ball of down, which is done by refitting the ring held in the hand with down upon it, and putting it on the head of the aromatic sumac wand.

The dance customs and ideas differ with the tribes and localities.  Sometimes the dance is little more than an exhibition of powers of endurance.  Men or women, or both, go through fatiguing motions for hours and even days in succession, astounding spectators by their disregard of the traditions of their race, so far as idleness is concerned.  Other dances are grotesque and brutal.  On special occasions weird ceremonies are indulged in, and the proceedings are sensational in the extreme.

Of the ghost dance and its serious import, readers of the daily papers are familiar.  Of the war dances of the different tribes a great deal has also been written, and altogether the dance lore of the American Indian is replete with singular incongruities and picturesque anomalies.  Dancing with the Indian is often a religious exercise.  It involves hardship at times, and occasionally the participants even mutilate themselves in their enthusiasm.  Some of the tribes of the Southwest dance, as we shall see later, with venomous snakes in their hands, allowing themselves to be bitten, and relying on the power of the priests to save them from evil consequences.

The Indians gamble as if by instinct.  On one occasion the writer was visiting a frontier town just after its settlement.  Indians were present in very large numbers, and in a variety of ways they got hold of a good deal of money.  The newcomers from the Eastern States were absolutely unprepared for the necessary privations of frontier life.  Hence they were willing to purchase necessary articles at almost any price, while they were easily deluded into buying all sorts of articles for which they had no possible need.  The Indians, who are supposed to be civilized, took full advantage of the situation, and brought into town everything that was of a salable character, frequently obtaining three or four times the local cash value.