File:Harper's New Monthly Magazine Volume 21 June to November 1860 (1860) (14596911959).jpg

Identifier: harpersnew21harper (find matches)
Title: Harper's New Monthly Magazine Volume 21 June to November 1860
Year: 1860 (1860s)
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Publisher: New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers
Contributing Library: Brigham Young University-Idaho, David O. McKay Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Brigham Young University-Idaho

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jiggishfiddle before we reached the house. The half-breed who had rowed us over stojsped at a lodgebeside the path to wake up two dark-skinnedmaidens and invite them to the dance. Wecaught a glimpse of them rising from their bedof robes, their faces lit up by pleasure at thenews, as much as by the burning shred of cottonwhich floated on a basin o^tallow on the groundin the middle of the lodge. Opening the door,and entering the log-house where the dance wasbriskly going on, we were greeted by a chorusof Ho ! ho! ho!—the universal salutation of theaboriginal (total and semi). The fiddle did notcease its scraping, nor the heels of the dancersfor a moment intermit their vibrant thumps onthe plank floor. The scene was a wild one.though within four walls. A huge mud chim-ney, with an open fire-place at the right, a four-posted bed, with blankets only, in the furtherleft-hand corner; one or two chairs, which werepolitely handed to the strangers; and all around TO RED RIVER AND BEYOND. 585
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BALL AT PEMBINA. the room, sitting upon the floor as Indians andtailors sit, were half-breed men and women, boysand girls—twenty or thirty in all; one mother,with bare breast, suckling her babe; anotherbusy in keeping her little ones toddling feet outof the pan of melted grease low on the mudhearth, with a cotton rag hanging over the edge,alight, which made such dark shadows in amongthe groups in strange places, shadow and lightalternating against the rafters and the roof asthe figures of the dance changed. Jigs, reels, and quadrilles were danced in rap-id succession to the sound of that demd hor-rid grind, fresh dancers taking the place oftiiose on the floor every two or three moments.The men were stripped to shirt, trowsers, belt,and moccasins ; and the women wore gownswhich had no hoops. A vigorous shuflSe fromsome thick-lipped young dancer, with his legsin flour-sacks, or a lively movement of somewrinkled hag, trying to renew the pleasures andactivity of her youth, would call ou

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