. Echoes from the Rocky Mountains : reminiscences and thrilling incidents of the romantic and golden age of the great West, with a graphic account of its discovery, settlement, and grand development . itiontake the place of the press, the books of instruction and the means ofeducation that prevail in the enlightened societies of the civilizedworld. Their medicinemen, the priests and prophets of their tribes,cultivate their natural instincts for these forms and ceremonials, induct 523 524 ECHOES FROM THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS. them in the dance, originate their songs and become their poets andhistori
. Echoes from the Rocky Mountains : reminiscences and thrilling incidents of the romantic and golden age of the great West, with a graphic account of its discovery, settlement, and grand development . itiontake the place of the press, the books of instruction and the means ofeducation that prevail in the enlightened societies of the civilizedworld. Their medicinemen, the priests and prophets of their tribes,cultivate their natural instincts for these forms and ceremonials, induct 523 524 ECHOES FROM THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS. them in the dance, originate their songs and become their poets andhistorians. Through their dances, some of them revolting and cruel inthe extremest degree, tradition descends from generation to generation,from age to age, and all the legends of the vast tribes that oncepeopled this land have been thus handed down through their songsand dances. The love song of the maiden, the wooing of the youngbrave, the plaintive melody of maternal affection, and the tearful wailfor the dead, are embalmed from generation to generation in theirlegendary songs. Even the little children playing before their lodgedoors possess their simple chants taught them as soon as they are able. AN INDIAN DANCE. to lisp in Indian sy^able, and their fables and tender supplications sungages ago, are preserved in their duets of as wild song as when Normachants her love refrain. But in the dance and its mystic forms andceremonies, blended with the wild notes of rude voices, are recordedtheir heroic thought, their warlike deeds, their intense passion and thecustoms of their ancestors ages ago, before the white man trod thesoil of the New World. With the hope of pleasing the Great Spirit and as an atonement forall past misdeeds, and that he would direct the steps of the buffalo verynear to their village,were the promptings that induced the Gros Ventresof the Upper Missouri in 1867 to make their great Bull ceremonies attendant upon this particular act occupied four days. E
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, bookidecho, bookpublishernewyork
