“Our leader, Wolf-Skin-Man, danced first, blowing his bone whistle as a signal for the others to follow. Then we dropped our robes and followed him, blowing whistles and bearing our lances. We danced slowly in a circle, leaning forward and holding our lances near the ground and acting like dogs looking for places to lie down. The white-painted braves drove the others before them with their lances, but stopped as soon as the two water braves appeared. Then came the brave with the willow branch, who could not stop dancing until the two grizzly bears appeared. “The bears only danced when they felt like it. They lay in their den and did as they pleased. Sometimes the spectators threw things at them to make them dance. When they were ready they got up slowly, holding their hands the way bears do their paws. They danced leaning over, hopping along in short jumps with their feet together, as bears are accustomed to do. They aimed with bows and arrows, and drove the other dancers back to their seats. “When we wanted to bring our dance to a close, the two bears pretended they were going to shoot at the spectators with sharp-pointed arrows; but they changed quickly to painted arrows without points and shot them over the heads of the people. Then we ran over the prairie, in the direction the arrows flew, taking off our moccasins and throwing them away. “We marched through camp singing our society song and shouted our orders to the people. It was our custom to take anything we wanted, even food from the kettle, as dogs do. We stopped to dance at the lodges of prominent chiefs, who were expected to give us presents of food and clothes. If any people bothered us or held us back, the bears shot at them with their arrows. “If our leader told us to allow no one to chase buffalo, then we were the watchmen of the herds. If the buffalo were frightened and ran away, scared by some one who chased secretly, we followed that man and took away his horse and weapons; we tore off his clothes and whipped him; we sent him back to camp naked and on foot. We alone could look for buffalo; and, when we found plenty of them, we moved the tribe that way. We also punished women who picked berries against our orders by tearing their lodges to pieces. “Men who joined the Society of Braves had to face danger whenever it came; they could not turn away. When we decided it was time to change our camping place, we made a feast in our society lodge and invited the head-chief. After we had eaten and were smoking together, our head-chief would say: “‘My children, why have you asked me to come here? What is it that you want’? “And our leader would answer: ‘Grass is scarce for the horses; the water is poor and the ground no longer clean; it is time for us to move to another place.’