Among uncultured races the sacred dance in a circle, or round some sacred object, is widely spread; many illustrations of it could be given, but it will suffice if quite a few examples are offered because, as there is a great family likeness between them, a few will answer the same purpose as a large number. Schoolcraft tells us that among the Dakotahs a feast is held every now and then at which a special dance is performed in honour of their god Ha-o-Kah. He is a giant god, but subordinate to the Great Spirit. This dance is performed by the men only, within a wigwam, around a fire over which are kettles of meat boiling. They have no clothing except a conical cap made of birch bark with paint to represent lightning, and some strips of the same material around the loins. While hopping and singing around the kettles they will thrust in their bare hands and pull out pieces of meat and eat them while scalding hot. After the meat is all eaten they will splash the hot water over their bare backs, all the time hopping around and singing out, “oh, how cold it is!” pretending that the hot water does not scald them, and that the god will not allow any of his clan to be injured by it. An illustration is given of the worshippers hopping round the fire[165]. Again, the Timagani Indians have a “Bear Dance” which is performed in the form of a circle led by the chief playing a drum and singing the “Bear Dance” song; the circle goes round counter-clockwise. The leader sometimes dances backwards, turns round, stoops, and in other ways imitates the bear.... The circling keeps up until the song is finished. The idea of this dance seems to be to honour the bear by imitating him[166]. The performers in this dance do not encircle any object; it is simply a dance in the form of a circle; they do not hold hands, but go round in a follow-my-leader style. Although the dancing in honour of the bear reminds one of the Ἀρκτεία performed in honour of Artemis, it differs from this in that only men take part in it; and the Ἀρκτεία, in which the performers are only young girls is, as we have seen, an initiation ceremony. A closer parallel of the dance of the Timagani Indians is the “Bear Dance” among the Sioux Indians mentioned by Réville[167]. At the New Year festival of the Kayans of Sarāwak, to come to another part of the world, there is a great sacrifice of pigs, whose “spiritual essence is appropriately offered to the spirits, while their material substance is consumed by the worshippers.”