"This is the lame man's dance," his host explained.
"What lame man?" asked Ambrose. "How did it begin?"
Watusk shrugged. "It is very old," he said.
The first man dropped out, and the second chose a new partner. Sometimes there were two or three couples dancing at once. Partners were chosen indiscriminately from either sex.
In each case the knotted handkerchief was offered with the same spoken formula. Ambrose asked what it was they said.
"This is give-away dance," Watusk explained. "He is say: 'This my knife, this my blanket, this my silk-worked moccasins.' What he want to give. After he got give it."
Ambrose observed that each dancer laid two matches on the cold stove as he took his place, and when he retired from the dance picked them up again. He asked what that signified.
Watusk shrugged again. "How do I know?" he said. "It is always done."
Ambrose learned later that this was the invariable answer of the
Kakisas to any question concerning their customs.
Watusk was exerting himself to be hospitable, continually pressing cups of steaming bitter tea on Ambrose and Simon. Ambrose, watching him, made up his mind that the chief's unusual affability masked a deep disquiet.