a war-dance, singing at the same time as loud as they could, and brandishing their weapons in the air. “Having finished their dance, each party formed into a line two-deep, the women and boys stationing themselves about ten yards to the rear. “The two bodies then advanced to within about a hundred yards of each other, when they fired off their muskets. Few of them put the musket to the shoulder while firing it, but merely held it at the charge. They only fired once; and then, throwing their muskets behind them, where they were picked up by the women and boys, drew their merys and tomahawks out of their belts, when, the war-song being screamed by the whole of them together in a manner most dismal to be heard, the two parties rushed into close combat. “They now took hold of the hair of each other’s heads with their left hands, using the right to cut off the head. Meantime the women and boys followed close behind them, uttering the most shocking cries I ever heard. These last received the heads of the slain from those engaged in the battle as soon as they were cut off, after which the men went in among the enemy for the dead bodies; but many of them received bodies that did not belong to the heads they had cut off. “The engagement had not lasted many minutes, when the enemy began to retreat, and