All the relations of the deceased then sit round it for about twenty-four hours; they tear their clothes; run knives through the fleshy parts of their arms, but there is no sacrifice which they can make so great as cutting off their hair.
The men go in mourning by painting themselves black and they do not wash the paint off until they take the scalp of an enemy, or give a medicine-dance.
While they sit round the scaffold, one of the nearest relations commences a doleful crying, when all the others join in, and continue their wailing for some time.

Then for awhile their tears are wiped away.
After smoking for a short time another of the family commences again, and the others join in.

This is continued for a day and night, and then each one goes to his own wigwam.
The Dahcotahs mourned thus for Beloved Hail.

In the evening the cries of his wife were heard as she called for her husband, while the rocks and the hills echoed the wail.

He will return no more--and who will hunt the deer for his wife and her young children! The murderers were never found, and the hostages, after being detained for eighteen months at Fort Snelling, were released.