No description could convey an idea of the noise made by their crying and lamentation.

All join in, exerting to the utmost the strength of their lungs.
Before the men shoot at thunder, the squaws must leave the ring.

No one sings at this dance but the warrior who gives it; and while the visitors, the dancers, and the medicine men, women and children, all are arrayed in their gayest clothing, the host must be dressed in his meanest.
In the dance Ahahkah Koyah, or to make the Elk a figure of thunder, is also made and fought against.

The Sioux have a great deference for the majesty of thunder, and, consequently for their own skill in prevailing or seeming to prevail against it.
A Sioux is always alarmed after dreaming of an elk, and soon prevails upon some of his friends to assist him in dancing, to prevent any evil consequences resulting from his dream.

Those willing to join in must lay aside all clothing, painting their bodies with a reddish gray color, like the elk's.