88 Field Columbian Museum — Anthropology, Vol. VII. 



a pipe, offering himself to the people. The bull came from the 

 interior of the earth and brought the people the paints of the lodge. 

 Thus the exceedingly simple altar may be said to consist of the fire- 

 place, or sun, the buffalo, and finally of the sage, which is symbolic 

 of the people. 



In comparing the Ponca Sun Dance with that of the Cheyenne 

 or .Arapaho, the points of difference stand out more prominently 

 than those of resemblance. Most important of these points of 

 resemblance are the painted dancers, who dance with an eagle bone 

 whistle in their mouths towards the centre-pole, or towards the sun. 

 The chief differences between the Ponca Sun Dance and that of the 

 other group are as follows: The Ponca Sun Dance is an annual 

 ceremony, and not dependent upon the vow or pledge of an indi- 

 vidual member of the tribe; the dancers neither vow to dance nor 

 dance because they belong to some particular warrior organiza- 

 tion, but because they are asked to do so by the priests; instead of 

 one secret tipi of preparation, there are four; instead of many rites 

 in these tipis, there are but few, and these seem to be confined to 

 the erection of sun symbols; the lodge itself is nothing but a wind- 

 break as compared with that of the Cheyenne or Arapaho, which is a 

 very substantial structure; the torture which the subjects in -the 

 Ponca ceremony undergo are not practiced, so far as known, by either 

 the Cheyenne or the Arapaho ; the Ponca ceremony finishes at midday, 

 the Cheyenne and Arapaho at sunset. 



It should be noted, finally, that in the Ponca Sun Dance of to-day 

 we have a ceremony which has become, perhaps, much simplified 

 in the practice and nature of its rites, and which devotes a larger 

 proportion of its energies to the spectacular. It is quite possible 

 that in the attitude of the priests when dancing towards the sun, 

 they may be attempting to hypnotize the dancers; or it is possible 

 that their actions may be explained by their having been influenced 

 by their practice of the Ghost Dance. 



