23 Field Columbian Museum — Anthropology, Vol. IV. 



v.— Time of the Ceremony. 



So far as I have been able to learn, there is no set time for the 

 Sun Dance ceremony among the Arapaho. Hdwlcan, my, chief inform- 

 ant, was emphatic in his statement that the actual time was determined 

 largely by convenience, and not by the condition of the moon, or by 

 the condition of vegetation. The usual time is in the spring, but not 

 until after the grass and sage have reached their full growth. The 

 ceremony may, however, be performed in the fall, or as late even as 

 jearly December, as was the case in the ceremony here described. 

 Apart from the considerations of convenience, the actual time of the 

 formation of the camp-circle is determined, usually, by the head men 

 of the company, or warrior society to which the Lodge-Maker belongs. 

 This general statement in the time agrees in the main with the state- 

 ment of Dorsey and Miss Fletcher. 



During the ceremony of 1902, certain interesting events were 

 noted which seemed to be more or less directly concerned with the 

 moon. Further inquiry was then made as to the proper time of the 

 beginning of the ceremony and the information was volunteered by 

 one of the priests that "the proper time of the beginning of the cere- 

 mony was from seven to ten days after new moon and hence an equal 

 number of days after the menstrual period. The Rabbit-tipi priests 

 set this time, for the menses are unclean and a source of bodily injury 

 to the people, and the Sun Dance-lodge and the Rabbit-tipi must be 

 kept clean from all impurities." 



VI. — Assemblage and Formation of the 

 Camp-Circle. 



As the time agreed upon for the formation of the circle draws 

 nigh, couriers are sent, as has been noted, to the various bands, and 

 the tribe begins to arrive at a certain spot which has already been 

 agreed upon by the* head men of the Star society, i. e., the society of 

 the Lodge-Maker. These head men have not only selected the loca- 

 tion of the camping circle, but have roughly staked out the circle, so 

 that the bands, as they enter the plain, proceed to the erection of their 

 lodges without delay. As each band arrives at the site of the circle 

 they are met by those already on the spot, with singing and rejoicing, 

 and the new arrivals before settling down, go around the circle, on the 

 inside first, and then on the outside, each time in a dextral or sunwise 



