I04 Field Columbian Museum — Anthropology, Vol. IV.. 



ASSEMBLING MATERIAL FOR THE ALTAR. 



Much work has already been done toward the building of this 

 sacred shrine which, it may be here stated, is more elaborate in the 

 Arapaho ceremony than in any of the other Sun Dances the author has 

 witnessed. 



About to form part of the altar, and already present within the 

 Offerings-lodge are several objects, already referred to, which have 

 been prepared within the sacred Rabbit-tipi ; such are the skull. 

 Wheel, Badger-pack, and the digging-stick. (See Plate XXXIX.) It 

 is now necessary to secure timbers of various sorts and two pieces of 

 sod. Of these additional accessories required for the altar the sods 

 are perhaps the most important, and only with the securing of them 

 are there any rites this day outside the Offerings-lodge. 



Several of the more important participants of the ceremony, 

 including Waakatdni, Sosoni, Chedthea, the Lodge-Maker, Waanibe, 

 Debithe, and some of the dancers, about eight o'clock, assembled at 

 the lodge and left in single file toward the southeast, their object being 

 to secure the two pieces of sod, which were to be used in the construc- 

 tion of the altar. Their line of march was single file, "like geese." 

 When they had reached the field where good sod was to be found they 

 halted. Chedthea offered a prayer, whereupon Sosoni and Waanibe 

 took a knife and cut out two circular pieces of sod, one about four- 

 teen and the other about sixteen inches in diameter. 



The two sods were placed on a blanket, which was carried by four 

 young men, and they all started back for the lodge again, going in 

 single file, and making a circular motion, in imitation of geese. This 

 motion was especially intended to represent the different motions made 

 by geese as they fly high in the summer and winter flight, for as they 

 travel a long distance, so do the Arapaho, for the earth is wide ; while 

 the bird represented was that goose which has a pure white body 

 except for a little spot on its back, which spot somewhat resembles a 

 bird ; hence the Arapaho say that this goose carries a bird on its back. 



The line having reached the lodge, they circled about it twice 

 and entered by the opening on the east. The dancers who accom- 

 panied the priests now resumed their seats on the southeast side of 

 the lodge, while the others, except the four men who carried the sod, 

 sat down here and there in the lodge. 



PREPARING THE SODS. 



Hdwkan uttered a long prayer, during which time the greatest 

 silence prevailed. Debithe took to the fireplace a straight black pipe — 



