114 Field Columbian Museum — Anthropology, Vol. IV. 



dancers, when the ceremony closed, fastening his head. The people 

 who were having the great ceremonial dance were mice. The mice 

 dispersed, and Nih'a"9a" went toward the river with the elk skull on 

 his head; hence we think the mice gave this ceremony to the Indians, 

 not the rabbits." 



THE THUNDERBIRD NEST. 



Placed in the center-pole, as has been noted, were two large 

 bundles of willow and cottonwood boughs, placed end to end. These 

 represent the nest of the eagle, or of the Thunderbird. According to 

 a myth the Thunderbird built its nest on the cottonwood tree. When 

 the female had given birth to young ones she went off and captured a 

 young steer and carried it to her nest for food. There she reared her 

 young. Just as birds fly about overlooking the earth, so does the 

 Father. He is in the form of a bird. 



The presence of the digging-stick, which was placed first in the 

 fork of the center-pole, represented the digging-stick used by the 

 mythological woman as she dug up the bush, and thereby obtained a 

 glimpse of the world below which she had left, while the sinew attached 

 to the digging-stick represented her means of escape from the upper 

 world. 



Attached to the digging-stick was a bunch of partly braided 

 grass, along with a piece of tallow; these together represent a person, 

 the grass being the hair and the tallow the skin. The tallow is con- 

 sidered potent, for it refers to the body, with the breath of life. It is 

 circular in form, for it represents the head and therefore the mind or 

 thought of the people. The tallow has also a further significance. 

 In a preceding page has been explained the symbolism of the fire of 

 the Rabbit-tipi. In order successfully to kindle a fire, kindling is 

 required. Hence, while the bodies of slain victims are regarded as 

 firewood, the scalp represents the kindling for starting the fire. The 

 tallow also typifies human skin, and also a buffalo-wallow, and in a 

 derived sense, the human wallow, reference being made to the wallow 

 formed during the rite performed by the Transferrer, or Grandfather, 

 and the wife of the Lodge-Maker. 



YOUNG-BULL. 



It will be remembered also that a buffalo robe was placed in the 

 center-pole. The presence of the robe here is explained by the fact 

 that the paint worn by the dancers during the ceremony was obtained 

 from a buffalo bull seen standing on a hill. Hence it is placed high 

 in the fork, where it may be in plain sight of the dancers. Another 



