124 Field Columbian Museum — Anthropology, Vol. IX. 



At the end of the performance the crowd inside the lodge was 

 very great. The drumming and singing was resumed and the crowd 

 moved backward toward the entrance, their faces being directed 

 toward the center-pole. The musicians continued to drum and sing. 

 The crowd advanced toward the center-pole, their faces always 

 directed toward the west, four times, the intervals between the 

 singing being occupied by shouting and yelling. 



The dedication ceremony of the Sun Dance lodge was now con- 

 cluded, and there followed an intermission, during which nearly all 

 left for their evening meal, the priests and those immediately con- 

 cerned in the ceremony remaining. 



Preparation. 



During the intermission, which lasted from the conclusion of the 

 dedication until about nine o'clock in the evening, a large pile of wood 

 was placed just inside of the lodge near the entrance in the north- 

 east. A bed had been erected on the south side of the tipi next 

 to the wall, consisting of willow mattress with willow leanbacks and 

 blankets. (See Plate XLI.) A rawhide folded roughly in the form of 

 a parflesh was brought into the lodge by one of the priests and placed 

 at the foot of the center-pole on the south side. Slowly the priests 

 returned to the lodge and took up a position in a semi-circle on the 

 south side, half-way between the wall of the lodge and the center- 

 pole, which they faced. Members of the warrior societies also re- 

 turned in increasing numbers and a crowd of drummers and singers 

 gathered about a large drum in the southeast of the lodge.* One 

 of the old warriors arose and related a war story, in order that the 

 fire might be rebuilt. It was lighted and wood was thrown upon 

 it at the conclusion of the war tale, whereupon the drummers beat 

 upon the drum and shouted. 



The Dancers Assemble. 



Immediately after, the Crier was heard outside calling for the 

 members of the Dew-claw Rattle society, who, as already noted, 

 were to begin dancing and fasting on this night. Soon they began 

 to enter the lodge, singly or in small groups, each having been painted 

 and properly costumed in his own tipi. Each one bore the usual 

 Sun Dance whistle, made of the wing bone of an eagle, suspended 

 upon his breast from a buckskin thong passing around his neck. 

 Each also wore on his head a wreath of sage, and all were com- 

 pletely painted, even to the feet, with white earth. 



*Formerly it is said, each musician was provided with a small hand drum, such as the medi- 

 cine men use now. 



