176 Field Columbian Museum — Anthropology, Vol. IX. 



above the nipples. In performing this operation the subject sat down 

 upon the ground, leaning back on his hands, thus permitting the priest 

 freedom of access to his breast. The latter then would take the loose 

 skin of the breast betAveen thumb and forefinger, and slightly 

 extending it, would pierce it, either with a large awl or with an old 

 knife which had been ground down almost to a point. Through the 

 hole thus formed was inserted a skewer, over which was lapped a 

 buckskin thong, the ends of which were tied to the two ends of 

 a long rawhide lariat. The free end of this lariat had already been 

 attached to the bundle in the fork of the center-pole, and its length 

 was so fixed that it permitted the one about to undergo tor- 

 ture to stand a short distance from the center-pole. Thus he could 

 either dance all night, when at morning one side of the skin about the 

 skewers would be cut and he would be freed, or he would jerk away 

 at once.* When the individual was to dance during the entire night, 

 thus attached to the-center pole, he wore an eagle-feather war bonnet 

 reaching to the ground, and carried in his right hand a staff. (See 

 PI. LXIII.) 



In a similar form of torture whereby the dancer was attached to 

 the center-pole, he bore suspended by means of buckskin thongs 

 lapped over skewers in his back, a certain number of dried buffalo 

 skulls, sometimes four in number, or there might be as many as six 

 buffalo skulls, one being placed just over each shoulder, and four being 

 hung at the back. (See PL LXIV.) 



Another form of torture, and practiced long ago, was similar to 

 the forms already described, but in this case the skewers were inserted, 

 not in the breast, but in the skin of the cheeks just under the eyes. (See 

 PI. LXV.) 



The second form of torture was that practiced about the camp- 

 circle rather than within the Sun Dance lodge. Of this form the com- 

 monest method was for the dancer to drag one or more dried buffalo 

 skulls attached to skewers inserted in his back, just as the skewers 

 were inserted in the breast, as already described. It seems that 

 in former times it was not uncommon for large numbers of men 

 to make the entire circuit of the camp-circle, having started at the 

 south side of the east opening, dragging from one to fifteen buffalo 

 skulls. The number of skulls dragged depended, of course, upon the 

 nature of the vow. 



This method of torture was commonly practiced by the Cheyenne 

 on occasions other than the Sun Dance; and indeed, it is said that 



*In illustrating this and other forms of torture practiced there have been used, by direct 

 reproduction, drawings made by Richard Davis, the interpreter. 



