178 Field Columbian Museum — Anthropology, Vol. IX. 



Among our old beliefs and forms of worship was the idea that when a 

 man made a vow to be pierced on the breast, that sickness would 

 leave his family and that they would enjoy good health. To-night 

 one of our number will perform this part of the ceremony ; in order 

 that it may be done aright and that it may not injure our cause, no 

 person will be allowed in the lodge after sundown. " According to the 

 informant the individual referred to was Bull-Tongue, who had a sick 

 daughter ; and before the ceremony he had vowed that he would dance 

 all night partially suspended by a lariat from the center-pole. Some- 

 time during the night, Bushy-Head, a well-known Cheyenne priest and 

 medicine man, prepared a rawhide lariat and fastened a loop in each 

 end and measured it so that it was sufficiently long to permit of any one 

 attached to the ends of it to retire from the center-pole almost to 

 the side of the lodge. He then rolled into a ball one-half of the 

 lariat, placed it on a tipi pole, and threw it over one end of one of the 

 reach poles, where it rested in the fork of the center-pole. Bull- 

 Tongue took his blanket on the north side of the lodge and sat down, 

 leaning back on his outstretched arms. Bushy-Head knelt down by 

 the side of him and took up a pinch of the skin of his breast and en- 

 deavored to push through it the blade of a knife which had been 

 ground down until it was about the size of an awl. In this operation 

 he was assisted by Bull-Thunder. Owing to the toughness of the 

 skin, or the excessive bluntness of the knife, Bushy-Head did not suc- 

 ceed in inserting the blade of the knife and it slipped, making a 

 slight and insignificant wound upon the breast, whereupon he declared 

 that thus Bull-Tongue had fulfilled his vow. It seems that it was not 

 permitted Bushy-Head, by the custom of torture, to make a second at- 

 tempt to make a hole for the skewer after he had once failed. Bushy- 

 Head was selected by Bull-Tongue himself inasmuch as Bushy-Head 

 had on two occasions danced thus suspended from the center-pole 

 during the entire night. 



It was learned after the ceremony that two men had made a vow to 

 undergo torture on that afternoon, namely, to have the two sides of 

 their breasts pierced, be attached to the center-pole by means of 

 a buffalo hide lariat attached to skewers, and jerk loose. They were dis- 

 suaded, however, from making the attempt. 



The second torture incident of the 1903 ceremony was performed 

 very early in the morning, following the conclusion of the ceremony, 

 that is early on Friday morning, the dance itself having terminated 

 Thursday afternoon. That torture was to take place on this morning 

 was not known, so far as can be ascertained, by more than half a dozen 

 members of the entire tribe. 



