i8o Field Columbian Museum — Anthropology, Vol. IX. 



circuit he sat down and Bushy-Head's assistant with a sharp knife cut 

 the skin on the upper side and released the skewers. (See Fig. io8.) 

 The skewers, knife, 

 and short buckskin 

 thongs were depos- 

 ited on the ground 

 by the side of one of 

 the buffalo skulls. 

 Later they were pur- 

 chased by an ob- 

 server for a small 

 sum from Bushy- 

 Head. In this per- 

 formance the man 

 undergoing the tor- 

 ture gave no evi- 

 dence of suffering 

 pain in the slightest 

 degree, nor was it 

 probable that he 

 suffered much, owing to the scant supply of nerves in the skin of the 

 back, as well as to the fact that the buffalo skulls were fragments and 

 very light in weight. During the performance his body was naked 

 except for a loin-cloth and moccasins. Before leaving his own tipi he 

 had given his body a thin coat of white clay paint. Apparently there 

 was no rite or rites of any sort connected with this performance, 

 the mere ordeal itself, enacted in a matter of fact way, serving to 

 fulfill the vow. 



Fig. io8. Priest removing the skewers. (Carpenter.) 



PART V.-CONCLUSION. 



Attention may be directed, first, to an inquiry as to possible 

 changes which have taken place in the Sun Dance since the confine- 

 ment of the Cheyenne upon a reservation. Inasmuch as no trustworthy 

 detailed account of the ceremony of twenty or thirty years ago exists, 

 it is not possible to make a comparison in the literal sense of the word. 

 An estimate can only be made as to the amount, if any, of deterioration 

 or change which has taken place in the ceremony during that time. 



Regarding the general features of the ceremony, it seems reason- 

 able to believe that there has been no change. Whatever change there 

 may have been has been one of degree and not of kind. The di- 



