i8 Field Columbian Museum — Anthropology, Vol. IX. 



entire spear is painted red. The wearing of the buffalo skin with the 

 attached horns and the shield from the hips, with the tail attached. 

 gave rise to the name "buffalo warriors." About their waists these 

 dancers wear a sort of skin belt or skirt, worked with porcupine quills, 

 and having buffalo dew-claws attached to it, to produce a rattling sound 

 while dancing. Along the lower edge of the belt are fringes, some 

 of which hang down below the knees. This skirt-like belt is worn by 

 every warrior of the society, and is painted red. 



8.— THE HOOF-RATTLE WARRIORS. 



The Hoof-Rattle society has one head chief and seven assistants 

 or sub-chiefs. They have over one hundred warriors under them 

 and four Cheyenne maidens. There is a keeper of the drums and a 

 keeper of the elk antler emblem, which is formed like a rattlesnake. 

 Two of the bravest men (See Plate VIII. Fig. 2) carry spears with 



crooks at one end, the 



— __ _ wood of the handle being 



M===:=:5 ™M/)/l/)))))lll'iMT^ bent around in a semi- 



F.G.5. Hoof-Rattle Warrior Musical circumference. These two 



Instrument. spears are wrapped as 



far as the points with 

 otter skin. The shaft is further ornamented with two bands of 

 otter skin about two feet apart, with four pendants of eagle 

 feathers attached to each band for ornamentation. The spears are 

 about eight feet long. All of the other warriors carry straight spears 

 with points, wrapped with otter skin which has been dressed on the 

 outside. Each warrior carries a rattle. This rattle is a stick about 

 one foot long, covered with tanned buckskin, to which are sewed or 

 tied several dry dew-claws of elk, deer, or antelope. The keeper of 

 the elk horn is the leader in the dancing and singing. The elk 

 antler used by these warriors is real. It is straight and has a body 

 about two inches thick and about eighteen inches long. It has 

 a head and a tail. It is fashioned like a snake. On the top of the 

 snake's back are grooves cut about half an inch apart. See Fig. 5. 

 When used for singing and dancing they put one end of this antler 

 snake on top of a piece of rawhide and hold the snake's tail in the 

 left hand and with the right hand they hold the shin bone of an ante- 

 lope and rub it backwards and forwards over the snake's back, thus 

 producing a loud, shrill sound like that of some animal. They have 

 four sacred songs, four war songs, and about two hundred dance 

 songs. One hundred or more warriors sing in unison with the time 



