22 1'ii.i.d Columbian Museum AjctHaopoLOGY, Vol. IX. 



te with the origin of the society. The society regards itself as dis- 

 tinguished ami influential. The whole tribe, and neighboring tribes, 

 as well, recognize its importance. In former times this society was 

 distinguished for the great number of captives it held. Indeed, the 

 old-time warriors claim that three-fourths of the entire Cheyenne 

 tribe were captives. 



The Dog-Men society was organized after the organization of the 

 other societies, by a young man without influence but who was chosen 

 by the great Prophet. One morning the young man went through the 

 entire camp and to the center of the camp-circle, announcing that 

 he was about to form a society. No one was anxious to join him, so 

 he was alone all that day. The other medicine-men had had no 

 difficulty in establishing their societies, but this young man, when 

 his turn came to organize, was ridiculed; for he was not a medicine- 

 man, and had no influence to induce others to follow his leadership. A t 

 evening he was sad, and he sat in the midst of the whole camp. He 

 prayed to the Great Prophet and the Great Medicine to assist him. At 

 sunset he began to sing a sacred song. While he sang the people noticed 

 that now and then the large and small dogs throughout the camp 

 whined and howled and were restless. The people in their lodges fell 

 asleep. The man sang from sunset to midnight: then he began to wail. 

 The people were all sleeping in their lodges and did not hear him. Again 

 he sang: then he walked out to the opening of the camp-circle, singing 

 as he went. At the opening of the camp-circle he ceased singing and 

 went out. All the dogs from the whole camp followed him, both 

 male and female, some carrying in their mouths their puppies. Four 

 times he sang before he reached his destination at daybreak. As the 

 sun rose he and all of the dogs arrived at a river bottom which was 

 partly timbered and level. The man sat down by a tree that leaned 

 toward the north. Immediately the dogs ran from him and arranged 

 themselves in the form of a semicircle about him, like the shape of the 

 camp-circle they had left; then they lay down to rest; as the dogs lay 

 down, by some mysterious power, there sprang up over the man in the 

 center of the circle a lodge. The lodge included the leaning tree by 

 which the man sat; and there were three other saplings, trimmed at 

 the base with the boughs left on at the top. The lodge was formed of 

 the skins of the buffalo. As soon as the lodge appeared all the dogs 

 rushed towards it. As they entered the lodge they turned into human 

 beings, dressed like the members of the Dog-Men society. The Dog- 

 Men began to sing, and the man listened very attentively and learned 

 several songs from them, their ceremony, and their dancing forms. 

 The camp-circle and the center lodge had the appearance of a real 



