46 Field Columbian Museum — Anthropology, Vol. IX. 



the fourth arrow, and its song, it was night, and the buffalo had 

 returned. The buffalo came like the roar of thunder, and it frightened 

 the Cheyenne. They went to Motzeyouf and asked him what to do. 

 He said, "Go and sleep, for the buffalo, your food, has returned to 

 you." The buffalo continued to roar like thunder as long as Mot- 

 zeyouf sang. The next morning the land was covered with buffalo, 

 and the people went out and killed all they wanted. From that 

 time forth the Cheyenne had plenty to eat and great power, owing 

 to the power of the medicine- arrows. 



According to the account of Wolf-chief and his ancestors, the 

 medicine-arrows are from eighteen to twenty generations old. Mot- 

 zeyouf brought them from the earth. 



18.— THE ORIGIN OF THE SUN-DANCE. 



The great Medicine-Dance of the Cheyenne is a devout worship 

 of the Great Medicine, creator of the universe, ruler of the whole 

 earth and the heavens, in whose honor are performed, with great 

 reverence, the rites attendant upon a vow to him. From time im- 

 memorial the Cheyenne have performed this great ceremony in 

 honor of the Great Medicine. The great Medicine-lodge proper is 

 the true symbol of the ancient world, and to this day is so considered 

 by the old-time Half -Cheyenne (Sutayo), a people distinct and 

 separate from the Medicine- Arrow Cheyenne, who were the originators 

 of the dance. This dance represents the creation by the Great 

 Medicine and the Roaring Thunder of the Above, who is the great 

 chief of the air and the winds ; it represents the creation of the ancient 

 animal and vegetable worlds, the earth and all that is on it, the water 

 and its creatures, the blue sky, the sun, moon, stars, the clouds, the 

 winds, the thunder, rain, hail, and the rainbow. The great Med- 

 icine-Dance was performed only in times of pestilence or famine or 

 great need; for the Great Medicine promised the ancient Cheyenne 

 that he would replenish the earth and bless the people abundantly 

 if they would accurately perform the ceremony as he had given it 

 to them. 



In the beginning the Great Medicine, the Dark Clouds, and the 

 Roaring Thunder revealed this ceremony to Erect-Horns, a medicine- 

 man who came forth from out the top of a high mountain peak in 

 the far north. There was famine in all of the northl and. Vegetation 

 withered, the animals starved, the land became barren and dry, and 

 the ancient Cheyenne were on the verge of starvation, for they had 

 no food but dried vegetation and their dogs of burden. They left 



