52 Field Columbian Museum — Anthropology, Vol. IX. 



a Sun-Dance lodge. There for four days they receive instructions 

 from the Great Medicine, and a buffalo cap is given them, which 

 they are to wear during the ceremony. As they leave the mountain 

 the earth seems reanimated, and buffalo follow them. They return 

 to their tribe, who are starving, perform the Sun-Dance ceremony, 

 and the buffalo appear. 



Thus it appears that the tales collectively furnish us an account 

 of two culture heroes, or one culture hero with two names, who left 

 the camp, visited a mountain, witnessed a ceremony, obtained a 

 bundle, returned to the camp and performed a ceremony as it had 

 been witnessed, with the result that the tribe was rescued from 

 famine at that particular time and was furnished means for warding 

 off famine and their enemies in the future. There is no word of 

 explanation as to why the ceremony was given or how it was origi- 

 nated in the true sense of the word. Standing-Medicine and Erect- 

 Horns simply bring to the people a special medicine, in the form 

 of a ceremony which they had witnessed and in which they had 

 been instructed by supernatural beings. 



From, a consideration of the myths, or the ritualistic side, we turn 

 to consider the organization, as we find it with its attending cere- 

 monies and rites. In the first section we have a brief account of 

 the journey of Standing-Medicine, with a description of the arrows, 

 two of which are known as "man-arrows" and two as "buffalo- 

 arrows," so-called from their efficacy in calling buffalo, or in destroy- 

 ing enemies. Then follows a necessarily incomplete description of 

 the medicine-arrow ceremony, which may be summarized as follows: 



First Day. The pledger, or one who has vowed to make the 

 ceremony, erects his tipi in the center of. the camp circle. To this 

 tipi offerings or sacrifices are made. The warrior societies decide 

 upon the place to erect the medicine- arrow lodge proper. The 

 medicine-men now occupy this tipi, while the warrior societies police 

 the camp. 



Second Day. The pledger, with three men, removes the offer- 

 ings from the sacrifice tipi to the medicine-arrow lodge. They then 

 go to the tipi of the keeper of the medicine-arrow bundle and bring 

 the bundle to the medicine-arrow lodge. The bundle is opened, 

 and should they require it, the assistant arrow-keepers prepare the 

 arrows. 



Third Day. Tally sticks are provided, each representing a Chey- 

 enne family; incense is burned during the entire day in the medicine- 

 arrow lodge. The medicine-men throughout the camp devote their 

 time to renovating and preparing their individual medicines. 



