NO. 5 NARRATIVE OF A CHEYENNE WOMAN MICHELSON 3 



In my girlhood days we girls played what we called '" tiny play." 

 This play imitated the customs and ways of the grown-up people. 

 Our mothers made rag dolls of women, men, boys, girls, and babies. 

 We used forked sticks to represent ponies, and we mounted the tiny 

 people on the fork of the sticks, pretending to move camp. Sometimes 

 a baby would be born ; or, a marriage would take place — in fact any- 

 thing that we knew about older people. In this play we did not allow 

 any boys to play with us girls. We had rag dolls to represent boys. 



After a time as I became a little older we played what we called 

 " large play." ^ This play consisted of real people, namely, boys and 

 girls. The boys would go out hunting (really, go to their tipis) and 

 bring meat and other food. We girls would pitch our tipis and make 

 ready everything as if it were a real camp life. Some of the boys 

 would go on the warpath, and always came home victorious. They 

 would relate their war experiences, telling how successful they were, 

 especially with the Pawnee (Wolf Men). We girls would sing war 

 songs to acknowledge the bravery of our heroes. Of course, we would 

 have marriage feasts, dances, etc. Sometimes we had the Sun Dance.^ 

 In this play we did not use real food, but baked mud bread and used 

 leaves for dishes. The pledger and the woman were there. We would 

 have our children's ears pierced ^ and gave away horses. Some of 

 the boys would have their breasts pierced with cactus thorns, others 

 dragged buffalo skulls (which were really chunks of dead wood). 

 Sometimes the older boys would come. When we saw them we al- 

 ways stopped and scattered. My aunt told me not to play with young 

 men. 



At one time — I remember the incident well — while we were play- 

 ing with boys some young men came upon us. One of them took after 

 me and seized the sleeve of my dress and tore it off. I surely was 

 frightened, not that I feared bodily injury, but because I thought, 

 " Here is a young man trying to bestow his manly attentions on me." 

 It all seemed so strange and bewildering to me. Eventually this young 

 man would come and see me, to court me.* At first I was verv much 



^ For a similar game among the Crow see Lowie, R., The material culture of 

 the Crow Indians, Anthrop. Papers Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., vol. 21, pt. 3, p. 249, 

 1922. 



^ On the Cheyenne Sun Dance see. Dorsey, G. A., The Cheyenne, II. The Sun 

 Dance, Field Columbian Mus. Pub. 103, Anthrop. Sen, vol. 9, no. 2, 1905 ; Grin- 

 nell, loc. cit., vol. 2, pp. 211 et seq. ; Petter, R., English-Cheyenne Dictionary, 

 article " Sun Dance," pp. 1028-1030, Kettle Falls, Wash., 1913-1915. 



'For ear-piercing see Grinnell, loc. cit., vol. i, pp. 61, 62, 105-107, 149: vol. 2, 

 p. 276; Petter, loc. cit., p. 181 (article "bred"). 



* According to Grinnell the modern Cheyenne courtship is like that of the 

 Sioux; see loc. cit., vol. i, pp. 131 et seq. 



