lO SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 87 



After two years I heard that a man had pledged a Sacrifice Offer- 

 ing/ My father and mother immediately advised me to go and see 

 this man in order to be permitted to fulfill my deceased husband's 

 pledge. My father said the pledge could not be set aside and neglected 

 any longer, in spite of what had happened in the past.' So I went to see 

 this man and his wife. They readily agreed to my request. They told 

 me to be ready soon thereafter. They said they had everything that was 

 needed in connection with the ceremony and that I need not worry 

 about these things. They also said he had taken the sacred pipe to the 

 priest to teach and lead them. This pleased me greatly as I had nothing 

 to do now, and only waited to be notified when all was ready. The day 

 before the ceremony proper green timbers were brought from the 

 forest in order to have them in readiness for the following day. The 

 day the timber is brought in the tipi is erected, that is, in the evening. 



The ritualistic ceremony itself begins early the next day. The 

 pledgers are required to dress in their best clothing. The clothing thus 

 worn becomes the property of the painters. The first thing the priest 

 does is to prepare the Sacrifice OiTering cloth. Though other things 

 can be used, such as black, white, red solid-colored or striped cloth — 

 and gray eagle also — we used a striped cloth which the priest tied 

 to a long stick. This is, of course, inside of the tipi. After this the 

 priest smokes the medicine pipe and points the mouthpiece of the 

 pipe to the four directions of the earth and towards the skies. The 

 pipe is then passed to the left. The first person on the left of the 

 priest smokes it, and so on, down to the doorway. The pipe is then 

 passed backward without being smoked and is passed to the right of 

 the priest until it reaches the last person near the doorway. This 

 person smokes it, then the next person on his left, and so on until 

 the pipe again reaches the priest. He then empties the bowl of the 

 pipe. The pipe is then put away. The priest instructs the pledgers 

 how to raise and point the stick to the proper directions when they 

 go out. They then go outside. The person in the lead takes the stick 

 and cloth. The priest begins to pray, and then sings medicine songs. 

 At the end of each song he tells those outside to point the stick south- 

 east, then southwest, then northwest, then northeast, and then straight 



^ Though this particular ceremony apparently is absent from published works 

 on the Cheyenne, it is abundantly clear that the elements which compose it are 

 simply old Cheyenne material recombined in slightly varying ways. The annota- 

 tions will bring this out more clearly. Years ago I demonstrated the same 

 thing for Fox gens festivals. 



^ The nonfulfillment of a pledge was fraught with supernatural disaster ; 

 compare Grinnell, loc. cit., vol. 2, p. 195. 



