80 Proceedings of Indiana Academy of Science 



Scene 29. — We find the sick one in a near-by improvised tepee. 

 She is lying face down on a mat and medicine women are rubbing- her 

 back with scorching, smoking piiion twigs. Time and again she faints, 

 only to have the twigs snatched from the blaze quicker and applied to her 

 back. But the dancers are coming. 



Scene 30. — The sick one is carried to within the circle of human 

 beings and placed on the opposite side of the fire from that occupied by 

 the musicians. 



Scene 31. — The tom-toms begin to beat. The chief medicine man 

 leans his body forward and covers his face with his hands, holding them 

 in a sort of hooded position. The doctor and the musicians commence 

 the monotonous chant, as they wave their bodies to the time of the 

 music. The sick one looks expectant. They are coming, the ghost 

 dancers of the gods. They enter the circle of light from the northeast. 

 There are five of them. Four of them are attired as was the dancer in 

 the afternoon (Scene 25); but now each carries a wand in either hand. 

 The fifth actor is a clown. He is attired only in breech-cloth and 'w 

 masked with a horned mask. He carries a wand in his left hand, a 

 three-pronged stick in his right. Around the central fire, the musicians 

 and the sick one, they dance in single file for a considerable time, the 

 four dancers posing now and then and gobbling the while like a turkey, 

 which they are supposed to repiesent; the clown at times cuts capers 

 and tumbles around over the ground to amuse the populace. 



At last they approach the sick one in single file. Then acting like 

 a biid when it has seen something it is I'ather afraid of, they gobble 

 and dance backwards from her presence in single file. Again and again 

 they approach her, each time getting a little closer to her. Finally the 

 foremost dancer of the line leaves his fellows, trembling, prancing, and 

 dances to the feet of the patient. She sits up. He leans over her. He 

 places his wands crossed on her head, on her back, on her lower extremi- 

 ties, and on her chest. Then he raises the still crossed wands toward 

 the northeastern heavens and, as he pai'ts them with a sweeping mo- 

 tion and emits a hissing breath from his mouth, he scatters the "sick" 

 toward the four winds. And with a shrieking howl, he canters off 

 into the blackest darkness. 



The rest of the dancers follow in succession and perform in a sim- 

 ilar manner, as does the clown also, except that he acts the clown as 

 well as a medicine dancer. His principal feat is to kill the "sick" by 

 spearing it with his trident after he has collected it on his wand. His 

 performing completes the first of this setting. There are three more 

 scenes in it, all of which are similar to the one just described, except 

 that in scene two the sick one faces the southeast and the actors ap- 

 proach her from that region ; in scene three the sick one faces the south- 

 west, and the dancers the northeast; and in the fourth scene she faces 

 the northwest, the actors the southeast. But they are gone and another 

 set of actors are taking their places. 



Insert: "Throtighout the night dance ceremonies like the above 

 are kept up till thirteen consecutive dance scenes are completed. Then 

 comes the closing scene." 



