126 



NATURE 



[June 9, 1898 



and to the neglect of the Government to carry into effect 

 their promises of furnishing suppHes. As the area of 

 their hunting-grounds was diminished, they had to depend 

 for subsistence on their cattle and crops and on the 

 rations allowed them by Government. In 1888 their 

 cattle suffered from disease, in the two following years 

 their crops were a failure, and their rations of beef were 

 diminished by half In 1890 they were on the brink of 

 starvation, and ready to listen to the words of a messiah. 

 In fact there is no doubt that hunger was the real cause 

 of the rebellion, and not the ghost-dance itself, though 

 this ceremonial was adopted as the means of propagating 

 the crusade. That resistance to the whites had no part 

 in the original doctrine of the dance is proved by the fact 

 that in many other tribes which practise it no outbreak 

 has occurred. The Sioux rebellion was put down after a 

 short though tostly war, and Mr. Mooney has given a 

 detailed account of the campaign which was brought to 

 a close by the battle at Wounded Knee. We are not 

 here concerned with this somewhat melancholy chapter 

 of Indian history, but will confine ourselves to the in- 

 teresting account he has given of the ghost-dance with 

 which the rebellion is generally connected. 



No one is better qualified to give an account of this 

 ceremony than Mr. Mooney, for he has had exceptional 

 opportunities for studying it. From 1890, when the 

 ghost-dance was beginning to attract attention, to the 

 early part of 1894, he has studied it on several expedi- 

 tions, his actual investigations among the Indians 

 extending over a period of twenty-two months and en- 

 tailing some 32,000 miles of travel. Not only has he 

 frequently seen the dance performed, but he has taken 

 part in it himself among the Arapaho and Cheyenne, 

 and by means of his kodak and camera has obtained 

 some valuable photographs. He also visited Wovoka, 

 the messiah who inaugurated the recent revival, and by 

 gaining the confidence of the Indians obtained from a 

 Cheyenne Indian, Black Short Nose, a copy of the 

 messiah's message, embodying the doctrine of the ghost- 

 dance, which he had previously sent to the Cheyenne 

 and Arapaho tribes. Mr. Mooney has given a very full 

 and interesting account of the ceremony of the ghost- 

 dance, but here we have not space for more than a sketch 

 of its most striking features. 



The place chosen for the dance is frequently conse- 

 crated by the sprinkling of sacred powder. Seven priests 

 lead the dance, and seven women are sometimes added 

 as leaders, the number seven being sacred with most 

 Indian tribes. Those selected as leaders receive two 

 feathers of the crow, the sacred bird of the ghost-dance, 

 or one of the eagle, which is sacred with all Indians ; and 

 these feathers they thrust in their hair. Nearly all the 

 dancers wear feathers, the painting and ornamenting of 

 which is attended with great ceremony ; while the faces 

 of the dancers are painted with elaborate designs in red, 

 yellow, green and blue. The dance generally begins in 

 the middle of the afternoon, the leaders walking to the 

 spot selected, where they form a small circle facing 

 inwards and joining hands. Then without moving they 

 sing the opening song in a soft undertone, and, having 

 sung it once, repeat it, raising their voices to their full 

 strength, and slowly circling round from right to left. 

 This process is repeated with different songs. Gradually 

 the people of the tribe gather round, and one after 

 another joins the circle until any number, from fifty to 

 five hundred, men, women and children, are in the dance. 

 The object aimed at by all the dancers is to fall into a 

 sleep or trance in which they will see their dead relatives 

 and converse with them. Sometimes a dancer will work 

 himself into the trance-state solely by the influence of 

 the movements of the dance and the singing, but the 

 dancers are generally helped by the medicine-men 

 standing within the circle, who, in Mr. Mooney's opinion, 

 unconsciously exercise hypnotic influence. The first 

 NO. 1493, VOL. 58] 



symptom of the trance-state is a slight muscular tremor,^ 

 and, as soon as a medicine-man perceives this he fixes 

 his eyes on the dancer, uttering sharp exclamations and 

 twirling a feather or small cloth rapidly in his face. Soon 

 the dancer loses control of himself, staggers and breaks 

 away from the ring, which closes up again. The medicine- 

 man continues his passes, generally keeping the sun full 

 in the face of the dancer, who becomes rigid and finally 

 falls to the ground unconscious. The trance lasts some- 

 times ten minutes, sometimes for hours ; for those who 

 continue dancing are careful not to disturb any dancer in 

 the trance. As Mr. Mooney has taken part in the dance 

 himself, he has observed the various stages in the 

 hypnotic trance, as will be seen from the following 

 quotation : 



" From the outside hardly anything can be seen of 

 what goes on within the circle, but being a part of the 

 circle myself I was able to see all that occurred inside, 

 and by fixing attention on one subject at a time I was 

 able to note all the stages of the phenomenon from the 

 time the subject first attracted the notice of the medicine- 

 man, through the staggering, the rigidity, the uncon- 

 sciousness, and back again to wakefulness. On two 

 occasions my partner in the dance, each time a woman, 

 came under the influence, and I was thus enabled to note 

 the very first tremor of her hand and mark it as it 

 increased in violence until she broke away and staggered 

 toward the medicine-man within the circle." 



In addition to his observations of the actual ceremony 

 of the ghost-dance, Mr. Mooney has made very careful 

 studies of the songs employed by the dancers. As with 

 church choirs in civilised countries, the leaders of the 

 dance hold numerous rehearsals of the songs which are 

 to be employed at the next dance ; for though each tribe 

 has certain songs which form a regular part of the cere- 

 mony, new ones are constantly being added by those who 

 have experienced the trance. Mr. Mooney was often 

 present at these rehearsals, and was thus enabled to take 

 down many of the songs, and some of the airs he has put 

 to music. In fact Mr. Mooney has treated his subject 

 exhaustively, and has prefaced it with a discussion of the 

 various Indian revivals due to prophets who preceded 

 Wovoka. His paper, which runs into some 500 quarto 

 pages, is full of material which will be of the greatest 

 value to the anthropologist and student of religion. 



Two somewhat shorter papers on certain ceremonial 

 dances among the Indians are contributed by Mr. J. W. 

 Fewkes to the fifteenth and sixteenth annual reports of 

 the Bureau, which were issued during the course of last 

 year. Like Mr. Mooney's memoir, Mr. Fewkes' papers 

 also are of great value, as they are based on personal 

 observations ; he does not, however, enter at any great 

 length into the doctrines which underlie the ceremonials 

 he describes. His paper in the fifteenth annual report 

 is entitled "Tusayan Katcinas," and in it he has given a 

 careful record of the Katcina ceremonials as he saw 

 them performed in the Hopi village of Walpi in Tusayan ; 

 his paper is the result of observations made by himself 

 and by the late Mr. A. M. Stephen during the years 

 1890 to 1894. The word Katcina has a twofold meaning. 

 It is used as a name for certain supernatural beings, sub- 

 ordinate to the greater gods, who are impersonated in 

 Hopi ceremonials by men wearing masks ; it is also 

 employed as a name for the dances in which these men 

 take part. The Katcina dances are carried on at fixed 

 times during the period between the winter and the 

 summer solstices, and their chief point of difference 

 from the ceremonies performed by the Hopi during the 

 rest of the year consists in the presence of the Tcukii- 

 wympkiyas, or masked figures ; the men who wear the 

 masks or helmets are supposed to be transformed for 

 the time into the deities they represent. The times for 

 the ceremonies are determined by the priests of the tribe 

 by observing the points on the horizon where the sun 



