1920.] Lowie, Crow Tobacco Society. 157 



shook them, finally raising them aloft with a sudden movement to make 

 the Tobacco grow, while the musicians correspondingly raised their 

 drumsticks. Thus the ceremony ended, being followed by a distribution 

 of eatables. 



THE SWEATLODGE RlTUAL AND THE SELECTION OF MEDICINES. 



The details of the sweatlodge ritual have already been set forth in 

 Medicine-crow's and Plenty-hawk's accounts. It merely remains to add 

 the perso al reminiscences of other informants. The performance may 

 either directly follow the public initiation or be undergone on the fol- 

 lowing morning. 



When Young-crane entered the Otter chapter, she went into the 

 sweatlodge the morning following the public ceremony. With her 

 went her husband Crazy-head and his second wife, also several other 

 Otter members, including Hunts-the-enemy, the son of the chapter's 

 founder; altogether about eight people. The sw^atlodge was of some- 

 what greater than ordinary size. Ifc was covered with buffalo skins, 

 and bags filled with Tobacco were laid on top. Those inside were un- 

 dressed. The owner of the sweatlodge, Buffalo-carcass, sang first, 

 another man having previously poured four cupfuls of water on the rocks. 

 "We just lay and sweated for a time, then the door was,raised. Anyone 

 in the lodge would tell his dream, and all the rest wished it might come 

 true." The other singers were Medicine-crow, Charges-strong, and 

 Ictcxac, each singing after a lifting of the cover. The second time water 

 was poured on five times; at the third pouring, seven times, at the fourth, 

 ten times. 1 After the fourth song all the inmates sang; before that they 

 had merely listened to the four singers. At the close of the performance 

 the door-raiser spread a sort of carpet by the side of the sweatlodge and 

 laid all the Tobacco bags on it that had been deposited on the top of the 

 sweatlodge. These bags belonged to members of the society. Then all 

 came out, took a bath, and went home. 



The following morning the novices, i.e., Crazy-head and his two 

 wives, were to receive medicines. Men and women assembled in a tent, 

 in the rear of which the medicines had been placed. Hunts-the-enemy 

 held the ownership of the adoption lodge; in acknowledgment of the 

 horses and presents offered by the initiates he surrendered the preroga- 



ir This does not conform to the usual practice; see p. 141. 



