258 INDIANS. 



in almost incoherent language a recital of the deeds on 

 which he bases his claim. 



When conflicting claims are made by the candidates, 

 their companions on the excursion are called on for 

 their statements ; and when all the testimony is in, the 

 candidates, their friends, and spectators are turned out 

 of the council, which then proceeds to deliberate. After 

 a lapse of time the names of the happy few deemed 

 worthy of initiation as warriors are formally and loudly 

 announced from the door of the council lodge. 



The initiation is a religious as well as a military 

 ceremony, and varies with the different tribes, the ordeal, 

 as a rule, being more trying as the tribe is more warlike. 



The process here described is that of the Southern 

 Cheyennes, a tribe numbering less than 3,000 souls, but 

 powerful in the skill and daring of its warriors. 



When it has been formally announced by the general 

 council that a youth has earned his right of initiation as 

 a warrior, he is taken by his father (or, in case of the 

 father's death, by his nearest relative), himself a warrior, 

 to some spot outside the Indian camp. After some 

 religious ceremonies have been first transacted the youth 

 is stripped to the skin. A broad-bladed knife is then 

 passed through the pectoral muscles, so as to make two 

 vertical incisions, about two inches from each other, and 

 each about three inches long, in each breast. The 

 portion of the muscle between these incisions is then lifted 

 from the bone, and the ends of horse-hair ropes, about 

 three-fourths of an inch in diameter, passed through the 

 opening and tied in a knot. A stout post, of some twenty 

 feet in height, has already been set in the ground, and to 

 the top of this are tied the other ends of the ropes. 



Having fastened the ropes so as to give the boy a 

 play of ten or twelve feet from the post, the father takes 

 leave of him, and he is left to fight his battle of en- 

 durance, of pain, and terrible suffering. Here he remains 

 alone without food, water, or sympathy ; denied even 



