62 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 195 



PLC recalled, from when he was a small boy, an old man who "dressed 

 up" in the ancient style. This patriarch wore a wreath of sage about 

 his head. His hair hung loose and fell to his shoulders. He wore a 

 bandolier of twisted sage stems, a breechcloth, and moccasins. His 

 body was painted in various designs and he carried a bow and a few 

 arrows in his hands. 



Although soft-soled moccasins were worn by the Ponca in the early 

 19th century, they were abandoned in favor of hard-soled footgear 

 sometime before 1850. The typical Ponca moccasin for the past 

 century is of the two-piece High Plains type with hard parfleche soles 

 and soft buckskin uppers. PLC's dance moccasins are of this type, 

 completely free of any decoration. 



Beaded or quilled tobacco bags and eagle-wing fans were carried by 

 men as items of dress on important occasions. In the 1830's Ponca 

 men carried their weapons with them at all times (Maximilian, 1906, 

 vol. 22, p. 293) . Members of the Medicine Lodge society, when arrayed 

 for the ceremonies of this organization, carried ornamented bags which 

 were made of the skin of some small animal, such as mink or otter 

 (Skinner, 1920, p. 307). 



The ornament known as the "crow belt," the roach headdress, and 

 war honor feathers were worn only by warriors who had earned the 

 right to them according to both Skinner (1915 c, p. 794) and Fletcher 

 and La Flesche (1911, p. 440). PLC stated, however, that during his 

 lifetime dancers in the Heduska dance used any sort of feather orna- 

 ment that suited their fancy. 



A generation ago a type of costume called the "straight dance outfit" 

 was favored by most Ponca men for use in Indian dances (fig. 1). This 

 particular assemblage of costume pieces has remained de rigueur 

 among the more conservative Osage, but is now worn by only a smaU 

 minority of Ponca male dancers. Typically, a "straight" outfit 

 consists of the following pieces. On the head the dancer wears a 

 porcupine and deer-hair roach headdress, with bone spreader and 

 plume holder. A single eagle tail feather stands erect in this headdress 

 at the front. In addition to the roach most dancers wear two plumes 

 falHng over the eyes in front, or sHghtly to the side of the head, and 

 two buckskin thongs with small pieces of silver crimped around the 

 thong at regular intervals, suspended from a beaded or German- 

 sUver disk. The straight dancer also wears a brightly colored silk 

 head scarf, rolled to form a narrow band and knotted over the 

 forehead. 



On the upper body the straight dancer wears a "choker" necklace, 

 with a large shell disk in front, about the neck. His shirt is a loose- 

 fitting, wide-sleeved style derived from those worn by Whites in the 

 early 19th century. These are usually of a sohd color, with a con- 

 trasting ribbon trim. This shirt is belted with a wide, loom-beaded 



