70 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 195 



increase their effect. PLC stated that formerly dancers in the 

 He4uska chewed dried perfumes while dancing and spit quantities 

 of it onto their bodies and costumes from to time, disguising the act 

 of spitting by the motions of the dance. Even at the present time 

 the use of Indian perfume has not completely disappeared. We have 

 noted that small perfume packets are tied to the bandoliers that are 

 a part of the straight dance type of HeSniska costume, and some older 

 men wear perfume bundles with their everyday dress. Because 

 of its connection with "love medicine," the use of perfume of the 

 Indian type makes the user the butt of much joking. At present, 

 Ponca women and girls use commercial perfumes and cosmetics 

 exclusively. 



Ponca men formerly plucked then- very light facial hair with clam 

 shell or metal tweezers. In 1954 I observed an old man shaving 

 in this manner while he was listening to a speech at a Peyote con- 

 ference. He used a 2-inch section of door spring for tweezers. Most 

 Ponca men now use razors, but they do not often use shaving soap. 



Occasionally in the past, a Ponca man might sport a short beard 

 of the "Uncle Sam" type. Photographs of Standing Bear, the 

 Ponca chief, and Antoine, a Ponca mixblood chief, in the Morrow 

 collection. South Dakota Museum, University of South Dakota, show 

 this style (pi. 8, c). 



LEARNING AND ART 



A Ponca camp or village was kept informed of the orders of the 

 chiefs and the reports of scouting parties by an old man called the 

 Eyqpahdj or crier. This man rode about the camp announcing 

 the news in a loud voice. According to PLC some of these camp 

 criers could be heard at a distance of more than a mile. Such criers 

 are mentioned by both J. O. Dorsey (1884 a, p. 270; 1884 b,.p. 156) 

 and Alanson Skinner (1915 c, p. 798). Today the "announcer," 

 or master of ceremonies, is still an important person at the annual 

 Southern Ponca powwow, held each year in the latter part of August. 

 Now, however, a public address system replaces the stentorian voice 

 of tradition. 



In communicating with tribes of alien speech, the 19th-century 

 Ponca employed the Plains Indian sign language, but it is now al- 

 most completely forgotten. English has taken its place as an inter- 

 tribal lingua franca. The sign for "Ponca" in the sign language 

 was demonstrated by Dave Little-cook, who drew his first finger 

 across his throat with a cutting motion. This means "Headcutters," 

 which, Little-cook stated, was the name certain Plains tribes applied 

 to the Ponca. 



Both Little-cook and PLC denied that the "Language of the blan- 

 ket," illustrated and described by Fletcher and La Flesche (1911, 



