136 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 195 



adequate supernatural aid, the proof of which would be the failure 

 of the expedition, he was liable to be severely flogged by the Buffalo 

 Soldiers of the tribe." 



In spite of the penalty for failure, however, warfare was an inaportant 

 avenue to success, and renowned war leaders seldom lacked followers. 

 The various warriors' dancing societies, with their emphasis on mili- 

 tary vii'tues, spurred the youth of the tribe to seek fame on the 

 warpath. These societies vied with one another, each attempting to 

 gain more war honors than the others. Generally each society main- 

 tained a fierce competition with one other rival group. Members of 

 the society which had been more successful than its competitor in the 

 most recent engagement could steal the wives of the members of 

 the other group (Skinner, 1915 c, p. 692). 



Dorsey (1884 a, p. 352) mentions "no retreat" obligations in con- 

 nection with the Make-no-flight society, and Skinner (1915 c, p. 78) 

 notes them for certain ofl&cials of the Not-afraid-to-die and Iskd-iyuha 

 gTOups. Men who had such obligations usually wore a bandolier with 

 a long slit tail, and carried a lance. In an advance they led the 

 charge. If the tide of battle began to turn, they passed theu" spear 

 through the slit in their bandolier and literally staked themselves in 

 place, making retreat impossible. Thus anchored, they stood and 

 fought until their conu-ades could rally and save them. Needless to 

 say, it was often difficult to find men willing to fill the ofiices of spear- 

 men in the various societies. 



War honor feathers and other war honor decorations and privileges 

 of the type so well known for other Prairie and Plains tribes are 

 mentioned for the Ponca by a number of writers (McGee, 1898, pp. 

 156-157; Fletcher and La Flesche, 1911, p. 440; Skinner, 1915 c, 

 p. 794). I also collected the following list of war honor decorations 

 and their symbolism from LRL: 



1. One feather worn erect at the back of the head: Wearer has killed an enemy. 



2. One feather worn horizontally at the back of the head: Wearer has captured 

 an enemy. 



3. Two feathers worn in the roach headdress: Wearer has counted first coup on 

 an enemy. 



4. One feather worn hanging over the forehead in front: Wearer has scalped 

 an enemy. (This decoration has become a standard item in the present-day 

 "straight" dancing costume.) 



5. A red feather worn in any manner: Wearer has been wounded in battle. 



On the basis of internal evidence I am personally inclined to take the 

 various war honor feather systems with more than a grain of salt, not 

 only in the case of the Ponca, but for the Prairie and Plains tribes in 

 general. Every ethnographer, it seems, secures the "correct" war 

 honor feather symboUsm for the tribe he is studying, which he duly 

 reports. The "rub" is that each system collected is quite different from 

 those collected previously from that group. 



