782 THE GHOST-DANCE RELIGION [eth.ann.14 



Every organized religion has a system of ethics, a system of mytli- 

 ol °gy> aui l j i system of ritual observance. In this message from the 

 high priest of the Ghost dance we. have a synopsis of all three. With 

 regard to the ritual part, ceremonial purification and bathing have 

 formed a part in some form or other of every great religion from the 

 beginning of history, while the religious dance dates back far beyond 

 the day when the daughter of Saul "looked through a window and saw 

 King David leaping and dancing before the Lord." The feasting 

 enjoined is a part of every Indian ceremonial gathering, religious, 

 political, or social. The dance is to continue four successive nights, in 

 accord with the regular Indian system, in which four is the sacred num- 

 ber, as three is in Christianity. In obedience to this message the south- 

 ern prairie tribes, after the return of the delegation in August, 1891, 

 ceased to hold frequent one-night dances at irregular intervals as 

 formerly without the ceremonial bathing, and adopted instead a system 

 of four-night dances at regular periods of six weeks, followed by cere- 

 monial bathing on the morning of the fifth day. 



The mythology of the doctrine is only briefly indicated, but the prin- 

 cipal articles are given. The dead are all arisen and the spirit hosts 

 are advancing and have already arrived at the boundaries of this earth, 

 led forward by the regenerator in shape of cloud-like indistinctness. 

 The spirit captain of the dead is always represented under this shadowy 

 semblance. The great change will he ushered in by a trembling of the 

 earth, at which the faithful are exhorted to feel no alarm. The hope 

 held out is the same that has inspired the Christian for nineteen cen- 

 turies — a happy immortality in perpetual youth. A s to fixing a date, 

 the messiah is as cautious as his predecessor in prophecy, who declares 

 that "no man knoweth the time, not even the angels of God." His 

 weather predictions also are about as definite as the inspired utterances 

 of the Delphian oracle. 



The moral code inculcated is as pure and comprehensive in its sim- 

 plicity as anything found in religious systems from the days of Gau- 

 tama Buddha to the time of Jesus Christ. •• Do no harm t<> mi;/ one. 

 Do right always.'''' Could anything be more simple, and yet more exact 

 and exacting? It inculcates honesty — u Do not tell lies.'' It preaches 

 good will — " Do no harm to any one. v It forbids the extravagant mourn- 

 ing customs formerly common among the tribes — " When your friends 

 die, you must not cry," which is interpreted by the prairie tribes as for- 

 bidding the killing of horses, the burning of tipis and destruction of 

 property, the cutting off of the hair and the gashing of the body with 

 knives, all of which were formerly the sickening rule at every death 

 until forbidden by the new doctrine. As an Arapaho said to me when 

 his little boy died, " I shall not shoot any ponies, and my wife will not 

 gash her arms. We used to do this when our friends died, because we 

 thought we would never see, them again, and it made us feel bad. Hut 

 now we know we shall all be united again.'' If the Kiowa had held to 



