922 I'lli: GHOST-DANCE RELIGION «w.M 



these two tribes, il deserves n<> extended notice in this connection, 

 Although claimed by its inventors as a direct inspiration from the 

 other world, where thej saw ii performed by "ci-ows,'' or spirits of 

 departed friends, ii is really onlj a modification of the picturesque 

 Omaha dance of the prairie tribes, with the addition of religious foa 

 tures borrowed from the new doctrine. The men participating are 

 stripped to the breechcloth, with their whole bodies painted as in the 

 Omaha dance, and wear elaborate pendants of varicolored feathers 

 hanging down behind from the waist. An immense drum is an impor- 

 tant feature. Men and women take part, and the songs refer to the 

 general subject of the crow aud the messiah, bul nre se1 ton variety oi 

 dance steps and evolutions performed 1>,\ the dancers. As the leaders, 

 who are chiefly young men, are constantly studying new features, the 

 crow dance has become one of the tnosl attractive ceremonies among 

 i lie prairie tribes. Hypnotism and trances form an essential feature of 

 this as of tin' Ghosl dame proper. (See plate oxix.) 



THE HYPNOTIC PROCESS 



The most importanl feature of the Ghosl dance, and the secrol oi 

 the trances, is hypnotism. Ii lias been hastily assumed thai hypnotic 

 knowledge and ability belong onlj to an o\ erripe <i\ ili at ion. snch as 

 that of India and ancienl Egypt, or to the most modern period of scien 

 title investigation. The fad is. however, thai practical knowledge, if 

 not understanding, of snch things belongs to people who live near to 

 nature, and many of the stories told i>\ reliable travelers of the strange 

 performances of savage shamans can be explained only on this theory. 

 Numerous references in the works of the early Jesuit missionaries, of 

 the Puritan writers of New England and of English explorers farther 

 to i In- south, would indicate thai hypnotic ability no less than sleight 

 of-haud dexterity formed pari of the medicine-man's equipment from 

 the Saint Lawrence to the Gulf. Enough has been said in thechapters 

 on Snioholla and the Shakers to show that hypnotism exists among the 

 tribes of the Columbia, and the author has had frequent opportunity 

 to observe and study it in the Ghost dance on the plains. It can not 

 i>e said that the Indian priests understand the phenomenon, for they 

 ascribe it to a supernatural cause, but thej know how to produce the 

 effect, as l have witnessed hundreds of times, in treating of the 

 Subject in connection with the (Jhost dance the author must he under 

 stood as speaking from the point of view of an observer and nol as a 

 psychologic expert. 



Immediately on coming among the A.rapaho and Cheyenne in LS90, 

 1 heard numerous stories of wonderful things thai occurred in the Ghost 

 dance — how people died, went to heaven and came hack again, and how 

 thej talked with dead friends and broughl back messages from theother 



w orld. Quite a number who had thus "died" were mentioned and their 



adventures in the spirit land were related with great particularity of 



