mooney] HYPNOTISM AND THE DANCE 923 



detail, but as most of the testimony came from white men, none of whom 

 had seen the dance for themselves, 1 preserved the scientific attitude of 

 skepticism. So far as could be ascertained, none of the intelligent peo- 

 ple of the agency had thought the subject sufficiently worthy of serious 

 consideration to learn whether the reports were true or false. < >n talk- 

 ing with the Indians I found them unanimous in their statements as to 

 the visions, until I began to think there might be something in it. 



The first clew to the explanation came from the statement of his 

 own experience in the trance, given by Paul Boynton, a particularly 

 bright Carlisle student, who acted as my interpreter. His brother had 

 died some time before, and as Paul was anxious to see and talk with 

 him, which the new doctrine taught was possible, he attended the next 

 Ghost dance, and putting his hands upon the head of Sitting Bull, accord- 

 ing to the regular formula, asked him to help him see his dead brother. 

 Paul is of an inquiring disposition, and, besides his natural longing to 

 meet his brother again, was actuated, as he himself said, by a desire to 

 try " every Indian trick." He then told how Sitting Bull had hypno- 

 tized him with the eagle leather and the motion of his hands, until he 

 fell unconscious and did really see his brother, but awoke just as he was 

 about to speak to him, probably because one of the dancers had acci- 

 dentally brushed against him as he lay on the ground. He embodied 

 his experience in a song which was afterward sung in the dance. Prom 

 his account it seemed almost certain that the secret was hypnotism. 

 The explanation might have occurred to me sooner but for the fact that 

 my previous Indian informants, after the manner of some other wit- 

 nesses, had told only about their trance visions, forgetting to state how 

 the visions were brought about. 



This was in winter and the ground was covered deeply with snow, 

 which stopped the dancing for several weeks. In the meantime I 

 improved the opportunity by visiting the tipis every night to learn the 

 songs and talk about the new religion. When the snow melted, the 

 dances were renewed, and as by this time I had gained the confidence 

 of the Indians I was invited to be present and thereafter on numerous 

 occasions was able to watch the whole process by which the trances 

 were produced. From the outside hardly anything can be seen of what 

 goes on within the circle, but being a part of the circle myself I was 

 able to see all that occurred inside, and by fixing attention on one 

 subject at a time I was able to note all the stages of the phenomenon 

 from the time the subject first attracted the notice of the medicine -man, 

 through the staggering, the rigidity, the unconsciousness, and back 

 again to wakefulness. On two occasions my partner in the dance, each 

 time a woman, came under the influence and I was thus enabled to note 

 the very first nervous tremor of her hand and mark it as it increased 

 in violence until she broke away and staggered toward the medicine- 

 man within the circle. 



Young women are usually the first to be affected, then older women, 

 and lastly men. Sometimes, however, a man proves as sensitive as the 



