' »1?4 THE GHOST-DANCE RELIGION [eth.anjt.14 





average woman. In particular 1 have seen one young Arapabo become 

 rigid in tlie trance night after nigbt. He was a « Jarlisle student, speak- 

 ing good English and employed as clerk in a store, lie afterward 

 took part in the sun dance, dancing three days and nigbts without 

 food, drink, or sleep. He is of a quiet, religious disposition, and if of 

 white parentage would perhaps have become a minister, but being an 

 Indian, the same tendency leads him into the Ghost dance and the sun 

 dance. The tact that he could endure the terrible ordeal of the sun 

 dance would go to show that bis physical organization is not frail, as is 

 frequently the ease with bypnotic or trance subjects. So far as per 

 sonal observation goes, the hypnotic subjects are usually as strong and 

 healtby as the average of their tribe. It seems to be a question more 

 of temperament than of bodily condition or physique. After having 

 observed the ( '< host dance among the sout hern tribes at intervals during 

 a period of about four years, it is apparent that the hypnotic tendency 

 i.s growing, although the original religious excitement is dying nut. 

 The trances are now more numerous among the same numberof dancers. 

 Some begin to tremble and stagger almost at Che beginning of the dance, 

 without any effort on the part of the medicine-man, while formerly 

 it was usually late in the night before the trances began, although the 

 medicine-men were constantly at work to produce such result. In 

 many if not in most cases the medicine-men themselves have been in 

 trances produced in the same fashion, and must thus be considered sen- 

 sitives as well as those hypnotized by them. 



Not every leader in the G-host dance is able to bring about the hyp- 

 notic sleep, but anyone may try who feels so inspired. Excepting 



the seven chosen ones who start the songs there is no priestl d in the 



dance, the authority of such men as Sitting Bull and Black Coyote 

 being due to the voluntary recognition of their superior ability or 

 interest in the matter. Any man or woman who has been in a trance, 

 and has thus derived inspiration from the other world, is at liberty to 

 go within the circle and endeavor to bring others to the trance. Even 

 when the result is unsatisfactory there is no interference with the per 

 former, it being held that be is but the passive instrument of a higher 

 power and therefore in no way responsible. A marked instance of this 

 is the case of Cedar Tree, an Arapaho policeman, who took much inter- 

 est in the dance, attending nearly every performance in his neighbor- 

 hood, consecrating the ground and working within the circle to hypnot ize 

 the dancers. He was in an advanced stage of consumption, nervous 

 and excitable to an extreme degree, and perhaps it was for this reason 

 that those who came under his influence in the trance constantly com 

 plained that he led I hem on the "devil's road" instead of the '-straight 

 road ;" that he made them see monstrous and horrible shapes, but never 



the friends wl i they wished to see. On I his account they all dreaded 



to see him at work within the circle, but no oiu' commanded him to 

 desist as it was held that he was controlled by a stronger power and 

 nas to be pitied rather than blamed for his ill success. A similar idea 



