mooneyj THE CRAZY DANCE 1033 



Translation 



The buffalo head— Fa ka'ya'! 

 The half buffalo- 

 ed libitum]. 



This song refers to the crazy dance;, which the author of the song 

 saw the former warriors of his tribe performing in the spirit world. 

 The crazy dance, called Psam by the Cheyenne and AhaJca'wti by the 

 Arapaho, belonged to one order of the military organization already 

 described in treating of the Arapaho songs. (See Arapaho song 43.) 

 The name in both languages is derived from the word for "crazy." 

 Men, women, and children took part in the ceremony, dressed in skins or 

 other costume to represent various animals, as buffalos, panthers, deer, 

 and birds, with one bear, two foxes, and seven wolves, besides two 

 "medicine wolves." Kadi strove to imitate the animal personated in 

 action as well as in appearance. It was the business of the two foxes 

 to be continually running and stumbling over the others in their efforts 

 to escape from the crowd. The dance, whose essential feature was the 

 doing of everything by contraries, had its parallel among many eastern 

 tribes, particularly among the old Huron and Iroquois. It was con- 

 sidered the most picturesque and amusing dance among the prairie 

 tribes. The "half buffalo" of the song refers to the robe worn by 

 certain of the dancers, which consisted of the upper half of a buffalo 

 skin, the head portion, with the horns attached, coming over the head 

 of the dancers. The dance was an exhibition of deliberate craziness 

 in which the performers strove to outdo one another in nonsensical and 

 frenzied actions, particularly in constantly doing the exact opposite of 

 what they were told to do. It was performed only in obedience to a 

 vow made by some person for the recovery of a sick child, for a suc- 

 cessful war expedition, or for some other Indian blessing. It lasted 

 four days, the performers dancing naked the first three days and iu 

 full dance costume on the fourth. The leaders in the absurdities were 

 two performers whose bodies and cheeks were painted with white clay, 

 and whose ears were filled with hair shed by the buffalo, which was 

 believed to confer strong "medicine" powers. They carried whistles, 

 and shot at the spectators with blunt arrows. Almost every license 

 was permitted to these two, who in consequence were really held iu 

 dread by the others. Among other things the crazy dancers were 

 accustomed to dance through a fire until they extinguished it by their 

 tramping. This was done in imitation of the fire-moth, called aha'kda', 

 "crazy," by the Arapaho, which hovers about a flame or fire and finally 

 flies into it. They also handled poisonous snakes, and sometimes, it is 

 said, would even surround and kill a buffalo by their unaided physical 

 strength. The Cheyenne dance differed somewhat from that of the 

 Arapaho. It was last performed in the south about ten years ago. 



