454 A STUDY OP SIOUAN CULTS. 



grass (a trailing variety^ and -wild sage, on wliicli they lay the biifialo 

 skull. 



TENT OK PREI'AItATION. 



§ 15G. After this there is set up M'ithin the camping circle a good 

 tent known as the tent of preparation.' When the managers wish to set 

 up the tent of jireparation, they borrow tent skins here and there. 

 Part of these tent skins tbey use for covering the smoke hole, and part 

 were used as curtains, for when they decorate the candidates they use 

 the curtains for shutting them in from the gaze of the peoi)le aud 

 when they finish painting them tliey throw down the curtains. 



In the back part of this tent of preparation are placed the butialo 

 skulls, one for each candidate. A new knife which has never been 

 used is exposed to smoke. A new ax, too, is reddened and smoked. 



§ 157. Wild sage (Artemisia) is used in various ways i)rior to and 

 during the sun dance. Some of it they spread on the ground to serve 

 as couches, and with some they wipe the tears from their faces. They 

 fumigate with the plant known as "caij silsilya," or else they use 

 " walipe wastema," sweet-smelling leaves. Day after day they fumi- 

 gate themselves with "wacaijga," a sweet smelling grass. They hold 

 every object which they use over the snu)ke of one of these grasses. 

 They wear a kind of medicine on their necks, and that keeps them 

 from being hungry or thirsty, for occasionally they chew a small quan- 

 tity of it. Or if they tie some of this medicine to theii- feet they do 

 not get weary so soon.^ 



§ 158. When the tent of preparation is erected, there are provided 

 for it new tent pins, new sticks for fastening the tent skins together 

 above the entrance, and new poles for pushing out the flaps beside 

 the smoke hole. These objects and all others, which had to be used, 

 are brought into the tent of preparation and fumigated over a fire 

 into which the medicine has been dropped. By this time another day 

 has been spent. Now all the candidates assemble in the tent of prep- 

 aration, each one wearing a buii'alo robe with the hair outside. One 

 who acts as leader sits in the place of honor at the back part of the 

 tent, and the others sit on either side of him around the fireplace. 

 They smoke their pipes. When night comes they select one of the 

 songs of the sun dance, in order to rehearse it. Certain men have been 

 chosen as singers of the dancing songs, and, when one set of them rest, 

 there are others to take their places. The drummers beat the drum 

 rapidly, but softly (as the Teton call it, kpaijkpaijyela, the act of 

 several drummers hitting in quick succession). 



Three times do they beat the drums in that manner, and then they 

 beat it rapidly, as at the beginning of the sun dance. At this juncture, 



I Miss Fletcher (Proc. Am. Assoc. Adv. Scl., 1882, p. 580) states that " the tent set apart for the con- 

 secrating ceremonies, which take place after sunset of the first day, was pitched within the line of tents, 

 on the site formerly assigned to one of the sacred tents." 



'The author heard about this medicine in 1873, from a Ponka chief, one of the leaders of a dancing 

 society. It is a bulbous root, which grows near the place where the sun pole is planted. 



