464 A STUDY OF 8I0UAN CULTS. 



down facing the people whom they visit, heuce the name, meaning, 

 " the Omaha reach tliere and sit down." Then the visitors sing while 

 a noise is made by hitting the ground with sticks, etc. The singers 

 and dancers sit looking at the tents of the gens that they have visited, 

 and remain so until property and food are brought out and given to 

 them. Then they arise and probably dance. They think that if they 

 ask Wakantanka for anything after the conclusion of the sun dance 

 they will receive it. So they call on him in different songs, thus: "O 

 Wakantanka, please pity me ! Let me have many horses ! " Or, " O 

 Wakantanka, p'ease pity ine! Let there be plenty of fruits and vegeta- 

 bles!" Or, " O Wakantanka, please pity me! Let me live a loug time! " 



§ 196. During the sun dance they sing about some old woman, calling 

 her by name. They can sing about any old woman on such an occasion. 



One of these songs has been given by Mr. Bushotter, but the writer 

 must content himself in giving the words without the music. 

 " Winiiij'hca kui; tokiya la huijwo'? He'ye-ye4- ! 

 Yatila kuq' sug'ka wikini(''^pe. H^-ye-ye4- ! 

 E'-yaya-ha' ya'-ha ya'-ha yo'-ho he'-ye-ye+ ! 

 E'-ya ya-ha' ya'-ha ya'-ha yo'-ho he'-ye-ya ! " 



That is: "Old woman, you who have been mentioned, whither are 

 you going? When they scrambled for the stick representing a horse, 

 of course you were on hand ! How brave you are ! " 



They sing this in a high key, and when they cease suddenly, they 

 call out, " Ho'wo ! Ho'wo! E'-ya-hahe+ ! E'-ya-ha-he-l- !" '■'Come on! 

 Come on! How irareyou are! How hrave you are!'''' When they have 

 said this rejjeatedly an old woman enters the circle, making them 

 laugh by her singing and dancing. 



Thus ends the Bushotter account of the sun dance, which was read 

 at a meeting of the Anthropological Society of Washington, May 6, 1890. 



CAPT. BOURKE ON THE SIN-DAXCE. 



§197. After the reading of the paper, Capt. John G. Bourke, U. S. 

 Army, remarked that he had seen the sun dance of the Dakota several 

 times, and once had enjoyed excellent opportunities of taking notes of 

 all that occurred under the superintendence of Eed Cloud and other 

 medicine men of prominence. Capt. Bourke kindly furnished the author 

 with the following abstract of his remarks on this subject: 



In June, 1881, at the Red Cloud Agency, Dakota, there were some twenty-eight 

 who went through the ordeal, one of the number being Pretty Enemy, a j ouug 

 woman who had escajied with her husband from the band of Sitting Bull in British 

 North America, and who was going through the dance as a sign of grateful acknowl" 

 edgment to the spirits. 



The deseriptiou of the dance given in the account of Bushotter tallies closely with 

 that which took place at the Eed Cloud ceremony, with a few very immaterial ex- 

 ceptions due no doubt to local causes. 



^ 198. At Eed Cloud, for example, there was not a separate buffalo head for eacli 

 Indian ; there were not more than two, and with them, being placed erect and lean- 

 ing against a frame- work made for the purpose, several elaborately decorated pipes, 



