CEREMONIES AT THE GHOST LODGE. 



487 



draw his own ghost just as he will appear in future, 

 to draw a ghost. (See § 299.) 



No one else dares 



CEREMONIES AT THE GHOST LODOE.' 



§ 27G. When a son dies the parents with a knife cut off some hair 

 from the top of the head, just above the forehead, placing the hair in a 

 deerskin cover. Then tliey set up tliree poles, fastened together at the 

 top and forming a sort of tripod. A cord hung over the top of these 

 holds up the white deerskin pack containing the hair of the deceased. 

 Tliis hair is called the ghost or shade (or wa-nagi) of the dead person. 

 The deerskin pack hangs horizontally from the poles and the skin is 

 worked with porcupine quills in many lines, and here and there are 

 various kinds of red and blue circular figures sewed on it. All the sod 

 had been cut away from the ground beneath the pack, and on this bare 

 or virgin earth they put a bowl and a drinking vessel, each ornamented 

 with porcupine work. Three times a day 

 do they remember the ghost, for whom they 

 put the choicest food in the bowl and water 

 in the drinking vessel. Every article is 

 handled carefully, being exi)osed to the 

 smoke of sweet-smelling herbs. The pack 

 said to contain the ghost is put in the ghost 

 lodge with the knife which he used during 

 life. 



The Indians always Lave observed the 

 custom of smoking pipes and eating while 

 sitting in the ghost lodge. At the back of 

 the lodge they prepare a seat and in the 

 middle they set up two poles similar to / 

 those erected outside the entrance to the '- 

 tents. Before they eat in the lodge, they 

 sacrifice part of the food. Whenever they 

 move the camp or single tent from one place to another all these sacred 

 objects are packed and carried on a horse kept for this special purpose. 

 This horse is called " Wanagi ta.suijkewakaij," i. e., "The ghost's horse." 

 This horse has his tail and mane cut off short; the hair on the body is 

 shaved very close; his body is rubbed all over with yellow clay. Some 

 one then rubs paint on the fingers, touching the rump gently several 

 times, as well as the forehead and around the neck and breast. A 

 feather is tied to the end of the tail. On his back they place a saddle- 

 cloth and a saddle, each ornamented with porcupine quills. The horse 

 must mourn — i. e., keep his hair short— as long as the ghost remains un- 

 buried ; but as soon as the hair is removed from the pack and buried the 

 horse's hair is allowed to grow long again, A s soon as the people stop 



Fig. 192.— Tlie ghost loilge. 



' Read in thi.s connection the article by Mi.ss Fletclier on " The Shadow : or. Ghost Lodge : a Cere- 

 mony of the Ogallala Sioux," Kept, of Peabodj Museum, vol. II, pp. 29B, 307. 



