428 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 194 



— Wolf Woman 



® 



— West Woman 



® 

 —North Woman 



® 

 — East Woman 



® 



— South Woman 



® — Singer for 

 V Holy Woman 



Figure 7. — Plan of the last dance of the Sunset Wolf ceremony. 



in turn by the bundle buyer, his assistant, and the remaining f asters. 

 A rapid pace was set ; all trotted in imitation of the wolves while many 

 of them dragged buffalo skulls. They sang the "fasting song" 100 

 times but at an accelerated tempo. For the f asters, this was the final 

 dance after 4 days and nights of fasting (see fig. 7). 



The mound represented the place where Hungry Wolf suffered. 

 When a faster fell, others would stumble and fall over him. Then 

 the dance would stop long enough for the exhausted man to recover 

 sufficiently to get to his feet again. The bundle maker would dip 

 sage in water and cleanse him. Seeing a son or brother fall exhausted, 

 the relatives would return home and select a good robe, war bonnet, 

 or other article to place on the ground near the exhausted man showing 

 such bravery and fortitude. The Wolf Woman impersonator — 

 running like a wolf — would pick up these articles and stack them in 

 a pile in front of the Holy Women. Later in the day these articles 

 were taken to the lodge where these old women met; each would take 

 one article from the pile untU all the goods were distributed. This 

 was their pay for participating in the ceremony. 



When a faster fell exhausted, the dancing stopped until he had 

 recovered. He was then cleansed with water from the red grass 

 bundle sprinkled on him by the bundle maker and cut free from the 

 buffalo skulls by those "fathers" who had inserted the thongs. All 

 the fasters were without clothing and moccasins, wearing only the 



