288 CALENDAR HISTORY OF THE KIOWA [ctii. anx, n 



The auteloi)e drive wus made only iu seasons of scarcity, when the 

 supply of buffalo meat was insiirticient, and only in the winter, at 

 which season the antelope are accustomed to go iu herds, while in the 

 spriug and summer they scatter. Such a drive was an event so rare 

 that one informant over 00 years of age had seen but one in his 

 lifetime. 



When it has been decided to have an antelope drive, the "antelope 

 medicine-man'' builds a special tipi and remains in it all night, singing 

 his medicine songs until daylight. In the morning he starts out in the 

 probable direction of the antelope, carrying iu each hand a rod about 

 two feet long decorated at each end with eagle feathers and in the center 

 with a wheel from which depend the feathers of other carnivorous 

 birds, his face is painted white, a buffalo robe is thrown over his 

 shoulder, and a whistle hangs from his neck. He is accompanied by 

 the whole tribe, mouuted and on foot — men, women, and children. On 

 arriving at the place selected for the hunt, he sits upon the ground, 

 facing the direction iu which the antelope are supposed to be; in most 

 other Indian ceremonies the priest faces the east. Beside him sit 

 some of the principal men, while behind stand several women. The two 



a, , 



Fin. 102— Antelojie drives (from the Dakota calcndarsl 



men chosen to sit next him on each side must be men known as suc- 

 cessful iu the hunt and on the warpath. He plants the two decorated 

 sticks iuthe ground in front of him, lights his pipe, and begins to smoke; 

 after smoking a little while he hands the rods to the men sitting next 

 him, crossing his right hand over his left as he does so, and giving 

 their hands a peculiar pressure four times. These two men then rise, 

 put their hands upon his head — a gesture of prayer or invocation — step 

 across each into the place of the other so as to again reverse the posi- 

 tion of the rods, and then, after the same four hand pressures, again 

 plant the rods iu front of the priest. 



Two other men, noted war chiefs, then take their places beside the 

 priest, while the iirst two sit next them. Grasping the upright sticks 

 at the top, the priest now sings the Iirst antelope song, blowing upon 

 the whistle at intervals, while all the surrounding men and women join 

 iu the song, and the four men sitting beside him beat time on the 

 ground. Four different songs are sung iu this manner, the sticks being- 

 grasped lower down at each song, until at the last song the priest pulls 

 them out from the ground, and, holding them by their lower ends, 



