296 



CALENDAR HISTORY OF THE KIOWA 



ETH. ANN. 17 



Fui. 113 — Rain symbols {a Chiuese 

 b Hopi; c Ojibwa). 



This suu dauce is distinguished for a deliberate violation of the Un'me 

 rules by Teupiiikia, " Heart-eater," a noted warrior and medicineman, 



rival of Auso'te, the taime keeper, and 

 father of Set-t'au, the author of this calen- 

 dar. One of the strictest regulations of 

 the sun dance was the taboo against mir- 

 rors, which form part of the toilet equip- 

 ment of nearly every Indian, but which 

 must not even be brought near the taime 

 (if the Kiowa. Notwithstanding this, Ten- 

 piiik ia, in defiance of the medicine and 

 its priest, deliberately rode around inside 

 the circle with a small mirror while the 

 tahne was exposed, and afterward tried 

 to poison Anso te by scraping ofl' the mer- 

 cury from the back and mixing it with some 

 tobacco which he gave to the priest to 

 smoke. Ansote took one putt, but detect- 

 ing something wrong, put away the pipe, 

 saying, "There is something there of which 

 I am afraid." Soon afterward Ten-piiik'ia, while hunting buffalo, was 

 thrown from his horse and killed, which was regarded 

 as a sjjeedy punishment of his sacrilege. 



Although Indian tradition records ft-equeut instances 

 of careless and unthinking neglect of some of the nu- 

 merous taboos and other regulations in connection with 

 sacred matters, such a deliberate defiance of their ordi- 

 nances is almost unexampled; more rare, indeed, than 

 heresy in the old days when Europe held but one re- 

 ligious doctrine. It is of interest as showing that even 

 among savages attempts are sometimes made by bolder 

 spirits to break away from the bonds of mental slavery. 

 A somewhat similar incident is recorded for 18(51. 



WIN^TER 18.5:J-.>4 



Soon after the last sun dance a war party went into 

 Chihuahua (Toiihcii-fakd-i-dimbe, "waterless IVIexican 

 country"), east of the Sierra Madre, where they met and 

 attacked a mule train. The Mexicans made a circle of 

 the wagons, with the mules on the inside, and prepared 

 to defend themselves. A distinguished warrior named 

 Pa'iigyagiate succeeded in entering the circle and was 

 striking the mules with his bow, e(]uivalent to i)utting his seal of 

 ownership upon all thus struck, when he was shot and killed by a 



Fig. 114— Winter 

 1853-54— Piirijj.vS- 

 gi.it« killed. 



