226 DAKOTA GRAMMAR, TEXTS, AND ETHNOGRAPHY. 
feet high, with bark images suspended at the top. Near the foot of this 
the ground was scooped out and a small willow booth made over it. At 
the entrance to this was a fire of coals, a stone painted red, and a pipe. 
When everything was thus prepared, and the night previous had been spent 
in drumming and fasting and praying, the old man came out of the tent, 
naked except a wisp of grass around his loins. He carried his drum and 
rattles. Before the painted stone he stood and trembling prayed, ‘‘Grand- 
father have mercy on me!” This done, he entered the little booth and 
commenced to sing and drum. The dancers then entered the circle and 
danced around, a dozen or more at once, and all fixed up in paint and 
feathers. ‘Three or four women followed. ‘The men sang and the women 
answered in a kind of chorus. This continued for ten minutes perhaps, 
and they retired for a rest. The dance was resumed again and again, each 
time with an increased frenzy. When the last act was finished several men 
who had guns shot the wolf image at the top of the pole, when the old 
man gave forth his oracle, and the dance was done. 
SCALP DANCE. 
When the spirits had been propitiated and the vision had appeared, 
the leader made up his party and started for the country of the enemy, 
We will suppose they have been successful, and have obtained one or more 
scalps. They come home in triumph. This is wakte-hdipi, having killed, 
they come home. But having killed enemies, they paint themselves black 
and let their hair hang down. Before reaching their village they sit down 
on some knoll and sing a war dirge to the souls they have disembodied, 
when they are met by some of their own people and stripped of their 
clothes, which is called w: ayuzapi or taking-all. And their blankets may 
be taken from them on each occasion of painting the scalps red, which 
ceremony is commonly performed four times. 
Then the scalp dance commences. It is a dance of self-glorification, 
as its name, ‘“‘Twaki¢ipi,” seems to mean. A hoop 2 feet in diameter, more 
or less, with a handle several feet long, is prepared, on which the sealp is 
stretched. The young men gather together and arrange themselves in a 
semicircle; those who participated in taking the scalp are painted black, 
and the others are daubed with red or yellow paint, according to their 
faney; and all dance to the beat of the drum. On the other side of the 
circle stand the wome n, arranged in line, one of whom earries the scalp of 
the enemy. The men sing their war chants and praise the bravery and 
