The Cree Sun Dance. 23 



mony in progress within. Entering this tent under the 

 guidance of two medicine men, who appeared upon our ar- 

 rival, we found the chief busily engaged in the ceremony 

 of blowing a whistle and jumping in time to the orchestra 

 of tom-toms or Indian drums. After the lapse of a period of 

 time sufficient to satisfy his sense of dignity, he came for- 

 ward and welcomed us. 



The tent where the dance was taking place was about forty 

 feet in diameter. Formed like an ordinary tepee, it was 

 decorated in the most fantastic way with colored calicoes, 

 woollens, skins, boughs of trees and other articles. There 

 was a large open space at the top of the tent, through which 

 light and air were admitted. In the centre stood a stout 

 poplar tree, shorn of its branches for some distance upwards, 

 known as the " Medicine Pole." The tent was divided into 

 three portions. One was reserved for spectators, consisting 

 of small children, mothers with babes, old men and women 

 and others who took no official part in the proceedings. The 

 two other divisions of the circle were devoted to the braves 

 and squaws who, after the system followed in the synagogue, 

 were kept apart. Directly opposite the entrance was an 

 orchestra of fifteen tom-toms. This musical instrument' is 

 formed by stretching a skin over a round wooden hoop, 

 about the size of a side-drum head. Underneath are two 

 transverse bars of wood, which the musician holds in his 

 right hand, while he beats with his left. The time kept is 

 what is known as double time, or the same as that of a jig. 

 Round the interior border of the tent were two rows of 

 stalls, an inner and outer, in which the participants in the 

 Sun Dance were placed. In front of these stalls there 

 was a wooden railing, or fence, breast high. 



When the dance began, on an incantation from one of 

 the medicine men — there being two who assumed direction 

 of the ceremony — all those in the stalls jumped and blew 

 whistles, keeping admirable time with the tom-toms. There 

 was also a circle of warriors in full fighting attire, musket in 

 hand, in the centre. Between each dance, which lasted 

 from ten to fifteen minutes, came an interval of from three 

 to five minutes. 



