16 THE MYTHOLOGY OF THE WICHITA. 
death, except for the mourners. ‘They continued to mourn in silence, 
however, and in their lodge, until he had returned victorious from a 
war expedition, with a scalp. 
In the religious organization of the Wichita, the same liberality 
which is so characteristic of the tribe in general was strikingly mani- 
fested. While we find certain religious ceremonies in control of quasi- 
secret societies, they do not prove to be esoteric to the same extent as are 
those of the Pawnee. As a consequence, not only the salient features 
of their religious belief, but the mass of tribal lore constituting their 
mythology is open to all who can afford the slight compensation asked 
by the narrator of traditions. 
While intensely conservative in many ways, as already pointed out, 
the religious ceremonies of the Wichita began many years ago to de- 
cline. This was largely due to the fact that the Wichita were a race 
of warriors, and their societies were largely concerned with acts of 
war. We do not find the extended and beautiful rituals, so characteris- 
tic of the Skidi and other bands of Pawnee, nor do we find, to any 
degree, extended ceremonies based upon the dramatization of myths, 
so characteristic of the tribes further to the west and south. Member- 
ship in all religious organizations seems to have been based almost en- 
tirely upon the wish of the individual. No organization is known to 
have existed the basis of membership in which was hereditary. 
Standing at the head of the ceremonial societies was the deer dance, 
or the ceremony of the medicine-men. According to my informant, 
the last ceremony was performed in 1871. From my scant knowledge 
of the ceremony, it seems not to have been unlike that of the Skidi. 
No one could participate in the ceremony except medicine-men, each 
of whom had his own song or songs, in which was set forth the story 
of the origin of his magic power. In addition there were certain rituals 
sung, in connection with the opening and closing rites of the ceremony. 
The dance was held generally three, occasionally four, times a year; 
the first occasion when the grass had just appeared, the second when 
the corn was ripe, the third when the corn was harvested. The cere- 
mony was never held in the winter. One of the special features of the 
ceremony was the administering to the novitiate of a small red bean, 
which produced a violent spasm, and finally unconsciousness, this 
condition being indicated by the inability of the novitiate to suffer pain 
when the jaw of a gar-pike was drawn over his naked body. During 
the ceremony offerings were made to the different gods, and at the end 
of the ceremony and following the feast was a ceremonial foot race, in 
which all members of the tribe, both male and female, were permitted 
to compete. This was followed on the part of those engaged in the 
