The sun dance, of which several accounts are available,[24] falls
outside the scope of this volume.
The grass dance was said to have been obtained from the Dakota about
fifteen years ago, but as Sitting-bull's name was mentioned in this
connection my informant seems to have erred by a decade and to have had
in mind the ghost dance, which the Kiowa first performed in 1890.[25]
Mr. Mooney mentions a dance resembling the Omaha dance, in which only
two men actually participate and adopt a child of another tribe during a
tribal visit.[26]
In the buffalo dance (pon´qùEn) any of the societies might join. It
was a sort of war dance and they performed it only before setting out on
an expedition. War-bonnets were worn, and the participants carried
shields, spears, and arrows. They would recite their martial exploits.
Of greater comparative interest is the gwudan´ke, War Singing. The
night before starting on a war expedition the whole company of warriors
assembled and any woman might join, but men only if they intended to go
along. They got a big buffalo rawhide, then all participants took hold
of it, and beat it with sticks, at the same time singing a war song and
marching through the entire camp. After they had passed through camp,
they halted to smoke, then continued the parade, possibly until
daylight. My informant stated that this performance was shared by the
Comanche. As a matter of fact I recorded it among this people,[27] as
well as in other tribes. Battey observed an apparently related
performance in connection with the sun dance, after the lodge had been
erected:--
In the afternoon, a party of a dozen or more warriors and braves
proceeded to the medicine house, followed by a large proportion of
the people of the encampment. They were highly painted, and wore
shirts only, with head-dresses of feathers which extended down the
backs to the ground, and were kept in their proper places by means
of an ornamented strap clasping the waist. Some of them had long
horns attached to their head-dresses. They were armed with lances
and revolvers, and carrying a couple of long poles mounted from end
to end with feathers, the one white and the other black. They also
bore shields highly ornamented with paint, feathers, and hair.
They took their station upon the side opposite the entrance, the
musicians standing behind them.
Many old women occupied a position to the right and near the
entrance, who set up a tremulous shrieking; the drums began to
beat, and the dance began, the party above described only
participating in it.
They at first slowly advanced towards the central post, followed by
the musicians several of whom carried a side of raw hide (dried),
which was beaten upon with sticks, making about as much music as to
beat upon the sole of an old shoe, while the drums, the voices of
the women, and the rattling of pebbles in instruments of raw hide
filled out the choir.
After slowly advancing nearly to the central post, they retired
backward, again advanced, a little farther than before; this was
repeated several times, each time advancing a little farther, until
they crowded upon the spectators, drew their revolvers, and
discharged them into the air.
Soon after, the women rushed forward with a shrieking yell, threw
their blankets violently upon the ground, at the feet of the
retiring dancers, snatched them up with the same tremulous shriek
that had been before produced, and retired; which closed this part
of the entertainment. The ornamented shields used on this occasion
were afterwards hung up with the medicine.[28]
When a war party returned with a scalp, there was rejoicing and the
women came to take part in the scalp dance. Both sexes might either go
round in a circle for this performance or face each other in rows. A
scalp was divided into four parts, each of which was put on a stick and
carried by one of the women. The dance was danced every day for about a
month, then the scalps were stowed away in medicine bags.