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AFTER a few days the camp
moved by common consent into a selected spot, and everyone prepared for the
great thirst dance, the religious festival of the year. Many were under vow,
and this annual festival gave them the opportunity for the fulfilment of
their vow. This religious gathering had been for ages the custom of these
people. It was the occasion for the fulfilment of vows and an opportunity
for the more religious of this pagan people to make sacrifices. and to
endure self-inflicted torture and hardship in meeting the requirements of
the traditional faith of their fathers.
As the season for this
approached, some leading men sent tobacco messages to different camps near
and far, intimating that the time had come for the annual festival, and
suggesting the most desirable locality. These tobacco messages were
carefully worded and wrapped in the presence of trusty couriers, who would
make all haste in reaching their several destinations, often travelling
night and day, and generally on foot. When they reached the camps to which
they were sent their message was received with solemn dignity and themselves
treated with hospitable respect. Then in quiet council the tobacco was
unwrapped, and the proposition discussed. If assented to, the tobacco was
smoked, and the head man commissioned to send a return message signifying
assent and willingness to come to the appointed place.
And now from long distances
these camps would move steadily towards the location indicated. The big
meeting, the rites to be observed, the blessings that would ensue, the
character and prestige and the temporal and supernatural ability of the
leaders expected to attend to all these things were the constant topics of
conversation of all the converging camps. The conjurer rehearsed his
medicine hymns, sorted over his medicine bag, fixed his rattles and bells,
and retouched his costume. The warrior went over in memory his bravest
deeds, and most notable exploits, and carefully arranged his war dress,
mending here, and fixing there, and generally burnishing up for this grand
chance for glorious display. And the women and belles of the camp,
notwithstanding all the work of constant moving and making extra provisions
to be used during the festival, missed no opportunity to make ready their
finery for special use on this great occasion, though all they might have
would be contained in a small bag made of calf skin, and would consist
mainly of beaded leggings and shoulder straps, and much brassed leathern
girdle. In the meantime the originator of this concentrative movement was
having a hard time of it. The responsibility of the whole gathering was upon
him, and to prepare himself for his duties he fasted and thirsted, left his
home and camp, and stayed nights and days alone in cold and wet, with little
or no covering for his naked body. He petitioned and prayed to the spirits
and seemed to commune with them. He grew wan and wasted physically, but he
developed spiritually, and there seemed to come to his very appearance that
which was supernatural. As the time drew near this was intensified. There
was a weird mystery about this man, which was felt through all the camp.
The conjurers prepared their
medicines, and night and morning before the camp moved the drums beat
furiously, dancing lodges were erected at every encampment, and the four
orders of dancers took their turns, the "wood partridges," the "prairie
chickens," the "medicine rattlers," and the "kid foxes," each in turn to
vocal and drum accompaniment went through their evolutions of movement.
Sacrifices were got ready and consecrated, and amidst night and day alarms
from the enemy and all the necessary hunting for the maintenance of the
camp, this work of preparation went on for days, and sometimes weeks, and
now the chosen spot is reached which is accomplished almost at the same
time, for the scouts and couriers have kept the different camps in touch and
the movement of each has been governed for the purpose of reaching the
rendezvous about the same day. The conjurers and medicine men convene in one
part of the camp, the warriors in another, and while the priests and
medicine men intensify their petitions and incantations, the warriors go out
to scout the country and search for a suitable tree to be used as a central
or spirit tree.
A sharp watch is kept for the
scouts, and when these are seen returning to camp, the medicine men form in
procession with their "chief pro tem," the present originator of the whole
movement, at their head, and march through camp singing and incanting and
speaking in unknown tongues. The chief medicine man holds a big pipe with a
sacred stern in his hands, and with this he points heavenward and earthward,
and all around, following the sun, and thus in solemn aspect and with
dignified movement, these high priests of an old faith march out of camp to
meet the warriors.
Now comes the crucial time
for this chief medicine man. If these warriors accept the pipe from him,
then the success of his venture is assured, but if they do not take the pipe
as he offers it to them, the whole scheme is a failure, and a new chief
priest, and a new location, will have to be sought. No wonder it is a tense
moment for the would-be high priest of this great gathering.
The two companies draw near
to each other, and while the priests are chanting in doleful notes
petitionary and sacrificial hymns, and the warriors are lustily singing
songs of victory, the whole camp is hushed in silent expectation as to the
outcome. The warriors know the issue lies with them, and carry themselves
accordingly. In all the pride and pomp of martial dignity and costume, they
sit their picked steeds and await the priest's action. This personage is now
almost unnerved. The long vigils and fastings and hardships have emaciated
his body, and this is weak. But his communings with the spirit world have
made him feel that he has a mission, and that he is essential to the
wellbeing of his people. He has grown within the last few days to believe he
is an apostle and a bringer of good, and in his mind he feels these warriors
must in their own interests accept him. Nevertheless, there is the
possibility of their not doing so. No messenger has reached him from the
secret conclave held yonder behind the hills. Soon he will know, and now he
pulls himself together, and at first with quavering voice and trembling limb
he holds the sacred pipe aloft and prays. Immediately in front of him is the
chosen chief of the warriors, who gives no indication of what he is going to
do in this matter. In silence he and the entire assemblage listen as the
aspirant for Priestly honors seems to forget himself in the intenseness of
his purpose. His voice gathers strength, his limbs cease to tremble, and
with native and pure eloquence he calls upon the deity to bless this
gathering, to pity his children, to accept their sacrifices, to smile upon
their effort. His metaphors are beautiful, his similes are fine, the range
of his thought reaches the heavens above, and covers the earth beneath.
There is a spell that accompanies the prayer. His whole soul is in it. If
you and I had been there, my reader friend, we would have seen the
countenance of the warrior chief undergo a change. Fence as he will he is
caught, and as we look we say to ourselves, "He will accept the sacred
pipe."
And presently, as the priest
stops, he steps forward and with a majestic wave upward and downward and all
around, he hands the sacred emblem to the warrior. While the crowd watches
him in breathless expectancy, the latter takes it from him, also lifts it
heavenward and then earthward, and then all around the complete circle, and
the air rings with joyous acclamations. The feast is to take place, and the
time is now. This being settled, the warriors parade around the camp in full
review. Others go and cut down the medicine tree, and now the warriors break
ranks, and dashing into the camp open the lodges, and take from them the
young women of the camp and hurry these along with them to help bring in the
idol tree. Many long lines are fastened to this tree, and the women on foot,
and the warriors on horseback take hold of these lines and pull together and
thus proceed homeward. Others act as drivers and shout and fire off their
guns to urge on the men and women. As the camp is neared immense crowds of
the old and infirm, and of women and children join in the march. Thus the
medicine tree is brought to the spot where the temple is to stand. Meanwhile
others are cutting and hauling home the posts and pillars pillars and beams
required for the big lodge. Not a nail or pin is used in this structure.
Each joint and splice is firmly secured with green hide, which as it dries
becomes very tight and strong. All work with alacrity. Everything about the
erection of the temple is done on the principle that the king's business
requires haste.
When the medicine tree is
raised in place, the conjurers make a special effort with medicine rattles
and religious singing. Some make the nest in the medicine tree, or as it
might fittingly be called, the sacrificial table, and fasten in and on this
the sacrifices which have been gathered through the previous moons.
All the timbers in place, the
whole is covered with the lodges of the principal men in the camp, it being
thought an honor to have these used in this way.
And now the high priest
approaches. He has a big buffalo head mask, both himself and the head well
sprinkled with earth. Stepping slowly, and wailing as he walks, he enters
the temple. Immediately on his entrance there is made the inner circle for
those who have vows and will dance through the long hours. Then a spot in
the temple is selected for the drummers and singers, and these come in
turns, so that the choir is continuous, day and night, during the festival.
Fire is placed in four places and on these fires are put sweet smelling
herbs, which, as they burn, create incense. Then the high priest takes a
whole parchment and speaks to the Great Spirit, and to all the lesser
powers. Then he swings the parchment four times, while all the dancers blow
their horn whistles. The high priest now throws the parchment into the
centre, and all the drummers and singers strike up, and the entire company
join in the chorus. In the inner circle, and immediately around the medicine
tree, the real dancers who are to undergo torture are arranging themselves.
Some of these attach long lines to the medicine tree, and then passing the
end through the muscles of their arms, thus dance and swing around the
circle. Others hang guns to the tendons of their backs, and dance with these
swinging and jerking about them. Others go from out the camp, and finding
the skull of a buffalo bull with the horns attached, pass a line through the
eyelet and then hitch themselves to the other end of the line through the
tendons of the back and drag the head to the temple, entering amongst the
dancers for the rest of the festival. The self-tortured and the dancers do
not eat or drink until the afternoon of the third day. At that time the
warriors in costume come in a body to the temple, the most renowned in the
lead, all singing as they march, either on foot or on horseback, and form a
circle just outside the first lodge. Then come those who make gifts, and
horses and guns and blankets and robes are placed in the ring as a general
offering, being afterwards distributed to the needy and infirm. Then the
bravest warriors are led out into the centre, and made to recite their
exploits and escapades, and between these recitals the various orders of
dancers alternate in exhibition of their peculiar skill. Inside the temple
torture and thirst and exhaustion. Outside, declamation and glory and joyous
celebration.
And as the sun draws near to
the earth on the evening of the third day, the annual festival is finished.
From thenceforth for the rest of the season the bare poles of the big lodge
and from the top of which there will be fluttering in the breeze the various
sacrifices made by the people, will remain as marking the spot where the
annual festival was kept.
Our warriors took part with
their people in this religious gathering, and to one constituted as White
Buffalo was, all this was done with great reverence. In his way, he was
profoundly religious. While he took no part in the torture dance, yet he
believed with his people that this also was proper. Soon after they were
through with the thirst dance, the large camp began to break up. Those of
the Antelope and his party moved back into their own country, and White
Buffalo and the camp to which he belonged went down what is now known as the
Qu'Appelle, and then northward across to the minglings of the Beaver and
Swan. They said:
"We will allow two moons to
pass, and then if the spirits are willing we will again meet, and sojourn
together." |
