He then calls to him an old medicine man, and appoints him to be master of the ceremonies, handing him the mystery pipe as a symbol of office. Addressing the assembled company, he takes leave of the chiefs, saying that he will return in another year to re-open the lodge, and stalks slowly out of the village, disappearing over the bluffs whence he came. The master of the ceremonies then takes his place in the centre of the lodge, and relights the pipe, uttering with every whiff of smoke a petition to the Great Spirit in behalf of the candidates. For three full days they sit silently round the lodge, but outside it a strange series of ceremonies takes place.
Chief among them is the buffalo dance, in which the eight actors wear the entire skins of bisons, and carry on their backs a large bundle of slight twigs. They also carry a mystery rattle in one hand, and a slender staff in the other. They arrange themselves in four pairs round the Big Canoe, each pair corresponding with one of the cardinal points of the compass. Between each group dances a young man, two of them painted black and covered with white stars, so as to represent the night, and the other two painted red, to represent the day.
Beside the Big Canoe sit two medicine men, wearing the skins of grizzly bears, and threatening to devour the whole village. In order to appease their hunger, the women bring continual relays of meat in dishes, which are at once carried off to the prairie by men painted entirely black, except their heads, which are white. They are thus colored in imitation of the bald-headed eagle. As they run to the prairie they are pursued by a host of little boys painted yellow, with white heads, and called antelopes. After a severe chase they catch the eagle-men, seize the food, and devour it.
These dances occur several times daily, the performers being summoned by the master of the ceremonies, who comes out of the medicine lodge, followed by his immediate assistants, and proceeds to the Big Canoe, against which he leans, and weeps aloud as if in dire distress. The dance takes place four times on the first day, eight times on the second, twelve times on the third, and sixteen times on the fourth; the sound of the old man’s wailing cry being the signal for the dancers to issue from the hut in which they dress.
During each performance, the old medicine men who are beating their drums address the bystanders, telling them that the Great Spirit is pleased with their invocations, and that he has given them peace; that even their women and children can hold the mouths of grizzly bears; and that the evil spirit who is challenged by these rites has not dared to make his appearance. Thirty-two times during the four days this vaunt is made, and no evil spirit appears; but after the last day he comes, and a horrible-looking object he is.
On a distant bluff the evil spirit makes his appearance, rushing toward the village in a wild and devious course. Presently he enters the circle, perfectly naked, with his body painted black and covered with white rings, his mouth decorated with white indentations like great teeth, and holding in his hand a long magic staff tipped with a red ball. As he runs along, he slides this ball before him on the ground, and suddenly makes a rush at the groups of women who are witnessing the ceremony.
They fall back on each other in terror, and shriek for aid, which is given by the master of the ceremonies. As soon as he hears their cries, he runs from the Big Canoe, where he has been weeping, and holds his magic pipe in front of the intruder. The demon is instantly checked by its wondrous influence, and he stands as if petrified, each limb remaining in the attitude which it had taken when the pipe was held before him.
“This check gave the females an opportunity to get out of reach, and when they were free from their danger, though all hearts beat yet with the intensest excitement, their alarm was cooled down into the most exorbitant laughter and shouts of applause at his sudden defeat, and the awkward and ridiculous posture in which he was stopped and held. The old man was braced stiff by his side, with his eyeballs glaring him in the face, whilst the medicine pipe held in its mystic chain his satanic majesty, annulling all the powers of his magical wand, and also depriving him of the power of locomotion.
“Surely, no two human beings ever presented a more striking group than these two individuals did for a few moments, with their eyeballs set in direst mutual hatred upon each other; both struggling for the supremacy, relying on the potency of their medicine or mystery; the one held in check, with his body painted black, representing, or rather assuming to be, O-kee-hee-de (the Evil Spirit), frowning everlasting vengeance on the other, who sternly gazed him back with a look of exultation and contempt, as he held him in check and disarmed under the charm of his sacred mystery-pipe.”
This scene is repeatedly enacted, until the powers of the magic pipe are proved against the assaults of the evil one, and the people have gained confidence in its protection. The women then begin in their turn to assail their persecutor with jeers and laughter, until at last one of them snatches up a handful of mud and dashes it in his face. He is at once vanquished by this attack, and begins to weep piteously. Emboldened by this confession of weakness, another woman snatches away his magic staff, and breaks it across her knee. The fragments are seized by the surrounding women, who break them to pieces and fling them at the head of the demon. Being now deprived of all his power, he runs off across the prairie, followed for half a mile or so by the women, who pelt him with sticks, stones, and mud, until at last he effects his escape, and the village is rid of the evil spirit for another year.