Now the remainder of the initiation may proceed.
The little scaffold with its mystic burden is removed from the centre of the great medicine lodge, the hide ropes are passed through apertures in the roof to men who stand outside, and the master of the ceremonies, and his assistants, together with the chiefs and braves of the tribe, re-enter the lodge, and take up their positions.
The first candidate is now called, and, wasted by four days of abstinence from food, drink, or sleep, places himself in front of two of the operators. One of these, who is armed with a double edged knife, purposely blunted and notched, pinches up an inch or so of flesh of the shoulder or breast, and pushes the knife through it, between his finger and thumb and the body of the candidate. The knife is then withdrawn, and one of the wooden skewers forced through the aperture. This operation is repeated on the other shoulder or breast, on each arm just below the shoulder and below the elbow, upon each thigh, and upon each leg just below the knee.
While this operation is being performed, the candidates do not allow the slightest symptom of pain to escape them, and they even invite the spectators to watch their countenances, so as to ascertain that they betray no signs of suffering. They may well do so, for upon the verdict of these chiefs depends the consideration in which they will be held in after life, and no man has a chance of being appointed the leader of a war party if he has been seen to flinch during the ordeal.
As soon as these preparations are completed, two of the hide ropes are lowered from the roof, and hitched round the skewers on the breast or shoulders. To the others are hung the weapons of the candidate, while to those of the lower arm and leg are suspended the skulls of bisons. A signal is then given, and the poor wretch is hauled up into the air, when he swings suspended only by the two skewers, and sustaining not only his own weight but that of the heavy skulls, his feet being some six or eight feet from the ground. In this terrible position he has to remain until nature finally gives way, and he faints. The artist has [represented] this stage of the fearful ordeal on the following page.
“Surrounded,” writes Mr. Catlin, “by imps and demons, as they appear, a dozen or more, who seem to be concocting and devising means for his exquisite agony, gather around him, when one of the number advances toward him in a sneering manner, and commences turning him round with a pole which he brings in his hand for that purpose. This is done in a gentle manner at first, but gradually increased, until the poor fellow, whose proud spirit can control its agony no longer, bursts out in the most lamentable and heart-rending cries that the human voice is capable of producing, crying forth a prayer to the Great Spirit to support and protect him in this dreadful trial, and continually repeating his confidence in his protection.
“In this condition he is continued to be turned faster and faster, and there is no hope of escape for him, nor the chance for the slightest relief, until, by fainting, his voice falters, and his strugglings cease, and he hangs a still and apparently lifeless corpse. When he is by turning gradually brought to this condition, which is generally done within ten or fifteen minutes, there is a close scrutiny passed upon him among his tormentors, who are checking and holding each other back as long as the least struggling or tremor can be discovered; lest he should be removed before he is, as they term it, entirely dead.”
When they are satisfied, a signal is given to the rope-holders, and the senseless man is lowered to the ground, the skewers which passed through his breast are removed, and the ropes attached to another candidate. Just as he falls, he is allowed to lie, no one daring to touch him, for he has put himself under the protection of the Great Spirit, and to help him would be a sacrilege.
When he recovers a little strength, he crawls to another part of the lodge, where sits a medicine man with a bison skull before him, and an axe in his hand. Holding up the little finger of his left hand as a sacrifice to the Great Spirit, the initiate lays it upon the skull, when it is severed by a blow from the axe. Sometimes the fore-finger of the same hand is also offered, so that there are only left the thumb and the two middle fingers, which are all that are needed to hold the bow.
It is a point of honor with the initiates to recover as quickly as possible from their swoon, and the chief warriors all watch them narrowly on this point, inasmuch as rapidity of recovery is a proof that the individual is strong, and capable of enduring the hardships which every war party is nearly certain to undergo before their return.