Father, the Morning Star!
Look on us, we have danced until daylight,
Look on us, we have danced until daylight.
Take pity on us—Hi′i′i′!
Take pity on us—Hi′i′i′!
This song is sung about daylight, just before the closing song, after the dancers have danced all night and are now ready to quit and go home. When the new doctrine came among the prairie tribes, the Ghost dance was held at irregular and frequent intervals, almost every other night, in fact—lasting sometimes until about midnight, sometimes until daylight, without any rule. As the ceremonial became crystallized, however, the messiah gave instructions that the dance should be held only at intervals of six weeks, and should then continue four consecutive nights, lasting the first three nights until about midnight, but on the fourth night to continue all night until daylight of the next morning. The original letter containing these directions is given in chapter X. For a long time these directions were implicitly followed, but the tendency now is to the original fashion of one-night dances, at short intervals. This song to the morning star was sung just before daylight on the final morning of the dance.
With all the prairie tribes the morning star is held in great reverence and is the subject of much mythological belief and ceremony. It is universally represented in their pictographs as a cross, usually of the Maltese pattern. In this form it is frequently pictured on the ghost shirts. The Arapaho name, nagaq′, means literally “a cross.” The Kiowa know it as t’aiñso, “the cross,” or sometimes, as dä-e′dal, “the great star.”
73. Ahu′yu häthi′na (closing song)
