DISCIPLINE MAINTAINED.
§ 151. Policemen are appointed, and a crier proclaims to each lodge that at a specified place there is a broad and pleasant prairie where all are expected to pitch their tents. The overseers or masters of ceremonies have guns, and their orders are obeyed; for if one disobeys his horses and dogs are killed by the policemen. This punishment is called akićita wićaktepi, or, in common parlance, “soldier-killing.”
All who join the camp must erect the upright (or conical) tents, as no low rush or mat tents, such as are found among the Osage and Winnebago, are allowed in the camp circle.
CAMPING CIRCLE FORMED.
§ 152. At length orders are given for all the people to pitch their tents in the form of a tribal circle, with an opening to the north.[153] (See Pl. XLV.) It takes several days to accomplish this, and then all the men and youths are required to take spades and go carefully over the whole area within the circle and fill up all the holes and uneven places which might cause the horses to stumble and fall.
MEN SELECTED TO SEEK THE MYSTERY TREE.
§ 153. Though Bushotter has written that this work requires several days, it is probable, judging from what follows in his manuscript, that only two days are required for such work. For he continues thus:
On the third day some men are selected to go in search of the Ćan-wakan or Mystery Tree, out of which they are to form the sun pole.[154] These men must be selected from those who are known to be brave, men acquainted with the war path, men who have overcome difficulties, men who have been wounded in battle, men of considerable experience.
§ 154. The men selected to fell the mystery tree ride very swift horses, and they decorate their horses and attire themselves just as if they were going to battle. They put on their feather war bonnets. They race their horses to a hill and then back again. In former days it was customary on such occasions for any women who had lost children during some previous attack on the camp, to wail often as they ran towards the mounted men, and to sing at intervals as they went. But that is not the custom at the present day. Three times do the mounted men tell of their brave deeds in imitation of the warriors of the olden times, and then they undertake to represent their own deeds in pantomime.
§ 155. On the fourth day, the selected men go to search for the mystery tree. They return to camp together, and if they have found a suitable tree, they cut out pieces of the soil within the camping circle, going down to virgin earth. (See § 146.) This exposed earth extends over a considerable area. On it they place a species of sweet-smelling grass (a trailing variety) and wild sage, on which they lay the buffalo skull.