Warriors advancing, singing the tribal hymn
THE SUN LODGE FINISHED AND READY FOR THE TRIBE
Three society lodges of the Brave Dogs stand on the left
By this time the sun was nearing the summits of the Rocky Mountains. White Calf, the head-chief, arose and called upon the people to make ready for raising the sun pole. The men returned to their lodges and dressed in their best costumes. They gathered into lines at the four quarters of the camp, bearing long lodge-poles, which were tied in pairs near their tops, each pair carried by two men, for lifting into place the heavy rafters of the dancing-lodge.
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The band that was first in line started to sing the tribal hymn, “Raising the Sun Pole”; it was quickly taken up by [[309]]other bands as they formed into line. The Indians believed this song was given by the Sun through Scarface, the founder of the Sun Dance. It was sung as a prayer by all the people for the safe raising of the center pole.
In the meantime, White Calf and Mad Wolf walked slowly to the prostrate pole and stood upon its trunk, while their wives took positions by its forks. Then the four lines of warriors, holding aloft their poles, advanced by four stages. During the pauses, they waited to sing the hymn to the pole, each band singing in unison regardless of the other bands, in different intervals of time and pitch; and, as the notes of the melody all belonged to one chord, the different groups combined harmoniously in a sort of grand fugal effect, the deep and resonant voices of the warriors booming and sliding up to the last notes of the song. Finally, the four lines met in a large circle round the sun lodge, and stood while all the people, men, women and children joined in singing the tribal hymn.
Then the head-chief called in a loud voice to raise the pole. Mad Wolf blew his medicine whistle; he threw off his black-colored robe and jumped from the pole. With shouts and war-whoops, the circle of warriors ran towards the unfinished lodge, followed by the throng of Indians. The pole was quickly raised with ropes; and the warriors with lodge-poles lifted the rafters into place, tying them to the frame with rawhide thongs, and placed green cottonwood branches against the sides.