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287

keeping time with the music and having his eye fastened on the "sun." he could not take them away..he must held his head up. the dancer carried a whistle made of bone. which they held in their mouth. and blew constantly Once in the [?] the dancer might not leave it till the dance ended or he was carried out in a faint by his friends looking on. or as the case sometimes was 'dead'. The dance lasted sometimes four or five days and was [?] through the night. no intermission from the beginning to the end. and those who started at the first must keep on to the end. or be carried out. as explained. It was not necessary that the dance must be Joined at the start by every one. nor was there any designation as to who should lead. An indian might if the spirit moved him. commence to dance at "the eleventh hour" and still participate in the [?]

  The Sun Dance was a religious ceremony and the Dakota of the east do not as to the western Dakota do cut themselves.  They [?] dance much longer.   At Yankton S. Dakota a year or two ago. a young man who had been educated by the whites    got into the Sun Dance and was so carried away with the fervor that after he had danced three days and nights. he cut his arms and legs. by taking up a pinch of flesh and cutting it off.  he died in ten days after.    In AD 1882. the writer witnessed the "Sun Dance" among the Dakota (Crows) of Montana. they danced in an enclosure but had no covering over it.  The [?] was shut and there was no cutting.
 A very grotesque dance enacted by the Dakota is the "Dog Dance."  Dog especially the puppy is a great luxury among the Dakota and when they see fit to kill a dog and have a feast on his remains it is always accompanied with ceremony.  The dance is as follows.  The circle is formed. and the dancers squat or sit upon the ground. a leader is appointed who carries a [?] made of strips of raw hide attached to a stick.  At one end (if the inaccuracy is allowed.) if the circle is set up a pole. upon which the dancers hang their feather war bonnets. so.  A pole set in the ground is a usual necessity to all ceremony of a public character enacted by the indians.   The Ojibway say that it is necessary to have a place for the Manito to sit and watch them from above while they dance.   After the deposit of the feathers the dancer sits in the circle.  When the dog is ready and cooked in a kettle the meat is brought into the ring in the kettle