North American Indians of the plains / by Clark Wissler.

  • Clark Wissler
Date:
1912
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: North American Indians of the plains / by Clark Wissler. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    126/160 (page 118)
    Ceremonial Procedure. It is rather difficult to satisfactorily characterize the many detailed ceremonies of the Plains, but some points are clear. In most we find an inordinate amount of singing, often extending over an entire day and night, interspersed with prayers and the handling of sacred objects or bundles and occasional dancing. The sweat house is used for preliminary purification and incense is burned at intervals during the ceremony. The partici¬ pants usually sit in a circle with a fire at the center. A man leads and has the entire direction of the ritual, other men and perhaps women assisting him. A kind of altar or earth painting is common. This is usually a small square of fresh earth between the leader and the fire upon which symbols are made by dropping dry paint, suggesting the sand painting of the Navajo, but otherwise highly individual in character. In the manipulation of ceremonial objects we often observe four movements, or three feints before anything is done. Again, many objects are not put down directly but moved around in a sunwise direction. All such manip¬ ulations are likely to be common to all ceremonies and therefore not distinctive or significant. It is not far wrong to say that all these ceremonies are demonstrations of the ritual associated with some bundle or objects and represent the original visions or experiences in which the whole was handed down. The demonstration seems to be ordered on the theory that, as in the original revelation, the divine element will be