Installation of the Dancers

INSTALLATION OF THE DANCERS.

When the Dance Lodge is occupied, the Superior may harangue concerning the Sun Dance and then he should fill and light a pipe and pass it so that all in the lodge may smoke in communion, and while doing so, the attendants should make a fire of buffalo chips on the altar. The Superior should make an abundant incense of sweetgrass on this fire. Thus, all

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will be harmonized with the potency of the Buffalo God that should prevail during the ceremony. Then the Superior should command the Candidates to stand and be made dancers. They should stand, and the Mentors should each give the whistle to his Candidate and tell him that when he is dancing he must continually sound the whistle and gaze at the Sun. If the Candidate is to dance the fourth form for the purpose of becoming a Shaman, his Mentor should place in his right hand a small hoop that should be bound with thongs so as to divide its enclosure into four equal parts and it may be ornamented in any manner. The Mentor should inform the Candidate in a harangue that the people can hear that this hoop is an emblem of the Sky, of the Four Winds, of time, of all things that grow, and of all things that the Lakota make that are circular; that only those who are renowned are entitled to wear, or place the hoops on their tipis; and that if he dances the Sun Dance to its completion he will be entitled to this insignum.

When these things are done the Superior should announce and the red herald should proclaim that the Candidates are now the dancers. The people ought to cheer with shouts of approbation and laud the dancers.

With this announcement the ceremonial relation of Mentor and Candidate ceases and those who were Mentors should take places with the people in the right covered space, except that the Superior continues as such and is entitled to sit at the place of honor in the Dance Lodge, but has only supervisory authority over the rites that are to be held in the lodge. From this time until the dance is completed the leader should conduct the ceremony.