Piercing Children's Ears

PIERCING CHILDREN'S EARS.

During the next rite the musicians should remain silent and the buffalo men should sing and drum as often and when the leader deems fit. When the Buffalo men are seated about the buffalo skin the mothers should place the babes whose ears are to be pierced on the beds of sage they have prepared, and standing, should announce the names of those they have chosen to pierce the ears. Those thus named should come and stand beside the women who have chosen them. They should each have a piercing implement and a suitable block of wood. First each should harangue, reciting the deeds he has done that make him eligible to perform this rite. During this harangue the father of the babe should come and stand beside its mother and when the speech is finished the piercer should exhort the parents, telling them that this rite obligates the parents to rear the babe so that it will conform to the laws and customs of the Oglala and that the ears thus pierced signify a loyalty to these laws and customs. He should then kneel

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at the head of the babe and place the block under the lobe of one ear and quickly pierce it with his sharp-pointed implement. Then he should pierce the other ear in a like manner. The parents should not heed the cries of the babe until its ears have been pierced and then the mother should take it and comfort it. The mothers should announce the names of the piercers in rapid succession and they should come forward and begin their duties at once. Thus, this rite may be performed by a number simultaneously and the harangues, cries of the babes, and songs of the buffalo men, may make an exciting hubbub to which the people may add in their enthusiasm.