he stick was broken into fine bits, which were
hurled at their whilom owner. His power was now gone; his strength also,
and, gathering his energies for one grand and final effort, he plunged
headlong towards the prairie with a howling mob of women at his heels.
As he struggled along his movements were impeded by every known device,
and at each fall he was set upon by the enraged and triumphant females,
who exulted in his ignominious downfall, supplementing their jeers with
blows from sticks, stones and whips, until he at length escaped by
diving into the underbrush that grew at the base of the hills, and
disappeared from view. The dance had by this time come to an end, and
preparations were made for the commencement of the cruelties which were
about to take place within the lodge.

The medicine chief, who acted as master of ceremonies, approached
Mahtocheega, and made a requisition for musicians, and after a brief
consultation he gave orders to have two of the female captives perform
this arduous and monotonous task. Zoe and myself were chosen, and we
were at once ushered within the sacred precincts of the lodge. We were
the only women who were permitted to view the scenes which I am about to
relate. Would to God I had been spared the revolting spectacle!

As we entered, the candidates for the cruelties were about taking their
places in spaces assigned them, as also the chiefs and doctors of the
tribe, whose duty it was to look on, bear witness to, and decide upon
the comparative degree of fortitude with which the young men sustain
themselves in this most excruciating ordeal. The chiefs situated
themselves on one side of the lodge, and opposite them were seated the
musicians. The medicine chief took up his position in the center of the
circle, near a small fire, with his big pipe in his hands. Gravely
filling it with k'neck k'nick, he lighted it at the flame, and began
puffing great clouds in the faces of the aspirants, that the Great
Spirit might give them strength to bear their tortures manfully.
Directly under the aperture in the roof of the lodge was a curious
arrangement of buffalo and human skulls, which were divided into two
parcels. Placed over them at an elevation of about five feet was a
delicate scaffold made of four posts, not larger than a willow rod. In
the crotches of these poles were placed lateral rods of about the same
thickness, and resting on these transversely were a number of still more
delicate s