ear and the tomahawk being prepared and
consecrated, the person who is to receive them approaches the wakan man
(priest), and presents a pipe to him. He asks a favor, in substance as
follows: 'Pity thou me, poor and helpless, a _woman_, and confer on me
the ability to perform _manly_ deeds.'"[54] According to Miss Fletcher,
when an Oglala girl arrives at puberty, a great feast is prepared, and
favored guests invited thereto. "A prominent feature in the feast is the
feeding of these privileged persons and the girl in whose honor the
feast is given, with choke cherries, as the choicest rarity to be had in
the winter.... In the ceremony, a few of the cherries are taken in a
spoon and held over the sacred smoke and then fed to the girl."[55] This
is considered one of the most sacred of their feasts.

[54] Dorsey: _Siouan Cults, An. Rep. Bur. Eth._, 1889-90, p. 444.

[55] Fletcher: _Peabody Museum Report_, vol. iii, p. 260.

While discussing the phallic observances of the North American races, I
will introduce the subject of tattooing, though it properly belongs
elsewhere in this treatise.

At puberty, the Hudson Bay Eskimos invariably tattoo their boys and
girls. Lucien M. Turner writing of the latter, says:

"When a girl arrives at puberty she is taken to a secluded locality by
some old woman versed in the art of tattooing, and stripped of her
clothing. A small quantity of half-charred lamp wick of moss is mixed
with oil from the lamp. A needle is used to prick the skin, and the
pasty substance is smeared over the wound. The blood mixes with it, and
in a few days a dark-bluish spot is left. The operation continues four
days. When the girl returns to the tent it is known that she has begun
to menstruate."[56] Both Eastern and Western Inoits celebrate puberty
with certain rites. It is rather difficult, however, to get them to say
much about this matter, so I will not present the evidence, meager as it
is, which has been gleaned from the works of various explorers. One can
readily see that much of it is conjecture, therefore of little
scientific value.

[56] Turner: _An. Rep. Bur. Eth._, 1889-90, p. 208.

Not far from the Place of Gold, the magnificent temple in which the
ancient Peruvians worshiped the Life Giver, was another great edifice,
styled the "House of the Virgins of the Sun." This was the domicile of
the pallacides or hetarae of the Chief Priest, the Inca. "No one but the
Inca and the Coya, or