e hundred and fifty feet in diameter. After this, the medicine
men had selected a small tree, which was cut down by a young,
unmarried squaw. Then the tree, after it had been trimmed of all
its branches and consecrated and prayed over by the medicine men,
was erected in the center of the inclosed space, rising from the
ground to a height of about twenty feet.

To the top of the pole were fastened many long thongs of rawhide
reaching nearly to the ground, and as Dick and Albert looked a
swarm of young men in strange array, or rather lack of array,
came forth from among the lodges and entered the inclosed space.
Dick had some dim perception of what was about to occur, but
Lone Wolf informed him definitely.

"The sun dance," he said. "Many youths are about to become great
warriors."

The greatest of sun dances, a sun dance of the mighty allied
Sioux tribes, was about to begin. Forward went the neophytes,
every one clad only in a breechclout ornamented with beads,
colored horsehair and eagle feathers, and with horse tails
attached to it, falling to the ground. But every square inch of
the neophyte's skin was painted in vivid and fantastic colors.
Even the nails on his fingers and toes were painted. Moreover,
everyone had pushed two small sticks of tough wood under the skin
on each side of the breast, and to those two sticks was fastened
a rawhide cord, making a loop about ten inches long.

"What under the sun are those sticks and cords for?" asked
Albert, shuddering.

"Wait and we'll see," replied Dick, who guessed too well their
purpose, although he could not help but look.

The neophytes advanced, and every one tied one of the long
rawhide thongs depending from the top of the pole to the loop of
cord that hung from his breast. When all were ready they formed
a great circle, somewhat after the fashion of the dancers around
a Maypole, and outside of those formed another and greater circle
of those already initiated.

A medicine man began to blow a small whistle made from the wing
bone of an eagle, the sacred bird of the Sioux, and he never
stopped blowing it for an instant. It gave forth a shrill,
penetrating sound, that began after a while to work upon the
nerves in a way that was almost unendurable to Dick and Albert.

At the first sound of the whistle the warriors began to dance
around the pole, keeping time to the weird music. It was a
hideous and frightful dance, like some cruel rite of a far-off