§ 154. The men selected to fell the mystery tree ride very swift horses, and they decorate their horses and attire themselves just as if they were going to battle. They put on their feather war bonnets. They race their horses to a hill and then back again. In former days it was customary on such occasions for any women who had lost children during some previous attack on the camp, to wail often as they ran towards the mounted men, and to sing at intervals as they went. But that is not the custom at the present day. Three times do the mounted men tell of their brave deeds in imitation of the warriors of the olden times, and then they undertake to represent their own deeds in pantomime. § 155. On the fourth day, the selected men go to search for the mystery tree. They return to camp together, and if they have found a suitable tree, they cut out pieces of the soil within the camping circle, going down to virgin earth. (See § 146.) This exposed earth extends over a considerable area. On it they place a species of sweet-smelling grass (a trailing variety) and wild sage, on which they lay the buffalo skull. TENT OF PREPARATION. § 156. After this there is set up within the camping circle a good tent known as the tent of preparation.[155] When the managers wish to set up the tent of preparation, they borrow tent skins here and there. Part of these tent skins they use for covering the smoke hole, and part were used as curtains, for when they decorate the candidates they use the curtains for shutting them in from the gaze of the people and when they finish painting them they throw down the curtains. In the back part of this tent of preparation are placed the buffalo skulls, one for each candidate. A new knife which has never been used is exposed to smoke. A new ax, too, is reddened and smoked. § 157. Wild sage (_Artemisia_) is used in various ways prior to and during the sun dance. Some of it they spread on the ground to serve as couches, and with some they wipe the tears from their faces. They fumigate with the plant known as “ćaŋ śilśilya,” or else they use “walipe waśtema,” sweet-smelling leaves. Day after day they fumigate themselves with “waćaŋġa,” a sweet-smelling grass. They hold every object which they use over the smoke of one of these grasses. They wear a kind of medicine on their necks, and that keeps them from being hungry or thirsty, for occasionally they chew a small quantity of it. Or if they tie some of this medicine to their feet they do not get weary so soon.[156]