§ 181. _Candidates scarified._ When the time comes for scarifying the candidates,[162] if one wishes to dance in the manner about to be described, he is made to stand between four posts arranged in the form of a square, and his flesh on his back being scarified in two places, thongs are run through them and fastened to them and to the posts behind him. His chest is also scarified in two places, thongs are inserted and tied, and then fastened to the two posts in front of him (see Pl. XLVII, 1, Okaśka naźin, or “He stands fastened to” or “within”). Bushotter says nothing about the skewers used in torturing the dancers; but Capt. Bourke obtained three ornamental ones which had been run through the wounds of some of the devotees, in order to be stained with blood and kept thereafter as souvenirs of the bravery of the dancers. Besides these were the regular skewers which were thrust horizontally through the flesh; and to the ends of these skewers were fastened the thongs that were secured by the opposite ends to the sun pole. The last dance allowed by the Government was in 1883, and it would be difficult now to find any of these skewers. (See § 204.) [Illustration: Bureau of Ethnology Eleventh Annual Report. Plate XLVII. [image] GAST LITH. CO. N.Y. 1. PTEPA KIN WACI.--2. OKASKA NAZIN.] Another man has his back scarified and a thong inserted, from which a buffalo skull is suspended, as shown in Pl. XLVII, 2, Pte-pa ḳin waći, or “He dances carrying a buffalo skull on his back.” He dances thus, thinking that the weight of the skull will soon cause the thong to break through the flesh. The blood runs in stripes down his back. § 182. Another man decides to be fastened to the sun pole. For the use of such dancers there are eight leather thongs hanging down from the pole, being fastened to the pole at a point about midway from the top. For each man tied to the pole it is the rule to take two of the thongs and run them through his flesh after the holes are made with the knife (see Pl. XLVIII). After the thongs are fastened to him, the dancer is required to look upward. When the candidate is a short man, his back is scarified and his attendants push him up high enough from the ground for the thongs to be inserted and tied. In this case the weight of the man stretches the skin where the thongs are tied, and for a long time he remains there without falling (see Pl. XLIX).