Then the different bands sent young men to help in the work. Young women dressed themselves in their best costumes and rode forth on horseback to help drag in the trees, using lariats fastened to the pommels of their saddles. They returned from the river valley and entered camp amid shouting and firing of guns. They dragged the trees and branches to the place for the sun lodge in the center of the camp circle. In the construction of the big lodge, nine forked tree trunks were used for posts; also long branches for stringers and rafters, and a lot of green boughs to cover the sides. The men who were chosen to get the center pole went forth as a war party and cut down the tree with a ceremony. They selected a large cottonwood with forked branches. Double Runner was the warrior chosen for the honor of felling it, because of his brave deeds in war. He came forward with an axe, the blade painted red. First, he told a war story—how he had killed an enemy in battle, then struck the tree with his axe. In this manner, after recounting four brave deeds, Double Runner cut down the tree. When it began to fall, the waiting warriors shouted and gave war-whoops and fired their guns into its crown; as it struck the ground, they made a rush and broke off the branches, counting “coups” as trophies of war. Then they trimmed the trees and rested the forked end on a travois. Indians on horses helped with lariats; and in this way they bore the center pole to camp, placing it beside the open hole in the medicine lodge, with its forks pointing toward the setting sun. Prominent men were chosen for the honor of digging the post-holes. They also put the stringers into place and long poles for rafters. Thus they made everything ready for raising the center pole at sunset, when all the bands of the tribe would assemble and do their share. In the meantime, the ceremony of transferring the Sun Dance Bundle was taking place in the lodge of Mad Wolf. Then the people had their first chance to see the fasting woman, and a large crowd assembled. The men who sang and beat with rattles sat together on the north side of the lodge; across from them were the women, who had made vows at former sun dances. Directly behind the altar and in the center were Mad Wolf and his wife, as the givers of the Sun Dance, together with White Calf and his wife who were giving up the bundle. First, a small cottonwood tree was planted in the ground close to the altar by Middle Calf, who recounted four of his brave deeds in war. Gives-to-the-Sun and the “mother” kneeled together and sang. They made dancing movements in unison, as they took up the sacred headdress and hung it upon the tree.