When there is a youth who begins to approach manhood, he is taken by his father, uncle or nearest friend, and is conducted blindfolded into a wilderness, in order that he may not know the way, and is left there by night or otherwise, with a bow and arrows, and a hatchet and a knife. He must support himself there a whole winter with what the scanty earth furnishes at this season, and by hunting. Towards the spring they come again, and fetch him out of it, take him home and feed him up again until May. He must then go out again every morning with the person who is ordered to take him in hand; he must go into the forest to seek wild herbs and roots, which they know to be the most poisonous and bitter; these they bruise in water and press the juice out of them, which he must drink, and immediately have ready such herbs as will preserve him from death or vomiting; and if he cannot retain it, he must repeat the dose until he can support it and until his constitution becomes accustomed to it so that he can retain it. Then he comes home, and is brought by the men and women all singing and dancing, before the Sackima; and if he has been able to stand it all well, and if he is fat and sleek, a wife is given to him.[466] Both boys and girls received new, adult names at the time of their initiation.[467] MILITARY TECHNOLOGY =Military Organization=: Although it is not known for certain, it seems likely that the groups of men called _pnieses_ constituted an elite military society that provided leadership in battles as well as being a policy-making body. Boys with the proper characteristics—courage, strength, stature, endurance, honesty, discretion, and courtesy—were trained from childhood to endure hardships in preparation for becoming a pniese. When they were of the proper age they were initiated into the society in a ceremony which involved physical ordeal and supernatural experience.[468] Pnieses performed feats of great courage and boldness and were considered to be immune to wounds by enemy weapons. These were the leaders in battle—the men who carried long spears.[469] =Defensive Fortifications=: Winter villages were often fortified against attack. Fortifications were pallisade and ditch constructions. A pallisade consisted of upright poles of some ten to twelve feet high, set into the ground as close as possible. On the inside a breast-high ditch was dug, and dirt thrown up against the base of the uprights provided further protection during combat. Spaces between the poles served as loopholes. The fort had one or two entrances, depending on its circumference. These were formed by overlapping the ends of the wall.[470]