Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 41.djvu/762

 that dancing society, either to show his endurance or to learn the awful revelations which may make him a priest or chief. The cruel rites begin in childhood days. Thus, every Zuñi boy of the age of four or five has no choice about being initiated into the kok-ko, the principal feature of which is a brutal whipping.



This practice reminds us of the initiations into the mysteries of Artemis, wherein Spartan boys were cruelly scourged.

What makes early dancing sacred are cruel ceremonies which give sanction to secrecy. The more severe the initiation the more sacred is the dance. "A man who wanted to get the secrets," said Pipe Chief to George Bird Grinnell, "had to go through a severe trial, such as dancing and fasting." The severe trial in the Pawnee Young Dog's Dance consisted in the candidate having his breast cut, and strings or sticks passed through the slits, which were tied to posts, and then the dancer endeavored to break loose by tearing out the skin.

Mr. Paul Beckwith describes a Dakota "medicine-dance," given in midwinter, and "one can readily imagine the agony the candidate must undergo, clothed only in a coat of paint."