Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1884-02-21

which the red man descend upon the
gentle white maiden in one of Hon.
William II. Cody's aboriginal melo-
dramas. The dogs legs were tied to-
gether with a rope, and the medicine
man swung it on school-bench in the
middle of the room. Six chiefs, headed
by Head Chief Daniel La Fort. sat on
bench at right angles with the dogs
head, and six centenarian squaws sat
opposite on a bench behind the dogs
decorated tail.
The medicine-man's aids sat down,
and he began solemn chant as he
walked around and around the dog. His
bearing was impressive and his singing
very weird. Suddenly he stopped be-
fore chief, who told him what especial
blessing he desired from the Almighty.
The medicine-man repeated the chiefs
words in his monotonous song. At the
next turn the next chief named his
needs, and so the chiefs and the so--ws
one after the other urged their peauons
through their priest Presently the med
icine-man started for the door, and his
aids followed, one carrying the decorat-
ed dog. They went over to the council
room of the Snipes, the Bears and the
Dee, and there repeated the ceremO-
Here the dog was laid ia pretty W
er basket 1t was such as New Y <
merchants use as receptacles for waste
paper. except that it was hung it'll col
Ored ribbons and was one-th rd full of
cheap tobacco. When the prayers ended
all followed the medic,ne-man, the bas-
ket and the dog across the campus and
through the big council-hall, where all
the others Joined them, and filed behind
them in march around and around the
outside OF the building.
Going back to the council-room again
they laid the dog and the basket down
in front of the stove. Nobody but an
Indian could have looked with a grave
face upon the substitution OF a modern
Utica-made stove for the funeral-pyre of
tradition; but they moved no muscle,
and when afterwards the reporter sug-
gested that this was violent innova-
ton chief replied that it did not mat
ter-as long as the top fitted cose and
the door was shut the sacrifice would
not smell. The medicine-man circled
around the stove and the tribe listened
with bowed heads and occasional grunts.
The priest sang four new verses at this
time. The first one was to the effect
that spring was coming and the snow
would melt, the seeds would sprout,
babies would be born, game would be
plenty, and the red man would prosper,
if God so wilied. The next verse told
of the blessings of summer, the next
those of autumn, and the last those OF
winter. He sang that the sins of the
Nation be forgiven, and that the offer.
ing be accepted in the spirit in which it
was rendered. When he ceased, war
rior in red worsted comforter, sack
coat and brown jean trousers lifted Of
the top of the stove, and the dog and
the basket were lowered upon the b az
ing logs, the action being &C ;Ompan ed
by veil that sent tingle a ong the
under >urface of every white scalp. That
ended the first davis ceremony.
The men and women quilted Their
sea- AMI filed out of the doors. They
did not speak to one another. in
another moment the roads, the snow
upon the fields and the yards were
filed with rigid figures as they made
their way to their houses. They had
MT performed the full ceremony. 1t
had been modified because of the pres
ence of strangers, and because of the
wide rupture between this heather half
of the Nation and the moiety of Chris
tians. TIE Christians are anxious COR a
new treaty with the State, and are bent
on exposing what they say is the truth
about the depravity of their heather
brothers and sisters. They have laid
great stress on the lcentious and horri-
BILE features of this ceremony of Burn
ing the White Dog. with which, they
say, nothing has been found too dis
gushing to be Incorporated. Syracuse
On " Cor. ~ Y. San.