Thomas County cat. [volume] (Colby, Kan.) 1885-1891, 1891-01-08

Christ singing as an accompaniment
Late into the night they danced until
Christ told them they had danced
enough. Porcupine had plenty of op
portunity of watching the savior He
had heard that he had been crucifed, SC
looked carefully for the scars left by the
nails. There was one On his face and
another on his wrist, but his feet were
not visible.
@He seemed to be the man." remarked
Porcupine.
Two days afterward Christ talked to
them all day. He told them what he
wanted them to do, and explained what he
himself would do to aid them. He asked
them to remain at peace with the white
men. They must prepare for their
coming deliverance and spread the news
as far and as wide as possible.
The deliverance is to come about in
this wise: Some time during the COM
ing winter the messiah will come in all
his majesty. With Him will come all
the braves who have died and who are
now supposed to be in the happy hunt
ing grounds. A great wave of earth will
pass over the whole crowd, burying
everything thirty feet deep beneath it.
towns. their railroads, their ships and
munitions of war, will be exterminated
by this burial.
The red men will be buried. too but
will have supernatural power given
them, by which they will climb ont
through the stratum of earth. When
they arrive on the surface they will find
themselves purified. They will find
every trace of civilization and the hated
pale-face wiped out.
The prairies will be covered with way
ing grass waist-deep. Buffalo will roam
As they did of yore. The spirits of the
departed dead will all be there. restored
again to life Wild horses will be ready
for their use, and the millennium will
have dawned.
This climbing out through the earth is
a sort Of purgatOry through which the
Indians will have to go in order that
they may be purified from every con-
Eliminating stain left by the white race.
Pain. tribuation and trouble will be en-
counterel, but strength will be given
them to overcome the obstacles.
WHAT THE GHOST DANCE Is LIKE.
In preparing for the dance the Indians
cut the tallcst tree that they can find,
and, having dragged it to a level piece of
prairie, set it up in the ground. Under
this tree four of the head men stand,
Others form in circle and begin to go
around and around the tree. The begin
the dance Friday afternoon. 1t is kept
up Saturday and Sunday until shutdown.
During all this time they do not eat or
drink. They keep going round in one
direction until they become so dizzy that
they can scarcely stand, then turn and
go in the other direction and keep it up
till they SwCon from exhaustion. This
is what they strive to do. for while they
are in swoon they think they see and
talk with the new Christ. When they
regain consciousness they tell their eX-
parienceS to the four wise men under
the tree. All their tales end with the
same story about the two mountains that
are to belch forth mud and bury the
white men and the return of good In
dian times.
They lose all their senses in the dance.
They think they are animals. Some get
down on all fours and bob about like
buffalo. When they can not lose their
senses from exhaustion they butt their
heads together, beat them on the ground,
and co anything to become inSenSible. SO
that they may be ushered into the pres
ence of the new Christ. One poor Indi-
an. when he recovered his senses, said
that Christ had told him he must return
to earth because he had not brought with
him his wife and child. His child had died
TWO years before, and the way the poor
fellow cried was most heartrending At
the end of the dance they had grand
feast. the revel lasting all Sunday night.
They kill several steers and eat them raw
and drink and gorge themselves to make
up for their fast. Every IndiaE has about
four war clubs made out of round stones
twisted in rawhide. They throw these
around during the dance, strew the
ground with them, and beat their heads
against them.