The St. Charles herald. [volume] (Hahnville, La.) 1873-1993, 1919-11-29

along the Hackensack river Having satisfied
their appettes the scouts turned in" for the night
Scout COyte on awakening opposite his face
a small. thick bundle, coil. Very quickly he
realized that it was q venOmOus snake Of the
.copperhead variety, and instinctively he thrust
his arm upward to protect his head and neck. He
had not done too quickly however. for the
reptile had sprung forward, burying its fangs
deep into the protecting arm. withdrawing az
quickly and wriggling off into the shrubbery along
the river bank.
Young Coyte awakened his companion and they
improvised tourniquet from his handkerchief and
a small stick Realizing that the wound was not
flowing freely enough he cut into and around the
bite until 1t bled profusely. Emptying the contents
Of cartridge into the break in his flesh, he APP
piled flame to the powder and withstood the tenn
pOrary pain. 1t was later determined that he had
successfully offset the possibility of fatal result
through his commendable presence of mind. He
had burnt all trace Of poison completely from his
arm and in few days was again back at his job,
the worse for his experience
1t Is a principle of the boy scout movement to
avoid secret ceremonies and limitations. High
tensoned limitations are dangerous to boys In the
adOlescent stage. The virtues of the ceremony
carried out, however by the scout council for
Delaware and Montgomery counties, Pennsylvania
obvious its thrills so real and yet reason
able, that it readily be used.
Their camp site occupied many years
ago by the Unam tribe of Indians This tribe
had an initiation ceremony for its young men
which has been preserved up to the present day.
Scouts who have taken camp honors by doing
specified amount of work in scoutcrafr are given
this initiation under the direction of N Harring-
ton and Alonson Skinner of the Institute of Amer
lean Indians Of New York. The ceremonies are
performed by Amos Overload. Sioux Indian con-
nected with the institute. They are described as
follows:
Ceremonies Of Initiation.
The ceremonies should begin before dusk and,
with the fasting etc, should last about 20 hours
The first thing before beginning the ceremony is
to make an Indian "sweat house" for publication
then to build large fire some distance east of its
entrance and to heat IL stones varying from the
size of a coconut to that Of mans skull. Two
forked green sticks should be provided to roll the
hot stones into the sweat house; also two large
earthen jars of water should be placed at the
back Of the sweat house opposite the door, to-
getAer with about a peck Of cedar twigs about
six Inches long. When all is ready the chief
wearing only breech.loth stands at the door Of
the sweat house and addresses the candidates,
lined up stark naked before him. He makes a
speech to them something like this:
My sons. we are about to take you little way
along the Unami trail to show you the ways of
the Lenape grandfathers. But first we must
purify ourselves outwardly by the sweat BATH
inwardly by the black drink (made of herbs) for
such is the custom that has been handed down to
u.s. When one has been purified in these ways the
powers of nature will look upon him with favor
and the winds will whisper sweet words in hfs
ears-ali will help him to endure the trials that
must be hts tomorrow"
He then goes into the sweat house and seats
himself in the back, opposite the door; the candi-
dates follow and seat themselves around the
sides. The Oshkosh roll the II hot stones iato u