A Móra Ferenc Múzeum Évkönyve: Studia Historiae Literarum et Artium, 1. (Szeged, 1997)

Nagy Imre: „The Black Came over the Sun...” Lame Bull’s spiritual oeuvre

until completely stamping out the fire. When Lame Bull tread around the edge of fire, makes sparks fly out - not so with others. He could also chew up live coals, and could break or pulverize a live coal with small stroke of stick, after apparently pounding it with all strength, hammer fashion with same stick without making any impression. On the Kingfisher occasion Admire by permission entered the tipi after the performance, and felt [unreadable] Lame Bull's feet and legs. He declared they were in natural condition and [unreadable]. After went out and took up clen[?] for him. Lone Wolf probably knows the songs. Harvey thinks that songs had words with meaning. Harvey thinks he used to lead the singing after Lame Bull had gone out from the tipi. Two men at Cantonment still have it, but Harvey thinks they are not „fireproof," because their feet show that burnt, and they can not make sparks fly from edge of the fire as Lame Bull did. Harvey says, he was not afraid because he had confidence in Lame Bull's medicine. His feet not burned, but felt the heat on his legs up about his knees. At that night it burnt a good deal, his legs inflamed, and could not sleep until late in the night. He doesn 't know ifit hurt others. He was a child and, and was admitted because Lame Bull was his father's cousin. Besides, Lame Bull and Harvey's father's brother were very anxious to make him a medicine man (Mooney notes, NAA 2213). ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First of all, I wish to express appreciation for the continuous support and help of my friend Michael L. Cowdrey, of San Luis Obispo, California, without whom this paper would not be what it is. I should like to acknowledge the suggestions and corrections of Christian F. Feest, Candace S. Greene, John H. Moore, and Winfield Coleman. Finally, I can hardly express my appreciation for those private collectors who allowed me to view their collections, and helped me in many ways throughout the preparation of this paper, namely John W. Painter, of Cincinnati, and the other two collectors - one of them in US, the other one in Europe - who wished to remain anonymous. NOTES 1 I had access to these unpublished sources while I was a Smithsonian Predoctoral Fellow at the National Museum of Natural History for six months, in 1993-1994. 2 According to the research of Peter J. Powell, Cheyenne elders can't recall any Arrow Keeper with the name Lame Bull (Powell 1969, 1979 II: 859-860). The only mentioned connection between Lame Bull and the Sacred Arrows is in Hoistah's biography, describing events circa 1800s-1840s (Moore 1987: 31-32). During this period White Thunder was the Arrow Keeper, which consequently means that the older Lame Bull might be only one of the four Arrow Priests. This status might illuminate Lame Bull's shamanistic ritual discussed later in this paper. 75