Then the young men, streaming blood on their painted chests and backs, would stand and begin their dancing and chanting, leaning back from or toward the sacred tree so that their bodies were often suspended totally by the rawhide and horn under their muscles. And always they stared at the sun as they danced and chanted. Sometimes they danced the full two days. More often, they would dance and leap until the pain caused them to fall unconscious or-if they were lucky and Wakan Tanka smiled on them-until the rawhide and horn ripped through their powerful chest or back muscles and freed them.
( Dan Simmons )
[ Black Hills ]
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