sun dance (sundans)

A barbarous religious ceremony practised in honor of the sun by certain tribes of the North American Indians, as the Sioux and Black feet. An e ential feature is the self-torture of youths who are candidates for admi ion to the full standing of warriors; the candidates pa thongs through the flesh of their breasts, and strain against the thongs, which have been attached to a pole, until released by the tearing of the flesh. Dancing, charging at sunrise upon a "sun-pole," etc., are other features. Ordinarily each tribe or reservation has its own celebration of the sun-dance. Schwatka , The Century, XXXIX. 753. Sundanese (sun-da-nēs' or-nēz'), a. and n. [ Sunda (see def.) + -n-ese.] I. a. Of or belonging to the Sunda Islands (including that chain of the East Indian archipelago which extends from the Malay peninsula to Papua), or the natives or inhabitants. See II. II. n. One of a section of the Malay race inhabiting Malacca, the Sunda Islands, and the Philippines. Imp . Dict.