Soon after the public announcement of the relation of Mentor and Candidate, the Mentor should require the Candidate to enter a sweatlodge to ini, or vitalize. Inipi, or vitalizing, is an act of more or less ceremony to stimulate the ni, or vitality, so that it may increase strength and purify the body. Vitalizing may be merely a means of refreshment, a remedial measure for disease, or to purify the body for some important undertaking. It ought always to be done as a preliminary to ceremonies pertaining to the Wakan Tanka, or the Great Gods. In its simplest form, it is done by releasing the spirit-like of water in a confined space so that it may enter the body. This spirit-like stimulates the vitality so that it overcomes harmful things that may be in the body and the spirit-like of the water washes them out of the body and they appear upon the skin like sweat and can be washed or wiped away. Thus, the vitality is strengthened and the body purified. If the vitalizing is a remedy for disease, medicines may be added to the water so that their potency, or spirit-like, may be released and enter the body, and there cause the desired effect.
The methods for vitalizing according to the customs of the Oglala are: A lodge is made by thrusting slender saplings into the ground in a circle,