there was drumming and chanting and ropes were tied to the tree hanging down like the ribbons of a maypole but later these ropes would be affixed to the chests of young men with sticks that went through the piercings of their skin and when the young men , so attached to the tree of life , the tree that acted as a conduit to the great spirit , pulled away , their flesh was pulled away and left at the end of the ropes that were then tied up around the tree .