THE OOLOGIST 



With spirit light." 



"Mine eyes can see the echoes 

 And creatures living long ago." 



The next one is intended to be 

 humorous, although hardly fulfilling 

 our ideas of a humorous song. 

 "Wahoo, wahoo, I am the owl, 

 I know the minds of creatures all. 

 While women weep and warchiefs 



scowl, 

 I am the owl, I am the owl." 



The raven was said to follow war 

 parties of the Indians, and to be al- 

 ways present when a battle occurred, 

 and their presence in large numbers at 

 any particular place showed that a kill- 

 ing was in progress at that spot. The 

 Pawnee considered the raven a sacred 

 bird that attended certain mysteries. 

 Its Pawnee name is Kaw-kah, and the 

 Winnebago name is almost identical. 



On account of his predatory habits 

 and disposition to gorge himself on 

 newly planted corn the crow has 

 never been highly esteemed by the 

 Winnebagoes. An amusing custom 

 has grown out of the crow's reputation 

 for gluttony. At a ceremonial feast, 

 the Indians are compelled, by pre- 

 cedent, to eat all the food apportioned 

 to them, or call for help; when some 

 one who is waiting for that purpose 

 gives the same call and rushes to 

 the assistance of his stranded friend. 



The Apaches have great confidence 

 in the signals which they say the 

 crows make to them, especially the 

 warning given them of an enemies ap- 

 proach. The Pawnee Indians have an 

 explanation of the crows caTrion eat- 

 ing propensities, which, briefly, is as 

 follows: When the world was young, 

 and humans had been on earth for 

 only a short time, these people who 

 had been created by the gods, became 

 presumptuous and insulted the sun in 

 various ways, such as by hooting at it 

 and calling it vile names, and in vari- 



ous other ways. So Tirawa, the chief 

 God, decided to destroy the men as 

 well as various monsters, who at that 

 time peopled the earth, by a flood; 

 and he would then send a new race to 

 people the earth. After they were all 

 drowned, Tirawa sent out a bird mes- 

 senger to view the earth. Then he de- 

 cided to send a second messenger; 

 this time a crow to whom he gave 

 strict orders to molest nothing on 

 earth, but the crow saw numerous 

 remains of people that had been 

 drowned in the flood, and began to eat 

 them. Tirawa was displeased, and 

 when the crow tried to fly back to 

 heaven, Tirawa said: "Stop, you shall 

 stay there forever. You have dis- 

 obeyed my orders. You shall live 

 hereafter on dead carcasses." The 

 next bird he sent out was a blue- 

 bird, and when he returned, Tirawa 

 said: "You shall be the chief of all 

 the birds." He also told him that 

 when the people were placed upon the 

 earth, he, the bluebird, would always 

 be present; that he should be placed 

 close to the mouth-piece, upon the 

 stem of the holy pipe. So to this day, 

 we have the bluebird upon the stem 

 of the ceremonial pipe. 



The turkey buzzard does not inhabit 

 the country of the Wisconsin Winne- 

 bagoes, but is known to the Nebraska 

 branch of the tribe According to 

 their story, several of the water spirits 

 were once shot with arrows and their 

 companions could not extract them; 

 so they sent for the turkey buzzard 

 who was a doctor and knew many 

 roots and herbs. The man who had 

 shot the water spirits skinned the tur- 

 key buzzard and arrayed himself in 

 the skin, by which means he succeeded 

 in killing the ones he had shot. So 

 whenever an Indian speaks of a good 

 herb doctor, he will call him a regular 

 turkey buzzard. The buzzard sails 

 around in the air without flapping his 



