100 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 195 



The vision quest is no longer practiced and there has been a gradual 

 erosion of belief in xiibe during the past 50 years. There are still many 

 stories concerning it, however. PLC stated that when he was small 

 he avoided the house of Shaky, a famous Northern Ponca shaman, 

 because of this man's xube, and in his autobiography (1961, p. 18) he 

 mentions his fear of the power of an old Dakota medicine woman who 

 was xube from a mole. 



Formerly this xube or medicine power was stored in medicine 

 packets and sacred bundles. Medicine packets were generally in- 

 dividually owned and contained some small object or group of objects 

 relating to the owner's vision, such as feathers from a bird, the skin 

 or claws of an animal, or the powdered roots of plants. Bundles were 

 usually larger in size, and made up of several such medicines, larger 

 bird or animal skins, and the musical instruments and regalia used 

 at the feast when the bundle was opened. Bundles were usually the 

 property of a clan, a society, or even, as with the tribal pipe, of the 

 tribe as a whole. There were, however, bundles which were in- 

 dividually OAvned. 



Several types of bundles were used by the Ponca. Some related to 

 war. These generally contained birdskins to which scalps were 

 attached. They were carried by the leader of the war party, to be 

 opened when the group was about to attack the enemy. Others 

 related to hunting. StUl others were used in curing the sick, and 

 contained many herb simples. Some of the bundles of the Medicine 

 Lodge society were employed to work black magic against the enemies 

 of the owners. Formerly, sacred bundles were opened at least once a 

 year, their contents ceremonially displayed and fumigated in cedar 

 smoke, and their wrappings repaired or replaced. Such a bundle 

 ceremony is described in Whitman's "Xube" (1939, pp. 180-181). 



Bundles were usually hung in a safe place at the back of the tipi or 

 earth lodge during the winter. In summer they were hung outside 

 at least part of the time if the weather was good, but were removed 

 indoors if it began to rain. When the tribe was on the move each 

 bundle was transported on a separate horse, ridden by a young boy 

 who had never had intercoiu'se with a woman. The boy's job was to 

 see that the bundle never touched the ground. 



At the present time most of the old Ponca bundles are either in 

 large eastern museums or have been buried with their keepers. How- 

 ever, there is still at least one bundle among the Southern Ponca. 

 It is kept by Parrish Williams, who inherited it, as the eldest son in 

 the family, from his father. Parrish, like most present-day Ponca, 

 has an exaggerated dread of bundles. He has never opened the 

 bundle, for fear of its power, and was loath to discuss it with me. 

 John Williams, a younger son, was more cooperative, and commented 

 that the bundle had been used in both hunting and war. After each 



