Howard] THE PONCA TRIBE 123 



from mescal beans, which the members drank. Sometimes the 

 participants secm-ed visions after di'inking this infusion. One sip of 

 the decoction was said to be enough. Songs were sung to the accom- 

 paniment of a rawhide rattle which was struck upon a buckskin pillow 

 filled with bison wool. Sometimes there was dancing as well. 



''Yellow-hammer" (flicker) feathers were worn by the members of 

 the Mescal Bean cult. LMD explained that the flicker was the 

 "main bird" of the Mescal Bean group, just as the "waterbird" 

 (water turkey or snakebird, Anhinga anhinga) is now the "main 

 bird" of the Peyote rehgion — that is to say, this bird was beheved 

 to carry prayers of the members from earth to heaven. Many 

 Oklahoma Indian groups share the Ponca respect for the flicker. 

 An Arapaho, Jim Fire, explained the special importance of the flicker 

 as follows: "We notice this bird is always able to find bugs and things 

 under the bark of trees. That is why we Indian people associate him 

 with doctoring. He can seek out hidden impurities." The Ponca 

 Mescal Bean society members probably had a similar belief, as curing 

 was quite important in their group. 



In the old days of tribal warfare the mescal bean was used as a 

 war medicine. LMD commented that "since the red bean is so very 

 hard to crack, a man who carried it as his medicine would be hard to 

 pierce with arrows or bullets." When used as medicines the beans 

 were wrapped in a small circle of buckskin which was tied at the top 

 with a buckskin thong. This buckskin wrapper was always perforat- 

 ed, since the bean "would die if it was not able to breathe." LRL 

 was also famihar with the virtues of the mescal bean as a war medicine. 

 He stated that warriors going into battle often put a mescal bean in 

 either ear. If they did not fall out the wearer would be almost 

 impervious to arrows and bullets. 



The use of the mescal bean as a war medicine has not completely 

 disappeared. When Parrish WilHams, the son of James WiUiams 

 (now deceased) went into the service in World War II, his father 

 gave him a mescal bean to carry with him. Parrish still keeps this 

 as a good luck charm, carrying it in an old-fashioned leather coin 

 purse. 



The mescal bean was also strongly identified with horses and mules, 

 according to Ernest Blue-back, and he stated that these animals were 

 given mescal bean tea to make them swift and to cure their infirmities. 

 To illustrate this he told the following story: 



Once my granddad took part in a big buffalo run. A lot of other tribes took 

 part too, some of them ancient enemies of the Poncas. The Sioux, Winnebagoes 

 [sic], Omahas, and Pawnees were all there. Just before the hunt granddad went 

 out to look at his buffalo runners and found that someone had shot them full of 

 arrows for him. He had to shoot most of them to put them out of their misery. 

 One mule that was down, though, had only been grazed. Now granddad used 

 this mule to run buffalo sometimes. He painted the mule, gave it red bean tea to 



