H A P T E K III. 



CULTS OF THE OMAHA, PONKA, KANSA, AND OSAGE. 

 BELIEFS AND PRACTICES NOT FOUND. 



§ 17. There are certain beliefs and practices whicli have not been 

 found among the four tribes whose cults are treated of in this chapter. 

 Ancestors were not worshiped. They were addressed reverently when 

 alive, and when they died it was not contrary to custom to refer to 

 them by name, nor did their deaths involve the change of name for a 

 single object or phenomenon. It was a very common occurrence for 

 the name of the deceased to be assumed by a surviving kinsman. 

 This is shown by genealogical tables of a few Siouan tribes, the ma- 

 terial for which was collected by the author, and which will form part 

 of his monograph on " Indian Personal Names, " now in course of 

 preparation for imljlication by the Bureau of Ethnology. 



§ 18. They never heard of Satan or the devil until tlifiy learned of 

 him from the white people. Now they have adopted the terms, "Wa- 

 nilxe piiijl,'' "Ingfa-xe pia.ji," and " Wakanda piiiji." The first is used 

 by the Omaha and Ponka, the others were heard only among the Ponka. 

 They have a certain saying, applicable to a young man who is a liar, 

 or who is bad in some other way: "Wamixe pia'ji ega" dha°," i. e. 

 " He is like the bad spirit !'' This becomes, when addressed to the bad 

 person, "Wanaxe pia'ji efikiga^'-qti ja"'," i. e. "You act just like the 

 (or a) bad spirit." 



§ 19. Though it has been said that hero worship was unknown among 

 the Omaha and Ponka, it has been learned that Omaha mothers used 

 to scare their unruly children by telUug them that Icibaji (a hero of the 

 ^e-sinde gens) or his friend i,exnja" (a hero of the ^ja'-ze gens) would 

 catch them if they did not behave. There was no worship of demi- 

 gods, as demigods were unknown. Two Crows and Joseph La Fleche 

 said that phallic worship was unknown, and they were sm-prised to 

 hear that it had been practiced by any tribe. (See § 132, 1G4.) As 

 the Ponka obtained the sun-dance from their Dakota neighlxirs, it is 

 probable that they practiced the phallic cult. 



§ 20. Totems and shamans were not worshiped, though they are still 

 reverenced. Altars or altar-stones were unknown. Incense was not 

 used, unless by this name we refer to the odor of tobacco smoke as it 

 ascended to the Thunder- being, or to the use of cedar fronds in the 

 sweat lodge. There were no human sacrifices, and cannibalism wa* 

 not practicetl. 



