372 A STUDY OF SIOUAN CULTS. 



OMAHA, PONKA, AND KANSA 15ELIEF IN A WAKANDA. 



5 21. According to Two Crows and Joseph La Fleclie, the aucestors 

 of the Omaha aud Ponka beheved that there was a Supreme Beuig, 

 whom they called Wakanda. "Wakanda t'a"i te efega"i, they be- 

 lieved that Wakauda existed." They did not know where He was, 

 nor did they undertake to say how He existed. There was no public 

 gathering at which some of the people told others tliat there was a 

 Wakanda, nor was there any general assembly for the pur^jose of ofler- 

 ing Hi^ worship and prayer. Each person thought in his heart that 

 Wakanda existed. Some addressed the sun as Wakanda, though 

 many did not so regard him. Many addressed Wakanda, as it were, 

 blindly or at random. Some worshiped the Thunder-being under this 

 name. This was especially the case when men undertook to goon the 

 war path. 



'Mr. Say recorded of the Kansa: "They say that they have never 

 seen Wakanda, so they cannot pretend to personify Him ; but they 

 have often heard Him speak in the thunder. They often wear a shell 

 which is in honor or in representation of Him, but they do not pretend 

 that it resembles Him, or has anything in common with his form, or- 

 ganization, or size." 



SEVEN GREAT WAKANDAS. 



§ 22. ja^i"-na°-paji said that there were seven great Wakandas, as fol- 

 lows: " Ugahauadaze or Darkness, Maxe or the Upi)er World, j^aude 

 or the Ground, Ing(f-a'' or the Thunder-being, Mi" or the Sun, ifia"ba 

 or the Moon, and the Morning Star. The principal Wakanda is in the 

 upper world, above everything." (This was denied l)y Joseph La 

 Fleche and Two Crows; see § 93.) The author thought at first that 

 these were the powers worshiped by ja(f-i"-na"paji and the members of 

 his gens or subgens; but subsequent inquiries and statements oc- 

 curring in the course of texts furnish cumulative evidence favoring 

 the view that some or all these powers had many believers among the 

 Omaha aud the cognate tribes. 



INVOCATION OF WARMTH AND STREAMS. 



§ 23. j[a(f i"-na"paji said that Macte or Warmth was a good Wakanda. 

 Ni fi", the flowing Stream, accin-ding to him, was thus addressed by a 

 man who wished to ford it: "You are a person and a Wakanda. I, 

 too, am a i)ersou. . I desire to pass through you and reach the other 

 side." Two Crows denied this, saying that his peo])le never prayed 

 to a stream; but George Miller said that it was true, for his father, 

 Little Soldier, prayed to a stream when he was on the war path, and 

 that such invocations were made only in time of war. 



iSee J.itnea, Acrcouut Exped. to Rocky Mouutains, vol. I, p. 126. 



