I'oiisEv.i TABOOS — TKIBAL FETICHES. 427 



kind were the Tee waruxawe, or butt'alo medicine bags. They were 

 not used in war, but in healing the wounded. These bags contain 

 medicine and the sticks with the deer hoofs attached which they shake 

 while treating the sick; also a piece of biiil'alo tail, and perhaps a piece 

 from the skin covering the throat of an elk. 



The Ta waruxawe, or deer medicine bags, contain the sacred otter 

 skins used in the Otter dance. (See § 86.) 



In some of the sacred bags are round stones, which the warriors rub 

 over themselves before going to war, to prevent their being killed or 

 wounded. 



Tlie waruxawe is always carried with the same end foremost, the 

 heads of the animals or birds being placed in the same direction, and 

 care is taken to keep them so. (See § 28.) On one occasion a leader 

 broke up a war party by turning the bag around. 



The Iowa claim to have a mysterious object by which they try men, 

 or make them swear to speak the truth. This mysterious iron or stone 

 had not been gazed upon within the recollection of any of the Iowa 

 living in 18-48. It was wrapped in seven skins. No woman was al- 

 lowed to see even the outer covering, and Mr. Hamilton was told that 

 he would die if he looked at it. 



Cka^oinye, the Missouri, told the author that there were four Tu- 

 ua"p'i" men who kept sacred pipes (raqnowe wa(iouyita"), their names 

 being Weqa uayi", Ou''-jiiqowe, Na"5ra5ra53e, and Na^pe-yiiie. It is 

 probable that two of these men belong to the Tuna"p'i° gens of the Oto 

 tribe and two to the Tuna"p'i° gens of the Nyut'atci tribe, as these 

 two tribes have been consolidated for years. In the Aru([wa or Buffalo 

 gens of the Oto, j^oe-ijo-nayi" and xoe-wauei[ihi are the keepers of the 

 sacred pipes of that gens. 



SYMBOLIC EARTH FORMATIONS OF THE WINNEBAGO.' 



^ 84. The Wiuuebago tent used for sacred dauces is long and narrow; not more 

 than 20 feet wide and varying from 50 to 100 feet long. 



In the Buflalo dauee, which is given fonr times in the month of May and early 

 June, the dancers are four men and a large numlier of women. As the dancers enter 

 each woman brings in a handful of line earth and in this way two mounds are raised 

 in the center at the east — that is, between the eastern entrance and tlie fire, which 

 is about 15 feet from the eastern entrance. The mounds thus formed are truncated 

 cones. An old man said to me, "That is the way all mounds were built; that is 

 why we build so for the buffalo." 



The mounds were about 4 inches high and not far from 18 inches in diameter. On 

 top of the mouuds were placed the head-gear worn by the men, the claws, tails, and 

 other articles used by the four leaders or male dancers. 



The men imitate the buffalo in his wild tramping and roaring, and dance with 

 great vigor. They are followed by a long line of gaily decked women in single tile. 

 Each woman as she dances keeps her feet nearly straight and heels close together, 

 and the body is propelled forward by a series of jerks which jars the whole frame, 

 but the general eft'ect on the long, closely packed line is that of the undulating 

 appearance of a vast herd moving. 



' Miss Fletcher in Am. Assoc. Adv. Sci., Proc. Minneapolis meeting, 1883. Salem, 1884. pp. 396, 397. 



