DORSEY.i SECRET SOCIETIES. 497 



RESULTS OF LYING, STEALING, ETC. 



§ 297. Warts betray a bad person, one given to stealing. If the skin 

 of the hard palate peels off, it is said that the person is nntrnthfiil. 

 Wlien the Teton donbt a man's word, they ask him to o])en his mouth 

 and let them see his hard palate. He who makes a practice of eating 

 the calves of the legs of any species of animal will have a cramp in 

 the muscles of his own legs. When one wishes to extract the marrow 

 from a bone, he takes care not to split the bone in two, lest his own 

 legs should be in frequent pain, or he should become lame. 



SECRET SOCIETIES. 



§ 298. The Dakota use "ihaijbla" or "ihaijnida" as the Omaha and 

 Ponka do " i();a'efe," todescribethemysteriouscommuuications received 

 from the animals and spirits (§§ 8, 43-52). 



Among the Siouan family of Indians there are societies, religious in character, 

 which are distinguished by the name of some animal. Each society has a ritual com- 

 posed of chants audsongsto be sung during diti'erent parts of the ceremonies, having 

 words describing in simple and direct terms the act which accompanies the music. 

 These musical rituals, it is often claimed, have been received in a mysterious or su- 

 pernatural manner, and are therefore regarded as possessing u religious power * * * 

 Some societies admit women to membership, through their own visions, oroccasiou- 

 ally by those of their husbands', but more generally by means of the visions of male 

 relatives. * » * Membership in these societies is not confined to any particular 

 gens, or grouping of geutes, but depends upon supernatural indications over which 

 the individual has no control. The animal which appears to a man in a vision during 

 his religious fasting determines to which society he must belong.' 



§ 299. Those having visions or revelations from ghosts are called 

 Wanagi ihaijblapi kiij. It is such persons who can draw pictures of 

 gho.sts with impunity. It is also said that the only persons who have 

 their faces drawn awry by the ghosts are the members of this (nder. 

 (See § 275.) 



§ 300. Bushotter's step-father belongs to the Tataijg ihaijblapi kiij, 

 or the Society of those who have Kevelations from the Buffalo, answer- 

 ing to the Omaha x© iil'a'efe-ma (§§ 43, 50). In one of his visions he saw 

 a butt'alo with cocklebur down in his hair, so the man subsequently 

 put such down in his own hair in imitation of the buffalo. One night 

 he saw (i)rol)ably in a vision) a bison going toward the south with a 

 hoop on his head. So the man painted a small hoop red all over and 

 wore it on his head, giving his nephew the name Oaijgleska waqyaijg 

 mani, He Walks In-sight-of a Hoo]). 



§ 301. Some Dakota belong to the Heciijskayapi ihaijblapi kiij, or the 

 Society of those who have Revelations from Goats. Goats are very 

 mysterious, as they walk on clifts and other high places: and those who 

 dream of goats or have revelations from them imitate their actions. 

 Such men can find their way up and down cliffs, the rocks get soft un- 



'Miss Fletcher: Elk Mystery of the Ogallala Sioui; in Ann. Eept. Peabody Museum, 1884, pp. 276, 

 277. 



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