498 A STUDY OF SIOUAN CULTS. 



der their feet, euabling tliein to maintain a foothold, but they close up 

 behind them, leaving no trail. Members of the Wakaij vraeipi, or the 

 Order of the Mystery Dauce, commonly called the medicine dance, are 

 also reckoned among the mystecious or " wakaij " peojile (see §113). 

 One of Bushotter's texts i-elates to this order. Another of his articles 

 tells of the Miwatani okolakiijiye kiy or The Mandan Society, which 

 used to be called Oai)te tiijza okolakiciye, or Society of the Stout 

 Hearted Ones. It is now known as Kaijgi yaha. Keeps the Eaveu. 

 For a notice of this order, see §§ Ifti, 195. 



§ 302. The report of tliePeabody Museum of American Archaeology 

 and Ethnology for 1884 contains an article on the Elk Mystery or Fes- 

 tival of the Oglala, a division of the Teton Dakota (pp. 276-288). 

 Those who have visions of the elk ai-e the Heliaka ihayblapi kiij. 

 Bushotter has recorded articles on different societies as follows • Big 

 Belly Society, Ihoka and Tokala (animal) Societies, Dog Society, Katela 

 or Tanigaicu Society, Grizzly Bear Dance, and Xight Dauce; but we 

 have no means of learning whether any or all of them are composed of 

 persons who had visions of animals. 



PETICHISM, 



PrBLIC OR TRIBAL FETICHES. 



§ 303. Among these may be included the Bear Butte, referred to in 

 §137: and any white buftalo hide, such as has been described in " The 

 White Buffalo Festival of the Uncpapas." ' 



Smet gives a description of a gathering of all the Assiuiboin, and a 

 religious festival lasting several days : 



Offeriugs are placed ou perches that are fastened to the tops of posts supporting 

 certain buftalo ekin lodges. A tall pole is erected in the middle of the circle (it ig 

 between 30 and 40 feet high), and to it they fiisteu the medicine bags, containing the 

 idols, their arrows, (luivers, trophies won from their enemies, especially scalps. 

 Men, women, and children join in raising and planting the pole, amid the acclama- 

 tions of the tribe.^ 



PRIVATE OR PERSOXAL FETICHES. 



§ 304. Smet also tells us that "A Sioux chief has his war wakaij, the 

 colored picture of the Eussian general, Diebitsch." ^ In speaking of 

 the Assinniboin, the same author states: 



Each savage who considers himself a chief or warrior possesses what he calls his 

 wah-kon, in which he appears to place all his confidence. This consists of a stuffed 

 bird, a weasel's skin, or some little boue or the tooth of an animal ; sometimes it is a 

 little stone or a fantastical figure, represented by little beads or by a coarsely painted 

 picture. These charms or talismans accompany them on all their expeditions for war 

 or hunting — they never lay them aside. In every difficulty or peril they invoke the 

 protection and assistance of their wah-kon, as though these idols could really preserve 



' Miss Fletcher in Kept. Pealjody Museum. Vol. II, pp. 260-275. 

 2 Western Missions and Missionaries, p. 136. 

 2 Ibid., p. 46. 



