536 A STUDY OF SIOUAN CULTS. 



FIRE GENTES. 



The following appear to be the Fire geutes: Thunder-beiug people of 

 the Omaha tribe, Elk geus. Small-bird subgeus, Deer, and letasauda 

 (lieptile and Thunder-beiug) gentes; the Hisada and Black bear geutes 

 of the Ponka; the Lu or Gray hawk people (also called Thunder-being 

 people) of the Kansa tribe, with whom are associated the Deer and 

 Buft'alo gentes in the singing of the Thunder songs {§ 30); the jjfn"' 

 or Thunder-being gens, on the Tsiou, Biiftalo. or Peace side of the 

 Osage tribe (!!), perhaps the Tcexija, a bird gens of the. Iowa tribe; 

 part of the Tcexi^a gens of the Oto and Missouri tribes ; and the 

 Waka^tcant or Thunder-being subgens of the Winnebago. 



Four Thunder-beings were invoked by the Ictasanda gens (§ 35) : 

 (J'-ig(j'ize-ma"(j'i", (/^ia^ba-tigcfe, (pia"ba-gi-na", and Gaagig^eda". Was each 

 of these supposed to dwell at one of the four quarters ! 



Among the Osage and Kansa tiibes there is a geus known as the 

 Mi" k'i" (from mi", the sun, and k'i", to carry a load on the back), ren- 

 dered " Sun Carriers." Some of the Osage insisted that this name re- 

 ferred to the buft'alo instead of the sun, as that animal carries a robe 

 or plenty of hair on his back; and they maintained that the Mi" k'i" 

 waSi a buft'alo gens. That there is some connection in the Indian mind 

 between the sun and the buft'alo is shown in the sun dance, in which 

 the figiu-e of a buftalo bull (§ 164) and buft'alo skulls (§§ 147, 173, 176, 

 177, 181. and 198, and PL XLViii) play important parts, 



THE WIND-MAKERS. 



§ 38ij. The Taku^kan.skan of the Dakotas has been described in a 

 previous chapter (§§ 127-131). The Omaha tribe has the order of the 

 I"-lvug((;i or the translucent stone, in which order the Wind-makers 

 were probably invoked. The Tsiou old man addressed the four winds 

 and as many mystic buffaloes when he laid down the four firebrands. 

 And at a similar ceremony the old man of the Pa"qka gens addressed 

 the lour winds and as many mystic deer (§ 33). The Omaha evidently 

 had a prayer, "Ho, ye four firebrands that meet at a common point!" 

 (§ 40.) With this there may have been addresses to the winds. Four 

 firebrands were used in a Winnebago ceremony (§ 84). 



The Inke-sabe (Omaha) belief as to the four winds has been related 

 in § 366.'- The winds and the sun were associated in the ceremony of 

 raising the sun pole, judging from what Bushotter has written (§ 167). 

 There was also some connection in the Dakota mind between the winds 

 and the buftalo. Compare the figure of the winds on a buffalo skull 

 as described by Miss Fletcher' in her account of the sun dance. 



'A Kansa saying : Ln, Tcedfinga, Taqtci aba cki "wauase kinukiye, abe au, They say that the Thun- 

 der-being, Buffalo, and Deer gentes cause a ghost to ''Hnu," referring to some effect on a ghost wliich 

 can not be explained. 



'Om. Soc, in 3d An. Kept. Bur. Etbu., p. 229. 



3Ara. Assoc. Adv. Sci. Proc., Vol. 31. p. 583. See. too, An. Kept. Peabody MusuLUn, Vol. ill, p. 262, lines 

 15-18. 



