168 THE WINNEBAGO TRIBE [eth. axn. 37 



the warpath.^ So they say. If you do not become an individual 

 warranted to lead a war party, yet mistaking yourself for one although 

 really an ordinary warrior, you "throw away a man/' your act will 

 be considered most disgraceful. A mourner might harm you in 

 revenge for the fact that you have caused him to mourn, and burn 

 you with embers. Your people will all be sad, both on account of 

 your disgrace and on account of the pain inflicted upon you. 



My son, not with the blessing of one of the spirits merely, nor with 

 the blessing of twenty, for that matter, can you go on the warpath. 

 You must have the blessing of all the spirits above the earth, and of 

 all those on the earth, and of all those who are pierced through the 

 earth; ^ of all those under the earth; of all those who are under the 

 water; of all those that are on the sides of the earth, i. e., all the four 

 winds; of the Disease-giver;^ of the Sun; of the Daylight;^** of the 

 Moon; of the Earth; and of all those who are in control of war 

 powers — with the blessings of all these deities must you be provided 

 before you can lead a successful war party. 



My son, if you cast off dress ^^ men wall be benefited by your deeds. 

 You will be an aid to all your people. If your people honor you, it 

 will be good. And they will like you even the more if you obtain a 



T Among the Winnebago any individual who has been blessed with the necessary powers to lead a 

 warpath may do so, but it is absolutely essential that his blessing directing hun be of such a nature that 

 every possible contingency is included therein. Such complete blessings are. of course, not common nor 

 can they be obtained except through unusual exertions. If you are blessed with just the ordinary or 

 incomplete war powers and you nevertheless undertake to lead a war party, you may either be defeated 

 or perhaps only partially successful, and, what is worse, you may lose some of the warriors who started 

 with you. Your recklessness has thus caused the death of some of your fellow tribesmen. It isunder- 

 stood that every warrior before starting on the warpath turn his "blessing"' over to the chief of the tribe 

 for examination, and if the chief considers it complete the warrior is not held responsible for the lack of 

 successor loss of life. If the chief docs not consider an individual's blessing sufficient to justify the object 

 hehasin view and forbids the warrior to go, and if the latter nevertheless goes: or granted the case he does 

 not even submit his " blessing " to the chief for scrutiny, and sneaks out, then he is held directly responsible 

 for any mishap on the warpath. The relatives of any individual thus killed may hold the war leader 

 responsible and demand compensation: or, as is indicated by B. a few lines later, a mourner (i. e., one who 

 has been placed in mourning by the criminal foolhardiness of the war leader) might attack, perhaps kill 

 him, without being held guilty of any crime. It must of course be understood that such occurrences would 

 seldom take place. We must, however, remember throughout these "teachings" that one of the objects 

 of the old men was to draw the most alluring picturcsof the rewards that would fall to the lot of those who 

 followed in the footsteps of their ancestors, and, on the other hand, to draw the most lurid pictures of the 

 wretchedness that befell those who de\iated, no matter in what details, from the customs sanctioned by 

 age. 



9 According to the Winnebago creation myth, when Earthmaker, the creator of the earth, first came to 

 consciousness and began creating life the earth on which we were to live was in continual motion, and 

 nothing that the former could do seemed to be able to stop it. From above he threw down grass, trees, 

 etc., but all was of no avail. Finally he hit upon the happy expedient of pinning the earth down at the 

 four corners by means of four enormous snakes, or, as some say, by means of four mythical animals known 

 as water spirits. It is to these that the old man is referring here. According to the story, even these were 

 of no avail, and it was only when he finally placed four mythical beings known as "Island Weights'* at 

 the four corners that our planet stopped spinning. These "Island Weights" seem to be identical with 

 the spirits of the four cardinal points, but they are not to be confused with the four winds mentioned later. 



■A deity conceived of as dealing out life-giving powers from one half of his body and death-giving powers 

 from the other half. He is also supposed to disseimnate disease. Disease-giver is a literal translation 

 of the Winnebago word, but this probably does not convey the exact meaning. There seems to be no 

 parallel to this peculiar deity among the other Siouan tribes or among the Algonquian. 



w Daylight or light is conceived of as something different and distinct from the sun. 



" That is, if you give away things frequently, especially to poor people. 



