282 • THE WINNEBAGO TRIBE [eth. axn. 37 



the Iroquois and Fox.^ In the article mentioned above we iiave 

 given oiu' reasons for believing that these ethnologists were mistaken 

 in their interpretation. 



In the Wuinebago language the four words most commonly used 

 in speaking of the spirits are tva¥a^, wal-'a'ndja, xop, and waxop'i'ni. 

 Wa¥a'"^ seems exactly equivalent to oui' word "sacred," while 

 wak'a'ndja, which is identical with the Omaha word wakonda, 

 means thunderbird. Iti all likelihood it originally meant "he who 

 is sacred " or something like that. It has nothing to do with the word 

 "thunder," which is l-^oiri' in Winnebago. The word waJc'O" also 

 means snake, for the snake is a holy animal among the Wumebago, 

 the messenger of the spirits. The word xo'p, identical with the 

 Omaha xube, is more difficult to define. It means sacred and awe- 

 inspiring and seems to be associated, in the eyes of the Winnebago, 

 with the intensely emotional aspects of religion, where self is com- 

 pletely forgotten. Those ceremonies, in which the performers work 

 themselves into a frenzy of excitement and dance naked, are always 

 referred to as x( p. The word waxop'i'ni is clearly a noun compounded 

 of the indefinite prefix wa- and the suffix -m, which possibly is an 

 old agentive nominalizer, or, more probably, an old stem meaning 

 "man." It occm's also in the word manha'rii, medicine-man. In 

 oUier words it means "he who" or "that which is holy." Waxop'i'ni 

 is the only Winnebago word for spirit. Both the words ■wak'andja 

 and vaxop'i'ni &re very definite terms referring to individuaUzed 

 spirits. 



As to the use of the adjectives wak'a^ and rop, there seems to be 

 little mystery about them. They are used much as our words 

 "holy" and "sacred." Anything in any way connected wifli the 

 spirits is either vxi¥a'^ or xop. If a Winnebago were to come across 

 some unusually shaped object he might offer tobacco to it, and upon 

 being questioned he would undoubtedly say that the object is ivak'a'^. 

 Wliat is it that he means by waVa^t. From my experience in the 

 field he simply means that it is "sacred," and if pressed for a more 

 definite answer he would probably say that it has the power of 



2 According to Mr. Hewitt, orevda is a "magic power which was assumed ... to lie inherent in every 

 body . . . and in every personified attribute, property, or activity . . . This h>'pothetic principle was 

 conceived to be immaterial, occult, impersonal, mysterious in mode of action . . . The possession of 

 orentia . . . is the distinctive characteristic of all the gods, and these gods in earUer time were all the liodies 

 and beings of nature in any manner affecting the weal or woe of man." (.\rticle"Orenda" in the Hand- 

 book of American Indians, Bureau of American Etlmolog>-, Bulletin 30, pt. 2.) .\ccording to W. Jones, 

 the manito "is an unsystematic belief in a cosmic, myctcrious property, which is believed to be existing 

 ever>'where in nature . . . The conception of this something wavers between that of a communicable 

 property.that of amobile, invlsiVilesubstance, and that ofalatenttransferable energy;-; . . . this substance, 

 property, or energv- is conceived as being widely dilTused amongst natural objects and human beings . . . 

 the presence of it is promptly assigned as the explanation of any unusual power or efficacy which any 

 object or person is fotmd to possess: ... It is a distinct and rather abstract conception of a diffused, all- 

 pervasive, invisible, manipulable,andtransferalilelife-energy,oruniversalforce . . . (Finally) all success, 

 strength, or prosperity is conceived to depend upon the possession of (this force)."—" The AlgonJdn Mani- 

 tou" (Journal of American Folklore, vol. 18, no. lxx, pp. 183-190, 1905). 



