RADiN] RELIGION 285 



ceremonies as the war-bundle feasts, buffalo dance, sore-eye dance, 

 etc, We will enumerate but a few of them here. 



The principal deities of the Winnebago are: Earthmaker, Sun, 

 Moon, Earth, Morning Star, Disease-giver, Thunderbird, Water- 

 spirit, etc. 



Earthmaker. — He is known to the Winnebago under three names: 

 Ma'^'una, earthmaker; waja^gv^zera, he-who-niakes-something ; and 

 waxcpi'ni xedera, the great spirit. Of these the last is the most 

 archaic, which might imply that originally Earthmaker was merely 

 the great spirit. In the hands of the shamans, to whom the develop- 

 ment and elaboration of the great Winnebago ceremonies like the 

 medicine dance and the war-bundle feasts were due, he became 

 almost a true monotheistic deity, benevolent but unapproachable. 

 In the older myths, like the trickster and hero cycles (cf . for instance, 

 the walc'dji'ijli-'aga and hare cycle), he is hardly mentioned except 

 as a clear afterthought. In another cycle, like that of the twins, 

 where he is definitely mentioned, he is treated like a spirit similar 

 to the other spirits, although superior to them, but in no way re- 

 sembling the benevolent deity that we find in the origin myth of 

 the medicine dance (p. 350). How and when this development took 

 place, and whether the introduction of Christianity had anything 

 to do with it, it is difficult to say. All indications seem to be over- 

 whelmingly against the latter assumption, although it can not be 

 entirely dismissed. As we have indicated in a previous paper,* 

 there appears to have been a well-developed pre-Columbian belief 

 in a good and bad spirit among the woodland Indians. The Winne- 

 bago shared in this belief and Earthmaker developed his present 

 position through the displacement of the chief bad spirit called 

 Herecgunina . 



The older conception of Earthmaker seems to crop out also in the 

 occasional attempts of individuals to obtain blessings from him. 

 (a. the tale of Wegi'ceka, p. 291.) 



Little can be learned as to the actual appearance of Earthmaker 

 In the origin mj'th of the medicine dance he is described as though, 

 he were clearly anthropomorphic. The symbol associated with him 

 in the war-bundle feasts, the cross, is unquestionably supposed to 

 represent the four cardinal pouits. 



Earthmaker is not supposed to bestow any definite blessings on 

 man. He is, in a general wa}', expected to give them life. There 

 is but little real worship of him because he is far removed from man 

 and is supposed to come into relation with them only through his 

 intermediaries, the spirits. According to the cosmological myths he 



3 The Religion of the North American Indians, Journ. Am. Folklore, vol. 27, no. 106. 



