eadin] religiox 291 



Personal Religious Experiences * 



HOW avegi'ceka tried to see earthmaker ^ 



Once there was a Winnebago whose name was Wegi'ceka. As soon 

 as he was grown up his father begged him to fast. The old man told 

 his son that Earthmaker, when he created this earth, made many 

 good spirits and that he put each one of them in control of powere 

 with which they could bless human beings. Some he placed in 

 control of war powers. If these spirits bless an individual, he will 

 always be victorious on the warpath. Earthmaker told the human 

 beings to fast for these powers and then they would be rich and 

 powerful. Now, my son, if Earthmaker has put all these spirits in 

 charge of something, he himself must be in charge of much more 

 power. Tlius the old man reasoned and the son thought the same. 

 So he tried to "dream" of Earthmaker. "I wonder what sort of 

 blessings Earthmaker bestows on people," he thought to himself. 



None of the spirits blessed Wegi'ceka during his fastings. He 

 was always thinking of Earthmaker and asking him to bless him. 

 Wegi'ceka made himself extremely "pitiable" and wept. He could 

 not stop. "Perhaps I will be able to see Earthmaker if I weep," 

 he thought to himself. "Indeed, if Earthmaker does not bless me 

 I will die during my fast." 



He fasted continuously without stopping. Verily, he fasted for 

 Earthmaker. First he fasted for 4 nights, and then for 6 nights, 

 and then for 8 nights, for 10, and finally for 12 nights. Yet he 

 received no blessing of any kind. j\iter fasting 12 nights he stopped 

 and ate something. He kept fasting on until he had grown to be a 

 fully developed man. Then he stopped and married and, accom- 

 panied by his wife, he moved away from his village to some unin- 

 habited place. There he lived alone with his wife. There again 

 he fasted and his wife helped him. As before, he tried to have 

 Earthmaker bestow a blessing upon him. This tmie he made up 



< Some religious experiences belonging to Winuebagoes well known to the tribe have been cast in a 

 literarj' form and handed down from one generation to another. The literary mold in which they have 

 been cast does not in the least interfere with their value as excellent examples of personal experiences, 

 and for that reason I will include one of them here. 



^ Earthmaker is supposed never to bless any human being, but there are a number of accounts of indi- 

 viduals who tried without success, nevertheless, to have him bless them. What the people, however, 

 meant by lack of success was not so much a total lack of .-success as an incomplete blessing. So, for instance, 

 Wegi'ceka does really receive a cane as a blessing from Earthmaker, and he has the right to call upon 

 him aftenvards in the saTne way as he calls upon other "guardian spirits. " Earthmaker does not, how- 

 ever, appear to him in the way an ordinary spirit would — that is. tje neither appears to him as a man nor 

 in the form of a voice conferring some blessing, but as a flash of light. 



