302 THE WINNEBAGO TRIBE 1f.th.ann. 37 



blessing last. Should your descendants perform the feasts in my 

 honor well, I will bless them with life and victory on the warpath. 

 Whenever you offer me tobacco I will smoke it. If you put on a 

 kettle of food for me I will be thankful to you. When you put this 

 kettle of food on the fire and offer me tobacco see to it that you keep 

 away menstruating women . . . -* 



now THE DAUGHTER OF MAXK'EREXKA REFUSED A BLESSING 

 FROM DISEASE-GIVER ^' 



The daughter of Mank'erexka was fasting. She was his third 

 daughter. She decided to fast during the summer. In her fast she 

 was told that she was blessed and that on the following day a big deer 

 would come across the waters for her to eat. Then she went to her 

 father and said, "Father, I have been told to eat a big deer, and that 

 to-morrow very early in the morning it will come out of the water." 

 "It is good, my daughter. That deer has been given to you by the 

 spirits and you may eat it." 



Early the next morning a big deer came across the waters. "Let 

 it be," the people said (to her). "As soon as it comes near we will 

 chase it." So they got into a boat and chased it. Then they killed 

 it and gave it to some other person instead of the yoimg woman. 

 "My daughter, what are you going to do ? Are you going to eat the 

 deer?" "No, father, if I were to eat the deer I would have killed it 

 myself. But you people have killed it, so I will not eat any of it." 



Then she rubbed some charcoal on her face and went to the place 

 of fasting and said, "What you (the spirits) gave me others have 

 taken away and eaten." Early in the morning she looked aioimd 

 toward the water. She was very weak, for she had not eaten for a 

 long time. Nine days she fasted. She was saying to herself, "As 

 soon as I see a deer I will tell the others and call my father." In the 

 morning she went out in search of the deer. She was so weak that 

 she could hardly crawl along. But she managed to reach the edge 

 of the waters and, as she looked across, she saw a deer coming. So she 

 immediately went to her father and told him. He got up immediately 

 and, taking a spear, jumped into a boat, pursued, and speared it. 

 Then the girl said, "Now I wUl eat." So they called her uncles, 

 WoK and Elk.^^ When they came she put tobacco in their hands 

 and said, " My imcles, I have offered tobacco to the different spirits 

 and asked them to bless me. Now I am about to eat and I would 



" The rest of the story is a description of a bear feast and how, in spite of the warning of the spirit-bear 

 two menstruating women took part in the feast; how, thereupon, two bears suddenly appeared and killed 

 them, aud how for that reason the bear feast was given up. 



'■ ThLs account has bee.n cast in a literary mold, but there is no doubt that it represents a real fasting 

 experience. It is included here principally because it contains a number of extremely interesting features. 



" These are the names of individuals. 



