312 THE WINNEBAGO TRIBE [eth. axx. 37 



is but a faint survival of former times. The older myths are full of 

 references to the evil spirits, and the cosmological myths represent 

 the world as infested with evil spirits who are on the point of exter- 

 minating the human race until the culture heroes come to the rescue. 

 It would almost seem as if, from a purely matter-of-fact point of 

 view, these early culture heroes had destroyed all the evil spirits. 

 Certainly they are not regarded as of great consequence, for if they 

 were we ought to find a certain number of prayers addressed to them 

 asking them not to harm anyone. They seem to be mere bogies, 

 personifications of fear, and that is perhaps why they are so intimately 

 connected with darkness. 



At the present time the vast majority of Wiimebago ascribe evU, 

 in so far as they explam it at all, to three causes — either to some 

 failure on their part to perform a rite in the prescribed way, to 

 the fact that they have not invoked the spirits for protection (i. e., 

 attempted to pass through life without the aid of the spirits), or to the 

 evil machinations of other men. Often one derives the impression 

 that they accept evil and do not try to explain it. It seems to be a 

 trait oliaracteristic of the Winnebago, and perhaps characteristic of 

 other North American tribes, that explanations are developed for 

 the positive aspects of things. Certainly it would require some 

 thought on the part of a Winnebago to explain why a war party 

 that had, m the opinion of the chief, all the necessary requirements 

 for victory, should nevertheless be defeated. He would doubtless 

 find some reason, after a while, but it would be an afterthought and 

 would probably vary from individual to individual. In some cases 

 lack of success would be ascribed to the fact that an individual had 

 been misled by an evil spirit, but this is clearly a secondary' explana- 

 tion because the individual, when questioned, would admit that he had 

 no way of telling whether this was so until he had failed in some- 

 thing. We base this statement on an actual instance. 



There is some evidence to show that there may have originally 

 existed among the Winnebago a belief that the spirits were neither 

 good nor bad; that they could be either at different times. In two 

 notable instances, that of Disease-giver and Water-spirit, this is true 

 at the present time. The former deity is the only one to whom 

 prayers are addressed beseeching him not to present to man his 

 death-dealing side. 



In the myths we find a definite incarnation of evil in the case of 

 a spirit called Ilerecgn' mna. The meaning of this word as given by 

 a Winnebago, and which seems to be justified, is "he whose existence 

 is doubtful." If this is an old Winnebago word it would confirm 

 the ^new advanced above, that the Winnebago were not vers' much 

 concerned about the evil spirits. There is, however, a possibility 

 that Herecgu'nina is, in part, a post-Columbian development due 



