BADiN] RELIGION 313 



to Cliristian influence. The one place where he plays an important 

 role, the myth of the t^^■ins, shows definite indications of European 

 uifluence. The only thing that militates against such an assumption 

 is the fact that there does not seem to be any particular reason whv 

 the existence of a chief evil spirit should have been doubted, even 

 if we were to grant that Christian influence extended the belief. The 

 French of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries had a ver\' definite 

 idea of the devil and made it a point to tell the Indians that all their 

 former habits were due to deceptions the devil had practiced upon 

 them. To-day such an answer is the first that a Christianized "Winne- 

 bago or a member of the new Peyoto cult will give an ethnologist. 

 Perhaps, after all, it is a verj- old Winnebago conception, a confir- 

 mation of the view promiflgated before, that in former times the 

 Wimiebago had a ver\' definite conception of evil spirits taking an 

 active part in the affairs of man to his detriment. The figure of 

 HerecgWmna is well defined and it would be ridiculous, in our 

 opuiion, to believe that the shamans would have done amthing to 

 develop it. We have clear indications of what the shamans were 

 tiy-ing to do with this conception. They were attempting to bring 

 it into some relation ^\-ith the concept of Earthmaker, a beneficent 

 All-Father, and to do so they were even willing to claim that 

 Herecgu'nina was the first attempt of Earthmaker to create a spirit; 

 that Earthmaker was dissatisfied with his work and threw it away ; 

 that then Herecgu'nina watched Eartlimaker create spirits and imi- 

 tated him, the evil spirits representing these imitations. The 

 shamans, we should expect, would have done all in their power to 

 lessen the importance of Herecgu'nina, even to deny his existence, and, 

 in this connection, it may be of significance that one Winnebago 

 interpreted his name to mean, " He-who-seems-to-exist-but-who- 

 does-not." 



Whatever the case may be, this much is clear, that in the twin 

 myth he is represented as a deity as powerful as Earthmaker, whom 

 Earthmaker can not destroy; upon whom the twins play jokes but 

 whom they cannot really harm. 



The concept of disease. — Disease is rarely ascribed to the spirits. 

 Like lack of success, it is regarded as a fact of existence, and when 

 it is explained it is believed to be due either to the carelessness of 

 man in tiying to pass through life without the aid of the spirits or 

 to the evil machinations of other men. 



The deity known as Disease-giver is the one exception to the rule 

 that the Wimiebago spirits do not directly cause disease, for he is 

 sometimes described as scattering death broadcast over the earth. 



The concepts of death, after-life, and reincarnation. — Death is rarely, 

 if ever, ascribed to the spirits. It likewise is a fact of existence and, 

 186823°— 22 21 



