314 THE WINNEBAGO TRIBE [eth. ann. 37 



when explained, is laid at the door of some evil man. Death at old 

 age is clearly taken for granted. Wliere explanations are advanced, 

 they are always for the deaths of individuals before their time, or 

 at least before what the Winnebago consider their time. 



The Wiimebago look at death in two ways — as being, first, a dif- 

 ferent kind of consciousness from that possessed in life, and, secondly, 

 as being a cessation of certain kinds of intercourse between indi\nduals. 

 Death is regarded as a "stumbling," after which the indi\ndual goes 

 right on as if nothing had happened. He does not know he is dead 

 until he sees his body. The individual is divested of all his corporeal 

 investment and desires. In the myth of the journey of the soul to 

 spirit land the ghost is not entirely a spirit until the old woman 

 whom he meets brains him, thus, by destroying the seat of con- 

 sciousness, depriving him of all corporeality and carnal desires. 

 The ghost then becomes a spirit, in some cases of the same type as 

 the true spirits. — 



Although the Winnebago know that after death they will never see 

 people again, they do not feel that all kinds of intercou'^e have 

 ceased. The deceased may appear to a living individual in dreams 

 or visions; he may talk to him or make his presence felt in a multi- 

 tude of ways; and since, as we pointed out before, the test of exist- 

 ence is the consciousness of some kind of contact, such intercourse 

 may be of a very intense type. 



This lack of a feeling of discontinuity between the living and the 

 dead is emphasized by the Winnebago concept of after-life and 

 reincarnation. 



After-life is but life on earth, only idealized. Everything is pro- 

 vided. All carnal desires have been done away with and men and 

 women spend their time in one long round of enjoyment and bliss. 

 Something of the fear of ghosts lingers here, however, for when living 

 individuals try to reach spirit lantl — and a number of such instances 

 are mentioned in the myths, particularly in the origin myth of the 

 Ghost dance — these spirits are likely to be harmful. 



By the belief in reincarnation the Winnebago entirely bridge the 

 gulf between life and death. In other words, we seem to have a 

 cycle consisting of life (consciousness), after-life (unconsciousness 

 from a corporeal viewpoint), and life (reincarnation). To live again 

 is the greatest desire of the Winnebago, and practically every' secret 

 society holds this out as the lure to the outsider. If you join the 

 Medicine Lodge you will become reincarnated, they say, and the other 

 ritualistic organizations make the same claim. But not only by 

 joining an organization is it possible to be reincarnated; if you live 

 an upright life, if you die on the battlefield, reincarnation also awaits 

 vou. 



