CHAPTER XIII 



RELIGIOUS SOCIETIES BASED ON BLESSINGS FROM 



SPIRITS 



Society of Those Who Have Received Blessings From the 



Night Spirits 



Informant, member of Thunderbird clan: Once a man went hunt- 

 ing so that he might be able to get the game with which to give a feast. 

 All of those who were to participate in the feast went along with him. 

 After they had killed some deer they built a lodge. Then all the 

 other feast-givers came into the lodge, bringing something toward the 

 feast, as well as the tobacco which they were to offer. Some brought 

 other things, even dogs, as their contribution to the feast. The dogs 

 would be killed, singed, then boiled, and prepared in the same way as 

 the deer. The meat would then be mixed with dry com. The 

 attendants, who were generally the nephews of the feast-givers, would 

 look after the boiling of the food. Every time they gave a feast they 

 selected these nephews to do the cooking and the general work 

 connected with this ceremony. 



The nephew who acts as attendant accompanies a feast-giver on 

 the warpath, where likewise he has to endure a great deal. Should 

 his uncle be killed, it is his duty to be killed likewise and not to return 

 home. 



He acted in this way because of his love for his uncle. The attend- 

 ants do all the work whenever their uncles give a feast. They also 

 arrange for the place where the feast is to be held; make the four 

 invitation sticks; blacken them with charcoal and decorate them at 

 the ends with fine and fluffy white eagle feathers. Then they prepare 

 a bimdle of tobacco containing about a pipeful. After these prepa- 

 rations have been made one of the nephews goes around the village 

 and presents the invitation sticks to every individual who had been 

 blessed by the Night Spirits. These are called the night-blessed 

 children. The night-blessed children thanked the messengers and 

 assured them that they now felt they were obtaining life. Then those 

 to whom the invitation stick had been presented go around asking 

 their relatives to accompany them to the feast. There the guest and 

 his relatives would meet at the appointed time. All those who re- 

 ceived invitation sticks do the same. 



186823—22 ^22 329 



