374 THE WINNEBAGO TRIBE [bth. ann. 37 



On the whole, it must be said that the main difference between 

 (a) and (h) of Part IV, setting aside the initiation, lies simply in 

 the number of myths told and the greater length of the speeches. 



Personal Accounts of Initiation 



1. J. B.'s account: I was about 13 years and over when they told me 

 that they would make me a member of the medicine dance. I liked 

 it very much. Some people do not like it at all when they are asked 

 to join the medicine dance. I, however, liked it very much. The 

 medicine dance I am going to join, they told me. Very much did my 

 parents desire me to do it. If I wished to live a holy life, that is what 

 I should do, they told me. 



Tlien, when everything was in readiness for my initiation, we 

 moved on to the village where the ceremony was to take place. 

 At night they were to sing at the medicine dance, and they, my 

 relatives, were to join in the singing with them. There they also 

 preached to me. They told me that this rite, the medicine dance, 

 was a good thing. I did not even then think that those who were to 

 initiate me into the medicine dance would kill me when they shot at 

 me, as was the popular belief. 



Never had there been such a life, they said, as the one I was going to 

 live, now that I was about to join the mecUcine dance. Never at any 

 time would I have thought of such a life. Those who were about to 

 make me join the medicine dance told me that the Indians, when they 

 hear of it, will expect me to do great things, that they will speak well 

 of me, and like me. That is all I can now think of concerning that 

 matter. 



Now, those who are about to make me join the medicine dance are 

 preparing to show me the shells, and for this purpose they are taking 

 me into the brush. Tliere they, the eldere, preached to me. I was 

 not the least bit frightened when, after this, they prepared to shoot 

 me with the sacred shell. Indeed, I was not the least bit worried 

 about it, nor did I think to myself, "I wonder how it is going to be ?" 

 Tlien those who already belonged to the medicine dance, those whom 

 I had dreamed of all this time, shot me. When they shot me I 

 didn't die. Tliat thought was in my mind; but when they shot me, 

 as a matter of fact, I tlidn't eA'en lose consciousness. Almost imme- 

 diately I knew how to do it (i. e., to shoot). They liked it very 

 much. Everytliing they told me to do I did immediately, nor was I 

 backward about anything. The shaman liked it. Never had anyone 

 learned as quickly as I had, they were saying. "That augurs well 

 for him," they say. I thought then that the medicine dance was 

 true. 



When we returned from the brush I entered the lodge. Not in 

 any direction did I look, not once did I speak, not once did I move 

 around, not once did I change my position. Just as they told me 



