412 THE WINNEBAGO TRIBE [bth. ann. 37 



to God). You can not open it with knowledge (alone). How many 

 letters are there to the key (the road to God) ? Three. What are 

 they ?" There were many educated people (there), but none of them 

 said anything. "The first (letter) must be a K, so if a person said 

 K, that would be the whole of it. But let me look in the book (the 

 Bible) and see what that means," said the body. Then it (the 

 body) took the Bible and began to turn the leaves. The body did 

 not know where it was itself, for it was not learned in books. Finally 

 in Matthew, chapter 16, it stopped. There it speaks about it. 

 "Peter did not give himself up" (it says) . "For a long tune he could 

 not give up his own knowledge. There (in that passage) it says 

 Key." That is the work of Earthmaker (God). At least so I under- 

 stand it. He made use of my body and acted in this manner, in the 

 case of the peyote. 



Then I go about telling (every one) that this religion is good. 

 Many other people at home said the same thing. Many, likewise, 

 have joined this religion and are getting along nicely. 



On one occasion, after I had eaten a good deal of peyote, I learned 

 the following from it: that all I had done in the past, that it had all 

 been evil. This was plainly revealed to me. What I thought was 

 holy, and (by thus thinking) was lost, that I now know was false. 

 (It is false), this giving of (pagan) feasts, of holding (the old) things 

 holy, the Medicine Dance, and all the Indian customs. 



J. B.'s Account of His Conversion 



I was at the old agency. There they were to try me for murder. 

 At night, as I sat in jail, certain people came to me and told me that 

 they had a gallon jug of whisky, and that if I was free that night, 

 I should come and drink with them. Tliey would wait for me. 

 That same night there was a peyote meeting at John Rave's house 

 and my brother Sam invited me to go there. Sam stood around 

 there waiting for me. He was very low in spirits. He knew of the 

 other invitation I had received and he told me that he would go 

 with me wherever I went. I wanted very badly to go to the place 

 where they had the liquor, and should have done so if Sam had 

 given me the least chance. However, I could not get rid of him, 

 so I decided to go to the peyote meeting. WTien I arrived there, 

 we found just enough room in the center for myself and Sam. Sam 

 sat at the right of me and John Bear at the left. In front of me 

 there was some peyote infusion, and some peyote ground up and 

 dampened. 



As we sat there Sam began to cry and I began to think. I knew 

 why Sam was crying; he wanted me to take some of the peyote. 

 After a while I began to think of my own troubles. But I thought 

 it wasn't the proper way of taking it just because I was in trouble. 



