424 THE WINNEBAGO TRIBE [eth. ann. 37 . 



What the Converts Introduced 



It is quite impossible to establish now what these converts intro- 

 duced individually. For that matter it is not necessary to assume 

 that they brought any specific additions to the cult. Wliat they did 

 bring were Winnebago; and with that, the emotional and cultural 

 setting of the old pagan background. To one, the eating of the 

 peyote gave the same magical powers that were formerly associated 

 with membership in the medicine dance; to another, the visions were 

 direct blessings from God, directing him to perform certain actions; 

 to a third, faithfulness to the teachings of the Peyote cult became 

 associated with a certainty of reaching God, of being able to take the 

 right road in the journey to the spirit land. Even a man so thor- 

 oughly saturated with Christian doctrines as Hensley himself felt it 

 necessary to introduce an origin myth; and although we know that 

 he borrowed it from a southern tribe, it is quite clear that in Hensley's 

 narrative it has already assumed all the characteristics of a Winne- 

 bago fasting experience and ritualistic myth, similar to those con- 

 nected with the founders of the old Winnebago cult societies. In its 

 totality the atmosphere of the Peyote ciilt became thus charged with 

 the old Winnebago background. In 1911 it can not be said that they 

 had displaced the distinctive Christian elements. Among the younger 

 members, especially those who had been trained in the east and could 

 read and write English, the influence of the Christian ideas in the 

 interpretation of the old pagan features is, as was pointed out before, 

 so strong to-day that it threatens to displace the others. 



The following homily will show how the old myths were used by 

 the younger Peyote members to point a tale. 



The old people often spoke of the Trickster, but we never knew 

 what they meant. They told us how he wrapped a coon-skin blanket 

 around himself and went to a place where all the people were danc- 

 ing. There he danced until evening and then he stopped and turned 

 around. No one was to be seen anywhere, and then he realized that 

 he had mistaken for people dancing the noise made by the wind blow- 

 ing through the reeds. 



So do we Winnebagoes act. We dance and make a lot of noise, but 

 in the end, we accomplish nothing. 



Once, as the Trickster was going toward a creek, he saw a man 

 standing on the other side, dressed in a black suit, and pointing his 

 finger at him. He spoke to the man but the latter would not answer. 

 Then he spoke again and again, but witliout receiving any reply. 

 Finally he got angry and said, "See here! I can do that too." He put 

 on the black coat and pointed his finger across the creek. Thus both 

 of them stood all day. Toward evening, when he looked around again , 

 he noticed that the man across the creek, pointing his finger at him, 

 was really just a tree stump. "O my! what have I been doing all 



