CHAPTER XVII 



THE CLAN WAR-BUNDLE FEASTS 

 The War-Bxindle Feast of the Thttnderbird Clan' 



(first version) 

 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS 



The Wagigo', Winter Feast, or War-bundle Feast, as it is gen- 

 erally called, is one of the principal ceremonies of the Winnebago. 

 It is to a certain extent a clan ceremonial, for the clan is the basis 

 of its organization, but apart from that fact, it has really nothing 

 to do with the clan and must not be confused with the specific clan 

 feasts held once a year. A perusal of the following sketch will show 

 clearly that we are in reality dealing with a ceremony primarily con- 

 nected with success in war and that its distinctive peculiarity among 

 the Winnebago is that it has developed into a general ceremony of 

 thanksgiving to the spirits and developed an organization based on 

 the clan unit. As a result of the latter fact, we find 12 war rituals 

 all essentially the same in content and differing only in details and 

 in the fact that the host in each of the 12 performances belongs to a 

 different clan. The specific differences in each performance are, 

 first, the content of the war bundle; second, the origin myths of the 

 feast and of the songs associated with each bundle; third, the songs 



1 Phonetic table. — All the consonants have the same value as those in English witli the following 

 exceptions: 



c Is pronounced like sli in Eriglish. e is short and close but not as close as the French 



j has the sound of 2 in azure. e in fete. 



tc has the sound otckln church. eislongclose e. 



dj has the sound of j in judge. e is broad impure, as in an accentuated pronun- 



X has tlie sound of cA in German Bach. elation of ci ia eight. 



y is the sonant of r. i is short and open as in tin. 



r is a slightly trilled linguo-apical r. \ is short and close. 



I) has the sound of ng in sin^. i is long and close. 



n always represents r preceded by a nasalized is short and open, 



vowel. o is short and close. 



t is a marked surd. o is long and close. 



b and g are intermediate stops, except in certain 6 is long and open, 



positions, where they become true sonants. u is short and open. 



* is the glottal stop. u is short and close. 



Consonants followed by ' represent aspirated u is long and close, 



stops. A is obscure a. 



The vowels have the following values: E is obscure e. 



& has the sound oiau in aught. ' denotes nasalization. 



ais the short continental a. ' denotes primary stress accent. 



a is long a. * denotes secondary stress accent. 



e is short open as in pen. 



427 



