RADiN] THE CLAN WAE-BUNDLE FEASTS 433 



four warriors who have counted coup on the last warpath form the 

 units of organization. The peculiarity of the War-bundle Feast is that 

 it belongs not merely to one of these types but to two of them. 



The war bundles were originally family possessions and were, in 

 the opinion of the writer, only secondarily associated with the clan 

 as such. They represent a complex of blessings received from 

 various spirits who are supposed to control the fortunes of war. 

 They were handed down from one generation to another in the same 

 family, but not necessarily to the eldest son, and could as a matter 

 of default pass out of the hands of the immediate family. The 

 individual who received the war bundle was that one who had by 

 his interest, knowledge, character, and accomplishments demon- 

 strated to the full satisfaction of the elder generation, more specifically 

 to the elder generation represented by his father and close male 

 relatives of his father's generation, that he was capable of continuing 

 the ceremonials in a proper manner. It follows from this that he 

 would have to be a well-known warrior. Now, it is customary 

 among all the woodland tribes for a warrior who is about to start 

 on a warpath to give a feast to which he invites all the other warriors, 

 from among whom he, of course, has to draw his recruits; and at this 

 feast he explains the nature of the contemplated warpath and his 

 warrant — i. e., the thoroughness of the specific blessings he has re- 

 ceived — for starting it. 



In other words, we will have to picture to ourselves the war- 

 bundle feast as originally a gathering of warriors preparatory to the 

 starting out of a war party, in which the part of the host was always 

 taken by the leader of the prospective war party. All of the well- 

 known warriors were likely to have war bundles, and thus the basis 

 for the development of what is, to all intents and purposes, a society 

 of those who had war bundles was always present potentially. It 

 is believed, however, that at the time the Winnebago culture was 

 still in the formative stage this aspect of the gathering was entirely 

 secondary, and that primarily it was a gathering of warriors for the 

 immediate purpose of going on a warpath. 



It may perhaps be interesting to go into some details of how this 

 "society" aspect of a gathering of warriors developed. This devel- 

 opment probably took two lines — first, a religious one, and secondly, 

 one of definite organization. It would be quite erroneous to say 

 that it took these lines of evolution, because it is in the nature of 

 societies thus to develop. This originally temporary organization 

 took these lines of development because of the presence in the war- 

 bundle ritual of two factors — first, fasting experiences associated 

 with the same spirits, and, second, the influence of the clan organi- 

 zation. 



Only a small number of spirits were specifically associated with 

 success in war, and these were Disease-giver, Thunderbirds, Sun, and 



