434 THE WINNEBAGO TRIBE [eth. ann. 37 . 



the Night Spirits. All the warriors who possessed war bundles would 

 of necessity have to receive blessings from these, although in different 

 cases one or the other may have bestowed the more important powers. 



The prominence given to the Thunderbird in the first and to the 

 Night Spirits in the second division give the ceremony a most marked 

 resemblance to societies like the Night Spirit society. In the second 

 division it is even essential to have been blessed by the Night Spirits 

 in order to play a certain role. There would thus develop the con- 

 sciousness of community of interest due to the fact that as individuals 

 they were bound together by blessings received from the same 

 spirits, a feeling that was certain to be still further strengthened since, 

 in all likeliliood, most of the possessors of war bundles belonged to 

 societies where this actually was the common bond. The religious 

 and ceremonial aspect would thus of necessity be reinforced. The 

 prayers for success on the warpath of course always existed, but 

 as the extraneous religious and ceremonial influences became 

 stronger and more insistent and as — and this should never be for- 

 gotten — the pursuit of war became less and less important, owing 

 to the breaking down of the culture consequent upon the advent of 

 the whites, these extraneous factors became, if not dominant at least 

 almost equal in importance to the historically older aspect; and our 

 original gathering of warriors, while still remaining a gathering of war- 

 riors, also became a ceremonial organization, in which offerings were 

 made to the entire Winnebago pantheon of spirits. The great war 

 spirits were still all-important, but their position was contested by so 

 distinctive a peace deity as Earthmaker and such deities as Earth, 

 Moon, and Water. The prayers for success in war were perhaps still 

 the most insistent, but prayers for life, not life merely that success in 

 war may be longer, but prayers for the whole content of life, were 

 offered up. Disease-giver was appealed to not merely to bestow upon 

 man the greatest of all war honors, killing an enemy right in the midst 

 of his tribesmen, but also to ward off disease from the supplicants. 



Still, as great as have been these extraneous influences, the char- 

 acter of the feast as originally one purely connected with war comes 

 out in numerous ways in the association, for instance, of war powers 

 with Earthmaker, Moon, and Earth, and significantly enough, in the 

 absence of the more specific religious associations such as are met with 

 in the Medicine dance. 



Let us turn now to the development of the organization of the feast. 

 The development of a fixed type of organization is not absolutely 

 necessary. Societies may exist only for certain occasions, such as 

 the return from a warpath, like the Hok'ixe're dance or preparatory 

 to the starting of a war party, and be practically nonexistent after- 

 wai-ds. Such are the temporary war feasts of the Ojibway, for 

 instance. However, one all important circumstance prevented this 



