EADiN] THE CLAN WAR-BUNDLE FEASTS 505 



Offering to Big BlacJc Hawk. — "To the Big Black Hawk we also 

 offer a handful of tobacco." 



Offering to Disease-giver. — 'To you, grandfather Disease-giver, I 

 also send tobacco." 



Offering to South Wirul. — "To you, also, grandfather South Wind, 

 I send tobacco. You would consider it foremost, you said, it is said." 



Offering to the Sun. — "Here I place tobacco for you, too, grandfather 

 Sun. A handful of tobacco here I place here for you." 



Basic Ritual 



Host's first speech. — "War-bundle owners who are sitting here, I 

 greet you. The songs that the Night Spirits placed within the reach 

 of grandfather Tchvoit^e'higa,'^" those he tried to learn. He fasted 

 and tlxLrsted himself to death for the blessings our grandfathers (the 

 Night Spirits) gave him (spread) over the length of the earth. Our 

 grandfather Tclwoit^^'liiga said that he had come from somewhere in 

 the east and that a Night Spirit chieftainess was his mother and that 

 the son of the chief of the Thimderbirds was his father; that his 

 parents lived beyond the confines of this earth.''' When he fasted 

 to be blessed by (these spirits) over again,'" they blessed him. If at 

 any time he should die he would be able to visit the earth again, he 

 said, it is said.'^' The song he was taught, the Night Spirit song, 

 that we will try to sing. Even if you know only one song, you will 

 not bore them (the spirits) with it; for if you bring yoiu"seIf to the 

 state of weeping in yom- efforts, it will be (acceptable). If you do not 

 put on any embellishments when you pray (literally, cry) for war and 

 life (it will be acceptable), it is said. Thus we should say it. 



"War-bimdle owners who are seated here, I greet you." (Night 

 Spirit song.) 



Host's second speech. — "War-bundle owners who are seated here, 

 I greet you. When we finish (our part of the ceremony), may you 

 help us by repeating the spirit songs your ancestors gave you to be 

 handed down (from one generation to another). That we ask of you. 

 Now we will start a dance song and when we are finished singing, our 



130 Literal translation, " Ivills within the lodge." 



1^1 What Tciwoit^e'higa means by saying that these spirits were his parents is that he is a reincarnated 

 spirit that has chosen to be born of human parents. Such claims were by no means rare even in late Winne- 

 bago history and there is, as a matter of fact, a powerful shaman living in Wisconsin now who claims that 

 he is the reincarnated Hare ( Wacdjinge'ga). 



H2 Before coming to the earth as a human being, he had of course been told that he would receive certain 

 blessings, but nevertheless he had to fast for them just as a human being does. However, shamans who 

 obtained their powers in this way were always supposed to obtain them more easily than other people. 

 For an illustration of this cf. the account of a shaman's blessing in the '* Reminiscences of a Wiimebago 

 Indian" by myself in Amer. Jour. Folklore, XXVI, 1913. 



133 That is, become reincarnated. 



186823—22 33 



