108 THE MENOMINI INDIANS [eth. ann. H 



"At h a boy stands, watching a flying bird. 



" i, two men, who expel shells from their mouths, as they are in the habit of doing 

 at their ceremonies. 



'• /,, the Mide priest, with his medicine-bag on his arm. 



"I is not. as might be supposed, a flying eagle, but the medicine-bag of the 

 man /,'." . . . 



" m, pause, or concluding bar of a division of the song. At this bar dancing and 

 beating the drum rominence. 



••At n a new division commences." (It represents a couple exerting themselves to 

 expel a shell.) 



"At o a man is walking, not, as might be supposed, on a many-branched tree (p), 

 but on the path of the life and the law.'' . . . (This path, it will be seen, has 

 many side paths. But over his head a bird (</) hovers, surrounded by a ring of small 

 birds, like a cluster of stars. The mau (o) appears to be looking up to this cluster 

 as a reward or crown of victory.) 



"Tibekana," the Indian said, "meant, in his language, 'the path of life.'" A 

 portion of the word simply means, in the Ojibbeway, 'trail' or 'path.' And the 

 whole means 'the way of the dead,' ' the path leading into paradise,' or 'the path 

 of life.' 



"s, the ring of heaven. 



"The bear ((), who, by the way, is no bear, but a mau in the form of a bear, is 

 marching toward this ring. He is trying to reach the opening to it, ' le centre dn 

 monde,' or ' le trou de bouheur.' 



"h, the priest of the temple, or medicine wigwam (r), who makes an oration at the 

 end of this division. The speech is depicted by the undulating line, which goes 

 down from his month to the roof of the temple. 



"As a perfect conclusion of this part, there is a turn at eating and smoking, indi- 

 cated by the pipe (10) and the dish (x). 



1. "Great bar — grand pause. The main affair, the great ceremony of the recep- 

 tion of a new member into the order of the Slide's, really terminates here. 



"The man (at 2) is the new member just received. He emerges from the temple 

 into the open air, with his powerful medicine-bag (3) in his hand. He tries its 

 strength and consecration, and the animals, both bears and birds, appear to fly 

 before him." (While blowing on them with his medicine-bag, he also seems to lie 

 snow-balling them with the sacred shell.) 



Thus strengthened by magic arts, and initiated into the Midi? order, he at length 

 shoots (at 4) an arrow, and, like Max in the Freischiitz, brings down a bird from the 

 air. It falls at his feet (at 4). The Indian told me it was a kinion (warrior-eagle). 



"For this he is obliged to offer a dog, as a sacrifice to the Great Spirit (5). 



6. " Pause, or concluding bar of this division." (The pictures that now follow are 

 so fantastic, and my Indian's explanations were so fragmentary, that I must give up 

 all attempt at any continuous description.) 



At 7, instructions about the constantly recurring vomiting of shells seems to be 

 again represented. 



"At 8," I was told, "a song is represented between the sun (9) and the earth (10). 

 The song," my Indian said, "must be sung exactly at mid-day, because the sun is 

 then floating perpendicularly over the earth." 



The quadrangle (at 11) is meant for a piece of cloth, such as the priests receive as 

 a reward and payment after their exertions. I cannot say, though, why this piece 

 of cloth again hangs between the sun and earth. 



The priest (at 12) sings " Le voila ! le sacrifice, qui a etc donue an grand-pretre ! " ' 



There are a number of statements in the preceding remarks that are 

 not exactly in accordance with the teachings of the society, and the true 



' Kohl, Kitchi-Gami, op. cit., pp. 292-296. 



