336 
from the Dakotas. The Omahas do not have it. In the Sun-dance, the 
Ponkas ‘‘ punish themselves with re‘erence to Wakanda.” See above for 
sacrifices to the Earth-god. 
Page 318. Other Forms of Worship.—Circumeision and baptism have not 
been found by the writer, thongh ceremonies resembling those of baptism 
have been observed by Omahas, Ponkas, Osages, &c., on the fifth day after 
the birth of a child, and on the reception of a female into the secret society. 
I refer to the naming of the child in the presence of all the members of the 
gens, food mixed with the saliva of the officiating man and placed between 
the lips of the infant, the address to the infant (telling it the objects which - 
it must not eat or touch during life), and the rubbing of the female from 
head to foot when pronouncing the Sacred Name three times (four times 
three times inall).. See Omaha Sociology, p. 245.* 
Some of the dancing societies of the Omahas, &c., were evidently of a 
religious nature. See Omaha Sociology, pp. 342-355. 
IV, Man’s future Abode (p. 319).—The Omahas have a very crude belief. 
They are told by the aged men, ‘‘ If you are good, you will go to the good 
ghosts (or spirits). If you are bad, you will go to the bad ghosts.” Nothing 
was said in former times about going to dwell with Wakanda, or with the 
demons, There was no belief in a resurrection of the body, but simply in the 
continued existence of the ghost or spirit. While some of the Iowas have 
expressed a belief in the transmigration of souls, such a doctrine has not 
been found among the Omahas and Ponkas, 
kind of the World (p. 321).—Nothing gained on this point. 
* The American Antiquarian and Oriental Journal (Vol. V., No. 3) 
for Julv, 1883, contains my article on “The Religion of the Omahas 
and Ponkas, pp. 271-275. “ Osage War Customs” can be found in the 
American Naturalist for February, 1884. 
