226 OMAHA SOCIOLOGY. 



§ 22. The sacred tent. — The sacred tent of the Elk sens is consecrated 

 to war, and scalps are given to it, but are not fastened to it, as some 

 have asserted. B£a"ti used to be the keeper of it, but he has resigned 

 the charge of it to the ex-chief, Mahi n ifinge. 



The place of this sacred tent is within the tribal circle, and near the 

 camping place of the gens. This tent contains one of the wacfixabe, a 

 sacied bag, made of the feathers and skin of a bird, and consecrated to 

 war. (See § 100.) There is also another sacred bag in this tent, that 

 which holds the sacred cphaba or clam shell, the bladder of a male elk 

 tilled with tobacco, and the sacred pipe of the gens, the tribal war-pipe, 

 which is made of red pipe-stone. The -lihaba is about nine inches in 

 diameter, and about four inches thick. It is kept iu a bag of buffalo 

 hide which is never placed on the ground. In ancient days it was car- 

 ried on the back of a youth, but iu modern times, when a man could not 

 be induced to cany it, it was put .with its buffalo-skin bag into the skin 

 of a coyote, and a woman took it on her back. When the tribe is not 

 iu motion the bag is hung on a cedar stick about five feet high, which 

 had been planted in the ground. The bag is fastened with some of the 

 sinew of a male elk, and cannot be opened except by a member of the 

 Wasabe-hit'aji sub-gens of the (fJatada. (See § 45, etc.) 



§ 23. Service of the scouts. — When a man walks in dread of some un- 

 seen danger, or when there was an alarm iu the camp, a crier went 

 around the tribal circle, saying, u Maja u/ i^egasanga t6 wi a£i u he + !" I 

 who move am he icho will know what is the matter with the land! (i. 

 e., I will ascertain the cause of the alarm.) Then the chiefs assembled 

 in the war tent, and about fifty or sixty young ineu went thither. The 

 chiefs directed the Elk people to make the young men smoke the sacred 

 pipe of the Elk gens four times, as those who smoked it were compelled 

 to tell the truth. Then one of the servants of the Elk gens took out 

 the pipe and the elk bladder, after untying the elk sinew, removed some 

 of the tobacco from the pouch (elk bladder), which the Elk men dare 

 not touch, and handed the pipe with the tobacco to the Elk man, who 

 filled it and lighted it. They did not smoke with this pipe to the four 

 winds, nor to the sky and ground. The Elk man gave the pipe to one 

 of the bravest of the young men, whom he wished to be the leader of 

 the scouts. After all had smoked the scouts departed. They ran around 

 the tribal circle and then left the camp. When they had gone about 

 20 miles they sat down, and the leader selected a number to act as po- 

 licemen, saying, " I make you policemen. Keep the men iu order. Do 

 not desire them to go aside." If there were many scouts, about eight 

 were made policemen. Sometimes there were two, three, or four leaders 

 of the scouts, and occasionally they sent some scouts in advance to 

 distant bluffs. The leaders followed with the main body. When they 

 reached home the young men scattered, but the leaders went to the Elk 

 tent and reported what they had ascertained. They made a detour, in 

 order to avoid encountering the foe, and sometimes they v. ere obliged 



