BOLL. :\o] 



WISHRAM WITCHCRAFT 



965 



Mag. Am. Hist., 162, 1877 (indicates area occu- 

 pied bv family); Gatschet in Beach, Ind. Misc., 

 437, 187"7. >Wee-yot.— Gibbs in Schoolcraft, Ind. 

 Tribes, iii, 422, 18.33 (given as the name of a dia- 

 lecton Eel r. and llumboldtbay). X Weitspek.— 

 Latham in Trans. Philol. Soc. Load., 77, 1856 

 (includes Wevot and Wishosk); Latham, Opus- 

 cula, 343, I860". < Klamath.— Keane in Stanford, 

 Compend., Cent, and So. Am., 475, 1878 (cited as 

 including Patawats, Weevots, Wishosks) . =Wish- 

 oskan,— Powell in 7th Rep. B. A. E., 132,1891. 



■Wishram. Formerly the principal vil- 

 lage of the Tlakluit, and now their chief 

 fishing settlement; situated on Columbia 

 r., about 5 m. al)Ove The Dalles, in Wash- 

 ington. It is said to have contained as 

 many as 400 inhabitants at one time, but 

 now fewer than 150, the total population 

 of the tribe, live there. 



Niculuita.— Wilkes in U. S. Expl. Exped., iv, 388, 

 1845. Nixlu'idix-.— Edward Sapir, inf'n, 1908 

 (proper name). Wisham, — Wilkes, op. cit. 

 Wushqum.— Mooney in 14th Rep. B. A. E., 740, 

 18%. Wushuum. — Dorsey in Am. Anthr., Vili, 

 475, 1906. 



Wishtonwisli. A species of prairie-dog, 

 Cynoniyn ludoviclanu.<<, of the Missouri 

 region and westward and southward. 

 These animals utter a sharp chir]), which 

 is called barking, and hence their name 

 of "dog." They live in burrows, and 

 large numbers are often found in the 

 same locality, forming communities which 

 hunters call "dog towns." The name 

 under consideration was applied by the 

 Caddoan tribes of Louisiana from the cry 

 uttered by the animals. "As you ap- 

 proach their towns," says Lieut. Pike, 

 "you are saluted on all sides by the cry 

 of 'wishtonwi.sh' (from which they derive 

 their name with the Indiana), uttered in 

 a shrill and piercing manner." J. Feni- 

 more Cooper, in his works "The Wept 

 of Wishtonwisli" and "The Last of the 

 Mohicans" erroneously applied the name 

 to the whippoorwill. (w. r. g. ) 



Wiskala ('sand.' — Kroeber). Aformer 

 village of the Awani at the foot of the 

 " Royal Arches " ; it was the uppermost 

 village in Yosemite vallev, Mariposa co., 

 Cal. 



WiscuUa.— Powers in Overland Mo., x, 333, 1874. 

 Wiskala.— A. L. Kroeber, inf'n, 1905. Wis-kul'- 

 la.— Powers in Cont. N. A. Ethnol., iii, 365, 1877. 



Wiskinky. One of the officers or gov- 

 erning council of the Tammany Society 

 (q. V. ) of the city of Xew York. William 

 Mooney, the founder of the society, bor- 

 rowing the general scheme of the organi- 

 zation from the Saint Tammany societies 

 already in existence, called its meeting- 

 place the " wigwam" ; its head, the "great 

 father" (afterward the "grand sachem"); 

 its council of twelve, "sachems"; its mas- 

 ter of ceremonies, a "sagamore " ; and its 

 doorkeeper a "wiskinkie." This last- 

 named word was obtained by Mooney 

 from Capt. Carver's Travels, which had 

 been published shortly previous to the or- 

 ganization of the society, and in which, 

 in an Old Algonkin vocabulary, it ap- 



pears, in the form vmkinhhie, as a name 

 for 'eyes' (lit. 'his eye'). (w.r.g.) 



Wissatinnewag. A village, apparently 

 on Connecticut r., in central Massachu- 

 setts in 1663.— Pvnchon (1663) in N. Y. 

 Doc. Col. Hist, xni, 308, 1881. 



Wissomanchuli. A former Hupa village 

 on or near Trinity r., Cal. 

 Wis'-so-man-chuh. — Powers in Cont. N. A. Eth- 

 nol., 111,73,1877. 



Wistonwish. See WisJdonwish. 



Witaotina ('dwellers on the island'). 

 A Wahpeton Sioux band. — Dorsey (after 

 Ashley ) in 15th Rep. B. A. E., 216, 1897. 



Witawaziyataotina ( 'village at the north 

 island ' ). A Sisseton Sioux band. 

 Witawaziyata. — Ashley, letter to Dorsey, Jan. 18, 

 1886. Wita-waziyata-otina. — Dorse v in 15th Rep. 

 B. A. E, 216, 1897, 



Witchah ( ' turkey ' ) . A Yuchi clan. 

 Wetcsa.— Speck, Yuchi Inds., 70, 1909. Witcha'h 

 taha.— Gatschet, Uchee MS.,B. A. E., 1885 ( = ' tur- 

 key gens'). 



Witchcraft. Witchcraft may be defined 

 as the art of controlling the will and well- 

 being of another person by supernatural 

 or occult means, usually to his detriment. 

 If shamans possessed supernatural powers 

 that could be exerted beneficially, it was 

 naturally supposed that they might also 

 be exerted with injurious results, and 

 therefore where shamanism was most 

 highly developed the maj ority of supposed 

 witches, or rather wizards, were shamans. 

 At the same time it was believed that 

 anybody might practice witchcraft if he 

 knew the proper formul?e, and, in spite of 

 the fact that a shaman is often repre- 

 sented as causing sickness in order to 

 bring himself practice, the distinction 

 between the legitimate exercise of sha- 

 manistic powers and witchcraft seems 

 always to have been recognized. 



One mode of bewitching was similar to 

 that employed in Europe and New Eng- 

 land. The wizard would possess himself 

 of a lock of the victim's hair, parings from 

 his nails, some of his saliva, a bit of the 

 clothing he had worn, especially such as 

 had aV^sorbed his perspiration, a fragment 

 left after he had eaten, some of his imple- 

 ments, or other personal belongings, and 

 by treating them in certain ways would 

 bring on him local or general sickness 

 or some other misfortune. It was said 

 that the wizard could affect any part if he 

 obtained something taken from it. Thus 

 sore throat might be brought about or 

 a man made to "spit himself to death" 

 by means of a little saliva, and headache 

 might be induced through a few hairs. 

 A Tlingit wizard having obtained one of 

 these articles would make a little image 

 of his victim and torture it in just that 

 part which he desired to harm. A 

 woman envious of another who was a 

 good weaver might try to destroy her 

 skill by torturing the hands of the effigy, 

 and so with other parts. Very much the 



