678 STUDY FROM THE OMAHA TRIBE: IMPORT OF THE TOTEM. 



Tbere were two classes of totems known among the Omahas: The 

 personal, belonging to the individual, and the social, that of societies 

 and gentes. 



The personal totem. — The question first to arise is, How did the indi- 

 vidual obtain his totem? We learn that it was not received from an 

 ancestor, was not the gift of any living person, but was derived through 

 a certain rite by the man himself. 



In the Legend of the Sacred Pole of the Omahas, which has been 

 handed down from generations, and which gives a rapid history of the 

 people from the time when "they opened their eyes and beheld the 

 day" to the completed organization of the tribe, we are told: "The 

 I)eople felt themselves weak and poor. Then the old men gathered 

 together and said: Let us make our children cry to Wa-Kori'-da. 

 * * * So all the parents took their children, covered their faces 

 with soft clay, and sent them forth to lonely places. * * * The old 

 men said, You shall go forth to cry to Wa lio?t'-da. * * * When 

 on the hills you shall not ask for any particular thing * * * what- 

 ever is good, that may Wa-kow'da give. * * * Four days and 

 nights uj)on the hills the youth shall pray, crying, and when he stops, 

 shall wipe his tears with the palms of his hands, lift his wet hands to 

 heaven, then lay them on the earth. * * * This was the people's 

 first appeal to Wa-kow-'-da." 



This rite, called by the untranslatable name Now'-zhiw-zhow, has been 

 observed up to the present time. When the youth had reached the age 

 of puberty he was instructed by his parents as to what he was to do. 

 Moistened earth was x)ut upon his head and face, a small bow and arrows 

 given him, and he was directed to seek a secluded spot upon the hills 

 and there to chant the prayer which he had been taught and to lift his 

 hands, wet with his tears, to heaven and then to lay them upon the 

 earth ; and he was to fast until at last he fell into a trance or sleep. If 

 in his trance or dream he saw or heard anything, that thing was to 

 become the special medium through which he could receive supernat- 

 ural aid. The ordeal over, the youth returned home to partake of food 

 and to rest. No one questioned him, and for four days he sx^oke but 

 little, for if within that time he should reveal his vision it would be the 

 same as lost to him. Afterwards he could confide it to some old man 

 known to have had a similar manifestation, and it then became the duty 

 of the youth to seek until he should find the animal he had seen in his 

 trance, when he must slay it and preserve some part of it (in cases 

 where the vision had been of no concrete form symbols were taken to 

 represent it). This memento was ever after to be the sign of his vision, 

 his totem, the most sacred thing he could ever possess, for by it his 

 natural powers were to be so reenforced as to give him success as a 

 hunter, victory as a warrior, and even the power to see into the future. 



Belief concerning nature and life. — The foundation of the Indian's faith 

 iu the efficacy of the totem rested upon his belief concerning nature 



