STUDY FROM THE OMAHA TRIBE: IMPORT OF THE TOTEM. 581 



to themselves the living corn. In the ritual sung over the Sacred 

 Buffalo Hide prior to the hunt the same idea is present — that in the 

 continuity of life the part is ever connected with the whole, and that 

 the Sacred Buffalo Hide was able to bring within reach the living 

 animal itself. 



Limitation in totems. — The totem opened a means of communication 

 between man and the various agencies of his environment, but it could 

 not transcend the power of its particular species; consequently all 

 totems were not equally potent. Men who saw the Bear in their visions 

 were liable to be wounded in battle, as the bear was slow of movement, 

 clumsy and easily trapped, although a savage fighter when brought to 

 bay. Winged forms, such as the Eagle, having greater range of sight 

 than the creatures which traveled upon the ground, could bestow upon 

 the men to whom they came in the dream the gift of looking into the 

 future and foretelling coming events. Thunder gave the ability to con- 

 trol the elements and the authority to conduct certain religious rites. 



Despite the advantages to be derived from the possession of certain 

 totems, the inculcations given when the youth was instructed in the 

 rite of the vision, and taught the prayer he was to sing, forbade him 

 to ask for any special gift or the sight of any particular thing. He was 

 simply to wait without fear and to accept without question whatever 

 Wa-ko?^'-da might vouchsafe to send him. Ko man was able to choose 

 his personal totem, but it was the general belief of the people that the 

 powerful animals and agencies were apt to be drawn toward those who 

 possessed natural gifts of mind and strength of will. 



Nature of the totems. — The totems of the Omahas referred to animals — 

 the Bear, the Buffalo, the Deer, the Birds, the Turtle, and Reptiles; to 

 the Corn ; to the elements — the Winds, the Earth, the Water, and Thun- 

 der. There was nothing among them which in any way represented the 

 human family, nor was there any trace of ancestor worship. The rela- 

 tion between the man and his totem did not lie along the line of natural 

 kinship, but rested upon the peculiarities in his theory of nature, in 

 which the will and ability to bring to pass, which he was conscious of 

 within himself, he projected upon the universe which encompassed him. 

 The rite of the vision was a dramatization of his abstract ideas of life 

 and nature, and the totem was the representation of the vision in a con- 

 crete form. 



THE SOCIAL TOTEM AND WHAT IT STOOD FOR IN THE TRIBE. 



We have thus far seen the influence of the totem upon the individual. 

 We are now to trace it as exerted upon groups of people, in the Eelig- 

 ious societies, in the Toit'-wow-gdho^i or gens, and in the development 

 and organization of the tribe. 



Religious societies. — The totem's simplest form of social action was 

 in the Religious societies, whose structure was based upon the grouping 

 together of men who had received similar visions. Those who had seen 



