October 2, 1896.] 



SCIENCE. 



479 



supernaturally appeared to the first rulers, 

 ' The Crow, with frayed neck feathers ; The 

 Wolf, with tail blown to one side;' and they 

 appeal to both chiefs and animals to remem- 

 ber their promise, and to continue to guide 

 the people into safety and plenty through 

 their successors now being ordained. 



The Legend of the Sacred Pole of the 

 Omahas, handed down from generations, 

 gives a rapid history of the people from the 

 time when ' they opened their eyes and be- 

 held the day,' to the completed organiza- 

 tion of the tribe and the institution of the 

 rites of the Sacred Pole. From it we learn 

 that changes in the daily and material 

 progress of the people did not come about 

 through miraculous intervention, but 

 through the mind of their wise men ; and 

 that every step in the path of progress was 

 the result of 'thought.' 'And the people 

 thought,' is the constant prelude to every 

 betterment or invention. By ' thought' 

 they learned how to make fire, to build 

 lodges, to weave, and finally to institute re- 

 ligious rites and ceremonies. 



To quote from this Legend : " The 

 people felt themselves weak and poor. 

 Then the old men gathered together and 

 said : Let us make our children cry to 

 Wa-ka7i-da. * * * So all the parents took 

 their children, covered their faces with soft 

 clay, and sent them forth to lonely places. 

 * * * The old man said You shall go forth 

 to cry to Wa-kan-da. * * * When on the 

 hills you shall not ask for any particular 

 thing, * =!^ * whatever is good that may 

 Wa-ka?i-da give. * * * Four days and nights 

 upon 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 ap- 

 peal to Wa-kan-da. Since that time, twice 

 in the year, * * * in the spring * * * and 

 when the grass is yellow, * * * this prayer 

 is said." 



A study of this practice, as still found 

 among the tribes, shows that the youth, 

 who uttered his prayer during days and 

 nights of fasting, was not only asking help 

 from Wa-ka?r-da, but was seeking a mani- 

 festation, in a vision, of the mysterious 

 power. The form of this manifestation, 

 which should come to him, he believed to 

 be that to which he must appeal when in 

 need of help. The symbol of this form, 

 which the youth ever after carried with 

 him, did not in itself possess the ability to 

 help, but served as a credential by which 

 the youth reminded the manifestation, be it 

 of bird or beast, of the promise believed to 

 have been received from it in the vision. 



The dream and the vision were not the 

 same; the dream of sleep came unsought in 

 a natural way, while the manner in which 

 the vision was striven for indicates an at- 

 tempt to set aside and override natural con- 

 ditions. The natural dream has exercised an 

 influence in many ways, but it has not had 

 the constructive force of the vision. 



The cry to Wa-kaw-da was the outcome 

 of ' thought ' during the long barren period 

 of primitive life. Whither this 'thought' 

 had tended we have seen in its culmination 

 in the ideas that all things were animated 

 by the same continuous life and were re- 

 lated to each other. These generalizing 

 ideas were not strictly in accord with the 

 evidence of man's senses. The Indian could 

 not help seeing the unmistakable difference 

 between himself and all other objects. Nor 

 could he help knowing that it was impos- 

 sible for him to hold communication, as be- 

 tween man and man, with the animals, the 

 Thunder, etc. The ancient thinkers and 

 leaders met this difficulty by the rite of the 

 vision, with its peculiar preparation. The 

 youth was directed to strip off all decora- 

 tion, to wear the scantiest of clothing, to 

 deny his social instincts, and to go alone 

 upon the hills, or into the depths of the 

 forests; he was to weep as he chanted his 



