OCTOBEE 2, 1896.] 



SCIENCE. 



481 



like a thread througli all the tribes of the 

 Siouan group. The character of their vis- 

 ion was such as easily to win popular re- 

 cognition as preeminently authoritative, 

 and they seem to have been singularly 

 dominant from the earliest time.* 



The Thunder gentes had charge of, or 

 took an important part in, all ceremonies 

 which pertained to the preservation of 

 tribal autonomy. To them belonged the 

 rituals and the ceremonies which inducted 

 the child into its rights within the gens and 

 the tribe ; the adoption of captives and 

 strangers; and the ceremonial preparation 

 of the tribal pipes, without which there 

 could be no tribal ceremony or enforcement 

 of order. They had charge also of the rites 

 for the preservation of crops from the devas- 

 tation of insects and marauders. These 

 were some of the exclusive functions of the 

 Thunder gentes; but the rites of the wor- 

 ship of Thunder itself, and the ceremonies 

 pertaining to war, of which Thunder was 

 the god, so to speak, were in charge of 

 other than the Thunder gentes. 



In the Omaha tribe the Sacred Tent of 

 War was set apart for the rites and cere- 

 monies connected with Thunder. It was 

 pitched in front of the segment of the tribal 

 circle occupied by the We-jinshte gens, its 

 Keeper. It stood apart as a special lodge 

 and was regarded with awe by the people. 

 In it were kept the Sacred Shell (a large 

 Unio alatus}; the Wa-in (a bird-shaped 

 bundle of raw hide, containing the skins of 

 certain birds believed to be associated with 

 Thunder); the Pipes used in the cere- 

 monies of war, and a Pole of cedar. 



*The members of the Thunder society claim that 

 at death they join the Thunder Beings, although 

 they do not thereby lose their kinship rights in their 

 clan in the other world, but an Indian born into a 

 Thunder gens could not at his death join the Thun- 

 der Beings, unless they had appeared to him in his 

 vision. The people believed that the voices of noted 

 Thunder men who were dead could be heard in the 

 mutterings of the approaching storm. 



In the myths the cedar tree is spoken of 

 as the particular abode of the Thunder 

 Birds. The Thunder Beings had their vil- 

 lage amid a forest of cedars, and the club 

 of these mythical beings was of the same 

 tree. Cedar leaves were put upon the War 

 Pipe after it was filled, so that when it was 

 lighted it was the aromatic smoke of the 

 cedar that was offered to the Four Direc- 

 tions, the Zenith and the Nadir. The 

 cedar Pole, representative of Thunder, was 

 called Wa-ghdhe-ghe, which means the 

 power to confer honors. This name refers 

 to the custom which prescribed that all war 

 parties should start from this Sacred Tent 

 and on their return report to it; and that 

 all honors, namely, the right to wear cer- 

 tain regalia indicative of a man's prowess 

 in battle, should be ceremonially conferred 

 in this Tent.* 



The vital point, in the ceremony of con- 

 ferring honors, was when the warrior, stand- 

 ing before the Wa-i%, and reciting his deeds 

 of battle, at a sign from the Keeper, dropped 

 a small stick upon the bundle. If the stick 

 rested thereon it was believed to be held 

 by the Birds, who thus attested to the truth 

 of the warrior's claims. If it rolled off 

 upon the ground it was the Birds who dis- 

 carded it, because the man had spoken 

 falsely. These Birds, representatives of 

 Thunder, were the judges of a ma-n's truth- 

 fulness, and rewarded him by honors, or 

 punished him by disaster, even to the tear- 

 ing out of his tongue by a lightning stroke. 



Naturally, in course of time, those war- 

 rior chiefs, who by favor of Thunder had 

 been successful in war, whose truthfulness 

 had been attested by the Thunder Birds, 



* All these regalia, which are graded in rank, refer 

 to Thunder. In several of the tribes these are feath- 

 ers of certain birds, worn in a particular manner; the 

 peculiar painting of a man's face, body or weapons; 

 and, as among the Osages, the tattooing of the body 

 and arms with lines so drawn that, when the highest 

 rank is attained, the tattooed figure will represent 

 the Thunder bird in outline. 



