482 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. IV. No. 92, 



and who had received their regalia, began 

 to assume for themselves some of the au- 

 thority conceded by all to Thunder itself. 

 A song belonging to a Dakota chief says, 

 '' When I speak, it is Thunder." Gradually 

 the exercise of the punishing power was ex- 

 tended to social offences ; as, for instance, 

 a man whose persistent evil conduct threat- 

 ened the internal peace of the gens or tribe, 

 might suffer loss of property or even of life, 

 his fate being determined by the warrior 

 chiefs assembled at the Sacred Tent around 

 the cedar Pole, the representative of the 

 Thunder; the function of the chiefs thus 

 becoming augmented by affiliation with the 

 supernatural. 



When the first Thunder was heard in the 

 spring the ceremonial of the worship of 

 Thunder took place at the Sacred Tent. 

 The Wa-iw was opened and the bird skins 

 exposed ; the Pipes were smoked, the ritual 

 sung, and the cedar Pole anointed. No 

 one participated in these rites, except mem- 

 bers of those gentes whose totems were be- 

 lieved to be related to Thunder. Some of 

 these totems were of creatures predatory in 

 their habits, and therefore allied to the 

 destructive lightning ; others, like the eagle 

 and the hawk, could soar to the very clouds, 

 while the flying swallows heralded the ap- 

 proaching storm. This fancied kinship of 

 their totems was the basis of recognition of 

 a sort of relationship between the gentes 

 themselves, which became the ground upon 

 which these people united in the perform- 

 ance of ceremonies directed toward a com- 

 mon object of worship. 



Although important steps had been gained 

 in social development, none of the rites and 

 ceremonies of the Sacred Tent of War tended 

 to bind all the gentes together, but the 

 Omaha ceremony of the He-di-wa-chi seems 

 to have been adapted to meet this require- 

 ment. It is impossible to state as a fact 

 that the He-di-wa-chi grew out of the ex- 

 perience of the people during the centuries 



when they were being slowly driven by 

 wars, farther and farther from their eastern 

 home ; but, according to traditions pre- 

 served in the different tribes, it was during 

 this period that group after group parted 

 company, and the enfeebled bands became 

 a tempting prey to active enemies. ISTor 

 was the danger always from without ; dis- 

 integration sometimes resulted from the 

 rivalry of ambitious Leaders, and, to quote 

 from the tradition, '' the wise men thought 

 how they might devise some plan, by which 

 all might live and move together and there 

 be no danger of quarrels." 



Many points in its ceremonial indicate 

 that at the time of the institution of the 

 He-di-wa-chi the people had entered upon 

 agricultural pursuits, and were not wholly 

 dominated by those ideas which had been 

 the controlling power when hunting and 

 war were the principal avocations. The 

 He-di-wa-chi took place in the summer 

 solstice, or, according to Indian designation, 

 at ' the time when all the creatures were 

 awake and out.' The choice of the tree 

 from which the Pole, the central object in 

 this ceremony, was to be cut, is significant. 

 It was either the cottonwood or the wil- 

 low, both remarkably tenacious of life, send- 

 ing forth shoots even when cut down and 

 hacked into posts. In the Indian's worda 

 describing the time when this ceremony 

 was to take place, we catch a glimpse of a 

 shadowy idea of peace, for when danger 

 stalked abroad the animals which were 

 '■ awake ' would not be ' out ' but in hiding ; 

 and in the choice of the tree with its 

 abounding life we note the beginning of an 

 apprehension of the idea of the conserva- 

 tion of life. This helps us to open out and 

 understand the terse and poetic expression 

 of the Indian tradition concerning the cere- 

 mony, that 'it grew up with the corn.' 

 The ideas embodied in this festival found 

 their birth and growth in the cultivation 

 of the maize, which held the people to their 



