Manchester Memoirs, Vol. Ix. (1916), No. 4. 7 



making ornaments and to trade, but the shell figured on 

 the record is undoubtedly a cowry. This fact is signifi- 

 cant, and one would be justified in concluding that the 

 pictograph commemorates no ordinary trading trip, but 

 an expedition to secure some especially noted sacred 

 shell possessed by a rival medicine man. 



As bearing upon the shell-cult just described, the 

 following account is of peculiar interest. Long, in his 

 " Expedition from Pittsburgh to the Rocky Mountains," 

 1823, 10 tells us that the Omahas possessed a sacred shell 

 which they transmitted from generation to generation. 

 Its origin was quite unknown. A skin lodge was built 

 for it, and a man appointed as guardian, who resided in 

 the lodge. It was placed on a stand* and never allowed 

 to touch the earth, and was concealed from sight by a 

 number of mats made of skins plaited. The whole formed 

 a large package, from which tobacco, roots of trees, and 

 other objects were suspended. No one dared to open all 

 these coverings in order to see the shell, for if they 

 attempted to look upon it they were struck with instant 

 and total loss of sight. The sacred shell was taken by 

 the Indians on all their national hunts, and was also 

 consulted as an oracle before any expedition was made 

 against an enemy. The medicine men seated themselves 

 round the sacred lodge, the lower part of which was 

 thrown up like a curtain, and the external mat was 

 carefully removed from the shell, that it might have air. 

 Some of the consecrated tobacco suspended from the 

 coverings of the shell was taken by the medicine men 

 and smoked to the " Great Medicine." During this 

 ceremony everyone listened most attentively, hoping to 

 hear a sound proceed from the sacred shell. At length 

 someone imagined he heard a noise resembling a forced 



10 As quoted in " Flint Chips," by E. T. Stevens, pp. 448-449. 



