232 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. YI., No. 136. 



guarded. The tent has a special keeper, whose bus- 

 iness is to care for it and its contents. These con- 

 tents consisted of the sacred shell, which is a large 

 river shell or Unio. This shell is contained in several 

 leather pouches, one within the other; and in the shell 

 itself are placed strips of the inner bark of the cedar, 

 and a scalp. In the tent are also the sacred wolf- 

 skin, and two bundles covered with tanned skins. 

 One of these bundles is somewhat like a duck in form, 

 and contains sundry bird-skins; the other is box-like 

 in shape, and no one now living knows its contents, 

 except that it contains various deadly poisons. 

 There are also a staff of cedar and one of iron-wood, 

 a small pipe-stem, two war-pipes, tobacco, and a scalp, 

 obtained by warriors who had obtained the wolf-skin. 

 All of these objects, which for generations had been 

 kept and cherished by the Omahas as their most 

 precious possession, have been given over to the care 

 of the Peabody museum of archaeology by their 

 keeper, with the consent of the other chiefs. This 

 action is most important; since it marks the deter- 

 mination of the tribe to leave forever the usages of 

 their fathers, and to continue in those of civilization 

 which they have already adopted. The use and sig- 

 nificance of some of the sacred articles were described. 

 The sacred shell must never touch the ground; as, if 

 it did, a devouring fire would come from it, which 

 would de-^troy vegetation, and even streams and 

 springs. To prevent this, the shell in its pouches is 

 hung up in the tent; and when the tribe is on the 

 march, the shell is carried by a boy especially chosen 

 for the purpose. This boy slings the pouch over his 

 shoulder, and is provided with a pointed staff to assist 

 him should he stumble. If the boy wishes to play, 

 he may thrust his staff in the ground, and hang the 

 shell npon it. No one, except the keeper, may even 

 touch the sacred objects: if he does, grievous sores 

 will come upon him. Although, if one has acciden- 

 tally touched them, he may be allowed to go through 

 certain ablutions, assisted by the keeper, until he is 

 purified ; and then the evil is averted. If an enemy is 

 supposed to be prowling about, and it is thought 

 best to send out scouts, they are prepared by certain 

 ceremonies. The sacred pipes are filled and offered 

 to them; and they are solemnly admonished to report 

 on their return only the exact truth, and to be careful 

 to observe well. It is regarded as a very great honor 

 to be chosen to act as scout. The poisons contained 

 in the box-like bundle are used in various ways. 

 One use is in punishing a mischief-maker, or incor- 

 rigibly troublesome member of the tribe. A staff is 

 poisoned, and given to a discreet young man, who goes 

 at night to where the offender's ponies are, and 

 pushes his stick against them one by one, breaking 

 the skin, so that the poison may get into the blood; 

 and before morning all the ponies poisoned will be 

 dead. The severity of the punishment determines 

 the number of ponies so destroyed. There are ten 

 distinct honors which may be obtained from the 

 killing of an enemy; and they may be indicated by 

 eagle's feathers, or other ornament. These honors 

 are, one may kill an enemy, four may strike him, 

 four may take his scalp, and one may cut off his head. 



The degree of danger involved in an exploit affects 

 the honor received from it; e.g., to strike an enemy 

 is a greater honor than to shoot him from a distance. 

 The speaker called attention to the fact, that Indians 

 were very fond of deceiving the whites in their dress, 

 putting on wholly incongruous things merely for 

 effect or sport, and arraying themselves as they would 

 never do when wearing only what they had a right 

 to wear. On this account, many of Catlin's pictures 

 are incorrect, and many of the costumes worn by the 

 delegations to Washington are not such as the wearers 

 would ever assume at home. A curious custom exists 

 among the Omahas. When a warrior is recounting 

 his deeds before the tribe, he holds a short stick in 

 his hand over a small pack in which is a hole. When 

 so ordered, the boasting one must unclose his hand, 

 and let the stick drop; and if it rolls into the hole, 

 he has told the truth; but if it rolls off, as it is very 

 likely to do, he has at least made a mistake. When 

 on the war-path, Indians are trained, as one expressed 

 it, 'to walk as one dead;' that is, to be wholly in- 

 different and insensible to all bodily discomforts 

 and dangers. The war-party consists of warriors and 

 servants. The servants are usually young men, and 

 it is for their interest to act as such ; for, in this way, 

 they accompany the war-party, and, if a conflict takes 

 place, they are allowed to hide their kettles and camp- 

 equipage, and to engage in the battle; and, if one 

 strikes one of the enemy, he is promoted to the rank 

 of warrior. The dress of the warrior is simple, and 

 over all is thrown a buffalo-robe worn with the hair 

 inside. This is tied by leather strings; and day and 

 night it must be worn, and the strings not untied until 

 the enemy is met, or else the war-path abandoned. 



Mr. F. La Flesche read a paper on the laws and terms 

 of relationship of the Omahas. This was a paper of 

 especial value, in that it afforded the section an op- 

 portunity of hearing, not from one who had gathered 

 his information from strangers, but from one who 

 had received it from his parents, and grown up among 

 the customs described, and who spoke of his own 

 people. Reference was made so constantly to a dia- 

 gram, that is impossible to give any abstract of the 

 paper that would be of much valne. The singularly 

 intricate, and to us absurd, system of relationship 

 which has long been in use among the Omahas, was 

 very clearly explained. 



The next paper was by Mr. W. McAdams, on the 

 exploration of recent Indian mounds in Dakota. 

 The mounds in question were small burial mounds. 

 Some of them, in one case a chain of four, were con 

 nected by a path of buffalo bones, which not only ex- 

 tended to the mounds, but directly over some of them. 

 The bones were bleached very white, but there was no 

 evidence of great antiquity anywhere. Aside from a 

 small stone axe, only human bones were taken from 

 the mounds opened. At the close of the paper, Mr. F. 

 W. Putnam spoke of the conditions in which bones 

 might be well preserved, and other conditions in 

 which they would soon decay; and on this account 

 the soundness or decay of bones was of little value in 

 determining 

 well known. 



