RELIGION \\l> CEREMONIES. 103 



among the Woodland Cree, Menomini, and Ojibway. 

 Aside from hunger and thirst, there was no self 

 torture except among the Dakota and possibly a few 

 others of Siouan stock. With these it was the rule 

 for all desiring to become shamans, or those in close 

 rapport with the divine element, to thrust skewers 

 through the skin and tie themselves up as in the sun 

 dance, to be discussed later. Now, when a Blackfoot, 

 a Dakota, or an Omaha went out to fast and pray 

 for such a revelation, he called upon all the recog- 

 nized mythical creatures, the heavenly bodies, and 

 all in the earth and in the waters, which is consistent 

 with the conceptions of an illy localized power or 

 element manifest everywhere. No doubt this applies 

 equally to all the aforesaid tribes. If this divine 

 element spoke through a hawk, for example, the 

 applicant would then look upon that bird as the 

 localization or medium for it; and for him, wakonda, 

 or what not, was manifest or resided therein; but, of 

 course, not exclusively. Quite likely, he would keep 

 in a bundle the skin or feathers of a hawk that the 

 divine presence might ever be at hand. This is why 

 the warriors of the Plains carried such charms into battle 

 and looked to them for aid. It is not far wrong to say 

 that all religious ceremonies and practices (all the 

 so-called medicines of the Plains Indians) originate 

 and receive their sanction in dreams or induced visions, 

 all, in short, handed down directly by this wonderful 

 vitalizing element. 



