Part 36

The ceremony proper commences about 11 P. M. in the summer and in winter an hour earlier and lasts until nearly daybreak. The feast makers enter the lodge several hours previous to the ceremony and cook the food for the feast and prepare the strawberry wine.

The seats in the lodge are arranged around the sides of the room leaving the center of the room open.

When all is in readiness a Honondiont takes a basket of sacred tobacco, oyĕñkwa oñweh, and, as he chants the opening ceremony he casts the sacred herb into the smouldering coals. The lights are all burning and the members are in their seats, the only exception being the feast makers whose duties require their attention at the fireplace.

From the manuscript notes of Mrs. Harriet Maxwell Converse, I find the following translation of the “Line Around the Fire Ceremony.”

THE LINE AROUND THE FIRE CEREMONY.

The Singer, (to the members): “This is the line around the fire ceremony. Now I have asked blessings and made prayer.”

The Singer sprinkles sacred tobacco on the fire.

(The Singer speaks to the invisible powers):

“Now I give you incense, You, the Great Darkness! You, our great grand parents, here to night,— We offer you incense! We assemble at certain times in the year That this may be done.

(We trust that all believe in this medicine,

For all are invited to partake of this medicine.)

(Now one has resigned. We ask you to let him off in a friendly manner. Give him good luck and take care that his friends remain in faithful!)

Now we offer you this incense! Some have had ill luck Endeavoring to give a human being. We hope you will take hold And help your grandchildren, Nor be discouraged in us!

Now we act as we offer you incense! You love it the most of all offerings! With it you will hear us better And not tire of our talking, But love us with all power Beyond all treasures Or spreading you words through the air!

All men traveling under the great heavens, You have invited, your grandchildren and all nations!

Oh you that make the noise, You the great Thunderer! Your grandchildren wish to thank you! All your grandchildren have asked me To offer this incense upon the mountain to you!

[Illustration:

_ARRANGEMENT OF THE LITTLE WATER LODGE_ This diagram shows the arrangement of the lodge room of the Little Water Company, sometimes also called the Medicine Society, the Guards of the Mystic Potence and the Night Song Company. ]

(Speaking to the Great Spirit, Sho-gwa-yah-dih-sah-oh):

Oh you the Manager of All Things! We ask you to help us, To help us make this medicine strong! You are the Creator, The Most High, The Best Friend of men! We ask you to help us! We implore your favor!

I have spoken.[96]

After the tobacco throwing ceremony the keeper of the rattles gives each person in the circle a large gourd rattle and then the lights are extinguished leaving the assembly in total darkness. The watcher of the medicine uncovers the bundles exposing contents to the air and as he does so a faint glow like a luminous cloud, according to the elect, hovers over the table and disappears. The leader or holder of the song gives a signal with his rattle calling the assembly to order and then begins to beat his rattle. The people shake their rattles in regular beats until all are in unison when the holder of the song commences the song, which is taken up by the company. “And such a song it is! It is a composition of nature’s sounds and thrills the very fiber of those who hear it. It transports one from the lodge back into the dark mysterious stone-age forest and in its wierd wild cadences it tells of the origin of the society, of the hunter in the far south country and how when he was killed by the enemy the animals to whom he had always been a friend restored him to life. It tells of his pilgrimage over plain and mountain, over river and lake, ever following the call of the night bird and the beckoning of the winged light. It is an opera of nature’s people that is unsurpassed.”

The first song requires one hour for singing. Lights are then turned up and the feast maker passes the kettle of sweetened strawberry juice and afterward the calumet from which all draw a puff of the sacred incense. Then comes an interval of rest in which the members smoke sacred tobacco and discuss lodge matters. The medicine is covered before the lights are turned up.

With a chug of his resonant gourd rattle the leader calls the people together for the second song which is wilder and more savage in character. The whippoorwill’s call is heard at intervals and again the call of the crows who tell of a feast to come. The whippoorwill song is one that is most beautiful but it is played on the flute only at rare intervals and then it is so short that it excites an almost painful yearning to hear it again but there is art in this savage opera and its performers never tire of it because it is wonderful even to them. During the singing every person in the circle must sing and shake his rattle; to pause is considered an evil thing. It is no small physical effort to shake a long necked gourd a hundred and fifty times a minute for sixty minutes without cessation. This I soon discovered when as a novitiate of the society I was placed between a medicine woman and man and given an extra heavy rattle. Every now and then a hand from one or the other side would stretch forth from the inky blackness and touch my arm to see if I were faithful and sometimes a moist ear would press against my face to discover if I were singing and listening a moment to my attempts, would draw back. The song in parts is pitched very high and it is a marvel that male voices can reach it. At times the chief singers seem to employ ventriloquism for they throw their voices about the room in a manner that is startling to the novice. At the close of the song lights are turned up and the berry water and calumet are passed again and a longer period of rest is allowed. There are two other sections of the song-ritual with rest intervals that bring the close of the song close to daybreak. The feast makers pass the berry water and pipe again and then imitating the cries of the crow, the ho-non-di-ont pass the bear or boar’s head on a platter and members tear off a mouthful each with their teeth imitating the caw of a crow as they do so. After the head is eaten each member brings forth his pail and places it before the fireplace for the feast maker to fill with the alloted portion of o-no‘´-kwa or hulled corn soup. When the pails are filled one by one the company disperses into the gray light or dawn and the medicine ceremony is over. At the close of the last song each one takes his packet of medicine and secretes it about his person.

The medicine song according to the ritual of the society is necessary to preserve the virtue of the medicine. It is an appreciation of the founder of the order and a thanksgiving to the host of living things that have given their life-power that the medicine might be. The spirits of these creatures hover about the medicine which they will not desert as long as the holder remains faithful to the conditions that they saw fit to impose when it was given to the founder. The psychic influence of the animals and plants is the important part of the medicine and when the medicine is opened in the dark they are present in a shadowy form that is said to sometimes become faintly luminous and visible. Members are said frequently to see these spirit forms, and sometimes not individual members only but the entire company simultaneously,—but I am now trenching on a subject of which I am asked not to speak. There are marvels and mysteries connected with the ceremonies of the Honotcinohgah, suffice to say, that white men will never know, nor would believe if told. The Indian has some sacred mysteries that will die with him.

Some one has suggested that Indian songs are not stable but vary from time to time, but this idea is at once dispelled when we see a company of fifty young men and old chanting the same song without a discord from night till morning. The song is uniformly the same and probably has varied but slightly since it originated. It is still intact with none of its parts missing, although the words are archaic and some not understood.

The medicine men teach that if a charm packet is not sung for at least once in a year the spirits will become restless and finally angry and bring all manner of ill luck upon its possessor. The spirits of the animals and plants that gave their lives for the medicine will not tolerate neglect and will relentlessly punish the negligent holder and many instances are cited to prove that neglect brings misfortune. The medicine will bring about accidents that will cause sprains, severe bruises and broken bones and finally death. I know of several persons, myself, who becoming Christians, have neglected their medicine. Whether the belief is true or not, some have certainly met with repeated accidents. In every Seneca settlement the story is the same and individuals are pointed out who having neglected their medicine have become injured or maimed for life. Should some member of a family die leaving his medicine its orenda will compel the person who should take the dead one’s place to respect its desires. I will relate one instance. When John Patterson the last holder of the secret died he left his medicine in the loft of his house. His son, a well educated man of wide business experience, one of the shrewdest men of the Seneca and a person seemingly free of superstition, thought that he would allow the medicine of his father to remain idle. He wished to have nothing to do with the old fashioned heathenish customs of his father. Indeed he did not take interest enough in the medicine to look for it. Several medicine sittings passed by and the man began to suffer strange accidents. One evening as he sat with his family on the veranda of his home (a modern dwelling such as is found in any modern town), the members say that he heard the medicine song floating in the air above him. He was startled and each of the family was frightened. The singing continued until at length it grew faint and ceased. Upon several occasions the family and visitors heard the song issuing from the air. Mr. Patterson sent for the leader of the lower medicine lodge, William Nephew, who asked where the medicine was hidden. No one knew but after a search it was discovered. Mr. Nephew ordered that a feast should be made and the rites performed. Then was the modern educated Indian forced to join the lodge and take his father’s seat. This story, of which I have given but the bare outline, is commonly known among the Senecas, Mr. M. R. Harrington, of the American Indian Museum, being perfectly familiar with the facts of the case which he took pains to learn while staying at the Patterson home. Howsoever this may be explained it is nevertheless considered one of the mysteries of the medicine and the instance is not a solitary one.

Few white people have ever been allowed in a medicine lodge and when they have been they have not seen to witness the ceremony in full. I know of only four who ever become members, holding the medicine: Joseph Keppler, the publisher, and Mrs. Harriet Maxwell Converse, George K. Staples, and George L. Tucker, with all of whom I have sat in the medicine lodge.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Works Consulted in Editing This Compilation.

Barbeau, C. M. _Wyandot Tales_, Jour. Amer. Folk Lore, Vol. 28, (1915), p. 83–95.

_Huron and Wyandot Mythology_, Dept. Mines, Canada, No. 80.

Beauchamp, W. M. _Iroquois Trails_, Fayetteville, N. Y., 1897.

_Iroquois Folk-Lore_, Onondaga Co. Hist. Soc., Syracuse, 1922.

Boaz, F. _Mythology and Folk Lore of the N. A. Indians_, Jour. Am. Folk-Lore, Vol. 27, 375.

Hewitt, J. N. B. _Iroquois Cosmology_, 21 An. Rept. Bur. American Ethnology.

Hewitt and Curtin _Seneca Myths, Fiction and Folk-Tales_, 32 An. Rept. Bur. Amer. Ethnology.

Leland, C. G. _Algonquin Legends._

Lowie, R. L. _Test Theme in N. A. Folk-Lore_, Jour. Am. Folk-Lore, Vol. 21, 97–148.

Mooney, James _Myths of the Cherokee_, 19 An. Rept. Bur. Amer. Ethnology.

Radin, Paul _Literary Aspects of N. A. Mythology_, Bulletin 16, Canadian Department of Mines.

_Religion of the N. A. Indians_, Jour. Amer. Folk-Lore, Vol. 27, 335.

Reichard, Gladys A. _Literary Types and Dissemination of Myths_, Jour. Amer. Folk-Lore, Vol. 34, 269–307.

Skinner, Alanson _Central Algonkian Folk-Lore_, Jour. Am. Folk-Lore, Vol. 27, 97–100.

_Menomini Folk Lore_, Anthrop. Papers, Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., Vol. XIII, 1915.

Waterman, T. T. _Explanatory Elements in the Folk Tales of the N. A. Indians_, Jour. Am. Folk-Lore, 38, 1.

INDEX

NOTE: Themes, characters, episodes and common material are indexed in italics. Other subjects are in the usual Roman.

_Adoption by animals_, 137.

_Air canoe_, 97, 100, 318.

_Air jumping_, 28.

Albany, traditions of, 406, 407.

America, discovery of, 383.

_Ancient One_, 5, 59, 60.

Ancient relics, 54.

_Animal foster-parents_, 25, 137, 148.

_Animal paw target_, 28, 160.

_Animal skin, borrowing of_, 30, 132, 201.

Animals, origin of, 67; evil, 68, 414.

_Animals talk to men_, 29, 137, 147, 224, 389.

_Animated finger_, 31, 337.

Arrow making, 98.

Ashes, washing in, 197.

_Astral body_, 29.

_Ataentsic_ (see Ancient One), 6, 59, 60.

Autumnal colors, origin of, 82.

_Awaiting women_, 118, 135.

Barbeau, C. M., cited, 86 f.n., 459; myth by, 417.

_Bark dagger_, 31, 191.

_Bark dolls_, 31 (see also dolls).

Bark lodge, 43, interior, 44; picture, 47.

_Basket from sky_, 86.

_Beads, magical_, 155.

Bear, 387.

_Bear claw mittens_, 126.

_Bear, monster_, 17 (see also Niahgwahe).

_Bears talk_, 148, 149 ff.

_Bearded monster_, 228.

Beauchamp, William M., 459.

_Beaver_, 309; evil beaver, 162, 189.

_Beaver, white_, 17.

Beds, 52.

_Bewitched_, 370 (see also witchcraft, witches, wizards).

_Bewitched parents_, 26.

Bibliography, 459.

_Big Breast_, 19.

_Bird colors, origin of_, 313.

Blow gun, 18, 355.

_Blue lizard_, 17, 163 (see lizard, blue).

_Blue otter_, 17.

Bluesky, William, 107, f.n.

_Boaster makes good_, 24, 350, 355, 361.

Boas, F., 459.

_Boiling oil_, 29, 267, 275, 291, 297, 348.

Bone awl, 98.

_Borrowed eyes_, 31, 105.

_Borrowed skin_, 31, 237.

_Boy hero_, 97, 111, 116, 122, 128, 137, 142, 147, 154, 159, 173, 200, 241, 253, 269, 280, 342, 359, 426.

_Box contains girls_, 28, 234, 250.

_Brother and sister_, 293, 344.

_Brothers_, 261, 278; as tormentor, 205, 206.

_Buffalo, chief_, 138; stampedes herd, 138.

Buffalo, early, 37.

Buffalo Historical Society, cited, 42 f.n.

_Buffalo one rib_, 33, 139.

Buffalo songs, 141.

_Bungling boy_, 142.

_Bungling guest_, 26, 209 ff.

Bundles, of magical objects, 163, 222, 368, 369, 372, 376.

Burmaster, Everett R., notes by, 369.

_Burning corpse_, 282, 300.

Camouflage, 356.

_Cannibal_, 133, 156, 203, 269, 271, 284, 335, 345.

Canoe, 134, 256, 269, 305, 342, 427.

Capture, 356.

Cattaraugus reservation, ix.

_Cave of giant_, 397–398.

Cedar waxwings, 331.

_Celestial tree_, 6, 12, 33, 59, 60, 411, 417, 433.

Charm holders’ society, 393.

Charms, witch, 366, 376.

_Cheek tying_, 118, 119, 124.

Cherokee, 358, 422.

_Chestnuts, origin of_, 132.

Chewink, 326.

Chickadee, 325.

Clay pots, 54.

Cleansing, 391.

_Cloudland eagle_, described, 16, 387.

Child killer, 282.

_Chipmunk’s stripes_, 314.

Clothing of Seneca, 41, 48.

Clouds, scouts of Thunderer, 226.

Coffin, 298.

Colden, C., quoted, 431.

Columbus, C., 384.

Comet, origin of, 80, f.n.

_Concealed hearts_, 28, 202, 274.

_Conception by entrance_, 105.

_Conflict between Good and Evil_, 69–70.

_Contest with sorcerers_, 23, 168, 245–252, 265, 351.

Converse, H. M., 446, 456.

_Corn maiden_, 206.

Cornplanter, Edward, picture, plate 2; cited, 85, f.n., 107, f.n., 146, f.n., 153, f.n., 199, f.n., 305, f.n., 383, 386, f.n.

_Corn rains_, 28, 205.

_Cornstalk, magic_, 392.

Corn storage, 53.

_Cosmic trees_, 10, 415, 431.

_Cosmogony_, 59, 411.

Costumes of characters, described, 155, 174–175, 184, 218, 278.

Council, 182, 281, 422, 429.

Crabs (crawfish), 319, 321.

_Creation of man_, 69–70, 71, 416, 434.

_Creator_, 86.

Cripples, origin of, 107, 158, 204, (see skeletons restored).

_Crow_, 325, 388.

_Dancing maidens_, celestial, 86; conjured, 215.

_Daughters, lost_, 228; beautiful, 154.

_Death, origin of_, 93.

Deer, 202.

_Dekanawida_, 403.

Descent, 423.

_Dew eagle_, 387, (see cloudland eagle).

_Divided Body_, 133.

_Divided lodge_, 200, 235, 284. (See forbidden chamber.)

Doctor, Laura M., 372, f.n.

_Dog_, guard, 133, 136; turns to stone, 136; guardian, 202; carries refugee, 295; saves master, 303; witch’s transformation, 378.

_Dolls, magic_, 130, 272, 273, 345; witch, 374, 423.

_Door-flap action_, 30, 259.

_Door-post tying_, 121, 261.

_Double deceives sister_, 25, 290.

_Dream animals_, rescues hero, 24; in form of deer, 166; spider, snake, 173; appears, 179.

_Dream demand_, 27, 187, 245, 259.

_Dream fast_, 241.

_Dream god_ (Aikon), 10.

_Dream helpers_, 29, 173.

_Dreams_, 4, 423.

Drum, 138, 201.

_Dry hand_, 19, 368.

_Dual existence_, 168.

_Ducks, leg tying_, 214.

_Duel_, 168, 231; _of dream tests_, 245, 259; rejected, 335.

_Dwarf, a monster_, 228.

_Earth diver_, 33, 62, 412, 419.

_Earth-god_, 8.

_Earth Holder_, 5.

_Education of young_, 142.

_Elk, magic_, 188; _carries hero away_, 236.

_Enchanted clearing_, 31, 165.

_Enchanted family_, 109, 159, 169, 173, 200, 242, 268, 297, 348.

_Enchanted girls_, 31, 169, 275.

_Enchanted lodge_, 109, 165.

_Enchanted spring_, 31.

_Entrapped_, 178, 267, 270, 287, 348.

_Evil banished_, 34, 71.

_Evil Mind_ (Tawiskaro), 9, 64, 69, 71.

_Eye plaster_, 312, 321.

_False Faces_, 8, 342, 347, 399; society of, 400–401, 435.

_Famine_, 185, 205, 337.

Fat, origin of, 67.

_Father search_, 34, 65, 413, 414.

_Filthy hero_, 97, 123, 426.

_Fire beast_, 6, 61, 79.

_Fire drill_, 271.

_Fire-place burial_, 28, 293.

_Fish line, magical_, 30, 125, 263.

Five Nations, 358, 395; confederation, 405, 436.

_Flayed skin_, 32, 130, 201.

_Flesh-eating water_, 33.

_Flint chips_, throwing, 28, 236.

_Flint lodge_, 28, 261.

_Flute, magic_, 66, 253.

_Flying heads_, 13, 40.

Folk-lore, xv; types of texts, xix; fabricated, xxi; obtaining versions, xxii; Seneca unchanged, 55.

_Food plants, origin of_, 64.

_Food wasting taboo_, 206.

_Forbidden chamber_, 29, 201, (see divided lodge).

_Forbidden direction_, 108, 154, 201, 254, 269, 321.

_Four, magical number_, 162 ff., 170 f.n.

_Friend of animals_, 386.

_Frog, evil_, 162, 322.

_Frost god_, 14; overcome, 91.

_Funeral, pyre_, 282; customs, 425.

Games, 38–40.

George, David, an informant, 153.

_Ghostly legs_, 18.

_Ghosts_, 4, 279.

_Giant_, 285, 336.

_Giantess, human_, 112.

Gifts, 233.

_Glutton destroyer_, 19.

Gods and folk-beasts, 5, 16.

_Good Mind_, 7, 8, 12, 64, 73, 92, 395.

_Grandfather and grandson_, 142, 159.

_Grandmother and grandson_, 200.

_Grasshopper’s leg_, 340.

_Great Bear constellation_, 81.

_Great Ruler_, 340, 395.

_Great Spirit_, 75.

_Grinding bodies_, 232.

_Hail_, 15.

Haiowentha (Haiwatha), 404.

_Hair tied to earth_, 30, 255, 259.

Handsome Lake, 45, 366, 383.

_Harpy_, 267.

Harrington, Mark Raymond, ix, 456.

_Hawenio_, 8.

_Head hitting_, 244, 259.

_Head Opener_, 10.

_Hearts detached_, 28, 202, 274.

_Heart pinching_, 319.

_Heart squeezing_, 28, 203.

_Hero enchanted_, 179, 192.

_Hero pulls out arrow_, 27, 195.

Hewitt, J. N. B., xx, 6, 442.

Hickory nut oil, 295.

_Hidden lodge child_, 24, 167, 249.

Hill, Hon. Henry W., xi.

_Hoarded water_, 23, 34.

_Holder of Heavens_, 395.

_Hole in the ground_, 147, 159, 256, 266.

_Hollow log regeneration_, 29, 100, 120, 124, 237.

_Hollow tree_, 176, 177, 215.

_Horned serpent_, 16, 218; picture facing 218; scales of, 222; rescues woman, 225.

_Hornet warriors_, 155 ff.

_House of women_, 102, 156, 250.

_Hunter_, 182, 186, 254, 262, 350, 386.

_Hunters, classes of_, 152.

_Hunting practice_, 241.

_Hydra_, 230.

Idioms, 142.

Idol, 423.

_Immaculate conception_, 34, 63.

_Imposter_, 180; _fails_, 24, 182, 192.

_Immediate maturity_, 63, 64, (see _precocious twins_).

_Inexhaustible kettle_, 30, 129.

_Ioueskha_, 7, 8.

Informants, ix, x, 199.

_Invisible friend_, 114.

_Iroquois_, 386, 387, 401.

_Island, lonely_, 223, 256, 270.

Jack Berry’s town, 42, 45.

_Jealous father_, 228.

_Jealous sister_, 99.

_Jealous sister-in-law_, 26, 223.

Jemmy, Tommy, 365.

Jimerson, George D. (Tahadondeh), 122, f.n., 337 f.n., 342, f.n., 380, f.n., 396, f.n.

Johnson, Esquire, relation by, 411, 421.

Kennedy, Fred, ix, 370.

Keppler, Joseph, 456.

_Kicking over tree_, 29, 204, 276.

Kittle, Delos Big, ix, 403, 407, f.n.

Ladders, 51.

Lacrosse playing, 104.

_Laughter overcomes magic_, 162, ff.

_Lazy man_, 208.

_Legends, origin of_, 97.

_Leg sharpening_, 31, 213.

Leland, Charles G., 459.

_Levitation_, 83, 199, f.n., 256.

_Lice hunting_, 30, 255.

Listener, (see Hatondas), 116, 122, 154.

_Lizard, blue_, 17, 163.

_Lodge entraps unwary_, 156.

_Lonely bird_, 29, 325, 326.

_Lonely lodge_, 184, 200, 241, 253, 262, 284, 290, 298, 344, 349.

Long House, 421.

_Lost children_, 228.

_Love glance_, 185.

_Love powder_, 373.

_Lover wins mate_, 26.

Lowie, Robert L., 459.

_Lustration_, 391.

_Magic arrow_, 29, 100, 185, 191, 195, 263, 345.

_Magic canoe_, 30, 97, 100.

_Magic birds_, 31, 186.

_Magic cap_, 175, 184, 352.

_Magic feathers_, 31, 352.

_Magic hair_, 336.

_Magic moccasins_, (see running moccasins), 176.

_Magic nut_, 129.

_Magic path_, 135, 155, 162.

_Magic pipe_, 175, 186.

_Magic pouch_, 30, 116, 119, 128, 175, 181.

_Magical power_, 3, (see also Orenda).

_Magic remedy_, 114, 257.

_Magic root_, 175.

_Magic spring_, 31, 133, 162, 177.

_Magic suit_, 30, 167, 174, 178, 181, 220.

_Maiden comes for husband_, 205, 284.

_Maiden restored_, 169.

_Man making_, 34, 69, 71, 416.

_Marksman_, 161, 241, 253.

_Marriage bread_, 60, 123, 181, 205.

_Marry me_, 205, 284.

Mask, making of, 401.

_Master of Life_, 75, 76.

_Mats, floor_, 165.

_Medicine_, 175, 181, 388, 445, 447, ff.

Methods of recording, xvii.

Miller, Aurelia Jones, 153, f.n., 158, f.n., 340, f.n., 394, f.n.

Miller, Guy, 108, f.n.

_Mischief Maker_, 18, 208, 278.

Mole, skin borrowed, 132, f.n., 201.

_Moly_ (a magical plant), 258.

_Monster marries girl_, 26.

_Monster race_, 24, 140, 351.

_Monsters_, 5, 130, 177.

_Moon_, 12, 416.

Mooney, James, 459.

Morgan, Lewis Henry, 441.

_Morning Star_, 12.

_Mother-in-law_, 235.

_Mound_, 139, 206, 230, 242, 274.

Mourning, 424.

_Mutilating nephew_, 117, 242.

_Nail parings_, 332.

_Name-genius_, 170, f.n., 300.

_Name guessing_, 241.

_Nature conscious_, 4.

_Nephew_, (see uncle).

Neutral, 45.

New Year’s ceremonial, 424.

_Niahgwahe_, 126, 295, 344, 345, 351, 358.

_North wind_, 88.

_Obstacles intervene_, 129.

_Obstacles produced_, 26, 264, 266, 296.

_Oil, pool of_, 67.

_Ongwe Ias_, (see cannibal).

_Ordeals_, 241, 252.

_Orenda_ (magical power), 3, 10, 159, 184, 241, 445.

_Otter, blue_, 17.

_Overcoming monsters_, 23, 162 ff.

_Owls_, evil, 164; 177; good, 387.

_Owls from witches’ heads_, 28, 157, 164, 177, 283.

_Pacifying monsters_, 28.

_Paddle, magical_, 256.

Paint, ceremonial, 167.

_Painting face_, 278–279.

_Panther, evil_, 165.

_Partridge_, 328.

_Patting gives power_, 204, 252, 255, 263.

Peabody Museum of American Ethnology and Archaeology, ix.

_Peace Tree_, 431, 436, 442.

_Pestle and mortar_, 112.

Pigeons, 424.

_Pigeon feathers_, 265, 297, 347.

_Pine tree, origin_, 85.

Pipe, 175, 186.

_Pleiades_, origin, 86.

Poison cups, 231.

_Porcupine monster_, 428.

Pouch, 99, 165, 175, 332.

_Powered finger_, 31.

_Power, magically acquired_, 23, 263.

_Power testing_, 71, 241–252.

Precipice, 266.

_Precocious twins_, 23, 101, 104, 126, 135, 268.

_Predestined mates_, 16, 122, 168.

_Primal beings_, 34, 412.

_Propitiation_, 424.

_Provoker_, 229.

_Puberty ceremony_, 173.

Purging, 391.

_Pursued by enemies_, 113, 125, 190, 280, 295, 299.

_Pursuer delayed_, 113, 130, 264, 296, 299, 345.

_Pygmies_, (Djogeon), 18, 32, 332.

Quapaw, 422.

_Quilt of eyes_, 31, 102, 106.