HEYOKA.
§ 217. Waziya and Heyoka are not fully differentiated. Heyoka, according to Riggs,[166] is “the antinatural god.” He is said to exist in four varieties, all of which have the forms of small men, but all their desires and experiences are contrary to nature. In the winter they stand on the open prairie without clothing; in the summer they sit on knolls wrapped in buffalo robes, and yet they are freezing. Each of them has in his hands and on his shoulders a bow and arrows, rattles, and a drum. All these are surcharged with lightning, and his drumstick is a little Wakinyan. The high mounds of the prairies are the places of his abode. He presides over the land of dreams, and that is why dreams are so fantastic.
§ 218. In speaking of the Heyoka gods, Pond says:[167]
Like the Wakinyan, there are four varieties of them, all of which assume in substance the human form, but it would be unnecessarily tedious to note the differences of form, especially as the differences are unimportant. They are said to be armed with the bow and arrows, and with deer-hoof rattles, which things are charged with electricity. One of the varieties carries a drum, which is also charged with the same fluid. For a drumstick he holds a small Wakinyan god by the tail, striking on the drum with the beak of the god. This would seem to us to be an unfortunate position for a god, but it must be remembered that it is “wakan,” and the more absurd a thing is, the more “wakan.”
§ 219. One of these gods in some respects answers to the whirlwind zephyr of Greek mythology. It is the gentle whirlwind which is sometimes visible in the delicate waving of the tall grass of the prairie.[168]
By virtue of their medicine and tonwan powers the Heyoka render aid to such men as revere them, in the chase, or by inflicting and healing diseases, especially those resulting from the gratification of their libidinous passions.
HEYOKA FEAST.
§ 220. Lynd gives an account of the Heyoka feast. He says:[169]
They assemble in a lodge, wearing tall, conical hats, being nearly naked, and painted in a strange style. Upon the fire is placed a huge kettle full of meat, and they remain seated around the fire smoking until the water in the kettle begins to boil, which is the signal for the dance to begin. They dance and sing around it excitedly, plunging their hands into the boiling water, and seizing large pieces of hot meat, which they devour at once. The scalding water is thrown over their backs and legs, at which they never wince, complaining that it is cold. Their skin is first deadened, as I am creditably informed, by rubbing with a certain grass; and they do not in reality experience any uneasiness from the boiling water—a fact which gives their performances great mystery in the eyes of the uninitiated.
§ 221. Dr. Brinton has confounded the Heyoka with the Wakinyan. The two are distinct classes of powers, though there is some connection between them, as may be inferred from the following stories in the Bushotter collection.
§ 222. No Indian belonging to the Heyoka Society ever tells of his own personal mystery. Such things are “wakaŋ,” and not even one man can be induced to sing the Heyoka songs upon an ordinary occasion; because if they sing one of those songs except at the proper time they say that the Thunder-beings would kill the entire households of the offenders. Therefore they object to singing the Heyoka songs and they do not like to speak about them.
STORY OF A HEYOKA MAN.
§ 223. It is said that the people of the olden times knew when they were about to die, and they used to dream about their deaths and how they would be when the time drew near. One of those men said, “When the first thunder is heard next spring, I and my horse shall die.”
For that reason his kindred were weeping from time to time, this man who had dreamed of his death decorated the legs of his horse by moistening light gray clay and drawing zigzag lines down the legs. In like manner he decorated the neck and back of the horse, and he made similar lines on his own arms. Then he would walk about the prairie near the camp, singing and holding a pipe with the stem pointing toward the sky.
When the leaves opened out in the following spring, the first thundercloud was seen. Then the man said, “Ho, this is the day on which I am to die!” So he tied up his horse’s tail in a rounded form, put a piece of scarlet blanket around the animal’s neck, and spread a fine blanket over his back, as a saddlecloth, with the ends trailing along the ground. He painted himself and his horse just as he had been doing formerly, and, taking the pipe, he walked round and round at some distance from the camp, pointing the pipestem towards the clouds as he sang the Heyoka songs. The following is given as a song of the human Heyoka man, but it is said to have been sung originally by the mysterious and superhuman Heyoka in the thundercloud:
Ko-la, o-ya-te kin, ko-la, wan-ni-yaŋg u-pe e-ye he+!
Ko-la, o-ya-te, kin, ko-la, wan-ni-yaŋg u-pe e-ye he+!
Ko-la, lo-waŋ hi-bu we!
Ko-la, će-ya hi-bu we!
O-ya-te waŋ-ma-ya-ka-pi ye.
He-he-he!
Ta-muŋ-ka śni ḳuŋ e-ye-ye he+!
In this song, “oyate” means the Thunder-beings; “kola,” the Heyoka men here on earth, whom the Thunder-beings threatened to kill; “oyate waŋmayakapi,” ordinary Indians who are not wakan; “He-he-he! tamuŋka śni ḳuŋ,” i. e., “Alas! I hate to leave them (living Indians),” means that the singer expects to be killed by the Thunder-beings.
The whole song may be rendered freely thus:
My friends, the people are coming to see you!
My friends, the people are coming to see you!
My friends, he sings as he comes hither!
My friends, he cries as he comes hither!
You people on earth behold me while you may!
Alas! alas! alas!
I hate to leave my own people!
On the day referred to the Heyoka man had not been absent very long from the camp when a high wind arose, and the rain was so plentiful that a person could not see very far. Then the Thunder-beings looked (i. e., there was lightning) and they roared; but still the man and his horse continued walking about over there in sight of the camp. By and by there was a very sudden sound as if the trees had been struck, and all the people were much frightened, and they thought that the Thunder-beings had killed them. Some of the women and children fainted from fear, and the men sat holding them up. Some of the people thought that they saw many stars, and there seemed to be the sound, “Tuŋ+!” in the ears of each person.
When the storm had lasted a long time, the Thunder-beings were departing slowly, amid considerable loud roaring. When it was all over the people ventured forth from their lodges. Behold, the man and his horse had been killed by the Thunder-beings, so his relations were crying ere they reached the scene of the disaster.
The horse had been burnt in the very places where the man had decorated him, and his sinews had been shriveled by the heat, so he lay with each limb stretched out stiff. The man, too, had been burnt in the very places where he had painted himself. The grass all around appeared as if the Thunder-beings had dragged each body along, for it was pushed partly down on all sides. So the people reached there and beheld the bodies.
As the men in former days used to know events beforehand, as has just been told, it has long been the rule for no one to reveal his personal mystery, which he regards as “wakan.”
HEYOKA WOMEN.
§ 224. Bushotter gave the following account of a female Heyoka who was killed by lightning:
A certain woman whom I saw after she had been killed by lightning belonged to the Heyoka Society. When she walked, she carried a pipe with the mouthpiece pointing upward, as she thought that the Thunder-beings would put the mouthpiece into their mouths, though the act would immediately cause her death.
§ 225. “Women used to dream about the Thunder-beings, just as the men did, and in those dreams the Heyoka man or woman made promises to the Thunder-beings. If the dreamers kept their promises, it was thought that the Thunder-beings helped them to obtain whatever things they desired; but if they broke their promises, they were sure to be killed by the Thunder-beings during some storm. For this reason the Heyoka members worshiped the Thunder-beings, whom they honored, speaking of them as wakan.”
§ 226. Some of the women sing, and some do not; but all let their hair hang loosely down their backs, and their dresses consist of a kind of cloth or a robe sewed down the middle of the back. Sometimes the cloth is all blue, at other times half is red and half is blue. Some times there is beadwork on the dress. Even the Heyoka women wear the long red cloth trailing on the ground before and behind them, in imitation of the young dandies of the tribe.