PERSONAL FETICHES.
§ 62. Ԁaȼiⁿ-naⁿpajĭ said that there were some Omaha who considered as “waqube” the skins of animals and the skins and feathers of birds used in making their “waȼixabe” or mystery bags. Among these birds and animals he named the eagle, sparrow hawk, yellow-backed hawk, green-necked duck, great owl, swallow, otter, flying squirrel, mink, miʞa skă (“white raccoon” sic), and mazaⁿhe. The last is an animal resembling an otter. It is covered with thick black and reddish-yellow hair, and its tail is bushy. Samuel Fremont said (in 1889) that this animal was not found in that part of Nebraska where the Omaha dwelt, but that he had heard of its being found among the Dakota. Two Crows and Joseph La Flèche never heard of the miʞa skă and mazaⁿhe among their own people; but they said that when the Omaha traveled, some used to take with them their respective “makaⁿ” or medicines, evidently their personal fetiches, for they used to say, “Our medicines are wise; they can talk like men, and they tell us how many horses we are to receive from the people to whom we are going.”
When the Omaha went against the Pawnee during the boyhood of the present Big Elk, one of the captains, named Gi‘aⁿhabi, had a war club of the kind called “weaqȼade.” He made this club “waqube,” in order to use it mysteriously. When near the camp of the enemy he brandished the club four times toward the Pawnees. This was followed by the use of the sacred bag, as related in § 59.
It is probable that the medicines of the Watci Waȼupi, Wase-jide aȼiⁿ-ma, and the Ԁaȼiⁿ-wasabĕ watcigaxe ikagekiȼĕ, of the Omaha,[74] the Red Medicine of the Kansa, and the Red Medicine of the Osage Makaⁿ ɔüʇe watsiⁿ or Red Medicine Dance, were used as fetiches, as they conferred wonderful powers on those who used them. When the author was at the Omaha Agency, in 1878, he obtained the following: Rocky Mountain beans, which are scarlet, and are called “Makaⁿ jide” or Red Medicine, confer good luck on their owners. If the beans like their owners, they will never be lost; even if dropped accidentally, they will return to the possession of their owners. Ni-k’ú-mi, an aged Oto woman, told one of her granddaughters (then Susette La Flèche, known as Bright Eyes after 1879, and now the wife of T. H. Tibbles) of her own experience with one of these beans. She had dropped it in the grass, but she found it on retracing her steps. It is impossible to say whether this scarlet bean was identical with the Red Medicine of the Iowa (§ 87), Kansa, and Osage; but it certainly differed from that of the Wase-jide aȼiⁿma of the Omaha.
There are sacred or mystery rites practiced by the dancing societies, including those to which the wazeȼĕ or doctors belong. Two Crows said that he did not know those of his society, the ┴e iȼa‘eȼĕ-ma. As initiation into one of these societies is very expensive, it is unreasonable to suppose that Two Crows would communicate the secrets of his order for a small sum, such as $1 a day.