THE FOUR QUARTERS.
§ 366. According to the tradition of the Iñke-sabĕ, an Omaha buffalo people, the ancestral buffaloes found the East and South winds bad ones; but the North and West winds were good. From this the author infers that the Omaha associated the East with the Fire powers or the sun, the South[286] with the Air powers, the North with the Earth powers, and the West with the Water powers.
On the other hand, an Iowa man told Mr. Hamilton that the South wind was a beneficent one, while the Northeast wind was maleficent (§ 74). This variation may have been caused by a difference in the habitats of the tribes referred to.
§ 367. Among the Kansa, Pahaⁿle-gaqli and Aliⁿkawahu, when they invoked the four winds, began at the left (as they were Yata people) with the East wind (Bazaⁿta, Toward the Pines), next they turned to the South wind (Ak’a, whence one of the names of the Kaⁿze gens), then to the West wind (Ak’a jiñga or Ak’uye), and lastly to the North wind (Hnita, Toward the Cold).[287] (See Fig. 195.)
FIG. 195.—Kansa order of invoking the winds, etc.
FIG. 196.—Tsiɔu (Osage) order of placing the four sticks, etc.
It should be noted that those Kansa war captains, Pahaⁿle-gaqli and Aliⁿkawahu, belong to gentes on the left side of the tribal circle. They were facing the South before they began the invocations to the various powers including the four winds. See § 200 for the order (E, S, W, N) observed in felling the tree to be used as a sun pole. The same order was observed by the Dakota “priest” in the ceremonies pertaining to the White Buffalo festival of the Hunkpapa, as related by Miss Fletcher: in placing cherries on the plate, in pouring water on the piles of cherries, in placing tufts of swan’s down on the plate[288], in rotating the plate, in circling the heap of black earth[289], and in giving the four pinches of consecrated meat to the four sons of the owner of the white buffalo hide.[290]
§ 368. The Tciɔu old man of the Osage tribe consecrated each mystic hearth by placing four sticks in the form of a cross, beginning at the west, as shown in Fig. 196, then laying the sticks at the north, east, and south, as he named the four mystic buffaloes (§ 33). This Tsiɔu man belonged to the peace side of his tribe, and he began with the quarters referring to the peace elements. But the Paⁿɥka old man of the same tribe, when he consecrated the mystic fireplaces for his half-tribe, began on the right, with the stick at the east, as shown in Fig. 197. He belonged to the war side of the tribe, though his gens was a peace-making gens!
§ 369. The Maⁿyiñka and ṵpaⁿ gentes of the Kansa tribe consecrated the mystic fireplaces for their people; but we have not obtained the particulars of the Kansa ceremony, which probably resembled that in which the Tiɔu and Paⁿɥka old men took part.
According to Two Crows and the late Joseph La Flèche, there were four sacred stones in the custody of the Maⁿȼiñka-gaxe or Earth-lodge-makers’ gens of the Omaha: red, black, yellow, and blue.[291]
§ 370. Whenever the Osage warriors came in sight of their village on returning from an expedition against the enemy, they were met outside the village by the principal man of the Kaⁿe (the Wind or South wind gens.) This Kaⁿe man walked around the warriors, performing a ceremony as he started from the north, repeating it at each quarter, and ending with the east, as shown in Fig. 198.
FIG. 197.—Paⁿɥka (Osage) order of placing the four sticks, etc.
FIG. 198.—Kaⁿse (Osage) order of circumambulation.]
§ 371. Assuming that we have a correct grouping of the four elements in Fig. 194, it appears that Pahaⁿle-gaqli and Aliⁿkawahu began with the quarters associated with war; that the Tiɔu old man began with those referring to peace, and the Paⁿɥka old man with those pertaining to war, and the principal man of the Kaⁿe gens with those on the peace side.
FIG. 199.—Showing how the Osage prepared the scalp for the dance.
§ 372. In cutting off the under skin from a scalp, the Osage war captain—
stood facing the East * * * Holding the scalp in one hand, with the other he placed the knife-blade across it, with the point toward the South (see Fig. 199). Then he turned the knife with the point toward the East. Next, with the blade resting on the scalp, the point to the South, he moved the knife backward and forward four times, cutting deeper into the scalp on each occasion. Then he made four similar cuts, but with the point to the East. After this, the flat part of the blade being on the scalp, its edge was put against one of the four corners made by the previous incisions (1, 2, 3, and 4), beginning with No. 1. He cut under each corner four times, singing a sacred song each time that he changed the position of the knife. * * * The scalp was stretched and fastened to a bow, which was bent and formed into a hoop. This hoop was tied to a pole, which was carried by the principal kettle-bearer.[292]
Observe that in this ceremony the South and East were the mystic quarters, answering to the “bad winds” of the Iñke-sabĕ tradition.
When the Dakota “priest,” referred to in § 367, wished to rotate the plate containing the cherries and down, he grasped the plate with his right hand (note that the right side of the Osage circle was the war side) between the east and south piles of cherries and his left hand (compare with custom of Tiɔu gens of Osage, § 368) held the plate between the west and north piles.[293]
In the Hede-watci, the Omaha women and girls danced from the east to the south, and thence to the west and north, while the men and boys proceeded in a different order, beginning at the west, and dancing toward the north, and thence toward the east and south.[294]