THE THUNDER-BEING A WAKANTA.
§ 75. Among the Iowa and Oto, the Tcexita is the eagle and thunderbird gens, and Mr. Hamilton was told by the Iowa that the Thunder-being was called Tcexita, and Wakanta, the latter being its peculiar title. “They supposed the Thunder-being to be a large bird. When they first hear the thunder in the spring of the year, they have a sacred feast in honor of this god.”
The Winnebago called the Thunder-being “Wakaⁿtca-ra,” and one division of the Bird gens is the Wakaⁿtca ikikaratca-da, or Thunder-being sub-gens. The Thunder-beings are the enemies of the Waktceqi or Submarine Wakantas. One person in the Thunder-being sub-gens is named Five-horned Male, probably referring to a Thunder-being with five horns! Other personal names are as follows: Green Thunder-being, Black Thunder-being, White Thunder-being, and Yellow Thunder-being; but James Alexander, a full-blood Winnebago of the Wolf gens, says that these colors have no connection with the four winds or quarters of the earth (See § 381).
The Iowa told Mr. Hamilton of a Winnebago who saw a Thunder-being fighting a subaquatic power. Sometimes the former bore the latter up into the air, and at other times the subaquatic power took his adversary beneath the water. The Winnebago watched them all day, and each Power asked his assistance in overcoming the other, promising him a great reward. The man did not know which one to help; but at last he shot an arrow at the subaquatic power, who was carried up into the air by the Thunder-being, but the wounded one said to the man, “You may become a great man yourself, but your relations must die.” And so they say it happened. He became very great, but his relatives died.
When the warriors returned home from an expedition against their enemies, they plaited grass and tied the pieces around their arms, necks, and ankles. Sometimes to each ankle there was a trailing piece of plaited grass a yard long. This was probably associated, as were all war customs, with the worship of the Thunder-being (See Chap. III, § 35).