WORSHIP.
§ 81. “One of their most common acts of worship, and apparently one of daily occurrence, is observed when a person is about to smoke his pipe. He looks to the sky and says, ‘Wakanta, here is tobacco!’ (See §§ 29, 40, ‘Nini bahai tĕ.’) Then he puffs a mouthful of smoke up towards the sky, after which he smokes as he pleases.” “They also make offerings of tobacco by throwing a small quantity into the fire.” “They frequently offer a small portion of food at their feasts, before they begin eating.”
Mr. Hamilton saw dogs hung by their necks to trees or to sticks planted in the ground, and he was told that these dogs were offerings. “No Heart told me that when the smallpox raged among them about fifty years ago” (i. e. about 1798), “and swept off so many, that they made a great many offerings.” Said he, “We threw away a great many garments, blankets, etc., and offered many dogs to God. My father threw away a flag which the British had given him. When we had thrown away these things, the smallpox left us.” These offerings to God (literally, to Wakanta) were the means of checking it. “To throw away,” in Iowa, is the same as “to offer in sacrifice.”