§ 17. There are certain beliefs and practices which have not been found among the four tribes whose cults are treated of in this chapter. Ancestors were not worshiped. They were addressed reverently when alive, and when they died it was not contrary to custom to refer to them by name, nor did their deaths involve the change of name for a single object or phenomenon. It was a very common occurrence for the name of the deceased to be assumed by a surviving kinsman. This is shown by genealogical tables of a few Siouan tribes, the material for which was collected by the author, and which will form part of his monograph on “Indian Personal Names,” now in course of preparation for publication by the Bureau of Ethnology.
§ 18. They never heard of Satan or the devil until they learned of him from the white people. Now they have adopted the terms, “Wanáxe piäjĭ,” “Iñgȼaⁿxe piäjĭ,” and “Wakanda piäjĭ.” The first is used by the Omaha and Ponka, the others were heard only among the Ponka. They have a certain saying, applicable to a young man who is a liar, or who is bad in some other way: “Wanáxe piä´jĭ égaⁿ áhaⁿ,” i. e. “He is like the bad spirit!” This becomes, when addressed to the bad person, “Wanáxe piä´jĭ éȼikigaⁿ´-qti jaⁿ´,” i.e. “You act just like the (or a) bad spirit.”
§ 19. Though it has been said that hero worship was unknown among the Omaha and Ponka, it has been learned that Omaha mothers used to scare their unruly children by telling them that Icibajĭ (a hero of the ┴e-sĭnde gens) or his friend ┴exujaⁿ (a hero of the [K]aⁿze gens) would catch them if they did not behave. There was no worship of demigods, as demigods were unknown. Two Crows and Joseph La Flèche said that phallic worship was unknown, and they were surprised to hear that it had been practiced by any tribe. (See § 132, 164.) As the Ponka obtained the sun-dance from their Dakota neighbors, it is probable that they practiced the phallic cult.
§ 20. Totems and shamans were not worshiped, though they are still reverenced. Altars or altar-stones were unknown. Incense was not used, unless by this name we refer to the odor of tobacco smoke as it ascended to the Thunder-being, or to the use of cedar fronds in the sweat lodge. There were no human sacrifices, and cannibalism was not practiced.
OMAHA, PONKA, AND KANSA BELIEF IN A WAKANDA.
§ 21. According to Two Crows and Joseph La Flèche, the ancestors of the Omaha and Ponka believed that there was a Supreme Being, whom they called Wakanda. “Wakanda t‘aⁿi tĕ eȼegaⁿi, they believed that Wakanda existed.” They did not know where He was, nor did they undertake to say how He existed. There was no public gathering at which some of the people told others that there was a Wakauda, nor was there any general assembly for the purpose of offering Him worship and prayer. Each person thought in his heart that Wakanda existed. Some addressed the sun as Wakanda, though many did not so regard him. Many addressed Wakanda, as it were, blindly or at random. Some worshiped the Thunder-being under this name. This was especially the case when men undertook to go on the war path. [7] Mr. Say recorded of the Kansa: “They say that they have never seen Wakanda, so they cannot pretend to personify Him; but they have often heard Him speak in the thunder. They often wear a shell which is in honor or in representation of Him, but they do not pretend that it resembles Him, or has anything in common with his form, organization, or size.”
SEVEN GREAT WAKANDAS.
§ 22. Ԁaȼiⁿ-naⁿ-pajĭ said that there were seven great Wakandas, as follows: “Ugahana[p]aze or Darkness, Maxe or the Upper World, ┴ande or the Ground, Iñgȼaⁿ or the Thunder-being, Miⁿ or the Sun, Niaⁿba or the Moon, and the Morning Star. The principal Wakanda is in the upper world, above everything.” (This was denied by Joseph La Flèche and Two Crows; see § 93.) The author thought at first that these were the powers worshiped by Ԁaȼiⁿ-naⁿpajĭ and the members of his gens or subgens; but subsequent inquiries and statements occurring in the course of texts furnish cumulative evidence favoring the view that some or all these powers had many believers among the Omaha and the cognate tribes.
INVOCATION OF WARMTH AND STREAMS.
§ 23. Ԁaȼiⁿ-naⁿpajĭ said that Macte or Warmth was a good Wakanda. Ni ȼiⁿ, the flowing Stream, according to him, was thus addressed by a man who wished to ford it: “You are a person and a Wakanda. I, too, am a person. I desire to pass through you and reach the other side.” Two Crows denied this, saying that his people never prayed to a stream; but George Miller said that it was true, for his father, Little Soldier, prayed to a stream when he was on the war path, and that such invocations were made only in time of war.