When the war pipe is smoked by any Hañga man, he holds the pipe in his right hand, and blows the smoke into the sacred clam shell, in his left. The smoke ascends from the clam shell to the Thunder-being, to whom it is pleasant.
The Kansa used to “cry to” the Thunder-being before going on the warpath. When the captain (the head of the Large Hañga gens) smoked his pipe, he used to say,
| Haú, | Wákanda-é, | Páyiⁿ-máhaⁿ | miⁿ´ | ts’e | kŭⁿ´bla | eyau,” |
| Ho? | O Wakanda! | Skidi | one | to die | I wish | indeed |
i. e. “Ho, Wakanda! I really wish a Skidi” (or, Pawnee Loup) “to die!”
The men of the two Hañga gentes unite in singing songs to stop rain, when fair weather is needed, and songs to cause rain when there has been a drought. (See § 43.)
SUBTERRANEAN AND SUBAQUATIC WAKANDAS.
§ 37. The Omaha and Ponka believe in the Wakandagi, monsters that dwell beneath the bluffs and in the Missouri river. These monsters have very long bodies, with horns on their heads. One myth relates how an orphan killed a Wakandagi with seven heads.[32]
The Omaha have a tradition that a Wakandagi was seen in the lake into which Blackbird creek empties, near the Omaha agency. It is impossible to say whether the Wakandagi and the ┴ande or Ground were differentiated (See § 27). The Kansa Mi-á-lṵ-cka were somewhat like the Wakandagi, though in one respect they resembled the mythical Ԁá-nu-ta of the Omaha, i. e., in having enormous heads. The Kansa speak of the Mialṵcka as a race of dreadful beings with large heads and long hair.[33] They dwelt in remote places, to which they were supposed to entice any unwary Indian who traveled alone. The victim became crazy and subsequently lived as a miⁿquga or catamite. Some of the Mialṵcka dwelt underground or in the water, sitting close to the bank of the stream. The ancient Mialṵcka was a benefactor to the Indians, for he took some wet clay and made first a buffalo calf and then three buffalo bulls, which he ordered the Indians to shoot, after teaching them how to make bows and arrows and to use them.