FIG. 176.—Tent of unknown Omaha.
FIG. 177.—Tent of ┴ebi‘a.
The father of Maⁿtcu-naⁿba had a vision of horses, and bequeathed to his son Maⁿtcu-naⁿba the right to decorate his tent in the style shown in Fig. 174. The yellow was connected with the vision. When the owner dwelt in an earth-lodge, the horse-tail was tied to a long pole, which was thrust through the opening at the top of the lodge. So when he used his skin tent, the horse-tail hung from the top of a long pole above the smoke-hole.
When the Omaha dwelt near the present town of Homer, Nebr., and Wackaⁿhi was a young child, he went out to play, and fell asleep. He said that he was aroused by the sounds made by many chickens crowing and cackling. In those days (fide George Miller) there were no white people in that neighborhood; but now in that very place where Wackaⁿhi had the vision, there is a wealthy family living, and besides large herds they have a great many chickens. In remembrance of that occurrence, Wackaⁿhi painted his tent with his personal decoration as given in Fig. 175.
An unknown Omaha had a vision of deer, so he decorated his tent accordingly. (See Fig. 176.) George Miller could not furnish the man’s name.
§ 51. Among the members of the order of Grizzly Bear shamans was an Omaha named ┴ebi‘a (Frog). The top of his tent was painted yellow, as shown in Fig. 177. There was no other decoration; but this yellow evidently was connected with a grizzly bear vision, as it appears in the decoration adopted by the father of Two Crows, who was not only one of the two leaders of the order of Thunder shamans (Iñgȼaⁿ iȼa‘eȼĕ-ma) but also a member of the orders of Buffalo and Grizzly Bear shamans (┴e iȼa‘eȼĕ-ma and Maⁿtcu iȼa‘eȼĕ-ma). (See Pl. XLIV, D, in which a grizzly bear is depicted as emerging from his den. The blue part represents the ground.)
This decoration (of the tent of Two Crows’ father) is thus described by George Miller:
| Maⁿtcú | iȼa‘eȼaí | egaⁿ´ | ʇí | tĕ | égaⁿ | gáxai. | Maⁿtcú | wadaⁿ´bai | tĕ´di | ʇan´de | kĕ | maⁿ´taʇa | éȼaⁿbe | tí | wadaⁿ´bai, | gaⁿ´ |
| Grizzly bear | they have visions of it | as | tent | the std. ob. | so | they make it | Grizzly bear | they see them | when | ground | the lg. ob. | within | emerging | come | they see them | and |
| égaⁿ | gáxai | ʇí | tĕ. | ┴an´de | kĕ | ʇúȼĕ-naⁿ´i, | ʇí | hébe | kĕ | zíȼĕ-naⁿ´i.” |
| so | they make it | tent | the std. ob. | Ground | the lg. ob. | they usually paint blue | tent | part | the lg. ob. | they usually paint yellow. |