§ 232. These powers have been scarcely differentiated; and some writers speak of them as identical. They seem to have been of the nature of bogies or boggarts. Says Lynd:[174]
Ćaŋotidaŋ draws the hungry hunters to the depths of the wood by imitating the voices of animals, or by the nefarious “Cico! cico!” (i. e., I invite you to a feast! I invite you to a feast!) when he scares them out of their senses by showing himself to them.
On the same page he distinguishes between the Ćaŋotidaŋ and the Oḣnoġića thus:
“The stray lodge becomes the delight of the wild Ohnogica,” implying that such lodges were haunted by this spirit for the purpose of frightening any unwary traveler who ventured there without a companion.
In Tah-koo Wah-kon (p. 75, note), Riggs speaks of the “Chan-o-te-dan or Hoh-no-ge-cha. The former is a fabulous creature, dwelling usually in the woods as the name indicates. The latter name would seem to give it a place by the door of the tent.” With this we may compare the Omaha invocation, “O thou who standest at the right side of the entrance! Here is tobacco!” (§ 40). The name also reminds us of “The Dweller upon the Threshold” in Bulwer’s “Zanoni.”
Riggs, in his “Theogony of the Sioux,” p. 270, writes thus of the “Chan-o-te-na”:
This means, Dweller in the woods. Sometimes he is called Oh-no-ge-cha, which would seem to assign him to a place in the tent. Whether these are one and the same, or two, is a question in dispute. But they are harmless household gods. The Chan-o-te-na is represented as a little child, only it has a tail. Many Indian men affirm that they have seen it, not only in night dreams, but in day visions.
The name Hoḣnoġića or Oḣnoġića is called by the Teton, Uŋgnaġićala, which is the name of the screech-owl. As the Ponka Indaȼiñga dwells in the forest, and is said to resemble an owl, he must be identical with the Dakota Ćaŋotidaŋ or Uŋgnaġićala. (See § 38.)
ANŬŊG-ITE.
§ 233. Wonderful stories of beings with two faces are found among the Dakota as well as among the Omaha. Lynd[175] states the belief of the Dakota (i. e., those speaking the Santee dialect) that “women with child are but torturing sports for the vengeful Anog-ite.”