These seven niniba waqube are peace pipes, but the niniba waqube of the Wejincte is the war pipe.
§ 18. The two sacred pipes kept by Iñke-sabě are used on various ceremonial occasions. When the chiefs assemble and wish to make a decision for the regulation of tribal affairs, Ictasanda fills both pipes and lays them down before the two head chiefs. Then the Iñke-sabě keeper takes one and the [T]e-[p]a it`ajĭ keeper the other. Iñke-sabě precedes, starting from the head chief sitting on the right and passing around half of the circle till he reaches an old man seated opposite the head chief. This old man (one of the Hañga wag¢a) and the head chief are the only ones who smoke the pipe; those sitting between them do not smoke it when Iñke-sabě goes around. When the old man has finished smoking Iñke-sabě takes the pipe again and continues around the circle to the starting-point, but he gives it to each man to smoke. When he reaches the head chief on the left he gives it to him, and after receiving it from him he returns it to the place on the ground before the head chiefs.
When Iñke-sabě reaches the old man referred to [T]e-[p]a-it`ajĭ starts from the head chiefs with the other pipe, which he hands to each one, including those sitting between the second head chief and the old man. [T]e-[p]a-it`ajĭ always keeps behind Iñke-sabě just half the circumference of the circle, and when he receives the pipe from the head chief on the left he returns it to its place beside the other. Then, after the smoking is over, Ictasanda takes the pipes, overturns them to empty out the ashes, and cleans the bowls by thrusting in a stick. (See §§ [111], [130], [296], etc.)
Fig. 13.—Places of the chiefs, etc., in the tribal assembly.
A.—The first head chief, on the left. B.—The second head chief, on the right. C.—The two Hañga wag¢a, one being the old man whom Iñke-sabě causes to smoke the pipe. D.—The place where the two pipes are laid. The chiefs sit around in a circle. E.—The giver of the feast.
In smoking they blew the smoke upwards, saying, "Here, Wakanda, is the smoke." This was done because they say that Wakanda gave them the pipes, and He rules over them.
§ 19. Frank La Flèche told the following:
The sacred pipes are not shown to the common people. When my father was about to be installed a head chief, Mahin-zi, whose duty it was to fill the pipes, let one of them fall to the ground, violating a law, and so preventing the continuation of the ceremony. So my father was not fully initiated. When the later fall was partly gone Mahin-zi died.
Wacuce, my father-in-law, was the Iñke-sabě keeper of the pipes. When the Otos visited the Omahas (in the summer of 1878), the chiefs wished the pipes to be taken out of the coverings, so they ordered Wacuce to undo the bag. This was unlawful, as the ritual prescribed certain words to be said by the chiefs to the keeper of the pipes previous to the opening of the bag. But none of the seven chiefs know the formula. Wacuce was unwilling to break the law; but the chiefs insisted, and he yielded. Then Two Crows told all the Omahas present not to smoke the small pipe. This he had a right to do, as he was a Hañga. Wacuce soon died, and in a short time he was followed by his daughter and his eldest son.
It takes four days to make any one understand all about the laws of the sacred pipes; and it costs many horses. A bad man, i. e., one who is saucy, quarrelsome stingy, etc., cannot be told such things. This was the reason why the seven chiefs did not know their part of the ritual.