Medicine Ceremony of the Menomini, Iowa, and Wahpeton Dakota, with Notes on the Ceremony Among the Ponca, Bungi Ojibwa, and Potawatomi Volume 4 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1920 edition. Excerpt: ... occasion of bundle ceremonies and the like. For the sacred myths a similar though less elaborate prayer is used. "We place our tobacco on the ground, offering it first to Ma'nabus, he to receive it and be pleased. We will pass on the same tobacco, of-fering it to the great cylinder above and the four great Powers that are seated about it, they to receive it and be pleased. We beg them to pass it to our great Grandfathers, the great Powers in the four tiers beneath, especially the white lead-ers of the two lower tiers who gave the lodge to Ma'nabus in order to still his grief for his little brother, whom they took away. Let them make it better, and pass it to those upper tiers and to those dwelling above the earth, in the four tiers of heaven. And you too, you Powers in the East, West, South, and North, be all of you pleased with this tobacco, and make our lives long and good for us, and make us strong, we beseech you. You too of the fowl kind, all the" birds of the air, and you too, oh Sun, servant of Mate HSwatuk. You who start on your daily course guarding the world as you travel from the east, observing all things, stopping all evil, and the monsters who crouch in fear of you. You too shall have tobacco that you may be pleased and help us. You too, oh Moon, who guards the earth while Sun is gone, although it is then dark, and the monsters creep out, and the Evil One fares about. You too take this tobacco and help us." At the conclusion of the prayer, all the auditors cry, "Eh " This prayer was the one which was offered by my inform-ant when he adopted me as his nephew before beginning the instruction in the rites of the Mitawin. SYNOPSIS OF THE MITAWIN The Sacred Origin Myth Owing to its complex character, the writer has thought that...