Journal of American Folk-Lore/Volume 13/Issue 51/Giving Thanks
GIVING THANKS: A PAWNEE CEREMONY.[1]
During my recent visit to the Pawnee tribe I was so fortunate as to be present at a ceremony which, I was told, had never before been observed by one of my race. I am not sure that this statement is correct, but, as far as my own reading goes, I do not recall any account of such a ceremony.
As I was driven up to the lodge of Ti-hi′-roos-sa-wi-chi, the old priest with whom I was to hold a conference concerning a rite I was studying, I noticed that he was naked save for the breech-cloth and his black moccasins of buffalo hide. Knowing his careful observance of all ritualistic forms, I concluded that his attire indicated a preparation for some ceremony, and so it proved to be.
After greeting me, he said: "I am about to thank Ti-ra′-wa for the power granted to the medicine I gave the wife and child of that young man [pointing to a gayly dressed Indian who stood not far off]. He has just brought to me the two ponies which you see under that tree. If you wish, you can go into the lodge with us."
Thanking him for his invitation, and looking toward the doorway of the earth lodge, I could just discern, in the dim light of the interior, the wife of the priest sweeping the floor and making ready for the ceremony. When she came out, she went to the tree under which the ponies were standing, unfastened their lariats, and led them to the entrance of the lodge, where she tied one to each side of the doorway. Then she carried three mats into the lodge, and spread one at the west, one at the north, and one at the south of the fireplace. The priest now entered with a bundle in his arms, and soon after came to the door, and called me. Carrying my little camp, stool, I followed him down the long projecting passageway into the circular room. As we entered, he signified where on the right I was to sit. I placed my stool against one of the large posts, and awaited the ceremony.
I observed at the west side of the lodge, facing the entrance, between two of the larger posts which formed the inner circle about the fire, the sacred buffalo skull, symbolically decorated, lying upon a gayly colored blanket, folded to make a pillow, in front of which stood a wand with eagle feathers attached. Between this wand and the fireplace lay the bundle which I had seen the priest carry into the lodge. This he now proceeded to open and to spread the various articles it contained upon the skin of a buffalo calf upon which the hoofs were intact. This skin seems to have been the inner wrapping of the bundle.
The wife now entered, bearing a kettle of corn mush, which she placed near the fireplace at the southwest. The mush was made of corn, dried in the milk after the native manner, crushed in a wooden mortar of aboriginal type, and boiled in water drawn from a running stream. She next brought two wooden bowls, a wooden ladle, and a number of buffalo-horn spoons threaded on a strip of leather; these she placed on a mat near the kettle of mush. These bowls and spoons were of Indian manufacture.
The fireplace was encircled by a ridge of earth, flattened on the top and broad enough to receive offerings of food which might be placed upon it. The fireplace was empty, and no kettle hung from the tall crotched stick leaning over it from the east. The sunshine falling through the central opening of the lodge made a bright round patch upon the hard earth floor, and touched the edge of a gayly colored mat, while in the diffused light, at the back of the sombre-hued dwelling, could be seen against the walls the old divans of springy saplings with curtains of reed mats, and the lodge roof now sagging with age and the hard usage of wind and rain.
Three men entered; two sat down on the mat spread at the south, and one on that at the north side of the fireplace. All were wrapped in their blankets, but when they were seated, these were thrown back, revealing their embroidered buckskin leggings, decorated shirts, and bead necklaces. Their glossy hair carefully parted in the middle, hung in two braids interwoven with colored bands. None were painted.
After a pause the priest took from the open bundle a small pipe with a black bowl and round wooden stem, filled it with native tobacco, and passed it to one of the young men at the south, who lit it, and returned it to the priest. The priest pointed the stem upward, then placed it to his lips, and sent a puff of smoke up to the blue sky seen through the central opening, A second whiff was blown downward toward the fireplace, and a third was wafted over the buffalo skull to the west. Then the priest handed the pipe back to the young man, who offered smoke upward and downward, and passed the pipe on to the other men, who observed the same ceremony. The pipe then came back to the priest, who finished it, and carefully emptied the ashes in front of the skull. He then passed his hands four times over the pipe and stem, and stroked his head, arms, and body. Rising from his position a little south of the wand, he stooped over the skull, and stroked it four times with both hands from the jaw to the tips of the horns; passed his hands four times around the feathered wand with a spiral motion and touched with both his hands all the articles that lay open on the calf-skin. With bowed heads all present gave the word of thanks, "Na-wa-i-ri!" And under the blue line of lingering smoke drifting upward to the bright central opening in the roof, the priest stood with uplifted hands, silently facing the east.
After a few moments he gathered his robe about him, passed by the south side of the fireplace out through the entrance way where the horses stood tied to the door-posts. Introducing his hands into the mouth of the animal, he passed them down the back from the head to the tip of the tail, then clasping his hands tightly together he returned to the lodge, going straight, by the north, to the buffalo skull. There he unclasped his hands, and, beginning at the jaw, passed them over the sides of the skull to the tips of the horns, while he said: "Father, I am thankful, thankful that you watch over the medicine you have given, and that it has had power to make the people well. That is what I want you to do. That is why I take care of you, why I offer you the tobacco and food which Ti-ra′-wa has given to you and to me."
After a pause he continued: "I have received presents [the horses] which I ornament you with, but now do not let your spirit touch my spirit to hurt me, for I am about to return to this young man the horses which he in good faith brought as an offering. I want him to be remembered, and I desire that we have a long life together."
Then the old priest turned to the young man, and said: "My nephew, you see how very painstaking I am in caring for and preserving this skull, and how often you find me in this lodge alone with this skull, thinking of the people whose words are standing in front of us, although they who spoke are dead and are no longer here; to whom the buffalo made known the medicines which descended to me, and which I have given to your wife and child. When gifts were brought to these old men in the past, they gave thanks to the skull, and after prayer to Ti-ra′-wa for long life, they sometimes returned the gifts to the person who had been cured of sickness, and who had brought them to show thankfulness. Sometimes the old men kept these gifts, as given to Ti-ra′-wa. Such were their ways of doing, and I desire to do as they did."
Once more addressing the skull, the priest said: "Do not let your spirit touch my spirit to do me harm because I return the gifts made in good faith to you. You have looked upon me and upon them."
Addressing the young man, he said: "I return you the horses you have brought." Then he took his seat at the south of the skull.
The young man arose, placed his hands upon the skull, and stroked its sides upward to the tips of the horns, then, as he stood, bending over and with his hands lightly touching it, he said: "Father, I desire that you remember our family, and that the medicine may continue to be good. I have learned from this venerable man that there was once a man who stood upon a hill praying, and that Ti-ra′-wa gave you power to make known mysteries to this man, and that this knowledge has been handed down until now my uncle has charge of you. I have often been around and about you, and have had the feeling that you are set apart and holy. I have in times past brought gifts to you [offerings at ceremonies, not fees], and you have done right by us. When sickness was in our family, the medicine given by my uncle has had the power to cure. These gifts I receive back from my uncle. I am glad in my heart that I receive them, not from my uncle, but from the gods who gave the medicines that are in the care of my uncle, and that these gifts which I receive back have been brought to the notice of the gods."
Then all present gave the word of thanks: "Na-wa-i-ri!"
The young man stepped in front of the old priest, grasped his hands, then stroked his arms, and again grasped his hands, stood for a moment, and then silently took his seat.
Meanwhile the wife and child who had been sick, her mother, and the wife of the priest entered the lodge, and took their seats toward the southwest. The priest walked to the kettle of mush, ladled it out into the two wooden bowls, and put two buffalo-horn spoons in each bowl. Taking some of the mush in a spoon, he offered it to the east, flipping a particle with his finger in the direction of the rising sun; then at the north he poured a little on the ridge of the fireplace; passing round to the west, he bowed his head, and raised the spoon to Ti-ra′-wa, and lowered it very slowly, dropping some on the rim of the fireplace; then, a little was placed in front of the skull. This ceremony over, he set one of the bowls before two of the women, and the other in front of two of the men. Two persons ate from the one bowl, and each laid a small offering on the rim of the fireplace before partaking of the corn. The bowls were passed around the circle a few times. The little child was given of this sacred food by its mother, and when the bowl reached its father, he motioned to the child, who ran to him, and there received a second portion.
The dishes having been gathered up and taken out of the lodge by the wife, the priest spoke upon the help he had received through the observance of ceremonies connected with the buffalo cult. Then he gathered up the articles spread out before him into a bundle, tied it up, arose and went out of the lodge, all the others following.
This simple ceremony throws light upon the native belief as to the causes which promote the efficiency of the administered medicine; the intermediary position of the doctor; and the meaning and purpose of the fees given him for his service.
Knowledge of the roots, herbs, bark, etc., used by this priest in his role of doctor had been handed down to him together with the rituals belonging to the ceremonies connected with the buffalo skull. This knowledge is said to have been given to the person who, generations ago, instituted this cult, and who received it in a vision from a mysterious being. This being was both man and buffalo, and had been empowered by Ti-ra′-wa to bestow the knowledge upon this person, whose supplications had reached the gods.
Ti-ra′-wa is the Pawnee name given to the invisible permeating force which animates all things, giving them form and efficiency. We are told that this power is of such a nature that it cannot directly approach man, or be seen by him, but must act through intermediaries, and reach man in a mysterious way, through animate or inanimate forms, seen in a vision. These forms transmit knowledge of various kinds to those men who seek thus to be instructed by observing certain rites and ceremonies.
There seem, therefore, to be certain degrees of approach to be observed between Ti-ra′-wa and man, and these same degrees are to be observed whenever man would approach Ti-ra′-wa.
The curative principle of medicine is believed to be a manifestation of power coming from Ti-ra′-wa, but this power could not be brought near to man by simple, external, or internal physical application of the root or herb. This curative power must pass through these degrees of approach; in other words, the medicine must be given by one who, in a vision, had been taught its use by a mysterious being sent directly from Ti-ra′-wa, or he must have gained this knowledge, with due form and authority, from one who had so received it, for in no other way could power from the invisible Ti-ra′-wa reach man.
In the line of descent, the doctor stood next to the patient, but, depending in his turn upon the faithfulness of the intermediary next above him, represented in this instance by the buffalo skull, to secure from Ti-ra′-wa the fresh power required to make the medicine effective:
The fees are the signs of the patient's thankfulness. They must be given to the priest-doctor, as only through him can the ascent be made, and the gifts be brought "to the notice of the gods," and the patient receive continued help from the source of life. The final disposition of the gifts, after offering them to the gods, seems to have been at the option of the doctor.
Speaking with the old priest about his action in returning the gifts to the young man, he said: "Some doctors keep all fees for themselves. I have watched such men, they do not prosper, their children die, they have trouble. I have many times given back the presents, after they have been brought to the notice of Ti-ra′-wa-hut. I am now an old man, and I have not been in want. Such things used to be done in the past, the men who did them always had plenty, and were given long life."
Alice C. Fletcher.
- ↑ Paper read before Section H, Anthropology, at the meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science at New York, N. Y., June 27, 1900.