A Study of Siouan Cults: Eleventh Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1889-1890, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1861, pages 351-544Dorsey, James Owen
Religion
A Study of Siouan Cults: Eleventh Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1889-1890, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1861, pages 351-544
Dorsey, James Owen
Siouan Indians -- Religion
§ 234. The Indians used to hear an Anuŋg-ite or Two Faces pass
along kicking the ground. When he kicked the ground with one foot bells
used to ring and an owl hooted, and when he kicked with the other it
seemed as if a buffalo bull was there, snorting as he does when about
to charge. At the next step a chickadee was heard, and when he moved
the other foot he made all kinds of animals cry out. The Indians had
heard this Anuŋg-ite and were afraid of him. Now and then when a
man who thought himself strong was alone when he met the Anuŋg-ite
the latter surprised him by catching him and throwing him into one of
his ears. These ears were so large that each could hold three men. No
person knew where the Anuŋg-ite made his abode, and no one cared to
follow him; no one dared to go out of doors at night. Now, there was
an old man and his wife who had a lodge to themselves, and their only
child was a willful boy. One night he was particularly ill-behaved, and
when his mother told him to do something he disobeyed her. So she said:
“I will put you out of the lodge and the Anuŋg-ite will toss you
into his ear.” She did not believe this, and merely said it to frighten
her son into obedience. Finding him heedless, she seized his arm and,
though he began to cry, pushed him out of the lodge and fastened the
entrance securely. The poor boy ran crying around the lodge, but soon
there was silence. The mother in turn began to cry, and went to seek
him, but she did not find him outside the lodge. The next morning she
and her husband, weeping, went to seek him among the people in the
neighboring camp, asking every one about him, but no one had seen him.
So they returned to their lodge, and they wept many days for their son.
One night the mother was weeping. Suddenly she heard some one say,
“Hiⁿ! hiⁿ! You said to me: Ghost, take that one. Hiⁿ! hⁿ!”
This was said often, and she noticed a rattling of small bells as the
being walked along. Just then she said: “Husband, I think now that a
ghost has taken my son.” The husband said: “Yes; you gave the boy to
the ghost, and, of course, the ghost took him. Why should you complain?
It serves you right.” Then the mother cried aloud, so that her voice
might have been heard at a distance. Then said she: “Husband, to-morrow
night I will lie hid by the wood-pile, and if the ghost comes I will
have a knife in my hand, and after I catch it by the leg I will call
to you. Be ready to come at once. You must aid me, and I will recover
my son, because I know that he threw him into his ear.” So the next
night she lay in wait for the monster. By and by something was coming,
crying out “Hiⁿ!” and making all kinds of birds and animals cry out
as it walked. She saw a very large being come and stand by the lodge.
He was very tall, his head being above the smoke-hole, down which he
peeped into the lodge. Suddenly the mother called to her husband, and
seized one leg of the monster with both hands. Then she and her husband
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