M. R. HARRINGTON — SACRED BUNDLES OF THE SAC AND FOX INDIANS. 163

of the child until he turns gray. A man’s life, they say, goes like the Sim. He rises and gets to a certain height, then begins to decline; so the man appointed tells the Sun they want this child to grow and live to old age, until, like the Sim, he finally goes down. ‘Make this child live and believe as he has been taught,’ the old man prays. ‘He must believe in the Indian teachings. Let him then live until he is like someone with four legs’ — meaning until he has to walk with two canes — ‘and his hair turns from gray to white.’
“This is prayed to the bundles too. When a man or a woman gets too old they keep quiet. They cannot go any- where or do anything, so they depend altogether on the bundle they are keeping.’’
It would seem from the following item, also recorded by Mr. Skye, that the speakers, leaders and waiters chosen for a naming bundle ceremony must belong to other clans than that of the bundle.
“Now the name of Pitoski, to whom the first bundle was given, is from the Fox clan, so he (the keeper of the Pitoski or Fox bundle) chooses a chief of the Bear clan to help him arrange for feasts for his bundle — to talk over the way it ought to be done, and they get the nlm&wi okimd (Fish chief) to help them also. The Fox and Bear clans really came from the Fox tribe, originally, it is said. Then he selects from the Swan and Turkey clans the leaders in the feast; and two of the four waiters come from these and two from the Bald Eagle and Black Wolf clans. And, as was said before, the chief of the feast must be from the Bear clan. Now the Fish clan called ‘ Pa comwa ’ has for waiters men from Thunder, Eagle, Deer and Elk clans and the Bear clan takes from the Eagle, Rabbit and Bear-potato clans.”
The following description of a war bundle ceremony was given by Mecabekwa, whose version of the myth relating the origin of the bundles has been related.
Certain persons are said to belong to one of these bundles, and these only have the right to get up a feast for it. When
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164 UNIVERSITY MUSEUM — ANTHROPOLOGICAL PUBLICATIONS VOL. IV.
one of these wants to hold such a ceremony, he goes around and notifies his fellow members to gather at the place where the bundle is kept in four days. Then he appoints two men — the “waiters” — to go around and notify and invite the other people — anyone can come. When the time arrives, each mem- ber takes something to eat to the feast — turkey, pumpkin, anything he has handy — especially meat, like dog or venison. The ceremony begins before dawn, and all the morning, while the food is cooking, the songs go on, the singers being the people who belong to the bundle. In many cases there are dances to go with the songs (PI. XXIV), and in these the public take part. About midday when the food is cooked one per- son is invited from the Ac kac ,a division and one from the KIc ko\ and these compete with each other in eating the scald- ing food fresh from the kettles. In this contest a dog or a deer is divided in two equal parts, one for the Ac kac /s and one for the K!c'ko a , each of whom chooses an equal number of his own division to help him in the eating race.
This done, the leader of the bundle gives a pot of food to a certain one with a bundle of little sticks equal to the number of pieces of food in the pot. This person then goes out and gives the sticks around to anyone he wishes to eat with him, one stick to each person, and these join him in eating what is left of the food.
When everything has been eaten and there is silence in the lodge, a man known as a speaker, or preacher, stands up and relates the story of the origin of the bundle. When he has finished there is again silence for a while, then the leader of the bundle speaks: “Now, my friends, you have eaten the food that I have sacrificed to the Great Manito. Now you have the privilege of leaving us.” To this the people respond, “Hao!” and get up and move about, even though they may stay longer.
The members of the bundle — the performers — all sit on the north side of the lodge (generally a rectangular bark house) (Pis. XXI, XXIV), while the invited ones sit opposite on the south
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