Ancient Blessing

by Mrs. Blowsnake

Paul Radin remarks, "I went out to Wakefield to see Sam & Jasper Blowsnake's grandmother about pottery but she did not know much about it. She says that clay pots were always spoken of in their myths, and that she supposed they were pots made out of clay and heated or baked hard. She also heard a story of one that was blessed."

(1) The spirits told the blessed that at a certain time he would see an Indian pail and when the time came they showed him a clay pot. And then they told him that they would show him an Indian ax, and they showed him a stone tied at the end of a split stick. Then a spoon was shown them in the form of an oyster shell with a handle put on.¹

Commentary. At the top of the page is written, "Jasper Blowsnake's grandmother 90 years old."

Links: Spirits.

Stories: about fasting blessings: Earthmaker Blesses Wagíšega (Wešgíšega), The Difficult Blessing, The Boy Who Became a Robin, The Boy who would be Immortal, The Woman Who Fought the Bear, The Girl who Refused a Blessing from the Wood Spirits, The Seer, The Woman who Loved Her Half-Brother, The Nightspirits Bless Jobenągiwįxka, Disease Giver Blesses Jobenągiwįxka, The Blessings of the Buffalo Spirits, Black Otter's Warpath, The Boy who was Blessed by a Mountain Lion, Ghost Dance Origin Myth I, The Blessing of a Bear Clansman, Aracgéga's Blessings, The Meteor Spirit and the Origin of Wampum, Great Walker's Medicine, Buffalo Dance Origin Myth, Thunderbird and White Horse, The Man who was Blessed by the Sun, Holy Song, A Waterspirit Blesses Mąnį́xete’ų́ga, Paint Medicine Origin Myth, The Plant Blessing of Earth, The Blessing of Šokeboka, Heną́ga and Star Girl, The Tap the Head Medicine, The Sweetened Drink Song, A Deer Story.

Themes: spirits bless someone with an artifact: Waruǧábᵉra (warbundle, warclub), The Warbundle of the Eight Generations (warbundle, flute), The Blessing of a Bear Clansman (warbundle), The Thunderbird (warclub), The Boy who was Captured by the Bad Thunderbirds (warclub), The Rounded Wood Origin Myth (ceremonial object), Origin of the Decorah Family (drum), The Friendship Drum Origin Myth (drum), Paint Medicine Origin Myth (magical paint), The Stench-Earth Medicine Origin Myth (flute and gourd), Disease Giver Blesses Jobenagiwixka, The Blessing of the Bow (bow and arrows), Heną́ga and Star Girl (Thunderbird Medicine, arrow).

Notes

¹ "Jasper Blowsnake's Grandmother," in Paul Radin, Winnebago Notebooks (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, n.d.) Notebook 61, page 1.