This is an excerpt from an account of the Snake Feast. The narrator is unknown.
"My grandfather fasted and thirsted himself to death and he was blessed and his spirit taken to a spirit lodge. That is what happened to my grandfather, for he told me this himself. The place where he was blessed was a Red Banks at a place where a creek flows into the sea [Green Bay]. At the fork of this creek there was a hill lying east and west. It is there that the Yellow Snake-Chief lives. To the home of this snake-chief my grandfather was taken. This snake was at this place gathering tobacco for all the spirits. There my grandfather was even blessed with their bodies. For this reason I always pour tobacco for them. And I have been given to understand that the spirits do not overlook the least fault [in the performance of the Snake Feast]. They are always in our midst just as even the grass and the dust represent snakes. They know everything, they say. It is not safe to cross their path. As, however, the host is now making an offering to them, should we cross their path now it would even strengthen us. It is good. These clubs are heavy and they will not fail to strike everything within their reach. The host has asked for that power so that he might have victory." [1]
Commentary. "Red Banks" -- this is where the Creation Council was held in which the spirits originally formed the Hotcâk nation.
"Yellow Snake-Chief" -- He is one of the four Snake Spirits originally created by the hand of Earthmaker and set in the east to prevent the primordial earth from tearing apart (see 1).
"at this place gathering tobacco" -- there are certain places, called tanî-ostôhira ("tobacco gathering places"), where the spirits typically receive tobacco offerings (see 1).
"blessed with their bodies" -- some spirits give parts of their bodies as blessings. Waterspirits are particularly noted for this practice. These body parts are invariably used as medicines, not to exclude potions valuable in witchcraft.
"These clubs are heavy and they will not fail to strike everything within their reach." -- an obscure reference to the clubs that were said to have been made for the first four original snakes created by Earthmaker (see 1).
Stories: mentioning snakes: The First Snakes, The Woman who Married a Snake, Snake Clan Origins, The Omahas who turned into Snakes, A Snake Song Origin Myth, The Medicine Rite Foundation Myth, The Twins Disobey Their Father, The Two Boys, Wears White Feathers on His Head, Creation of the World (vv. 2, 3, 4), The Twins Retrieve Red Star's Head, Warughápara, The Green Man, Holy One and His Brother, The Man who was Blessed by the Sun, The Warbundle of the Eight Generations, Turtle and the Merchant, The Lost Blanket, The Shell Anklets Origin Myth; mentioning the Yellow Snake-Chief: The First Snakes; mentioning feasts: Thunderbird Clan Origin Myth (Chief Feast), The Creation Council (Eagle Feast), Wonághire Wâkcik Clan Origin Myth (Eagle Feast), Waterspirit Clan Origin Myth (Waterspirit Feast), Bear Clan Origin Myth (Bear Feast), The Woman Who Fought the Bear (Bear Feast), Grandfather's Two Families (Bear Feast), Wolf Clan Origin Myth (Wolf Feast), Buffalo Clan Origin Myth (Buffalo Feast), The Blessings of the Buffalo Spirits (Buffalo Feast), Buffalo Dance Origin Myth (Buffalo Feast), He Who Eats the Stinking Part of the Deer Ankle (Buffalo Feast), The Blessing of Cokeboka (Feast to the Buffalo Tail), Snake Clan Origins (Snake Feast), The Thunderbird (for the granting of a war weapon), Turtle's Warparty (War Weapons Feast, Warpath Feast), Porcupine and His Brothers (War Weapons Feast), Earthmaker Blesses Wagícega (Wecgícega) (Winter Feast = Warbundle Feast), Big Thunder Teaches Tcap'ósgaga the Warpath (Winter Feast = Warbundle Feast), The Boy who was Blessed by a Mountain Lion (Winter Feast = Warbundle Feast), White Thunder's Warpath (Winter Feast = Warbundle Feast), The Fox-Hotcâk War (Winter Feast = Warbundle Feast), Baldheaded Warclub Origin Myth (Warpath Feast), Kunu's Warpath (Warpath Feast), Trickster's Warpath (Warpath Feast), The Masaxe War (Warpath Feast), Redhorn's Sons (Warpath Feast, Fast-Breaking Feast), The Girl who Refused a Blessing from the Wood Spirits (Fast-Breaking Feast), The Chief of the Herok'a (Sick Offering Feast), The Dipper (Sick Offering Feast, Warclub Feast), The Four Slumbers Origin Myth (Four Slumbers Feast), The Journey to Spiritland (Four Slumbers Feast), Spear Shaft and Lacrosse (unspecified); set at Red Banks (Mógacútc): The Creation Council, Annihilation of the Hotcâgara II, The Great Lodge, Thunderbird Clan Origin Myth, vv. 1, 2, 3, 5, Bear Clan Origin Myth, vv. 2a, 3, 8, The Winnebago Fort, Blue Bear, Waterspirit Clan Origin Myth, The Hotcâk Arrival Myth, The Creation of Man, v. 10, Wonághire Wâkcik Clan Origin Myth, v. 2, Pigeon Clan Origins, fr. 1, Eagle Clan Origin Myth, Elk Clan Origin Myth, v. 1, Deer Clan Origin Myth, v. 1, Buffalo Clan Origin Myth, Gatschet's Hotcank hit'e ("St. Peet", "Hotcâk Origins"), The Shell Anklets Origin Myth, v. 1, The Seven Maidens, Big Thunder Teaches Tcap'ósgaga the Warpath; set at De Rok, "Within Lake" (Green Bay): Waterspirit Clan Origin Myth, Thunderbird Clan Origin Myth, vv. 1, 2, 3, Story of the Thunder Names, Wonághire Wâkcik Clan Origin Myth, v. 1, 2, Deer Clan Origin Myth, v. 1, Bear Clan Origin Myth, v. 4, The Seven Maidens, Ioway & Missouria Origins, Great Walker's Warpath, The Annihilation of the Hotcâgara I, v. 2, The Fox-Hotcâk War, v. 2, The Creation Council, Gatschet's Hotcank hit'e.
Themes: a messenger leads a man to Spiritland: The Blessings of the Buffalo Spirits, The Shawnee Prophet -- What He Told the Hotcâgara, The Foolish Hunter, Aratcgéga's Blessings, The Blessing of a Bear Clansman, Blessing of the Yellow Snake Chief.
Notes:
[1] Paul Radin, The Winnebago Tribe (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1990 [1923]) 279.