Tap the Head Medicine

Tap the Head Medicine

by Jasper Blowsnake
translated by Richard L. Dieterle

Jasper Blowsnake


	Šoǧogᵉnįka	© National Museum of the American Indian NMAI_26201
	A Hōcąk Depiction of a Waterspirit (Wakjexi)	A Hōcąk Medicine Bundle

(130) At the Creation Lodge the various Spirits scattered among us a great Light and Life; when these had seen it, they thought, "I could live, could I not?" and then when they were about to use one of the kinds of singing, they would always tell of this: a man made himself dream. (131) A Waterspirit blessed him with his body, and with his tools he took a drinking medicine, "To Tap the Head with," which medicine he made to be used within his own lodge as a medication for his children. Then the malicious man took evil things, a lot of that sort of thing, and went back to his village. There stood the corner of a precipice, and there he had a place to put his medicine, and there within the precipice he put his medicine bundle. He made himself great with it. Because he had had a vision, people were afraid of him. He was a Night Traveler.

Before him, there had been a seer who had done this. This seer had done it before. The new seer knew where he had placed his medicine, so he went there, and when he had gotten to the place where he had put his medicine, he took his medicine chest. He took absolutely all of it. (132) Since they lived by a timber grove, absolutely all of the bundles he put in one of the many large trees there. One of the bundles he took, and there he penetrated the tree with his hand and inserted the bundle in the center of the tree. Once he pulled his arm out, the tree sealed itself up. It became impossible to take the bundle from the center of the tree there. Again, he took another one of the bundles, and again with another tree that stood there, yet again he did the same thing. All of the bundles each was put in a tree. Thus he hid them. He made his medicine container, a black sack, empty. There this one again sealed the center of the tree. He did this with all of the trees. Thus he did, and went home.

After the man had gotten home, the first seer, about this time, (133) went to see his medicine chest, but it was gone. "How can it be?" he said, "he blessed me that I would be holy," he was saying, and when he looked for them, he found them, but he could not obtain them. He could not extract them.

The old seer was indeed holy. Any tree there was, he could poke his hand into that tree, and he was able to take it into the center of any kind of tree. Again, he was able to put it into the center of any kind of tree. The other seer, the new one, thought himself holy, but that man carried himself as if he were holy, yet he was humiliated, but the new seer's song, which he made, this is it. We will still be using it to conclude with life-engenderng greetings.¹

Commentary


	A Cedar Glade at Red Banks Reproduced with permission from the Department of Natural Resources

"Creation Lodge" — this is the lodge in which the Creation Council was held. The Creation Council was a meeting of the progenitors of the clans from which the Hōcąk nation was formed.² The Creation Lodge was the building in which the Creation Council was held. It was a Thunderbird lodge³ built by a black hawk,⁴ equipt with four doors, each of which opened on one of the cardinal points.⁵ The animal precursors of the several clans each arrived at Red Banks where the council was to take place. At the council they all agreed to form a single nation, but they had yet to decide what language to speak. The Thunderbird said, "Let us speak Hō-cąk, for cąk is a word of praise, and every word that passes our lips will therefore be praise to Earthmaker." Thus they became Hōcągara.⁶ The Creation Council concluded with each new clan taking away a brand of the original fire for itself. Then they dispersed to their own homes. The Creation Council took place in summer, when the grass is about knee high.⁷

"Light and Life" — Radin's conventional translation (elsewhere) of the word hąp, "light, day." It is particularly in the Medicine Rite that the word hąp is used in this metaphorical sense that expresses life as a form of luminance (as it was, for instance, in Gnostic Christianity).

"dream" — hąté. This word, in the present context, does not likely refer to sleeping dreams, but visions acquired through fasting and crying to the Spirits.

"a Night Traveler" — Hąhioraje (< hąhé horáje), "Night Travelers," also, "Night Walkers," a name given to witches on account of their ability to fly about in the night. It was believed that it was during the concealment of darkness that they could best accomplish their covert acts of evil. Jasper Blowsnake, the narrator of the present story, has said elsewhere about the Night Walkers:⁸

At first they were doing night traveling, at that time when they first thought of it, when they did night travel, four nights' distance, that far, they would travel very near. (5) They would transform themselves into dogs, and again into bears, and again they used the blackhawk, and again they used the nąnaworášošopgē, and then again owls, turkeys, ghosts, this many they could transform themselves into. This is what they told me, but at that time they had this sort of thing. At the present time, we can't do anything of that kind, nevertheless they are good experienced housekeepers, so you can make him into a housekeeper. If you have it there in back what they use, that is made for night walking, if you were sleeping at night, none of the night walkers would come near you. Night walkers would be afraid of the one that you have.

"Higų̄́į̄, like at first these night walkers were really turning into bears, and as their powers fade, they employ something else and are going about (that way). They transformed themselves into dogs, and again birds they transformed themselves into, and they would fly away." They have really been doing this from the beginning. At present they can't do anything of the kind, but initially they were really like that. They were saying that therefore they are still holy. What they said was not the truth, and what they were saying was very much a lie, that's the sort of thing they were saying.

These Night Travelers or Night Walkers were witches. Witchcraft was intimately bound up with poisoning. The most common word for witchcraft, wakąwą́x, also means "poisons, poisoners; to poison."; cf. waką́waxió, wakąwaki’o, "bewitched"; hikąwąx (Ai KAn wnH), "to poison or bewitch with"; kąwą́x, "to bewitch, to curse, to poison." For the intimate connection of witchcraft and poison, see the comparative material at "Whiskey Making". Great Walker was famous for having such powers, and he too was blessed by a Waterspirit.⁹

Links: Witches, Waterspirits, Supernatural & Spiritual Power, The Creation Council.

Stories: about seers: The Seer, The Shawnee Prophet and His Ascension, Witches, The Shawnee Prophet — What He Told the Hocągara, A Prophecy, Great Walker and the Ojibwe Witches, The Shawnee Prophet Predicts a Solar Eclipse, A Prophecy About the First School, Winnebagos Go to See the Prophet, The Journey of the Prophet’s Acolyte, The Claw Shooter, Waruką́ną, The Diving Contest; mentioning witches or warlocks: The Witch Men's Desert, The Thunder Charm, The Wild Rose, The Seer, Turtle and the Witches, Great Walker and the Ojibwe Witches, The Claw Shooter, Mijistéga’s Powwow Magic and How He Won the Trader's Store, Migistéga’s Magic, Mijistéga and the Sauks, Migistéga's Death, The Mesquaki Magician, Whiskey Making, Keramaniš’aka's Blessing, Battle of the Night Blessed Men and the Medicine Rite Men, The Magical Powers of Lincoln's Grandfather, The Hills of La Crosse, The Shawnee Prophet — What He Told the Hocągara (v. 2), Įcorúšika and His Brothers, Thunder Cloud Marries Again, Paint Medicine Origin Myth, The Woman's Scalp Medicine Bundle, Potato Magic, Young Rogue's Magic; 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 Sweetened Drink Song, Ancient Blessing, A Deer Story; mentioning medicine bundles: Keramaniš’aka's Blessing, Paint Medicine Origin Myth, The Woman's Scalp Medicine Bundle, The Mesquaki Magician; pertaining to the Medicine Rite: The Medicine Rite Foundation Myth, The Journey to Spiritland, Holy Song, Holy Song II, Maize Origin Myth, The Necessity for Death, Hog's Adventures, Great Walker's Warpath.

Stories from Jasper Blowsnake's account of the Medicine Rite (The Road of Life and Death) in notebook order: The Shell Anklets Origin Myth (v. 1), Keramaniš’aka's Blessing, The Woman's Scalp Medicine Bundle, The Blessing of Kerexųsaka, Historical Origins of the Medicine Rite, Hare Secures the Creation Lodge of the Medicine Rite, Lifting Up the Bear Heads, East Enters the Medicine Lodge (v. 1), The Creation of the World (v. 12), The Creation of Man (v. 8), Otter Comes to the Medicine Rite, The Journey to Spiritland (v. 4), East Enters the Medicine Lodge (v. 2), Testing the Slave, South Enters the Medicine Lodge (v. 2), The Descent of the Drum (v. 1), The Commandments of Earthmaker, The Coughing Up of the Black Hawks, The Animal Spirit Aids of the Medicine Rite, The Arrows of the Medicine Rite Men (v. 2), East Shakes the Messenger, The Medicine Rite Foundation Myth (v. 4), The Messengers of Hare (v. 2), North Shakes His Gourd, Grandmother's Gifts, South Seizes the Messenger, Four Steps of the Cougar, The Messengers of Hare (v. 1), The Island Weight Songs, The Petition to Earthmaker, A Snake Song Origin Myth, The Completion Song Origin, Great Walker's Medicine (v. 2), Great Walker and the Ojibwe Witches, The Diving Contest, The Sweetened Drink Song, The Plant Blessing of Earth, Tobacco Origin Myth (v. 3), The Claw Shooter, Tobacco Origin Myth (v. 4), Peace of Mind Regained, The Journey to Spiritland (v. 5), A Wife for Knowledge, The Shell Anklets Origin Myth (v. 2), The Descent of the Drum (v. 2), South Enters the Medicine Lodge (v. 1), Death Enters the World.

Themes: a person who fasts receives blessings from the spirits: The Blessings of the Buffalo Spirits, The Boy who was Blessed by a Mountain Lion, The Nightspirits Bless Jobenągiwįxka, Ghost Dance Origin Myth I, Redhorn's Sons, The Boy Who Became a Robin, The Woman Who Fought the Bear, The Seer, Maize Comes to the Hocągara, The Warbundle of the Eight Generations, The Woman who Loved Her Half-Brother, The Boy who would be Immortal, The Thunderbird, Lake Wąkšikhomįgra (Mendota): the Origin of Its Name, The Waterspirit Guardian of the Intaglio Mound, Great Walker's Medicine, Šųgepaga, Earthmaker Blesses Wagíšega (Wešgíšega), The Man Who Would Dream of Mą’ųna, Heną́ga and Star Girl, A Man's Revenge, Aracgéga's Blessings, The Blessing of a Bear Clansman, The Man who was Blessed by the Sun, The Girl who Refused a Blessing from the Wood Spirits, The Man Who Lost His Children to a Wood Spirit, Buffalo Dance Origin Myth , The Man who Defied Disease Giver, White Thunder's Warpath, Black Otter's Warpath, A Man and His Three Dogs, The Oak Tree and the Man Who was Blessed by the Heroka, A Waterspirit Blesses Mąnį́xete’ų́ga, The Meteor Spirit and the Origin of Wampum, The Diving Contest, The Plant Blessing of Earth, Holy Song, The Blessing of Šokeboka, The Completion Song Origin, Paint Medicine Origin Myth, The Nightspirits Bless Ciwoit’éhiga, Sunset Point, Song to Earthmaker, First Contact (v. 1), The Horse Spirit of Eagle Heights; someone is blessed with a medicine: The Stench-Earth Medicine Origin Myth, A Waterspirit Blesses Mąnį́xete’ų́ga, Fourth Universe, Great Walker's Medicine, Bow Meets Disease Giver, The Seven Maidens, The Blessings of the Buffalo Spirits, The Seer, The Healing Blessing, A Weed's Blessing, A Snake Song Origin Myth, Young Man Gambles Often, The Origins of the Sore Eye Dance, The Elk's Skull, Buffalo Dance Origin Myth, A Peyote Vision, The Sweetened Drink Song. a Waterspirit is killed and his body is used as medicine: A Waterspirit Blesses Mąnį́xete’ų́ga, Great Walker's Warpath, The Seer; two (groups of) holy men contest one another with supernatural power: The Claw Shooter, Battle of the Night Blessed Men and the Medicine Rite Men, Great Walker and the Ojibwe Witches.

Notes

¹ For the original handwritten interlinear text, see Winnebago III, #1: 130-134; a handwritten phonetic text is found at Winnebago II, #1: 153-155; and its typed version at Winnebago II, #5: 166-169. The published translation is found in Paul Radin, The Road of Life and Death: A Ritual Drama of the American Indians. Bollingen Series V (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1973 [1945]) 152-153.

² For the term "Creation Council," see Walter Funmaker, The Winnebago Black Bear Subclan: a Defended Culture (Ph.D. Thesis, University of Minnesota: December, 1986 [MnU-D 86-361]]) 56-57. Informant: One Who Wins of the Bear Clan. Paul Radin, The Winnebago Tribe (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1990 [1923]) 185. Informant: a member of the Bear Clan.

³ Radin, The Winnebago Tribe, 194. Informant: a member of the Waterspirit Clan. Said to have been built by the chief in Paul Radin, Winnebago Notebooks, Freeman #3862 (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, n.d.) Winnebago I, #3: 79.

⁴ Radin, The Winnebago Tribe, 192. Informant: a member of the Wolf Clan.

⁵ Radin, The Winnebago Tribe, 181. Informant: a member of the Bear Clan.

⁶ Felix White, Sr., "Origin Story of the Winnebago Clans," in David Lee Smith, Folklore of the Winnebago Tribe (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1997) Informant: a member of the Wolf Clan.

⁷ Radin, The Winnebago Tribe, 166. Informant: a member of the Thunderbird Clan.

⁸ Jasper Blowsnake, "Whiskey Making," in Paul Radin, Winnebago Notebooks (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, n.d.) Notebook 64: 1-13 [4-6].

⁹ Jasper Blowsnake, Untitled, in Paul Radin, Winnebago Notebooks, Freeman #3872 (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, n.d.), Winnebago II, #1: 129-130 (a handwritten phonetic text); Winnebago III, #1:105-106 (the original handwritten interlinear text); Winnebago II, #5: 137-138 (a typed interlinear version of this text); Paul Radin, The Road of Life and Death: A Ritual Drama of the American Indians. Bollingen Series V (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1973 [1945]) 137-138.