Among their diabolical contrivances, the Bad Spirits (Waxopinicicígera) created the Little Human Heads (Wâkpaníkera), "the calculation being for them to eat people." [1] These little heads were completely bodiless and moved by rolling along. Once Hare visited them and was treated hospitably, but on his second visit they tried to corner him so that they could eat him, but he managed to escape. They rolled after him, but when he crossed a stream, they fell in and drowned. Hare burned them up completely and pounded their bones into powder. However, when he dumped their powdered remains into the water, they became little fish who can do no more than nibble at people's ankles. [2]

Links: Hare.

Stories: about the Wâkpanîkera: Hare Visits the Bodiless Heads; about bodiless heads: Hare Visits the Bodiless Heads, The Human Head, The Red Man, Bluehorn's Nephews, The Chief of the Herok'a; featuring Hare as a character: The Hare Cycle, Medicine Rite Foundation Myth, The Mission of the Five Sons of Earthmaker, Hare and the Grasshoppers, The Spirit of Gambling, The Green Man, The Red Man, Maize Origin Myth.

Themes: bodiless heads chase after someone: Hare Visits the Bodiless Heads, The Human Head.

Notes:

[1] Thomas Foster, Foster's Indian Record and Historical Data (Washington, D. C.: 1876-1877) vol. 1, #2, p. 3, col. 2

[2] Paul Radin, Winnebago Hero Cycles: A Study in Aboriginal Literature (Baltimore: Waverly Press, 1948) 100-102.