Great Walker and the Ojibwe Witches

Great Walker and the Ojibwe Witches

by Jasper Blowsnake
translated by Richard L. Dieterle

Jasper Blowsnake

(106) An Ojibwe seer was clever. This Ojibwe would go visiting at night, traveling very high, so they were afraid of him. (107) Four Night Travelers (witches) were alone the greatest, these mutual friends, and at night they appointed one among them, and this one was great. They were to fly across it (the sky). When he tried to night travel, he succeeded.

A Hōcąk called "Great Walker" (Manixĕ́tega) knew of them. He was also a seer. Great Walker went over there. He (also) used it, the Night Walking, and as he knew where they were starting from, he waited for them, and he stood there to fetch them one by one. There Great Walker waited for them and made them fail to return. He caused three of the Ojibwe Night Travelers to fall short, and the fourth one went very high, and he landed around a shore, and stood with deer horns. When he held these men, they called out to him, saying that with which they might obtain his consent.

(108) Once he had gotten there, then what holy Spirits they were making of themselves, with this they tried to bless him, but he would not do it. He asked them for something to drink. They excused themselves. So again he asked them for good plants. Again they excused themselves. "To continue, we don't know anything," they said. So, again, he asked them for greetings. There they gave him just one of the greetings, that one with which we might salute the Spirits in their lodge.¹

Commentary. "traveling very high" — in other words, they were flying, sometimes in the form of birds. Jasper Blowsnake tells us elsewhere that they could take the form of blackhawks, nąnaworášošopkē (a kind of night bird), owls, and turkeys.

"Night Travelers" — Hąhiórajḗ (< hąhé horáje), a name given to witches on account of their ability to fly about at night. It was believed that it was during the concealment of darkness that they could best accomplish their covert acts of evil. In "Whiskey Making," Jasper Blowsnake describes these Night Travelers:

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. 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. ... 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.

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".

"appointed" — the Hōcąk is mąnác. "Appointed" sounds awkward, but it was likely a pun with manac, which means, "witch, poisoner." The idea is that as foremost among them, he would be appointed to lead their interaction with Great Walker. Cf. Wanañǧí Mónąc, who Radin described as, "some spirits who always were in ghost shape. They could be any [where?] above, on earth and below." Mónąc may be a variant, or at least etymologically related to, manac. Night Travelers, we are told by Jasper Blowsnake himself, could take the form of ghosts.

"around a shore" — ąjé-regi, translated as "towards shore or land." Ajé seems to denote being away from the water, and so is often translated in the appropriate context as "shore." Elsewhere, Jasper Blowsnake has ajéja (aje-éja) translated as, "away from the water," and "on shore." LaMère has translated ą́jᵉra (a ttL) as "the shore." The -regi of ąjéregi indicates location, often being translated as "there." The use of this term is curious, since no reference has been made to water in the preceding narrative. Given the context, it would seem to reference the shore of a body of water such as a river or lake. This is significant, since Great Walker was blessed with many of his powers by the Waterspirits. Intercepting the Ojibwe witches here may have augmented his power since he is in proximity to those from whom he obtained these very powers.


	Karen

"deer horns"— cāhḗ. A question mark follows this phrase in the text of The Road of Life and Death, 138; and in the original translation of Winnebago Notebook 3.1:107, "deer horn" is crossed out, and "deer snort" written in its place, as the word for "horn," hē, means quite a number of other things, including "to snort." However, the ambiguity of the word may be deliberate. An insight may be obtained when we examine how the Hōcągara understand the spiritual powers of the deer. As was said under "Deer Spirits":

The spiritual nature of the deer is bound up with the four cardinal directions and with the winds that emanate from them. This reflects the connection between sound and pervasiveness — the cries of the deer radiate out to the four corners, so their nature is to control air and what air pervades. Also, deer as animals that rely on speed to survive, have unusually well developed lungs, which means that they, more than most species, have a special control of air. If the voice of a deer is heard, the weather will change from good to bad or vice-versa. Thus if a Deer clansman, who has inherited the spiritual nature of deer, were to sing his clan song too loudly or wail in grief, someone might die. This same activity can also raise a gale force wind. This is because air and sound, being part of the spiritual constitution of deer, make up both the essence of weather and the essence of human life, the breath (ni). To create too much of this power, which apparently subsists in a finite reservoir, is to draw it away from some other spiritual reservoir, such as a human being; or in nature, a mass of air.

From a Hōcąk point of view, a man who has a spiritual identity with the deer ought to have special powers over the air, and indeed, he does have the power to travel in this medium. That cā-hḗ is ambiguous between "deer horn" and "deer snort" in this context is a happy coincidence. As we have seen above, for a person of cervid identity and powers to make a loud deer snort, the effects might well be fatal. Great Walker has seized this witch, and a deer snort by him is a means of defence. Nevertheless, while standing here upon the littoral, this has no effect upon Great Walker who was blessed with very great powers by a chief among the Waterspirits. He has seized and held this man, perhaps by the horns, and rendered him ineffectual.

"when he held these men" — Radin remarks here at the last word at Winnebago Notebook 3.1.107, "They say that when you catch one of these night witches & hold them until daylight they will give you all they've got. They tried to bless them with ... but he wanted their medicine." The diaeresis represents an illegible word, but it is clear that it refers to their power to make themselves holy like the Spirits themselves.

"once he had gotten there" — apparently Great Walker went with them to their own village. This, in any case, is the hypothesis presupposed in Radin's translation.

"he would not do it" — in other words, they offered him the powers that they had that resembled those of the Spirits, but he rejected this offer. This probably reflects the fact that he already had such power, obtained at least in part from the Waterspirits. His desire was to have physical items possessed of medicine powers.

"to drink" — he is asking here, in all likelihood, for the poison intimately bound up with the very concept of witchcraft (see above).

"they excused themselves" — Radin's explication: "i.e. they said they hadn't any".

"good plants" — xąwįhú pį, referring to plants that have magical powers, or simply the power to poison people. For this to be true, pį, which has a very broad meaning, in this context would have to mean "efficacious."

"to continue" — the word here is hē, which it may be recalled, also means "horn." This becomes an interesting pun: they are saying esoterically that they don't know anything about the power of the deer horns in their possession. This rings as hollow as their claim that they know nothing about effacacious plants.

"we might salute the Spirits in their lodge" — spoken by the man who is relating the story of Great Walker and the witches. This is a very great power, allowing the speaker in the Medicine Rite to stand, as it were, in the midst of the Spirits themselves as they are assembled to receive the presentations of the rite. This suggests that the Ojibwe witches were members of the Medicine Rite (Midewiwin) since they were in possession of a Spirit-greeting of such great utility to it.

Comparative Material. The following cultures also have stories in which a supernaturally powerful being, once captured, can be made to yield up something of great value to his captor.


Sébastien Slodtz (Versailles), Photo: Coyau
Aristæus Binding Proteus

The Greeks have a number of myths in which subduing "the Old Man of the Sea," is sufficient to make him give up his secrets. In one story, Aristæus loses his hive of bees, and is told that if he binds the sea god Proteus, he will tell him how to regain his hive. Aristæus ambushes Proteus while he is sleeping on the beach among his flock of seals. In the struggle that ensues, Aristæus is able to bind him. Having thus been bound, Proteus then tells Aristæus how to generate a new hive of bees to replace those that he had lost.²

Homer tells a similar story about Proteus and Menelaus, one of the Achæan heroes at Troy. The daughter of Proteus, Eidothea, let Menelaus know: "A greybeard of the sea frequents this region, he knows the depths of all the sea, and is a subject of Poseidon. They say that he is my father, who begot me. Lest you could lay an ambush for him and capture him, he would be sure to tell you your course and the number of days of your voyage home, so that you may cross the fish-teaming sea. And, if you so desire, he will also tell you everything – evil or good – that has happened to your home while you were away upon your long, toilsome voyage." He was charged to take two other men and ambush Proteus as he slept among his flock of seals. Menelaus did this, but Proteus changed into a lion, a serpent, a leopard, a pig, a puddle of water, and finally, a tree. Menelaus was unrelenting, and succeeded it retaining a hold on him, and as a result, Proteus divulged all the information that Menelaus sought.³

Another story of the same type about Herakles, features Nereus as the Old Man of the Sea. As one of his labors, Herakles was charged with finding the golden apples of the Hesperides. In a way similar to the stories of Proteus, the nymphs of the river Eridanus betrayed Nereus. "They revealed Nereus to him, and Heracles seized him while he slept, and though the god turned himself into all kinds of shapes, the hero bound him and did not release him till he had learned from him where were the apples and the Hesperides."⁴


	Wolfgang Eckert
	A Leprechaun

The Irish have leprechauns who are known to grant wishes if captured. In one of the oldest texts, the old word for leprechauns, lucorpain, is here translated as "sprites." Just as in our story, there are three figures, and their capture takes place on the littoral. "In consideration of this mulct Fergus concluded full peace and went to his own land, bringing with him his bondmaid into servitude. When he had reached his domain he went on to the sea accompanied by his charioteer, whose name was Muena. There they fell asleep on the sea coast. Sprites came to the king and bore him out of his chariot, having first deprived him of his sword. They then carried him as far as the sea, and when his feet touched the sea he became aware of it. At this point he awoke and caught hold of three of them, one in each hand and one on his breasts. ‘Life for life!’ [said the chief dwarf]. ‘Let my three wishes be granted to me’ said Fergus. ‘Thou shalt have anything that is not beyond our power’, said the dwarf. So Fergus chose to ask from him a charm for passing under seas and pools and lakes. ‘Thou shalt have it,’ said the dwarf, ‘save one that I bar to thee: thou shalt not go under Loch Rudraige which is in thy own territory.’ Then the sprites gave him herbs [to put] in his ears, and he used to travel about with them underseas."⁵ Instead of having the power to walk in the air, Fergus has the inverted power of walking on the sea bed.

In Brazil we have a character from folklore known as a Saci. The Saci is a prankster, tying the manes of horses together, causing the souring of milk, and a host of other annoyances. This being is black, having but one leg, and wears a magical red cap. He often appears in dust devils where he can be captured in a bottle. Once in possession of him or his red cap, the Saci is compelled to grant wishes.⁶

The account below is a parallel to the Night Walkers.

The Cherokee believe that there are witches than can travel in the sky. "Of all the Cherokee wizards or witches the most dreaded is the Raven Mocker (Kâ´lanû Ahyelískĭ), the one that robs the dying man of life. They are of either sex and there is no sure way to know one, tough they usually look withered and old, because they have added so many lives to their own. At night, when someone is sick or dying in the settlement, the Raven Mocker goes to the place to take the life. He flies through the air in fiery shape, with arms outstretched like wings, and sparks trailing behind, and a rushing sound like the noise of a strong wind. Every little while as he flies he makes a cry like the cry of a raven when it "dives" in the air—not like the common raven cry—and those who hear are afraid, because they know that some man's life will soon go out. When the Raven Mocker comes to the house he finds others of his kind waiting there, and unless there is a doctor on guard who knows how to drive them away they go inside, all invisible, and frighten and torment the sick man until they kill him. Sometimes to do this they even lift him from the bed and throw him on the floor, but his friends who are with him think he is only struggling for breath. After the witches kill him, they take out the heart and eat it, and so add to their own lives as many days or years they have taken from his. No one in the room can see them, and there is no scar where they take out the heart, but yet there is no earth left in the body. Only one who has the right medicine can recognize a Raven Mocker, and if such a man stays in the room with the sick person these witches are afraid to come in, and retreat as soon as they see him, because when one of them is recognized in his right shape he must die within seven days."⁷

Links: Witches.

Stories: about Great Walker: Great Walker's Warpath, Great Walker's Medicine, A Waterspirit Blesses Mąnį́xete’ų́ga; about seers: The Seer, The Shawnee Prophet and His Ascension, Witches, The Shawnee Prophet — What He Told the Hocągara, A Prophecy About the End Time, A Prophecy, 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, The Tap the Head Medicine, The Diving Contest; mentioning witches or warlocks: The Witch Men's Desert, The Thunder Charm, The Wild Rose, The Seer, Turtle and the 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, The Tap the Head Medicine, 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; mentioning the Ojibwe (Chippewa, Ojibway): White Fisher, White Thunder's Warpath, The Masaxe War, The Two Children, The Annihilation of the Hocągara II, The First Fox and Sauk War, A Waterspirit Blesses Mąnį́xete’ų́ga, First Contact (vv. 2-3), Introduction; 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), The Diving Contest, The Sweetened Drink Song, The Plant Blessing of Earth, Tobacco Origin Myth (v. 3), The Tap the Head Medicine, 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 witch blesses someone with (things of) power: Keramaniš’aka's Blessing, Paint Medicine Origin Myth, The Woman's Scalp Medicine Bundle; 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, The Tap the Head Medicine.

Notes

¹ Jasper Blowsnake, Untitled, in Paul Radin, Winnebago Notebooks, Freeman #3872 (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, n.d.), Winnebago II, #1: 131-132 (a handwritten phonetic text); Winnebago III, #1: 106-108 (the original handwritten interlinear text); Winnebago II, #5: 138-140 (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]) 138-139.

² Virgil, Georgics 4:281-558.

³ Odyssey 4:354; Carl Kerényi, The Gods of the Greeks (New York: Thames and Hudson, 1979 [1951]) 43-44.

⁴ Apollodorus, Biblioteca 2.5.1; Scholiast on Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica 4.1396, citing Pherecydes.

⁵ the text is from "The Saga of Fergus mac Léti," ed. D. A. Binchy, Ériu 16 (1952) 33-48, electronic text, English; Irish.

⁶ "Who is The Brazilian Folklore Superstar Saci-Pererê?" The Brazilians, A Bilingual Newspaper (Oct 11, 2022), electronic text, viewed 11 January 2026; "Saci (folklore)," Wikipedia, viewed 11 January 2026.

⁷ "The Raven Mocker," in James Mooney, History, Myths, and Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees (Asheville, North Carolina: Bright Mountain Books, 1992 [1891/1900]), Story 120, pp. 401-402.