Page:The International Folk-Lore Congress of the World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, July, 1893.djvu/266

 222 analogy of nature, that God is a gracious and exacting friend. He both punishes the disobedient and evil-doers, and forgives and helps the good. He hears prayers. He is called Wakantanha or Great Mystery. The first half of the word, viz., wakan, means mystery or holy; and tanka means great, mighty or supreme. Neither of the two words which compose the Wakantanka signifies spirit, however it may imply that. The wakan may also mean reverenced or sacred.

Before the coming of the missionaries the Sioux never prayed or gave any offering direct to the Great Mystery. It was then believed he was too great to be approached directly. But a prayer or gift through his attributes will reach him. The legend is that God occasionally visits the earth, in the shape of some animal, or envelopes himself in a great wind. If any person sees the Great Mystery's face he dies instantly, although the same person may be born again as a child and become a great "medicine man."

Before the advent of the white man these people believed that the earth was round and flat, and was suspended in a dark space, and sheltered by the heaven or sky, in the shape of a hollowed hemisphere. The sun was made by the Great Mystery, the father, and the earth, the mother, of all the things that live and grow. But they have been married long, and had become the parents of many generations of races, therefore they were called Tunkan'sida and Uncida, or great grandfather and grandmother. As far as I can make out the moon seems to be their servant, or at least she is required to watch, together with the stars, the sleeping world below; while the Sun comes down to sleep with his wife. Earth, and his children. The moon is considered a man and the stars are his brothers. In the sense that the Sun and Earth constitute the parents of the world, they believed that the Great Mystery holds them responsible. Therefore it was natural for them to appeal to these two, who will in turn appeal to the Supreme Being.

In the thunder they believed that God has a warrior who presided over the more powerful elements, such as the storms, rains, etc. Also he was appointed to act as soldier (in the sense of police) keeping order here below. He is held as a large bird, and is called the thunder-bird, and depicted as the