This god is so curiously wakan that he is entitled to a brief notice.
Like the Wakinyan, there are four varieties of them, all of which assume,
in substance, the human form, but it would be unnecessarily tedious
to note the differences of form, especially as the differences are
unimportant.
These objects of superstition, are said to be armed with the bow and
arrows, and with the deer-hoof rattle, which things are charged with
electricity. One of the varieties carries a drum, which is also charged
with the same fluid. For a drumstick, he holds a small Wakinyan god by
the tail, striking on the drum with the beak of the god. This would seem
to us to be an unfortunate position for a god to be in, but it must be
remembered that it is wakan, and the more absurd a thing is the more
wakan.
One of these gods, in some respects, answers to the wreathed zephyr of
Grecian mythology. It is the gentle whirlwind which is sometimes visible
in the delicate waving of the tall grass of the prairie.
By virtue of their medicine and tonwan powers, they render aid to such
men as revere them, in the chase, in inflicting and healing diseases, and
especially in the gratification of their libidinous passions.
That feast, in the observance of which the worshippers dip their hands
into the boiling kettle and lifting the water in their hands, throw it
over each other’s naked bodies with impunity, belongs to this god.
The nature of the Heyoka is not simply supernatural, it is the opposite
of nature.
He expresses joys by sighs and groans, and by assuming a most doleful
aspect, and sorrow and pain by opposite sounds and aspect. Heat causes
their flesh to shiver, and their teeth to chatter, while cold makes them
perspire and pant. It is said of them, that in the coldest weather of the
Minnesota winter, when mercury congeals, they seek some prominence on the
prairie, where they put up some bushes to shelter them from the rays of
the sun, under which they sit naked and fan themselves as they swelter
with heat, and in the oppressive heat of summer they fold around them
robe on robe, and lean over a rousing fire, sniveling and shaking with
cold like one in a fit of the ague.
They feel perfect assurance when beset with dangers, and quake with
terror when safe. With them falsehood and truth are reversed, good is
their evil and evil their good.
Years ago at Lac qui-parle, the mother of the tall, “curly-haired chief,”
UPIZAHDEYA, was informed that it was required of her to make a feast
to the Heyoka. She was so much opposed by some of her friends that she
failed to comply with the wakan mandate, but she assured her friends,
that as a penalty, they would be mortified by seeing her flesh become
black, and her head bald, which came true. By degrees her flesh did
become very dark, and her head bald, but to an intelligent observer,
it was abundantly evident, that instead of being an infliction of the
offended god, it was the result of neglecting to wash, even her face, for
several years, and pulling out her own hair by little and little.