The Progress., 1888-02-25

were made to answer the purposes,
the Media proceeds to circle to the
left uttering at every step the
exclamation, ''whe, whe, Whe, s
until he reaches certain spot
near the entrance Of the lodge,
where he stops and turning to the
person undergoing initiation he
addresses him or her thus: ''Whay
ho-ho, ho-ho, ne-cah, ne-cah, ne.
cab -nah-gay -cah- -nah,'' this, as
near as we can get the translation,
means, ssWelcome, welcome, our
would-be BRETHREN or tour noble
kinsman.'' The Ne-cans or priests
then walk and assemble together
at the rear end Of the lodge and
converse in a language which
none but members high in the or
der can understand, and those to
whom it has been explained. The
translation as given to us is as fol-
lows:
"After the Great Spirit had
made known to his children, the
| Unish-in- -ah- -baig, how to obtain a
new life, He said "what mnst T
do for the Indians ? They are
empty handed" He closed His
hands and then opened them and
behold, there was the great Me-gis
the great sea otter. This great
striped otter then was selected to
distribute the Me-gis (sea shelly.
And the Great Spirit taking a
large sea shell thus spake to the
otter, ''you shall have this for a
a lodge" which means the Grand
Medicine Lodge.
The striped otter was not an ot-
ter but spirit, who took the form
Of any animal it desired. His
name was Zay-zong-e.nic- -kaid
(strong army, and four spirits
guarded and waited on him. He
summoned these four spirits to
him and addressing them said: HGo
and tell the Grand Media spirits I
have something to say to them, !"
and from the North, South, East
and West the Media Spirits were
summoned to appear before Zay-
zong-e-nic-kaid, when they had
assembled, he said to them, ''go
on the big earth and distribute
for the Use of my children, the
Munedo-wains-ish-ug (inferior
spirits), that they may use their
skins for meda-we-yauns, and also
the us-in-ah- bay we min e : wug
(blue bird spirit) for the same pur-
pose. After the Za-zong-e-nic -kaid
had given directions to the four
Media Spirits, he assumed the
shape of an otter and covered his
body with the Megis.
While the old men were sitting
in the Grand Medicine Tndrn
which had been built by the di-
rections Of the Sun spirit, they
heard curious noises as if some
body was laughing-the noise be-
ing similar to that which you have
probably heard made by an otter;
upon looking up they saw the
Great Megis when it first came
over from the big Earth. It is
believed to have first come ashore
at the mouth Of Mon-ay-yah Sc
bing est. Lawrence river), where
for many days the rays Of the sun
reflected on it's back over the Earth
imparting new life to the Indians.
From thence he disappeared and
at intervals he appeared along the
the shores Of the St. Lawrence
until he reached the great chain
of lakes, of which lake Superior
is the king. He finally reached
the shining shores Of Sha-gah-nah.
mic-ong, two miles from where
Bayfield, now stands at a place
known as Black creek, here the
Great Megis come ashore to rest
At last he reached place known
as Mon-ing- ah-nay coming, here
while resting the Great Megis saw
the smoke as Of many fires, and
he soon ascertained that a great
I village was situated here aud thai
many thousand Indians lived
. there, and here he resolved to de.