Incense and the Pipe

INCENSE AND THE PIPE.

When the Conductor ceased singing this song he entered the lodge and sat at the catku. He then filled and lighted a pipe in the formal manner and handed it to the Assistant, who smoked and passed it to the younger man, who also smoked and passed the pipe. It was passed until all in the lodge had smoked in communion, the Conductor smoking last. He emptied the residuum in the pipe carefully beside the catku and said, "The grandfather, the father, and the sons are with us. The Earth and the Buffalo are in this lodge. We have smoked together as friends, and the spirit of the pipe has gone up to the Great Spirit. I will now make incense to drive away the evil powers." The meaning of this address is that all the Gods above the world were with them and that those on the world, the Earth and the Buffalo, were in the lodge; that the potency of the mediating

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God, Wohpe, which abides in the smoke of the pipe, had gone from all in the lodge to the Great Spirit and would propitiate Him. ,

The Conductor then handed the fire carrier to the Assistant and the counting rod to the Recorder, and commanded the Assistant to bring fire. He brought burning coals and placed them together on the fireplace, using the fire carrier to handle the fire. The Conductor then made incense by first sprinkling sage and then sweetgrass on the fire. While he was doing this, the Assistant arranged the buffalo skull on the altar, propping it up with the stone that had been placed beside the altar, so that it faced the catku.. Then the Conductor filled the ceremonial pipe with cansasa, and the Assistant brought a burning coal on the fire carrier and held it so as to light the pipe. The ceremonial pipe is lighted in this formal manner in order that the potency of the sun, which abides in the fire, may be with the potency of the mediator, which abides in the smoke of the pipe. As the Conductor smoked the ceremonial pipe be said, "Grandmother, you have not taken the horns from this skull. The spirit of the buffalo still watches for Anpeo. We will honor these horns."

The Shamans usually addressed the Goddess, the Earth, as Grandmother, It was taught that when the horns fall from the dried skull of a buffalo this Goddess has taken them from it; that the spirit of the buffalo abides in the skull as long as the horns remain on it; that the spirit of the buffalo is as one with the God, the Buffalo; that the God, the Buffalo is the comrade of the God, the Sun, and is most pleased when in His light. Anpeo is the akicita, or forerunner, of the sun. It is the red aurora. With this explanation the allusive meaning of the address may be comprehended.