Dure and Wahre'dua Bring Medicine to the People

Hi dear friends and followers

It's almost like the person who told these tales saved the best for last. In these legends we will see how all medicine came to the Otoe/Iowa People.

To the Native Peoples, medicine was a wide-ranging concept that dealt with curing the ill, preserving health, and gaining knowledge of all types. We see physical and spiritual medicine exemplified through the founding of the sweat lodge. Learning is contained within many of the medicine bundles that Wahre'dua selects from the lodges of the spirits whom he and his twin brother, Dure, have visited.

This is the last installment of these legends and myths. Thank you so much for following them with me. I am so appreciative that you have accompanied the twins and I on this journey!

Dure and Wahre'dua Bring Medicine to the People

This time their father was pleased that they had killed all these dangerous monsters. He knew that his sons could control the animals of earth and air. However, he thought that he had better flee because he feared that they would finally kill him also, so he sent them out to discover the four corners of the earth.

The twins set out on their errand and first visited the scenes of all their former victories. While on their travels one foggy day Wahre'dua was taken up into the World Above by the spirits, and while there he was taught by them to control the rain, thunder, and lightning, so that he could go on the warpath as they did. He was taken up there to be shown the power that he and his brother had to exercise in this world.

So the Powers Above showed Wahre'dua all the different types of war-bundles (Waruhawa). These hung all around the walls of the wigwam from one side of the door to the other. Among them were the prototypes of the war-bundles that we use today in the Iowa tribe. They were:

The Holy Sacred Bundle (Wathe Waruhawe or Wathe Ma'ka) which contains some of Wahre'dua's hair medicine. It is a very strong power, and is used to govern the affections of women, to bring presents to the owner, to obtain gifts of horses for him, and even to reform bad women.

The Brave Bundle (Wakwa Shoshe).

The Red (Bean) Medicine Bundle (Maka Sudje Waruhawe) which is used especially for war and horse stealing. Horse doctors use it also, and so do snake doctors.

The Deer Dewclaw Bundle (Ta Sagre Waruhawe), used by Buffalo Doctors in healing the sick.

The Scalping War Bundle (Watce Waruhawe). The Chief's Sacred Bundle (Wanikihi Waruhawa), a peace bundle. The Buffalo Doctors' Sacred Bundle (Tcehowe Waruhawe).

The Grizzly Bear Bundle (Ma'to Waruhawe), used by the Grizzly Bear Doctors to cure the sick.

Originally there was only one of each kind of bundle in each gens, but many false ones are now to be found. One of each of these was given to Wahre'dua to carry back to earth. Some were covered with fresh scalps, just taken. Others had scalps that were a few days old and some were older still.

There was one bundle that hung near the door which was very old and tattered. It was a leading bundle, and Wahre'dua, having magic power, knew it in spite of its appearance and took that one too.

The spirit who was teaching him said, "You have taken the greatest of all. You can control the rain, air, sun, even the beasts and the fowls of the air. Your brother is crying for you down on earth, go back and continue your journey. You will find that your father has fled."

When Wahre'dua got back to the earth he saw that it was all foggy again. He wandered around until he heard Dore calling him. When he approached him, Dore said, "What have you and where have you been?"

"Oh," said Wahre'dua, "I have something that will make us great. Now we will go on."

They left that place and traveled until they came to a place where the earth ended. There was a great crack there that opened and closed, but the twins jumped over it when it was shut.

Once on the other side they found a wigwam where dwelt Pigeon (Rutce or Lutce), the Master of the Fowls of the Air. He gave the brothers the Pigeon War Bundle (Lutce Waruhawe), which is used especially to locate the enemy.

This Pigeon himself was the bird who located the earth at the time of the creation, hence came his great powers. He was the ancestor of the Pigeon Gens. He said to the twins: "Now you have come. I have been expecting you. Take this bundle to use in war to protect you from the scouts and spies of the enemy. It shall be the sacred bundle of the Pigeon Gens."

This Pigeon had also in his charge all the war bundles that are connected with the bird kind. There were the Eagle, Hawk, and Owl Medicine Bundles, and that of the Sparrow-hawk and Black Hawk. All these were shown and explained to the twins.

The lodge was covered with feathers inside. The twins were told to help themselves to all the feathers that they could carry. As for the bundles, they did not actually carry those away, they learned their contents and rituals, and copied them when they got home.

On their way back the twins again came to the crack that marked the corner of the earth, and stepped across. They had now visited the east and so they soon set out to visit the west.

When they got to the western end of the earth they came to another crack and stepped across while it was shut.

Here they were presented with the Wolf Gens War Bundle (Mejiradji Waruhawa). The being who gave it to them had all the bundles connected with the wolves. He was called Wolf Chief (Me'jiradji Wanikihi) and with him was Coyote Chief (Manikathi Wanikihi), so they acquired the Coyote Sacred Bundle also.

All these bundles are only branches of the Sacred Medicine Bundles (Wathe) and the Scalping Bundles (Watce), which, with the Red Medicine Bundle (Maka Sudje), head all the others.

The Wolf Chief gave them their choice of all the war bundles that hung around the walls of his lodge from one side of the door to the other, and again Wahre'dua selected the oldest and most insignificant looking, yet the most powerful one.

The twins returned and went south without looking for their father. Again they came to a crack that marked the boundary of the world and stepped over it while it was closed.

Here they found a lodge where dwelt Munje Wanikihi, the Bear Chief, who greeted them kindly and showed them all the sacred bear bundles. These were mainly for doctoring the sick, as used later by the Grizzly Bear Doctors, but were also secondarily for war. The Brave Bundles (Wankwa Tcutze) belong to this latter class.

The Bear Chief said, "When you get back you can tell the people what you have," and he explained each sort and its ritual to the twins.

All around the inside of his house were hung sacred warbundles from one side of the door to the other. Some had fresh scalps on them, others scalps a few days old, others still older, as in the other two lodges at the east and west ends of the world.

The Bear Chief gave them their choice as before and Wahre'dua selected again the oldest and poorest-looking one, which was in reality the most powerful of all.

The twins returned, and by now their lodge was full of strong powers.

They went hunting to get a bear, a wolf, an eagle, and a pigeon to use in making up their sacred bundles according to the instructions which they had received. As they knew that there would be Chiefs, Braves, well-to-do men, and commoners in the Iowa nation when it came to exist, they got four of each kind, and anyway there would have to be four in each gens, one for each of the descendants of the four gens ancestors.

The twins later selected from each gens of the Iowa nation the four leading men and instructed them in all the ways of these bundles, and that took them a great deal of time.

There should be four whistles attached to or inside of each sacred bundle. These are made of cane because cane grows in water whence emerged each of the gens ancestors. These whistles are to invoke the aid of the four winds.

When the twins turned the bundles over to mankind a great feast was held, after which the leaders learned the traditions, rites, and rituals of the sacred bundles so that they could operate them properly. From that time until recently the war bundles were used as the twins taught us.

The gens began at that time, and once being organized the people of each gens were also instructed in the story of the origin and the use of these bundles. Each gens ancestor was an animal that came out of the Great Water and became a person.

The twins then said to the people, "We cannot stay here any longer, but now you people can take care of yourselves. There shall be chiefs, secondary chiefs, subchiefs, braves and commoners. The Iowa tribe shall ever be peaceable, and we give you for each gens a peace pipe. Seven in all were given to the people. First one for the Buffalo (A'ruhwa) gens, second one for the Black Bear (Tuna'pi) gens, third, one for the Pigeon (Rutce) gens; fourth, one for the Wolf (Munijiraji) gens; fifth one for the Owl (Mankatci or Mankoke) gens; sixth, one for the Eagle (Hkra) gens, and seventh for the Elk (homa) gens.

As the people were now well supplied with the means to make both war and peace the boys started to look for their father. (Note that, probably by error of the narrator, no account is given of their journey to the north end of the earth, although it was said they were to go to all four quarters of the compass.)

They again examined all four corners of the earth, the water, rocks, trees, and the air. Still they couldn't find him. They then came home and asked the very poles of their wigwam, but these were unable to tell them. Even the fireplace did not know. Again they asked everywhere without success.

At last Wahre'dua remembered that they had not inquired of the Thexiskagre, the pole from which kettles are suspended over the fire. So they pulled it up and asked it.

"Yes," said the pole, "your father went through the hole in which I am standing."

The twins followed through the orifice into the nether world and searched there too.

Their father had preceded them and had told all the inhabitants that they would soon be there. He told about all their triumphs in the world above, how they had slain all manner of evil powers from bloodsuckers to gods, and were so powerful and dangerous that no one could circumvent them so that he

himself had fled to escape them. He advised the people to have nothing to do with them and went on.

When the twins go there, they found that the inhabitants would not have anything to do with them, except to tell them that their father had passed that way. This happened at the second village and at the third, but at the fourth and last they found an old lady dwelling in the last lodge all by herself, who told them that their father lived there and was married again, and that all the people were in terror of the boys.

Meanwhile their father ran to the chief and told them the boys were there and advised him to make wax and seal their eyes while they slept, then they could all flee to the north. This was done, and while the boys slept, the wax was put on their eyes so that when they awoke they were helpless.

Now it so happened that the old lady where they were staying had some corn and pumpkin seeds stored away in her woxe (underground cache, a barrel-shaped, bark-lined hole dug in the center of the lodge floor). The rats and mice looking for the corn and seeds ran over the blinded twins as they lay helpless on the floor of the lodge. Wahre'dua got angry at this and threatened to kill them, whereupon one of the rats said: "Kill us if you will, but we want to help you."

Early the next morning the old lady returned to the lodge and said to the boys: "Grandson, under where I sit I have put away something for you boys to eat." (Hintakwaa oamenakowada wapiliiyaki.) Therefore the next time the rats and mice appeared, the boys offered to share the cache with them if they would help them. So the mice gnawed off the wax from their eyelids until the boys could see once more.

Again the boys started in search of their father, but could not find him anywhere. They called all the creeping things together and asked them for tidings. They also asked all the Powers and Spirits and offered their father's body as a reward.

At last Dore went one way and Wahre'dua went the other, still searching.

Wahre'dua went to the water and turned himself into a rock in the middle of a great lake. There he lay day after day, until at last a bird came and lit on him. He instantly seized the bird and he had his father.

Wahre'dua carried his father back and waited until Dore returned, which was along time.

"What shall we do with our father?" he asked Dore when the latter came back.

"Well, let's let him go, and we will resume our travels," answered Dore.

So they released their father and he returned to his last home in the fourth village.

The twins first said to him, "Father, we hate to do anything to you, although we would be justified after you fled from us. We will forgive you. Stay here, and we'll go farther, but we hope to return and see you."

The twins traveled a little farther and they came to a person who said, "Grandsons, I'm glad you've come. Before we talk, let us take a sweatbath."

The sudatory was made of thick clay and had no holes for ventilation. Moreover it was so hard it could not be broken. After the boys agreed, the three entered the sweat lodge and there their host had a great fire outside.

When the stones were heated they were placed in the bath, and one of the boys sat on each side, with the man in the rear, and the doorplace vacant. When the door was closed the heat became terrible, but the twins, when it became too terrific to bear, took mussel shells and crawled under them and so escaped.

At last even the owner could not stand it any longer and ran out, whereupon the boys pursued him and drove him into the next world, where he remains invisible, but evil. He is the evil one, and knows whatever we do or even whisper. He is one of the tribe of Ghosts (Wanagri).

The twins next returned to their father, and made a sweat lodge themselves so that the people in the future would do this for their own benefit when sick. Cedar must be burned as incense as it is sacred to all Indians. This sweat lodge treatment is also to be used to restore a man who has in any way come in contact with a woman undergoing her menses.

The twins went off again, and presently they came to a village where there were three leading chiefs. These were Greda'he the Black Hawk, Ke'tonha the Snapping Turtle, and Wankistogre or Man-in-the-earring.

They had a feast, and one of the chiefs announced that there would be a great race, and whoever won should be given his daughter as a prize. The course of the race was from one corner of the world to the other. Every creeping thing, every fowl of the air, Rain-Man, Thunder-Man, Lightning-Man, and Little God; they too were in it.

The chief took one of the gens peace pipes and said, "This pipe you all see. One of you will start carrying it, and whoever shall overtake him shall take and carry the pipe until someone else overhauls him and captures it. The one who completes the course and brings it back to me shall be the winner."

Turtle, who is unable to run very fast, saw the pipe and he went and made one just like it. He took it and circled and came running back with the false pipe and cried, "I win the race, give me the woman."

"No," said the chief, "wait till the others come in."

But Turtle said, No, I want her now." However the chief would not let him have her, and finally the others came in and Wankistogre, the Man-in-the-earring, brought in the real pipe and won. He received the woman, and

became the ruler of the people, but Turtles trick was the start of the false peace pipes that some people still hold and call genuine Iowa gens peace pipes.

"Now," said the twins, "We have done all we can, let us leave this place. We have made ourselves powerful enemies as well as friends, and we can't always remain here. We've killed too many monsters, let us go elsewhere than this world."

"I will go into the Sun," said Wahre'dua, and Dore, his brother, who had less power, went into the Moon.

The father was weaker yet, so he went into a star, the fixed one 

that the Iowa call Mikathe Manyiskune, and I came home.

This is the third part of what I found to be a three-part legend of the adventures of the monster killers of the Otoe/Iowa people, Dore and Wahre'dua. I hope that you have enjoyed these stories. Hope you all liked the last part. Thank you again for reading, have a great weekend.

✿ڰۣ❤In Loving Light from the Fairy Lady❤ڰۣ✿