383, 11. Agudictĕ ... iȼa‘eȼĕ ama, etc. Refers to the Iñgȼaⁿ iȼa‘eȼĕ ama, or the Thunder shamans, of the other Omaha gentes.
When the Ictasanda people become fearful during a shower, they fill a pipe with tobacco and offer it to the Thunder-beings. And when they offer the tobacco, they speak thus: “O grandfather! I am very poor here. In some direction or other cause a place to be abandoned by those (who would injure me?). I think that you are there O Ȼigȼize-maⁿȼiⁿ! I think that you are there. O Ȼiaⁿba-tigȼe! I think that you are there. O Ȼiaⁿba-gi naⁿ! I think that you are there. O Gaagigȼedaⁿ! I think that you are there.”
And when they do not offer the tobacco, they stand with the arms elevated and the hands stretched out, palms down, as they cry towards the clouds. And they say that the Thunder-beings know about them, their worshippers.
The Omaha of the other gentes fear to mention these Ictasanda nikie names, or to bestow them on members of their gentes, as well as to invoke the Thunder-being or beings, unless they belong to the order of Thunder shamans. In that case, they can do as the Ictasanda people do. They make songs about the Thunder-beings, and stand singing their own songs. They fill the pipe with tobacco, and stand, holding it with the mouth-piece toward the clouds, as they gaze towards them.
These shamans often act otherwise. Sometimes they do not fill the pipe, and then they stand singing the Thunder songs, without offering anything to the Thunder-beings.
And these shamans know when anything promises to result in good or evil to the person undertaking it. So when a person wishes to join a large hunting party, he fills a pipe with tobacco, and offers it to a shaman, thus causing him to prophesy. As he wishes him to know the result of following a certain course, (i. e., of traveling in a certain direction), he induces the shaman to sing (sacred songs). And sometimes the shaman predicts the very occurrence which comes to pass; if, for instance, he foretells that the inquiring man will kill game, he may say, ‘The Thunder-beings (?) have given me some quadrupeds.’
§ 36. The following was a custom of the Lṵ or Thunder-being gens. At the time of the first thunder-storm in the spring of the year, the Lṵ people put a quantity of green cedar on a fire, making a great smoke. The storm ceased after the members of the other gentes offered prayers. The Buffalo or Tcedŭñga gens aided the Lṵ gens in the worship of the Thunder-being, by sending one of their men to open the sacred bag of gray hawk skin and remove the mystery pipe. These objects were kept by a Lṵ man, Kinuyiñge, who was not allowed to open the bag.