Obtaining the Weyekin

J. M. Cornelison. “Obtaining the Weyekin,” in Weyekin Stories (Titwatit Stories). San Francisco: E. L. Mackey & Co., 1911.

Beginning from the earliest times the children of the Indians were taught how they might best obtain their Weyekin, which would be their helper, adviser, guide and comforter, both in daily life, in war, in hunting and fishing, in business and in sickness. The instructions were on this wise. The child should rise early, bathe his body carefully by means of sweat bath and cold plunge, and cleanse his mouth far into his throat and stomach with willow twigs. Thus cleansed he should go alone into the woods or along the stream to commune with Nature until such time as some animal, bird, beast, or insect should in some manner communicate with him, in the natural way while walking, or while asleep in the visionary or ecstatic way. And what ever came to him and made a pact with him thus should become his Weyekin, his guiding star, his good angel in all after life.

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