Small water bundle

The Small Water Association is a medicine covenant of the Iroquois - Indians .

The Kleine-Wasser-Bund is probably the best organized federation. There are various officials who are clearly hierarchical. This hierarchical structure of the officials is a typical feature of the Iroquois medicine leagues. It applies in this or a similar way to most of the frets. A more detailed description of the duties of the public officials cannot be found in the sources.

Four meetings are held each year, with three of them singing the night song "Ganoda". The purpose of the company is to preserve the strength of the secret medicine known as little-water powder .

The meetings are opportunities to maintain social relationships and resolve disputes. It is against the rules to allow members who have disputes with one another and are unwilling to get them out of the way.

There are two altars: The Altar of Fire and the Altar of Mystery. The ritual consists of songs describing the adventures of the founder, known as Good Hunter . At the end of each section, the feast-makers run bowls of berry juice. In some huts a pipe is passed around. During the following hiatus, members - women and men - smoke their own tobacco. The singers shake rattles to accompany their songs. Only purified members are admitted. Society has no public ceremonies and dances. Special meetings were sometimes held to teach the novices .

Each member who enters the hut deposits their medicine package on the Altar of the Secret and their tobacco additive in the corn stalk basket. The tobacco is thrown into the fire by the necromancer (invoker) while he sings his prayers. The flute song is played during the second and third sections . At the end of the ceremony, a pig's head is passed around and pieces of the cooked meat are torn off with their teeth. This is supposed to imitate crows. In the past, a bear's head was eaten. The ceremony starts at 11:00 p.m. and ends at dawn. The sun should not see the ceremony. During the singing it is absolutely dark in the hut. Light is only allowed during the interruptions. Reports from the officers and the treasurer are presented prior to the ceremony.

The company's property consists of the medicine bundles, the flute, the pumpkin rattles and the sacred tobacco basket.

This is the only covenant where the song holder doesn't have to be a pagan today . Many Christians therefore belong to this covenant.

The Small Water Association meets on the 5th night of the new moon in June.

literature

• Arthur C. Parker: Secret Medicine Societies of the Seneca , in: American Anthropologist, Col. 11, 1909, pp. 161-185. New York: Kraus Reprint Corporation, 1962