Omaha novice might at any time seek to obtain Wakonda by what was called
THE RITE OF THE VISION. He would go out alone, fast, chant incantations,
and finally fall into a trance (much resembling what in modern times has
been called COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS) in which he would perceive the inner
relations of all things and the solidarity of the least object with the
rest of the universe.

(1) Summarized in Themis, pp. 68-71.

(2) A. C. Fletcher, The Significance of the Scalp-lock, Journal
of Anthropological Studies, xxvii (1897-8), p. 436.

Another rite in connection with initiation, and common all over
the pagan world--in Greece, America, Africa, Australia, New Mexico,
etc.--was the daubing of the novice all over with clay or chalk or even
dung, and then after a while removing the same. (1) The novice must have
looked a sufficiently ugly and uncomfortable object in this state; but
later, when he was thoroughly WASHED, the ceremony must have afforded a
thrilling illustration of the idea of a new birth, and one which would
dwell in the minds of the spectators. When the daubing was done as not
infrequently happened with white clay or gypsum, and the ritual took
place at night, it can easily be imagined that the figures of young men
and boys moving about in the darkness would lend support to the idea
that they were spirits belonging to some intermediate world--who had
already passed through death and were now waiting for their second birth
on earth (or into the tribe) which would be signalized by their thorough
and ceremonial washing. It will be remembered that Herodotus (viii)
gives a circumstantial account of how the Phocians in a battle with the
Thessalians smeared six hundred of their bravest warriors with white
clay so that, looking like supernatural beings, and falling upon the
Thessalians by night, they terrified the latter and put them to instant
flight.

(1) See A. Lang's Myth, Ritual and Religion, i, 274 sq.

Such then--though only very scantily described--were some of the rites
of Initiation and Second Birth celebrated in the old Pagan world. The
subject is far too large for adequate treatment within the present
limits; but even so we cannot but be struck by the appropriateness in
many cases of the teaching thus given to the young, the concreteness of
the illustrations, the effectiveness of the symbols used, the dramatic
character of the rites, the strong enforcement of lessons on the nature
and duties of