THE WINNEBAGO TRIBE.


definitions have often gone far afield. Their name as known to
the whites, however, is not so easy to understand. The migrat-
ing Algonquian tribes despised the Winnebago, as they were of
a different stock, speaking a different language, and tried at once
to drive them out; but these savages were no match for the
Winnebago, who had the power by numbers or prowess to main-
tain their place in their new home. If the name by which they
were called by these Algonquian neighbors, Ovenibigoutz, had
been translated at Quebec when first heard by the French, as
mean, base or vile in place of Puans, it would have more correctly
expressed as intended, the extreme disfavor of their neighbors,
and this is the rational explanation of the name which has come
down to us as Winnebago.
Perrot, as related by La Potherie as the earliest traditions of
the tribe, gives the circumstances of their fall as their disregard
of others' rights. He says the nation was populous, very re-
doubtable, spared no one and violated all the laws of nature, as
they were sodomites, and even had intercourse with beasts. If
any stranger came among them he was cooked in their kettles.
They declared war on all the other nations, though they had only
stone hatchets and knives.  When the Ottawa sent envoys to
them they were eaten; and then the nations formed an alliance
against them, which occasioned civil war among themselves.
They finally united all their forces in one village of 5,000 men;
but an epidemic occured which reduced them to 1,500. "Despite
all these misfortunes they sent a party of 500 warriors against
the Foxes, who dwelt on the other shore of the lake, but they
perished in a tempest." It is supposed this was on Little Lake
Butte des Morts, as it had been stated the Puans resided on an
island which it is supposed was Doty island, where they had lived
from the earliest times; and the Fox tribes resided on the oppo-
site side of the lake from very early times. Reduced to despair
and famine the other nations took pity on them, ceased to make
war, and the Illinois sent 500 men, including "fifty of the most
prominent persons in their nation" to carry them a supply of
provisions. "Those man eaters received them with the utmost
gratitude," but at the same time meditated sacrificing the Illi-
nois to the shades of their dead. A large cabin was erected to
lodge their guests; but while the Illinois were dancing their bow
strings were cut and the Winnebago "threw themselves on the
Illinois and massacred them, not sparing one man, and made a
general feast of their flesh." In a few years the Illinois, assemb-


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