Choctaw · numen · Choctaw traditional religion; continuing · numen
Hashok Okwa Hui'ga, the 'grass water drop', is the Choctaw will-o'-the-wisp: a being of the swamps and marshes whose body is unseen and only its heart shows, and that only at night, as a wandering light. Whoever looked directly at the light would become addled and have his mind led astray, losing his way in the dark. The being is recorded by David I. Bushnell among the Bayou Lacomb Choctaw of Louisiana in 1909 and is carried into Swanton's 1931 ethnography. It is grouped here with Nalusa Falaya, whose luminous children are likewise said to lure travellers, since the sources treat the two as the deceiving night-lights of the same wild country.
Domains
marsh lights and night travel
deception and bewilderment
Powers
to lead astray and bewilder anyone who looks upon its night-light
Bushnell, David I., Jr. 'The Choctaw of Bayou Lacomb, St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana.' Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 48. Washington: Smithsonian Institution, 1909.
Swanton, John R. 'Source Material for the Social and Ceremonial Life of the Choctaw Indians.' Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 103. Washington: Smithsonian Institution, 1931.