Hashok Okwa Hui'ga (the grass-water-drop light)
Choctaw · numen · Choctaw traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
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
Epithets
- Hashok Okwa Hui'gaBushnell, David I., Jr. 'The Choctaw of Bayou Lacomb, St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana.' Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 48. Washington: Smithsonian Institution, 1909. (secondary)
Relations
- companion: Nalusa Falaya (the long black being)Bushnell records the grass-water-drop light directly alongside Nalusa Falaya, whose luminous children likewise lead travellers astray with their shining; the two are presented together as the deceiving lights and shadows of the Choctaw swamp at night.Bushnell, David I., Jr. 'The Choctaw of Bayou Lacomb, St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana.' Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 48. Washington: Smithsonian Institution, 1909. (secondary); 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. (secondary)
Sources
- Hashok Okwa Hui'ga, the 'grass water drop', is a Choctaw swamp being seen only as a heart-light at night, which bewilders and leads astray anyone who looks at it.: Bushnell, David I., Jr. 'The Choctaw of Bayou Lacomb, St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana.' Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 48. Washington: Smithsonian Institution, 1909. (secondary); 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. (secondary)