Hoklonote'she (the shape-shifting spirit that reads the mind)
Choctaw · numen · Choctaw traditional religion; continuing · numen
Hoklonote'she is a malevolent Choctaw spirit distinguished by two powers: it can read what a person is thinking, and it can freely assume the form of any bird or animal, most often an owl. Because it could wear any shape, an encounter with a strange or bold animal might in fact be Hoklonote'she, and medicine men and women were consulted to determine whether a given creature was the spirit in disguise. Its ability to know the mind made it especially dangerous, since it could anticipate and thwart a person's intentions, and it belongs to the broad Choctaw category of deceptive, thought-knowing woodland spirits.
Domains
- shape shifting and illusion
Powers
- to read the thoughts of a person
- to take on the form of any bird or animal at will
Sources
- John R. Swanton, Source Material for the Social and Ceremonial Life of the Choctaw Indians, Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 103, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., 1931.
- David I. Bushnell Jr., The Choctaw of Bayou Lacomb, St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 48, Smithsonian Institution, 1909.