DCHP-1 Online

wabbano Various spellings [< Algonk.; cf. Ojibwa wāpano I am a conjurer, Cree wapun, wabun dawn]

• 1a n. Hist. among certain Indians, a ritual that involves singing, dancing, and conjuration, usually held in the spring and fall.

  • 1800  (1897)  He has given my hunter an elegant drum, trimmed with all the symbols of the wabbano medicine.
  • 1802  (1897)  The Indian tribes, having finished the grand medicine, are making the wabbano.
  • 1905  Outside the noise had increased, and the babel of voices came to them distorted and strange, mingled with curses and the sounds of the Indian wobbano songs.
  • 1931  [We have] for neighbours a people who carry drums to celebrate the Wabeno and wear charms to ward off evil spirits. . . .

• 1b n. Hist. a session of heavy drinking that accompanied the trading activities when Indians or others visited a post.

  See also: boisson  

  • 1951  The great wabbano went merrily on.
  • 1956  (1957)  They would all have a grand wabbano and they would relive in pantomime and song their feats of heroism in battle. . . .

• 2 n. See quotes.

  • c1804  The Wabanoe is another order of imposters who pretend, by virtue of their medicine bags, to baffle all the secret machinations of their most inveterate enemies, and even to kill them at pleasure without being detected.
  • 1852  A society named Wabuno is said to have been formed among the Chippeways, for the practice of certain nocturnal orgies called Wabunsi. . . .
  • 1935  If a man were very ill, and all remedies had failed to heal him, the wabeno might place him beside the fire before the ceremony. . . .