Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Among the Virginia Indians, to subject to the ordeal of the huskanaw.
  • noun Formerly, among the Virginia Indians, the ceremony or ordeal of preparing young men for the higher duties of manhood, by solitary confinement and the use of narcotics, whereby remembrance of the past was supposed to be obliterated and the mind left free for the reception of new impressions.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • (The word also denotes any lively social gathering or dancing party.) hako a Pawnee ceremony representing the union of heaven and earth and the birth of life, which was performed with prayers, invocations by pipe, and eagle dancers to ensure long life and prosperity to the participants. huskanaw an Algonquian initiation rite for youths at puberty, which included fasting and the use of narcotics.

    VERBATIM: The Language Quarterly Vol X No 3 1984

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