244 



BIRDS IN LEGEND 



with their shadows and produced thunder by flapping 

 their wings and lightning by opening their eyes, shoot- 

 ing naming arrows, and so forth. Some tribes believed 

 in one such bird only, others in a family or flock of 

 them variously colored, while still others declared that 

 the agent was a giant who clothed himself in a huge 

 bird-skin as a flying-dress. 



If one asked what any one of these creatures was like, 

 the answer usually was that it resembled a colossal eagle. 

 The Comanches and Arapahoes described it to Dr. 

 Mooney as a big bird with a brood of small ones, and 

 said that it carried in its claws a quantity of arrows 

 with which it strikes the victims of lightning. This 

 reminds us of the bird of Jove in classic fable, clutching 

 the javelins of his master, the Thunderer; and a comic 

 touch is that these southern Indians called the eagle 

 stamped on our coins by their thunder-bird's name, 

 innocently supposing that our national emblem was their 

 "baa," the lightning-maker! 



The Mandans, a Dakotan tribe, say that the thunder- 

 bird has two toes on each foot — one before and one 

 behind; and the Algonquian Blackfeet represent it on 

 their medicine-lodges by simply drawing four black bird- 

 claws on a yellow shank. When it flies softly, as is usually 

 its way, according to the Mandans, it is not heard by 

 mankind, but when it flaps its wings violently a roaring 

 noise is produced. It breaks through the clouds to force 

 a way for the rain, and the glance of its fiery eyes 

 appears in the lightnings. "We don't see the thunder- 

 birds," a Winnebago Indian explained. "We see their 

 flashes only." 



This terrifying creature dwelt on a remote mountain, 

 or on some rocky elevation difficult of access, and built 



