GATSCHET — KAS, LEG. — COMMENTARY. [63] 31 



then he stopped and sent them out to listen for a noise, with the injunc- 

 tion, that, whenever they heard a noise, thej should fasten some grass to 

 the end of a pole, set it up erect pointing in the direction of the sound, 

 and then return to him. Early next morning they reported having heard 

 unusual noises, and set up the pole in consequence. Nandmaki found the 

 white man he was in search of; he had just arrived from France and 

 pitched his tent. He said he was the son of the King of France ; the Great 

 Spirit had sent him to this "nation of people" to be their father; he gave 

 him a medal and directions for the government of his people; guns, pow- 

 der, lead, spears and lances ; his followers he presented with cooking uten- 

 sils and other presents; and then returned to France, to come back again 

 next spring.* 



Le Page du Pratz, "Hist, de la Louisiane," mentions a hollow 

 and distinctly audible noise heard for eight days in March 1732 

 from the Gulf of Mexico up to Illinois, which proved to be the 

 prelude of u terrific hurricane. f 



The Tonkaweya Indians of Texas, whom I visited in 1884, 

 have the fullowing superstitious belief: 



When an unusual noise is heard at some spot, as from throwing stones 

 over a steep declivity, or from crying, dancing, these Indians avoid visits 

 to that place, especially at night, as they suppose them haunted by the 

 spirits of the living or the dead. The noise most commonly made by the 

 spirits of the dead is whistling and throwing stones, especially during 

 strong gusts of wind. When the fire-wood begins to sizzle and emit steam 

 from being moist, they suppose a ghost manifests itself and tries to escape; 

 so they cover the wood with ashes, to confine it within and to stop the 

 whistling. 



Qii'appelle river, a tributary of Assiniboine river — in Cree, 

 Katapaywie Sipi— is called thus because of unaccountable noises 

 which resemble the voice of a person calling another. Cf. Hind, 

 "Narrative," i. 370; J.J. Egli, "Nomina Geogr." i. 466. 



"At first they perceived," etc. This passage is not rendered 

 verbatim in Stidham's Creek translation. The Creek turns the 

 sentence as follows : 



And they saw a red smoke as if issuing from a mountain; and they 

 heard on the top of that mountain [something] like singing. 



* •* Life of Makataimeshekiakiak, or Black Hawk," Boston, 1834, PP- i3-'6. 

 t English edition, p. 33. Cf. H. Hale, "Ethnography of Wilkes' Expedition" (1846), 

 P- 55- 



