446 ETHNOLOGY. 



man, a spirit man, a magician, and tlie like, and has come subsequently 

 to be applied to tha priest, clergyman, or missionary. An Indian doctor 

 is called wapiye among- the Dakotas, wLiicli simply means a conjurer, and 

 is derived from the verb wapiya, to conjure the sicJc, which in its turn 

 comes from piJciya, to conjure. A i)hysician, or one who cures diseases 

 by means oi medicine, is always called peiihuta-icid-astc, from jyeii, which 

 means grass, also dry grass, herh, and huta, which denotes the root of 

 trees or plants, so that the compound peiihuta, which properly means 

 medicine, ^^ would signify literally lierhs and roots, and peiihuta- 

 wicaste a herb-and-root man; which epithet is almost exclusively 

 applied to American doctors resident in the vicinity of those In- 

 dians and to military surgeons at the forts in their territory. Among 

 these people the gathering of herbs and root, and the administration 

 of such medicines are, indeed, not in anywise uncommon j it is, however, 

 not at all the occupation of men, but of women. 



The word for mouth is i, whence is derived the verb ia, to spealc, which 

 in its turn gives rise (by the addition of the ending ^n so common in the 

 formation of verbal nouns) to the substantive iapl, speech, kmguage. 

 (Thus Dalcota iapi, the Dakota language, properly the language of the 

 companions, friends, or allies.) 



The verb lia means to curl. It is also used with the reduplication, viz: 

 lirtlifl, as an adjective especially, to • denote curling, curled. The same 

 when combined, with minl,^^ water, signifies c?«-?iH^ water; audtluis mini- 

 lirtlirt is the usual word for a waterfall, a cascade generally. Often lirtlia 

 alone is used to designate a waterfall; mini (water) being understood, just 

 as we are accustomed in English to employ simply the word"/(i//,s" in the 

 same sense. Thus the word lialJirtfMi)/re is used, meaning those who dwell 

 or live at the falls, the people around the waterfalls, an expression Avhich 

 has become among the Dakotas the ordinary name of the Chij[)pewa 

 j^ation.i^ 



To translate the word mini\\a\ia (or erroneously written '■'■ minne- 

 haha''Y' by laughing waters, seems to be a gross mistake, most probably 

 the result of imperfect information derived from some half-breed Sioux 

 Avho Avas perhaps asked, (the inquirer Avroiiglj' analyzing the word,) 

 " What is meant by ?;i/uHe P^ To which the response was doubtless, '^Mini 

 means water. " " And what does ihaha signify "?" The answer to which 

 must liave been: "iru/Iunncans to laugh.'''' (No doubt / signifying 7«o?^f//, 

 and lirt, to curl; iha and iWaWa mean to curl the mouth or the li2)s, that is, 

 to laugh.) When Rev\ S. R. Riggs, in his otherwise very excellent Da- 

 kota Dictionary, explains i\\a]\a hy ^^ to laugh along as rapid water, the 

 noise of u-aterfalls,'''^^ he is unconsciously led astray b}" that current 

 popular error. In fact, such an interpretation is founded on nothing, 

 and is prima facie quite contrary to all right etymology.'^ And to do 

 justice to Mr. Kiggs, for wliom we profess the highest esteem, and who 

 is without any comparison the best grammarian and lexicographer who 

 has ever yet appeared in the domain of Am^iiucan Indian philology, we 



