THE OOLOGIST 



IS 



ing that year, singing notes of victory 



sucli as: 



"Tlie President has conquered (Tun- 



kansila oliiya' lo) 

 The boys are coming home with joy 



(Koska wiyuskinya kdipi lo) 

 Be cheerful, pray and sing (canta 



waste, waci ye lo) 

 The President has conquered." 



(Waci, as used above, means dance 

 but connotes pray and sing.) 



The horned lark is also considered 

 something of an oracle by many of 

 the western tribes. The Dakota name 

 for tills bird means big eye-tufts. Tliey 

 say that this bird foretells the weather. 

 When a liot, dry time is coming the 

 bird sings a single sliarp note, but 

 when rain is coming the bird an- 

 nounces it gleefully and sings joyous- 

 ly, magazhu, magazliu, magazhul 

 Magazhu means rain. The Hidatsa In- 

 dians call the liorned lark a name 

 meaning wrinkled moccasin. This is 

 because of tlie bird's characteristic 

 habit of crouching on the ground, 

 where, by its grayish color and its 

 black markings it suggests the ap- 

 pearance of a ragged, useless mocca- 

 sin. 



The bottom idea in Indian singing 

 and dancing was to join in with 

 Nature, "Whole, Holy All," in express- 

 ing Nature's various moods. 



In conclusion I wish to express my 

 regret that, judging tlie Indian by our 

 own standards, we have estranged him 

 and we have failed to appreciate his 

 finer qualities, and wliile we might 

 have acquired a knowledge of his 

 poetry, mythology and folk-lore which 

 would liave given to American litera- 

 ture and art a' distinctive flavor and 

 charm, our authors and artists have 

 received inspiration from the myth- 

 ology of ancient Greece and Rome. We 

 liave largely failed to appreciate our 

 own aboriginal race, a' people to whom 

 Nature's Great God, Wakan Tanka, the 

 W^hole, Holy All was an ever present 



reality. Who saw Him in every nat- 

 ural object. Whose hearts were so at- 

 tuned to Nature's voice that they as- 

 cribed to the birds and flowers, songs 

 expressing all the various moods or 

 Nature; and whose communion with 

 Nature gave them such spiritual 

 strength that their lives were clean, 

 their friendships true, their honor un- 

 sullied, and they could face torture 

 and deatli with a fortitude that was 

 never surpassed in any other people. 

 Dr. Beede's Remarks on the Psychol- 

 ogy of Indians and Birds 



As Dr. Beede is a trained scientist 

 and close observer, and has studied 

 both Indians and birds for the largest 

 part of his life, his remarks on the 

 psychology of birds and primitives 

 will be read with interest. 



Intimate living witli Indians and 

 wild animals cause one to realize the 

 errors of the basal assumptions of the 

 new psychology. All the things sup- 

 posed to be of late appearance includ- 

 ing altruism are already in wild ani- 

 mals. The new psychology as repre- 

 sented by Tansley's recent book seems 

 to err at many points and in many 

 conclusions for lack of correct data as 

 to wild anlimals. The reason for 

 these errors is because too many of 

 these wild animals were studied in pet 

 captivity and not in the wild. And the 

 same is measurably true of Ethnology, 

 since people afe studied in a sort of 

 pet captivity and not in their natural 

 environments. 



Indians attribute to birds a wonder- 

 ful "Life knowledge" which means, in 

 our way of terming, an efficient 

 psychosis with its function surpassing 

 or replacing reasoning; in a way better 

 for birds than reasoning would be for 

 them. With much study of birds Dr. 

 Beede agrees with the Indians. Birds 

 seem to possess the largest psychosis 

 pro rata of other mind processes, in- 

 cluding reason, of any creatures. Ani- 



