XVIU INTRODUCTION. 



in a manner which would excite tlie sympathies of the hardest heart, Hoksidaq-sapa, Black-boy, standing 

 on the brow of a hill, addressed himself to the ghostly inhabitants of the spirit-world, in ghostly notes, as 

 follows : — 



' Koda, ahitoijwai) yaqka wo ; 



Koda, ahitoijwar) yarjka wo ; 



Koda, ahitoijwai) yaijka wo; 



Hoksidaq-sapa takozakpaku wai) u do. 



Eyapi nuqwe.' 



Friend, pause and look this way ; 

 Friend, pause and look this way ; 

 Friend, pause and look this way ; 

 Say ye, 

 A grandson of Black-boy is coming." 



Dakota Method of Counting. — Counting is usually done by means of their fingers. If you ask some 

 Dakotas how many there are of any thing, instead of directing their answer to your organs of hearing, 

 they present it to your sight, by holding up so many fingers. When they have gone over the fingers and 

 thumbs of both hands, one is temporarily turned down for one ten. Eleven is ten more one, or more 

 commonly af/ain one ; iwelue is affain two, and so on ; nineteen is th". other nine. At the end of the next 

 ten another finger is turned down, and so on. Twenty is ttco tens, thirty is three tens, etc., as will be seen 

 by referring to the section on Numeral Adjectives in the Grammar. Opawirige, one hundred, is probably 

 derived from pawiqga, to c/o round in circles or to make gyrations, as the fingers have been all gone over 

 again for their respective tens. The Dakota word for a thousand, kektopawirige, may be formed of 'ake' 

 and 'opawiqge,' hundreds again, having now completed the circle of their fingere in hundreds, and being 

 about to commence again. They have no separate word to denote any higher number than a thousand. 

 There is a word to designate one half of any thing, but none to denote any smaller aliquot part. 



Counting Time. — The Dakotas have names for the natural divisions of time. Their years they 

 ordinarily count by winters. A man is so many winters old, or so many winters have passed since such 

 an event. When one is going on a journey, he does not usually say that he will be back in so many days, 

 as we do, but in so many nights or sleeps. In the same way they compute distance by the number of 

 nights passed in making the journey. They have no division of time into weeks. Their months are literally 

 moons. The popular belief is that when the moon is full, a great number of very small mice commence 

 nibbling on one side of it, which they continue to do until they have eaten it all up. Soon after this 

 another moon begins to grow, which goes on increasing until it has reached its full size only lo share 

 the fate of its predecessor ; so that with them the new moon is really new, and not the old one 

 re-appearing. To the moons they have given names, which refer to some prominent physical fiict that 

 occurs about that time in the year.  For the names of the moons most commonly used by the Dakotas 

 living in the Valley of the Minnesota, with their significations and the months to which they most nearly 

 correspond, the reader is referred to the word ' wi,' Part I. of the Dictionary. 



Five moons are usually counted to the winter, and five to the summer, leaving only one each to the 

 spring and autumn ; but this distinction is not closely adhered to. The Dakotas often have very warm 

 debates, especially towards the close of the winter, about what moon it is. The raccoons do not always 

 make their appearance at the same time every winter ; and the causes which produce sore eyes are not 

 developed precisely at the same time in each successive spring. All these variations make room for strong 

 arguments in a Dakota tent for or against Wicata-wi or Istawidayazar)-wi. But the main reason for their 

 frequent difi^erence of opinion in regard to this matter, viz. that twelve lunations do not bring them to the 

 point from which they commenced counting, never appears to have suggested itself. In order to make 

 their moons coreespond with the seasons, they are obliged to pass over one every few years. 



Beligion. — This subject can only be referred to briefly. The Dakotas have, indeed, " gods many " 

 — their imaginations have peopled both the visible and invisible world with mysterious or spiritual 

 beings, who are continually exerting themselves in reference to the human family, either for weal 

 or woe. These spiritual existences inhabit every thing, and, consequently, almost every thing is an object 

 of worship. On the same occasion, a Dakota dances in religious homage to the sun and moon, and 

 spreads out his hands in prayer to a painted stone ; and he finds it necessary to ofier sacrifices more 

 frequently to the Bad-spirit than to the Great-spirit. He has his god of the north and god of the south, 

 his god of the woods and god of the prairie, his god of the air and god of the waters. No one can witness 



