&l)c jTarmcr'0 iflonttjto iHsitor. 



Office of Indian Affairs— The Sioux, or Dah- 

 ko-tah Nation. 



A recent visit to that department of the Bu- 

 reau of Indian Affairs that is under the manage- 

 ment of Henry R. Schoolcraft, Esq., has elicited 

 the following facts respecting the Sioux, or Dah- 

 ko-tah Indians : — 



The territory now claimed hy this nation is 

 principally watered hy the St. Peter's river, and 

 is ahout nine hundred miles in length, and from 

 two to five hundred in width. The original 

 name of the ti ibe was Dah-ko-tah, the interpre- 

 tation of which is said to he a confederacy or a 

 united natron, the name of Sioux (for which 

 there seems to he no acknowledged meaning,) 

 having been given to them by the early Jesuit 

 missionaries. The population of this tribe is es- 

 timated at about fifteen thousand, and they are 

 divided into bands numbering from fifty to a 

 thousand souls. Occupying as they do an im- 

 mense prairie region, they make use of the horse 

 instead of the canoe, and the wealth of a Sioux 

 chief is universally estimated hy the number of 

 his horses. Private rights are respected among 

 them. They compute time by the four seasons, 

 but their month only contains twenty-eight days. 

 They designate the month of January as the 

 hard moon ; February, the moon in tvhich the rac- 

 coon runs ; March, the moon of sore eyes; April, 

 Me moon when the geese lay ; May, the moon for 

 planting ; June, the moon for strawberries and hoe- 

 ing corn ; July, the midsummer moon; August, the 

 moon for gathering corn; September, the moon 

 ivhen they gather wild rice ; October and Novem- 

 ber, the moon for the running of the doe ; and De- 

 cember, the moon when the deer sheds his horns. 



They are kind to their sick, hut take more 

 care of their youth than they do of their old 

 men. They are averse to the custom of bleed- 

 ing, and seldom draw blood except in severe 

 cases of illness. Their medicines are chiefly 

 composed of roots and plants, and they never 

 make use of metallic medicines. They are par- 

 tial to vapor baths, and resort to them for the 

 cure of many diseases. Their' bodily sickness 

 they frequently attribute to the displeasure of 

 some animal which they have hunted with diffi- 

 culty and slain. 



The Sioux Indians consider it lawful to take 

 the life of a fellow-being by way of revenge, but 

 a great crime to take life under any other -cir- 

 cumstances. They invariably have a great fear 

 of the spirits of the dead, whom they think have 

 the power of injuring the living; and it is 

 thought that this fear is what prevents them 

 from committing murders more frequently than 

 they do. The practice of lying is considered as 

 exceedingly wrong. 



They believe in a Great Spirit, but have no 

 definite idea of his attribute*. Whenever any 

 calamity happens to them, they allege that the 

 Great Spirit is angry ; and so, when they recieve 

 a blessing they acknowledge it as coming from 

 the same being. They look upon the death of a 

 human being as a manifestation of Divine dis- 

 pleasure. Thpy resort at times to sacrifices, and 

 cases have been known where Sioux fathers 

 have sacrificed their children to appease the an- 

 ger of the Great Spirit. They are much afraid 

 of a creature which they look upon as a kind of 

 vampire, and to see this creature is a sure sign 

 of approaching death. 



They are exceedingly superstitious in regard 

 to file, which they consider a gift from the Great 

 Spirit. In former times they obtained it from 

 friction of wood, but at the present chiefly from 



the flint. When about to partake of a religious 

 feast, they remove all the old fire from the lodge, 

 and rekindle it, for the purpose of cooking the 

 food, so that they may he sure that there will be 

 nothing unclean ahout the feast. They have no 

 idols or images which they worship, but are in 

 the habit of making offerings of tobacco and 

 other articles which they value. 



They venerate the rattlesnake, and seldom or 

 never deprive it of life, excepting when they 

 wish to employ its skin and rattles in their in- 

 cantations. They believe in fairies, which they 

 allege have the power of taking the form of any 

 animals, and of living either on land or in the wa- 

 ter ; all their rivers and lakes are closely associ- 

 ated with little people. They look upon thun- 

 der as emanating from a large bird. Among 

 their fabled monsters they acknowledge a huge 

 giant, who can destroy an Indian by the glace of 

 his eye. 



When a man dies they place his remains upon 

 a scaffold, which they ornament with trophies of 

 war; and when the flesh has decayed they bury 

 the bones in the earth, and cover the grave with 

 pickets or a rude house. They do not bury in a 

 sitting posture, but invaribly clothe the deceased 

 in his finest robes, covering him with all his fa- 

 vorite ornaments. They express their grief at 

 the loss of a friend hy cutting off the hair, going 

 barefooted, dismal shoutings, mutilating their 

 bodies, and by making a feast for the dead. — Na- 

 tional Intelligencer. 



Song of the Snow-Bird. 



BY MISS COULD. 



The ground was all covered with snow one day, 

 And two little sisters were busy at piny, 

 When a snow-bird was sitting close by on a tree, 

 And merrily singing his chick-a-de-de. 



He had not been singing that tune very long 

 Ere Emily heard him, sn loud was that song, 

 " O, eisler, look out of the window," said she, 

 " Here's a dear little bird singing chick-a-de-de. 



"Poor fellow ! he walks in the snow and sleet, 

 And has neither stockings nor shoes on his foet ! 

 I pity him so ! how cold he must be ! 

 And yet he keeps singing his chick-a-de de. 



" If 1 were a bare footed snow-bird, I know 

 I would not slay out in the cold and the snowj , 

 I wonder what makes him so full of his glee, 

 He's all the time sniging that chick-a-de-de. 



" O, mother ! do get him some stockings and shoes, 



And a nice little Irock, and a hat if he choose ; 



I wish he'd come into the parlor and see 



How warm we wou!d make him, poor chick-a-de-de." 



The bird had flown down for some pieces of bread, 

 And heard every word little Emily said ; 

 " What a figure I'd make in that dress !" thought he, 

 And lie laughed as he warbled his chick-a-de-de. 



" I'm gralefnl," said he. " for the wish you express, 

 But 1 have no occasion for such a fine dress; 

 I had rather remain with my limbs all free, 

 Than be hobbled about, singing chick-a de-de. 



" There is One, my dear child, though I cannot tell who 

 Has clothed me already, and warm enough, too. 

 Good morning 1 O. who are so happy as we ?" 

 And away he went, singing his chick-a-de-de. 



Pork Trade of Baltimore. — Baltimore was 

 many years ago, the great pork market of the 

 country, and bids fair again to take the same po- 

 sition. Since the commencement of the present 

 season, beginning with the first of October, 

 100,000 hogs have arrived here; 20,000 have 

 been driven East, and the balance (80,000) have 

 been cured there, mostly for the English mar- 

 kets, in the. following manner, viz: single sides, 

 long middles, short middles, prime mess pork, 

 and bladdered lard. It is estimated that 120,000 

 hogs will be packed there this season. — Niles' 

 National Register. 



The Ice Trade. 



The American Almanac for 1840, has from 

 the pen of N. J. Wyeth, Esq., a very interesting 

 article upon the ice trade of the United States, 

 or rather of Boston and vicinity, where his jry 

 quiries have been confined. The trade we are 

 told was commenced in 1805, by Frederic Tudi.r,. 

 Esq., of Boston, who made a shipment from 

 Sangus to St. Pierre, Martinique, in a brig called 

 the Favorite, of Boston ; the speculation resulted 

 in a loss of §4500. He continued bis operations 

 until 1815 with varied success until he made a 

 contract with the Government of Cuba, which 

 proved profitable. In 1817 he extended the 

 trade to Charleston, next to Savannah, "and in 

 1820 to New Orleans. In May 1833, his operations 

 extended to Calcutta by a shipment in the ship 

 Tuscany, which was the first ever made to Cal- 

 cutta and the foundation of a now very profitable ' 

 and extended business. The increase in the 

 trade was small, the shipments reaching in 183J 

 only 4352 tons, all shipped by Mr. Tudor. The 

 objections of ship owners to take ice, and the 

 want of information as to the best means of 

 packing it so as to preserve it, kept the trade 

 small, but perseverance and ingenuity, soon re- 

 moved all obstacles, and in 1847, the shipments 

 coastwise from Boston, reached 51,887 tons, 

 forming part of the cargoes of forty-nine ships, 

 thirty-nine barks, forty-five brigs and one hun- 

 dred and twenty-five schooners, with a foreign 

 export of 22,591 tons, in twenty-one ships, twen- 

 ty-four barks, thirty-eight brigs and iweiys 

 schooners, in all 74,478 tons. The coastwise 

 shipments are to all the seaports, from Phila- 

 delphia to Galveston, Texas ; while the foreign 

 market includes, besides the West Indies, and 

 the West Coast of South America, Mauritius., 

 Isle of Bourbon, Manilla, Calcutta, Madras, Bom- 

 bay, Ceylon, Hong Kong, Whatnpoa, Batitvia 

 and Liverpool. 



The freights of this trade are perhaps greater 

 than any other in the world, inasmuch as the ar- 

 ticle shipped is of no value, except that incident 

 to labor and machinery. The freight paid on 

 the 74,478 tons shipped in 1847 from Boston, is 

 estimated at $2 50 per ton, or $186,195, and the 

 value of the ice $2 per ton, $146,95(5. There 

 were also shipped in ice from Boston, by car- 

 goes, of perishable materials, valued at $72,500, 

 which could not have been taken to market 

 without the ice. To all this may be added 

 8100,000 for profits to those engaged in the ice 

 trade, and we have a return to the country of 

 $507,651. The ice thus shipped, is the outward 

 cargoes of vessels seeking freights, thus enabling 

 them to make a profitable voyage, and at tho 

 same time affording this luxury to the South at 

 a small price. 



In the early part of the ice trade, the manner 

 of fitting vessels was very complicated, and con- 

 sisted in forming an air-tight chamber inside the 

 hold of the vessel, filling the space between the 

 chamber and the ship's side with tan, shavin ss, 

 etc. The process is now very simple, and a lay- 

 er of saw-dust between the ice and the ceiling 

 of the ship, is the only protection. The saw- 

 dust used at Boston, is brought from Maine, and 

 no less than 4600 cords were used in 1847, at a 

 cost of $2 50 per cord. 



The price at which ice is sold to the consumer 

 varies very much. At Havana, where it is a mo- 

 nopoly, it costs six and one-fourth cents ; at New 

 Orleans one-half a three cents, which has stim- 

 ulated the consumption to 28,000 tons in 1847, 

 against 2,310 in 1832. At Calcutta the price has 



