180 



♦ KNO^A^LEDGE ♦ 



[Aprtt, 1, 1886. 



Cradle. A machine, like a cradle in shape, used in wash- 

 ing out gold-dust. Also called a rocker. 



Crank. Adj. Fanciful (also ('jw; /.•!/). Noun. A fanciful 



per.son. 



Crazy. Used where we say " mad." Crazy seems never 

 used in America to mean shaky. 



Creole. Strictly, one born in America of European 

 parents. In Louisiana and elsewhere down South they 

 apply the term to any native productions, so that we hear 

 of Creole cattle, creole cabbages, and so forth. In New 

 Orleans the term creole is limited to persons of pure French 

 extraction, so that Mr. Cable's mistake in applying the term 

 to mulattos and quadroons has given great offence there. 



Crescent City. New Orleans. 



Crevasse. An opening in the levees on the Lower 

 Mississippi. 



Crowd. Used for "company," this word is purely 

 American. " He called for liquor for the crowd," meaning 

 for the wliole company. Also used as a verb where wo 

 should say squeeze; e.g. to croird a person's hand affec- 

 tionately. 



( 'roiver. Like " rooster," for '' 'och. 



Cruel. Used adverbially for " very." 



Cunnimj. A feminine word for anything small and 

 pretty, or taking. A lady comforted me when the news 

 reached me in America that twins had been born to me in 

 England, by saying that twins are always so " cunning." 



Curioiis. Yankee for particularly fine. As curious cider, 

 for singularly good cider. 



Cuss. This word is used sometimes for "curse," and 

 sometimes for " cu.stomer." 



Cussed7iess. Perversity. j 



Cuss-words. Oaths. 



(hiUiivj Didoes. Playing the fool ; cutting capers. 



C%ite. Keen. Also used like " cunning," for quaintly 

 pretty, or simply quaint. 



Cutting it fat. Overdoing anything, especially applied to 

 flattery. Cockney, also. 



Cut up. To be riotous. " Oh, heart I stop cutting up," 

 a curiously poetical way of saying. Cease beating so violently. 

 " Cutting up shines " is equivalent to " cutting capers " in 

 English. 



Dander. This word is really short for Dandruff. To get 

 one's dander raised, or riz, is to be put in a passion. The 

 hair is supposed to stand on end with rage, as with fear ; 

 and the hair rising might be supposed to raise the scarf at 

 the hair's roots. So there is poetry here also. 



Danites. Men whom the Mormons are said to employ to 

 kill the enemies of the Mormon faith. 



Dark and Bloody Ground, The. A name applied to 

 Kentucky, the battle-ground between Northern and Southern 

 Indians and afterwards between the Indians and the first 

 white settlers. 



Darky. A negro. 



Dark o' the Moon, or Dark Moon. Short for " Darkening 

 of the Moon," the time from full moon to new moon. 



Darsn't, for Dares not. As commonly used in Amerifti, 

 Darsn't appears to be conjugated thus — I darsn't, (thou 

 darsn't), he darsn't, we darsn't, you darsn't, they darsn't. 



Dead-Beat. A mixture of ginger, soda, and whisky 

 taken at the close of a long carousal. Also, see Beat. 



Dead-heads. Persons who travel, drink, or go to places 

 of entertainment without paying. 



Death. To be death on anything is to be a sure ha,nd, as 

 we say in England. The expression, no doubt, had its origin 

 among hunters. 



Deck. A pack of cards. Used by Shakespeare, 3rd part 

 of " Henry VI.," v. 1. 



Decoration. A day, generally towards the end of May, 

 appointeil for decorating tombs of soldiers and sailors who 

 fell in the war between the North and South, or of poli- 

 ticians who were active during that war. 



Deed. Verb. To transfer by Deed. 



Deestrick. An Americiin way of pronouncing the Word 

 " district." It is not the American way, of course. 



Depot. Fr. Pronounced dee'po. A railway station ; 

 always so understood unless accompanied by a woi-d defining 

 the depot differently, as provision deepo, &c. 



Dessert. Fr. This word, which really means fruit or 

 whatever is eaten after the dinner itself has been cleared 

 away [desservi), is often applied in America to pastry. It 

 is sometimes pronounced de'sert. Better perhaps to be 

 wrong all round than half wrong half right. 



Dicker. Verb, to barter. Noun, barter. 



DEATH CUSTOMS OF THE INDIANS. 



By " Stell.\ Occidens." 



E have observed the care witli which the 

 Otoe and Missouri Indians preserve the 

 body from being touched by the earth : 

 the ( 'omanches of Indian territory go to the 

 opposite extreme. " When a Comanche is 

 dying, while the death-rattle may yet be 

 faintly heard in the tiiroat, and the natural 

 warmth has not yet departed from the body, the knees are 

 strongly bent upon the chest, and the legs flexed upon the 

 thighs. Tlie arms are also flexed upon each side of the 

 chest, and the head bent forward upon the knees. A lariat, 

 or rope, is now used to firmly bind the limbs and body in 

 this position. A blanket is then wrapped around the body, 

 and this again tightly corded, so that the appearance when 

 ready for burial is that of an almost round and compact 

 body, very unlike the confused pall of his Wichita or 

 Caddo brother. The body is then taken and placed in a 

 saddle upon a pony, in a sitting posture, a squaw usually 

 riding behind (though sometimes one, on either side of the 

 horse) holds the body in position until the place of burial is 

 reached, when the corpse is literally tumbled into the exca- 

 vation selected for the purpose. Tlie deceased is only 

 accompanied by two or three squaws, or enough to perform 

 the little labour bestowed upon the burial. The body is 

 taken due west of the lodge or village of the bereaved, and 

 usually one of the deep washes or heads of canons, in which 

 the Comanche country abounds, is selected, and the body 

 thi'own in, without special reference to position. With this 

 are deposited the bows and arrows ; these, however, are first 

 broken. The saddle is also placed in the grave, together 

 with many of the personal valuables of the departed. The 

 body is then covered over with sticks and earth, and some- 

 times stones are placed over the whole. The best pony owned 

 by the deceased is brought to the grave and killed, that the 

 departed may appear well mounted and caparisoned among 

 his fellows in the other world. Formerly, if the deceased 

 were a chief or man of consequence and had large herds of 

 ponies, many were killed, sometimes amounting to 200 or 

 300 head in number." * 



An amusing story is told in illustration of the importance 

 attached to the pony provided for the deceased in the 

 happy hunting-grounds. An old chief died who was very 

 poor, and had no friends or relations. The people thought 



* Account given by Dr. Fordyce Grinnell, ot Wichita Agency, 

 Indian Territory, Bureau of Etlmol., p. 99. First Annual Keport 

 1879-80 (Smithsonian Institution). 



