20 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 195 



is used. The gourd has a rattle, little stones inside and it keeps time of the 

 drum and the pipe on the left hand.=^ While the dance is on, it is passed on 

 to anyone that wanted to dance with it and help give things to the needy ones. 



When the Hu-thu-gah camp is moving the fire is kept alive in their travel. A 

 dry oak with bark on is used, inside of the bark where the worms has eaten it 

 leaves a powdered trail. This powder is lighted, the bark over it where the 

 breeze keeps it alive until the next stop is reached. They use rotted grass and 

 powdered ash wood that is rotted. The fire is made by blowing on it. 



To start a new fire, the stem of a soap weed is used, fine sand, rotten powdered 

 ash wood, and rotted dry blue stem grass, this is put on a flat rock, they rub 

 with the big end on the rock where the powdered stuff is with a cupped hand 

 over it until the flame is started and fire is made. 



The arts of pottery and arrowhead making are lost. It is said they are very 

 few of them that can make them. They say it was a gift of God to make them and 

 they passed on with the secret. There is a butte east of Pikes Peak where they 

 make supplies of it,^° and left there for the next trip. The Ponca is very strict 

 with the history. Anyone making a mistake is corrected by groups of old men. 



There is a place between the Black Hills and the Rocky Mountains where the 

 tribe split in two. They were passing sinew around the camp and some of them 

 were left out as the sinew didn't go around the camp and this caused them^" to 

 get sore and they ^^ sided in with them until they were equally divided and the sore 

 bunch pulled for the North and this bunch are found in Canada,'^ Days and days 

 passed. Finally they got four of the best trackers on their trail and the trail 

 went straight north. It means no turning,^* and they came back and told what 

 it means. This place is so far back that the oldest men cannot remember the 

 exact spot.^ 



In one of their trips to Pikes Peak one man stayed and farmed by the name 

 of Tah-ha-wah-ti. He stayed there, raised corn, and stored it until they came 

 again. This place is known as Tah-hah-wah-ti-hah-ah. It means "where the 

 man farmed." This place is also too far back,^^ and the exact place is forgotten. 

 It is said that this place is between the Black Hills and the Rockies. 



The wind cave '^ in the Black Hills was found by the Poncas. It is called the 

 hill that sucks in or the hill that swallows in. Pah-hah-wah-tha-hu-ni.'^ 



How squaw corn was found. The camp was between two creeks. To the 

 mouth of these creeks there came seven buffaloes and disappeared at the mouth. 

 They were quickly surrounded and closed in on them, but there is no buffaloes 

 to be found, but there were seven buffalo manures and they were tiny little 

 plants on them.'* The head chief was called to see them and he came and saw 



2* The feathered wand or "pipe" was swayed rhythmically back and forth. 



25 "It" refers to flint, which was used in the manufacture of projectile points, knives, 

 and other artifacts. 



^ "Them" refers to the Ponca who did not receive any sinew. 



-'' For "they" read "others." 



28 The alleged existence of a group of Begiha speakers in Canada has never been verified. 

 The belief that such a group exists, however, is still quite prevalent among both Omaha 

 and Ponca. 



^ In other words the malcontents had not relented, 



5" This should read ". . . place is so far back [in time] that the . . ." 



*i Again, read ". . . too far back [in time], and the . . ." 



^- This is the present Wind Cave, a National Park in Custer County, S. Dak. The 

 "sucking" phenomenon results from the difference in temperature of the air inside and 

 outside of the cave mouth. The Teton Dakota have a similar name for the cave. 



^^ Pahe-icniidhoni is the Ponca name for the cave. 



** Note the recurrence of the sacred number "seven," also the association of bison with 

 corn, important in Ponca and Omaha philosophy. The Yanktonai Dakota have a similar 

 legend, in which corn sprouts from milk which drips from the udder of a supernatural 

 bufEalo cow. 



