mallery.] DAKOTA WINTER COUNTS, 1808-1811. 107 



ance upon those ceremonies they "put forth the charm of woven paces 

 and of waving hands," utter wild cries, and muddle in blood and filth 

 until they sometimes work themselves into an epileptic condition. Their 

 iucautatious are not only to drive away disease, but for many other pur- 

 poses, such as to obtain success in war, avert calamity, and very fre- 

 quently to bring within reach the buffalo, on which the Dakotas de- 

 pended for food. The rites are those known as Shamanism, noticeable 

 in the ethnic periods of savagery and barbarism. In the ceremonial of 

 •■making medicine," a buffalo head, and especially that of an albino, 

 held a prominent place among the plains tribes. Many references to 

 this are to be found in the Prince of Wied's Travels in the interior of 

 North America; Loudon, 1843; also see infra, pages 118, 122 and 195. 



The device in the chart is the man-figure, with the head of an albino 

 buffalo held over his own. 



No. III. A Minneeonjou Dakota, named Little-Tail, first made "medi- 

 cine" with white buffalo cow-skin. 



Mato Sapa says : A Minneeonjou, named Little-Tail, first made medi- 

 cine with white buffalo cow-skin. 



Major Bush same as last. 



American -Horse gives for the preceding year, 1809-'10 : Black-Rock 

 was killed by the Crows. 



1811-12. — No. 1. Twenty-seven Mandans .surrounded and killed by 

 Dakotas. 



No. II. The Dakotas fought a battle with the Gros Ventres, and 

 killed a great many. Device, a circle inclosing three round objects 

 with flat bases, resembling heads severed from trunks, which latter the 

 copy shows too minute in this device for suggestiou of what they prob- 

 ably represent; but they appear more distinct in the record for 1864-'65 

 as the heads of enemies slain in battle. In the sign-language of the 

 plains, the Dakotas are always denoted by drawing a hand across the 

 throat, signifying that they cut the throats of their enemies. The Da- 

 kotas count by the fingers, as is common to most peoples, but with a 

 peculiarity of their own. When they have gone over the fingers and 

 thumbs of both hands, one finger is temporarily turned down for one 

 ten. At the end of the next ten another finger is turned, and so on to a 

 hundred. Opawinge [Opawi n xe], one hundred, is derived from pawinga 

 [pawi"xa], to go around in circles, to make gyrations, and contains the 

 idea that the round of all the fingers has again been made for their re- 

 spective tens. So the circle is never used for less than one hundred, but 

 sometimes signifies an indefinite number greater thau a hundred. The 

 circle, in this instance, therefore, was at first believed to express the 

 killing in battle of many euemies. But the other interpretations remove 

 all symbolic character, leaving the circle simply as the rude drawing of a 

 dirt lodge, being an instance in which the present writer, by no means 

 devoted to symbolism, had supposed a legitimate symbol to be indicated, 

 which supposition full information on the subject did not support. 



