malleby.] CHARTS CLAIM OR DEMAND. 159 



returning hor.se tracks show that he attained the object in view, and 

 that he rode home. The following explanation of characters was made 

 to Dr. Hoffman, at Fort Berthold, in 1S8L: 



1. Lean-Wolf, the head only of a man to which is attached the out- 

 line of a wolf. 



2. Hidatsa earth lodges, circular in form, the spots representing the 

 pillars supporting the roof. Indian village at Fort Berthold, Dakota. 



3. Human footprints; the course taken by the recorder. 



4. The Government buildings at Fort Buford (square). 



5. Several Hidatsa lodges (round), the occupauts of which had inter- 

 married with the Dakotas. 



6. Dakota lodges. 



7. A small square — a white man's house — with a cross marked upon 

 it, to represent a Dakota lodge. This denotes that the owner, a white 

 man, had married a Dakota woman wlio dwelt there. 



8. Horse tracks returning to Fort Berthold. 



9. The Missouri River. 



10. Tule Creek. 



11. Little Knife River. 



12. White Earth River. 



13. Muddy Creek. 



14. Yellowstone River. 



15. Little Missouri River. 



16. Dancing Beard Creek. 



CLAIM OR DEMAND. 



Stephen Powers states that the Xishinam of California have a curi- 

 ous way of collecting debts. " When an Indian owes another, it is held 

 to be in bad taste, if not positively insulting, for the creditor to dun 

 the debtor, as the brutal Saxon does ; so he devises a more subtle method. 

 He prepares a certain number of little sticks, according to the amount 

 of the debt, and paints a ring around the end of each. These he carries 

 and tosses into the delinquent's wigwam without a word and goes his 

 way; whereupon the other generally takes the hint, pays the debt, and 

 destroys the sticks." See Coutrib. to N. A. Ethnology, Vol. Ill, 321. 



Dr. W. J. Hoffman says, " When a patient has neglected to remuner- 

 ate the Shamau [ Wiktcom'ni of the Yokotsan linguistic division] for his 

 services, the latter prepares short sticks of wood, with bauds of colored 

 porcupine quills wrapped around them, at one end only, and every time 

 he passes the delinquent's lodge a- certain number of them are thrown 

 in as a reminder of the indebtedness." See San Francisco (Cal.) West- 

 ern Laucet, XI, 1882, p. 443. 



