988 THE GHOST-DANCE RELIGION [kth.anx. u 



Indian ponies sometimes resort to the small twigs and bark of the cot- 

 tonwood to sustain life. In extreme cases their owners have sometimes 

 been driven to the same shift. In winter the camps of the prairie 

 tribes are removed from the open prairie, to the shelter of the cotton- 

 wood timber along the streams. The tree is held almost sacred, and 

 the sun-dance lodge is usually or always constructed of Cottonwood 

 saplings. 



14. Eyehe ! A mi * \ n \ 



Eyehe' ! A'nie *;i na . 

 Eyehe ! \ nie sa ua . 

 He'ee a ehe yuhe j u ' 

 He'ee'ii'ehe'yuhe'yu ! 

 A'-baha' ni'esa'na', 

 A'-baha' ni'esa'na'. 



Translation 



Eyehe' ' The yonng birds, 

 Eyehe .' The young birds, 

 Se'ee a ehe yuhe'yu .' 

 He'ee a ehe yuhe yn l 

 The young Thunderbirds, 

 The young Thunderbirds. 



Among the Algonquian tribes of the east, the Sioux, Cheyenne, Arap- 

 aho, Kiowa, Comanche, and prairie tribes generally, as well as among 

 those of the northwest coast and some parts of Mexico, thunder and 

 lightning are produced by a great bird, whose shadow is the thunder 

 cloud, whose Happing wings make the sound id' thunder, and whose 

 flashing eyes rapidly opening or closing send forth the lightning. 

 Among some tribes of the northwest this being is not a bird, but a 

 giant who puts on a dress of bird skin with head, wings, and all com- 

 plete, by means of which he flies through the air when in search of his 

 prey. The myth is not found among the Iroquois or the Cherokee, or, 

 perhaps, among the Muskhogean tribes. 



The Thunderbird usually has his dwelling on some high mountain or 

 rocky elevation of difficult access. Within the territory of the myth 

 several places are thus designated as the Thunder's Nest. Thunder 

 bay of bake Huron, in lower Michigan, derives its name in this way. 

 Such a place, known to the Sioux as Waqkin'a-oye', "The Thunder's 

 Nest, - ' is within the old territory of the Sisseton Sioux in eastern South 

 Dakota in the neighborhood of Big Stone lake. At another place, near 

 the summit of the Coteau des Prairies, in eastern South Dakota, a num- 

 ber of large round bowlders are pointed out as the eggs of the Thunder- 

 bird. According to the Comanche there is a place on upper Red river 

 where the Thunderbird once alighted on the ground, the spot being still 

 identified by the fad thai the .mass remains binned off over a space 

 having the outline of a large bird with outstretched wings. The same 



