9!J8 THE GHOST-DANCE RELIGION (eth.axn. h 



55. I'nita'ta'-usa'na 



I nita'ta -usii'na, 

 I'nita'ta'-usii aa. 

 Ha tini tubiba h'u lui, 

 Ha'tini'tubiba' lin lin. 

 Hii'tina ha wa'bii hu'hu, 

 Ha'tina'ha 'w,a'bii lin lin. 



Translation 



si a nd ready, 



Stand ready. 



[Sip that when) the crow rails you, 



(So that when) the crow calls yon. 



Yon will see him, 



Yoi( will see him. 



This song was composed by Little Raven, one of the delegation of 

 seven from the southern Arapaho and Cheyenne which visited the 

 messiah in Nevada in August, 1891. It is a message to the believers 

 to be ready for the near coming of the new earth. The first line is 

 sometimes sung I'nita'ta-u'sa-hu'na. 



56. Wa'watha'bi 



Na'nisa na-u , nii'nisa'na-fi', 



Wa'watha'bicha'chinl'naba'nagu'wa-u'i'naga'thi — He'e'ye' ! 

 Hiithi'na ne'nahu', 



Hathi na ne'nahu' 



Translatl 



My children, my children, 



I have given you magpie feathers again I o wear on your heads — He e ye' ■' 



Thus says our mother, 



Thus says our mother. 



This son"; affords a good specimen of the possibilities of Indian word 

 building. The second word might serve as a companion piece to Mark 

 Twain's picture of a complete word in German. It consists of seventeen 

 syllables, all so interwoven to complete the sense of the word sentence 

 that no part can be separated from the rest without destroying the 

 whole. The verbal part proper indicates that " 1 have given you 

 (plural) a headdress again." The final syllables, wa-u'i-naga'thi, show 

 that the headdress consists of the tail feathers (wagathi) of the magpie 

 (wa-u-i). The syllable cka implies repetition or return of action, this 

 being probably not the first time that the messiah had given magpie 

 feathers to his visitors. 



The magpie [Pica hudsonica or mittalii) of the Rocky mountains and 

 Sierra Nevada and the intermediate region of Nevada and Utah is 

 perhaps the must conspicuous bird in the Paiute country. It bears 

 a general resemblance to a crow or blackbird, being about the size 



