KCGEE] STATUS OF SIOUAN MYTHOLOGY 185 



same time well marked zootheistic features are found ia the mythic 

 thunder birds and in the more or less complete deification of various 

 animals, in the exaltation of the horse into the rank of the mythic doji 

 father, and in the animal forms of the water-monsters and earth beinjfs; 

 and the living application of zootheism is found in the animal fetiches 

 and totems. On the whole, it seems just to assign the Siouan mythol- 

 ogy to the upper strata of zootheism, just verging on physitheism, with 

 vestigial traces of hecastotheism. 



SOMATOLOGY 



The vigorous avocations of the chase and war were reflected in fine 

 stature, broad and deep chests, strong and clean limbs, and sound con- 

 stitution among the Siouan tribesmeu and their <'onsorts. The skin 

 was of the usual coppery cast characteristic of the native American; 

 the teeth were strong, indicating and befitting a largely carnivorous 

 diet, little worn by sandy foods, and seldom mutilated; the hands and 

 feet were commonly large and sinewy. The Siouan Indians were 

 among those who impressed white pioneers by the parallel placing of 

 the feet; for, as among other walkers and runners, who rest sitting and 

 lying, the feet assumed the pedestrian attitude of approximate paral- 

 lelism rather than the standing attitude of divergence forward. The 

 hair was luxuriant, stiff, straight, and more uniformly jet black than 

 that of the southerly stocks; it was worn long by the women and most 

 of the men, though partly clipped or shaved in some tribes by the war- 

 riors as well as the worthless dandies, who, according to Oatlin, spent 

 niore time over their toilets than ever did the grande dame of Paris. 

 The women were beardless and the men more or less nearly so; com- 

 monly the men plucked out by the roots the scanty hair springing on 

 their faces, as did both sexes that on other parts of the body. The 

 crania were seldom deformed artificially save through cradle accident, 

 and while varying considerably in capacity and in the ratio of length to 

 width were usually mesocephalic. The facial features were strong, yet 

 in no way distinctly unlike those found among neighboring peoples. 



Since the advent of white men the characteristics of the Siouan 

 Indians, like those of other tribes, have been somewhat modified, partly 

 through infusion of Caucasian blood but chiefly through acculturation. 

 With the abandonment of hunting and war and the tardy adoption of 

 a slothful, semidependent agriculture, the frame has lost something 

 of its stalwart vigor; with the adaptation of the white man's costume 

 and the incomplete assimilation of his hygiene, various weaknesses and 

 disorders have been developed; and through imitation the erstwhile 

 luxuriant hair is cropped, and the beard, made scanty through genera- 

 tions of extirpation, is commonly cultivated. Although the accul- 

 tural condition of the Siouan survivors ranges from the essentially 

 primitive status of the Asiniboin to the practical civilization of the 

 representatives of several tribes, it is fair to consider the stock iu a 



