CORSET] HORSES — SPIDERS — SNAKE LORE. 479 



blanket into small pieces, which he put as necklaces on the cubs, whom 

 he painted with Indian red, restoring- them to their place in the den. 

 Then the grateful father exclaimed, '• When you go to war hereafter, I 

 win accompany you, and bring to pass whatever you wish. " So they 

 parted as friends. In the course of time the man went on the war path 

 As he came in sight of a village of the enemy, a large wolf met him, 

 saying, " By and by I will sing and you shall steal their horses when 

 they least suspect danger." So they stopped on a hill close to the vil- 

 lage, and the wolf sang. After this he howled, making a high wind 

 arise. The horses tied to the forest, many stopping on the hillside. 

 When the wolf had howled again, the wiud died away, and a mist arose; 

 so the man took as many horses as he pleased. 



HORSES. 



§ 248. These are well named " Cunka waka" ( Suijka wakaij)" for they 

 are indeed wakai]. Consequently the Dakota have the Cung olowa" 

 (Suijgolowaij) or Horse Songs, and they pray to the horses (c'ewicaki- 

 yapi). If any one paints a horse in a wakaij manner, when he has no 

 right to do so, he is sure to pay the penalty: he will encounter mis- 

 fortune of some sort, or he will fall ill, or he will be slain by a foe, or he 

 will have his neck broken by being thrown from a horse. 



SPIDERS. 



§ 249. The Teton pray to gray spiders, and to those with yellow legs. 

 When a person goes on a journey and a spider jjasses, one does not 

 kill it in silence. For should one let it escape, or kill it without prayer, 

 bad consequences inust ensue. In the latter case, another spider 

 would avenge the death of his relation. To avoid any such misfor- 

 tune, when the spider is encountered, the person must say to it, 

 "IktomiTuijkaijsila, Wai[iijyaijniktcpe lo,"i.e.,"0 Grandfather Spider, 

 the Thunder-beings kill you !" The spider is crushed at once, and his 

 spirit believes what has been told him. His spirit probably tells this to 

 the other spiders, but they can not harm the Thunder-beings. If one 

 thus addresses a spider as he kills it, he will never be bitten by other 

 sjiiders. 



§ 231. One of the Dakota myths tells how Unktomi killed himself, 

 causing his limbs to shrivel up till they assumed the appearance of 

 spiders' limbs. 



SNAKE LORE. 



§ 250. Some Dakota will not kill snakes by hitting them. He who 

 violates the law in this respect will dream horrible dreams about 

 various kinds of snakes; and occasionally it happens that such a man 

 has a horse bitten by a snake. The Siijtehla taijka, or the Ancient of 

 Rattlesnakes, was one of the enemies of the Thunder-beings. 



"There are some things about which it is most unlucky to dream. 



