DORSEY.] ASTRONOMICAL AND FOOD LOKE. 517 



tion, i. e., to be impelled agaiust bis T^ill to act tlie womau. See the 

 Omaba mi"quga, the Kaiisa mi°quge, and the Dakota wiijkta and 

 wiijkte (§§ 30, 212.) 



ASTRONOMICAL LORE. 



§ 354. Ursa major is said to be au ermine, the several stars of that 

 constellation indicating, in their opinion, the burrow, the head, the 

 feet, and the tail of that animal. They call the milky way the " ashy 

 way." 



They think that thunder is caused by the flapping of the wings of 

 the large bird, which causes rain, and that the lightning is the glance 

 of his eye when he seeks prey. 



They call the rainbow, " the cap of the water," or "the cap of the 

 rain." Once, say they, an Indian caught in the autumn a red bird 

 that had mocked him, releasing it after binding its feet together with a 

 flsh line. The bird saw a hare and pounced upon it, but the hare crept 

 into the skull of a bufl'alo lying on the prairie, and as the line haugiug 

 from the bird's claws formed a semicircle, they imagine that the rain- 

 bow is still caused by that occurrence.' 



FOOD LORE. 



§ 355. They have queer notions respecting the efl'ects of different 

 articles of diet; thus: an expectant mother believes that if she eats a 

 part of a mole or shrew, her child will have small eyes; that if she 

 eats a piece of porcupine, her child will be inclined to sleep too much 

 when it grows up ; that if she partakes of the flesh of the turtle, her 

 offspring will be slow or lazy, etc. ; but they do not suppose that such 

 articles of food affect the immediate consumer. 



FOUR SOULS IN EACH HUMAN BEING. 



§ 350. " It is believed by some of the Hidatsa that every human being 

 has four souls in one. They account for the phenomena of gradual 

 death where the extremities are apparently dead while consciousness 

 remains, by supposing the four souls to depart, one after another, at 

 different times. When dissolution is complete, they say that all the 

 souls are gone, and have joined together again outside of the body. I 

 have heard a Minuetaree quietly discussing this doctrine with an Assiu- 

 ueboiue, who believed in only one soul to each body."^ 



§ 357. "They have faith in witchcraft, and think that a sorcerer may 

 injure a person, no matter how far distant, by acts upon an efdgy or 

 uj)on a lock of the victim's hair." ' 



'Maximilian, Travels * * - in North America, p. 399. 



»U. S. Geol. and Geogr. Siirv., Hayden, Miscell. Publ., No. 7, 1877: Ethnog. and Philol. of Hidatsa 

 Indians, p. 50. 

 "Ibid, II. 50. 



