DOBSEY.] 



CULTS OF THE ELExMENTS. 



523 



\NAR 



the winds, others after the thunder-beiugs, aud others after the 

 Waktceqi or water monsters.' (See § 06.) 



During the year 1890 the author obtained from the three principal 

 Ponka chiefs the classification of their 

 gentes by pliratries, and the character 

 of the mystic songs peculiar to each 

 l^hratry. 



On comparing this information with 

 that which has been related about the 

 Dakota gods, there seemed to be good 

 reasons for inferring that not only the 

 Dakota tribes, but also the Omaha, 

 Ponka, Winne-bago, and others of the 

 same stock, divided their gods into fou ■ 

 classes, those of the earth, wind-mak- 

 ers fire and water. Fig. 193.— ThofPatadagentile circle. 



§ 364. Among the Omaha, Iowa, and cognate tribes, we find that when 

 a gens assembled as a whole, for council purposes, they sat around the 



fire in the order shown in the accompanying diagram, Fig. 193: 



Legend. — 1, Black Bear subgeus; 2, Small Bird suljgens; 3, Eagle subgens; 4, 

 Turtle snbgens; 5, fireplace; 6, entrance. 



Places in the circle were assigned according to kinship; thus, the 



Black Bear and Small Bird people are 

 spoken of as "sitting on the same side 

 of the fireplace,'' as they are full kin, 

 while they are only partially related to 

 those who sit on the other side (Nos. 3 

 and 4). That the fireplace was sacred, 

 there being traces of a hearth cult, has 

 been shown in §§ 33 and 40. Further- 

 more, the (|;atada circle is remarkable 

 not only for its arrangement according 

 to kinship, but for its symbolic char- 

 acter ; because the Black Bear i^eople 

 are associated with the ground or earth, 

 as is shown by their persoual names; 

 the Small Bird people are Thunder-beings or Fire people; the Eagle 

 snbgens consist of "Wind-maker" people; and the Turtle snbgens is 

 composed of Water people. 



§ 365. This suggests another diagram. Fig. 194, in which the author 

 has put the uames of four classes of Dakota gods, with what he sus- 

 pects to be their appropriate colors, B standing for red, B for black, 1' 

 for yellow, and Bl for blue. 



ITbe reader is cautioned against supposing that "air" as used in this section is employed m the 

 scientific sense, hecause the Indians ^ere ignorant of the nature of the atmosphere. They distin- 

 guish hetweeu the " Something-that-moves" (which we term the '-Wind-maker," "Wind-makers" 

 in the plural) and tlie winds, and they also had distinct names for the clouds and "upper world." 

 They also had special names for the Four Quarters (Dakota, tatuye topa ; (|.'egiha, fade uiif6 dubaha). 



Fig. 194. 



PEACE 



-The four elements, etc. 



