528 A STUDY OF SIOUAN CULTS. 



Indian cloth, sometimes used instead of feathers on the real standards. 

 The latter were carried by the leaders of war parties, and each stand- 

 ard could be used on four such expeditious. When the warriors ap- 

 proached the hostile camp, tlie keeper of the standard removed the 

 scarf of blue and red cloth from the shaft and wore it around his neck 

 as he went to steal horses (see PL xliv. a, the name Bowlder Thunder- 

 being in § 390, also § 388). 



§ 375. Red is known to be the Omahacolor for the east. Amongthe 

 Dakota the spesir and tomahawk, the weaiions of war, were said to 

 have been given by the Wakinyau, the Thunder-being or Fire power; 

 hence they are painted red (§ 105). 



The late Dr. S. E. Eiggs informs us that — 



In the tiyotipiwere placed the bundles of the black and red sticks of the soldiers.' 

 Towaril the rear of the tent, but near enough to the fire for convenient use, is a 

 large pipe placed by the symbols of power. These are two bundles of shaved sticks 

 about 6 inches long. The sticks in one bundle are painted black and in the other red. 

 The black bundle represents the real men of the camp— those who have made their 

 mark on the warpath. The red bundle represents the boys and such men as wear no 

 eagle feathers. - 



They shave out small round sticks all of the same length, and paint them red, and 

 they are given out to the men. These are to constitute the tiyotipi. * » * Qf 

 all the round shaved sticks, some of which were painted black and some painted 

 red, four were especially marked. They are the four chiefs of the tiyotipi that were 

 made.' 



§ 376. Black is assumed to be the symbolic color for the Takuskan- 

 .skan, the Wind-makers, whose servants are the four winds and the four 

 black spirits of night. Black as a war color is put on the face^ of the 

 warrior. The Santee Dakota consider the raven (a black bird) and a 

 small black stone, less than a hen's egg in size, symbols of the four 

 winds or quarters. Among the Teton Dakota, the Taku.skan.skan 

 symbols, are small pebbles of two kinds, one white, and, according to the 

 description, translucent; the other "resembles ordinary pebbles," prob- 

 ably in being opaque. 



§ 377. Yellow is assumed to be the color symbolizing water, the west, 

 and the setting suu. The Dakota, Omaha, Ponka, and j^oiwere tribes 

 have been familiar for years with the color of the water in the Missouri 

 river. In a Yankton Dakota legend^ recorded by the author it is said 

 that when two mystery men prepared themselves to visit a spirit of the 

 water in order to recover au Indian boy, one of the men painted his 

 entire body black, and the other painted himself yellow (this seems to 

 refer to the south and west, the windmakers and the spirits of the 

 waters). 



In certain Omaha tent decorations we find that the tent ()f a Turtle 

 man (Fig. IGl) has a yellow ground. A similar yellow ground on the 



' Contr. to K. A. Etbnol.. vol. ix, D.ikota Grammar, Texts, aud Ethnograpby. p. 193. 



nV)i<l.. p. 197. 



3 From Renville's account of the tiyotipi, in ibid., pp. 200. 202. 



' Om. Soc, p. 317. Osage War Cu.stoms, pp. 118, 119. 124, 131. 



'Contr. N. A. Ethuol., vol. vi. The Cegiba Language, p. 375. 



