206 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull, ei 



by the human senses. . . . His symbol is the bowlder. . . . He 

 lives, also in what is termed 'the four winds.' " * Dorsey writes: 



Taku^kag^kag, the moving deity ... is the most powerful of their [the Dakota] 

 gods; the one most to be feared and propitiated, since, more than all others, he in- 

 fluences human weal and woe. He is supposed to live in the four winds, and the 

 four black spirits of night do his bidding. ^ 



Miss Alice C. Fletcher uses the term ''Something that moves," 

 and a connection between this mysterious power and the small 

 stones appears in her article on "The religious ceremony of the 

 Four Winds." ^ Miss Fletcher says: 



An intelligent Santee Indian said to me: . . . "The Four Winds are sent by 

 ' the Something that moves '. There is a ' Something that moves ' at each of the ' Four 

 Directions or Quarters'. . . . Among the Santee (Sioux) Indians the Four Winds 

 are symbolized by the raven and a small black stone, less than a hen's egg in size. 



The desire for a dream of this small black stone and the manner of its 

 treatment, as described by this author, are similar to those connected 

 with the sacred stones which form the subject of the present dis- 

 cussion. 



Distinct from these small stones, which were carried on the person? 

 were the large stones or rocks in the field which were "objects of wor- 

 ship." Riggs says, "Large bowlders were selected and adorned with 

 red and green paint, whither the devout Dakota might go to pray and 

 offer his sacrifice."^ An interesting account of such a stone, known 

 as Eyay Shah, "Red Rock," is given by Hovey. This stone was 

 situated near the site of St. Paul, Minn., and was last visited by the 

 Sioux shortly before their outbreak in 1862.''' Many stones on the 

 Dakota prairie are said to have been similarly regarded by the Sioux. 



To talk of these stones is "sacred talk" to the Sioux, and the ma- 

 terial comprised in this chapter was treated with the same reverence 

 as that relating to the dream of the thunderbird or the ceremony of 

 the Sun dance. 



Songs and information concerning the sacred stones were secured 

 from men who, in their relation to these objects, may be said to repre- 

 sent five different standpoints, as follows: 



(1) Men who have dreamed of the sacred stones, possess one or 

 more of them, and have. used them successfully in treating the sick or 

 in locating lost articles. Those of this class who furnished informa- 

 tion were Brave Buffalo (Tatar) 'ka-ohi'tika) and Goose (Maga'). 



(2) Men who possess sacred stones, and believe they have been 

 helped in various ways by their presence. Chased-by-Bears (Mato'- 



iPond, G. H., Dakota Superstitions, Colls. Minn. Hist. Son. for 1867, vol. 2, pt. 3, pp. 43-44, St. Paul, 

 1S67. 

 s Dorsey, James Owen, A Study of Siouan Cults, in Eleventh Rep. Bur. Ethn., p. 445. 

 3 In Peahody Mus. Rep., in, pp. 289-90, Cambridge, Mass., 1887. 



* Riggs, Stephen R., Theogony of the Sioux, Amer. Antiq., n. No. iv, p. 208, Chicago, 1880. 

 '" Hovey, H. C, D. D., Eyay Shah: A Sacrificial Stone near St. Paul, ibid., ix, No. i, pp. 3.5-30, 1887. 



