484 TRIBES OF THE UPPER MISSOURI [bth. ann. io 



upon me. Give me the bows and arrows of my enemies. Give me 

 their guns. Give me their horses. Give me their bodies. Let me 

 have my face blackened on my return. Let good weather come that. 

 I can see. Good dreams give that I can judge where they are. I 

 have suffered. I wish to live. I wish to be revenged. I am poor. I 

 want horses. I will sacrifice. I will smoke. I will remember; have 

 pity upon me." 



Prater to Ghosts. — ''Spirits of our dead relatives, I make this 

 feast for you to call you all around me. I smoke this tobacco which 

 has been inclosed with your hair; be near us and hear. My friends 

 are around me, and you are called to the feast. Call on all the 

 spirits of our dead friends to aid in giving us what we ask. Make 

 the buffalo come near and the clouds and wind fair to approach 

 them, that we may always have meat in camp to feed us and you. 

 Help us in every way ; let our children live. Let us live. Call on all 

 these spirits and ask them to assist you in helping us. 



" If we hunt, be with us. If we go to war, be with us. Enable 

 us to revenge some of your deaths upon our enemies. They have 

 killed you ; they have brought our hearts low. Bring their hearts low 

 also. Let us blacken our faces. Keep us from harm, rest quiet, we 

 will not cease to cry for and remember you. You are remembered 

 in this feast, eat some of it [here small bits are scattered around]. 

 This to you, my father. This for you, my grandfather, my uncle, 

 my brother, the relations of all present eat, rest in quiet, do not let 

 disease trouble us. We eat for you, we cry for you, we cut ourselves 

 for you." 



In conclusion, if the spirit addressed be recently dead they will 

 all cry, and some of the immediate relatives cut their legs and arms, 

 but if it is a feast to the memory of those long since dead some of 

 the concluding words are left out. There is a good deal of repetition 

 and often a long prayer is said, but the above is in amount what they 

 ask. For the previous ceremony before the prayer is said, see the 

 article where feasts to the dead are described. 



The Moon 



They say the moon is a hot body and derives its light from its own 

 nature, not as a reflection of the sun's rays ; that it is eaten up monthly 

 or during a given period by a great number of moles, which they call 

 we-as-poo-gah (moon nibblers). These moles are numerous all over 

 the prairies, have pointed noses, no teeth, and burrow in the ground. 

 They (the Indians) believe that in eating up the moon their noses 

 are burned off, their teeth worn out, and for their damage have been 

 cast down from above, where they are doomed to burrow in the 

 earth and get nothing to eat. The same operation is going on all 



