370 CALENDAR HISTORY OF THE KIOWA [eth.axn. 17 



Riflatsa and Mnndan — 'Olany writers represent tliat savage Indian 

 tribes diviclo the year into twelve periods corre.si)ouding to our months, 

 and that each mouth is named from some meteorological occurrence or 

 phase of organic ci'eation observable at the time. Among others, Max- 

 imilian presents us with a list of twelve months; 'the month of the 

 seven cold days," 'the pairing mouth,' 'the month of weak eyes,' etc; 

 he introduces this list in one of his chapters descriptive of the Man- 

 dans. He does not say it is their list of months, but publishes it with- 

 out comment, and yet it is presented in such a manner as to lead the 

 reader to suppose that it is the regular and original Mandau calendar. 

 Other authors present lists of Indian months in much the same way. 

 As the results of my own observations, I should say that the ^landau 

 and Minnetaree are generally aware that there are more than twelve 

 lunations in a year, that they as yet know nothiug of our manner of 

 dividing the year, aud that although, when speaking of 'moons,' they 

 often connect them with natural phenomena, they have no formal names 

 for the luuar periods. I think the same might be said of other tribes 

 who are equally wild. 



"The Hidatsa recognize the lapse of time by days, lunar periods, and 

 years; also by the regular recurrence of various natural i)heuomena, 

 such as the first formation of ice iu the fall, the breaking of the ice in 

 the Missouri in the spring, the melting of the snowdrifts, the coming 

 of the wild geese from the south, the ripening of various fruits, etc. 

 A common way of noting time a few years ago was by the develop- 

 ment of the buffalo calf ih utero. A period thus marked by a natural 

 occurrence, be it long or short, is called by them the kadu, season, time, 

 of such an occurrence. Some long seasons include shorter seasons; 

 thus they speak of the season of strawberries, the season of service- 

 berries, etc., as occurring within the season of warm weather. They 

 speak of the seasons of cold weather or of snow, of warm weather, 

 and of death or decay, which we consider as agreeing with our seasons 

 of winter, summer, and fall; but they do not regularly allot a certain 

 number of moons to each of these seasons. Should you ask an inter- 

 preter who knew the European calendar what were the Indian names 

 of the months, he would probably give you names of a dozen of these 

 periods or natural seasons, as we might call them, corresponding in 

 time to our months. In a few years, when these Indians shall know 

 more of our system of noting time than they now do, they will devise 

 and adopt regular Hidatsa names for the months of our calendar'' 

 (Mattheias, 1). 



Pmcnee. — "They had no method of comimting years by calendric 

 notation. Occasionally a year that had been marked by sonic impor- 

 tant event, as a failure of crops, unusual sickness, or a disastrous hunt, 

 was referred to as a year by itself, but at a few years' remove even this 

 mark became indistinct or firded altogether away. Any occurrence ten 

 or twelve years ]>ast was usually designated as long ayo. Their great 

 use of the past was not as history, but simi^ly as a storehouse of tradi- 



