276 PICTURE-WRITING OF THE AMERICAN INDIANS. 
drawing of a dirt lodge to which the Gros Ventres were driven, The 
present writer, by no means devoted to symbolism, had supposed a 
legitimate symbol to be indicated, which supposition further informa- 
tion on the subject showed to be incorrect. 
Fig. 195, 181213.—Wild horses were first run and caught by the 
Dakotas. The device is a lasso. The date is of value, as showing 
when the herds of prairie horses, descended from those animals 
introduced by the Spaniards in Mexico, or those deposited by 
them on the shores of Texas and at other points, had multiplied 
so as to extend into the far northern regions. The Dakotas 
undoubtedly learned the use of the horse and perhaps also that 
of the lasso from southern tribes, with whom they were in con- 
tact; and it is noteworthy that notwithstanding the tenacity with 
which they generally adhere to ancient customs, in only two gen- 
Fic. 1%. erations since they became familiar with the horse they had been 
so revolutionized in their habits as to be utterly helpless, both in war 
and the chase, when deprived of that animal. 
1 
Fie. 196. Fig. 196, 1813~14.—The whooping-cough was very preva- 
agg lent and fatal. The sign is suggestive of a blast of air 
coughed out by the man-figure. 
The interruption in the cough peculiar to the disease is 
Fic. 197, more clearly delineated in the Winter Count of The-Flame 
= for the same year, Fig. 197, and still better in The-Swan’s 
al Winter Count, Fig. 198. 
198. 
Fic. 
Fig. 199, 1814~15.—A Dakota killed an Arapaho in 
7 his lodge. The device represents a tomahawk or battle- 
ax, the red being blood from the cleft skull. 
Fic. 199 
Fig. 200, 1815-16.—The Sans Ares made the first attempt at a dirt 
truding from the lodge top, but the figure must now be ad- 
mittéd to be a badly drawn bow, in allusion to the tribe Sans 
Are, without, however, any sign of negation. As the inter- 
Fic. 200, preter explained the figure to be a crow feather and as Crow- 
lodge. This was at Peoria Bottom, Dakota. Crow Feather 
was their chief, which fact, in the absence of the other charts, - 
seemed to explain the fairly drawn feather of that bird por- 
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