METHOD OF RECKONING TIME. 165 
other nine. At the end of the next ten another finger is turned down, and 
so on. Twenty is two tens, thirty is three tens, etc., as will be seen by refer- 
ring to the section on Numeral Adjectives in the Grammar. Opawinge, one 
hundred, is probably derived from pawinga, to go round in circles or to make 
gyrations, as the fingers have been all gone over again for their respective 
tens. The Dakota word for a thousand, kektopawinge, may be formed of 
‘ake’ and ‘opawinge,’ hundreds again, haying now completed the circle of 
their fingers in hundreds, and bemg about to commence again. They have 
no separate word to denote any higher number than a thousand. There is 
a word to designate one-half of anything, but none to denote any smaller 
aliquot part. 
METHOD OF RECKONING TIME. 
The Dakota have names for the natural divisions of time. Their 
years they ordinarily count by winters. A man is so many winters old, or 
so many winters have passed since such an event. When one is going on 
a journey, he does not usually say that he will be back in so many days, as 
we do, but in so many nights or sleeps. In the same way they compute 
distance by the number of nights passed in making the journey. They 
have no division of time into weeks. Their months are literally moons. The 
popular belief is that when the moon is full, a great number of very small 
mice commence nibbling on one side of it, which they continue to do until 
they have eaten it all up. Soon after this another moon begins to grow, 
which goes on increasing until it has reached its full size only to share the 
fate of its predecessor ; so that with them the new moon is really new, and 
not the old one reappearing. To the moons they have given names, which 
refer to some prominent physical fact that occurs about that time im the 
year. For the names of the moons most commonly used by the Dakotas 
living in the Valley of the Minnesota, with their significations and the 
pont: to en they most nearly correspond, the reader is referred to the 
word ‘wi,” Part I of the Dictionary. 
ine moons are usually counted to the winter, and five to the summer, 
leaving only one each to the spring and autumn; but this distinction is not 
closely -adhered to. The Dakotas often have v ery warm debates, especially 
towards the close of the winter , about what moon it is. The raccoons do 
not always make their appearance at the same time every winter; and the 
causes which produce sore eyes are not developed precisely at the same 
time in each successive spring. All these variations make room for strong 
