210 DAKOTA GRAMMAR, TEXTS, AND ETHNOGRAPHY. 
not already done it, he can now demand the hand of one of the beautiful 
maidens of the village. 
TRAINING OF THE GIRL. 
Under the special care and tuition of the mother and grandmother and 
other female relatives the little girl grows up into the performance of the 
duties of tent life. She plays with her “made child,” or doll, just as children 
in other lands do. Very soon she learns to take care of the baby; to watch 
over it in the lodge, or carry it on her back, while the mother is away for 
wood or dressing buffalo robes. Little girl as she is, she is sent to the 
brook or lake for water. She has her little workbag with awl and sinew, 
and learns to make small moccasins as her mother makes large ones. _Some- 
times she goes with her mother to the wood and brings home her little bun- 
dle of sticks. When the camp moves she has her small pack as her mother 
carries the larger one, and this pack is sure to grow larger as her years in- 
crease. When the corn is planting, the little girl has her part to perform. 
If she can not use the hoe yet, she can at least gather off the old cornstalks. 
Then the garden is to be watched while the god-given maize is growing, 
And when the harvesting comes, the little girl is glad for the corn roasting. 
So she grows. She learns to work with beads and porcupine quills and to 
embroider with ribbons. She becomes skilled in the use of vermilion and 
other paints. A stripe of red adorns her hair and red and yellow spots are 
over her eyebrows and on her cheeks. Her instincts teach her the arts of 
personal adornment. She puts cheap rings on her fingers and tin dangles 
in her ears and strands of beads around her neck. Quite likely a young 
man comes around and adds to her charms as he sings: 
Wear this, I say; 
Wear this, I say; 
Wear this, I say; 
This little finger ring, 
Wear this, I say. 
Thus our Dakota girl becomes skilled in the art of attracting the young 
men, While she is ambitious in the line of carrying bundles as well as in 
cooking venison. .In all these ways she is educated to be a woman among 
Dakota women. It is a hard lot and a hard life, but she knows no other. 
WHEN DEATH COMES. 
In the wild life of the Dakota the birth rate exceeded the death rate. 
So that, without doubt, notwithstanding famines sometimes and pestilences 
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