UNWRITTEN DAKOTA LAWS. Dalle) 
dead and looks over into the land of spirits. Whathas gone? And. whither 
has it gone? The belief of the Dakotas in the existence of spirit is deeply 
inwrought into their language. The “nagi,” or shadow, in the concrete 
form, meaning primarily the shade or shadow made by any material thing in 
the sunlight, is used to indicate the human soul or spirit, as well as the 
spirit of all living beings. It is, moreover, put into the abstract form as 
“wanagi,” and also into the human absolute, “wiéa-nagi,” human spirit. 
They speak also of the ‘“‘wanagi tipi,” house of spirits, and say of one who 
has died, “wanagiyata iyaya,” gone to the spirit land. And the road over 
which it passes is called ‘“wanagi taGanku,” spirit’s path. The war prophet 
also, in his incantations, sings: 
I have cast in here a soul; 
I have cast in here a soul; 
I have cast in here a buffalo soul; 
I have cast in here a soul. 
In the sacred language of conjuring man is designated by the ‘mythic 
buffalo.” 
Thus we have abundant evidence, in the language and customs of the 
people, of the common belief of the nation in the existence of spirits. But 
having said that, there is little more that can be said. The vista is dark, 
No light shines upon the path. But looking out into this dark avenue, the 
sad heart of the Dakota sings a song for the dead. Take this mourning 
song of Black-Boy for his grandson as a specimen. The object appears to 
be that of introducing the freed spirit of the child to his comrades in the 
world of spirits. 
“The unearthliness of the scene,” says Mr. Pond, ‘‘can not be de- 
scribed, as, in the twilight of the morning, while the mother of the deceased 
boy, whose name was Makadutawin, Red-Harth- Woman, was wailing in a 
manner which would excite the sympathies of the hardest heart, Hoksiday- 
sapa, Black-boy, standing on the brow of a hill, addressed himself to the 
ghostly inhabitants of the spirit-world, in ghostly notes, as follows: 
“Friend, pause and look this way; 
Friend, pause and look this way; 
Friend, pause and look this way; 
Say ye, 
A grandson of Black-boy is coming.” 
