70 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



In reply to an inquiry by Prof. Mason, Major Powall enumerated 

 certain tribes of Indians that bury their dead by clans. 



Mr. Hinman stated that this was not the case with the Dakotas. 



Prof. Mason remarked that he had discovered in the myths re- 

 lated by Mr. Dorsey and Major Powell a material substratum to the 

 mythical ; that is, the myth seemed to account for the origin of 

 inexplicable phenomena, by means of things no longer regarded as 

 mythical. 



Major Powell replied that this idea proceeded from a mis- 

 understanding of the nature of Indian philosophy. With sav- 

 ages the production of effects at a distance from the cause does 

 not require the intervention of a material medium. He reviewed 

 the progress of the conception of wind through the different 

 grades of social progress, as seen in the Norse, the Greek, and the 

 later mythologies. 



In reply to a question by Mr. Guss, he stated that he presumed 

 the order in which the different animals were slain by the boy 

 prodigy as he grew older correctly represented the degrees of 

 difhcultness with which the Indians regard the capture of these 

 animals ; the eagle, which was the last named, being taken by them 

 only with great skill. 



Forty-Fourth Regular Meeting, October 18, 1881. 



Mr. S. D. Hinman read a paper on The Stone God, or Ora- 

 cle, OF THE PUTETEMNI BAND OF PIUNKPATI DAKOTAS. 



This oracle was seen by him while on an expedition with some 

 Dakot-an Indians across the James River Valley, in Dakota Terri- 

 tory. A Hunkpati man of the party gave the history of the stone, 

 and an account of its miraculous movement from the Sacred Hill 

 to the old dirt lodge village. This story Mr. Hinman related. 

 He then explained what the Dakota stone god is and the worship 

 paid to it. It was then shown from old papers preserved by the 

 Massachusetts Historical Society that this worship was probably 



