MALLERY ON THE DAKOTA CALENDAR, W 



Fig. 44, 1843. — The Sans Arcs made medicine to bring the buffalo, the 

 same being absent without leave. The medicine-tent is denoted by a 

 buffalo's head drawn on it. 



Fig. 45, 1844. — The Minneconjous built a pine fort. A pine-tree con. 

 nected with a tepee. 



Fig. 46, 1845. — Plenty of buffalo-meat, which is represented as hung 

 up on poles and trees to dry. 



Fig. 47, 1846. — "Broken Leg" died. There is enough difference be- 

 tween this symbol and Figs. 33 and 9 to distinguish each. 



Fig. 48, 1847.— "Two Man" was killed. His totem is drawn, — two 

 small man-figures side by side. 



Fig. 49, 1848. — Humpback was killed. An ornamented lance pierces 

 what the chief's brother potentate Eichard III styled the " envious 

 mountain on his back". 



Fig. 50, 1849. — The Crows stole a large drove of horses (it is said 

 800) from the Brules. The circle appears denoting multitude, at least 

 one hundred, and a number of horse-tracks. 



Fig. 51, 1850. — The character is a distinct drawing of a buffalo con- 

 taining a human figure. Clement translated that " a buffalo cow was 

 killed in that year, and an old woman found in her belly " ; also that 

 all the Indians believed this. Good Wood, examined through another 

 interpreter, could or would give no explanation except that it was " about 

 their religion". At first, the writer suspected that the medicine-men had 

 manufactured some pretended portent out of a foetus taken from a 

 real cow, but it is now ascertained, on the excellent authority of Prof. 

 J. W. Powell, that the Sioux have long believed in the appearance 

 from time to time of a monstrous animal that swallows human beings. 

 This superstition was doubtless suggested by the bones of mastodons, 

 often found in the territory of those Indians ; and the buffalo being the 

 largest living animal known to them, its name was given to the legendary 

 monster, in which nomenclature they were not wholly wrong, as the 

 horns of the fossil Bison latlfrons are ten feet in length. TLe medi 

 cine-men probably announced, in 1850, that a squaw who had disap- 

 I)eared was swallowed by the mammoth which was then on its peri- 

 odical visit, and must be propitiated. This demon buffalo is an object 

 of worship, but polytheism prevails to such a degree, according to Rev. 

 Stephen R. Eiggs, who treats of the subject in the Introduction to his 

 admirable Lexicon, published in 1852, that there are also religious 

 ceremonies for the sun and moon ; gods of the north and south, earth, 

 air, and water, woods and i^rairie. Other and still earlier authorities 

 explain that the Indians of this nation called the great spirit " Wakou" 

 or "Tougo Wakon ", and regarded him as the source of all good, but they 

 also believed in an opposing bad spirit, whom they worshiped in a manner 

 reminding of Manicheism. They adored also various good spirits of a 

 less degree, presiding over all the extraordinary objects in nature, such 

 as lakes or mountains of uncommon magnitude, and likewise whatever 



