MALLERY OX THE DAKOTA CALENDAR. 17 



Fig. 27, 1826.— "An Indian died of the dropsy." So Basil Clement 

 was understood, but it is not clear wliy this circumstance should have 

 been noted, unless the appearance of the disease was so unusual in 1826 

 as to excite remark. Baron de Lahontan, a good authority concerning 

 the northwestern Indians before they had been greatly affected by 

 intercourse with whites, although showing a tendency to imitate another 

 baron — Munchausen — as to his personal adventures, in his '' Kouveaux 

 Voyages dans TAmerique Septentrionale,", specially mentions dropsy as 

 one of the diseases unknown to them. Carver also states that this malady 

 was extremely rare. Whether or not the dropsy was very uncommon, the 

 swelling in this special case might have been so enormous as to render 

 the patient an object of general curiosity and gossip, whose affliction 

 thereby came within the plan of the calendar. The symbol merely shows 

 a man-figure, not much fatter than several others, but distinguished 

 by a line extending sidewise from the top of the head and inclining 

 downward. It is hazarded that this may indicate a swelling from the 

 natural size to fill a space extending to the extremity of the line. 



Fig. 28, 1827. — " Dead Arm" was stabbed with a knife or dirk by a 

 Mandan. The illustration is quite graphic, showing the long-bandied 

 dirk in the bloody wound and the withered arm. If Banquo had 

 been a spectator then aod there, he would probably have repeated his re- 

 mark, " So withered and so wild!" Though the Mandans are also of the 

 great Dakota family, the Sioux have pursued them with special hatred. 

 In 1823, their number, much diminished by wars, still exceeded 2,500. 



Fig. 29, 1828. — A white man named Shardran, who lately was still 

 living in the same neighborhood, built a dirt lodge. The hatted head 

 appears under the roof. 



Fig. 30, 1829. — " Bad Spike -' killed another Indian with an arrow. 

 Nothing in the symbol shows the archer's name, but the pierced victim 

 would doubtless have been willing to swear that it was a case of very 

 " bad spike". 



Fig. 31, 1830. — Bloody battle with the Crows, of whom it is said 

 twenty-three were killed. Nothing in the sign denotes number, it being 

 only a man-figuro with red or bloody body and red war-bonnet. 



Fig. 32, 1831. — Le Beau, a white man, killed another named Kermel. 



Fig. 33, 1832.— "Lone Horn" had his leg "killed", as the interpreta- 

 tion gave it. The single horn is on the figure, and a leg is drawn up as 

 if fractured or distorted, though not unlike the leg in Fig. 9, where run- 

 ning is depicted. The crippling injury may be called the " blast of that 

 dread Horn," though not the one " on Fontarabian echoes borne ". 



Fig. 34, 1833.— "The stars fell ", as the Indians all agreed. This was the 

 great meteoric shower observed all over the United States on November 

 12 of that year. 



Fig. 35, 1834.— The chief "Medicine Hide" was killed. The symbol 

 shows the body as bloody, but not the war-bonnet, by which it is dis- 

 tinguished from Fig. 31. 



2 BULL 



