Legends of the Northwest Part 20

March--Ista-wee-ca-ya-zang-wee--the sore eyes moon (from snow blindness.)

April--Maga-oka-da-wee--the moon when the geese lay eggs; also called Wokada-wee--egg-moon, and sometimes Wato-papee-wee, the canoe moon, or moon when the streams become free from ice.

May--Wo-zu-pee-wee--the planting moon.

June--Wazu-ste-ca-sa-wee--the strawberry moon.

July--Wa-sun-pa-wee--moon when the geese shed their feathers, also called Chang-pa-sapa-wee--Choke-Cherry moon, and sometimes--Mna-rcha-rhca-wee--"The moon of the red blooming lilies", literally, the red-lily moon.

August--Wasu-ton-wee--the ripe moon, i.e. Harvest Moon.

September--Psin-na-ke-tu-wee--the ripe rice moon.

October--Wa-zu-pee-wee or Wee-wa-zu-pee--the moon when wild rice is gathered and laid up for winter.

November--Ta-kee-yu-hra-wee--the deer-rutting moon.

December--Ta-he-cha-psung-wee--the moon when deer shed their horns.]

[Footnote 72: Oonk-to-mee--is a "bad spirit" in the form of a monstrous black spider. He inhabits fens and marshes and lies in wait for his prey. At night he often lights a torch (evidently the _ignis fatuus_ or Jack-a-lantern) and swings it on the marshes to decoy the unwary into his toils.]

[Footnote 73: The Dakotas have their stone idol, or G.o.d, called Toon-kan--or In-yan. This G.o.d dwells in stone or rocks and is they say, the _oldest G.o.d of all_--he is grandfather of all living things. I think, however that the stone is merely the symbol of the everlasting, all pervading, invisible _Ta-ku Wa-kan_--the essence of all life,--pervading all nature, animate and inanimate. The Rev. S. R.

Riggs who, for forty years, has been a student of Dakota customs, superst.i.tions etc., says, "Tahkoo Wahkan," p. 55: et seq. "The religious faith of the Dakota is not in his G.o.ds as such. It is in an intangible, mysterious something of which they are only the embodiment, and that in such measure and degree as may accord with the individual fancy of the worshipper. Each one will worship some of these divinities, and neglect or despise others, but the great object of all their worship, whatever its chosen medium, is the _Ta-koo Wa-kan_, which is the _supernatural_ and _mysterious_. No one term can express the full meaning of the Dakotas _Wakan_. It comprehends all mystery, secret power and divinity.

Awe and reverence are its due, and it is as unlimited in manifestation as it is in idea. All life is _Wakan_; so also is everything which exhibits power, whether in action as the winds and drifting clouds; or in pa.s.sive endurance, as the boulder by the wayside. For even the commonest sticks and stones have a spiritual essence which must be reverenced as a manifestation of the all-pervading mysterious power that fills the the universe."]

[Footnote 74: Wazi-kute--Wah-ze-koo-tay; literally--Pine-shooter--he that shoots among the pines. When Father Hennepin was at Mille Lacs in 1679-80, Wazi-kute was the head Chief (Itancan) of the band of Isantees.

Hennepin writes his name? Ouasicoude and translates it--the "Pierced Pine." See Shea's Hennepin p. 234, Minn. Hist. Coll. vol. I. p. 316.]

[Footnote 75: When a Dakota brave wishes to "propose" to a "dusky maid", he visits her teepee at night after she has retired, or rather, laid down in her robe to sleep. He lights a splinter of wood and holds it to her face. If she blows out the light, he is accepted; if she covers her head and leaves it burning, he is rejected. The rejection however is not considered final till it has been thrice repeated. Even then the maiden is often bought of her parents or guardian, and forced to become the wife of the rejected suitor. If she accepts the proposal, still the suitor must buy her of her parents with suitable gifts.]

[Footnote 76: The Dakotas called the Falls of St. Anthony the Ha-Ha--the _loud laughing_, or _roaring_. The Mississippi River they called Ha-Ha Wa-kpa--River of the Falls. The Ojibway name for the Falls is Ka-ka-bih-kung. Minnehaha is a combination of two Dakota words--Mini--water and Ha-Ha--Falls; but it is not the name by which the Dakotas designated that cataract. Some authorities say they called it I-ha-ha p.r.o.nounced E-rhah-rhah--lightly laughing. Rev. S. W. Pond, whose long residence as a missionary among the Dakotas in this immediate vicinity makes him an authority that can hardly be questioned, says "they called the Falls of Minnehaha "Mini-i-hrpa-ya dan," and it had no other name in Dakota. It means Little Falls and nothing else." Letter to the author.]

[Footnote 77: The game of the Plum-stones is one of the favorite games of the Dakotas. Hennepin was the first to describe this game in his "Description de la Louisiane," Paris, 1683, and he describes it very accurately. See Shea's translation p. 301. The Dakotas call this game _Kan-soo Koo tay-pe_--shooting plum-stones. Each stone is painted black on one side and red on the other; on one side they grave certain figures which make the stones "Wakan." They are placed in a dish and thrown up like dice; indeed the game is virtually a game of dice. Hennepin says: "There are some so given to this game that they will gamble away even their great coat. Those who conduct the game cry at the top of their voices when they rattle the platter and they strike their shoulders so hard as to leave them all black with the blows."]

[Footnote 78: Wa'tanka--contraction of Wa-kan Tanka--Great Spirit. The Dakotas had no Wakan Tanka--or Wakan-peta--fire spirit--till whitemen imported them. There being no name for the Supreme Being in the Dakota tongue (except Ta-ku Wakan--See note 73)--and all their G.o.ds and spirits being Wakan--the missionaries named G.o.d in Dakota--"_Wakan Tanka_"--which means _Big Spirit_, or _The Big Mysterious_.]

[Footnote 79: The Dakotas called Lake Calhoun--Mde-mdo-za--Loon Lake.

They also called it--_Re-ya-ta-mde_--the lake back from the river.

They called Lake Harriet--Mde-unma--the other lake--or (perhaps) Mde uma?Hazel-nut Lake. The lake nearest Calhoun on the north--Lake of the Isles--they called Wi-ta Mde--Island-Lake. Lake Minnetonka they called Me-me-a-tan-ka--_Broad Water_.]

[Footnote 80: The animal called by the French _voyageurs_ the _cabri_ (the kid) is found only on the prairies. It is of the goat kind, smaller than a deer, and so swift that neither horse nor dog can overtake it. (Snelling's) "Tales of the Northwest," p. 286. note 15. It is the gazelle, or prairie antelope, called by the Dakotas Tato-ka-dan--little antelope. It is the _Pish-tah-te-koosh_ of the Algonkin tribes, "reckoned the fleetest animal in the prairie country about the a.s.sinneboin." Captivity and Adventures of John Tanner, p. 301.]

[Footnote 81: The Wicastapi Wakanpi (literally, _men supernatural_) are the "Medicine-men" or Magicians of the Dakotas. They call themselves the sons, or disciples of Unktehee. In their rites, ceremonies, tricks and pretensions they closely resemble the Dactyli, Idae and Curetes of the ancient Greeks and Romans, the Magi of the Persians, and the Druids of Britain. Their pretended intercourse with spirits, their powers of magic and divination, and their rites are substantially the same, and point unmistakably to a common origin. The Dakota "Medicine-Man" can do the "rope-trick" of the Hindoo magician to perfection. The teepee used for the _Wakan Wacipee_--or Sacred Dance--is called the _Wakan Teepee_--the Sacred Teepee. Carver's Cave at St. Paul was also called Wakan Teepee, because the Medicine-men or magicians often held their dances and feasts in it. For a full account of the rites, etc., see Riggs' "Tahkoo Wahkan", Chapter VI. The _Ta-sha-ke_--literally, "Deer-hoofs"--is a rattle made by hanging the hard segments of deer-hoofs to a wooden rod a foot long--about an inch in diameter at the handle end, and tapering to a point at the other. The clashing of these h.o.r.n.y bits makes a sharp, shrill sound something like distant sleigh-bells. In their incantations over the sick they sometimes use the gourd-sh.e.l.l rattle.]

The Chan-che-ga--is a drum or "Wooden Kettle." The hoop of the drum is from a foot to eighteen inches in diameter, and from three to ten inches deep. The skin covering is stretched over one end making a drum with one end only. The magical drum sticks are ornamented with down, and heads of birds or animals are carved on them. This makes them Wakan.]

The flute called _Cho-tanka_ (big pith) is of two varieties--one made of sumac, the pith of which is punched out, etc. The second variety is made of the long bone of the wing or thigh of the swan or crane. They call the first the _bubbling chotanka_ from the tremulous note it gives when blown with all the holes stopped. Riggs' Tahkoo Wahkan, p. 476, et seq.]

E-ne-pee--vapor bath is used as a purification preparatory to the sacred feasts. The vapor bath is taken in this way: "A number of poles the size of hoop-poles or less are taken, and their larger ends being set in the ground in a circle, the flexible tops are bent over and tied in the centre. This frame work is then covered with robes and blankets, a small hole being left on one side for an entrance. Before the door a fire is built, and round stones about the size of a man's head are heated in it.

When hot, they are rolled within, and the door being closed, steam is made by pouring water on them. The devotee, stripped to the skin, sits within this steam-tight dome, sweating profusely at every pore, until he is nearly suffocated. Sometimes a number engage in it together and unite their prayers and songs." "Tahkoo Wakan," p. 83. Father Hennepin was subjected to the vapour-bath at Mille Lacs by Chief Aqui-pa-que-tin, two hundred years ago. After describing the method Hennepin says: "When he had made me sweat thus three times in a week, I felt as strong as ever."

Shea's Hennepin, p. 228. For a very full and accurate account of the Medicine men of the Dakotas, and their rites etc., see Chap. II, Neill's Hist. Minnesota.]

[Footnote 82: The sacred _O-zu-ha_--or Medicine-sack must be made of the skin of the otter, the c.o.o.n, the weasel, the squirrel, the loon, a certain kind of fish or the skins of serpents. It must contain four kinds of medicine (or magic) representing birds, beasts, herbs and trees, viz: The down of the female swan colored red, the roots of certain gra.s.ses, bark from the roots of cedar trees, and hair of the buffalo. "From this combination proceeds a Wakan influence so powerful that no human being una.s.sisted can resist it." Wonderful indeed must be the magic power of these Dakota Druids to lead such a man aa the Rev.

S. R. Riggs to say of them: "By great shrewdness, untiring industry, and more or less of _actual demoniacal possession_, they convince great numbers of their fellows, and in the process are convinced _themselves_, of their sacred character and office." Tahkoo Wakan, pp. 88-9: ]

[Footnote 83: Gah-ma-na-tek-wahk--_the river of many falls_--is the Ojibway name of the river commonly called Kaministiguia, near the mouth of which is situate Fort William, on the site of DuLuth's old fort. The view on Thunder-Bay is one of the grandest in America. Thunder-Cap, with its sleeping stone-giant, looms up into the heavens. Here _Ka-be-bon-ikka_--the Ojibway's G.o.d of storms, flaps his huge wings and makes the Thunder. From this mountain he sends forth the rain, the snow, the hail, the lightning and the tempest. A vast giant, turned to stone by his magic, lies asleep at his feet. The island called by the Ojibways the _Mak-i-nak_ (the turtle) from its tortoise-like shape, lifts its huge form in the distance. Some "down-east" Yankee, called it "Pie-Island," from its (to his hungry imagination) fancied resemblance to a pumpkin pie, and the name, like all bad names, _sticks_. McKay's Mountain on the main-land, a perpendicular rock more than a thousand feet high, up-heaved by the throes of some vast volcano, and numerous other bold and precipitous head lands, and rock-built islands, around which roll the sapphire-blue waters of the fathomless bay, present some of the most magnificent views to be found on either continent.]

[Footnote 84: The Mission of the Holy Ghost--at La Pointe on the isle Waug-a-ba-me--(winding view) in the beautiful bay of Cha-quam-egon?was founded by the Jesuits about the year 1660, and Father Rene Menard was the first priest at this point. After he was lost in the wilderness, Father Glaude Allouez permanently established ihe mission in 1665.

The famous Father Marquette, who took Allouez's place, Sept. 13. 1669, writing to his Superior, thus describes the Dakotas: "The Nadouessi are the Iroquois of this country, beyond La Pointe, _but less faithless, and never attack till attacked._ Their language is entirely different from the Huron and Algonquin. They have many villages, but are widely scattered. They have very extraordinary customs. They princ.i.p.ally use the calumet. They do not speak at great feasts, and when a stranger arrives give him to eat of a wooden fork, as we would a child. All the lake tribes make war on them, but with small success. They have false oats, (wild rice) use little canoes, _and keep their word strictly_."

Neill's Hist. Minn., p. 111.]

[Footnote 85: Michabo--the Good, Great Spirit of the Algonkins. In Autumn, in the moon of the falling leaf, ere he composes himself to his winter's sleep, he fills his great pipe and takes a G.o.d-like smoke. The balmy clouds from his pipe float over the hills and woodland, filling the air with the haze of "Indian Summer." Brinton's Myths of the New World, p. 163.]

[Footnote 86: p.r.o.nounced _Kah-thah-gah_--literally, _the place of waves and foam_. This was the princ.i.p.al village of the Isantee band of Dakotas two hundred years ago, and was located at the Falls of St. Anthony, which the Dakotas called the _Ha-ha_--p.r.o.nounced _Rhah-rhah_--the _loud, laughing waters_. The Dakotas believed that the Falls were in the centre of the earth. Here dwelt the Great Unktehee, the creator of the earth and man; and from this place a path led to the Spirit-land. DuLuth undoubtedly visited Kathaga in the year 1679. In his "Memoir" (Archives of the Ministry of the Marine) addressed to Seignelay, 1685, he says: "On the 2nd of July, 1679, I had the honor to plant his Majesty's arms in the great village of the Nadouecioux called Izatys, where never had a Frenchman been, etc." _Izatys_ is here used not as the name of the village, but as the name of the band--the Isantees. _Nadouecioux_ was a name given the Dakotas generally by the early French traders and the Ojibways. See Shea's Hennepin's Description of Louisiana pp. 203: and 375. The villages of the Dakotas were not permanent towns. They were hardly more than camping grounds, occupied at intervals and for longer or shorter periods, as suited the convenience of the hunters: yet there were certain places, like Mille Lacs, the Falls of St. Anthony, Kapoza (near St. Paul), Remnica, (where the city of Red Wing now stands), and Keuxa (or Keoza) on the site of the city of Winona, so frequently occupied by several of the bands as to be considered their chief villages respectively.]

FOOTNOTES TO THE SEA-GULL:

[Footnote 101: Kay-oshk is the Ojibway name of Sea-Gull.]

[Footnote 102: Gitchee--great,--Gumee--sea or lake,--Lake Superior; also often called Ochipwe Gitchee Gumee, Great Lake (or sea) of the Ojibways.]

[Footnote 103: Ne-me-Shomis--my grandfather. "In the days of my Grandfather" is the Ojibway's preface to all his traditions and legends.]

[Footnote 104: Waub--white---O-jeeg,--fisher, (a furred animal.) White Fisher was the name of a noted Chippewa Chief who lived on the south sh.o.r.e of Lake Superior many years ago. Schoolcraft married one of his descendants.]

[Footnote 105: Ma-kwa or mush-kwa--the bear.]

[Footnote 106: The Te-ke-nah-gun is a board upon one side of which a sort of basket is fastened or woven with thongs of skin or strips of cloth. In this the babe is placed, and the mother carries it on her back. In the wigwam the tekenagun is often suspended by a cord to the lodge-poles and the mother swings her babe in it.]

[Footnote 107: Wabose--the rabbit. Penay, the pheasant. At certain seasons the pheasant drums with his wings.]

[Footnote 108: Kaug, the porcupine. Kenew. the war-eagle.]

[Footnote 109: Ka-be-bon-ik-ka is the G.o.d of storms, thunder, lightning, etc. His home is on Thunder-Cap at Thunder-Bay, Lake Superior. By his magic, the giant that lies on the mountain was turned to stone. He always sends warnings before he finally sends the severe cold of winter, in order to give all creatures time to prepare for it.]

[Footnote 1010: Kewaydin or Kewaytin, is the North-wind or North-west wind.]

[Footnote 1011: Algonkin is the general name applied to all tribes that speak the Ojibway language or dialects of it.]

[Footnote 1012: This is the favorite "love-broth" of the Ojibway squaws.

The warrior who drinks it immediately falls desperately in love with the woman who gives it to him. Various tricks are devised to conceal the nature of the "medicine" and to induce the warrior to drink it; but when it is mixed with a liberal quant.i.ty of "fire-water" it is considered irresistable.]

[Footnote 1013: Translation:

Woe-is-me! Woe-is-me!