The Feast of the Virgins and Other Poems Part 47

[71] The Dakotas reckon their months by _moons_. They name their moons from natural circ.u.mstances. They correspond very nearly with our months, as follows:

January--_Wee-te-rhee_--The Hard Moon; i.e.--the cold moon.

February--_Wee-ca-ta-wee_--The c.o.o.n Moon--(the moon when the c.o.o.ns come out of their hollow trees).

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 Woka da-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--the moon when the geese shed their feathers, also called Chang-pa-sapa-wee--Choke-Cherry moon, and sometimes--Mna-rcha-rcha-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. (When the wild rice is ripe.)

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.

[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-o' lantern) and swings it on the marshes to decoy the unwary into his toils.

[73] The Dakotas have their stone-idol, or G.o.d, called Toon-kan--or Inyan.

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 worshiper. 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 Dakota's _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 universe."

[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 the name Ouasicoude, and translates it--the "Pierced Pine." See Shea's _Hennepin_, p. 234, _Minn. Hist. Coll_. vol. i, p.

316.

[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.

[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 of St.

Anthony is _Ka-ka-bik-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.

[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."

[78] _Wa-tanka_--contraction of _Wa-kan Tanka_--Great Spirit. The Dakotas had no _Wakan Tanka_ or _Wakan-peta_--fire spirit--till white men imported them. There being no name for the Supreme Being in the Dakota tongue (except _Taku Skan-skan_.--See note 51)--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_.

[79] The Dakotas called Lake Calhoun, at Minneapolis, Minn.--_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-ne-a-tan-ka_--_Broad Water_.

[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 _Ta-toka-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.siniboin." _Captivity and Adventures of John Tanner_, p. 301.

[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. Carvers 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. 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 center. 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 vapor-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.

[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 as 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.

[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 situated Fort William. 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 fancied resemblance to a pumpkin pie, and the name, like all bad names, _sticks_. McKay's Mountain on the mainland, a perpendicular rock more than a thousand feet high, upheaved by the throes of some vast volcano, and numerous other bold and precipitous headlands, 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.

[84] The Mission of the Holy Ghost--at La Pointe, on the isle _Wauga-ba-me_--(winding view) in the beautiful bay of Cha-quam-egon --was founded by the Jesuits about the year 1660. Father Rene Menard was probably the first priest at this point. After he was lost in the wilderness, Father Glaude Allouez permanently established the 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. III.

[85] _Michabo_ or _Manni-bozo_--the Good 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.

[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 center 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.

Mr. Neill, usually very accurate and painstaking, has fallen into an error in his prefatory notes to the last edition of his valuable _History of Minnesota_. Speaking of DuLuth, he says:

"He appears to have entered Minnesota by way of the Pigeon or St. Louis River, and to have explored where no Frenchman had been, and on July 2, 1679, was at _Kathio_ (_Kathaga_) perhaps on Red Lake or Lake of the Woods, which was called 'the great village of the Wadouessioux,' one hundred and twenty leagues from the _Songaskicons_ and _Houetepons_ who were dwellers _in the Mille Lac region_."

Now _Kathaga_ (Mr. Neill's _Kathio_) was located at the Falls of St.

Anthony on the Mississippi as the whole current of Dakota traditions clearly shows and DuLuth's dispatches clearly indicate. Besides, the _Songaskicons_ and _Houetepons_ were _not_ and never were "dwellers in the Mille Lac region." The Songaskicons (Sissetons) were at that time located on the Des Moines river (in Iowa), and the Houetabons (Ouadebatons) at and around Big Stone Lake. The Isantees occupied the region lying between the mouth of the Minnesota River and Spirit Lake (Mille Lacs) with their princ.i.p.al village--_Kathaga_--where the city of Minneapolis now stands. These facts account for the "one hundred and twenty leagues" as distances were roughly reckoned by the early French explorers.

September 1, 1678, Daniel Greysolon DuLuth, a native of Lyons, France, left Quebec to explore the country of the Dakotas. "The next year (1679) on the 2nd day of July, he caused the king's arms to be planted in the great village of the Nadouessioux (Dakotas) called Kathio" (_Kathaga_) "where no Frenchman had ever been, also at the Songaskicons and Houetabons, one hundred and twenty leagues distant from the former. * *

* * On this tour he visited Mille Lacs, which he called Lake Buade, the family name of Frontenac, governor of Canada." _Neill''s History of Minnesota_, p. 122. This is correct, except the name of the village--_Kathio_, which is a misprint or perhaps an error of a copyist.

It should be _Kathaga_. DuLuth was again at the Falls of St. Anthony in 1680 and returned to Lake Superior via the Mississippi, Rum River and Mille Lacs, according to his own dispatches.

Franquelin's "_Carte de la Louisiane_" printed at Paris A.D. 1684, from information derived from DuLuth, who visited France in 1682-3, and conferred with the minister of the Colonies and the minister of Marine--shows the inaccuracy, as to points of compa.s.s at least, of the early French explorers. According to this map, Lake Buade (Mille Lacs) lies north-west of Lake Superior and Lake Pepin lies due west of it.

DuLuth was afterward appointed to the command of Fort Frontenac near Niagara Falls, and died there in 1710. The official dispatch from the Governor of Canada to the French Government is, as regards the great explorer, brief and expressive--"Captain DuLuth is dead. He was an honest man."

To Daniel Greysolon DuLuth, and not to Father Hennepin, whom he rescued from his captors at Mille Lacs, belongs the credit of the first exploration of Minnesota by white men.

Father Hennepin was a self-conceited and self-convicted liar. Daniel Greysolon DuLuth "was an honest man."

NOTES TO THE SEA-GULL