In the cabinet at Albany, N.Y.,
there is a very ancient pipe of this material which the Iroquois
obtained from the Dakotas. Charlevoix speaks of this pipe-stone in his
_History of New France_. LeSueur refers to the Yanktons as the village
of the Dakotas at the Red-Stone Quarry. See _Neill's Hist. Minn._, p.
514.
[24] "_Ho_" is an exclamation of approval--yea, yes, bravo.
[25] Buying is the honorable way of taking a wife among the Dakotas. The
proposed husband usually gives a horse or its value in other articles to
the father or natural guardian of the woman selected--sometimes against
her will. See note 75.
[26] The Dakotas believe that the _Aurora Borealis_ is an evil omen and
the threatening of an evil spirit (perhaps _Waziya_, the
Winter-god--some say a witch, or a very ugly old woman). When the lights
appear danger threatens, and the warriors shoot at, and often slay, the
evil spirit, but it rises from the dead again.
[27] _Se-so-kah_--The Robin.
[28] The spirit of _Anpetu-sapa_ that haunts the Falls of St. Anthony with
her dead babe in her arms. See the Legend in _Neill's Hist. Minn._, or
my _Legend of the Falls._
[29] _Mee-coonk-shee_--My daughter.
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