[30] The Dakotas call the meteor, "_Wakan-denda_" (sacred fire) and
_Wakan-wohlpa_ (sacred gift). Meteors are messages from the Land of
Spirits warning of impending danger. It is a curious fact that the
"sacred stone" of the Mohammedans, in the Kaaba at Mecca, is a meteoric
stone, and obtains its sacred character from the fact that it fell from
heaven.
[31] _Kah-no-te-dahn_,--the little, mysterious dweller in the woods. This
spirit lives in the forest, in hollow trees. _Mrs. Eastman's Dacotah_,
Pre. Rem. xxxi. "The Dakota god of the woods--an unknown animal said to
resemble a man, which the Dakotas worship: perhaps, the
monkey."--_Riggs' Dakota Dic. Tit--Canotidan_.
[32] The Dakotas believe that thunder is produced by the flapping of the
wings of an immense bird which they call _Wakinyan_--the Thunder-bird.
Near the source of the Minnesota River is a place called
"Thunder-Tracks" where the foot-prints of a "Thunder-bird" are seen on
the rocks twenty-five miles apart. _Mrs. Eastman's Dacotah_, p. 71.
There are many Thunder-birds. The father of all the
Thunder-birds--"_Wakinyan Tanka_"--or "Big Thunder," has his _teepee_ on
a lofty mountain in the far West.
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