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 passive 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.
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