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 god-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] Pronounced _Kah-thah-gah_--literally, _the place of waves and foam_.
This was the principal 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_,--pronounced _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_.
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