WINTER 1851—52
Mä´ñyí Dó`gyähón-de Sai, "Winter the woman was frozen." The figure over the winter mark represents the woman, indicated by the dress and belt with disks of German silver.
During the winter the present chief, Zépko-eét-te, "Big-bow," then a young man, stole a very pretty woman whose husband was away on the warpath, and took her to his own home camp. On coming near his father's tipi he concealed the woman among the trees and went into the tipi to get something to eat before going on. His father, who knew what he had done, held him and prevented his return to the woman waiting outside, who remained there exposed to the extreme cold until her feet were frozen.
Fig. 110—Summer 1852—Iron-shirt killed.
To "steal" a woman is to elope with or take possession of her in a manner contrary to tribal usage, i. e., secretly and without having made the customary presents to her relatives by which the transaction becomes ratified as a marriage.