ASTRONOMICAL LORE.
§ 354. Ursa major is said to be an ermine, the several stars of that constellation indicating, in their opinion, the burrow, the head, the feet, and the tail of that animal. They call the milky way the “ashy way.”
They think that thunder is caused by the flapping of the wings of the large bird, which causes rain, and that the lightning is the glance of his eye when he seeks prey.
They call the rainbow, “the cap of the water,” or “the cap of the rain.” Once, say they, an Indian caught in the autumn a red bird that had mocked him, releasing it after binding its feet together with a fish line. The bird saw a hare and pounced upon it, but the hare crept into the skull of a buffalo lying on the prairie, and as the line hanging from the bird’s claws formed a semicircle, they imagine that the rainbow is still caused by that occurrence.[268]
FOOD LORE.
§ 355. They have queer notions respecting the effects of different articles of diet; thus: an expectant mother believes that if she eats a part of a mole or shrew, her child will have small eyes; that if she eats a piece of porcupine, her child will be inclined to sleep too much when it grows up; that if she partakes of the flesh of the turtle, her offspring will be slow or lazy, etc.; but they do not suppose that such articles of food affect the immediate consumer.
FOUR SOULS IN EACH HUMAN BEING.
§ 356. “It is believed by some of the Hidatsa that every human being has four souls in one. They account for the phenomena of gradual death where the extremities are apparently dead while consciousness remains, by supposing the four souls to depart, one after another, at different times. When dissolution is complete, they say that all the souls are gone, and have joined together again outside of the body. I have heard a Minnetaree quietly discussing this doctrine with an Assinneboine, who believed in only one soul to each body.”[269]