[19] Denig here defines the sense In which he uses the term “medicine” as applied to the objects and things to which the native Indians apply their words, wakoñ and wakoñda, meaning, “spiritual, sacred, consecrated, wonderful, incomprehensible, divine; a spirit, a diviner, etc.”
[20] The Assiniboin never eat the rattlesnake, but it is known that some of the St. Peter’s Sioux and Cree do.
[21] This fetish or amulet is also exposed and smoked to as a medium for his prayer to the Great Medicine.
[22] We perceive by the printed inquiry that this is not credited, yet it is so common among these people as scarcely to attract the attention of the traders.
[23] Evidently should be Blackfeet.
[24] This remark recalls the story of the Babylonian Ishtar, who was represented as losing one by one her seven garments and then as receiving them back again one by one.
[25] W J McGee noted similar racing ability among the Seri Indians. See Seventeenth Ann. Rept. Bur. Amer. Ethn.
[26] Such fierce struggles over fallen heroes recall similar combats engaged in by the stalwart figures in Homer’s Iliad.
[27] It appears that the violation of the chastity of female prisoners was unusual among other tribes who were highly organized socially. It was repugnant to the Iroquois.
[28] The prepuce of the penis is drawn forward and tied with a sinew, to the end of which floats a war eagle feather. Others not sufficiently advanced as to merit that mark of distinction, tie the same with some grass.