Fig. 886.—The Bear-stops.
Fig. 886.—Matokinajin, The-Bear-Stops. The Oglala Roster. The bear is surrounded by a circle of hunters, so is forced to stop. This figure is in no essential respect different from the one preceding, yet the name is suggestive of the converse of the fact expressed. In this case the bear is forced to stop, and doubtless fear is exhibited by that animal and not his hunters. Each of the ideas is appropriately expressed, the point of consideration being changed.
Fig. 887.
Fig. 887 is taken from Copway, loc. cit. It probably represents “fear,” the concept being the imagined sinking or depression of the heart and vital organs, as is correspondingly expressed in several languages.
FRESHET.
This small group shows the Dakotan modes of portraying the freshets of the rivers on the banks of which they lived, which were often disastrous. Each of the three figures pictures differently the same event.
Fig. 888.—River freshet.
Fig. 888.—“Many-Yanktonais-drowned winter.” The river bottom on a bend of the Missouri river, where they were encamped, was suddenly submerged, when the ice broke and many women and children were drowned. Battiste Good’s Winter Count 1825-’26.