Fig. 965.—Whirlwind.
It is a decoration of great frequency and consisting of the single and double spirals. The single spiral is the symbol of Ho-bo-bo, the twister, who manifests his power by the whirlwind. It is also of frequent occurrence as a rock etching in the vicinity of ruins, where also the symbol of the Ho-bo-bo is seen. But the figure does not appear upon any of the pottery. The myth explains that a stranger came among the people, when a great whirlwind blew all the vegetation from the surface of the earth and all the water from its courses. With a flint he caught these symbols upon a rock, the etching of which is now in Keam’s Cañon, Arizona Territory. It is 17 inches long and 8 inches across. He told them that he was the keeper of breath. The whirlwind and the air which men breathe comes from this keeper’s mouth.
Fig. 966.—Whirlwind.
Fig. 966 is a copy of part of the decoration on a pot taken from a mound in Missouri, published in Second Annual Report of the Bureau Ethnology, Pl. LIII, fig. 11. On the authority of Rev. S. D. Hinman, it is the conventional device among the Dakotas to represent a whirlwind.
WINTER—COLD—SNOW.
Fig 967.—Froze to death.
Fig. 967.—Glue, an Oglala, froze to death on his way to a Brulé village. American-Horse’s Winter Count, 1791-’92. A glue-stick is represented back of his head. Glue, made from the hoofs of buffalo, is used to fasten arrowheads to the shaft and is carried about on sticks. The cloud from which hail or snow is falling represents winter.