HORSES.
§ 248. These are well named “Cŭñka wakaⁿ (Śuŋka wakaŋ)” for they are indeed wakaŋ. Consequently the Dakota have the Cŭñg olowaⁿ (Śuŋg olowaŋ) or Horse Songs, and they pray to the horses (ćewićakiyapi). If any one paints a horse in a wakaŋ manner, when he has no right to do so, he is sure to pay the penalty: he will encounter misfortune of some sort, or he will fall ill, or he will be slain by a foe, or he will have his neck broken by being thrown from a horse.
SPIDERS.
§ 249. The Teton pray to gray spiders, and to those with yellow legs. When a person goes on a journey and a spider passes, one does not kill it in silence. For should one let it escape, or kill it without prayer, bad consequences must ensue. In the latter case, another spider would avenge the death of his relation. To avoid any such misfortune, when the spider is encountered, the person must say to it, “Iktómi Tuŋkaŋśila, Waʞiŋyaŋ niktepe lo,” i. e., “O Grandfather Spider, the Thunder-beings kill you!” The spider is crushed at once, and his spirit believes what has been told him. His spirit probably tells this to the other spiders, but they can not harm the Thunder-beings. If one thus addresses a spider as he kills it, he will never be bitten by other spiders.
[§ 231.] One of the Dakota myths tells how Unktomi killed himself, causing his limbs to shrivel up till they assumed the appearance of spiders’ limbs.
SNAKE LORE.
§ 250. Some Dakota will not kill snakes by hitting them. He who violates the law in this respect will dream horrible dreams about various kinds of snakes; and occasionally it happens that such a man has a horse bitten by a snake. The Siŋteḣla taŋka, or the Ancient of Rattlesnakes, was one of the enemies of the Thunder-beings.
“There are some things about which it is most unlucky to dream. Snakes are said to be terrible; they seek to enter a man’s ears, nose, or mouth” (i.e., in the dream); “and should one succeed, it is a sure sign of death. ‘No good comes from snakes.’”[186]
THE DOUBLE WOMAN.
§ 251. In the olden times there was what they called “Wiŋyaŋ nuŋ-papi-ka,” or the The Double Woman, consisting of two very tall females who were probably connected by a membrane. They wore horned headdresses decorated with feathers, and bunches of feathers hung from the right shoulder of one and from the left shoulder of the other. Instead of heel tags, each female had a turtle trailing from the heel or quarter of one moccasin, and a feather from that of the other. In the sketch as given by Bushotter there is a pale blue stripe around the bottom of each skirt, and half of each trailing feather is of that color. Each body, above the top of the blanket, is painted with blue dots on a yellow ground. There is a blue stripe across the right shoulder of the woman on the right, and one across the left shoulder of the other woman, each stripe curving downward towards the opposite side. (See Pl. L.)