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Show MALLXKT.] CHARTS CLAIM OR DEMAND. 15 » returning horse tracks show that he attained the object in view, and that he rode home. The following explanation of characters was made to Dr. Hoffman, at Fort Berthold, in 1881: 1. Lean- Wolf, the head only of a man to which is attached the outline of a wolf. 2. Hidatsa earth lodges, circular in form, the spots representing the pillars supporting the roof. Indian village at Fort Berthold, Dakota. 3. Human footprints; the course taken by the recorder. 4. The Government buildings at Fort Buford ( square). 5. Several Hidatsa lodges ( round), the occupants of which had intermarried with the Dakotas. 6. Dakota lodges. 7. A small square- a white man's house- with a cross marked upon it, to represent a Dakota lodge. This denotes that the owner, a white man, had married a Dakota woman who dwelt there. 8. Horse tracks returning to Fort Berthold. 9. The Missouri River. 10. Tule Creek. 11. Little Knife River. 12. White Earth River. 13. Muddy Creek. 14. Yellowstone River. 15. Little Missouri River. 16. Dancing Beard Creek. CLAIM OB DEMAND. Stephen Powers states that the Nishinam of California have a curious way of collecting debts. " When an Indian owes another, it is held to be in bad taste, if not positively insulting, for the creditor to dun the debtor, as the brutal Saxon does; so he devises a more subtle method. He prepares a certain number of little sticks, according to the amount of the debt, and paints a ring around the end of each. These he carries and tosses into the delinquent's wigwam without a word and goes hi* way; whereupon the other generally takes the hint, pays the debt, and destroys the sticks." See Contrib. to N. A. Ethnology, Vol. Ill, 321. Dr. W. J. Hoffman says, " When a patient has neglected to remunerate the Shaman [ Wlktctfni'nT of the YokQtsan linguistic division] for his-services, the latter prepares short sticks of wood, with bands of colored porcupine quills wrapped around them, at one end only, and every time he passes the delinquent's lodge & certain number of them are thrown in as a reminder of the indebtedness." See San Francisco ( Cal.) Western Lancet, XI, 1882, p. 443. |
