is still, striking his sides, writhing and striking the earth with his feet so as almost to make it tremble, and holding a dish of water in his mouth, he proceeds with a sing-song bubbling to deposit in the dish that which has been drawn from the sick person. This laborious and disgusting operation is repeated with short intervals for hours. The INDIAN WAR DANCE. operant is thus enabled, not only to relieve the sufferer, but also to discover the sin on account of which he has been afflicted, the spirit of which he sees run into the lodge, and violently lay hold of the unfortunate sinner, as if he would rend him to atoms. The doctor now makes an image of the offended animal whose enraged spirit he saw, and causes it to be shot by three or four persons in quick succession, when the god that is in him, leaping out, falls upon, not the image, but the spirit of the animal which the image represents, and kills it. Now the sick man begins to convalesce, unless other offended spirits appear to afflict him. Sometimes the doctor is overcome by these spirits and the patient dies, unless one of greater wakan powers can be obtained; for they are wakan to different degrees, corresponding to the strength of this attribute as it exists in the gods by whom they are respectively inspired. It seems to be the general impression that there are wakanmen who are able to repel any foe to health till the superior gods order otherwise, but it is difficult to obtain their aid, for if they are not properly respected at all times, and well remunerated for their services, they let the sufferers perish without exerting their power to save them; doing their work deceitfully. It is also believed that they can inflict diseases as a punishment for sins committed against themselves, and that death is often the effect of their wakan powers. When they thus kill a person, they cut off the tip of his tongue and preserve it as a memento of the fact. The people stand in great fear of these medicine-men and when sick will give all they possess and all they can obtain on credit, to secure their services, and will often give a horse for a single performance. They are always treated with the greatest respect, and generally furnished with the best of everything. And if there are impostors, this fact turns decidedly to the advantage of those who are believed to be true. There are from five to twenty-five of these men and women at each of the villages, and most of them have a fair reputation and considerable employment, and that notwithstanding these Indians are now receiving so much aid from persons of our own people who follow the medical profession. I do not believe that an individual Dakota can be found who does not believe that these jugglers can heal diseases without the help of vegetable or mineral medicines, except as this faith has been destroyed by the introduction among them of the sciences and Christianity; and even at this day, the persons who do not employ them as wakan jugglers are very few indeed. CHAPTER IX. O-KEE-HEE-DE-PAHA (DEVIL'S TOWER). Among the numerous natural curiosities in and around the Black Hills, Okeeheede-paha or Devil's Tower holds the first place. The same is located in the Mato Tepee or Bear Lodge district. The name of Mato Tepee has been hitherto given to this remarkable uplift. But it is, clear that the name could never have been given by the Indians to the tower itself, as no bear could lodge on or in it. The above name is correct, as the Indians believed that Okeeheede, the Bad Spirit, lived in this tower. Some of them, indeed, believed that Toon-kan, or Inyan, the stone god, made it his abode; whilst others believed the stone god to reside in "Inyan Kaya" southwest of the Devil's Tower. The stone god was considered the oldest of the gods by the Dakotas. When asked why they consider him the oldest they answer that he is the hardiest. It may be that they connect with endurance the idea of duration. In their worship, stone worship holds almost the first place. When the Indian is in trouble or desires to propitiate the deity his first act is to scratch the grass from a small patch of ground, make the ground smooth and take the first stone he finds. A round or oval stone of the size of a man's hand is preferable. This he paints red, puts some swandown upon it, calls it Too-kan and then prays to the god which is supposed to dwell in or hover near it. Many are the legends about the Bad Spirit and that the Black Hills are his particular abode. The Devil's Tower stands on the left bank of the Belle -Fourche, or North Fork of the Cheyenne river, about fifty miles from Deadwood in a northeastern air line. It rises, according to careful measurement by Captain Tutle in 1875, 1,126 feet above the river, and about 2,260 feet above the level of the sea. It is a great rectangular obelisk of trachyte, with a columnar structure, giving it a vertically |