[Illustration: Fig. 18 (50-2095). Engraved Metal Cross.
Collected by R. Cronau. Length, 23 cm.]
[Illustration: Fig. 19 (50-2898). Engraved Bone Object.
Collected by R. Cronau. Length, 24 cm.]
In another place the writer has described the conception of the power of
the whirlwind among some of the Dakota, but wishes at this time to refer
to it again because of its relation to their system of protective
designs.[17] As stated in the former publication, there seems to be in
the minds of some of the Dakota an association between the phenomenon of
the whirlwind and those mental states generally known as “confusion of
mind.” Some of them believed and still believe that the power in the
whirlwind can be invoked to confuse the mind of an enemy. In common with
many other American tribes, the Dakota believe the whirlwind to be
associated with the fluttering wings of a moth, but they also associate
this with the cocoon of the same moth; and in symbolic representation
the design representing the power of the whirlwind is of an elongated
diamond-shape, and refers to the cocoon. The protection or aid of the
whirlwind was secured by prayers, and these prayers were symbolized by
the cocoon worn upon the person, by its image in stuffed buckskin, or by
its graphic representation, sketched or painted. The power of the
whirlwind was supposed to have been associated with the power of the
spider-web. As an illustration of this, we find engraved upon a
German-silver cross (Fig. 18) the spider, and near it three
representations of the whirlwind cocoon. Between the spider and these
three designs is a zigzag line, implying the mystic power connection of
the same. Again, on a forked bone object (Fig. 19), the use of which is
unknown, occur a number of incised designs, among which is again what
seems to be the spider-web, the tracks of a quadruped (probably the
buffalo), and four designs representing the whirlwind cocoon,
accompanied in each case by another design which cannot be determined,
but which resembles the footprints of a person. It is interesting to
note that the German-silver cross also bears the tracks of the buffalo,
or some ruminant animal, in association with the spider. In the absence
of direct information, the writer hesitates to offer any interpretation
of the design upon these specimens, although he feels that they could be
interpreted with reasonable certainty.
The design of the whirlwind resembles a feather-design, and no doubt the
two are often confused. The difference seems to be, that, when
representing the whirlwind, half of the design is filled with parallel
or crossing lines; while, when representing feathers, half of the design
is filled in with color (see Fig. 19). The feather-design is more fixed
in form than that of the whirlwind. Fig. 20 is a representation of the
latter, from the handle of a club, where it appears in a series with the
spider, lizard, elk, and turtle. Another form of the same design is
repeated in a series on a wooden popgun (Fig. 21).
[Illustration: Fig. 20 (50-4380). Whirlwind Design, from the Handle of a
Club. Length, 5 cm.
Fig. 21 (50-4244). Whirlwind Design, from a Popgun. Length of design, 7.5
cm. ]
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[17] Wissler (The Journal of the American Folk-Lore Society,
October-December, 1905).