[figure description] Page 212.[end figure description]

“Ever,” says Checkered Cloud, “will Unktahe, the god
of the waters, and Wahkeon, (Thunder,) do battle against
each other. Sometimes the thunder birds are conquerors—
often the god of the waters chases his enemies back to
the distant clouds.”

Many times, too, will the daughters of the nation go
into the pathless prairies to weep; it is their custom; and
while there is sickness, and want, and death, so long will
they leave the haunts of men to weep where none but the
Great Spirit may witness their tears. It is only, they believe,
in the City of spirits, that the sorrows of Dahcotah
women will cease—there, will their tears be dried forever.

Many winters have passed away since Harpstenah brought
the dead body of her husband to his native village to be
buried; my authority is the “medicine woman,” whose
lodge, for many years, was to be seen on the banks of Lake
Calhoun.

This village is now deserted. The remains of a few
houses are to be seen, and the broken ground in which were
planted the poles of their teepees. Silence reigns where

[figure description] Page 213.[end figure description]

the merry laugh of the villagers often met in chorus. The
scene of the feast and dance is now covered with long
grass, but “desolation saddens all its green.”