s lodge-poles! Do they
call him a coward? _Ta-o-ya-te-du-ta_ is not a coward, and he is not a
fool. Braves, you are like little children; you know not what you are
doing.

"You are full of the white man's _devil-water_" (rum). "You are like
dogs in the Hot Moon when they run mad and snap at their own shadows. We
are only little herds of buffaloes left scattered; the great herds that
once covered the prairies are no more. See!--the white men are like the
locusts when they fly so thick that the whole sky is a snow-storm. You
may kill one--two--ten; yes, as many as the leaves in the forest
yonder, and their brothers will not miss them. Kill one--two--ten, and
ten times ten will come to kill you. Count your fingers all day long and
white men with guns in their hands will come faster than you can count.

"Yes; they fight among themselves--away off. Do you hear the thunder of
their big guns? No; it would take you two moons to run down to where
they are fighting, and all the way your path would be among white
soldiers as thick as tamaracks in the swamps of the Ojibways. Yes; they
fight among themselves, but if you strike at them they will all turn on
you and devour you and your women and little children just as the
locusts in their time fall on the trees and devour all the leaves in one
day. You are fools. You cannot see the face of your chief; your eyes are
full of smoke. You cannot hear his voice; your ears are full of roaring
waters. Braves, you are little children--you are fools. You will die
like the rabbits when the hungry wolves hunt them in the Hard Moon
(January). _Ta-o-ya-te du-ta_ is not a coward: he will die with you."

[7] _Harps-te-nah_. The first-born daughter of a Dakota is called
_Winona_; the second, _Harpen_; the third, _Harpstina_; the fourth,
_Waska_; the fifth, _Weharka_. The first-born son is called _Chaske_;
the second, _Harpam_; the third, _Hapeda_; the fourth, _Chatun_; the
fifth, _Harka_. They retain these names till others are given them on
account of some action, peculiarity, etc. The females often retain their
child-names through life.

[8] _Wah-pah-sah_ was the hereditary name of a long and illustrious line
of Dakota chiefs. Wabashaw is a corrupt pronunciation. The name is a
contraction of _Wa-pa-ha-sa_, which is from _Wa-ha-pa_, the standard or
pole used in the Dakota dances and upon which feathers of various colors
are tied, and not from _Wa-pa_--leaf, as has been generally supposed.
Theref