es to decoy the unwary into his toils.

[73] The Dakotas have their stone-idol, or god, called Toon-kan--or Inyan.
This god dwells in stone or rocks and is, they say, the oldest god of
all--he is grandfather of all living things. I think, however, that the
stone is merely the symbol of the everlasting, all-pervading, invisible
Ta-ku Wa-kan--the essence of all life,--pervading all nature, animate
and inanimate. The Rev. S.R. Riggs, who for forty years has been a
student of Dakota customs, superstitions, etc., says, Tahkoo Wahkan, p.
55, et seq.: "The religious faith of the Dakota is not in his gods as
such. It is in an intangible, mysterious something of which they are
only the embodiment, and that in such measure and degree as may accord
with the individual fancy of the worshiper. Each one will worship some
of these divinities, and neglect or despise others, but the great object
of all their worship, whatever its chosen medium, is the _Ta-koo
Wa-kan_, which is the supernatural and mysterious. No one term can
express the full meaning of the Dakota's _Wakan_. It comprehends all
mystery, secret power and divinity. Awe and reverence are its due, and
it is as unlimited in manifestation as it is in idea. All life is
_Wakan_; so also is everything which exhibits power, whether in action,
as the winds and drifting clouds; or in passive endurance, as the
boulder by the wayside. For even the commonest sticks and stones have a
spiritual essence which must be reverenced as a manifestation of the
all-pervading, mysterious power that fills the universe."

[74] _Wazi-kute_--Wah-ze-koo-tay; literally--Pine-shooter,--he that shoots
among the pines. When Father Hennepin was at Mille Lacs in 1679-80,
_Wazi-kute_ was the head chief (_Itancan_) of the band of Isantees.
Hennepin writes the name Ouasicoude, and translates it--the "Pierced
Pine." See Shea's _Hennepin_, p. 234, _Minn. Hist. Coll_. vol. i, p.
316.

[75] When a Dakota brave wishes to "propose" to a "dusky maid," he visits
her _teepee_ at night after she has retired, or rather, laid down in her
robe to sleep. He lights a splinter of wood and holds it to her face. If
she blows out the light, he is accepted; if she covers her head and
leaves it burning he is rejected. The rejection however is not
considered final till it has been thrice repeated. Even then the maiden
is often bought of her parents or guardian, and forced to become the
wife of the rejected suitor. If she accepts th