ere afraid. They
thought man and horse were one. They named it "Kawa" because they
noticed the odor of the horse. Then they knew by this odor when the
Padouca were coming. When a man smelled the horses, he would run to
the camp and say, "The wind tells us the Kawa are coming." Then the
Ponca would make ready to defend themselves. The Ponca had many
battles with the Comanches. They did not know how to use the animals,
so they killed the horses as well as the men. Neither could they find
out where the Padouca lived.

One day the two tribes had a great battle. The people fought all day.
Sometimes the Ponca were driven back, sometimes the Padouca. Then at
last a Ponca shot a Padouca so that he fell from his horse. Then the
battle ceased. After this, one of the Padouca came toward the Ponca
and said in plain Ponca,

"Who are you? What do you call yourselves?"

The Ponca replied, "We call ourselves Ponca. You speak our language,
are you of our tribe?"

The other said, "No. I speak your language as a gift from a Ponca
spirit. One day I lay on a Ponca grave after a battle. Then a man rose
from the grave and spoke to me. So I know your language."

Then it was agreed to make peace. The tribes visited each other. The
Ponca traded their bows and arrows for horses. They knew where the
Padouca lived. Then the Padouca taught the Ponca how to ride, and how
to put burdens on the horses.

When the Ponca had learned how to ride, and had horses, they went to
war again. They attacked the Padouca in their own village. They
attacked them so many times and stole so many of their horses that at
last the Padouca fled. We do not know where they went. The Ponca
followed the Platte River toward the rising sun; then they came back
to the Missouri, and they brought their horses with them.

DAKOTA BELIEFS AND CUSTOMS

_Dakota_

The Dakotas have names for the natural divisions of time. Their years
they count by winters. A man is so many winters old, or so many
winters have passed since such an event. When one goes on a journey,
he says he will be back in so many sleeps. They have no division of
time into weeks, and their months are literally by moons.

The Dakotas believe that when the moon is full, a great number of
small mice begin to nibble on one side. They nibble until they eat up
the entire moon. So when the new moon begins to grow, it is to them
really a new moon; the old one has been eaten up.

The Dakota mother loves her