as they play about the room; she tells of her children when they were
young, and played around her; when their father brought her venison
for food.

Where are they? The Chippeways (mark her as she compresses her lips, and
see the nervous trembling of her limbs) killed her husband and her
oldest son: consumption walked among her household idols. She has one
son left, but he loves the white man's _fire-water_; he has forgotten
his aged mother--she has no one to bring her food--the young men laugh
at her, and tell her to kill game for herself.

At evening she must be going--ten miles she has to walk to reach her
teepee, for she cannot sleep in the white man's house. We tell her the
storm is howling--it will be dark before she reaches home--the wind
blows keenly across the open prairie--she had better lie down on the
carpet before the fire and sleep. She points to the walls of the
fort--she does not speak; but her action says, "It cannot be; the Sioux
woman cannot sleep beneath the roof of her enemies."

She is gone--God help the Sioux woman! the widow and the childless. God
help her, I say, for other hope or help has she none.



GODS OF THE DAHCOTAHS.

First in order of the gods of the Dahcotahs, comes the Great Spirit. He
is the creator of all things, excepting thunder and wild rice.
Then there is,