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50 File:Drawing of wooden flute

Dakota ( Sioux ) Flute Length 25 inches Thickness 1¼ "

     "    of head 2,  "

(J. H. Walsh Coll. Haupt del.)

The flute in the accompanying drawing is similar in much that shows from the Nyman collection except that no bands of sinew occur on the barrel below the reed and the throat is ornamented with holes and rectingular ?. The head selected in this case to adorn the end of the flute is that of the snake. The reason for selecting this animal is hard to appreciate. In the loon and the other which is a deer the cry of the bird and animal might have suggested the idea of putting them upon the flute but the snake is noiseless except the rattle snake and that is hardly associated with anything of a love nature. This specimen the writer saw and sketched at Leech Lake Minnesota where it was in the possession of J. H. Walsh who procured it in S. Dakota about the year 1890. and was owned by "Frank Blue Horse" at the Rose Bud agency."