.MTM1OA.MTE1MDUz

283

This Drum & Tom Tom Stick must not be [?received?] [written above in different hand: imagined?] altogether as a stick to beat the drum with ii is a stick ornamented with beads carried by the head or by other dancers in the performances of their fiendish rites. in the same manner as the Ojibway carry the "Manito oz a [?]" or "Manito's cane." and with the Dakota it is also called the medicine stick. The leader of a dance will carry their stick as the insignia of office, when he raises it he is the master of ceremonies and all must obey. The length of the stick is twenty three inches. The head is about the size of an egg. and made of buckskin covered with beads. A stick of wood is provided a half inch in diameter and of the proper length. this is wrapped with a string of beads. The beads are so strung that when wrapped about the stick they will produce figures upon the handle. The prevailling [sic] color of the beads is blue with squares of yellow and a red center. near the head is a [?annular?] band of blue, red. and yellow. The head is wrought in blue beads. with. line of yellow with red squares. and in the blue field on white [?crown?] with a red center. To the apex of the head is attached a tassle. of three thongs of buckskin hanging from a loop all [?] with red porcupine quills. and finished with red feathers. The lower end of the stick is ornamented with a [?tab?] of buckskin encircled with beads and a fringe. The beads are in the main white with dark blue lines in angles. at the end of the tab is secured a tassle made of three thongs of buckskin wrapped with red porcupine quills and finished with the customary tin cones and red feathers. The same irregularity in workmanship is [?] in the specimen as in other pieces of Dakota work. there seems to be a lack of symettry [sic] in the Dakota make up as no piece of work is alike on two sides. This specimen is the property of Dr. John C. Adams. and was procured by him at Fort Bennett S. Dakota.

   Dakota Dance Rattles beside being decked out in all the finery of the indian wardrobe and adorned with sleighbells and any other tinkling object he can procure. of recent date carries in the absence of the scalp. which in former times was hung from a small stick or sometimes a hoop secured to the end of a pole.  The practice of scalping being in great measure died out.  As a quasi substitute for it the Dakota dancer will if he happens to possess it carry a Dance rattle. which is in reality almost any thing that will by being shaken make a noise. such an article is the rattle in the