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Newson, T. M. 1827-1893. (Thomas McLean) / Thrilling scenes among the Indians. With a graphic description of Custer's last fight with Sitting Bull
(1884)

An Indian's theory of the celestial bodies,   pp. 93-97 PDF (936.7 KB)


Page 93


AN INDIAN'S THEORY OF THE CELES-
                TIAL BODIES.
HAN - YE - TU - WE (NIGHT SUN), AN - PE- TU - WE (DAY
  SUN), AND THE STARS, WHO ARE THEIR CHIL-
  DREN.
THE Indians have a very peculiar idea of the heav-
     enly bodies, and the theory they advance has in
it, to the unsophisticated mind, a good deal of common
sense and some reason. Of course a person of intelli-
gence rejects their ideas, knowing them to be erroneous,
and yet, the untutored savage, drawing his notions
from nature, reasons out a very plausible and a very
satisfactory solution-to them-of the heavenly visi-
tants as they come and go in their seasons and startle
them with their changes.  Every tribe has its great
man who gives these subjects his especial study, and
the common Indian receives them as emanations from
the Great Spirit.
  H. L. Gordon, in his interesting work, says:
  "Wa-zi-ya, pronounced Wah-zee-yah, is the god of
the North or winter; a fabled spirit who dwells in the
frozen North in a great tepee of ice and snow. From
his mouth and nostrils he blows the cold blasts of win-
ter. He and I-to-ka-go Wi-cas-ta-the spirit or god of
the South, literally the south man-are inveterate ene-
mies and always on the war-path against each other.
In winter Wa-zi-ya advances southward and drives I-to-
ka-go before him to the summer island; but in spring


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