At the distance of the journey of one day and a half from Knife Creek * * * are two conical hills, separated by about the distance of a mile. One of these hills was supposed to impart a prolific virtue to such squaws as resorted to it for the purpose of lamenting their barrenness. A person one day walking near the other hill, fancied he observed on the top of it two very small children. Thinking that they had strayed from the village, he ran towards them to induce them to return home, but they immediately fled from him. * * * and in a short time they eluded his sight. Returning to the village, the relation of his story excited much interest, and an Indian set out the next day, mounted on a fleet horse, to take the little strangers. On the approach of this person to the hill he also saw the children, who ran away as before, and though he tried to overtake them by lashing the horse to his utmost swiftness, the children left him far behind. These children are no longer to be seen, and the hill once of such singular efficacy in rendering the human species prolific has lost this remarkable property.[265] Matthews[266] says that this account seems to refer to the Makadistati, but, if such is the case, he believes that the account is incorrect in some respects. DREAMS. § 352. The Hidatsa have much faith in dreams, but usually regard as oracular only those which come after prayer, sacrifice, and fasting.[267] BERDACHES. § 353. The French Canadians call those men berdaches who dress in women’s clothing and perform the duties usually allotted to women in an Indian camp. By most whites these berdaches are incorrectly supposed to be hermaphrodites. They are called miati by the Hidatsa, from mia, a woman, and the ending, ti, to feel an involuntary inclination, i. e., to be impelled against his will to act the woman. See the Omaha miⁿquga, the Kansa miⁿquge, and the Dakota wiŋkta and wiŋkte (§§ 30, 212.) ASTRONOMICAL LORE. § 354. Ursa major is said to be an ermine, the several stars of that constellation indicating, in their opinion, the burrow, the head, the feet, and the tail of that animal. They call the milky way the “ashy way.” They think that thunder is caused by the flapping of the wings of the large bird, which causes rain, and that the lightning is the glance of his eye when he seeks prey. They call the rainbow, “the cap of the water,” or “the cap of the rain.” Once, say they, an Indian caught in the autumn a red bird that had mocked him, releasing it after binding its feet together with a fish line. The bird saw a hare and pounced upon it, but the hare crept into the skull of a buffalo lying on the prairie, and as the line hanging from the bird’s claws formed a semicircle, they imagine that the rainbow is still caused by that occurrence.[268]