No. II. The Dakotas fought a battle with the Gros Ventres, and killed a great many. Device, a circle inclosing three round objects with flat bases, resembling heads severed from trunks, which latter the copy shows too minute in this device for suggestion of what they probably represent; but they appear more distinct in the record for 1864-’65 as the heads of enemies slain in battle. In the sign-language of the plains, the Dakotas are always denoted by drawing a hand across the throat, signifying that they cut the throats of their enemies. The Dakotas count by the fingers, as is common to most peoples, but with a peculiarity of their own. When they have gone over the fingers and thumbs of both hands, one finger is temporarily turned down for _one ten_. At the end of the next ten another finger is turned, and so on to a hundred. _Opawinge_ [_Opawi^nxe_], one hundred, is derived from _pawinga_ [_pawi^nxa_], to go around in circles, to make gyrations, and contains the idea that the round of all the fingers has again been made for their respective tens. So the circle is never used for less than one hundred, but sometimes signifies an indefinite number greater than a hundred. The circle, in this instance, therefore, was at first believed to express the killing in battle of many enemies. But the other interpretations remove all symbolic character, leaving the circle simply as the rude drawing of a dirt lodge, being an instance in which the present writer, by no means devoted to symbolism, had supposed a legitimate symbol to be indicated, which supposition full information on the subject did not support. There are two wholly distinct tribes called by the Canadians Gros Ventres. One, known also as Hidatsa and Minnetari, is classed in the Siouan family, and numbered, in 1804, according to Lewis and Clarke, 2,500 souls. The other “Big Bellies,” properly called Atsina, are the northern division of the Arapahos, an Algonkin tribe, from which they separated in the early part of this century, and, wandering eastward, met the Dakotas, by whom they were driven off to the north. It is probable that this is the conflict recorded, though the Dakotas have also often been at feud with their linguistic cousins, the Minnetari. No. III. Twenty of the Gros Ventres killed by Dakotas in a dirt lodge. They were chased into a deserted Ree dirt lodge and killed there. Mato Sapa says: Twenty Gros Ventres were killed by the Dakotas in a dirt lodge. In this record there is a circle with only one head. Major Bush’s interpretation is the same as the last. [Illustration: BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. XIII 1812-’13. 1813-’14. 1814-’15. THE DAKOTA WINTER COUNTS.] 1812-’13.--No. I. Many wild horses caught.