Proverbs (whistling)

Lance Foster ioway at earthlink.net
Sun Dec 23 14:29:31 UTC 2001


I was told by the Cheyenne not to whistle at night because that is the
language of ghosts and they will come and answer. That is why Austin Two Moon
laughed at white people who whistle in the dark whent hey are afraid.. that
will bring the exact thing you do not wish to bring!

Lance

Koontz John E wrote:

> On Wed, 19 Dec 2001, Jan F. Ullrich wrote:
> > Shake' nitha'pa kte.
> > Your fingers will change into balls.
> > When scolding children for pointing at the rainbow.
>
> I seem to recall a comparable warning for either Dakota or Omaha along the
> lines of "Don't whistle, you sound like a ghost."  Presumably sounding
> like a ghost is bad because one either becomes one or summons one.
>
> And I remember a comment in a story that Catherine Rudin showed me that
> indicates that ghosts are afraid of flapping laundry.  This now smacks
> (cf. schmecken?) to me of some supporting statement along these lines.
>
> JEK



More information about the Siouan mailing list