FW: a strange query -- off topic.

[ROOD DAVID S]

Interesting!!  As kids (in rural New York state) we used to ask daddy 
longlegs (a particular kind of big spider) "Which way are the cows going" 
(without touching the spider, of course) and the spider would stick out 
one or another of its legs to answer us.

David S. Rood
Dept. of Linguistics
Univ. of Colorado
295 UCB
Boulder, CO 80309-0295
USA
rood at colorado.edu

On Wed, 4 Nov 2009, Rory M Larson wrote:

> Nice, David!
>
> My copy is handy, and it's actually under 'walkingstick (insect)' on the
> English side.  On the Osage side we have:
>
> ttse' ho-wa-iN-ge, walking stick (bug);
>      ttse, buffalo; ho-wa-iN-ge, where are they.
>      When a child catches a walking stick it squeezes
>        it between his fingers and asks, "Where are the
>      buffalo?"  Then the little bug will point straight
>        ahead, to the right or to the left, and thus the
>      child gets the answer to his question.
>
> Hope this is a help to computer science.
>
> Rory
>
>
>
>
>
> ROOD DAVID S <David.Rood at Colorado.EDU>
> Sent by: owner-siouan at lists.Colorado.EDU
> 11/04/2009 10:50 AM
> Please respond to
> siouan at lists.Colorado.EDU
>
>
> To
> siouan at lists.Colorado.EDU
> cc
>
> Subject
> Re: FW: a strange query -- off topic.
>
>
>
>
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>
> One of my students, Chuck Thode, tells me that the word for 'walking
> stick' in the LaFlesche Osage dictionary means something like 'where did
> the buffalo go' (so look under the English word 'buffalo').  Apparently
> there is a description there of how the walking stick told the hunters
> which way to go.  My copy of the LaFlesche dictionary is not handy at the
> moment, so someone else should verify this.
>
> Bob, you'll have to forward this to Sally.
>
> David S. Rood
> Dept. of Linguistics
> Univ. of Colorado
> 295 UCB
> Boulder, CO 80309-0295
> USA
> rood at colorado.edu
>
> On Wed, 4 Nov 2009, Rankin, Robert L wrote:
>
>> I had this query from Sally Thomason, who works with Salish-speaking
> people in Montana.    Has anyone heard anything like her beetle account
> from plains tribes?
>>
>> It sounds to me a bit like some of our local farmers who say you can
> tell how cold it will be in the coming Winter by seeing how thick the coat
> is on fuzzy caterpillars.
>>
>> Bob
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>>
>> Here's a weird question: I've heard that some Plains Indians
>> consulted a beetle (or maybe a grasshopper) to decide which
>> direction to hunt in, by picking it up and seeing how the
>> antennae waved.  Can you shed any light on this?  Have
>> you heard it?  Did someone do this, and if so, who?   And if
>> you haven't heard about it but think it could possibly be a
>> true account, can you suggest someone else I should ask?
>>
>> (I'm cc'ing Rich on this message because he claims,
>> rather improbably, that the answer would help him with
>> his research -- research which, as far as I know, is not
>> concerned with Plains Indians.) [Rich is in computer science. Bob]
>>
>>  -- Sally
>>
>
>