The Mandans celebrated their great religious festival above described in the season when the willow is first in leaf, and a dove is mixed up in the ceremonies; and they further relate a legend that “the world was once a great tortoise, borne on the waters, and covered with earth, and that when one day, in digging the soil, a tribe of white men, who had made holes in the earth to a great depth digging for badgers, at length pierced the shell of the tortoise, it sank, and the water covering it drowned all men with the exception of one, who saved himself in a boat; and when the earth re-emerged, sent out a dove, who returned with a branch of willow in its beak.”
The holes dug to find badgers were a savage’s recollection of mining operations; and when the great disaster came, and the island sunk in the sea amid volcanic convulsions, doubtless men said it was due to the deep mines, which had opened the way to the central fires. But the recurrence of “white men” as the miners, and of a white man as “the last and only man,” and the presence of white blood in the veins of the people, all point to the same conclusion—that the Mandans were colonists from Atlantis.
And here I might add that Catlin found the following singular resemblances between the Mandan tongue and the Welsh:
--------------+------------+-------------+
| English. | Mandan. | Welsh. | Pronounced. |
--------------+------------+-------------+ | I | Me. | Mi. | Me. |
--------------+------------+-------------+ | You. | Ne. | Chwi. | Chwe. |
--------------+------------+-------------+ | He. | E. | A. | A. |
--------------+------------+-------------+ | She. | Ea. | E. | A. |
--------------+------------+-------------+ | It. | Ount. | Hwynt. | Hooynt. |
--------------+------------+-------------+ | We. | Noo. | Ni. | Ne. |
--------------+------------+-------------+ | They. | Eonah. | Hona, fem. | Hona. |
--------------+------------+-------------+ | No; or there is not. | Megosh. | Nagoes. | Nagosh. |
--------------+------------+-------------+ | No. | | Na. | |
--------------+------------+-------------+ | Head. | Pan. | Pen. | Pan. |
--------------+------------+-------------+ | The Great Spirit. | Maho Peneta. | Mawr | Mosoor | | | | Penaethir. | Panaether. |
--------------+------------+-------------+
Major Lynd found the following resemblances between the Dakota tongue and the languages of the Old World:
COMPARISON OF DAKOTA, OR SIOUX, WITH OTHER LANGUAGES.
----------+---------+-----------+---------+----------+-----------+------------+----------------+
Latin.
English.
Saxon
Sanscrit.
German.
Danish.
Sioux.
Other
Primary
Languages.
Signification.
----------+---------+-----------+---------+----------+-----------+------------+----------------+
See,
Seon
Sehen
Sigt
Sin
Appearing,
seen
visible.
----------+---------+-----------+---------+----------+-----------+------------+----------------+
Pinso
Pound
Punian
Pau
W.,
Beating
Pwynian
----------+---------+-----------+---------+----------+-----------+------------+----------------+
Vado
Went
Wendan
Winta
Passage.
Wend
----------+---------+-----------+---------+----------+-----------+------------+----------------+
Town
Tun
Zaun
Tun
Tonwe
Gaelic,
Dun
----------+---------+-----------+---------+----------+-----------+------------+----------------+
Qui
Who
Hwa
Kwas
Wir
Tuwe
----------+---------+-----------+---------+----------+-----------+------------+----------------+
Weapon
Wepn
Wapen
Vaapen
Wipe
Sioux dimin.
Wipena
----------+---------+-----------+---------+----------+-----------+------------+----------------+
Ego
I
Ic
Agam
Ich
Jeg
Mish
----------+---------+-----------+---------+----------+-----------+------------+----------------+
Cor
Core
Co
Gr., Kear
Centre, heart
----------+---------+-----------+---------+----------+-----------+------------+----------------+
Eight
Achta
Aute
Acht
Otte
Shaktogan
Gr., Okto
----------+---------+-----------+---------+----------+-----------+------------+----------------+
Canna
Cane
Can
Heb., Can
Reed, weed,
W., Cawn
wood.
----------+---------+-----------+---------+----------+-----------+------------+----------------+
Pock
Pock
Poc
Pocke
Pukkel
Poka
Dutch,
Swelling.
Poca
----------+---------+-----------+---------+----------+-----------+------------+----------------+
With
With
Wider
Wita
Goth.,
Gewithan.
----------+---------+-----------+---------+----------+-----------+------------+----------------+
Doughty
Dohtig
Taugen
Digtig
Dita
Hot, brave,
Ditaya
daring.
----------+---------+-----------+---------+----------+-----------+------------+----------------+
Tight
Tian
Dicht
Digt
Titan
Strain.
----------+---------+-----------+---------+----------+-----------+------------+----------------+
Tango
Touch
Taecan
Ticken
Tekkan
Tan
Touch, take.
Tactus
Take
Htaka
----------+---------+-----------+---------+----------+-----------+------------+----------------+
Child
Cild
Kind
Kuld
Cin
Progeny.
----------+---------+-----------+---------+----------+-----------+------------+----------------+