By some of the wakan-men, it is said that there are four varieties of the form of their external manifestation. In essence, however, they are but one.

One of the varieties is black, with a long beak, and has four joints in his wing. Another is yellow, without any beak at all, with wings like the first, only that he has but six quills in each wing. The third is of scarlet color, and remarkable chiefly for having eight joints in each of its enormous pinions. The fourth is blue and globular in form, and is destitute both of eyes and ears. Immediately over where the eyes should be, is a semicircular line of lightning resembling an inverted half-moon, from beneath which project downward two chains of lightning, zigzaging and diverging from each other as they descend. Two plumes, like soft down, coming out near the roots of the descending chains of lightning serve for wings.

Collections of the Minnesota Historical Society, Vol. 2, Dakota Superstitions, p. 228-229