Dreamers have told us of these great birds in the sky, enwrapped in the clouds. If the bear and other vicious beasts are regarded as dangerous, how much more should we fear the thunderbirds that cause destruction on the face of the earth? It is said that the thunderbirds once came to the earth in the form of giants. These giants did wonderful things, such as digging the ditches where the rivers run. At last they died of old age, and their spirits went again to the clouds and resumed their form as thunder-birds. While they were on earth, the rain fell without sound of thunder or as lightning, but after their return to the sky the lightning came-it is the flash of their eyes, and the thunder is the sound of their terrible song. When they are angry, the lightning strikes a rock or tree as a warning to men. The bodies of these giants became stone, and parts of them are found in many places, indeed the whole body of more than one of these giants has been found in the land of the Dakotas.

Teton Sioux Music, p. 157-158