May, 1903. The Arapaho Sun Dance — Dorsey. 177 



people hang the children's clothing on the forks and branches. She 

 obtains temporal blessings for the people, but has no special relation- 

 ship with the tribe. 



The symbolic connection occurs twice, because the people wish 

 to reach old age. There is no difference in the manner of the two 

 occurrences. The giving away of the wife is from the Old-Man of Day 

 to the Old-Man of Night, leaving out two of the four Old-Men. The 

 desire of the Lodge-Maker is to live and prosper to old age. When 

 the connection takes place the buffalo personifies the moon ; therefore, 

 she exposed her body to the moon. Moon was married to the human 

 woman, and so the first intercourse happened. The woman gave birth 

 to a boy, called Lone-Star, which is the morning star. The wife 

 represents the hilman being, Thawwathenennetare — Human Being, or 

 Rising (from earth) Person. After she receives the stroke she gives 

 birth to human seed, just as Blue-Feather's son was born. Young- 

 Buffalo is the son of Blue-Feather; but Splinter-Foot did not have any 

 child from Lone-BuTl, for the reason that she was soon taken back. 



The moon is our mother. She gave birth to a lone star, which is 

 the morning star. When the sun and moon, then children of heaven 

 and earth, courted the creatures below for wives, the moon, being in 

 the form of a porcupine, took up the human woman, by means of the 

 extension of- a cottonwood. The sun, having succeeded in enticing 

 the toad, took it up to the Father. The brother hated the sister-in- 

 law on account of her looks and also on account of her habits. The 

 suspension of the wife (eloped with the moon) is imitated by the 

 piercing and suspending of the dancers. The toad got mad at her 

 sister-in-law and jumped to the breast of the moon, and has remained 

 there ever since. That is what is seen on the face of the moon. That 

 picture, visible to the naked eye, is the flow of the woman. The toad's 

 appearance corresponds to that of a pregnant woman. The child 

 which went down with the mother remained on earth for a while, and 

 then ascended. He is that morning -star following the mother and 

 father. The rising of the Morning Star tells the origin of the human 

 race. When the grandfather goes out with the woman at night, the 

 woman returns with the root, meaning the gift from him. The grand- 

 father personifies the sun, and the woman the moon. 



The first menstruation happened with the woman who eloped with 

 the moon, by their connection. This flow, or menstruation, means the 

 child. For the drinking of blood, note the story of Clotted-Blood. 

 The people, men and women, first drank of the blood when Garter- 

 Snake received the big Offerings-lodge. That sweet-water is the 

 blood that was shed by the woman. That water is made of vegeta- 



