222 Field Columbian Museum — Anthropology, Vol. IV, 



Moon. Sun and Moon were constantly on the alert and in search of 

 something away from home. 



At this tihie the human woman had saved enough sinew strings, 

 knotted together,* to serve her purpose. So she went out with her 

 boy, carrying her digging-stick and nicely coiled string of sinew. 

 When she reached a patch of foot-potatoes, she saw a withered plant 

 that attracted her much. When she thought of the restriction given 

 by her husband, she hesitated a little in approaching it. Looking 

 around to see if anybody was in sight, she said, bravely, "I am going 

 to see what this means." So, approaching with a firm attitude, she 

 digged the withered plant, and to her surprise, she found a hole. 



Stooping over the hole, she looked into it and saw an earth below. 

 I<ooking down through this hole, she also spied a beautiful camp-circle 

 along the river. "Well, I am glad to see the way to get down," said 

 the human woman seriously and with energetic disposition. So, talk- 

 ing away about her splendid chance of escape, she uncoiled the sinew 

 lariat (hawtare, standing — camp-circle — plural hawdaha, carried-it-on 

 side, like a woman with a knife scabbard ), and attached one end of it 

 to the digging-stick. The other end, after placing her boy on her 

 back, she then fastened securely around her body under her arms. 

 Placing the digging-stick across the hole, facing the pointed end to 

 the east, she then squatted down and slid slowly and carefully down. 

 As she was working herself, untwisting the sinew lariat, she finally 

 got down within a short distance (about the height of the center fork) 

 from the earth, for the sinew lariat was not long enough to reach the 

 bottom.^ For some time she was suspended in the air, until she was 

 getting impatient and tired. 



There was no sign of her return, and every little hope was 

 expressed by the people. "Well, father, I have again returned," said 

 Moon, unloading himself at the door, and then entering the tipi. 

 "Where is my wife, dear mother?" said Moon, seating himself on his 

 bed. "She has not yet returned. Maybe she will be coming home 

 yet," said the mother. "Oh, no, it is getting too late for her. I told 

 you to watch her and have her come home earlier," said Moon, in 

 despair. 



Without much fretting or imposing upon the old folks about her 

 wanderings, he went out and searched for her. Walking around from 

 place to place, he found a digging-stick lying on the ground, and the 

 footprints of his wife leading to it. "Well, well! I declare!" said 



' Compare the knotted and painted strings of the Dog-soldiers. 



•She did not come to the place where she and Moon landed, or else she would have reached 

 the earth below in safety and without trouble. 



