PREFACE. 



The tales here presented were collected by the author 

 while engaged in making an ethnological collection among the 

 Osage for the Field Columbian Museum, in 1901-1903. 



The Osage are of Siouan stock, and made their home, when 

 first known to the whites, in southern Missouri, northern Arkansas 

 and eastern Kansas. In 1871 they were remloved to a reservation 

 in the northeastern corner of Oklahoma, which they still occupy. 

 They are degenerating rapidly, are very lazy and much addicted to 

 drink; the use of the peyote or mescal among them is rapidly in- 

 creasing. 



It must be admitted that this collection of tales does not ade- 

 quately represent the traditions of the tribe. This is largely due 

 to the difficulty of engaging the attention for any length of time 

 of the old men of the tribe, for reasons above mentioned. 



George A. Dorsey. 

 Field Columbian Museum, 

 February, 1904. 



