Feb., 1904. Traditions of the Osage — Dorsey. 41 



male Mountain-Lion said, "I will take you for my boy," and the female 

 Mountain-Lion said, "I will take you for my boy." 



The boy's people thought he was dead, and they mourned for him. 

 But the Mountain-Lions fed him deer, wild turkey and buffalo. 



There were in the Mountain-Lion's den, some shields, buffalo hides 

 and Indian mats. They kept the boy for some time, until he got used 

 to them, and would talk to them. They would kill Indians and bring 

 them to the boy, but he would not eat them. 



Finally, the Mountain-Lions wanted the boy to go home ; so they 

 got him a pretty iron-gray horse to ride. They started home with him. 

 They got to the camp. They got there in the night and rode throughout 

 the camp, hunting his people. The Mountain-Lions told the boy not to 

 be afraid of his people. He finally found them, and went inside. 



The Mountain-Lions gave the boy one toe-nail to use when he 

 wanted to be a Mountain-Lion. His folks were glad to see him home. 

 Everything was very pretty around his lodge. Every time there was 

 mourning they would get him to be a leader of the scalping party. He 

 would kill a man. So the Mountain-Lions told the boy to get some- 

 thing from his people. The people got so they were afraid of the boy, 

 and they would give him the best horse they had. He learned that 

 the Indians were afraid of him. He would take the pretty girls away 

 from them. When they killed buffalo he would take the best ones. 

 He kept this up for a long time. He would take the best horses they 

 had. 



One day they were killing buffalo. He went to take the men's meat 

 away from them. There was a boy and his father who had killed a 

 fat buffalo. The old man said to his boy : "There comes the man. 

 You must cut him off a piece and give it to him." The boy said, "I 

 will not give him a thing." The man said, "Boy, give me your buffalo, 

 and you. go and hunt another," The boy said, "You go and hunt 

 another for yourself." So the man got off his horse and started after 

 the boy. They were a match, and both were Mountain-Lion men. The 

 boy overpowered the man and killed him in a little while. 



The boy went to the man's home and got one of the man's wives. 

 The rest of the people went to their homes and got their horses ; but the 

 boy picked out the best ones for himself. 1 



33. — The Boy and the Owl. 



There was once a village with a baby boy in it that was always 

 crying. At night, his mother put the child outside of the lodge. 



1 The Pawnee have a similar tale. 



