Feb., 1904. Traditions of the Osage — Dorsey. 43 



About midnight he heard something coming from the same direc- 

 tion he had come from. He listened a few minutes. Whatever it was 

 (this is what we call a bad Spirit), it came up and said, "Hello," and 

 the man was sleeping right by the fire. He got ready to stab the being, 

 but the being just ate the meat he was roasting for himself. The being 

 said : "Do not be afraid of me. You have walked over my house. Do 

 not try to run from me, for I am not going to hurt you. You are 

 trying to stab me. Do not do that. I will not hurt you." 



36. — The Chief's Son and the Orphan Girl. 



There was once a village where lived a chief who had a boy and 

 a little adopted orphan girl. The little girl had lice on her head. The 

 little orphan said, "I shall have a child from the chief's son." In the 

 morning she went where he urinated, and drank the urine, and in a 

 fortnight she was pregnant, and the people said : "That little orphan 

 girl is pregnant. Somebody must have been very mean ; there are lice 

 all over her head." Next, they heard that the orphan was pregnant by 

 the chief's son. People said the boy must have been crazy ; that he was 

 too good for her. His mother said: '"Son, that little orphan girl is 

 going to have a baby by you." After a while the girl had a baby, and 

 she said the baby belonged to the chief's son and she was going to take 

 it to him. 



The next morning, the chief's son ran off, and the people said, 

 "The chief's son has run off." The little orphan girl told the boy's 

 mother that the baby was her son's. She said : "I will not keep it 

 without a father. I will follow him." So she started after him. 



The boy had killed two deer, and just as he was cooking and was 

 about to eat, and as the girl was walking up toward him, he said : "I 

 ran away from that girl and she is coming. I will kill her." So he 

 took his bow and shot her and killed her. 



He went on, and at night, he killed a deer and was roasting it, 

 when the girl walked up to him again. So he shot her down again, 

 and went on. 



The boy was preparing to eat, when the girl came again. He shot 

 her and went on and killed another deer. At evening, she came again 

 to him, while he was cooking. He shot her again, and killed her. He 

 cut her up, and the baby, too, and went on. 



The boy stopped again where he was going to stay over night, and 

 the girl walked up to him again. She was all dressed up and was very 

 pretty. He spoke to her, and she sat by him. She said : "I am follow- 

 ing you because this baby is yours." He lived with her. 



