38 Field Columbian Museum — Anthropology, Vol. IX. 



In the new country they found plenty of game to live on. The 

 medicine-man taught the Cheyenne many things, but they seemed 

 to be of weak minds, though they were physically strong. Out of 

 these Cheyenne there sprang up men and women who were large, 

 tall, strong, and fierce, and they increased in number until they 

 numbered thousands. They were so strong that they could pick 

 up and carry off on their backs the large animals that they killed. 

 They tamed panther and bear and trained them to catch wild game for 

 them to eat. They had bows and arrows, and were always dressed in 

 furs and skins, and in their ignorance they roamed about like animals. 

 In those days there were very large animals. One variety of these 

 animals was of the form of a cow, though four times as large; by 

 nature it was tame and grazed along the river banks ; men milked them. 

 Boys and men to the number of twenty could get upon their backs 

 without disturbing them. Another variety of these large animals 

 resembled in body the horse, and they had horns and long, sharp teeth. 

 This was the most dangerous animal in the country. It ate men, had 

 a mind like a human being, and could trail a human being through 

 the rivers and tall grasses by means of its power of scent. Of 

 these there were but few. In the rivers there were long snakes 

 whose bodies were so large that a man could not jump over them. 



The Cheyenne remained in the north a long time, but finally 

 roamed southward, conveying their burdens by means of dogs. 

 While they were traveling southward there came a great rain and 

 flood all over the country. The rivers rose and overflowed, and 

 still the rain kept falling. At last the high hills alone could be 

 discerned. The people became frightened and confused. On a 

 neighboring hill, and apart from the main body of the Cheyenne, 

 were a few thousand of their number, who were out of view, 

 and had been cut off from the main body by the rising water. 

 When the rains ceased and the water subsided the part who 

 were cut -off looked for their tribesmen, but they found no sign of 

 them; and it has ever since been a question among the Cheyenne 

 whether this band of people was drowned, or whether it became a 

 distinct tribe. Long afterward the Cheyenne met a tribe who used 

 many of their words, and to-day they believe that a part of their 

 people are still living in the north. Nearly all the animals were 

 either drowned or starved to death. The trees and fruit upon 

 which the people had formerly subsisted were destroyed. A few 

 large gray wolves escaped with them, for they had crossed with the 

 tame dogs. The dogs were so large that they could carry a child 

 several miles in a dav. After the flood had subsided the senses of 



