I04 Field Columbian Museum — Anthropology, Vol. V. 



to eat." The women thanked him for supplying them with food. "Well, 

 sisters," he continued, ''I am sweating from work, cooking a mess of 

 gray wolves for you. I will have to go out to cool myself. When the 

 wolves are done cooking you may help yourselves." He went out and 

 sat down by the door and pushed the edge of his robe inside. When 

 these'' women dipped out the meat, they looked at one another, but 

 finally went to eating. One said, "Say, sisters, the meat tastes like our 

 children." "Oh! Don't say a thing like that; it is a very bad idea. 

 The meat tastes strange because it is from gray wolves," said another 

 of them. Nih'a"ga" kept pushing the edge of his robe to cause no sus- 

 picion among the women, but at the same time he was fixing to get 

 away. "Surely, sisters, this meat tastes like our children," said one 

 of the women again. Nih'a^ga" cut ofif the edge of his robe to allay 

 all suspicion and ran away secretly. After he had gone some distance 

 from the tipi, he cried out to the women, "I have cooked your children 

 for you all ! This time I have fooled you !" The women went to the 

 hammocks and found nothing but the heads of their children, which 

 were carefully laid there. They then began to cry and scratch them- 

 selves for the love of their children. 



Now these women were female bears ; so they started off, chasing 

 ■JSrih^a^ga*^. Nih'a"ga° was getting away, but the women were about to 

 catch him, when he said, "I wish there was a tunnel in my path, where 

 I am going, so that I could get out on the other side !" And so it 

 happened, and he went into it and passed out at the other end, and 

 continued to run for safety. The women reached the tunnel, and went 

 in and came out the same way as Nih'a^ga*^ had. Niha'^ga" saw them 

 following his trail, and cried again, "I wish there was a long tunnel 

 where I am going." So he came to another tunnel, passed into it for 

 refuge and came out as before. The women also passed into the tun- 

 nel, out and after Nih'a°ga° again. Nih'a"ga" was now becoming tired, 

 and the women approached nearer and nearer. "Now," said he, "I 

 do wish that there was another tunnel for me to go into." So he came 

 to the foot of a hill where there was a tunnel, through which he passed, 

 but having emerged, he turned and sealed the end, then he ran around 

 the hill and placed mud over one eye, in order to change his appear- 

 ance. He came again to the entrance of the tunnel just as the bear- 

 women were entering. ''Now what is the trouble?" said he, calling 

 himself One-Eyed-Sioux. ''Nih'a"9a" fooled us," said they. "When 

 we went to picking plums he cut the heads off from cur children and 

 cooked them for us in a kettle. We are after him. He went into this 

 tunnel." Now the women were still crying and were out of breath 



