Oct., 1903. Arapaho Traditions — Dorsey and Kroeber. 103 



out. ''Thus one obtains food when he is hungry," he said. He cut 

 up the meat, ate some of it, and hung the rest on branches to dry. Then 

 he went to sleep. 



While he was asleep the coyotes and wolves came. They ate all 

 his meat ; and the mice came and cut his hair off short, and ate all of his 

 robe excepting a small piece on which he was lying. When he woke 

 up in the morning he found all his meat gone and his hair short. He 

 began to pick up the small pieces of fat and meat that lay scattered 

 about, gathering them into his scrap of a robe. Then he fnade a fire 

 and sat down in front of it to eat the leavings. Suddenly a spark fell 

 on his skin. Nih'a"ga" jumped up, scattering all of his meat that re- 

 mained.* — K. 



50. — Nir'a^^ca'^ and the Bear-Women. 



Nih'a"<;a° went down the river, and walking near the edge of the 

 shore he saw plums, full ripe. Further down he saw just the top of a 

 tipi, which was standing alone. He picked a few plums and went to 

 the tipi. He went in and was welcomed by four women. Said they, 

 "Well, Nih*a°ga°, what has brought you here? What are you going 

 to do?" "Dh, my sisters and my nieces, I have brought you some 

 plums. I found them close to the river, just a short distance from 

 here. It is wonderful that you folks do not run across them. They 

 are nice and good to eat," said he. He gave them to the women and 

 they ate them. 



These women were all nursing babies. "Say, sisters, just make 

 these children go to sleep. I shall look after them while you go and 

 pick the plums." So these women made hammocks inside of the tipi 

 and placed' their babies in them to sleep. When the women had gone, 

 he took a big kettle, went to the river, fillecl it with water and hung it 

 on a tripod over the fire. The babies were sound asleep. He took 

 a knife and cut their heads off and put the bodies into the kettle, placing 

 the heads back in the hammocks. 



The women returned, bringing plums in rawhide bags. "Say, 

 sisters," said he, "while ycu w^re gone, I went out a short distance 

 from here and found a den of gray wolves, and I took them out and 

 killed them, and that is what I have boiling in the kettle, — for you all 



' This tale is found among the Gros Ventre, Omaha-Ponka (]. O. Dorsey, Contr. N. A. Ethn., 

 VI, ^62), and, according to Meeker, who thinks it of Arapaho origin; (Jonrn. Am. Folk Lore, XV, 84), 

 among the Sioux, Winnebago, and Chippewa. For diving mto the water for the reflection of an object, 

 see Russell, Expl. Far North, 214 (Cree), Hoffman, .Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn., XIV, 16-; (Menoinini), 

 Russell, Journ. Am. Folk Lore, XI, 264 (Jicarilla Apache). On the Pacific coast a more usual episode 

 is that the reflection of a person is taken for himself: thus, Farrand, Mem. .Am. Mus. Nat. Hist, IV, 

 123, Boas, Ind. Sagen, 66, 114, 168, 253. 



