70 Field Columbian Museum — Anthropology, Vol. V. 



gravis est, togam inquinavit. In the morning, when he started, he said ; 

 "Here, this robe is yours, old man," to the first thing he saw. When he 

 had gone a little distance, he looked back and saw that the robe he had 

 given away was clean again. "Come, give it to me, it isn't yours," he 

 ■said, and took it and went on again. Soon he soiled it again. 'Old 

 man, this is your robe.' he said, throwing it to anything that might be 

 standing there. Going on, he would see that it was clean once more, 

 and take it back. Thus he did as often as it became dirty. Finally, 

 as he went on, 'he soiled it again, and coming to a rock, said: . ''Old 

 man, this is your robe." Having gone on, and looking around, he saw 

 that the robe was entirely clean. Turning back, he said to the rock : 

 "Come, it is not your robe," and took the robe again, and went on his 

 way. When he had gone some distance, something roared, and he 

 looked back. To his surprise the rock was coming straight toward 

 him, rolling and tumbling along. Nih^a"<;a" ran, but the rock came after 

 him, raising the dust as it went. "I wish there were a hole 1 might get 

 into! I wish there were a safe place I could reach!" he said, running 

 as hard as he could, while the rock was close behind. Ugh ! Old man 

 was exhausted. He lay under a bank. "Surely it will roll above me!" 

 he said. The rock came, rolled slowly, rolled on his back, and lay 

 there. "Old man, take it ofif from me!" Nih'a"ga° said to whatever 

 animals he could see, but none listened to him. At last the bull-bat 

 came circling above him. "My friend, take this rock off me," Nih'a"(;a" 

 said to him. The bull-bat flew down, crepuit atque saxi frustum de- 

 fregit. He continued to fly down, striking pieces off. Finally he flew 

 high up, and circled far off ; deinde celeriter delapsus crepuit and split 

 the rock. Nib'S-^Qa"^ got up and said : "My friend, come here. I want 

 to speak to you. You have pitied me and helped me. Come, open 

 your mouth." He spread the bull-bat's mouth out wide. "You foolish 

 thing, from now on you will be big-mouthed like this," he said.' — K. 



35. — Nir'anqa^ pursued by the Rolling Skull. ^ 



Nih^a^ga" was fishing by a hole in the ice. As he fished, it cracked 

 in the ice. Every now and then there was a cracking. "I vvonder what 



' Cf. Blackfoot (Grinnell. 165), Ute fjourn. Am. Folk Lore, XIV. 260), Flathead (McDermott, 

 ibid., XIV, 245). See also Nenenot (Turner, Trans. Roy. Soc. Can,, V, 117, and Ann. Rep. Bur. 

 Ethn., 337), Cree (Russell, Expl. Far North, 210), Micinac (Rand, 316), JicariUa .\pache (Mooney, 

 Am. .-Xnthropologist, 1S98, p. 197). Often, in myths of a more serious nature, a rolhng head takes the 

 place of the rock; thus among- the Cheyenne (Journ. Am. Folk Lore, XIII, iSs), Ojibwa (School- 

 craft, Hiawatha, 26;), Gros Ventre, Carrier (Morice, Trans. Can. Inst., V, 5), Cree (Russell, 

 Expl. Far North, 202), Yana (Curtin, Creation Myths of Primitive America, 325), Maidu, (Dixon, 

 Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., XVII, 11, 97), Chippewayan. Petitot. Trad. Ind., 1886, 405, 407. 

 ' From an Arapaho text oblamed from informant C. 



