Oct., 1903. Arapaho Traditions — Dorsey and Kroeber. 19 



this there was one man who carried a club and was the chief of the 

 company; he represented the Thunder-bird. Next the man looked at 

 his painting in order to see where the singers, the dancers, the spec- 

 tators and the place for the fire should be in the tomahawk-lodge. 

 From the skin they also learned how to make the (ceremonial) toma- 

 hawks. Then Nih'a^ga'^ came and looked at them and found them 

 right. So they used them and made the tomahawk-lodge. Next they 

 made the buffalo-lodge. On the skin was a painting of the white-wo- 

 man (na°kuuhisei). What she wore was covered with white feathers, 

 and she carried a white weasel and a stick and a wheel. They also 

 made the regalia for the buffalo calves and for the bull who has the 

 tent poles (hiitaka°xuunit), and for the other ranks of the dance; and 

 when they had made them all, Nih'a^ga"^ looked at them and approved 

 them, and the people used them. Then they made the offerings-lodge 

 (sun-dance), which was also represented on the skin. The first part 

 of it, while the people were collecting the wood for the lodge, con- 

 sisted of the rabbit lodge. In the rabbit lodge were the straight-pipe, 

 the badger, the snake, the wheel, and the black-bird.* There was also 

 a buffalo skin, a rabbit skin, a pipe-stem, and a -rattle. The rabbit skin 

 and the badger skin were tied to the robes of the dancers. The wife 

 of the man who pledged the lodge wore a fringed dress, embroidered 

 above the fringes, and on her head a beaded feather. All the other 

 dancers wore on their heads only a plume. 



All this was given to the people, the lodges being erected 

 in order to teach them. After this first time when they were taught, 

 the lodges were pledged only for sickness and other causes. Men 

 pledged them ^according to their age, except the buffalo-lodge and 

 the offerings-lodge. These could be pledged bv a person of any 

 age."'*— K. 



' The stuffed skin o'f a small bird called hitSgougeiiwanahuut, which the geese (hitSgou) are 

 thought to carry on their backs. 



* The painted record of the lodges was kept until forty-one years ago, the narrator said in 

 iSgq. Then the old man, of the tciinetcei bahaeihan, who was its keeper, lost his wife and buried it 

 with her. When this became known there was much talk, and it was said that the tribe would 

 decrease, as indeed they have. The narrator also said that he had never been told the entire myth, 

 but had learned it in parts as he participated in the lodges, especially the sun-dance. 



^The narrator added the following: 



After the skull which swallowed animals and people had been overcome, it asked Nih'angan: 

 " May I'go up with you, or shall I go into the river .'" Nih'angan said : " You may not go with me, 

 and you may not go back into the river." "Where shall I remain then ?" said the skull. Nih'angan 

 told it: "I will tell you what will be best. Since you are swift and untiring and cannot be stopped, 

 I will make you to be like a domestic animal for every one to use, which will contain persons and 

 their property, and will go through timber and across rivers and everywhere. You will be fast-wheel 

 (hasaanotii)." There was then nothing like this. The people (Indians) were told of it, but did not 

 heed what was said to them. Later the whites made the railroad. 



*For the pursuit by a rolling head or stone, see the notes to No. 34. The so-called magic 



