Oct., 1903. Arapaho Traditions — Dorsey and Kroeber. . 25 



But Big^-Chief was determined to get rid of his brother and become 

 the sole riding man in the tribe. One day he said to his brother: 

 "Brother, let us go out and hunt for a short time ; we must have some 

 fresh buffalo or antelope meat." *'A11 right," said the young brother. 

 So they both started off and came upon a large herd of buffalo and Big- 

 Chief killed a fat one. "Brother, just watch me skin the beef so that 

 you may know how to do it the next time," said Big-Chief. Big-Chief 

 went a short distance away and broke off a branch of a tree and gave it 

 to his brother. "Brother, you may drive away the flies from the meat 

 while I am dressing it," said he. 



So the young man walked around from right to left, driving the 

 flies away with the branch. After Big-Chief had done skinning and 

 dressing the beef he said to his brother, "Well, brother, you may stay 

 here and drive the flies away till I come back with the dogs to carry the 

 meat home. It is too good to leave and also too heavy to carry on our 

 backs." So Big-Chief went away, and the brother still walked around, 

 keeping the flies away from the meat. Time passed on and the chief 

 did not return, but the brother still kept on walking around driving 

 the flies away. 



Big-Chief had taken his brother away to a distant land and left him 

 driving the flies away. After the lapse of three or four years the people 

 concluded that the young man must have starved to death or else he 

 would have returned sooner. 



Big-Chief, since he had come back from the hunting trip alone, 

 was the only chief of the tribe. The people felt confident that the 

 Aoung man was dead in the wilderness and began to abuse Big-Chiefs 

 authority. Finally Big-Chief became discouraged ; the people began 

 taking his dogs, tipi — everything that was useful about his lodge, — 

 leaving him in a desolate condition. "You may go to the outside of the 

 camp-circle and remain there with your wife," said the people. "You 

 are no longer a chief, and are unfit for the tribe." So Big-Chief took 

 his wife outside the camp-circle, and they made a tipi as best they 

 could, out of tipi linings. They had very poor food and clothing and 

 were despised and rejected of the people on account of their brother. 

 But they managed to get along. Sometimes they would have nothing 

 to eat for a day. The man would go out with his bow and arrows 

 and kill some small game to eat. He was very poor m everything 

 since the tribe was no longer friendly toward him. 



One day his wife asked him to go and search for his brother. So 

 he started off to the place where he had left him. When he had 

 reached the place, he could only see just the top of his brother's head 



