Oct., 1903. Arapaho Traditions — Dorsey and Kroeber. 61 



One of the birds, which was a duck, only slightly closed his eyes, 

 when dancing. The song went this way : ''All those who open their 

 eyes shall die." When the birds and animals leaped below, the duck 

 said, flying up in the air, "Nih'a^ga'* killed you all." "This is the way 

 I get my subsistence," said Nih'a^ga", and went down and prepared 

 the birds and animals for roasting. After he got them ready, he built 

 a fire and set the birds and animals to roasting. In the mean time he 

 had taken a nap, and Coyote took advantage of him and ate up the food. 

 When Nih'a^Qa" awoke, he saw Coyote lying on the ground, facing him. 

 Coyote got up and went away lame, and Nih'a"qa'^ went to look for 

 his food, but it was gone. He raked the ashes and found the bones of 

 birds and animals. 



This is the reason the Indians live on game, and coyotes make their 

 living by stealing or scheming. It also refers to people who go about 

 laftie, pretending to be unable to do anything but living on- somebody 

 else. — D. 



Told by Cut-Nose. See note 2, page 60. In the Pawnee version turkeys are substituted lor 

 ducks; while in the Osage version Grasshopper has turkeys dancing, hi a Cherokee tale (Mooney, 

 Bureau of Eth. Ann. 19, p. 269) Rabbit persuades turkeys to dance for Wild-Cat. 



28. — Nih'a^can and the Elks.' 



Nih'a^ga" was traveling. He saw very many elk. Sitting down, 

 he pondered what to do ; he did not know how to kill them. Then he 

 said : "I will run a race with them." He set up a stick near a precipice, 

 and went to where the herd of elk was standing. "Hello!" he said; 

 "What do you think we ought to do to-day?" "We don't know," said 

 the elk. "I heard much about what you can do," said Nih^a^qa". "I 

 was told that you were very good runners. I came far to see you and 

 to run you a race." "No, we cannot run well," said the elk. "Oh, J 

 will run you a race, anyway. Let us run straight to that stick; the 

 ground is fine." The elk were somewhat doubtful. "We heard that 

 you were a fine runner, Nih>'a"Qa''," they said. Then one of them said : 

 "Well, let us all run against him, anyhow. There will be no discredit 

 if we are beaten, for he is a good runner." "I heard it said of you that 

 you were very swift," said Nih'a"<;a", praising them in order to induce 

 them to run. Then they all stood in a line, ready. Nili'a"9a° gave 

 the signal, and all ran as hard as they could. There was so much 

 dust from their running that none saw where they were going. But 

 iNih'a"^a'* watched. When he came to the stick that he had set up. 



' Informant B. 



