98 Field Columbian Museum — Anthropology, Vol. V. 



some people that I like to have near me ; but I do not like you." So she 

 flew off, but came back in his path along the river bank. Nih'a°ga° 

 came to her again. Then he began to like her. "I want you for my 

 sweetheart,'' he said. "No," she answered. "I am not used to remain- 

 ing in one place. I travel. I would not be the wife for you." "You are 

 like me !" said Nih'a'^Qa", "I am always traveling. Moreover, I have the 

 same faculty as you," and he began to run and turn and spin about, 

 raising the dust and throwing the dirt into the air with his feet. But 

 Whirlwind-woman refused him. Then he started again, running and 

 spinning, stirring more dust and kicking it higher. Coming back to her 

 he said : "There, I have the same power as you. I can throw the earth 

 just as high." Whirlwind-woman started, whirled, caught him, and 

 blew him over the bank, so that he fell head first into the water. "I was 

 only joking, I was not intending to do anything to you," he called. 

 Whirlwind-woman called back : "Such is my power." She was already 

 far away. — K. 



48. — Nih'a^ca^ and Whirlwind-Woman. 



One day Nih'a"ga" took a stroll down the river, and having reached 

 a steep precipice that overlooked a small grove and the river, he stood 

 gazing at the scenery before him. 



At this time small, gentle Whirlwind came along and as she came 

 nearer to him, Nih'a^ga^ said: "Why are you lingering here? I do 

 not wish to have you near me." Whirlwind without ceasing for a 

 moment, passed on. 



Nih'a^ga'^ pursued his walk following the course of the river. 

 When he had reached a small divide, another and stronger whirlwind 

 overtook him. Nih'a^qa", being somewhat disgusted, remarked, "I do 

 wish you would keep away from me \" The wind whirled by, and 

 seemingly paid no attention. 



Nih'a"ga" strolled along listlessly. The further he walked the 

 grander became the scenery which lay before him. The wide landscape, 

 dotted here and there with groves and hills, seemed to invite him on. 



Near this spot there was a wide bank. Below it there was a deep 

 green river and woods in which'there was a luxuriant growth of shrub- 

 bery and weeds. At this place another whirlwind overtook Nih'a'^ga". 



small after having been made from the mud brouijht by the turtle from the bottom of the primeval 

 water. Her circular course, and her stqps to rest, are represented in decorative symbolism. She is 

 also said to have been the originator of quill-embroidery, at which she worked as she circled over the 

 earth, and of the decorative designs painted on rawhide bags. (The Arapaho, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. 

 Hist., XVIII, pp. 6o, no, 121.) For a similar method of enlarging the new world see Petitot, 

 Trad. Ind., 1886, 14S (Hare Indians). 



