6 Field Columbian Museum — Anthropology, Vol. V. 



Postea viro alteri et mulieri argillae figuras eodem pacto posuit. Turn 

 ille dixit: "In uxorem resupinam incumbe ; perge, insta. Quid agitur?" 

 "Bene est," respondit vir vultu pallido. Then he took small sticks and 

 laid them alternately at angles to be a house for the white man and 

 his woman, and said to them : "This shall be your way of life.'" Then 

 he took three sticks and tied them together at the top, and laid others 

 upon them all around, and said to the Indians : 'This is how you will 

 live." He called them ^awagnenitan,' rising people, because after he 

 had laid them on the ground at night they got up in the morning. Then 

 according to his instructions the white man made various things, fences 

 and barns and others. Then the man said to the Indian, "Here is this 

 paint. It is red paint. Yoii shall have it always and use it always. 

 Only when a person dies do not use it. But when your grief is over, 

 take up the paint again. This white man's skin shall be white, his hair 

 yellow. This shall be the difference.""' — K. 



» The usual name for Indians as distingu'shed {rom the whites or fabulous rates or spirits. 



"This myth as obtained concluded with the following episode: 



A white woman who was with child kept it secret. When she was about to give birth she went 

 to the barn and delivered there, while her husband was away tilling the soil. She left the child 

 there. But the other man (the Indian) was subsisting entirely on game, living at ease. When the 

 white man came back he went to the barn and found the boy running about. This was the son of 

 above-white-man, Hixtcabii Nih'afgan (the Arapaho word for the God of Christianity) . He was known 

 to be truly the son of above-white-man, for his skin was yellow and his hair long. Other people 

 heard of him and came and killed him and buried him, but he returned to his mother, telling her: 

 "Thus I have returned." Then the people heard of him again, and bound and burned him. He 

 became ashes, but returned to his mother. Again the people heard of him and took him, now a 

 full-grown man, and nailed him on a cross. How he went up is not known, but nevertheless he went 

 up. The Indians had lived in accordance with the teachings of the man (the creator) until this son 

 of above-white-man was killed. Then among them also death and bloodshed occurred. *" 



The recognized tribal creation-myth of the .'\rapaho, which takes four nights to tell, is in the 

 keeping of the old man who has the sacred flat or straight pipe. The present keeper is Weasel-bear. 

 The myth is taught only in connection with certain observances, including previous fasting, and 

 should not be told on other occasions. The present myth was told by an old woman, who said that 

 she had learned it from Weasel-bear. It is, of course, only a fragment. It appears from the portion 

 secured, however, that the creation-myth of the Arapaho, in spite of the ceremonial accompaniment 

 which might seem to insure its permanence, has owing to speculative tendencies incorporated white 

 elements and especially conceptions regarding the whites. To this instability the use of the mytho- 

 logical name Nih'angan for the whites has probably contributed. Cf. the following note, and note 4, 

 page 19. 



The following account of the creation is from informant B: Everything was water. There 

 was no earth. Then Nih'anQan told the birds to dive and try to obtain earth from the bottom of the 

 water. They dived, but could not reach the bottom. Some came up drowned, some nearly dead. All 

 kinds had dived. Then Nih'angan called the duck. The duck dived. It remained under a long time. 

 It came up slowly, nearly dead. Nih'aiQan picked it up and found a bit of mud on its feet. He 

 scraped this off and held it in his hand. He put a little on the water and it spread. A second time 

 and a third time he threw some and the earth shot outward on all sides. The fourth time he scattered 

 it around and the earth was wide. He commanded two people to be, a man and a woman. He went 

 to the thickets where they were to come into being, and found them. He said, "Through you the 

 generations will be. Now you are only two; soon there will be others." From them sprang all men. 

 That is why human beings live on the earth. Nih'angan also made the rivers, the streams, and the 

 mountains That is why they are here. 



='The Nih'angan of these traditions is the Arapaho Manabozho, Napi, or Ictinike. He is 

 sometimes named as the creator, but sometimes is not. Some old men say that perhaps 



