156 Field Columbian Museum — Anthropology, Vol. V. 



the bull got up in order to lead the herd to water. At such times he 

 touched his wife, wlio, wearing her robe, was sitting in the same 

 position as all the rest, as a sign for her to go too. The young men 

 were lonely and thought how they might recover their daughter. It was 

 a year since she had left them. They sent out flies, but when the flies 

 came near the bull he bellowed to drive them away. The flies were so 

 much afraid of him that they did not approach him. Then the magpie 

 was sent, and came and alighted at a distance; but when the bull saw 

 him he said, ' Go away ! I do not want you to be about." Because the 

 young men had given the bull the blackbird to be a part of his body, 

 they thought he might be pleased and persuaded by it; so they sent 

 the blackbird, which lit on his back and began to sing. But the bull 

 said to it also: "Go away, I do not want you about." The blackbird 

 flew back to- the men and said, "I can do nothing to help you to get 

 your daughter back, but I will tell you of two animals that work un- 

 seen, and are very cunning: they are the mole and the badger. If you 

 get their help you will surely recover the girl." Then the young men 

 got the mole and the badger, and they started at night, taking arrows 

 with them. They went underground, the mole going ahead. The 

 badger followed and made the hole larger. They came under the place 

 where the girl was sitting, and the mole emerged under her blanket. 

 He gave her the arrows which he had brought and she stuck them 

 into the ground and rested her robe on them and then the badger came 

 under this too. The two animals said to her, "We have come to take 

 you back." She said, 'T am afraid," but they urged her to flee. Finally 

 she consented, and leaving her robe in the position in which she always 

 sat, went back through the hole with the mole and the badger to the 

 house of the young men. When she arrived they started' to flee. The 

 girl had become tired, when they came to a stone and asked it to 

 help them. The stone said, 'T can do nothing for you, the bull is too 

 powerful to contend with." They rested by the side of the stone; 

 then they continued on their way, one of them carrying the girl. But 

 they went more slowly on account of her. They crossed a river, went 

 through the timber, and on the prairie the girl walked again for a 

 distance. In front of them they saw a lone immense Cottonwood tree. 

 They said to it : "We are pursued by a powerful animal and come to 

 you for help." The tree told them, ''Run around me four times," and 

 they did this. The tree had seven large branches, the lowest of them 

 high enough to be out of the reach of the buffalo, and at the top was a 

 fork in which was a nest. They climbed the tree, each of the men 



