230 Field Columbian Museum- — Anthropology, Vol. V. 



So tfiey sent out scouts, while they got ready and prepared their horses. 

 Then they surrounded the brush. One of the scouts saw two porcu- 

 pines sitting up like persons. The male was at the right. Soon they 

 saw him strike the female with his left hand. He struck her repeatedly, 

 looking angrily at her. She cried. The man motioned to the others 

 to come and look. Then one of them said aloud : "What are you 

 doing, bad man?" The porcupines looked up and started to run 

 off.— K. 



100. — The Painted Porcupine. 



Early in the autumn there was a big camp-circle near the thick 

 timber. The people were having a prosperous year. The women had 

 plenty to do at home scraping, tanning, painting and quilling hides. 

 But porcupine quills were very scarce among the women. 



In a certain family the wife was doing much quilled work, but 

 didn't have enough quills to finish her "vow" (work). This family had 

 a handsome daughter, who was very thoughtful and good natured to 

 her parents. Having heard of a painted porcupine, she said to her 

 parents one day: "Surely my dear mother has not enough quills for 

 her work ; I am going out to look for that painted porcupine and plead 

 for marriage in your behalf ; you know that I have no desire for a 

 companion, but under the circumstances I am willing to offer myself to 

 him ; in the mean time you can gather quills and try to make out with 

 what you have, mother," So this young woman started off and sought 

 for a companion until she had reached the home of the painted por- 

 cupine. 



"I have come over to offer myself to you ; my dear' mother is out of 

 quills at a very important time; it is my sincere desire to marry you 

 so that you may be a help to me and to my parents," said the young 

 woman pitifully. After some time in consideration of the proposal the 

 painted porcupine accepted, and they became a happy couple. 



One day while they were both outside of their tipi, sunning them- 

 selves, the porcupine laid his head across the lap of his new wife, and 

 said: "Now you can go to picking my quills (lousing) and deliver 

 them to your mother ; at this time of the year I have plenty of quills, 

 but late in the summer I have very few, so bear in mind that I cannot 

 furnish many during the hot seasons, but I am ever providing during 

 the fall and winter," said Painted-Porcupine. So the wife began to 

 pick the colored quills and fill up the bladder bags and took them to 

 her mother. "Well, I am so glad to get them ; you may tell your hus- 

 band that I fully appreciate his favor and kindness," said the mother. 



