Oct., 1903. Arapaho Traditions — Dorsey and Kroeber. 263 



115. — Laughter.' 



There was a camp. Young men went out singly to hunt and did 

 not return. At last a young man went off saying that he would try and 

 see what had become of those who had gone away hunting and what 

 trouble they had met with. He came to a herd of buffalo, and killing 

 one, drove off the rest. He dismounted from his horse and began to 

 cut up the buffalo. Then a person came towards him. As he looked at 

 him the person fell down, got up again, came forward, fell down again, 

 and continued doing this. Then he heard him laughing. The young 

 man continued his butchering and paid no attention to the person who 

 constantly was falling down from laughter. He said to himself : "This 

 is not funny. I killed this buffalo for its meat and skin, not for a joke. 

 There is nothing laughable.'' The person went about him laughing. 

 The young man had cut the ribs and was taking out the entrails when 

 the person fell into them, rolling into the body cavity. Then the young 

 man burst out laughing also, and fell in the same place, and continued 

 to laugh. The person took him by his sides and tickled him until he 

 nearly laughed to death. Then a small bird said : "That person is try- 

 ing to make you laugh yourself to death. Reach over where the unborn 

 calf still is in the buffalo, for that is what he is afraid of." Then 

 he quickly rolled over towards it, holding Laughter with one hand 

 till with the other he reached out to touch the foetus. As soon as he 

 touched it. Laughter let go his hold of him and was dead. To make 

 sure that he had killed him he struck him with the calf. Then he took 

 it and made a necklace of it and put it on this Laughter. Then he said : 

 ■'From now on instead of people laughing to death, as Laughter has 

 made them do, they will laugh until they have cramps in the stomach, 

 and then they shall stop laughing and not be hurt." — K. 



116. — The Horse-Tick. 



A party of young men (perhaps ten of them) went away on the 

 A*-ar-path and were gone for several days. They could not find any 

 fresh trails of the enemy and felt discouraged. Turning back, they 

 started for home, concluding to travel during the night sometimes. One 

 night they came to a small hill, and happening just then to be very 

 tired, they stopped to rest for the next day's ride. They slept on the 

 top of the hill with their saddles and other things, staking their horses 

 below. While they were fast asleep, this hill carried them off in a 



' Informant I. 



