2-88 Field Columbian Museum — Anthropology, Vol. V. 



want you to seize the poles and lower them slowly, and then to chew 

 off the ropes and free the children." Then the wolves and coyotes 

 did as he told them and loosened the children. The old wolf asked 

 them: "Where do you want to go? Will you go again to the people 

 or somewhere else?" The children made no answer. They were 

 afraid. The wolf came near them, but they feared that he would eat 

 them, and said not a word. Then he said: "Do not go back \o the 

 people but remain here with us. Now I want you, Clouded-wolf, who 

 are above the others for your daring deeds, to provide food for 

 them. I want you also. White-wolf, to look for food for them, and 

 I want you, Black-coyote, who have done deeds which the others could 

 not do, to go out and get them food ; and you also. Black-wolf, who are 

 brave and cunning, provide meat for them.'' Then these four chief 

 wolves started out in the four directions. Clouded-wolf came back 

 bringing meat from the back of the buffalo with the skin still on it. 

 White-wolf also brought the best parts of the meat, and so did Black- 

 coyote and Black-wolf. They piled it up in front of the children and 

 these ate it, regaining their strength. Then the old wolf told them to 

 live in the thick timber where there was good shelter, and he went with 

 them, ' 



It was now winter. The boy gathered poles and made a frame 

 for a brush house, while his sister gathered long weeds and thatched 

 them over the frame. She also made a door of sticks and brush, and 

 inside she put brush for bedding. Near the door they prepared a place 

 for the old wolf to sleep. Then it began to snow. The old wolf said : 

 ^'It it were not for your kind treatment I should now be out in the 

 storm in my feeble old age, and suffering from cold. I thank you 

 for this. Look at me ! I have not the same color that I had when 

 I was young. I have no strength and no swiftness and no warmth. 

 I am old and can endure no cold. Therefore I thank you for living 

 with you in this warm place." At night the old wolf slept by the door 

 on the right side, the girl on the north side of the tent and the boy 

 at the back. In the morning the boy was the first to get up, in order 

 to make the fire. As he looked out from the door there was snow all 

 about. To his surprise, at a short distance there were herds of elk. 

 It was as if there were something yellow over the snow as far as he 

 could see ; in the timber, on the river banks, and everywhere, elk were 

 walking, standing, and lying. In astonishment he closed the door 

 and said to his sister : "Get up, there is a herd of elk close by !" "What 

 can I do? I can do nothing," said the girl ; but he kept trying to arouse 

 her. "Get up and look at them, anyhow." She said : "I can do noth- 



