Oct., 1903. Arapaho Traditions — Dorsey and Kroeber. 295 



A young man came there. Then the girl prepared food for him and 

 brought it to him, and her father said, "He shall become my son-in- 

 law." So the young man and the girl remained there over night. Next 

 morning the father said : "I wish my son-in-law to be industrious 

 and to do something for m€." He asked him to go and get him sticks 

 for arrows. The sticks were to be perfectly straight, without knots or 

 branches. The young man went out, found sticks of ha°wa°uubiici, 

 got them, and carried them home. "Here are the sticks for your 

 father," he said to his wife, and she took them to her father. He looked 

 at them and said : "These are not the kind I want," and would not 

 take them. This happened four times. Then the old man killed his 

 son-in-law. Then another young man came and was given food by the 

 girl and called son-in-law by her father. The next day he was also 

 asked to get perfectly straight sticks. He returned with a bundle of 

 na'abiici, but the old man said : "They are too full of knots and have 

 too many branches ; they are not the kind I want." Then he killed him 

 too. Another young man came and was given food and received as 

 son-in-law, and sent out after arrows. He brought back dogwood 

 (haa°xeihineniwahaati) that was straight and smooth. "Here is what 

 you sent for," said the daughter, crossly, to her father. "Well, you 

 seem to be angry," he answered her. This young man also went out four 

 times to get sticks and then was killed because the sticks were unsatis- 

 factory. The old man threw him into the river and fed him to some ani- 

 mal, and so nothing was known about him. 



A fourth young man came there and was given the girl as wife. 

 The next morning he told his wife, "I will continue on my way," but 

 "her father said : "No, my son-in-law ; stay a while. You can take your 

 wife along with you when you go. I want you first to provide some 

 things for me and after that you can go on." Then he told his daugh- 

 ter : "Tell your husband that I wish him to get me sticks for arrows.'* 

 Then the young man went towards the east, crying and crying and cry- 

 ing; then went towards the south, and then back towards the river 

 near which they lived, until he reached a lake. "What are you crying 

 for? Is it something difficult?" said a voice to him. Perhaps it was 

 the owner of the lake. "I am looking for arrows," said the young 

 man. "I have been told that they must be perfectly straight, without 

 any knots or joints." Then the spirit said to him, "Very well, come 

 this way," and he was shown yeiyanaxuuci ("otter weed," a species of 

 composita). "This is the kind you are looking for," it said, and the 

 young man cut them and took them back with him. He gave them to 

 his wife to give to her father. "That is the kind I want. I am glad, 



