Oct., 1903. Arapaho Traditions — Dorsey and Kroeber. 299 



with a good heart, happy that he had succeeded so well. On his way 

 back the blood made itself noticeable. As he went on, the clot felt 

 as if it were a human being. Before he reached home he thought he 

 would feel it. To his surprise he felt a baby. To make sure, he 

 opened his blanket wide and looked. It was a boy. He entered the 

 tent and said to his wife : "We have a child, a boy." "Thanks," she 

 said, and reached out for the child. The old man sat down on the bed, 

 while she gathered buffalo chips to keep the baby clean and soft. She 

 asked him how he got it, and he told her. She said : ' I am glad to 

 have a son." The nian said : *T love my boy, I am glad to have him." 

 The sisters, in their tent near by, heard them speaking. "Listen what 

 our parents are talking about. Let us go to see. They are talking 

 to their child." The younger went to find out, and when she came in 

 the tent, asked her parents about the child. They had laid it away at 

 the back of the tent. "Well, daughter," they said, "we have a child." 

 "What is it?" "It is a girl," they said. "May I see it?" she said. 

 "Certainly." So they opened the covering of the cradle. The woman 

 said : "How pretty the little girl Icoks ! What a pretty nose and glis- 

 tening hair !" She went back and told her elder sister. Her elder sister 

 said to her: "Carry meat there, so our younger sister may have milk." 

 So she took meat to the tent. The old people said : "We are glad 

 to have meat." Then the son-in-law returned as usual, dragging a 

 bundle of meat on the snow. When he entered the tent both his wives 

 told him the news. "Is that so?" he said. "Take this meat to them! 

 I am glad that I shall have another wife. Go and bring the child here." 

 The old people, when they gave his wives the child, said : "Do not un- 

 wrap the child ; its navel is yet sore, and it is crying on account of it." 

 Then they took it to the other tent. "Let me have the child," said the 

 man. "I am glad to have another wife. I will unwrap it." "Do not 

 unwrap it ; its navel is yet sore," they said. "Very well," he said. 

 Then they took the child back to the old people. Now the son-in-law 

 wished to provide meat for them. He gave them much, so that they 

 were never hungry. The child grew up fast. When the man went 

 hunting, it played outside. It was dressed as a girl, but behaved like a 

 boy as it played. The man saw it playing, and found it to be a boy. 

 He said to his wives : "You have deceived me. You told me it was 

 a girl, but you lied. If you had not lied to me, the old people would 

 have been dead now, for I hated them." He continually went hunting. 

 A last rib and tendon were lying about the camp. The boy wanted a 

 bow. "I cannot make a bow for you, I am too feeble," said the old 

 man. "No, father, you can do it. Here is a tendon. Take it and it 



