Oct., 1903. Arapaho Traditions — Dorsey and Kroeber. 325 



mother and the boy, and noticed the tracks of this boy. He wondered 

 at the tracks, and decided that some people must have lost a boy. But 

 he kept this secret until he might hear the news definitely. Two or 

 three times he watered the herd of ponies and saw the fresh tracks of 

 the boy. *'Now I am going to make a bow and two arrows and lay 

 them on his trail, and if they are gone he is a human being," said the 

 young man. So he made them and placed them on the trail in the 

 evening. 



In the morning the young man started and drove his herd of ponies 

 to water, and found that the bow and arrows were gone. This occur- 

 rence caused him to make another bow and some arrows. "Now I am 

 going to make a trap (an arbor very thickly covered with willows) by 

 the trail, and I shall hide myself underneath and watch him from it, 

 and I shall place this bow and these arrows a little closer to the river, 

 so that I can have a better opportunity to catch him," said the young 

 man. So he did. 



In the morning the man hid himself under the arbor and watched 

 for the boy to come along. At last the boy, now grown up, came to the 

 bank, looked around somewhat suspiciously, and went to the bow and 

 arrows, but circled around them. He got d6wn to drink and this man 

 started toward him. Just as the boy was turning to go back to his 

 mother, he saw this young man advancing toward him. The boy began 

 crying and started to escape, but the man headed him off and caught 

 him. The boy bit and scratched the young man in order to get away, 

 but the man said to him, "Say, boy, will you please yield to me, there is 

 3 big camp-circle here and I will take care of you. I think that you are 

 starving here. You need some subsistence very much." The boy gave 

 up. 



This man asked him how it came that he was alone, smelling so 

 dreadfully. "Well, my mother and I were up with my father, and 

 trouble took place with us, besides my mother happened to discover 

 our original home from there. She dug a hole up there, down intd this 

 world, and let herself down gradually by the sinew strings from the 

 digging stick, but the string was not long enough; so we were hanging 

 for some time, until something broke us loose and landed us over 

 that sand-hill, where my mother is," said the boy. "Show me the 

 place !" saiH the man. The boy took him over there and he saw a 

 woman lying on her side, badly decomposed. This young man took 

 the boy to the river and bathed him and rubbed him with sage, and 

 then put some Indian perfume on his body, — the black Comanche ber- 

 ries and the "sweet smelling leaves" (mint) perhaps were used. The 



