Oct., 1903. Arapaho Traditions — Dorsey and Kroeber. 331 



out in search of hog potatoes, and carried with her the digging stick. 

 She ran to a thick patch and kept digging away to fill her bag. She 

 accidentally struck a hole, which surprised her very much, and so she 

 stooped down and locked in and through the hole, seeing below, a green 

 earth with a camp-circle on it. After questioning herself and recog- 

 nizing the camp-circle below, she carefully covered the spot and marked 

 it. She took the bag and went to her own tipi, giving the folks some, 

 of the hog potatoes. The old folks were pleased and ate the hog p>o- 

 tatoes to satisfy their daughter-in-law. The husband returned home 

 too, bringing in beef and hides. 



Early one morning the husband started off for more beef and 

 hides, telling his wife to be careful about herself. After he was gone, 

 she took the digging stick and the sinew she had to the place where 

 she struck the hole. When she got to the hole, she sat down and began 

 tying string, so as to make the sinew long enough to reach the bottom. 

 She then opened the hole and laid the digging stick across the hole 

 which she had dug, and tied one of the sinew strings (lariat) in the 

 center of this stick, and then also fastened herself to the end of the 

 lariat. She gradually loosened the sinew lariat as she let herself down, 

 finally finding herself suspended above the top of the tree which she 

 had climbed, but not near enough so that she could possibly reach it. 



When the husband missed her he scolded the old people for not 

 watching their daughter-in-law. He began to look for her in the direc- 

 tion in which she usually started off, but found no fresh tracks, though 

 he kept traveling until he tracked her to the digging stick which was 

 lying across the hole. The husband stooped down and looked into this 

 hole and saw his wife suspended from this stick by means of a sinew 

 lariat or string. "Well, the only way to do is to see her touch the bot- 

 tom," said he. So he looked around and found a circular stone two or 

 three inches thick, and brought it to the place. Again he continued, 

 "I want this stone to light right on top of her head," and he dropped 

 the stone carefully along the sinew string, and it struck the top of her 

 head and broke her off and landed her safe on the ground. She took 

 up the stone and went to the camp-circle. This is the way the woman 

 returned. — D. 



Told by Long-Hair. 



