Oct., 1903. Arapaho Traditions — Dorsey and Kroeber. 367 



They at once cut off his horns and carried them home. "Oh, 

 father, here are the horns of that mionster. Take them and make 

 spoons out of them," said the boys, laughing over their escapade. 

 ■'Well ! Well ! Dear boys, really did you kill him ?" said the father 

 with astonishment. "Yes ! We both shot at him and killed him 

 easily," said they. The family retired for the night. These boys slept 

 together at one side of the lodge. 



In the morning after breakfast their father told them again not 

 to play away from home. "Boys, I don't want you to go to that high 

 peak just above the thick grove of timber, for there lives a very dan- 

 gerous animal. Now listen to me and obey me, dear boys," said he, a& 

 he began to make more arrows. The boys went off to play near the 

 tipi. One of them said that he wanted to go to the place and see who 

 lived there. "Well, if you really want to go there, I have no objection 

 and I will go with you," said the other brother. So they sneaked 

 off and reached that place. Looking around, they saw a big nest on the 

 side of a steep precipice, in which there were two young eagles crying 

 for food. These boys climbed up some way and reached the nest. 

 "Say, let us have some fun with these birds," said one of them. "All 

 right !" said the other. Advancing to the nest, they caught the birds 

 by their bills and said, "What kind of clouds does your father have 

 when not in good humor?" "When our father is in anger he brings 

 dark and heavy clouds," said the young eagles. "Is that so?" said the 

 boys, still imposing upon them. All at once there came dark and heavy 

 clouds with much thundering, but the boys paid no attention to the 

 sign. Finally there came down big thunder, with tremendous force 

 and velocity. This eagle, or thunder, flew back and forth over the 

 boys as if to strike them. "Pshaw ! We are not afraid of you. If 

 you can succeed in pulling out our arrows, then the victory is yours," 

 said the boys, standing together. "I will shoot my arrow into that big 

 rock below your nest, and you fly over and pull it out," said one of 

 them, in manly voice. So the boy stepped forward and took one ar- 

 row, which he converted into a strong tendon (an arrow), and shot 

 it at the big rock. His tendon arrow went into the solid rock so that 

 it quivered. This thunder-bird ventured and went for the arrow with 

 great velocity, and returned witli the arrow for a certain distance, but 

 fell short and dropped to the ground, totally paralyzed. (This tendon 

 is located along the neck of the buffalo and contains certain elasticity, 

 which overpowered the thunder-bird.) 



These boys at once sat down and commenced pulling the feathers 

 out. Since they were very nice and ornamental, the boys took them to 



