Oct., 1903. Arapaho Traditions — Dorsey and Kroeber. 389 



whose name is Blue-bird," said the cow. She was told to go into a tent 

 and wait, until an old man cried cut and found Blue-bird. So an old 

 man cried: "Where are you. Blue-bird, where are you? Appear! 

 Come here! Your son is looking for you!" Blue-Bird heard it; he 

 wondered and asked himself: "Who can it be? It must be my wife, 

 Elk-woman. She must have borne a boy soon after I left her." Until 

 now when he was railed, he had not made himself known, having gone 

 about the camp making love. Then he went secretly and said : "Where 

 are the woman and the boy?" He thought surely that it was Elk- 

 woman. When he saw her it was not she. He did not recognize her. 

 He denied several tirties that she was his wife. Then he asked her : "How 

 do you come to have a child ?^' She said: "Blue-bird is the cause. I 

 was the buffalo cow mired in the mud at the spring, and you took me." 

 "Oh, yes," he said, "that is so." Then he took her and the boy. He 

 took her to him as his wife. For some time he lived with her at this 

 camp. One day he told her : "It is best if we all go to my parents, so 

 that they can see my boy. I may go elsewhere for a time and then I 

 will leave you there." So they started to go northward, in the direction 

 from which he had come . They reached home. The Elk-woman was 

 still there. At once the two women were jealous of each other. "I did not 

 know that you went for another wife. I thought you had said that you 

 would keep me as wife," said the Elk-woman. She took a rawhide 

 rope and went out ,as if going for wood, but brought back meat and 

 fat from the back ; it was well cut and fine. "This is what I can pro- 

 vide for you," said the Elk-woman. Then the Buffalo-woman went 

 out: "Ha! that is not the kind of meat I can bring." She was gone 

 some time. She brought the finest fat that was tender and juicy ; and 

 soft, dried meat. "Here is what I can do. This is the best kind of 

 meat to bring," she said to her husband, but meaning the Elk- woman. 

 Then the Elk-woman went out again, and brought back the best pieces 

 of meat from all parts of the body, with fat all mixed with the meat,, 

 and gave them to the man, looking at Buffalo-woman. "That is not 

 the kind of meat one wants," said the Buffalo-woman. "I will show 

 you what kind of meat a person should provide." Then she brought 

 her meat again, which was dry meat mixed with fat. "That is the kind 

 of meat to bring!" she said to her husband. "You cannot drive me 

 away!" said the Elk-woman to the Buffalo-woman. She brought elk 

 pemmican ; it was nice and clean and made of white meat. "That is the 

 food that I am able to get for you," she said, and gave it to her husband. 

 "Oh ! it is dried up, and not fit to eat. I will not eat it !" said the Buf- 

 falo-woman. She went out, and came back bringing buffalo pemmi- 



