178 BIRDS IN LEGEND 



lived the friends they were marching to rejoin. Taking up 

 a pebble in his beak, the crow then dropped it into the water 

 and it became a mountain towering up to the land of the 

 dead. Down its rocky slope he brought his army until they 

 halted at the edge of the water. Then taking some dust in his 

 bill the crow flew out and dropped it into the water as he flew, 

 and it became a solid arm of land stretching from the spirit 

 world to the earth. He returned and flew out again, this time 

 with some blades of grass, which he dropped upon the land 

 thus made and at once it. was covered with a green sod. Again 

 he returned and again flew out, this time with some twigs in 

 his bill, and dropping these also upon the new land, at once it 

 was covered with a forest of trees. Again he flew back to the 

 base of the mountain, and is now [that is, at the time of the 

 Ghost dancing] coming on at the head of all the countless spirit- 

 host. 



