14 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bdll. 47 



NOTES 



This myth, which is evidently of modern origin, was dictated by 

 Betsy Joe, the only full-blood Biloxi residing in Rapides parish, 

 Louisiana, to her daughter, Maria Johnson, and Bankston Johnson, 

 the husband of Maria. The man and his wife dictated it to J. Owen 

 Dorsey, in the presence of Betsy Joe, so that the old woman might 

 supply any omissions. 



1. JJtcutu (from ten); aHtsi, woman's word (used by Bets}' Joe), 

 but if Bankston had been speaking in his own name he would have 

 used aJcldisi. 



2. Duti oxpa^ "he ate, he devoured," i. e., he ate the potato vines 

 till he had devoured all — one of the many examples of the function 

 performed in the Biloxi language b}^ mere juxtaposition. See 9 

 {axok-ya'^ yesJcasaP dusi uX7iedi)^ 21 {de taho). 



5. Ani Jcyd o^ni Tcedi xyo. The use of xyo here is peculiar, but 

 the author suggests "must*" as its equivalent. A future idea seems to 

 be expressed. 



7. TikaJcaHcki Tee. If lie be part of the word, it is from akaHckike^ 

 in which event, akaHckike=akaHci; but if it be a distinct word the 

 meaning is a mystery. 



9. Uxnedi given; but it may have been intended for u hinedi. 

 Ha, meaning not gained, perhaps "when." 



11. d^-ha. Ila here may not be a distinct word, in which case it 

 may form a word with the preceding syllable. 



12. Yanki^xnda^ see inki. 



16. Asd^ poska i^sihixti manki edi refers to what the Rabbit said, 

 but is merely a report of it, not the exact remark. As the myth was 

 told among the Biloxi, this sentence was probably expressed thus: 

 Eka^'' Asd^ 2)oska nkiHlhixti,- edi Tcetkanadi, "Then the Rabbit said, 

 'I am in great fear of the brier patch.'" 



TRANSLATION ° 



The Rabbit aided his friend the Frenchman with his work. They 

 planted (Irish) potatoes. The Rabbit took the potato vines as his share 

 of the crop and devoured them all. The next time that the}^ farmed 

 they planted corn, and this time the Rabbit said, "I will eat the roots." 

 So he pulled up all the corn by the roots, but he found nothing to sat- 

 isfy his hunger. Then the Frenchman said, "Let us dig a well." But 

 the Rabbit did not desire it. He told the Frenchman that he must dig 

 it alone. To this the Frenchman replied, "You shall not drink the 

 water from the well." "That does not matter. I am used to licking 

 off the dew from the ground," answered the Rabbit. The Frenchman 



a Published also in Journal of American Folk-lore, vi, 48-49, 1898. 



