DORSEY-swANTON] THE BILOXI AND OFO LANGUAGES 105 



by the hole in the ground, weeping over his mother's disaster. Check- 

 ing his tears, he tied together several vines of the ' ' devil's shoestrings,'* 

 lowered them into the hole to his mother, who climbed the vines and 

 reached the surface of the earth again. Her son took her home, and 

 when they reached there she sent him again after Tube. " When 1 

 conjure a deer to him, he must shoot it," said the Old Woman. But 

 her daughters warned Tube again: "She is saying that because she 

 wishes her pet deer to chase 3^ou. Do not stand in the yard." So he 

 took a doll shaped like a man, stood it up in the yard, and hid himself. 

 Not long after the very aged deer arrived there, rushed on the man 

 doll, gored it, and was about to throw it down when Tube shot him, 

 wounded him, and made him fall to the ground. And then Tube went 

 back. When he reached home, the Old Woman sent to him again. 

 "I have made a deer trap. Let him go and see it," said she. So 

 Tcidikuna went and delivered the message. But the daughters said, 

 " When you see the small string there, do not touch it." But he 

 thought, "What barm can so small a string do? " and when he touched 

 it with his foot, he was caught in the trap, and Tcidikuna came again 

 to the place. When he saw that Tube had been caught, be called out, 

 "O mother! O mother! halloo! he has been caught!" Then the Old 

 Woman caught up her sledge hammer, kettle, and some fire, and went 

 to the place. She made a fire, and put some water in the kettle to boil, 

 and then as she wished to kill him she seized the ax, and said, "You 

 are very foolish to act in that manner [?]." " Where ought one to 

 hit you in order to kill you outright at one blow?" "On my head," 

 said Tube. " I do not think that that is it. Where ought one to hit 

 you in order to kill you outright at one blow?" repeated she. "On 

 my bead," said he. "I think that that is not the place," replied the 

 Old Woman. "On my ankle," said he. "I think that that is the 

 place," said she, and as she was wishing to hit binl, she raised her arm 

 to give the blow, but when she struck at him he leaped aside, and the 

 weapon descended on the little string and cut it in two without hurting 

 Tube, who snatched the ax from her, hit her with it, and killed her 

 [as he thought]. He put the body into the kettle of boiling water, 

 pressing it down into the kettle. "O Tcidikuna," said Tube, "sit 

 here and keep up the 'fire in order to boil your mother's body, and 

 when it is cooked, eat it and depart home." After saying this Tube 

 went home, leaving Tcidikuna there alone, crjdng aloud. 



W^ell, when Tube reached home the two young women said, "You 

 thought that you had killed her, but she will return." And not 

 long after they had spoken, their mother returned. Then one of her 

 daughters sat by her to examine her head. There was a hole in the 

 top of the Old Woman's bead, and the daughter cleaned the hair away 

 from the bole. The other daughter was heating an iron rod, and when 

 the first daughter bad cleaned the hair away from the hole in her 



