moo.ney] THE MYTH OF THE CROW 983 



of the great and good. The souls of the wicked were not permitted to 

 enter this elysium after death, but were doomed to wander without 

 rest or home. ( Williams, Key into the Language of America, 1643.) 



In Arapaho belief, the spirit world is in the west, not on the same 

 level with this earth of ours, but higher up, and separated also from it 

 by a body of water. In their statement of the Ghost-dance mythology 

 referred to in this song, the crow, as the messenger and leader of the 

 spirits who had goue before, collected their armies on the other side 

 and advanced at their head to the hither limit of the shadow land. 

 Then, looking over, they saw far below them a sea, and far out beyond 

 it toward the east was the boundary of the earth, where 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 lull, and dropping these also upon 

 the new land, at once it was covereil with a forest of trees. Again he 

 # flew back to the base of the mountain, and is now, for the fourth time, 

 coming on at the head of all the countless spirit host which has already 

 passed over the sea and is marshaling on the western boundary of the 

 earth. 



37. Bi taa'wu hu'hu 



Bi'taa'wu hu'hu', 

 Bi'taa'wu hii'lm' — 

 NiYmiguna'-ua'ti hu'hu', 

 NiVnaguua'-ua'ti hu'hu' — 

 A'hene'heni'a'a' ! A'he'yene'hene' ! 



Translation 



The earth — the crow, 



The earth — the crow — 



The fiow brought it with him, 



The crow brought it with him — 



A'hene'heni'a'a'! A'he'yene'hene' ! 



The reference iu this song is explained under the song immediately 

 preceding. 



38. Ni'nini'tubi'na hu'hu' — I 



Ni'nini 'tubi'na hu'hu , 

 Ni'niui'tubi'ua hu'hu . 

 Nana'thina'ni hu'hu, 

 Nana'thina'ni hu'hu. 

 Ni'nita'nafi, 

 Ni'nita'nau. 



