DENSMOR®] MANDAN AND HIDATSA MUSIC 81 
field she found her squashes crushed and corn broken down. “That 
is strange,” said Granny. .The next time she came to her field she 
saw the same things. She thought this was very strange and re- 
solved to find out who did it. So she went home and made a “ kick- 
ball” (pl. 16, 6, ¢), such as is used in a certain woman’s game,”* and 
also a bow and arrows. All these she took to her garden and left 
them there. The next time she went to her garden the bow and 
arrows were gone and the ball and squashes were shot full of arrows. 
Evidently it was a boy and not a girl who was spoiling her garden. 
Granny decided to watch for the boy and soon she saw him coming, 
shooting his little arrows into the squashes. 
“Why do you do that?” asked Granny. 
“My mother is dead,” said the child. “She is near here.” 
“Let us go and see,” said Granny. 
The child was so small that he could not tell how it all hap- 
pened, but Granny saw the dead mother and realized that there 
was nothing for her to do but to take the child to her house and 
make a home for him. This she did, and as the child grew older 
he was sometimes allowed to go hunting alone. Granny said, “ Be 
careful, something may happen to you.” 
Now the boy observed something which he could not at all under- 
stand. He noticed that Granny always put a kettle of “stir- 
about”? in her bed, and that the kettle was empty when she took 
it out. He investigated and found a big snake. “So this is what 
eats Granny’s stir-about,” said the little boy. He thought about 
it a great deal, saying to himself, “That big snake has been eating 
Granny’s stir-about.” At last he took his bow and arrows and shot 
the snake. When Granny came home he told her what he had done. 
The snake was her husband; but she did not like to tell this to the 
little boy, so she said, “Good, I will go and bury him.” So she 
took the big snake outdoors and talked to him, saying, “ Husband, 
the boy is foolish. Sometimes I am almost afraid of him myself. 
He killed you, but I will put you in a good place.” She took him to 
the Missouri River, but he didn’t like that, so she took him back 
to the round lake. He liked that place and said if she would put 
him there the lake would never be dry. She put him there, and to 
this day the lake has never been dry. 
76‘ The women are expert at playing with a large leathern ball, which they let fall 
alternately on their foot and knee, again throwing it up and catching it, and thus 
keeping it in motion for a length of time without letting it fall to the ground. Prizes 
are given, and they often play high. The ball is often very neat and curiously covered 
with dyed porcupine quills.’ Maximilian, op. cit., p. 209. The specimen illustrated was 
made for the writer, and is of buffalo hide, filled with buffalo hair. 
7 4 kind of pudding or mush made of ground corn and water, which is a favorite 
article of food amorg these Indians. 
