73-i BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 40 



[Translation] 



There was an old couple. They lived just this side of Big Springs, 

 and, having no earth-lodge, lived in a bark hut. These old people 

 had one daughter, who lived with them. Every evening, just at 

 dusk, she always went bathing, and never missed a single night. One 

 night she slept and dreamed of something; dreamed the same thing 

 every night. Then one night she went bathing, but did not return. 

 In the morning she came back, however, coming out of the water 

 toward the house, carrying fish. She handed the fish to her father 

 and then sat down. By and by a great snake came up unseen, 

 lowered his head through the smoke hole, and crawled in. He kept 

 crawling in and coiling around, till he filled all the space between the 

 area back of the fire antl the door on one side of the house; then, stick- 

 ing his head up beside the girl, he looked steadily at her. After a 

 while he began to crawl out, and, crawling entirely out, went down 

 into the water and disappeared. Meanwhile the girl stayed in the 

 house still. After a while she spoke, saying, "That person said to 

 me, ' Let us go away.' " Then her father said, "All right." — "He said, 

 'I shall go to-morrow, let us go away to-morrow,'" said the girl. 

 Then the old man replied, "Yes; you ought to go." Then they slept. 

 In the morning the girl went to get water. She saw her husband the 

 snake. He gave her a great quantity of fish. Then, carrying fish 

 on one side and the water on the other, she came back to the house. 

 When she arrived, she set the water down and passed the fish through 

 the smoke hole to her father, who took them. That morning, after 

 they had finished breakfast, the snake came again and coiled up in 

 the same place as before. He looked straight at the girl, and then 

 crawled out and went off toward the country between here and 

 Honey lake. Then the girl spoke and said, "Well, I am going now." 

 Then the old man said, "Yes." Then he added. "Stop a moment! 

 I will make- a cane for you." Then he made the cane and fastened 

 magical roots to the end of it. "When you arrive at the snake's 

 house, stand by the smoke hole and look over into the house and 

 throw this staff into the center of the fire," he said. " ' If you trouble 

 me, I might make your head ache with something mysterious. 

 Don't trouble me.' That is what you must say," he said. Then the 

 girl answered, "All right." Then she went oft' up north, after the 

 snake. 



