480 A STUDY OF SIOUAN CULTS. 



Snakes are said to be terrible; they seek to euter a man's ears, nose, 

 or moutli" (i.e., in the dream); "and shoiUd one succeed, it is a sure 

 sign of death. 'No good comes from snakes."" 



THE DOUBLE WOMAN. 



§ 251. In the olden times there was what they called ''Wiijyaq nui)- 

 papi-ka," or the The Double Woman, consisting of two very tall females 

 who were probably connected by a membrane. They wore horned head- 

 dresses decorated with feathers, and bunches of feathers hung from the 

 right shoulder of one and from tlie left shoulder of the other. Instead 

 of heel tags, each female had a turtle tiailing from the heel or quarter 

 of one moccasin, and a feather from that of the other. In the sketch 

 as given by Bushotter there is a pale blue stripe around the bottom of 

 each skirt, and half of each trailing feather is of that color. Each body, 

 above the top of the blanket, is painted with blue dots on a yellow 

 ground. There is a blue stripe across the riglit shoulder of the woman 

 on the right, and one across tlie left shoukler of the other woman, each 

 stripe curving downward towards the opposite side. (See PI. L.) 



They dwelt in a lodge on a very high black clifi'. They were always 

 laughing immoderately, as if they were strangers to sorrow. On pleas- 

 ant evenings they stood on a hill, where they amused themselves by 

 swinging. Should any Indian see them, when he reached home he 

 vomited something resembling black earth, and died suddenly. These 

 women were skillful dancers, and tliey used to reflect rays of light by 

 means of their mirror, just as the young Indian men do in sjjort. They 

 jumped many times and sang this song: 



^ — # — J J. w — w — • — J. J. 



Ce'-pai)-si kn- wa'- ni- to' Tu'-wa le'-ci si' - ua mi' - co-ze', 

 "Cousin, please come over here! Some one waves a robe over inthis 

 direction at me. Ha! ha! ha!" Then they walked about. No one 

 knew from what quarter the Double Woman was coming, and how the 

 two lived was a mystery. There are many tall women found now among 

 diti'ereut Indian tribes who imitate the behavior of the Double Woman. 

 John Bruyier and other Teton at Hampton, Va., regard this story 

 of the Double Woman as manufactured by Bushotter. But this char- 

 acter figures in two Santee myths in Rev. S. li. Eiggs's collection, abolit 

 to be published by the Bureau of Ethnology.^ (See § 394.) 



DEER WOMEN. 



§ 252. Deer women of the Teton resemble the Wolf women of the 

 Pawnee. Both tempt iinwary youths whom they encounter away from 



' Miss Fletcher. Elk Mystery of the Ogalalhi Sioux, in Rept. Peabody Museum, vol. Ill, p. 281, rote. 

 'Coiiti-. to N. A. Etlm., vol. ix, Dakota Grammar, Texts, .ind Ethnography. Washiugton : Gov- 

 ernmeut Printing OfBce. 1893. pp. 131. 141, IW, 148. 



