MICHELSON. ] AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A FOX WOMAN. 303 
And again, when I was twelve years old, I was told, “Come, try 
to make these.” (They were) my own moccasins.* ‘‘ You may start 
to make them for yourself after you know how to make them. For 
you already know how to make them for your dolls. That is the 
way you are to make them,” I was told. She only cut them out for 
me. And when I made a mistake she ripped it out for me. “This 
is the way you are to make it,” I was told. Finally I really knew 
how to make them. : 
And then a small belt of yarn was put on the sticks for me. A 
little was started for me. “Try to make this one,” I was told. 
I began to try to make it. Later on I surely knew how to make it. 
Then I kept on making belts of yarn. My mother was pleased when 
I learned how to make anything. 
At that time I knew how to cook well. When my mother went 
any place, she said to me, ‘““You may cook the meal.’’ Moreover, 
when she made mats I cooked the meals.1° “You may get accus- 
tomed to cooking, for it is almost time for you to live outside. You 
will cook for yourself when you live outside,” I would be told. 
Soon I was told, ‘ Well, begin to try to weave; you may wish to 
make these mats.” Then I began to try to weave. Later I knew 
how to weave very well. Then I began to help my mother all the 
time. She was proud when I continued to learn how to make any- 
thing. 
And then I was thirteen years old. ‘‘ Now is the time when you 
must watch yourself; at last you are nearly a young woman. Do 
not forget this which I tell you. You might ruin your brothers if 
you are not careful. The state of bemg a young woman is evil. 
The manitous hate it. If any one is blessed by a manitou, if he 
eats with a young woman he is then hated by the one who blessed 
him and the (manitou) ceases to think of him.!! That is why it is 
told us, ‘be careful’ and why we are told about it beforehand. At 
the time when you are a young woman, whenever you become a 
young woman, you are to’hide yourself. Do not come into your 
wickiup. That is what you are to do.” She frightened me when she 
told me. 
Lo, sure enough when I was thirteen and a half years old, I was told, 
“Go get some wood and carry it on your back.” It was nearly noon 
when I started out. When I was walking along somewhere, I noticed 
something strange about myself. I was terribly frightened at being 
in that condition. I did not know how I became that way. “This 
must be the thing about which I was cautioned when I was told,” I 
thought. 
I went and laid down in the middle of the thick forest there. I 
was crying, as I was frightened. It was almost the middle of sum- 
mer” after we had done our hoeing. After a while my mother got 
tired of waiting for me. She came to seek me. Soon she found me. 
I was then crying hard. 
