{ 
MICHELSON. ] AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A FOX WOMAN. 307 
My mother only came to fetch me water and little sticks of wood so 
that I might kindle a fire when I cooked. And we made strings. 
That is what we did. 
“Do not touch your hair: it might all come off. And do not eat 
sweet things. And if what tastes sour is eaten, one’s teeth will come 
out. Itis owing to that saying that we are afraid to eat sweet things,” 
my grandmother told me. She always gave me good advice from 
time to time. ‘Well, there is another thnmg. Now the men will 
think you are mature as you have become a young woman, and they 
will be desirous of courting you. If you do not go around bash- 
fully,'* for a long time they will not have the audacity to court you. 
When there is a dance, when there are many boys saying all sorts of 
funny things, if you do not notice it, they will be afraid of you for a 
very long time. If you laugh over their words, they will consider you 
as naught. They will begin bothering you right away. If you are 
immoral your brothers will be ashamed, and your mother’s broth- 
ers. If you live quietly they will be proud. They will love you. 
If you are only always making something in the same place where 
you live, they will always give you something whenever they get it. 
And your brothers will believe you when you say anything to them. 
When one lives quietly the men folks love one. And there is another 
thing. Some of the girls of our generation are immoral. If one goes 
around all the time with those who are immoral, they would get one 
in the habit of being so, as long as one has not much intelligence. Do 
not go around with the immoral ones, my grandchild,” my grand- 
mother told me. “And this. You are to treat any aged person well. 
He (she) is thought of by the manitou; because he (she) has con- 
ducted his (her) life carefully is why he (she) reached an old age. 
Do not talk about anyone.” Do not lie. Do not steal. If you 
practice stealing, you will be wretched. Do not (be stingy) with a 
possession of which you are fond. (If you are stingy) you will not 
get anything. If you are generous you will (always) get something. 
Moreover, do not go around and speak crossly toward anyone. You 
must be equally kind to (every) old person. That, my grandchild, 
is a good way to do,” my grandmother said to me. She was indeed 
always instructing me what to do. 
Soon I had lived there ten days. ‘Well, at last you may go and 
take a bath,’ my mother said to me. We started to the river. 
“Take off your waist,’ I was told. After I had taken it off I leaped 
into the water. Then, “I am going to peck you with something 
sharp,” I was told. I was pecked all over. “And now on your 
lower part,” I was told. ‘Only use your skirt as a breechcloth,” is 
what I was told. I was also pecked on my thighs. “It will be that 
you will not menstruate much if the blood flows plentifully,’’ I was 
told. I was made to suffer very much. I put on other garments. 
