356 THE WINNEBAGO TRIBE [eth. ann. 37 



Their grandmother listened to them quietly, but she could not 

 understand them. Then (after a while) Hare said, "Grandmother, 

 what I have been tr^ong to obtain for my uncles I have succeeded (in 

 accomplishing). You are now going to hear of it. Come here 

 toward the fireplace and sit down and you will hear of it. (I know) 

 that you are anxious to help them. Grandmother." "Indeed, 

 grandson, it is good," she said, and got up. Then she took her work 

 and sat down near the five of them and laid her hands upon their 

 heads. In front of her nephew. Hare, she placed her work. " If you 

 get this for them (i. e., the medicine dance) your imcles will live well. 

 This way they are to do forever," she said. In front of him she put 

 her work and said, "For this thing, indeed, I thank our father." 

 Thus she said and went back and sat down. "Grandson, what the 

 nature of my help for you was to be, you asked ? Well, look at me, 

 grandson. For yom- uncles and your aunts, our father had me bring 

 the following. I have for them that with which they will always be 

 able to ask for life." Then she opened that part of her body where 

 her heart was situated and very green leaves were to be seen, like an 

 ear in shape. It was as white as a blossom. Then she opened her 

 breast on the right side and said, "Grandson, look at me." Then 

 unexpectedly corn was visible. "For your uncles and aunts, our 

 father let me bring corn." A stalk became visible whose leaves were 

 very green and whose tassels were white. These were the ears of 

 com that we were to eat. 



Then the five of them got up and Hare said, " Our grandmother, let 

 us greet." So they walked up and laid their hands upon her head. 

 Then they greeted her and went around again. "It is good, grand- 

 mother, this is what I meant when I said you were to help them. 

 You were going to help us, grandmother," I said. "You may now 

 fix your breast." 



Then he went out, proceeding toward the east, and when he got 

 there he stopped. Then he turned toward the west. Grandmother 

 closed her breast and entered the house. " Well, grandson, I have 

 done it." "It is good, grandmother," said Hare. Then he went 

 out, and when he got to the door he stopped there and thought, 

 "This is the way it will be." And where he stood, eight yellow 

 female snakes he threw. They became the side-poles of the lodge. 

 Their heads he turned toward the east, and their tails he turned 

 toward the west. The strings he used with which to tie them were 

 rattlesnakes. The doorway was made of a black female and a 

 male snake, the latter placed at the right. At the rear end of the 

 house, in the west, he also made doors of blue female snakes. Then 

 he took a rged-grass, which he had brought with him, under whose 

 covering we were to live, and threw it over the lodge and the lodge 

 was wi-apped in it entirely. Then he took another piece of reed- 



