442 ISLETA, NEW MEXICO 



(ETH. ANN. 47 



away? We went to look for work and we were working aU day in a 

 Mexican's house. We agreed to work over night. Should we go, 

 pali (dear)?" "Certainly, if you have work, you must go back and 

 settle it the best way you Icnow how. " '' So their husbands gave theni 

 food, and after they ate, they went back to work. When the women 

 went out, the toyi'de said to his friend, "What do you tliink, my 

 friend? Had we better follow them tonight again? You know they 

 are not working at the Mexican's house." "Yes, any way j^ou want, 

 I am willing to do it." So that night the men followed their wives 

 again to the cave. Like the niglit before they lay down. Every- 

 body came in as before. Then the witch chief asked if everybody 

 had come. "Yes, we are all here." They asked the two men who 

 were going to be bucks and the two women who were going to be does, 

 "Well, how did you fare? Did you get rid of your husbands? " The 

 women said, "No, when we got home they already had a buck and 

 they had already started home. So we coidd not do anything. This 

 evening when we got home the men were already home, waiting for us. 

 But we told them we were worldng for Mexicans and they let us come 

 on." "But we can not go on this way. We have to get rid of those 

 two men. So you take some medicine tonight when you go home. 

 When they are about to eat tomorrow, you take one dish for both 

 of them and put in this medicme. When they eat it, they will die 

 instantly. That is the only way we can get rid of them." The 

 women said, "All right, whatever you teU us to do, we wUl do it." 

 Then the witch chief said to the others, "Put on your clothes and let 

 us go where we did not go last night." They all took down their 

 skins and tried to change themselves and failed, just as the night 

 before. The witch chief said, "I am going to see if there is something 

 outside. Otherwise it would not be like this." The witch chief told 

 the witch wilawe to guard him as he went out to find somebody. 



While the witches were getting ready in the cave, the toyi'de on 

 top was getting ready to kill them. When the witch cliief went up, 

 the toyi'de shot him with an arrow. Right away he fell dead. The 

 second one was coming up. As he got up, the toyi'de shot him, too, 

 and killed him, too. The third one as, he came out, he shot and 

 killed also. Then he laid the three witches together and took his 

 white flint and marked on the ground aroimd them five times, so they 

 would not come to life before the sun rose, and the people might find 

 them there. He said to his partner, "This is enough, my friend. We 

 wUl go home and see what time our wives will come back tomorrow." 

 The witches staying in the cave waited almost until morning for the 

 others to return, but they did not return, so they had to go home. 

 Next day about dinner time their wives came home, and they found 

 their husbands as happy as if they Itnew nothing about it. Then the 



" Had she been quick, she would have known from this that he knew what she was doing. 



