hoffmasJ THE RED-BIRD MA'nIDO 235 



monster on the hillside. He ran and grasped it by the tail to prevent 

 its escape, in order that he might club it to death, but the being dis- 

 charged a poisonous liquid from its body, some of which struck Ball 

 Carrier on the teeth, and a portion passed down his throat. Instantly 

 Ball Carrier released the water monster and hastened to return to his 

 wigwam, for lie well knew that he would die from the effects of this 

 poison. 



When he arrived at the wigwam, he told his wife what had happened, 

 and said to her, "When I am dead, do not bury me, but lay me over 

 there in the grove of trees." 



The wife of Ball Carrier had borne to him, since their marriage, two 

 sons and a daughter, so she called to her children to help her take care 

 of their father; but when they found him dead, they carried him to the 

 grove and laid the body on a scaffold. 



When Ball Carrier died, the ball which he had received from the old 

 woman immediately started to roll back to its original owner. The 

 warclub, spear, and bow and arrows were placed together and pre- 

 served in the wigwam. 



Not long after this occurrence a party of strange Indians chanced to 

 come along, and finding a family without a protector they became 

 rather free with what they saw and found. The widow of Ball Carrier 

 protested to the chief, but he replied that unless he was permitted to 

 marry her daughter he would have her house torn down and destroyed. 

 Bather than have such a calamity befall her children, she agreed to let 

 the chief marry her daughter. So the chief remained and provided for 

 Ball Carrier's family, while the remainder of the party continued on 

 their way. 



Before the chief came along and married Ball Carrier's daughter, the 

 family had become so poor that they were almost starved. One morn- 

 ing the daughter was hunting for berries; she saw for the first time a 

 large wigwam near their own. Approaching the structure, she saw 

 within it large quantities of food which the shade of her father had put 

 there, and also, perched high in the dome of the wigwam, on a thin 

 cross-piece of wood, a Red-bird. As Ball Carrier's daughter saw this 

 quantity of food she was amazed. After she had gained sufficient 

 courage to enter and look about her, she perceived the Bed-bird, who 

 made friendly gestures, making her feel at once that it was the spirit of 

 her father. Going up to him she greeted the bird by reaching out her 

 hand and lightly grasping his foot. 



When she returned to her mother and brothers, she told them of what 

 she had discovered. Thereafter every time they wanted food they would 

 all enter the wigwam, and alter greeting the Bed-bird would partake of 

 the food which was so abundantly supplied by him. 



These mysterious departures from the wigwam and the small quantity 

 of food consumed by Ball Carrier's family led the daughter's husband 

 to wonder where they all spent so much of their time. Determined to 



