390 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull, 194 



The following abbreviated account by Bears Arm comes from Poor 

 Wolf and Old-Woman-Crawling who lived at Awaxawi village until 

 its abandonment after the smallpox epidemic. 



A very handsome young man living at Awaxawi village seldom went arouud 

 with the girls because he thought that most of them were foolish. One morning 

 he awakened to see a young woman leaving his bed. She came for 4 nights and 

 he resolved to follow her and learn who she was. When she left the last time, 

 he followed her and she led him northward until, when evening came, a killdeer 

 bird was frightened up and she knew the bird was scout for the Big Birds. 



The young woman requested her companion to cut a chokecherry branch to 

 represent a snake, which they put near the entrance to a cave situated on the 

 river bank near Mannhaven. In the night they heard the thunder and knew 

 that the big birds were attacking the branch. 



After the storm passed, they traveled northeastward and came to a large lake. 

 He followed her into the water where he found a new land and saw that the people 

 were snakes. The young woman was the daughter of Chief-of-the-Snakes. 



One day he heard thunder and saw lightning. The people said that the thunder- 

 birds were trying to kill them, but the lightning could not penetrate through the 

 water. 



After a while the young man became homesick and longed to see his people 

 again. The young woman being married to him, she agreed to return with him. 

 Although she went about a great deal in the village under the lake, she remained 

 at home all the time in her husband's village. Snake Woman would stay in the 

 lodge seated on a buffalo hide from which the hair had been removed; she was 

 afraid of thunder. She worked all the time decorating robes, leggings, and 

 moccasins with porcupine quills but she never went outside to get wood and 

 water, or to work in the gardens. 



She ordered that no woman must ever touch her husband and he had this 

 information announced through the village. One day his sister-in-law touched 

 the corner of his robe while teasing him. He cut out the spot in the robe where 

 it was touched but his wife detected it and disappeared shortly afterwards. 



He returned to the lake and tried to go to the land beneath the lake but each 

 time he dived down, he came back up again. He cried long and his wife appeared 

 out of the water with two pots, one large one and one small one. She explained 

 that the large one was a man and the small one a woman, and stated that they 

 were to be used as drums for bringing rain. She instructed him in dressing the 

 pots with clothing and in making the snake poles. She taught the songs that 

 went with the rites. 



She warned that the pots should not be carried about from place to place but 

 must be stored in a deep hole with a strong roof over them when not in use, as 

 protection from the thunder. 



The ceremony was an annual affair and was celebrated during the 

 hottest days for the purpose of bringing rain. Both men and women 

 pledged to perform the rites but women were excluded from the 

 lodge where the rites were performed as was customary whenever 

 fasting was practiced. The person pledging the ceremony was 

 assisted by his relatives in the same manner as in the NaxpikE or the 

 Wolf rites but the costs in goods were not as great as when buying 

 a bundle. The one bearing the expenses of the ceremony was expected 



