DAKOTA MYTHS. 149 
accustomed to see the supernatural; we will go,” and so they went. When they 
reached the place there was much noise, and they came and looked in by a hole of 
the tent, and lo! the inmates were dancing on the back of Teal-Duck. He saw his 
Wives peeping in, and jumping up, said, ‘I, also, will join the dance on the Teal’s 
back,” and so he jumped about. They say this was the duck that is called the “Teal,” 
and hence, to this day, that duck has no fat on its back, because the people danced 
on it, they say. 
Then the two women started back, and, taking two blankets, they put bees in 
the one and ants in the other and went on. The other woman, who was called Heart- 
Killer, was with the Boy-Beloved. Her they took and thrust out, and then placed 
themselves on either side of him. 
Then Teal-Duck came home, and when he had lifted one blanket the bees came 
out and stung him; when he lifted the other the ants came out and bit him. Then 
he said, ‘‘ Indeed, here is much that is strange,” and so he opened out the blankets 
and the ants and bees swarmed out and drove everybody from the house. So he went 
and found the two wives of Teal-Duck with Bead-Spitter, to whom he said, ‘My 
elder brother, give me back the younger one.” There was no reply. Again he 
made the demaud, but no answer came, And so Teal-Duck went home singing this 
song, they say: 
“ You Spitter of-Pearls, give me back my younger wife; 
For over the lake I always drive box-elder pegs.” 
And from this has come down to us this form of speech, viz: When sores come 
out on people and pus is formed, they say, ‘‘ Teal-Duck has shot them.” 
Now, when night came on, Sharp-Grass took his knife, and finding the Boy- 
Beloved sleeping with the two women, he cut off his head, and, holding it in his hand, 
took his station inside of the tent. When the people knew that the Boy-Beloved 
lay headless there was a great tumult, So they went to the house of the Teal, but 
his grandmother had placed him on the top of his tent. They went in, but only a 
little brown heron came flying out. Hence the fowl that is called Little: Brown-Heron 
(snipe) is the grandmother of the Teal-Duck. It flew away and alighted in the corner 
of a reed marsh. Then the people went and trod down and trampled up thoroughly 
the recd island. Hence, when all the roots of the reeds are red, they say this is the 
blood of the Teal’s grandmother. 
Then Teal-Duck, having the head of the Boy-Beloved, went and stood within 
the tent of the chief. And the mother of Boy-Beloved cried, and said, You bad, 
worthless fellow who debauched my child and had people dance upon your own back, 
you have impoverished me.” While she cried, some one said, ‘* Indeed, and was it I 
who did this thing?” Then they called Uyktomi, and when his mother said, crying, 
“ Who is it who says this aloud, ‘ Indeed, and was it I who did it?’?” Then Uyktomi 
said, “* Now, consider this: You say Uyktomi is a fool; why, don’t you understand 
this? It is he who stands within the tent who says this.” 
Then they tore down the tent and beheld Teal-Duck holding the head of Boy- 
Beloved and the other having the knife, and they stood up high. ‘Come down,” 
they said, “you shall live;” but up they went and stood in the moon. And so 
now, when the moon is full, what appears in it is Teal-Duck holding the head of One- 
who-spits-out-pearls, and the other is Sharp-Grass holding the knife in his hands. 
This is the Myth. 
