UKIABI, THE SUITOR—A PONKA LEGEND. 617 
Ukiabi, is the person.” “Fie! Go to your own lodge in the distance! He can hardly 
be considered a human being! I have a very pretty child, and I wish her to marry a 
human being. I do not wish her to marry a mysterious power.” So the men departed. 
Meanwhile Ukiabi lay stretched out. But he arose and sat erect.——Let us return to 
the messengers. As they went homeward they talked together. One said, ‘* My 
friend, the woman’s words were bad! Let us not tell our friend about them!” But 
his comrade replied, ‘Why! He knows all. Why should we not tell about them?” 
When they returned Ukiabi said, ‘‘Ho, you and your friend have come back. 
Tell me just what they said.” Sothey told him. After hearing their report Ukiabi 
told his wife to hand him a plume. Then he blackened the face of one of his friends, 
put plumes all over his crown, and attached quill feathers to it here and there. He 
decorated the other man in like manner and made each man wear a buffalo robe with 
the hair outside. Then he instructed them how to act. He named a place whither 
they were to go. ‘Go to that place and make a hole for a pole.” (Both servants had 
hoes.) ‘When you shall have prepared the ground sufficiently strew plumes on it 
and draw the figure of aman. Do not return. Remain there when you shall have 
completed the task. I will join you.” 
At the appointed time Ukiabi went to the place in question, When he was in a 
forest he changed himself into a wild cat. When he raised his feet the ground shook, 
and his steps made fire blaze up at sudden intervals. His servants were aware of his 
coming. “Your friend draws near,” said one. He arrived. When he got there his 
servants said, “O friend, we completed our task long ago but you did not come.” 
Ukiabi replied, ‘ Well, you can go again. Leave the hoes. Take these five plum- 
stones to the lodge of the young woman. Stand at the entrance. Patter with the 
soles of your feet on the ground at the left side, by the tent-pole. Show her the plum- 
stones.” 
The servants departed. At length they reached the lodge where the girl dwelt. 
She came out from the lodge. They did as Ukiabi had ordered, and then they stepped 
backward, moving towards their home. The woman followed close after them. After 
walking backward for some time the two men turned around and ran homeward, 
closely followed by the woman. Thus the men drew the woman after them. As she 
went she acted as a deranged person does, tearing her skirt and pulling her hair down 
over her forehead. She continued acting thus till she had torn off every shred of her 
skirt, and she was entirely nude. At last they reached the place where they had left 
Ukiabi. The two men and the woman reached him. Ukiabi amicosque cum ea con- 
cttbuisse, aunt. By and by Ukiabi made one of the servants fill a kettle with water for 
the woman and he washed her face for her. Whereupon she regained her right mind. 
Then Ukiabi addressed her thus: ‘‘Keep the plum-stones for gambling. You 
shall always win. You shall live many years. You shall be a very aged woman be. 
fore you die. Had I wished you to die you would have died ere this; but I did not 
wish you to die. Your mother spoke bad words about me, and for that reason have I 
done this thing to you. Well, you can go home. You must start for home while it is 
yet dark. By the time that day is at hand all skall be well with you.” 
Then the woman departed. But Ukiabi took the form of a prairie hen and was 
the first one to start home. 
