ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 69 



Forty-Third Regular Meeting, October 4, 1881. 



Rev. J. Owen Dorsey read a translation, made by himself, of an 

 Omaha myth, entitled The Orphan and the Buffalo Woman. 

 The following is an abstract : 



Wahandhishige, the orphan, lived with his married sister, who 

 was unkind to him. She never allowed him to eat any choice piece 

 of meat, although her husband was a good hunter and brought 

 plenty of game to the lodge. A buffalo woman visited the orphan 

 when he was alone in the lodge, and made him eat some of the 

 meat, restoring the piece from which it had been cut to its proper 

 shape. This occurrence was repeated on three other days. Then 

 the orphan followed the woman, overtaking her by evening at a 

 white lodge on the prairie. While he slept the woman and lodge 

 disappeared, and when he awoke he was lying on the grass. This 

 happened on four days in succession. The myth then gives : 1st, 

 The adventures of the woman, after parting with the orphan ; 2d, 

 The adventures of the orphan when in pursuit of the woman. In 

 the first part is told the birth of her child, the white calf, (some say 

 two calves ;) his abduction by Ishtinike, the deceiver ; his escape 

 and return to his mother. Then follow the adventures of the or- 

 phan, showing how he overcame great difficulties that were destined 

 to hinder his pursuit ; how he crossed the great water, a deep canon, 

 a tract of land, covered with briers and thorns ; and how he went 

 even to the upper world. Returning from the upper world he 

 killed a number of the buffaloes ; then he took his family to his old 

 home. He discovered himself to his unkind sister and her husband, 

 who had been unfortunate since the departure of the orphan. They 

 received him and his family, and were rewarded by the return of 

 game and consequent prosperity. The sister profited by experience, 

 and was ever thereafter kind to her brother and his family. 



The President of the Society read a paper on the Myths of the 



WlNTUNS OF THE SACRAMENTO VALLEY. 1 



1 This paper will he published in a much enlarged form in the " Annual Report 

 of the Bureau of Ethnology." 



