INDIAN TRIBES OF THE MISSOURI VALLEY. 323 
man. At the beginning the world was covered with water, and then a large mountain 
-was made, on the summit of which the Great Spirit placed the man and the woman. 
The water continued to rise up toward the top of the mountain, until they were in danger 
of being drowned, when the woman said to the man, “ Let us shut our eyes, and when 
we open them again there will be no water.” They closed their eyes for a large part of 
a day, and then the woman opened hers, and saw no water; she then said: “ We are 
safe: the water is passing away !”’ 
After this, a girl was born to the woman, then a boy. 
At the proper age the boy and girl were married, and from them sprung the human race. 
When the Indians became so numerous that they could not live together, the Great Spirit 
said they must separate. He also said that they should not speak the same language, and 
so He gave them different tongues. At first He intended to make them white men, but 
afterwards changed His mind, and made them red. He gave to the red men the game, 
buffalo, deer, elk, &c., and showed them how to kill the game. He also gave them wood 
for arrows, and showed them flint for arrow-points and knives. But He says: “I will 
make a race of white men, who shall be a superior people, who will know everything.” 
The Great Spirit then turned Himself white, and said that the white people He should 
make, would resemble Him. <I will give you sense enough to get along well in your 
mode of life, but the superior nation shall be the whites.” 
When the Arapohos had the cholera, they would take small pieces of rotten wood, and 
thrust them into the flesh on the painful portion of the stomach, and then set fire to them, 
and burn them into the wounds. Friday says that many of them recovered by this treat- 
ment. 
They do not throw away a horse when the children’s ears are bored, as the Dakotas do. 
They cut off one or two joints of the little finger of the left hand in mourning, but do not 
mutilate themselves after the manner of thg Crows. 
OBSERVATIONS ON THE GRAMMATICAL STRUCTURE OF THE ARAPOHO LANGUAGE. 
1. Arapoho nouns have two numbers, singular and plural, but the terminations of the 
plural are of varied forms; as (sing.) bet-a’, a leg; (pl.) bet-ca’-wa; (sing.) bet-a’, heart; (pl.) 
bet-a’-ha; (sing.) bésh, a nose; (pl.) be’-tha. 
2. So far as is yet known the gender of nouns is indicated only by the use of different 
words to denote the sexes, and the case of a noun is distinguished by its position in a 
sentence. 
3. The pronouns are divided into simple or independent, and inseparable or fragmentary. 
4, The simple or independent pronouns are as follows: 
