98 INDIANS o| THE PLAINS. 



a little mud or sand. Of other tales found both within 

 and without the Plains area we may mention, the 

 "Twin-heroes," the "Woman who married a star and 

 bore a Hero," and the "Woman who married a Dog." 

 Working out the distribution of such myths is one of 

 the fascinating tasks of the folklorist and will some 

 time give us a clearer insight into the prehistoric cul- 

 tural contacts of the several tribes. A typical study 

 of this kind by Dr. R. H. Lowie will be found in the 

 Journal of American Folk-Lore, September, 1908, 

 where, for example, the star-born hero is traced through 

 the Crow, Pawnee, Dakota, Arapaho, Kiowa, Gros 

 Ventre, and Blackfoot. Indian mythologies often 

 contain large groups of tales each reciting the adven- 

 tures of a distinguished mythical hero. In the Plains, 

 as elsewhere, we find among these a peculiar character 

 with supernatural attributes, who transforms and in 

 some instances creates the world, who rights great 

 wrongs, and corrects great evils, yet who often stoops 

 to trivial and vulgar pranks. Among the Blackfoot, 

 for instance, he appears under the name of Xapiw a , 

 w T hite old man, or old man of the dawn. He is dis- 

 tinctly human in form and name. The Gros Ventre, 

 Cheyenne, Arapaho, Hidatsa, and Mandan seem to 

 have a similar character in their mythology. In the 

 Plateau area to the west, this character is usually given 

 the animal name and attributes of a coyote, and appears 

 in the Plains among the Crow, Nez Perce, and the 

 Shoshone. Again, the Assiniboine, Dakota, and Omaha 

 give him a spider-like character (Unktomi). On the 



