116 EXPLORATION OF THE OASWS OF THE COLORADO. 
up by this, to them, unusual good living, it is decided that the night shall 
be spent in relating mythology. I ask To-mor' -ro-un-ti-kai to tell us about 
the So'-kus Wai'-un-ats, or One Two Boys, and to this he agrees. 
The long winter evenings of an Indian camp are usually devoted to 
the relation of mythological stories, which purport to give a history of an 
ancient race of animal gods. The stories are usually told by some old man, 
assisted by others of the party, who take secondary parts, while the mem 
bers of the tribe gather about, and make comments, or receive impressions 
from the morals which are enforced by the story teller, or, more properly, 
story tellers; for the exercise partakes somewhat of the nature of a theatri 
cal performance. 
THE SO'-KUS WAl'-UN-ATS. 
Tum-pwi-nai' -ro-gwi-nump, he who had a stone shirt, killed Si-Jcor', the 
Crane, and stole his wife, and seeing that she had a child, and thinking it 
would be an incumbrance to them on their travels, he ordered her to kill it. 
But the mother, loving the babe, hid it under her dress, and carried it away 
to its grandmother. And Stone Shirt carried his captured bride to his own 
land. 
In a few years the child grew to be a fine lad, under the care of his 
grandmother, and was her companion wherever she went. 
One day they were digging flag roots, on the margin of the river, and 
putting them in a heap on the bank. When they had been at work a little 
while, the boy perceived that the roots came up with greater ease than was 
customary, and he asked the old woman the cause of this, but she did not 
know; and, as they continued their work, still the reeds came up with less 
effort, at which their wonder increased, until the grandmother said, " Surely, 
some strange thing is about to transpire." Then the boy went to the heap, 
where they had been placing the roots, and found that some one had taken 
them away, and he ran back, exclaiming, "Grandmother, did you take the 
roots awayf And she answered, "No, my child; perhaps some ghost has 
taken them off; let us dig no more; come away." But the boy was not 
satisfied, as he greatly desired to know what all this meant; so he searched 
about for a time, and at length found a man sitting under a tree, whom he 
taunted with being a thief, and threw mud and stones at him, until he broke 
