134 TRUE STORIES OF THE HEAVENLY BEINGS. 
Do not stay around the grave here, for you shall never see me, andl am 
not coming back to you.”” Then the woman turned into a whirlwind 
again and disappeared. 
The man was broken-hearted. He stayed around the grave, and 
although the other wife came up he waved her to one side and would not 
listen to her. The man remained around the grave and would not eat 
anything, and so he starved to death. The people did not bury him 
beside the woman. They took him and buried him in another place. 
The woman went back to the Spirit Land with the child after the man 
died. 
35. HOW THE WORLD IS TO COME TO AN END.’ 
Many years ago, when I was a little boy, I used to watch the old men 
sitting in the tipis, and sometimes in the lodges, rattling the gourds and 
singing. Several times I asked my father what the old men were singing 
about. My father would say: ‘‘Those old men are singing about Tirawa. 
When you grow up you will learn more about the songs of these old men.” 
I was anxious to know more about the sacred bundle and-the singing of 
the old men. When night came and J lay down with my grandmother, 
I said: ‘‘Grandmother, why do the old men sit in the lodges, rattle the 
gourds, and sing?’”” My grandmother then told me the following story: 
My grandchild, many years ago, before we lived upon this earth, 
Tirawa placed wonderful human beings upon the earth. We knew of 
them as the wonderful beings or the large people. These people lived 
where the Swimming Mound is in Kansas. The bones of these large 
people were found upon the sides of the hill of the Swimming Mound. 
The old people told us that at this place the rain poured down from the 
heavens, and the water came from the northwest upon the earth so that 
it became deep and killed these wonderful beings. When these people 
were killed by the flood, Tirawa placed an old buffalo bull in the north- 
west, where the water had come in from the big water so that it overflowed 
the land. The buffalo bull was put at this place to hold the water back, 
so that it would not overflow the land any more. This buffalo was to 
remain at this place for many years. Each year this buffalo was to drop 
one hair. When all the hairs of the buffalo had come off then the people 
would not live upon the earth any more. 
There were four things which Tirawa said he would do to kill the 
people, but he had promised that he would never send the flood upon 
1Told by Young-Bull, at present the leading medicine-man among the Pita- 
hauirat and the owner of the Buffalo ceremony. The tale is interesting because 
it explains the Pawnee belief regarding the manner of the end of the world, at which 
time the south star, or god of death, reigns supreme. 
