THE BOY WHO WORE A WOODPECKER CAP. 163 
saw a rat’s nest, the boy shot at the nest and said: ‘“‘Uncle, get the 
arrow and you will find a rat which I have killed.”” The boys took the 
rat home and the old woman cooked it for their supper. The next day 
they went out. In the timber they found a porcupine sitting on a limb. 
The boy shot it and they brought it home. The grandmother cooked it 
for their supper. The next day they went and they found a raccoon. 
The boy killed it and they took it home. The old woman cooked it for 
their supper. The next day they went out and the boy killed several 
_ quail. The following day they went out and the boy killed some prairie 
chickens. Another day they went out and the boy killed some turkeys. 
Then the boy told his uncle to save the turkey feathers, for he must make 
arrows. The next day they went out and they saw a young fawn. The 
boy killed it and they brought it home. The next day they went out 
and killed a deer. The next time they went out the boy killed an elk. 
The last time they went out the boy killed a buffalo. They came back 
-and told the grandmother to go and bring the meat home. The grand- 
mother brought the meat home. 
Every day these boys went out and they killed game. Now they had 
plenty to eat. The old woman also had many skins and she built a fine 
tipi. The people saw the change in the old woman’s place. Some of 
them went there and peeped in. They saw that the inmates were eating 
much meat, while the other people in the village were starving. Some 
people went to the chief and said: ‘Woodpecker-Boy is in the tipi of 
the old woman. This man that you have here must be an impostor.”’ 
The little girl, the youngest daughter of the chief, heard this. She went 
to the tipi and got some meat. She made her home there. Then Wood- 
pecker-Boy told the girl that the man who was in her lodge was Bear- 
Man; that he had robbed him of his clothing and had thrown him into 
a hole; that he would not go to the chief’s lodge until the man was killed. 
The girl got up and went to her lodge. She went up to the things which 
were hung there, reached for them, and the people inside did not say 
anything. Whenever anybody reached for the things the snakes would 
try to bite them. But this time when the girl reached for them the owls 
began to hoot and the snakes were glad, for they knew they were going 
back to their owner. She took the things to the boy, and the birds and 
the animals were glad to see the boy again. 
The people rushed into the lodge of the chief to catch the man, but 
he had turned into a Bear and chased the people out. The people ran 
the Bear out of the village with fire sticks, so that the Bear became scared 
and turned into a bear again and went from the people for all time 
never to return to live with them any more. 
