SHOOTING OF THE SQUIRREL’S NOSE. 165 
run up the tree and when the children began throwing at it with sticks, 
other children came and joined them in throwing at the squirrel. The 
squirrel would run up the tree and would lie at the fork. When the 
children looked for it all they could see was the nose of the squirrel. 
This happened many times. Then the oldest of the girls said one day: 
“Father, let the crier go through the village and let him tell all the boys 
to get their bows and arrows ready, so that when we scare the squirrel up 
the tree they can shoot at it. Whoever shall hit the squirrel’s nose and 
kill it shall become our husband. The skin we will use as a receptacle 
for our seeds.’’ The chief sent for the crier and told him to cry through 
the village. He said that when his daughters chased the squirrel up 
the tree everyone must come with their bows and arrows, and whoever 
should shoot the squirrel upon the nose should marry the daughters of 
the chief. As soon as the young men heard of this they began to make 
bows and arrows. Every young man in the camp soon had bows and 
arrows. Everybody waited each day until the daughters of the chief 
went out to play, and as soon as they ran the squirrel up the tree the 
boys of the village began to gather around the tree and shot at the 
squirrel until sundown, and then they would give it up. This was car- 
ried on for many days. 
Little Burnt-Belly-Boy, who lived with his grandmother, made a 
little ring. This ring was made of buffalo hide. He also had a bow 
and arrows, made for him by his grandmother. Every morning the boy 
would sit outside of the grass-lodge and would say to his grandmother, 
“Roll the ring out of the lodge.’’ This the woman did, and when the 
ring came rolling out of the lodge the little boy shot at it. Then he 
would yell and run into the lodge. He would say, ‘‘Grandmother, go 
and see what I have killed.’”” The grandmother would go out and there 
would find a young buffalo. The woman would jerk the meat and dry 
it in their lodge. After she would fill a parfleche with dried meat she 
would bury the parfleche under the ground. The bones were placed 
around the fireplace and were cooked in that way. 
One day the boy told the grandmother that he was going over to 
shoot at the squirrel’s nose. The grandmother laughed at the boy, but he 
went anyway. Assoon asthe young people saw that the boy was coming 
they laughed, pointed at him, and said: ‘‘Here is the boy who is going 
to shoot the squirrel on the nose.’’ Everybody shot at the squirrel. 
The boy then stood up, shot, and hit the squirrel right on the nose. The 
boy ran to get the squirrel, but a man with bear claws around his neck 
picked up the squirrel and shouted: ‘‘I killed the squirrel.’’ The boy 
picked up his arrow and with it several hairs of the squirrel, and when 
