SHOOTING OF THE SQUIRREL’S NOSE. 167 
boy said: ‘“‘No, you are married. Stay with your husband.” Then 
Burnt-Belly-Boy told his wife to tell her father that in a day or so he 
would have the buffalo near, so that the people might kill them. 
The next day Burnt-Belly-Boy asked the chief to have the crier tell 
the people to come with him. They went into a thick timber. There 
the people found skunks, badgers, raccoons, deer, rats’ nests, ground beans, 
and pecans. The people returned to their homes with a great many 
things to eat. The two oldest girls were mad because their husband 
could not do these things. After the boy had helped the people to kill 
deer and other small game, he told them to go west and there they 
would find buffalo. The people went out, found buffalo, surrounded 
them and killed many. When the people returned they brought meat 
to the lodge of the boy to feast upon. After this the boy was given a 
new tipi. He brought his grandmother, placed her in there and he took 
his wife and lived with her in their new tipi. Always after that he lived 
_ away from his father-in-law. 
45. THE ORIGIN OF THE CLAM SHELL.’ 
There was a village, and in this village was a man who was all the time 
hunting along the streams of water. One day, while around some 
ponds, he saw a young duck diving in one place and coming up in an- 
other. He watched it, and once in a while he would see the young duck 
take the weeds from the dry land and dive with them in its mouth. The 
man caught the young duck and took it home. He kept it for a while, 
but his wife told him to turn it loose. The man took the duck back to 
the pond and turned it loose. 
The woman gave birth to a child, and the child was called eee 
Duck. The girl grew up and as she grew her parents noticed that she 
had mysterious ways and liked to be around ponds and in the water. 
She was very proud. Her parents talked together, and the mother 
said: ‘“Now, you see our child is like the duck, because you watched it 
and brought it here before our child was born. Let her have her way 
and be satisfied.”’ 
One day the girl came into the tipi and commenced to dig in the west 
part of the tipi. She made a hole about the size of a small bowl. She 
went out towards the ponds and stayed there for some time, and when 
. 1Told by Bright-Eyes, Skidi. Apart from the story of the origin of the clam 
shell, as related in the tale, its interest is of a wider nature, because the clam shell was 
used largely by the Pawnee medicine-men, especially as a mortar in which to mix 
medicines as well as paints. The clam itself is regarded as a wonderful being, 
cleanly in its nature, although it lives in the mud. The moral of the tale is that 
widowers should not remain single. 
