
218 TALES OF READY-TO-GIVE. 
to place the meat. All of the women in the village went for dry wood 
and green willow branches. 
There was but one girl left in the camp, and she was the youngest 
one. She took the pestle and began to pound some corn. She pounded 
the corn into a fine meal, and then boiled it into mush. After the mush 
was done she took it into the lodge where the old men were holding their 
ceremony. She placed the kettle inside of the lodge. The errand man 
received the mush and notified the priests that the youngest girl in the 
village had brought a pot full of mush for them to eat. All the old men 
thanked the girl by saying, ‘‘Nawa, nawa eri.” The high priest then 
said: ‘‘The youngest girl in the village has placed a pot full of mush in 
our lodge. Before we eat of this mush we will sing a song.” They took 
up their gourds and began to sing: 
Stir the mush. 
Well done, stir the mush. 
Youngest of our sisters, 
Well done, stir the mush. 
The priests ate the mush and were grateful to the maiden who had 
prepared it for them. Other women brought the wood and the willows 
to the lodge. When the young men came back they did not bring any 
buffalo meat, and the old priests thought it very good for the young girl 
to prepare the mush for them. The bundle was kept open over night, 
and the next day the young men went out into the country again, and 
this time they killed some buffalo. Some of the meat was brought to 
the lodge of the priests, and when the priests ate of the meat they 
folded up the bundle, hung it up at the altar, and the priests then 
went to their homes. 
66. THE MAN WHO SANG TO COYOTE.’ 
Many years ago, in the winter, when the Pawnee were living in their 
villages, a person going through the village in the night would hear 
laughing and singing in nearly all of the lodges. Being winter the 
women had plenty of wood piled up in the lodge, and the people felt that 
it was time to tell Coyote stories and to make the children dance while 
they were singing. 
One winter, while the people were in their village, one young man 
went through the village entering one lodge and then another. He found 
that nearly all of the people in the village were telling stories about Coy- 
ote. The next day he went away from the village on a hunt. While 
Told by Thief, Kitkehahki. The tale illustrates the belief of the harm which 
may come from the promiscuous slaying of coyotes. : 
