THE WITCH-WOMAN WHO STOLE THE WONDERFUL ROBE. 225 
She opened her legs so that when she struck the ground the mud flowed 
about her and she began to urinate. The boy saw this. Then he said 
to the people: ‘‘The Witch-Woman shall be no more. She shall stay 
in the side of the hill and there will flow from that place a spring. In 
time she shall either turn into a spider or a black-tail deer. She will fool 
the people by her wonderful ways.”” The young man then went to his robe, 
picked it up, shook the water from it, and placed it upon his shoulders. 
He said: “‘Myworkisdone. I gonow to where I camefrom. I repre- 
sent the north wind. From this time on whenever you see a flock of snow- 
birds you will see some white speckled ones among them. Remember 
that I was one of them—the one who killed the old Witch-Woman.”’ 
The boy pulled the robe over his head, covered himself, sat down, sud- 
denly turned into a speckled snowbird, and flew away to the north. The 
people then knew why the buffalo robe had paintings on it, for the snow- 
_ bird is speckled with black. 
69. HOW THE CANNIBAL WITCH-WOMAN WAS OVERCOME.’ 
A young man wandered away from his village. He came to another 
village and when he entered it he was taken in by the chief of the tribe, 
and Eyes-Wide-Open, a Coyote, came and invited the boy to eat with a 
witch-woman. The boy was told to eat nothing that the witch might 
give him, as it was all human flesh. The boy went, and the witch offered 
him something to eat, but the boy would not eat. The witch said, “‘My 
grandchild, I want to play a game with you,’’ and the boy said: “Tell 
me what it is. Perhaps I shall play with you.’’ The old woman said: 
“To-morrow I should like you to go down to the creek with me. We 
will both dive and whoever shall come up first from the water shall be 
beaten.’”’ The boy said that he would dive with her. She said: ‘“‘If 
you come up before I do, then I take your life.”” The boy went home 
and told the people. The next day, early in the morning, Eyes-Wide- 
Open came and told him that the old woman was ready. The people all 
went down to the stream. The boy and the old woman went into the 
water and waited until they were in the middle of the stream and then 
dived. In a few minutes the boy came up. When the old woman 
heard the shouting and calling by the people she knew that he must be 
up, and she came out of the water and took the boy to her home and cut 
off his head, and placed his head among the skulls that she had. She told 
Eyes-Wide-Open to watch through the village for some other young men. 
1Told by Little-Chief, Chaui. This tale is a variant or No. 68, in which the 
Beaver assists in conquering the Witch-Woman. 
