THE BASKET GAME, OR THE WOMAN IN THE MOON. 233 
73. THE BASKET GAME, OR THE WOMAN IN THE MOON.’ 
In olden times there was a Spider-Woman upon the earth. She had 
several daughters and they lived by themselves. They had a garden and 
raised corn, squash, and beans. People went there to get seeds from the 
old woman, but instead of getting seeds from her they were challenged 
to play the dice game. This dice game was not the one in which they 
used a basket and seeds. They sat down upon their feet and jumped up 
and down. While they were jumping, storms were called by old Spider- 
Woman, so that the people froze and were beaten. Spider-Woman killed 
many people this way and she had many skulls around her grass-lodge. 
There was a village where lived two young men who seemed to have 
wonderful powers. The people in this village told these two young men 
that there was a Spider-Woman in their country; that she was killing 
the people; that they would like to have them go and visit her. One 
-day the older of these two boys said, ‘‘Brother, let us go where that 
woman is.’’ The younger brother said, ‘‘We will go.”” They started for 
the place. For several days they went, and at last they came to acorn- 
field. Here they stopped. They saw a grass-lodge. They also saw the 
skulls around the lodge. They saw one girl standing outside of the lodge. 
They went up to her, and as soon as she saw them she said: ‘‘Boys, 
you must not come into this lodge. My mother will see you and she wiil 
kill you. You must return to your own home.’ The boys said, ‘‘We 
want togoin.” The girl said, ‘‘If you go into thelodge you must not eat 
what the woman offers you, for the food will be human flesh.”” The boys 
then said, ‘‘We will go away for a short distance and we will come back 
and go into the lodge.”” The boys went away behind the corn-field. 
When they saw that the girl had gone into the lodge they went away 
from their hiding place and approached the lodge. The other girls came 
out and the boys saw that they were very ugly. The girls ran back into 
the lodge and said, ‘‘Mother, here come two fine-looking boys.”’ As 
they approached the lodge Spider-Woman came out and said, ‘“‘My 
grandchildren, I have been looking for you for a long time.’’ Then she 
said to herself, ‘‘These boys have come to see my daughters, but they 
can not have my daughters, for I shall kill them.’’ She called them to 
her and said, “‘My grandchildren, you must come in and have something 
to eat, for you look hungry.’’ The older boy said, ‘‘ Yes, we are, for we 
_have been on the road for some time.’” They entered the lodge. Before 
1Told by Fox, a Skidi warrior. During the telling of this story the children 
squat down, placing their hands upon their knees and jump about, imitating the 
moving of the dice in the basket game. Next the boys sing and the women dance. 
The belief among the children is that their dancing, which now imitates grasshoppers, 
may carry the evil spirits up to the moon. 
