THE GIRL, SPIDER-WOMAN, AND THE BALL GAME. 237 
help her. The uncle told the girl that he would be near to help her if 
she needed him. 
One time while her uncle was gone a strange being came to the girl. 
Before she could cry for assistance, she was taken up by the wind and 
was carried to a far-away country. There she saw Spider-Woman, who 
told her that she had been brought there to play a game of twin balls 
with the people. The girl began to cry and the Spider-Woman went 
away. A little girl came to her and asked her why she was cry- 
ing. The girl said, “I was taken away from my home and I am here 
all alone.”” The little girl told her to stop, crying saying that she would 
take hertoherhome. Thegirl went with the child and when they entered 
the lodge the girl found that there an old woman with many children 
lived. This woman was Wood-Rat and the children were young Rats. 
They told the girl about Spider-Woman who was challenging everyone 
who came that way to play twin balls. The girl told Rat-Woman that 
she did not understand the game; that she had never played it. Just 
before sunset the errand boy for Spider-Woman came and invited the 
girl to eat with Spider-Woman. 
When the errand boy was gone, Rat-Woman told the girl that Spider- 
Woman was going to place something before her to eat. That the things 
which would be placed before her would look like black corn, but in reality 
were human eyes. She was told to say, when Spider-Woman told her to 
eat it, that she could not eat anything because she had already eaten enough 
andwas not hungry. Rat-Woman also told the girl that she would 
challenge her to play the game of twin balls. The girl went to Spider- 
Woman’s home and found many human bones scattered around near her 
place. When she entered the lodge she heard Spider-Woman whisper- 
ing to herself: ‘‘She is fine looking. Her head shall be placed before 
all of the other skulls which I have in my lodge.’”’ Spider-Woman placed 
a wooden bowl filled with human eyes for the girl to eat, but the girl 
would not eat. She gave as an excuse that she had eaten at the other 
place; that she could not eat any more. She asked Spider-Woman to let 
her take the wooden bowl home, as the people at home would be glad to 
eat of it. Spider-Woman let her take the wooden bowl with her, hoping 
that she would eat some of its contents later. 
The girl took the wooden bowl to the home of Mother-Rat, and when 
she received the wooden bowl she threw the stuff out and then gave the 
bowl to one of her children to take back to Spider-Woman. Mother- 
Rat then told the girl that many a young man had lost his life by play- 
ing twin balls with Spider-Woman. She said, ‘‘She will surely challenge 
you to play with her before daylight.” The girl went out in the night 
