240 TALES OF READY-TO-GIVE. 
76. THE WITCH-WOMAN AND HER HOME. 
In a village was a hunter. One time he went east hunting. After 
a while he came to a grass-lodge. The Witch-Woman came out and met 
him. She invited him into her lodge. When he was seated she placed 
something in a wooden bowl for him to eat. The man was hungry and 
he ate what was in the bowl. In a little while he became very sick and 
died. The woman cut his flesh up and hung it up on poles. She took 
his head into her lodge and placed it there. 
About four days afterwards the dead man’s wife thought it strange 
that her husband did not come home. She sent her son to look for his 
father. The boy was about thirteen years old. He traveled east in 
about the same direction which his father had taken. After a while he 
came to the grass-lodge. There he saw human limbs hanging on poles. 
The Witch-Woman came out and said: ‘‘My grandson, I am glad you 
came. Before I give you anything to eat you must first dance. If you 
dance longer than I do, then you conquer me. If I dance longer than 
you do, then I conquer you.”” The Witch-Woman went in. She took 
a piece of string and made a hole through the man’s left ear, ran the 
string into it, and tied it there. At the other end of the string she made 
another opening in the right ear and tied it with the string. She then 
placed the head upon the boy’s breast. She put the loop around his 
neck. Then she began to sing for the boy: 
Dancing with his father’s head, 
Dancing with his father’s head, 
Walking he came, walking he came. 
She continued singing. The boy was dancing all this time. The 
Witch-Woman was also dancing. The Witch-Woman finally gave in and 
was about to kill the boy when several men came to the place. They 
took the old woman, killed her, and saved the boy. The Witch-Woman 
was put into a fire and burned. She burst while in the fire and some- 
thing flew up and rested upon a tree. When the people examined the 
thing it was found to be a croaking tree frog. The boy took it home and 
told the people that it was the Witch-Woman who had killed the man 
and that she was now dead; that when she was placed on the fire she 
burst open and a frog flew upon thetree. They discovered in this way 
that the woman had turned into a tree frog. 
1Told by Bright-Eyes, Skidi. The story conveys a warning to hunters when 
away from home not to stop at strange habitations. 
