$2 TRADITIONS OF THE ARIKARA. 
The next day, the young man arrived at the village where the 
woman was. She was still sitting where he had left her. The young 
man gave the nest over to her. The woman was thankful, and said: 
“Now you have returned my children. Go now and return in the 
night.” So the young man left the lodge. 
The woman took her nest and went to the edge of the lodge 
and placed it there. She then turned into a Mouse and nursed her 
young ones. She went to the different holes of the Mice and. Rats, 
telling them of what the young man had done for her, and asked 
that they give him power. The largest Rat in the village consented 
to give the young man power. He told the woman that he would 
have the Rats and Mice come into the lodge in the night, and that 
the young man should be there, for they would talk to him. The 
woman thanked the Rat for what he had said. 
In the night the young man went into the lodge, and the woman 
was there. She told the young man that the priest was to be there 
that night and that he was to be the one to give him power. So 
the young man stayed. The woman told him to make a fire, so that 
he could see what was done. The young man made a fire, and as 
he took his seat he heard the Rats running around in the lodge. 
Finally they came, one by one, in the form of human beings, and 
took their seats around the fireplace. The man who acted as priest 
stopped, and said: ‘My son, you have done a kind act to one of my 
people by bringing her children back. She wants to help you, and I 
have consented to do this. I am to give you a war-club, and I am to 
give you power, so that you can turn yourself into a mouse any time 
that you want to, and when you attack the enemy and when they try 
to kill you, you shall disappear, so that you will not be afraid of any- 
body.” The young man was given all these powers. At last the 
ptiest arose and called the young man up to him. He took hold of 
him by the shoulders and drew him to himself. Then the Rat-Man 
blew his breath upon the sides of the man’s cheeks, and there were 
formed pictures of Mice. The war-club was given to him, and he was 
told that he was now powerful and that he could go home. The 
young man took tthe club and a little box of medicine they had given 
to him, and started to go out. When he heard noises in the lodge he 
turned around, but the people had all disappeared. The woman was 
standing outside the lodge, and she told the young man that he was 
now her son, and that he should tell his mother that when they re- 
turned home to their lodge, if they should see any mice they should 
not kill them, for they were the young man’s relatives. The young 
