60 TRADITIONS OF THE ARIKARA. 
blow ; at evening they stop, the trees stop rustling, the grass keeps on 
for a while, but they all fall asleep.” This much of the story put a 
part of them to sleep. “Nesaru sends hurricanes of trials and hard- 
ships in our lives;the same to all kinds of trees and to large, deep 
rivers; they rage and beat against their banks, the water gets dirty, 
there comes on the gentle night, soft breezes, the trees quiet down, the 
rivers are calmed, the waters clear up and they are asleep.” This was 
the end of the boy’s story. The remainder of them fell asleep. 
The boy thought of how he was to have been treated, and he de- 
cided to be avenged. He took from his belt his sharp knife and cut 
along a straight line on the square structure, cutting off the head of 
every Snake until he came to the last one, which slid away, saying as 
he went, “Old-Woman’s-Boy, I will remember all.” 
| As the boy left he was very particular as to how he should carry 
_ himself. Having gone many miles he thought all danger was over. 
He placed his arrows around him, bidding them to awaken him when 
danger was near. 
While he was sleeping his enemy came. Before the arrow could 
give the alarm the Snake entered his body. Grasping this knife he cut 
his stomach open. Up went the snake’s head to his breast. He cut his 
breast open. Up.it went to his throat. He cut his throat open. Up 
it went, into his head, and rested there. His father above knew all 
of this. He sent a great wind which turned the boy’s head over, so 
that his opened cesophagus turned toward the wind. Then came a 
hard irain, filling every corner of his head. The Snake’s head would 
peep out of the boy’s head, but the boy would say, “Old-Woman’s 
Grandson is still alive.’ ‘There came a scorching heat, and the water 
began to make the Snake peep out its head, but the boy would say, 
“Old-Woman’s-Grandson is still alive.” It got too hot for the Snake. 
It fled, and the boy sprang to his feet and caught it. “You will suffer 
punishment, and you will always be ashamed and crawl on your body 
in the dirt, your head down, avoiding all decent creatures that Nesaru 
made.” He took the Snake and knocked his head on a flat rock until 
it was flat and its eyes were close to its mouth. 
The reason the boy was afraid of the foetus was that it was the 
time of the year when all young animals are as yet unborn, and the 
cluster of stars to which the boy’s father belonged is never seen at 
this time to come up with the rest. The boy knew that his father could 
not be present to help him, and so he did not dare to do anything to help 
himself. 
