56 TRADITIONS OF THE ARIKARA. 
15. THE GIRL WHO MARRIED A STAR.* 
One night two pretty young maidens were sleeping on top of a 
summer arbor. ‘They were ill with monthly sickness. One said, 
“Kario, I love that little bright star, and I wish it was my husband.” 
That same night, while sleeping, the girl was taken away up in the 
heavens, to live with her husband, he giving her instructions what to 
do and what not to do. He could not always stay at home, as he was 
in the chase. One of the instructions was that the woman should 
never dig up an Indian turnip at slough-like places. While her hus- 
band was away, the woman determined she would discover the mys- 
tery connected with her husband’s injunction. When she had dug the 
turnip she saw what the mystery was. She saw the people living on 
this earth looking like crawling insects. 
When she saw this she cried and cried and cried. She went to an 
old woman for comfort. ‘The old woman saw that the woman had 
been crying; so she questioned her and found out her trouble. The 
woman answered that she could easily be relieved of her trouble. So 
she advised her to collect all the sinew she could find from the meat 
her husband brought. 
The girl told her husband she wanted all the sinew there was in all 
the game he killed, even the very smallest piece. Her husband did 
as she asked, not knowing her intention. When-a very large number 
had been made the woman took the sinew and went to the old woman, 
who began to make what she had promised to make for her. “Come 
back in a few days,” she said, “and I will have the thread ready for 
you. Remmember to come when your husband goes on a long chase.” 
The husband started on a chase, and the girl went to the old 
woman’s lodge and told her that her man had gone. The old woman 
got her sinew rope and fixed it around the woman’s waist and began 
to let her down—down—down. She went with her first child on her 
back. The place she started down was where she had dug up the for- 
bidden root. The twine was lacking about twenty or more feet. The 
old woman was an old spider, it was found. Old Spider-Woman did 
not have enough cobweb and sinew, so the woman hung on the rope, 
not able to touch the earth. 
When her husband returned he found his wife missing. He be- 
gan to look for her. He thought at once of his order, and so went 
out where she usually dug. He found a stick in the grass. He dis- 
covered the rope tied around the stick, and his wife and child hanging 
away down near the earth. He picked up a stone and talked to the 
*Told by White-Bear, 
