52 TRADITIONS OF THE ARIKARA. 
The young man went home and told the old woman that the men 
had died; that the earth had closed in on them. The old woman was 
satisfied. ‘Then she thought, ‘‘Now is the time to send my grandson to 
dangerous places, so that he may be killed, and I shall be freed from 
him.” The grandmother told the boy he must not go upon a certain 
hill, for the place was very dangerous. ‘The boy went upon the hill, 
and there he found aden. He entered this den. He found that it was 
a den of Snakes. Before the boy entered the den he picked up a little 
rock and took it with him, and when he sat down in the lodge in the 
den of Snakes he placed the stone upon the ground and sat upon it as 
upon a stool. The Snakes were glad to see the boy. ‘The boy said: 
“Well, you people are here in a den, trying to catch eagles. It seems 
to me that you people ought to welcome a stranger to your den. It 
seems that I am not welcome.” ‘The Snakes all spoke up, and said: 
“Old-Woman’s-Grandson, you have spoken the truth. We will now 
give you something to eat.” So one of the Snakes spread out hot coals 
and placed a long gut for the boy to eat. This was rolled in the hot 
coals until it was burned a little, then it was taken off and given to the 
boy to eat. The boy took up the gut by each end and placed the ends 
together. He commenced to tell the Snakes that he had come a long 
way and was very hungry; that he would very much like to eat that, 
but as he saw that the gut was not well done he could not eat it. He 
twisted the ends, and the Snakes whispered to one another, “Why, he 
knows that this is a Snake, for he has twisted the head off.” As he 
twisted the head off he saw plainly that it was a Snake. He threw the 
head into the fire and placed the gut upon the hot coals again and 
roasted it some more. He left the Snake burning until it was burned 
so that he could not eat it. Once in a while he would hear the Snakes 
say, “What are you waiting for?” Then some Snake would disappear 
in the ground and would come up and try to get into the boy’s rectum, 
and they would hit the rock and tell the rest of the Snakes that they 
could do nothing, that the boy was sitting upon a rock. 
Soon the boy said: “It is well that we should tell some tales.” 
The Snakes said, “Let Old-Woman’s-Grandson tell his story first.” 
But the boy said, “No, you tell the first story.” The leader, the chief 
of the Snakes, who was very large, said that he would tell a story. 
This Snake began to tell a story of how a girl had said she liked a cer- 
tain Star, and how the next day, the girl found the porcupine; that the 
porcupine had climbed the tree and she also had climbed it; that the 
tree had stretched and went up to the Star that the girl liked; that the 
Star had married this girl; that a boy had been born to them; that the 
boy had the image of a star upon his forehead; that the boy’s father 
