46 TRADITIONS OF THE ARIKARA. 
about her people and she began to cry. Then she went to the valley 
and dug into the ground to get a turnip. Her digging-stick ran through 
the earth. She removed the dirt, looked down, and there saw the 
people underneath. She then knew that she was far away from her 
people. ; 
She covered the place and began to cry. While she was crying, 
she heard the voice of a woman calling her. ‘Tihe voice said, “My 
daughter, why are you crying?” She said: “I am crying for my 
people, for they are far away below us. I was brought up by my hus- 
band, who is a Star.” ‘The woman told the girl not to cry, for she 
would help her. She took the girl to her cave in the side of a cliff, 
and ‘there she confronted her. She told ‘her to tell her husband that 
when he went ito kill buffalo he must take all of the sinews from one 
whole buffalo, and that when she got these sinews she must bring them 
to her; that she would make a sinew string that would reach to the 
ground below. 
The girl went home. She told her husband that she wanted to do 
much sewing, and that she needed sinew, and she wanted him to get 
all the sinew that was in a buffalo, so she could have many sinews and 
would not have to ask him for any more. The man went hunting, He 
killed a buffalo. He took all the sinews he could find. He forgot, 
however, to get the two sinews that are in the shoulder blade of the 
buffalo. He brought the sinews to his wife, and gave them to her. 
One time when the man was away she took the sinews to the old 
woman and gave them to her. The old woman was glad. She said: 
“Now go to your home, and remain there. I am to make a string, and 
when it is complete I shall let you know, so that you then can go to 
your people.” The girl went home and stayed, but once in a while she 
visited the old woman’s dwelling place, and she saw the piles of string 
that the woman was making. As soon as the old woman had com- 
pleted the string she told the girl, and said that the girl must come to 
her place when her husband was away:, The young girl had also made 
a long string of sinew, but it was separate from the string that the old 
woman had made. This she carried herself when she went to the old 
woman’s place. 
They now went to the valley, and there dug a hole, large enough 
for her with her boy on ther back to go through. After this was done 
she went to her home, put the child upon her back, covered it with her 
robe, then tied the robe about her breast. / She went to the place. The 
old woman had brought a large-sized stick, which was laid across the 
hole, and the sinew was tied to the pole. The girl tied the sinew about 
