THE SEVEN BROTHERS AND THE SISTER. 79 
woman told the woman she had heard from her mother that bearing a 
child affected the legs, so that her mother always took a rope and 
went after wood and put a load on her back, which straightened her up. 
“So let me have a rope,” said she, ‘“‘and I will do the same as my mother 
does.” ‘he woman handed her a rope and she brought about three 
loads of wood on her back. After she had done this she was washed. 
“Now,” said the Coyote woman, “my mother has told me that whenever 
a child is born it is the rule that men may not enter the lodge until 
four days have elapsed. So we must not allow the men to come in, but 
let them remain somewhere else until after four days.” ‘The woman 
kept watching for her brothers to come home, so she could tell them 
about the child, and tell them to remain somewhere until after four 
days should pass. Finally they came home, and there was the woman, 
waiting to tell them of the child’s birth. 
The woman stopped them before they came near the place and 
told them about the birth of the child. They asked her if the child 
was a boy or girl. She told them it was a boy and that they could not 
come in the lodge until the fifth day, for the Coyote woman had said 
that that was the rule. So the men, when returning from the hunt, 
stayed outside the lodge for four days. On the fifth day they were 
allowed to come in. They all saw their child, which was now in a cradle. 
The men were proud of the child, so they passed it around from one to 
another. After this the Coyote woman would remain at home with 
the child while the other woman did the work. This is the way they 
did things around the lodge. The child grew pretty fast. 
After a time the Coyote woman began to think about leaving these 
folks to go to some other place to marry some chief of a tribe, for she 
knew nearly all the villages near there. One day while the woman was 
away she took the child and went up the creek a little way and sat down. 
When the woman returned to the lodge she went out to look for the 
Coyote woman and the child. She found them up along the creek bank 
sitting down. ‘The woman then said to the Coyote woman that she was 
through with her work and that they would go home, so they went 
_ back. The next day the woman went out again to bring some wood, 
and this time the Coyote woman decided to leave them. As the woman 
went off the Coyote woman started off with her child, going toward the 
north. They were a good long way from home when the woman re- 
turned. But she had more wood to haul, and, knowing that the Coyote 
woman and the child were accustomed to go out and sit down for 
a while she did not pay much attention to their absence. She thought 
they had gone somewhere for a short time. When she came back she 
