IOO THE MYTHOLOGY OF THE WICHITA. 
that they would have to use his, for his was the best. So After-birth- 
Boy told his brother to go toward the west as far as the ball would 
fly to him and to knock it back, for in that way they wanted to make 
the Headless-Man give out first, before they should make the ball go 
over the goal. The boy went as he was told to do. After-birth-Boy 
then asked the Headless-Man to let him see his ball, and see if it was 
the best. When After-birth-Boy got the ball he tossed it up and 
knocked it to pieces. The Headess-Man then told After-birth-Boy that 
since he had spoiled his (the Headless-Man’s) ball they would ‘have 
to use theirs. The Headless-Man then asked for the ball, expecting to 
do the same thing as After-birth-Boy had done when tossing up the 
Headless-Man’s ball. When tossing it up After-birth-Boy hit the ball, 
and it went where the other boy was. While the ball was flying the 
Headless-Man was right after it. When it reached the lodge boy he 
knocked it back again toward After-birth-Boy, and the Headless-Man 
was right behind again, after the ball, to catch it before it could reach 
After-birth-Boy. This showed the boys what a fast runner the Head- 
less-Man was. They kept knocking the ball back and forth, and the 
Headless-Man was always right behind it. Finally, when they found 
that the Headless-Man had nearly given out, After-birth-Boy knocked 
the ball once more, and it went over the lodge boy, over a small creek 
that the Headless-Man had chosen for a goal. The Headless-Man then 
stopped to take one long breath, and said: “This is the first time I 
ever had so hard a game as I had to-day.” The Headless-Man then 
begged the boys to let him live and not to kill him, promising them the 
same kind of powers that he himself had. After-birth-Boy told him 
that he did not want any such powers. After-birth-Boy then took the 
string off from his bow, passed it four times through his hands, and 
killed the Headless-Man with it. The Headless-Man’s ball was black, 
and his shinny stick was black. The two boys had a green ball and 
green sticks, green representing the spring of the year. Since that 
time the shinny game is played in the spring, under the power of After- 
birth-Boy. After they had killed the Headless-Man the boys returned 
to their home, where, upon their arrival, they found their father, who 
asked them where they had been. The boys told him that they had 
been where the Headless-Man was, where he had forbidden them to go, 
and that they had had a hard shinny game with him, but that he could 
not do anything with them and that they ran him down and killed him. 
After that it was their custom to remain at home several days, and 
once in a while to go out and shoot birds, and sometimes to remain at 
home without going anywhere, for their father was doing the hunting. 
