II4 THE MYTHOLOGY OF THE WICHITA. 
it sounded like thunder, as the people who had determined to change 
their nature flew up in the air. Those that wished to exist as animals 
went in different directions, some to the timber, some to the prairie, and 
some to the water. All but a few left the place, and they remained as 
human beings. 
15. THE DEEDS OF WETS-THE-BED.* 
There was a village where Wets-the-Bed (Weksidahos) lived with 
his grandparents. Wets-the-Bed was a small boy. His name signifies 
that he urinated in bed at night. They were living near the edge of 
the village. Many people abused them and especially the Coyote 
(Ketox), who would pull the grass out of their lodge and defecate on 
it. Young-Man-Chief (Tonekitsanias) was the only man in the village 
who liked Wets-the-Bed. This chief was a young man, but he was a 
chief of all the chiefs who lived in the village. In this village all the 
chiefs had signs before their homes to show that they were chiefs. The 
sign was the wooly forepart of a buffalo hide, which they hung to the 
outside of the doors of their homes. Wets-the-Bed made his living by 
going around the village where there were ash piles, looking for some- 
thing to eat, such as parched corn. Another thing he did was to eat 
at the mortar where they ground corn. On this account he received 
another name, Corn-Meal-Boy (Weksiwistataa), so that he had two 
names. Everybody hated him, because he was an orphan and dirty, 
and his people were old and poor. | 
The men of the village were in the habit of going out on the war- 
path against their enemies the Tricksters (Kinas). ‘There was a family 
consisting of an old man, his wife, boy, and four girls, living in the east 
part of the village. The boy was never of much account as a warrior. 
He would stay at home while all the other young men went on the war- 
path. His sisters were all beautiful. Once upon a time each of these 
four women went out to the woods to get a load of wood. Before they 
were ready to start back the oldest called to the rest to come where she 
was. They all went, and they asked what she had to say. She_re- 
plied: “Let us all go home and ask father to let us go out with some 
war-party and leave our brother at home; or let us form a war-party 
to take us out, and put some one in the lead, when we get home.” To 
this they all agreed. They hurried back home, and finding the old man 
in bed, asked him to get out of bed and listen to what they had to say. 
The old man got out of bed and asked what they wanted. They told 
*Told by Ahahe (Waco). 
