THE WOMAN WHO MARRIED A STAR. 2909 
She told the Buzzard that she was still alive. The Buzzard told her 
that he was going to let her down and that she must be ready to get 
hold of his neck whenever the should come down. The Buzzard com- 
menced ‘to fly ‘higher and higher, then he sailed down slowly. When he 
was ready he told the woman to be ready. ‘Then he came down to her 
and she got on his back and went down to the ground, though the 
Buzzard first flew a long way with her. When he had let her down he 
asked ‘her if she knew the way to her home. She told him that she 
did. He then told her that on the way she wouud find a dead buffalo to 
eat, to give her strength to reach home; that she must never repeat her 
talk about the stars; that had it not been for him she would have starved. 
Some other powers she got from the Buzzard after he had saved her 
life. She then left the Buzzard, but it would still fly around to see if 
she got home safe. She came to where the dead buffalo was lying and 
took what she needed and went toward her home. 
Arrived home, her parents asked her where she had been. She 
told them that through her foolishness she had been up in the sky and 
had been married to a star. She was asked how she got up there. She 
replied that in the fore part of the night when she had disappeared 
she had looked at the stars while lying in bed and pointed out a star, 
saying: “I wish that star were my husband ;” and that she had thought 
that perhaps the brightest stars we see had once been fine-looking 
young men in this world. She continued: “I went to sleep, and when 
I awoke I found myself up in the heavens. There I saw an old man 
who told me that he was the bright star that I had seen and had wished 
for my husband. The star forbade me to move a rock that I had seen, 
but once I thought I would see what it was, so I moved the rock. I 
felt the wind and saw this earthly world of ours. I made a rope from 
soapweed by which to descend. When I had made the rope [ tied one 
end to the rock, knowing that the rock could not come down on me. 
Thus I made my escape. I had thought the rope long enough, but when 
I came to its end I found myself above the tallest trees. It happened 
that a Buzzard flew around me and asked me if I was still alive. I told 
it that I was still alive, so he took me down and showed me my way 
here. He told me where there was a dead buffalo that I could eat, 
and he also guided me on my way home.” 
Ever since this time the people have feared to talk as the girl had 
talked about the stars, for fear that they might die, for the woman by 
her foolish talk and desire for the bright star for her husband was 
taken to the sky. Nor to this day do the people count the stars. They 
do not express desires about them, lest the thing desired happen. 
