48 TRADITIONS OF THE CADDO. 
rope out of soapweed and goto heaven onthat. They began to gather 
the soapweed and twist it into a strong rope. The rope was finished ; 
then White-Headed-Hawk and Crow took it and again flew to the 
heavens. ‘They gave the end of the rope to the Star, who put one end 
of it under a big stone and let it hang down. It was so long that it 
reached the earth, and the people saw it hanging ready for them to 
crawl up when the time came. They appointed two men, Gray and 
Black Snakes, to carry the fire over the world. One was to carry the 
fire to the east, then to the south ; the other was to carry it to the west, 
then to the north. Soon the people noticed a cloud of smoke, and then 
the sun began to fade and look dim, and a great noise of all the wild 
animals arose. The people saw the fire coming nearer, and so they 
began toclimb the rope. After all the people were on the rope and had 
climbed up a little way the wild animals came and began to climb up. 
The people saw the animals coming up, and so they appointed Bat to 
cut the rope just above the wild animals, and they gave him sharp teetlr 
to cut the rope with. Bat began to fly around as though looking for a 
place on the rope to stay. Finally he asked the first wild animal to let 
him in by him, and he did. After a while the animal noticed that Bat 
was eating something, and he asked him what it was, and Bat said that 
he was eating a parched grain of corn that his grandmother had given 
him. He kept on chewing the rope when the animal was not looking, 
and finally the rope broke and let all of the wild animals down and 
many were killed. Bat went down to make sure that all were killed 
or burned. Hesaw an immense animal on the ground and all the other 
animals crawling into it to escape the fire. Bat went into the animal’s 
nose and pulled out some hairs. This made the animal sneeze and blow 
all of the other animals out and they burned todeath. Bat flew up to 
tell the people that all the wild bad animals were killed, and so they all 
came down the rope again. 
24. SLAYING THE MONSTERS BY FIRE.* 
In the beginning of the world there were animals that lived with 
human beings and were kind and friendly, but there were other animals 
that were very strong and dangerous. At that time, when the earth 
was new, the grass was taller than the highest trees are now, and many 
wild animals prowled through the high grass, and that was the reason 
why the world was so very dangerous. One time the people met in 
council to make plans to kill all the dangerous animals in the world, 
and Morning Star, who was one of the head men in the council, arose 
and said: ‘‘ There is only one way to kill these animals and that is to 

* Told by Wing. 
