68 TRADITIONS OF THE CADDO. 
to one, and I will say, ‘No, take this.’ Then the girls will think that 
we have many turkeys and many good things to eat.’’ 
Owl went back for the girls and brought them to his grandmother’s 
lodge. They were pleased, for everything looked neat and nice, and 
so they married Owl. Every day Owl came in with a turkey, and he 
always pretended to have been out hunting. Really he had been at 
the council, and the chief gave him the turkey for allowing him to sit 
on his back. At all the councils the chief always sat on Owl’s back, 
and so he gave Owl a turkey every time to repay him for his trouble 
and the pain of holding him so long. After many moons the twins 
grew weary of nothing but turkey and they began to suspect something, 
so one day they followed Owl when he went away. ‘They followed 
and saw him go to a large grass lodge. They peeped through an 
opening, and there they saw Owl sitting in the middle of the lodge with 
the chief sitting on his head. They gave ascream. Owl recognized 
their voices and jumped up, throwing the chief off his head, and ran 
home. He gave his grandmother a terrible scolding for letting the 
girls follow him and find him out. The girls felt so ashamed when 
they discovered how they had been fooled, that they slipped off to their 
home and told their father and mother their experience. 
Owl sat in his lonely lodge and thought for a long time about the 
twin sisters, and the longer he thought the more angry he became, 
because he had been fooled at his own joke. Finally, he said to his 
grandmother: ‘‘ We must kill the people, and in order to do that we 
must gather all the water, from the smallest to the largest rivers and 
the springs and the lakes. We will have to dig a big hole here, and 
when we finish the hole we will begin to dam the waters out from all 
the rivers, springs, and lakes.’’ They worked long and hard, and the 
people did not notice that the creeks, lakes, and springs were getting 
low until they were dry. 
The water was gone and the people were dying of thirst, while Owl 
splashed and swam about in the water in the big hole where he had all 
the waters of the earth. Every one went out to search for water, and 
Crow, who was snow white then, went with the others. He came toa 
field where the grass was all dried and withered for want of water, and 
big grasshoppers were jumping about in the grass. Crow ran after them 
and made such a loud noise in trying to catch them that all the people 
heard. They thought that he had found water, and so they ran in great 
haste. When they found that Crow had not found water they were all 
disappointed and angry at him for fooling them. Coyote jumped on 
Crow and rolled him about in the black earth until he was black, and 
ever since that time the crow has always been black as night. After that 
