Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1907-08-23

The Carnegie Institution, Of Wash
ington, has issued a collection OF
NEUROLOGICAL tales gathered by Geo.
A. Dorsey, curator OF anthropology
in the Field Museum OF Natural His
tory, from the hereditary story tellers
of various bands Of the Pawnee tribe.
These may be divided roughly into
these Classes-tales which are be-
lleved by the Indians to be true and
which especially concern the super
natural beings of the heavens; hero
tales which the Indians believe may
or may not be true, and Coyote"
tales, none of which are supposed to
be true, but nearly all of which point
moral. Here is one which describes
a contest between poor boy and a
witch. in which the boy was victor
ious:
"A young man wandered away
from his village. He came to another
village, and when he entered 1t he
was taken in by the chief of the tribe,
and Eyes ide-Open, a Coyote, came
and invited the boy to eat with a
witch woman. The boy was told to
eat nothing that the witch might give
him, as it was all human flesh. The
boy went, and the witch offered him
something to eat, but the boy would
not eat, The witch said: My grand
child, l want to play a game with
YOU and the boy said Tell me what
~ ic 4 81,
The old woman said: 'To-mUrIUw Z
should like you to go down to the
creek with me. We will hath Awe,
and whoever snail come up first from
the water shall be beaten The boy
said that he would dive with her. She
said: If you como up before / do,
then take your life The boy went
home and told the people. The mex:
day early in the morning, Eyes
Wide-Open came and told him that
the old woman was ready. The peo-
pie all went down to the stream. The
boy and the old woman went into the
water and waited until they were in
the middle of the stream and then
diyed. In few minutes the boy
came up. When the old woman
heard the shouting and calling by the
people she knew that he must be up,
and she came out of the water and
took the boy to her home and cut off
his heal and placed it among the
skulls she had. She told Eyes-Wide-
Open to watch through the village
for some other young men.
THE boy had a brother at homo
who was the very image of the one
who was killed He went % the vii.
lage hunting for his brother. When
he arrived Eyes-Wide-Open invited
him to the lodge of the old woman.
When the Joy entered he saw his
brothers. head among the skulls. The
woman said My grandson, l want
you to dive with me tomorrow. If
you come out first, you shall take my
life and the lives of all my people
The boy then said: L am willing to
do this If the chief and his people
will be on my side The old woman
sent Eyes-Wide-Open to the chief and
asked him If he and his people would
be on the boys side. The chief said
that he wol |.
That night the boy asked the chief
where the old woman had her place
for the diving. The chief told the
boy where the place was. The chief
went home and left the boy at the
place. The boy then stood upon the
banks of the water and cried. A lit
tie beaver came up from the water
and asked the hoy what he was cry
ing about. The boy said: 4 am cry
ing because I have to dive with the
old woman. This woman has killed
many young men WHO visited the viii
lage.' The little beaver then told the
boy to stay there, as he was going to
see his father and mother. The little
beaver dlved and went into his lodge,
and told his father and mother that
there was fine looking young man
upon the bank crying bitterly because
he was going to dive with the old
woman. The father said to the young
beaver: My son, what can we do for
this boy?' The young beaver said.
Let us take pity upon him and help
him, so that this old witch shall be
Killed and there shall be no more of
her kind IN the land The beaver
said that he would. Then the young
beaver was told to go and invite the
boy.
THE little beaver came out of the