8. The Deer Women

8. THE DEER WOMEN (47)

A man wanted two young women. Those women went to the dances but always disappeared immediately afterwards, and he could not find where they went. After things had gone on in this way for some time, at one of the dances that man fastened a string to the dresses of those young women. He held the string in his hand. He followed them about and when they started off he still followed, holding the string. The women discovered that he was following them. When they said to him, "What do you want?" he answered, "I want to go with you," and they said "All right," and set forward. "Near our home there is a big hole. We are going to jump into it and you jump in with us," they said to him. When they got to the place it was as he had been told and they jumped down into the hole, the man still with them. Then they went on again.

Before they had gone far they came to a large cavern where there were many deer. That is where the deer came from. When the three got there the old Bucks said to him, "What are you doing here?" When they asked him that, he said, "I came because I want to marry these women." "Well, wait and it will soon be time to go out. When that time comes, they will go out and you can have the women." So the man waited. While he was sitting there the time to go out came, and when they went out he went with them. He went out and walked around covered with a deerskin, and he chased the female deer.

While he was there, the old Bucks said, "You must travel about very carefully. Red-feet ¹ travel about. They must be watched very

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closely. Soup-eaters ¹ are also about but they are not dangerous." It was just as they had told him, and presently he was killed. Then he went back and they dressed him up in another deerskin. The fourth time one is killed it is the last, and that man then disappeared for good.

This is how it has been told.

Footnotes

91:1 I. e., human beings.

92:1 Dogs.