A FOLK-TALE OF THE HIDATSA INDIANS.
NEAR the mouth of Burnt Creek, on the east bank of the Missouri, are the vestiges of some large round lodges, which stood there before the Indians came into the land. They were inhabited by several mysterious beings of great, power in sorcery. In one of the lodges lived the two great demi-gods Long Tail and Spotted Body; a woman lived with them, who took care of their lodge and who was their wife and sister: and these three were at first the only beings of their kind in the world. In a neighbouring lodge lived an evil monster named Big Mouth, "who had a great mouth and no head." He hated the members of Long Tail's lodge, and when he discovered that the woman was about to become a mother, he determined to attempt the destruction of her offspring.
When Long Tail and Spotted Body were absent on a hunt one day, Big Mouth entered their lodge, and, addressing the woman, said he was hungry. The woman was greatly frightened, but did not wish to deny him her hospitality; so she proceeded to broil him some meat on the coals. When the meat was cooked, she offered it to him on a wooden dish. He told her that, from the way his mouth was made, he could not eat out of a dish, and the only way she could serve him the food so that he could eat it, was by lying down and placing it on her side. She did as he intimated, when he immediately devoured the
