look after their home nor try to keep
things comfortable there. If the man brought in plenty of buffalo
cow skins they did not tan them well, and often when he came home at
night, hungry and tired after his hunting, he had no food, for these
women would be away from the lodge, visiting their relations and
having a good time.

The man thought that if he moved away from the big camp and lived
alone where there were no other people perhaps he might teach these
women to become good; so he moved his lodge far off on the prairie
and camped at the foot of a high butte.

Every evening about sundown the man used to climb up to the top of
this butte and sit there and look all over the country to see where
the buffalo were feeding and whether any enemies were moving about.
On top of the hill there was a buffalo skull, on which he used to
sit.

One day one of the women said to the other, "It is very lonely here;
we have no one to talk with or to visit."

"Let us kill our husband," said the other: "then we can go back to
our relations and have a good time."

Early next morning the man set out to hunt, and as soon as he was
out of sight his wives went up on top of the butte where he used to
sit. There they dug a deep hole and covered it over with light
sticks and grass and earth, so that it looked like the other soil
near by, and placed the buffalo skull on the sticks which covered
the hole.

In the afternoon, as they watched for their returning husband, they
saw him come over the hill loaded down with meat that he had killed.
When he threw down his load outside the lodge, they hurried to cook
something for him. After he had eaten he went up on the butte and
sat down on the skull. The slender sticks broke and he fell into the
hole. His wives were watching him, and when they saw him disappear,
they took down the lodge and packed their dogs and set out to go to
the main camp. As they drew near it, so that people could hear them,
they began to cry and mourn.

Soon some people came to meet them and said, "What is this? Why are
you mourning? Where is your husband?"

"Ah," they replied, "he is dead. Five days ago he went out to hunt
and he did not come back. What shall we do? We have lost him who
cared for us"; and they cried and mourned again.

Now, when the man fell into the pit he was hurt, for the hole was
deep. After a time he tried to climb out, but he was so badly
bruised that he could not do so. He sat there and waited