Red Woman and the Tale of Two Boys (Crow)
“Red Woman and the Deeds of Two Boys” (AKA “Lodge Boy and Thrown Away”)
“Red Woman and the Deeds of Two Boys” (AKA “Lodge Boy and Thrown Away”)
From Traditions of the Crows (1903)
By Stephen Chapman Simms
Once upon a time there lived a couple, the woman being pregnant. The man went hunting one day, and in his absence a certain wicked woman named Red- Woman came to the tipi and killed his wife and cut her open and found boy twins. She threw one behind the tipi curtain, and the other she threw into a spring. She then put a stick inside of the woman and stuck one end in the ground, to give her the appearance of a live person, and burned her upper lip, giving her the appearance as though laughing.
When her husband came home, tired from carrying the deer, he had killed, he saw his wife standing near the door of the tipi, looking as though she were laughing at him, and he said : “I am tired and hungry, why do you laugh at me?” and pushed her. As she fell backwards, her stomach opened, and he caught hold of her and discovered she was dead. He knew at once that Red- Woman had killed his wife.
While the man was eating supper alone one night, a voice said, ”Father, give me some of your supper.” As no one was in sight, he resumed eating and again the voice asked for supper. The man said, “Whoever you are, you may come and eat with me, for I am poor and alone.” A young boy came from behind the curtain, and said his name was ‘ ‘Thrown-behind-the-Curtain.” During the day, while the man went hunting, the boy stayed home. One day the boy said, “Father, make me two bows and the arrows for them.” His father asked him why he wanted two bows. The boy said, “I want them to change about.” His father made them for him, but surmised the boy had other reasons, and concluded he would watch the boy, and on one day, earlier than usual, he left his tipi ajid hid upon a hill overlooking his tipi, and while there, he saw two boys of about the same age shooting arrows.
That evening when he returned home, he asked his son, “Is there not another little boy of your age about here ?” His son said, “Yes, and he lives in the spring.” His father said, “You should bring him out and make him live with us/’ The son said, “I cannot make him, because he has sharp teeth like an otter, but if you will make me a suit of rawhide, I will try and catch him.”
One day, arrangements were made to catch the boy. The father said, “I will stay here in the tipi and you tell him I have gone out.” So Thrown-behind-the-Curtain said to “Thrown-in-Spring,” “Come out and play arrows.” Thrown-in-Spring came out just a little, and said, “I smell something.” Thrown-behind-the-Curtain said, “No, you don’t, my father is not home,” and after insisting, Thrown-in-Spring came out, and both boys began to play. While they were playing, Thrown-behind-the-Curtain disputed a point of their game, and as Thrown-in-Spring stooped over to see how close his arrow came, Thrown-behind-th