THE DOUBLE WOMAN.

§ 251. In the olden times there was what they called “Wiŋyaŋ nuŋ-papi-ka,” or the The Double Woman, consisting of two very tall females who were probably connected by a membrane. They wore horned headdresses decorated with feathers, and bunches of feathers hung from the right shoulder of one and from the left shoulder of the other. Instead of heel tags, each female had a turtle trailing from the heel or quarter of one moccasin, and a feather from that of the other. In the sketch as given by Bushotter there is a pale blue stripe around the bottom of each skirt, and half of each trailing feather is of that color. Each body, above the top of the blanket, is painted with blue dots on a yellow ground. There is a blue stripe across the right shoulder of the woman on the right, and one across the left shoulder of the other woman, each stripe curving downward towards the opposite side. (See Pl. L.)

They dwelt in a lodge on a very high black cliff. They were always laughing immoderately, as if they were strangers to sorrow. On pleasant evenings they stood on a hill, where they amused themselves by swinging. Should any Indian see them, when he reached home he vomited something resembling black earth, and died suddenly. These women were skillful dancers, and they used to reflect rays of light by means of their mirror, just as the young Indian men do in sport. They jumped many times and sang this song:

Će´-paŋ-śiku- wa´- ni-to´Tu´-wale´-ćiśi´-nami´-ćo-ze´.

“Cousin, please come over here! Some one waves a robe over in this direction at me. Ha! ha! ha!” Then they walked about. No one knew from what quarter the Double Woman was coming, and how the two lived was a mystery. There are many tall women found now among different Indian tribes who imitate the behavior of the Double Woman.

John Bruyier and other Teton at Hampton, Va., regard this story of the Double Woman as manufactured by Bushotter. But this character figures in two Santee myths in Rev. S. R. Riggs’s collection, about to be published by the Bureau of Ethnology.[187] (See § 394.)

BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY

ELEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. L

THE DOUBLE WOMAN.