A chief's daughter had three very good friends whom she persuaded to go on a journey with her. In their travels they crossed the middle of a valley where they saw a white object in the distance. When they came up to it they could see that it was a man's skull. One of the women kicked it and it made a strange rattling sound. Soon the three friends of the princess were kicking it around for their amusement, but the princess warned them, "We had better be careful, this skull could be something wákâtcâk (holy)." So they went on their way until evening caught up to them. They made a lodge for the night that was so tight that they even omitted to put in a door. The four women sat in a row with a little fire going. They heard something strange outside, then whatever it was began to sing,

The four women that went by,
They kicked me with their toes;
They kicked me over with their toes.

"Where is the door?" it demanded. The princess replied, "Where the sun rises." They heard it rattle around, and again it said, "Where is the door?" She replied, "Where the sun is straight above." They heard the rolling and rattling again, and he banged up against the little lodge. Again he asked, "Where is the door?" and this time the chief's daughter said, "Toward the setting of the sun." Again he could not get in and asked the whereabouts of the door. She told him, "Where the sun doesn't travel." They heard him rattled about the walls of the lodge, then, unexpectedly, he fell through the smoke hole into the middle of the lodge. It was the human head.

He asked the first woman, "What relation will I be to you?" She said, "You will be my grandfather." He angrily replied, "You already have a grandfather," and he chewed her up. To the next one he asked, "What relation will I be to you?" She said, "You shall be my father," but she had a father, and he chewed her up as well. The third one he interrogated likewise, and she replied, "I will be your sister-in-law." The skull replied, "Ah! that was very nearly correct," but he chewed her up as he had the others. Then he asked the princess, "What relation will I be to you?" She said, "You shall be my husband." The skull replied, "You have answered well." Then they slept that night. The next morning the skull told her to take off her underskirt and to pack the skull so that it struck her buttocks as she walked. As she was walking along she suddenly stopped, and the skull asked her, "What is it?" She said, "There are swans flying overhead, and when we have seen them in the past my brothers would always go out and hunt them for me." So the skull went out and caught one, killing it by biting it on the neck. He came rolling back with it, and the princess prepared it for dinner. The skull told her, "Make a sweat lodge and heat some stones for me, I will take a sweat bath." So she constructed a sweat lodge and prepared it for his bath. When he got in they talked through the walls to one another. Among the things she had packed with her for her journey was a doll. Now she took the doll and set it upright, and told it that it should keep talking to the skull and stall him from emerging from his sweat bath for as long as possible. Then she slipped out and ran, for she was fleet of foot. The skull began to sing songs, and the doll sang with him. Then he said, "It is done. I will come out now." But the doll stalled him: "No not yet. Sing me some more songs, I enjoyed them so." So he sang again, and the doll kept him in conversation for as long as she could, but the skull finally got tired of it and burst out. He could see no one, but noticed the doll sitting upright, and realized what had been going on.

The princess in her flight chanced upon an rocky precipice where there was a small hole. She entered only to find that the inside was as big as a long lodge. She was fortunate enough to find a stone that would exactly cover the hole. There she hid from the pursuing skull. In the dark she could hear things moving about. One came right up to her. It was a child. She thought it was very cute, and wanted to keep it, but she realized that this would put her in danger, so she set the child outside. This happened twice more, but the forth time a child approached and said, "Mother! When the thing that is chasing you gets here, kick out the stone. When you do, it will increase greatly in size." She did not set this child out. Soon the skull could be heard rattling up, so she kicked the stone, and as it came out it grew enormously and crushed the skull flat. Then the child told her, "Burn up every bit of it so that even the bones turn to ash. If any spark comes out and turns into something, do not keep it, for by this means he could come back to life." So she did as he said. Then a spark jumped from the fire and turned into a tin pan. She very much wanted this, and held it against her chest. But the pan itself began suckle at her breast, so the child urged her, "Throw it back into the fire!" This she did, but each time a spark came out and turned into something desirable, and each time she had to be told to throw it back. But in the end, they burned the skull up completely and seemed to be free of him.

Near this place they built a lodge, and there the boy grew up very fast, although he was much smaller than the men of today. When he was old enough to hunt, he became a very good hunter. Not long afterwards the princess said to him, "Now is the time that you should seek a wife. Go to a lodge not far from here where you will find a girl who lives with her parents and ten brothers. Marry her." So he set off in the direction of her lodge. When he had gotten near, he hid all his belongings, and covered himself with lice. Then he entered the lodge. One of the brothers said, "A funny young man has arrived." The boy wasted no time in proposing marriage with the girl, and everyone was surprisingly agreeable to the suggestion. The young man and the girl were very fond of each other and often played hide and seek. He proved to be very hard to find in these games. Finally one day his wife pointed out to him that it was customary for a groom to do some hunting for his parents-in-law, so he borrowed her youngest brother's bow and arrows. Some time later he returned, but without a single arrow. He played hide and seek with his wife again, until she finally mentioned the fact that he had returned from hunting but neither meat nor arrow was visible. So he told her, "The pack is just outside." They went out to get it, and it was an elk stomach that no one but he could lift. When they opened it, unexpectedly, it was filled with elk tongues. All the brothers hurried out to get the drove of elk that he had slain. They feasted well, but could not help noticing that the young man seemed to eat nothing at all. One day they found him feeding on a small striped squash, yet when they tried to make him squash, he would eat none of it. Then a little later he began to tell people, "I want to defecate," but everyone gave him the same reply, "Go ahead." Finally, he told this to the youngest brother, who just laughed. Then he said, "Brother-in-law, let me defecate on the blanket you are wearing." Unexpectedly, the younger brother spread his blanket out and the husband squatted over it and began to defecate noisily. However, what came out was pure wampum. All of a sudden, everyone he had talked to wanted some, but the young man would not hear of it, and gave it all to the brother-in-law who owned the blanket. The husband went out hunting often, and brought back buffalo, bear, and deer just as he had the elk. By now he had done his son-in-law service, and started back home with his wife. He stopped by the place where he stored his equipment and after retrieving it he completely deloused himself. He had put lice on himself to see whether they would be disgusted with him, but they were not. When he returned home, the princess was very glad to see both of them, and not long afterwards a boy was born to them. When the boy could walk, the young man and his wife went to visit her parents again.

In the midst of the wilderness there was a lone lodge. Within this lodge a man suddenly came into consciousness. He did not know who he was nor where he had awoken. "Why am I here?" he thought. In his lodge he found a bow and arrow, and learned to shoot it. Then he went outside and shot trees with it. He thought that he was the only man in the world. One day he came upon another lodge, and when he went inside he found four men just like himself. These four men said, "I bless you with an arrow," but he did not know what they were doing, and merely imitated them, saying, "I bless you with an arrow." These four men were Herok'a ("Without Horns"). Finally, they got him to understand: they were blessing him with an arrow that would never miss its mark. He went out from there and killed a deer. He tried to eat it raw, but could not. Then he discovered that if he boiled it, he could eat it. At that time the young husband was out hunting, and he came upon the man. They fell into conversation and soon became good friends. The young husband proposed to take him home with him, and the man agreed. They arrived at the oval lodge in which he was staying near his in-laws, and the two of them went inside. The man kept staring at his wife, and had to explain that he had never seen a woman before. He was even more surprised when he saw the child, as he did not know what he was either. The young man had to explain everything to his new friend: courtship, sex, birth. Much time they spent together, but too soon they had to part ways, as the time for the young man to return home had come. As they separated on the trail, the strange man told his friend that if ever he was in need of any service that he should not hesitate to call upon him.

Now at home the young man's mother told him how, many years before, she had led her friends on a journey of death, and that the pain of their loss was too much for her to bring back to their village, and that this is why she had lived alone in the wilderness. But now she would return to her home to see her parents and brothers, come what may. So they traveled to the village of her birth, and when they arrived there they found everyone in morning as the village had taken losses from conflicts with the Giants. Just the same, despite all that had happened, the people were full of joy at seeing the long lost princess. The young man, who was such a great hunter, did much to get the village back on its feet. One day, however, a Giant appeared and challenged him. He accepted, but at the same time sent a runner to fetch his friend. The two of them competed against the Giants in four contests. They bested them in gambling, then they out shot them in marksmanship, and in long distance shooting their arrows landed far out in front. Nevertheless, the Giants were unquestionably the best wrestlers on earth, and that was to be the next contest. As a warm-up and as a demonstration, the friend said he would wrestle a giant oak tree, a thing scoffed at by the Giants. So the man grabbed the tree and with one heave pulled it up by its enormous roots and threw it down with a crash heard many valleys away. At this the Giants fell into morbid terror, and refused all further gaming. Thus the young man and his friend saved his mother's village from extinction.

The young man was in reality the spirit chief of the lice (he). When his mother kept throwing him off, he would always come back to her. Finally, he became human. When the lice are about, people are never in want of food, they say, for lice dread hunger among humans above all else, and always make sure that people are well fed. When people are in hunger, they have nothing to do, and spend all their time hunting down their lice. The strong man was one of the great spirits, the one that they call the "Great Star" (Morning Star). [1]

Commentary. The skull is something of a counterpart to the Giants, and is perhaps even the skull of a Giant, although nothing is said of its size. In Hotcâk the name translated as "Giant" is actually Wâgerútcge, literally, "Man-Eaters." The skull is certainly that. What's more is that the Giants are said to have skulls full of wampum, the white shell money that finds its Western counterpart in gold. This skull, which has something rattling around inside it, produces goods of every sort as it is being consumed in the fire, just as if the wampum-money had been converted to other valuables.

"do not keep it, for by this means he could come back to life" -- this notion is intertwined with that of the transaction of the sacrifice. When an offering is made to an Animal Spirit, and that spirit accepts the offering, he becomes obliged to be reborn among mortal animals of his type and to become food for human in exchange for the spirit gift that he had accepted. This skull has the power to make offerings itself, and if accepted by the human, they empower him to return to his fundamental nature. He is reborn to this nature on the basis of a holy transaction. The fire is the messenger of the sacrifice in the case of tobacco, and so too here. The pan is more than merely produced, it is born, and tries to suckle at her breast as though it were a child. The skull is seeking this kind of birth for itself.

Morning Star comes to consciousness much like Earthmaker, but the supreme deity is a god of life and begins his activities by creation, whereas Morning Star is a god of war, and begins his activities by teaching himself the use of the bow and arrow. He is given the supreme arrow by the spirits most in charge of the hunt, the Herok'a, whose very symbol is the bow and arrow. The lice spirit shares his diminutive size with the Herok'a, and the friendship between him and Morning Star is one of opposites: the infallible arrow meets the impossible target. Their mediation is in the small but perfect hunters, the Herok'a.

The strange episode of the skull may have some resonance with the episode in which Morning Star engages an evil spirit in a beheading contest. The victorious contest against the Wangerútcge, "Man-eaters," is an echo of the theme that lice protect people from famine which is also a man-eater, slowly eating away the flesh of its victims.

Comparative Material. The Omaha have an interesting version of this myth. As the woman flees from the skull she encounters a man very similar to the encounter in the Woman Who Became an Ant. This man shatters the skull with his bow. There is no child, no lice, and no reference to contesting the Giants. The Omaha myth proceeds to the episode of the fire from which goods jump out and the violation of the prohibition against keeping them. It ends, however, with the woman dying as a result of her attempt to keep the forbidden wealth. [2]

The Arapaho version is like the Omaha. A princess who kept finding animals to bring home for meat wondered what spirit was giving her these prizes, so she concealed herself. She witnessed a skull arising from the ice of a river who vomitted out a buffalo for her. Then he said to himself, "These people should be fat enough by now to eat." The girl and her family, thus forewarned, changed into geese and attempted to escape by flight. They left their clothes behind, and these clothes (like the doll in the Hotcâk version) talked to the skull and forestalled him. The skull was finally able to engage in pursuit, and all kinds of object were thrown magically in his path, but in the end the skull sucked in the dog and both parents. Again, like the Omaha version, the woman encountered a man making arrows who in the end destroyed the skull. There is, however, no episode with the fire in which things of value jump out like embers. [3]

Links: Morning Star, Giants, Herok'a, Redman, Ghosts.

Stories: mentioning lice (and nits): Trickster Gets Pregnant, Ocean Duck; featuring Morning Star as a character: Morning Star and His Friend, Bladder and His Brothers, Grandfather's Two Families, The Origins of the Milky Way; about stars and other celestial bodies: The Dipper, Îtcorúcika and His Brothers, The Seven Maidens, Morning Star and His Friend, Turtle and the Witches, Sky Man, Wodjidjé, The Raccoon Coat, Sun and the Big Eater, The Big Eater, Grandfather's Two Families, Bluehorn's Nephews, The Twins Retrieve Red Star's Head, The Children of the Sun, The Origins of the Milky Way, The Fall of the Stars; featuring featuring the Herok'a as characters: The Chief of the Herok'a, The Red Man, The Baldheaded Warclub Origin Myth, Morning Star and His Friend, The Claw Shooter, Redhorn's Sons, The Origins of the Milky Way; featuring Giants as characters: A Giant Visits His Daughter, Turtle and the Giant, The Stone Heart, Young Man Gambles Often, Spear Shaft and Lacrosse, Redhorn Contests the Giants, The Sons of Redhorn Find Their Father, Morning Star and His Friend, The Reincarnated Grizzly Bear, The Old Man and the Giants, Shakes the Earth, White Wolf, Redhorn's Father, The Hotcâgara Contest the Giants, The Roaster, Grandfather's Two Families, Redhorn's Sons, Thunder Cloud is Blessed, Rich Man, Boy, and Horse, Sun and the Big Eater, The Big Eater, How the Thunders Met the Nights, The Origins of the Milky Way, Ocean Duck, The Blessing of a Bear Clansman, Wears White Feathers on His Head, cf. The Shaggy Man; about bodiless heads: Hare Visits the Bodiless Heads, The Chief of the Herok'a, The Red Man, Bluehorn's Nephews; featuring ghosts as characters: The Journey to Spiritland, The Four Slumbers Origin Myth, The Resurrection of the Chief's Daughter, Holy One and His Brother, Worúxega, Little Fox and the Ghost, The Lame Friend, Ghost Dance Origin Myth I, Ghost Dance Origin Myth II, Hare Steals the Fish, The Difficult Blessing, A Man's Revenge, Thunder Cloud is Blessed; mentioning oak: Thunderbird Clan Origin Myth, Wolf Clan Origin Myth, The Twins Retrieve Red Star's Head, The Children of the Sun, Turtle's Warparty, The Shell Anklets Origin Myth, Old Man and White Feathers, Warughápara, The Creation Council, Young Man Gambles Often, Sun and the Big Eater, Spear Shaft and Lacrosse, The Roaster, The Shaggy Man, Wears White Feathers on His Head, Peace of Mind Regained, The Dipper (leaves); mentioning dolls: Young Man Gambles Often; mentioning wampum (shell currency): Young Man Gambles Often, Turtle and the Giant, Snowshoe Strings, The Chief of the Herok'a, The Markings on the Moon, The Medicine Rite Foundation Myth, v.2, Bird Clan Origin Myth, The Blessing of Kerexûsaka; mentioning sweat lodges or sweat baths: The Twins Get into Hot Water, The Lost Blanket, The Green Man, Bladder and His Brothers, v. 1, Hare Establishes Bear Hunting, Hare Recruits Game Animals for Humans, The Thunderbird, Snowshoe Strings, Warughápara, The Red Man, The Chief of the Herok'a, The Birth of the Twins, v.2, Lifting Up the Bear Heads, The King Bird, He Who Eats the Stinking Part of the Deer Ankle, White Wolf, The Shaggy Man, Soft Shelled Turtle Gets Married, The Dipper, The Two Boys, The Medicine Rite Foundation Myth, v. 2, The Cave of Herok'a; in which defecation plays a role: Ocean Duck, Trickster Eats the Laxative Bulb, Mink Soils the Princess, Trickster Soils the Princess; mentioning caves: Big Eagle Cave Mystery, Silver Mound Cave, The Woman Who Married a Snake.

Themes: a girl grows up with numerous (nine or ten) brothers as her only siblings: The Chief of the Herok'a, The Shaggy Man, Warughápara, The Daughter-in-Law's Jealousy; a malevolent spirit chases after a group of women: The Woman Who Became an Ant, The Seven Maidens; a princess is the sole survivor of a group of friends that she persuaded to travel with her: The Woman Who Became an Ant; a severed head speaks: The Red Man, The Chief of the Herok'a, The Twins Retrieve Red Star's Head; a person's life will be spared if and only if she can tell a stranger what his true biological relationship is to her: The Woman Who Became an Ant; a human marries a spirit: The Daughter-in-Law's Jealousy (a Thunderbird, a Nightspirit, and two Waterspirits), The Thunderbird (a Thunderbird), How the Thunders Met the Nights (a Nightspirit), The Shaggy Man (a Bear Spirit), White Wolf (a Wolf Spirit), The Woman who Married a Snake (a Snake Spirit), He Who Eats the Stinking Part of the Deer Ankle (Buffalo Spirit); a person endows an inanimate object with the power of speech and orders it to speak for him/her while he/she escapes: Ocean Duck (an arrow), Hare Kills Wildcat (acorns), cf. Hare Visits His Grandfather Bear (piles of dung); a woman faced with the choice of marrying an evil spirit or death, runs away: The Woman Who became an Ant, Bluehorn's Nephews, Bluehorn Rescues His Sister; the remains of a dead man speak to, bite, and chase after someone: Little Fox and the Ghost; ghosts chase after someone: The Four Slumbers Origin Myth, Ghost Dance Origin Myth II, Little Fox and the Ghost; someone fleeing enemies hides in a crevice of a cliff: The Woman Who Became an Ant, Shakes the Earth, Turtle's Warparty, Porcupine and His Brothers; people are tempted by the dead to give into their purposes, but (could) succeed by following the advice of a friendly spirit and resisting with their utmost power: The Resurrection of the Chief's Daughter, Ghost Dance Origin Myth II, The Human Head, The Four slumbers Origin Myth, Snowshoe Strings; a person endows an inanimate object with the power of speech and orders it to speak for him/her while he/she escapes: Ocean Duck (an arrow), Hare Kills Wildcat (acorns), cf. Hare Visits His Grandfather Bear (piles of dung); a powerful spirit lives in a cave: Big Eagle Cave Mystery, Blue Mound Cave, Silver Mound Cave, The Woman Who Married a Snake; a man pleases his father-in-law with his hunting prowess: The Thunderbird, The Daughter-in-Law's Jealousy, He Who Eats the Stinking Part of the Deer Ankle; someone defecates on a blanket: Trickster Eats the Laxative Bulb; someone excretes shells (or wampum): The Markings on the Moon; a spirit comes into existence as a fully mature human being but in a state of total amnesia: Morning Star and His Friend, The Mulberry Picker, Wears White Feathers on His Head; acquiring a holy arrow: Hare Acquires His Arrows, Owl Goes Hunting; contests with the Giants: Spear Shaft and Lacrosse, Redhorn's Father, White Wolf, The Roaster, Young Man Gambles Often, Redhorn Contests the Giants, Redhorn's Sons, Morning Star and His Friend, The Reincarnated Grizzly Bear, Sun and the Big Eater, The Big Eater, The Hotcâgara Contest the Giants, The Old Man and the Giants, Shakes the Earth, The Origins of the Milky Way, The Shaggy Man, Grandfather's Two Families.

Notes:

[1] Paul Radin, "The Man's Head," [unpublished] Winnebago Notebooks (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society Library) #51.

[2] Roger Welsch, Omaha Tribal Myths and Trickster Tales (Athens: Ohio University Press, 1981) 276-279.

[3] "The Flood," in George A. Dorsey and Alfred L. Kroeber, Traditions of the Arapaho (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1997 [1903]) Story 5, pp. 8-12; a close variant for this part of the story is found in Blindy, "The Flood and the Origin of the Ceremonial Lodges," Story 6, pp. 13-19; cf. Holding Together, "The Skull Acts as Food-getter," Story 124, pp. 278-282.