From Pawnee Folklore
In a village there lived a boy who always wore his buffalo robe in a peculiar manner. The hair of the robe would be inside, only part of it showing where he lapped it over his shoulders. He was known to be a wonderful boy. Every once in a while it was reported through the village that a young man had gone into a country where there was another village and had never returned. In that village lived a Spider-Woman, who was all the time contesting with strangers in climbing an old cotton-wood tree. The young man who wore the wonderful robe heard of Spider-Woman so often that he finally made up his mind that he would visit her village.
The young man started out to find it. He went through thick willows, and when he came to the edge of the village he saw a grass-lodge. He stood outside of the lodge. The youngest child in the lodge came out and saw the stranger. He entered the lodge and told his mother that there was a handsome young man standing outside. She said, “You must tell the young man to come into the lodge.” The young man entered the lodge, and the woman gave him a seat. He placed his quiver in the west of the lodge on some bundles, and sat down on the seat. The old woman then said: “My boy, I am sorry that you came here, as Spider-Woman lives in the village and she takes the lives of young men. She has a person known as Eyes-Wide-Open who goes around and makes it his business to peep into all the lodges to see if there are any strangers in the village. He will come and see you and he will invite you to Spider-Woman’s lodge. When she offers you mush to eat you must tell her that you have eaten plenty and that you are full and can not eat any more. The must that she will offer you is nothing but human brains. If she offers you a bowl of black corn you must not eat it, for it is human eyes. If she offers you chopped squash you must not eat it, for it is human ears.” While the woman talked to the boy she dished out some ground beans and placed them before him. While he was eating them, the entrance flap was lifted up and Eyes-Wide-Open looked in and said, “I came to invite the young man to eat with Spider-Woman.” The woman whispered quietly, “You long-face man, you ugly man, you are going to take this boy and try to kill him.” The young man said: “Go; I am eating my supper. As soon as I am through I shall come over to the lodge of Spider-Woman.”
The boy went to the lodge of Spider-Woman and she offered him must to eat, but he refused, saying that he had just eaten and could not eat more. Then she said: “My grandchild, I should like you to come to-morrow and we will play a little. I want you to climb this tree with me.” The young man said that he would come in the morning. He returned to the lodge of his friends and told the woman that he agreed to climb the tree with Spider-Woman. He said that he wanted to get up early and to get something ready to eat in the morning, and he wanted all of them to go out of the lodge and leave him alone. The woman said, “Very well.” In the morning the woman got up and cooked some more beans for the boy. The boy ate the beans and then told the people to go out, as he wanted to be alone. Then the boy took some white and black clay. He put the white clay all over his body and spotted it with black. He took from his quiver a bunch of red feathers and stuck them into his scalp-lock. Then he went out and told the woman that when Eyes-Wide-Open came, to tell him that he was ready to climb the tree. When the woman saw the young man she knew that he must be wonderful. She made up her mind that she would stake herself and her children upon the boy’s winning, so that if the boy was beaten she and her children would all be killed. Eyes-Wide-Open came and said that Spider-Woman was ready.
The boy came out and the woman said: “My son, you wager me and my children. If you get beaten then we will be killed.” The young man said that he would. He went to where Spider-Woman was and Spider-Woman said: “I am now ready to climb this tree. You climb the tree first.” The boy said: “No, it is your game. You climb first and I will climb afterwards.” The old woman said: “If you do just as I do you beat me. If you can not do as I do, then I will kill you and your people; but if you can do just as I do then you may kill me and my people. If you show that you can climb the tree better than I can you may kill me.” Spider-Woman began to climb the tree. As soon as she reached a certain place the tree fell to the ground, and the old woman was thrown to one side and she stood there laughing. Then she told the boy to climb, and the boy said, “It is my time to climb.” The boy went to the base of the tree with his robe over his shoulders. He began to sing: “I like to climb trees, for I belong in trees. I can climb up and down and the tree will not fall.” Eyes-Wide-Open, who was standing at once side, heard the song, and he ran up with his club to the young man and said: “I belong on your side. I do not care to be with this old woman.” Spider-Woman said: “Very well. You belong on that side and I shall kill you and place your skull among my other skulls.” The boy continued to sing, and suddenly he threw the robe from him and the people saw that he was painted. The boy climbed the tree. When he reached the place where the tree was to fall, he began to climb down again. The boy reached the base and climbed up again, and when he got to the forks the tree fell down and the boy was thrown to one side and there he stood unhurt. The people ran to Spider-Woman and killed her and her people. They took them all over the country and placed them in ravines. Eyes-Wide-Open was also killed.
Then the boy said: “People, my work is done. I have killed Spider-Woman, who was always killing people and eating them. Let there be no more eating of human beings. This tree shall fall over and be no more.” He went to the woman in whose lodge he had been and said: “Mother, if I had lost you would have been killed, together with your children. I overcame Spider-Woman. You and your children shall always live under an old tree, for you are mice. My people from now on shall make their houses at the top of a hollow tree and you shall have your house at the bottom of the tree.” After he said this the people he had been with turned into mice, crawled under a tree, and made their home there. Then the boy said: “I am done. My work is finished.” He flew up into the tree as a speckled woodpecker.
And so it is that we find the woodpecker’s nests at the top of hollow trees and the nests of the mice at the foot of the hollow trees.
Source:
The Pawnee Mythology: Part 1, George A. Dorsey, 1906
Kotharian Lightning 