A long time ago, in the land of the South People, it was time for Pelican Girl to become a woman.

A special dance and ceremony was planned, to celebrate the event in the proper way of the South People.

All the people of the village gathered for the dance, including Little Owl, the Snipe family, and Coyote and his grandson Hawk Chief. All the right ceremonies were carried out for Pelican Girl.

“This party is so cool, ” said Pelican Girl to the Snipe sisters as they danced to the beat of the drum.

When the dance finally finished and the drums were quiet, the women of the village took Pelican Girl to the women’s house. She had to stay there until the moon had become small and then grown full size again.

When the moon had finished its cycle the women took Pelican Girl out of the house to receive her beads of womanhood. They placed the beads around her neck, wrists and ankles.

Pelican Girl was told that for the next few weeks she must stay close to the village and she was not allowed to gather food or bend down to pick up anything. This was the custom of the South People when a young maiden became a woman.

As Pelican Girl sat outside her home the Snipe sisters walked by with their pack baskets.

“Where are you going?” asked Pelican Girl.

“We´re going to pick berries. Come with us and we´ll tell you all the latest gossip,” answered the Snipe sisters.

Pelican Girl asked her mother if she could go, but her mother said no, because it was forbidden.

“I want to go! I want to go!” screamed Pelican Girl as she clenched her hands tightly and stamped her feet.

“It’s OK,” said the Snipe sisters to Pelican Girl’s mother. “We´ll pick the berries for her.”

Finally her mother agreed. “OK, you can go but remember you´re not allowed to pick any berries or bend over to lift anything off the ground.”

All day Pelican Girl did as she was told. She carried her pack basket but did not pick any berries.

Late in the afternoon, the girls headed back to the village. Pelican Girl was tired and walked slowly behind the Snipe sisters. Too busy talking to notice, the Snipe sisters got further ahead until they disappeared out of site around a bend in the trail.

Just then, Pelican Girl saw in the middle of the trail, a big goose that looked like it had fallen from the sky.

“Wow, look at that,” shouted Pelican Girl. She gently touched the goose with her foot.

“Maybe it had a heart attack or something?” she said. “Its feathers are so beautiful. My uncles could really use them.”

Forgetting her promise not to pick up anything, Pelican Girl bent over, picked up the goose and put it in her pack basket.

As she walked along the trail Pelican Girl thought to herself “This basket is becoming really, really heavy.”

Finally it became so heavy she had to put it down.

Just then she heard a strange noise and a man appeared in front of her basket.

“Little girl,” he whispered. “I want those beads around your neck and your wrists and ankles.”

Pelican Girl knew who it was.

It was Shoko, a powerful shaman from the North World where the fire-eaters lived. He had disguised himself as the goose so Pelican Girl would pick him up.

By breaking the custom of her people she had given him the power to carry her away to his land.

And that is what he did.

After Pelican Girl had removed her beads and thrown them to him, Shoko did a dance and spirited her off to the land of the North People where he hid her in a pit underneath a dance drum.

When the Snipe sisters returned to the village the people wanted to know what had happened to Pelican Girl.

The Snipe Girls were frightened. “We don’t know,” they said.

“We heard her say something about feathers, but when we went back to look, we couldn’t find her,” they cried.

So Coyote, the wise one, with some of the best trackers from the village and Pelican Girls mother, went to find her.

Coyote soon worked out what had happened.

“The people of the North World have taken her,” he said. “We must go there and rescue her.”