F68. The imaginary deceased disguises herself as a man. 44.46.50.
A woman pretends to be dead or actually dies. A (former) lover comes to her grave. She goes with him to avoid exposure, wears men's clothes, but is eventually identified.
The Midwest. Steppe Cree [woman negotiates with her lover to pretend to be dying; asks her husband to leave her body in the tree and leave; lover picks her up; she disguises herself as a man; her eldest Two sons recognize her by the dimples on their cheeks when they all drink by the stream; tells her father; with the consent of her relatives, he kills his wife; the lover runs away; kills two black-legged women, takes the third prisoner; gives her husband, horses and scalps; husband forgives him, they become friends]: Curtis 1976 (18): 133-134.
Plains. Blacklegs: Fraser 1990 [a girl is married to an old chief against her will; she cries all the time, gives birth to a child, still dies of grief; her former lover is waiting at the grave; she goes out to him but says she must feed her baby; puts on men's clothes, goes to the chief's house; pretends to be something, her husband tries to grab her; she jumps out of the smoke hole, but he manages to cut her off leg; celestials place it on the moon; an old woman without a leg is visible there]: 36-37; Wissler, Duvall 1908, No. 8 [a woman has two children and a mole on her left leg calf; a man from the moon seduces her, she disappears, the husband marries another; the woman longs for children; dressed as a man, she comes with her new husband to her former house under the guise of the Cree Indians; the children suspect that it is the mother; the old husband asks to make arrows, the smaller one who comes does them very badly; at night, the husband lights a fire, recognizes a mole; in the morning he cuts off his wife's leg when she jumps out of the house with her new husband; now you can see a woman with one leg on the moon]: 72- 73; Osage [woman pretends to die; she is buried, moved to another place; her son comes back, meets a living mother, takes her as his wife; she puts on men's clothes; both return to tribes, they are mistaken for spouses; a woman takes care of her supposedly orphaned young children; a daughter recognizes her by a scar on her leg; people leave lovers; ex-husband kills both]: Dorsey 1904c, No. 21:25- 26.
The Great Southwest. Lipan [the chief's wife pretends to be dying; asks to be buried in her tipi in a shallow grave facing outward; her lover digs her up, dresses her up as a man; at the dance, her little son recognizes her; husband kills sleeping lovers with an arrow, leaves their bodies in a copulation position; a woman's father marries him another daughter]: Opler 1940, No. 1:219-217.