pomme de terre

[Koontz John E]

> > Assiniboine has another form, not the expected 'mno'.  Rather it's
> > paNghi.
>
> Yeah, that comes up in Kaw (Kansa) as 'gourd' often enough.  It's what the
> dancing mice con coyote into eating in the farting story.

And so, presumably that's what the Trickster eats in the Omaha-Ponca and
Winnebago and Mandan (and Wichita and Cheyenne) stories?  Somehow I'd
imagined it was blo ~ nu, though I can't say that anything I've read
specifies, now that I think about it.

One of the best versions I've ever seen of this is the Mandan one recorded
by Dick Carter.  My recollections of it never failed to amuse my daughters
when they were young.  "Tell us the wild potato story, Daddy!"  I guess
the story of diving for plums was a close second.  Of course, I don't know
any of the songs and my story telling technique is pathetic.

In the Mandan version it's the largest "wild potato" (the Ancient of Wild
Potatoes, I guess!) who dialogs with Trickster (Whiteman), and the
impression is given that it is Trickster who fools himself in the face of
the honest warnings of the largest wild potato.

JEK