The Fall and the Origin of Woman According to the North American Indians

The different tribes have very different traditions: some of them are truly ludicrous, and are related with a seriousness not very reputable to their credulity and understanding; of this nature is the following: it is often repeated by the women themselves. It states that the red men were furnished with long tails, but that, having offended the Great Spirit, he deprived them of these ornaments, and from them created the women. As an additional punishment, he sent large swarms of mosquitoes to prey upon them, which, when they were thus mutilated, could torment them with greater impunity.

Hunter, John D., Memoirs of a Captivity Among the Indians of North America, London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1823, p. 306.