{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_341/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_341","id":"gutenberg_341","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/341","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Dakota Indians -- Folklore","Folklore","Mdewakanton Indians -- Folklore","Native America"],"text":"Produced by Judith Boss\n\n\n\n\n\nMYTHS AND LEGENDS OF THE SIOUX\n\nBy Mrs. Marie L. Mclaughlin\n\n\n          In loving memory of my mother,\n          MARY GRAHAM BUISSON,\n          at whose knee most of the stories\n          contained in this little volume\n          were told to me, this book is\n          affectionately dedicated\n\n\n\n\n        TABLE OF CONTENTS\n\n     Dedication\n     Foreword\n     The Forgotten Ear of Corn\n     The Little Mice\n     The Pet Rabbit\n     The Pet Donkey\n     The Rabbit and the Elk\n     The Rabbit and the Grouse Girls\n     The Faithful Lovers\n     The Artichoke and the Muskrat\n     The Rabbit, and the Bear with the Flint Body\n     Story of the Lost Wife\n     The Raccoon and the Crawfish\n     Legend of Standing Rock\n     Story of the Peace Pipe\n     A Bashful Courtship\n     The Simpleton\u2019s Wisdom\n     Little Brave and the Medicine Woman\n     The Bound Children\n     The Signs of Corn\n     Story of the Rabbits\n     How the Rabbit Lost His Tail\n     Unktomi and the Arrowheads\n     The Bear and the Rabbit Hunt Buffalo\n     The Brave Who Went on the Warpath Alone and\n       Won the Name of the Lone Warrior\n     The Sioux Who Married the Crow Chief\u2019s\n       Daughter\n     The Boy and the Turtles\n     The Hermit, or the Gift of Corn\n     The Mysterious Butte\n     The Wonderful Turtle\n     The Man and the Oak\n     Story of the Two Young Friends\n     The Story of the Pet Crow\n     The \u201cWasna\u201d (Pemmican Man) and the Unktomi (Spider)\n     The Resuscitation of the Only Daughter\n     The Story of the Pet Crane\n     White Plume\n     Story of Pretty Feathered Forehead\n     The Four Brothers or Inyanhoksila (Stone Boy)\n     The Unktomi (Spider), Two Widows and the Red Plums\n\n\n\n\nFOREWORD\n\nIn publishing these \u201cMyths of the Sioux,\u201d I deem it proper to state that\nI am of one-fourth Sioux blood. My maternal grandfather, Captain Duncan\nGraham, a Scotchman by birth, who had seen service in the British Army,\nwas one of a party of Scotch Highlanders who in 1811 arrived in the\nBritish Northwest by way of York Factory, Hudson Bay, to found what was\nknown as the Selkirk Colony, near Lake Winnipeg, now within the\nprovince of Manitoba, Canada. Soon after his arrival at Lake Winnipeg he\nproceeded up the Red River of the North and the western fork thereof\nto its source, and thence down the Minnesota River to Mendota, the\nconfluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers, where he located. My\ngrandmother, Ha-za-ho-ta-win, was a full-blood of the Medawakanton Band\nof the Sioux Tribe of Indians. My father, Joseph Buisson, born near\nMontreal, Canada, was connected with the American Fur Company, with\nheadquarters at Mendota, Minnesota, which point was for many years the\nchief distributing depot of the American Fur Company, from which the\nIndian trade conducted by that company on the upper Mississippi was\ndirected.\n\nI was born December 8, 1842, at Wabasha, Minnesota, then Indian country,\nand resided thereat until fourteen years of age, when I was sent to\nschool at Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin.\n\nI was married to Major James McLaughlin at Mendota, Minnesota,\nJanuary 28, 1864, and resided in Minnesota until July 1, 1871, when I\naccompanied my husband to Devils Lake Agency, North Dakota, then Dakota\nTerritory, where I remained ten years in most friendly relations with\nthe Indians of that agency. My husband was Indian agent at Devils Lake\nAgency, and in 1881 was transferred to Standing Rock, on the Missouri\nRiver, then a very important agency, to take charge of the Sioux who\nhad then but recently surrendered to the military authorities, and been\nbrought by steamboat from various points on the upper Missouri, to be\npermanently located on the Standing Rock reservation.\n\nHaving been born and reared in an Indian community, I at an early age\nacquired a thorough knowledge of the Sioux language, and having lived on\nIndian reservations for the past forty years in a position which brought\nme very near to the Indians, whose confidence I possessed, I have,\ntherefore, had exceptional opportunities of learning the legends and\nfolk-lore of the Sioux.\n\nThe stories contained in this little volume were told me by the older\nmen and women of the Sioux, of which I made careful notes as related,\nknowing that, if not recorded, these fairy tales would be lost to\nposterity by the passing of the primitive Indian.\n\nThe notes of a song or a strain of music coming to us through the night\nnot only give us pleasure by the melody they bring, but also give us\nknowledge of the character of the singer or of the instrument from which\nthey proceed. There is something in the music which unerringly tells us\nof its source. I believe musicians call it the \u201ctimbre\u201d of the sound. It\nis independent of, and different from, both pitch and rhythm; it is the\ntexture of the music itself.\n\nThe \u201ctimbre\u201d of a people\u2019s stories tells of the qualities of that\npeople\u2019s heart. It is the texture of the thought, independent of its\nform or fashioning, which tells the quality of the mind from which it\nsprings.\n\nIn the \u201ctimbre\u201d of these stories of the Sioux, told in the lodges and\nat the camp fires of the past, and by the firesides of the Dakotas of\ntoday, we recognize the very texture of the thought of a simple, grave,\nand sincere people, living in intimate contact and friendship with the\nbig out-of-doors that we call Nature; a race not yet understanding all\nthings, not proud and boastful, but honest and childlike and fair; a\nsimple, sincere, and gravely thoughtful people, willing to believe that\nthere may be in even the everyday things of life something not yet fully\nunderstood; a race that can, without any loss of native dignity, gravely\nconsider the simplest things, seeking to fathom their meaning and to\nlearn their lesson--equally without vain-glorious boasting and trifling\ncynicism; an earnest, thoughtful, dignified, but simple and primitive\npeople.\n\nTo the children of any race these stories can not fail to give pleasure\nby their vivid imaging of the simple things and creatures of the great\nout-of-doors and the epics of their doings. They will also give an\nintimate insight into the mentality of an interesting race at a most\ninteresting stage of development, which is now fast receding into the\nmists of the past.\n\n\nMARIE L. McLAUGHLIN (Mrs. James McLaughlin).\n\nMcLaughlin, S. D., May 1, 1913.\n\n\n\n\nTHE FORGOTTEN EAR OF CORN\n\nAn Arikara woman was once gathering corn from the field to store away\nfor winter use. She passed from stalk to stalk, tearing off the ears and\ndropping them into her folded robe. When all was gathered she started to\ngo, when she heard a faint voice, like a child\u2019s, weeping and calling:\n\n\u201cOh, do not leave me! Do not go away without me.\u201d\n\nThe woman was astonished. \u201cWhat child can that be?\u201d she asked herself.\n\u201cWhat babe can be lost in the cornfield?\u201d\n\nShe set down her robe in which she had tied up her corn, and went back\nto search; but she found nothing.\n\nAs she started away she heard the voice again:\n\n\u201cOh, do not leave me. Do not go away without me.\u201d\n\nShe searched for a long time. At last in one corner of the field, hidden\nunder the leaves of the stalks, she found one little ear of corn. This\nit was that had been crying, and this is why all Indian women have since\ngarnered their corn crop very carefully, so that the succulent food\nproduct should not even to the last small nubbin be neglected or wasted,\nand thus displease the Great Mystery.\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE LITTLE MICE\n\nOnce upon a time a prairie mouse busied herself all fall storing away a\ncache of beans. Every morning she was out early with her empty cast-off\nsnake skin, which she filled with ground beans and dragged home with her\nteeth.\n\nThe little mouse had a cousin who was fond of dancing and talk, but who\ndid not like to work. She was not careful to get her cache of beans and\nthe season was already well gone before she thought to bestir herself.\nWhen she came to realize her need, she found she had no packing bag. So\nshe went to her hardworking cousin and said:\n\n\u201cCousin, I have no beans stored for winter and the season is nearly\ngone. But I have no snake skin to gather the beans in. Will you lend me\none?\u201d\n\n\u201cBut why have you no packing bag? Where were you in the moon when the\nsnakes cast off their skins?\u201d\n\n\u201cI was here.\u201d\n\n\u201cWhat were you doing?\u201d\n\n\u201cI was busy talking and dancing.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd now you are punished,\u201d said the other. \u201cIt is always so with lazy,\ncareless people. But I will let you have the snake skin. And now go, and\nby hard work and industry, try to recover your wasted time.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE PET RABBIT\n\nA little girl owned a pet rabbit which she loved dearly. She carried it\non her back like a babe, made for it a little pair of moccasins, and at\nnight shared with it her own robe.\n\nNow the little girl had a cousin who loved her very dearly and wished to\ndo her honor; so her cousin said to herself:\n\n\u201cI love my little cousin well and will ask her to let me carry her pet\nrabbit around;\u201d (for thus do Indian women when they wish to honor a\nfriend; they ask permission to carry about the friend\u2019s babe).\n\nShe then went to the little girl and said:\n\n\u201cCousin, let me carry your pet rabbit about on my back. Thus shall I\nshow you how I love you.\u201d\n\nHer mother, too, said to her: \u201cOh no, do not let our little grandchild\ngo away from our tepee.\u201d\n\nBut the cousin answered: \u201cOh, do let me carry it. I do so want to show\nmy cousin honor.\u201d At last they let her go away with the pet rabbit on\nher back.\n\nWhen the little girl\u2019s cousin came home to her tepee, some rough boys\nwho were playing about began to make sport of her. To tease the little\ngirl they threw stones and sticks at the pet rabbit. At last a stick\nstruck the little rabbit upon the head and killed it.\n\nWhen her pet was brought home dead, the little rabbit\u2019s adopted mother\nwept bitterly. She cut off her hair for mourning and all her little girl\nfriends wailed with her. Her mother, too, mourned with them.\n\n\u201cAlas!\u201d they cried, \u201calas, for the little rabbit. He was always kind and\ngentle. Now your child is dead and you will be lonesome.\u201d\n\nThe little girl\u2019s mother called in her little friends and made a great\nmourning feast for the little rabbit. As he lay in the tepee his adopted\nmother\u2019s little friends brought many precious things and covered his\nbody. At the feast were given away robes and kettles and blankets and\nknives and great wealth in honor of the little rabbit. Him they wrapped\nin a robe with his little moccasins on and buried him in a high place\nupon a scaffold.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE PET DONKEY\n\nThere was a chief\u2019s daughter once who had a great many relations so that\neverybody knew she belonged to a great family.\n\nWhen she grew up she married and there were born to her twin sons. This\ncaused great rejoicing in her father\u2019s camp, and all the village women\ncame to see the babes. She was very happy.\n\nAs the babes grew older, their grandmother made for them two saddle bags\nand brought out a donkey.\n\n\u201cMy two grandchildren,\u201d said the old lady, \u201cshall ride as is becoming\nto children having so many relations. Here is this donkey. He is patient\nand surefooted. He shall carry the babes in the saddle bags, one on\neither side of his back.\u201d\n\nIt happened one day that the chief\u2019s daughter and her husband were\nmaking ready to go on a camping journey. The father, who was quite proud\nof his children, brought out his finest pony, and put the saddle bags on\nthe pony\u2019s back.\n\n\u201cThere,\u201d he said, \u201cmy sons shall ride on the pony, not on a donkey; let\nthe donkey carry the pots and kettles.\u201d\n\nSo his wife loaded the donkey with the household things. She tied the\ntepee poles into two great bundles, one on either side of the donkey\u2019s\nback; across them she put the travois net and threw into it the pots and\nkettles and laid the skin tent across the donkey\u2019s back.\n\nBut no sooner done than the donkey began to rear and bray and kick. He\nbroke the tent poles and kicked the pots and kettles into bits and tore\nthe skin tent. The more he was beaten the more he kicked.\n\nAt last they told the grandmother. She laughed. \u201cDid I not tell you the\ndonkey was for the children,\u201d she cried. \u201cHe knows the babies are\nthe chief\u2019s children. Think you he will be dishonored with pots and\nkettles?\u201d and she fetched the children and slung them over the donkey\u2019s\nback, when he became at once quiet again.\n\nThe camping party left the village and went on their journey. But the\nnext day as they passed by a place overgrown with bushes, a band of\nenemies rushed out, lashing their ponies and sounding their war whoop.\nAll was excitement. The men bent their bows and seized their lances.\nAfter a long battle the enemy fled. But when the camping party came\ntogether again--where were the donkey and the two babes? No one knew.\nFor a long time they searched, but in vain. At last they turned to go\nback to the village, the father mournful, the mother wailing. When they\ncame to the grandmother\u2019s tepee, there stood the good donkey with the\ntwo babes in the saddle bags.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE RABBIT AND THE ELK\n\nThe little rabbit lived with his old grandmother, who needed a new\ndress. \u201cI will go out and trap a deer or an elk for you,\u201d he said. \u201cThen\nyou shall have a new dress.\u201d\n\nWhen he went out hunting he laid down his bow in the path while he\nlooked at his snares. An elk coming by saw the bow.\n\n\u201cI will play a joke on the rabbit,\u201d said the elk to himself. \u201cI will\nmake him think I have been caught in his bow string.\u201d He then put one\nfoot on the string and lay down as if dead.\n\nBy and by the rabbit returned. When he saw the elk he was filled with\njoy and ran home crying: \u201cGrandmother, I have trapped a fine elk. You\nshall have a new dress from his skin. Throw the old one in the fire!\u201d\n\nThis the old grandmother did.\n\nThe elk now sprang to his feet laughing. \u201cHo, friend rabbit,\u201d he called,\n\u201cYou thought to trap me; now I have mocked you.\u201d And he ran away into\nthe thicket.\n\nThe rabbit who had come back to skin the elk now ran home again.\n\u201cGrandmother, don\u2019t throw your dress in the fire,\u201d he cried. But it was\ntoo late. The old dress was burned.\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE RABBIT AND THE GROUSE GIRLS\n\nThe rabbit once went out on the prairie in winter time. On the side of a\nhill away from the wind he found a great company of girls all with grey\nand speckled blankets over their backs. They were the grouse girls and\nthey were coasting down hill on a board. When the rabbit saw them, he\ncalled out:\n\n\u201cOh, maidens, that is not a good way to coast down hill. Let me get you\na fine skin with bangles on it that tinkle as you slide.\u201d And away he\nran to the tepee and brought a skin bag. It had red stripes on it and\nbangles that tinkled. \u201cCome and get inside,\u201d he said to the grouse\ngirls. \u201cOh, no, we are afraid,\u201d they answered. \u201cDon\u2019t be afraid, I can\u2019t\nhurt you. Come, one of you,\u201d said the rabbit. Then as each hung back he\nadded coaxingly: \u201cIf each is afraid alone, come all together. I can\u2019t\nhurt you _all_.\u201d And so he coaxed the whole flock into the bag. This\ndone, the rabbit closed the mouth of the bag, slung it over his back and\ncame home. \u201cGrandmother,\u201d said he, as he came to the tepee, \u201chere is a\nbag full of game. Watch it while I go for willow sticks to make spits.\u201d\n\nBut as soon as the rabbit had gone out of the tent, the grouse girls\nbegan to cry out:\n\n\u201cGrandmother, let us out.\u201d\n\n\u201cWho are you?\u201d asked the old woman.\n\n\u201cYour dear grandchildren,\u201d they answered.\n\n\u201cBut how came you in the bag?\u201d asked the old woman.\n\n\u201cOh, our cousin was jesting with us. He coaxed us in the bag for a joke.\nPlease let us out.\u201d\n\n\u201cCertainly, dear grandchildren, I will let you out,\u201d said the old\nwoman as she untied the bag: and lo, the grouse flock with\nachuck-a-chuck-achuck flew up, knocking over the old grandmother and\nflew out of the square smoke opening of the winter lodge. The old woman\ncaught only one grouse as it flew up and held it, grasping a leg with\neach hand.\n\nWhen the rabbit came home with the spits she called out to him:\n\n\u201cGrandson, come quick. They got out but I have caught two.\u201d\n\nWhen he saw what had happened he was quite angry, yet could not keep\nfrom laughing.\n\n\u201cGrandmother, you have but one grouse,\u201d he cried, \u201cand it is a very\nskinny one at that.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE FAITHFUL LOVERS\n\nThere once lived a chief\u2019s daughter who had many relations. All the\nyoung men in the village wanted to have her for wife, and were all eager\nto fill her skin bucket when she went to the brook for water.\n\nThere was a young man in the village who was industrious and a good\nhunter; but he was poor and of a mean family. He loved the maiden\nand when she went for water, he threw his robe over her head while he\nwhispered in her ear:\n\n\u201cBe my wife. I have little but I am young and strong. I will treat you\nwell, for I love you.\u201d\n\nFor a long time the maiden did not answer, but one day she whispered\nback.\n\n\u201cYes, you may ask my father\u2019s leave to marry me. But first you must do\nsomething noble. I belong to a great family and have many relations. You\nmust go on a war party and bring back the scalp of an enemy.\u201d\n\nThe young man answered modestly, \u201cI will try to do as you bid me. I am\nonly a hunter, not a warrior. Whether I shall be brave or not I do not\nknow. But I will try to take a scalp for your sake.\u201d\n\nSo he made a war party of seven, himself and six other young men. They\nwandered through the enemy\u2019s country, hoping to get a chance to strike a\nblow. But none came, for they found no one of the enemy.\n\n\u201cOur medicine is unfavorable,\u201d said their leader at last. \u201cWe shall have\nto return home.\u201d\n\nBefore they started they sat down to smoke and rest beside a beautiful\nlake at the foot of a green knoll that rose from its shore. The knoll\nwas covered with green grass and somehow as they looked at it they had\na feeling that there was something about it that was mysterious or\nuncanny.\n\nBut there was a young man in the party named the jester, for he was\nventuresome and full of fun. Gazing at the knoll he said: \u201cLet\u2019s run and\njump on its top.\u201d\n\n\u201cNo,\u201d said the young lover, \u201cit looks mysterious. Sit still and finish\nyour smoke.\u201d\n\n\u201cOh, come on, who\u2019s afraid,\u201d said the jester, laughing. \u201cCome on\nyou--come on!\u201d and springing to his feet he ran up the side of the\nknoll.\n\nFour of the young men followed. Having reached the top of the knoll all\nfive began to jump and stamp about in sport, calling, \u201cCome on, come\non,\u201d to the others. Suddenly they stopped--the knoll had begun to move\ntoward the water. It was a gigantic turtle. The five men cried out in\nalarm and tried to run--too late! Their feet by some power were held\nfast to the monster\u2019s back.\n\n\u201cHelp us--drag us away,\u201d they cried; but the others could do nothing. In\na few moments the waves had closed over them.\n\nThe other two men, the lover and his friend, went on, but with heavy\nhearts, for they had forebodings of evil. After some days, they came to\na river. Worn with fatigue the lover threw himself down on the bank.\n\n\u201cI will sleep awhile,\u201d he said, \u201cfor I am wearied and worn out.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd I will go down to the water and see if I can chance upon a dead\nfish. At this time of the year the high water may have left one stranded\non the seashore,\u201d said his friend.\n\nAnd as he had said, he found a fish which he cleaned, and then called to\nthe lover.\n\n\u201cCome and eat the fish with me. I have cleaned it and made a fire and it\nis now cooking.\u201d\n\n\u201cNo, you eat it; let me rest,\u201d said the lover.\n\n\u201cOh, come on.\u201d\n\n\u201cNo, let me rest.\u201d\n\n\u201cBut you are my friend. I will not eat unless you share it with me.\u201d\n\n\u201cVery well,\u201d said the lover, \u201cI will eat the fish with you, but you must\nfirst make me a promise. If I eat the fish, you must promise, pledge\nyourself, to fetch me all the water that I can drink.\u201d\n\n\u201cI promise,\u201d said the other, and the two ate the fish out of their\nwar-kettle. For there had been but one kettle for the party.\n\nWhen they had eaten, the kettle was rinsed out and the lover\u2019s friend\nbrought it back full of water. This the lover drank at a draught.\n\n\u201cBring me more,\u201d he said.\n\nAgain his friend filled the kettle at the river and again the lover\ndrank it dry.\n\n\u201cMore!\u201d he cried.\n\n\u201cOh, I am tired. Cannot you go to the river and drink your fill from the\nstream?\u201d asked his friend.\n\n\u201cRemember your promise.\u201d\n\n\u201cYes, but I am weary. Go now and drink.\u201d\n\n\u201cEk-hey, I feared it would be so. Now trouble is coming upon us,\u201d said\nthe lover sadly. He walked to the river, sprang in, and lying down in\nthe water with his head toward land, drank greedily. By and by he called\nto his friend.\n\n\u201cCome hither, you who have been my sworn friend. See what comes of your\nbroken promise.\u201d\n\nThe friend came and was amazed to see that the lover was now a fish from\nhis feet to his middle.\n\nSick at heart he ran off a little way and threw himself upon the ground\nin grief. By and by he returned. The lover was now a fish to his neck.\n\n\u201cCannot I cut off the part and restore you by a sweat bath?\u201d the friend\nasked.\n\n\u201cNo, it is too late. But tell the chief\u2019s daughter that I loved her to\nthe last and that I die for her sake. Take this belt and give it to her.\nShe gave it to me as a pledge of her love for me,\u201d and he being then\nturned to a great fish, swam to the middle of the river and there\nremained, only his great fin remaining above the water.\n\nThe friend went home and told his story. There was great mourning over\nthe death of the five young men, and for the lost lover. In the river\nthe great fish remained, its fin just above the surface, and was called\nby the Indians \u201cFish that Bars,\u201d because it bar\u2019d navigation. Canoes had\nto be portaged at great labor around the obstruction.\n\nThe chief\u2019s daughter mourned for her lover as for a husband, nor would\nshe be comforted. \u201cHe was lost for love of me, and I shall remain as his\nwidow,\u201d she wailed.\n\nIn her mother\u2019s tepee she sat, with her head covered with her robe,\nsilent, working, working. \u201cWhat is my daughter doing,\u201d her mother asked.\nBut the maiden did not reply.\n\nThe days lengthened into moons until a year had passed. And then the\nmaiden arose. In her hands were beautiful articles of clothing, enough\nfor three men. There were three pairs of moccasins, three pairs of\nleggings, three belts, three shirts, three head dresses with beautiful\nfeathers, and sweet smelling tobacco.\n\n\u201cMake a new canoe of bark,\u201d she said, which was made for her.\n\nInto the canoe she stepped and floated slowly down the river toward the\ngreat fish.\n\n\u201cCome back my daughter,\u201d her mother cried in agony. \u201cCome back. The\ngreat fish will eat you.\u201d\n\nShe answered nothing. Her canoe came to the place where the great fin\narose and stopped, its prow grating on the monster\u2019s back. The maiden\nstepped out boldly. One by one she laid her presents on the fish\u2019s back,\nscattering the feathers and tobacco over his broad spine.\n\n\u201cOh, fish,\u201d she cried, \u201cOh, fish, you who were my lover, I shall not\nforget you. Because you were lost for love of me, I shall never marry.\nAll my life I shall remain a widow. Take these presents. And now leave\nthe river, and let the waters run free, so my people may once more\ndescend in their canoes.\u201d\n\nShe stepped into her canoe and waited. Slowly the great fish sank, his\nbroad fin disappeared, and the waters of the St. Croix (Stillwater) were\nfree.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE ARTICHOKE AND THE MUSKRAT\n\nOn the shore of a lake stood an artichoke with its green leaves waving\nin the sun. Very proud of itself it was, and well satisfied with the\nworld. In the lake below lived a muskrat in his tepee, and in the\nevening as the sun set he would come out upon the shore and wander over\nthe bank. One evening he came near the place where the artichoke stood.\n\n\u201cHo, friend,\u201d he said, \u201cyou seem rather proud of yourself. Who are you?\u201d\n \u201cI am the artichoke,\u201d answered the other, \u201cand I have many handsome\ncousins. But who are you?\u201d\n\n\u201cI am the muskrat, and I, too, belong to a large family. I live in the\nwater. I don\u2019t stand all day in one place like a stone.\u201d\n\n\u201cIf I stand in one place all day,\u201d retorted the artichoke, \u201cat least I\ndon\u2019t swim around in stagnant water, and build my lodge in the mud.\u201d\n\n\u201cYou are jealous of my fine fur,\u201d sneered the muskrat. \u201cI may build\nmy lodge in the mud, but I always have a clean coat. But you are half\nburied in the ground, and when men dig you up, you are never clean.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd your fine coat always smells of musk,\u201d jeered the artichoke.\n\n\u201cThat is true,\u201d said the muskrat. \u201cBut men think well of me,\nnevertheless. They trap me for the fine sinew in my tail; and handsome\nyoung women bite off my tail with their white teeth and make it into\nthread.\u201d\n\n\u201cThat\u2019s nothing,\u201d laughed the artichoke. \u201cHandsome young warriors,\npainted and splendid with feathers, dig me up, brush me off with their\nshapely hands and eat me without even taking the trouble to wash me\noff.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE RABBIT AND THE BEAR WITH THE FLINT BODY\n\nThe Rabbit and his grandmother were in dire straits, because the rabbit\nwas out of arrows. The fall hunt would soon be on and his quiver was all\nbut empty. Arrow sticks he could cut in plenty, but he had nothing with\nwhich to make arrowheads.\n\n\u201cYou must make some flint arrowheads,\u201d said his grandmother. \u201cThen you\nwill be able to kill game.\u201d\n\n\u201cWhere shall I get the flint?\u201d asked the rabbit.\n\n\u201cFrom the old bear chief,\u201d said his old grandmother. For at that time\nall the flint in the world was in the bear\u2019s body.\n\nSo the rabbit set out for the village of the Bears. It was winter time\nand the lodges of the bears were set under the shelter of a hill where\nthe cold wind would not blow on them and where they had shelter among\nthe trees and bushes.\n\nHe came at one end of the village to a hut where lived an old woman. He\npushed open the door and entered. Everybody who came for flint always\nstopped there because it was the first lodge on the edge of the village.\nStrangers were therefore not unusual in the old woman\u2019s hut, and she\nwelcomed the rabbit. She gave him a seat and at night he lay with his\nfeet to the fire.\n\nThe next morning the rabbit went to the lodge of the bear chief. They\nsat together awhile and smoked. At last the bear chief spoke.\n\n\u201cWhat do you want, my grandson?\u201d\n\n\u201cI have come for some flint to make arrows,\u201d answered the rabbit.\n\nThe bear chief grunted, and laid aside his pipe. Leaning back he pulled\noff his robe and, sure enough, one half of his body was flesh and the\nother half hard flint.\n\n\u201cBring a stone hammer and give it to our guest,\u201d he bade his wife. Then\nas the rabbit took the hammer he said: \u201cDo not strike too hard.\u201d\n\n\u201cGrandfather, I shall be careful,\u201d said the rabbit. With a stroke he\nstruck off a little flake of flint from the bear\u2019s body.\n\n\u201cNi-sko-ke-cha? So big?\u201d he asked.\n\n\u201cHarder, grandson; strike off bigger pieces,\u201d said the bear.\n\nThe rabbit struck a little harder.\n\n\u201cNi-sko-ke-cha? So big?\u201d he asked.\n\nThe bear grew impatient. \u201cNo, no, strike off bigger pieces. I can\u2019t be\nhere all day. Tanka kaksa wo! Break off a big piece.\u201d\n\nThe rabbit struck again--hard! \u201cNi-sko-ke-cha?\u201d he cried, as the hammer\nfell. But even as he spoke the bear\u2019s body broke in two, the flesh part\nfell away and only the flint part remained. Like a flash the rabbit\ndarted out of the hut.\n\nThere was a great outcry in the village. Openmouthed, all the bears\ngave chase. But as he ran the rabbit cried: \u201cWa-hin-han-yo (snow, snow)\nOta-po, Ota-po--lots more, lots more,\u201d and a great storm of snow swept\ndown from the sky.\n\nThe rabbit, light of foot, bounded over the top of the snow. The bears\nsunk in and floundered about helpless. Seeing this, the rabbit turned\nback and killed them one by one with his club. That is why we now have\nso few bears.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSTORY OF THE LOST WIFE\n\nA Dakota girl married a man who promised to treat her kindly, but he did\nnot keep his word. He was unreasonable, fault-finding, and often beat\nher. Frantic with his cruelty, she ran away. The whole village turned\nout to search for her, but no trace of the missing wife was to be found.\n\nMeanwhile, the fleeing woman had wandered about all that day and the\nnext night. The next day she met a man, who asked her who she was.\nShe did not know it, but he was not really a man, but the chief of the\nwolves.\n\n\u201cCome with me,\u201d he said, and he led her to a large village. She was\namazed to see here many wolves--gray and black, timber wolves and\ncoyotes. It seemed as if all the wolves in the world were there.\n\nThe wolf chief led the young woman to a great tepee and invited her in.\nHe asked her what she ate for food.\n\n\u201cBuffalo meat,\u201d she answered.\n\nHe called two coyotes and bade them bring what the young woman wanted.\nThey bounded away and soon returned with the shoulder of a fresh-killed\nbuffalo calf.\n\n\u201cHow do you prepare it for eating?\u201d asked the wolf chief.\n\n\u201cBy boiling,\u201d answered the young woman.\n\nAgain he called the two coyotes. Away they bounded and soon brought into\nthe tent a small bundle. In it were punk, flint and steel--stolen, it\nmay be, from some camp of men.\n\n\u201cHow do you make the meat ready?\u201d asked the wolf chief.\n\n\u201cI cut it into slices,\u201d answered the young woman.\n\nThe coyotes were called and in a short time fetched in a knife in its\nsheath. The young woman cut up the calf\u2019s shoulder into slices and ate\nit.\n\nThus she lived for a year, all the wolves being very kind to her. At the\nend of that time the wolf chief said to her:\n\n\u201cYour people are going off on a buffalo hunt. Tomorrow at noon they will\nbe here. You must then go out and meet them or they will fall on us and\nkill us.\u201d\n\nThe next day at about noon the young woman went to the top of a\nneighboring knoll. Coming toward her were some young men riding on their\nponies. She stood up and held her hands so that they could see her. They\nwondered who she was, and when they were close by gazed at her closely.\n\n\u201cA year ago we lost a young woman; if you are she, where have you been,\u201d\n they asked.\n\n\u201cI have been in the wolves\u2019 village. Do not harm them,\u201d she answered.\n\n\u201cWe will ride back and tell the people,\u201d they said. \u201cTomorrow again at\nnoon, we shall meet you.\u201d\n\nThe young woman went back to the wolf village, and the next day went\nagain to a neighboring knoll, though to a different one. Soon she\nsaw the camp coming in a long line over the prairie. First were the\nwarriors, then the women and tents.\n\nThe young woman\u2019s father and mother were overjoyed to see her. But when\nthey came near her the young woman fainted, for she could not now bear\nthe smell of human kind. When she came to herself she said:\n\n\u201cYou must go on a buffalo hunt, my father and all the hunters. Tomorrow\nyou must come again, bringing with you the tongues and choice pieces of\nthe kill.\u201d\n\nThis he promised to do; and all the men of the camp mounted their ponies\nand they had a great hunt. The next day they returned with their ponies\nladen with the buffalo meat. The young woman bade them pile the meat in\na great heap between two hills which she pointed out to them. There was\nso much meat that the tops of the two hills were bridged level between\nby the meat pile. In the center of the pile the young woman planted a\npole with a red flag. She then began to howl like a wolf, loudly.\n\nIn a moment the earth seemed covered with wolves. They fell greedily on\nthe meat pile and in a short time had eaten the last scrap.\n\nThe young woman then joined her own people.\n\nHer husband wanted her to come and live with him again. For a long time\nshe refused. However, at last they became reconciled.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE RACCOON AND THE CRAWFISH\n\nSharp and cunning is the raccoon, say the Indians, by whom he is named\nSpotted Face.\n\nA crawfish one evening wandered along a river bank, looking for\nsomething dead to feast upon. A raccoon was also out looking for\nsomething to eat. He spied the crawfish and formed a plan to catch him.\n\nHe lay down on the bank and feigned to be dead. By and by the crawfish\ncame near by. \u201cHo,\u201d he thought, \u201chere is a feast indeed; but is he\nreally dead. I will go near and pinch him with my claws and find out.\u201d\n\nSo he went near and pinched the raccoon on the nose and then on his soft\npaws. The raccoon never moved. The crawfish then pinched him on the ribs\nand tickled him so that the raccoon could hardly keep from laughing. The\ncrawfish at last left him. \u201cThe raccoon is surely dead,\u201d he thought.\nAnd he hurried back to the crawfish village and reported his find to the\nchief.\n\nAll the villagers were called to go down to the feast. The chief bade\nthe warriors and young men to paint their faces and dress in their\ngayest for a dance.\n\nSo they marched in a long line--first the warriors, with their weapons\nin hand, then the women with their babies and children--to the place\nwhere the raccoon lay. They formed a great circle about him and danced,\nsinging:\n\n\u201cWe shall have a great feast\n\n\u201cOn the spotted-faced beast, with soft smooth paws:\n\n\u201cHe is dead!\n\n\u201cHe is dead!\n\n\u201cWe shall dance!\n\n\u201cWe shall have a good time!\n\n\u201cWe shall feast on his flesh.\u201d\n\nBut as they danced, the raccoon suddenly sprang to his feet.\n\n\u201cWho is that you say you are going to eat? He has a spotted face, has\nhe? He has soft, smooth paws, has he? I\u2019ll break your ugly backs. I\u2019ll\nbreak your rough bones. I\u2019ll crunch your ugly, rough paws.\u201d And he\nrushed among the crawfish, killing them by scores. The crawfish warriors\nfought bravely and the women ran screaming, all to no purpose. They did\nnot feast on the raccoon; the raccoon feasted _on them!_\n\n\n\n\n\n\nLEGEND OF STANDING ROCK\n\nA Dakota had married an Arikara woman, and by her had one child. By and\nby he took another wife. The first wife was jealous and pouted. When\ntime came for the village to break camp she refused to move from her\nplace on the tent floor. The tent was taken down but she sat on the\nground with her babe on her back The rest of the camp with her husband\nwent on.\n\nAt noon her husband halted the line. \u201cGo back to your sister-in-law,\u201d\n he said to his two brothers. \u201cTell her to come on and we will await you\nhere. But hasten, for I fear she may grow desperate and kill herself.\u201d\n\nThe two rode off and arrived at their former camping place in the\nevening. The woman still sat on the ground. The elder spoke:\n\n\u201cSister-in-law, get up. We have come for you. The camp awaits you.\u201d\n\nShe did not answer, and he put out his hand and touched her head. She\nhad turned to stone!\n\nThe two brothers lashed their ponies and came back to camp. They told\ntheir story, but were not believed. \u201cThe woman has killed herself and my\nbrothers will not tell me,\u201d said the husband. However, the whole village\nbroke camp and came back to the place where they had left the woman.\nSure enough, she sat there still, a block of stone.\n\nThe Indians were greatly excited. They chose out a handsome pony, made\na new travois and placed the stone in the carrying net. Pony and travois\nwere both beautifully painted and decorated with streamers and colors.\nThe stone was thought _\u201cwakan\u201d_ (holy), and was given a place of honor\nin the center of the camp. Whenever the camp moved the stone and travois\nwere taken along. Thus the stone woman was carried for years, and\nfinally brought to Standing Rock Agency, and now rests upon a brick\npedestal in front of the Agency office. From this stone Standing Rock\nAgency derives its name.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSTORY OF THE PEACE PIPE\n\nTwo young men were out strolling one night talking of love affairs. They\npassed around a hill and came to a little ravine or coulee. Suddenly\nthey saw coming up from the ravine a beautiful woman. She was painted\nand her dress was of the very finest material.\n\n\u201cWhat a beautiful girl!\u201d said one of the young men. \u201cAlready I love her.\nI will steal her and make her my wife.\u201d\n\n\u201cNo,\u201d said the other. \u201cDon\u2019t harm her. She may be holy.\u201d\n\nThe young woman approached and held out a pipe which she first offered\nto the sky, then to the earth and then advanced, holding it out in her\nextended hands.\n\n\u201cI know what you young men have been saying; one of you is good; the\nother is wicked,\u201d she said.\n\nShe laid down the pipe on the ground and at once became a buffalo cow.\nThe cow pawed the ground, stuck her tail straight out behind her and\nthen lifted the pipe from the ground again in her hoofs; immediately she\nbecame a young woman again.\n\n\u201cI am come to give you this gift,\u201d she said. \u201cIt is the peace pipe.\nHereafter all treaties and ceremonies shall be performed after smoking\nit. It shall bring peaceful thoughts into your minds. You shall offer it\nto the Great Mystery and to mother earth.\u201d\n\nThe two young men ran to the village and told what they had seen and\nheard. All the village came out where the young woman was.\n\nShe repeated to them what she had already told the young men and added:\n\n\u201cWhen you set free the ghost (the spirit of deceased persons) you must\nhave a white buffalo cow skin.\u201d\n\nShe gave the pipe to the medicine men of the village, turned again to a\nbuffalo cow and fled away to the land of buffaloes.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nA BASHFUL COURTSHIP\n\nA young man lived with his grandmother. He was a good hunter and wished\nto marry. He knew a girl who was a good moccasin maker, but she belonged\nto a great family. He wondered how he could win her.\n\nOne day she passed the tent on her way to get water at the river. His\ngrandmother was at work in the tepee with a pair of old worn-out sloppy\nmoccasins. The young man sprang to his feet. \u201cQuick, grandmother--let me\nhave those old sloppy moccasins you have on your feet!\u201d he cried.\n\n\u201cMy old moccasins, what do you want of them?\u201d cried the astonished\nwoman.\n\n\u201cNever mind! Quick! I can\u2019t stop to talk,\u201d answered the grandson as he\ncaught up the old moccasins the old lady had doffed, and put them on. He\nthrew a robe over his shoulders, slipped through the door, and hastened\nto the watering place. The girl had just arrived with her bucket.\n\n\u201cLet me fill your bucket for you,\u201d said the young man.\n\n\u201cOh, no, I can do it.\u201d\n\n\u201cOh, let me, I can go in the mud. You surely don\u2019t want to soil your\nmoccasins,\u201d and taking the bucket he slipped in the mud, taking care\nto push his sloppy old moccasins out so the girl could see them. She\ngiggled outright.\n\n\u201cMy, what old moccasins you have,\u201d she cried.\n\n\u201cYes, I have nobody to make me a new pair,\u201d he answered.\n\n\u201cWhy don\u2019t you get your grandmother to make you a new pair?\u201d\n\n\u201cShe\u2019s old and blind and can\u2019t make them any longer. That\u2019s why I want\nyou,\u201d he answered.\n\n\u201cOh, you\u2019re fooling me. You aren\u2019t speaking the truth.\u201d\n\n\u201cYes, I am. If you don\u2019t believe--come with me _now!_\u201d\n\nThe girl looked down; so did the youth. At last he said softly:\n\n\u201cWell, which is it? Shall I take up your bucket, or will you go with\nme?\u201d\n\nAnd she answered, still more softly: \u201cI guess I\u2019ll go with you!\u201d\n\nThe girl\u2019s aunt came down to the river, wondering what kept her niece so\nlong. In the mud she found two pairs of moccasin tracks close together;\nat the edge of the water stood an empty keg.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE SIMPLETON\u2019S WISDOM\n\nThere was a man and his wife who had one daughter. Mother and daughter\nwere deeply attached to one another, and when the latter died the mother\nwas disconsolate. She cut off her hair, cut gashes in her cheeks and sat\nbefore the corpse with her robe drawn over her head, mourning for her\ndead. Nor would she let them touch the body to take it to a burying\nscaffold. She had a knife in her hand, and if anyone offered to come\nnear the body the mother would wail:\n\n\u201cI am weary of life. I do not care to live. I will stab myself with this\nknife and join my daughter in the land of spirits.\u201d\n\nHer husband and relatives tried to get the knife from her, but could\nnot. They feared to use force lest she kill herself. They came together\nto see what they could do.\n\n\u201cWe must get the knife away from her,\u201d they said.\n\nAt last they called a boy, a kind of simpleton, yet with a good deal of\nnatural shrewdness. He was an orphan and very poor. His moccasins were\nout at the sole and he was dressed in wei-zi (coarse buffalo skin,\nsmoked).\n\n\u201cGo to the tepee of the mourning mother,\u201d they told the simpleton, \u201cand\nin some way contrive to make her laugh and forget her grief. Then try to\nget the knife away from her.\u201d\n\nThe boy went to the tent and sat down at the door as if waiting to be\ngiven something. The corpse lay in the place of honor where the dead\ngirl had slept in life. The body was wrapped in a rich robe and wrapped\nabout with ropes. Friends had covered it with rich offerings out of\nrespect to the dead.\n\nAs the mother sat on the ground with her head covered she did not at\nfirst see the boy, who sat silent. But when his reserve had worn away\na little he began at first lightly, then more heavily, to drum on the\nfloor with his hands. After a while he began to sing a comic song.\nLouder and louder he sang until carried away with his own singing he\nsprang up and began to dance, at the same time gesturing and making all\nmanner of contortions with his body, still singing the comic song. As he\napproached the corpse he waved his hands over it in blessing. The mother\nput her head out of the blanket and when she saw the poor simpleton\nwith his strange grimaces trying to do honor to the corpse by his solemn\nwaving, and at the same time keeping up his comic song, she burst out\nlaughing. Then she reached over and handed her knife to the simpleton.\n\n\u201cTake this knife,\u201d she said. \u201cYou have taught me to forget my grief. If\nwhile I mourn for the dead I can still be mirthful, there is no reason\nfor me to despair. I no longer care to die. I will live for my husband.\u201d\n\nThe simpleton left the tepee and brought the knife to the astonished\nhusband and relatives.\n\n\u201cHow did you get it? Did you force it away from her, or did you steal\nit?\u201d they said.\n\n\u201cShe gave it to me. How could I force it from her or steal it when she\nheld it in her hand, blade uppermost? I sang and danced for her and she\nburst out laughing. Then she gave it to me,\u201d he answered.\n\nWhen the old men of the village heard the orphan\u2019s story they were very\nsilent. It was a strange thing for a lad to dance in a tepee where there\nwas mourning. It was stranger that a mother should laugh in a tepee\nbefore the corpse of her dead daughter. The old men gathered at last in\na council. They sat a long time without saying anything, for they did\nnot want to decide hastily. The pipe was filled and passed many times.\nAt last an old man spoke.\n\n\u201cWe have a hard question. A mother has laughed before the corpse of her\ndaughter, and many think she has done foolishly, but I think the woman\ndid wisely. The lad was simple and of no training, and we cannot expect\nhim to know how to do as well as one with good home and parents to teach\nhim. Besides, he did the best that he knew. He danced to make the mother\nforget her grief, and he tried to honor the corpse by waving over it his\nhands.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe mother did right to laugh, for when one does try to do us good,\neven if what he does causes us discomfort, we should always remember\nrather the motive than the deed. And besides, the simpleton\u2019s dancing\nsaved the woman\u2019s life, for she gave up her knife. In this, too, she did\nwell, for it is always better to live for the living than to die for the\ndead.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\nA LITTLE BRAVE AND THE MEDICINE WOMAN\n\nA village of Indians moved out of winter camp and pitched their tents\nin a circle on high land overlooking a lake. A little way down the\ndeclivity was a grave. Choke cherries had grown up, hiding the grave\nfrom view. But as the ground had sunk somewhat, the grave was marked by\na slight hollow.\n\nOne of the villagers going out to hunt took a short cut through the\nchoke cherry bushes. As he pushed them aside he saw the hollow grave,\nbut thought it was a washout made by the rains. But as he essayed to\nstep over it, to his great surprise he stumbled and fell. Made curious\nby his mishap, he drew back and tried again; but again he fell. When he\ncame back to the village he told the old men what had happened to him.\nThey remembered then that a long time before there had been buried there\na medicine woman or conjurer. Doubtless it was her medicine that made\nhim stumble.\n\nThe story of the villager\u2019s adventure spread thru the camp and made many\ncurious to see the grave. Among others were six little boys who were,\nhowever, rather timid, for they were in great awe of the dead medicine\nwoman. But they had a little playmate named Brave, a mischievous little\nrogue, whose hair was always unkempt and tossed about and who was never\nquiet for a moment.\n\n\u201cLet us ask Brave to go with us,\u201d they said; and they went in a body to\nsee him.\n\n\u201cAll right,\u201d said Brave; \u201cI will go with you. But I have something to\ndo first. You go on around the hill _that_ way, and I will hasten around\n_this_ way, and meet you a little later near the grave.\u201d\n\nSo the six little boys went on as bidden until they came to a place near\nthe grave. There they halted.\n\n\u201cWhere is Brave?\u201d they asked.\n\nNow Brave, full of mischief, had thought to play a jest on his little\nfriends. As soon as they were well out of sight he had sped around the\nhill to the shore of the lake and sticking his hands in the mud had\nrubbed it over his face, plastered it in his hair, and soiled his hands\nuntil he looked like a new risen corpse with the flesh rotting from his\nbones. He then went and lay down in the grave and awaited the boys.\n\nWhen the six little boys came they were more timid than ever when they\ndid not find Brave; but they feared to go back to the village without\nseeing the grave, for fear the old men would call them cowards.\n\nSo they slowly approached the grave and one of them timidly called out:\n\n\u201cPlease, grandmother, we won\u2019t disturb your grave. We only want to see\nwhere you lie. Don\u2019t be angry.\u201d\n\nAt once a thin quavering voice, like an old woman\u2019s, called out:\n\n\u201cHan, han, takoja, hechetuya, hechetuya! Yes, yes, that\u2019s right, that\u2019s\nright.\u201d\n\nThe boys were frightened out of their senses, believing the old woman\nhad come to life.\n\n\u201cOh, grandmother,\u201d they gasped, \u201cdon\u2019t hurt us; please don\u2019t, we\u2019ll go.\u201d\n\nJust then Brave raised his muddy face and hands up thru the choke cherry\nbushes. With the oozy mud dripping from his features he looked like some\nvery witch just raised from the grave. The boys screamed outright. One\nfainted. The rest ran yelling up the hill to the village, where each\nbroke at once for his mother\u2019s tepee.\n\nAs all the tents in a Dakota camping circle face the center, the boys as\nthey came tearing into camp were in plain view from the tepees. Hearing\nthe screaming, every woman in camp ran to her tepee door to see what\nhad happened. Just then little Brave, as badly scared as the rest, came\nrushing in after them, his hair on end and covered with mud and crying\nout, all forgetful of his appearance:\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s me, it\u2019s me!\u201d\n\nThe women yelped and bolted in terror from the village. Brave dashed\ninto his mother\u2019s tepee, scaring her out of her wits. Dropping pots and\nkettles, she tumbled out of the tent to run screaming with the rest. Nor\nwould a single villager come near poor little Brave until he had gone\ndown to the lake and washed himself.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE BOUND CHILDREN\n\nThere once lived a widow with two children--the elder a daughter and the\nyounger a son. The widow went in mourning for her husband a long time.\nShe cut off her hair, let her dress lie untidy on her body and kept her\nface unpainted and unwashed.\n\nThere lived in the same village a great chief. He had one son just come\nold enough to marry. The chief had it known that he wished his son to\ntake a wife, and all of the young women in the village were eager to\nmarry the young man. However, he was pleased with none of them.\n\nNow the widow thought, \u201cI am tired of mourning for my husband and caring\nfor my children. Perhaps if I lay aside my mourning and paint myself\nred, the chief\u2019s son may marry me.\u201d\n\nSo she slipped away from her two children, stole down to the river and\nmade a bathing place thru the ice. When she had washed away all signs of\nmourning, she painted and decked herself and went to the chief\u2019s tepee.\nWhen his son saw her, he loved her, and a feast was made in honor of her\nwedding.\n\nWhen the widow\u2019s daughter found herself forsaken, she wept bitterly.\nAfter a day or two she took her little brother in her arms and went to\nthe tepee of an old woman who lived at one end of the village. The old\nwoman\u2019s tumble down tepee was of bark and her dress and clothing was of\nold smoke-dried tent cover. But she was kind to the two waifs and took\nthem in willingly.\n\nThe little girl was eager to find her mother. The old woman said to her:\n\u201cI suspect your mother has painted her face red. Do not try to find her.\nIf the chief\u2019s son marries her she will not want to be burdened with\nyou.\u201d\n\nThe old woman was right. The girl went down to the river, and sure\nenough found a hole cut in the ice and about it lay the filth that the\nmother had washed from her body. The girl gathered up the filth and went\non. By and by she came to a second hole in the ice. Here too was filth,\nbut not so much as at the previous place. At the third hole the ice was\nclean.\n\nThe girl knew now that her mother had painted her face red. She went at\nonce to the chief\u2019s tepee, raised the door flap and went in. There sat\nher mother with the chief\u2019s son at their wedding feast.\n\nThe girl walked up to her mother and hurled the filth in her mother\u2019s\nface.\n\n\u201cThere,\u201d she cried, \u201cyou who forsake your helpless children and forget\nyour husband, take that!\u201d\n\nAnd at once her mother became a hideous old woman.\n\nThe girl then went back to the lodge of the old woman, leaving the camp\nin an uproar. The chief soon sent some young warriors to seize the girl\nand her brother, and they were brought to his tent. He was furious with\nanger.\n\n\u201cLet the children be bound with lariats wrapped about their bodies and\nlet them be left to starve. Our camp will move on,\u201d he said. The chief\u2019s\nson did not put away his wife, hoping she might be cured in some way and\ngrow young again.\n\nEverybody in camp now got ready to move; but the old woman came close to\nthe girl and said:\n\n\u201cIn my old tepee I have dug a hole and buried a pot with punk and steel\nand flint and packs of dried meat. They will tie you up like a corpse.\nBut before we go I will come with a knife and pretend to stab you, but\nI will really cut the rope that binds you so that you can unwind it from\nyour body as soon as the camp is out of sight and hearing.\u201d\n\nAnd so, before the camp started, the old woman came to the place where\nthe two children were bound. She had in her hand a knife bound to the\nend of a stick which she used as a lance. She stood over the children\nand cried aloud:\n\n\u201cYou wicked girl, who have shamed your own mother, you deserve all the\npunishment that is given you. But after all I do not want to let you lie\nand starve. Far better kill you at once and have done with it!\u201d and\nwith her stick she stabbed many times, as if to kill, but she was really\ncutting the rope.\n\nThe camp moved on; but the children lay on the ground until noon the\nnext day. Then they began to squirm about. Soon the girl was free, and\nshe then set loose her little brother. They went at once to the old\nwoman\u2019s hut where they found the flint and steel and the packs of dried\nmeat.\n\nThe girl made her brother a bow and arrows and with these he killed\nbirds and other small game.\n\nThe boy grew up a great hunter. They became rich. They built three great\ntepees, in one of which were stored rows upon rows of parfleche bags of\ndried meat.\n\nOne day as the brother went out to hunt, he met a handsome young\nstranger who greeted him and said to him:\n\n\u201cI know you are a good hunter, for I have been watching you; your\nsister, too, is industrious. Let me have her for a wife. Then you and I\nwill be brothers and hunt together.\u201d\n\nThe girl\u2019s brother went home and told her what the young stranger had\nsaid.\n\n\u201cBrother, I do not care to marry,\u201d she answered. \u201cI am now happy with\nyou.\u201d\n\n\u201cBut you will be yet happier married,\u201d he answered, \u201cand the young\nstranger is of no mean family, as one can see by his dress and manners.\u201d\n\n\u201cVery well, I will do as you wish,\u201d she said. So the stranger came into\nthe tepee and was the girl\u2019s husband.\n\nOne day as they were in their tent, a crow flew overhead, calling out\nloudly,\n\n          \u201cKaw, Kaw,\n\n\u201cThey who forsook the children have no meat.\u201d\n\nThe girl and her husband and brother looked up at one another.\n\n\u201cWhat can it mean?\u201d they asked. \u201cLet us send for Unktomi (the spider).\nHe is a good judge and he will know.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd I will get ready a good dinner for him, for Unktomi is always\nhungry,\u201d added the young wife.\n\nWhen Unktomi came, his yellow mouth opened with delight at the fine\nfeast spread for him. After he had eaten he was told what the crow had\nsaid.\n\n\u201cThe crow means,\u201d said Unktomi, \u201cthat the villagers and chief who bound\nand deserted you are in sad plight. They have hardly anything to eat and\nare starving.\u201d\n\nWhen the girl heard this she made a bundle of choicest meat and called\nthe crow.\n\n\u201cTake this to the starving villagers,\u201d she bade him.\n\nHe took the bundle in his beak, flew away to the starving village and\ndropped the bundle before the chief\u2019s tepee. The chief came out and the\ncrow called loudly:\n\n\u201cKaw, Kaw!\n\n\u201cThe children who were forsaken have much meat; those who forsook them\nhave none.\u201d\n\n\u201cWhat can he mean,\u201d cried the astonished villagers.\n\n\u201cLet us send for Unktomi,\u201d said one, \u201che is a great judge; he will tell\nus.\u201d\n\nThey divided the bundle of meat among the starving people, saving the\nbiggest piece for Unktomi.\n\nWhen Unktomi had come and eaten, the villagers told him of the crow and\nasked what the bird\u2019s words meant.\n\n\u201cHe means,\u201d said Unktomi, \u201cthat the two children whom you forsook have\ntepees full of dried meat enough for all the village.\u201d\n\nThe villagers were filled with astonishment at this news. To find\nwhether or not it was true, the chief called seven young men and sent\nthem out to see. They came to the three tepees and there met the girl\u2019s\nbrother and husband just going out to hunt (which they did now only for\nsport).\n\nThe girl\u2019s brother invited the seven young men into the third or sacred\nlodge, and after they had smoked a pipe and knocked out the ashes on a\nbuffalo bone the brother gave them meat to eat, which the seven devoured\ngreedily. The next day he loaded all seven with packs of meat, saying:\n\n\u201cTake this meat to the villagers and lead them hither.\u201d\n\nWhile they awaited the return of the young men with the villagers, the\ngirl made two bundles of meat, one of the best and choicest pieces, and\nthe other of liver, very dry and hard to eat. After a few days the camp\narrived. The young woman\u2019s mother opened the door and ran in crying:\n\u201cOh, my dear daughter, how glad I am to see you.\u201d But the daughter\nreceived her coldly and gave her the bundle of dried liver to eat. But\nwhen the old woman who had saved the children\u2019s lives came in, the\nyoung girl received her gladly, called her grandmother, and gave her the\npackage of choice meat with marrow.\n\nThen the whole village camped and ate of the stores of meat all the\nwinter until spring came; and withal they were so many, there was such\nabundance of stores that there was still much left.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE SIGNS OF CORN\n\nWhen corn is to be planted by the Indians, it is the work of the women\nfolk to see to the sorting and cleaning of the best seed. It is also the\nwomen\u2019s work to see to the planting. (This was in olden times.)\n\nAfter the best seed has been selected, the planter measures the corn,\nlays down a layer of hay, then a layer of corn. Over this corn they\nsprinkle warm water and cover it with another layer of hay, then bind\nhay about the bundle and hang it up in a spot where the warm rays of the\nsun can strike it.\n\nWhile the corn is hanging in the sun, the ground is being prepared to\nreceive it. Having finished the task of preparing the ground, the woman\ntakes down her seed corn which has by this time sprouted. Then she\nproceeds to plant the corn.\n\nBefore she plants the first hill, she extends her hoe heavenwards and\nasks the Great Spirit to bless her work, that she may have a good yield.\nAfter her prayer she takes four kernels and plants one at the north,\none at the south, one at the east and one at the west sides of the first\nhill. This is asking the Great Spirit to give summer rain and sunshine\nto bring forth a good crop.\n\nFor different growths of the corn, the women have an interpretation as\nto the character of the one who planted it.\n\n1st. Where the corn grows in straight rows and the cob is full of\nkernels to the end, this signifies that the planter of this corn is of\nan exemplary character, and is very truthful and thoughtful.\n\n2nd. If the rows on the ears of corn are irregular and broken, the\nplanter is considered careless and unthoughtful. Also disorderly and\nslovenly about her house and person.\n\n3rd. When an ear of corn bears a few scattering kernels with spaces\nproducing no corn, it is said that is a good sign that the planter will\nlive to a ripe old age. So old will they be that like the corn, their\nteeth will be few and far between.\n\n4th. When a stalk bears a great many nubbins, or small ears growing\naround the large one, it is a sign that the planter is from a large and\nrespectable family.\n\nAfter the corn is gathered, it is boiled into sweet corn and made into\nhominy; parched and mixed with buffalo tallow and rolled into round\nballs, and used at feasts, or carried by the warriors on the warpath as\nfood.\n\nWhen there has been a good crop of corn, an ear is always tied at the\ntop of the medicine pole, of the sun dance, in thanks to the Great\nSpirit for his goodness to them in sending a bountiful crop.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSTORY OF THE RABBITS\n\nThe Rabbit nation were very much depressed in spirits on account of\nbeing run over by all other nations. They, being very obedient to their\nchief, obeyed all his orders to the letter. One of his orders was,\nthat upon the approach of any other nation that they should follow the\nexample of their chief and run up among the rocks and down into their\nburrows, and not show themselves until the strangers had passed.\n\nThis they always did. Even the chirp of a little cricket would send them\nall scampering to their dens.\n\nOne day they held a great council, and after talking over everything for\nsome time, finally left it to their medicine man to decide. The medicine\nman arose and said:\n\n\u201cMy friends, we are of no use on this earth. There isn\u2019t a nation\non earth that fears us, and we are so timid that we cannot defend\nourselves, so the best thing for us to do is to rid the earth of our\nnation, by all going over to the big lake and drowning ourselves.\u201d\n\nThis they decided to do; so going to the lake they were about to jump\nin, when they heard a splashing in the water. Looking, they saw a lot of\nfrogs jumping into the lake.\n\n\u201cWe will not drown ourselves,\u201d said the medicine man, \u201cwe have found a\nnation who are afraid of us. It is the frog nation.\u201d Had it not been for\nthe frogs we would have had no rabbits, as the whole nation would have\ndrowned themselves and the rabbit race would have been extinct.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nHOW THE RABBIT LOST HIS TAIL\n\nOnce upon a time there were two brothers, one a great Genie and the\nother a rabbit. Like all genie, the older could change himself into any\nkind of an animal, bird, fish, cloud, thunder and lightning, or in fact\nanything that he desired.\n\nThe younger brother (the rabbit) was very mischievous and was\ncontinually getting into all kinds of trouble. His older brother was\nkept busy getting Rabbit out of all kinds of scrapes.\n\nWhen Rabbit had attained his full growth he wanted to travel around and\nsee something of the world. When he told his brother what he intended to\ndo, the brother said: \u201cNow, Rabbit, you are Witkotko (mischievous), so\nbe very careful, and keep out of trouble as much as possible. In case\nyou get into any serious trouble, and can\u2019t get out by yourself, just\ncall on me for assistance, and no matter where you are, I will come to\nyou.\u201d\n\nRabbit started out and the first day he came to a very high house,\noutside of which stood a very high pine tree. So high was the tree that\nRabbit could hardly see the top. Outside the door, on an enormous stool,\nsat a very large giant fast asleep. Rabbit (having his bow and arrows\nwith him) strung up his bow, and, taking an arrow from his quiver, said:\n\n\u201cI want to see how big this man is, so I guess I will wake him up.\u201d So\nsaying he moved over to one side and took good aim, and shot the giant\nupon the nose. This stung like fire and awoke the giant, who jumped up,\ncrying: \u201cWho had the audacity to shoot me on the nose?\u201d \u201cI did,\u201d said\nRabbit.\n\nThe giant, hearing a voice, looked all around, but saw nothing, until he\nlooked down at the corner of the house, and there sat a rabbit.\n\n\u201cI had hiccoughs this morning and thought that I was going to have a\ngood big meal, and here is nothing but a toothful.\u201d\n\n\u201cI guess you won\u2019t make a toothful of me,\u201d said Rabbit, \u201cI am as strong\nas you, though I am little.\u201d \u201cWe will see,\u201d said the giant. He went into\nthe house and came out, bringing a hammer that weighed many tons.\n\n\u201cNow, Mr. Rabbit, we will see who can throw this hammer over the top of\nthat tree.\u201d \u201cGet something harder to do,\u201d said Rabbit.\n\n\u201cWell, we will try this first,\u201d said the giant. With that he grasped the\nhammer in both hands, swung it three times around his head and sent it\nspinning thru the air. Up, up, it went, skimming the top of the tree,\nand came down, shaking the ground and burying itself deep into the\nearth.\n\n\u201cNow,\u201d said the giant, \u201cif you don\u2019t accomplish this same feat, I am\ngoing to swallow you at one mouthful.\u201d Rabbit said, \u201cI always sing to my\nbrother before I attempt things like this.\u201d So he commenced singing and\ncalling his brother. \u201cCinye! Cinye!\u201d (brother, brother) he sang. The\ngiant grew nervous, and said: \u201cBoy, why do you call your brother?\u201d\n\nPointing to a small black cloud that was approaching very swiftly,\nRabbit said: \u201cThat is my brother; he can destroy you, your house, and\npine tree in one breath.\u201d\n\n\u201cStop him and you can go free,\u201d said the giant. Rabbit waved his paws\nand the cloud disappeared.\n\nFrom this place Rabbit continued on his trip towards the west. The next\nday, while passing thru a deep forest, he thought he heard some one\nmoaning, as though in pain. He stopped and listened; soon the wind blew\nand the moaning grew louder. Following the direction from whence came\nthe sound, he soon discovered a man stripped of his clothing, and caught\nbetween two limbs of a tall elm tree. When the wind blew the limbs would\nrub together and squeeze the man, who would give forth the mournful\ngroans.\n\n\u201cMy, you have a fine place up there. Let us change. You can come down\nand I will take your place.\u201d (Now this man had been placed up there for\npunishment, by Rabbit\u2019s brother, and he could not get down unless some\none came along and proposed to take his place on the tree). \u201cVery well,\u201d\n said the man. \u201cTake off your clothes and come up. I will fasten you in\nthe limbs and you can have all the fun you want.\u201d\n\nRabbit disrobed and climbed up. The man placed him between the limbs and\nslid down the tree. He hurriedly got into Rabbit\u2019s clothes, and just as\nhe had completed his toilet, the wind blew very hard. Rabbit was nearly\ncrazy with pain, and screamed and cried. Then he began to cry \u201cCinye,\nCinye\u201d (brother, brother). \u201cCall your brother as much as you like, he\ncan never find me.\u201d So saying the man disappeared in the forest.\n\nScarcely had he disappeared, when the brother arrived, and seeing Rabbit\nin the tree, said: \u201cWhich way did he go?\u201d Rabbit pointed the direction\ntaken by the man. The brother flew over the top of the trees, soon found\nthe man and brought him back, making him take his old place between the\nlimbs, and causing a heavy wind to blow and continue all afternoon and\nnight, for punishment to the man for having placed his brother up there.\n\nAfter Rabbit got his clothes back on, his brother gave him a good\nscolding, and wound up by saying: \u201cI want you to be more careful in the\nfuture. I have plenty of work to keep me as busy as I want to be, and I\ncan\u2019t be stopping every little while to be making trips to get you out\nof some foolish scrape. It was only yesterday that I came five hundred\nmiles to help you from the giant, and today I have had to come a\nthousand miles, so be more careful from this on.\u201d\n\nSeveral days after this the Rabbit was traveling along the banks of a\nsmall river, when he came to a small clearing in the woods, and in the\ncenter of the clearing stood a nice little log hut. Rabbit was wondering\nwho could be living here when the door slowly opened and an old man\nappeared in the doorway, bearing a tripe water pail in his right hand.\nIn his left hand he held a string which was fastened to the inside of\nthe house. He kept hold of the string and came slowly down to the river.\nWhen he got to the water he stooped down and dipped the pail into it and\nreturned to the house, still holding the string for guidance.\n\nSoon he reappeared holding on to another string, and, following this\none, went to a large pile of wood and returned to the house with it.\nRabbit wanted to see if the old man would come out again, but he came\nout no more. Seeing smoke ascending from the mud chimney, he thought\nhe would go over and see what the old man was doing. He knocked at the\ndoor, and a weak voice bade him enter. He noticed that the old man was\ncooking dinner.\n\n\u201cHello Tunkasina (grandfather), you must have a nice time, living here\nalone. I see that you have everything handy. You can get wood and water,\nand that is all you have to do. How do you get your provisions?\u201d\n\n\u201cThe wolves bring my meat, the mice my rice and ground beans, and the\nbirds bring me the cherry leaves for my tea. Yet it is a hard life, as I\nam all alone most of the time and have no one to talk to, and besides, I\nam blind.\u201d\n\n\u201cSay, grandfather,\u201d said Rabbit, \u201clet us change places. I think I would\nlike to live here.\u201d\n\n\u201cIf we exchange clothes,\u201d said the other, \u201cyou will become old and\nblind, while I will assume your youth and good looks.\u201d (Now, this old\nman was placed here for punishment by Rabbit\u2019s brother. He had killed\nhis wife, so the genie made him old and blind, and he would remain so\nuntil some one came who would exchange places with him).\n\n\u201cI don\u2019t care for youth and good looks,\u201d said Rabbit, \u201clet us make the\nchange.\u201d\n\nThey changed clothes, and Rabbit became old and blind, whilst the old\nman became young and handsome.\n\n\u201cWell, I must go,\u201d said the man. He went out and cutting the strings\nclose to the door, ran off laughing. \u201cYou will get enough of your living\nalone, you crazy boy,\u201d and saying this he ran into the woods.\n\nRabbit thought he would like to get some fresh water and try the string\npaths so that he would get accustomed to it. He bumped around the room\nand finally found the tripe water bucket. He took hold of the string and\nstarted out. When he had gotten a short distance from the door he came\nto the end of the string so suddenly, that he lost the end which he\nhad in his hand, and he wandered about, bumping against the trees, and\ntangling himself up in plum bushes and thorns, scratching his face\nand hands so badly that the blood ran from them. Then it was that he\ncommenced again to cry, \u201cCinye! Cinye!\u201d (brother, brother). Soon his\nbrother arrived, and asked which way the old man had gone.\n\n\u201cI don\u2019t know,\u201d said Rabbit, \u201cI couldn\u2019t see which path he took, as I\nwas blind.\u201d\n\nThe genie called the birds, and they came flying from every direction.\nAs fast as they arrived the brother asked them if they had seen the man\nwhom he had placed here for punishment, but none had seen him. The owl\ncame last, and when asked if he had seen the man, he said \u201choo-hoo.\u201d\n \u201cThe man who lived here,\u201d said the brother. \u201cLast night I was hunting\nmice in the woods south of here and I saw a man sleeping beneath a plum\ntree. I thought it was your brother, Rabbit, so I didn\u2019t awaken him,\u201d\n said the owl.\n\n\u201cGood for you, owl,\u201d said the brother, \u201cfor this good news, you shall\nhereafter roam around only at night, and I will fix your eyes, so the\ndarker the night the better you will be able to see. You will always\nhave the fine cool nights to hunt your food. You other birds can hunt\nyour food during the hot daylight.\u201d (Since then the owl has been the\nnight bird).\n\nThe brother flew to the woods and brought the man back and cut the\nstrings short, and said to him: \u201cNow you can get a taste of what you\ngave my brother.\u201d\n\nTo Rabbit he said: \u201cI ought not to have helped you this time. Any one\nwho is so crazy as to change places with a blind man should be left\nwithout help, so be careful, as I am getting tired of your foolishness,\nand will not help you again if you do anything as foolish as you did\nthis time.\u201d\n\nRabbit started to return to his home. When he had nearly completed his\njourney he came to a little creek, and being thirsty took a good long\ndrink. While he was drinking he heard a noise as though a wolf or cat\nwas scratching the earth. Looking up to a hill which overhung the creek,\nhe saw four wolves, with their tails intertwined, pulling with all their\nmight. As Rabbit came up to them one pulled loose, and Rabbit saw that\nhis tail was broken.\n\n\u201cLet me pull tails with you. My tail is long and strong,\u201d said Rabbit,\nand the wolves assenting, Rabbit interlocked his long tail with those\nof the three wolves and commenced pulling and the wolves pulled so\nhard that they pulled Rabbit\u2019s tail off at the second joint. The wolves\ndisappeared.\n\n\u201cCinye! Cinye! (Brother, brother.) I have lost my tail,\u201d cried Rabbit.\nThe genie came and seeing his brother Rabbit\u2019s tail missing, said: \u201cYou\nlook better without a tail anyway.\u201d\n\nFrom that time on rabbits have had no tails.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nUNKTOMI AND THE ARROWHEADS\n\nThere were once upon a time two young men who were very great friends,\nand were constantly together. One was a very thoughtful young man, the\nother very impulsive, who never stopped to think before he committed an\nact.\n\nOne day these two friends were walking along, telling each other of\ntheir experiences in love making. They ascended a high hill, and on\nreaching the top, heard a ticking noise as if small stones or pebbles\nwere being struck together.\n\nLooking around they discovered a large spider sitting in the midst of\na great many flint arrowheads. The spider was busily engaged making the\nflint rocks into arrow heads. They looked at the spider, but he never\nmoved, but continued hammering away on a piece of flint which he had\nnearly completed into another arrowhead.\n\n\u201cLet\u2019s hit him,\u201d said the thoughtless one. \u201cNo,\u201d said the other, \u201che is\nnot harming any one; in fact, he is doing a great good, as he is making\nthe flint arrowheads which we use to point our arrows.\u201d\n\n\u201cOh, you are afraid,\u201d said the first young man. \u201cHe can\u2019t harm you, just\nwatch me hit him.\u201d So saying, he picked up an arrowhead and throwing it\nat \u201cUnktomi,\u201d hit him on the side. As Unktomi rolled over on his side,\ngot up and stood looking at them, the young man laughed and said: \u201cWell,\nlet us be going, as your grandfather, \u201cUnktomi,\u201d doesn\u2019t seem to like\nour company.\u201d They started down the hill, when suddenly the one who had\nhit Unktomi took a severe fit of coughing. He coughed and coughed, and\nfinally small particles of blood came from his mouth. The blood kept\ncoming thicker and in great gushes. Finally it came so thick and fast\nthat the man could not get his breath and fell upon the ground dead.\n\nThe thoughtful young man, seeing that his friend was no more, hurried\nto the village and reported what had happened. The relatives and friends\nhurried to the hill, and sure enough, there lay the thoughtless young\nman still and cold in death. They held a council and sent for the chief\nof the Unktomi tribe. When he heard what had happened, he told the\ncouncil that he could do nothing to his Unktomi, as it had only defended\nitself.\n\nSaid he: \u201cMy friends, seeing that your tribe was running short of\narrowheads, I set a great many of my tribe to work making flint\narrowheads for you. When my men are thus engaged they do not wish to\nbe disturbed, and your young man not only disturbed my man, but grossly\ninsulted him by striking him with one of the arrowheads which he had\nworked so hard to make. My man could not sit and take this insult, so\nas the young man walked away the Unktomi shot him with a very tiny\narrowhead. This produced a hemorrhage, which caused his death. So now,\nmy friends, if you will fill and pass the peace pipe, we will part\ngood friends and my tribe shall always furnish you with plenty of flint\narrowheads.\u201d So saying, Unktomi Tanka finished his peace smoke and\nreturned to his tribe.\n\nEver after that, when the Indians heard a ticking in the grass, they\nwould go out of their way to get around the sound, saying, Unktomi is\nmaking arrowheads; we must not disturb him.\n\nThus it was that Unktomi Tanka (Big Spider) had the respect of this\ntribe, and was never after disturbed in his work of making arrowheads.\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE BEAR AND THE RABBIT HUNT BUFFALO\n\nOnce upon a time there lived as neighbors, a bear and a rabbit. The\nrabbit was a good shot, and the bear being very clumsy could not use the\narrow to good advantage. The bear was very unkind to the rabbit. Every\nmorning, the bear would call over to the rabbit and say: \u201cTake your bow\nand arrows and come with me to the other side of the hill. A large herd\nof buffalo are grazing there, and I want you to shoot some of them for\nme, as my children are crying for meat.\u201d\n\nThe rabbit, fearing to arouse the bear\u2019s anger by refusing, consented,\nand went with the bear, and shot enough buffalo to satisfy the hungry\nfamily. Indeed, he shot and killed so many that there was lots of meat\nleft after the bear and his family had loaded themselves, and packed all\nthey could carry home. The bear being very gluttonous, and not wanting\nthe rabbit to get any of the meat, said: \u201cRabbit, you come along home\nwith us and we will return and get the remainder of the meat.\u201d\n\nThe poor rabbit could not even taste the blood from the butchering, as\nthe bear would throw earth on the blood and dry it up. Poor Rabbit would\nhave to go home hungry after his hard day\u2019s work.\n\nThe bear was the father of five children. The youngest boy was very kind\nto the rabbit. The mother bear, knowing that her youngest was a very\nhearty eater, always gave him an extra large piece of meat. What the\nbaby bear did not eat, he would take outside with him and pretend to\nplay ball with it, kicking it toward the rabbit\u2019s house, and when he\ngot close to the door he would give the meat such a great kick, that it\nwould fly into the rabbit\u2019s house, and in this way poor Rabbit would get\nhis meal unknown to the papa bear.\n\nBaby bear never forgot his friend Rabbit. Papa bear often wondered why\nhis baby would go outside after each meal. He grew suspicious and asked\nthe baby where he had been. \u201cOh, I always play ball outside, around the\nhouse, and when I get tired playing I eat up my meat ball and then come\nin.\u201d\n\nThe baby bear was too cunning to let papa bear know that he was keeping\nhis friend rabbit from starving to death. Nevertheless, papa bear\nsuspected baby and said: \u201cBaby, I think you go over to the rabbit\u2019s\nafter every meal.\u201d\n\nThe four older brothers were very handsome, but baby bear was a little\npuny fellow, whose coat couldn\u2019t keep out much cold, as it was short and\nshaggy, and of a dirty brown color. The three older brothers were very\nunkind to baby bear, but the fourth one always took baby\u2019s part, and was\nalways kind to his baby brother.\n\nRabbit was getting tired of being ordered and bullied around by papa\nbear. He puzzled his brain to scheme some way of getting even with Mr.\nBear for abusing him so much. He studied all night long, but no scheme\nworth trying presented itself. Early one morning Mr. Bear presented\nhimself at Rabbit\u2019s door.\n\n\u201cSay, Rabbit, my meat is all used up, and there is a fine herd of\nbuffalo grazing on the hillside. Get your bow and arrows and come with\nme. I want you to shoot some of them for me.\u201d\n\n\u201cVery well,\u201d said Rabbit, and he went and killed six buffalo for Bear.\nBear got busy butchering and poor Rabbit, thinking he would get a chance\nto lick up one mouthful of blood, stayed very close to the bear while he\nwas cutting up the meat. The bear was very watchful lest the rabbit get\nsomething to eat. Despite bear\u2019s watchfulness, a small clot of blood\nrolled past and behind the bear\u2019s feet. At once Rabbit seized the clot\nand hid it in his bosom. By the time Rabbit got home, the blood clot\nwas hardened from the warmth of his body, so, being hungry, it put Mr.\nRabbit out of sorts to think that after all his trouble he could not eat\nthe blood.\n\nVery badly disappointed, he lay down on his floor and gazed up into the\nchimney hole. Disgusted with the way things had turned out, he grabbed\nup the blood clot and threw it up through the hole. Scarcely had it\nhit the ground when he heard the voice of a baby crying, \u201cAte! Ate!\u201d\n (father, father). He went outside and there he found a big baby boy. He\ntook the baby into his house and threw him out through the hole again.\nThis time the boy was large enough to say \u201cAte, Ate, he-cun-sin-lo.\u201d\n (Father, father, don\u2019t do that). But nevertheless, he threw him up and\nout again. On going out the third time, there stood a handsome youth\nsmiling at him. Rabbit at once adopted the youth and took him into his\nhouse, seating him in the seat of honor (which is directly opposite\nthe entrance), and saying: \u201cMy son, I want you to be a good, honest,\nstraightforward man. Now, I have in my possession a fine outfit, and\nyou, my son, shall wear it.\u201d\n\nSuiting his action to his words, he drew out a bag from a hollow tree\nand on opening it, drew out a fine buckskin shirt (tanned white as\nsnow), worked with porcupine quills. Also a pair of red leggings worked\nwith beads. Moccasins worked with colored hair. A fine otter skin robe.\nWhite weasel skins to intertwine with his beautiful long black locks. A\nmagnificent center eagle feather. A rawhide covered bow, accompanied by\na quiver full of flint arrowheads.\n\nThe rabbit, having dressed his son in all the latest finery, sat back\nand gazed long and lovingly at his handsome son. Instinctively\nRabbit felt that his son had been sent him for the purpose of being\ninstrumental in the downfall of Mr. Bear. Events will show.\n\nThe morning following the arrival of Rabbit\u2019s son, Mr. Bear again\npresents himself at the door, crying out: \u201cYou lazy, ugly rabbit, get up\nand come out here. I want you to shoot some more buffalo for me.\u201d\n\n\u201cWho is this, who speaks so insultingly to you, father?\u201d asked the son.\n\n\u201cIt is a bear who lives near here, and makes me kill buffalo for his\nfamily, and he won\u2019t let me take even one little drop of blood from the\nkilling, and consequently, my son, I have nothing in my house for you to\neat.\u201d\n\nThe young man was anxious to meet Mr. Bear but Rabbit advised him to\nwait a little until he and Bear had gone to the hunt. So the son obeyed,\nand when he thought it time that the killing was done, he started out\nand arrived on the scene just as Mr. Bear was about to proceed with his\nbutchering.\n\nSeeing a strange shadow on the ground beside him, Mr. Bear looked up and\ngazed into the fearless eyes of rabbit\u2019s handsome son.\n\n\u201cWho is this?\u201d asked Mr. Bear of poor little Rabbit.\n\n\u201cI don\u2019t know,\u201d answered Rabbit.\n\n\u201cWho are you?\u201d asked the bear of Rabbit\u2019s son. \u201cWhere did you come\nfrom?\u201d\n\nThe rabbit\u2019s son not replying, the bear spoke thus to him: \u201cGet out of\nhere, and get out quick, too.\u201d\n\nAt this speech the rabbit\u2019s son became angered, and fastened an arrow to\nhis bow and drove the arrow through the bear\u2019s heart. Then he turned on\nMrs. Bear and served her likewise. During the melee, Rabbit shouted:\n\u201cMy son, my son, don\u2019t kill the two youngest. The baby has kept me from\nstarving and the other one is good and kind to his baby brother.\u201d\n\nSo the three older brothers who were unkind to their baby brother met a\nsimilar fate to that of their selfish parents.\n\nThis (the story goes) is the reason that bears travel only in pairs.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE BRAVE WHO WENT ON THE WARPATH ALONE AND WON THE NAME OF THE LONE\nWARRIOR\n\nThere was once a young man whose parents were not overburdened with the\nriches of this world, and consequently could not dress their only son in\nas rich a costume as the other young men of the tribe, and on account of\nnot being so richly clad as they, he was looked down upon and shunned by\nthem. He was never invited to take part in any of their sports; nor was\nhe ever asked to join any of the war parties.\n\nIn the village lived an old man with an only daughter. Like the other\nfamily, they were poor, but the daughter was the belle of the tribe. She\nwas the most sought after by the young men of the village, and warriors\nfrom tribes far distant came to press their suit at winning her for\ntheir bride. All to no purpose; she had the same answer for them as she\nhad for the young men of the village.\n\nThe poor young man was also very handsome despite his poor clothes, but\nhaving never killed an enemy nor brought home any enemies\u2019 horses he was\nnot (according to Indian rules) allowed to make love to any young or old\nwoman. He tried in vain to join some of the war parties, that he might\nget the chance to win his spurs as a warrior. To all his pleadings,\ncame the same answer: \u201cYou are not fit to join a war party. You have no\nhorses, and if you should get killed our tribe would be laughed at and\nbe made fun of as you have such poor clothes, and we don\u2019t want the\nenemy to know that we have any one of our tribe who dresses so poorly as\nyou do.\u201d\n\nAgain, and again, he tried different parties, only to be made fun of and\ninsulted.\n\nOne night he sat in the poor tepee of his parents. He was in deep study\nand had nothing to say. His father, noticing his melancholy mood, asked\nhim what had happened to cause him to be so quiet, as he was always of a\njolly disposition. The son answered and said:\n\n\u201cFather, I am going on the warpath alone. In vain I have tried to be\na member of one of the war parties. To all of my pleadings I have got\nnothing but insults in return.\u201d\n\n\u201cBut my son, you have no gun nor ammunition. Where can you get any and\nhow can you get it? We have nothing to buy one for you with,\u201d said the\nfather.\n\n\u201cI don\u2019t need any weapons. I am going to bring back some of the enemies\u2019\nhorses, and I don\u2019t need a gun for that.\u201d\n\nEarly the next morning (regardless of the old couple\u2019s pleadings not\nto go unarmed) the young man left the village and headed northwest, the\ndirection always taken by the war parties.\n\nFor ten days he traveled without seeing any signs of a camp. The evening\nof the tenth day, he reached a very high butte, thickly wooded at the\nsummit. He ascended this butte, and as he sat there between two large\nboulders, watching the beautiful rays of the setting sun, he was\nsuddenly startled to hear the neigh of a horse. Looking down into the\nbeautiful valley which was threaded by a beautiful creek fringed with\ntimber, he noticed close to the base of the butte upon which he sat, a\nlarge drove of horses grazing peacefully and quietly. Looking closer, he\nnoticed at a little distance from the main drove, a horse with a saddle\non his back. This was the one that had neighed, as the drove drifted\nfurther away from him. He was tied by a long lariat to a large sage\nbush.\n\nWhere could the rider be, he said to himself. As if in answer to his\nquestion, there appeared not more than twenty paces from him a middle\naged man coming up through a deep ravine. The man was evidently in\nsearch of some kind of game, as he held his gun in readiness for instant\nuse, and kept his eyes directed at every crevice and clump of bush.\nSo intent was he on locating the game he was trailing, that he never\nnoticed the young man who sat like a statue not twenty paces away.\nSlowly and cautiously the man approached, and when he had advanced to\nwithin a few paces of the young man he stopped and turning around, stood\nlooking down into the valley. This was the only chance that our brave\nyoung friend had. Being unarmed, he would stand no show if the enemy\never got a glimpse of him. Slowly and noiselessly he drew his hunting\nknife (which his father had given him on his departure from home) and\nholding it securely in his right hand, gathered himself and gave a leap\nwhich landed him upon the unsuspecting enemy\u2019s shoulders. The force with\nwhich he landed on the enemy caused him (the enemy) to lose his hold on\nhis gun, and it went rattling down into the chasm, forty feet below.\n\nDown they came together, the young man on top. No sooner had they struck\nthe ground than the enemy had out his knife, and then commenced a hand\nto hand duel. The enemy, having more experience, was getting the best of\nour young friend. Already our young friend had two ugly cuts, one across\nhis chest and the other through his forearm.\n\nHe was becoming weak from the loss of blood, and could not stand the\nkilling pace much longer. Summoning all his strength for one more trial\nto overcome his antagonist, he rushed him toward the chasm, and in his\nhurry to get away from this fierce attack, the enemy stepped back one\nstep too far, and down they both went into the chasm. Interlocked in\neach other\u2019s arms, the young man drove his knife into the enemy\u2019s\nside and when they struck the bottom the enemy relaxed his hold and\nstraightened out stiff and dead.\n\nSecuring his scalp and gun, the young man proceeded down to where the\nhorse was tied to the sage bush, and then gathering the drove of horses\nproceeded on his return to his own village. Being wounded severely he\nhad to ride very slowly. All the long hours of the night he drove the\nhorses towards his home village.\n\nIn the meantime, those at the enemies\u2019 camp wondered at the long absence\nof the herder who was watching their drove of horses, and finally seven\nyoung men went to search for the missing herder. All night long they\nsearched the hillsides for the horses and herder, and when it had grown\nlight enough in the morning they saw by the ground where there had been\na fierce struggle.\n\nFollowing the tracks in the sand and leaves, they came to the chasm\nwhere the combatants had fallen over, and there, lying on his back\nstaring up at them in death, was their herder. They hastened to the camp\nand told what they had found. Immediately the warriors mounted their war\nponies (these ponies are never turned loose, but kept tied close to the\ntepee of the owner), and striking the trail of the herd driven off by\nour young friend, they urged forth their ponies and were soon far from\ntheir camp on the trail of our young friend. All day long they traveled\non his trail, and just as the sun was sinking they caught sight of him\ndriving the drove ahead over a high hill. Again they urged forth their\ntired ponies. The young man, looking back along the trail, saw some dark\nobjects coming along, and, catching a fresh horse, drove the rest ahead\nat a great rate. Again all night he drove them, and when daylight came\nhe looked back (from a high butte) over his trail and saw coming over a\ndistant raise, two horsemen. These two undoubtedly rode the best ponies,\nas he saw nothing of the others. Driving the horses into a thick belt\nof timber, he concealed himself close to the trail made by the drove of\nhorses, and lay in ambush for the two daring horsemen who had followed\nhim so far. Finally they appeared on the butte from where he had looked\nback and saw them following him. For a long time they sat there scouring\nthe country before them in hopes that they might see some signs of their\nstolen horses. Nothing could they see. Had they but known, their horses\nwere but a few hundred yards from them, but the thick timber securely\nhid them from view. Finally one of them arose and pointed to the timber.\nThen leaving his horse in charge of his friend, he descended the butte\nand followed the trail of the drove to where they had entered the\ntimber. Little did he think that he was standing on the brink of\neternity. The young man hiding not more than a hundred yards from him\ncould have shot him there where he stood, but wanting to play fair, he\nstepped into sight. When he did, the enemy took quick aim and fired. He\nwas too hasty. Had he taken more careful aim he might have killed our\nyoung friend, but his bullet whizzed harmlessly over the young man\u2019s\nhead and buried itself in a tree. The young man took good aim and fired.\nThe enemy threw up both hands and fell forward on his face. The other\none on the hill, seeing his friend killed, hastily mounted his horse\nand leading his friend\u2019s horse, made rapidly off down the butte in the\ndirection from whence he had come. Waiting for some time to be sure the\none who was alive did not come up and take a shot at him, he finally\nadvanced upon the fallen enemy and securing his gun, ammunition and\nscalp, went to his horse and drove the herd on through the woods and\ncrossing a long flat prairie, ascended a long chain of hills and sat\nlooking back along his trail in search of any of the enemy who might\ncontinue to follow him.\n\nThus he sat until the long shadows of the hills reminded him that it\nwould soon be sunset, and as he must get some sleep, he wanted to find\nsome creek bend where he could drive the bunch of ponies and feel safe\nas to their not straying off during the night. He found a good place for\nthe herd, and catching a fresh horse, he picketed him close to where he\nwas going to sleep, and wrapping himself in his blanket, was soon fast\nasleep. So tired and sleepy was he that a heavy rain which had come up,\nduring the night, soaked him through and through, but he never awakened\nuntil the sun was high in the east.\n\nHe awoke and going to the place where he had left the herd, he was\nglad to find them all there. He mounted his horse and started his herd\nhomeward again. For two days he drove them, and on the evening of the\nsecond day he came in sight of the village.\n\nThe older warriors, hearing of the young man going on this trip alone\nand unarmed, told the parents to go in mourning for their son, as he\nwould never come back alive. When the people of the village saw this\nlarge drove of horses advancing towards them, they at first thought\nit was a war party of the enemy, and so the head men called the young\nwarriors together and fully prepared for a great battle. They advanced\nupon the supposed enemy. When they got close enough to discern a lone\nhorseman driving this large herd, they surrounded the horses and lone\nwarrior, and brought him triumphantly into camp. On arriving in the camp\n(or village) the horses were counted and the number counted up to one\nhundred and ten head.\n\nThe chief and his criers (or heralds) announced through the whole\nvillage that there would be a great war dance given in honor of the Lone\nWarrior.\n\nThe whole village turned out and had a great war dance that was kept\nup three days and three nights. The two scalps which the young man had\ntaken were tied to a pole which was placed in the center of the dance\ncircle. At this dance, the Lone Warrior gave to each poor family five\nhead of horses.\n\nBeing considered eligible now to pay his respects to any girl who took\nhis fancy, he at once went to the camp of the beautiful girl of the\ntribe, and as he was always her choice, she at once consented to marry\nhim.\n\nThe news spread through the village that Lone Warrior had won the belle\nof the nation for his bride, and this with the great feat which he had\naccomplished alone in killing two enemies and bringing home a great herd\nof horses, raised him to the rank of chief, which he faithfully filled\nto the end of his days. And many times he had to tell his grandchildren\nthe story of how he got the name of the Lone Warrior.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE SIOUX WHO MARRIED THE CROW CHIEF\u2019S DAUGHTER\n\nA war party of seven young men, seeing a lone tepee standing on the edge\nof a heavy belt of timber, stopped and waited for darkness, in order to\nsend one of their scouts ahead to ascertain whether the camp which they\nhad seen was the camp of friend or enemy.\n\nWhen darkness had settled down on them, and they felt secure in not\nbeing detected, they chose one of their scouts to go on alone and find\nout what would be the best direction for them to advance upon the camp,\nshould it prove to be an enemy.\n\nAmong the scouts was one who was noted for his bravery, and many were\nthe brave acts he had performed. His name was Big Eagle. This man they\nselected to go to the lone camp and obtain the information for which\nthey were waiting.\n\nBig Eagle was told to look carefully over the ground and select the best\ndirection from which they should make the attack. The other six would\nawait his return. He started on his mission, being careful not to make\nany noise. He stealthily approached the camp. As he drew near to the\ntent he was surprised to note the absence of any dogs, as these animals\nare always kept by the Sioux to notify the owners by their barking of\nthe approach of anyone. He crawled up to the tepee door, and peeping\nthrough a small aperture, he saw three persons sitting inside. An\nelderly man and woman were sitting at the right of the fireplace, and a\nyoung woman at the seat of honor, opposite the door.\n\nBig Eagle had been married and his wife had died five winters previous\nto the time of this episode. He had never thought of marrying again, but\nwhen he looked upon this young woman he thought he was looking upon the\nface of his dead wife. He removed his cartridge belts and knife, and\nplacing them, along with his rifle, at the side of the tent, he at once\nboldly stepped inside the tepee, and going over to the man, extended his\nhand and shook first the man\u2019s hand, then the old woman\u2019s, and lastly\nthe young woman\u2019s. Then he seated himself by the side of the girl, and\nthus they sat, no one speaking.\n\nFinally, Big Eagle made signs to the man, explaining as well as possible\nby signs, that his wife had died long ago, and when he saw the girl she\nso strongly resembled his dead wife that he wished to marry her, and\nhe would go back to the enemy\u2019s camp and live with them, if they would\nconsent to the marriage of their daughter.\n\nThe old man seemed to understand, and Big Eagle again made signs to him\nthat a party were lying in wait just a short distance from his camp.\nNoiselessly they brought in the horses, and taking down the tent, they\nat once moved off in the direction from whence they had come. The war\nparty waited all night, and when the first rays of dawn disclosed to\nthem the absence of the tepee, they at once concluded that Big Eagle had\nbeen discovered and killed, so they hurriedly started on their trail for\nhome.\n\nIn the meantime, the hunting party, for this it was that Big Eagle\nhad joined, made very good time in putting a good distance between\nthemselves and the war party. All day they traveled, and when evening\ncame they ascended a high hill, looking down into the valley on the\nother side. There stretched for two miles, along the banks of a small\nstream, an immense camp. The old man made signs for Big Eagle to remain\nwith the two women where he was, until he could go to the camp and\nprepare them to receive an enemy into their village.\n\nThe old man rode through the camp and drew up at the largest tepee in\nthe village. Soon Big Eagle could see men gathering around the tepee.\nThe crowd grew larger and larger, until the whole village had assembled\nat the large tepee. Finally they dispersed, and catching their horses,\nmounted and advanced to the hill on which Big Eagle and the two women\nwere waiting. They formed a circle around them and slowly they returned\nto the village, singing and riding in a circle around them.\n\nWhen they arrived at the village they advanced to the large tepee, and\nmotioned Big Eagle to the seat of honor in the tepee. In the village was\na man who understood and spoke the Sioux language. He was sent for, and\nthrough him the oath of allegiance to the Crow tribe was taken by Big\nEagle. This done he was presented with the girl to wife, and also with\nmany spotted ponies.\n\nBig Eagle lived with his wife among her people for two years, and during\nthis time he joined in four different battles between his own people\n(the Sioux) and the Crow people, to whom his wife belonged.\n\nIn no battle with his own people would he carry any weapons, only a long\nwillow coup-stick, with which he struck the fallen Sioux.\n\nAt the expiration of two years he concluded to pay a visit to his own\ntribe, and his father-in-law, being a chief of high standing, at once\nhad it heralded through the village that his son-in-law would visit his\nown people, and for them to show their good will and respect for him by\nbringing ponies for his son-in-law to take back to his people.\n\nHearing this, the herds were all driven in and all day long horses were\nbrought to the tent of Big Eagle, and when he was ready to start on his\nhomeward trip, twenty young men were elected to accompany him to within\na safe distance of his village. The twenty young men drove the gift\nhorses, amounting to two hundred and twenty head, to within one day\u2019s\njourney of the village of Big Eagle, and fearing for their safety from\nhis people, Big Eagle sent them back to their own village.\n\nOn his arrival at his home village, they received him as one returned\nfrom the dead, as they were sure he had been killed the night he had\nbeen sent to reconnoiter the lone camp. There was great feasting and\ndancing in honor of his return, and the horses were distributed among\nthe needy ones of the village.\n\nRemaining at his home village for a year, he one day made up his mind\nto return to his wife\u2019s people. A great many fancy robes, dresses, war\nbonnets, moccasins, and a great drove of horses were given him, and his\nwife, and he bade farewell to his people for good, saying, \u201cI will never\nreturn to you again, as I have decided to live the remainder of my days\nwith my wife\u2019s people.\u201d\n\nOn his arrival at the village of the Crows, he found his father-in-law\nat the point of death. A few days later the old man died, and Big Eagle\nwas appointed to fill the vacancy of chief made by the death of his\nfather-in-law.\n\nSubsequently he took part in battles against his own people, and in the\nthird battle was killed on the field. Tenderly the Crow warriors bore\nhim back to their camp, and great was the mourning in the Crow village\nfor the brave man who always went into battle unarmed, save only the\nwillow wand which he carried.\n\nThus ended the career of one of the bravest of Sioux warriors who ever\ntook the scalp of an enemy, and who for the love of his dead wife, gave\nup home, parents, and friends, to be killed on the field of battle by\nhis own tribe.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE BOY AND THE TURTLES\n\nA boy went on a turtle hunt, and after following the different streams\nfor hours, finally came to the conclusion that the only place he would\nfind any turtles would be at the little lake, where the tribe always\nhunted them.\n\nSo, leaving the stream he had been following, he cut across country to\nthe lake. On drawing near the lake he crawled on his hands and knees in\norder not to be seen by the turtles, who were very watchful, as they had\nbeen hunted so much. Peeping over the rock he saw a great many out on\nthe shore sunning themselves, so he very cautiously undressed, so\nhe could leap into the water and catch them before they secreted\nthemselves. But on pulling off his shirt one of his hands was held up\nso high that the turtles saw it and jumped into the lake with a great\nsplash.\n\nThe boy ran to the shore, but saw only bubbles coming up from the\nbottom. Directly the boy saw something coming to the surface, and soon\nit came up into sight. It was a little man, and soon others, by the\nhundreds, came up and swam about, splashing the water up into the air to\na great height. So scared was the boy that he never stopped to gather\nup his clothes but ran home naked and fell into his grandmother\u2019s tent\ndoor.\n\n\u201cWhat is the trouble, grandchild,\u201d cried the old woman. But the boy\ncould not answer. \u201cDid you see anything unnatural?\u201d He shook his head,\n\u201cno.\u201d He made signs to the grandmother that his lungs were pressing so\nhard against his sides that he could not talk. He kept beating his side\nwith his clenched hands. The grandmother got out her medicine bag,\nmade a prayer to the Great Spirit to drive out the evil spirit that had\nentered her grandson\u2019s body, and after she had applied the medicine, the\nprayer must have been heard and answered, as the boy commenced telling\nher what he had heard and seen.\n\nThe grandmother went to the chief\u2019s tent and told what her grandson had\nseen. The chief sent two brave warriors to the lake to ascertain whether\nit was true or not. The two warriors crept to the little hill close to\nthe lake, and there, sure enough, the lake was swarming with little men\nswimming about, splashing the water high up into the air. The warriors,\ntoo, were scared and hurried home, and in the council called on their\nreturn told what they had seen. The boy was brought to the council\nand given the seat of honor (opposite the door), and was named \u201cWankan\nWanyanka\u201d (sees holy).\n\nThe lake had formerly borne the name of Truth Lake, but from this time\non was called \u201cWicasa-bde\u201d--Man Lake.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE HERMIT, OR THE GIFT OF CORN\n\nIn a deep forest, far from the villages of his people, lived a hermit.\nHis tent was made of buffalo skins, and his dress was made of deer skin.\nFar from the haunts of any human being this old hermit was content to\nspend his days.\n\nAll day long he would wander through the forest studying the different\nplants of nature and collecting precious roots, which he used as\nmedicine. At long intervals some warrior would arrive at the tent of\nthe old hermit and get medicine roots from him for the tribe, the old\nhermit\u2019s medicine being considered far superior to all others.\n\nAfter a long day\u2019s ramble in the woods, the hermit came home late, and\nbeing very tired, at once lay down on his bed and was just dozing off\nto sleep, when he felt something rub against his foot. Awakening with a\nstart, he noticed a dark object and an arm was extended to him, holding\nin its hand a flint pointed arrow.\n\nThe hermit thought, \u201cThis must be a spirit, as there is no human being\naround here but myself!\u201d A voice then said: \u201cHermit, I have come to\ninvite you to my home.\u201d \u201cHow (yes), I will come,\u201d said the old hermit.\nWherewith he arose, wrapped his robe about him and followed.\n\nOutside the door he stopped and looked around, but could see no signs of\nthe dark object.\n\n\u201cWhoever you are, or whatever you be, wait for me, as I don\u2019t know\nwhere to go to find your house,\u201d said the hermit. Not an answer did\nhe receive, nor could he hear any noises as though anyone was walking\nthrough the brush. Re-entering his tent he retired and was soon fast\nasleep. The next night the same thing occurred again, and the hermit\nfollowed the object out, only to be left as before.\n\nHe was very angry to think that anyone should be trying to make sport of\nhim, and he determined to find out who this could be who was disturbing\nhis night\u2019s rest.\n\nThe next evening he cut a hole in the tent large enough to stick an\narrow through, and stood by the door watching. Soon the dark object came\nand stopped outside of the door, and said: \u201cGrandfather, I came to--,\u201d\n but he never finished the sentence, for the old man let go his arrow,\nand he heard the arrow strike something which produced a sound as though\nhe had shot into a sack of pebbles. He did not go out that night to see\nwhat his arrow had struck, but early next morning he went out and looked\nat the spot about where he thought the object had stood. There on the\nground lay a little heap of corn, and from this little heap a small line\nof corn lay scattered along a path. This he followed far into the woods.\nWhen he came to a very small knoll the trail ended. At the end of the\ntrail was a large circle, from which the grass had been scraped off\nclean.\n\n\u201cThe corn trail stops at the edge of this circle,\u201d said the old man, \u201cso\nthis must be the home of whoever it was that invited me.\u201d He took his\nbone knife and hatchet and proceeded to dig down into the center of the\ncircle. When he had got down to the length of his arm, he came to a sack\nof dried meat. Next he found a sack of Indian turnips, then a sack of\ndried cherries; then a sack of corn, and last of all another sack, empty\nexcept that there was about a cupful of corn in one corner of it, and\nthat the sack had a hole in the other corner where his arrow had pierced\nit. From this hole in the sack the corn was scattered along the trail,\nwhich guided the old man to the cache.*\n\nFrom this the hermit taught the tribes how to keep their provisions when\ntraveling and were overloaded. He explained to them how they should dig\na pit and put their provisions into it and cover them with earth. By\nthis method the Indians used to keep provisions all summer, and when\nfall came they would return to their cache, and on opening it would find\neverything as fresh as the day they were placed there.\n\nThe old hermit was also thanked as the discoverer of corn, which had\nnever been known to the Indians until discovered by the old hermit.\n\n*Hiding place.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE MYSTERIOUS BUTTE\n\nA young man was once hunting and came to a steep hill. The east side\nof the hill suddenly dropped off to a very steep bank. He stood on\nthis bank, and at the base he noticed a small opening. On going down to\nexamine it more closely, he found it was large enough to admit a horse\nor buffalo. On either side of the door were figures of different animals\nengraved into the wall.\n\nHe entered the opening and there, scattered about on the floor, lay many\nbracelets, pipes and many other things of ornament, as though they had\nbeen offerings to some great spirit. He passed through this first room\nand on entering the second it was so dark that he could not see his\nhands before his face, so becoming scared, he hurriedly left the place,\nand returning home told what he had seen.\n\nUpon hearing this the chief selected four of his most daring warriors to\ngo with this young man and investigate and ascertain whether the young\nman was telling the truth or not. The five proceeded to the butte, and\nat the entrance the young man refused to go inside, as the figures on\neither side of the entrance had been changed.\n\nThe four entered and seeing that all in the first chamber was as the\nyoung man had told, they went on to the next chamber and found it so\ndark that they could not see anything. They continued on, however,\nfeeling their way along the walls. They finally found an entrance that\nwas so narrow that they had to squeeze into it sideways. They felt their\nway around the walls and found another entrance, so low down that\nthey had to crawl on their hands and knees to go through into the next\nchamber.\n\nOn entering the last chamber they found a very sweet odor coming from\nthe opposite direction. Feeling around and crawling on their hands and\nknees, they discovered a hole in the floor leading downward. From this\nhole came up the sweet odor. They hurriedly held a council, and decided\nto go no further, but return to the camp and report what they had found.\nOn getting to the first chamber one of the young men said: \u201cI am going\nto take these bracelets to show that we are telling the truth.\u201d \u201cNo,\u201d\n said the other three, \u201cthis being the abode of some Great Spirit, you\nmay have some accident befall you for taking what is not yours.\u201d \u201cAh!\nYou fellows are like old women,\u201d said he, taking a fine bracelet and\nencircling his left wrist with it.\n\nWhen they reached the village they reported what they had seen. The\nyoung man exhibited the bracelet to prove that it was the truth they had\ntold.\n\nShortly after this, these four young men were out fixing up traps for\nwolves. They would raise one end of a heavy log and place a stick under,\nbracing up the log. A large piece of meat was placed about five feet\naway from the log and this space covered with poles and willows. At\nthe place where the upright stick was put, a hole was left open, large\nenough to admit the body of a wolf. The wolf, scenting the meat and\nunable to get at it through the poles and willows, would crowd into the\nhole and working his body forward, in order to get the meat, would push\ndown the brace and the log thus released would hold the wolf fast under\nits weight.\n\nThe young man with the bracelet was placing his bait under the log when\nhe released the log by knocking down the brace, and the log caught his\nwrist on which he wore the bracelet. He could not release himself and\ncalled loud and long for assistance. His friends, hearing his call, came\nto his assistance, and on lifting the log found the young man\u2019s wrist\nbroken. \u201cNow,\u201d said they, \u201cyou have been punished for taking the\nwristlet out of the chamber of the mysterious butte.\u201d\n\nSome time after this a young man went to the butte and saw engraved on\nthe wall a woman holding in her hand a pole, with which she was holding\nup a large amount of beef which had been laid across another pole, which\nhad broken in two from the weight of so much meat.\n\nHe returned to the camp and reported what he had seen. All around the\nfigure he saw marks of buffalo hoofs, also marked upon the wall.\n\nThe next day an enormous herd of buffalo came near to the village, and\na great many were killed. The women were busy cutting up and drying the\nmeat. At one camp was more meat than at any other. The woman was hanging\nmeat upon a long tent pole, when the pole broke in two and she was\nobliged to hold the meat up with another pole, just as the young man saw\non the mysterious butte.\n\nEver after that the Indians paid weekly visits to this butte, and\nthereon would read the signs that were to govern their plans.\n\nThis butte was always considered the prophet of the tribe.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE WONDERFUL TURTLE\n\nNear to a Chippewa village lay a large lake, and in this lake there\nlived an enormous turtle. This was no ordinary turtle, as he would often\ncome out of his home in the lake and visit with his Indian neighbors.\nHe paid the most of his visits to the head chief, and on these occasions\nwould stay for hours, smoking and talking with him.\n\nThe chief, seeing that the turtle was very smart and showed great\nwisdom in his talk, took a great fancy to him, and whenever any puzzling\nsubject came up before the chief, he generally sent for Mr. Turtle to\nhelp him decide.\n\nOne day there came a great misunderstanding between different parties of\nthe tribe, and so excited became both sides that it threatened to cause\nbloodshed. The chief was unable to decide for either faction, so he\nsaid, \u201cI will call Mr. Turtle. He will judge for you.\u201d\n\nSending for the turtle, the chief vacated his seat for the time being,\nuntil the turtle should hear both sides, and decide which was in the\nright. The turtle came, and taking the chief\u2019s seat, listened very\nattentively to both sides, and thought long before he gave his decision.\nAfter thinking long and studying each side carefully, he came to the\nconclusion to decide in favor of both. This would not cause any hard\nfeelings. So he gave them a lengthy speech and showed them where they\nwere both in the right, and wound up by saying:\n\n\u201cYou are both in the right in some ways and wrong in others. Therefore,\nI will say that you both are equally in the right.\u201d\n\nWhen they heard this decision, they saw that the turtle was right, and\ngave him a long cheer for the wisdom displayed by him. The whole tribe\nsaw that had it not been for this wise decision there would have been a\ngreat shedding of blood in the tribe. So they voted him as their judge,\nand the chief, being so well pleased with him, gave to him his only\ndaughter in marriage.\n\nThe daughter of the chief was the most beautiful maiden of the Chippewa\nnation, and young men from other tribes traveled hundreds of miles for\nan opportunity to make love to her, and try to win her for a wife. It\nwas all to no purpose. She would accept no one, only him whom her father\nwould select for her. The turtle was very homely, but as he was prudent\nand wise, the father chose him, and she accepted him.\n\nThe young men of the tribe were very jealous, but their jealousy was all\nto no purpose. She married the turtle. The young men would make sport of\nthe chief\u2019s son-in-law. They would say to him: \u201cHow did you come to have\nso flat a stomach?\u201d The turtle answered them, saying:\n\n\u201cMy friends, had you been in my place, you too would have flat stomachs.\nI came by my flat stomach in this way: The Chippewas and Sioux had\na great battle, and the Sioux, too numerous for the Chippewas, were\nkilling them off so fast that they had to run for their lives. I was on\nthe Chippewa side and some of the Sioux were pressing five of us, and\nwere gaining on us very fast. Coming to some high grass, I threw myself\ndown flat on my face, and pressed my stomach close to the ground, so\nthe pursuers could not see me. They passed me and killed the four I was\nwith. After they had gone back, I arose and lo! my stomach was as you\nsee it now. So hard had I pressed to the ground that it would not assume\nits original shape again.\u201d\n\nAfter he had explained the cause of his deformity to them, they said:\n\u201cThe Turtle is brave. We will bother him no more.\u201d Shortly after this\nthe Sioux made an attack upon the Chippewas, and every one deserted the\nvillage. The Turtle could not travel as fast as the rest and was left\nbehind. It being an unusually hot day in the fall, the Turtle grew very\nthirsty and sleepy. Finally scenting water, he crawled towards the point\nfrom whence the scent came, and coming to a large lake jumped in and\nhad a bath, after which he swam towards the center and dived down, and\nfinding some fine large rocks at the bottom, he crawled in among them\nand fell asleep. He had his sleep out and arose to the top.\n\nSwimming to shore he found it was summer. He had slept all winter. The\nbirds were singing, and the green grass and leaves gave forth a sweet\nodor.\n\nHe crawled out and started out looking for the Chippewa camp. He came\nupon the camp several days after he had left his winter quarters, and\ngoing around in search of his wife, found her at the extreme edge of the\nvillage. She was nursing her baby, and as he asked to see it, she showed\nit to him. When he saw that it was a lovely baby and did not resemble\nhim in any respect, he got angry and went off to a large lake, where he\ncontented himself with catching flies and insects and living on seaweed\nthe remainder of his life.\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE MAN AND THE OAK\n\nThere once lived a Sioux couple who had two children, a boy and a girl.\nEvery fall this family would move away from the main camp and take\nup their winter quarters in a grove of timber some distance from the\nprincipal village. The reason they did this was that he was a great\nhunter and where a village was located for the winter the game was\nusually very scarce. Therefore, he always camped by himself in order to\nhave an abundance of game adjacent to his camp.\n\nAll summer he had roamed around following the tribe to wherever their\nfancy might take them. During their travels this particular year there\ncame to the village a strange girl who had no relatives there. No one\nseemed very anxious to take her into their family, so the great hunter\u2019s\ndaughter, taking a fancy to the poor girl, took her to their home and\nkept her. She addressed her as sister, and the parents, on account of\ntheir daughter, addressed her as daughter.\n\nThis strange girl became desperately in love with the young man of the\nfamily, but being addressed as daughter by the parents, she could not\nopenly show her feelings as the young man was considered her brother.\n\nIn the fall when the main village moved into a large belt of timber for\ntheir winter quarters, the hunter moved on to another place two days\u2019\ntravel from the main winter camp, where he would not be disturbed by any\nother hunters.\n\nThe young man had a tent by himself, and it was always kept nice and\nclean by his sister, who was very much attached to him. After a long\nday\u2019s hunt in the woods, he would go into his tent and lie down to rest,\nand when his supper was ready his sister would say, \u201cMy brother is so\ntired. I will carry his supper to him.\u201d\n\nHer friend, whom she addressed as sister, would never go into the young\nman\u2019s tent. Along towards spring there came one night into the young\nman\u2019s tent a woman. She sat down by the door and kept her face covered\nso that it was hidden from view. She sat there a long time and finally\narose and went away. The young man could not imagine who this could be.\nHe knew that it was a long distance from the village and could not make\nout where the woman could have come from. The next night the woman came\nagain and this time she came a little nearer to where the young man lay.\nShe sat down and kept her face covered as before. Neither spoke a word.\nShe sat there for a long time and then arose and departed. He was very\nmuch puzzled over the actions of this woman and decided to ascertain on\nher next visit who she was.\n\nHe kindled a small fire in his tent and had some ash wood laid on it so\nas to keep fire a long time, as ash burns very slowly and holds fire a\nlong time.\n\nThe third night the woman came again and sat down still nearer his bed.\nShe held her blanket open just a trifle, and he, catching up one of the\nembers, flashed it in her face; jumping up she ran hurriedly out of the\ntent. The next morning he noticed that his adopted sister kept her face\nhidden with her blanket. She chanced to drop her blanket while in the\nact of pouring out some soup, and when she did so he noticed a large\nburned spot on her cheek.\n\nHe felt so sorry for what he had done that he could eat no breakfast,\nbut went outside and lay down under an oak tree. All day long he lay\nthere gazing up into the tree, and when he was called for supper he\nrefused, saying that he was not hungry, and for them not to bother him,\nas he would soon get up and go to bed. Far into the night he lay thus,\nand when he tried to arise he could not, as a small oak tree grew\nthrough the center of his body and held him fast to the ground.\n\nIn the morning when the family awoke they found the girl had\ndisappeared, and on going outside the sister discovered her brother held\nfast to the earth by an oak tree which grew very rapidly. In vain were\nthe best medicine men of the tribe sent for. Their medicine was of no\navail. They said: \u201cIf the tree is cut down the young man will die.\u201d\n\nThe sister was wild with grief, and extending her hands to the sun, she\ncried: \u201cGreat Spirit, relieve my suffering brother. Any one who releases\nhim I will marry, be he young, old, homely or deformed.\u201d\n\nSeveral days after the young man had met with the mishap, there came to\nthe tent a very tall man, who had a bright light encircling his body.\n\u201cWhere is the girl who promised to marry any one who would release\nher brother?\u201d \u201cI am the one,\u201d said the young man\u2019s sister. \u201cI am the\nall-powerful lightning and thunder. I see all things and can kill at one\nstroke a whole tribe. When I make my voice heard the rocks shake loose\nand go rattling down the hillsides. The brave warriors cower shivering\nunder some shelter at the sound of my voice. The girl whom you had\nadopted as your sister was a sorceress. She bewitched your brother\nbecause he would not let her make love to him. On my way here I met her\ntraveling towards the west, and knowing what she had done, I struck her\nwith one of my blazing swords, and she lies there now a heap of ashes. I\nwill now release your brother.\u201d\n\nSo saying he placed his hand on the tree and instantly it crumbled to\nashes. The young man arose, and thanked his deliverer.\n\nThen they saw a great black cloud approaching, and the man said: \u201cMake\nready, we shall go home on that cloud.\u201d As the cloud approached near to\nthe man who stood with his bride, it suddenly lowered and enveloped them\nand with a great roar and amidst flashes of lightning and loud peals of\nthunder the girl ascended and disappeared into the west with her Thunder\nand Lightning husband.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSTORY OF THE TWO YOUNG FRIENDS\n\nThere were once in a very large Indian camp two little boys who were\nfast friends. One of the boys, \u201cChaske\u201d (meaning first born), was the\nson of a very rich family, and was always dressed in the finest of\nclothes of Indian costume. The other boy, \u201cHake\u201d (meaning last\nborn), was an orphan and lived with his old grandmother, who was very\ndestitute, and consequently could not dress the boy in fine raiment.\nSo poorly was the boy dressed that the boys who had good clothes always\ntormented him and would not play in his company.\n\nChaske did not look at the clothes of any boy whom he chose as a friend,\nbut mingled with all boys regardless of how they were clad, and would\nstudy their dispositions. The well dressed he found were vain and\nconceited. The fairly well dressed he found selfish and spiteful. The\npoorly clad he found to be generous and truthful, and from all of them\nhe chose \u201cHake\u201d for his \u201cKoda\u201d (friend). As Chaske was the son of the\nleading war chief he was very much sought after by the rest of the boys,\neach one trying to gain the honor of being chosen for the friend and\ncompanion of the great chief\u2019s son; but, as I have before said, Chaske\ncarefully studied them all and finally chose the orphan Hake.\n\nIt was a lucky day for Hake when he was chosen for the friend and\ncompanion of Chaske. The orphan boy was taken to the lodge of his\nfriend\u2019s parents and dressed up in fine clothes and moccasins. (When the\nIndians\u2019 sons claim any one as their friend, the friend thus chosen is\nadopted into the family as their own son).\n\nChaske and Hake were inseparable. Where one was seen the other was not\nfar distant. They played, hunted, trapped, ate and slept together. They\nwould spend most of the long summer days hunting in the forests.\n\nTime went on and these two fast friends grew up to be fine specimens of\ntheir tribe. When they became the age to select a sweetheart they would\ngo together and make love to a girl. Each helping the other to win the\naffection of the one of his choice. Chaske loved a girl who was the\ndaughter of an old medicine man. She was very much courted by the other\nyoung men of the tribe, and many a horse loaded with robes and fine\nporcupine work was tied at the medicine man\u2019s tepee in offering for the\nhand of his daughter, but the horses, laden as when tied there, were\nturned loose, signifying that the offer was not accepted.\n\nThe girl\u2019s choice was Chaske\u2019s friend Hake. Although he had never made\nlove to her for himself, he had always used honeyed words to her and\nwas always loud in his praises for his friend Chaske. One night the two\nfriends had been to see the girl, and on their return Chaske was very\nquiet, having nothing to say and seemingly in deep study. Always of\na bright, jolly and amiable disposition, his silence and moody spell\ngrieved his friend very much, and he finally spoke to Chaske, saying:\n\u201cKoda, what has come over you? You who were always so jolly and full of\nfun? Your silence makes me grieve for you and I do not know what you are\nfeeling so downhearted about. Has the girl said anything to you to make\nyou feel thus?\u201d\n\n\u201cWait, friend,\u201d said Chaske, \u201cuntil morning, and then I will know how to\nanswer your inquiry. Don\u2019t ask me anything more tonight, as my heart is\nhaving a great battle with my brain.\u201d\n\nHake bothered his friend no more that night, but he could not sleep. He\nkept wondering what \u201cPretty Feather\u201d (the girl whom his friend loved)\ncould have said to Chaske to bring such a change over him. Hake never\nsuspected that he himself was the cause of his friend\u2019s sorrow, for\nnever did he have a thought that it was himself that Pretty Feather\nloved.\n\nThe next morning after they had eaten breakfast, Chaske proposed that\nthey should go out on the prairies, and see if they would have the good\nluck to kill an antelope. Hake went out and got the band of horses, of\nwhich there were over a hundred. They selected the fleetest two in the\nherd, and taking their bows and arrows, mounted and rode away towards\nthe south.\n\nHake was overjoyed to note the change in his friend. His oldtime jollity\nhad returned. They rode out about five miles, and scaring up a drove\nof antelope they started in hot pursuit, and as their horses were very\nfleet of foot soon caught up to the drove, and each singling out his\nchoice quickly dispatched him with an arrow. They could easily have\nkilled more of the antelope, but did not want to kill them just for\nsport, but for food, and knowing that they had now all that their horses\ncould pack home, they dismounted and proceeded to dress their kill.\n\nAfter each had finished packing the kill on his horse, Chaske said:\n\u201cLet us sit down and have a smoke before we start back. Besides, I have\nsomething to tell you which I can tell better sitting still than I can\nriding along.\u201d Hake came and sat down opposite his friend, and while\nthey smoked Chaske said:\n\n\u201cMy friend, we have been together for the last twenty years and I\nhave yet the first time to deceive you in any way, and I know I can\ntruthfully say the same of you. Never have I known you to deceive me nor\ntell me an untruth. I have no brothers or sisters. The only brother\u2019s\nlove I know is yours. The only sister\u2019s love I will know will be Pretty\nFeather\u2019s, for brother, last night she told me she loved none but you\nand would marry you and you only. So, brother, I am going to take my\nantelope to my sister-in-law\u2019s tent and deposit it at her door. Then she\nwill know that her wish will be fulfilled. I thought at first that\nyou had been playing traitor to me and had been making love to her for\nyourself, but when she explained it all to me and begged me to intercede\nfor her to you, I then knew that I had judged you wrongfully, and that,\ntogether with my lost love, made me so quiet and sorrowful last night.\nSo now, brother, take the flower of the nation for your wife, and I will\nbe content to continue through life a lonely bachelor, as never again\ncan I give any woman the place which Pretty Feather had in my heart.\u201d\n\nTheir pipes being smoked out they mounted their ponies and Chaske\nstarted up in a clear, deep voice the beautiful love song of Pretty\nFeather and his friend Hake.\n\nSuch is the love between two friends, who claim to be as brothers among\nthe Indians. Chaske gave up his love of a beautiful woman for a man who\nwas in fact no relation to him.\n\nHake said, \u201cI will do as you say, my friend, but before I can marry the\nmedicine man\u2019s daughter, I will have to go on the warpath and do\nsome brave deed, and will start in ten days.\u201d They rode towards home,\nplanning which direction they would travel, and as it was to be their\nfirst experience on the warpath, they would seek advice from the old\nwarriors of the tribe.\n\nOn their arrival at the village Hake took his kill to their own tent,\nwhile Chaske took his to the tent of the Medicine Man, and deposited it\nat the door and rode off towards home.\n\nThe mother of Pretty Feather did not know whether to take the offering\nor not, but Pretty Feather, seeing by this offering that her most\ncherished wish was to be granted, told her mother to take the meat and\ncook it and invite the old women of the camp to a feast in honor of the\nson-in-law who was soon to keep them furnished with plenty of meat. Hake\nand his friend sought out all of the old warriors and gained all the\ninformation they desired. Every evening Hake visited his intended wife\nand many happy evenings they spent together.\n\nThe morning of the tenth day the two friends left the village and\nturned their faces toward the west where the camps of the enemy are\nmore numerous than in any other direction. They were not mounted and\ntherefore traveled slowly, so it took about ten days of walking before\nthey saw any signs of the enemy. The old warriors had told them of a\nthickly wooded creek within the enemies\u2019 bounds. The old men said, \u201cThat\ncreek looks the ideal place to camp, but don\u2019t camp there by any means,\nbecause there is a ghost who haunts that creek, and any one who camps\nthere is disturbed all through the night, and besides they never return,\nbecause the ghost is Wakan (holy), and the enemies conquer the travelers\nevery time.\u201d The friends had extra moccasins with them and one extra\nblanket, as it was late in the fall and the nights were very cold.\n\nThey broke camp early one morning and walked all day. Along towards\nevening, the clouds which had been threatening all day, hurriedly opened\ntheir doors and down came the snowflakes thick and fast. Just before it\nstarted snowing the friends had noticed a dark line about two miles in\nadvance of them. Chaske spoke to his friend and said: \u201cIf this storm\ncontinues we will be obliged to stay overnight at Ghost Creek, as\nI noticed it not far ahead of us, just before the storm set in.\u201d \u201cI\nnoticed it also,\u201d said Hake. \u201cWe might as well entertain a ghost all\nnight as to lie out on these open prairies and freeze to death.\u201d So they\ndecided to run the risk and stay in the sheltering woods of Ghost Creek.\nWhen they got to the creek it seemed as if they had stepped inside a big\ntepee, so thick was the brush and timber that the wind could not be felt\nat all. They hunted and found a place where the brush was very thick and\nthe grass very tall. They quickly pulled the tops of the nearest willows\ntogether and by intertwining the ends made them fast, and throwing\ntheir tent robe over this, soon had a cosy tepee in which to sleep.\nThey started their fire and cooked some dried buffalo meat and buffalo\ntallow, and were just about to eat their supper when a figure of a man\ncame slowly in through the door and sat down near where he had entered.\nHake, being the one who was doing the cooking, poured out some tea into\nhis own cup, and putting a piece of pounded meat and marrow into a small\nplate, placed it before the stranger, saying: \u201cEat, my friend, we are\non the warpath and do not carry much of a variety of food with us, but I\ngive you the best we have.\u201d\n\nThe stranger drew the plate towards him, and commenced eating\nravenously. He soon finished his meal and handed the dish and cup back.\nHe had not uttered a word so far. Chaske filled the pipe and handed it\nto him. He smoked for a few minutes, took one last draw from the pipe\nand handed it back to Chaske, and then he said: \u201cNow, my friends, I am\nnot a living man, but the wandering spirit of a once great warrior, who\nwas killed in these woods by the enemy whom you two brave young men are\nnow seeking to make war upon. For years I have been roaming these woods\nin hopes that I might find some one brave enough to stop and listen\nto me, but all who have camped here in the past have run away at my\napproach or fired guns or shot arrows at me. For such cowards as these\nI have always found a grave. They never returned to their homes. Now I\nhave found two brave men whom I can tell what I want done, and if you\naccomplish what I tell you to do, you will return home with many horses\nand some scalps dangling from your belts. Just over this range of hills\nnorth of us, a large village is encamped for the winter. In that camp is\nthe man who laid in ambush and shot me, killing me before I could get\na chance to defend myself. I want that man\u2019s scalp, because he has been\nthe cause of my wanderings for a great many years. Had he killed me on\nthe battlefield my spirit would have at once joined my brothers in the\nhappy hunting grounds, but being killed by a coward, my spirit is doomed\nto roam until I can find some brave man who will kill this coward and\nbring me his scalp. This is why I have tried every party who have camped\nhere to listen to me, but as I have said before, they were all cowards.\nNow, I ask you two brave young men, will you do this for me?\u201d\n\n\u201cWe will,\u201d said the friends in one voice. \u201cThank you, my boys. Now, I\nknow why you came here, and that one of you came to earn his feathers by\nkilling an enemy, before he would marry; the girl he is to marry is\nmy granddaughter, as I am the father of the great Medicine Man. In the\nmorning there will pass by in plain sight of here a large party. They\nwill chase the buffalo over on that flat. After they have passed an old\nman leading a black horse and riding a white one will come by on the\ntrail left by the hunting party. He will be driving about a hundred\nhorses, which he will leave over in the next ravine. He will then\nproceed to the hunting grounds and get meat from the different hunters.\nAfter the hunters have all gone home he will come last, singing the\npraises of the ones who gave him the meat. This man you must kill and\nscalp, as he is the one I want killed. Then take the white and black\nhorse and each mount and go to the hunting grounds. There you will see\ntwo of the enemy riding about picking up empty shells. Kill and scalp\nthese two and each take a scalp and come over to the high knoll and I\nwill show you where the horses are, and as soon as you hand me the old\nman\u2019s scalp I will disappear and you will see me no more. As soon as I\ndisappear, it will start in snowing. Don\u2019t be afraid as the snow will\ncover your trail, but nevertheless, don\u2019t stop traveling for three days\nand nights, as these people will suspect that some of your tribe have\ndone this, and they will follow you until you cross your own boundary\nlines.\u201d\n\nWhen morning came, the two friends sat in the thick brush and watched\na large party pass by their hiding place. So near were they that the\nfriends could hear them laughing and talking. After the hunting party\nhad passed, as the spirit had told them, along came the old man, driving\na large band of horses and leading a fine looking coal black horse. The\nhorse the old man was riding was as white as snow. The friends crawled\nto a little brush covered hill and watched the chase after the shooting\nhad ceased. The friends knew it would not be long before the return of\nthe party, so they crawled back to their camp and hurriedly ate some\npounded meat and drank some cherry tea. Then they took down their robe\nand rolled it up and got everything in readiness for a hurried flight\nwith the horses. Scarcely had they got everything in readiness when the\nparty came by, singing their song of the chase. When they had all gone\nthe friends crawled down to the trail and lay waiting for the old man.\nSoon they heard him singing. Nearer and nearer came the sounds of the\nsong until at last at a bend in the road, the old man came into view.\nThe two friends arose and advanced to meet him. On he came still\nsinging. No doubt he mistook them for some of his own people. When\nhe was very close to them they each stepped to either side of him and\nbefore he could make an outcry they pierced his cowardly old heart with\ntwo arrows. He had hardly touched the ground when they both struck him\nwith their bows, winning first and second honors by striking an enemy\nafter he has fallen. Chaske having won first honors, asked his friend to\nperform the scalping deed, which he did. And wanting to be sure that the\nspirit would get full revenge, took the whole scalp, ears and all, and\ntied it to his belt. The buffalo beef which the old man had packed upon\nthe black horse, they threw on the top of the old man. Quickly mounting\nthe two horses, they hastened out across the long flat towards the\nhunting grounds. When they came in sight of the grounds there they saw\ntwo men riding about from place to place. Chaske took after the one\non the right, Hake the one on the left. When the two men saw these two\nstrange men riding like the wind towards them, they turned their horses\nto retreat towards the hills, but the white and the black were the\nswiftest of the tribe\u2019s horses, and quickly overtook the two fleeing\nmen. When they came close to the enemy they strung their arrows onto the\nbowstring and drove them through the two fleeing hunters. As they were\nfalling they tried to shoot, but being greatly exhausted, their bullets\nwhistled harmlessly over the heads of the two friends. They scalped the\ntwo enemies and took their guns and ammunition, also secured the two\nhorses and started for the high knoll. When they arrived at the place,\nthere stood the spirit. Hake presented him with the old man\u2019s scalp and\nthen the spirit showed them the large band of horses, and saying, \u201cRide\nhard and long,\u201d disappeared and was seen no more by any war parties,\nas he was thus enabled to join his forefathers in the happy hunting\ngrounds.\n\nThe friends did as the spirit had told them. For three days and three\nnights they rode steadily. On the fourth morning they came into their\nown boundary. From there on they rode more slowly, and let the band\nof horses rest and crop the tops of long grass. They would stop\noccasionally, and while one slept the other kept watch. Thus they got\nfairly well rested before they came in sight of where their camp had\nstood when they had left. All that they could see of the once large\nvillage was the lone tent of the great Medicine Man. They rode up on to\na high hill and farther on towards the east they saw smoke from a great\nmany tepees. They then knew that something had happened and that the\nvillage had moved away.\n\n\u201cMy friend,\u201d said Chaske, \u201cI am afraid something has happened to the\nMedicine Man\u2019s lodge, and rather than have you go there, I will go alone\nand you follow the trail of our party and go on ahead with the horses.\nI will take the black and the white horses with me and I will follow on\nlater, after I have seen what the trouble is.\u201d\n\n\u201cVery well, my friend, I will do as you say, but I am afraid something\nhas happened to Pretty Feather.\u201d Hake started on with the horses,\ndriving them along the broad trail left by the hundreds of travois.\nChaske made slowly towards the tepee, and stopping outside, stood and\nlistened. Not a sound could he hear. The only living thing he saw was\nPretty Feather\u2019s spotted horse tied to the side of the tent. Then he\nknew that she must be dead. He rode off into the thick brush and tied\nhis two horses securely. Then he came back and entered the tepee. There\non a bed of robes lay some one apparently dead. The body was wrapped\nin blankets and robes and bound around and around with parfleche ropes.\nThese he carefully untied and unwound. Then he unwrapped the robes and\nblankets and when he uncovered the face, he saw, as he had expected\nto, the face of his lost love, Pretty Feather. As he sat gazing on her\nbeautiful young face, his heart ached for his poor friend. He himself\nhad loved and lost this beautiful maiden, and now his friend who had won\nher would have to suffer the untold grief which he had suffered.\n\nWhat was that? Could it have been a slight quivering of the nostrils\nthat he had seen, or was it mad fancy playing a trick on him? Closer\nhe drew to her face, watching intently for another sign. There it was\nagain, only this time it was a long, deep drawn breath. He arose, got\nsome water and taking a small stick slowly forced open her mouth and\npoured some into it. Then he took some sage, dipped it into the water\nand sprinkled a little on her head and face. There were many parfleche\nbags piled around the tepee, and thinking he might find some kind of\nmedicine roots which he could use to revive her he started opening\nthem one after the other. He had opened three and was just opening\nthe fourth, when a voice behind him asked: \u201cWhat are you looking for?\u201d\n Turning quickly, he saw Pretty Feather looking at him. Overjoyed, he\ncried, \u201cWhat can I do so that you can get up and ride to the village\nwith me? My friend and I just returned with a large band of horses and\ntwo scalps. We saw this tent and recognized it. My friend wanted to\ncome, but I would not let him, as I feared if he found anything had\nhappened to you he would do harm to himself, but now he will be anxious\nfor my return, so if you will tell me what you need in order to revive\nyou, I will get it, and we can then go to my friend in the village.\u201d \u201cAt\nthe foot of my bed you will find a piece of eagle fat. Build a fire and\nmelt it for me. I will drink it and then we can go.\u201d\n\nChaske quickly started a fire, got out the piece of fat and melted it.\nShe drank it at one draught, and was about to arise when she suddenly\nsaid: \u201cRoll me up quick and take the buffalo hair rope and tie it about\nmy spotted horse\u2019s neck; tie his tail in a knot and tie him to the door.\nThen run and hide behind the trees. There are two of the enemy coming\nthis way.\u201d\n\nChaske hurriedly obeyed her orders, and had barely concealed himself\nbehind the trees, when there came into view two of the enemy. They saw\nthe horse tied to the door of the deserted tent, and knew that some dead\nperson occupied the tepee, so through respect for the dead, they turned\nout and started to go through the brush and trees, so as not to pass the\ndoor. (The Indians consider it a bad omen to pass by the door of a tepee\noccupied by a dead body, that is, while in the enemy\u2019s country). So\nby making this detour they traveled directly towards where Chaske was\nconcealed behind the tree. Knowing that he would be discovered, and\nthere being two of them, he knew the only chance he had was for him\nto kill one of them before they discovered him, then he stood a better\nchance at an even combat. On they came, little thinking that one of them\nwould in a few minutes be with his forefathers.\n\nChaske noiselessly slipped a cartridge into the chamber of his gun,\nthrew it into action and took deliberate aim at the smaller one\u2019s\nbreast. A loud report rang out and the one he had aimed at threw up his\narms and fell heavily forward, shot through the heart.\n\nReloading quickly Chaske stepped out from behind the tree. He could\neasily have killed the other from his concealed position, but, being a\nbrave young man, he wanted to give his opponent a fair chance. The other\nhad unslung his gun and a duel was then fought between the two lone\ncombatants. They would spring from side to side like two great cats.\nThen advance one or two steps and fire. Retreat a few steps, spring to\none side and fire again. The bullets whistled past their heads, tore up\nthe earth beneath their feet, and occasionally one would hit its mark,\nonly to cause a flesh wound.\n\nSuddenly the enemy aimed his gun and threw it upon the ground. His\nammunition was exhausted, and slowly folding his arms he stood facing\nhis opponent, with a fearless smile upon his face, expecting the next\nmoment to fall dead from a bullet from the rifle of Chaske. Not\nso. Chaske was too honorable and noble to kill an unarmed man, and\nespecially one who had put up such a brave fight as had this man. Chaske\nadvanced and picked up the empty gun. The Toka (enemy) drew from a\nscabbard at his belt a long bowie knife, and taking it by the point\nhanded it, handle first, to Chaske. This signified surrender. Chaske\nscalped the dead Toka and motioned for his prisoner to follow him. In\nthe meantime Pretty Feather had gotten up and stood looking at the duel.\nWhen she heard the first shot she jumped up and cut a small slit in the\ntent from which she saw the whole proceedings. Knowing that one or both\nof them must be wounded, she hurriedly got water and medicine roots, and\nwhen they came to the tent she was prepared to dress their wounds.\n\nChaske had a bullet through his shoulder and one through his hand. They\nwere very painful but not dangerous. The prisoner had a bullet through\nhis leg, also one through the muscle of his left arm. Pretty Feather\nwashed and dressed their wounds, and Chaske went and brought the black\nand white horses and mounting Pretty Feather upon the white horse, and\nthe prisoner on her spotted one, the three soon rode into the village,\nand there was a great cry of joy when it was known that Pretty Feather\nhad come back to them again.\n\nHake, who was in his tent grieving, was told that his friend had\nreturned and with him Pretty Feather. Hearing this good news he at\nonce went to the Medicine Man\u2019s tent and found the Medicine Man busily\ndressing the wounds of his friend and a stranger. The old Medicine Man\nturned to Hake and said:\n\n\u201cSon-in-law, take your wife home with you. It was from grief at your\nabsence that she went into a trance, and we, thinking she was dead, left\nher for such. Hadn\u2019t it been for your friend here, she would surely have\nbeen a corpse now. So take her and keep her with you always, and take as\na present from me fifty of my best horses.\u201d\n\nHake and his beautiful bride went home, where his adopted mother had a\nfine large tent put up for them. Presents of cooking utensils, horses,\nrobes and finely worked shawls and moccasins came from every direction,\nand last of all Chaske gave as a present to his friend the Toka man whom\nhe had taken as prisoner. On presenting him with this gift, Chaske spoke\nthus:\n\n\u201cMy friend, I present to you, that you may have him as a servant to\nlook after your large band of horses, this man with whom I fought a\ntwo hours\u2019 duel, and had his ammunition lasted he would probably have\nconquered me, and who gave me the second hardest fight of my life.\nThe hardest fight of my life was when I gave up Pretty Feather. You\nhave them both. To the Toka (enemy) be kind, and he will do all your\nbiddings. To Pretty Feather be a good husband.\u201d\n\nSo saying, Chaske left them, and true to his word, lived the remainder\nof his days a confirmed bachelor.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE STORY OF THE PET CROW\n\nOnce upon a time there came to a large village a plague of crows. So\nthick were they that the poor women were sorely tried keeping them out\nof their tepees and driving them away from their lines of jerked buffalo\nmeat. Indeed they got so numerous and were such a great nuisance that\nthe Chief finally gave orders to his camp criers or heralds to go out\namong the different camps and announce the orders of their Chief, that\nwar should be made upon the crows to extermination; that their nests\nwere to be destroyed and all eggs broken. The war of extermination was\nto continue until not a crow remained, except the youngest found was to\nbe brought to him alive.\n\nFor a week the war on the crows continued. Thousands of dead crows were\nbrought in daily, and at the end of the week not a bird of that species\ncould be seen in the neighborhood. Those that escaped the deadly arrow\nof the warriors, flew away, never to return to those parts again.\n\nAt the end of the war made upon the crows, there was brought to the\nChief\u2019s tepee the youngest found. Indeed, so young was the bird that it\nwas only the great medicine of the Chief that kept him alive until he\ncould hop about and find his own food. The Chief spent most of his time\nin his lodge teaching the young crow to understand and talk the language\nof the tribe. After the crow had mastered this, the Chief then taught\nhim the languages of the neighboring tribes. When the crow had mastered\nthese different languages the chief would send him on long journeys to\nascertain the location of the camps of the different enemies.\n\nWhen the crow would find a large Indian camp he would alight and hop\nabout, pretending to be picking up scraps, but really keeping his ears\nopen for anything he might hear. He would hang around all day, and at\nnight when they would all gather in the large council tent (which always\nstood in the center of the village) to determine upon their next raid,\nand plan for a horse stealing trip, Mr. Crow was always nearby to hear\nall their plans discussed. He would then fly away to his master (the\nChief) and tell him all that he had learned.\n\nThe Chief would then send a band of his warriors to lie in ambush for\nthe raiding party, and, as the enemy would not suspect anything they\nwould go blindly into the pitfall of death thus set for them. Thus the\ncrow was the scout of this chief, whose reputation as a Wakan (Holy man)\nsoon reached all of the different tribes. The Chief\u2019s warriors would\nintercept, ambush and annihilate every war party headed for his camp.\n\nSo, finally learning that they could not make war on this chief\u2019s people\nunbeknown to them, they gave up making war on this particular band. When\nmeat was running low in the camp this chief would send the crow out to\nlook for buffalo. When he discovered a herd he would return and report\nto his master; then the chief would order out the hunters and they\nwould return laden with meat. Thus the crow kept the camp all the time\ninformed of everything that would be of benefit to them.\n\nOne day the crow disappeared, over which there was great grief among the\ntribe. A week had passed away, when Mr. Crow reappeared. There was\ngreat rejoicing upon his return, but the crow was downcast and would not\nspeak, but sat with a drooping head perched at the top of the chief\u2019s\ntepee, and refused all food that was offered to him.\n\nIn vain did the chief try to get the crow to tell him the cause of his\nsilence and seeming grief. The crow would not speak until the chief\nsaid: \u201cWell, I will take a few of my warriors and go out and try to\nascertain what has happened to cause you to act as you do.\u201d\n\nUpon hearing this, the crow said: \u201cDon\u2019t go. I dreaded to tell you what\nI know to be a fact, as I have heard it from some great medicine men.\nI was traveling over the mountains west of here, when I spied three old\nmen sitting at the top of the highest peak. I very cautiously dropped\ndown behind a rock and listened to their talk. I heard your name\nmentioned by one of them, then your brother\u2019s name was mentioned. Then\nthe third, who was the oldest, said: \u2018in three days from today the\nlightning will kill those two brothers whom all the nations fear.\u2019\u201d\n\nUpon hearing what the crow stated the tribe became grief stricken. On\nthe morning of the third day the chief ordered a nice tepee placed upon\nthe highest point, far enough away from the village, so that the peals\nof thunder would not alarm the babies of the camp.\n\nA great feast was given, and after the feasting was over there came in\nsix young maidens leading the war horses of the two brothers. The horses\nwere painted and decorated as if for a charge on the enemy. One maiden\nwalked ahead of the chief\u2019s horse bearing in her hands the bow and\narrows of the great warrior. Next came two maidens, one on either side\nof the prancing war steed, each holding a rein. Behind the chief\u2019s horse\ncame the fourth maiden. Like the first, she bore in her hands the bow\nand arrows of the chief\u2019s brother. Then the fifth and sixth maidens\neach holding a rein, walked on either side of the prancing horse of\nthe chief\u2019s brother. They advanced and circled the large gathering and\nfinally stopped directly in front of the two brothers, who immediately\narose and taking their bows and arrows vaulted lightly upon their war\nsteeds, and singing their death song, galloped off amid a great cry of\ngrief from the people who loved them most dearly.\n\nHeading straight for the tepee that had been placed upon the highest\npoint, adjacent to the village, they soon arrived at their destination\nand, dismounting from their horses, turned, waved their hands to their\nband, and disappeared within the tepee. Scarcely had they entered the\nlodge when the rumblings of distant thunder could be heard. Nearer, and\nnearer, came the sound, until at last the storm overspread the locality\nin all its fury. Flash upon flash of lightning burst forth from the\nheavens. Deafening peals of thunder followed each flash. Finally, one\nflash brighter than any of the others, one peal more deafening than\nthose preceding it, and the storm had passed.\n\nSadly the warriors gathered together, mounted their horses and slowly\nrode to the tepee on the high point. Arriving there they looked inside\nthe lodge and saw the two brothers lying cold and still in death, each\nholding the lariat of his favorite war horse. The horses also lay dead\nside by side in front of the tent. (From this came the custom of killing\nthe favorite horse of a dead warrior at the burial of the owner).\n\nAs the Indians sadly left the hill to return home, they heard a noise at\nthe top of the tepee, and looking up they saw the crow sitting on one\nof the splintered tepee poles. He was crying most pitifully, and as they\nrode off he flew up high in the air and his pitiful \u201ccaw\u201d became fainter\nand fainter till at last they heard it no more. And from that day, the\nstory goes, no crow ever goes near the village of that band of Indians.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE \u201cWASNA\u201d (PEMMICAN) MAN AND THE UNKTOMI (SPIDER)\n\nOnce upon a time there appeared from out of a large belt of timber a\nman attired in the fat of the buffalo. On his head he wore the honeycomb\npart of the stomach. To this was attached small pieces of fat. The fat\nwhich covered the stomach he wore as a cloak. The large intestines he\nwore as leggings, and the kidney fat as his moccasins.\n\nAs he appeared he had the misfortune to meet \u201cUnktomi\u201d (spider) with\nhis hundreds of starving children. Upon seeing the fat, Unktomi and his\nlarge family at once attacked the man, who, in order to save his life,\nstarted to run away, but so closely did Unktomi and his family pursue\nhim that in order to make better time and also get a little better\nstart, he threw off his head covering, which the Unktomi family hastily\ndevoured, and were again closing in upon him. He then threw off his\ncloak and they devoured that, and were close upon him again, when he\nthrew off his leggings. These were hastily eaten up, and, as they drew\nnear to a lake, the man threw off the kidney fat, and, running to\nthe edge of the lake, dived down into the water and kept beneath the\nsurface, swimming to the opposite shore. After the Unktomi family had\neaten the kidney fat they came to the water\u2019s edge, and the grease was\nfloating on the surface of the water which they lapped up, until there\nwas not a grease spot left floating on the surface.\n\nThe small morsels had only sharpened their appetites, and as they saw\nthe man sitting on the opposite shore, Unktomi and his family proceeded\naround the lake and came upon two men sitting on the shore. Unktomi saw\nthat the other man was \u201cWakapapi\u201d (pounded beef). The family surrounded\nthe two and Unktomi ordered them to fight. Fearing Unktomi and his\nlarge family, they at once commenced to fight and Pounded Meat was soon\nkilled. The hungry family at once fell to eating him. So busy were they\nthat none noticed the fat man sneak off and disappear.\n\nWhen they had finished the pounded beef man they looked around to fall\nupon the fat man, but nowhere could he be seen. Unktomi said, \u201cI will\ntrack him and when I find him, I will return for you, so stay here and\nawait my return.\u201d\n\nHe followed the fat man\u2019s tracks until farther east on the shore of the\nlake he found the fat man in the act of skinning a deer, which he had\nkilled. (He had held on to his bow and arrows when he jumped into the\nlake). \u201cMy,\u201d said Unktomi, \u201cthis will make a fine meal for my hungry\nchildren. I will go after them, so hurry and cut the meat up into small\npieces so they each can have a piece.\u201d\n\n\u201cAll right, go ahead and get your family,\u201d said Fat Man. During\nUnktomi\u2019s absence, the fat man hurriedly cut the meat up into small\npieces and carried them up into a tree that stood near to the shore.\nWhen he had carried it all up he threw sand and dirt upon the blood, and\nso left no trace of the deer.\n\nOn the arrival of Unktomi and his family, no signs of the fat man or\nthe deer could be found. They wandered about the spot looking for tracks\nwhich might lead them to where the fat man had cached the meat, as\nUnktomi said he could not have carried it very far. Now the fat man was\nup in the tree and sat watching them. The reflection of the tree was in\nthe water, and some of the children going close to the shore, discovered\nit as they looked at the reflection. The fat man cut a piece of meat and\nextending it towards them, drew back his hand and put the meat into his\nmouth.\n\n\u201cCome quick, father, here he is eating the meat,\u201d said the children.\nUnktomi came and seeing the reflection, thought the fat man was down in\nthe lake. \u201cWait, I will bring him up for you.\u201d So saying, he dived down,\nbut soon arose without anything. Again and again he tried, but could not\nreach the bottom. He told the children to gather rock for him. These\nhe tied around his neck and body, and dived down for the last time. The\nlast the children saw of their father was the bubbles which arose to the\nsurface of the lake. The rocks being too heavy for him, held him fast\nto the bottom, and some hungry fish soon made a feast out of the body of\npoor \u201cUnktomi.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE RESUSCITATION OF THE ONLY DAUGHTER\n\nThere once lived an old couple who had an only daughter. She was a\nbeautiful girl, and was very much courted by the young men of the\ntribe, but she said that she preferred single life, and to all their\nheart-touching tales of deep affection for her she always had one\nanswer. That was \u201cNo.\u201d\n\nOne day this maiden fell ill and day after day grew worse. All the best\nmedicine men were called in, but their medicines were of no avail, and\nin two weeks from the day that she was taken ill she lay a corpse. Of\ncourse there was great mourning in the camp. They took her body several\nmiles from camp and rolled it in fine robes and blankets, then they laid\nher on a scaffold which they had erected. (This was the custom of burial\namong the Indians). They placed four forked posts into the ground and\nthen lashed strong poles lengthwise and across the ends and made a bed\nof willows and stout ash brush. This scaffold was from five to seven\nfeet from the ground. After the funeral the parents gave away all of\ntheir horses, fine robes and blankets and all of the belongings of\nthe dead girl. Then they cut their hair off close to their heads, and\nattired themselves in the poorest apparel they could secure.\n\nWhen a year had passed the friends and relatives of the old couple tried\nin vain to have them set aside their mourning. \u201cYou have mourned long\nenough,\u201d they would say. \u201cPut aside your mourning and try and enjoy a\nfew more pleasures of this life while you live. You are both growing old\nand can\u2019t live very many more years, so make the best of your time.\u201d The\nold couple would listen to their advice and then shake their heads and\nanswer: \u201cWe have nothing to live for. Nothing we could join in would be\nany amusement to us, since we have lost the light of our lives.\u201d\n\nSo the old couple continued their mourning for their lost idol. Two\nyears had passed since the death of the beautiful girl, when one evening\na hunter and his wife passed by the scaffold which held the dead girl.\nThey were on their return trip and were heavily loaded down with game,\nand therefore could not travel very fast. About half a mile from the\nscaffold a clear spring burst forth from the side of a bank, and from\nthis trickled a small stream of water, moistening the roots of the\nvegetation bordering its banks, and causing a growth of sweet green\ngrass. At this spring the hunter camped and tethering his horses, at\nonce set about helping his wife to erect the small tepee which they\ncarried for convenience in traveling.\n\nWhen it became quite dark, the hunter\u2019s dogs set up a great barking\nand growling. \u201cLook out and see what the dogs are barking at,\u201d said the\nhunter to his wife. She looked out through the door and then drew back\nsaying: \u201cThere is the figure of a woman advancing from the direction of\nthe girl\u2019s scaffold.\u201d \u201cI expect it is the dead girl; let her come,\nand don\u2019t act as if you were afraid,\u201d said the hunter. Soon they heard\nfootsteps advancing and the steps ceased at the door. Looking down at\nthe lower part of the door the hunter noticed a pair of small moccasins,\nand knowing that it was the visitor, said: \u201cWhoever you are, come in and\nhave something to eat.\u201d\n\nAt this invitation the figure came slowly in and sat down by the door\nwith head covered and with a fine robe drawn tightly over the face. The\nwoman dished up a fine supper and placing it before the visitor, said:\n\u201cEat, my friend, you must be hungry.\u201d The figure never moved, nor\nwould it uncover to eat. \u201cLet us turn our back towards the door and our\nvisitor may eat the food,\u201d said the hunter. So his wife turned her back\ntowards the visitor and made herself very busy cleaning the small pieces\nof meat that were hanging to the back sinews of the deer which had been\nkilled. (This the Indians use as thread.) The hunter, filling his pipe,\nturned away and smoked in silence. Finally the dish was pushed back to\nthe woman, who took it and after washing it, put it away. The figure\nstill sat at the door, not a sound coming from it, neither was it\nbreathing. The hunter at last said: \u201cAre you the girl that was placed\nupon that scaffold two years ago?\u201d It bowed its head two or three times\nin assent. \u201cAre you going to sleep here tonight; if you are, my wife\nwill make down a bed for you.\u201d The figure shook its head. \u201cAre you going\nto come again tomorrow night to us?\u201d It nodded assent.\n\nFor three nights in succession the figure visited the hunter\u2019s camp. The\nthird night the hunter noticed that the figure was breathing. He saw one\nof the hands protruding from the robe. The skin was perfectly black and\nwas stuck fast to the bones of the hand. On seeing this the hunter arose\nand going over to his medicine sack which hung on a pole, took down the\nsack and, opening it, took out some roots and mixing them with skunk oil\nand vermillion, said to the figure:\n\n\u201cIf you will let us rub your face and hands with this medicine it will\nput new life into the skin and you will assume your complexion again and\nit will put flesh on you.\u201d The figure assented and the hunter rubbed the\nmedicine on her hands and face. Then she arose and walked back to the\nscaffold. The next day the hunter moved camp towards the home village.\nThat night he camped within a few miles of the village. When night came,\nthe dogs, as usual, set up a great barking, and looking out, the wife\nsaw the girl approaching.\n\nWhen the girl had entered and sat down, the hunter noticed that the girl\ndid not keep her robe so closely together over her face. When the wife\ngave her something to eat, the girl reached out and took the dish, thus\nexposing her hands, which they at once noticed were again natural. After\nshe had finished her meal, the hunter said: \u201cDid my medicine help you?\u201d\n She nodded assent. \u201cDo you want my medicine rubbed all over your body?\u201d\n Again she nodded. \u201cI will mix enough to rub your entire body, and I will\ngo outside and let my wife rub it on for you.\u201d He mixed a good supply\nand going out left his wife to rub the girl. When his wife had completed\nthe task she called to her husband to come in, and when he came in he\nsat down and said to the girl: \u201cTomorrow we will reach the village. Do\nyou want to go with us?\u201d She shook her head. \u201cWill you come again to our\ncamp tomorrow night after we have camped in the village?\u201d She nodded\nher head in assent. \u201cThen do you want to see your parents?\u201d She nodded\nagain, and arose and disappeared into the darkness.\n\nEarly the next morning the hunter broke camp and traveled far into the\nafternoon, when he arrived at the village. He instructed his wife to go\nat once and inform the old couple of what had happened. The wife did\nso and at sunset the old couple came to the hunter\u2019s tepee. They were\ninvited to enter and a fine supper was served them. Soon after they had\nfinished their supper the dogs of the camp set up a great barking. \u201cNow\nshe is coming, so be brave and you will soon see your lost daughter,\u201d\n said the hunter. Hardly had he finished speaking when she entered the\ntent as natural as ever she was in life. Her parents clung to her and\nsmothered her with kisses.\n\nThey wanted her to return home with them, but she would stay with the\nhunter who had brought her back to life, and she married him, becoming\nhis second wife. A short time after taking the girl for his wife, the\nhunter joined a war party and never returned, as he was killed on the\nbattlefield.\n\nA year after her husband\u2019s death she married again. This husband was\nalso killed by a band of enemies whom the warriors were pursuing for\nstealing some of their horses. The third husband also met a similar fate\nto the first. He was killed on the field of battle.\n\nShe was still a handsome woman at the time of the third husband\u2019s death,\nbut never again married, as the men feared her, saying she was holy, and\nthat any one who married her would be sure to be killed by the enemy.\n\nSo she took to doctoring the sick and gained the reputation of being the\nmost skilled doctor in the nation. She lived to a ripe old age and when\nshe felt death approaching she had them take her to where she had rested\nonce before, and crawling to the top of the newly erected scaffold,\nwrapped her blankets and robes about her, covered her face carefully,\nand fell into that sleep from which there is no more awakening.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE STORY OF THE PET CRANE\n\nThere was once upon a time a man who did not care to live with his tribe\nin a crowded village, but preferred a secluded spot in the deep forest,\nthere to live with his wife and family of five children. The oldest of\nthe children (a boy) was twelve years of age, and being the son of a\ndistinguished hunter, soon took to roaming through the forest in search\nof small game.\n\nOne day during his ramblings, he discovered a crane\u2019s nest, with only\none young crane occupying it. No doubt some fox or traveling weasel\nhad eaten the rest of the crane\u2019s brothers and sisters. The boy said to\nhimself, \u201cI will take this poor little crane home and will raise him as\na pet for our baby. If I leave him here some hungry fox will be sure to\neat the poor little fellow.\u201d He carried the young crane home and it grew\nto be nearly as tall as the boy\u2019s five-year-old sister.\n\nBeing brought up in a human circle, it soon grew to understand all the\nfamily said. Although it could not speak it took part in all the games\nplayed by the children. The father of the family was, as I have before\nmentioned, a great hunter. He always had a plentiful supply of deer,\nantelope, buffalo and beaver meats on hand, but there came a change.\nThe game migrated to some other locality, where no deadly shot like\n\u201cKutesan\u201d (Never Miss) would be around to annihilate their fast\ndecreasing droves. The hunter started out early one morning in hopes of\ndiscovering some of the game which had disappeared as suddenly as though\nthe earth had swallowed them. The hunter traveled the whole day, all to\nno purpose. It was late in the evening when he staggered into camp. He\nwas nearly dead with fatigue. Hastily swallowing a cup of cherry bark\ntea (the only article of food they had in store), he at once retired\nand was soon in the sweet land of dreams. The children soon joined their\nfather and the poor woman sat thinking how they could save their dear\nchildren from starvation. Suddenly out upon the night air rang the cry\nof a crane. Instantly the pet crane awoke, stepped outside and answered\nthe call. The crane which had given the cry was the father of the pet\ncrane, and learning from Mr. Fox of the starving condition of his son\nand his friends, he flew to the hunting grounds of the tribe, and as\nthere had been a good kill that day, the crane found no trouble in\nsecuring a great quantity of fat. This he carried to the tent of the\nhunter and, hovering over the tent he suddenly let the fat drop to\nthe earth and at once the pet crane picked it up and carried it to the\nwoman.\n\nWishing to surprise the family on their awakening in the morning she\ngot a good stick for a light, heaped up sticks on the dying embers, and\nstarted up a rousing fire and proceeded to melt or try out the fat, as\nmelted fat is considered a favorite dish. Although busily occupied she\nkept her ears open for any strange noises coming out of the forest,\nthere being usually some enemies lurking around. She held her pan in\nsuch a position that after the fat started to melt and quite a lot of\nthe hot grease accumulated in the pan, she could plainly see the tent\ndoor reflected in the hot grease, as though she used a mirror.\n\nWhen she had nearly completed her task, she heard a noise as though some\nfootsteps were approaching. Instantly her heart began to beat a tattoo\non her ribs, but she sat perfectly quiet, calling all her self-control\ninto play to keep from making an outcry. This smart woman had already\nstudied out a way in which to best this enemy, in case an enemy it\nshould be. The footsteps, or noise, continued to advance, until at last\nthe woman saw reflected in the pan of grease a hand slowly protruding\nthrough the tent door, and the finger pointed, as if counting, to the\nsleeping father, then to each one of the sleeping children, then to her\nwho sat at the fire. Little did Mr. Enemy suppose that the brave woman\nwho sat so composed at her fire, was watching every motion he was\nmaking. The hand slowly withdrew, and as the footsteps slowly died\naway, there rang out on the still night air the deep fierce howl of the\nprairie wolf. (This imitation of a prairie wolf is the signal to the war\nparty that an enemy has been discovered by the scout whom they have sent\nout in advance). At once she aroused her husband and children. Annoyed\nat being so unceremoniously disturbed from his deep sleep, the husband\ncrossly asked why she had awakened him so roughly. The wife explained\nwhat she had seen and heard. She at once pinned an old blanket around\nthe crane\u2019s shoulders and an old piece of buffalo hide on his head for a\nhat or head covering. Heaping piles of wood onto the fire she instructed\nhim to run around outside of the hut until the family returned, as they\nwere going to see if they could find some roots to mix up with the fat.\nHurriedly she tied her blanket around her middle, put her baby inside of\nit, and then grabbed her three year old son and packed him on her back.\nThe father also hurriedly packed the next two and the older boy took\ncare of himself.\n\nImmediately upon leaving the tent they took three different directions,\nto meet again on the high hill west of their home. The reflection from\nthe fire in the tent disclosed to them the poor pet crane running around\nthe tent. It looked exactly like a child with its blanket and hat on.\n\nSuddenly there rang out a score of shots and war whoops of the dreaded\nCrow Indians. Finding the tent deserted they disgustedly filed off and\nwere swallowed up in the darkness of the deep forest.\n\nThe next morning the family returned to see what had become of their pet\ncrane. There, riddled to pieces, lay the poor bird who had given up his\nlife to save his dear friends.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nWHITE PLUME\n\nThere once lived a young couple who were very happy. The young man was\nnoted throughout the whole nation for his accuracy with the bow and\narrow, and was given the title of \u201cDead Shot,\u201d or \u201cHe who never\nmisses his mark,\u201d and the young woman, noted for her beauty, was named\nBeautiful Dove.\n\nOne day a stork paid this happy couple a visit and left them a fine big\nboy. The boy cried \u201cIna, ina\u201d (mother, mother). \u201cListen to our son,\u201d\n said the mother, \u201che can speak, and hasn\u2019t he a sweet voice?\u201d \u201cYes,\u201d\n said the father, \u201cit will not be long before he will be able to walk.\u201d\n He set to work making some arrows, and a fine hickory bow for his son.\nOne of the arrows he painted red, one blue, and another yellow. The rest\nhe left the natural color of the wood. When he had completed them, the\nmother placed them in a fine quiver, all worked in porcupine quills,\nand hung them up over where the boy slept in his fine hammock of painted\nmoose hide.\n\nAt times when the mother would be nursing her son, she would look up at\nthe bow and arrows and talk to her baby, saying: \u201cMy son, hurry up and\ngrow fast so you can use your bow and arrows. You will grow up to be\nas fine a marksman as your father.\u201d The baby would coo and stretch his\nlittle arms up towards the bright colored quiver as though he understood\nevery word his mother had uttered. Time passed and the boy grew up to a\ngood size, when one day his father said: \u201cWife, give our son the bow and\narrows so that he may learn how to use them.\u201d The father taught his son\nhow to string and unstring the bow, and also how to attach the arrow to\nthe string. The red, blue and yellow arrows, he told the boy, were to be\nused only whenever there was any extra good shooting to be done, so the\nboy never used these three until he became a master of the art. Then he\nwould practice on eagles and hawks, and never an eagle or hawk continued\nhis flight when the boy shot one of the arrows after him.\n\nOne day the boy came running into the tent, exclaiming: \u201cMother, mother,\nI have shot and killed the most beautiful bird I ever saw.\u201d \u201cBring\nit in, my son, and let me look at it.\u201d He brought the bird and upon\nexamining it she pronounced it a different type of bird from any she had\never seen. Its feathers were of variegated colors and on its head was\na topknot of pure white feathers. The father, returning, asked the boy\nwith which arrow he had killed the bird. \u201cWith the red one,\u201d answered\nthe boy. \u201cI was so anxious to secure the pretty bird that, although I\nknow I could have killed it with one of my common arrows, I wanted to\nbe certain, so I used the red one.\u201d \u201cThat is right, my son,\u201d said the\nfather. \u201cWhen you have the least doubt of your aim, always use one of\nthe painted arrows, and you will never miss your mark.\u201d\n\nThe parents decided to give a big feast in honor of their son killing\nthe strange, beautiful bird. So a great many elderly women were called\nto the tent of Pretty Dove to assist her in making ready for the big\nfeast. For ten days these women cooked and pounded beef and cherries,\nand got ready the choicest dishes known to the Indians. Of buffalo,\nbeaver, deer, antelope, moose, bear, quail, grouse, duck of all kinds,\ngeese and plover meats there was an abundance. Fish of all kinds, and\nevery kind of wild fruit were cooked, and when all was in readiness, the\nheralds went through the different villages, crying out: \u201cHo-po, ho-po\u201d\n (now all, now all), \u201cDead Shot and his wife, Beautiful Dove, invite all\nof you, young and old, to their tepee to partake of a great feast, given\nby them in honor of a great bird which their son has killed, and also to\nselect for their son some good name which he will bear through life. So\nall bring your cups and wooden dishes along with your horn spoons, as\nthere will be plenty to eat. Come, all you council men and chiefs,\nas they have also a great tent erected for you in which you hold your\ncouncil.\u201d\n\nThus crying, the heralds made the circle of the village. The guests soon\narrived. In front of the tent was a pole stuck in the ground and painted\nred, and at the top of the pole was fastened the bird of variegated\ncolors; its wings stretched out to their full length and the beautiful\nwhite waving so beautifully from its topknot, it was the center of\nattraction. Half way up the pole was tied the bow and arrow of the young\nmarksman. Long streamers of fine bead and porcupine work waved from\nthe pole and presented a very striking appearance. The bird was faced\ntowards the setting sun. The great chief and medicine men pronounced the\nbird \u201cWakan\u201d (something holy).\n\nWhen the people had finished eating they all fell in line and marched in\nsingle file beneath the bird, in order to get a close view of it. By the\ntime this vast crowd had fully viewed the wonderful bird, the sun was\njust setting clear in the west, when directly over the rays of the\nsun appeared a cloud in the shape of a bird of variegated colors. The\ncouncilmen were called out to look at the cloud, and the head medicine\nman said that it was a sign that the boy would grow up to be a great\nchief and hunter, and would have a great many friends and followers.\n\nThis ended the feast, but before dispersing, the chief and councilmen\nbestowed upon the boy the title of White Plume.\n\nOne day a stranger came to the village, who was very thin and nearly\nstarved. So weak was he that he could not speak, but made signs for\nsomething to eat. Luckily the stranger came to Dead Shot\u2019s tent, and as\nthere was always a plentiful supply in his lodge, the stranger soon had\na good meal served him. After he had eaten and rested he told his story.\n\n\u201cI came from a very great distance,\u201d said he. \u201cThe nations where I came\nfrom are in a starving condition. No place can they find any buffalo,\ndeer nor antelope. A witch or evil spirit in the shape of a white\nbuffalo has driven all the large game out of the country. Every day this\nwhite buffalo comes circling the village, and any one caught outside of\ntheir tent is carried away on its horns. In vain have the best marksmen\nof the tribe tried to shoot it. Their arrows fly wide off the mark, and\nthey have given up trying to kill it as it bears a charmed life. Another\nevil spirit in the form of a red eagle has driven all the birds of the\nair out of our country. Every day this eagle circles above the village,\nand so powerful is it that anyone being caught outside of his tent\nis descended upon and his skull split open to the brain by the sharp\nbreastbone of the Eagle. Many a marksman has tried his skill on this\nbird, all to no purpose.\n\n\u201cAnother evil spirit in the form of a white rabbit has driven out all\nthe animals which inhabit the ground, and destroyed the fields of corn\nand turnips, so the nation is starving, as the arrows of the marksmen\nhave also failed to touch the white rabbit. Any one who can kill these\nthree witches will receive as his reward, the choice of two of the most\nbeautiful maidens of our nation. The younger one is the handsomer of the\ntwo and has also the sweetest disposition. Many young, and even old men,\nhearing of this (our chief\u2019s) offer, have traveled many miles to try\ntheir arrows on the witches, but all to no purpose. Our chief, hearing\nof your great marksmanship, sent me to try and secure your services to\nhave you come and rid us of these three witches.\u201d\n\nThus spoke the stranger to the hunter. The hunter gazed long and\nthoughtfully into the dying embers of the camp fire. Then slowly his\neyes raised and looked lovingly on his wife who sat opposite to him.\nGazing on her beautiful features for a full minute he slowly dropped his\ngaze back to the dying embers and thus answered his visitor:\n\n\u201cMy friend, I feel very much honored by your chief having sent such\na great distance for me, and also for the kind offer of his lovely\ndaughter in marriage, if I should succeed, but I must reject the great\noffer, as I can spare none of my affections to any other woman than to\nmy queen whom you see sitting there.\u201d\n\nWhite Plume had been listening to the conversation and when his father\nhad finished speaking, said: \u201cFather, I am a child no more. I have\narrived at manhood. I am not so good a marksman as you, but I will go to\nthis suffering tribe and try to rid them of their three enemies. If this\nman will rest for a few days and return to his village and inform them\nof my coming, I will travel along slowly on his trail and arrive at the\nvillage a day or two after he reaches there.\u201d\n\n\u201cVery well, my son,\u201d said the father, \u201cI am sure you will succeed, as\nyou fear nothing, and as to your marksmanship, it is far superior to\nmine, as your sight is much clearer and aim quicker than mine.\u201d\n\nThe man rested a few days and one morning started off, after having\ninstructed White Plume as to the trail. White Plume got together what\nhe would need on the trip and was ready for an early start the next\nmorning. That night Dead Shot and his wife sat up away into the night\ninstructing their son how to travel and warning him as to the different\nkinds of people he must avoid in order to keep out of trouble. \u201cAbove\nall,\u201d said the father, \u201ckeep a good look out for Unktomi (spider); he is\nthe most tricky of all, and will get you into trouble if you associate\nwith him.\u201d\n\nWhite Plume left early, his father accompanying him for several miles.\nOn parting, the father\u2019s last words were: \u201cLook out for Unktomi, my son,\nhe is deceitful and treacherous.\u201d \u201cI\u2019ll look out for him, father;\u201d so\nsaying he disappeared over a hill. On the way he tried his skill on\nseveral hawks and eagles and he did not need to use his painted arrows\nto kill them, but so skillful was he with the bow and arrows that he\ncould bring down anything that flew with his common arrows. He was\ndrawing near to the end of his destination when he had a large tract of\ntimber to pass through. When he had nearly gotten through the timber he\nsaw an old man sitting on a log, looking wistfully up into a big tree,\nwhere sat a number of prairie chickens.\n\n\u201cHello, grandfather, why are you sitting there looking so downhearted?\u201d\n asked White Plume. \u201cI am nearly starved, and was just wishing some one\nwould shoot one of those chickens for me, so I could make a good meal on\nit,\u201d said the old man. \u201cI will shoot one for you,\u201d said the young man.\nHe strung his bow, placed an arrow on the string, simply seemed to raise\nthe arrow in the direction of the chicken (taking no aim). Twang went\nout the bow, zip went the arrow and a chicken fell off the limb, only\nto get caught on another in its descent. \u201cThere is your chicken,\ngrandfather.\u201d \u201cOh, my grandson, I am too weak to climb up and get it.\nCan\u2019t you climb up and get it for me?\u201d The young man, pitying the old\nfellow, proceeded to climb the tree, when the old man stopped him,\nsaying: \u201cGrandson, you have on such fine clothes, it is a pity to spoil\nthem; you had better take them off so as not to spoil the fine porcupine\nwork on them.\u201d The young man took off his fine clothes and climbed up\ninto the tree, and securing the chicken, threw it down to the old\nman. As the young man was scaling down the tree, the old man said:\n\u201cIyashkapa, iyashkapa,\u201d (stick fast, stick fast). Hearing him say\nsomething, he asked, \u201cWhat did you say, old man?\u201d He answered, \u201cI was\nonly talking to myself.\u201d The young man proceeded to descend, but he\ncould not move. His body was stuck fast to the bark of the tree. In vain\ndid he beg the old man to release him. The old Unktomi, for he it was,\nonly laughed and said: \u201cI will go now and kill the evil spirits, I have\nyour wonderful bow and arrows and I cannot miss them. I will marry the\nchief\u2019s daughter, and you can stay up in that tree and die there.\u201d\n\nSo saying, he put on White Plume\u2019s fine clothes, took his bow and arrows\nand went to the village. As White Plume was expected at any minute, the\nwhole village was watching for him, and when Unktomi came into sight the\nyoung men ran to him with a painted robe, sat him down on it and slowly\nraising him up they carried him to the tent of the chief. So certain\nwere they that he would kill the evil spirits that the chief told him to\nchoose one of the daughters at once for his wife. (Before the arrival\nof White Plume, hearing of him being so handsome, the two girls had\nquarreled over which should marry him, but upon seeing him the younger\nwas not anxious to become his wife.) So Unktomi chose the older one of\nthe sisters, and was given a large tent in which to live. The younger\nsister went to her mother\u2019s tent to live, and the older was very proud,\nas she was married to the man who would save the nation from starvation.\nThe next morning there was a great commotion in camp, and there came the\ncry that the white buffalo was coming. \u201cGet ready, son-in-law, and kill\nthe buffalo,\u201d said the chief.\n\nUnktomi took the bow and arrows and shot as the buffalo passed, but the\narrow went wide off its mark. Next came the eagle, and again he shot and\nmissed. Then came the rabbit, and again he missed.\n\n\u201cWait until tomorrow, I will kill them all. My blanket caught in my bow\nand spoiled my aim.\u201d The people were very much disappointed, and the\nchief, suspecting that all was not right, sent for the young man who had\nvisited Dead Shot\u2019s tepee. When the young man arrived, the chief asked:\n\u201cDid you see White Plume when you went to Dead Shot\u2019s camp?\u201d \u201cYes, I\ndid, and ate with him many times. I stayed at his father\u2019s tepee all the\ntime I was there,\u201d said the young man. \u201cWould you recognize him if you\nsaw him again?\u201d asked the chief. \u201cAny one who had but one glimpse of\nWhite Plume would surely recognize him when he saw him again, as he is\nthe most handsome man I ever saw,\u201d said the young man.\n\n\u201cCome with me to the tent of my son-in-law and take a good look at him,\nbut don\u2019t say what you think until we come away.\u201d The two went to the\ntent of Unktomi, and when the young man saw him he knew it was not White\nPlume, although it was White Plume\u2019s bow and arrows that hung at the\nhead of the bed, and he also recognized the clothes as belonging to\nWhite Plume. When they had returned to the chief\u2019s tent, the young man\ntold what he knew and what he thought. \u201cI think this is some Unktomi who\nhas played some trick on White Plume and has taken his bow and arrows\nand also his clothes, and hearing of your offer, is here impersonating\nWhite Plume. Had White Plume drawn the bow on the buffalo, eagle and\nrabbit today, we would have been rid of them, so I think we had better\nscare this Unktomi into telling us where White Plume is,\u201d said the young\nman.\n\n\u201cWait until he tries to kill the witches again tomorrow,\u201d said the\nchief.\n\nIn the meantime the younger daughter had taken an axe and gone into the\nwoods in search of dry wood. She went quite a little distance into the\nwood and was chopping a dry log. Stopping to rest a little she heard\nsome one saying: \u201cWhoever you are, come over here and chop this tree\ndown so that I may get loose.\u201d Going to where the big tree stood, she\nsaw a man stuck onto the side of the tree. \u201cIf I chop it down the fall\nwill kill you,\u201d said the girl. \u201cNo, chop it on the opposite side from\nme, and the tree will fall that way. If the fall kills me, it will be\nbetter than hanging up here and starving to death,\u201d said White Plume,\nfor it was he.\n\nThe girl chopped the tree down and when she saw that it had not killed\nthe man, she said: \u201cWhat shall I do now?\u201d \u201cLoosen the bark from the tree\nand then get some stones and heat them. Get some water and sage and put\nyour blanket over me.\u201d She did as told and when the steam arose from\nthe water being poured upon the heated rocks, the bark loosened from his\nbody and he arose. When he stood up, she saw how handsome he was. \u201cYou\nhave saved my life,\u201d said he. \u201cWill you be my wife?\u201d \u201cI will,\u201d said she.\nHe then told her how the old man had fooled him into this trap and took\nhis bow and arrows, also his fine porcupine worked clothes, and had gone\noff, leaving him to die. She, in turn, told him all that had happened\nin camp since a man, calling himself White Plume, came there and married\nher sister before he shot at the witches, and when he came to shoot at\nthem, missed every shot. \u201cLet us make haste, as the bad Unktomi may\nruin my arrows.\u201d They approached the camp and whilst White Plume waited\noutside, his promised wife entered Unktomi\u2019s tent and said: \u201cUnktomi,\nWhite Plume is standing outside and he wants his clothes and bow and\narrows.\u201d \u201cOh, yes, I borrowed them and forgot to return them; make haste\nand give them to him.\u201d\n\nUpon receiving his clothes, he was very much provoked to find his fine\nclothes wrinkled and his bow twisted, while the arrows were twisted\nout of shape. He laid the clothes down, also the bows and arrows, and\npassing his hand over them, they assumed their right shapes again. The\ndaughter took White Plume to her father\u2019s tent and upon hearing the\nstory he at once sent for his warriors and had them form a circle around\nUnktomi\u2019s tent, and if he attempted to escape to catch him and tie him\nto a tree, as he (the chief) had determined to settle accounts with him\nfor his treatment of White Plume, and the deception employed in winning\nthe chief\u2019s eldest daughter. About midnight the guard noticed something\ncrawling along close to the ground, and seizing him found it was Unktomi\ntrying to make his escape before daylight, whereupon they tied him to a\ntree. \u201cWhy do you treat me thus,\u201d cried Unktomi, \u201cI was just going out\nin search of medicine to rub on my arrows, so I can kill the witches.\u201d\n \u201cYou will need medicine to rub on yourself when the chief gets through\nwith you,\u201d said the young man who had discovered that Unktomi was\nimpersonating White Plume.\n\nIn the morning the herald announced that the real White Plume had\narrived, and the chief desired the whole nation to witness his\nmarksmanship. Then came the cry: \u201cThe White Buffalo comes.\u201d Taking his\nred arrow, White Plume stood ready. When the buffalo got about opposite\nhim, he let his arrow fly. The buffalo bounded high in the air and came\ndown with all four feet drawn together under its body, the red arrow\nhaving passed clear through the animal, piercing the buffalo\u2019s heart. A\nloud cheer went up from the village.\n\n\u201cYou shall use the hide for your bed,\u201d said the chief to White Plume.\nNext came a cry, \u201cthe eagle, the eagle.\u201d From the north came an enormous\nred eagle. So strong was he, that as he soared through the air his wings\nmade a humming sound as the rumble of distant thunder. On he came, and\njust as he circled the tent of the chief, White Plume bent his bow, with\nall his strength drew the arrow back to the flint point, and sent the\nblue arrow on its mission of death. So swiftly had the arrow passed\nthrough the eagle\u2019s body that, thinking White Plume had missed, a great\nwail went up from the crowd, but when they saw the eagle stop in his\nflight, give a few flaps of his wings, and then fall with a heavy thud\ninto the center of the village, there was a greater cheer than before.\n\u201cThe red eagle shall be used to decorate the seat of honor in your\ntepee,\u201d said the chief to White Plume. Last came the white rabbit. \u201cAim\ngood, aim good, son-in-law,\u201d said the chief. \u201cIf you kill him you will\nhave his skin for a rug.\u201d Along came the white rabbit, and White Plume\nsent his arrow in search of rabbit\u2019s heart, which it found, and stopped\nMr. Rabbit\u2019s tricks forever.\n\nThe chief then called all of the people together and before them all\ntook a hundred willows and broke them one at a time over Unktomi\u2019s back.\nThen he turned him loose. Unktomi, being so ashamed, ran off into the\nwoods and hid in the deepest and darkest corner he could find. This is\nwhy Unktomis (spiders) are always found in dark corners, and anyone who\nis deceitful or untruthful is called a descendant of the Unktomi tribe.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSTORY OF PRETTY FEATHERED FOREHEAD\n\nThere was once a baby boy who came into the world with a small cluster\nof different colored feathers grown fast to his forehead. From this he\nderived his name, \u201cPretty Feathered Forehead.\u201d He was a very pleasant\nboy as well as handsome, and he had the respect of the whole tribe. When\nhe had grown up to be a young man, he never, like other young men, made\nlove to any of the tribe\u2019s beauties. Although they were madly in love\nwith him, he never noticed any of them. There were many handsome girls\nin the different camps, but he passed them by.\n\nOne day he said: \u201cFather, I am going on a visit to the Buffalo nation.\u201d\n The father gave his consent, and away went the son. The father and\nmother suspected the object of their son\u2019s visit to the Buffalo nation,\nand forthwith commenced preparing a fine reception for their intended\ndaughter-in-law. The mother sewed together ten buffalo hides and painted\nthe brave deeds of her husband on them. This she made into a commodious\ntent, and had work bags and fine robes and blankets put inside. This was\nto be the tent of their son and daughter-in-law. In a few weeks the son\nreturned, bringing with him a beautiful Buffalo girl. The parents of the\nboy gave a big feast in honor of the occasion, and the son and his wife\nlived very happily together.\n\nIn the course of time a son came to the young couple, and the father was\nvery proud of his boy. When the boy became a year old, the father said\nto his wife: \u201cI am going for a visit to the Elk nation.\u201d The mother\nwas very sad, as she knew her husband was going after another wife. He\nreturned, bringing with him a very beautiful elk girl. When the Buffalo\nwoman saw the elk girl she was very downcast and sad, but the husband\nsaid: \u201cDon\u2019t be sad; she will do all the heavy work for you.\u201d\n\nThey lived quite happily together for a long time. The Elk girl also\nbecame the mother of a fine boy. The two boys had grown up large enough\nto play around. One day the Elk woman was tanning hides outside and the\ntwo boys were playing around near their mothers, when all at once the\nbuffalo boy ran across the robe, leaving his tracks on the white robe\nwhich his step-mother had nearly completed. This provoked the elk woman\nand she gave vent to her feelings by scolding the boy: \u201cYou clumsy flat\nmouth, why couldn\u2019t you run around my work, instead of across it?\u201d The\nbuffalo cow standing in the door, heard every word that the elk woman\nhad said, and when she heard her son called flat mouth it made her\nvery angry, although she did not say a word to any one. She hurriedly\ngathered some of her belongings and, calling her son, she started off in\na westerly direction.\n\nThe husband being absent on a hunting expedition did not return until\nlate in the afternoon. Upon his return his oldest boy always ran out\nto meet him, but this time as the boy did not put in an appearance, the\nfather feared that something had happened to the boy. So hurriedly going\nto his tent he looked around, but failing to see the boy or his mother,\nhe asked his elk wife, where the boy and his mother were. The elk\nwife answered: \u201cShe took her boy on her back and started off in that\ndirection,\u201d (pointing towards the west). \u201cHow long has she been gone?\u201d\n \u201cSince early morning.\u201d The husband hurriedly caught a fresh horse and,\nwithout eating anything, rode off in the direction taken by his buffalo\nwife and boy. Near dark he ascended a high hill and noticed a small tent\ndown in the valley. It was a long distance down to the tent, so it was\nvery late when he arrived there. He tethered his horse and went into\nthe tent and found the boy and his mother fast asleep. Upon lying down\nbeside them the boy awoke, and upon seeing his father, motioned to him\nto go outside with him.\n\nOn going outside the boy told his father that it would be useless for\nhim to try and coax his mother to return, as she was too highly insulted\nby the elk wife to ever return. Then the boy told about what the elk\nwife had said and that she had called him flat mouth. \u201cMy mother is\ndetermined to return to her people, but if you want to follow us you\nmay, and perhaps, after she has visited with her relatives a little\nwhile, you may induce her to return with you. In the morning we are\ngoing to start very early, and as the country we will travel through\nis very hard soil, I will stamp my feet hard so as to leave my tracks\nimprinted in the softest places, then you will be able to follow the\ndirection we will take.\u201d\n\nThe two went into the tent and were soon fast asleep. The father, being\nvery much fatigued, slept very soundly, and when he awoke the sun was\nbeating down upon him. The mother and boy were nowhere to be seen. The\ntent had been taken down from over him so carefully that he had not been\nawakened. Getting his horse, he mounted and rode after the two who had\nleft him sleeping. He had no trouble in following the trail, as the boy\nhad stamped his feet hard and left his little tracks in the soft places.\n\nThat evening he spied the little tent again and on getting to it found\nthem both asleep. The boy awoke and motioned for his father to go\noutside. He again told his father that the next day\u2019s travel would be\nthe hardest of all. \u201cWe will cross a great plain, but before we get\nthere we will cross a sandy hollow. When you get to the hollow, look at\nmy tracks; they will be deep into the sand, and in each track you will\nsee little pools of water. Drink as much as you can, as this is the only\nchance you will get to have a drink, there being no water from there to\nthe big ridge, and it will be dark by the time you get to the ridge. The\nrelations of my mother live at that ridge and I will come and talk to\nyou once more, before I leave you to join my mother\u2019s people.\u201d\n\nNext morning, as before, he awoke to find himself alone. They had left\nhim and proceeded on their journey. He mounted again and when he arrived\nat the sandy hollow, sure enough, there, deep in the sand, were the\ntracks of his son filled to the top with water. He drank and drank until\nhe had drained the last one. Then he arose and continued on the trail,\nand near sundown he came in sight of their little tent away up on the\nside of the ridge. His horse suddenly staggered and fell forward dead,\nhaving died of thirst.\n\nFrom there he proceeded on foot. When he got to where the tent stood he\nentered, only to find it empty. \u201cI guess my son intends to come here and\nhave his last talk with me,\u201d thought the father. He had eaten nothing\nfor three days, and was nearly famished. He lay down, but the pangs of\nhunger kept sleep away. He heard footsteps outside and lay in readiness,\nthinking it might be an enemy. Slowly opening the covering of the door,\nhis son looked in and seeing his father lying awake, drew back and ran\noff up the ridge, but soon returned bringing a small parcel with him.\nWhen he entered he gave the parcel to his father and said: \u201cEat, father;\nI stole this food for you, so I could not get very much.\u201d The father\nsoon ate what his son had brought. When he had finished, the son said:\n\u201cTomorrow morning the relatives of my mother will come over here and\ntake you down to the village. My mother has three sisters who have their\nwork bags made identically the same as mother\u2019s. Were they to mix them\nup they could not each pick out her own without looking inside so as to\nidentify them by what they have in them. You will be asked to pick out\nmother\u2019s work bag, and if you fail they will trample you to death. Next\nthey will tell you to pick out my mother from among her sisters, and you\nwill be unable to distinguish her from the other three, and if you fail\nthey will bury you alive. The last they will try you on, in case you\nmeet the first and second tests successfully, will be to require you\nto pick me out from my three cousins, who are as much like me as my\nreflection in the water. The bags you can tell by a little pebble I will\nplace on my mother\u2019s. You can pick my mother out by a small piece of\ngrass which I will put in her hair, and you can pick me out from my\ncousins, for when we commence to dance, I will shake my head, flop my\nears and switch my tail. You must choose quickly, as they will be very\nangry at your success, and if you lose any time they will make the\nexcuse that you did not know, that they may have an excuse to trample\nyou to death.\u201d\n\nThe boy then left, after admonishing his father to remember all that\nhe had told him. Early next morning the father heard a great rumbling\nnoise, and going outside, he saw the whole hillside covered with\nbuffalo. When he appeared they set up a loud bellowing and circled\naround him. One old bull came up and giving a loud snort, passed on by,\nlooking back every few steps. The man, thinking he was to follow this\none, did so, and the whole herd, forming a half circle around him,\nescorted him down the west side of the range out on to a large plain,\nwhere there stood a lone tree. To this tree the old bull led him and\nstopped when he reached the tree. A large rock at the foot of the tree\nserved as a seat for the man. As soon as he was seated there came four\nfemale buffaloes, each bearing a large work box. They set the boxes\ndown in a row in front of the man, and the herd crowded around closer in\norder to get a good view. The old bull came to the front and stood close\nto the bags, which had been taken out of the four boxes.\n\nThe man stood up, and looking at the bags, noticed a small pebble\nresting on the one next to the left end. Stepping over he pulled the bag\ntowards him and secretly pushed the little pebble off the bag, so that\nno one would notice it. When they saw that he had selected the right\none, they set up a terrific bellow.\n\nThen came the four sisters and stood in a line before the man. Glancing\nalong from the one on the right to the last one on the left, he stepped\nforward and placed his hand on the one next to the right. Thanks to his\nboy, if he hadn\u2019t put that little stem of grass on his mother\u2019s hair,\nthe father could never have picked out his wife, as the four looked\nas much alike as four peas. Next came the four boy calves, and as they\nadvanced they commenced dancing, and his son was shaking his head and\nflopping his ears and switching his tail. The father was going to pick\nout his boy, when a fainting spell took him, and as he sank to the\nground the old bull sprang forward on top of him, and instantly they\nrushed upon him and he was soon trampled to a jelly. The herd then moved\nto other parts.\n\nThe elk wife concluded that something had happened to her husband and\ndetermined upon going in search of him. As she was very fleet of foot it\ndid not take her long to arrive at the lone tree. She noticed the blood\nsplashed on the base of the tree, and small pieces of flesh stamped\ninto the earth. Looking closer, she noticed something white in the dust.\nStooping and picking it out of the dust, she drew forth the cluster\nof different colored feathers which had been fastened to her husband\u2019s\nforehead. She at once took the cluster of feathers, and going to the\neast side of the ridge, heated stones and erected a wickieup, placed the\nfeathers inside, and getting water, she sprinkled the stones, and this\ncaused a thick vapor in the wickieup. She continued this for a long\ntime, when she heard something moving inside the wickieup. Then a voice\nspoke up, saying: \u201cWhoever you are, pour some more water on and I will\nbe all right.\u201d So the woman got more water and poured it on the rocks.\n\u201cThat will do now, I want to dry off.\u201d She plucked a pile of sage and in\nhanding it in to him, he recognized his elk wife\u2019s hand.\n\nThey went back home and shortly after the buffalo, hearing about him\ncoming back to life, decided to make war on him and kill him and his\nwife, she being the one who brought him back to life. The woman, hearing\nof this, had posts set in the ground and a strong platform placed on\ntop. When the buffalo came, her husband, her son and herself, were\nseated upon the bough platform, and the buffalo could not reach them.\nShe flouted her red blanket in their faces, which made the buffalo wild\nwith rage. The hunter\u2019s friends came to his rescue, and so fast were\nthey killing the buffalo that they took flight and rushed away, never\nmore to bother Pretty Feather Forehead.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE FOUR BROTHERS OR INYANHOKSILA (STONE BOY)\n\nAlone and apart from their tribe dwelt four orphan brothers. They had\nerected a very comfortable hut, although the materials used were only\nwillows, hay, birch bark, and adobe mud. After the completion of their\nhut, the oldest brother laid out the different kinds of work to be done\nby the four of them. He and the second and third brothers were to do all\nthe hunting, and the youngest brother was to do the house work, cook the\nmeals, and keep plenty of wood on hand at all times.\n\nAs his older brothers would leave for their hunting very early every\nmorning, and would not return till late at night, the little fellow\nalways found plenty of spare time to gather into little piles fine dry\nwood for their winter use.\n\nThus the four brothers lived happily for a long time. One day while out\ngathering and piling up wood, the boy heard a rustling in the leaves\nand looking around he saw a young woman standing in the cherry bushes,\nsmiling at him.\n\n\u201cWho are you, and where did you come from?\u201d asked the boy, in surprise.\n\u201cI am an orphan girl and have no relatives living. I came from the\nvillage west of here. I learned from rabbit that there were four orphan\nbrothers living here all alone, and that the youngest was keeping house\nfor his older brothers, so I thought I would come over and see if I\ncouldn\u2019t have them adopt me as their sister, so that I might keep house\nfor them, as I am very poor and have no relations, neither have I a\nhome.\u201d\n\nShe looked so pitiful and sad that the boy thought to himself, \u201cI will\ntake her home with me, poor girl, no matter what my brothers think or\nsay.\u201d Then he said to her: \u201cCome on, tanke (sister). You may go home\nwith me; I am sure my older brothers will be glad to have you for our\nsister.\u201d\n\nWhen they arrived at the hut, the girl hustled about and cooked up a\nfine hot supper, and when the brothers returned they were surprised to\nsee a girl sitting by the fire in their hut. After they had entered the\nyoungest brother got up and walked outside, and a short time after the\noldest brother followed him out. \u201cWho is that girl, and where did she\ncome from?\u201d he asked his brother. Whereupon the brother told him the\nwhole story. Upon hearing this the oldest brother felt very sorry for\nthe poor orphan girl and going back into the hut he spoke to the\ngirl, saying: \u201cSister, you are an orphan, the same as we; you have no\nrelatives, no home. We will be your brothers, and our poor hut shall be\nyour home. Henceforth call us brothers, and you will be our sister.\u201d\n\n\u201cOh, how happy I am now that you take me as your sister. I will be to\nyou all as though we were of the same father and mother,\u201d said the girl.\nAnd true to her word, she looked after everything of her brothers and\nkept the house in such fine shape that the brothers blessed the day that\nshe came to their poor little hut. She always had an extra buckskin\nsuit and two pairs of moccasins hanging at the head of each one\u2019s bed.\nBuffalo, deer, antelope, bear, wolf, wildcat, mountain lion and beaver\nskins she tanned by the dozen, and piled nicely in one corner of the\nhut.\n\nWhen the Indians have walked a great distance and are very tired, they\nhave great faith in painting their feet, claiming that paint eases the\npain and rests their feet.\n\nAfter their return from a long day\u2019s journey, when they would be lying\ndown resting, the sister would get her paint and mix it with the deer\ntallow and rub the paint on her brother\u2019s feet, painting them up to\ntheir ankles. The gentle touch of her hands, and the soothing qualities\nof the tallow and paint soon put them into a deep, dreamless steep.\n\nMany such kind actions on her part won the hearts of the brothers, and\nnever was a full blood sister loved more than was this poor orphan girl,\nwho had been taken as their adopted sister. In the morning when they\narose, the sister always combed their long black silken scalp locks and\npainted the circle around the scalp lock a bright vermillion.\n\nWhen the hunters would return with a goodly supply of beef, the sister\nwould hurry and relieve them of their packs, hanging each one high\nenough from the ground so the prowling dogs and coyotes could not reach\nthem. The hunters each had a post on which to hang his bow and flint\nhead arrows. (Good hunters never laid their arrows on the ground, as it\nwas considered unlucky to the hunter who let his arrows touch the earth\nafter they had been out of the quiver). They were all perfectly happy,\nuntil one day the older brother surprised them all by saying: \u201cWe have a\nplentiful supply of meat on hand at present to last us for a week or so.\nI am going for a visit to the village west of us, so you boys all stay\nat home and help sister. Also gather as much wood as you can and I will\nbe back again in four days. On my return we will resume our hunting and\ncommence getting our year\u2019s supply of meat.\u201d\n\nHe left the next morning, and the last they saw of him was while he\nstood at the top of the long range of hills west of their home. Four\ndays had come and gone and no sign of the oldest brother.\n\n\u201cI am afraid that our brother has met with some accident,\u201d said the\nsister. \u201cI am afraid so, too,\u201d said the next oldest. \u201cI must go and\nsearch for him; he may be in some trouble where a little help would\nget him out.\u201d The second brother followed the direction his brother had\ntaken, and when he came to the top of the long range of hills he sat\ndown and gazed long and steadily down into the long valley with a\nbeautiful creek winding through it. Across the valley was a long plain\nstretching for miles beyond and finally ending at the foot of another\nrange of hills, the counterpart of the one upon which he sat.\n\nAfter noting the different landmarks carefully, he arose and slowly\nstarted down the slope and soon came to the creek he had seen from the\ntop of the range. Great was his surprise on arriving at the creek to\nfind what a difference there was in the appearance of it from the range\nand where he stood. From the range it appeared to be a quiet, harmless,\nlaughing stream. Now he saw it to be a muddy, boiling, bubbling torrent,\nwith high perpendicular banks. For a long time he stood, thinking which\nway to go, up or down stream. He had just decided to go down stream,\nwhen, on chancing to look up, he noticed a thin column of smoke slowly\nascending from a little knoll. He approached the place cautiously and\nnoticed a door placed into the creek bank on the opposite side of the\nstream. As he stood looking at the door, wondering who could be living\nin a place like that, it suddenly opened and a very old appearing woman\ncame out and stood looking around her. Soon she spied the young man, and\nsaid to him: \u201cMy grandchild, where did you come from and whither are you\nbound?\u201d The young man answered: \u201cI came from east of this ridge and am\nin search of my oldest brother, who came over in this direction five\ndays ago and who has not yet returned.\u201d\n\n\u201cYour brother stopped here and ate his dinner with me, and then left,\ntraveling towards the west,\u201d said the old witch, for such she was. \u201cNow,\ngrandson, come across on that little log bridge up the stream there\nand have your dinner with me. I have it all cooked now and just stepped\noutside to see if there might not be some hungry traveler about, whom I\ncould invite in to eat dinner with me.\u201d The young man went up the stream\na little distance and found a couple of small logs which had been placed\nacross the stream to serve as a bridge. He crossed over and went down to\nthe old woman\u2019s dugout hut. \u201cCome in grandson, and eat. I know you must\nbe hungry.\u201d\n\nThe young man sat down and ate a real hearty meal. On finishing he arose\nand said: \u201cGrandmother, I thank you for your meal and kindness to me. I\nwould stay and visit with you awhile, as I know it must be very lonely\nhere for you, but I am very anxious to find my brother, so I must be\ngoing. On my return I will stop with my brother and we will pay you a\nlittle visit.\u201d\n\n\u201cVery well, grandson, but before you go, I wish you would do me a little\nfavor. Your brother did it for me before he left, and cured me, but it\nhas come back on me again. I am subject to very severe pains along the\nleft side of my backbone, all the way from my shoulder blade down to\nwhere my ribs attach to my backbone, and the only way I get any relief\nfrom the pain is to have some one kick me along the side.\u201d (She was a\nwitch, and concealed in her robe a long sharp steel spike. It was placed\nso that the last kick they would give her, their foot would hit the\nspike and they would instantly drop off into a swoon, as if dead.)\n\n\u201cIf I won\u2019t hurt you too much, grandmother, I certainly will be glad to\ndo it for you,\u201d said the young man, little thinking he would be the one\nto get hurt.\n\n\u201cNo, grandson, don\u2019t be afraid of hurting me; the harder you kick the\nlonger the pain stays away.\u201d She laid down on the floor and rolled over\non to her right side, so he could get a good chance to kick the left\nside where she said the pain was located.\n\nAs he moved back to give the first kick, he glanced along the floor\nand he noticed a long object wrapped in a blanket, lying against the\nopposite wall. He thought it looked strange and was going to stop and\ninvestigate, but just then the witch cried out as if in pain. \u201cHurry up,\ngrandson, I am going to die if you don\u2019t hurry and start in kicking.\u201d \u201cI\ncan investigate after I get through with her,\u201d thought he, so he started\nin kicking and every kick he would give her she would cry: \u201cHarder, kick\nharder.\u201d He had to kick seven times before he would get to the end of\nthe pain, so he let out as hard as he could drive, and when he came to\nthe last kick he hit the spike, and driving it through his foot, fell\ndown in a dead swoon, and was rolled up in a blanket by the witch and\nplaced beside his brother at the opposite side of the room.\n\nWhen the second brother failed to return, the third went in search of\nthe two missing ones. He fared no better than the second one, as he\nmet the old witch who served him in a similar manner as she had his two\nbrothers.\n\n\u201cHa! Ha!\u201d she laughed, when she caught the third, \u201cI have only one more\nof them to catch, and when I get them I will keep them all here a\nyear, and then I will turn them into horses and sell them back to their\nsister. I hate her, for I was going to try and keep house for them and\nmarry the oldest one, but she got ahead of me and became their sister,\nso now I will get my revenge on her. Next year she will be riding and\ndriving her brothers and she won\u2019t know it.\u201d\n\nWhen the third brother failed to return, the sister cried and begged the\nlast one not to venture out in search of them. But go he must, and go he\ndid, only to do as his three brothers had done.\n\nNow the poor sister was nearly distracted. Day and night she wandered\nover hills and through woods in hopes she might find or hear of some\ntrace of them. Her wanderings were in vain. The hawks had not seen them\nafter they had crossed the little stream. The wolves and coyotes told\nher that they had seen nothing of her brothers out on the broad plains,\nand she had given them up for dead.\n\nOne day, as she was sitting by the little stream that flowed past their\nhut, throwing pebbles into the water and wondering what she should do,\nshe picked up a pure white pebble, smooth and round, and after looking\nat it for a long time, threw it into the water. No sooner had it hit the\nwater than she saw it grow larger. She took it out and looked at it and\nthrew it in again. This time it had assumed the form of a baby. She took\nit out and threw it in the third time and the form took life and began\nto cry: \u201cIna, ina\u201d (mother, mother). She took the baby home and fed it\nsoup, and it being an unnatural baby, quickly grew up to a good sized\nboy. At the end of three months he was a good big, stout youth. One day\nhe said: \u201cMother, why are you living here alone? To whom do all these\nfine clothes and moccasins belong?\u201d She then told him the story of\nher lost brothers. \u201cOh, I know now where they are. You make me lots of\narrows. I am going to find my uncles.\u201d She tried to dissuade him from\ngoing, but he was determined and said: \u201cMy father sent me to you so that\nI could find my uncles for you, and nothing can harm me, because I am\nstone and my name is \u2018Stone Boy\u2019.\u201d\n\nThe mother, seeing that he was determined to go, made a whole quiver\nfull of arrows for him, and off he started. When he came to the old\nwitch\u2019s hut, she was nowhere to be seen, so he pushed the door in and\nentered. The witch was busily engaged cooking dinner.\n\n\u201cWhy, my dear grandchild, you are just in time for dinner. Sit down and\nwe will eat before you continue your journey.\u201d Stone boy sat down and\nate dinner with the old witch. She watched him very closely, but when\nshe would be drinking her soup he would glance hastily around the room.\nFinally he saw the four bundles on the opposite side of the room, and\nhe guessed at once that there lay his four uncles. When he had finished\neating he took out his little pipe and filled it with \u201ckini-kinic,\u201d and\ncommenced to smoke, wondering how the old woman had managed to fool\nhis smart uncles. He couldn\u2019t study it out, so when he had finished his\nsmoke he arose to pretend to go. When the old woman saw him preparing\nto leave, she said: \u201cGrandson, will you kick me on the left side of my\nbackbone. I am nearly dead with pain and if you kick me good and hard\nit will cure me.\u201d \u201cAll right, grandma,\u201d said the boy. The old witch lay\ndown on the floor and the boy started in to kick. At the first kick he\nbarely touched her. \u201cKick as hard as you can, grandson; don\u2019t be afraid\nyou will hurt me, because you can\u2019t.\u201d With that Stone Boy let drive and\nbroke two ribs. She commenced to yell and beg him to stop, but he kept\non kicking until he had kicked both sides of her ribs loose from the\nbackbone. Then he jumped on her backbone and broke it and killed the old\nwitch.\n\nHe built a big fire outside and dragged her body to it, and threw her\ninto the fire. Thus ended the old woman who was going to turn his uncles\ninto horses.\n\nNext he cut willows and stuck them into the ground in a circle. The\ntops he pulled together, making a wickieup. He then took the old woman\u2019s\nrobes and blankets and covered the wickieup so that no air could get\ninside. He then gathered sage brush and covered the floor with a good\nthick bed of sage; got nice round stones and got them red hot in the\nfire, and placed them in the wickieup and proceeded to carry his\nuncles out of the hut and lay them down on the soft bed of sage. Having\ncompleted carrying and depositing them around the pile of rocks, he got\na bucket of water and poured it on the hot rocks, which caused a great\nvapor in the little wickieup. He waited a little while and then listened\nand heard some breathing inside, so he got another bucket and poured\nthat on also. After awhile he could hear noises inside as though some\none were moving about. He went again and got the third bucket and after\nhe had poured that on the rocks, one of the men inside said: \u201cWhoever\nyou are, good friend, don\u2019t bring us to life only to scald us to death\nagain.\u201d Stone boy then said: \u201cAre all of you alive?\u201d \u201cYes,\u201d said the\nvoice. \u201cWell, come out,\u201d said the boy. And with that he threw off the\nrobes and blankets, and a great cloud of vapor arose and settled around\nthe top of the highest peak on the long range, and from that did Smoky\nRange derive its name.\n\nThe uncles, when they heard who the boy was, were very happy, and they\nall returned together to the anxiously waiting sister. As soon as they\ngot home, the brothers worked hard to gather enough wood to last them\nall winter. Game they could get at all times of the year, but the\nheavy fall of snow covered most of the dry wood and also made it very\ndifficult to drag wood through the deep snow. So they took advantage of\nthe nice fall weather and by the time the snow commenced falling they\nhad enough wood gathered to last them throughout the winter. After the\nsnow fell a party of boys swiftly coasted down the big hill west of the\nbrothers\u2019 hut. The Stone boy used to stand and watch them for hours at\na time. His youngest uncle said: \u201cWhy don\u2019t you go up and coast with\nthem?\u201d The boy said: \u201cThey may be afraid of me, but I guess I will try\nonce, anyway.\u201d So the next morning when the crowd came coasting, Stone\nboy started for the hill. When he had nearly reached the bottom of the\ncoasting hill all of the boys ran off excepting two little fellows who\nhad a large coaster painted in different colors and had little bells\ntied around the edges, so when the coaster was in motion the bells made\na cheerful tinkling sound. As Stone boy started up the hill the two\nlittle fellows started down and went past him as though shot from a\nhickory bow.\n\nWhen they got to the end of their slide, they got off and started back\nup the hill. It being pretty steep, Stone boy waited for them, so as\nto lend a hand to pull the big coaster up the hill. As the two little\nfellows came up with him he knew at once that they were twins, as they\nlooked so much alike that the only way one could be distinguished from\nthe other was by the scarfs they wore. One wore red, the other black. He\nat once offered to help them drag their coaster to the top of the hill.\nWhen they got to the top the twins offered their coaster to him to try\na ride. At first he refused, but they insisted on his taking it, as they\nsaid they would sooner rest until he came back. So he got on the coaster\nand flew down the hill, only he was such an expert he made a zigzag\ncourse going down and also jumped the coaster off a bank about four\nfeet high, which none of the other coasters dared to tackle. Being\nvery heavy, however, he nearly smashed the coaster. Upon seeing this\nwonderful jump, and the zigzag course he had taken going down, the twins\nwent wild with excitement and decided that they would have him take them\ndown when he got back. So upon his arrival at the starting point, they\nboth asked him at once to give them the pleasure of the same kind of a\nride he had taken. He refused, saying: \u201cWe will break your coaster. I\nalone nearly smashed it, and if we all get on and make the same kind of\na jump, I am afraid you will have to go home without your coaster.\u201d\n\n\u201cWell, take us down anyway, and if we break it our father will make us\nanother one.\u201d So he finally consented. When they were all seated ready\nto start, he told them that when the coaster made the jump they must\nlook straight ahead. \u201cBy no means look down, because if you do we will\ngo over the cut bank and land in a heap at the bottom of the gulch.\u201d\n\nThey said they would obey what he said, so off they started swifter\nthan ever, on account of the extra weight, and so swiftly did the sleigh\nglide over the packed, frozen snow, that it nearly took the twins\u2019\nbreath away. Like an arrow they approached the jump. The twins began to\nget a little nervous. \u201cSit steady and look straight ahead,\u201d yelled Stone\nboy. The twin next to Stone boy, who was steering behind, sat upright\nand looked far ahead, but the one in front crouched down and looked\ninto the coulee. Of course, Stone boy, being behind, fell on top of the\ntwins, and being so heavy, killed both of them instantly, crushing them\nto a jelly.\n\nThe rest of the boys, seeing what had happened, hastened to the edge\nof the bank, and looking down, saw the twins laying dead, and Stone boy\nhimself knocked senseless, lying quite a little distance from the twins.\nThe boys, thinking that all three were killed, and that Stone boy had\npurposely steered the sleigh over the bank in such a way that it would\ntip and kill the twins, returned to the village with this report. Now,\nthese twins were the sons of the head chief of the Buffalo Nation. So at\nonce the chief and his scouts went over to the hill to see if the boys\nhad told the truth.\n\nWhen they arrived at the bank they saw the twins lying dead, but where\nwas Stone boy? They looked high and low through the gulch, but not a\nsign of him could they find. Tenderly they picked up the dead twins and\ncarried them home, then held a big council and put away the bodies of\nthe dead in Buffalo custom.\n\nA few days after this the uncles were returning from a long journey.\nWhen they drew near their home they noticed large droves of buffalo\ngathered on their side of the range. Hardly any buffalo ever ranged on\nthis east side of the range before, and the brothers thought it strange\nthat so many should so suddenly appear there now.\n\nWhen they arrived at home their sister told them what had happened to\nthe chief\u2019s twins, as her son had told her the whole story upon his\narrival at home after the accident.\n\n\u201cWell, probably all the buffalo we saw were here for the council and\nfuneral,\u201d said the older brother. \u201cBut where is my nephew?\u201d (Stone boy)\nhe asked his sister. \u201cHe said he had noticed a great many buffalo around\nlately and he was going to learn, if possible, what their object was,\u201d\n said the sister. \u201cWell, we will wait until his return.\u201d\n\nWhen Stone boy left on his trip that morning, before the return of his\nuncles, he was determined to ascertain what might be the meaning of\nso many buffalo so near the home of himself and uncles. He approached\nseveral bunches of young buffalo, but upon seeing him approaching they\nwould scamper over the hills. Thus he wandered from bunch to bunch,\nscattering them all. Finally he grew tired of their cowardice and\nstarted for home. When he had come to within a half mile or so of home\nhe saw an old shaggy buffalo standing by a large boulder, rubbing on it\nfirst one horn and then the other. On coming up close to him, the boy\nsaw that the bull was so old he could hardly see, and his horns so\nblunt that he could have rubbed them for a year on that boulder and not\nsharpened them so as to hurt anyone.\n\n\u201cWhat are you doing here, grandfather?\u201d asked the boy.\n\n\u201cI am sharpening my horns for the war,\u201d said the bull.\n\n\u201cWhat war?\u201d asked the boy.\n\n\u201cHaven\u2019t you heard,\u201d said the old bull, who was so near sighted he did\nnot recognize Stone boy. \u201cThe chief\u2019s twins were killed by Stone boy,\nwho ran them over a cut bank purposely, and the chief has ordered all\nof his buffalo to gather here, and when they arrive we are going to kill\nStone boy and his mother and his uncles.\u201d\n\n\u201cIs that so? When is the war to commence?\u201d\n\n\u201cIn five days from now we will march upon the uncles and trample and\ngore them all to death.\u201d\n\n\u201cWell, grandfather, I thank you for your information, and in return\nwill do you a favor that will save you so much hard work on your blunt\nhorns.\u201d So saying he drew a long arrow from his quiver and strung his\nbow, attached the arrow to the string and drew the arrow half way back.\nThe old bull, not seeing what was going on, and half expecting some kind\nof assistance in his horn sharpening process, stood perfectly still.\nThus spoke Stone boy:\n\n\u201cGrandfather, you are too old to join in a war now, and besides if you\ngot mixed up in that big war party you might step in a hole or stumble\nand fall and be trampled to death. That would be a horrible death, so I\nwill save you all that suffering by just giving you this.\u201d At this word\nhe pulled the arrow back to the flint head and let it fly. True to his\naim, the arrow went in behind the old bull\u2019s foreleg, and with such\nforce was it sent that it went clear through the bull and stuck into a\ntree two hundred feet away.\n\nWalking over to the tree, he pulled out his arrow. Coolly straightening\nhis arrow between his teeth and sighting it for accuracy, he shoved it\nback into the quiver with its brothers, exclaiming: \u201cI guess, grandpa,\nyou won\u2019t need to sharpen your horns for Stone boy and his uncles.\u201d\n\nUpon his arrival home he told his uncles to get to work building three\nstockades with ditches between and make the ditches wide and deep\nso they will hold plenty of buffalo. \u201cThe fourth fence I will build\nmyself,\u201d he said.\n\nThe brothers got to work early and worked until very late at night. They\nbuilt three corrals and dug three ditches around the hut, and it took\nthem three days to complete the work. Stone boy hadn\u2019t done a thing\ntowards building his fence yet, and there were only two days more left\nbefore the charge of the buffalo would commence. Still the boy didn\u2019t\nseem to bother himself about the fence. Instead he had his mother\ncontinually cutting arrow sticks, and as fast as she could bring them he\nwould shape them, feather and head them. So by the time his uncles had\ntheir fences and corrals finished he had a thousand arrows finished\nfor each of his uncles. The last two days they had to wait, the uncles\njoined him and they finished several thousand more arrows. The evening\nbefore the fifth day he told his uncles to put up four posts, so they\ncould use them as seats from which to shoot.\n\nWhile they were doing this, Stone boy went out to scout and see how\nthings looked. At daylight he came hurriedly in saying, \u201cYou had better\nget to the first corral; they are coming.\u201d \u201cYou haven\u2019t built your\nfence, nephew.\u201d Whereupon Stone boy said: \u201cI will build it in time;\ndon\u2019t worry, uncle.\u201d The dust on the hillsides rose as great clouds of\nsmoke from a forest fire. Soon the leaders of the charge came in sight,\nand upon seeing the timber stockade they gave forth a great snort\nor roar that fairly shook the earth. Thousands upon thousands of mad\nbuffalo charged upon the little fort. The leaders hit the first stockade\nand it soon gave way. The maddened buffalo pushed forward by the\nthousands behind them; plunged forward, only to fall into the first\nditch and be trampled to death by those behind them. The brothers were\nnot slow in using their arrows, and many a noble beast went down before\ntheir deadly aim with a little flint pointed arrow buried deep in his\nheart.\n\nThe second stockade stood their charge a little longer than did the\nfirst, but finally this gave way, and the leaders pushed on through,\nonly to fall into the second ditch and meet a similar fate to those\nin the first. The brothers commenced to look anxiously towards their\nnephew, as there was only one more stockade left, and the second ditch\nwas nearly bridged over with dead buffalo, with the now thrice maddened\nbuffalo attacking the last stockade more furiously than before, as they\ncould see the little hut through the openings in the corral.\n\n\u201cCome in, uncles,\u201d shouted Stone boy. They obeyed him, and stepping to\nthe center he said: \u201cWatch me build my fence.\u201d Suiting the words, he\ntook from his belt an arrow with a white stone fastened to the point and\nfastening it to his bow, he shot it high in the air. Straight up into\nthe air it went, for two or three thousand feet, then seemed to stop\nsuddenly and turned with point down and descended as swiftly as it had\nascended. Upon striking the ground a high stone wall arose, enclosing\nthe hut and all who were inside. Just then the buffalo broke the last\nstockade only to fill the last ditch up again. In vain did the leaders\nbutt the stone wall. They hurt themselves, broke their horns and mashed\ntheir snouts, but could not even scar the wall.\n\nThe uncles and Stone boy in the meantime rained arrows of death into\ntheir ranks.\n\nWhen the buffalo chief saw what they had to contend with, he ordered the\nfight off. The crier or herald sang out: \u201cCome away, come away, Stone\nboy and his uncles will kill all of us.\u201d\n\nSo the buffalo withdrew, leaving over two thousand of their dead and\nwounded on the field, only to be skinned and put away for the feasts\nof Stone boy and his uncles, who lived to be great chiefs of their own\ntribe, and whose many relations soon joined them on the banks of Stone\nBoy Creek.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE UNKTOMI (SPIDER), TWO WIDOWS, AND THE RED PLUMS\n\nThere once lived, in a remote part of a great forest, two widowed\nsisters, with their little babies. One day there came to their tent\na visitor who was called Unktomi (spider). He had found some nice red\nplums during his wanderings in the forest, and he said to himself, \u201cI\nwill keep these plums and fool the two widows with them.\u201d After the\nwidows had bidden him be seated, he presented them with the plums.\n\nOn seeing them they exclaimed \u201chi nu, hi nu (an exclamation of\nsurprise), where did you get those fine plums?\u201d Unktomi arose and\npointing to a crimson tipped cloud, said: \u201cYou see that red cloud?\nDirectly underneath it is a patch of plums. So large is the patch and so\nred and beautiful are the plums that it is the reflection of them on the\ncloud that you see.\u201d\n\n\u201cOh, how we wish some one would take care of our babies, while we go\nover there and pick some,\u201d said the sisters. \u201cWhy, I am not in any\nparticular hurry, so if you want to go I will take care of my little\nnephews until you return.\u201d (Unktomi always claimed relationship with\neveryone he met). \u201cWell brother,\u201d said the older widow, \u201ctake good care\nof them and we will be back as soon as possible.\u201d\n\nThe two then took a sack in which to gather the plums, and started off\ntowards the cloud with the crimson lining. Scarcely had they gone from\nUnktomi\u2019s sight when he took the babies out of their swinging hammocks\nand cut off first one head and then the other. He then took some old\nblankets and rolled them in the shape of a baby body and laid one in\neach hammock. Then he took the heads and put them in place in their\ndifferent hammocks. The bodies he cut up and threw into a large kettle.\nThis he placed over a rousing fire. Then he mixed Indian turnips and\narikara squash with the baby meat and soon had a kettle of soup. Just\nabout the time the soup was ready to serve the widows returned. They\nwere tired and hungry and not a plum had they. Unktomi, hearing the\napproach of the two, hurriedly dished out the baby soup in two wooden\ndishes and then seated himself near the door so that he could get out\neasily. Upon the entrance of the widows, Unktomi exclaimed: \u201cSisters, I\nhad brought some meat with me and I cooked some turnips and squash with\nit and made a pot of fine soup. The babies have just fallen asleep, so\ndon\u2019t waken them until you have finished eating, for I know that you\nare nearly starved.\u201d The two fell to at once and after they had somewhat\nappeased their appetites, one of them arose and went over to see how\nher baby was resting. Noting an unnatural color on her baby\u2019s face,\nshe raised him up only to have his head roll off from the bundle of\nblankets. \u201c\u2018My son! my son!\u201d she cried out. At once the other hastened\nto her baby and grabbed it up, only to have the same thing happen. At\nonce they surmised who had done this, and caught up sticks from the fire\nwith which to beat Unktomi to death. He, expecting something like this\nto happen, lost very little time in getting outside and down into a hole\nat the roots of a large tree. The two widows not being able to follow\nUnktomi down into the hole, had to give up trying to get him out, and\npassed the rest of the day and night crying for their beloved babies.\nIn the meantime Unktomi had gotten out by another opening, and fixing\nhimself up in an entirely different style, and painting his face in a\nmanner that they would not recognize him, he cautiously approached the\nweeping women and inquired the cause of their tears.\n\nThus they answered him: \u201cUnktomi came here and fooled us about some\nplums, and while we were absent killed our babies and made soup out of\ntheir bodies. Then he gave us the soup to eat, which we did, and when\nwe found out what he had done we tried to kill him, but he crawled down\ninto that hole and we could not get him out.\u201d\n\n\u201cI will get him out,\u201d said the mock stranger, and with that he crawled\ndown into the hole and scratched his own face all over to make the\nwidows believe he had been fighting with Unktomi. \u201cI have killed him,\nand that you may see him I have enlarged the hole so you can crawl in\nand see for yourselves, also to take some revenge on his dead body.\u201d\n The two foolish widows, believing him, crawled into the hole, only to\nbe blocked up by Unktomi, who at once gathered great piles of wood and\nstuffing it into the hole, set it on fire, and thus ended the last of\nthe family who were foolish enough to let Unktomi tempt them with a few\nred plums.\n\n\n     Note: I have made the following changes to the text:\n     PAGE    PARA. LINE    ORIGINALLY CHANGED TO\n       12      3     3  one?               one?\u201d\n        23      2     1  men                man\n       26     11     4  me,                me,\u201d\n        42      7     5  earth.             earth.\u201d\n       117      1    12  scorceress.        sorceress.\n      130      2     8  horse tide         horse tied\n      130      2    14  parflesh           parfleche\n      131      1    10  parflesh           parfleche\n      154           12  party than an      party that an\n      177      1    13  wickie-up          wickieup\n      177      1    15  wickee-up          wickieup\n      178            2  wickee-up          wickieup","title":"Myths and Legends of the Sioux","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":44680}