Part 7

The Manito only turned his head now and then to look back. At length when he was tired of the sport, Grasshopper, to be rid of him, with a gentle application of his foot sent the wicked old Manito whirling away through the air, where he made a great number of the most curious turn-overs in the world till he came to alight. It so happened, then, that he fell astride of an old bull-buffalo grazing in a distant pasture, who straightway set off with him at a long gallop; and the old Manito has not been heard of to this day.

Then the warriors and the pipe-bearer and Grasshopper set to work and burned down the lodge of the wicked spirits, and when they came to look about, they saw that the ground was strewn on all sides with human bones bleaching in the sun; these were the unhappy victims of the Manitoes. Grasshopper then took three arrows from his girdle, and after having performed a ceremony to the Great Spirit, he shot one into the air, crying:

"You are lying down; rise up, or you will be hit!"

The bones all moved to one place. He shot the second arrow, repeating the same words, and each bone drew toward its fellow-bone. The third arrow brought forth to life the whole multitude of people who had been killed by the Manitoes. Grasshopper conducted the crowd to his friend, the chief of the village, and gave them into his hands, telling who they were and the manner in which they had come to life again. Meanwhile the twenty warriors, pipe-bearer, and all the people cried together:

"Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha! Grasshopper has killed the wicked Manito."

The chief was there with his counsellors, to whom he spoke apart.

"Who is more worthy to rule than you?" said the chief to Grasshopper. "_You_ alone can defend us all."

Grasshopper thanked him and told him that he was in search of more adventures.

"I have done some things," said little Grasshopper, rather boastfully, "and I think I can do some more."

The chief still urged him, but he was eager to go, and naming Pipe-bearer to tarry and take his place, Grasshopper set out again on his travels, promising that he would some time or other come back and see them.

"Ho! ho! ho!" they all cried. "Come back again and see us!" He renewed his promise that he would; and then set out alone.

After traveling some time he came to a great lake, and on looking about he discovered a very large otter on an island. He thought to himself, "His skin will make me a fine pouch." And he immediately drew up at long shot and drove an arrow into the otter's side. Then he waded into the lake, and with some difficulty dragged him ashore and up a hill overlooking the lake.

As soon as Grasshopper got the otter into the warm sunshine, he skinned him and threw the carcass some distance off, thinking the war-eagle would come, and that he would have a chance to secure his feathers as ornaments for the head; for Grasshopper began to be proud, and was disposed to display himself.

He soon heard a rushing noise as of a loud wind, but could see nothing. Presently a large eagle dropped, as if from the air, upon the otter's carcass. Grasshopper drew his bow, and the arrow passed through under both of his wings. The bird made a convulsive flight upward, with such force that the cumbrous body was borne up several feet from the ground; but the heavy otter, in which the bird's claws were deeply fixed, brought the eagle back to the earth. Grasshopper possessed himself of a handful of the prime feathers, crowned his head with the trophy, and set off in high spirits on the look-out for something new.

After walking a while, he came to a body of water which flooded the trees on its hanks--it was a lake made by beavers. Taking his station on the raised dam where the stream escaped, he watched to see whether any of the beavers would show themselves. A head presently peeped out of the water to see who it was that disturbed them.

"My friend," said Grasshopper in his most persuasive manner, "could you not oblige me by turning me into a beaver like yourself? Nothing would please me so much as to make your acquaintance, I can assure you." For Grasshopper was curious to know how these watery creatures lived, and what kind of notions they had.

"I do not know," replied the heaver, who was rather short-nosed and surly. "I will go and ask the others. Meanwhile stay where you are, if you please."

"To be sure," answered Grasshopper, stealing down the bank several paces as soon as the beaver's back was turned.

Presently there was a great splashing of the water, and all the heavers showed their heads, and looked warily to where he stood, to see if he was armed. But he had knowingly left his bow and arrows in a hollow tree at a short distance.

After a long conversation, which they conducted in a whisper so that Grasshopper could not catch a word, strain his ears as he would, they all advanced in a body toward the spot where he stood; the chief approaching the nearest and lifting his head highest out of the water.

"Can you not," said Grasshopper, noticing that they waited for him to speak first, "turn me into a beaver? I wish to live among you."

"Yes," answered their chief. "Lie down." And Grasshopper in a moment found himself a beaver, and was gliding into the water, when a thought seemed to strike him, and he paused at the edge of the lake.

"I am very small," he said to the beaver in a sorrowful tone. "You must make me large." For Grasshopper was terribly ambitious and wanted always to be the first person in every company. "Larger than any of you; in my present size it's hardly worth my while to go into the water."

"Yes, yes!" said they. "By and by, when we get into the lodge it shall be done."

They all dived into the lake, and when in passing great heaps of limbs and logs at the bottom, Grasshopper asked their use, they answered, "For our winter's provision."

When they all got into the lodge the number was about one hundred. The lodge was large and warm.

"Now we will make you large," said they. Then, "Will _that_ do?"

"Yes," he answered; for he found that he was ten times the size of the largest.

"You need not go out," said the others. "We will bring you food into the lodge, and you will be our chief."

"Very well," Grasshopper answered. He thought, "I will stay here and grow fat at their expense."

But, soon after, one of them ran into the lodge out of breath, crying out:

"We are visited by the Indians!"

All huddled together in great fear. The water began to lower, for the hunters had broken down the dam, and soon they could be heard on the roof of the lodge, breaking it up. Out jumped all the beavers into the water, and so escaped.

Grasshopper tried to follow, then to call them back; but either they did not hear or would not attend to him. So he had to find his own way of getting out. Now, unfortunately, in order to gratify his ambition, the beavers had made him too large to crawl out of the hole. He wiggled and twisted in vain, and only worried himself till the sweat stood out on his forehead in knobs and huge bubbles. He looked like a great bladder swollen and blistered in the sun.

Although he heard and understood every word that the hunters spoke--and some of their expressions suggested terrible ideas--he could not turn himself back into a man. He had chosen to be a beaver, and a beaver he must he. One of the hunters, a prying little man with a single lock dangling over one eye, put his head in at the top of the lodge.

"Ty-au!" cried he. "Tut ty-au! Me-shau-mik--king of beavers is in."

Whereupon the whole crowd of hunters began upon him with their clubs, and knocked his skull about until it was no harder than a morass in the middle of summer. Grasshopper thought as well as ever he did, although he was inhabiting the carcass of a beaver; and he felt that he was in a rather foolish scrape.

Presently seven or eight of the hunters hoisted his body upon long poles and marched away home with him. As they went, he reflected in this manner:

"What will become of me? My ghost or shadow will not die after they get me to their lodges. So perhaps then I will be free again."

Invitations were immediately sent out for a grand feast. But as soon as Grasshopper's body got cold, his soul flew off, being uncomfortable in a house without heat.

Having reassumed his mortal shape, Grasshopper found himself standing near a prairie. After walking a distance, he saw a herd of elk feeding. He admired their apparent ease and enjoyment of life, and thought there could be nothing more pleasant than the liberty of running about and feeding on the prairies. He had been a water animal and now he wished to become a land animal, to learn what passed in an elk's head as he roved about. So he asked them if they could not turn him into one of themselves.

"Yes," they answered, after a pause. "Get down on your hands and feet."

He obeyed their directions and forthwith found himself an elk.

"I want big horns, big feet," said he. "I wish to be very large." For all the conceit and vain-glory had not been knocked out of Grasshopper, even by the sturdy thwacks of the hunters' clubs.

"Yes, yes," they answered. "There," exerting their power, "are you big enough?"

"That will do," he replied, for, looking into a lake hard by, Grasshopper saw that he was very large.

The elk spent their time in grazing and running to and fro; but what astonished Grasshopper was that although he often lifted up his head and directed his eyes that way, he could never see the stars, which he had so admired as a human being.

Being rather cold one day, Grasshopper went into a thick wood for shelter, whither he was followed by most of the herd. They had not been long there when some elks from behind passed the others like a strong wind, calling out:

"The hunters are after us!"

All took the alarm, and off they ran, Grasshopper with the rest.

"Keep out on the plains," they said. But it was too late to profit by this advice, for they had already got entangled in the thick woods. Grasshopper soon scented the hunters, who were closely following his trail, for they had left all the other elk and were making after him in full cry. He jumped furiously, dashed through the underwood, and broke down whole groves of saplings in his flight. But this only made it the harder for him to get on, such a huge and lusty elk was he by his own request.

Presently, as he dashed past an open space, he felt an arrow in his side. They could not well miss him, he presented so wide a mark to the shot. He bounded over trees under the smart, but the shafts clattered thicker and thicker at his ribs, and at last one entered his heart. He fell to the ground, and heard the whoop of triumph sounded by the hunters. On coming up, they looked on the carcass with astonishment, and with their hands up to their mouths, exclaimed:

"Ty-au! ty-au!"

There were about sixty in the party, which had come out on a special hunt, as one of their number the day before had observed his large tracks on the plains. Now they were highly elated at having caught this giant elk and immediately set about dividing the spoils. But as soon as the skin was removed, the flesh grew cold. His spirit took its flight from the dead body, and Grasshopper found himself again in human shape, with a bow and arrows.

But his passion for adventure was not yet cooled; for on coming to a large lake with a sandy beach, he saw a large flock of brant. Speaking to them in the brant language, he requested them to make a brant of him.

"Yes," they replied at once, for the brant is a bird of a very obliging disposition.

"But I want to be very large," he said. There was no end to the ambition of little Grasshopper.

"Very well," they answered, and he soon found himself a large brant, all the others standing gazing in astonishment at his great size.

"You must fly as leader," they said.

"No," answered Grasshopper, "I will fly behind."

"Very well," rejoined the brant. "One thing more we have to say to you, brother Grasshopper. You must be careful, in flying, not to look down, or something may happen to you."

"Well, it is so," said he; and soon the flock rose up into the air, for they were bound north. They flew very fast--he behind.

One day, while going with a strong wind and as swiftly as their wings could flap, they passed over a large village. The Indians raised a great shout on seeing them, particularly on Grasshopper's account, for his wings were broader than two large mats. The village people made such a frightful noise that he forgot what had been told him about looking down. They were now scudding along as swift as arrows; and as soon as he brought his neck in and stretched it down to look at the shouters, his huge tail was caught by the wind, and over and over he was blown. He tried to right himself, but without success, for he had no sooner got out of one heavy air-current than he fell into another, which treated him even more rudely than that which he had escaped from. Down, down he went, making more turns than he wished for, from a height of several miles.

The first moment he had to look about him, Grasshopper, in the shape of a big brant, was aware that he was jammed into a large hollow tree. To get backward or forward was out of the question, and there, in spite of himself, was Grasshopper forced to tarry till his brant life was ended by starvation, when, his spirit being at liberty, he was once more a human being.

As he journeyed on in search of further adventures, Grasshopper came to a lodge in which were two old men, with heads white from extreme age. They were very fine old men to look at. There was such sweetness and innocence in their features that Grasshopper was very glad to accept their invitation to enter the lodge and tarry a while.

They treated him well, and when he made known to them that he was going back to his village, his friends and people, the two white-headed old men very heartily wished him a good journey and abundance of comfort in seeing his friends once more. They even arose, old and infirm as they were, and tottering with exceeding difficulty to the door, were at great pains to point out to him the exact course he should take; and called his attention to the circumstance that it was much shorter and more direct than the one he would have taken himself. Ah! what merry deceivers were these two old men with very white heads.

Grasshopper, with blessings showered on him until he was fairly out of sight, set forth with good heart. He thought he heard loud laughter resounding after him in the direction of the lodge; but it could not have been the two old men, for they were, certainly, too old to laugh.

He walked briskly all day, and at night he had the satisfaction of reaching a lodge in all respects like that which he had left in the morning. There were two more fine old men, and his treatment was in every particular the same, even down to the parting blessing and the laughter that followed him as he went his way.

After walking the third day and coming to a lodge the same as before, he was satisfied from the bearings of the course he had taken and by a notch which he had cut in the door-post, that he had been journeying in a circle, that these were the same two old men, all along, and that, despite their innocent faces and their very white heads, they had been playing him a sorry trick.

"Who are you," said Grasshopper, "to treat me so? Come forth, I say."

They were compelled to obey his summons, lest, in his anger, he should take their lives; and they appeared on the outside of the lodge.

"We must have a little trial of speed, now," said Grasshopper.

"A race?" they asked. "We are very old; we cannot run."

"We will see," said Grasshopper. Whereupon he set them out upon the road and gave them a gentle push, which put them in motion. Then he pushed them again--harder--harder--until they got under fine headway, when he gave each of them an astounding shock with his foot, and off they flew at a great rate, round and round the course; and such was the magic virtue of the foot of Grasshopper, that no object once set a-going by it could by any possibility stop; so that, for aught we know to the contrary, the two innocent, whiteheaded, merry old men are trotting to this day, with all their might and main around the circle in which they beguiled Grasshopper.

Continuing his journey, Grasshopper, although his head was warm and buzzing with all sorts of schemes, did not know exactly what to do until he came to a big lake. He mounted a high hill to try and see to the other side, but he could not. He then made a canoe and sailed forth. The water was very clear--a transparent blue--and he saw that it abounded with fish of a rare and delicate complexion. This circumstance inspired him with a wish to return to his own village, so that he might bring his people to live near this beautiful lake.

Toward evening, coming to a woody island, he encamped and ate the fish he had speared, and they proved to be as comforting to the stomach as they were pleasing to the eye. The next day Grasshopper returned to the mainland, and as he wandered along the shore he espied at a distance the celebrated giant, Manabozho, who is a bitter enemy of Grasshopper and loses no opportunity to stop him on his journeyings and to thwart his plans.

At first it occurred to Grasshopper to have a trial of wits with the giant, but on second thoughts he said to himself, "I am in a hurry now; I will see him another time."

With no further mischief than raising a great whirlwind of dust, which caused Manabozho to rub his eyes severely, Grasshopper quietly slipped out of the way; and he made good speed withal, for in much less time than you could count half the stars in the sky of a winter night, he had reached home.

His return was welcomed with a great hubbub of feasting and songs; and he had scarcely set foot in the village before he had invitations to take pot-luck at different lodges, and ate enough to have lasted him the rest of his natural life. Pipe-bearer, who had some time before given up the cares of a ruler and fallen back upon his native place, fairly danced with joy at the sight of Grasshopper, who, not to be outdone, dandled him affectionately in his arms by casting him up and down in the air half a mile or so, till little Pipe-bearer had no breath left in his body to say that he was happy to see Grasshopper home again.

Grasshopper gave the village folks a lively account of his adventures, and when he came to the blue lake and the abundant fish, he dwelt upon their charms with such effect that they agreed, with one voice, that it must be a glorious place to live in, and if he would show them the way they would shift camp and settle there at once.

He not only showed them the way, but bringing his wonderful strength and speed of foot to bear, in less than half a day he had transported the whole village, with its children, women, tents, and implements of war, to the new water-side.

Here, for a time, Grasshopper appeared to be content, until one day a message was brought him by a bear, who said that their king wished to see him immediately at his village. Grasshopper was ready in an instant; and mounting upon the messenger's back, off he went. Toward evening they climbed a high mountain and came to a cave where the bear-king lived. He was a very large person; and puffing with fat and a sense of his own importance, he made Grasshopper welcome by inviting him into his lodge.

As soon as it was proper, the king spoke, and said that he had sent for him on hearing that he was the chief who was moving a large party into the bears' hunting-ground.

"You must know," said the bear-king with a terrible growl, "that you have no right there, and I wish you would leave the country with your party, or else the strongest force will take possession. This I say."

"Very well," replied Grasshopper, going toward the door, for he suspected that the king of the bears was preparing to give him a hug. "So be it."

He wished to gain time and to consult his people; for he had seen as he came along that the bears were gathering in great force on the side of the mountain. He also made known to the bear-king that he would go back that night so that his people might be put in immediate possession of the royal behest.

The bear-king replied that Grasshopper might do as he pleased, but that one of his young men was at his command; so jumping nimbly on his back, Grasshopper rode home.

He assembled the people and ordered the bear's head off, to be hung outside of the village, that the bear spies, who were lurking in the neighborhood, might see it and carry the news to their chief.

The next morning, by break of day, Grasshopper had all of his young warriors under arms and ready for a fight. And none too soon, for about the middle of the afternoon the bear war-party came in sight, led on by the fat king. The bears advanced on their hind-legs, making a tremendous noise, and a very imposing display of their teeth and eyeballs.

The bear-chief himself came forward, and with a majestic wave of his right hand, said that he did not wish to shed the blood of the young warriors; but that if Grasshopper consented, they two would have a race. The winner should kill the losing chief, and all his young men should be servants to the other.

Grasshopper agreed, of course--how little Pipe-bearer, who stood by, grinned as they came to terms!--and they started to run before the whole company of warriors who stood in a circle looking on.

At first there was a prospect that Grasshopper would be badly beaten; for although he kept crowding the great fat bear-king till the sweat trickled from his shaggy ears, he never seemed to be able to push past him. But by and by, Grasshopper, going through a number of the most extraordinary maneuvers in the world, raised about the great fat bear-king such eddies and whirlwinds of sand, and so danced about, before and after him, that the king at last got fairly bewildered, and cried out for mercy. But Grasshopper still went on and reached the goal where he only waited for the bear-king to come up to drive an arrow through him. And now in fulfilment of the agreement the bears must become servants, and Grasshopper ordered them to take the body off and prepare it for supper.

"I am hungry," he said, "and would hold a great feast to celebrate our victory."

All the bears had to help, and although bound to act becomingly according to the forfeit, they made many a wry face as they carved up the body of their late royal master. And either by accident or design they fell into many curions blunders. One sprightly young fellow of an inquisitive turn of mind was found upon the roof of the lodge, with his head half-way down the smoke-hole, with a view to learn what they were to have for dinner. Another, a middle-aged bear with very long arms, who was put in charge of the children as nurse while the mothers were outside to look after the preparations, squeezed three or four of the most promising young papooses to death; another, when he should have been waiting at the back of his master, had climbed a shady tree and was indulging in his afternoon nap. And when, at last, the dinner was ready to be served, they came tumbling in with the dishes, heels over head, one after the other, so that one-half of the feast was spread upon the ground, and the other half deposited out of doors, on the other side of the lodge.

After a while, however, by strict discipline and threatening to cut off their provisions, the bear-servants were brought into tolerable control.

Yet Grasshopper, with his ever restless disposition, was uneasy; and, having done so many wonderful things, he resolved upon a strict and thorough reform in all the affairs of the village. To prevent future difficulty, he determined to adopt new regulations between the bears and their masters.