Part 10

One day the village was attacked by a large party of Sioux. The inhabitants were being defeated on every side. Pretty-Voice was tardy in coming to the fight, and the men made remarks about his not making use of his power to fight. He came in his own time, went into the enemy’s field, with nothing to defend himself with but his whistle. The Sioux saw that no arrow or bullet could harm him, and knew that he was powerful. They began to retreat. They were thrown back, scalped and stripped of their weapons and ponies. They attempted a second attack, but were again thrown back. When they had been driven back the second time they knew that nothing could be done to destroy the people while Pretty-Voice was living, for he had made himself famous. They gave up trying to fight, but came there on a friendly visit.

During their visit, Pretty-Voice saw a pretty Sioux girl whom he thought he would take for his wife. So he went through his ceremony and secured the girl. He kept her for his wife. When they had lived together for a long time, loving each other in their lodge, the girl began to question Pretty-Voice about his great power. She said she wanted to know how he could destroy, and she said that if she could be trusted to perform some duty for him she would be glad to do so. Pretty-Voice told all that had happened to him, and said that he could be killed by scraping off a little elk horn and elk hair and making a little incense for arrows and bullets. “When this is done,” he said, “the bullets will go through me.” The Sioux girl began to get ready to desert her husband and to stir up her people to make another attack and kill Pretty-Voice. When Pretty-Voice had gone off somewhere she started out toward her country.

On her arrival she told her story and stirred up her people to make war and kill Pretty-Voice, saying that she knew his secret. She collected the necessary things and started out at the head of a war-party. The people of Pretty-Voice were moving for their future welfare when they heard that Pretty-Voice’s wife was missing. Pretty-Voice knew what was going to happen. He had told his mother long before when in trouble with his own tribe, that if anything should happen to him, even if he should be torn to pieces, she must collect his flesh and throw him into a stream near some timber and then she would see him again.

The girl camped near the village and there prepared the arrows and bullets as she had learned. A fierce battle began. The inhabitants of the village were defeated, and in a short time Pretty-Voice appeared. “There he comes! To-day you are lost!” cried the enemy. Pretty-Voice started after them as usual and drove the enemy a great distance, but his body looked like a porcupine tail with arrows. The bullets and arrows had so loaded him that he fell. The enemy turned around and scalped many of them. They mutilated the body of Pretty-Voice. The battle ended. The people went out to bury their dead, and especially Pretty-Voice. His poor mother, crying for her son, came out with a robe to collect his flesh and do as she had been told. The men noticed what she was intending to do. They asked her what she was going to do. She told all that Pretty-Voice had said, but the men would not hear of his coming again, as he had done enough mischief. The old mother insisted, but the men would not let her. As the brothers disapproved of her plan she gave in, and instead of burying his body they made a big fire and destroyed the body entirely. A number of days after his body had been burned to ashes a pure white fog was seen to arise daily from that place.

FOOTNOTES:

[26] Told by White-Bear.

26. THE ELK RESCUES A WOMAN FROM THE BEAR.[27]

There was a young man who fell in love with a certain girl in a village. This girl was the daughter of a chief, and she was very pretty. The young man was poor. He had no ponies, no relatives, but was often looking for them. The young girl fell in love with the young man, and so they planned to run away. The young man took some flint stones, bow and arrows, a knife and some robes, and went to the girl’s lodge. He took the girl out, and they rode on ponies. They went off into a wild country by themselves. There they stayed. They made a tipi. The young man went out every day to kill deer, so that now they had plenty of meat all the time. The young man thought a great deal of his wife. The only time he left her was in the daytime. The young man killed so many deer that the woman made buckskin dresses for herself, and also buckskin leggings for the man. The young man killed many elk, and the teeth of the elk were put upon the buckskin dresses. They made a big new tipi. They had much dried meat.

One day the young man said: “I will stop hunting. I will now go to yonder hill, and I will try to catch some eagles.” So the young man went up on a hill, and he caught many eagles. He took them to his home. One time while he was in a den, waiting for an eagle to alight so that he could catch it, somebody came to his camping place and took away his wife. This being was a Bear. The Bear had turned into a man and had come to the camp. He had a robe about his shoulders, bear’s claws about his neck, and he smelled so fine that the woman could not help but like him. When the man started to go the woman wanted to follow him. She finally left everything that she had and followed the man. This man was a Bear, and he led her into a den where there were a dozen or more women that he had taken from their husbands. In the evening, the young man got out from his cave, went to his camp, and found his wife gone, but everything else was in its place. The eagles that he had killed were there. He knew by this that if the enemy had taken her they would have taken the eagles too. So he hunted and hunted and yelled. At last he gave out. He went along the timber and finally an Elk found him.

The young man told the Elk that he had lost his wife; that he thought a great deal of her; and that now he was about dead from hunting her. The Elk told him that he was going to help him to get his wife back, but that he would have to fight. The Elk taught the man how to transform himself into an Elk. He also gave him a whistle, and told him that he whistled when he wanted female Elk to come to him, and that when he whistled they all rushed to him. The Elk told the young man to remain in the timber; that he would go and watch for the Bear; and that when the Bear should be gone, he would come and let him know, so that the young man might go and blow the whistle, while the Bear was gone. The Bear left his den and went out for a long distance. The Elk knew this. It came and told the young man. The young man went up close to the place where the den was and blew the whistle. As soon as his wife heard the whistle she said, “Women, let us go; that is my husband.” Some of the women were afraid to go, for they were afraid of the Bear; but the young man kept on whistling, and when the women heard it again they all rose and walked out of the den. They followed the young man’s wife, who was now running to where the young man was standing. The young man saw his wife and was happy. He embraced her, and said, “Go, I will remain behind, for the Bear will surely come after you.”

The Elk now came, and said: “The Bear is coming. Watch. Fix your bow and arrows so that you can shoot the Bear, while I put my head down and thus make a kind of barrier so that he can not get through, on account of my horns.” The Bear came, and as he attacked the Elk the Elk put his head down so that the Bear could not get through, and as the Elk began to lift its head up it brought its head and the whole weight of its horns upon the Bear, thus sticking its horns into the Bear’s body, while the young man shot at the Bear with his arrows. They killed the Bear. The Elk now turned to the young man, and said, “I shall now go to my place.” But the young man said, “No, I shall only take my wife; you take the other women.” So the Elk took the other women, and they all turned into Elk. For this reason, when a male elk whistles, all the female elk run to him.

FOOTNOTES:

[27] Told by Antelope.

27. THE BOY AND THE ELK.[28]

There was a young man in the Arikara village who was very handsome. He tried to marry, but the girls all seemed to hate him. He went off to a hilly country where there was a lake. On the west side of the lake was a skull of an animal. He placed himself by the skull and began to cry.

On the second night an Elk came to the boy, but soon disappeared. In a short time the boy heard the clear, beautiful notes of a flute. The sound of the flute came nearer and nearer the boy, until it came to where he stood. There stood before him an Elk. The Elk now spoke to him, and said: “My brother, that is my skull before you. I know what you are crying for. The women do not like you, and you wish to be liked by them. I now take pity upon you. Take the teeth from this skull. Wear the large ones about your neck. Wear the others in your ears. I give you a flute. Go to the village of your people. Blow this flute, and you will see the young girls coming to you.” The young man received the flute and also pulled the teeth from the skull. He went home and did as he was told to do.

He tried his flute, and the young girls came to him. This he tried several times, until he was married. Women also came to him. The men did not like this, so they gathered together and agreed to kill him. In the evening the men went out and sat around with their bows and arrows. The man came out from his tipi and walked outside the camp, blowing his flute. The women started to run to him. The war-cry was raised and the men closed in on the boy, killing him. One of the boy’s relatives took the teeth from his neck and ears, and also the flute. The relatives of the boy were afraid to bury the boy, so they left him where he was killed. The boy lay there for several days, but one night he came to the tipi of his mother. He woke her up and told her that he had returned. His mother did not believe it. But when she made a fire she saw her son sitting there. The son then said: “Mother, go to the society of Young-Dogs, and tell them to give me some tobacco, so that I may smoke.” The mother went to the tipi and they gave her the tobacco. She gave the tobacco to her son, who smoked, and said, “This smoke is good.”

The men in the village were afraid. They thought the man would take revenge and kill some of them. The boy did not go out much, and the people doubted that he was back and alive. Some of the men went to the tipi to see if the boy was home and alive. The men saw the boy, and they became afraid. One day the boy sent for all his nearest kin, and said: “My relatives, my heart is poor, for these people killed me. I do not want to live here any more. Will you go with me where I am going?” All said, “Yes.” So the boy went and caught his pony. The others did the same. Men, women, and children followed the boy. He went towards the river and told the people to follow him and they obeyed. They went into the water, and as they got into the water they began to disappear. They all turned into some kind of animal that lived in the water. The young man who had the flute and elk’s teeth did not go, so he was the only one who lived.

FOOTNOTES:

[28] Told by White-Bear.

28. THE COYOTE, THE GIRL, AND THE MAGIC WINDPIPE.[29]

A long time ago there lived a beautiful girl who had her lodge in the center of the timber. She loved nobody, but she always had plenty of buffalo meat, and plenty to eat. She had some wonderful bundles hung up in her lodge.

One day as she was eating in her lodge the Coyote visited her. He saw that she had plenty of meat, so he made his home with her. Every day they had meat. The Coyote was now the girl’s errand man, and made fires for her and carried water for her. One day the girl was up early in the morning, and she said: “My uncle (Coyote), we are out of meat. I want fresh meat. My brothers will be here to-day, and I want you to stay on the north side of the entrance and cover your head up with your buffalo robe, and not to watch.” The girl swept out the lodge, placed some hot coals between the altar and the fireplace, and put some sweet grass upon the coals. As the smoke arose from the coals she went to the sacred bundle, and from it took the windpipe of a buffalo, which was round, and small at one end and large at the other end. She waved this over the smoke, then took it and turned it upside down so that dust came out from it, and as the dust fell out it turned into seven young men, who were her brothers. On the north side, where the sacred bundle hung, were several bows and arrows. These bows and arrows the brothers took down. When the boys took their bows and arrows the girl put her buffalo robe about her. She went up on to the lodge. She gave one yell toward the north, moved toward the west, moved toward the south, and then the buffalo came, from the north and from the west. She went back into the lodge, and her brothers began to kill the buffalo. They killed so many buffalo that the buffalo finally ran off. The brothers went into the lodge and stood in a row on the north side. The girl took some hot coals and placed them west of the fireplace, put some medicine and sweet grass upon them, and each brother, when his turn came, passed his bow and arrows through the smoke and laid them by the coals. Then they let the smoke pass through their bows. Then one stepped to the south of the coals and stopped; he finally disappeared. After that all disappeared. The girl took the windpipe, passed it over the smoke, then put her hand on the ground, got the dust together, and put it back into the windpipe. She passed the windpipe over the smoke, tied it, and hung it up in its place again. She even took the bows and arrows, passed them over the smoke and threw them upon the ground. They became tiny bows and grass arrows. These she hung up by the bundle again.

While all this was going on the Coyote had one eye open. After the girl was through with the performance she told the Coyote to come out. She went out with the Coyote and they skinned the buffalo. They brought the meat into the lodge, and left the hides outside. Every day the girl and the Coyote jerked the meat. The Coyote laid the bones around the fireplace and roasted them. When the Coyote ate the roast meat that was cooked he would think of his hungry children far away. At last he decided to steal the windpipe that contained the young men and to take it far away into his country, so that he could call the buffalo and have the young men to kill them. He said to himself: “If I find the enemy’s camp I will attack them. I will turn that windpipe upside down and those brothers will come out, and they will fight for me. The people will think that I am a wonderful man.” One day the Coyote asked the girl if her seven brothers in the windpipe were the only ones there. She said, “No, for, if I am attacked, I turn that windpipe upside down and there will be many young men, and my seven brothers will lead them out and they will fight for me.” The Coyote said to himself, “That is good; I will steal it.” So the Coyote made up his mind to steal the windpipe that night. The girl knew what the Coyote was planning all the time, but she allowed him to steal it. The Coyote went up to the windpipe, took it down and went out of the lodge, to the north. He traveled far. He thought, “I am now far away from the girl; I will lie down by the side of this log and sleep.” The girl knew just where the Coyote had lain down, and so she had her brothers bring the Coyote back and place him at the ridge just before the entrance of the lodge, on the north side. In the morning the girl got up, went to the Coyote and waked him. When the Coyote awoke he found himself in the lodge. He said: “My niece, I thought the enemy were coming, so I took this thing down, so that I could put the brothers outside so that they could fight for us. I must have gone to sleep here. Put it back.” Again the Coyote thought, “Well, I will stay, and I will yet steal this windpipe.” So one night he took the windpipe down again and went off. He went until he came to a place where there were some ashes where timber had been burned. He lay down to rest. The girl told her brothers to bring him back and place him outside of the lodge, where there was a pile of ashes. She went out in the morning, waked him, and the Coyote, when he awoke, found himself by the lodge. “My niece,” he said, “I took this thing down, for there was a war-party coming to attack us. I went to meet the war-party and they ran away, and I came back and lay down here, for I was tired.” The third time he tried to steal the windpipe, but again he failed. The fourth time, the girl let the Coyote carry the thing off. So the Coyote went off, and the girl did not have him brought back. He became hungry, and as he saw a village he thought to himself, “If I do this wonderful thing to these people they will find out that I am wonderful and they will take me from one lodge to another to feed me.” So the Coyote went up on the hill. He commenced to howl at the people in the village to come and kick with him. He thought that if he could get them to kick with him he would turn the windpipe upside down and the young men would run. The young men in the village said: “That fellow is howling for us to come and kick with him. Let us go up and kick with him.” So several young men went up on the hill where the Coyote was. The Coyote took the windpipe and turned it upside down, but instead of dust and the boys coming out, a swarm of bumblebees came out, and they commenced to sting the Coyote all over. The boys continued to kick him. The Coyote began to beg them not to kick. The young men ran into the timber and the bees left the Coyote and went up into a hollow tree. There they stayed. The Coyote went off as a coyote. The bees stayed in the timber, as bees.

FOOTNOTES:

[29] Told by Antelope.

29. THE BUFFALO-WIFE AND THE JAVELIN GAME.[30]

A long time ago there was a village upon the Missouri River. In this village was a young man who was well-to-do. He was handsome, but did not care for women. He seemed to be successful in all his undertakings. In hunting he killed many deer and antelope. He dug holes upon high hills and covered them with willows and placed carcasses of rabbits or some fresh meat on them. Magpies would come there and eat of the meat, then eagles would light there, so that he dragged them in. People got to calling him “Man-Who-Kills-Game-Easily.”

One day he went hunting, and as he climbed up on a high hill he saw somebody coming. The boy lay down upon the hill and went to sleep. When he awoke the sun had gone down, and it was night. He lay down again and went to sleep. He saw a buffalo cow sitting upon a prairie and two bulls were standing back of her, and each bull was saying, “I will ring her.” The boy thought that he was standing by looking on. When the bulls ran to where the buffalo cow was sitting they turned into sticks and the boy also saw that the cow had turned to a ring. The boy, in his dream, picked up each stick and examined it, so that he knew just how they were made. He also thought he picked up the ring and examined it. The next morning he woke up. He looked where he had seen a person the day before and he saw something there. This time it was not a person, but a buffalo cow. The cow came and stopped on a prairie. She sat down. The boy went down from the hill, for the cow was by it. The boy could see no other cow. Bovi appropinquavit quacum, cum benigna videretur, concubuit. When he stood back the cow disappeared. The boy looked into the grass and there was the ring he had dreamed of. He picked up the ring and went home. He wore it upon his wrist. Every night he dreamed about the sticks, so he went out one day and cut ash timber and made the sticks. Every morning the young man used to go outside the village and call out, “I have sticks here to play with!” The young men of the village came out and played the game. Some of them would rather play the game than eat. This particular man was skillful in playing the game. He seemed to be the only one who could catch the ring. He won many things, such as eagle feathers, wampum, beads and many other things. The game became very popular. Men came from their homes and played all day with the sticks.

One day the boy took his bow and arrows and went hunting for game. The game generally was plentiful, but on this hunt the boy failed to find any game. He kept on going south until he came to a valley where there was a large stream of water. There in the valley he saw a person. He approached and saw that the person was an old woman. The young man spoke to the old woman, and she said: “My grandson, I am weak. Take pity on me. Carry me across the river, that I may go out to the village.” The young man told her to walk and that he would hold her while she crossed the river. But the old woman said: “No, my grandson; put me upon your back, take me across, and set me upon that nice grass on the other side.” The young man gave in, and he put the old woman upon his back and waded the river. After the boy had crossed the river he said, “Well, you had better get off.” The old woman said, “My grandson, take me a little further.” So the boy went on. When the boy stopped to put the old woman down she laughed, and said: “No, my grandson; you cannot put me down; I am your wife now.” The boy became furious and tried to throw the old woman off, but she was fast to his back. The boy stuck her with his knife and tried hard to get her off, but the old woman stuck on and laughed at the boy. The old woman said: “Grandson, you might as well go home, for I am to stay with you always. Let the young men see you carry an old woman. You are so proud that you do not look at the women.” The young man made up his mind to go home. So he went home with the old woman upon his back.

People looked at the young man coming into camp with an old woman upon his back. Children crowded about him and followed the boy through the village. He went into his lodge and told his friends what had happened to him. The people placed the young man in the lodge and medicine-men were sent for. All the medicine-men failed to get the old woman off the young man’s back. While the people crowded around, a poor boy came and stood with the people. He spoke out and said, “I can take the old woman from that young man’s back.” Then he disappeared. The people heard the poor boy speak, and the people told the relatives what the poor boy said. The poor boy was living in a shelter with his grandmother. The boy spoke to his grandmother, and said: “Grandmother, the people are coming after me to take the woman off from the boy. I can take her off.” The old woman felt sorry for her grandson, not knowing that the boy had powers to take the old woman off. The relatives of the boy came and brought with them the medicine-men’s pipe. The men stood before the boy, holding the pipe before him. The boy reached and took it. The people thanked the boy for taking it. The boy then took his bow and four arrows of different colors. He put his old robe on, holding his bow and arrows in his left hand. He went into the lodge of the young man with the old woman upon his back.