Part 17
In olden times there were certain men who went upon the war-path. Scouts were sent ahead, and when the scouts came back they brought word that they had seen a mysterious being. The thing was dressed in coyote hide and had crawled around, but finally had stood up and walked away. The scouts said that they had watched the man and that he had disappeared in the side of a steep bank. The leading warrior said: “If that being is a Scalped-Man we will go and find him. If he has any power we want to receive it. If he can tell us where the enemy are we want him to tell it.” So the party went to the bank and hunted and hunted. They could find no place; but one man saw a dry root hanging on the side of the bank. This root he pulled and a mud door fell; and there was the entrance to the place where the strange being lived.
The men were afraid to enter the place. Among them was one young man who cared for nothing. He was dared to go into the den. The young man stepped forward and said: “Men, follow me. If he kills me you will get to see what the thing is.” So the boy led the way into the cave and there sat in the cave a man, who was crying. He was dressed in coyote skins. His head was tied with a piece of white sheeting. The cave smelt very good, for there was wild sage spread all over the cave. There was also sitting in the lodge a buffalo skull. The men now agreed to talk to the Scalped-Man and to ask him to help their war-party to be successful.
FOOTNOTES:
[63] Told by Antelope.
63. THE DEAD MAN’S COUNTRY.[64]
Six or seven years ago I was out upon the hills after my ponies. On my way back towards the camp I fainted, and lay upon the ground for a long time. Finally I felt better. I rose and walked towards home. I entered my tipi and lay down, and when I lay down I died.
As soon as I had died I saw a path leading east. There seemed to be a kind of inclosure. There was a little hole. I looked in that hole and saw lots of people in the village. I wanted to see the people and get acquainted with them. I went through this little hole. When I had gone through the hole I was in the dead man’s country. Before I entered the village a man with a robe and anointed with red ointment came in, and said: “Young man, you must not go into this village. Go on, and at the south side of the entrance you will see a lodge where you will stop. You must not enter that lodge, for it is the lodge of the dead people.” I went to the lodge, and I saw many people looking in. I stood on the south side of the entrance to the lodge. I saw that whenever a person who had died came, he entered inside the lodge and took his seat among the people in the lodge. The ground all over the lodge was covered with white clay, and it looked like ashes. There were many people in the lodge. I looked, and there the drums were resting in the east. The drums were black. The men were painted red. As they began to sing one old man came and stood out; then another man, younger than the first; then another, younger than the second; then another, until there were seven who came in this fashion. The last one to come was a little boy, whom they were about to paint. Now the drummers began to sing in a low voice. The dancers had dried willow sticks, which were representatives of their relatives who were still living upon earth. Each of the men was calling his people to the dead, so that they could come and be with them. The dry willows were used because the dead people wanted their living relatives in the world to become sick—as, for example, with consumption—and to dry up like the dry willows. When one of these dancers had to leave this place and go up to their village in the west, another man of his age would go out and take his place, and so on around. They wanted me to go into the lodge, but the man behind me said, “Do not go into the lodge.” Every time they got to a certain part of the songs they would take the willow sticks, then move them towards themselves. Then the man that was watching me said, “Come, you must not stay here; you must be going to your country.”
Now I woke up, but I remember the story well.
FOOTNOTES:
[64] Told by White-Owl.
64. THE COYOTE WHO SPOKE TO THE EAGLE HUNTERS.[65]
One time there was a prominent warrior who made up his mind that he would take a company of boys up into the hills to catch eagles. He led them out into the hills, and there he had many holes dug for the young men. They dug a big cave in the bank of the Missouri River, and this they made their permanent home.
One night, while they were sitting around in a circle telling Coyote stories, telling things a little bit in excess of what the Coyote had done, they were startled by the bark of a Coyote just outside of their den. Presently the Coyote walked into their den and said: “You people tell things about me that are not true, but then, it is all right.” He jumped out of the den and went off. All the young men, and even the leader, were scattered, on account of this Coyote’s coming into the den. They left their den and returned to their village. They thought that it was a bad sign for the Coyote to talk, but the other people thought that it was wrong for them to be scared. They thought that the Coyote had brought a good message to them, and they should have stayed and should have caught many eagles.
FOOTNOTES:
[65] Told by Many-Fox.
65. THE GIRL AND THE ELK.[66]
One time the Arikara went hunting on the Missouri River. They made their camp in the timber. Every evening the men used to go across the river and kill Elk. One evening, after the men had come home from their hunt, they heard the Elk whistling across the river. There was a fine-looking young woman in the camp, and as soon as she heard the Elk whistling she jumped up as if something had struck her, and she said: “Oh! I like that whistling; I must go and find out what it is.” The people got hold of this woman. Every time the Elk whistled it was hard for the girl to stay away from him. For many days the Elk walked on the other side of the river, and the husband of the girl began to get jealous of the animal, for every time the Elk whistled the girl would jump up as if to run after it.
One day as they heard the Whistling of the Elk they all agreed that it was time to kill it. As they were getting ready to go across the river to kill the Elk they heard the whistling on their side of the river. There was the Elk going slowly through the timber. The men shot and shot and shot at it, but they could not kill it. The girl had to be tied up, because she wanted to go to the Elk. Finally one of the men took one of his cartridges and put in it some medicine, and said, “Now I will see if we can kill you.” This man shot at the Elk, and his bullet was effective. While the Elk was whistling through the timber the girl was being held down. She had almost gotten away from three or four strong men. After the Elk was dead they had to give the girl some medicine to keep her from running away. She was put in a sweat-lodge many times, until she got over this crazy spell.
FOOTNOTES:
[66] Told by Many-Fox.
66. HOW THE RABBIT SAVED A WARRIOR.[67]
One time the Ojibwa stole many ponies from the Arikara. The Arikara followed the Ojibwa, and they overtook the horse thieves, but a different band of Ojibwa. There were several wagon-loads of them. The Arikara attacked them and fought hard. Several Arikara were wounded, including one of their brave men, who was shot through his neck by a bullet, which passed clear through his neck. The Arikara expected that he would die from loss of blood. As the man seemed about to die he saw a Jack-Rabbit, who spoke to him, and said: “You are not to die; you are to live.” When the battle was over the man was brought to the village of the Arikara. He was taken into the medicine-lodge, and there was attended by the Rabbit medicine-man. In less than four days the man was up and around. He told the Arikara that the Rabbit had spoken to him, and told him that he was not to die from his wound. The man became well, and was one of the leading medicine-men of the Rabbit band. He lived to old age. He died only a few years ago from the bursting of a blood-vessel in the old wound.
FOOTNOTES:
[67] Told by Elk.
67. THE WOMAN WHOSE BREASTS WERE CUT OFF.[68]
In olden times when the Arikara lived in a village, there was a man who had a beautiful woman. This woman gave birth to a baby boy. One time when the child was about five years old the father went off on a hunt. While he was gone another young man, who was very handsome came and courted the woman. She liked the young man and did as he wanted her to do. They loved one another so much that they finally agreed that they would find a plan whereby either they could get rid of the husband or the woman would feign sickness and death. If she pretended to be dead she was to be placed upon an arbor instead of being buried; so the woman feigned sickness when her husband came home. She pretended to die, and they placed her upon an arbor. Her lover killed three dogs, skinned them, took the dogs up to the arbor and untied the girl. The dogs were placed upon the arbor, so that when the dog meat decayed it would smell. The young man brought leggings, moccasins, blankets, and beads, and in these the girl dressed as a boy. Her breast was tied with wide strings, so that not much of it appeared. They went off to another village, which was about four miles from the original village, where they lived happily. The young woman passed herself for a young man from the other village.
After they had stayed a long time in the village the woman grew anxious to see her child, so they painted up as men, and went and sat upon a rock that was by a spring. There they watched for the child to come to get water. One day the woman’s boy came to get water from the spring, and she recognized him. After she had seen the boy she wanted to take him up in her arms, but the young man said, “No!” The woman insisted, and said, “He will not find me out.” They went closer, and when the boy came where they were standing by the tree the woman spoke to her boy, and said, “Boy, will you let me drink out of your bucket.” The boy looked at the woman for a long time. He went into his lodge and told his father that he had seen his mother. The father would not believe it, but the boy said, “There are two people standing yonder, and one of them is my mother.”
The father thought, to make sure that it was true, that he would send for them. He had some dried buffalo meat boiled, and sent an invitation for the two young men to come and eat in his lodge. In the meantime he had sharpened a long knife and placed it under the meat. “Now,” he said, “if it is true that that woman is not a man, but my wife, I will find out. There are two things she is to do when she enters the lodge. First, when she enters and steps over the ridge inside of the lodge, he will step forward as he steps; and if she is a female she will step over the ridge with her foot sidewise. The second thing is, when they have eaten and when I offer them the pipe to smoke, I shall know she is a female if the person refuses to smoke.”
The two young men were sent for. They came, and the real young man entered the lodge, and stepped over the ridge straight forward, while the next young man, instead of walking straight forward like the first, moved her leg over sidewise. By this the husband knew that the person was not a man. He let them eat, and after they had eaten, the man filled the pipe and gave it to them. When the female took the pipe, instead of trying to smoke she put the pipe up to her mouth, and instead of drawing the smoke she blew into the pipe. The husband now took out his knife, and said: “I wanted to find you out. You are my wife.” The woman screamed, and asked him to forgive her, saying she would live with him and try to be a good woman. The young man ran away. But the husband was angry, and said: “You are dead to me any way, but rather than that your breasts be tied down to make you look like a man I will cut them off, so that your breasts will be smooth.” The husband took his knife out and cut her breasts off. The woman ran and fell at the entrance and died. She was taken up by her people and buried. The man went to the place where he supposed he had laid his wife, and there were three dead dogs. He knew by this that the two had played a trick on him. The girl’s parents never said anything, but they were glad that the woman was dead. Nothing more was said about it.
FOOTNOTES:
[68] Told by Young-Hawk.
68. THE WATER-DOGS.[69]
Once there was a young man who slept outside of the lodge. He heard dogs bark at night, and as it was moonlight he saw a dog coming out of the river carrying her little ones in her mouth, one at a time, into the hills, to a spring. This young man saw the water-dog carrying its young ones. His name was Poor-Bear. He died shortly after he saw the dogs. At another time an old woman went to get some water out of the river, at or about the same place the water-dogs were seen. As she stooped to dip the water up she heard the dogs chattering in the water. She became frightened. She went home with the water and told the story. She became sick and died shortly afterward.
These water-dogs are supposed to be very powerful in killing people. They are hardly ever seen by people, and when they are seen the person who sees them generally dies.
FOOTNOTES:
[69] Told by Two-Hawks.
69. TWO-WOLVES, THE PROPHET.[70]
On what we call “Stevenson Flat” is a good piece of timber. There the Arikara were camped a long time ago. One day everybody turned out on the hills some few miles away on a buffalo chase. While they were making preparations to go home there came up a very bad storm. The hunters were scattered in small groups, some fleeing with the wind, others heading toward their camp. Two-Wolves, a rather quiet but good-hearted fellow, was rather slow about getting away. He was left all by himself in the storm. He stayed out all night and was missed the next night. They thought that he was a victim of the bad storm. His relatives mourned for him, and when the storm was over they set out to look around for him and to bring home their meat. Two-Wolves had been pitied by a Prairie-Chicken that had saved his life. The ruling power, Waruhti, had given him power to understand the speech of Thunder. The hunters met Two-Wolves coming home, and as they rushed up to greet him and inquire of his troubles he answered that he was all right.
A long time after this had happened Two-Wolves began to practice his power. The men began to be interested in him. He always had his lodge full. A few of the wonderful things that he did are these: Once a man named Two-Bears had a herd of ponies. They were badly disturbed by a horse owned by a man named Roving-Coyote. One day as Two-Bears was driving his herd to water, this horse acted very badly, cutting out the mares and chasing the horses. Two-Bears grew tired of the horse’s behavior and took a strong, sharp-pointed ash stake and threw it at him. The horse was badly injured by the pin and died. Roving-Coyote, wondering who could have killed his horse, made up his mind to find out. He took the matter to Two-Wolves. “Aye! I want to find out who shot my pony. I do not want to make any trouble, but I want to know who did it.” “Yes,” said Two-Wolves, “my father will be the one to decide, but I will perform the ceremony to him.” He called all the men together that belonged to his fire. He then asked the crier to call all over the village: “O! people of this village! Two-Wolves wants the man who killed the horse belonging to Roving-Coyote to report to his lodge.” The crier repeated this over and over. When all had heard he went into the lodge again. While the ceremony had been going on black clouds rose in the west, and “Ah ho! Ah ho!” was repeatedly said by Two-Wolves. “Now my father is coming.” He called again for the man to hurry, saying there was no use of secrecy and that he should know. Another call was given, and the Thunder was heard in the distance. Two-Bears did not believe that Two-Wolves could learn anything from Thunder, and so would not come. Thunder told Two-Wolves that Two-Bears was the man who had killed the horse. When Two-Bears did not come, Two-Wolves sent his servant to tell him to come right away. When he had come he was greeted heartily by Two-Wolves and placed beside him. “I am glad you have come. Now I want to say that my father says you are the man that killed Roving-Coyote’s horse.” “Yes,” said Two-Bears, “I know now that you are a wonderful man. I did what you have accused me of. Ah! my friend,” said he to Roving-Coyote, “you know how trying your horses are sometimes, and we lose our temper and are sorry for it afterwards. I did kill your horse with a picket pin, but I did not think you would find it out. I have nice ponies, and you may have your choice for my deed.”
Another time an old brave named Wolf-Chief could not believe that such a thing as to understand the speech of Thunder was possible. Whenever he heard a call from Two-Wolves he would remark: “Now, what has that young rascal heard from the Big-One. We are gifted with power from different sources and we do not send out criers to make it public. Oh! grandson, if you will show us that you are something more than a man to go on the war-path and bring home scalps and ponies, then we will believe your doings.” Two-Wolves heard all of these things, but never said anything. One day as it was raining and thundering Two-Wolves heard his father speaking, telling him to get Wolf-Chief and speak to him about his making fun of him, and to have him kill a black dog that he had and perform the ceremony with the feast. Two-Wolves sent out a crier to call for the man that would not believe Two-Wolves’ prophecies. The caller passed by Wolf-Chief’s lodge and Wolf-Chief remarked, “Well, that young rascal has something up again.” Again the crier was out saying that the man who ridiculed Two-Wolves was wanted at Two-Wolves’ lodge, right away. At the third call he did not come, but Wolf-Chief knew he was the man wanted. Two-Wolves then sent a servant to tell Wolf-Chief that he was wanted. When the servant arrived at Wolf-Chief’s he found the old brave making arrows. “Nawa, you look as though you had something to say,” said Wolf-Chief. “Yes,” said the servant, “you are wanted at Two-Wolves’.” “I will come,” said he. He laid his work aside and went on to answer the call. He was greeted cheerfully and seated beside Two-Wolves. “I called you here to remind you that I have heard all the ridicule you have made, but I did not mind it until my father himself spoke to me of it, and that is why I have you here. You are to stop your jesting and make a feast for my father’s ceremony with the black dog my father said that you have.” “Ah, my grandson! You are wonderful. I know now, and I will do as you have asked me, and the servant will go with me and bring the dog you speak of.”
Two-Wolves sent out only one war-party, and it was a failure. He gave out notice that he was to be a leader of a war-party. The party was held back on account of the rain, and he prophesied that there was a party of five enemies near on foot, and if they did not hurry they would miss them. On their way they saw the footprints of five men that had already passed. Two-Wolves was disappointed by the slowness of the party, and on their way he gave notice that no bird of any kind should be killed. This same day, the picket men found a bunch of buffalo. They gave chase and killed several. Strike-Enemy sacrificed one buffalo to his sacred bundle. The men got together around the meat. An eagle flew around them. It came nearer and nearer. They knew that the prophet had forbidden any birds to be killed. The temptation was so great that finally one took his musket and shot the eagle. Two-Wolves on hearing this was displeased. He warned the party to remain together, for they were to meet a party of seven. Sure enough, the scouts saw seven men in a party, but the men saw the scouts and they escaped. Two-Wolves called the party together and told them that he was discouraged by their errors and would not go further. They returned home. Two-Wolves lived a long time, doing good work, discovering thieves, and prophesying many wonderful things. At last he was taken sick and died.
FOOTNOTES:
[70] Told by Strike-Enemy.
70. HOW THE MEDICINE-ROBE SAVED THE ARIKARA.[71]
A long time ago I joined a war-party. We went south, into the western part of the Sioux country, known as Nebraska. We came to an old village site. At this village site we found four large mounds where there had stood the four lodges of the bundle lodges. On the east side was a mound. The old men sat down by this mound and smoked. The oldest of the men told us that once the Arikara lived here; that while they were having their medicine ceremonies in one of these lodges a Sioux or one of some other tribe came and went through the village.
Now, there was one lodge where all the people, except one young woman who had just married, had gone to see the medicine-men’s ceremony. While she was keeping the fire up and had the entrance fast, she saw at the top of the opening a man, an enemy, peeping down and looking at her. She sat and watched the enemy. He crawled from the lodge, then dug in the side of the lodge. She kept running around, until she went to the fire and poured water over it, so that the fire went out. After a while her husband came. She told him about the enemy. The young man accused his wife of having her lover around. The next day the young man went to the timber and gathered a lot of dried willows and some dry grass. This he took to his lodge. He placed the dry wood by the entrance. That evening the young man hid in the lodge, and allowed his wife to remain in the lodge as before. When it became dark, the enemy came and looked through the opening he had made the night before. The enemy then walked to the entrance and found the entrance open. So he walked in. The husband then arose from his hiding place. He caught the enemy from behind, so that he held his arms. The woman took the grass and willow limbs and threw them upon the hot coals, so that there was a big blaze. She then went out and screamed, “My man has an enemy in our lodge!” The men ran into the lodge, and there was the young man, holding on to the enemy. The enemy was overpowered, and a seat was given him.
The man had long hair. His face was painted. Bunches of medicine were tied upon his head. On his right arm was tied a rattlesnake skin. On his left arm was tied the shell of a turtle. The tail was upon it. The man made signs and said: “Next month, all of you people will be killed by the southern tribe of Indians. You make fun of me, but it is true. I came to capture a woman.” The man was then taken to the Awaho-bundle’s lodge. There they had singing. In a few days the man was placed upon a scaffold of four ash timbers, and his hands and feet were tied with strong buffalo strings. He was left upon the scaffold to die, but the man was a wonderful man, for he shook his arms and the strings became loose. The people saw it, and they tied him again. Every time the man shook his arms he broke loose. One of the old priests was selected to stab the man to death. The man was left upon the scaffold, and his body dried.