By the bank of a river stood a lodge, in which lived four brothers and
their sister. The boys made arrows. To the branch of a tree in front of
the lodge they had hung a rawhide strap, such as women use for carrying
wood, so as to make a swing for the girl.
Whenever their meat was all gone and they began to get hungry, the girl
used to send her brothers into the timber to cut dogwood shoots to make
arrows. When the arrows were ready, she would get into the swing and
the boys would swing her. As the swing moved, they would see dust
rising all around the horizon, and would know that the Buffalo were
coming. Then all four boys would take their bows and arrows, and stand
about the swing so as to protect the girl and not let the Buffalo come
near her. When the Buffalo had come close, the boys would kill them in
a circle all about the swing. They would quickly carry the girl into
the lodge, and would kill so many Buffalo that the rest would be
frightened and run away. So they would have plenty to eat, and the
dried meat would be piled high in the lodge.
One day the boys went out to get wood for arrows, and left the girl in
the lodge alone. While they were away a Coyote came to the lodge and
talked to the girl. He said to her: “Granddaughter, I am very poor, and
I am very hungry. I have no meat in my lodge, and my children also are
hungry. I told my relations that I was coming to ask you for food, and
they have been laughing at me. They said, ‘Your granddaughter will not
give you anything to eat.’”
The girl answered him: “Grandfather, here is plenty of meat. This house
is full of it. Take what you want. Take the fattest pieces. Take it to
your children. Let them eat.”
The Coyote began to cry. He said: “Yes, my relations laughed at me when
I said I was going to visit you and ask you for something to eat. They
said you would not give me anything. I do not want any dried meat—I
want some fresh meat to take to my children. Have pity on me, and let
me put you in the swing, so as to bring the Buffalo. I do not want to
swing you hard so as to bring the Buffalo in great herds. I want to
swing you only a little so as to bring a few Buffalo. I have a quiver
full of arrows to keep the Buffalo off.”
The girl said: “No, grandfather, I cannot do this. My brothers are
away. Without them we can do nothing.”
Then the Coyote slapped his breast and said: “Look at me. Am I not a
man and strong? I can run around you fast, after you are in the swing,
and I can keep the Buffalo off. I can shoot clear through a Buffalo. I
have plenty of arrows, and I need only use a single one for each
Buffalo. Come on, I want to swing you just a little, so that but few
Buffalo will come.” So he coaxed the girl, but still she refused.
After he had begged her for a long time, she agreed to let him swing
her a little, and got in the swing. He began to swing her, at first
gently, but all at once he pushed her very hard, and kept doing this
until she swung high. She screamed and cried, and tried to get off the
swing, but it was now too late. All around—from all sides—the Buffalo
were coming in great crowds. The Coyote had made ready his arrows, and
was running around the girl, trying to kill the Buffalo and keep them
off, but they crowded upon him—so many that he could do nothing—and at
last he got frightened and ran into the lodge. The Buffalo were now
just all over the ground about the lodge, and suddenly one of the young
Bulls, the leader of a big band, as he passed under the swing, threw up
his head, and the girl disappeared, but the Coyote, peeping out of the
lodge door, saw on the horn of this Bull a ring, and then he knew that
this ring was the girl. Then the Bull ran away fast, and all the
Buffalo ran after him.
When the Buffalo had gone, the Coyote came out of the lodge and saw
that the girl was not there. He did not know what to do. He was
frightened. Pretty soon he heard the girl’s brothers coming. They had
seen the dust, and knew that some one was swinging their sister, and
that the Buffalo had come. They hurried back, running fast, and when
they reached the lodge they found the Coyote just dragging himself out
of a mud-hole. He crawled out, crying, and pretended that the Buffalo
had run over him and trampled him. His bow and arrows were in the mud.
He told the brothers his story and said that he had tried hard to save
the girl, but that he had not known that so many Buffalo would come. He
said he had thought that the girl must be swung high, so that the
Buffalo could see her from a long way off.
The brothers felt very sorry that their sister was lost. They
counselled together to see what they should do, trying to decide what
would be the best plan to get her back again. While they were talking
about this, the Coyote, with all the mud upon him, stood before them
and said: “Brothers, do not feel sorry because your sister is lost. I
will get her back again. Live on just as you always do. Do not think
about this. Do not let it trouble you. I will get her back again.”
After he had spoken thus, he said, “Now I am going to start off on the
war-path,” and he left them and went away.
He journeyed on alone considering what he should do, and at length, as
he was travelling along over the prairie, he met a Badger, who said to
him, “Brother, where are you going?” The Coyote said: “I am going on
the war-path against my enemies. Will you join my party?” The Badger
said, “Yes, I will join you.” They went on. After they had gone a long
way, they saw a Swift Hawk sitting on the limb of a tree by a ravine.
He asked them where they were going, and they told him, and asked him
if he would go with them. He said he would go. After a time they met a
Kit Fox, and asked him to join them, and he did so. Then they met a
Jack Rabbit, who said he would go with them. They went on, and at
length they met a Blackbird, and asked him to join them. He said: “Let
it be so. I will go.”
Soon after they had all got together they stopped and sat down, and the
Coyote told them how the girl had been lost, and said that he intended
to try to get her back. Then they talked, and the Coyote told them the
plan that he—the leader—had made. The others listened, and said that
they would do whatever he told them to do. They were all glad to help
to recover the girl.
Then they all stood up and made ready to start, and the Coyote said to
the Blackbird, “Friend, you stay here until the time comes.” So the
Blackbird remained there where they had been talking, and the others
went on. After they had gone some distance farther, the Coyote told the
Hawk to stop and wait there. He did so. The others went on a long way,
and then the Coyote said to the Rabbit, “You stay here.” The others
went on, and at the next stopping-place he left the Kit Fox; and at the
next—last of all—he left the Badger. Then the Coyote went on alone and
travelled a long way, and at length he came to the Buffalo camp. He
went out to the place where the young Bulls used to play the stick
game, and lay down there. It was early in the morning.
After a time some of the young Bulls came out, and began to roll the
ring and to throw their sticks at it. The Coyote now pretended to be
very sick. His hair was all covered with mud, and his tongue hung out
of his mouth, and he staggered about and fell down and then got up
again, and seemed to feel badly. Sometimes he would get over near to
where the ring was being rolled, and then the young Bulls would call
out: “Here, hold on! Get away there! Don’t get in the way.”
After a little while the Coyote pretended that he felt better, and he
got up and went over to where the young Bulls were sitting, looking on
at the game, and sat down with them, and watched the play with the
others. Every now and then two of the young Bulls would begin to
dispute over the game, each saying that his stick was the nearer to the
ring, and sometimes they would wrangle for a long time. Once, while
they were doing this, the Coyote went up to them and said: “Here! You
men need not quarrel about this. Let me look. I know all about this
game. I can tell which stick is the nearer.” The Bulls stopped talking
and looked at him, and then said: “Yes, let him look. Let us hear what
he says.” Then the Coyote went up to the ring and looked, and said,
pointing: “That stick is nearest. That man has won.” The Bulls looked
at each other, and nodded their heads and said: “He knows. He is
right.” The next time they had a dispute, he decided it again, and all
were satisfied.
At length two of the young Bulls had a very fierce dispute, and almost
came to fighting over it. The Coyote came up and looked, and said:
“This is very close. I must look carefully, but I cannot see well if
you are all crowding around me in this way. I must have room. You would
all better go over to that hill, and sit down there and wait for me to
decide.” The Bulls all went over to the hill and sat down, and then the
Coyote began to look. First he would go to one stick and look
carefully, and then he would go to the other and look. The sticks were
about the same distance from the ring, and for a long time it seemed
that he could not make up his mind which was the nearer. He went
backward and forward, looking at the sticks, and stooping down and
putting his hands on his knees and squinting, and at last, when once
his face was close to the ground, he suddenly snatched up the ring in
his mouth, and started, running as hard as he could, for the place
where he had left the Badger.
As soon as he had started, all the Bulls on the hill saw what he was
doing—that he was taking the ring away from them—and they started after
him. They did not want to lose the ring, for it was very useful to
them, and they played with it all the time. When the Buffalo in the
camp saw that the young Bulls had started, they all followed, so that
soon all the Buffalo were rushing after the Coyote. He ran fast, and
for a long time he kept ahead of the Buffalo, but they followed, a
great mass of Buffalo crowding and pushing, running as hard as they
could run. At last the Coyote was beginning to get tired, and was
running more slowly, and the Buffalo were beginning to catch up to him,
but he was getting near to where the Badger was. After a time the
Buffalo were getting nearer to the Coyote. He was very tired, and it
seemed to him as if he could not run any farther. If he did not soon
get to where he had left the Badger, the Buffalo would run over him and
trample him to death, and get back the ring. At length, when they were
close behind him, he ran over the top of a little hill, and down in the
valley below saw the Badger sitting at the mouth of his hole. The
Coyote raced down the hill as fast as he could, and when he got to the
hole he gave the ring to the Badger, and just as the herd of Buffalo
got to the place, they both dived down into the hole.
The Buffalo crowded about the Badger’s hole, and began to paw the
ground, to dig it up so as to get the Coyote and the ring, but the
Badger had dug a hole a long way under the ground, and while the
Buffalo were digging he ran along through this hole and came out far
off, and ran as hard as he could towards the brothers’ lodge. Before he
had gone very far, some of the Buffalo on the outside of the herd saw
him, and called out to the others: “There he is! There he goes!” Then
all the Buffalo started again and ran after the Badger. When they had
come pretty close to him, he would stop running and dig another hole,
and while the Buffalo were crowding around the hole, trying to dig him
out, he would dig along under the ground, until he had got far beyond
them, and would then come to the top of the ground, and run as fast as
he could towards the lodge. Then the Buffalo would see him and follow
him.
In this way he went a long distance, but at length he got tired and
felt that he could not run or dig much farther. He was almost spent. At
last, when he dug out of the ground, he saw not far off the Kit Fox,
lying curled upon a rock, asleep in the sun. He called out: “Oh, my
brother, I am almost tired out! Help me!” The Kit Fox jumped up and ran
to him and took the ring in his mouth and started running, and the
Badger dug a deep hole, and stayed there. The little Fox ran fast,
gliding along like a bird; and the Buffalo, when they saw him running,
chased him and ran hard.
The Kit Fox is a swift animal, and for a long time he kept ahead of the
Buffalo. When he was almost tired out, he came to where the Rabbit was,
and gave him the ring, and ran into a hole, and the Rabbit ran on. The
Buffalo followed the Rabbit, but he ran fast and kept ahead of them for
a long time. When they had almost caught him, he came to where the Hawk
was sitting. The Hawk took the ring in his claws and flew off with it,
and the Rabbit ran off to one side and hid in the long grass. The
Buffalo followed the Hawk, and ran after him. They seemed never to get
tired. The Hawk, after he had been flying a long time, began to feel
very weary. He would sail down low over the Buffalo’s backs, and was
only just able to keep above them. At last he got near to where the
Blackbird was.
When the Blackbird heard the pounding of many hoofs and knew that the
Buffalo were coming, he flew up on a sunflower stalk and waited. When
the Buffalo came to the place where he was, he flew up over them to the
Hawk, and took the ring on his neck, and flew along over the Buffalo.
The ring was heavy for so small a bird, and he would alight on the
backs of the Buffalo and fly from one to another. The Buffalo would
toss their heads and try to hit him with their horns, but he kept
flying from one to another, and the Buffalo behind were always pushing
forward to get near the ring, and they pushed the other Buffalo ahead
of them. Pretty soon the herd passed over a hill and were rushing down
to the place on the river where the brothers’ lodge stood.
Ever since their sister had been lost, the brothers had been making
arrows, and now they had piles of them stacked up about the lodge. When
they saw the Buffalo coming they got their bows and took their arrows
in their hands, and shot and shot until they had killed many, many
Buffalo, and the rest were frightened and ran away.
The Blackbird had flown into the lodge with the ring, and after the
brothers had finished killing, they went into the lodge. And there,
sitting by the fire and smiling at them as they came in, they saw their
sister.