A long time ago there lived in the Pawnee village a young man who was a
great gambler. Every day he played at sticks, and he was almost always
unlucky. Sometimes he would lose everything that he had, and would even
lose things belonging to his father. His father had often scolded him
about gambling, and had told him that he ought to stop it. There were
two things that he never staked; these two things were his shield and
his lance.
One day he played sticks for a long time, and when he got through he
had lost everything that he had except these two things. When he went
home at night to his father’s lodge he told his relations what he had
done, and his father said to him: “My son, for a long time you have
been doing this, and I have many times spoken to you about it. Now I
have done. I cannot have you here any longer. You cannot live here in
my lodge or in this village. You must go away.”
The young man thought about it for a little while, and then he said:
“Well, I will go. It does not make much difference where I am.” So he
took his shield and his spear and went out of the lodge and started to
go away from the village. When he got outside of the village and had
gone some distance, he heard behind him a loud rushing sound like a
strong wind—the sound kept getting nearer and louder—and all at once it
was above him, and then the sound stopped, and something spoke to him
and said: “Well, I am here. I have come to find you. I have been sent,
and am here on purpose to get you and take you with me.” The voice that
spoke to him was the Wind.
The Wind took the young man up and carried him away towards the west.
They travelled many days, and passed over broad prairies and then
across high mountains and then over high, wide plains and over other
mountains until they came to the end of the world, where the sky bends
down and touches the ground. The last thing the young man saw was the
gate through the edge of the sky. A great buffalo bull stands in this
gateway and blocks it up. He had to move to one side to let the Wind
and the young man pass through.
Every year one hair drops from the hide of this bull. When all have
fallen the end of the world will come.
After they had passed through this gate they went on, and it seemed as
if they were passing over a big water. There was nothing to be seen
except the sky and the water. At last they came to a land. Here were
many people—great crowds of them. The Wind told the young man, “These
are all waiters on the Father.” They went on, and at last came to the
Father’s lodge and went in. When they had sat down the Father spoke to
the young man and said to him: “My son, I have known you for a long
time and have watched you. I wanted to see you, and that is why I gave
you bad luck at the sticks, and why I sent my Wind to bring you here.
Your people are very hungry now because they can find no buffalo, but I
am going to give you something on which you can live, even when the
buffalo fail.” Then he gave him three little sacks. The first contained
squash seed; the second beans, red and white, and the third corn,
white, red, blue, and yellow.
The Father said: “Tie these sacks to your shield, and do not lose them.
When you get back to your people give each one some of the seeds and
tell him to put them in the ground; then they will make more. These
things are good to eat, but the first year do not let the people eat
them; let them put the yield away, and the next year again put it in
the ground. After that they can eat a part of what grows, but they must
always save some for seed. So the people will always have something to
eat with their buffalo meat, and something to depend on if the buffalo
fail.” The Father gave him also a buffalo robe, and said to him: “When
you go back, the next day after you have got there, call all the people
together in your lodge, and give them what is in this robe, and tell
them all these things. Now you can go back to your people.”
The Wind took the young man back. They travelled a long time, and at
last they came to the Pawnee village. The Wind put the young man down,
and he went into his father’s lodge and said, “Father, I am here”; but
his father did not believe him, and said, “It is not you.” He had been
gone so long that they had thought him dead. Then he said to his
mother, “Mother, I am here,” and his mother knew him and was glad that
he had returned.
At this time the people had no buffalo. They had scouted far and near
and could find none anywhere, and they were all very hungry. The little
children cried with hunger. The next day after he got back, the young
man sent out an old man to go through the camp and call all the people
to come to his father’s lodge. When they were there, he opened his robe
and spread it out, and it was covered with pieces of fat buffalo meat
piled high. The young man gave to each person all he could carry, but
while he was handing out the pieces, his father was trying to pull off
the robe the hind-quarters of the buffalo and hide them. He was afraid
that the young man might give away all the meat, and he wanted to save
this for their own lodge. But the young man said: “Father, do not take
this away. Do not touch anything. There is enough.”
After he had given them the meat he showed them the sacks of seed and
told them what they were for, and explained to them that they must not
eat any the first year, but that they must always save some to plant,
and the people listened. Then he said to them: “I hear that you have no
buffalo. Come out to-morrow and I will show you where to go for
buffalo.” The people wondered where this could be, for they had
travelled far in all directions looking for buffalo. The next day they
went out as he had told them, and the young man sent two boys to the
top of a high hill close to camp, and told them to let him know what
they saw from it. When the boys got to the top of the hill, they saw
down below them in the hollow a big band of buffalo.
When the people learned that the buffalo were there, they all took
their arrows and ran out and chased the buffalo and made a big killing,
so that there was plenty in the camp and they made much dried meat.
Four days after this he again sent out the boys, and they found
buffalo. Now that they had plenty of meat they stayed in one place, and
when spring came the young man put the seed in the ground. When the
people first saw these strange plants growing they wondered at them,
for they were new and different from anything that they had ever seen
growing on the prairie. They liked the color of the young stalks, and
the way they tasselled out, and the way the ears formed. They found
that besides being pretty to look at they were good to eat, for when
the young man had gathered the crop he gave the people a little to
taste, so that they might know that the words that he had spoken were
true. The rest he kept for seed. Next season he gave all the people
seed to plant, and after that they always had these things.
Later, this young man became one of the head men and taught the people
many things. He told them that always when they killed buffalo they
must bring the fattest and offer them to the Father. He taught them
about the sacred bundles, and told them that they must put an ear of
corn on the bundles and must keep a piece of fat in the bundles along
with the corn, and that both must be kept out of sight. In the fall
they should take the ear of corn out of the bundle and rub the piece of
fat over it. [2] Thus they would have good crops and plenty of food.
All these things the people did, and it was a help to them in their
living.