AN old and honored chief went alone to the top of a high mountain to
meet the Great Spirit. The chief told the Great Spirit that the red men
were tired of the roots and herbs which, with the fruits that grew on
the trees and the bushes, made up their food, and he asked the Father to
send them some of the food used in the Happy Hunting-Grounds. The Great
Spirit told the chief to take his wives and papooses and go forth in the
moon of rains and stand on one of the plains, not moving from the place
where they stopped for the space of three suns. Then the Great Spirit
would come and give the Indians food. The chief went back to his people
and told them what he had heard from the Great Spirit. When the moon of
rains came they did as the chief had been directed. In three suns all
had fallen asleep. They were left undisturbed by the Indians, for this
peculiar manifestation was regarded as a mark of especial favor. In a
few weeks the old chief and the members of his family had changed into
luxuriant green plants. The council assembled, sent the wise men to
visit the field, and what they found there was corn.
* * * * *
Long and earnestly a young brave wooed a beautiful maiden, and at last
gained her consent to live with him in his wigwam. But the days and
nights were lonely without her and the young brave could not remain away
from her lodge. Fearing that she might be stolen by one of her many
admirers, or that danger might come to her, he slept at night in the
forest that he might be near to protect her. One night he was awakened
by a light footstep and, starting up, saw his loved one stealing out of
her lodge as a sleep-walker. He pursued her, but, as if fleeing in her
dreams from a danger that threatened her life, she ran from him, speeding
through the paths like the fleet-footed hare. On and on he followed, and
finally drew so near that he could hear her quick breath and the rapid
beating of her heart. With all his remaining strength the lover sprang
forward and clasped the maiden's form to his breast. What was his grief
and astonishment when he found that his arms clasped, not the maiden he
loved, but a strange plant the like of which he had never seen before.
The maiden had awakened just as her lover overtook her, and had been so
frightened at her surroundings that she was transformed. She had raised
her arms to her head just as her lover caught her, and her uplifted hands
were changed into ears of corn, and where her fingers caught her hair the
maize bears beautiful silken threads.