more cheerful nature before we go to bed," said Stabs-by-Mistake.
"An Old Man story, then," said Two Guns. "All are laughable."
"Elder brother, tell us the story of Old Man and the woman," said
Black Bull to Tail-Feathers-Coming-over-the-Hill.
[Illustration: BLACK BULL AND STABS-BY-MISTAKE (right) NEAR LOWER
END OF CUTBANK CAÑON]
"Ai! That I will," the chief answered.
But before I set down the story, I must explain Old Man.
Old Man (Näp´-i) was the god who created the world, and all life upon
it, and he was _the_ god of the Blackfeet until, some centuries back,
they got from some southern tribe another religion, of which the sun
is the principal god. However, they still pray to Old Man, as well as
to the gods of the later religion, although in time a great many
stories have grown up about Old Man that make him appear to be more of
a buffoon than a god. An interesting point about the word _näp´-i_ is,
that, while it is the term for an old man, its real meaning is dawn,
or the first faint, white light that gives birth to the day. And so,
in common with the ancient Mexicans, various tribes of the plains, the
Aryans and other ancient races of the Old World, the original religion
of the Blackfeet was the worship of light personified.
Let us have now, the old chief's story of
OLD MAN AND THE WOMAN
"Having created the world, the animals, grass, trees, all life upon
it, Old Man realized that by having men live by themselves, and women
by themselves, he had made a mistake. He saw that they should live
together. The camps of the two sexes were far apart: the women were
living here at the foot of the mountains, in Cutbank Valley, and the
men were away down on Two Medicine River. Each camp had a buffalo
trap, and subsisted wholly upon the buffalo that were decoyed into it.
"As I have said, Old Man saw that he had made a mistake in keeping men
and women apart. In fact, he found that he himself wanted a woman; so
he went to the men and said: 'You shall no longer live by yourselves.
Come! We will go up to the camp of the women, and each of us get one
of them.'
"The men were more than glad to do that; it was what they had been
hoping to do for a long time; so they hurried to put on their best
clothes, and neatly braided their hair, and then started off with Old
Man for the women's camp. When they came in sight of it, Old Man told
them to stop right there, and he would go ahead and plan with the
women just what should be done. They sat down, and he went on to the
women's camp. Himself, he had on his old, soiled clothes; his fine
clothes he had left back with the men.
"Arrived in the camp, he found only two or three women there; the
woman chief and all the others were down at the buffalo trap,
butchering the animals that they had that morning decoyed into it.
When he told the few women that he found why he had come, he greatly
excited and pleased them, and they started at once to run and tell the
others to hurry up from the trap and meet the men.
"'But wait. Not so fast. I want a word with you,' Old Man called out;
and when they came back to him, he asked: 'What kind of a woman is
your chief?'
"'Everything that is good, and kind and brave, that is our chief,'
one answered. And another said: 'Ai! She is all that, and more; and
she is the most beautiful woman of us all!'
"This pleased Old Man. He said to himself, 'That is the woman for me.
I must have her.' And to the waiting women he said: 'It is right that
chief woman should mate with chief man. You women are to come to us,
and each select the man you want. Now, tell your chief woman that the
chief man is brave and kind and handsome, and that she shall select
him for her man. She will know him by the way he is dressed. He wears
buckskin shirt and leggings, embroidered with porcupine quills, and a
cow-leather robe with a big porcupine-quill embroidered sun in the
center of it. You tell her to take him for her man!'
"'We will do so!' the women cried, and started off for the buffalo
trap as fast as they could run.
"Old Man hurried back to the waiting men, and hurriedly put on his
fine clothes, the ones that he had described to the women.
"Trembling with excitement, and out of breath from their long, swift
run, Old Man's messengers arrived at the buffalo trap and told their
wonderful news,--that men had come to marry them; that each woman was
to choose the man that she thought would best suit her. The butchering
of the animals ceased at once, and the women started for their camp to
put on their good clothes and recomb their hair. They wanted to appear
as neat and clean and well dressed as possible, before the men. Yes,
all ran for their camp, all except the chief woman. Said she: 'I
cannot leave here until I finish skinning this spotted medicine calf.
Go, all of you, and I will join you as soon as I can.'
"The work took more time than she thought would be required, and when
she arrived in camp with the valuable skin, she found all the other
women dressed and impatient to go and choose their men. 'Oh, well, it
doesn't matter how I look,' she said. 'I am chief; I have a name; I
can go choose my man dressed just as I am. How did you say the man
chief is dressed?'
"They told her again what he wore, according to what the messenger
man had told them, and she said: 'I'll choose him. Chief, I suppose,
must mate with chief.'
"And so she went right on with the others, wearing her butchering
dress, all stiff with blood and grease from the neck down to the
bottom of the skirt; and her moccasins were even more foul than the
skirt. Her hands were caked with dried blood, and her hair was not
even braided.
"Their chief leading, the women approached the waiting men, all of
them standing in a line, and singing a song of greeting. Old Man stood
at the head of the line, very straight and proud, and of fine
appearance in his beautiful new porcupine-embroidered clothes. By
these the chief woman recognized him from afar, and said to herself:
'He is a fine looking man. I hope that he will prove to be as good of
heart as he is good to look at.' And, leading her women, she walked
straight up to him and laid a hand on his arm: 'I will take you for my
man,' she told him.
"But Old Man shrank back, his face plainly showing his loathing of
such a bloody and greasy, wild-haired woman.
"'I take you for my man,' the woman chief repeated; and then he broke
away from her hold and ran behind his men: 'No! No! I do not want you,
bloody, greasy woman,' he cried, and went still farther off behind his
men.
"The woman chief turned to her followers: 'Go back! Go back to that
little hill and there wait for me,' she told them. And to the men she
said, 'Remain where you are until I return. I shall not be gone long.'
And with that she turned and hurried to her camp. Her women went to
the hill. The men remained where they were.
"Down at her camp the chief woman took off her old clothes and bathed
in the river. Then she put on her fine clothes, a pair of new
moccasins, braided her hair, scented herself with sweetgrass, and
returned to her women. She was now better dressed than any of them,
and they had told Old Man the truth when they said that she was
beautiful of face and form: she was the most beautiful woman of them
all.
"Again she led her women to the line of waiting men. Again Old Man
stood first, stood at the head of them. But she passed him by, as
though she did not see him, and he, with a little cry, ran after her,
took her by the arm, and said: 'You are the woman for me. I am the
chief of the men: you must take me!'
"She turned upon him, and her eyes were like fire. She tore his hand
from her arm, and cried: 'Never touch me again, good-for-nothing,
proud-and-useless man. I would die before I would mate with you.'
"And to her women she said: 'Do not, any of you, take him for your
man.' And with that she turned and chose a man. The others then, one
by one, took their choice of the men. When all had chosen, there was
one woman who had no man; all had been taken except Old Man. She would
not have him, and became the second wife of one of the men. The
choosing over, all started for the women's camp. Old Man, now very
sad-hearted, was for following them; but the chief woman turned and
motioned him off. 'Go away. There is no food for you, no place for
you in our camp,' she told him; and he went away, crying, by himself.
"And that is what Old Man got for being so proud."
_July 30._
We break camp and move northward to-morrow. For the past two days some
of us have been riding about on this "Backbone-of-the-World," as the
Blackfeet call the Rocky Mountains, and we have ridden our horses
where, in former times, nothing but a bird could go. The Park
Supervisor and his engineers and miners and sappers have blasted out
trails over the highest parts of the range, making it easy and safe
for tenderfeet tourists to view the wonders of this sub-Arctic,
greater than Alpine range of mountains. One of the most impressive
views is from the summit of the trail from Upper Two Medicine Lake to
Cutbank River. The Dry Fork Trail, it is called. At its extreme height
the trail is along a mountain crest about thirty feet in width. Mr.
L. W. Hill graphically described the stretch the other day, when,
after crossing it, he said: "On its east side one can spit straight
down three thousand feet into a lake, and on the other side cast a
stone that will go down much farther than that!"
Indeed, the view of the mountains and cliffs and canyons from that
height is so grand, so stupendous and impressive, that one cannot find
words to describe it all.
On another day we went over Cutbank Pass and down the west side of
the range, far enough to get a good view of the Pumpelly Glacier,
and see the huge ice blocks break from it and drop from a cliff
more than two thousand feet in height. They strike the bottom of
the canyon with a reverberating crash that can be heard for miles.
Just below this glacier, down Nyack Creek three or four miles, is a
fine alkaline spring and clay bed where, in other days, old
Tail-Feathers-Coming-over-the-Hill and I were wont to go for
bighorn, goats, deer, and elk. All these animals came to it in
great numbers, and drank the waters, and ate great wads of the
salty mud. We once killed a large grizzly there, whose late autumn
coat was as black as that of a black bear.
[Illustration: STABS-BY-MISTAKE, SUN WOMAN, AND HER SON, LITTLE
OTTER IN CUTBANK CAÑON]
This afternoon we have had further talk about the naming of these
mountains. For a wonder, the topographers have not taken away the
original name for the outer mountain on the north side of this Cutbank
Valley: we find on the map that it is still White Calf Mountain. It
was named for one of the greatest chiefs the Montana Blackfeet ever
had. As a young man, fresh from his first war trail, he witnessed the
signing of the treaty between his people and the representatives of
the United States, at the mouth of the Judith River, in 1855, so he
must have been born in 1836 or 1837. As a warrior, his rise to fame
was rapid, and many are the stories told of his indomitable bravery in
facing the enemy. In later years, because of his great interest in the
welfare of his people, he became their head chief. He died in
Washington, in 1903, while there on tribal business.
The right names of the other mountains walling in this valley are as
follows: The unnamed mountain next west from White Calf Mountain is
Ahk´-sap-ah-ki (Generous Woman); Mount James is Ah´-kow-to-mak-an
(Double Runner); Mount Vorhis is O-nis-tai´-na (Wonderful Chief). The
west one of the Twin Buttes is Little Plume; the east one is
O-nis-tai´-mak-an (Wonderful Runner). And, as I have said, the outer
mountain on the south side of the valley is Muk-sin-a´ (Angry Woman).
All but the last one were named for old-time great chiefs and warriors
of my people, and we intend that they shall be so named on the
official maps, even if we have to petition the House of
Representatives and the Senate, in Washington, to make the change! And
you, my readers, lovers of these grandest mountains of our country,
will you not be with us in this perfectly proper request?
Said Takes-Gun-Ahead to me this afternoon: "Who are these white men,
James, and Vorhis, for whom the mountains were named? Were they great
warriors, or presidents, or wise men?"
I had to confess that I had never heard of them.
"Huh!" he exclaimed. And "Huh!" all the others, even the women,
echoed.
III
KI-NUK´-SI IS-SI-SAK´-TA (LITTLE RIVER)
_August 2._
We moved over here on Little River--or, as the whites have named it,
Milk River--day before yesterday, and made camp at the lower edge of
the great body of timber in which the stream has its source. We are
here on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation, and several miles from the
boundary line of the Glacier National Park. The state game laws do not
apply to the reservation, hence we have the right to hunt upon it when
and where we please.
[Illustration: BIG SPRING PAINTING AUTOBIOGRAPHY ON THE FLESH SIDE
OF A TANNED ELK-SKIN]
Yesterday Takes-Gun-Ahead and I oiled our rifles and started out after
meat. We went up the river, passing the old beaver dams that White Fur
and Loud Slap built in the long ago, and presently, in the dense
growth of pine, cottonwood, and willow, came upon old and fresh
tracks of deer and elk. We followed for a time the trail of four or
five elk, and left it to take the very fresh trail of a moose.
Takes-Gun-Ahead was in the lead, and within ten minutes he saw the
animal not fifty yards away, standing partly concealed behind a clump
of willows and watching our approach. Its head was in plain view, and
he fired and struck it just at the base of the ear, and it fell, gave
a convulsive kick or two, and was dead when we got to it. It was a
three-year-old bull, and carried a very ordinary set of antlers,
velvet-covered and still soft at the points. I dressed the carcass
while my companion went back for a horse, and before noon we had real
meat--_ni-tap´-i-wak-sin_--in camp. We distributed it among the
lodges, and there was great rejoicing. Later in the day, Two Guns and
Black Bull brought in a fine buck mule deer, and at sunset Big Spring
returned with the meat and skin of a yearling ram that he had killed
on the outer point of Divide Mountain. It was like old times,--the
camp red with meat,--and we all felt rich and happy.
The killing of the moose in this particular place brought out a lot
of reminiscences of happenings here on Little River in other days, and
of them all I think that Takes-Gun-Ahead's story was the best. As the
pipe went the first round after our feast of roast moose ribs in Black
Bull's lodge, said he: "I will tell you the story of
"OLD MAN AND THE WOLVES
"One day in that long ago time, Old Man was wandering along the edge
of this forest, having come over from Cutbank way. He was feeling very
lonely, and wondering what he could do to have a more lively time,
when, as he approached the river here, probably right where we are
camped, he saw a band of six wolves sitting on the bank, watching him.
He stopped short, watched them for a time, and then approached them,
whining out: 'My younger brothers! My younger brothers! I am very
lonely! Take pity on me: let me be a wolf with you!'
"As I have said, the wolves were six: the old father and mother,
their two daughters, and their sons, Heavy Body and Long Body. The old
father wolf answered Old Man. 'Just what do you mean?' he asked. 'Is
it that you want me to change you into a wolf--that you want to live
just as we do?'
"'I want to live with you, hunt with you,' he answered, 'but I don't
want to be changed wholly into a wolf. Just make my head and neck to
look like yours, and put wolf hair on my legs and arms, and that will
be about enough of a change. I will keep my body just as it is.'
"'Very well, we will do that for you,' said the old wolf; and he took
a gray medicine and rubbed it on Old Man's head and neck and legs and
arms, and made the change. 'There!' said he. 'My work is done. I would
like to have made you all wolf, your body as well as the rest of you,
but you will do as you are; you are quite wolf-like. And now, let me
tell you something about our family. My old wife and I don't hunt
much. Your two younger brothers there are the runners and killers, and
their sisters help in the way of heading off and confusing the game.
Your younger brother there, Long Body, is the swiftest runner, but he
hasn't the best of wind. However, he generally overtakes and kills
whatever he chases. Your other younger brother, Heavy Body, is not a
fast runner, but he has great staying power, never gets winded, and in
the end brings down his game. And now you know them. Whenever you feel
like hunting, one or the other of them, as you choose, will go with
you.'
"'You are very kind to me,' said Old Man. 'I am now very tired, but
to-morrow I shall want to hunt with one or the other of them.'
"'We are also tired; we have come a long way; it is best that we all
rest during this night,' said the old wolf; and he led the way up to
the top of a high ridge on the north side of the valley, where all lay
down.
"'But why rest out on top of this barren, windy place, instead of in
the shelter of the timber?' Old Man asked, his teeth beginning to
chatter from the cold.
"'We never rest in the timber,' the old wolf replied. 'There enemies
would have a good chance to take us unawares. Here we can see afar
everything that moves, and as one or another of us is always on watch,
we can keep out of danger. Also, we can look down and see the
different kinds of game, and make our plans to chase what we want,
head it off, tire it out, and kill it. We always, summer and winter,
do our resting and sleeping on high places.'
"Before the night was far gone, Old Man became so cold that he
trembled all over, and, try as he would, he could not keep his jaws
together.
"'You annoy us with your tremblings, and your teeth chatterings; you
keep us from sleeping,' the old wolf complained.
"'Well, I shall not annoy you long,' Old Man answered, 'because I
shall soon freeze to death!'
"The old wolf aroused his wife and children: 'This tender-bodied elder
brother of ours is freezing. I suppose we have to protect him. Lie
down in a circle around him and cover him with your tails,' he told
them.
"They did so, and he was soon overcome with heat: 'Take your
ill-smelling tails from my body; I am wet with perspiration!' he
gasped. They removed their tails and he soon began to shiver. 'Put
them back! I freeze!' he cried; and they did as he commanded. During
the night he had them cover him many times with their tails, and as
many times remove them. He passed a miserable night, and so did the
wolves, for he kept them from sleeping.
"At break of day all arose, and, looking down into the valley, saw a
lone, buck mule deer feeding farther and farther away from the timber.
They made a plan for capturing it. They all sneaked around into the
timber, and then Long Body and Old Man crept down the valley until the
buck saw them and ran, and then they chased it. Long Body soon pulled
it down, and Old Man came up in time to seize and break its neck, and
felt very proud of himself. The other wolves soon came to the kill,
and all feasted. The carcass lasted them two days.
"Again and again they went to the top of the ridge to pass the night,
and Old Man soon became so used to the cold that he did not need tail
covering. When the deer was eaten, they killed another one, and then a
buffalo bull, which lasted them some days. Then, after two failures in
chasing antelope and some hungry days, Long Body killed a big bull
elk, just outside the timber here. They were several days eating it,
but at last all the meat and the soft bones were finished, and nothing
but the backbone and the hard leg bones remained. Said the old wolf
then: 'We must be saving of what we have left, for it may be some time
before we can make another killing. To-day we will take turns chewing
the upper bone of a hind leg.'
"They gathered in a small circle with one of the bones, noses to the
center, and the old wolf said to Old Man: 'Now, while this chewing is
going on, bone splinters are bound to fly. You must keep your eyes
tight shut until it comes your turn to chew, else you may get a
splinter that will blind you.'
"Old Man did as he was told. The old wolf began the chewing, and
after gnawing off the end of the bone, and getting a little of the
marrow, called out to his wife that it was her turn to chew and passed
her the bone. And so from one to another it went around the circle
until Long Body got it, and Old Man's turn came next. His curiosity
now got the better of him: he just had to see what was going on, and
slowly opened one eye, the one next to Long Body. All the wolves had
their heads to the ground or resting on their fore paws, and all--even
Long Body, busily chewing the bone--kept their eyes tight shut. 'Huh!
This is a queer way to feast,' Old Man said to himself, and just then
a splinter flew from the bone and struck his open eye, not putting it
out, but causing him great pain and making him very angry. 'I will pay
him for that!' he thought, and waited his turn at the bone, becoming
more and more angry as he waited.
"'Your turn, Old Man,' said Long Body after a time, and passed him the
bone. Old Man took it, chewed it for a time, looking sharply at all
the wolves. All had their eyes tight shut, so, raising the bone as
high as he could, he brought it down with all the force of his arm
upon Long Body's head and killed him. The other wolves, hearing his
twitching, as he died, opened their eyes, saw him dead, and Old Man
staring in horror at what he had done.
"'Oh, what have you done! You have killed your younger brother!' the
old wolf cried.
"'I didn't mean to,' Old Man answered. 'When he was chewing the bone
he let a splinter fly, and it struck me in this eye. I meant to punish
him a little for being so careless, but I did not mean to kill him. I
must have struck harder than I thought to do.'
"'You had your eyes open! It was your fault that you got the
splinter!' the old wolf said; and then he and all the rest began
grieving for their dead.
"All the rest of that day, and all through the night, they howled and
howled, and Old Man thought that he would go mad from the mournfulness
of it all. He was very sorry--he hated himself for what he had done in
his anger.
"The mourning-time over, the wolves dug a hole in the ground and
buried Long Body, and then scolded Old Man. 'Had you killed my son
intentionally,' the old wolf concluded, 'we would have had your life
in payment for his life. As it is, we will give you one more trial:
see that such an accident as that never again occurs!'
"'Younger brother,' said Old Man, 'I am grieving and very restless
because of what I have done. I want to be moving; to be doing
something. Let Heavy Body go with me up in this pine forest, and we
will try to kill something.'
"The old wolf remained silent for some time, thinking, and at last
answered: 'Yes, I will allow him to go with you, and remember this: if
anything happens to him, we shall hold you responsible, and great will
be your punishment!'
"The two started off, and Old Man said to his partner, 'In some ways I
am wiser than you. I have this to say, and you must heed it: Whatever
you start after, be it deer or elk or moose, and no matter how close
you may get to it, if it crosses a stream, even a little stream that
you can jump, stop right there and turn back. Mind, now, even if a few
more leaps will get you to the animal's throat, you are not to make
those leaps if it crosses a stream. Should you keep on, death in some
form will get you.'
"'How do you know this?' Heavy Body asked.
"'I may not tell you all that I know,' Old Man replied. 'I have given
you the warning; heed it.'
"They went farther up in the timber, and after some nosing of trails
started a big bull moose, and took after it, Heavy Body running far in
the lead. He was fast gaining upon it, was almost at its heels, when
it jumped into a wide, long pond, really a widening of the creek, and
started swimming across it to an island, and from that to the other
shore. Heavy Body thought of Old Man's warning, but said to himself:
'He doesn't know everything. I must have that moose!' And into the
water he went and started swimming toward the island. And just as he
was nearing it a water bear sprang from the shore, and killed him,
and dragged him to land, and Old Man appeared at the edge of the pond
just in time to see the bear and her two nearly grown young begin
feasting upon her kill. With a heart full of rage and sorrow, he
turned back into the timber and considered how he could revenge the
death of Heavy Body.