Singing was stopped. There was mourning; everybody seemed to be
crying. Then the Buffalo all came to the ceremonial lodge and
stood around until the four priests came out, who walked towards
the tree. The young man jumped out from his hiding place. The
first man, whose name was Cut-Nose, came out with a war-whoop. The
people came up next in the hollow tree. There seemed to be a strong
current coming out from the hollow tree, blowing the people up
and out of the tree. But as the people came out, especially men,
this young man picked up bows and arrows, and placed them in the
men’s hands, and said: “Make haste; shoot the Buffalo. Kill them.
Do not be afraid of them.” As each of the men came out, the young
man handed him bow and arrows, and told him to shoot and kill the
Buffalo. It was not long until the young man had a large company of
men with bows and arrows killing the Buffalo. As the Buffalo ran
towards their village some one shouted and said: “Get some of the
meat! Carry it with you, and whenever we stop running we can have
something to eat!” So the Buffalo people ran and picked up human
meat and each placed the meat they picked up, under the arm, and
ran. The human meat that they placed under their arms became a part
of their flesh, for the people ran after them so closely that they
finally became buffalo. (This is the reason why the Arikara used to
cut the meat from under the shoulder and throw it away. This meat
the Arikara would not eat.)
The young man and the Buffalo woman now went to the tipi of the
bundle and took the bundle. The people came back and burned
everything that was in the village. Then they made a new camp and
the Buffalo woman, who was now married to the young man, taught the
people the songs and ceremony that go with the bundle. So these
people became a part of the Arikara.
* * * * *
When this story is told, everybody keeps quiet.
FOOTNOTES:
[14] Told by Snowbird.
14. THE GIRL WHO MARRIED A STAR.[15]
In olden times, when the people lived upon the Missouri River,
there was a village. In this village there were two girls who, in
the night, slept outside of their lodge on an arbor. As they lay
upon the arbor one night they were talking about the different
young men in the tribe whom they liked. One of them spoke of liking
a certain young man, while the other girl said she did not like any
one of the young men in the tribe. She looked into the sky. She
saw a bright, red star in the heavens towards the east. She said,
“There stands the star I like, and if that star were here upon the
earth I would marry him.” The girls then went to sleep.
In the morning they arose and went after water. As they were coming
back, they saw a porcupine. The girls ran after it and tried to
kill it. One of them said she wanted to get the porcupine, for she
did not have enough quills to do some of her work. The porcupine
got to a cottonwood tree that was near the river. The girl climbed
up after it. The other girl wanted to go home and get an axe, so
that they might chop the tree down, but this particular girl who
had said she liked the star, said, “No, I can climb.” She climbed
the tree.
As the girl climbed up the tree the tree grew higher. The girl
disappeared, so the girl on the ground went home and told what had
happened. The girl kept on climbing for the porcupine until she
reached another world. When the girl came into the other world she
recognized that she was in a strange country, and she began to cry.
The porcupine had turned into a man. The man spoke to the girl, and
said: “Why do you cry? I am the Star that you saw and that you said
you liked. I went down after you. I turned myself into a porcupine
and you came after me, and now you are here in my home.” The girl
saw that the man was not young, but middle-aged, though he was very
handsome. She stayed with him and liked him, but the man kept going
away every night. She cried every night, for she wanted to return
to her people.
Many years afterward she gave birth to a male child. When the child
was born his mother found the picture of a star upon his forehead.
This woman told her husband one time that her son wanted some wild
turnips and that she wanted to go and dig some. The man told her
that it was very well for her to go and dig these turnips, but that
she must not go to the valleys to dig them, but she must go to high
places. While she was out digging these turnips she thought about
her people and she began to cry. Then she went to the valley and
dug into the ground to get a turnip. Her digging-stick ran through
the earth. She removed the dirt, looked down, and there saw the
people underneath. She then knew that she was far away from her
people.
She covered the place and began to cry. While she was crying,
she heard the voice of a woman calling her. The voice said, “My
daughter, why are you crying?” She said: “I am crying for my
people, for they are far away below us. I was brought up by my
husband, who is a Star.” The woman told the girl not to cry, for
she would help her. She took the girl to her cave in the side of
a cliff, and there she confronted her. She told her to tell her
husband that when he went to kill buffalo he must take all of the
sinews from one whole buffalo, and that when she got these sinews
she must bring them to her; that she would make a sinew string that
would reach to the ground below.
The girl went home. She told her husband that she wanted to do much
sewing, and that she needed sinew, and she wanted him to get all
the sinew that was in a buffalo, so she could have many sinews and
would not have to ask him for any more. The man went hunting. He
killed a buffalo. He took all the sinews he could find. He forgot,
however, to get the two sinews that are in the shoulder-blade of
the buffalo. He brought the sinews to his wife, and gave them to her.
One time when the man was away she took the sinews to the old woman
and gave them to her. The old woman was glad. She said: “Now go
to your home, and remain there. I am to make a string, and when
it is complete I shall let you know, so that you then can go to
your people.” The girl went home and stayed, but once in a while
she visited the old woman’s dwelling place, and she saw the piles
of string that the woman was making. As soon as the old woman had
completed the string she told the girl, and said that the girl
must come to her place when her husband was away. The young girl
had also made a long string of sinew, but it was separate from the
string that the old woman had made. This she carried herself when
she went to the old woman’s place.
They now went to the valley, and there dug a hole, large enough for
her with her boy on her back to go through. After this was done she
went to her home, put the child upon her back, covered it with her
robe, then tied the robe about her breast. She went to the place.
The old woman had brought a large-sized stick, which was laid
across the hole, and the sinew was tied to the pole. The girl tied
the sinew about her body and covered her hands with a part of her
robe. She slipped down, down, down the string and after a time she
found herself at the end of the string. The earth was still far
away. She took her own string and tied it to the string that she
was tied to. She fastened herself to the other string after untying
herself from the main string, and slid down upon it. She slid down
until she had reached the end of the string, and she was at the
height of the highest tree from the ground. She saw that she could
not get down, so she made a loop and put her foot in it so that she
stood upon the string, and there she hung.
When the woman’s husband came home he found her missing. He went
out to hunt for her. After a time he came to the place where the
hole was, and there he saw the woman hanging on the string. He went
and took up a little stone, about the size of his thumb. He took
this to the place where the hole was dug. He placed the stone on
the string, then said, “Now I want you to slide down on the string
and hit the woman upon the head and kill her, but do not harm my
boy.” As he let go of the stone a sound was heard like that of
thunder. The stone slipped down upon the string and struck the
woman on the top of the head and killed her. As the woman fell down
towards the earth the boy slipped out from the robe upon the back
of the woman and fell on the ground, but was not hurt.
The boy stayed around where the woman was lying, for he was now
about five or six years old. He would go off from his mother during
the day and in the evening he would come back, crawl under the
robe, and nurse at his mother’s breast. He did this for many days.
At last the boy had to leave her, so he went on west from where his
mother lay. He came to a patch of squash and also to a cornfield.
This he went through, taking corn from the stalks and eating it raw.
He returned to his mother and sat there.
In the morning, the owner of the field, who was an old woman, went
into her field, and there she saw a child’s footprints. She was so
glad to see the footprints that she went home and made a small bow
and some arrows. She also made a small shinny ball, and a stick.
The old woman thought if this child was a girl it would choose the
shinny ball and stick, and if it was a boy it would choose the bow
and arrows. In this way she thought she could tell whether the
child was a boy or a girl. The old woman made these things, and
took them into the field and left them there.
The next day, the boy went back into the field. There he saw these
things upon the ground. When he saw the bow and arrows he jumped
at them and picked them up. When he had picked them up he went
through the squash field and began to shoot at the squash. The
old woman came upon the boy and caught him. She called him her
grandson, and told him that she had been waiting for him for a long
time. She took the boy home.
The boy was satisfied to be with his grandmother. His grandmother,
before she went into the field, used to roast a lot of corn. Then
she scattered this corn in her lodge, then would go out hallooing,
and say, “Blackbirds, come and eat of this corn that I have
prepared for you.” The blackbirds would come in flocks and enter
the lodge, and there they would eat the corn that she had scattered
over the ground in the lodge. Then the old woman would go into her
field and would leave the boy at home. Sometimes the boy went out
to hunt rabbits and little birds. In the evening, when the old
woman came home from the field, she used to take a lot of corn and
put it in her corn mortar and pound it. She made mush out of the
pounded corn. There was a curtain of buffalo hide in the lodge. The
old woman, after she had made the mush would place a bowl of it
behind the buffalo hide curtain. Why she did this the boy did not
know.
One day when the old woman had gone out to feed the blackbirds,
the boy began to roast some corn. After he had got a big pile
roasted he went out and yelled, and said, “Come, blackbirds, I have
prepared for you the corn that my grandmother told me to prepare;
come and eat!” The blackbirds came in flocks into the lodge. The
boy went out and stopped the smokehole with a piece of buffalo
hide, then went into the entrance and stopped up the passageway
with a dry buffalo hide, so that the birds could not go out. The
boy then picked up a club and said: “Blackbirds, I am going to kill
you all, for you have been eating my grandmother’s corn all this
time. You shall not eat my grandmother’s corn any more.” So the boy
began to run around in the lodge after the birds, hitting them with
the club and killing them. He killed all of them, and placed them
in a pile.
When the grandmother came home the boy said, “Grandmother, I have
killed all these blackbirds that have been eating your corn all
this time; they shall not eat your corn any more.” The old woman
appeared glad. She told the boy that he had done right in killing
the birds. The boy said, “You may cook the blackbirds, a few at
a time.” The old woman really was not glad, for these blackbirds
guarded her field for her. She owned these blackbirds. She placed
them upon her robe and took them out. She brought them to life
again, and said: “My blackbirds, fly away.” The old woman returned
to the lodge.
The old woman then told the boy that he must go into the timber and
cut a good-sized ash and some dogwood. The boy went and brought
back the ash and the dogwood to the old woman. The old woman
scraped on the ash wood, cutting it the right length for the bow
and the right length for the arrow sticks. She then told the boy
to go west of her lodge and to throw the arrows into a pond that
he would come to. The old woman told the boy that when he should
throw these sticks into the water he should say, “Grandfather, I
want the strongest bow that you can give me, and I want wonderful
arrows with it.” So the boy took up the sticks and went west from
the lodge. He came to the pond. He threw the sticks into the water,
and said, “Grandfather, give me the strongest bow that you can give
me, and wonderful arrows.” Then the boy returned into the lodge.
The next morning, the boy went down to the pond, and there he found
a black bow and four black arrows. These he picked up, then he went
home.
The boy went to hunt every day, for now he had a good bow and good
arrows. One day the boy saw the old woman place a bowl of mush
behind the buffalo curtain. When she went out to her field, the boy
wanted to see what made the old woman place the mush behind the
curtain, for each time she pulled out the wooden bowl that had held
the mush, the mush was gone. The boy went to the curtain, lifted it
up, and there he saw a serpent, with its big eyes looking at him.
The boy then said: “Ah! I see now! You are the one that eats all
my grandmother’s mush.” The boy took his bow and arrows and shot
the serpent in the head and killed it. The serpent made one great,
big noise, fell back, then slipped down into the pond. After the
serpent had slipped down into the pond the water spread out and
formed a lake.
When the old woman came home, the boy said, “Grandmother, I have
killed the big monster that was lying behind the curtain, for he
was eating all your mush.” The old woman said: “My grandson, you
did right. I am glad you killed him. He has gone back into the
lake, where he will always remain.” The old woman really was not
glad, but mad, in her heart, for she now saw that the boy had
supernatural powers. She wanted the boy killed. She did not let
this be known, for she decided that she would send him to the place
where her wild animals were stationed. When the boy was gone the
old woman cried and mourned for her husband, who was the serpent.
She said (without the boy hearing), “My grandson, you have killed
your grandfather.”
The next day, when the old woman was ready to go to her cornfield,
she told the boy that he must not go to a certain place, for the
place was dangerous. After the old woman had gone into the field
the boy went to the place where the old woman told him not to
go, and there he went around looking for the dangerous place. He
finally saw a mountain-lion coming towards him, ready to leap upon
him, but he gave a command for the mountain-lion to stop, and the
mountain-lion obeyed. The boy went and led the mountain-lion to the
old woman’s lodge. He told the old woman to come out, that he had
an animal for her which she could ride when she went off to her
field. She told the boy she was glad he had brought the animal,
but she whispered to herself, “Well, you must be a wonderful boy,
but you shall be killed.” She then took the animal into the brush
and told it to go away, for the boy was wonderful and might kill
him. As the old woman was going towards the lodge she whispered to
herself, “You must be a wonderful boy, but I will send you to a
place where you can not kill my animals.”
The old woman then told the boy that he must not go to a certain
mountainous place, for the place was dangerous. The boy went,
notwithstanding. There he found the cinnamon bear coming to attack
him. He commanded the bear to stand still and do nothing. The bear
obeyed. The boy then caught the bear by the ear and led it into the
old woman’s lodge. He said: “Grandmother, I have an animal for you
that is very tame. You can ride it, and you can have it to help you
clear your field.” The old woman appeared to be glad, but she was
not. She took the bear, led it into the timber, and told it to go
away, for the boy was wonderful and might kill it.
The old woman then told the boy that he must not go into the southwest
country; that there were four wonderful men there. The boy went,
though, and he saw the four wonderful men killing buffalo. These men
looked up, and said: “Here comes Old-Woman’s-Grandson. He is a
wonderful boy.” The boy got to where the men were skinning a buffalo
cow, and, as the entrails were taken out, the boy saw that the cow
had a calf in her and that the men were taking it out. The youngest
man picked the calf up, and said, “Old-Woman’s-Grandson, take this
to your grandmother.” The boy jumped away from it, for he was scared.
When the youngest of the men found out that the boy was afraid of the
calf he kept on trying to get it near him. Old-Woman’s-Grandson kept
running from the calf, until he came to a tree. He climbed the tree.
The young man placed the calf on the forks of the tree, so that the
boy could not get down. The men then went home with their meat. The
boy stayed in the tree many days, and nearly starved, when one of the
men came, and said, “Old-Woman’s-Grandson, if you will promise your
grandmother to us, I will take this calf down.” The boy said, “I
promise.” So the man took the fœtus down.
The boy came down from the tree and went home. The old woman, when
she saw the boy coming back, said that she was glad to see him
again, for she thought that he had been killed. She asked the boy
where he had been, and what had kept him so long. He told her that
the men had tried to kill him by placing the fœtus next to him.
He also said that he had had to promise the men that they could
have her if they would remove the fœtus from the tree; that he had
promised and they had removed the fœtus. The old woman said that
it was well, but that she had one thing to ask of them, and that
was, that they should give the boy something in return for his
grandmother. So the boy went and visited these men in their lodge.
He said to the men: “What is it that you are to give me in return
for my grandmother? My grandmother has consented to marry you men.”
The men said, “We are to give you a bow and arrows.” The boy went
home and told his grandmother that they were to give him a bow and
arrows. The old woman said: “That is good. That is what I wanted
you to have. Go to the lodge of the wonderful men, and as you enter
the lodge, rush around to the south side of the lodge, where there
are five bows set up. The middle bow you shall take up, and say,
‘This I shall take in return for my grandmother.’” So the boy went
into the lodge with the men. He ran to the south side of the lodge,
and there the bows were, leaning up against the wall of the lodge.
He picked up the middle bow and arrows. The men were all sorry that
the boy had picked out the middle bow and arrows. The boy then told
the men they could go to the home of his grandmother and be with
her. Itaque hi ad anus domicilium venerunt ibique cum ea sicut cum
uxore concubuerunt.
After they had left the lodge the old woman called the boy, and
said, “Take this flute and play around the lodge of these wonderful
men.” Her grandson took the flute and went to the lodge of the
wonderful men and there he played the flute, circling around the
lodge. When the wonderful men heard the flute they were scared.
They closed up their lodge with earth. The boy kept on whistling,
for he was now taking revenge on them for trying to put the fœtus
next to him. The men lived on the meat they had in their lodge, but
this soon gave out. These wonderful men died of hunger, and were
never to be known again upon the earth.
The young man went home and told the old woman that the men had
died; that the earth had closed in on them. The old woman was
satisfied. Then she thought, “Now is the time to send my grandson
to dangerous places, so that he may be killed, and I shall be
freed from him.” The grandmother told the boy he must not go upon
a certain hill, for the place was very dangerous. The boy went
upon the hill, and there he found a den. He entered this den. He
found that it was a den of Snakes. Before the boy entered the den
he picked up a little rock and took it with him, and when he sat
down in the lodge in the den of Snakes he placed the stone upon the
ground and sat upon it as upon a stool. The Snakes were glad to see
the boy. The boy said: “Well, you people are here in a den, trying
to catch eagles. It seems to me that you people ought to welcome a
stranger to your den. It seems that I am not welcome.” The Snakes
all spoke up, and said: “Old-Woman’s-Grandson, you have spoken
the truth. We will now give you something to eat.” So one of the
Snakes spread out hot coals and placed a long gut for the boy to
eat. This was rolled in the hot coals until it was burned a little,
then it was taken off and given to the boy to eat. The boy took up
the gut by each end and placed the ends together. He commenced to
tell the Snakes that he had come a long way and was very hungry;
that he would very much like to eat that, but as he saw that the
gut was not well done he could not eat it. He twisted the ends, and
the Snakes whispered to one another, “Why, he knows that this is
a Snake, for he has twisted the head off.” As he twisted the head
off he saw plainly that it was a Snake. He threw the head into the
fire and placed the gut upon the hot coals again and roasted it
some more. He left the Snake burning until it was burned so that
he could not eat it. Once in a while he would hear the Snakes say,
“What are you waiting for?” Then some Snake would disappear in the
ground and would come up and try to get into the boy’s rectum, and
they would hit the rock and tell the rest of the Snakes that they
could do nothing, that the boy was sitting upon a rock.