There goes a spider. As he was journeying along he came upon a man—in our
legends these men do anything; they take a whole community of men right
down—and he met him face to face. The man-eater stood in the path, the
spider in front of him. The big man kept letting out his breath and
taking it in in great gusts, and when he drew in his breath he drew the
spider toward him, and when he blew out his breath he blew him away from
him. And the spider was so scared he did not know what to do. But he
finally said: “Now, my young brother, you take in your breath, and let out
your breath, and you pull me around; and if I did the same thing you would
soon be gone, for I am older than you are.” The big man said to the
spider: “Now, my older brother, you hold on.” The spider said to the big
man: “I am going over here where there is a great big camp of people, and
I am going to swallow all of these people. However, as you are hungry, I
will give you half of them. Now you stay right here. I am going over to
look at the big camp. I am going to find out whether I will give you any
of them or not, and then I will tell you.” With these words the spider
went ahead of the man a little, and then came right back to the big man
again and said: “My young brother, I am afraid of some certain things, and
I am going to tell you about it. Are you the same way?” The big man said:
“Yes, my little brother, I am very much afraid of some things.” The
spider then asked him: “What are the things you are afraid of?” The big
man then told the spider that he was afraid of drums beating, that he was
afraid of old tambourines that the Indians used to have, and he was also
afraid of shouting and yelling. The spider then said to him: “You are my
brother for sure; these are just the things that I am afraid of.” Just as
he said these things to the big man, the spider was very much afraid of
him, fearing that he could not hold himself steady as he stood in front of
the big man. The spider said to the big man: “You just sit right still
here. I am going over to see this big camp, and will be right back.” The
spider went over the hill as fast as he could, looking back every once in
a while to the big man. He went right ahead into the big camp. He told
everybody around there to get all their drums and their tambourines, that
he had a great big man over there, and these were the things that he was
afraid of. “I am going back to him and I want you to take all your drums
and tambourines, and yell and scream, for he is afraid of these things.”
The spider then went back to the big man and told him the camp was big
enough for them both. Then he marked a place which divided them half and
half, and said: “You are to have the one half and I am to have the other
half; but if you go ahead and eat your half and eat half of my half, I
will swallow you too.” As they went along to the camp the spider said to
the big man: “I am the older, and will go ahead of you a little.” In the
meantime he had told those in camp that they must all gather in one place
where he would lead this big man. As the big man walked along, he grew
tired, and would let out his breath and take in a great big breath, and
every time the spider would be drawn up against him. The spider told him
if he did it again he would draw in his breath and the big man would soon
be inside his stomach. As the spider went on into the place where all the
people were gathered, they began to beat their drums and yell and scream
and howl. The spider fell down as though he were dead, and kicked and
squirmed. The big man was really scared, and he fell down dead. When
they got up to the big man and found him dead, the spider told them how he
had worked the big man, and saved their lives. And thus the story ends.
[Chief Pretty Voice Eagle]