he saddled it and started; but instead of going in the direction the
tribe had taken, he went east. His horse was a fine one. He went away
off by himself for some days, and at last he stopped, and got off his
horse, and tied it to a tree. Then he called aloud and said, "_A-ti-us
ta´-kaw-a_ (My Father, in all places), it is through you that I am
living. Perhaps it was through you that this man put me in this
condition. You are the ruler. Nothing is impossible to you. If you see
fit, take this away from me." Then he turned round and said, "Now,
you, all fish of the rivers, and you, all birds of the air, and all
animals that move upon the earth, and you, oh Sun! I present to you
this animal." He said again, "You birds in the air, and you animals
upon the earth, we are related, we are alike in this respect, that
one ruler made us all. You see me, how unhappy I am. If you have any
power, intercede for me."
When he had finished his prayer, he went up to the horse, and stabbed
it with his knife and killed it, and it fell down dead. He turned it
so that its head was toward the east, and raised it on its belly,
doubling its knees under it, and cut the hide down the back, and
skinned it down on both sides, so that the birds of the air and the
animals of the earth might feed on it.
The tribe at this time was camped on the head of the Republican River.
He went on toward the east until he came to the place on the Platte
River called _Pa-huk´_ (hill island). He saw that there were many wild
animals on this point, and he liked it, and thought he would stay
there, and perhaps dream. He stopped there a while, feeling very
badly, and mourning all the time on this point. He was there several
days, and one night it happened that he went to sleep [fainted], for
he was exhausted with much weeping and praying. Something spoke to
him, and said, "What are you doing here?" He woke up, and looked
around, but saw no one. It was only a voice. Another night when he was
asleep a voice asked him, "What are you doing here?" He awoke and
looked about, but saw no one. A third night the same thing happened,
and he was wondering what it meant. Then he answered and said, "Who
ever you are who speaks to me, look at me and you will see that I am
poor in mind.[4] I am a man, and yet I am in a condition that no man
was ever in before. I am here only to suffer and to die. Whoever you
are who speaks to me, take pity on me and help me." He received no
answer.
[4] Poor in mind, _i. e._, despondent, miserable, unhappy.
The fourth night something touched him. He was half awake when he felt
it. Something said, "What are you doing here?" He was lying on his
side, his head toward the east and his feet toward the west. Something
tapped him on the shoulder, and he looked up and saw a great big
animal, big black eyes and a whitish body, _Pah´_, big elk. When he
looked at it, the animal said, "Get up and sit down;" and the elk too
sat down. The elk said, "I have heard of you and of your condition,
and I am here to tell you that we all know your trouble. Right here
where you are, under you, is the home of the _Nahu´rac_ (animals). I
know that it is impossible to help you, but I shall let them
know--they already know--that you are here. I can only help you so
far as to take you to the places where these animals are. If this
animal home cannot help you, I will take you to another place; if that
fails, I will take you to another place; if that fails, to another.
Then you will see that I have done my part. If it is impossible for
the animals to do it, we have still one above that we look to." As
soon as he had said this, he vanished like a wind; disappeared all at
once.
While the boy sat there, thinking about what the animal had said to
him, he fell asleep with his mind full of these things. In his sleep
something talked to him. It said, "I know that you feel badly, and
that your mind is poor. I have passed you many times, and I have heard
you crying. I belong here, but I am one of the servants. I have
informed my leaders, those who command me, about you, and that you are
so poor in your mind, and they have said to me, 'If you take pity on
him, do as you please, because you are our servant.'"
At this time he woke up, and saw sitting by him a little bird.[5] He
talked to it. He said, "Oh, my brother, I feel pleased that you
understand my poor mind. Now take pity on me and help me." The bird
said to him, "You must not talk in this way to me. I am only a
servant. To-morrow night I will come this way, and will show you what
to do. To-morrow night I will come this way, and whatever you see me
do, you do the same thing." Then he disappeared. The man then felt a
little easier in his mind, and more as if there were some hope for
him.
[5] This is a small bird, blue above, white below, with red legs.
It is swift-flying, and sometimes dives down into the water. It is
the messenger bird of the _Nahu´rac_. See also story of the Boy who
was Sacrificed.
The next night the bird came, and was flying about near him after
dark, waiting for the time. When the time came, the bird flew close to
him, and said, "Come. Let us go to the edge of the cut bank." When
they had come to the edge of the bank above the water in the river,
the bird said, "Now, my friend, you are poor. What I do, you do. When
I dive down off this bank, you follow me." The man replied to him,
"Yes, I am poor. Whatever you tell me to do, I will do." So when the
bird dived down off the cut bank, the man threw off everything, and
cared nothing for what he did except to follow the bird. He leaped
down after it, and as he sprang, it seemed to him that he felt like a
bird, and could sail this way and that. He did not feel as if he were
falling, and were going to be hurt, but as if he were flying, and
could control his movements. Just as he reached the water in his fall,
it seemed to him that he was standing in the entrance way of a lodge,
and could look through into it and see the fire burning in the middle.
While he was standing there, the bird flew in ahead of him, and he
heard it say, "Here he is." He stepped toward the entrance, and just
as he came to it the _Nahu´rac_ all made their different noises, for
they are not used to the smell of human beings. The bears growled, and
the panthers and wild cats and wolves and rattlesnakes and other
animals all made their sounds. As he went in, there was a bear
standing on one side, and a great snake on the other, and it was very
difficult for the man to go in. He hesitated a little to enter that
narrow passage, but something behind him seemed to push him ahead,
although the bear stood ready to seize him, and the snake was rattling
and standing up as if about to strike. If he had not had the courage
to pass them he would have been lost, but he looked neither to the
right nor to the left, but walked straight ahead past them. As soon as
he had passed them, they both sank back and were quiet. Then all the
_Nahu´rac_ made another kind of a noise, as if welcoming him. The
bear began to lie down; and the snake stretched itself out again. As
he went in he just stood there and looked around. He saw there all
kinds of animals. The head doctor was a white beaver, very large,
there was another a garfish, another an otter, and the fourth was a
sandhill crane.
The man sat down, and he looked very pitiful. Then for a while
everything was silent. Then the servant said to the four head doctors,
"I have brought this man here. I have taken pity on him, and I want
you to take pity on him." Then it was more silent than ever. The man
looked about him, and saw all the animals, and saw them roll their
eyes around at him.
Presently the servant got up, and stood right in the midst. The head
doctors sat at the back of the lodge opposite the door on the other
side of the fire. The bird said, "My rulers, you know me. I am your
servant, and I am always obedient to your commands. No matter what you
tell me to do, I do it. No matter how long the journeys you send me
on, I go. Many nights I have lost sleep because of carrying out your
commands. I have seen this man many times, and I am weary of his
crying as I fly back and forth. Now, I want you to take pity on this
man, because I pity him. Look on this poor-minded man and pity him."
Then the bird went to the young man, and took from him his pipe, which
was filled, and carried it round and stood before the beaver, the head
doctor, and held out the pipe to him to take. The white beaver did not
stretch out his hand for it, and the bird stood there for a long time.
At last the bird began to cry, and the tears began to run down its
face, and it cried hard; and at last the white beaver stretched out
his hand, and then drew it back again, and hesitated; and the bird
kept on crying, and at length the head doctor reached out his hand and
took the pipe. Just as soon as he took the pipe, all the animals made
a kind of a hissing sound, as much as to say, _Loo´ah_--Good. They
were pleased. Then the white beaver, holding the pipe, said, "I cannot
help but reach out for this pipe, for I take pity on my servant. But
it is impossible for me to promise that I will do this thing, but I
will do what I can. I will leave it to this other _Nahu´rac_ to say
what shall be done;" and he passed the pipe to the other _Nahu´rac_
who sat next to him. This animal reached for the pipe, and took it. He
made a speech, and said, "My friends, I am poor, I am poor. I have
not such power as that;" and he passed the pipe to another; and he
said, "I have not the power;" and he passed it to another; and so it
went around the circle. The pipe had passed around, and none of the
_Nahu´rac_ had the power. None of them seemed to understand how to
help the man. Then the white beaver said, "My friend, you see that no
one of us have the power to help you. There is another lodge of
_Nahu´rac_ at _Pa´howa_. You must go there and ask them." Then the
_Nahu´rac_ made medicine, and the young man went to sleep, and when he
awoke at daylight, he found himself on the point where he had lain
down to sleep the night before.
He was discouraged and wept all day long. At night the elk came to him
and said, "Go to sleep; I will take you over to _Pa´howa_." The man
slept and the elk took him on its back and carried him while asleep,
and the next morning he found himself on that point of _Pa´howa_.
That night the messenger bird came to him and said, "Now, my friend,
follow me, and what you see me do, that do yourself. When I dive down
into _Pa´howa_, you follow me." The bird dived down into the spring,
and the young man jumped after him, and again found himself standing
at the door of a lodge, and the same things took place as before. Here
the same animals were the head doctors. The chief head doctor talked
to the boy and said, "My friend, I am sorry you have come to me in the
condition you are in. My friend, this is something impossible. If it
were anything else it might be possible for us to cure your trouble.
Nothing like it was ever known before."
When he had said this he turned to the _Nahu´rac_ and said, "Now you
shall be the leaders. If there are any of you who understand things
like this; if any of you can take the lead in things like this, why do
it. It is beyond my power. Say what shall be done, any of you. My mind
would be big if any of you could take pity on this poor man."
Another one of the _Nahu´rac_ stood up and spoke, "My brother [to the
white beaver], and my brother [to the young man], do not feel hard at
me. This is beyond my power. I cannot do anything to help him." So it
went around the circle, every one saying that it was impossible. After
it had gone round, the head doctor again stood up and said, "Now, my
friend, you can see that it is impossible to cure you of this trouble,
but there is another lodge of the _Nahu´rac_ on the west side of the
Loup River. You go there." Then they put him to sleep, and when he
awoke next morning, he was on top of the ground near _Pa´howa_.
That night the elk took him while he was asleep to the place on the
Loup. The next night he was sitting on the ground there, and the bird
came to him, and he followed the bird down over the bank and into the
_Nahu´rac_ lodge. Here the head doctors were the same animals, and
they made speeches as had been done at the other places, and, as
before, it was left to the assembly, and all agreed that it was beyond
their power. Then the white beaver directed him to go to an island in
the Platte, near the Lone Tree, where there was another lodge of the
_Nahu´rac_. The elk took him to this island. Under the center of this
island was the lodge. The messenger bird was with him and went into
the lodge and asked the _Nahu´rac_ to help him. The white beaver made
a speech, and said, "My friend, I have heard the condition that you
are in. Of all these lodges that you have visited, that lodge at
_Pa-huk´_ is the head. I want you to go back there, and tell the
leaders there that they are the rulers, and that whatever they shall
do will be right, and will be agreed to by the other lodges. They
must help you if they can. If they cannot do it, no one can."
When the elk took him back to _Pa-huk´_, the bird again conducted him
into the lodge. He had left his pipe here. When he entered the lodge
all the animals made a hissing sound--_No´a_--they were glad to see
him again. The man stood in the middle of the lodge and spoke. He
said, "Now you animals all, you are the leaders. You see how poor my
mind is. I am tired of the long journeys you have sent me on. I want
you to take pity on me."
The white beaver stood up and took the pipe and said, "Oh, my brother,
I have done this to try these other lodges of _Nahu´rac_, to see if
any of them were equal to me. That was the reason that I sent you
around to all these other lodges, to see if any of them would be
willing to undertake to rid you of your burden. But I see that they
all still acknowledge that I am the leader. Now I have here an animal
that I think will undertake to help you and to rid you of your
trouble." Saying this he stepped out to the right, and walked past
some of the _Nahu´rac_ until he came to a certain animal--a ground
dog--and held out the pipe to it. There were twelve of these animals,
all alike--small, with round faces and black whiskers--sitting on
their haunches. He held out the pipe to the head one of these twelve.
When the white beaver reached out the pipe to this animal he did not
take it. He hesitated a long time, and held his head down. He did not
want to take the pipe. He looked around the lodge, and at the man, and
drew in his breath. At last he reached out his paws and took the pipe,
and as he did so, all the _Nahu´rac_ made a noise, the biggest kind of
a noise. They were glad.
Then the head ground dog got up and said, "Now, doctors, I have
accepted this pipe on account of our servant, who is so faithful, and
who many a night has lost sleep on account of our commands. I have
accepted it for his sake. It is impossible to do this thing. If it had
been earlier, I could perhaps have done it. Even now I will try, and
if I fail now, we can do nothing for him."
After they had smoked, they told the man to go and sit down opposite
the entrance to the lodge, between the head doctors and the fire.
These twelve animals stood up and walked back and forth on the
opposite side of the fire from him, facing him. After a while they
told him to stand up. The head ground dog now asked the other
_Nahu´rac_ to help him, by singing, and they all sang; and the ground
dogs danced, keeping time to the singing, and moved their hands up and
down, and made their jaws go as if eating, but did not open their
mouths.
After a while they told him to lie down with his head toward the
doctors and his feet toward the entrance. After he had lain down, they
began to move and went round the lodge toward him, and the head ground
dog jumped over the man's belly, and as he jumped over him he was seen
to have a big piece of flesh in his mouth, and was eating it. Another
ground dog followed him, and another, and each one ran until he came
to the man, and as each one jumped over him, it had a piece of flesh
in its mouth, eating it. So they kept going until they had eaten all
the swelling. The young man was unconscious all this time, for he
afterward said he knew nothing of what had happened.
The head ground dog spoke to the animals, and said, "Now, _Nahu´rac_,
you have seen what I can do. This is the power that I have. That is
the reason I am afraid to be out on the prairie, because when I get
hungry I would kill men and would eat them. My appetite would
overpower me, and I do not want to do these things, I want to be
friendly. This is the reason that I do not travel around on top of
the ground. I stay hid all the time."
The man was still unconscious, and the head ground dog said, "Now,
_Nahu´rac_, I do not understand how to restore this man. I leave that
to you." Then the ground dogs went back to their places and sat down.
Then the head doctor, the beaver, spoke to the bears. He said, "Now
this man belongs to you. Let me see what you can do." The head bear
got up and said, "Very well, I will come. I will let you see what I
can do." Then the bears stood up and began to sing. The head bear
would jump on top of the man, and act as if he were going to tear him
to pieces, and the others would take hold of him, and shake him
around, and at last his blood began to flow and the man began to
breathe, but he was still unconscious. After a while he moved and came
to life, and felt himself just as he had been many months before. He
found that his trouble was gone and that he was cured.
The head bear still stood by him and spoke to the _Nahu´rac_. He said,
"Now, _Nahu´rac_, this is what I can do. I do not care how dangerously
wounded I may be, I know how to cure myself. If they leave any breath
at all in me, I know how to cure myself." Then the bears went to
their place and sat down.
The man got up and spoke to the _Nahu´rac_, thanking them for what
they had done for him. He stayed there several nights, watching the
doings of the _Nahu´rac_. They taught him all their ways, all the
animal secrets. The head doctor said to him, "Now, I am going to send
you back to your home, but I will ask a favor of you, in return for
what I have done for you."
The man answered him, "It will be so, whatever you say."
The doctor said, "Through you let my animals that move in the river be
fed. Now you can see who we are. I move in the water. I have no
breath, but I exist. We every one of us shall die except _Ti-ra´-wa_.
He made us, just as he made you. He made you to live in the air. We
live where there is no air. You see the difference. I know where is
that great water that surrounds us [the ocean]. I know that the heaven
[sky] is the house of _Ti-ra´-wa_, and we live inside of it. You must
imitate us. Do as we do. You must place your dependence on us, but
still, if anything comes up that is very difficult, you must put your
dependence on _Ti-ra´-wa_. Ask help from the ruler. He made us. He
made every thing. There are different ways to different creatures.
What you do I do not do, and what I do you do not do. We are
different. When you imitate us you must always blow a smoke to each
one of these four chief doctors, once to each; but to _Ti-ra´-wa_ you
must blow four smokes. And always blow four to the night, to the east,
because something may tell you in your sleep a thing which will
happen. This smoke represents the air filled with the smoke of hazy
days. That smoke is pleasant to _Ti-ra´-wa_. He made it himself. Now
go home, and after you have been there for a time, go and pay a visit
to the doctor who put you in this condition."
The young man went home to his village, and got there in the night. He
had long been mourned as dead, and his father was now poor in mind on
account of him. He went into his father's lodge, and touched him, and
said, "Wake up, I am here."
His father could not believe it. He had thought him dead a long time.
He said, "Is it you, or is it a ghost?"
The young man answered, "It is I, just the same as ever. Get up, and
go and tell my uncles and all my relations that I am here. I want you
to give me something; a blue bead, and some Indian tobacco, and some
buffalo meat, and a pipe."
The father went about and told his relations that his son had come
back, and they were very glad, and came into the lodge, bringing the
presents, and gave them to the boy. He took them, and went down to the
river, and threw them in, and they were carried down to the _Nahu´rac_
lodge at _Pa-huk´_.
A few days after this the boy got on his horse, and rode away to visit
the doctor who had brought his trouble on him. When he reached the
village, the people said to the doctor, "A man is coming to visit
you," and the doctor was troubled, for he knew what he had done to the
boy. But he thought that he knew so much that no one could get the
better of him. When the boy came to the lodge, he got off his horse,
went in and was welcomed. After they had eaten, the boy said to him,
"When you visited me we smoked your tobacco; to-day we will smoke
mine."
They did so, for the doctor thought that no one could overcome him.
They smoked until daylight, and while they were smoking, the boy kept
moving his jaws as if eating, but did not open his mouth. At daylight
the boy said he must be going. He went, and when he got down to the
river, he blew strongly upon the ice, and immediately the water in the
river was full of blood. It was the blood of the doctor. It seems that
the ground dogs had taught the young man how to do their things.
When the people found the doctor he was dead in his lodge, and he was
all hollow. All his blood and the inside of him had gone into the
river, and had gone down to feed the animals. So the boy kept his
promise to the _Nahu´rac_ and had revenge on the doctor.
The boy was the greatest doctor in the Kit-ke-hahk´-i band, and was
the first who taught them all the doctors' ceremonies that they have.
He taught them all the wonderful things that the doctors can do, and
many other things.
[Illustration: OLD-FASHIONED KNIFE.]
THE BEAR MAN.
There was once a young boy, who, when he was playing with his fellows,
used often to imitate the ways of a bear, and to pretend that he was
one. The boys did not know much about bears. They only knew that there
were such animals.
Now, it had happened that before this boy was born his mother had been
left alone at home, for his father had gone on the warpath toward the
enemy, and this was about five or six months before the babe would be
born. As the man was going on the warpath, he came upon a little bear
cub, very small, whose mother had gone away; and he caught it. He did
not want to kill it because it was so young and helpless. It seemed to
him like a little child. It looked up to him, and cried after him,
because it knew no better; and he hated to kill it or to leave it
there. After he had thought about this for a while, he put a string
around its neck and tied some medicine smoking stuff, Indian tobacco,
to it, and said, "_Pi-rau´_--child, you are a _Nahu´rac_; _Ti-ra´-wa_
made you, and takes care of you. He will look after you, but I put
these things about your neck to show that I have good feelings toward
you. I hope that when my child is born, the _Nahu´rac_ will take care
of him, and see that he grows up a good man, and I hope that
_Ti-ra´-wa_ will take care of you and of mine." He looked at the
little bear for quite a long time, and talked to it, and then he went
on his way.
When he returned to the village from his warpath, he told his wife
about the little bear, and how he had looked at it and talked to it.
When his child was born it had all the ways of a bear. So it is among
the Pawnees. A woman, before her child is born, must not look hard at
any animal, for the child may be like it. There was a woman in the
Kit-ke-hahk´-i band, who caught a rabbit, and, because it was gentle
and soft, she took it up in her hands and held it before her face and
petted it, and when her child was born it had a split nose, like a
rabbit. This man is still alive.
This boy, who was like a bear, as he grew up, had still more the ways
of a bear. Often he would go off by himself, and try to pray to the
bear, because he felt like a bear. He used to say, in a joking way, to
the other young men, that he could make himself a bear.
After he had come to be a man, he started out once on the warpath with
a party of about thirty-five others. He was the leader of the party.
They went away up on the Running Water, and before they had come to
any village, they were discovered by Sioux. The enemy pursued them,
and surrounded them, and fought with them. The Pawnees were
overpowered, their enemies were so many, and all were killed.