piece of fresh meat, and she began to cook it on the coals. The people
wondered where she got the fresh meat, and asked her about it, but she
would not tell them where she got it, for her son had told her to say
nothing. They asked her again where she got it, and she told them she
found it in her bed.
After a long time her son came again in the night, and went into the
lodge, and spoke to his mother, saying, "Mother, I am here again." She
awoke, and rejoiced that he had come back. He said to her, "My
mother, I know that you are poor. You are blind on account of me,
because you have cried so much. Now, my mother, there is standing by
the side of your daughter's bed, water in a wooden bowl. After I have
left you to-night, go over there, and put your face down deep into the
water, and open your eyes in the water, and then you will see." Before
he left her he gave her some _ka´wis_.[8]
[8] Chopped buffalo meat tied up in the small intestine.
After he had gone, she did as he had told her. She got up, and feeling
her way along with her hands, crept into the place where her daughter
slept. There she felt the wooden bowl with water in it, and she put
her face deep down into the water, and opened her eyes in it, and when
she took her face out of the water, and opened her eyes again, she
could see. Then she was glad. Everybody wondered how the mother's eyes
had been cured, but she told no one, except only her oldest son.
After a long time _Pa-hu-ka´-tawa_ came down again to see his mother.
He said to her, "Mother, I am going up to see my oldest brother." He
went to see his brother in the night. His brother was expecting him,
for his mother had warned him. _Pa-hu-ka´-tawa_ said, "Now, my
brother, I think you have heard that I come all the time to see our
mother. I wish that you would put up your lodge outside the camp, so
that I can come and see you often. I want to talk to you, and tell you
my thoughts and all my troubles. I am a spirit." His brother answered
him that he would do as he had asked, and the first night after the
lodge had been set up outside the camp, _Pa-hu-ka´-tawa_ came down,
and said to his brother, "To-morrow night I want you to select the two
bravest men in the tribe, and let them go about through the camp, and
call all the chiefs and all the bravest warriors in the tribe, and let
them gather at your home. Do not build any fire in the lodge. Let it
all be dark, for I am coming down in the night to see them."
When the next night came, the chiefs and the braves gathered at the
lodge just about dark. They made no fire, but sat there waiting for
_Pa-hu-ka´-tawa_ to come down. After a while he came down to the
lodge, and came in where they were sitting. When they were all silent,
he came in, and every step he made it seemed that sparks of fire were
flying out from him. He went and stood before his brother, and said to
him, "I am in everything; in the grass, the water, the trees. I am a
part of all these things. I know every thought of yours, and if you
only whispered, I would hear it. I know everything, and about
everything, even about the ocean which is so far off, and where the
water is salt.
"There are two dances that I like, in which there are songs sung about
me." Then he sang these songs and told them how to dance these
dances.[9] He said, "Dance these dances and sing about me, calling me
by name."
[9] These dances afterward were practiced in two of the secret
societies.
Then he said, "Brother, I want you to know that there is a tribe of
your enemies getting ready to go on the warpath against you. I will
let you know when they start, and all they do. Every move they make I
will tell you of. They are coming from far up the Missouri River."
Two or three nights later _Pa-hu-ka´-tawa_ appeared to his brother,
and said, "They are coming. To-morrow night they will be here spying
round the camp. Be ready for them. You must ask me to take pity on
you, telling me what you want to do, and I will make you strong, so
that you can succeed. If you want to strike two or three, ask me. If
you want to kill two or three, tell me. You must call me grandfather."
The next night they danced and asked him to take pity on them. One
young man prayed, saying, "Let me strike nine, and at the tenth let me
be wounded, but let me not die." A second young man prayed, saying, "I
want to strike five and capture the biggest man in the party." Another
man asked him, "Let me strike two, and then let me be killed." To each
one who asked a favor of him, he said, "Let it be so." They did not
see him, for there was no fire in the lodge. It was dark.
He said to them, "Be ready. To-morrow morning is the time when the
enemy will attack you. I will send a fog from the north as a warning.
They will come down toward the village, and you must go out on the
plain in front of the village, and have a skirmish with them. Then
draw off, and look toward the point of bluff which runs down into the
plain on the east end of the battle field. Watch that point and you
will see me. I will appear to you there. And this shall be a sign to
you that it is I whom you see. When I come up over that point and turn
around, facing to the north, the wind will change and will come from
the south. And when the wind blows from the south, you make a charge
on them."
So it was. The next morning the enemy made an attack on them, and
came down toward the village. It was the very day he had said. The
warriors went out on the plain to meet them. They were wondering in
what shape _Pa-hu-ka´-tawa_ would appear to them, how he would look.
On that morning, before the Sioux appeared, a white fog came down from
the north. Then the Sioux made the attack, and the people began to
look for _Pa-hu-ka´-tawa_. And while they were looking toward the
bluff, a great white wolf came up over the point, and stood looking
first one way and then another, and then it turned around and faced
the north. And immediately the wind changed and blew from the south.
When the wolf appeared, some of the braves doubted whether it was
_Pa-hu-ka´-tawa_, but when it turned round, and the wind changed, then
they knew that it was he.
Then they made the charge, and each one of those who had asked a favor
received it. In every case what _Pa-hu-ka´-tawa_ had promised came
true. The man who had prayed that he might strike nine and at the
tenth be wounded, struck nine and was wounded at the tenth, but he did
not die; the one who asked to strike five, and to capture the biggest
man in the party, did so. He caught the prisoner, and overcame him,
and put a rope around his neck, and led him into the village. And when
he got him to the village the women beat the captive with sticks and
clubs, and threw dirt at him, and had lots of fun with him. The young
man who had asked it, killed two, and then was himself killed. All
that _Pa-hu-ka´-tawa_ had promised came to pass.
The people killed many of the Sioux, and drove them far, chasing and
killing them all day long. Then they came back to the village,
bringing with them the scalps and the weapons that they had taken, the
bows and the spears, the shields and the war bonnets. They danced in
the village, and sang and rejoiced. Every one was glad because the
people had won a great victory.
The next night after the day of the battle, _Pa-hu-ka´-tawa_ came down
to his brother's lodge, and told him that he wanted to speak to him.
His brother awoke all his wives, and sent them out of the lodge,
telling them not to come back until he called them. Then
_Pa-hu-ka´-tawa_ said to his brother, "Now, my brother, you people
have seen whether what I say to you is true or not. You have seen what
has happened, you can judge. Now, brother, I want you to feel of me
all over; nobody else but you to feel of me, my brother." His brother
passed his hands all over his breast and arms and body and legs.
_Pa-hu-ka´-tawa_ said, "Now put your hands on top of my head, and feel
there." He did so, and felt something soft. _Pa-hu-ka´-tawa_ said, "Do
you know what that is? That is the down feathers."
Then he told the story of his being killed. He said, "That time after
I got killed, all kinds of _Nahu´rac_ took pity on me. The flies and
bugs, the fishes and birds, the deer and the wolves, all the animals
took pity on me, and helped me to come to life again. They looked all
over for my flesh and my bones, and brought them all together. One
part of me, the top part of my skull, they could not find. The bugs
crept through the ground looking for it, the fishes swam through the
water and sought it, the flies buzzed about over the sand, and the
deer and wolves hunted for it on the prairie, but they could not find
this piece anywhere. Nor could they find my brains. Perhaps, when I
was killed, the crows eat them out. When they had gathered the pieces
all together, they laid each piece in its own place, so that they had
the form of a man, and in place of the top of the skull and the brains
they put the down feathers. After they had put all the pieces
together, they stood around me, and prayed, and passed their paws over
me, and danced and sang, and at last I breathed a little. Then they
prayed again, and passed their paws over me, and at length I breathed
regularly. Then I was not dead any more; I was alive again. Not as a
person was I alive, but as a spirit.
"I am in every thing; in the wind, in the rain, in the grass. I go
over the whole world. I am the wind, and I go everywhere all over the
world. There is no one above me but _Ti-ra´-wa_. He is the only one I
am under. He is the ruler of all. Whenever any human being on this
earth, man, woman or child, says anything about me, I hear it surely.
You must tell all this to every one, and say to them that if they are
sick or unfortunate, let them pray to me, and I will heal or help
them.
"Now you know that I am living, but I am a spirit; and whenever you
people have a fight with the Sioux, if you pray to me, and call me by
name, and ask to be brave, and to be helped, I will hear you. If you
wish to be brave, or if you wish not to be hurt in battle, even though
the enemy be right upon you, and just striking or shooting at you, I
will protect you. I shall live forever, as long as this world exists.
So long as I come to you, I want you people to conquer the Sioux all
you can, on account of what they did to me when they killed me and cut
me in pieces. So long as the Sioux come down to attack you, I want you
to conquer them every time.
"Now, brother, when I come down to see you, you must not get tired of
me. I want to come down often to see you, and talk to you, to tell you
what is going to happen, and to warn you whenever the Sioux are coming
down to attack the Skidi. I go about everywhere, to the camps of the
different bands of Sioux, and I know what the chiefs are saying in
council; when they are talking of sending out war parties against you.
If I come down to you often, do not get tired of seeing me."
He knew himself that his brother would some time refuse to listen to
him, but his brother did not know it, and he said, "I will never get
tired of you."
Some time after this, the Sioux came down again to attack the Skidi
village. Two days before they came, _Pa-hu-ka´-tawa_ came down to his
brother and warned him, saying, "A big war party of Sioux will be here
day after to-morrow to fight with you. But I am going to attend to
them. On the morning of the second day from this, tell all the people
to be ready, and to have their horses tied up close to the lodges,
where they can get at them. Then, if you look up in the sky, you will
see thick black clouds, as if you were going to have a great rain.
When you begin fighting, do not be afraid of the enemy. Do not be
afraid of them; go right up to them; they will not be able to shoot,
their bowstrings will be wet, and the sinews will stretch and slip off
the ends of the bows. They will not be able to hurt you."
On the morning that he had said, the Sioux came down, and the people
went out to meet them. The sky above was black with clouds. When they
began fighting, a heavy rain commenced to fall, but it did not rain
everywhere, but only just where the Sioux were. The bowstrings of the
Sioux got wet, so that they could not use them, for the sinews
stretched, so that when they bent their bows the strings slipped off
the ends of the bows, and there was no force to their arrows. The
Skidi overcame the Sioux and drove them, and the Sioux ran far. The
rain followed the Sioux, and rained over them, but nowhere else, and
the Sioux fled, and the Skidi won a great victory.
Soon after this, _Pa-hu-ka´-tawa_ came down and visited his brother,
and said to him, "My brother, whenever you have a feast or a council
of old men, you must smoke to me and say, 'Father, we want you to help
us.' Then I will hear you. At the same time you must pray to
_Ti-ra´-wa_. There is one above us who is the ruler of all. I do not
wish to be talked about commonly or by common men, but that whenever
you have a feast you should call in the young men and tell them about
me and let them hear." He did not want his name used irreverently, nor
wish that the story of what he had suffered and done should be told
commonly or for mere amusement. It is sacred and should be told only
at solemn times.
Some time after this talk with his brother, he came down again to see
him. Another man was living in his brother's lodge, and on this night
his brother was not there, he was sleeping somewhere else.
_Pa-hu-ka´-tawa_ asked this man where his brother was. He answered,
"He is not here to-night, he is sleeping somewhere else."
_Pa-hu-ka´-tawa_ said, "Go over and tell him that I am here, and that
I want to see him." The man went and gave the message to the brother,
who said, "I do not want to go. Tell him I am asleep." The man went
back and told _Pa-hu-ka´-tawa_ that his brother could not come. He
said, "He is asleep." _Pa-hu-ka´-tawa_ sent him back again, to get the
brother. The man went, and said to the brother, "He wants to see you
very much." The brother said, "Tell him I can't come; I want to sleep
to-night." The man returned and said, "He does not want to come, he is
sleeping." He was sent back for the brother the third time, to tell
the brother he must come, he was wanted. He sent word back that he
could not, he was too sleepy. Then _Pa-hu-ka´-tawa_ said, "Very well.
Go back and tell him to sleep now, to sleep all he wants. I told him
before that he would get tired of me at last. Let him sleep all he
wants, I will come to him no more. I can go to some other tribe. This
is the last time I will come. Tell him to sleep. I will trouble him no
more. I am going off, but tell the people not to forget me; to talk of
me sometimes, and to pray to me, and I will help them and care for the
tribe."
So _Pa-hu-ka´-tawa_ went away to the Rees, and the people knew him no
more; after that he never came down to see them. When the people
learned this, they felt very badly, and were angry at his brother who
would not see him. There was living not long ago, among the Rees, an
old woman, who, when she was a girl, had seen and talked to
_Pa-hu-ka´-tawa_.
* * * * *
Note.--This is a Skidi story. The Rees have a story of what
_Pa-hu-ka´-tawa_ did after he had come to them. The Lower Village
tribes have a story of a hero of this same name, which is quite
different from that of the Skidi.
[Illustration: LONE CHIEF--SKIDI.]
THE BOY WHO WAS SACRIFICED.
There was a time, far back, when some people thought that it was good
to sacrifice to _Ti-ra´-wa_ whatever they had that was most precious
to them. The sacrifice of the animal, the burnt offering, has always
been made by all the Pawnees; that is one of the things handed down
from the ruler. It is very old. The Skidi have always performed the
sacrifice of the captive. Each one of these is sacred and solemn, but
it is not like giving up something that belongs to you, and that you
love. It is a sacrifice, but it does not cost much.
Many years ago, in the Skidi village on the Loup, there lived a man,
who believed that if he sacrificed his son to _Ti-ra´-wa_, it would be
a blessing to him. He thought that if he did this thing, perhaps
_Ti-ra´-wa_ would speak to him face to face, and that he could talk to
him just as two people would talk to one another, and that in this
way he would learn many things that other people did not understand.
His child was a nice boy about ten years old, strong, growing up well,
and the man loved him. It made him feel badly to think of killing him.
He meditated long about this, but the more he thought about it, the
more he believed that this sacrifice would please _Ti-ra´-wa_. There
were many things that he wanted to understand, and to do; and he
thought if he gave up his son, these good things would come to him. So
he resolved to make the sacrifice.
One morning he started out from the village, and took the boy with
him. They went over to the Platte. When they got to the river, as they
were walking along, the man took his knife from its sheath, and caught
the boy by the shoulder, and stabbed him quickly, and cut him open.
When the boy was dead, he threw the body into the river, and then went
back to the village. When he got there, he went into his lodge and sat
down. After a time he said to his wife, "Where is the boy?" The woman
said, "He went out with you, when you went over to see the horses."
The man answered, "No; I went out to where the horses are feeding, and
looked at them, but he did not go with me."
The man went out, and looked for the boy all through the village, but
he could not find him. At night when the boy did not come home, they
began to get frightened, and for two days they hunted for the boy, and
at last they got the old crier to call out for him from the top of the
lodge, and ask if any one had seen him, but none of the people knew
what had become of the boy. Now the mother was mourning, and the
father pretended to feel very badly. They could not find the boy; and
soon after this the tribe started on the summer hunt, and the father
and mother went with them. The village made a good hunt, killing
plenty of buffalo, and made much dried meat.
After the boy had been thrown into the river, he floated down with the
current, sometimes turning over and over in the swift water, and
sometimes grounding for a little while on a sand bar, and then being
floated off again, and being carried further down. At length he came
near to the place where the whirlpool is, under the bluff at
_Pa-hük´_, where is the lodge of the _Nahu´rac_. There were two
buzzards sitting on the bluff, just above this place, and as they sat
there, one of them stretched out his neck and looked up the river, and
after he had looked, he said to the other, "I see a body." Then both
the buzzards flew down to where the boy was floating in the water, and
got down under him, and raised him on their backs, and lifted him up
out of the water, and flew up to the bluff, carrying the boy on their
backs, and placed him on the ground on top of the bluff over the big
cave, which is the home of the _Nahu´rac_. In this lodge were all
kinds of animals, and all kinds of birds. There were bears, and
mountain lions, and buffalo, and elk, and beaver, and otter, and deer;
all kinds of animals, great and small, and all kinds of birds.
There is a little bird, smaller than a pigeon. Its back is blue, and
its breast white, and its head is spotted. It flies swiftly over the
water, and when it sees a fish, it dives down into the water to catch
it. This bird is a servant or a messenger for the _Nahu´rac_. Such a
bird came flying by just as the buzzards put the body on the ground,
and he stopped and looked at it. When he saw how it was--for he knew
all that had happened--he flew down into the lodge and told the
_Nahu´rac_ about the boy. The bird said, "There is a boy up here on
the hill. He is dead, and he is poor, and I want to have him brought
to life again." Then he told the _Nahu´rac_ all the things that had
happened. When the messenger bird had done speaking, the _Nahu´rac_
earnestly counselled together for a long time to decide what should be
done, and each one made a speech, giving his opinion about the matter,
but they could not make up their minds what ought to be done.
The little bird was coaxing the _Nahu´rac_, and saying, "Come, now, we
want to save his life." But the _Nahu´rac_ could not decide. At last
the chief of the _Nahu´rac_ said, "No, messenger, we cannot decide
this here. You will have to go to the other council lodges, and see
what they say about it." The bird said, "I am going," and flew swiftly
out of the lodge and up the river, till he came to the _Nahu´rac_
lodge near the Lone Tree. When he got there, he told them all about
the boy, and said that the council at _Pa-hük´_ could not decide what
should be done. The _Nahu´rac_ here talked, and at last they said, "We
cannot decide. The council at _Pa-hük´_ must decide." Then the bird
went to the lodge on the Loup, and the _Nahu´rac_ there said that they
could not decide Then he went to _Kitz-a-witz-ük_, and to _Pa-hûr´_;
and at each place the _Nahu´rac_ considered and talked about it, and
then said, "We cannot decide what shall be done. The council at
_Pa-hük´_ must decide for themselves."
At last, after he had visited all the council lodges of the
_Nahu´rac_, the bird flew swiftly back to the lodge at _Pa-hük´_, and
told them there what the animals at the other lodges had said. In the
council of the _Nahu´rac_ at _Pa-hük´_, there were four chiefs, who
sat there as judges to determine such matters as this, after they had
all been talked over, and to decide what should be done. When the
messenger bird came back, and told the _Nahu´rac_ what the other
councils had said, these judges considered for a time, and then spoke
together, and at length the chief of the judges said to the bird,
"Now, messenger, we have concluded that we will not decide this
question ourselves. You decide it, and say what shall be done."
The messenger was not long in deciding. He did not hesitate. He said,
"I want this boy brought back to life." Then all the _Nahu´rac_ stood
up, and went to where the boy lay, and stood around him and prayed,
and at last the boy breathed once, and then after a little while he
breathed again, and at last he came to life and sat up. He looked
about and saw all these animals standing around him, and he wondered.
He said to himself, "Why, my father stabbed me, and killed me, and now
here I am among this great crowd of animals. What does this mean?" He
was surprised.
The _Nahu´rac_ all went back into the lodge, and took the boy with
them. When all were seated in the lodge, the four judges talked to
each other, and the chief one stood up, and said, "Now, my people, we
have brought this boy back to life, but he is poor, and we must do
something for him. Let us teach him all we know, and make him one of
us." Then the _Nahu´rac_ all made a noise. They were glad. Then they
began to sing and they danced. They taught the boy all their secrets,
and all their ways. They taught him how to cut a man open and cure him
again, and how to shoot an arrow through a man and then cure him, and
how to cut a man's tongue out and then to put it back, and how to make
well a broken leg, and many other things. After they had done all
these things, they said to the boy, "Now we have brought you back to
life, and have taught you all these things, so that you are one of us.
Now you must stop with us one season. Your people have gone off on the
summer hunt. You must stay with us until the autumn. Then you can go
back to your people." So the boy stayed with the _Nahu´rac_ in their
lodge.
At length the Skidi had returned from the hunt with plenty of dried
meat. Soon after this, the _Nahu´rac_ said one day to the boy, "Your
people have got back from the hunt. Now you can go back to the
village. Go back and get a lot of nice dried meat, and bring it back
to us here, and we will have a feast."
The boy went home to the village. He got there in the night, and went
to his father's lodge, and went in. There was a little fire burning in
the lodge. It was nearly out, and gave only a little light, but he
knew the place where his mother slept. He went up to her, and put out
his hand and touched her, and pushed her a little. She awoke, and sat
up and looked at him, and he said, "I've come back." When she saw him,
and heard him speak, she was very much surprised, and her heart was
glad to see her boy again. She called to his father, and he woke up.
When he saw the boy he was afraid, for he thought it was a ghost. The
boy told them nothing of what had happened, or where he had been. He
just said, "I have come back again."