back, and to see him, and they stood around looking at him, and asking
him questions, but he said nothing. The next day the people still
questioned him, and at last the boy said, "I have been all summer with
friends, with people who have been good to me. I should like to take
them a present of some nice dried meat, so that we can have a feast."
The people said that this was good. They picked out four strong
horses, and loaded them with dried meat, the nicest pieces. The boy's
father gave some of it, and all the other people brought pieces and
put them on the horses, until they had big loads. They sent two young
men with the boy, to help him load and drive the horses, and they
started to go to the _Nahu´rac_ lodge at _Pa-hük´_.
When they had come pretty near the place, the boy sent the young men
back to the village, and he went on alone, driving the pack-horses
before him. When he reached the home of the _Nahu´rac_, he unloaded
the horses, and turned them loose, and then went into the lodge. When
he went in, and when the _Nahu´rac_ saw him, they all made a hissing
noise. They were glad to see him. The boy brought into the lodge all
the dried meat, and they had a great feast. After the feast they had a
doctors' dance, and the boy was made a doctor, and again was taught
all that the _Nahu´rac_ knew. After that he could do many wonderful
things. He could sometimes go to a man that had been dead for a day,
and then bring him back to life.
No one ever knew what the father had done, for the boy never told any
one. He knew that he could never have learned all these wonderful
things unless his father had sacrificed him.
[Illustration: FLESHERS.]
THE SNAKE BROTHER.
One time, long ago, a big party of Pawnees went on the warpath down to
the south. They could find no enemies anywhere, and they went a long
way south. In this party were two brothers, poor boys, and one day as
they were traveling along, apart from the others, in a piece of woods
where it was very thick, they got lost. When they found that they were
lost, they tried to go back to the camp, but they could not find the
others, and at last gave up looking for them and started to go back
north to their home. They had no food with them, and were looking
about for something to kill, so that they might eat. As they were
going along, they came upon a dead buffalo that had been killed some
time, and there was nothing of it left but the bones, so they took
some of the marrow bones, and carried them along with them, until they
made a camp.
Not far beyond here they stopped to rest. There was a tree growing
near where they stopped, and as they looked up into it, they saw a
squirrel run up the tree. One of the brothers caught up his bow and
arrows, and the other said, "Oh, kill him, kill him, quick." The boy
shot and killed it, and they skinned it, and roasted it over the fire.
While they were cooking it the elder brother said, "I wonder if it is
good to eat the marrow and the squirrel together." The younger said,
"No, it is not good to do so. This is not real meat."[10] The elder
thought the two kinds of food would be good together, and they
disputed about this for some time. The elder brother kept coaxing the
younger to eat the squirrel and the marrow together, but the younger
said, "Oh, brother, I do not like to do this. To me it does not seem
good. But if you wish to do it, why don't you?" The elder said, "I
think I will do so;" and he did so, taking a bite of squirrel, and
then a bite of marrow. He said, "It is nice, you had better take
some." But the younger brother would not. He ate only the marrow.
After they had eaten they did not go on further, but slept there.
[10] Like buffalo meat, or elk or deer.
About the middle of the night, the elder brother felt a noise in his
feet, and he sat up and felt of his legs and feet, and he found that
his feet were stuck together, and were beginning to get round, like a
snake, and had a rattle on the end of them, and that his legs were
round and like the tail of a great big rattlesnake. He reached over,
and put his hands on his brother, and shook him, and said to him, "Get
up. There is something the matter with me." The younger brother woke
up, and felt of his brother, and found how it was; as if he was
changing into a snake, beginning at his feet. When he saw this he felt
very badly. Then the older brother began to talk to the younger, and
to give him good advice, for he felt very sad.
He said, "Now I am going to die, and leave my young brother here alone
on this prairie. He is so young, he will not be able to find his way
home, and he must die, too. Surely this has happened because I ate the
marrow and the squirrel together." While he was talking, the change
had moved up to his waist.
After a little while he got more hopeful, and he said, "Now, brother,
I know that you will get home safely. I will protect you. I know that
I am going to be a snake, and I shall stay right here. You see that
hole," and he pointed to a hole in the bank. "When I have changed
into a snake, take me in your arms, and carry me over to that hole. I
am going to stay there forever. That will be my home, for that is the
house of the snakes. When you go back home, you must tell our father
and mother how it was, and whenever you want to go on the warpath,
take a big party and come down this way, and come right here, to this
very place, and you will see me, for I shall be here. Now, brother,
when you go back home, some time after you have reached home, I want
you to come back all alone; come right here. You know what I told you;
do not be afraid of me. I believe this was to happen to me, and I
could not help it. After you have once come all alone, then the second
time you may bring some others with you, but the first time come
alone." So he talked to his brother, and as he spoke the change kept
going on. While it was moving up his body, until it got to his head,
he was still like a man in his mind, but all his body was like a great
big snake. Then he spoke to his brother, and said, "Now, brother,
cover up my head with the robe, and after a little while take it off
again." The younger brother, did as he was told, and when, after a
while, he took the robe off, there he saw an immense snake's head as
broad as his two hands. The elder brother had completely changed into
a snake.
The young man took the snake in his arms, and carried him over to the
hole, and put him on the ground by it. He felt very sad to go away and
leave his brother here. Before he started, he spoke good words to the
snake, and said, "Now, brother, I am going home, and I ask you to take
pity on me, and to protect me. I do not know the country I am going
through, and you must take care of me. Do not forget the promises you
have made me." After he had spoken he did not wait to see the snake go
into the hole, but started on his journey, and went off toward his
home.
When he reached the village, he told all these things to his father
and his mother. He said to all his relations, "Do not mourn for him.
He is alive and he is well. The only trouble is, that he is in the
shape of a snake." After he had been home ten days, he told his mother
to make for him five pairs of moccasins, that he was going on the
warpath for himself. His mother did so, and he stuffed them full of
parched corn, and took a little sack of pounded buffalo meat on his
back, and started back to see his brother.
It took him seven days fast traveling to get to where he left the
snake. When he had come near the place, he saw there the hole where he
had left his brother. He went up close to the hole and began to speak.
He said, "Brother, I am here. I have come on the warpath, and I am
here to see you. You told me to come, and to come alone. I have done
what you bade me, and am here. Now, brother, remember to keep your
promises. I want to see you this afternoon."
He stood there a little while, and then there began in the hole a
rattling and a rustling and scraping noise, and presently dust began
to roll out, and then out of the hole came this great big snake, which
was his brother. First came out this great snake, and after him many
other large ones came out, and crept all about, but the great snake,
his brother, lay just outside the hole. The boy went up to the big
snake and took it in his arms, and hugged it, and spoke to it, and the
snake put out its tongue, as if it were kissing him. Then the boy put
it down on the ground, and all the other snakes came back, and went in
the hole, and after them all, last, the big snake went in the hole.
Then the boy left this place, and went on a little further, and about
sunset he came to a little creek, and here he lay down and slept. In
the night he dreamed of his brother, who spoke to him and said, "Now,
brother, I am glad that you have come down to see me, as I told you
to. And now I say to you, be brave. Have courage. To-morrow morning
when you awake, dress yourself up as if you were going to fight. Paint
your face, put feathers in your head, make yourself ready to fight."
The next morning the boy woke up, and as the snake had told him in the
dream, so he did. He painted his face and tied feathers in his head,
and dressed himself up for the fight. Then he started on. Pretty soon
he came to a little hill, and as he looked over it, he saw people
coming toward him; people and many horses. He thought they were Sioux,
and when he saw them, he went back a little, to find a place where he
could hide. He went back to the little creek where he had slept, and
there he sat down in the brush. When he had hidden himself in the
brush, he waited; and the people came straight toward where he had
hidden himself, and camped just below where he was. After a little
while he raised himself up and looked at them, and saw only two
persons, and presently he saw that one of them was a woman. He
watched for a long time, looking about to see if there were any more,
but he could see only these two. Then he considered what he should do.
While he was thinking, it came to him what the snake brother had said
to him in the night, and then he knew what to do.
He crept slowly along through the brush toward their camp, and when he
got close to them, about twenty yards distant, he raised up his head
and looked. He saw the woman cooking, and there were hanging on a
little tree the man's bow and arrows and shield and spear, but the man
he could not see. He was lying down asleep somewhere near by. The boy
waited and watched. He was excited, and his heart was pounding against
his ribs. After a little while, the woman left the fire and walked
away toward the horses. Perhaps her husband had said to her, "The
horses are going off, you had better go and turn them back." When she
went toward the horses, the boy was going to run up to the man and
kill him, but before doing so he changed his mind; for he thought, "If
I kill him, perhaps the woman will get on a horse, and ride away,
driving the other horses with her." So he waited until the woman had
come back. When she had returned to the fire, he ran up toward her,
and she heard him coming, and ran to wake her husband; but just as she
got to him, the boy was by her side. He shot two arrows into the man
and killed him and counted _coup_ on him, and captured the woman. He
took the whole scalp of his enemy's head.
Then he took the woman and went down to where the horses were, and
they got on two of them, and rode back to where his brother, the
snake, lived, driving the horses before them. Just before they got to
the hole, the boy took his lariat and caught a nice spotted horse and
a mule, and tied them up to the tree, and called up the woman, and
tied her up against the tree as tight as he could tie her. When he had
done this, he went up to the hole and began to talk. He said, "Oh, my
brother, I see now that what you have promised me comes true. I did
what you told me. Now here are these two animals and the woman; I give
them to you for being good to me. They are yours. I am glad for what
you have done for me this day." When he had finished saying this he
spoke again, saying, "Now, brother, I want to see you once more. I am
going off, and I want to see you before I go." After a little while he
heard again the rattling sound in the hole, and saw the dust coming
out of it, and then his brother came out of the hole, and then
afterward the smaller snakes; and these all went down to the tree and
climbed up into it. The tree was thick with them. Then the boy did as
he had done before. He went close to the hole, and took his brother up
in his arms and hugged him, and the great snake thrust out his tongue,
as if kissing him. Then the boy spoke again and said, "Now, brother, I
am going away, and I give you these two animals and this woman to
keep. They are yours." Then he started for his home, and after a long
time he arrived at the village.
After a time, he determined to start off again on the warpath, and
this time he took a party with him. He had told the whole tribe what
had happened, and how his brother had protected and helped him; and he
said to those warriors who were going with him, "Let each one of you
take a present with you for my brother; some beads or eagle feathers
or some tobacco as an offering, so that he may help you." They started
south to go to the place where his brother lived. When they got there,
the young man said to the others, "Now you must, each one of you, give
something to my brother. Call him by his kin name, and ask him to help
you, and to make you successful; and leave the things before the
hole." They did as he said, and when they had made their presents,
they went by. They saw nothing, for the brother did not call out the
great snake.
Two or three days after they had passed the place, they found a camp
of Sioux, and took a lot of horses and killed some of the enemy. Then
they went back, and when they came to the snake's home, they took a
horse and led it up near the hole and killed it, and gave it to him,
and left the scalps at the mouth of the hole as presents to him. When
they reached the village, there was great joy and a good time. They
had all kinds of dances, for they were glad that the war party had
killed some Sioux.
After that another war party started out, and the brother said to
them, "Go straight to my brother, and make him a present, and ask him
to give you good luck, and you will be successful." And it happened as
he had said.
The brother was always fortunate in war. He became a chief and was
very rich, having many horses. Ever after that time, when he took the
lead of a war party, all the poor men would come and say, "I want to
go with you." They knew that his brother was a snake, and would give
him good luck.
O´RE-KA-RAHR.
A long time ago, as the tribe were on their summer hunt, a man and his
wife got to quarreling. They had a child, a boy about ten months old.
It was while they were traveling along, going from one camp to
another, that they began to quarrel. At length the wife became very
angry, and threw the baby to the man, saying, "You take that baby. It
belongs to you, for it is a man child. I am not going to nurse it for
you any longer." Then she went away.
The man took the child and carried it along with him. He felt very
badly, both on his own account and on account of his child. He was so
unhappy that he almost wanted to kill himself. He was so poor-minded
because it was a disgrace that he, being a man, should be obliged to
take care of his child until it was grown up, and he had no female
relatives to whom he could turn it over to be reared. So he was very
unhappy, and determined to leave the tribe and wander off alone, far
from his people.
He did so. He carried the child on his back, as a woman does. When it
cried for its mother's milk, he had none to give it. He could only cry
with it. He hated to kill the child, or to leave it behind to die on
the prairie. He wandered off to the south. He traveled on for a time,
until he came near to where the buffalo were. By this time, the child
had changed from a very fat baby to a very thin one, because it had
not been nursed. When he got to the buffalo, he killed a cow, and took
its udder, and while it was fresh he let the child suck it, until it
became sour. Then he killed another cow, and did the same thing. In
every way he did the best he could to nourish the child. Sometimes he
would get a slice of meat, and half cook it, and let the child suck
the juice. The child began to improve, and to get a little stronger.
In this way he supported it for quite a long time, and it did pretty
well, and at last it got used to this food, and became strong and
well. By this time he had gone a long way.
At length he found that the child could sit up alone. Then he began
to give it all sorts of playthings, so that it could amuse itself.
First he made for it a little bow and some arrows, and taught it how
to use them. He made other things for the child to play with, and at
last it got to be contented playing alone. Then the father would leave
the child for a few minutes, and go off a little way, perhaps to the
top of a hill near by, to look off over the country, but he would look
back at the child every few steps to see that it was all right. When
he would come back he would find the child safe, playing, well
contented. After a while he got so that he would leave it for about an
hour, and when he came back, find it safe and contented, playing. By
this time the child had begun to walk. Finally the father went off
once for half a day, and when he came back, he found the child playing
about safe. It did not seem to mind much about the father being
absent. About this time he killed a buffalo cow, and made some dried
meat, and put it in a certain place, and told the child when it was
hungry to go there and get a a piece.
He now went off and was gone a whole day, and when he came back at
night the child was safe. Finally he made his preparations and went
off to stay over night, and be gone two days. He did so, and when he
came back, the boy was asleep. A second time he went away and was
absent for two days, going quite a long distance. When he came back he
found that the child was painted with white clay. The father thought
this was strange. He said to himself, "Something must have come and
talked to my child, and is taking care of him while I am gone."
When he came back the third time after a two days' journey, he found
that the child had about his neck a string of _pa´hut_.[11] The fourth
long journey he took lasted three days, and when he returned, he found
his boy still wearing this same string of beads, and with a feather
tied in his head. Now his father knew that something was looking after
his child while he was away, and when he went off, he would pray for
the child. He would say, "_No´-a_, whatever it is that is taking pity
on my child, also take pity on me."
[11] Wild currants strung like beads.
The child had now grown so large that it could talk with him, and one
day it said, "Father, you go away, and you be gone for four days; I
will be all right here. When you come back you will find me safe."
The man went. He started to go way down south, to be gone for four
days. After he had been gone two days and two nights, he saw a signal
smoke and went toward it. As he raised up his head and peeped over a
hill before crossing it, he saw, far off, a lot of people and horses
coming toward the river which lay between him and them. He lay on the
hill a long time, watching to see where they would camp. When they had
made camp, he went into a ravine, and crept down close to the camp,
until he could see that it was just one lodge, and that about it were
a whole herd of horses. He waited until evening, and then went over to
the lodge. It was after dark when he went. The lodge was all
surrounded by horses; everywhere nothing but horses, there were so
many. He crept close to the lodge, and looked in through an opening by
the door, and saw lying down opposite the door a great big man, and on
either side a woman; only three persons in all. As he looked at these
persons, he thought he recognized one of the women. He kept looking at
her, and at last he remembered who she was, and that she had been
captured long ago from the Pawnees. Her people were still living. The
man was a Comanche.
While the Pawnee was watching, the man inside the lodge asked for
something, and the captive woman stood up to go out of the lodge, and
the Pawnee stepped to one side, out of sight. The woman came out into
the darkness, and went out among the horses. The Pawnee stepped up
behind her very softly, and put his hand on her shoulder, and said to
her in Pawnee, "Friend, do you belong to my tribe?" The woman started
to scream, but he put his hand on her mouth, and said to her, "Be
quiet. Keep still. Do not call out." She answered him, "Yes, I belong
to your tribe." Then she said in a very low voice that shook, for she
was afraid, "Do you belong to my tribe?" The man said, "Yes." Then he
asked her, "Who is that other woman that I see in the lodge?" She
answered him, "She also belongs to our tribe, and is a prisoner." Then
the man said, "You just wait and keep still. I am going to kill that
man." The woman said, "That is good. That is good. This man is the
biggest man of all the Comanches. He has come first to this place, and
all the rest of the Comanches are coming here to meet him. I am glad
that my people are living, and that I am going back to see them once
more. Do not fail to kill him. I will tell the other woman to be
ready, that our friend is here, and we will wait and watch."
When the woman went into the lodge, she whispered to the other woman,
and said, "Be ready. A friend who belongs to our tribe is here. Take
your hatchet, and be prepared to help to kill our husband."
The two women waited, and the Pawnee made ready to shoot the Comanche
with his bow and arrow. The woman had said to him, "Push aside the
door a little and be ready." He made a little bit of an opening by the
door, just big enough to let an arrow pass through, and when the time
came he let it go. _U´-ra-rîsh!_ the arrow flew straight, and pierced
the Comanche through the heart. So he died, and the Pawnee counted
_coup_ on him and took his scalp.
The women felt so glad to meet a friend that they put their arms
around the man and patted him. They were going back home to see their
relations. They asked him, "How many of you are here?" He answered, "I
am alone." They were surprised.
They took down the lodge, and packed everything on the horses, and
drove off the herd, leaving the dead body of the enemy in the camp.
All night they traveled, and all the next day; and as they were
going, he told them how it came about that he was alone. They told him
that there were about three hundred head of horses in the herd that
they had with them. When they had come pretty close to where he had
left the child, he told them about the boy being there all alone; and
the women just ran their horses to get to the boy; whichever got there
first, he should be hers. When they came to the boy, they took him in
their arms and petted him, and took him as their own.
Now the father was no longer sad. He had recovered two captured women,
had killed his enemy, and had taken a lot of horses.
They went on, and traveled far, and at length, one night, they came to
the Pawnee tribe, and camped with them. The horses just surrounded the
lodge, you could just see the top of it over their backs. The next
morning all the people wondered who these strangers could be. They
found out that the man and child, who were lost, had returned, and
with them two women, captured long ago by the Comanches. So there was
great joy in the tribe. Then the man gave his relations many horses.
In those days the Pawnees had not many horses, and it seems that this
man brought good luck in horses to the tribe. Ever since that time
they have had many horses. The mother of the child came to see it, she
was so glad it was alive, but she was whipped out of the lodge.
The child grew to be a man, and was wealthy. After he had grown up, he
told his father that ever since he could remember anything, a buck
deer had talked to him, and taken care of him; that it had saved them,
and brought them good fortune. In order that the _O´re-ka-rahr_ might
be remembered, he established a dance, called the deer dance, which
has been kept up to this day.
Many wonderful things happened to this same young man. Once he went on
a war party against the Cheyennes, and stole some horses from them.
The Cheyennes followed and overtook them, and they had a great fight.
The first man killed was this young man. He was very brave, and the
Cheyennes cut him up into small pieces, but that night it lightened
and thundered and rained, and soon after the storm was over, the young
man came walking into camp alive. He was all scarred over, where he
had been cut up, but he had come to life because the deer had looked
after him. He lived long to show the scars of the battles he had been
through.
THE GHOST BRIDE.