Several miles from the village, Songbird saw the hunting party coming
toward her, and she dug her heels sharply into Star's side to urge him
faster on the way. Star did not need pushing, for he knew that Quannah
was riding Running Deer. The greeting between the colt and his mother
was as affectionate as that between the father and daughter.
Side by side Star and his mother loped happily, while Songbird chattered
to her father, who looked at her with loving pride as she sat gracefully
on her pony's back, her cheeks pink from the touch of the breeze and her
excitement showing in her dark, glowing eyes.
Back of Quannah and his little daughter rode the warriors, leading
ponies laden with antelope and buffalo meat, while still other ponies
carried rolled buffalo hides.
The meat that had been obtained on the hunt would be cut into thin
strips and dried in the sun. This would preserve it for use without any
danger of its spoiling, and the robes would be tanned and used for many
purposes. No lack of food or warm robes need be feared now, and where
the tepees needed mending it could be done without trouble. The extra
robes would be exchanged by the Quahadas for articles which they might
desire from some other tribe, or even traded for more ponies.
So there was much rejoicing when the hunting party reached the village
an hour later, and preparations were rushed for a great celebration. In
addition to the successful hunt it was time for the Festival of the
Green Corn. This was the Quahada Thanksgiving Day, when they thanked the
Great Spirit for an abundance of maize and other necessities of their
daily lives.
Songbird, turning Star loose, wandered about the camp and watched the
squaws at work. Children ran from their tepees to the place where the
camp fires had been built. Each family had a separate fire for the
celebration, and when everything was ready big bunches of corn were
carried by each to the special family fire, where the squaws roasted the
ears of maize.
While they were doing this the men formed in a large circle about the
fires. The Medicine Man, Karolo, and Quannah, with Gray Beard, Spotted
Leopard, and Big Wolf, were in the centre. The other men who formed the
circle danced around the chiefs, and as they danced they shouted the
Song of the Green Corn. This was accompanied by monotonous music made by
the pounding with dry buffalo bones on skins tightly drawn over hoops of
bent wood.
When the dancing was over, the men all sat down close together, while
Karolo spoke to them and made a prayer of thanksgiving to the Great
Spirit. Each of the chiefs spoke after him. Then Karolo walked around
the circle of little fires and lifting his hands above each heap of
roasted corn, he blessed it.
After he had blessed all the corn, the Quahadas, men, women, and
children, began to eat it, talking and laughing or calling across to one
another as they enjoyed the feast that the Great Spirit had provided and
blessed through Karolo.
The children listened to the talk of their elders as they sat beside the
fires after the feast. There were stories of brave deeds, tales of
mighty hunters, and then all were silent as Moko related the story of
how the buffaloes were sent to the Comanches. Moko was not only the
Picture Maker of the Quahadas, but also the Story Teller. It was
through the Story Teller of the tribe that the younger people knew of
those who had gone to the Happy Hunting Grounds long before the
grandparents of old Moko had been born. And Moko was the oldest living
person among the Quahadas. So all of them, young and old, men and women,
listened respectfully as she spoke.
"So many moons ago it happened, that the Indians cannot count them now,"
she said, poking the ashes with a long stick. "The Sun Spirit, angered
because the Thunder Bird had flown across the sky day after day, made a
trap and caught him. So the Sun held the Thunder Bird captive that it
might not fly across the sky and make shadows with its great black
wings. Because of this there was no rain and the earth grew thirsty.
Then the grass died and the young corn shrivelled away.
"The ponies grew thin and weak, the streams shrank to small threads of
water and many of them became dry sand. The antelopes moved away or died
because there was no grass, and though the Medicine Man planted his
prayer-sticks and begged the Great Spirit to help his children, the
Great Spirit did not listen to his voice.
"Then a young man of the Quahadas, and his wife, knowing that their
people would starve, wandered away together, hand in hand, to seek the
Great Spirit and offer him their own lives for the sake of their people
with whom the Great Spirit was angry.
"For three days before they started neither of them had eaten even a
mouthful of maize, nor had they taken any water, so that there might be
more left for the others who were not so strong as they were.
"Across the desert of hot sand that burned like fire against their bare
feet, they two wandered alone. For many days they found nothing but
heat, thirst, and hunger, and often they lay down on the scorching sand,
too weak to go farther. But when they had rested a few minutes, they
remembered their people, and so they rose wearily and continued their
search for the Great Spirit.
"And one day the Great Spirit, who had been watching them all the time,
appeared before them and said that because he had seen their great love
and pity and knew that their own sufferings had not made them weaken in
their search for him, their prayers would be answered, and the sacrifice
of their lives was not desired by him. He touched the dry sand, and a
stream of clear water ran past their feet, so they fell upon the sand
and thanked the Great Spirit. Then they laid their lips in the cool
ripples, and drank their fill.
"As they arose they saw food before them and many strange beautiful
fruits, which the Great Spirit bade them eat. Then he told them of the
Sun Dance and how the big Sun Lodge must be built, and how the chiefs
and the Medicine Men could vanquish the Spirit of the Sun when it held
the Thunder Bird captive.
"After they had eaten and had thanked the Great Spirit, they promised to
do as he bade them. Then the man and the woman returned rejoicing of
their people and gave the message to them.
"And the Quahadas obeyed the Great Spirit, and made a prisoner of the
Sun, so the Thunder Bird was free. Then it stretched its broad wings and
flew swiftly over the land. The rain fell from the black feather tips
until the land was flooded and the grass leaped up, the flowers
bloomed, the antelopes returned, the ponies of the Quahadas grew fat and
strong and the whole tribe rejoiced because the Great Spirit smiled upon
them and their children.
"One day they saw a great black mass like a thunder cloud sweeping
across the prairie close to the ground. As it drew nearer they saw that
it was not a cloud, but a vast herd of strange, big, black animals, such
as none of them had ever seen before, and of which no one had ever told
them or their forefathers. Then the Quahadas hid their faces, for they
heard the voice of the Great Spirit speaking from the sky.
"Because you have obeyed me, my anger has passed away and I give you
this new food. Kill these buffaloes when you need meat, when you need
clothes, when you need tepees. These are all mine and I give them to
you, my children. You must take only what you need. If you slay them
when you have enough food, clothes, robes, or tepees, I will take all
the buffaloes away, and I will also take from you again the grass and
water."
"So the buffaloes were given to the Indians; and we must never forget
the words of the Great Spirit as he spoke to our forefathers that day,
many, many moons ago. So many moons that none of us can count them now!"
Shaking her white head and muttering to herself, old Moko went to her
tepee, and Songbird, with the other children, sat watching the games
played by the men and women.
Some of the men held arrows, which they tossed while other men threw
their own arrows to try to stop the flight of the first arrow as it went
swiftly past. It required great skill and a keen eye to measure the
flight of the arrow and break it.
Other men, holding netted bats, like tennis rackets, played with a ball
and kept it moving between them for a long time. The players had to keep
the ball from falling to the ground and the rule was that if any man
touched the ball with his hand, he must leave the game and pay a fine.
The younger men wrestled in pairs, each one striving to throw the other
to the ground and hold him down until Big Wolf, Spotted Leopard, or Gray
Beard had decided which one was the winner.
Little Songbird, sitting among the other children, cracked nuts between
stones, and with a sharp, stout cactus thorn picked out the meats and
ate them, until at last, too tired to keep her eyes open any longer, she
curled herself on a buffalo robe and went to sleep.
So soundly she slept that she did not awaken, even when her father found
her and carried her to their tepee home.