Once a camp of people stopped on the bank of a river. There were but a few
lodges of them. One day the little children in the camp crossed the river
to play on the other side. For some time they stayed near the bank, and
then they went up over a little hill, and found a bed of sand and gravel;
and there they played for a long time.
There were eleven of these children. Two of them were daughters of the
chief of the camp, and the smaller of these wanted the best of
everything. If any child found a pretty stone, she would try to take it for
herself. The other children did not like this, and they began to tease the
little girl, and to take her things away from her. Then she got angry and
began to cry, and the more she cried, the more the children teased her; so
at last she and her sister left the others, and went back to the camp.
When they got there, they told their father what the other children had
done to them, and this made the chief very angry. He thought for a little
while, and then got up and went out of the lodge, and called aloud, so that
everybody might hear, saying: "Listen! listen! Your children have teased my
child and made her cry. Now we will move away, and leave them behind. If
they come back before we get started, they shall be killed. If they follow
us and overtake the camp, they shall be killed. If the father and mother of
any one of them take them into their lodge, I will kill that father and
mother. Hurry now, hurry and pack up, so that we can go. Everybody tear
down the lodges, as quickly as you can."
When the people heard this, they felt very sorry, but they had to do as the
chief said; so they tore down the lodges, and quickly packed the dog
travois, and started off. They packed in such a hurry that they left many
little things lying in camp,--knives and awls, bone needles and moccasins.
The little children played about in the sand for a long time, but at last
they began to get hungry; and one little girl said to the others, "I will
go back to the camp, and get some dried meat and bring it here, so that we
may eat." And she started to go to the camp. When she came to the top of
the hill and looked across the river, she saw that there were no lodges
there, and did not know what to think of it. She called down to the
children, and said, "The camp has gone"; but they did not believe her, and
went on playing. She kept on calling, and at last some of them came to her,
and then all, and saw that it was as she had said. They went down to the
river, and crossed it, and went to where the lodges had stood. When they
got there, they saw on the ground the things that had been left out in
packing; and as each child saw and knew something that had belonged to its
own parents, it cried and sang a little song, saying: "Mother, here is your
bone needle; why did you leave your children?" "Father, here is your arrow;
why did you leave your children?" It was very mournful, and they all cried.
There was among them a little girl who had on her back her baby brother,
whom she loved dearly. He was very young, a nursing child, and already he
was hungry and beginning to fret. This little girl said to the others: "We
do not know why they have gone, but we know they have gone. We must follow
the trail of the camp, and try to catch up with them." So the children
started to follow the camp. They travelled on all day; and just at night
they saw, near the trail, a little lodge. They had heard the people talk of
a bad old woman who killed and ate persons, and some of the children
thought that this old woman might live here; and they were afraid to go to
the lodge. Others said: "Perhaps some person lives here who has a good
heart. We are very tired and very hungry and have nothing to eat and no
place to keep warm. Let us go to this lodge."
They went to it; and when they went in, they saw sitting by the fire an old
woman. She spoke kindly to them, and asked them where they were travelling;
and they told her that the camp had moved on and left them, and that they
were trying to find their people, that they had nothing to eat, and were
tired and hungry. The old woman fed them, and told them to sleep here
to-night, and to-morrow they could go on and find their people. "The camp,"
she said, "passed here to-day when the sun was low. They have not gone
far. To-morrow you will overtake them." She spread some robes on the ground
and said: "Now lie here and sleep. Lie side by side with your heads toward
the fire, and when morning comes, you can go on your journey." The
children lay down and soon slept.
In the middle of the night, the old woman got up, and built a big fire, and
put on it a big stone kettle, full of water. Then she took a big knife,
and, commencing at one end of the row, began to cut off the heads of the
children, and to throw them into the pot. The little girl with the baby
brother lay at the other end of the row, and while the old woman was doing
this, she awoke and saw what was taking place. When the old woman came near
to her, she jumped up and began to beg that she would not kill her. "I am
strong," she said. "I will work hard for you. I can bring your wood and
water, and tan your skins. Do not kill my little brother and me. Take pity
on us and save us alive. Everybody has left us, but do you have pity. You
shall see how quickly I will work, how you will always have plenty of
wood. I can work quickly and well." The old woman thought for a little
while, then she said: "Well, I will let you live for a time, anyhow. You
shall sleep safely to-night."
The next day, early, the little girl took her brother on her back, and went
out and gathered a big pile of wood, and brought it to the lodge before the
old woman was awake. When she got up, she called to the girl, "Go to the
river and get a bucket of water." The girl put her brother on her back, and
took the bucket to go. The old woman said to her: "Why do you carry that
child everywhere? Leave him here." The girl said: "Not so. He is always
with me, and if I leave him he will cry and make a great noise, and you
will not like that." The old woman grumbled, but the girl went on down to
the river.
When she got there, just as she was going to fill her bucket, she saw
standing by her a great bull. It was a mountain buffalo, one of those who
live in the timber; and the long hair of its head was all full of pine
needles and sticks and branches, and matted together. (It was a
_Su'ye-st[)u]'mik_, a water bull.) When the girl saw him, she prayed him to
take her across the river, and so to save her and her little brother from
the bad old woman. The bull said, "I will take you across, but first you
must take some of the sticks out of my head." The girl begged him to start
at once; but the bull said, "No, first take the sticks out of my head." The
girl began to do it, but before she had done much, she heard the old woman
calling to her to bring the water. The girl called back, "I am trying to
get the water clear," and went on fixing the buffalo's head. The old woman
called again, saying, "Hurry, hurry with that water." The girl answered,
"Wait, I am washing my little brother." Pretty soon the old woman called
out, "If you don't bring that water, I will kill you and your brother." By
this time the girl had most of the sticks out of the bull's head, and he
told her to get on his back, and went into the water and swam with her
across the river. As he reached the other bank, the girl could see the old
woman coming from her lodge down to the river with a big stick in her hand.
When the bull reached the bank, the girl jumped off his back and started
off on the trail of the camp. The bull swam back again to the other side of
the river, and there stood the old woman. This bull was a sort of servant
of the old woman. She said to him: "Why did you take those children across
the river? Take me on your back now and carry me across quickly, so that I
can catch them." The bull said, "First take these sticks out of my head."
"No," said the old woman; "first take me across, then I will take the
sticks out." The bull repeated, "First take the sticks out of my head, then
I will take you across." This made the old woman very mad, and she hit him
with the stick she had in her hand; but when she saw that he would not go,
she began to pull the sticks out of his head very roughly, tearing out
great handfuls of hair, and every moment ordering him to go, and
threatening what she would do to him when she got back. At last the bull
took her on his back, and began to swim across with her, but he did not
swim fast enough to please her, so she began to pound him with her club to
make him go faster; and when the bull got to the middle of the river, he
rolled over on his side, and the old woman slipped off, and was carried
down the river and drowned.
The girl followed the trail of the camp for several days, feeding on
berries and roots that she dug; and at last one night after dark she
overtook the camp. She went into the lodge of an old woman, who was camped
off at one side, and the old woman pitied her and gave her some food, and
told her where her father's lodge was. The girl went to it, but when she
went in, her parents would not receive her. She had tried to overtake them
for the sake of her little brother, who was growing thin and weak because
he had not nursed; and now her mother was afraid to have her stay with
them. She even went and told the chief that her children had come back. Now
when the chief heard that these two children had come back, he was angry;
and he ordered that the next day they should be tied to a post in the camp,
and that the people should move on and leave them here. "Then," he said,
"they cannot follow us."
The old woman who had pitied the children, when she heard what the chief
had ordered, made up a bundle of dried meat, and hid it in the grass near
the camp. Then she called her dog to her,--a little curly dog. She said to
the dog:--
"Now listen. To-morrow when we are ready to start, I will call you to come
to me, but you must pay no attention to what I say. Run off, and pretend to
be chasing squirrels. I will try to catch you, and if I do so, I will
pretend to whip you; but do not follow me. Stay behind, and when the camp
has passed out of sight, chew off the strings that bind those children; and
when you have done this, show them where I have hidden that food. Then you
can follow the camp and catch up to us." The dog stood before the old
woman, and listened to all that she said, turning his head from side to
side, as if paying close attention.
Next morning it was done as the chief had said. The children were tied to
the tree with raw hide strings, and the people tore down all the lodges and
moved off. The old woman called her dog to follow her, but he was digging
at a gopher hole and would not come. Then she went up to him and struck at
him hard with her whip, but he dodged and ran away, and then stood looking
at her. Then the old woman got very mad and cursed him, but he paid no
attention; and finally she left him, and followed the camp. When the
people had all passed out of sight, the dog went to the children, and
gnawed the strings which tied them, until he had bitten them through. So
the children were free.
Then the dog was glad, and danced about and barked and ran round and
round. Pretty soon he came up to the little girl, and looked up in her
face, and then started away, trotting. Every little while he would stop
and look back. The girl thought he wanted her to follow him. She did so,
and he took her to where the bundle of dried meat was, and showed it to
her. Then, when he had done this, he jumped up on her, and licked the
baby's face, and then started off, running as hard as he could along the
trail of the camp, never stopping to look back. The girl did not follow
him. She now knew that it was no use to go to the camp again. Their
parents would not receive them, and the chief would perhaps order them to
be killed.
She went on her way, carrying her little brother and the bundle of dried
meat. She travelled for many days, and at last came to a place where she
thought she would stop. Here she built a little lodge of poles and brush,
and stayed there. One night she had a dream, and an old woman came to her
in the dream, and said to her, "To-morrow take your little brother, and tie
him to one of the lodge poles, and the next day tie him to another, and so
every day tie him to one of the poles, until you have gone all around the
lodge and have tied him to each pole. Then you will be helped, and will no
more have bad luck."
When the girl awoke in the morning, she remembered what the dream had told
her, and she bound her little brother to one of the lodge poles; and each
day after this she tied him to one of the poles. Each day he grew larger,
until, when she had gone all around the lodge, he was grown to be a fine
young man.
Now the girl was glad, and proud of her young brother who was so large and
noble-looking. He was quiet, not speaking much, and sometimes for days he
would not say anything. He seemed to be thinking all the time. One morning
he told the girl that he had a dream and that he wished her to help him
build a pis'kun. She was afraid to ask him about the dream, for she thought
if she asked questions he might not like it. So she just said she was ready
to do what he wished. They built the pis'kun, and when it was finished, the
boy said to his sister: "The buffalo are to come to us, and you are not to
see them. When the time comes, you are to cover your head and to hold your
face close to the ground; and do not lift your head nor look, until I throw
a piece of kidney to you." The girl said, "It shall be as you say."
When the time came, the boy told her where to go; and she went to the
place, a little way from the lodge, not far from the corral, and sat down
on the ground, and covered her head, holding her face close to the
earth. After she had sat there a little while, she heard the sound of
animals running, and she was excited and curious, and raised her head to
look; but all she saw was her brother, standing near, looking at
her. Before he could speak, she said to him: "I thought I heard buffalo
coming, and because I was anxious for food, I forgot my promise and
looked. Forgive me this time, and I will try again." Again she bent her
face to the ground, and covered her head.
Soon she heard again the sound of animals running, at first a long way off,
and then coming nearer and nearer, until at last they seemed close, and she
thought they were going to run over her. She sprang up in fright and looked
about, but there was nothing to be seen but her brother, looking sadly at
her. She went close to him and said: "Pity me. I was afraid, for I thought
the buffalo were going to run over me." He said: "This is the last time. If
again you look, we will starve; but if you do not look, we will always have
plenty, and will never be without meat." The girl looked at him, and said,
"I will try hard this time, and even if those animals run right over me, I
will not look until you throw the kidney to me." Again she covered her
head, pressing her face against the earth and putting her hands against her
ears, so that she might not hear. Suddenly, sooner than she thought, she
felt the blow from the meat thrown at her, and, springing up, she seized
the kidney and began to eat it. Not far away was her brother, bending over
a fat cow; and, going up to him, she helped him with the butchering. After
that was done, she kindled a fire and cooked the best parts of the meat,
and they ate and were satisfied.
The boy became a great hunter. He made fine arrows that went faster than a
bird could fly, and when he was hunting, he watched all the animals and all
the birds, and learned their ways, and how to imitate them when they
called. While he was hunting, the girl dressed buffalo hides and the skins
of deer and other animals. She made a fine new lodge, and the boy painted
it with figures of all the birds and the animals he had killed.
One day, when the girl was bringing water, she saw a little way off a
person coming. When she went in the lodge, she told her brother, and he
went out to meet the stranger. He found that he was friendly and was
hunting, but had had bad luck and killed nothing. He was starving and in
despair, when he saw this lone lodge and made up his mind to go to it. As
he came near it, he began to be afraid, and to wonder if the people who
lived there were enemies or ghosts; but he thought, "I may as well die here
as starve," so he went boldly to it. The strange person was very much
surprised to see this handsome young man with the kind face, who could
speak his own language. The boy took him into the lodge, and the girl put
food before him. After he had eaten, he told his story, saying that the
game had left them, and that many of his people were dying of hunger. As
he talked, the girl listened; and at last she remembered the man, and knew
that he belonged to her camp. She asked him questions, and he talked about
all the people in the camp, and even spoke of the old woman who owned the
dog. The boy advised the stranger, after he had rested, to return to his
camp, and tell the people to move up to this place, that here they would
find plenty of game. After he had gone, the boy and his sister talked of
these things. The girl had often told him what she had suffered, what the
chief had said and done, and how their own parents had turned against her,
and that the only person whose heart had been good to her was this old
woman. As the young man heard all this again, he was angry at his parents
and the chief, but he felt great kindness for the old woman and her
dog. When he learned that those bad people were living, he made up his mind
that they should suffer and die.
When the strange person reached his own camp, he told the people how well
he had been treated by these two persons, and that they wished him to bring
the whole camp to where they were, and that there they should have plenty.
This made great joy in the camp, and all got ready to move. When they
reached the lost children's camp, they found everything as the stranger had
said. The brother gave a feast; and to those whom he liked he gave many
presents, but to the old woman and the dog he gave the best presents of
all. To the chief nothing at all was given, and this made him very much
ashamed. To the parents no food was given, but the boy tied a bone to the
lodge poles above the fire, and told the parents to eat from it without
touching it with their hands. They were very hungry, and tried to eat from
this bone; and as they were stretching out their necks to reach it--for it
was above them--the boy cut off their heads with his knife. This frightened
all the people, the chief most of all; but the boy told them how it all
was, and how he and his sister had survived.
When he had finished speaking, the chief said he was sorry for what he had
done, and he proposed to his people that this young man should be made
their chief. They were glad to do this. The boy was made the chief, and
lived long to rule the people in that camp.