hush of the creek bottom yonder proclaimed a family fuel shortage
belatedly acknowledged. Not only was the son-in-law up and doing with
the blanketed sun; but the old man himself, bent to the horizontal from
the hips, his thin hair whiter than the snow, his sharp face frosted
with his breath, plied an ax among the gnarled remainders of the
woodpile.
“_Lela oosni!_” he remarked, smiling brightly up at me and panting.
“You see I can get my own wood.” Yielding the ax to me with some
reluctance, he shuffled towards the tepee, apparently unaware of the
ragged moccasins that gave no protection to his heels and toes against
the searing snow.
When the fire was going merrily and the tepee was snug with heat, I
said: “Grandfather, I have brought you a present.” With something
boyish shining in his face, he made a high prolonged nasal sound of
pleasure and surprise as he watched me unwrap the sheepskin slippers I
had brought him; and when he held them in his hands, he giggled like
a youngster. The business of getting the slippers on the old man’s
feet became something like a catch-as-catch-can wrestling match, for
in choosing the size, I had not allowed for the cozy fur inside. He
lay in his bed chuckling while I held a long skinny leg under my arm
and wrestled with the foot. When the business was finished, he sat up,
placed an arm about my shoulder, and pulled me close. Then, as though
he were making an announcement to the universe in general, he said:
“This is my grandson! _Dho!_ This is my grandson!”
When we had smoked awhile in silence, I asked: “And did the story of
the two boys make you hungry?”
“_Dho_,” he said, regarding me with the crinkled, quizzical look; “but
the meat is not the same. It has no strength in it.” He meditated
awhile, gazing at the ground. Then his face brightened. “That was the
time when High Horse and I killed our first bison bull,” he began,
catching up the loose thread of yesterday’s narrative; “Also a young
cow--fat--tender--strong meat to make a man of a boy. Thirteen winters
made a man those days. It must have been the meat.
“We had plenty of bull-hides to make the _watah_ [boats] we needed
for crossing Mini Shoshay [the Missouri]. Also there were willows in
plenty for making the frames. We tied these together with green rawhide
thongs, and over the frames we stretched the green bull-skins tight,
sewing them with strips of hide. Then we hung them up to dry in the
wind and sun; and while they dried and shrank tight we rested and
feasted three more days. _Washtay!_ Good boats! Kick them--they sound
like big drums! Float high in the water! _Washtay!_
“We put all our belongings in the boats and most of us swam, pulling
them with rawhide thongs that we held in our teeth. The ponies did not
give us any trouble after we got the first ones into the water; and
some of us swam with our horses, so that we could catch the others when
we got across.
“Our scouts had gone out while we were making boats, and they came back
to our first camp beyond Mini Shoshay. They had been watching a big war
party of Flatheads, Nez Percé and Absoraka [Crows] not far away, and
they said we must attack as soon as we could that day and not wait for
night, because the bands had not yet made camp together and were still
coming up. If we waited, there would be too many for us. This was in
the morning, and the sun was about straight up when we made the attack.
There was a big butte close by, something like Bear Butte near Pa Sapa
[the Black Hills], and we sneaked around that until we were close
enough to charge. I think they did not know we were in the country,
and it was a big surprise. Women were putting up tepees, children were
playing anywhere, and the men were scattered around, not thinking of
trouble because it was the middle of the day, and the ponies were
grazing without guards. It was not much. There was no fight. We did not
kill one man or count a coup. We just charged in there, waving blankets
and yelling, and it was funny to see the people running here and
running there all mixed up. The ponies had not had time to scatter far,
and right away we got about a hundred started south on the run. When
we reached the top of a ridge and looked back, we could see that we’d
better hurry, because the warriors of the bands that were still coming
in to camp back there were after us, and there were many.
“The sun was halfway down when we came into some hills with trees on
them here and there. So we stopped to let the ponies rest; and if the
enemy wanted to come and fight, we would fight right there with the
trees and gullies to help us. They did come, but it was not much. Maybe
they thought we had a big party waiting for us there and we meant to
trap them. It was hard to see us among the brush and gullies, and they
did not charge; but now and then they would see somebody and shoot, and
we would shoot back. It was lazy war, and I guess they were tired too.
“High Horse and I were up in a tree with old Maza Ska [White Metal],
or anyway he seemed old to us. He had a gun, but we had only bows and
arrows. Sometimes we could see an enemy’s head and we would shoot at
it. White Metal would make fun of our shooting, but I think he did not
hit anybody either. He only made the others know where we were, so that
they could shoot back; but nobody got hurt.
“Afterwhile I could feel my belly gnawing, and over beyond a low ridge
I had seen some stray bison cows. So I said to High Horse: ‘Let us go
over there and kill some meat, for there are no enemies that way.’ Our
three ponies were tied to some brush under the tree. White Metal’s was
a mare with a big colt at her side, and that is what I want to tell
you about. When we got on our ponies we had to ride fast and swing low
under their necks, because several of the enemy began shooting at us.
We could hear old White Metal bang away up there. Even if he did make
fun of us, we knew he liked us and wanted to help by keeping the enemy
down. When we got over just under the low ridge, we stopped, and High
Horse said: ‘Let us smoke before we kill a cow; it may help us.’ I had
brought my pipe with me because it would protect me and give me power.
So we sat down and smoked. When we had passed the pipe awhile, all at
once there was big yelling over there beyond the low ridge, and we got
up to see if the enemies were coming; and this is what we saw.
“Old White Metal’s big colt was bucking and squealing and running
in circles there on the open hillside, and White Metal was riding
belly-down on its back; but he was not riding the way the colt was
going. He was riding backwards, holding on with his legs, and with
both hands around the root of the tail. His mouth was close to where
the colt was breaking wind every time it bucked, and with every jolt
White Metal yelled, ‘_hown hown_.’ It seemed that he was arguing with
whatever the colt was saying under its tail. We could hear yelling and
laughing down in the brushy draw where enemies were standing up waving
their arms and cheering White Metal. Our own people were standing up
too, laughing and cheering: ‘_Hi-ya! hoka-hey!_ Hold him, _Kola!_ Bite
his bottom! Don’t eat it all! Give me a piece! _Hoka-hey!_’
“It was not much like war.
“This is what had happened. When High Horse and I were over the ridge,
White Metal thought: I will go and help the boys kill some meat, for I
too am hungry. But when he started to climb down out of the tree, some
enemies shot at him--bang! bang! bang!--and he was so excited that he
let go and tumbled. The loose colt was right under him ready to go, and
so they went together in opposite directions.
“When White Metal was right in front of us, the colt stopped short,
went straight up in the air, hump-backed, and whirled as it came down
stiff-legged. That was the end of the ride, and the colt made off for
its mother, still bucking and squealing. White Metal came limping up to
High Horse and me, and when he had wiped the blood and dust from his
mouth, he began poking us in the ribs, saying: ‘That’s right! Laugh!
Laugh! It’s funny! Don’t be serious! Why don’t you laugh?’ And we did
not quit laughing, for the rib-tickling and the fun of it, until the
enemies began shooting at us again from the brush down there.
“We did get a fat cow before the sun went down, and late in the night
we started for Mini Shoshay with the ponies. When the morning star was
up and day was just beginning, we came to a small round valley with
steep sides and only one easy way to get in. So we drove the herd in
there, and Crazy Horse told us all to get a good sleep. He would watch
at the opening to the valley, and if the enemy came he would waken us
and we would stay right there and fight, no matter how many there might
be. But no enemy came; and when it was dark we started again for the
river where we had left our boats hanging in some brush.
“There was no victory dance when we got home, because we had no scalps
and had not counted coup. Nobody said much about our war party. We lost
about half the captured ponies on the way back; and that was not enough
for thirty-seven warriors to sing about. High Horse and I each got a
pony--not very young ones.
“No, it was not much, but we boys had a good time, and we learned.
After that we could not talk about anything but going to war. We did go
to war after High Horse went crazy.”
“Did he really go crazy?” I asked.
“It is a story,” the old man answered, chuckling; “and I will tell you
how it was with him, and why we made war against the Crows that time.
“I was often at the Miniconjou village with my brother-friend, and
sometimes I would see Tashina Wanblee over there. She was getting to
be a big girl, and she was very pretty. I could see that she still
liked me and that she wanted me to talk to her; but High Horse and I
were going to be great warriors and we did not want to be bothered
with girls. Once I came upon her down by the creek when she was getting
water for her mother. She looked up at me quickly, and I can see her
eyes yet; but I was older before I knew what I saw there. It was not
the way it used to be when I was her horse. I thought I had scared her
because she did not know I was there. When she had looked that way at
me, she would not look any more. She just stood still with her hands
clasped in front of her and her head bent. I talked to her, but she did
not answer. Only once she said, hardly louder than a whisper: ‘_Shonka
’kan, Shonka ’kan_.’
“I knew she was pretty, with her long hair combed smooth and shining
like a blackbird, and I think she was waiting for me to throw my
blanket over us and whisper to her in the dark. But my head was full
of horse-stealing and war and the great deeds High Horse and I were
going to do before very long; and it was such things that I told her,
bragging like the boy I was, for I think I wanted her to be proud of me.
“There was a band of Shyelas [Cheyennes] camped up the
creek that time. High Horse and I would go up there to play
throwing-them-off-their-horses or maybe hoop-and-spear with the boys
our age; for the Shyelas were friends and almost like our own people
come to visit us.
“One day when we were up there having a good time, I noticed that High
Horse was not with us any more, and I wondered if he had gone home. So
afterwhile I rode off down the creek towards the Miniconjou village.
There was some brush around a spring, and High Horse was in there. He
was talking to a Shyela girl, and he did not see me. First I thought
I would yell at him; but I did not, for all at once I felt sad and
ashamed. So I turned back and rode home another way.
“The next time I saw him, I thought he was sick because he was queer
with me, but he said he was not sick. Afterwhile he began talking
without looking at me, and he said that maybe when we were great
warriors we would have women too just like other men. Crazy Horse had
a woman, didn’t he? And all the other great warriors had too, didn’t
they? And so maybe it would be the same way with us. And I said we were
not great warriors yet, and we did not have to think about that now.
And he said, ‘I know you talk to Tashina, because I have seen you doing
it. Maybe you will have her for your woman sometime; and maybe I will
see a girl I want too.’
“Then I laughed and said I talked to Tashina because I used to be her
horse, and she wasn’t like other girls anyway. I was just telling her
about the things we were going to do. And he _yah-yahed_, making forked
fingers at me. Then I was angry, and I said: ‘You have been sneaking
around in the brush after that Shyela girl again, haven’t you?’ Then he
was angry too, and left me, and I rode home.
“All the rest of that day I was angry at High Horse; but when I awoke
in the morning, I thought of him the first thing, and I was not angry
any more at all. I was sad, and I got sadder and sadder all that day.
So I rode out on a high hill and sat there thinking about how we had
said we were twins, and we had found each other at last and we would
never be apart again, and we would be brother-friends and do great
deeds and everybody would praise us. And when I looked around at the
sky and the prairie, it was big and empty, and I was all alone in it
and nothing cared about me. So I sat there and wept a long time.
“Next day I was sadder than the day before, and I thought I would go
and see High Horse again. Maybe he was sad too and would not be angry
at me any more. So I started towards the Miniconjou village, riding
slowly because my mind was still forked; and all at once there was a
horseback coming slowly out of the brush up there. When I saw it was
High Horse, my heart drummed; but when he came close I could see that
it was bad with him. ‘_How, Kola_,’ he said; and his voice was low and
weak, as though he might be getting ready to die pretty soon. And I
said, ‘What is wrong with you, brother-friend? Are you sick in your
belly?’ And he groaned and said, ‘I am sick all over, brother-friend,
and you must help me, for if nobody helps me I think I shall die.’ Then
he groaned some more; and I said, ‘You know I will help you, for we are
twins and brother-friends, and if you die then I must die too.’
“So we got off our horses and sat together in a clump of brush where
nobody would see us, and High Horse said, ‘My brother, it is true. I
have been talking to a Shyela girl and her name is Wacin Hin Washtay
Win [Good Plume].’ When he had said that he muttered the name to
himself for a while--like singing to yourself under your breath. Then
the sickness went out of his face, and it was all shining when he
looked at me and began telling me about Good Plume and how beautiful
she was. It made me sad again to hear him, for I thought he was going
crazy the way he told it, all out of breath. Then all at once the
sickness came back in his face again, and he said, ‘Brother-friend, I
want her so much that I cannot eat and I cannot sleep, and if I do not
get her, maybe I shall just starve to death.’ ‘I will think,’ I said,
‘and we shall see what we can do.’
“Then I thought awhile. If my brother was about to die, would I not
have to go and help him even if I died too? If he was going crazy,
then would I not have to help him, even if I had to go crazy too? So I
said, ‘You must take some horses to her father and tell him how much
you want the girl. Maybe then he will give her to you.’ But High Horse
shook his head and groaned. ‘Her father is a man of many horses,’ he
said, ‘and I have only my buffalo-runner and the old horse we got from
the Nez Percés and Absorakas.’ And I said: ‘If you are not man enough
to try, how can I help you?’ ‘You will see that I am man enough to try
anything,’ he said, ‘and I will do just what you tell me,’ When he said
that, he looked like a warrior charging. Then he jumped on his horse
and galloped away towards his village.
“I waited and waited, and after that I still waited a long while. It
was getting dark when High Horse came riding back slowly with his chin
on his chest. When he had got off his horse and sat down beside me, he
just held his head in his hands for a while. Then he said, ‘The old man
laughed at me. He just laughed and waved his hand for me to go away
from there.’
“After I had thought awhile, I said, ‘Brother-friend, it is harder than
I thought. This is something that will take a little more time. You
will sleep with me tonight, and tomorrow I shall have a better plan.’
“So after we had slept, and it was morning, I said: ‘Hold fast to your
pipe, brother-friend, and do not lose courage. I have a plan. The old
man will not take two horses. You will offer him four horses, for I
will give you Whirlwind and the horse I got from the Nez Percés and
Absorakas. You will go to the old man with these. You will say how
much you want the girl and that you have two good buffalo-runners,
also a horse just beginning to get old and another one hardly old at
all. Maybe he will not laugh at you this time. If he takes the horses,
you will have the girl and we shall have only our four legs to ride.
But that will be good, for we will go on the war-path _maka mani_
[earth-walking, on foot], and when we get back we shall have many, many
ponies and be great warriors, and everybody will praise us and the old
man will be proud of you.’
“So High Horse did as I told him. But before the sun was overhead, he
came back looking even sicker than ever, and he had to groan awhile
before he could tell me how the old man laughed harder than before and
waved his hand to say go away and quit talking foolishness.
“So I thought awhile, and then I said: ‘The old man will not take four
good horses for the girl, and that is all we have. Maybe she will run
away with you, and then when you come back she will be your woman and
you will have your horses too.’ But that was no good either, because
High Horse said he asked her when they were talking under the blanket,
and she did not want to run away. She wanted to be bought like a fine
woman.
“So I thought awhile, and then I said: ‘I have the right plan at last,
brother-friend; and if you quit groaning and have a strong heart, you
will get her this time.’ And High Horse said, ‘My heart is strong
enough to do anything anybody can think up, if I can only have Good
Plume.’ Then I said: ‘The old man will not take two horses. He will not
take four horses either. The girl will not run away with you. Then you
will just steal her, and I will tell you how to do it. Maybe she wants
you to steal her anyway. This is going to be the biggest thing we ever
did.’
“So this is how it was.
“When it was dark High Horse and I rode up the creek to the Shyela
village and hid in the brush until we thought everyone was asleep.
Then I tied my horse and we sneaked up to the old man’s tepee, leading
the other horse and being very careful not to make any noise. Once
a dog barked and a man came out of a tepee and looked around in the
starlight. We were flat on our bellies by then, and when the man saw
it was only a horse grazing, he kicked the dog and went back into his
tepee.
“I would be holding the horse outside until High Horse could pull up
a couple of stakes, crawl inside, gag the girl and drag her out. Then
we would put her on the horse in front of him and he would get away
from there fast and be happy all his life. The old people might start
yelling, but everybody would be too excited to do anything, and I could
run to my horse and get away. When High Horse came back, Good Plume
would be his woman, and the old man would get used to it.
“When High Horse pulled the first stake, he waited awhile to see if the
snoring would stop inside. It did not stop, so he pulled another stake,
and still the snoring went on. Then I could see him crawling under. The
snoring still went on, and that is all I could hear for a while. Pretty
soon something popped, and the old man snorted.
“This is how it was. The old people had only this one girl, and they
liked her so much that they had made a fine bed out of rawhide thongs
for her to sleep on. Then when they saw how pretty she was getting to
be, they were afraid some foolish young man might steal her in the
night; so they always tied her with thongs to this bed.
“High Horse was in there feeling around for a good way to grab the
girl, and when he knew she was tied, he took his knife and began
cutting thongs. When the first one popped and the old man snorted, he
was so scared that he dropped on his belly and quit breathing awhile.
Then he began cutting thongs again. His heart drummed so hard that he
was afraid it would waken the girl; but she just went on breathing
quietly until he got down around her thighs. Of course he was getting
more and more excited by now, and all at once the knife slipped and
stuck the girl.”
At this point Eagle Voice fell to chuckling; and he did not resume the
tale until he had filled his pipe, lit it, and passed it to me. Then,
gazing at me with his mock-serious, crinkled, quizzical look, he shook
his head slowly and continued.
“Grandson, it was bad. It was very bad. The girl shrieked, the old
man began yelling, the old woman began screaming, and High Horse was
getting out of there so fast he nearly knocked the tepee down. By
the time we were both on the horse, people were rushing out of their
tepees shouting to each other and all the dogs were barking. It was dim
starlight, and everybody was so excited that nobody knew what anybody
was yelling about; so we got away.
“Next day High Horse was feeling sicker than ever, and even I was
feeling a little sick. But I said, ‘Brother, we nearly got her that
time, and if you are man enough and your knife does not slip, next time
we will get her, for I will think up a better plan.’ And High Horse
groaned and said, ‘Maybe they will kill me next time, but I am going to
die anyway if I don’t get Good Plume, and I am man enough to fight the
whole Shyela village if they catch me.’ ‘Then quit groaning,’ I said,
‘and have a strong heart, for I have a plan already; only we must wait
until the people up there are not excited any more.’
“So we counted ten days and waited; and while we waited we talked about
my plan. Maybe I got it from Charger’s story about the wild young man
who liked tobacco so much he could never get enough of it; but it was
different too.
“So this is the way it was. When we had counted ten days, we rode far
around the Shyela village and came to the creek above it when the sun
was low. Then High Horse stripped naked and I began painting him with
mud all over. When I was through, he was all crooked stripes and spots,
and he looked like some animal nobody ever saw. When he saw himself
in the water he said, ‘I look so terrible that I scare myself.’ And I
said, ‘You look so terrible you scare even me a little, and I made you.
If you get caught, people will think you are some bad spirit and they
will all run away; so you must not be afraid of anything; and don’t let
your knife slip this time.’
“When the night was getting old and no dogs barked, we crawled into the
Shyela village leading the horse. We did this so slowly that no dog
noticed us. There was snoring in the girl’s tepee. So High Horse pulled
a stake. The snoring went on. He pulled another stake. The snoring
still went on. Then he crawled in. Pretty soon a thong popped and I
heard the old woman say, ‘Wake up! Wake up! There is somebody in this
tepee!’ And the old man said, ‘Of course there is somebody in this
tepee. I am in this tepee. Go to sleep and don’t bother me.’ Pretty
soon there was snoring again.
“I listened hard for another pop, but there was only snoring--more than
before, like two men snoring back and forth at each other. And this is
how it was in there.
“When the old woman and old man talked, High Horse lay flat on his
belly and stopped breathing for a while. But he was very tired and very
weak because he had not slept or eaten much for a long time, he was so
sick about the girl. So all at once he was snoring as hard as the old
man was.
“I waited and waited. The morning star came up. I waited and waited.
There was a thin streak of day. I could not call to High Horse, so I
waited. The hills were beginning to stare. Then I got out of there with
the horse and hid up the creek in the brush where I had tied Whirlwind.
“Pretty soon all at once there was a big noise--screaming and yelling
and barking down there in the village. It was even worse than the other
time. Then I could hear somebody running hard, and it was High Horse,
coming like an antelope. He was coming up the creek towards me, and he
surely looked terrible in the daylight. All at once he dodged into a
big hollow tree by the creek, and I could not go to him or call to him
because I could hear people coming. It was a party of men with axes and
knives and spears and guns. They were looking here and looking there
and being very careful because of the terrible thing they had seen
running. They stopped close to the hollow tree, and when they could
not see any tracks, one said, ‘It was a bad spirit that has gone back
into the water.’ Then they went away, for I think they were glad not to
catch what they had chased.