families of the chief to go with him and visit their hunting-grounds,
where he promised them that they would find game in abundance. They
consented, and in the morning a large company assembled and joined
Maidwa; and the chief, with a party of warriors, escorted them a long
distance. When ready to return, the chief made a speech and besought the
blessing of the Good Spirit on Maidwa and his friends.
They parted, each on its course, making music with their war-drums,
which could be heard from afar as they glittered with waving feathers in
the morning sun, in their march over the prairie, which was lost in the
distant sky.
After several days' travel, Maidwa and his friends came in sight of his
home. The others rested within the woods while he went alone in advance
to see his brothers.
He entered the lodge. It was all in confusion and covered with ashes. On
one side, sitting among the cinders, with his face blackened, and crying
aloud, was his elder brother. On the other side sat the younger,
Jeekewis, also with blackened face, his head covered with stray feathers
and tufts of swan-down. This one presented so curious a figure that
Maidwa could not keep from laughing. He seemed to be so lost and
far-gone in grief that he could not notice his brother's arrival. The
eldest, however, after a while, lifting up his head, recognized Maidwa,
jumped up and shook hands, and kissed him, and expressed much joy at his
return.
Maidwa, as soon as he had seen the lodge set in order, made known that
he had brought each of them a wife. As soon as Jeekewis heard a wife
spoken of, he roused from his torpor, sprang to his feet, and said:
"Why is it just now that you have come?" and at once made for the door
and peeped out to see the strangers. He then commenced jumping and
laughing, and crying out, "Women! women!" and that was all the reception
he gave his brother. Maidwa told them to wash themselves and prepare,
for he would go and fetch the females in.
Jeekewis scampered about, and began to wash himself; but he would every
now and then, with one side of his head all feathers, and the other
clear and shining, peep forth to look at the women again. When they came
near, he said, "I will have this and that one;" he did not exactly know
which; he would sit down for an instant, and then rise, and peep about
and laugh; in fact he acted like one beside himself.
As soon as order was restored, and all the company who had been brought
in were seated, Maidwa presented one of the chief's daughters to his
eldest brother, saying: "These women were given to me, to dispose of in
marriage. I now give one to each. I intended so from the first."
Jeekewis spoke up and said, "I think three wives would have been enough
for you."
Maidwa led the other daughter to Jeekewis, and said, "My brother, here
is one for you, and live happily."
Jeekewis hung down his head as if he was ashamed, but he would every now
and then steal a look at his wife and also at the other women.
By and by he turned toward his wife and acted as if he had been married
for years.
Maidwa seeing that no preparation had been made to entertain the
company, said, "Are we to have no supper?"
He had no sooner spoken, than forth from a corner stepped the silent
kettle, which placed itself by the fire, and began bubbling and boiling
quite briskly. Presently that was joined by the big talking kettle,
which said, addressing itself to Maidwa, "Master, we shall be ready
presently;" and then, dancing along, came, from still another, the
frisky little kettle, which hopped to their side, and took an active
part in the preparations for the evening meal. When all was nearly
ready, a delicate voice was heard singing in the last corner of the
lodge, and keeping up its dainty carol all the way to the fire-place,
the fourth kettle joined the three cooks, and they all fell to with all
their might, and in the best possible humor, to dispatch their work.
It was not long before the big kettle advanced toward Maidwa, and said,
in his own confident way, "Supper is ready!"
The feast was a jovial one; and although they were all hungry, and plied
their ladles with right good will, yet, dip in as often as they would,
the four magic kettles held out, and had plenty to the end of the revel.
To draw to a close, Maidwa and his friends lived in peace for a time;
their town prospered; there was no lack of children; and every thing
else was in abundance.
One day the two brothers began to look dark upon Maidwa, and to reproach
him for having taken from the medicine-sack their deceased father's
magic arrows; they upbraided him especially that one was lost.
After listening to them in silence, he said that he would go in search
of it, and that it should be restored; and the very next day, true to
his word, he left them.
After traveling a long way, and looking in every direction, almost
hopeless of discovering the lost treasure, he came to an opening in the
earth, and descending, it led him to the abode of departed spirits. The
country appeared beautiful, the pastures were greener than his own, and
the sky bluer than that which hung over the lodge, and the extent of it
was utterly lost in a dim distance; and he saw animals of every kind
wandering about in great numbers. The first he came to were buffalos;
his surprise was great when they addressed him as human beings.
They asked him what he came for, how he had descended, and why he was so
bold as to visit the abode of the dead.
He answered that he was in quest of a magic arrow, to appease the anger
of his brothers.
"Very well," said the leader of the buffalos, whose form was nothing but
bone. "Yes, we know it," and he and his followers moved off a little
space from Maidwa, as if they were afraid of him. "You have come,"
resumed the buffalo-spirit, "to a place where a living man has never
before been. You will return immediately to your tribe, for, under
pretense of recovering one of the magic arrows which belong to you by
your father's dying wish, they have sent you off that they might become
possessed of your beautiful wife, the Red Swan. Speed home! You will
find the magic arrow at the lodge-door. You will live to a very old age,
and die happily. You can go no further in these abodes of ours."
Maidwa looked, as he thought, to the west, and saw a bright light as if
the sun was shining in its splendor, but he saw no sun.
"What light is that yonder?" he asked.
The all-boned buffalo answered--"It is the place where those who were
good dwell."
"And that dark cloud?" Maidwa again asked.
"It is the place of the wicked," answered the buffalo.
Maidwa turned away, for it was very dark, and it pained his eyes to look
upon it; and, moving away by the aid of his guardian spirits, he again
stood upon the earth, and beheld the sun giving light as usual.
All else that he learned in the abodes of the dead, and his travels and
acts previous to his return homeward, are unknown, for he never spoke of
them to any human being.
After wandering a long time to gather knowledge to make his people happy
and to add to their comfort, he one evening drew near to his own
village. Passing all the other lodges he came to his own door, where he
found the magic arrow, as he had been promised. He heard his brothers
from within at high words with each other. They were quarreling for the
possession of his wife, who, through all his absence, had remained
constant, and sadly awaited his return. Maidwa listened in shame and
sorrow.
He entered the lodge, holding his head aloft as one conscious of good
principle and shining with anger. He spoke not a word, but, placing the
magic arrow to his bow, he would have laid his brothers dead at his
feet; but just then the talking kettle stepped forward and spoke such
words of wisdom, and the singing kettle trolled forth such a soothing
little song, and the guilty brothers were so contrite and keenly
repentant of their intended wrong, and the Red Swan was so radiant and
forgiving, the silent kettle straightway served them up so hearty and
wholesome a meal, and the frisky little kettle was so joyful and danced
about so merrily, that when the magic arrows were laid away in the
medicine-sack by Maidwa, there was that night in all the Indian country
no happier family than the three brothers, who ever after dwelt together
in all kindness, as all good brothers should.
XIV.
THE MAN WITH HIS LEG TIED UP.
As a punishment for having once upon a time used that foot against a
venerable medicine man, Aggo Dah Gauda had one leg looped up to his
thigh, so that he was obliged to get along by hopping. By dint of
practice he had become very skillful in this exercise, and he could make
leaps which seemed almost incredible.
Aggo had a beautiful daughter, and his chief care was to secure her from
being carried off by the king of the buffalos, who was the ruler of all
the herds of that kind, and had them entirely at his command to make
them do as he willed.
Dah Gauda, too, was quite an important person in his own way, for he
lived in great state, having a log house of his own, and a court-yard
which extended from the sill of his front-door as many hundred miles
westward as he chose to measure it.
Although he might claim this extensive privilege of ground, he advised
his daughter to keep within doors, and by no means to go far in the
neighborhood, as she would otherwise be sure to be stolen away, as he
was satisfied that the buffalo-king spent night and day lurking about
and lying in wait to seize her.
One sunshiny morning, when there were just two or three promising clouds
rolling moistly about the sky, Aggo prepared to go out a-fishing; but
before he left the lodge he reminded her of her strange and industrious
lover, whom she had never seen.
"My daughter," said he, "I am going out to fish, and as the day will be
a pleasant one, you must recollect that we have an enemy near, who is
constantly going about with two eyes that never close, and do not expose
yourself out of the lodge."
With this excellent advice, Aggo hopped off in high spirits; but he had
scarcely reached the fishing-ground when he heard a voice singing, at a
distance:
Man with the leg tied up,
Man with the leg tied up,
Broken hip--hip--
Hipped.
Man with the leg tied up,
Man with the leg tied up,
Broken leg--leg--
Legged.
There was no one in sight, but Aggo heard the words quite plainly, and
as he suspected the ditty to be the work of his enemies, the buffalos,
he hopped home as fast as his one leg could carry him.
Meantime, the daughter had no sooner been left alone in the lodge than
she thought with herself:
"It is hard to be thus forever kept in doors. But my father says it
would be dangerous to venture abroad. I know what I will do. I will get
on the top of the house, and there I can comb and dress my hair, and no
one can harm me."
She accordingly ascended the roof and busied herself in untying and
combing her beautiful hair; for it was truly beautiful, not only of a
fine, glossy quality, but it was so very long that it hung over the
eaves of the house and reached down on the ground, as she sat dressing
it.
She was wholly occupied in this employment, without a thought of danger,
when, all of a sudden, the king of the buffalos came dashing on with his
herd of followers, and making sure of her by means of her drooping
tresses, he placed her upon the back of one of his favorite buffalos,
and away he cantered over the plains. Plunging into a river that bounded
his land, he bore her safely to his lodge on the other side.
And now the buffalo-king having secured the beautiful person of Aggo Dah
Gauda's daughter, he set to work to make her heart his own--a little
ceremony which it would have been, perhaps, wiser for his majesty, the
king of the buffalos, to have attended to before, for he now worked to
little purpose. Although he labored with great zeal to gain her
affections, she sat pensive and disconsolate in the lodge, among the
other females, and scarcely ever spoke, nor did she take the least
interest in the affairs of the king's household.
To the king himself she paid no heed, and although he breathed forth to
her every soft and gentle word he could think of, she sat still and
motionless for all the world like one of the lowly bushes by the door of
her father's lodge, when the summer wind has died away.
The king enjoined it upon the others in the lodge as a special edict, on
pain of instant death, to give to Aggo's daughter every thing that she
wanted, and to be careful not to displease her. They set before her the
choicest food. They gave her the seat of honor in the lodge. The king
himself went out hunting to obtain the most dainty meats, both of
animals and wild fowl, to pleasure her palate; and he treated her every
morning to a ride upon one of the royal buffalos, who was so gentle in
his motions as not even to disturb a single one of the tresses of the
beautiful hair of Aggo's daughter as she paced along.
And not content with these proofs of his attachment, the king would
sometimes fast from all food, and having thus purified his spirit and
cleared his voice, he would take his Indian flute, and, sitting before
the lodge, give vent to his feelings in pensive echoes, something after
this fashion:
My sweetheart,
My sweetheart,
Ah me!
When I think of you,
When I think of you,
Ah me!
What can I do, do, do?
How I love you,
How I love you,
Ah me!
Do not hate me,
Do not hate me,
Ah me!
Speak--e'en berate me.
When I think of you,
Ah me!
What can I do, do, do?
In the mean time, Aggo Dah Gauda had reached home, and finding that his
daughter had been stolen, his indignation was so thoroughly awakened
that he would have forthwith torn every hair from his head, but, being
entirely bald, this was out of the question, so, as an easy and natural
vent to his feelings, Aggo hopped off half a mile in every direction.
First he hopped east, then he hopped west, next he hopped north, and
again he hopped south, all in search of his daughter; till the one leg
was fairly tired out. Then he sat down in his lodge, and resting himself
a little, he reflected, and then he vowed that his single leg should
never know rest again until he had found his beautiful daughter and
brought her home. For this purpose he immediately set out.
Now that he proceeded more coolly, he could easily track the
buffalo-king until he came to the banks of the river, where he saw that
he had plunged in and swam over. There having been a frosty night or two
since, the water was so covered with thin ice that Aggo could not
venture upon it, even with one leg. He encamped hard by till it became
more solid, and then crossed over and pursued the trail.
As he went along he saw branches broken off and strewed behind, which
guided him in his course; for these had been purposely cast along by the
daughter. And the manner in which she had accomplished it was this. Her
hair was all untied when she was caught up, and being very long it took
hold of the branches as they darted along, and it was these twigs that
she broke off as signs to her father.
When Aggo came to the king's lodge it was evening. Carefully
approaching, he peeped through the sides, and saw his daughter sitting
disconsolate. She immediately caught his eye, and knowing that it was
her father come for her, she all at once appeared to relent in her
heart, and, asking for the royal dipper, said to the king, "I will go
and get you a drink of water."
This token of submission delighted his majesty, and, high in hope, he
waited with impatience for her return.
At last he went out, but nothing could be seen or heard of the captive
daughter. Calling together his followers, they sallied forth upon the
plains, and had not gone far when they espied by the light of the moon,
which was shining roundly just over the edge of the prairie, Aggo Dah
Gauda, his daughter in his arms, making all speed with his one leg
toward the west.
The buffalos being set on by their king, raised a great shout, and
scampered off in pursuit. They thought to overtake Aggo in less than no
time; but although he had a single leg only, it was in such fine
condition to go, that to every pace of theirs, he hopped the length of a
cedar-tree.
But the buffalo-king was well assured that he would be able to overtake
Aggo, hop as briskly as he might. It would be a mortal shame, thought
the king, to be outstripped by a man with one leg tied up; so, shouting
and cheering, and issuing orders on all sides, he set the swiftest of
his herd upon the track, with strict commands to take Aggo dead or
alive. And a curious sight it was to see.
[Illustration: THE MAN WITH HIS LEG TIED UP. Page 176.]
At one time a buffalo would gain handsomely upon Aggo, and be just at
the point of laying hold of him, when off Aggo would hop, a good
furlong, in an oblique line, wide out of his reach; which bringing
him nearly in contact with another of the herd, away he would go again,
just as far off in another direction.
And in this way Aggo kept the whole company of the buffalos zig-zagging
across the plain, with the poor king at their head, running to and fro,
shouting among them and hurrying them about in the wildest way. It was
an extraordinary road that Aggo was taking toward home; and after a time
it so puzzled and bewildered the buffalos that they were driven half out
of their wits, and they roared, and brandished their tails, and foamed,
as if they would put out of countenance and frighten out of sight the
old man in the moon, who was looking on all the time, just above the
edge of the prairie.
As for the king himself, losing at last all patience at the absurd idea
of chasing a man with one leg all night long, he called his herd
together, and fled, in disgust, toward the west, and never more appeared
in all that part of the country.
Aggo, relieved of his pursuers, hopped off a hundred steps in one, till
he reached the stream, crossed it in a twinkling of the eye, and bore
his daughter in triumph to his lodge.
In the course of time Aggo's beautiful daughter married a very worthy
young warrior, who was neither a buffalo-king nor so much as the owner
of any more of the buffalos than a splendid skin robe which he wore,
with great effect, thrown over his shoulders, on his wedding-day. On
which occasion, Aggo Dah Gauda hopped about on his one leg livelier than
ever.
XV.
THE LITTLE SPIRIT, OR BOY-MAN.
In a little lodge at a beautiful spot on a lake shore, alone with his
sister, lived a boy remarkable for the smallness of his stature. Many
large rocks were scattered around their habitation, and it had a very
wild and out-of-the-way look.
The boy grew no larger as he advanced in years, and yet, small as he
was, he had a big spirit of his own, and loved dearly to play the master
in the lodge. One day in winter he told his sister to make him a ball to
play with, as he meant to have some sport along the shore on the clear
ice. When she handed him the ball, his sister cautioned him not to go
too far.
He laughed at her, and posted off in high glee, throwing his ball before
him and running after it at full speed, and he went as fast as his ball.
At last his ball flew to a great distance; he followed as fast as he
could. After he had run forward for some time, he saw what seemed four
dark spots upon the ice, straight before him.
When he came up to the shore he was surprised to see four large, tall
men, lying on the ice, spearing fish. They were four brothers, who
looked exactly alike. As the little boy-man approached them, the nearest
looked up, and in his turn he was surprised to see such a tiny being,
and turning to his brothers, he said:
"Tia! look! see what a little fellow is here."
The three others thereupon looked up too, and seeing these four faces,
as if they had been one, the little spirit or boy-man said to himself:
"Four in one! What a time they must have in choosing their
hunting-shirts!"
After they had all stared for a moment at the boy, they covered their
heads, intent in searching for fish. The boy thought to himself:
"These four-faces fancy that I am to be put off without notice because I
am so little, and they are so broad and long. They shall find out. I may
find a way to teach them that I am not to be treated so lightly."
After they were covered up, the boy-man, looking sharply about, saw that
among them they had caught one large trout, which was lying just by
their side. Stealing along, he slyly seized it, and placing his fingers
in the gills, and tossing his ball before him, he ran off at full speed.
They heard the pattering of his little steps upon the ice, and when the
four looked up all together, they saw their fine trout sliding away, as
if of itself, at a great rate, the boy being so small that he could not
be distinguished from the fish.
"See!" they cried out, "our fish is running away on the dry land!"
When they stood up they could just see, over the fish's head, that it
was the boy-man who was carrying it off.
The little spirit reached the lodge, and having left the trout at the
door, he told his sister to go out and bring in the fish he had brought
home.
She exclaimed, "Where could you have got it? I hope you have not stolen
it."
"Oh," he replied, "I found it on the ice. It was caught in our lake.
Have we no right to a little lake of our own? I shall claim all the fish
that come out of its waters."
"How," the sister asked again, "could you have got it there?"
"No matter," said the boy; "go and cook it."
It was as much as the girl could do to drag the great trout within
doors. She cooked it, and its flavor was so delicious that she asked no
more questions as to how he had come by it.
The next morning the little spirit or boy-man set off as he had the day
before.
He made all sorts of sport with his ball as he frolicked along--high
over his head he would toss it, straight up into the air; then far
before him, and again, in mere merriment of spirit, he would send it
bounding back, as if he had plenty of speed and enough to spare in
running back after it. And the ball leaped and bounded about, and glided
through the air as if it were a live thing, and enjoyed the sport as
much as the boy-man himself.
When he came within hail of the four large men, who were fishing there
every day, he cast his ball with such force that it rolled into the
ice-hole about which they were busy. The boy, standing on the shore of
the lake, called out:
"Four-in-one, pray hand me my ball."
"No, indeed," they answered, setting up a grim laugh which curdled their
four dark faces all at once, "we shall not;" and with their
fishing-spears they thrust the ball under the ice.
"Good!" said the boy-man, "we shall see."
Saying which he rushed upon the four brothers and thrust them at one
push into the water. His ball bounded back to the surface, and, picking
it up, he ran off, tossing it before him in his own sportive way.
Outstripping it in speed he soon reached home, and remained within till
the next morning.
The four brothers, rising up from the water at the same time, dripping
and wroth, roared out in one voice a terrible threat of vengeance, which
they promised to execute the next day. They knew the boy's speed, and
that they could by no means overtake him.
By times in the morning, the four brothers were stirring in their lodge,
and getting ready to look after their revenge.
Their old mother, who lived with them, begged them not to go.
"Better," said she, "now that your clothes are dry, to think no more of
the ducking than to go and all four of you get your heads broken, as you
surely will, for that boy is a monedo or he could not perform such feats
as he does."
But her sons paid no heed to this wise advice, and, raising a great
war-cry, which frightened the birds overhead nearly out of their
feathers, they started for the boy's lodge among the rocks.
The little spirit or boy-man heard them roaring forth their threats as
they approached, but he did not appear to be disquieted in the least.
His sister as yet had heard nothing; after a while she thought she could
distinguish the noise of snow-shoes on the snow, at a distance, but
rapidly advancing. She looked out, and seeing the four large men coming
straight to their lodge she was in great fear, and running in,
exclaimed:
"He is coming, four times as strong as ever!" for she supposed that the
one man whom her brother had offended had become so angry as to make
four of himself in order to wreak his vengeance.
The boy-man said, "Why do you mind them? Give me something to eat."
"How can you think of eating at such a time?" she replied.
"Do as I request you, and be quick."
She then gave little spirit his dish, and he commenced eating.
Just then the brothers came to the door.
"See!" cried the sister, "the man with four heads!"