Under the name Na´pi, Old Man, have been confused two wholly
different persons talked of by the Blackfeet. The Sun, the creator
of the universe, giver of light, heat, and life, and reverenced by
every one, is often called Old Man, but there is another personality
who bears the same name, but who is very different in his character.
This last Na´pi is a mixture of wisdom and foolishness; he is
malicious, selfish, childish, and weak. He delights in tormenting
people. Yet the mean things he does are so foolish that he is
constantly getting himself into scrapes, and is often obliged to ask
the animals to help him out of his troubles. His bad deeds almost
always bring their own punishment.
Interpreters commonly translate this word Na´pi as Old Man, but it
is also the term for white man; and the Cheyenne and Arapahoe
tribes tell just such stories about a similar person whom they also
call "white man." Tribes of Dakota stock tell of a similar person
whom they call "the spider."
The stories about this Old Man are told by the Blackfeet for
entertainment rather than with any serious purpose, and when that
part of the story is reached where Old Man is in some difficulty
which he cannot get out of, the man who is telling the story, and
those who are listening to it, laugh delightedly.
Some stories of this kind are these: