Behold! The man's child was dead, and therefore he sat without
speaking. He sat still, being sad. Then the young man arrived within
the lodge, the woman having opened the door for him. Yet her husband
sat without speaking. The young man was impatient from hunger. The
husband questioned him:
"From what place have you walked?" he asked.
The young man told his story. "I walked up above, but a man headed off
the herd, and having fallen, he came here. I came here to take him
back. They did not take me back; I have no way of going back. Help
me," he said.
The man said, "We had a child, but it died. We will treat you just
like the child who died." He meant he would adopt him. "All things
which I have are yours," said the father.
The young man did not speak. He wished to go homeward.
"Whatever you say I will do it for you," said the father. "Even if you
desire to go homeward, it shall be so," he said.
At last the young man spoke of going homeward.
"If you say, 'I will go homeward riding a horse of such a color, O
father!' it shall be so," said the father.
"Fie!" said the woman. "Heretofore we were deprived of our child. The
young man who has just come home is like him. Give him one thing which
you have."
"I make you my child. I will give you something. Whatever I desire I
always make with it, when I wish to have anything," said the father.
He had a piece of iron and when he wished anything he used to point at
the iron.
"O father, I wish to go homeward riding a horse with very white hair.
I also desire a mule with very white hair, and a good saddle," said
the young man.
"Come, go there. Open the door of that stable. When you wish to see
us again, you shall see us. When you will go homeward, you will say,
'Come, O father, I desire to go homeward,'" said the father.
The young man went homeward. He made the rocks open suddenly by
pointing at them with the iron. He went up, making the ground echo
under the horse's feet. When he pushed aside a very large rock which
was in his way, he found himself again on the surface of the earth.
The horse and mule were very sudden in their movements. They shied at
every step. They sniffed the odor of a bad land.
The young man found his nation that he had left. Behold! they had
recently removed and departed. After they waited some time for him to
appear, they had removed their camp and departed. The horse and mule
went along, fearing the sight of the old camping ground. They followed
the trail of the departing village.
Then the young man saw two people on a large hill, walking in the
trail. They were the head chief and his wife who were walking along,
mourning for the dead.
They looked behind and said, "Yonder comes one on horseback, following
the trail made by the departing village."
He drew near. They sat waiting for him to appear. The horse and mule
feared the sight of them; they sniffed a bad odor.
"Why! Of what nation are you?" asked the chief.
"It is I," said the young man.
"But which one are you?" said the chief.
"Your son went headlong into a pit when they surrounded the herd,"
said the young man. "And I went down to get him. You did not bring me
back. It is I."
As he was very much changed, the old man doubted.
"Fie! Tell the truth about yourself."
"When they surrounded the herd, your son went headlong as well as the
buffalo, and he was killed by falling into a pit. When you commanded
them to get him, they drew back through fear. I am he who went to get
him when you offered your daughter as a reward," said the young man.
"I have hardly been able to come again to the surface."
Then they recognized him. The two men stood talking together on the
large hill. The chief's son looked back from the camp.
"Why! The chief and his wife have come as far as the large hill and a
man on horseback has come, too. He stands talking to them. I will go
thither. Let me see! I will go to see them."
He went back on horseback and came to his father.
"With what person do you talk?" said the son.
"Why! He who went to get your elder brother has come back!" said the
head chief.
They shook hands. And the head chief gave his daughter to the young
man.
"Let all the men and chiefs assemble. Let all the stout-hearted young
men assemble. They can look at my daughter's husband," he said.
They assembled. They came to see the young man and brought the things
they intended giving him.
"He says that he who went to get the man who was killed by falling has
come back. The chief says that as he has made the young man his
daughter's husband you shall go to see the young man. He says that you
will take to him what things you wish to give him. The chief says he
will give thanks for them." So shouted the crier.
All the young men and those who were brave and generous went thither.
They all gave him clothing and good horses. His wife's father made him
the head chief.
"Make ye a tent for him in the center," said the old chief.
They set up a tent for him in the center. They finished it.
"The people did not eat. As they sat waiting for you to appear, the
nation did not eat. You came back when they were just removing camp,"
said the old chief.
"Ho!" said the one who had just reached home. "Let two old men go as
criers."
So the criers shouted: "The chiefs daughter's husband says that you
will rest tomorrow. He says you will not go in any direction
whatever."
The next day he commanded those who had come back on horseback to act
as scouts. And the scouts came back very soon; because by means of the
iron rod which he had asked of his father, he made a great many
buffaloes very quickly. He spoke of surrounding them. They shot down
many of the buffaloes. He went to take part in surrounding them.
His wife said, "I desire to go to see them surround the herd. I must
go to see the buffaloes. When they are killed, I will be quite likely
to come back."
When they killed the buffaloes she was coming back; the wife stood on
the hill. Her husband came to that place.
"Though I killed the buffaloes, they will cut them up," he said. They
who surrounded them reached home.
Again they spoke of a buffalo hunt. "The chief's daughter's husband
speaks indeed of sending them to act as scouts," said the criers.
Again the herd of buffaloes had come to that country. They surrounded
them. Again they shot down many of them.
At last the son of the old head chief was in a bad humor. He was in a
bad humor because his sister's husband had been made chief.
Now at night, the horse used to say to the young man, "O father, a man
desires very much to kill us. It is so every night." And after that at
night the young man used to take care of his horse and mule.
On the next day they surrounded the herd in the land where the deed
was done. It was just so again; a great many buffaloes had been
coming. At length the son wished the buffaloes to trample his sister's
husband to death. When they attacked the buffaloes, he waved his robe.
Turning around in his course, he waved his robe again. When the
sister's husband went right in among the buffaloes, they closed in on
him and he was not seen at all.
The people said, "The buffaloes have trampled to death the chief's
daughter's husband."
When the buffaloes trampled him to death, they scattered and went
homeward in every direction, moving in long lines. And the people did
not find any trace whatever of what was done. They did not find the
horse. Even the man they did not find. When the buffaloes killed him
by trampling, the horse had gone back to Him Who Made Things.