_Mandan_
In the sun lives the Lord of Life. In the moon lives
Old-Woman-Who-Never-Dies. She has six children, three sons and three
daughters. These live in the sky. The eldest son is the Day; another
is the Sun; another is Night. The eldest daughter is the Morning Star,
called "The Woman who Wears a Plume"; another is a star which circles
around the polar star, and she is called "The Striped Gourd"; the
third is Evening Star.
Every spring Old-Woman-Who-Never-Dies sends the wild geese, the swans,
and the ducks. When she sends the wild geese, the Indians plant their
corn and Old-Woman-Who-Never-Dies makes it grow. When eleven wild
geese are found together, the Indians know the corn crop will be very
large. The swans mean that the Indians must plant gourds; the ducks,
that they must plant beans.
Indians always save dried meat for these wild birds, so when they come
in the spring they may have a corn feast. They build scaffolds of many
poles, three or four rows, and one above the others. On this they
hang the meat. Then the old women in the village, each one with a
stick, meet around the scaffold. In one end of the stick is an ear of
corn. Sitting in a circle, they plant their sticks in the ground in
front of them. Then they dance around the scaffolds while the old men
beat the drums and rattle the gourds.
Afterwards the old women in the village are allowed to eat the dried
meat.
In the fall they hold another corn feast, after the corn is ripe. This
is so that Old-Woman-Who-Never-Dies may send the buffalo herds to
them. Each woman carries the entire cornstalk, with the ears attached,
just as it was pulled up by the roots. Then they call on
Old-Woman-Who-Never-Dies and say,
"Mother, pity us. Do not send the cold too soon, or we may not have
enough meat. Mother, do not let the game depart, so that we may have
enough for winter."
In the fall, when the birds go south to Old-Woman, they take back the
dried meat hung on the scaffolds, because Old-Woman is very fond of
it.
Old-Woman-Who-Never-Dies has large patches of corn, kept for her by
the great stag and by the white-tailed stag. Blackbirds also help her
guard her corn patches. The corn patches are large, therefore the Old
Woman has the help also of the mice and the moles. In the spring the
birds go north, back to Old-Man-Who-Never-Dies.
In the olden time, Old-Woman-Who-Never-Dies lived near the Little
Missouri. Sometimes the Indians visited her. One day twelve came, and
she offered them only a small kettle of corn. They were very hungry
and the kettle was very small. But as soon as it was empty, it at once
became filled again, so all the Indians had enough to eat.