The old man said, "We will swing it around the tepee." He whirled it
up through the smoke hole. It went whirling around and around and fell
down, and came creeping into the tent.
Again he took up the baby and threw it up through the smoke hole. It
got up and came into the tent walking. Again the old man whirled him
out. In came a boy with some green sticks. He said, "Grandfather, I
wish you would make me arrows."
Again the old man whirled him out. No one knows where he went. This
time he came back into the tepee a long man, with many green sticks.
He said, "Grandfather, make me arrows of these."
So the old man made him arrows, and he killed a great many buffaloes,
and they made a large tepee, and built up a high sleeping place in the
back part of the tepee, and were very rich in dried meat.
The old man said, "Old woman, I am glad we are well off; I will
proclaim it abroad." So when morning came, he went to the top of the
tent, and sat, and said, "I, I have abundance laid up. I eat the fat
of the animals."
That is how the meadow lark came to be made, they say. It has a yellow
breast and black in the middle, which is the yellow of that morning,
and they say the black stripe is made by a smooth buffalo horn worn
for a necklace.