_Omaha_
Ictinike married and dwelt in a lodge. One day he said to his wife,
"Hand me that tobacco pouch. I must go visit your grandfather,
Beaver." So he departed.
As he was entering Beaver's lodge, Beaver said, "Ho, pass around to
one side." And they seated Ictinike on a pillow. Beaver's wife said,
"We have been without food. How can we give your grandfather anything
to eat?" Now Beaver had four young ones.
The youngest Beaver said, "Father, let me serve for food." So the
youngest Beaver served for food. Beaver's wife therefore gave some of
the meat to Ictinike, who ate it. But before letting him eat it,
Beaver said to him, "Be careful lest you break even a single bone by
biting! Do not break a bone!" Yet Ictinike broke one of the toe bones.
After the meal, Beaver gathered the bones, put them in a skin, and
plunged them beneath the water. In a moment the youngest Beaver came
up from the water, alive again.
When the father said, "Is all right?" the son said, "Father, he broke
one of my toes by biting." Therefore, from that time, every beaver has
had one little toe (the next to the little one), which has seemingly
been split by biting.
When Ictinike was about to go home, he pretended he had forgotten
about his tobacco pouch, which he left behind. So Beaver said to one
of the children, "Take that to him. Do not go near him, but throw it
to him when you are at a great distance from him, as he is always very
talkative."
Then the child took the tobacco pouch and started after Ictinike.
After getting in sight of the latter, Little Beaver was about to throw
the pouch, when standing at a great distance; but Ictinike called to
him, "Come closer! come closer!" When young Beaver took the pouch
closer, Ictinike said, "Tell your father that he is to visit me."
When young Beaver reached home, he said, "Oh, father, he said you were
to visit him."
Beaver replied, "As I feared that very thing, I said to you, 'Throw it
to him while standing at a great distance from him.'"
Then Beaver went to visit Ictinike. When he arrived there, Ictinike
wished to kill one of his own children, as Beaver had done, and was
making him cry by hitting him often. Beaver was unwilling for him to
act thus, so he said, "Let him alone! You are hurting him!" Then
Beaver went to the stream where he found a young beaver that he took
back to the lodge, and they ate it.
On another day, Ictinike said to his wife, "Hand me that tobacco
pouch. I must go call on your grandfather, Muskrat." So he departed.
As he was entering Muskrat's lodge, the host said, "Ho, pass around to
one side." And Ictinike was seated on a pillow.
Muskrat's wife said, "We have been without food. How can we give your
grandfather anything to eat?"