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Once a camp of
people stopped on the bank of a river. There were but a
few lodges of them. One day the little children in the
camp crossed the river to play on the other side. For
some time they stayed near the bank, and then they went
up over a little hill, and found a bed of sand and
gravel; and there they played for a long time.
There were eleven of these
children. Two of them were daughters of the chief of the
camp, and the smaller of these wanted the best of
everything. If any child found a pretty stone, she would
try to take it for herself. The other children did not
like this, and they began to tease the little girl, and
to take her things away from her. Then she got angry and
began to cry, and the more she cried, the more the
children teased her; so at last she and her sister left
the others, and went back to the camp.
When they got there, they told
their father what the other children had done to them,
and this made the chief very angry. He thought for a
little while, and then got up and went out of the lodge,
and called aloud, so that everybody might hear, saying:
"Listen, listen! Your children have teased my child and
made her cry. Now we will move away, and leave them
behind. If they come back before we get started, they
shall be killed. If they follow us and overtake the
camp, they shall be killed. If the father and mother of
any one of them take them into their lodge, I will kill
that father and mother. Hurry now, hurry and pack up, so
that we can go. Everybody tear down the lodges, as
quickly as you can."
When the people heard this, they
felt very sorry, but they had to do as the chief said;
so they tore down the lodges, and quickly packed the dog
travois, and started off. They packed in such a hurry
that they left many little things lying in camp, knives
and awls, bone needles and moccasins.
The little children played about in
the sand for a long time, but at last they began to get
hungry; and one little girl said to the others, "I will
go back to the camp, and get some dried meat and bring
it here, so that we may eat." And she started to go to
the camp. When she came to the top of the hill and
looked across the river, she saw that there were no
lodges there, and did not know what to think of it. She
called down to the children, and said, "The camp has
gone"; but they did not believe her, and went on
playing. She kept on calling, and at last some of them
came to her, and then all, and saw that it was as she
had said. They went down to the river, and crossed it,
and went to where the lodges had stood. When they got
there, they saw on the ground the things that had been
left out in packing; and as each child saw and knew
something that had belonged to its own parents, it cried
and sang a little song, saying: "Mother, here is your
bone needle; why did you leave your children?" "Father,
here is your arrow; why did you leave your children?" It
was very mournful, and they all cried.
There was among them a little girl
who had on her back her baby brother, whom she loved
dearly. He was very young, a nursing child, and already
he was hungry and beginning to fret. This little girl
said to the others: "We do not know why they have gone,
but we know they have gone. We must follow the trail of
the camp, and try to catch up with them." So the
children started to follow the camp. They traveled on
all day; and just at night they saw, near the trail, a
little lodge. They had heard the people talk of a bad
old woman who killed and ate persons, and some of the
children thought that this old woman might live here;
and they were afraid to go to the lodge. Others said:
"Perhaps some person lives here who has a good heart. We
are very tired and very hungry and have nothing to eat
and no place to keep warm. Let us go to this lodge."
They went to it; and when they went
in, they saw sitting by the fire an old woman. She spoke
kindly to them, and asked them where they were
traveling; and they told her that the camp had moved on
and left them, and that they were trying to find their
people, that they had nothing to eat, and were tired and
hungry. The old woman fed them, and told them to sleep
here tonight, and tomorrow they could go on and find
their people. "The camp," she said, "passed here today
when the sun was low. They have not gone far. Tomorrow
you will overtake them." She spread some robes on the
ground and said: "Now lie here and sleep. Lie side by
side with your heads toward the fire, and when morning
comes, you can go on your journey." The children lay
down and soon slept. In the middle of the night,
the old woman got up, and built a big fire, and put on
it a big stone kettle, full of water. Then she took a
big knife, and, commencing at one end of the row, began
to cut off the heads of the children, and to throw them
into the pot. The little girl with the baby brother lay
at the other end of the row, and while the old woman was
doing this, she awoke and saw what was taking place.
When the old woman came near to her, she jumped up and
began to beg that she would not kill her. "I am strong,"
she said. "I will work hard for you. I can bring your
wood and water, and tan your skins. Do not kill my
little brother and me. Take pity on us and save us
alive. Everybody has left us, but do you have pity. You
shall see how quickly I will work, how you will always
have plenty of wood. I can work quickly and well." The
old woman thought for a little while, then she said:
"Well, I will let you live for a time, anyhow. You shall
sleep safely tonight."
The next day, early, the little
girl took her brother on her back, and went out and
gathered a big pile of wood, and brought it to the lodge
before the old woman was awake. When she got up, she
called to the girl, "Go to the river and get a bucket of
water." The girl put her brother on her back, and took
the bucket to go. The old woman said to her: "Why do you
carry that child everywhere? Leave him here." The girl
said: "Not so. He is always with me, and if I leave him
he will cry and make a great noise, and you will not
like that." The old woman grumbled, but the girl went on
down to the river.
When she got there, just as she was
going to fill her bucket, she saw standing by her a
great bull. It was a mountain buffalo, one of those who
live in the timber; and the long hair of its head was
all full of pine needles and sticks and branches, and
matted together. (It was a Su'ye-st[)u]'mik, a water
bull.) When the girl saw him, she prayed him to take her
across the river, and so to save her and her little
brother from the bad old woman. The bull said, "I will
take you across, but first you must take some of the
sticks out of my head." The girl begged him to start at
once; but the bull said, "No, first take the sticks out
of my head." The girl began to do it, but before she had
done much, she heard the old woman calling to her to
bring the water. The girl called back, "I am trying to
get the water clear," and went on fixing the buffalo's
head. The old woman called again, saying, "Hurry, hurry
with that water." The girl answered, "Wait, I am washing
my little brother." Pretty soon the old woman called
out, "If you don't bring that water, I will kill you and
your brother." By this time the girl had most of the
sticks out of the bull's head, and he told her to get on
his back, and went into the water and swam with her
across the river. As he reached the other bank, the girl
could see the old woman coming from her lodge down to
the river with a big stick in her hand.
When the bull reached the bank, the
girl jumped off his back and started off on the trail of
the camp. The bull swam back again to the other side of
the river, and there stood the old woman. This bull was
a sort of servant of the old woman. She said to him:
"Why did you take those children across the river? Take
me on your back now and carry me across quickly, so that
I can catch them." The bull said, "First take these
sticks out of my head." "No," said the old woman; "first
take me across, then I will take the sticks out." The
bull repeated, "First take the sticks out of my head,
then I will take you across." This made the old woman
very mad, and she hit him with the stick she had in her
hand; but when she saw that he would not go, she began
to pull the sticks out of his head very roughly, tearing
out great handfuls of hair, and every moment ordering
him to go, and threatening what she would do to him when
she got back. At last the bull took her on his back, and
began to swim across with her, but he did not swim fast
enough to please her, so she began to pound him with her
club to make him go faster; and when the bull got to the
middle of the river, he rolled over on his side, and the
old woman slipped off, and was carried down the river
and drowned.
The girl followed the trail of the
camp for several days, feeding on berries and roots that
she dug; and at last one night after dark she overtook
the camp. She went into the lodge of an old woman, who
was camped off at one side, and the old woman pitied her
and gave her some food, and told her where her father's
lodge was. The girl went to it, but when she went in,
her parents would not receive her. She had tried to
overtake them for the sake of her little brother, who
was growing thin and weak because he had not nursed; and
now her mother was afraid to have her stay with them.
She even went and told the chief that her children had
come back. Now when the chief heard that these two
children had come back, he was angry; and he ordered
that the next day they should be tied to a post in the
camp, and that the people should move on and leave them
here. "Then," he said, "they cannot follow us."
The old woman who had pitied the
children, when she heard what the chief had ordered,
made up a bundle of dried meat, and hid it in the grass
near the camp. Then she called her dog to her, a little
curly dog. She said to the dog:
"Now listen. Tomorrow when we are
ready to start, I will call you to come to me, but you
must pay no attention to what I say. Run off, and
pretend to be chasing squirrels. I will try to catch
you, and if I do so, I will pretend to whip you; but do
not follow me. Stay behind, and when the camp has passed
out of sight, chew off the strings that bind those
children; and when you have done this, show them where I
have hidden that food. Then you can follow the camp and
catch up to us." The dog stood before the old woman, and
listened to all that she said, turning his head from
side to side, as if paying close attention.
Next morning it was done as the
chief had said. The children were tied to the tree with
raw hide strings, and the people tore down all the
lodges and moved off. The old woman called her dog to
follow her, but he was digging at a gopher hole and
would not come. Then she went up to him and struck at
him hard with her whip, but he dodged and ran away, and
then stood looking at her. Then the old woman got very
mad and cursed him, but he paid no attention; and
finally she left him, and followed the camp. When the
people had all passed out of sight, the dog went to the
children, and gnawed the strings which tied them, until
he had bitten them through. So the children were free.
Then the dog was glad, and danced
about and barked and ran round and round. Pretty soon he
came up to the little girl, and looked up in her face,
and then started away, trotting. Every little while he
would stop and look back. The girl thought he wanted her
to follow him. She did so, and he took her to where the
bundle of dried meat was, and showed it to her. Then,
when he had done this, he jumped up on her, and licked
the baby's face, and then started off, running as hard
as he could along the trail of the camp, never stopping
to look back. The girl did not follow him. She now knew
that it was no use to go to the camp again. Their
parents would not receive them, and the chief would
perhaps order them to be killed.
She went on her way, carrying her
little brother and the bundle of dried meat. She
traveled for many days, and at last came to a place
where she thought she would stop. Here she built a
little lodge of poles and brush, and stayed there. One
night she had a dream, and an old woman came to her in
the dream, and said to her, "Tomorrow take your little
brother, and tie him to one of the lodge poles, and the
next day tie him to another, and so every day tie him to
one of the poles, until you have gone all around the
lodge and have tied him to each pole. Then you will be
helped, and will no more have bad luck."
When the girl awoke in the morning,
she remembered what the dream had told her, and she
bound her little brother to one of the lodge poles; and
each day after this she tied him to one of the poles.
Each day he grew larger, until, when she had gone all
around the lodge, he was grown to be a fine young man.
Now the girl was glad, and proud of
her young brother who was so large and noble-looking. He
was quiet, not speaking much, and sometimes for days he
would not say anything. He seemed to be thinking all the
time. One morning he told the girl that he had a dream
and that he wished her to help him build a pis'kun. She
was afraid to ask him about the dream, for she thought
if she asked questions he might not like it. So she just
said she was ready to do what he wished. They built the
pis'kun, and when it was finished, the boy said to his
sister: "The buffalo are to come to us, and you are not
to see them. When the time comes, you are to cover your
head and to hold your face close to the ground; and do
not lift your head nor look, until I throw a piece of
kidney to you." The girl said, "It shall be as you say."
When the time came, the boy told
her where to go; and she went to the place, a little way
from the lodge, not far from the corral, and sat down on
the ground, and covered her head, holding her face close
to the earth. After she had sat there a little while,
she heard the sound of animals running, and she was
excited and curious, and raised her head to look; but
all she saw was her brother, standing near, looking at
her. Before he could speak, she said to him: "I thought
I heard buffalo coming, and because I was anxious for
food, I forgot my promise and looked. Forgive me this
time, and I will try again." Again she bent her face to
the ground, and covered her head.
Soon she heard again the sound of
animals running, at first a long way off, and then
coming nearer and nearer, until at last they seemed
close, and she thought they were going to run over her.
She sprang up in fright and looked about, but there was
nothing to be seen but her brother, looking sadly at
her. She went close to him and said: "Pity me. I was
afraid, for I thought the buffalo were going to run over
me." He said: "This is the last time. If again you look,
we will starve; but if you do not look, we will always
have plenty, and will never be without meat." The girl
looked at him, and said, "I will try hard this time, and
even if those animals run right over me, I will not look
until you throw the kidney to me." Again she covered her
head, pressing her face against the earth and putting
her hands against her ears, so that she might not hear.
Suddenly, sooner than she thought, she felt the blow
from the meat thrown at her, and, springing up, she
seized the kidney and began to eat it. Not far away was
her brother, bending over a fat cow; and, going up to
him, she helped him with the butchering. After that was
done, she kindled a fire and cooked the best parts of
the meat, and they ate and were satisfied.
The boy became a great hunter. He
made fine arrows that went faster than a bird could fly,
and when he was hunting, he watched all the animals and
all the birds, and learned their ways, and how to
imitate them when they called. While he was hunting, the
girl dressed buffalo hides and the skins of deer and
other animals. She made a fine new lodge, and the boy
painted it with figures of all the birds and the animals
he had killed.
One day, when the girl was bringing
water, she saw a little way off a person coming. When
she went in the lodge, she told her brother, and he went
out to meet the stranger. He found that he was friendly
and was hunting, but had had bad luck and killed
nothing. He was starving and in despair, when he saw
this lone lodge and made up his mind to go to it. As he
came near it, he began to be afraid, and to wonder if
the people who lived there were enemies or ghosts; but
he thought, "I may as well die here as starve," so he
went boldly to it. The strange person was very much
surprised to see this handsome young man with the kind
face, who could speak his own language. The boy took him
into the lodge, and the girl put food before him. After
he had eaten, he told his story, saying that the game
had left them, and that many of his people were dying of
hunger. As he talked, the girl listened; and at last she
remembered the man, and knew that he belonged to her
camp. She asked him questions, and he talked about all
the people in the camp, and even spoke of the old woman
who owned the dog. The boy advised the stranger, after
he had rested, to return to his camp, and tell the
people to move up to this place, that here they would
find plenty of game. After he had gone, the boy and his
sister talked of these things. The girl had often told
him what she had suffered, what the chief had said and
done, and how their own parents had turned against her,
and that the only person whose heart had been good to
her was this old woman. As the young man heard all this
again, he was angry at his parents and the chief, but he
felt great kindness for the old woman and her dog. When
he learned that those bad people were living, he made up
his mind that they should suffer and die.
When the strange person reached his
own camp, he told the people how well he had been
treated by these two persons, and that they wished him
to bring the whole camp to where they were, and that
there they should have plenty. This made great joy in
the camp, and all got ready to move. When they reached
the lost children's camp, they found everything as the
stranger had said. The brother gave a feast; and to
those whom he liked he gave many presents, but to the
old woman and the dog he gave the best presents of all.
To the chief nothing at all was given, and this made him
very much ashamed. To the parents no food was given, but
the boy tied a bone to the lodge poles above the fire,
and told the parents to eat from it without touching it
with their hands. They were very hungry, and tried to
eat from this bone; and as they were stretching out
their necks to reach it for it was above them the boy
cut off their heads with his knife. This frightened all
the people, the chief most of all; but the boy told them
how it all was, and how he and his sister had survived.
When he had finished speaking, the
chief said he was sorry for what he had done, and he
proposed to his people that this young man should be
made their chief. They were glad to do this. The boy was
made the chief, and lived long to rule the people in
that camp.
Blackfoot Mythology |
