Adventures of Two Boys
A chief had two daughters. He addressed the young
men, saying, "Whoever brings me a handsome dog, may marry my
daughters." The young men went and brought in many dogs, but the
chief always said he wanted a different kind. One of-two boys at
last brought him some small dogs. The chief was satisfied, and gave
him one of the girls in marriage; The second boy, while looking for
a dog, got to a beautiful unoccupied lodge. He rested there. It was
the dwelling of an ogre.1 When the ogre
came home, he said, "I am going to put you to work, you are going to
cook for me." The ogre used to cook people and horses. He owned one
mule. The mule once warned the boy, "After a while you will get
killed." The boy said he wanted to live and asked the mule to help
him. "If you run away and see a small dark cloud, that will be the
ogre." The boy rode away, mounted on the mule. The mule said, "When
the ogre pursues you, you will make me perspire white sweat. Bathe
your body in my sweat. The ogre will try to burn you up on a heap of
firewood, but with my perspiration on your body you cannot burn up."
After a while the ogre caught up to the boy and made him build a
fire. The boy said, "I shall first ride around on the mule." The
ogre consented. The boy bathed in the mule's sweat, then he built a
fire and undressed. When the fire was crackling, the ogre said, "If
you beat me in this trial, you may go away." The boy leapt into the
fire, but he remained unscathed. The ogre said, "If you pass through
it four times, then you will win." The boy succeeded at each trial.
Then the ogre said, "Let me have your horse." When he had taken the
mule, he asked, "What did you do when it sweated?" The boy told him,
and the ogre was also going to grease himself with the sweat. But
the boy had not told him the truth, telling him to ride gently and
not to make the mule sweat very much. The ogre followed his
directions. When he entered the fire, there was a sound like the
report of a gun, then the ogre was all burnt up.
The mule said, "Don't ride me too much and always give me plenty to
eat." The boy obeyed. He returned home. On the way he found a
beautiful dog. He brought it to the chief, who allowed him to marry
his second daughter. The chief had a good stable, and the boy put
his mule inside. "How did you get it?" asked the chief. Then the boy
told him his story. The mule told the boy not to make him sweat any
more, but some people were eager to try. One man asked him very
often. The boy refused to let him mount the mule, but he insisted on
going through the fire. At last, the boy yielded, and the man rode
through the fire, but was burnt up. Thereafter the people were
afraid of the mule.
The chief said, "'There are some cattle in the sea. If any one gets
them, I will resign my chieftaincy in his favor." His two
sons-in-law set out in a canoe. One of them dived down, but was
drowned. The mule-owner returned home. After a while he went back,
accompanied by another young man. He dived in, and brought up four
cattle, which he brought to the chief. Thus he became chief himself.
The old chief had a young child. Having no lodge now, he did not
know what to do. He made a little box, put it in the water, and left
the boy there. A woman found him and took him home. After he was
grown up, his father found him. "Where did you get that child?" he
asked the woman. "I found him in the water." "That is the child I
left there."
The Lecherous
Sister
(a)
Virgo cum fratre coire concupivit. Nocte dum omnes dormiunt prope
eum decubuit. Frater nesciens quacum coiret cum sorore coiit. In
order to discover what girl had visited him, he painted his hands
and rubbed them on her blanket.a1 When
daylight appeared, all the people went up a hill. The youth watched
the women fetching wood. When he saw his sister's robe stained, he
was ashamed. He went home and said, "I am going to travel." He
prepared his canoe. His sister asked, "Where are you going?" "I am
merely playing with the canoe." The girl said, "I will accompany
you." "Well, get your things ready, and we'll go together." She ran
back. In the mean time, the young man paddled away.
The young woman returned crying. Her brother was already far away.
She called out to him, "Ere you return, all your people will be
killed." The man paid no attention to his sister, but paddled on. In
the night he dreamt that his sister had killed all the people.
Returning home, he found that she had really killed all by lightning
and was flying about as a bird. "My brother is back, all the people
are dead." She was going to kill him too, but he had many dreams,
and invoked the Thunder, so that she could not hurt him. She did not
come near him then. Now he wanted to kill her, having dreamt of
various birds. He called on a hawk to catch her, but when it came
near her, she frightened it away, crying, "Big-Eyes, what are you
coming here for?" She flew from tree to tree. At last she was
exhausted, and another hawk caught her. Then her brother came,
killed her, and cut her to pieces. She had burnt up her own parents.
He cut up her flesh, and left a slice in every fireplace in the
camp. Then he bade all the people wake up. They became alive, and
were glad to have been rescued. They divided into two bands, which
moved in different directions.
In one of these bands there was an orphan boy living with his
grand-mother. (There follows the tale of the wonderful orphan who
secured food while other people starve. Vid. p. 134).
(b)
Two young women, as yet unknown to man, tried to seduce their
brother. The boy was ashamed and asked his father to build a nice
canoe for him. His father made one, and put plenty of food inside.
The boy did not say anything to his sisters, but his mother told
them their brother was going away. The sisters ran after their
brother. He pretended to step aside to ease himself, but in reality
he pulled out in his canoe. The girls saw him far out. They called
to him to return. When he refused to pay any attention to them, they
cried, "You will get drowned in the sea." They called on a big fish,
bidding him devour the boy, but the boy had dreamt of the fish and
cried, "Don't hurt me, it is I." The fish spared him.
The two sisters were playing with the children of the camp. They
said to them, "We will play bear, but you must not touch our anus."
They played for a while. Finally, a boy touched the anus of both
girls. Then they turned into real bears and killed all the children,
as well as the other people, save an orphan boy and girl who had
hidden in the moss. They also spared their own parents, but they
burnt their skin and blinded them with lightning. The orphans
traveled away.
The eagle said to the boy, " All your people have been killed by
your sisters. Your parents are alive, but they are burnt." The boy
returned to the camp. He saw smoke rising from one lodge, and found
his parents there. Thinking their bear-daughters were returning, the
old couple were terrified, but the boy made himself known to them.
Then they rejoiced. He asked, "Why are all these people dead?" "Your
sisters have killed them all." "When do you expect them to come
back?" "At noon you will see a black cloud. Your sisters are in it;
they cause the thunder." The youth called upon the birds to kill his
sisters. There was a rock jut-ting out from the water; he fashioned
it into an eagle. The girls caught sight of their brother, and were
frightened. They went up a tree. At last, they lit on the rock. Then
the stone eagle seized them and held them until the boy came, who
killed the women, burnt up their flesh and pulverized it. He took
his parent's into a sweat-lodge and cured them of their blindness.
Then he asked his father to look for a piece of hair in every lodge.
The old man brought the hair to him. Then he went around the next
day, calling on all the dead to get up and build a fire. All woke
up.1 The young man told his parents and the other people they would
have no more trouble, and went away to the sea, where he married.
The orphan children came near starving; they did not know at first
how to make fire. (There follows the tale of the orphan children.
The orphan boy is' identified with the sun-catcher.)
The Witch.2
A woman owned a bitch. One day the bitch said, "I am
going to give birth to two pintos." The woman and the dog
simultaneously gave birth to twins. Both the boys and the pintos
grew fast. One day one of the boys was riding his pinto. He heard
something coming. He built a fire. Suddenly he saw an old woman
standing on the other side of it. Both went to sleep. The woman woke
up, rose, and put medicine on the boy, killing him. When he did not
return, his brother went to look for him. Finding his brother's
corpse, he also went to sleep there. He heard the witch coming.
"That's the one that killed my brother," he thought. The old woman
lay down. "My grandson, I am tired out." "You can rest on the other
side." He did not sleep, but kept watching her. She thought he was
asleep. She had two medicines, one for poisoning, and the other for
resuscitating people. When she tried to poison him, he seized her
and killed her with her own medicine. With the other he restored his
brother to life.
1 Waxnun'jange wakan'.
a1 Cf. Wissler and Duvall, p. 107 (Blackfoot);
Dorsey and Kroeber, p. 209 (Arapaho); Kroeber, (d), p. 181
(Cheyenne).
b2 Cf. " The False Comrade," p. 205.
Assiniboin Mythology
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Anthropological Papers American Museum of Natural
History, 1909
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