| Once the camp moved, but one lodge stayed. It
belonged to Wolf Tail; and Wolf Tail's younger brother,
Bull Turns Round, lived with him. Now their father loved
both his sons, but he loved the younger one most, and
when he went away with the big camp, he said to Wolf
Tail: "Take care of your young brother; he is not yet a
strong person. Watch him that nothing befalls him."
One day Wolf Tail was out hunting, and Bull Turns
Round sat in front of the lodge making arrows, and a
beautiful strange bird lit on the ground before him.
Then cried one of Wolf Tail's wives, "Oh, brother, shoot
that little bird." "Don't bother me, sister," he
replied, "I am making arrows." Again the woman said,
"Oh, brother, shoot that bird for me." Then Bull Turns
Round fitted an arrow to his bow and shot the bird, and
the woman went and picked it up and stroked her face
with it, and her face swelled up so big that her eyes
and nose could not be seen. But when Bull Turns Round
had shot the bird, he went off hunting and did not know
what had happened to the woman's face.
Now when Wolf Tail came home and saw his wife's
face, he said, "What is the matter?" and his wife
replied: "Your brother has pounded me so that I cannot
see. Go now and kill him." But Wolf Tail said, "No, I
love my brother; I cannot kill him." Then his wife cried
and said: "I know you do not love me; you are glad your
brother has beaten me. If you loved me, you would go and
kill him."
Then Wolf Tail went out and looked for his
brother, and when he had found him, he said: "Come, let
us get some feathers. I know where there is an eagle's
nest;" and he took him to a high cliff, which overhung
the river, and on the edge of this cliff was a dead
tree, in the top of which the eagles had built their
nest. Then said Wolf Tail, "Climb up, brother, and kill
the eagles;" and when Bull Turns Round had climbed
nearly to the top, Wolf Tail called out, "I am going to
push the tree over the cliff, and you will be killed."
"Oh, brother, oh, brother, pity me; do not kill
me," said Bull Turns Round.
"Why did you beat my wife's face so?" said Wolf
Tail.
"I didn't," cried the boy; "I don't know what
you are talking about."
"You lie," said Wolf Tail, and he pushed the
tree over the cliff. He looked over and saw his brother
fall into the water, and he did not come up again. Then
Wolf Tail went home and took down his lodge, and went to
the main camp. When his father saw him coming with only
his wives, he said to him, "Where is your young
brother?" And Wolf Tail replied: "He went hunting and
did not come back. We waited four days for him. I think
the bears must have killed him."
Now when Bull Turns Round fell into the river,
he was stunned, and the water carried him a long way
down the stream and finally lodged him on a sand shoal.
Near this shoal was a lodge of Under Water People
(S[=u]'-y[=e]-t[)u]p'-pi), an old man, his wife, and two
daughters. This old man was very rich: he had great
flocks of geese, swans, ducks, and other water-fowl, and
a big herd of buffalo which were tame. These buffalo
always fed near by, and the old man called them every
evening to come and drink. But he and his family ate
none of these. Their only food was the bloodsucker.1
Now the old man's daughters were swimming about
in the evening, and they found Bull Turns Round lying on
the shoal, dead, and they went home and told their
father, and begged him to bring the person to life, and
give him to them for a husband. "Go, my daughters," he
said, "and make four sweat lodges, and I will bring the
person." He went and got Bull Turns Round, and when the
sweat lodges were finished, the old man took him into
one of them, and when he had sprinkled water on the hot
rocks, he scraped a great quantity of sand off Bull
Turns Round. Then he took him into another lodge and did
the same thing, and when he had taken him into the
fourth sweat lodge and scraped all the sand off him,
Bull Turns Round came to life, and the old man led him
out and gave him to his daughters. And the old man gave
his son-in-law a new lodge and bows and arrows, and many
good presents.
Then the women cooked some bloodsuckers, and
gave them to their husband, but when he smelled of them
he could not eat, and he threw them in the fire. Then
his wives asked him what he would eat. "Buffalo," he
replied, "is the only meat for men."
"Oh, father!" cried the girls, running to the
old man's lodge, "our husband will not eat our food. He
says buffalo is the only meat for men."
"Go then, my daughters," said the old man, "and
tell your husband to kill a buffalo, but do not take nor
break any bones, for I will make it alive again." Then
the old man called the buffalo to come and drink, and
Bull Turns Round shot a fat cow and took all the meat.
And when he had roasted the tongue, he gave each of his
wives a small piece of it, and they liked it, and they
roasted and ate plenty of the meat.
One day Bull Turns Round went to the old man and
said, "I mourn for my father."
"How did you come to be dead on the sand shoal?"
asked the old man. Then Bull Turns Round told what his
brother had done to him.
"Take this piece of sinew," said the old man.
"Go and see your father. When you throw this sinew on
the fire, your brother and his wife will roll, and twist
up and die." Then the old man gave him a herd of
buffalo, and many dogs to pack the lodge, and other
things; and Bull Turns Round took his wives, and went to
find his father.
One day, just after sunset, they came in sight
of the big camp, and they went and pitched the lodge on
the top of a very high butte; and the buffalo fed close
by, and there were so many of them that they covered the
whole hill.
Now the people were starving, and some had died,
for they had no buffalo. In the morning, early, a man
arose whose son had starved to death, and when he went
out and saw this lodge on the top of the hill, and all
the buffalo feeding by it, he cried out in a loud voice;
and the people all came out and looked at it, and they
were afraid, for they thought it was St[=o]n'-i-t[)a]p-i.2
Then said the man whose son had died: "I am no longer
glad to live. I will go up to this lodge, and find out
what this is." Now when he said this, all the men
grasped their bows and arrows and followed him, and when
they went up the hill, the buffalo just moved out of
their path and kept on feeding; and just as they came to
the lodge, Bull Turns Round came out, and all the people
said, "Here is the one whom we thought the bears had
killed." Wolf Tail ran up, and said, "Oh, brother, you
are not dead. You went to get feathers, but we thought
you had been killed." Then Bull Turns Round called his
brother into the lodge, and he threw the sinew on the
fire; and Wolf Tail, and his wife, who was standing
outside, twisted up and died.
Then Bull Turns Round told his father all that
had happened to him; and when he learned that the people
were starving, he filled his mouth with feathers and
blew them out, and the buffalo ran off in every
direction, and he said to the people, "There is food, go
chase it." Then the people were very glad, and they came
each one and gave him a present. They gave him war
shirts, bows and arrows, shields, spears, white robes,
and many curious things.
1. [Footnote 1: Blackfoot
Est'-st[)u]k-ki, suck-bite; from Est-ah-tope, suck, and
I-sik-st[)u]k-ki, bite.]
2. [Footnote 2: There is no word in
English which corresponds to this. It is used when
speaking of things wonderful or supernatural.] |
