Pawnee Hero Stories and Folk-Tales Part 6

The next night the bird came, and was flying about near him after dark, waiting for the time. When the time came, the bird flew close to him, and said, "Come. Let us go to the edge of the cut bank." When they had come to the edge of the bank above the water in the river, the bird said, "Now, my friend, you are poor. What I do, you do. When I dive down off this bank, you follow me." The man replied to him, "Yes, I am poor. Whatever you tell me to do, I will do." So when the bird dived down off the cut bank, the man threw off everything, and cared nothing for what he did except to follow the bird. He leaped down after it, and as he sprang, it seemed to him that he felt like a bird, and could sail this way and that. He did not feel as if he were falling, and were going to be hurt, but as if he were flying, and could control his movements. Just as he reached the water in his fall, it seemed to him that he was standing in the entrance way of a lodge, and could look through into it and see the fire burning in the middle.

While he was standing there, the bird flew in ahead of him, and he heard it say, "Here he is." He stepped toward the entrance, and just as he came to it the _Nahu'rac_ all made their different noises, for they are not used to the smell of human beings. The bears growled, and the panthers and wild cats and wolves and rattlesnakes and other animals all made their sounds. As he went in, there was a bear standing on one side, and a great snake on the other, and it was very difficult for the man to go in. He hesitated a little to enter that narrow pa.s.sage, but something behind him seemed to push him ahead, although the bear stood ready to seize him, and the snake was rattling and standing up as if about to strike. If he had not had the courage to pa.s.s them he would have been lost, but he looked neither to the right nor to the left, but walked straight ahead past them. As soon as he had pa.s.sed them, they both sank back and were quiet. Then all the _Nahu'rac_ made another kind of a noise, as if welcoming him. The bear began to lie down; and the snake stretched itself out again. As he went in he just stood there and looked around. He saw there all kinds of animals. The head doctor was a white beaver, very large, there was another a garfish, another an otter, and the fourth was a sandhill crane.

The man sat down, and he looked very pitiful. Then for a while everything was silent. Then the servant said to the four head doctors, "I have brought this man here. I have taken pity on him, and I want you to take pity on him." Then it was more silent than ever. The man looked about him, and saw all the animals, and saw them roll their eyes around at him.

Presently the servant got up, and stood right in the midst. The head doctors sat at the back of the lodge opposite the door on the other side of the fire. The bird said, "My rulers, you know me. I am your servant, and I am always obedient to your commands. No matter what you tell me to do, I do it. No matter how long the journeys you send me on, I go. Many nights I have lost sleep because of carrying out your commands. I have seen this man many times, and I am weary of his crying as I fly back and forth. Now, I want you to take pity on this man, because I pity him. Look on this poor-minded man and pity him."

Then the bird went to the young man, and took from him his pipe, which was filled, and carried it round and stood before the beaver, the head doctor, and held out the pipe to him to take. The white beaver did not stretch out his hand for it, and the bird stood there for a long time.

At last the bird began to cry, and the tears began to run down its face, and it cried hard; and at last the white beaver stretched out his hand, and then drew it back again, and hesitated; and the bird kept on crying, and at length the head doctor reached out his hand and took the pipe. Just as soon as he took the pipe, all the animals made a kind of a hissing sound, as much as to say, _Loo'ah_--Good. They were pleased. Then the white beaver, holding the pipe, said, "I cannot help but reach out for this pipe, for I take pity on my servant. But it is impossible for me to promise that I will do this thing, but I will do what I can. I will leave it to this other _Nahu'rac_ to say what shall be done;" and he pa.s.sed the pipe to the other _Nahu'rac_ who sat next to him. This animal reached for the pipe, and took it. He made a speech, and said, "My friends, I am poor, I am poor. I have not such power as that;" and he pa.s.sed the pipe to another; and he said, "I have not the power;" and he pa.s.sed it to another; and so it went around the circle. The pipe had pa.s.sed around, and none of the _Nahu'rac_ had the power. None of them seemed to understand how to help the man. Then the white beaver said, "My friend, you see that no one of us have the power to help you. There is another lodge of _Nahu'rac_ at _Pa'howa_. You must go there and ask them." Then the _Nahu'rac_ made medicine, and the young man went to sleep, and when he awoke at daylight, he found himself on the point where he had lain down to sleep the night before.

He was discouraged and wept all day long. At night the elk came to him and said, "Go to sleep; I will take you over to _Pa'howa_." The man slept and the elk took him on its back and carried him while asleep, and the next morning he found himself on that point of _Pa'howa_.

That night the messenger bird came to him and said, "Now, my friend, follow me, and what you see me do, that do yourself. When I dive down into _Pa'howa_, you follow me." The bird dived down into the spring, and the young man jumped after him, and again found himself standing at the door of a lodge, and the same things took place as before. Here the same animals were the head doctors. The chief head doctor talked to the boy and said, "My friend, I am sorry you have come to me in the condition you are in. My friend, this is something impossible. If it were anything else it might be possible for us to cure your trouble.

Nothing like it was ever known before."

When he had said this he turned to the _Nahu'rac_ and said, "Now you shall be the leaders. If there are any of you who understand things like this; if any of you can take the lead in things like this, why do it. It is beyond my power. Say what shall be done, any of you. My mind would be big if any of you could take pity on this poor man."

Another one of the _Nahu'rac_ stood up and spoke, "My brother [to the white beaver], and my brother [to the young man], do not feel hard at me. This is beyond my power. I cannot do anything to help him." So it went around the circle, every one saying that it was impossible. After it had gone round, the head doctor again stood up and said, "Now, my friend, you can see that it is impossible to cure you of this trouble, but there is another lodge of the _Nahu'rac_ on the west side of the Loup River. You go there." Then they put him to sleep, and when he awoke next morning, he was on top of the ground near _Pa'howa_.

That night the elk took him while he was asleep to the place on the Loup. The next night he was sitting on the ground there, and the bird came to him, and he followed the bird down over the bank and into the _Nahu'rac_ lodge. Here the head doctors were the same animals, and they made speeches as had been done at the other places, and, as before, it was left to the a.s.sembly, and all agreed that it was beyond their power. Then the white beaver directed him to go to an island in the Platte, near the Lone Tree, where there was another lodge of the _Nahu'rac_. The elk took him to this island. Under the center of this island was the lodge. The messenger bird was with him and went into the lodge and asked the _Nahu'rac_ to help him. The white beaver made a speech, and said, "My friend, I have heard the condition that you are in. Of all these lodges that you have visited, that lodge at _Pa-huk'_ is the head. I want you to go back there, and tell the leaders there that they are the rulers, and that whatever they shall do will be right, and will be agreed to by the other lodges. They must help you if they can. If they cannot do it, no one can."

When the elk took him back to _Pa-huk'_, the bird again conducted him into the lodge. He had left his pipe here. When he entered the lodge all the animals made a hissing sound--_No'a_--they were glad to see him again. The man stood in the middle of the lodge and spoke. He said, "Now you animals all, you are the leaders. You see how poor my mind is. I am tired of the long journeys you have sent me on. I want you to take pity on me."

The white beaver stood up and took the pipe and said, "Oh, my brother, I have done this to try these other lodges of _Nahu'rac_, to see if any of them were equal to me. That was the reason that I sent you around to all these other lodges, to see if any of them would be willing to undertake to rid you of your burden. But I see that they all still acknowledge that I am the leader. Now I have here an animal that I think will undertake to help you and to rid you of your trouble." Saying this he stepped out to the right, and walked past some of the _Nahu'rac_ until he came to a certain animal--a ground dog--and held out the pipe to it. There were twelve of these animals, all alike--small, with round faces and black whiskers--sitting on their haunches. He held out the pipe to the head one of these twelve.

When the white beaver reached out the pipe to this animal he did not take it. He hesitated a long time, and held his head down. He did not want to take the pipe. He looked around the lodge, and at the man, and drew in his breath. At last he reached out his paws and took the pipe, and as he did so, all the _Nahu'rac_ made a noise, the biggest kind of a noise. They were glad.

Then the head ground dog got up and said, "Now, doctors, I have accepted this pipe on account of our servant, who is so faithful, and who many a night has lost sleep on account of our commands. I have accepted it for his sake. It is impossible to do this thing. If it had been earlier, I could perhaps have done it. Even now I will try, and if I fail now, we can do nothing for him."

After they had smoked, they told the man to go and sit down opposite the entrance to the lodge, between the head doctors and the fire.

These twelve animals stood up and walked back and forth on the opposite side of the fire from him, facing him. After a while they told him to stand up. The head ground dog now asked the other _Nahu'rac_ to help him, by singing, and they all sang; and the ground dogs danced, keeping time to the singing, and moved their hands up and down, and made their jaws go as if eating, but did not open their mouths.

After a while they told him to lie down with his head toward the doctors and his feet toward the entrance. After he had lain down, they began to move and went round the lodge toward him, and the head ground dog jumped over the man's belly, and as he jumped over him he was seen to have a big piece of flesh in his mouth, and was eating it. Another ground dog followed him, and another, and each one ran until he came to the man, and as each one jumped over him, it had a piece of flesh in its mouth, eating it. So they kept going until they had eaten all the swelling. The young man was unconscious all this time, for he afterward said he knew nothing of what had happened.

The head ground dog spoke to the animals, and said, "Now, _Nahu'rac_, you have seen what I can do. This is the power that I have. That is the reason I am afraid to be out on the prairie, because when I get hungry I would kill men and would eat them. My appet.i.te would overpower me, and I do not want to do these things, I want to be friendly. This is the reason that I do not travel around on top of the ground. I stay hid all the time."

The man was still unconscious, and the head ground dog said, "Now, _Nahu'rac_, I do not understand how to restore this man. I leave that to you." Then the ground dogs went back to their places and sat down.

Then the head doctor, the beaver, spoke to the bears. He said, "Now this man belongs to you. Let me see what you can do." The head bear got up and said, "Very well, I will come. I will let you see what I can do." Then the bears stood up and began to sing. The head bear would jump on top of the man, and act as if he were going to tear him to pieces, and the others would take hold of him, and shake him around, and at last his blood began to flow and the man began to breathe, but he was still unconscious. After a while he moved and came to life, and felt himself just as he had been many months before. He found that his trouble was gone and that he was cured.

The head bear still stood by him and spoke to the _Nahu'rac_. He said, "Now, _Nahu'rac_, this is what I can do. I do not care how dangerously wounded I may be, I know how to cure myself. If they leave any breath at all in me, I know how to cure myself." Then the bears went to their place and sat down.

The man got up and spoke to the _Nahu'rac_, thanking them for what they had done for him. He stayed there several nights, watching the doings of the _Nahu'rac_. They taught him all their ways, all the animal secrets. The head doctor said to him, "Now, I am going to send you back to your home, but I will ask a favor of you, in return for what I have done for you."

The man answered him, "It will be so, whatever you say."

The doctor said, "Through you let my animals that move in the river be fed. Now you can see who we are. I move in the water. I have no breath, but I exist. We every one of us shall die except _Ti-ra'-wa_.

He made us, just as he made you. He made you to live in the air. We live where there is no air. You see the difference. I know where is that great water that surrounds us [the ocean]. I know that the heaven [sky] is the house of _Ti-ra'-wa_, and we live inside of it. You must imitate us. Do as we do. You must place your dependence on us, but still, if anything comes up that is very difficult, you must put your dependence on _Ti-ra'-wa_. Ask help from the ruler. He made us. He made every thing. There are different ways to different creatures.

What you do I do not do, and what I do you do not do. We are different. When you imitate us you must always blow a smoke to each one of these four chief doctors, once to each; but to _Ti-ra'-wa_ you must blow four smokes. And always blow four to the night, to the east, because something may tell you in your sleep a thing which will happen. This smoke represents the air filled with the smoke of hazy days. That smoke is pleasant to _Ti-ra'-wa_. He made it himself. Now go home, and after you have been there for a time, go and pay a visit to the doctor who put you in this condition."

The young man went home to his village, and got there in the night. He had long been mourned as dead, and his father was now poor in mind on account of him. He went into his father's lodge, and touched him, and said, "Wake up, I am here."

His father could not believe it. He had thought him dead a long time.

He said, "Is it you, or is it a ghost?"

The young man answered, "It is I, just the same as ever. Get up, and go and tell my uncles and all my relations that I am here. I want you to give me something; a blue bead, and some Indian tobacco, and some buffalo meat, and a pipe."

The father went about and told his relations that his son had come back, and they were very glad, and came into the lodge, bringing the presents, and gave them to the boy. He took them, and went down to the river, and threw them in, and they were carried down to the _Nahu'rac_ lodge at _Pa-huk'_.

A few days after this the boy got on his horse, and rode away to visit the doctor who had brought his trouble on him. When he reached the village, the people said to the doctor, "A man is coming to visit you," and the doctor was troubled, for he knew what he had done to the boy. But he thought that he knew so much that no one could get the better of him. When the boy came to the lodge, he got off his horse, went in and was welcomed. After they had eaten, the boy said to him, "When you visited me we smoked your tobacco; to-day we will smoke mine."

They did so, for the doctor thought that no one could overcome him.

They smoked until daylight, and while they were smoking, the boy kept moving his jaws as if eating, but did not open his mouth. At daylight the boy said he must be going. He went, and when he got down to the river, he blew strongly upon the ice, and immediately the water in the river was full of blood. It was the blood of the doctor. It seems that the ground dogs had taught the young man how to do their things.

When the people found the doctor he was dead in his lodge, and he was all hollow. All his blood and the inside of him had gone into the river, and had gone down to feed the animals. So the boy kept his promise to the _Nahu'rac_ and had revenge on the doctor.

The boy was the greatest doctor in the Kit-ke-hahk'-i band, and was the first who taught them all the doctors' ceremonies that they have.

He taught them all the wonderful things that the doctors can do, and many other things.

[Ill.u.s.tration: OLD-FASHIONED KNIFE.]

THE BEAR MAN.

There was once a young boy, who, when he was playing with his fellows, used often to imitate the ways of a bear, and to pretend that he was one. The boys did not know much about bears. They only knew that there were such animals.

Now, it had happened that before this boy was born his mother had been left alone at home, for his father had gone on the warpath toward the enemy, and this was about five or six months before the babe would be born. As the man was going on the warpath, he came upon a little bear cub, very small, whose mother had gone away; and he caught it. He did not want to kill it because it was so young and helpless. It seemed to him like a little child. It looked up to him, and cried after him, because it knew no better; and he hated to kill it or to leave it there. After he had thought about this for a while, he put a string around its neck and tied some medicine smoking stuff, Indian tobacco, to it, and said, "_Pi-rau'_--child, you are a _Nahu'rac_; _Ti-ra'-wa_ made you, and takes care of you. He will look after you, but I put these things about your neck to show that I have good feelings toward you. I hope that when my child is born, the _Nahu'rac_ will take care of him, and see that he grows up a good man, and I hope that _Ti-ra'-wa_ will take care of you and of mine." He looked at the little bear for quite a long time, and talked to it, and then he went on his way.

When he returned to the village from his warpath, he told his wife about the little bear, and how he had looked at it and talked to it.

When his child was born it had all the ways of a bear. So it is among the p.a.w.nees. A woman, before her child is born, must not look hard at any animal, for the child may be like it. There was a woman in the Kit-ke-hahk'-i band, who caught a rabbit, and, because it was gentle and soft, she took it up in her hands and held it before her face and petted it, and when her child was born it had a split nose, like a rabbit. This man is still alive.

This boy, who was like a bear, as he grew up, had still more the ways of a bear. Often he would go off by himself, and try to pray to the bear, because he felt like a bear. He used to say, in a joking way, to the other young men, that he could make himself a bear.

After he had come to be a man, he started out once on the warpath with a party of about thirty-five others. He was the leader of the party.

They went away up on the Running Water, and before they had come to any village, they were discovered by Sioux. The enemy pursued them, and surrounded them, and fought with them. The p.a.w.nees were overpowered, their enemies were so many, and all were killed.

The country where this took place is rocky, and much cedar grows there. Many bears lived there. The battle was fought in the morning; and the p.a.w.nees were all killed in a hollow. Right after the fight, in the afternoon, two bears came traveling along by this place. When they came to the spot where the p.a.w.nees had been killed, they found one of the bodies, and the she bear recognized it as that of the boy who was like a bear. She called to the he bear, and said, "Here is the man that was very good to us. He often sacrificed smokes to us, and every time he ate he used always to take a piece of food and give it to us, saying, 'Here is something for you to eat. Eat this.' Here is the one that always imitated us, and sung about us, and talked about us. Can you do anything for him?" The he bear said, "I fear I cannot do it. I have not the power, but I will try. I can do anything if the sun is shining. I seem to have more power when the sun is shining on me."

That day it was cloudy and cold and snowing. Every now and then the clouds would pa.s.s, and the sun come out for a little while, and then the clouds would cover it up again.

The man was all cut up, pretty nearly hacked in small pieces, for he was the bravest of all. The two bears gathered up the pieces of the man, and put them together, and then the he bear lay down and took the man on his breast, and the she bear lay on top of it to warm the body.

They worked over it with their medicine, and every now and then the he bear would cry out, and say, "_A-ti'-us_--Father, help me. I wish the sun was shining." After a while the dead body grew warm, and then began to breathe a little. It was still all cut up, but it began to have life. Pretty soon the man began to move, and to come to life, and then he became conscious and had life.

When he came to himself and opened his eyes he was in the presence of two bears. The he bear spoke to him, and said, "It is not through me that you are living. It was the she bear who asked for help for you, and had you brought back to life. Now, you are not yet whole and well.

You must come away with us, and live with us for a time, until all your wounds are healed." The bears took him away with them. But the man was very weak, and every now and then, as they were going along, he would faint and fall down; but still they would help him up and support him; and they took him along with them, until they came to a cave in the rocks among the cedars, which was their home. When he entered the cave, he found there their young ones that they had left behind when they started out.

The man was all cut up and gashed. He had also been scalped, and had no hair on his head. He lived with the bears until he was quite healed of his wounds, and also had come to understand all their ways. The two old bears taught him everything that they knew. The he bear said to him, "None of all the beings and animals that roam over the country are as great and as wise as the bears. No animal is equal to us. When we get hungry, we go out and kill something and eat it. I did not make the wisdom that I have. I am an animal, and I look to one above.

He made me, and he made me to be great. I am made to live here and to be great, but still there will be an end to my days, just as with all of us that _Ti-ra'-wa_ has created upon this earth. I am going to make you a great man; but you must not deceive yourself. You must not think that I am great, or can do great things of myself. You must always look up above for the giver of all power. You shall be great in war and great in wealth.