Pawnee Hero Stories and Folk-Tales Part 8

Note.--Big Knife, a Skidi, who died only recently, said that the man was alive in his time. _Kuru'ks-u le-shar_ (Bear Chief), a Skidi, says that he knew the man. His name was Carrying Mother.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BABY ON BOARD.]

PA-HU-KA'-TAWA.

About the end of the winter, before the gra.s.s began to grow in the spring, a company of three brothers and two other men went out from the village to trap beaver. When they had been gone about ten days, and had got up above the Forks of the Loup River, they camped on the South Fork, and in the morning sent one man ahead to see if he could find any beaver sign, and could look out a good trapping ground.

When he had gone a little distance from the camp, he saw some Sioux, and at the same moment they saw him. He did not run back to the camp; he was too anxious to save himself; but ran across to a little creek, and hid in the brush, not trying to let his brothers know that the enemy were near. The Sioux followed him and found him, and chased him about, and shot at him all day, until near sundown, when they killed him.

The four other men had stopped in camp, but were not so far off but that they could hear the shouts and yells, and they ran off from the camp, and hid themselves and waited. When the other man did not come back, they knew that he had been killed.

The next morning, the four men talked together. One said, "We had better go up and see if he is killed." Another said, "Yes, let us go there. It may be that we can bury him." So they went up where he had been, going very carefully, and looking over all the hills as they went, so as to see any enemies if they were about. They found him. He was dead, shot full of arrows, scalped, his whole head skinned, his arms and legs unjointed, his head cut off; he was all cut to pieces.

So they thought that there was not enough of him left to bury, and besides, those killed in battle are often left unburied. When they found how it was, they started back to the village, and when they came close to it, one of the men called out, "_Pa-hu-ka'-tawa_ is killed!"

He called that out so that the people might know, and might begin to mourn.

When they came into the village, the relations of this man felt very badly because he was killed. It was coming on toward the time when they begin to clear up their patches, to plant the corn, and to hoe, and his father and mother mourned, and said, "Now we have no one to help us hoe. We are old, and he helped us; but now he is gone." So they mourned for him.

They did not visit the place where he had been killed for some time.

It was now spring, and they were planting, and hoeing the corn, and when they got through their work, the whole tribe started out on the summer hunt to get buffalo, as they used to do. They started up the Loup, and when they had traveled along a number of days, they came near the place where the man had been killed. When they got there, the men who had been with him said, "This is the place where _Pa-hu-ka'-tawa_ was killed," and his father and mother and all his relations went over to the place where he had lain, to gather his bones together and then to bury them. When they got to the place, they could find no bones at all, but the arrows were there, sticking straight up in the ground; all the arrows that had been shot into the body. They wondered that they had not fallen down, for they thought that the wolves might have dragged the body, but when they looked everywhere about for the bones, they could find no sign of them anywhere. It seemed strange to them that the arrows should be there standing up in the ground, and they wondered what had become of the bones. At length they gave up looking for them, and went back to the camp. When they could not find the bones, they went on and hunted buffalo, and killed plenty, and made dried meat. After two months they started back to the village, going down the Platte River. His mother had cried so much for _Pa-hu-ka'-tawa_, that she had become blind.

One pleasant afternoon they were camped on the Platte. The evening was warm and soft and still. As the sun went down toward the earth, long shining rays seemed to come down from it to the ground. All through the air was a light smoke, and in the west the sky was red. Just as the sun was setting, the people all heard a voice calling from the other side of the river. They listened; and the voice said, "_Pa-hu-ka'-tawa_ is coming back to you." Then all the Indians jumped up, and ran across the river to meet him, for they thought perhaps he was coming back. When they had got to the other side, they looked about, but could see no one. Then they heard a voice from behind them, on the other side of the camp, which said, "He is coming from here." They all turned round and ran back to the other side of the camp; but no one was there; and in a little while they heard the voice again, on the other side of the river, saying, "He is coming." Then they knew it was only a voice and not a person. They stopped running about, and that night they talked about the voice. The next day they went on down the river, and at length got back to the main village.

There they stayed six months, and by this time their dried meat was all eaten, and it was toward spring.

The mother of _Pa-hu-ka'-tawa_ had her bed near the door of the lodge on the left hand side, the last bed next to the door. One night, at midnight, he came into the lodge, and touched his mother and said, "Mother! mother!" His mother used to dream of him almost every night, and she thought she was dreaming now. She said, "Oh, my son, do not do this. You are deceiving me again." He stopped; but presently he touched her again, and pushed her shoulder, and she awoke.

He said to her, "Mother, I am here," and she reached out and felt him.

She said, "Are you really my son?"

He answered, "Yes, I am your son."

Then she put her arms around him, and hugged him, and said to him, "Oh, my son, my son, you have come back to me." She cried, she was so glad.

Then they talked together. He gave her a piece of meat--a piece of fresh buffalo meat--though they had had no fresh meat in the village for six months. He said to his mother, "I am really alive, though I was killed. The _Nahu'rac_ (animals) took pity on me, and have made me alive again. And now I am going off; but do not cry about me any more." Then he went away.

The next morning, when his mother awoke, she found by her side the piece of fresh meat, and she began to cook it on the coals. The people wondered where she got the fresh meat, and asked her about it, but she would not tell them where she got it, for her son had told her to say nothing. They asked her again where she got it, and she told them she found it in her bed.

After a long time her son came again in the night, and went into the lodge, and spoke to his mother, saying, "Mother, I am here again." She awoke, and rejoiced that he had come back. He said to her, "My mother, I know that you are poor. You are blind on account of me, because you have cried so much. Now, my mother, there is standing by the side of your daughter's bed, water in a wooden bowl. After I have left you to-night, go over there, and put your face down deep into the water, and open your eyes in the water, and then you will see." Before he left her he gave her some _ka'wis_.[8]

[8] Chopped buffalo meat tied up in the small intestine.

After he had gone, she did as he had told her. She got up, and feeling her way along with her hands, crept into the place where her daughter slept. There she felt the wooden bowl with water in it, and she put her face deep down into the water, and opened her eyes in it, and when she took her face out of the water, and opened her eyes again, she could see. Then she was glad. Everybody wondered how the mother's eyes had been cured, but she told no one, except only her oldest son.

After a long time _Pa-hu-ka'-tawa_ came down again to see his mother.

He said to her, "Mother, I am going up to see my oldest brother." He went to see his brother in the night. His brother was expecting him, for his mother had warned him. _Pa-hu-ka'-tawa_ said, "Now, my brother, I think you have heard that I come all the time to see our mother. I wish that you would put up your lodge outside the camp, so that I can come and see you often. I want to talk to you, and tell you my thoughts and all my troubles. I am a spirit." His brother answered him that he would do as he had asked, and the first night after the lodge had been set up outside the camp, _Pa-hu-ka'-tawa_ came down, and said to his brother, "To-morrow night I want you to select the two bravest men in the tribe, and let them go about through the camp, and call all the chiefs and all the bravest warriors in the tribe, and let them gather at your home. Do not build any fire in the lodge. Let it all be dark, for I am coming down in the night to see them."

When the next night came, the chiefs and the braves gathered at the lodge just about dark. They made no fire, but sat there waiting for _Pa-hu-ka'-tawa_ to come down. After a while he came down to the lodge, and came in where they were sitting. When they were all silent, he came in, and every step he made it seemed that sparks of fire were flying out from him. He went and stood before his brother, and said to him, "I am in everything; in the gra.s.s, the water, the trees. I am a part of all these things. I know every thought of yours, and if you only whispered, I would hear it. I know everything, and about everything, even about the ocean which is so far off, and where the water is salt.

"There are two dances that I like, in which there are songs sung about me." Then he sang these songs and told them how to dance these dances.[9] He said, "Dance these dances and sing about me, calling me by name."

[9] These dances afterward were practiced in two of the secret societies.

Then he said, "Brother, I want you to know that there is a tribe of your enemies getting ready to go on the warpath against you. I will let you know when they start, and all they do. Every move they make I will tell you of. They are coming from far up the Missouri River."

Two or three nights later _Pa-hu-ka'-tawa_ appeared to his brother, and said, "They are coming. To-morrow night they will be here spying round the camp. Be ready for them. You must ask me to take pity on you, telling me what you want to do, and I will make you strong, so that you can succeed. If you want to strike two or three, ask me. If you want to kill two or three, tell me. You must call me grandfather."

The next night they danced and asked him to take pity on them. One young man prayed, saying, "Let me strike nine, and at the tenth let me be wounded, but let me not die." A second young man prayed, saying, "I want to strike five and capture the biggest man in the party." Another man asked him, "Let me strike two, and then let me be killed." To each one who asked a favor of him, he said, "Let it be so." They did not see him, for there was no fire in the lodge. It was dark.

He said to them, "Be ready. To-morrow morning is the time when the enemy will attack you. I will send a fog from the north as a warning.

They will come down toward the village, and you must go out on the plain in front of the village, and have a skirmish with them. Then draw off, and look toward the point of bluff which runs down into the plain on the east end of the battle field. Watch that point and you will see me. I will appear to you there. And this shall be a sign to you that it is I whom you see. When I come up over that point and turn around, facing to the north, the wind will change and will come from the south. And when the wind blows from the south, you make a charge on them."

So it was. The next morning the enemy made an attack on them, and came down toward the village. It was the very day he had said. The warriors went out on the plain to meet them. They were wondering in what shape _Pa-hu-ka'-tawa_ would appear to them, how he would look.

On that morning, before the Sioux appeared, a white fog came down from the north. Then the Sioux made the attack, and the people began to look for _Pa-hu-ka'-tawa_. And while they were looking toward the bluff, a great white wolf came up over the point, and stood looking first one way and then another, and then it turned around and faced the north. And immediately the wind changed and blew from the south.

When the wolf appeared, some of the braves doubted whether it was _Pa-hu-ka'-tawa_, but when it turned round, and the wind changed, then they knew that it was he.

Then they made the charge, and each one of those who had asked a favor received it. In every case what _Pa-hu-ka'-tawa_ had promised came true. The man who had prayed that he might strike nine and at the tenth be wounded, struck nine and was wounded at the tenth, but he did not die; the one who asked to strike five, and to capture the biggest man in the party, did so. He caught the prisoner, and overcame him, and put a rope around his neck, and led him into the village. And when he got him to the village the women beat the captive with sticks and clubs, and threw dirt at him, and had lots of fun with him. The young man who had asked it, killed two, and then was himself killed. All that _Pa-hu-ka'-tawa_ had promised came to pa.s.s.

The people killed many of the Sioux, and drove them far, chasing and killing them all day long. Then they came back to the village, bringing with them the scalps and the weapons that they had taken, the bows and the spears, the shields and the war bonnets. They danced in the village, and sang and rejoiced. Every one was glad because the people had won a great victory.

The next night after the day of the battle, _Pa-hu-ka'-tawa_ came down to his brother's lodge, and told him that he wanted to speak to him.

His brother awoke all his wives, and sent them out of the lodge, telling them not to come back until he called them. Then _Pa-hu-ka'-tawa_ said to his brother, "Now, my brother, you people have seen whether what I say to you is true or not. You have seen what has happened, you can judge. Now, brother, I want you to feel of me all over; n.o.body else but you to feel of me, my brother." His brother pa.s.sed his hands all over his breast and arms and body and legs.

_Pa-hu-ka'-tawa_ said, "Now put your hands on top of my head, and feel there." He did so, and felt something soft. _Pa-hu-ka'-tawa_ said, "Do you know what that is? That is the down feathers."

Then he told the story of his being killed. He said, "That time after I got killed, all kinds of _Nahu'rac_ took pity on me. The flies and bugs, the fishes and birds, the deer and the wolves, all the animals took pity on me, and helped me to come to life again. They looked all over for my flesh and my bones, and brought them all together. One part of me, the top part of my skull, they could not find. The bugs crept through the ground looking for it, the fishes swam through the water and sought it, the flies buzzed about over the sand, and the deer and wolves hunted for it on the prairie, but they could not find this piece anywhere. Nor could they find my brains. Perhaps, when I was killed, the crows eat them out. When they had gathered the pieces all together, they laid each piece in its own place, so that they had the form of a man, and in place of the top of the skull and the brains they put the down feathers. After they had put all the pieces together, they stood around me, and prayed, and pa.s.sed their paws over me, and danced and sang, and at last I breathed a little. Then they prayed again, and pa.s.sed their paws over me, and at length I breathed regularly. Then I was not dead any more; I was alive again. Not as a person was I alive, but as a spirit.

"I am in every thing; in the wind, in the rain, in the gra.s.s. I go over the whole world. I am the wind, and I go everywhere all over the world. There is no one above me but _Ti-ra'-wa_. He is the only one I am under. He is the ruler of all. Whenever any human being on this earth, man, woman or child, says anything about me, I hear it surely.

You must tell all this to every one, and say to them that if they are sick or unfortunate, let them pray to me, and I will heal or help them.

"Now you know that I am living, but I am a spirit; and whenever you people have a fight with the Sioux, if you pray to me, and call me by name, and ask to be brave, and to be helped, I will hear you. If you wish to be brave, or if you wish not to be hurt in battle, even though the enemy be right upon you, and just striking or shooting at you, I will protect you. I shall live forever, as long as this world exists.

So long as I come to you, I want you people to conquer the Sioux all you can, on account of what they did to me when they killed me and cut me in pieces. So long as the Sioux come down to attack you, I want you to conquer them every time.

"Now, brother, when I come down to see you, you must not get tired of me. I want to come down often to see you, and talk to you, to tell you what is going to happen, and to warn you whenever the Sioux are coming down to attack the Skidi. I go about everywhere, to the camps of the different bands of Sioux, and I know what the chiefs are saying in council; when they are talking of sending out war parties against you.

If I come down to you often, do not get tired of seeing me."

He knew himself that his brother would some time refuse to listen to him, but his brother did not know it, and he said, "I will never get tired of you."

Some time after this, the Sioux came down again to attack the Skidi village. Two days before they came, _Pa-hu-ka'-tawa_ came down to his brother and warned him, saying, "A big war party of Sioux will be here day after to-morrow to fight with you. But I am going to attend to them. On the morning of the second day from this, tell all the people to be ready, and to have their horses tied up close to the lodges, where they can get at them. Then, if you look up in the sky, you will see thick black clouds, as if you were going to have a great rain.

When you begin fighting, do not be afraid of the enemy. Do not be afraid of them; go right up to them; they will not be able to shoot, their bowstrings will be wet, and the sinews will stretch and slip off the ends of the bows. They will not be able to hurt you."

On the morning that he had said, the Sioux came down, and the people went out to meet them. The sky above was black with clouds. When they began fighting, a heavy rain commenced to fall, but it did not rain everywhere, but only just where the Sioux were. The bowstrings of the Sioux got wet, so that they could not use them, for the sinews stretched, so that when they bent their bows the strings slipped off the ends of the bows, and there was no force to their arrows. The Skidi overcame the Sioux and drove them, and the Sioux ran far. The rain followed the Sioux, and rained over them, but nowhere else, and the Sioux fled, and the Skidi won a great victory.

Soon after this, _Pa-hu-ka'-tawa_ came down and visited his brother, and said to him, "My brother, whenever you have a feast or a council of old men, you must smoke to me and say, 'Father, we want you to help us.' Then I will hear you. At the same time you must pray to _Ti-ra'-wa_. There is one above us who is the ruler of all. I do not wish to be talked about commonly or by common men, but that whenever you have a feast you should call in the young men and tell them about me and let them hear." He did not want his name used irreverently, nor wish that the story of what he had suffered and done should be told commonly or for mere amus.e.m.e.nt. It is sacred and should be told only at solemn times.

Some time after this talk with his brother, he came down again to see him. Another man was living in his brother's lodge, and on this night his brother was not there, he was sleeping somewhere else.

_Pa-hu-ka'-tawa_ asked this man where his brother was. He answered, "He is not here to-night, he is sleeping somewhere else."