The Indian Fairy Book Part 3

The brothers now stepped forth in quick succession, but Gra.s.shopper having got his blood up, and limbered himself by exercise, soon dispatched the three--sending one this way, another that, and the third straight up into the air, so high that he never came down again.

It was time for the old Manito to be frightened, and dreadfully frightened he got, and ran for his life, which was the very worst thing he could have done; for Gra.s.shopper, of all his gifts of strength, was most noted for his speed of foot. The old Manito set off, and for mere sport's sake, Gra.s.shopper pursued him. Sometimes he was before the wicked old spirit, sometimes he was flying over his head, and then he would keep along at a steady trot just at his heels, till he had blown all the breath out of the old knave's body.

Meantime his friend, the pipe-bearer, and the twenty young warriors, cried out:

"Ha, ha, ah! ha, ha, ah! Gra.s.shopper is driving him before him!"

The Manito only turned his head now and then to look back. At length, when he was tired of the sport, to be rid of him, Gra.s.shopper, with a gentle application of his foot, sent the wicked old Manito whirling away through the air, in which he made a great number of the most curious turn-overs in the world, till he came to alight, when it so happened that he fell astride of an old bull-buffalo, grazing in a distant pasture, who straightway set off with him at a long gallop, and the old Manito has not been heard of to this day.

The warriors and the pipe-bearer and Gra.s.shopper set to work and burned down the lodge of the wicked spirits, and then when they came to look about, they saw that the ground was strewn on all sides with human bones bleaching in the sun; these were the unhappy victims of the Manitoes.

Gra.s.shopper then took three arrows from his girdle, and after having performed a ceremony to the Great Spirit, he shot one into the air, crying, "You are lying down; rise up, or you will be hit!"

The bones all moved to one place. He shot the second arrow, repeating the same words, when each bone drew toward its fellow-bone; the third arrow brought forth to life the whole mult.i.tude of people who had been killed by the Manitoes. Gra.s.shopper conducted the crowd to the chief of the village, who had proved his friend, and gave them into his hands.

The chief was there with his counselors, to whom he spoke apart.

"Who is more worthy," said the chief to Gra.s.shopper, "to rule than you.

_You_ alone can defend them."

Gra.s.shopper thanked him, and told him that he was in search of more adventures. "I have done some things," said little Gra.s.shopper, rather boastfully, "and I think I can do some more."

The chief still urged him, but he was eager to go, and naming pipe-bearer to tarry and take his place, he set out again on his travels, promising that he would some time or other come back and see them.

"Ho! ho! ho!" they all cried. "Come back again and see us!" He renewed his promise that he would; and then set out alone.

After traveling some time he came to a great lake, and on looking about he discovered a very large otter on an island. He thought to himself, "His skin will make me a fine pouch." And he immediately drew up at long shots, and drove an arrow into his side. He waded into the lake, and with some difficulty dragged him ash.o.r.e, and up a hill overlooking the lake.

As soon as Gra.s.shopper got the otter into the sunshine where it was warm, he skinned him, and threw the carca.s.s some distance off, thinking the war-eagle would come, and that he should have a chance to secure his feathers as ornaments for the head; for Gra.s.shopper began to be proud, and was disposed to display himself.

He soon heard a rushing noise as of a loud wind, but could see nothing.

Presently a large eagle dropped, as if from the air, upon the otter's carca.s.s. Gra.s.shopper drew his bow, and the arrow pa.s.sed through under both of his wings. The bird made a convulsive flight upward, with such force that the c.u.mbrous body was borne up several feet from the ground; but with its claws deeply fixed, the heavy otter brought the eagle back to the earth. Gra.s.shopper possessed himself of a handful of the prime feathers, crowned his head with the trophy, and set off in high spirits on the look out for something new.

After walking awhile, he came to a body of water which flooded the trees on its banks--it was a lake made by beavers. Taking his station on the raised dam where the stream escaped, he watched to see whether any of the beavers would show themselves. A head presently peeped out of the water to see who it was that disturbed them.

"My friend," said Gra.s.shopper, in his most persuasive manner, "could you not oblige me by turning me into a beaver like yourself. Nothing would please me so much as to make your acquaintance, I can a.s.sure you;" for Gra.s.shopper was curious to know how these watery creatures lived, and what kind of notions they had.

"I do not know," replied the beaver, who was rather short-nosed and surly. "I will go and ask the others. Meanwhile stay where you are, if you please."

"To be sure," answered Gra.s.shopper, stealing down the bank several paces as soon as the beaver's back was turned.

Presently there was a great splashing of the water, and all the beavers showed their heads, and looked warily to where he stood, to see if he was armed; but he had knowingly left his bow and arrows in a hollow tree at a short distance.

After a long conversation, which they conducted in a whisper so that Gra.s.shopper could not catch a word, strain his ears as he would, they all advanced in a body toward the spot where he stood; the chief approaching the nearest, and lifting his head highest out of the water.

"Can you not," said Gra.s.shopper, noticing that they waited for him to speak first, "turn me into a beaver? I wish to live among you."

"Yes," answered their chief; "lie down." And Gra.s.shopper in a moment found himself a beaver, and was gliding into the water, when a thought seemed to strike him, and he paused at the edge of the lake. "I am very small," he said, to the beaver, in a sorrowful tone. "You must make me large," he said; for Gra.s.shopper was terribly ambitious, and wanted always to be the first person in every company. "Larger than any of you; in my present size it's hardly worth my while to go into the water."

"Yes, yes!" said they. "By and by, when we get into the lodge it shall be done."

They all dived into the lake, and in pa.s.sing great heaps of limbs and logs at the bottom, he asked the use of them; they answered, "It is for our winter's provisions."

When they all got into the lodge their number was about one hundred. The lodge was large and warm.

"Now we will make you large," said they. "Will _that_ do?"

"Yes," he answered; for he found that he was ten times the size of the largest.

"You need not go out," said the others; "we will bring you food into the lodge, and you will be our chief."

"Very well," Gra.s.shopper answered. He thought, "I will stay here and grow fat at their expense." But, soon after, one ran into the lodge, out of breath, crying out, "We are visited by the Indians!"

All huddled together in great fear. The water began to lower, for the hunters had broken down the dam, and they soon heard them on the roof of the lodge, breaking it up. Out jumped all the beavers into the water, and so escaped.

Gra.s.shopper tried to follow them; but, unfortunately, to gratify his ambition, they had made him so large that he could not creep out at the hole. He tried to call them back, but either they did not hear or would not attend to him; he worried himself so much in searching for a door to let him out, that he looked like a great bladder, swollen and blistering in the sun, and the sweat stood out upon his forehead in k.n.o.bs and huge bubbles.

Although he heard and understood every word that the hunters spoke--and some of their expressions suggested terrible ideas--he could not turn himself back into a man. He had chosen to be a beaver, and a beaver he must be. One of the hunters, a prying little man, with a single lock dangling over one eye--this inquisitive little fellow put his head in at the top of the lodge. "_Ty-au!_" cried he. "_Tut ty-au!_ Me-shau-mik--king of beavers is in." Whereupon the whole crowd of hunters began upon him with their clubs, and knocked his scull about until it was no harder than a mora.s.s in the middle of summer.

Gra.s.shopper thought as well as ever he did, although he was a beaver; and he felt that he was in a rather foolish sc.r.a.pe, inhabiting the carca.s.s of a beaver.

Presently seven or eight of the hunters hoisted his body upon long poles, and marched away home with him. As they went, he reflected in this manner: "What will become of me? My ghost or shadow will not die after they get me to their lodges."

Invitations were immediately sent out for a grand feast; but as soon as his body got cold, his soul being uncomfortable in a house without heat, flew off.

Having rea.s.sumed his mortal shape, Gra.s.shopper found himself standing near a prairie. After walking a distance, he saw a herd of elk feeding.

He admired their apparent ease and enjoyment of life, and thought there could be nothing more pleasant than the liberty of running about and feeding on the prairies. He had been a water animal and now he wished to become a land animal, to learn what pa.s.sed in an elk's head as he roved about. He asked them if they could not turn him into one of themselves.

"Yes," they answered, after a pause. "Get down on your hands and feet."

He obeyed their directions, and forthwith found himself to be an elk.

"I want big horns, big feet," said he; "I wish to be very large;" for all the conceit and vain-glory had not been knocked out of Gra.s.shopper, even by the st.u.r.dy thwacks of the hunters' clubs.

"Yes, yes," they answered. "There," exerting their power, "are you big enough?"

"That will do," he replied; for, looking into a lake hard by, Gra.s.shopper saw that he was very large. They spent their time in grazing and running to and fro; but what astonished Gra.s.shopper, although he often lifted up his head and directed his eyes that way, he could never see the stars, which he had so admired as a human being.

Being rather cold, one day, Gra.s.shopper went into a thick wood for shelter, whither he was followed by most of the herd. They had not been long there when some elks from behind pa.s.sed the others like a strong wind, calling out:

"The hunters are after us!"

All took the alarm, and off they ran, Gra.s.shopper with the rest.

"Keep out on the plains," they said. But it was too late to profit by this advice, for they had already got entangled in the thick woods.

Gra.s.shopper soon scented the hunters, who were closely following his trail for they had left all the others and were making after him in full cry. He jumped furiously, dashed through the underwood, and broke down whole groves of saplings in his flight. But this only made it the harder for him to get on, such a huge and l.u.s.ty elk was he by his own request.

Presently, as he dashed past an open s.p.a.ce, he felt an arrow in his side. They could not well miss it, he presented so wide a mark to the shot. He bounded over trees under the smart, but the shafts clattered thicker and thicker at his ribs, and at last one entered his heart. He fell to the ground, and heard the whoop of triumph sounded by the hunters. On coming up, they looked on the carca.s.s with astonishment, and with their hands up to their mouths, exclaimed: "_Ty-au! ty-au!_"

There were about sixty in the party, who had come out on a special hunt, as one of their number had, the day before, observed his large tracks on the plains. When they had skinned him his flesh grew cold, and his spirit took its flight from the dead body, and Gra.s.shopper found himself in human shape, with a bow and arrows.

But his pa.s.sion for adventure was not yet cooled; for on coming to a large lake with a sandy beach, he saw a large flock of brant, and speaking to them in the brant language, he requested them to make a brant of him.