FOOTNOTES:
[30] Told by Hawk.
30. THE ORIGIN OF THE WOLF DANCE.[31]
When the Arikara lived on the Missouri River, there was a handsome young man in the village, whose father was a chief. The young man had never been on the war-path. He never played with other young men, but stayed around close to his lodge. Many young girls in the village went to him to be married to him, but he would not have them. There was one place that he went and that was upon a high hill, west of the village. He had a certain way of going to that hill.
Now, there were seven beautiful girls in the tribe, each of whom had tried to marry the young man and had been refused. The seven girls got together and planned to put the young man into a hole, which was about ten feet in depth, and larger at the bottom. They spread some weeds over the hole, and when the time came for the young man to come that way they hid. The young man came, stepped over the hole and fell in.
For some time he stood yelling for help. At last the seven girls went to the hole and they told him that he must give his clothing to them. He took his things off, and the girls each took a little basket, dropped it down, and received in it a piece of clothing. Then each girl dropped her basket, and asked the young man to spit in it, promising that if he did what they asked they would take him out. As each basket received the spittle the girl would pull it out and lick the spittle. After each girl had got the boy’s spittle and licked it, they said, “You must give us your loin-cloth.” This he gave to them. They tore it in seven pieces, so that each had one piece. Iamque puer nudus erat. Deinde puellæ dixerunt si sibi glandem penis ostenderet eique limum aspergeret, se eum sublaturas. Hoc puer abnuit. Tum dixerunt puellæ, “Si vis nos omnes in matrimonium ducere polliceri, te tollere volumus.” Puer pollicitus est. But all the girls spoke out, and said: “You have always been mean; you have had a dislike for us; we will leave you in this hole and let you die; we are not going to take you out.” So the girls went away and the boy commenced to cry.
Soon after the girls had gone away a gray Wolf looked down upon the boy, and said, “I am sorry for you, and I will help you.” The Wolf went away, and while he was gone a Bear came to the hole. The Wolf came back and a dispute arose over the ownership of the boy. The Bear claimed that the boy belonged to him; but the Wolf said, “He is mine.” The Bear said: “He is mine, too. I shall eat him up.” So the Bear and the Wolf began to quarrel to see who should have the boy. The Wolf whispered to the boy, and said: “I shall dig with this Bear, and you must dig on this side; for if he digs through first he will eat you; but if I dig through first and reach you before he does I shall save you, and you shall be my son.” So it was agreed between the Bear and the Wolf that they each should dig through the earth, and whosoever should first dig through to where the boy was should claim him.
The Bear and the Wolf began to dig. Where the Wolf and the boy were digging there was nothing but sand, while on the side where the Bear was digging it was hard dirt, mixed with stones and gravel; so the Wolf was the first to dig through. When the Bear came through, he found out that the Wolf had already dug through. The Bear stood up, and said, “You have beaten me, but this young man shall be my son, and I shall help him whenever he calls upon me.”
The Wolf took the boy among the Wolves. The boy soon ceased to care to walk, and began to crawl upon his hands and knees, and to eat raw meat, just as the Wolves did. He came to act like a Wolf. The skin upon his haunches was now so thick that he could slide on them.
In the village, the boy’s father mourned for him for many years. But in a chase for buffalo somebody saw a drove of Wolves with this human being among them. He told other people about it. After the hunt was over, all the men in the camp went out where they had killed the buffalo and there they found the Wolves, and this human being among them. They ran their horses after the Wolves, but this human being ran so fast that he beat all the Wolves and escaped; but they knew that it was the young man. For a whole year they planned to catch the human Wolf, but he was so swift that they could not catch him.
Now, there was a man in the tribe who had medicines for catching the human Wolf and for taking the Wolf feeling out of him. This man agreed to try to catch the human Wolf. So the man went and selected a place in a hilly country. There was a steep bank on the west side, another on the south side, and another on the east side, and there was an opening at the north side. Having selected this place, the man told the people to make their village about three miles east from there. He ordered the women to go to this place, and dig a deep hole on the south side of the banks, so that the Wolves could not climb out. The women also cut long poles and set them on the top of the banks, so that, in case the Wolf did crawl up, these poles would be in his way. At the opening, long poles were set up, so that there was left only a little opening. They also strung a lot of willows, which was to be a doorway to close up the entrance. The man now ordered a certain number of young men to go and kill buffalo. These young men went out, and they killed the buffalo, brought the meat, and placed it inside of this enclosure. The Wolves followed them up, and then the men on horseback circled the Wolves and ran them into this trap, the human Wolf among them. There were four strong men who put on rawhide leggings, and caps with holes in them, so that they could see, and these four men were put into the trap. They ran after the Wolf man. Every time the Wolves ran around by the doorway the door was removed, and the Wolves went out. At last they had the man Wolf by himself. The entrance was stopped. The four men finally succeeded in catching the Wolf man. Then they tied him and took him out. He tried to bite them, but the rawhide was so dry that he could not hurt them. While the four men were catching him the medicine-man had built a sweat-lodge. The hot stones were taken into the lodge quickly and the man was taken in there and tied. The man poured water upon the hot stones, and sweated the Wolf man. The medicine-man kept pouring water on the stones, until the Wolf man begged for some water. Then the medicine-man gave him some medicine that he had prepared, and the Wolf man began to vomit. The Wolf man vomited hairs of Wolves, white clay, also froth and raw meat. All this time the people were rubbing wild sage upon his body, especially upon his knees. The Wolf man became exhausted and finally said, “I feel better now.” The medicine-man continued to give him medicine until the Wolf man could vomit no more. They then untied him and took him into his lodge, and he finally recovered.
The Wolf man stayed in bed all night and the next day. Then, in the night, he sent for his father. He told his father that he wanted him to build a tipi, and that towards evening he wanted him to go through the village and invite the bravest men in the tribe to come to his, the father’s, tipi—not to the tipi he had built for the boy.
Now, the seven girls who had put the boy into the hole were invited. They were told to dress up in their fine clothes, and as he had promised to marry them he wanted them to come to his tipi that they had put up for him. These girls came to the tipi, and the young man gave them seats. The young man left the lodge, and told his father to place the brave men around the lodge; that he was going out, and as soon as he should come back the guards were to leave their stations. The boy went to the north, and cried, “Father, my father, come and help me!” The Wolves came up, and said: “We will help you. What is it you want?” The boy said: “The girls who were the cause of my being with the Wolves are in my tipi. I want you to devour them.” The Wolves promised that they would. Then the boy went to the west, among the cedars, and there he cried: “Father Bear, make haste. I have something for you to eat.” The Bear came, and said, “My son, what is it?” The boy said: “The girls who put me into the hole are now in my tipi. I want you to go with your friends and devour them.” The Bear said: “We will do this gladly; we will come.” The boy went back to the village, and stood a little distance from his tipi. Soon the Wolves came on his left, and the Bears came from behind. He led them up to his tipi. He told the Wolves to stand on the north side, and the Bears to stand on the west and south side. After this was done, the young man went into the tipi, and said: “Girls, you put me into a hole, and you left me there to die. The Wolves took me out, and I was with the Wolves for some time. Those same Wolves are now to eat you up.” The girls begged for mercy, but there was no mercy shown them. Each girl tried to crawl out from where she was sitting, but the Wolves ate them.
At the same time the old man, the boy’s father, went through the village, telling the people that the seven girls were being devoured by wild animals, because they had dug the hole and placed his son there to die. The old man told the story of the taking off of the young man’s clothing, and of the girls’ promise to take the boy out of the hole if he would do certain things which he had refused to do, and of their leaving the boy in the hole to die.
When the people heard the story they were angry at the girls, so that the relatives of the girls did not offer to save them, as the girls had done wrong.
The next day the people broke camp and went away from the place. This young man became a great warrior and a brave, and finally became a chief. He married and started a dance among the Arikara that is known as the “Wolf dance.” This was a young man’s dance, but the people do not dance it any more.