33. A Dead Man Speaks to His Mother through the Fire
An old woman and her son lived in a lodge in a certain village, and a brother and his sister in another. The old woman’s son and the brother were of the same height and looked so much alike that they could scarcely be known from each other; they were great friends.
The son often visited the brother and sister, and the brother found out that he thought of marrying his sister, who was yet very young, when she became old enough. The brother was not pleased with this prospect, so he made up his mind to kill his friend. The next time the latter came the brother killed him. Digging a deep hole under the fireplace and putting the body therein, he covered it with earth, and made a fire again over the spot.
The mother waited for her son, but he did not come home. Then she went to the other lodge and asked, “Where is my son?” “He left here to go home. It may be he is in the woods now. He said he was going to cut wood for arrows,” answered the young man.
When the woman went out the brother started off and, cutting wood, quickly ran to her lodge, where he sat down and began to whittle arrows. Soon afterward she came in. Turning to her, he asked, “Where have you been, mother?” “Oh! I have been over at your friend’s lodge.” She failed to detect any difference between her son’s voice and his. He said, “Well, mother, I am going over there a while.” Putting up the arrows and running home, he said: “I am afraid, my sister, that there is impending danger and that we are going to die. Hurry to the spring and leave your pail there: then run around in every direction so as to make many trails and come back to the lodge.”
Going to the spring, the girl covered the ground with tracks and returned. The brother said, “I am now going to put you into the head of my arrow and send you off to a safe place.” Taking hold of his sister’s arm, he shook her until she became very small; then opening the arrowhead, he put her into the cavity, and after carefully securing her there, said: “I am going to shoot you toward the east. When the arrow strikes the ground you must jump out and run. I will soon overtake you.” Standing by the fireplace, he shot the arrow out of the smoke-hole. In due time it came down on a stone far off in the east, when the arrow burst and the girl came out and ran off. [[173]]
After running around in circles and making many tracks around the lodge, the brother then went up the smoke-hole and stood on the roof. There was visible a long streak, or trail, which the arrow had made through the air. Running under this trail, he soon came to the spot where the arrow had struck the stone, and then he followed his sister’s tracks.
The old woman, the murdered man’s mother, growing tired of waiting for her son, went over to the neighboring lodge to see what he was doing. She found the lodge empty. While sitting there by the fire, a voice spoke to her out of the flames, saying: “My friend has killed me. My friend has killed me.” Thereupon she dug down under the hearth until she found her son’s body. On reaching home she became a Ganiagwaihegowa. Then she followed the girl’s tracks to the spring and back again to the lodge. She could find no one in the lodge. At last, looking up through the smoke-hole, she saw the trail of the arrow through the air. Hurrying out, she ran toward the east.
In the meantime the young man had overtaken his sister before she had gone far from the stone. After a while they heard the roaring of Ganiagwaihegowa. The girl trembled from great fear and grew weak. Her brother encouraged her. Stopping at night, they lay down and slept a little. The young man dreamed that a woman came to him, saying: “You think you and your sister are about to die, but you are not; here is a stone with which to defend yourself. Tomorrow about noon throw this piece of stone behind you, with the words, ‘Let there be a ridge of rocks across the world so high that nothing can climb over or pass it.’ ”
In the morning he saw near the brush lodge the very stone he had seen in his dream. He took this piece of stone with him. Before midday they heard the roaring of Ganiagwaihegowa. At noon the young man threw the piece of rock behind him, and at that moment a ridge of rocks, rising so high that no living thing could climb over it, stretched itself across the world.
On coming to the ridge the Ganiagwaihegowa saw that the tracks of the brother and sister went through the wall. She clambered up and then fell backward, howling terribly and crying, “I will overtake and eat them both.” The young man’s sister heard the words of the monster. The Ganiagwaihegowa ran toward the north, but could find no end to or opening in the wall of rocks. Then, coming back, the monster ran to the south, but could find no end there. Once more returning, she lay down near the tracks by the wall. It was now night. The Ganiagwaihegowa staid there until morning. On rising she was greatly surprised at finding nothing but a small stone in her way. Picking up the stone, she ground it to powder in her mouth, and then, roaring terribly, went on. [[174]]
The brother and sister had now gone far ahead. Toward noon they heard the roaring of the Ganiagwaihegowa and knew that she was drawing near. Taking a pigeon feather from his pouch, the young man threw it behind him, saying, “Let there be a thick rampart of pigeon droppings across the world, so high that nothing can pass over it or go through it.” Then he hurried on with his sister. Soon the bear rushed up to the rampart in a fearful rage. She tried to climb the rampart, but could not do so. Then she tried to push through it, but went out of sight in the filth, nearly smothered, and had hard work to get out. Then the monster ran as fast as possible to find an opening, but without success; so, coming back at night, she lay down and slept until morning, when she found nothing in the way but a feather. This she bit and chewed to pieces.
The brother and sister came to a great wood, all the trees of which were dried up and leafless. They found a lodge, which they entered. An old man, who was their uncle, was sitting inside. They told him their trouble; whereupon he said, “I will do all I can for you, but you have another uncle living not far from here who can help you much better than I can.” The old man was engaged in chipping flints. When he got a handful of flint chips he would fling them out at the trees; in this way he had killed the whole forest, for he had great powers of witchcraft.
The brother and sister then went to the next lodge. The old uncle whom they had left had a heap of flint chips piled up near him. When he heard the Ganiagwaihegowa coming he struck it again and again with the chips. But the Ganiagwaihegowa did not turn away; coming up to the door, she asked the old man, “Have you seen a couple of persons pass here?” “No,” said he, “I pay no attention to anyone who comes.” Thereupon the monster crushed his head, thus killing him. Then, discovering the tracks, the Ganiagwaihegowa said, “They have gone ahead; it is too bad that I have killed the old man.” Roaring loudly, she rushed on. “I will overtake you and eat you,” she said.
Soon the brother and sister came to the other uncle. After hearing of their troubles he said, “I will help you all I can, but hurry on until you come to another uncle.” Then he made a trap on the trail, and near that a second and a third. When the Ganiagwaihegowa came up, she rushed into the first trap, where she struggled a long time. Finally, breaking through this trap, the monster went on until she got into the second trap. After a longer struggle she broke through this, only to fall into the third trap, from which also she escaped at last. Coming soon to the third old man, the Ganiagwaihegowa asked, “Have you seen a couple of persons pass this way?” “I have not,” was the reply, whereupon the monster, seizing the old man, ground him to pieces with her teeth. Then, finding the tracks [[175]]of the young couple, she said: “Here are the tracks again; they have passed on. I am sorry that I killed the old man.”
The brother and sister went to the third uncle. Rushing into his lodge, they found him making a net. His eyes were closed and filled with matter, but still he was at work. He had long upper eyelids hanging down on his cheeks. Raising the lids he cleaned his eyes; then with a piece of buckskin he tied the lids across his forehead. When the brother and sister rushed in, they said, “Uncle!” but he did not hear them. They called again, “Uncle! we are running away and want your assistance,” but he did not stop, for he failed to hear them. Then the brother hit him on the head with a corn pounder, whereupon, raising his eyelids, he said, “I heard a voice.” The brother and sister exclaimed, “We are closely pursued by a Ganiagwaihegowa.” “I will help you as far as I can, but your grandfather, who lives near here, will do more than I. Run to him,” was his answer. They hurried on.
The Ganiagwaihegowa came nearer and nearer. The old man laid a long net across the trail, in which the Ganiagwaihegowa was caught. After struggling somewhat, she cleared herself. On coming to the old man’s door she asked, “Have you seen two people pass this way?” “No!” said he. The old man had told them to run to their grandfather, and they had done so.
On reaching their grandfather they found Sʻhagodiyoweqgowa there, who had rattles. When the brother and sister came up Sʻhagodiyoweqgowa told them to go on and that they would come to a lodge, and that the people in that lodge were very strong in sorcery, having great orenda.
The boy and his sister went on. The bear came to the Sʻhagodiyoweqgowa, whom she killed after a hard fight. The two fugitives reached the lodge, in front of which was an old Djogeon[49] woman, who was very small. She told them to go in and sit down. She had three sons inside and also a great deal of bear’s fat. The old woman told the boys to make a fire on the tracks of the brother and sister and to put over it to boil a kettle of bear’s oil. They made two fires, putting two kettles over them, into which they poured the oil. Then the three boys got red willow, from which they soon made a number of arrows.
The Djogeon woman stood near the first kettle when the Ganiagwaihegowa came rushing along asking, “Are the two persons here who made these tracks?” “Yes; they are in the lodge,” was the reply. The Ganiagwaihegowa started to go around the kettles, but the woman said, “No, you must go the way they went, right through the fire, kettles and all; you must do the same as they did.” On starting to do so the Ganiagwaihegowa got her paws in the boiling oil and overturned the first kettle. Badly burned, the monster fell back, [[176]]growling. In making for the second kettle, that too was upset in the same way and she was burned still more. Then the boys killed the Ganiagwaihegowa with their red-willow arrows, and, building a fire, they burned her bones to powder, so that the monster could not come to life again.
The old Djogeon told the brother and sister to stay two or three days at her lodge and rest; then her sons would take them home. She told her sons that this old Ganiagwaihegowa woman stole a young boy and girl from them and took them away, wishing to make the girl marry her son. The boys took the brother and sister two days’ journey, which was as far as they could go. Then they directed the former fugitives so that they got home.
It is said that the Ganiagwaihegowa woman’s boy had a tuft of yellow hair hanging down his back, and that when he was killed, his companion, having cut off this tuft, fastened it to the top of his own head. When the Ganiagwaihegowa woman’s boy went hunting, he would send his arrows home and they would go into the lodge just where they belonged; but after the other man obtained the hair, his arrows would go home in the same way, for the orenda was in the tuft of yellow hair.
34. The Potent Boy[50]
A man and his wife lived together in an ugly looking lodge in the woods. They had a son four or five years old.
After a time the woman gave birth to another boy, not longer than one’s hand, who was very bright and lively. Wrapping the little fellow carefully, the father, thinking he could not live, placed him in a hollow tree outside the lodge. Then he burned the body of the mother, who had died when the baby came into the world.
The man went hunting every day as before. The older boy played around the lodge by himself and was lonely. After some time had elapsed he heard the baby in the hollow log crying, for he, too, was lonely and had nothing to eat. The elder boy found his little brother and, making soup of deer intestines, gave it to him to drink. He drank the soup with great relish and became much strengthened. The brother gave him plenty of it. At last the little fellow came out of the log and the two boys played together.
The elder brother made the little one a coat of fawn skin, which he put on him. This made the baby look like a chipmunk as he ran around. They went to the lodge and played there. Noticing a decrease in the stock of provisions, the father asked the boy what he did with the deer intestines. “Oh,” said the boy, “I ate a good deal of them.” Then looking around the fire and seeing a small track and very short steps, the father said: “Here are the tracks of a boy. Who is it?” The boy told him how he had found his little brother in a hollow tree, and that he had given him soup and had made him a [[177]]fawn-skin coat, and that they had played together. “Go and bring him,” said the father. “He would not come for anything, for he is very timid,” was the answer. “Well, we will catch him. You ask him to go to hunt mice in an old stump there beyond the log. I will get him.” Catching a great many mice, the man put them in his bosom, in his clothes, and all around his body and, going beyond the log, turned himself into an old stump full of mice.
Going to the hollow tree, the boy said, “Come, let us play catching mice.” The little fellow came out and running to the stump rushed around it, catching many mice. The little boy, wild with excitement, laughed and shouted with joy, for it seemed that he had never known such fun. All of a sudden the stump turned into a man, who, catching him in his arms, ran home. The boy screamed and struggled, but it was of no use; he could not get away, and he would not be pacified until his father put a small club into his hand, saying, “Now strike that tree.” He struck a great hickory which stood near. The tree fell. Everything he struck was crushed or killed; he was delighted and cried no more. The little boy stayed now with his brother and played with him while their father went hunting. “You must not go to the north while I am away,” said the father; “bad, dangerous people live there.” When the father was gone the little boy said, “Oh, let us go north; I should like to see what is there.” Starting in that direction, the boys went on until they came to wooded, marshy ground. Then the little boy heard many people call out, “My father! My father!” “Oh, these people want to hurt my father,” said he. Making ready a pile of red-hot stones, he hurled them at these people and killed all of them. They were frogs and sang nohqwa. When the boys came home their father was very angry and said, “You must not go again, and you must not go west; it is very dangerous there, too.”
When their father had gone hunting the next day the little boy said, “I should like to see what there is in the west; let us go there.” Traveling westward, they went on until they came to a very tall pine tree. In the top of the tree was a bed made of skins. “Oh!” said the little boy, “that is a strange place for a bed. I should like to see it. I will climb up and look at it.” Up he went. He found in it two little naked children, a boy and a girl; they were frightened. On pinching the boy, the child called out: “Oh, father, father! some strange child has come and he has frightened me nearly to death.” Suddenly the voice of Thunder was heard in the far west. It came nearer and nearer, hurrying along until it reached the bed in the tree top. Raising his club, the little boy struck Thunder, crushing his head so that he fell dead to the ground. Then, by pinching her, [[178]]he made the little girl call: “Mother, Mother! some strange boy has come and is playing with me.” Instantly the mother Thunder’s voice was heard in the west, and presently she stood by the nest. The boy struck her on the head with his club, and she, too, fell dead. Now, thought the boy: “This Thunder boy would make a splendid tobacco pouch for my father. I will take him home.” So, striking him with his club, he threw him down, and the little girl also. When the boy with the club reached the ground, he said to his brother, “Now, let us go.” On getting home, he said, “Oh, father! I have brought you a splendid pouch.” “What have you done?” said the father. When he saw the dead Thunder baby he said: “These Thunders have never done any harm. They bring rain and do us good, but now they will destroy us all in revenge for what you have done.” “Oh! they will not hurt us. I have killed that whole family.” The father took the skin for a pouch. “Now, my boy,” said the father, “you must never go north, to the country of the Stone Coats.” The elder brother would not go, so the little one went off alone. About noon he heard the loud barking of Stone Coat’s dog, which was as tall as a deer, so he knew the master was near. He jumped into the heart of a chestnut tree, where he found a hiding place.
Presently Stone Coat came up, and, looking at the tree, said, “I think there is nothing here;” but the dog barked and looked up, so that finally he struck the tree with his club, splitting it open. “What a strange little fellow you are,” said Stone Coat, looking at the boy as he came out; “you are not big enough to fill a hole in my tooth.” “Oh! I did not come to fill holes in your teeth. I came to go home with you and see how you look and how you live,” said the boy. “All right. Come with me,” said Stone Coat. Stone Coat was of enormous size. He carried in his belt two great bears, which to him were as two squirrels to an ordinary man. Every little while, looking down, he would say to the little fellow running by his side, “Oh! you are such a funny little creature.”
Stone Coat’s lodge was very large and long. The little boy had never seen anything like it. Stone Coat skinned the two bears; he put one before his visitor and took one for himself, saying to the boy, “Now you eat this bear, or I will eat you and him together.” “If you do not eat yours before I eat mine, may I kill you?” asked the boy. “Oh, yes,” said Stone Coat. The little boy cut off mouthfuls, and cleaning them as fast as he could, he put them into his mouth. He kept running in and out, so as to hide the meat. In a short time all the flesh of his bear had disappeared. “You have not eaten yours yet; I am going to kill you,” said the little fellow to the Stone Coat. “Wait until I show you how to slide down hill”—and Stone Coat took him to a long hillside, which was very slippery and which ended in a cave. Putting the little fellow in a wooden bowl, he sent [[179]]him down at a great rate. Presently he ran up again to the place where he started. “Where did you leave the bowl?” asked Stone Coat. “Oh! I do not know; it has gone down there I suppose,” replied the little fellow. “Well, let us try to see who can kick this log highest,” said Stone Coat. “You try first,” said the little one. The log was two feet in diameter and six feet long. Putting his foot under it, Stone Coat lifted the log twice his own length. Then the little boy, placing his foot under the log, sent it whistling through the air. It was gone a long time; then it came down on Stone Coat’s head, crushing him to death. “Come here,” said the little fellow to Stone Coat’s dog. The dog came and the boy got on his back and rode home, saying, “Now my father will have a splendid hunting dog.” When the father saw the dog he cried out, “Oh! what have you done? Stone Coat will now kill us all.” “I have killed Stone Coat. He will not trouble us any more,” replied the Potent One.
“Now, my boys, you must never go to the southwest, to the gambling place,” said the father. The next day about noon the little boy started off alone. He came to a beautiful opening in the woods, at the farther end of which was a lean-to, under which was a man with a very large head (far larger than the head of a buffalo), who played dice for the heads of all who came along. Crowds of people were there betting in threes. When the game was lost the big-headed man put the three persons on one side in reserve; then he played again with three more, and when they lost he put them with the first three, and so on until the number was large enough for his purpose; then, getting up, he cut all their heads off. As the boy approached, a number who had lost their bets were waiting to be killed. Hope came to them all, for they knew that this little fellow had great orenda. Immediately the game began. When the big-headed man threw the dice the boy caused some to remain in the dish and others to go high, so the dice in the throw were of different colors. When he himself threw, all the dice, turning into woodcocks, flew high and came down sitting, and all of one color in the bowl. The two played until the boy won back all the people and the big-headed man lost his own head, which the boy immediately cut off. The whole crowd shouted, “Now, you must be our chief.” “Oh! how could such a little fellow as I be a chief. Maybe my father would consent to be your chief. I will tell him,” said the boy. So the boy went home and told his father, but the latter would not go to the land of gambling.
“Now,” said the father, “you must never go to the east; they play ball there; you must never go there.” The next day the boy, starting for the east, traveled until he came to beautiful plains, a great level country, where the wolf and the bear clans were playing on one side [[180]]against the eagle, the turtle, and the beaver clans on the other. The little boy took the side of the wolf and the bear; they said, “If you win, you will own all this country.” They played, and he won for them. “Now,” they said, “you are the owner of all the country.” On reaching home the little boy said to his father, “I have won all the beautiful country of the east; you come and be the chief of it.” His father consented, and going to the country of the east with the two boys, there they lived. That is the story.