Traditions of the Arikara

by George A. Dorsey

[23] Told by Yellow-Bear.

23. THE BOY WHO RECEIVED THE MOUSE POWER.[24]

A long time ago, when the Arikara were in a village on the Missouri River, the chiefs notified the people that they were going hunting, and that they were all to get ready to go. So all the people went to their caches and placed there all the things that they did not care to carry with them on the journey. Then they packed their ponies and moved on towards the west.

One of the young men stayed behind and went from one lodge to another and finally stayed over night in the village. The next day he went through the village again, and he heard a woman crying. He went to the place where the crying came from. He looked into the lodge, and there was a woman sitting down crying. This woman had a buffalo robe wrapped around her and her hair was hanging loosely over her shoulders. The young man went in to see who it was. He wanted to know what she was crying about. She said: “I know that you are here, and I cried to bring you here. I have been crying for some time, for when the people left this lodge they took my children with them. I would like very much for you to go after my children. If you will bring my children back, I shall call my people together and they will give you some kind of power that will make you a great warrior.” The young man wanted to know where her people were. The woman said her children were in the sacred buffalo robe; that all he had to do to get the robe was to go to a man who had the robe and ask him to let him see the robe, and upon opening the robe he would see a nest in the robe, and there her children would be.

It was customary among the Arikara to untie the robe when anybody asked that he might see it, so the young man knew that he would have no trouble in finding the children, and he promised the woman that he would have her children back as soon as he could. The young man ran in the direction where the people had gone, and on the second night he came to the camp which they had made. The young man went to his mother’s tipi and told her to give him a little meat; that he was in a hurry; that he could not stop; that he had to go back to the village. The mother gave the young man some meat. He ate and then he went to the tipi of the white buffalo robe. The young man begged the keeper of the white buffalo robe to let him see it. The keeper of the robe took it down and untied it. While the man was untying it the young man was watching for the nest. When he saw the nest the young man began to cry, as if praying to the white Buffalo, but he put his hands upon the robe, and upon the nest, so that the man would not take any notice of it. The young man stopped crying, took the nest with the young ones, put them in his blanket and left the tipi.

The next day, the young man arrived at the village where the woman was. She was still sitting where he had left her. The young man gave the nest over to her. The woman was thankful, and said: “Now you have returned my children. Go now and return in the night.” So the young man left the lodge.

The woman took her nest and went to the edge of the lodge and placed it there. She then turned into a Mouse and nursed her young ones. She went to the different holes of the Mice and Rats, telling them of what the young man had done for her, and asked that they give him power. The largest Rat in the village consented to give the young man power. He told the woman that he would have the Rats and Mice come into the lodge in the night, and that the young man should be there, for they would talk to him. The woman thanked the Rat for what he had said.

In the night the young man went into the lodge, and the woman was there. She told the young man that the priest was to be there that night and that he was to be the one to give him power. So the young man stayed. The woman told him to make a fire, so that he could see what was done. The young man made a fire, and as he took his seat he heard the Rats running around in the lodge. Finally they came, one by one, in the form of human beings, and took their seats around the fireplace. The man who acted as priest stopped, and said: “My son, you have done a kind act to one of my people by bringing her children back. She wants to help you, and I have consented to do this. I am to give you a war-club, and I am to give you power, so that you can turn yourself into a mouse any time that you want to, and when you attack the enemy and when they try to kill you, you shall disappear, so that you will not be afraid of anybody.” The young man was given all these powers. At last the priest arose and called the young man up to him. He took hold of him by the shoulders and drew him to himself. Then the Rat-Man blew his breath upon the sides of the man’s cheeks, and there were formed pictures of Mice. The war-club was given to him, and he was told that he was now powerful and that he could go home. The young man took the club and a little box of medicine they had given to him, and started to go out. When he heard noises in the lodge he turned around, but the people had all disappeared. The woman was standing outside the lodge, and she told the young man that he was now her son, and that he should tell his mother that when they returned home to their lodge, if they should see any mice they should not kill them, for they were the young man’s relatives. The young man started for the camp. He traveled for many days, and at last he reached the camp. He went into the tipi and lay down, and the next morning the people found out that he had come.

This man became a great warrior. He led many parties out to capture ponies, and when he went into the enemy’s camp he turned himself into a Mouse, and when he got to the ponies he would cut the ropes, then drive the ponies out of the camp, and if he was found out he again turned into a Mouse, so that the enemy could not find him. In battles, he was a brave man. He killed many enemies with the club that had been given him. He became so bold that he had his own way about everything in the camp. He had some troubles with some of the men, and killed them. The people grew afraid of him and always let him have his own way. At last he found his equal in another young man, who seemed to have the power of a Bear, and he it was who attacked the Mouse-Man. These two fought until both of them fell down dead, one killed by the other.