Traditions of the Arikara

by George A. Dorsey

27. THE BOY AND THE ELK.[28]

There was a young man in the Arikara village who was very handsome. He tried to marry, but the girls all seemed to hate him. He went off to a hilly country where there was a lake. On the west side of the lake was a skull of an animal. He placed himself by the skull and began to cry.

On the second night an Elk came to the boy, but soon disappeared. In a short time the boy heard the clear, beautiful notes of a flute. The sound of the flute came nearer and nearer the boy, until it came to where he stood. There stood before him an Elk. The Elk now spoke to him, and said: “My brother, that is my skull before you. I know what you are crying for. The women do not like you, and you wish to be liked by them. I now take pity upon you. Take the teeth from this skull. Wear the large ones about your neck. Wear the others in your ears. I give you a flute. Go to the village of your people. Blow this flute, and you will see the young girls coming to you.” The young man received the flute and also pulled the teeth from the skull. He went home and did as he was told to do.

He tried his flute, and the young girls came to him. This he tried several times, until he was married. Women also came to him. The men did not like this, so they gathered together and agreed to kill him. In the evening the men went out and sat around with their bows and arrows. The man came out from his tipi and walked outside the camp, blowing his flute. The women started to run to him. The war-cry was raised and the men closed in on the boy, killing him. One of the boy’s relatives took the teeth from his neck and ears, and also the flute. The relatives of the boy were afraid to bury the boy, so they left him where he was killed. The boy lay there for several days, but one night he came to the tipi of his mother. He woke her up and told her that he had returned. His mother did not believe it. But when she made a fire she saw her son sitting there. The son then said: “Mother, go to the society of Young-Dogs, and tell them to give me some tobacco, so that I may smoke.” The mother went to the tipi and they gave her the tobacco. She gave the tobacco to her son, who smoked, and said, “This smoke is good.”

The men in the village were afraid. They thought the man would take revenge and kill some of them. The boy did not go out much, and the people doubted that he was back and alive. Some of the men went to the tipi to see if the boy was home and alive. The men saw the boy, and they became afraid. One day the boy sent for all his nearest kin, and said: “My relatives, my heart is poor, for these people killed me. I do not want to live here any more. Will you go with me where I am going?” All said, “Yes.” So the boy went and caught his pony. The others did the same. Men, women, and children followed the boy. He went towards the river and told the people to follow him and they obeyed. They went into the water, and as they got into the water they began to disappear. They all turned into some kind of animal that lived in the water. The young man who had the flute and elk’s teeth did not go, so he was the only one who lived.

FOOTNOTES:

[28] Told by White-Bear.

28. THE COYOTE, THE GIRL, AND THE MAGIC WINDPIPE.[29]

A long time ago there lived a beautiful girl who had her lodge in the center of the timber. She loved nobody, but she always had plenty of buffalo meat, and plenty to eat. She had some wonderful bundles hung up in her lodge.

One day as she was eating in her lodge the Coyote visited her. He saw that she had plenty of meat, so he made his home with her. Every day they had meat. The Coyote was now the girl’s errand man, and made fires for her and carried water for her. One day the girl was up early in the morning, and she said: “My uncle (Coyote), we are out of meat. I want fresh meat. My brothers will be here to-day, and I want you to stay on the north side of the entrance and cover your head up with your buffalo robe, and not to watch.” The girl swept out the lodge, placed some hot coals between the altar and the fireplace, and put some sweet grass upon the coals. As the smoke arose from the coals she went to the sacred bundle, and from it took the windpipe of a buffalo, which was round, and small at one end and large at the other end. She waved this over the smoke, then took it and turned it upside down so that dust came out from it, and as the dust fell out it turned into seven young men, who were her brothers. On the north side, where the sacred bundle hung, were several bows and arrows. These bows and arrows the brothers took down. When the boys took their bows and arrows the girl put her buffalo robe about her. She went up on to the lodge. She gave one yell toward the north, moved toward the west, moved toward the south, and then the buffalo came, from the north and from the west. She went back into the lodge, and her brothers began to kill the buffalo. They killed so many buffalo that the buffalo finally ran off. The brothers went into the lodge and stood in a row on the north side. The girl took some hot coals and placed them west of the fireplace, put some medicine and sweet grass upon them, and each brother, when his turn came, passed his bow and arrows through the smoke and laid them by the coals. Then they let the smoke pass through their bows. Then one stepped to the south of the coals and stopped; he finally disappeared. After that all disappeared. The girl took the windpipe, passed it over the smoke, then put her hand on the ground, got the dust together, and put it back into the windpipe. She passed the windpipe over the smoke, tied it, and hung it up in its place again. She even took the bows and arrows, passed them over the smoke and threw them upon the ground. They became tiny bows and grass arrows. These she hung up by the bundle again.