§ 223. It is said that the people of the olden times knew when they were about to die, and they used to dream about their deaths and how they would be when the time drew near. One of those men said, “When the first thunder is heard next spring, I and my horse shall die.”
For that reason his kindred were weeping from time to time, this man who had dreamed of his death decorated the legs of his horse by moistening light gray clay and drawing zigzag lines down the legs. In like manner he decorated the neck and back of the horse, and he made similar lines on his own arms. Then he would walk about the prairie near the camp, singing and holding a pipe with the stem pointing toward the sky.
When the leaves opened out in the following spring, the first thundercloud was seen. Then the man said, “Ho, this is the day on which I am to die!” So he tied up his horse’s tail in a rounded form, put a piece of scarlet blanket around the animal’s neck, and spread a fine blanket over his back, as a saddlecloth, with the ends trailing along the ground. He painted himself and his horse just as he had been doing formerly, and, taking the pipe, he walked round and round at some distance from the camp, pointing the pipestem towards the clouds as he sang the Heyoka songs. The following is given as a song of the human Heyoka man, but it is said to have been sung originally by the mysterious and superhuman Heyoka in the thundercloud:
Ko-la, o-ya-te kin, ko-la, wan-ni-yaŋg u-pe e-ye he+!
Ko-la, o-ya-te, kin, ko-la, wan-ni-yaŋg u-pe e-ye he+!
Ko-la, lo-waŋ hi-bu we!
Ko-la, će-ya hi-bu we!
O-ya-te waŋ-ma-ya-ka-pi ye.
He-he-he!
Ta-muŋ-ka śni ḳuŋ e-ye-ye he+!
In this song, “oyate” means the Thunder-beings; “kola,” the Heyoka men here on earth, whom the Thunder-beings threatened to kill; “oyate waŋmayakapi,” ordinary Indians who are not wakan; “He-he-he! tamuŋka śni ḳuŋ,” i. e., “Alas! I hate to leave them (living Indians),” means that the singer expects to be killed by the Thunder-beings.
The whole song may be rendered freely thus:
My friends, the people are coming to see you!
My friends, the people are coming to see you!
My friends, he sings as he comes hither!
My friends, he cries as he comes hither!
You people on earth behold me while you may!
Alas! alas! alas!
I hate to leave my own people!
On the day referred to the Heyoka man had not been absent very long from the camp when a high wind arose, and the rain was so plentiful that a person could not see very far. Then the Thunder-beings looked (i. e., there was lightning) and they roared; but still the man and his horse continued walking about over there in sight of the camp. By and by there was a very sudden sound as if the trees had been struck, and all the people were much frightened, and they thought that the Thunder-beings had killed them. Some of the women and children fainted from fear, and the men sat holding them up. Some of the people thought that they saw many stars, and there seemed to be the sound, “Tuŋ+!” in the ears of each person.
When the storm had lasted a long time, the Thunder-beings were departing slowly, amid considerable loud roaring. When it was all over the people ventured forth from their lodges. Behold, the man and his horse had been killed by the Thunder-beings, so his relations were crying ere they reached the scene of the disaster.
The horse had been burnt in the very places where the man had decorated him, and his sinews had been shriveled by the heat, so he lay with each limb stretched out stiff. The man, too, had been burnt in the very places where he had painted himself. The grass all around appeared as if the Thunder-beings had dragged each body along, for it was pushed partly down on all sides. So the people reached there and beheld the bodies.