When the tree flowered

by John G. Neihardt

“Then Falling Star said, ‘You make me thankful, Holds-back-the-Buffalo [for that was his name]. I will not forget, little Grandfather.’ So he put the feather in his hair. All at once he was a wren, and he flew over to the woodpile by the big tepee.

“There was a little boy Thunder Being who came out of the big tepee and heard what the wren was saying on the woodpile. So he went back inside and said, ‘There is a wren sitting on the woodpile out there, and he says he has come on the war-path.’ Falling Star could hear Thunders laughing inside, and a big voice said, ‘A wren on the war-path! Ho ho! Bring him in! A wren on the war-path! Ho! ho!’

“So the little boy caught the wren and took him inside the big tepee that was made of cloud. There were giants sitting around a pot, and the pot was boiling. Falling Star knew they were Thunder Beings the way their bellies rumbled when they laughed, and there were blue jagged stripes all over their bodies. He could see something wrapped in hide hanging from a pole, and what do you think that was?”

“Chief’s right arm!” exclaimed Moves Walking and No Water in unison.

“Dho, the chief’s right arm! The wren knew it too, and he began saying, ‘Zuya wahi! Zuya wahi!’ as loud as he could. Then one of the Thunder Beings roared with laughing, seized the wren and threw him into the boiling pot.

“But the wren was Falling Star, and when he flapped his wings, the boiling soup whirled like a great storm and fell on all the Thunder Beings. They howled with pain; and the way they were feeling around for the wren while they howled, you could see they were nearly blind with the scalding soup in their eyes.

“Then Falling Star seized the arm and flew out of the tepee built of cloud and all on fire with sharp lightning. First, he flew to He Ska where his grandfather Wren lived, and he said, ‘Little Grandfather, here is your feather. You have made me thankful. I must hurry.’ Then he put the feather of the split-tail swallow in his hair. And as he turned into a swallow, all the Thunder Beings came roaring and howling and flashing with sharp fires. If you have seen how split-tail swallows fly in front of a storm, that is how Falling Star flew. Up and down, back and forth, rise and swoop, he flew and dodged so fast that the arrows of the lightning could not hit him.

“The Thunder Beings were howling and roaring close behind when he came to where his Grandfather Swallow lived; and he said, ‘Quick, Grandfather! Take your feather! You have made me thankful! I must hurry!’

“Then he put his eagle plume in his hair. You may think he changed into an eagle, but that is not what he did. He changed into an eagle feather that floated and flew on the back of the great wind ahead of the Thunder Beings. When he came to his grandfather of the eagles, he said, ‘Quick, Grandfather! Take back your plume! You have made me thankful. I must hurry!’

“Then he put a live coal on the end of the sinew. And when it sizzled and began to shrink and curl, all at once he was not there at all. He was right in front of his old grandmother’s tepee in the big village he had started from. When he looked back, he saw a big, boiling, black cloud full of Thunder Beings that were howling and roaring and shooting blue fire arrows as they came. They were coming fast, and Falling Star thought, ‘I have used the powers of the wren, the swallow, the eagle, and the sinew. What can I do now?’ He still had his grasshopper and hawk feather, but the hawk would be too slow. When he touched the ground in front of the old grandmother’s tepee, he had changed into a little boy again, the one they called Lives-with-his-Grandma.