When the tree flowered

by John G. Neihardt

“Falling Star had been walking very far by now, and he was going towards where there is always snow. So it was getting very cold. And when he came to a high ridge he could see a big village in a white valley without grass, and winds were mourning there, and from the tepee tops no smoke came out. Only one tepee gave smoke in all that village. It was much bigger than the others, and it stood to one side all alone. Then Falling Star saw a little tepee made of old hides all pieced together, and from the top there came no smoke; and it was not to the big tepee that he went. When he came to the little patched tepee, the wind was mourning around it and the snow was trying to get in through the patches.

“So he opened the flap, and there inside he saw an old, old man and an old, old woman, and they were huddled together under a patched skin. Then the old man looked up and light came on his face from what he saw. And he said, ‘Hun-hi! Our grandson has come at last! Falling Star has come to see us!’ Then the old woman looked, and on her face also there came a light from what she saw. And the old man said, ‘Grandson, we are having a hard winter. You see this village here. The people are starving, and we are starving too. You saw a big tepee over yonder, and in that tepee lives a man of evil power. All good things are in that tepee, wasna and papa in plenty, and a warm fire; but this man has the people in his hands and will not let them eat. We are all afraid of him and no one is strong enough to face him, for he is a giant and his name is Wazya [source of snow]. When the people go out to hunt, this man follows them and howls and roars and drives the game away.’”

“Sheetsha! Sheetsha!” muttered Eagle Voice and Moves Walking, hunched against the bitter cold of the tale.

“Dho,” No Water agreed. “It was bad. And when Falling Star had heard, there came a little boy into the tepee, and he was thin and shivering. And the old man said to Falling Star, ‘This is our little grandson, and he too is starving.’ And Falling Star said, ‘How! I think your grandson and I will go visiting where there is plenty of wasna and papa and a warm fire.’

“So all at once he changed himself into a little boy just like the old man’s grandson, and he was thin and shivering too. And he said ‘Now we will visit Wazya.’ So the two little boys went out into the white valley with no grass, and the wind mourning there. And the other little boy was not afraid, because Falling Star was with him. Then they came to the big tepee smoking all alone outside the village where no smoke at all arose. And all over the outside of the big tepee more papa was hanging than a village could eat in a hard winter. Also wasna was stacked all around the tepee. And when Falling Star lifted the flap and looked in, there was a big giant, with long white hair hanging down around his face. You have seen a rocky hillside that looks away from the sun in the Moon of Popping Trees [December]. That is how his face looked. He was sitting by a warm fire, and on the other side there was a giant woman with long white hair hanging around her face, and that was like the same hillside. And back of these, all around the tepee, were sitting many children, and all of them had long white hair, and they were fat.

“When the two thin little boys peeked in there, the giant Wazya looked hard at them, and said ‘Hin!’, which meant they were not welcome. ‘Why do you come peeking here?’ His voice was so big that it made the tepee shake, and the smoke flap quivered. Falling Star made his voice small and said, ‘How, kola; we have come to visit.’ And Wazya did not say ‘how’; he said ‘hin,’ just like that. And the fat children with white hair stuck their tongues out at the two thin little boys, and they made a sound like snow hissing through dead grass.

“By now Falling Star and the other thin little boy were looking around the big tepee at all the good things to eat. Also, they were looking at the soft warm skins for the giants and their children to sleep in. Then Falling Star saw a big bow and big arrows in a quiver, hanging on a pole. And he said to Wazya, ‘Kola, do you use these when you go hunting?’ And Wazya grunted, ‘hin.’ Then Falling Star said, ‘It is the biggest bow I ever saw. You must be very strong to pull it. I wish I could try it.’ When Falling Star said this, and he so thin and little, you could hear laughter rumbling deep down in Wazya’s belly. When ice is getting ready to break in a river it sounds the same way.

“So Falling Star took the bow down from the pole. It was so big that his two hands could not reach halfway around it. But he remembered his eagle feather, and all at once he lifted the bow with his left hand, and with his right hand he pulled the string back behind his ear. Then the smallest of the giants’ little boys pointed to Falling Star and said, ‘I know him. He looks just like Falling Star, and he is Falling Star.’ Then he just sat and stared like the others. Then there was a big noise like the ice breaking up in a river and the flood smashing through. And there on the ground was Wazya’s bow, all in pieces.”

“Washtay! Hiyay!” Eagle Voice and Moves Walking applauded.

“Wazya did not say anything,” No Water continued. “His woman did not say anything. The fat children with white hair did not say anything. They all just sat and stared at the bow all in pieces. It is like that when the winter is old and the sun is warm, and there is no cloud, and no wind blows; but if you listen hard, you can hear little waters.” No Water, with his left hand extended and his right hand back of his ear, drew the giant bow.