Then the youth said, “You would better go to your hunting, and I will go to mine.” As the elder brother was starting off, the youth leaped into his turkey-skin pouch, saying, “Brother, let me go with you.” “I go so far away,” he replied, “that it would tire you out, so I do not think you should go.” But as the youth insisted on [[280]]going, finally the elder said, “I will let you go part of the way, but I can not let you go all the way, for that would be too much for you to undertake.” So they started, the youth dressed in the turkey-skin garb following his brother far into the forest, whereupon the elder said, “I think this is as far from home as you should go; now you would better return thither.” So the youth, prancing around like a turkey, went home. The elder brother had noticed that lately the youth never removed his turkey-skin robe, wearing it even at night. Not liking to have the little fellow wear this robe all the time, he asked him to take it off when retiring for the night. But the youth replied, “You made it for me, and I like to wear it constantly.” He always gave this same answer. As he dearly loved his younger brother, the elder did not order him to take it off.
The youth played just as turkeys play, and when he saw wild turkeys he would imitate the noises made by them; he was learning all the habits of the turkey, and no longer wore feathers on his head; his voice began to change and it did not sound to his brother as it formerly had. The elder brother wondered about and worried over this conduct of the youth. At last he commanded the younger one to remove his turkey-skin robe. He replied, “I can not take it off, so you will have to take it off of me.” On trying to do this, the elder brother found he could not remove the robe, which had grown to the little fellow’s body, so he let it alone.
The brothers always ate together when encamped in the same lodge. One day the brother with the turkey-skin robe declared, “I will now go with you, but you must be strictly on your guard, for something strange is about to happen.” The youth was very wise; his counsel and advice seemed superior to the opinions of any other man and beyond the comprehension of his elder brother. Once when the elder brother, returning, failed to find his brother at home he went to bed. But in the morning he heard his brother on the roof of the lodge making the noises which turkeys make at the break of day, whereupon he was convinced that the youth had really turned into a turkey. This conviction made him feel very strange. Soon he heard his brother jump to the ground and come into the lodge. On entering he exclaimed: “Brother! brother! a woman is coming. I think she desires to see you, but you must be exceedingly cautious, for something may happen to us. By all means you must not accompany her if she asks you to do so; but if you do go I shall follow you.” That day when the woman came she saw in front of the lodge what she took to be a turkey, and eyed it carefully. Thereupon the youth acted as much as possible like a turkey in order to deceive her the more completely. On entering the lodge the woman found the elder brother, whom she had come to take away, and said to him, “I have come purposely to have you accompany me home.” In replying, [[281]]he said, “I shall ask my brother, to learn what he will think about this matter.” Going out, he consulted with his younger brother, who had in appearance become a turkey, saying, “That woman has come. What is to be done?” The answer came: “Have I not told you that she would come? She is a great sorceress whose purpose is to destroy us. You must tell her that you are not ready to go today, but that you and your brother will go tomorrow. I foresee that if we go something evil will happen to us if we are not very cautious.” Going into the lodge, the elder brother said to the woman, “We will start as soon as we can get ready.” She did not once suspect that what she had taken for a turkey was the other brother. The brother with the turkey-skin robe decided to remain in the lodge that night, lest something evil might befall his elder brother; so he placed himself on a convenient perch, the woman thinking he was a tame turkey. The next morning neither of the brothers thought of eating anything. The elder said, “I think that I shall have to accompany this woman,” to which the Turkey Brother replied: “It is very wrong of you to go. She is a great sorceress, and we can not overcome her orenda.”
The woman had come from the west, where the two brothers had never been. When the Turkey Brother saw the woman and his brother leave the lodge together, he followed them for some time, noting that they went westward. He said to himself, “I do not see why you agreed to go.” The Turkey Brother was now alone. Toward evening he felt very lonely, and he spent an anxious night. In the morning he mused with a heavy heart, saying, “My poor brother! The woman has taken him away; and if anything happens to him, I shall dream of it.” After the lapse of some time he said, “Well, I must go after my brother.” Traveling westward, the Turkey Brother came to an opening in the forest in which stood a lodge, whereupon he said, “This must be the place.” The old woman of the lodge said: “There is a turkey outside. Perhaps it has come to stay with us; it is very tame.” The elder brother now knew that his Turkey Brother had come after him, and going out of the lodge, he met him. The sorceress took a fancy to the Turkey Brother and did not think of killing him. Toward night one of the women sought to place the Turkey Brother by himself for the night, but he perched on an open gable end of a lodge in order to be able to see and hear what was taking place on the inside. After the two women had gone a short distance from the lodge, the Turkey Brother said: “Brother, how can you endure the abuse which these women heap upon you? They never give you a mouthful to eat, for they intend to kill you. I have come to tell you this, for I have discovered what they are going to do. I am going home now, but I will take you away from [[282]]them.” So saying, he started eastward. As his captive brother watched him, he remarked, “It is fortunate that he can go where he likes.”
On the way homeward the Turkey Brother became so anxious about his brother that be grew enraged at the woman. When he reached home he thought of some scheme by which he might be able to cast off his turkey-skin robe, for he had definitely decided in his own mind that he had worn the disguise long enough. But how to get rid of it was the question, for it had grown to him. At last, however, he was able to free himself from the garment. Hanging it up, he put his plumed chin-band on his head. While eating his meal he kept thinking of his brother. Finally, he exclaimed, “Now is the time!” and being in his human form, he called on his tutelary, the Moose, for aid. The words of appeal had scarcely left his mouth before the Moose stood before him, awaiting his pleasure. He said to the Moose: “You must go westward to the place where live the old woman and her daughters, who hold my brother captive. This is the time of day that he goes out of the lodge. I want you to save him—you can do so by carrying him in this way (jumping on the Moose’s back)—and when you have him on your back, you must run with all your speed, being careful not to let my brother fall off. You must also take off your plumes (meaning his horns), put mine in their place; yours are too heavy for running swiftly.” Thereupon the Moose said, “Let us try it,” and after running with the little fellow on his back and completing a large circle, the Moose returned to the starting point. Then the Moose held down its head and the little fellow, taking off the horns, placed in their stead his own plumed chin-band, saying: “When you return I will put back your plumes. Now, my brother has come out of the lodge and is looking for a place in which to die, for he has determined not to die in the lodge of the old woman. So go!” With a bound the Moose was off in the direction of the lodge, and the little fellow remarked to himself, “The Moose will soon be back with my brother.” Before very long he heard a noise outside his lodge, and looking out, saw his brother hanging on the neck of the Moose, so weak that he could scarcely get him off. The little fellow pulled him by the feet until he dropped to the ground. Although he landed on his feet, he could not stand, but the younger brother managed to get him into the lodge. Coming out, he gave back to the Moose his horns, receiving in return his own plumes; thereupon he dismissed the Moose. Then he chided his brother, saying: “I told you not to go with that woman, but you would not listen to me. Now you have suffered a great punishment, but I am glad that you are back home. Your journey has caused me great trouble. We are now free from the woman and can now live happily together.” [[283]]
56. Sʻhodieonskon[127] (the Trickster)
Sʻhodieonskon went on a journey to distant places in visits of adventure. In the first place he came to he found a large number of lodges. Here he told the people that in his village everyone was ill of a certain disease; that the same disease would come to them, too; and that his people had discovered but one cure for it—all persons who were married slept with other men’s wives and other women’s husbands, and this saved them. Believing this, the people did as he had told them.
Then Sʻhodieonskon started off in another direction. When he came in sight of the second village he began to call out according to the custom of runners, Goʹweh! goʹweh! so the people knew that news of some kind was coming. As they gathered around him after his arrival, he told them that a plague was upon the place from which he had come, and that if they wished to prevent or cure this plague they must cut holes in the bark walls of their lodges and close these by putting their buttocks into them, and that all the families must do this. Going home, the people defecated into their lodges through these holes in the walls, whereupon Sʻhodieonskon mocked them for being fools, and thrust his walking-stick through the holes as he went, jeering at them, from lodge to lodge, before his departure.
In the next adventure he met a crowd of men; this time he wore long hair reaching to the ground. All looked at his hair, wondering how he got it. When they asked him, he said that he had climbed a tree and, after tying his hair to a limb, jumped off. In this way the hair became stretched as much as he wanted. Further, they could do likewise if they wished. After Sʻhodieonskon had gone his way one of the men, saying, “I am going to make my hair long,” climbed a tree and, having tied his hair to a limb, jumped down. His scalp was torn off, and, falling to the ground, he was killed. The other people, enraged, said, “That man is Sʻhodieonskon; we must overtake and kill him.” Running after him, they soon came in sight of a creek, in which they saw a man spearing fish. Every little while, raising his foot, he would pull off a fish, for he had sharpened his leg and was using it for a spear. They watched him take several fish from his leg. When they reached the bank he came up out of the water. They were astonished at the number of fish he had caught and asked him how he had taken so many. “You can all see,” he replied, “I have sharpened my leg and use it for a spear; when I get all the fish I want I spit on my leg, and it becomes as well as before.” Then he showed them how he did it. He put the fish he had speared on a string. Then the men wanted to spear fish, so they asked him, “Can not you sharpen our legs, so that we may spear fish?” After he had sharpened their legs, entering the water, they went to work, while he disappeared. Presently they began to feel sore and had caught nothing. [[284]]So they all came up, and sitting on the bank, they spat on their legs and rubbed them, but this treatment was of no efficacy in healing their wounds. Meanwhile Sʻhodieonskon was far out of sight on his way to a new village.