| |
As it flew, the Tlä'nuwä, which was another bird, spoke and told the
hunter that he need not be afraid, as she would not hurt him, but only
wanted him to stay for a while with her young ones to guard them until
they were old enough to leave the nest. At last they alighted at the mouth
of a cave in the face of a steep cliff.
Inside the water was dripping from the roof, and at the farther end was
a nest of sticks in which were two young birds. The old Tlä'nuwä set the
hunter down and then flew away, returning soon with a fresh-killed deer,
which it tore in pieces, giving the first piece to the hunter and then
feeding the two young hawks.
The hunter stayed in the cave many days until the young birds were nearly
grown, and every day the old mother hawk would fly away from the nest and
return in the evening with a deer or a bear, of which she always gave the
first piece to the hunter. He grew very anxious to see his home again, but
the Tlä'nuwä kept telling him not to be uneasy, but to wait a little while
longer.
At last he made up his mind to escape from the cave and finally studied
out a plan. The next morning, after the old bird had gone, he dragged one
of the young birds to the mouth of the cave and tied himself to one of its
legs with a strap from his hunting pack. Then with the flat side of his
tomahawk he struck it several times in the head until it was dazed and
helpless, and pushed the bird and himself together off the shelf of rock
into the air.
They fell far, far down toward the earth, but the air from below held up
the bird's wings, so that it was almost as if they were flying. As the
Tlä'nuwä revived it tried to fly upward toward the nest, but the hunter
struck it again with his hatchet until it was dazed and dropped again.
At last they came down in the top of a poplar tree, when the hunter
untied the strap from the leg of the young bird and let it fly away, first
pulling out a feather from its wing. He climbed down from the tree and
went to his home in the settlement, but when he looked in his pack for the
feather he found a stone instead.
Click here to Return to the Native
American Myth and Folklore contents page
|
