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Source: Myths and Tales of the
Southeastern Indians, By John R. Swanton, 1929
A man on a considerable journey stopped to eat his lunch beside a creek.
Then a big black Ant came out and said, "Give me a piece of bread.
Sometime I may help you out of trouble." So he gave it some bread. By and
by he heard some talking in the water, and some small Minnows came up and
said the same thing.
He gave the Minnows some bread also.
Then a red-headed Woodpecker came and asked for bread, which he again gave
to it.
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After this the man went on again and came to a town (talofa).
There was a lot of wheat at a certain place in that town, and the people
told him that he must move it and put it in barrels by morning or they
would kill him. So they tied him down on the wheat and went away.
By and by up came the black Ant which he had fed and asked him what the
matter was. The man told him, and the Ant immediately went away and
brought back a multitude of Ants, who soon had the barrels full. Next
morning the people paid him for what he had done, but said that the next
night he must dig up a certain tree, root and all, or they would kill him.
This time the Woodpecker came to him and asked what the matter was. "I am
in trouble," he said, and he related what had been imposed upon him. Then
the Woodpecker flew up and told the lightning and the lightning came down
and tore the tree up, roots and all, so that in the morning the people
paid him for that.
They told him, however, that a horse loaded with gold had been drowned in
a neighboring creek and that they would spare him if he found it by the
following morning. So they tied him again and laid him on the bank of the
creek.
By and by the little Fishes he had fed came and said, "My friend, what is
the matter with you_"
He told them, and they went down and brought all the money to land, but
they said that they could not get the horse for the snakes (hotisågi)
alone could do that, and they were only orderlies (hola`tålgi). They made
a pillow of the sack of gold under his head.
The town people paid him for all the work he had done, and he went home a
rich man.
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