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Whenever their meat
was all gone and they began to get hungry, The girl used
to send her brothers into the timber to cut dogwood
shoots to make arrows. When the arrows were ready, she
would get into the swing and the boys would swing her. As
the swing moved, they would see dust rising all around
the horizon, and would know that the Buffalo were coming.
Then all four boys
would take their bows and arrows, and stand about the
swing so as to protect the girl and not let the Buffalo
come near her. When the Buffalo had come close, the boys
would kill them in a circle all about the swing. They
would quickly carry the girl into the lodge, and would
kill so many Buffalo that the rest would be frightened
and run away. So they would have plenty to eat, and the
dried meat would be piled high in the lodge.
One day the boys went
out to get wood for arrows, and left the girl in the
lodge alone. While they were away a Coyote came to the
lodge and talked to the girl. He said to her:
"Granddaughter, I am very poor, and I am very
hungry. I have no meat in my lodge, and my children also
are hungry. I told my relations that I was coming to ask
you for food, and they have been laughing at me. They
said, 'Your granddaughter will not give you anything to
eat.' "
The girl answered him:
"Grandfather, here is plenty of meat. This house is
full of it. Take what you want. Take the fattest pieces.
Take it to your children. Let them eat."
The Coyote began to
cry. He said: "Yes, my relations laughed at me when
I said I was going to visit you and ask you for something
to eat. They said you would not give me anything. I do
not want any dried meat -- I want some fresh meat to take
to my children. Have pity on me, and let me put you in
the swing, so as to bring the Buffalo. I do not want to
swing you hard so as to bring the Buffalo in great herds.
I want to swing you only a little so as to bring a few
Buffalo. I have a quiver full of arrows to keep the
Buffalo off."
The girl said:
"No, grandfather, I cannot do this. My brothers are
away. Without them we can do nothing."
Then the Coyote
slapped his breast and said: "Look at me. Am I not a
man and strong_ I can run around you fast, after you are
in the swing, and I can keep the Buffalo off. I can shoot
clear through a Buffalo. I have plenty of arrows, and I
need only use a single one for each Buffalo. Come on, I
want to swing you just a little, so that but few Buffalo
will come." So he coaxed the girl, but still she
refused.
After he had begged
her for a long time, she agreed to let him swing her a
little, and got in the swing. He began to swing her, at
first gently, but all at once he pushed her very hard,
and kept doing this until she swung high. She screamed
and cried, and tried to get off the swing, but it was now
too late. All around -- from all sides -- the Buffalo
were coming in great crowds. The Coyote had made ready
his arrows, and was running around the girl, trying to
kill the Buffalo and keep them off, but they crowded upon
him -- so many that he could do nothing -- and at last he
got frightened and ran into the lodge. The Buffalo were
now just all over the ground about the lodge, and
suddenly one of the young Bulls, the leader of a big
band, as he passed under the swing, threw up his head,
and the girl disappeared, but the Coyote, peeping out of
the lodge door, saw on the horn of this Bull a ring, and
then he knew that this ring was the girl. Then the Bull
ran away fast, and all the Buffalo ran after him.
When the Buffalo had
gone, the Coyote came out of the lodge and saw that the
girl was not there. He did not know what to do. He was
frightened. Pretty soon he heard the girl's brothers
coming. They had seen the dust, and knew that some one
was swinging their sister, and that the Buffalo had come.
They hurried back, running fast, and when they reached
the lodge they found the Coyote just dragging himself out
of a mud-hole. He crawled out crying, and pretended that
the Buffalo had run over him and trampled him. His bow
and arrows were in the mud. He told the brothers his
story and said that he had tried hard to save the girl,
but that he had not known that so many Buffalo would
come. He said he had thought that the girl must be swung
high, so that the Buffalo could see her from a long way
off.
The brothers felt very
sorry that their sister was lost. They counseled
together to see what they should do, trying to decide
what would be the best plan to get her back again. While
they were talking about this, the Coyote, with all the
mud upon him, stood before them and said: "Brothers,
do not feel sorry because your sister is lost. I will get
her back again. Live on just as you always do. Do not
think about this. Do not let it trouble you. I will get
her back again." After he had spoken thus, he said,
"Now I am going to start off on the war-path,"
and he left them and went away.
He journeyed on alone
considering what he should do, and at length, as he was
traveling along over the prairie, he met a Badger, who
said to him, "Brother, where are you going_"
The Coyote said: "I am going on the war-path against
my enemies. Will you join my party_" The Badger
said, "Yes, I will join you." They went on.
After they had gone a long way, they saw a Swift Hawk
sitting on the limb of a tree by a ravine. He asked them
where they were going, and they told him, and asked him
if he would go with them. He said he would go. After a
time they met a Kit Fox, and asked him to join them, and
he did so. Then they met a Jack Rabbit, who said he would
go with them. They went on, and at length they met a
Blackbird, and asked him to join them. He said: "Let
it be so. I will go."
Soon after they had
all got together they stopped and sat down, and the
Coyote told them how the girl had been lost, and said
that he intended to try to get her back. Then they
talked, and the Coyote told them the plan that he -- the
leader -- had made. The others listened, and said that
they would do whatever he told them to. They were all
glad to help to recover the girl.
Then they all stood up
and made ready to start, and the Coyote said to the
Blackbird, "Friend, you stay here until the time
comes." So the Blackbird remained there where they
had been talking, and the others went on. After they had
gone some distance farther, the Coyote told the Hawk to
stop and wait there. He did so. The others went on a long
way, and then the Coyote said to the Rabbit, "You
stay here." The others went on, and at the next
stopping-place he left the Kit Fox; and at the next --
last of all -- he left the Badger. Then the Coyote went
on alone and travelled a long way, and at length he came
to the Buffalo camp. He went out to the place where the
young Bulls used to play the stick game, and lay down
there. It was early in the morning.
After a time some of
the young Bulls came out, and began to roll the ring and
to throw their sticks at it. The Coyote now pretended to
be very sick. His hair was all covered with mud, and his
tongue hung out of his mouth, and he staggered about and
fell down and then got up again, and seemed to feel
badly. Sometimes he would get over near to where the ring
was being rolled, and then the young Bulls would call
out: "Here, hold on! Don't get in the way."
After a little while
the Coyote pretended that he felt better, and he got up
and went over to where the young Bulls were sitting,
looking on at the game, and sat down with them, and
watched the play with the others. Every now and then two
of the young Bulls would begin to dispute over the game,
each saying that his stick was the nearer to the ring,
and sometimes they would wrangle for a long time. Once,
while they were doing this, the Coyote went up to them
and said: "Here! You men need not quarrel about
this. Let me look. I know all about this game. I can tell
which stick is the nearer." The Bulls stopped
talking and looked at him, and then said: "Yes, let
him look. Let us hear what he says." Then the Coyote
went up to the ring and looked, and said, pointing:
"That stick is nearest. That man has won." The
Bulls looked at each other, and nodded their heads and
said, "He knows. He is right." The next time
they had a dispute, he decided it again, and all were
satisfied.
At length two of the
young Bulls had a very fierce dispute, and almost came to
fighting over it. The Coyote came up and looked, and
said: "This is very close. I must look carefully,
but I cannot see well if you are all crowding around me
in this way. I must have room. You would all better go
over to that hill, and sit down there and wait for me to
decide." The Bulls all went over to the hill and sat
down, and then the Coyote began to look. First he would
go to one stick and look carefully, and then he would go
to the other and look. The sticks were about the same
distance from the ring, and for a long time it seemed
that he could not make up his mind which was the nearer.
He went backward and forward, looking at the sticks, and
stooping down and putting his hands on his knees and
squinting, and at last, when once his face was close to
the ground, he suddenly snatched up the ring in his
mouth, and started, running as hard as he could for the
place where he had left the Badger.
As soon as he had
started, all the Bulls on the hill saw what he was doing
-- that he was taking the ring away from them -- and they
started after him. They did not want to lose the ring,
for it was very useful to them, and they played with it
all the time. When the Buffalo in the camp saw that the
young Bulls had started, they all followed, so that soon
all the Buffalo were rushing after the Coyote. He ran
fast, and for a long time he kept ahead of the Buffalo,
but they followed, a great mass of Buffalo crowding and
pushing, running as hard as they could run. At last the
Coyote was beginning to get tired, and was running more
slowly, and the Buffalo were beginning to catch up to
him, but he was getting near to where the Badger was.
After a time the Buffalo were getting nearer to the
Coyote. He was very tired, and it seemed to him as if he
could not run any farther. If he did not soon get to
where he had left the Badger, the Buffalo would run over
him and trample him to death, and get back the ring. At
length, when they were close behind him, he ran over the
top of a little hill, and down in the valley below saw
the Badger sitting at the mouth of his hole. The Coyote
raced down the hill as fast as he could, and when he got
to the hole he gave the ring to the Badger, and just as
the herd of Buffalo got to the place, they both dived
down into the hole.
The Buffalo crowded
about the Badger's hole, and began to paw the ground, to
dig it up so as to get the Coyote and the ring, but the
Badger had dug a hole a long way under the ground, and
while the Buffalo were digging he ran along through this
hole and came out far off, and ran as hard as he could
toward the brothers' lodge. Before he had gone very far,
some of the Buffalo on the outside of the herd saw him,
and called out to the others: "There he is! There he
goes!" Then all the Buffalo started again and ran
after the Badger. When they had come pretty close to him,
he would stop running and dig another hole, and while the
Buffalo were crowding around the hole, trying to dig him
out, he would dig along under the ground, until he had
got far beyond them, and would then come to the top of
the ground, and run as fast as he could toward the lodge.
Then the Buffalo would see him and follow him.
In this way he went a
long distance, but at length he got tired and felt that
he could not run or dig much farther. He was almost
spent. At last, when he dug out of the ground, he saw not
far off the Kit Fox, lying curled upon a rock, asleep in
the sun. He called out: "Oh, my brother, I am almost
tired out! Help me! "
The Kit Fox jumped up
and ran to him and took the ring in his mouth and started
running, and the Badger dug a deep hole, and staid there.
The little Fox ran fast, gliding along like a bird; and
the Buffalo, when they saw him running, chased him and
ran hard. The Kit Fox is a swift animal, and for a long
time he kept ahead of the Buffalo.
When he was almost
tired out, he came to where the Rabbit was, and gave him
the ring, and ran into a hole, and the Rabbit ran on. The
Buffalo followed the Rabbit, but he ran fast and kept
ahead of them for a long time. When they had almost
caught him, he came to where the Hawk was sitting.
The Hawk took the ring
in his claws and flew off with it, and the Rabbit ran off
to one side and hid in the long grass. The Buffalo
followed the Hawk, and ran after him. They seemed never
to get tired. The Hawk, after he had been flying a long
time, began to feel very weary. He would sail down low
over the Buffalo's backs, and was only just able to keep
above them. At last he got near to where the Blackbird
was.
When the Blackbird
heard the pounding of many hoofs and knew that the
Buffalo were coming, he flew up on a sunflower stalk and
waited. When the Buffalo came to the place where he was,
he flew up over them to the Hawk, and took the ring on
his neck, and flew along over the Buffalo. The ring was
heavy for so small a bird, and he would alight on the
backs of the Buffalo and fly from one to another. The
Buffalo would toss their heads and try to hit him with
their horns, but he kept flying from one to another, and
the Buffalo behind were always pushing forward to get
near the ring, and they pushed the other Buffalo ahead of
them. Pretty soon the herd passed over a hill and were
rushing down to the place on the river where the
brothers' lodge stood.
Ever since their
sister had been lost, the brothers had been making
arrows, and now they had piles of them stacked up about
the lodge. When they saw the Buffalo coming they got
their bows and took their arrows in their hands, and shot
and shot until they had killed many, many Buffalo, and
the rest were frightened and ran away.
The Blackbird had
flown into the lodge with the ring, and after the
brothers had finished killing, they went into the lodge.
And there, sitting by the fire and smiling at them as
they came in, they saw their sister.
Note:
Of all the games
played by men among the Pawnee Indians, none was so
popular as the stick game. This was an athletic contest
between pairs of young men, and tested their fleetness,
their eyesight, and their skill in throwing the stick.
The implements used were a ring six inches in diameter,
made of buffalo rawhide, and two elaborate and highly
ornamented slender sticks, one for each player. One of
the two contestants rolled the ring over a smooth
prepared course, and when it had been set in motion the
players ran after it side by side, each one trying to
throw his stick through the ring. This was not often
done, but the players constantly hit the ring with their
sticks and knocked it down, so that it ceased to roll.
The system of counting was by points, and was somewhat
complicated, but in general terms it may be said that the
player whose stick lay nearest the ring gained one or
more points. In the story which follows, the Buffalo by
their mysterious power transformed the girl into a ring,
which they used in playing the stick game. - George Bird
Grinnell
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