Name/Title
Native American Legends By Mary Alicia OwenEntry/Object ID
AM2013.3.67Scope and Content
Native American Legends By Mary Alicia Owen. For Transcript, click on the Multimedia button on top menu, then open the Word File.
Included
The Brothers
How Nana-Box-Hoo Made the Hills and Valleys
Nana-Boz-Hoo, Friend of Man, Decides that Man Must Work for A Living
Nana-Box-Hoo and the Thunder-Birds Fight with the Rain Serpent
Rain Serpent Sends a Flood to Destory Nana-Boz-hoo
Nana-Boz Hoo makes the First Wampum from the Quills He Finds
Nana_Boz Hoo Goes Away
Sharrah, The Trickster
Sharrah Invites Himself to Mataque-We-Skeng's Feast
Sharrah Invites Himself to Dine with the Geese and Dines Well While They Go Hungry
Sharrah Get the Bride Intended for Sha-Kar-Qua
The Thunderbirds
The Thunderbird Girl
Mataque-We-Skeng
So-Sha-na Makes Boats
Mee_See-Na-Ook; Why Some Tress Are Not Evergreen
The Tress that Walk
The Dogs From Behind the Tree-That-WalkContext
"What is ours, grandson. Let us go."
The women did not know the Brothers.
The Brothers took from them the bundles. They saw the bows and arrows. They shot birds. The birds burned up.
The women wept. They fell down. "Give us back the bows and arrows", they cried. "They are not for a grandson (A young person of inferior rank). We take them to the chief."
"I am chief. I am Nana-box-hoo, destroyer of men and devils."
He made himself very tall, very terrible.
They looks. "Grandfather-of-all-people", they said, "Meeches Manito made them. We stole them from the wigwam of the shamans because our children were thrown out to be put into the ears of the great blood-eating ghosts to warm their heads with blood. We are old and ashamed, we are poor, we have no young hunter to bring us meat, we were bringing you the bows and arrows that you might destroy our enemies."
He took a bone. "Put this in the pot on the fire", he said. "It will fill the pot with meat."
The Brothers went on.
They found many demons, many wicked shamans, many wicked foolish ones. They fought with them. They killed what they could with the arrows. They could kill no more when the arrows became too bloody. Some escaped.
The Brother were poor in mind (sad, low-spirited) because these escaped.
Meechee Manito was poor in mind because many were killed with his arrows. He hated his own shamans for losing them. He went away from the world, on the Long Ghost Road, and made a place for bad souls in a cave in the clouds. Before that they had no place. They blew about they wandered, He seldom comes back to the world. He knows he left plenty of demons that keep on having children do his work.
How Nana-Boz-Hoo Made The Hills and Valleys
Until Nana-boz-hoo changed it, the earth was flat and smooth. In those very old times the rivers were like the ponds. This is how he made nearly everything that Geechee Manito had formed so different from what it had been:
The wicked ones held a council. So many had been killed by Nana-boz-hoo and At-too-mee-noo that those who were left were desperate.
"We must send to Nannoo-ma-too (North Wind), for his cold demons, the Chee-nau-og", said the mightiest shaman. "They can kill At-too-mee-noo the mighty hunter who shoots so much better than Nanna-bozhoo, for he is Wunnichikitakee (Cold Hand). Then, we will destroy Nanna-boz-hoo with fire for he is Wunnichikikacosee (Hot Hand)."
"We will do this", they said.
They called Ikashee (Goose to be the messenger, but Ikashee flew away.
They called Keekeekooah (duck) to be a messenger, but Keekeekooah flew away.
They caught Mar-co-gah (Owl) and compelled him to go as messenger, Mar-co-gah delivered the message, but was so ashamed that never again has he been willing to appear in daylight.
North Wind sent the Chee-au-og. They came whirling in dances, the dances that gave them power. They flung sleet and snow in great storms between the Brothers. They attacked At-too-mee-noo when Nana-boz-hoo could not see becasue of the sleet and snow between, they struck his heart with their knives, they killed him. They ran back to the North Wind.
Nana-boz-hoo thought he had conquered. He went on. He went to a wigwam. He rested.
He rested for a long time.
He rose. He looked for At-too-mee-noo to come up. He called. He made medicine to summon him. When At-too-mee-noo came not, he asked the birds what had become of him. They were afraid and denied that they knew. He asked the trees. They were afraid and denied that they knew. Then the grass took pity on him, (for the little winds tell the grass everything) and said,
"At-too-mee-noo is dead. The Chee-nau-og killed him with their knives of ice. You will have to make him alive by means of your strong magic (medicine)."
Nana-boz-hoo went back to the place of battle. He could not find the body because of the snow storms the Chee-nau-og had left when they ran away. He could not make strong medicine to find it, because his heart had become weak from sorrow. If he had found the body he could have called the soul into it.
He went back to his wigwam. He sat down in the door and gave himself up to mourning. His groans caused the Earth to tremble, when he called the name of At-too-mee-noo forest trees crashed down. His sighs drew the flat earth up into hills, his tears made rivers between the hills.
The people were frightened. They said to the medicine-men: "make the dead alive! Be quick! This fellow we cannot kill will tear the world to pieces. Be quick!"
The medicine-men made the dead alive.
Four days and four nights they worked with their strongest magic to call back the soul, to return it to the body. They succeded. They made the dead alive. They sent him to his brother.
When Nana-boz-hoo saw the dead alive he had no Joy.
"it is too late", he said, "I have mourned. Everything has heard me mourn. I have lifted the ground into hills, I have made rivers of my flowing tears. I have groaned like a herd of bull buffalo, I have flung down forests with my sobbing. When the days of mourning have been accomplished the mourned one may not be alive, may not come back."
Nana-boz-hoo went into the wigwam, he pulled shut the door-flap. At-too-mee-noo sat down outside the door. He was poor in mind. He had no spear, no bows and arrows. The enemy had taken them. He knew not what to do.
Nana-boz-hoo waited. He waited a long time.
At-too-mee-noo did not go away.
"Wunnichikitakee (Cold Hand), your other name is no more. Take these and go away to where the golden boat (the sun) goes", said Nana-boz-hoo.
He pushed under the door-flap a kettle of food, fire-sticks, tobacco and a whistle to call ghost.
Wunnichikitakee took up the kettle of food, the fire-sticks, the tobacco, the whistle to call the ghost. He went away from that place. He followed the sun. He went faster than the sun. He found no ore storms. He sat down on the edge of the world to dream.
When he had dreamed he went on. His steps made a road for good ghost. He made a place for good ghosts, the Happy Place (Wah-wah-lanawah). Before that they had no place. They were blown about by the wind. Since that, death is pleasenter than life for the good.
Nana-boz-hoo, Friend-of-man, Decides That Man Must Work For A Living
Nana-boz-hoo lived peacefully for a long time. There were but a few demons and wicked people left in the world, and these were afraid and hid themselves and cause their little children to grow up quickly.
Nana-boz-hoo taught the people who were left, and when he was not teaching, he dreamed and saw the things that were to be.
He saw the people he had taught getting soft and small. He saw them stretched out in the sun or lying in the shade, braves and squaws with children weak-eyed and crooked in the knees, to be surprised by the wicked ones and killed or made to become wicked.
"This must not be", said Nana-boz-hoo in his dream. "Once, the people were strong because always they were exercising and getting ready for war. The gifts of Geechee manito are too great for the peace I have given them."
He rose up, he took his spear, he struck the sugar-trees one by one, the sap that had become sugar, coming through the bark and becoming sugar became so thin so it had to be boiled into sugar when it had been gathered into kettles.
"I did this, so that you would have work to do, my children", said Nana-booz-hoo. "Work will make you strong."
The people were displeased.
He rose up, he took his spear, he struck the basswodds, the ash tree and the elms. The oaks and the hickories and the walnuts he speared because they bore nuts that had to be gathered and stored, but of the other trees that bore rich marrow, he left none unchanged to sap that was water.
"I did this so you would have work to do, my children", said Nana-boz-hoo. "Work will make you strong."
The people were displeased. Before, they had only hunted for the skins for bed and clothes.
(unfinished)
Nana-boz-hoo And The Thunder-Birds Fight With The Rain-Serpent
When the great and good Geechee Manito was young and impatient, he was creating creatures that did not turn out as well as he had thought they would. Because he was impatient and disappointed, he tore a scrap from his own body and flung it into the bushed. It became a hissing serpent. Geeche manito was sorry, but he could not kill it because it was part of himself. He drove it away, but before it went it made itself a wife from a dry stick and had many children, all very ill-disposed towards even the other wicked ones. It crawled to the top of a high hill, which it rendered invisible and sucking in the cloud became the Rain Serpent (wau-kau-thee). Since that time, when wau-kau-thee sticks out his head there is a drought, when he draws it in and goes to sleep ther are rains as Geeches Manito meant the, to refresh the earth. If Waukauthee is angry and hisses, there are terrible storms and cloud-bursts.
Nana-boz-hoo hated the Rain Serpent.
He had had a son, the ancestor of all the Musquakie Indians, who was taken from a wen on his shoulder. This son, a great hunter like At-too-mee-noo, had been killed when a shaman assuming the form of a bear, lured him to the-woods-that-walk, and the trees trampled him into the ground. To console himself, Nana-boz-hoo married an Indian maid who soon died from awe of him, leaving a baby girl that a doe nourished with her fawn. She grew up very good, very beautiful, more to Nana-boz-hoo than many sons.
The Rain Serpent serpent sent a sudden tempest and drowned her when she was in her little cane on a lake.
Nana-boz-hoo put off his month of mourning and strode all over the world, seeking the Rain Serpent to punish it, but could not find the invisible cave.
He appealed to Geehes Manito to help him, but Geehes Manito did not, because once when Rabbit wounded the god with one of his own arrows (the only weapon that could hurt him) and the firey blood had set the earth on fire Rain Serpent quenched the flames.
Nana-boz-hoo was on top of a high mountain. He fell down on his face. He was spent. He had traveled far. He had fought strange people and unknown devils, Rain serpent, invisible and mocking had pelted him with tempest, had withered him with droughts, had tormented him with clouds of grasshoppers and vile armies of worms and caterpillars.
Solar (Eagles) screamed above him.
Nana-boz-hoo rose up. He had thought himself alone. Only to himself must be the knowledge that he the unconquerable to the people was no more conquerer.
"I sought rest", said Nana-boz-hoo.
"You sought Rain Serpent, my brother. Rage not. I and my brothers also will do what you may not. We are the Solarock, the Thunder-birds, sons like you of Pap-pon-neet-inneh (West Wind)."
Solar folded back his wings. He was a man.
Solar spread his wings. He was an eagle.
Nana-boz-hoo was ashamed that another should do his work, but it must be done. He listened to the words of Solar, he mounted between his wings, he went thus through a break in the pavement of the sky, he came thus to the resting-place of West Wind. He could hear, but he could not see.
Solar screamed above the rush of wings, of winds,
"My brothers, this younger brother has suffered wrongs. The flesh of his mother is on him, he cannot see his enemy. Let us mount and stand before papponeethinneh. He knowing all things, will send us to avenge his younger son."
They left Nana-boz-hoo. They mounted.
When returned, he heard a voice that was not the voice of Solar. It was the voice of his father whom he could not yet see, "This, my younger son has done well. Let him not be ashamed that the Solarock are to avenge him. This time has not yet to come for him to see all things, but the older ones see. They will be the scourge of Wau-cou-thee and his children."
Nana-boz-hoo stood upright before Pap-pon-nee-inneh. He looked proudly where the voice was. He did not fall down as one of weak heart where great power was. He thanked Pap-pon-neet-inneh as a young chief talking to an old chief.
Solar carried him down to his mountain.
The Thunder-Birds spread their great wings, and men below said, "It it the thunder! Their eyes flashed, it was the lightning. They sept down into the hill country, into the plains. They destroyed the grasshoppers, the worms, the caterpillars and many great snakes, with hail. With the multitude of rushing waters. They fought the storms that Rain Serpent sent, whirling with them and beating, storm against storm. They bruised and beat the head of the Rain Serpent, so that it went deep into the cave and vexed the world no more for many moons.
They were conquerors. They went down from the mountain. He went down the hills and across the great plains. He came to the Valley of the Misho-on (missouri). Tehre, he made his lamentaion for his daughter, weeping, and praising her in songs.
Rain Serpent Sends A Flood To Destroy Nana-boz-hoo
Twice, Wau-kau-thee the Rain Serpent almost destroyed the world. The first time it was to help Geechess Manito, whose blood had sat the world on fire. The second time it was to destroy Nana-boz-hoo and his followers.
The demons and the wicked people who were living in the wood-that-walks, had grown very numerous and very bold. They ventured out of the wood at times and killed the good people. They caused the wood to change its location so they could steal out unexpectedly and do harm.
Nana-boz-hoo was angered. He made himself strong by the power of his his fastings and dances and prayers, he went forth with arrows of Meeches Manito. He killed many enemies. He dared others to come out of the-woods-that-walk. When they would not, by the power of hid medicine (magic) he set the woods on fire.
Rain Serpent put out that fire, sent a rain there that put out the flaming trees.
Nana-boz-hoo went away to rest. He lay down on the ground.
An old man came to him. "Come to my wigwam and rest", he said.
"I am tired. I rest here", answered Nana-boz-hoo.
"You will rest better on my rolls of furs", urged the old man. "It is but a little way to go. Come."
"take this soup", said the old man, when they were in the wigwam.
It was boiling, but because he was a guest, Nana-boz-hoo could not refuse. His medicine was strong He suffered not.
"Eat", said the old man.
It was not corn. It was pebbles heated in the old man's fire.
Because he was a guest, Nana-boz-hoo could not refuse. He ground the pebbles in his teeth, he rolled them with his tongue, they became corn in his mouth, he swallowed them.
The old man offered him water in a bowl. It was copper melted in the magic bowl, but Nana-boz-hoo breathed upon it, turned it to water, and drank it.
Then, the old man gathered all his strength and made a fire of such heat that he had to throw off his clothing, but Nana-boz-hoo wrapped himself in the roll of furs and besought the old man again and again to make the fire hotter.
When the old man was conquered and would have rushed out, Nana-boz-hoo sprang to the door-flap and held it fast till the old man shriveled up and died there.
Then, he went home.
The wicked ones waited until the next day, then, they looked for the dead Nana-boz-hoo, but it was their dead shaman they found.
They besought the help of Rain Serpent.
Rain Serpent gathered the waters from everywhere. He made such an effort that he fell asleep from weariness and slept for a moon (a month).
The waters poured down. They drowned all the good people except a few that Nana-boz-hoo gathered into his boat that Partridge had made for him. They drowned all the bad people except a few that climbed into the tops of cottonwoods on a bluff. There was left no more land.
When Rain Serpent awoke, he stopped the rains, but the waters remained over everything.
Nana-boz-hoo consulted with the birds.
They could do nothing.
He consulted with the animals that had crept into the bottom of the boat.
They could do nothing.
Finally, he asked Partridge to fly to the hilltops and bring him a little earth.
She came back without any.
He asked the cranes, the ducks, the geese, the brant to go down and bring him a little mud.
They brought nothing.
Muskrat went down. He brought up nothing the first time for he did not go deep enough. The second time, he was down a long time, so long that Nana-boz-hoo moved the waters so that he floated. He was dead.
The crows flew over and dragged him into the boat.
Nana-boz-hoo blew the breath of life into him, then took the mud that was on his nore, cast it on the waters and spread it into a new earth.
Nana-boz-hoo Makes The First Wampum From The Quills He Finds
When Nana-boz-hoo's days of mourning were ended, he went far, looking for the signs of the great battle the Thunder-Birds had fought for him. He found many quills, harder that copper, longer than his spear and of beautiful colors. He gathered them up, knowing they were from the wings of his great brothers. They were too precious to leave, too long for his war-bonnet, too heavy for arrows. He cut them into lengths, he strung the lengths on sinews. "These shall be for a perpetual reminder of brotherhood", he said. "No more shall tribe make friendship with tribe, or chief without an exchange of these.
Afterwards the women made belts to be exchanged in treaties, but those were of shell, or bone, or stone, or porcupines-quills. They were made to look like many strings of broad quills lying side by side like a belt, the ones that Nana-boz-hoo made. This they did because the tribes wished to obey the commands of Nana-boz-hoo, but could find in a lifetime but few of the quills of the solarock.
Nana-boz-hoo Goes Away
Nana-boz-hoo was very sad. He had made a new earth after the flood. He had caused it to be as beautiful and fertile as the one Geeches Manito had made. He had caused the people to multiply and grow up very rapidly. He had instructed the people in all that it was good for them to know.
He watched the people and saw that many of them secretly learned the ways of the wicked ones that were saved in the tops of the trees. He heard them murmur against him and accuse him of being one who had taken a chief's place, a shaman's place and a manito's place unjustly. He heard them murmur in secret, where they thought he could not hear.
He went away to make medicine and dream.
While he was away, dreaming in a hidden valley, the people let the demons come into the camp and kill his white dog, the dog that by his magic he had caused to change from a tiny wolf-cub to the largest hunting-dog in the world.
Nana-boz-hoo saw that was and all that was to be, in his dream. He went back to the camp.
"Where is my white dog, my people?"
They said the thing that was not; "Friend of Man, he ran away to the people of the-wood-that-walks."
He made them to see the ghost of the white dog.
They fell down before him. "Now, I go away", he said. "You will suffer much before I come again. You would not obey me. You would not have a white dog to help you with the game. You are going to have a white people to hunt you as game. They will take your fields, you hunting-grounds, they will make you a little, despised people, but not for always. When the hearts of your children become as I wished your hearts to be I will return. I will send away the white people. My people shall be the great people."
He went away, the people following. He went to his boat hidden among the rushed, the boat Partridge made for him, that glided whiter he would without oars. He went in his boat as the winds go. The people ran, weeping and promising, but they could not keep up with him, they could not bring him back.
"II go to my brother, but I will come back." They heard his voice, but him they could no longer see.
"Sharrah, the Trickster
Of all the sorcerers, mee-skee-ne (Rabbit), or, as he is more generally called, Ma-sha-rah (Trickster), is most powerful and the most mischievous. The grandmothers, seated at the winter fires in the wigwams, keep the children awake long after the proper sleep-time by telling of his goueries.
"Now, my children", one will say. "Listen to what Hee-coo-noo (Grandmother) has to tell you of "Sharrah and his deeds to provoke laughter, so that when she has gone over the Long Ghost Road you may be able to relate the tales to your grandchildren:
"Long ago, many winter counts past, even in the times before the old times, when men were as animals and animals as men, when the winds talked with the shamans and Manito sometimes came down from Mkay-la (the sky), Sharrah abode with his grandmother at the edge of the hazel brush, and amused himself by confounding the Ancestral Animals, the winds and even Manito, and men and women were to him as the little doll and the little spear of childhood. He made his way against all unaided, he laughed, he sand, he had but one annoyance, but that was like a (porcupine) quill in his flesh: he did not know who his parents were. He asked, he offered presents, he demanded. Grandmother would not tell. He hardened by age.
"One by one, I tell the tales to you as my grandmother told them to me, in the lucky time, the time when the ground is frozen so that little imps cannot come up and listen and make mischief.
"Sharrah Sets The World On Fire
When Manito came down from his golden boat in when he rides over the sky, he happened to bring with him his bow and his quiver that contains the three arrows which he shots into the ground to cause the ice to melt in the spring, that is, in the Moon of Winds (Tarchaock-Jee-ar).
"Sharrah came along behind the winds, which were dancing the dance of the Moon of Wabigon Flowering Things), so that anito did not notice him. He tried to steal the bow, but he could not lift it, so he slipped one arrow from the quiver.
Manito felt that, for the quiver was on his back. He spoke sharply to "Sharrah, commanding him to restore the arrow, nut that only caused "Sharrah to run.
Manito rose up, he cried out so that the earth trembled, and commanded the arrow to return to him.
The arrow sprang in 'Sharrah's grasp, and in his fright he flung it.
It went not to Manito's hand but into his shoulder, and the blood that flowed from the would set the world on fire.
Manito did not notice. He climbed back into the sky and lay in his golden boat, suffering much.
Rain Serpent put out the fire.
'Sarrah was badly burned. He could not make magic fast enough to keep away all the flames. When he made himself well after the fire was out, he found he had a brown line across his back, and his children have it to this day.
Manito has never forgiven 'Sharrah, and this is why the rabbits have their dances by moonlight instead of in the sunshine.
'Sarrah Sets The World On Fire
Sho-me-nobo's Story.
When Manito had made the larger animals and gone back to his golden boat, he looked over the edge of it as he sailed across the sky, and found there was still room for many little creatures, so he went down to the Great River and began forming man kinds from the mud of the bank. Without thinking, he had brought with him his magic bow and arrow. 'Sharrah slipped up behind him and stole one arrow from the quiver. The quiver was ma-cou-pee (magical), so it cried out a new word, "thief". "A thief has taken the arrow! A thief has taken the arrow!" It called to Manito.
This was the very first theft that ever there was in the world. It astonished Manito. It made him angry.
"Come back with my arrow! Come back with my arrow, O beast of the bad heart!" he commanded 'Sharrah.
"You make trouble! You make trouble!" he cried again, When 'Sharrah did not return the arrow. "Come back! If I breathe on these mud creature when I am angry they will come to life little devils. Come back!"
'Sharrah did not come.
Then, Manito dropped his work, rose up and pursued the thief. He had not time to make medicine and bring back 'Sharrah by his power, so he ran to overtake him.
'Sharrah turned and flung the arrow.
It struck Manito in the side, and his blood, which is fire, set the world on fire.
'Sharrah's back was burned. He would have burned up, had not Rain Serpent put out the great flames. He healed himself with is own tears, but ever since, his back, and his children's backs have looked scorched.
'Sharrah Invites Himself To Matque-we-skeo's Feast
"What are you doing, my friend?" 'Sharrah, after he had watched mataque-we-skeno (Woodpecker) fly from tree to tree and heard him tap and call, "Weko-do-win! weko-do-win! (a feast!)" many times. "That is a new song you are singing. Does it belong with your new way of flying form one tree to another instead of beginning at the bottom of one and running and flying to its top?"
"I am going to have a feast tomorrow", answered Woodpecker. "All my friends are invited.
When the feast day arrived, 'Sharrah went early to Woodpecker's house.
"Wan kee nitche?" asked Woodpecker, impatiently.
"What do I want? Why, I came to the feast, of course. Did you not say all your friends were invited?"
"Yes, all my friends."
"I am your best friend, therefore I came early."
Woodpecker could think of nothing to reply. He was ashamed, although 'Sharrah was the one who should have been ashamed. He picked up a bowl and ran to the top of the tree in which he lived. 'Sharrah could hear him singing and tapping up there, but the song was not the song of yesterday.
Presently, Mataque-we-skeno came down. His great bowl was full of grains as sweet as tree-sugar.
"What is that?" inquired 'Sharrah when had snatched a handful.
"Wah-glee's (Worm's) children", snapped Wataque-we-skeno.
"I like them. Teach me the song that collects them", begged 'Sharrah as he reached for more.
"I will teach you as you are starting for home", promised Mataque-we-skeno, who wished to rid himself of his uninvited guest.
'Sharrah stayed until all the birds had gone home.
"Now, you may teach me", he said to Mataque-we-skeno.
Mataque-we-skeno did not want to teach him, the greedy rogue! but he had to keep his word.
Next morning. 'Sharrah did not go out to hunt anything.
"Grandson we have nothing", said he-coo-nee (Grandmother).
"'Sharrah paid no heed. He lay on his back, muttering and singing.
"Grandson, we have nothin", Four times she said this.
"I will show you something", he said, finally, and, taking a bowl, he tried to run up a tree nearby.
He made many failures, but at last he succeeded in getting among the leaves.
Presently, he fell down.
The bowl fell down.
The bowl was of wood. It was not broken.
'Sharrah looked broken. His lip was split. (All rabbits have had split lips since that day).
"Grandson, what is the matter?" Grandmother called as he ran to the water to wash away the blood.
"I have joined a new secret society", he called as he came up from the steam. "I am practicing its rules. I must go get another lesson from Mataque-we-skeno."
When he had sung the song, he had sung it too loudly, so the tree flew open and hit him in the mouth, but he was too proud to tell his grandmother this.
He went to Metaque-we-skeno's house, but he did not show himself. He hid until Metaque-we-skeno brought down a bowlful of Wah-gloo's children, and flew away to make a visit. Then, he stole the bowl and brought it to his grandmother. "Grandmother, I told you I would show you something", He boasted.
'Sharrah Invites Himself To Dine With The Gesse, And Dines Well While They Go Hungry
"Grandson, there is no meat in the pot", said Grandmother.
"There is meat in other pots", said 'Sharrah, lifting his nose towards the wind.
"That is true", answered He-coo-nee, "But are we ghosts or wind-spirits, to live on steam and the perfumes that rise from the cooking pots of strangers?'
"We are not", agreed 'Sharrah, "therefore, I go to bring you a dinner sold enough for Moocha (Bear) himself. "See, I run, I jump to get something to please you".
He hastened that he might get away from the sound of his grandmother's scolding. He was a great magician, but talking when He-boo-nee was poor-in-mind was like inviting rain to come down in the Moon of Gash-kad-ino (Sleet).
He wandered out on the open prairie. There, he met Arggo-he-tacha (South Wind).
"Whither go you, etarloo me tau way (my friend)?
"Nowhere, everywhere. I am out for a stroll."
"Do you happen to smell those cooking-potts by which Three-marya (North Wind) is gaining strength, my friend?"
"Yes, I smell them", answered, Argoo-he-tacha, with a little puff. He did not very well like his great rough brother who was chief of the Tacha family, and made the others feel his power. "Those are not Three-marya's pots, as you think."
"Then, whose pots are they, he-ja-ka me tau way (my uncle)?'
:Ha-lar-ka-kee (Goose) is making a feast for his son. It is the time of the ripened marsh-rice and of the small meats found in the rice. He makes the feast before he goes south into my country."
"So, my uncle, he makes the feast so that Three-marya-tacha gets the steam and the elders, and not you."
"He makes it so", agreed Argoo-he-tacha.
"It is not fair, my uncle."
"It is not fair."
"Listen, my uncle! I will go to that feast. I will contrive that you have your share."
"how can you, etarloo?"
"leave that to me, my uncle, only help me to arrive at the place of the pots after I have gone home for my medicine and returned to you."
So, the south Wind waited while 'Sarrah went home and gathered up many buffalo bladders which He-coo-nee had saved.
"Uncle, I am ready."
"Take hold of my robe."
'Sarrah took hold of the robe of South Wind and was carried to the place of feasting.
He found there many feasters waiting around the fires where the women were stirring the pots. When he saw they were preparing to pour the stew into bottles, he said, "May a poor wanderer see what you are doing and smell the food that is too good for him to taste?"
"Come, wanderer and fest with us. There is enough for all", said Ha-lar-ka-kee.
"No, it is too good for me."
"It is for all. Come as if you were a grandfather."
"Do not urge ... [truncated due to length]Lexicon
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Short Stories of Mary Alicia Owen, Native American Legends By Mary Alicia Owen, How Nana-Box-Hoo Made the Hills and Valleys, Nana-Boz-Hoo, Friend of Man, Decides that Man Must Work for A Living, Nana-Box-Hoo and the Thunder-Birds Fight with the Rain Serpent, Rain Serpent Sends a Flood to Destory Nana-Boz-hoo, Nana-Boz Hoo makes the First Wampum from the Quills He Finds, Nana_Boz Hoo Goes Away, Sharrah, The Trickster, Sharrah Invites Himself to Mataque-We-Skeng's Feast, Sharrah Invites Himself to Dine with the Geese and Dines Well While They Go Hungry, Sharrah Get the Bride Intended for Sha-Kar-Qua, The Thunderbirds, The Thunderbird Girl, Mataque-We-Skeng, So-Sha-na Makes Boats, Mee_See-Na-Ook; Why Some Tress Are Not Evergreen, The Tress that Walk, The Dogs From Behind the Tree-That-Walk, St. Joseph History, Owen Sisters, St. Joseph Authors, Native AmericanRelationships
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Mary Alicia Owen
