A Brief Guide to Native American Myths and Legends (28 page)

‘If you wish to win the maiden,’ they said, ‘you must first of all push away that great stone. It is keeping the sunlight from us.’

‘Alas!’ said the youth, ‘it is impossible.’

‘Not so,’ said his companion of the swift foot; ‘nothing could be more easy.’

Saying this, he leaned his shoulder against the rock, and with a mighty crash it fell from its place. From the breaking up of it came the rocks and stones that are scattered over all the world.

The second test was of a different nature. The people brought the strangers a large quantity of food and water, and bade them eat and drink. Being very hungry, they succeeded in disposing of the food, but the suitor sorrowfully regarded the great kettles of water.

‘Alas!’ said he, ‘who can drink up that?’

‘I can,’ said the Thirsty One, and in a twinkling he had drunk it all.

The people were amazed at the prowess of the visitors. However, they said, ‘There is still another test,’ and they brought out a woman who was a very swift runner, so swift that no one had ever outstripped her in a race.

‘You must run a race with this woman,’ said they. ‘If you win you shall have the hand of the maiden you have come to seek.’

Naturally the suitor chose the Swift One for this test. When the runners were started the people hailed them as fairly matched, for they raced together till they were out of sight.

When they reached the turning-point the woman said: ‘Come, let us rest for a little.’

The man agreed, but no sooner had he sat down than he fell asleep. The woman seized her opportunity. Making sure that her rival was sleeping soundly, she set off for the village, running as hard as she could.

Meanwhile the four comrades were anxiously awaiting the return of the competitors, and great was their disappointment when the woman came in sight, while there was yet no sign of their champion.

The man who could hear the plants growing bent his ear to the ground.

‘He is asleep,’ said he; ‘I can hear him snoring.’

The Skilful Archer came forward, and as he bit the point off an arrow he said: ‘I will soon wake him.’

He shot an arrow from the bowstring with such a wonderful aim that it wounded the sleeper’s nose, and roused him from his slumbers. The runner started to his feet and looked round for the woman. She was gone. Knowing that he had been tricked, the Swift One put all his energy into an effort to overtake her. She was within a few yards of the winning-post when he passed her. It was a narrow margin, but nevertheless the Swift One had gained the race for his comrade.

The youth was then married to the damsel, whom he found to be all that her admirers had claimed, and more.

One day a young brave, feeling at variance with the world in general, and wishing to rid himself of the mood, left the lodges of his people and journeyed into the forest. By and by he came to an open space, in the centre of which was a high hill. Thinking he would climb to the top and reconnoitre, he directed his footsteps thither, and as he went he observed a man coming in the opposite direction and making for the same spot. The two met on the summit, and stood for a few moments silently regarding each other. The stranger was the first to speak, gravely inviting the young brave to accompany him to his lodge and sup with him. The other accepted the invitation, and they proceeded in the direction the stranger indicated.

On approaching the lodge the youth saw with some surprise that there was a large heap of bones in front of the door. Within sat a very old woman tending a pot. When the young man learned that the feast was to be a cannibal one, however, he declined to partake of it. The woman thereupon boiled some corn for him, and while doing so told him that his host was nothing more nor less than a snake-man, a sort of ogre who killed and ate human beings. Because the brave was
young and very handsome the old woman took pity on him, bemoaning the fate that would surely befall him unless he could escape from the wiles of the snake-man.

‘Listen,’ said she: ‘I will tell you what to do. Here are some moccasins. When the morning comes put them on your feet, take one step, and you will find yourself on that headland you see in the distance. Give this paper to the man you will meet there, and he will direct you further. But remember that however far you may go, in the evening the Snake will overtake you. When you have finished with the moccasins take them off, place them on the ground facing this way, and they will return.’

‘Is that all?’ said the youth.

‘No,’ she replied. ‘Before you go you must kill me and put a robe over my bones.’

The young brave forthwith proceeded to carry these instructions into effect. First of all he killed the old woman, and disposed of her remains in accordance with her bidding. In the morning he put on the magic moccasins which she had provided for him, and with one great step he reached the distant headland. Here he met an old man, who received the paper from him, and then, giving him another pair of moccasins, directed him to a far-off point where he was to deliver another piece of paper to a man who would await him there. Turning the first moccasins homeward, the young brave put the second pair to use, and took another gigantic step. Arrived at the second stage of his journey from the Snake’s lodge, he found it a repetition of the first. He was directed to another distant spot, and from that to yet another. But when he delivered his message for the fourth time he was treated somewhat differently.

‘Down there in the hollow,’ said the recipient of the paper, ‘there is a stream. Go toward it, and walk straight on, but do not look at the water.’

The youth did as he was bidden, and shortly found himself on the opposite bank of the stream.

He journeyed up the creek, and as evening fell he came upon a place where the river widened to a lake. Skirting its shores, he suddenly found himself face to face with the Snake. Only then did he remember the words of the old woman, who had warned him that in the evening the Snake would overtake him. So he turned himself into a little fish with red fins, lazily moving in the lake.

The Snake, high on the bank, saw the little creature, and cried: ‘Little Fish! have you seen the person I am looking for? If a bird had flown over the lake you must have seen it, the water is so still, and surely you have seen the man I am seeking?’

‘Not so,’ replied the Little Fish, ‘I have seen no one. But if he passes this way I will tell you.’

So the Snake continued down-stream, and as he went there was a little grey toad right in his path.

‘Little Toad,’ said he, ‘have you seen him for whom I am seeking? Even if only a shadow were here you must have seen it.’

‘Yes,’ said the Little Toad, ‘I have seen him, but I cannot tell you which way he has gone.’

The Snake doubled and came back on his trail. Seeing a very large fish in shallow water, he said: ‘Have you seen the man I am looking for?’

‘That is he with whom you have just been talking,’ said the Fish, and the Snake turned homeward. Meeting a musk-rat he stopped.

‘Have you seen the person I am looking for?’ he said. Then, having his suspicions aroused, he added craftily: ‘I think that you are he.’

But the Musk-rat began a bitter complaint.

‘Just now,’ said he, ‘the person you seek passed over my lodge and broke it.’

So the Snake passed on, and encountered a red-breasted turtle.

He repeated his query, and the Turtle told him that the object of his search was to be met with farther on.

‘But beware,’ he added, ‘for if you do not recognize him he will kill you.’

Following the stream, the Snake came upon a large green frog floating in shallow water.

‘I have been seeking a person since morning,’ he said. ‘I think that you are he.’

The Frog allayed his suspicions, saying: ‘You will meet him farther down the stream.’

The Snake next found a large turtle floating among the green scum on a lake. Getting on the Turtle’s back, he said: ‘You must be the person I seek,’ and his head rose higher and higher as he prepared to strike.

‘I am not,’ replied the Turtle. ‘The next person you meet will be he. But beware, for if you do not recognize him he will kill you.’

When he had gone a little farther down the Snake attempted to cross the stream. In the middle was an eddy. Crafty as he was, the Snake failed to recognize his enemy, and the eddy drew him down into the water and drowned him. So the youth succeeded in slaying the Snake who had sought throughout the day to kill him.

A certain chief who had a very beautiful daughter was unwilling to part with her, but knowing that the time must come when she would marry he arranged a contest for her suitors, in which the feat was to break a pair of elk’s antlers hung in the centre of the lodge.

‘Whoever shall break these antlers,’ the old chief declared, ‘shall have the hand of my daughter.’

The quadrupeds came first – the Snail, Squirrel, Otter, Beaver, Wolf, Bear, and Panther; but all their strength and skill
would not suffice to break the antlers. Next came the Birds, but their efforts also were unavailing. The only creature left who had not attempted the feat was a feeble thing covered with sores, whom the mischievous Blue Jay derisively summoned to perform the task. After repeated taunts from the tricky bird, the creature rose, shook itself, and became whole and clean and very good to look upon, and the assembled company saw that it was the Salmon. He grasped the elk’s antlers and easily broke them in five pieces. Then, claiming his prize, the chief’s daughter, he led her away.

Before they had gone very far the people said: ‘Let us go and take the chief’s daughter back,’ and they set off in pursuit of the pair along the sea-shore.

When Salmon saw what was happening he created a bay between himself and his pursuers. The people at length reached the point of the bay on which Salmon stood, but he made another bay, and when they looked they could see him on the far-off point of that one. So the chase went on, till Salmon grew tired of exercising his magic powers.

Coyote and Badger, who were in advance of the others, decided to shoot at Salmon. The arrow hit him in the neck and killed him instantly. When the rest of the band came up they gave the chief’s daughter to the Wolves, and she became the wife of one of them.

In due time the people returned to their village, and the Crow, who was Salmon’s aunt, learnt of his death. She hastened away to the spot where he had been killed, to seek for his remains, but all she could find was one salmon’s egg, which she hid in a hole in the river-bank. Next day she found that the egg was much larger, on the third day it was a small trout, and so it grew till it became a full-grown salmon, and at length a handsome youth.

Leading young Salmon to a mountain pool, his grand-aunt said: ‘Bathe there, that you may see spirits.’

One day Salmon said: ‘I am tired of seeing spirits. Let me go away.’

The old Crow thereupon told him of his father’s death at the hands of Badger and Coyote.

‘They have taken your father’s bow,’ she said.

The Salmon shot an arrow toward the forest, and the forest went on fire. He shot an arrow toward the prairie, and it also caught fire.

‘Truly,’ muttered the old Crow, ‘you have seen spirits.’

Having made up his mind to get his father’s bow, Salmon journeyed to the lodge where Coyote and Badger dwelt. He found the door shut, and the creatures with their faces blackened, pretending to lament the death of old Salmon. However, he was not deceived by their tricks, but boldly entered and demanded his father’s bow. Four times they gave him other bows, which broke when he drew them. The fifth time it was really his father’s bow he received. Taking Coyote and Badger outside, he knocked them together and killed them.

As he travelled across the prairie he stumbled on the habitation of the Wolves, and on entering the lodge he encountered his father’s wife, who bade him hide before the monsters returned. By means of strategy he got the better of them, shot them all, and sailed away in a little boat with the woman. Here he fell into a deep sleep, and slept so long that at last his companion ventured to wake him. Very angry at being roused, he turned her into a pigeon and cast her out of the boat, while he himself, as a salmon, swam to the shore.

Near the edge of the water was a lodge, where dwelt five beautiful sisters. Salmon sat on the shore at a little distance, and took the form of an aged man covered with sores. When the eldest sister came down to speak to him he bade her carry him on her back to the lodge, but so loathsome a creature was he that she beat a hasty retreat. The second sister did likewise,
and the third, and the fourth. But the youngest sister proceeded to carry him to the lodge, where he became again a young and handsome brave. He married all the sisters, but the youngest was his head-wife and his favourite.

On the banks of a river there dwelt a worthy couple with their only son, a little child whom they loved dearly. One day the boy wandered away from the lodge and fell into the water, and no one was near enough to rescue him. Great was the distress of the parents when the news reached them, and all his kindred were loud in their lamentations, for the child had been a favourite with everybody. The father especially showed signs of the deepest grief, and refused to enter his lodge till he should recover the boy. All night he lay outside on the bare ground, his cheek pillowed on his hand. Suddenly he heard a faint sound, far under the earth. He listened intently: it was the crying of his lost child! Hastily he gathered all his relatives round him, told them what he had heard, and besought them piteously to dig into the earth and bring back his son. This task they hesitated to undertake, but they willingly collected horses and goods in abundance, to be given to anyone who would venture.

Two men came forward who claimed to possess supernatural powers, and to them was entrusted the work of finding the child. The grateful father gave them a pipe filled with tobacco, and promised them all his possessions if their mission should succeed. The two gifted men painted their bodies, one making himself quite black, the other yellow. Going to the neighbouring river, they plunged into its depths, and so arrived at the abode of the Water-god. This being and his wife, having no children of their own, had adopted the Indian’s little son who was supposed to have been drowned, and the two men, seeing him alive and well, were pleased to think that their task was as good as accomplished.