FOOTNOTE:[M]At the present day, the Teton gives three reasons for not burying in the ground: animals or persons might walk over the graves; the dead might lie in mud and water after rain or snow; wolves might trouble the bodies.
[M]At the present day, the Teton gives three reasons for not burying in the ground: animals or persons might walk over the graves; the dead might lie in mud and water after rain or snow; wolves might trouble the bodies.
[M]At the present day, the Teton gives three reasons for not burying in the ground: animals or persons might walk over the graves; the dead might lie in mud and water after rain or snow; wolves might trouble the bodies.
Indian Scaffold Cemetery on the Missouri river
(From Schoolcraft)
Courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution
An Omaha Village, Showing Earth Lodge and Conical Tepees
Courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution
Dakota
Long, long ago, a Dakota died and his parents made a death lodge for him on the bluff. In the lodge they made a grave scaffold, on which they laid the body of their son.
Now in that same village of Dakotas lived a young married man. His father lived with him, and there were two old men who used to visit the father and smoke with him, and talk with him about many things.
One night the father of the young man said, “My friends, let us go to the death scaffold and cut off summer robes for ourselves from the tent skins.”
The young man said, “No! Do not do so. It was a pity the young man died, and as his parents had nothing else to give up for him they made the death lodge and left it there.”
“What use can he get from the tent?” asked the father. “We have no robes, so we wish to use part of the tent skins for ourselves.”
“Well, then,” said the young man. “Go as you have said and we shall see what will happen.”
The old men arose without saying a word and went to the lodge on the bluff. As soon as they were gone, the young man said, “Oh, wife, get my piece of white clay. I must scare one of those old men nearly to death.”
But the woman was unwilling, saying, “Let them alone. They have no robes. Let them cut off robes for themselves.”
But as the husband would not stop talking about it, the wife got the piece of white clay for him. He whitened his whole body and his face and hands. Then he went to the lodge in a course parallel to that taken by the old men. He went very quickly and reached there before they did.
He climbed the scaffold and lay on it, thrusting his head out through the tent skins just above the doorway.
At last the old men approached, ascending the hill, and talking together in a low tone. The young man lay still, listening to them. When they reached the lodge, they sat down.
The leader said, “Fill your pipe, friends. We must smoke this last time with our friend up there.”
“Yes, your friend has spoken well. That should be done,” answered one of them.
So he filled the pipe. He drew a whiff, and whenthe fire glowed, he turned the pipestem toward the seam of the skins above the doorway. He looked up towards the sky, saying, “Ho, friend, here is the pipe. We must smoke with you this last time. And then we must separate. Here is the pipe.”
As he said this, he gazed above the doorway and saw a head looking out from the tent.
“Oh! My friends!” he cried. “Look at this place behind you.”
When the two looked, they said, “Really! Friends, it is he!” And all fled.
Then the young man leaped down and pursued them. Two of them fell to the ground in terror, but he did not disturb them, going on in pursuit of his father. When the old man was overtaken, he fell to the ground. He was terrified. The young man sat astride of him. He said, “You have been very disobedient! Fill the pipe for me!”
The old man said, “Oh! My grandchild! Oh! My grandchild!” hoping that the ghost would pity him. Then he filled the pipe as he lay stretched there and gave it to his son.
The young man smoked. When he stopped smoking, the old man said, “Oh! My grandchild! Oh! My grandchild! Pity me, and let me go. We thought we must smoke with you this last time, so we wentto the place where you were. Oh! My grandchild, pity me.”
“If that be so, arise and extend your hands to me in entreaty,” said the young man.
The old man arose and did so, saying continually, “Oh! My grandchild! Oh! My grandchild!”
It was as much as the young man could do to keep from laughing. At length he said, “Well! Begone! Beware lest you come again and go around my resting place very often! Do not visit it again!” Then he let the old man go.
On returning to the burial lodge, he found the two old men still lying where they had fallen. When he approached them, they slipped off, with their heads covered, as they were terrified, and he let them go undisturbed. When they had gone, the young man hurried home. He reached there first and after washing himself, reclined at full length.
He said to his wife, “When they return, be sure not to laugh. Make an effort to control yourself. I came very near making them die of fright.”
When the old men returned, the young people seemed to be asleep. The old men did not lie down; all sat in silence, smoking together until daylight. When the young man arose in the morning, the old men appeared very sorrowful.
Then he said, “Give me one of the robes that you and your friends cut off and brought back. I, too, have no robe at all.”
His father said, “Why! We went there, but we did not get anything at all. We were attacked. We came very near being killed.”
To this the son replied, “Why! I was unwilling for this to happen, so I said, ‘Do not go,’ but you paid no attention to me, and went. But now you think differently and you weep.”
When it was night, the young man said, “Go again and make another attempt. Bring back a piece for me, as I have no robe at all.”
The old men were unwilling to go again, and they lost their patience, as he teased them so often.
Omaha
Long ago, in the days of the grandfathers, a man died and was buried by his village. For four nights his ghost had to walk a very dark trail. Then he reached the Milky Way and there was plenty of light. For this reason, people ought to keep the funeral fires lighted for four nights, so the spirit will not walk in the dark trail.
The spirit walked along the Milky Way. At last he came to a point where the trail forked. There sat an old man. He was dressed in a buffalo robe, with the hair on the outside. He pointed to each ghost the road he was to take. One was short and led to the land of good ghosts. The other was very long; along it the ghosts went wailing.
The spirits of suicides cannot travel either road. They must hover over their graves. For them there is no future life.
A murderer is never happy after he dies. Ghosts surround him and keep up a constant whistling. He is always hungry, though he eat much food. He is never allowed to go where he pleases, lest high winds arise and sweep down upon the others.
Dakota
If a ghost wishes to walk the Ghost Road safely, then during living the person must tattoo himself either in the forehead or on the wrists. An old woman sits in the Ghost Road and she examines each ghost who passes. If she finds the tattoo marks, then the ghost travels on at once to Many Lodges. If the tattoo marks are not there, the old woman pushes the ghost from a cloud and he falls to this world again. Then he wanders all over the world. He is never quiet. He goes about whistling, with no lodge, and people are afraid of him.
When these ghosts visit the sick, they are driven away by smoke from the sacred cedar, or else cedar is laid outside the lodge. When a person hears a ghost whistling he goes outside the lodge and makes a loud noise. If a ghost calls to a loved one and he answers, then he is sure to die soon.
If a ghost meets a man who is alone, he will catch hold of him and pull his mouth and eyes until they are crooked. Indeed, a ghost did this to a person who only dreamed about one.
Ponca
Agreat many persons went on the warpath. They were Ponca. As they approached the foe, they camped for the night. They kindled a fire. It was during the night. After kindling a bright fire, they sat down; they made the fire burn very brightly. Rejoicing greatly, they sat eating. Very suddenly a person sang.
“Keep quiet. Push the ashes over that fire. Seize your bow in silence!” said their leader. All took their bows. And they departed to surround him. They made the circle smaller and smaller, and commenced at once to come together. And still he stood singing; he did not stir at all. At length they went very near to the tree. And when they drew very near to it, the singer ceased his song. When they had reached the tree, bones lay there in a pile. Human bones were piled there at the foot of the tree. When persons die, the Dakotas usually suspend the bodies in trees.
Teton
Once an Indian alone was just at the edge of a forest. Then the Thunder Beings raised a great storm. So he remained there for the night. After it was dark, he noticed a light in the woods. When he reached the spot, behold! there was a sweat lodge, in which were two persons talking.
One said, “Friend, someone has come and stands without. Let us invite him to share our food.”
Then the Indian fled because they were ghosts. But they followed him. He looked back now and then, but he could not see them.
All at once he heard the cry of a woman. He was glad to have company. But the moment he thought about the woman, she appeared. She said, “I have come because you have just wished to have company.”
This frightened the man. The woman said, “Do not fear me; else you will never see me again.”
They journeyed until daybreak. The man looked at her. She seemed to have no legs, yet she walked without any effort. Then the man thought, “What if she should choke me.” Immediately the ghost vanished.
Teton
In the olden time, a man was traveling alone, and in a forest he killed several rabbits. After sunset he was in the midst of the forest. He had to spend the night there, so he made a fire.
He thought this: “Should I meet any danger by and by, I will shoot. I am a man who ought not to regard anything.”
He cooked a rabbit, so he was no longer hungry. Just then he heard many voices. They were talking about their own affairs. But the man could see no one.
So he thought: “It seems now that at last I have encountered ghosts.”
Then he went and lay under a fallen tree, which was a great distance from the fire. They came around him and whistled, “Hyu! hyu! hyu!”
“He has gone yonder,” said one of the ghosts. Then they came and stood around the man, just as people do when they hunt rabbits. The man lay flat beneath the fallen tree, and one ghost came and climbed on the trunk of that tree. Suddenly the ghost gave the crythat a man does when he hits an enemy, “A-he!” Then the ghost kicked the man in the back.
Before the ghost could get away, very suddenly the man shot at him and wounded him in the legs. So the ghost cried as men do in pain, “Au! au! au!” At last he went off, crying as women do, “Yun! yun! yun! yun!”
The other ghosts said to him, “Where did he shoot?”
The wounded ghost said, “He shot me through the head and I have come apart.” Then the other ghosts were wailing on the hillside.
The man decided he would go to the place where the ghosts were wailing. So when day came, he went there. He found some graves. Into one of them a wolf had dug, so that the bones could be seen; and there was a wound in the skull.
Black Coyote
Arapahoe chief, and a leader in the ghost-dance.
Courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution
Ornamentation on the Reverse of an Arapahoe “Ghost-dance” Shirt
Courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution
Teton
Ayoung man went alone on the warpath. At length he reached a wood. One day, as he was going along, he heard a voice. He said, “I shall have company.” As he was approaching a forest, he heard some one halloo. Behold, it was an owl.
By and by he drew near another wood, and as night was coming on he lay down to rest. At the edge of the trees he lay down in the open air. At midnight he was aroused by the voice of a woman. She was wailing, “My son! my son!” Still he remained where he was, and put more wood on the fire. He lay with his back to the fire. He tore a hole in his blanket large enough to peep through.
Soon he heard twigs break under the feet of one approaching, so he looked through his blanket without rising. Behold, a woman of the olden days was coming. She wore a skin dress with long fringe. A buffalo robe was fastened around her at the waist.Her necklace was of very large beads, and her leggings were covered with beads or porcupine work. Her robe was drawn over her head and she was snuffing as she came.
The man lay with his legs stretched out, and she stood by him. She took him by one foot, which she raised very slowly. When she let it go, it fell with a thud as though he were dead. She raised it a second time; then a third time. Still the man did not move. Then the woman pulled a very rusty knife from the front of her belt, seized his foot suddenly and was about to lift it and cut it, when up sprang the man. He said, “What are you doing?” Then he shot at her suddenly. She ran into the forest screaming, “Yun! yun! yun! yun! yun! yun!” She plunged into the forest and was seen no more.
Again the man covered his head with his blanket but he did not sleep. When day came, he raised his eyes. Behold, there was a burial scaffold, with the blankets all ragged and dangling. He thought, “Was this the ghost that came to me?”
Again he came to a wood where he had to remain for the night. He started a fire. As he sat there, suddenly he heard someone singing. He made the woods ring. The man shouted to the singer, but no answer was paid. The man had a small quantity ofwasna,which was grease mixed with pounded buffalo meat, and wild cherry; he also had plenty of tobacco.
So when the singer came and asked him for food, the man said, “I have nothing.” The ghost said, “Not so; I know you have somewasna.”
Then the man gave some of it to the ghost and filled his pipe. After the meal, when the stranger took the pipe and held it by the stem, the traveler saw that it was nothing but bones. There was no flesh. Then the stranger’s robe dropped back from his shoulders. Behold, all his ribs were visible. There was no flesh on them. The ghost did not open his lips when he smoked. The smoke came pouring out through his ribs.
When he had finished smoking, the ghost said, “Ho! we must wrestle together. If you can throw me, you shall kill the enemy without hindrance and steal some horses.”
The young man agreed. But first he threw an armful of brush on the fire. He put plenty of brush near the fire.
Then the ghost rushed at the man. He seized him with his bony hands, which was very painful; but this mattered not. The man tried to push off the ghost, whose legs were very powerful. When the ghost was pulled near the fire, he became weak; but when he pulled the young man toward the darkness, he becamestrong. As the fire got low, the strength of the ghost increased. Just as the man began to get weary, the day broke. Then the struggle began again. As they drew near the fire again, the man made a last effort; with his foot he pushed more brush into the fire. The fire blazed up again suddenly. Then the ghost fell, just as if he was coming to pieces.
So the man won in wrestling. Also he killed his enemy and stole some horses. It came out just as the ghost said. That is why people believe what ghosts say.
Yankton
Aman and his wife had only one child, they say, whom they loved very much. He used to go playing every day, they say; and one day he fell into the water. His father and mother and all his relations wailed regularly. His father was very sad, they say. He would not sleep within the lodge; he lay out of doors, without any pillow at all. When he lay on the ground with his cheek on the palm of his hand, he heard his child crying. He heard him crying down under the ground, they say. Having assembled all his relations, he spoke of digging into the ground. The relations collected horses to be given as pay; they collected goods and horses. Then came two old men who said they were sacred. They spoke of seeking for the child. An old man went to tell the father. He brought the two sacred men to the lodge. The father filled a pipe with tobacco. He gave it to the sacred men, and said, “If you bring my child back, I will give all this to you.”
So they painted themselves; one made his body veryblack, the other made his body very yellow. Both went into the deep water. So they arrived there, they say. They talked to the wakanda. The child was not dead; he was sitting up, alive.
The men said, “The father demands his child. We have him; we will go homeward,” they said.
“You have him; but if you take him homeward with you, he shall die. Had you taken him before he ate anything, he might have lived. Begone ye, and tell those words to his father.”
The two men went. They arrived at the lodge, they say.
“We have seen your child; the wakanda’s wife has him. We saw him alive, but he has eaten of the food of the wakandas. Therefore the wakanda says that if we bring the child back with us out of the water, he shall die.”
Still, the father wished to see him.
“If the wakanda’s wife gives you back your child, she desires a very white dog as pay.”
“I promise to give her the white dog,” said the father.
Again the two men painted themselves; the one made himself very black, the other made himself very yellow. Again they went beneath the water. They arrived at the place again.
“The father said we were to take the child back at any cost; he spoke of seeing his child.”
So the wakanda gave the child back to them; homeward they went with him. When they reached the surface of the water with him, the child died. They gave him back to his father. Then all the people wailed when they saw the child, their relation.
They plunged the white-haired dog into the water. When they had buried the child they gave pay to the two men.
After a while, the parents lost another child, a girl, in the same way, they say. But she did not eat any of the wakanda’s food, therefore they took her home alive. But it was another wakanda who took her, and he promised to give her back if they would give him four white-haired dogs.
Arapahoe
The spirit world is toward the Darkening Land, higher up, and separated from the world of living by a great lake. Now when the spirits came back to this world [in the ghost-dance excitement] Crow was their leader. That is because Crow is black; his color is the same as that of the Darkening Land. Crow was followed by all the Indians. But when they reached the edge of the shadow land, below them was a great sea.
Far away, toward the Sunrise Land were their people in the world of living. So Crow took a pebble in his beak. He dropped it into the water, and it became a mountain, towering up to the shadow land. So the Indians came down the mountain side to the edge of the water.
Then Crow took some dust in his bill. He flew out and dropped it into the water, and it became solid land. It stretched between the spirit land and the world of living.
Then Crow flew out again, with blades of grass inhis beak. He dropped these upon the new made land. At once the earth was covered with green grass.
Again Crow flew out with twigs in his beak, and he dropped these upon the new earth. At once it was covered with a forest of trees.
Again he flew back to the base of the mountain. Then he called all the spirit Indians together. Now he is coming to help the living Indians. He has already passed the sea. He is now on the western edge of the world of living.
Teton
The giant called Waziya knows when there is to be a change of weather. He is a giant. When he travels, his footprints are large enough for several Indians to stand in abreast. His strides are very far apart; at one step he can go over a hill.
When it is cold, people say, “Waziya has returned.” They used to pray to him, but when they found he paid no attention to him, they ceased to do it.
When warm weather is coming, Waziya wraps himself in a thick robe. But when cold weather is coming, he wears nothing at all. Waziya, the giant god of the north, and Itokaga, the god of the south, are ever battling. Each in turn wins the victory.
Kansa
When there is a blizzard, the other Kansa beg the members of the Tcihaci gens to interpose, as they are the Wind People.
They say, “Oh, grandfather, I wish good weather. Please have one of your children decorated.”
Then the youngest son of one of the Wind People, but one half grown, is selected. He is painted all over with red paint. Then he goes out into the storm and rolls over and over the snow, reddening it for some distance. This stops the storm.
(Indian drawing)
The rank of the chiefs is shown by the white weasel skins attacked to their costumes. The arrow in the thigh of the horseman indicates that he was wounded.
Enlarged from a sketch in Report of the Bureau of Ethnology
Oddly enough, the name is given as that of the vanquished, not of the victor, although the balloon of sound would seemingly indicate otherwise. The pipe between the two indicates that the victor is entitled to celebrate his victory.
Enlarged from a sketch in Report of the Bureau of Ethnology
Teton
Ikto was the first person in this world. He is more cunning than human beings. He it was who named all the animals and people. But sometimes Ikto was tricked by the beings he had created.
One day Ikto was hungry; just then he caught a rabbit. He was about to roast him.
Suddenly Rabbit said, “Oh, Ikto, I will teach you a magic art.”
Ikto said, “I have created all things.”
“But I will show you something new,” said Rabbit. Therefore Ikto consented. He let go of Rabbit.
Rabbit stood in front of Ikto and said, “Elder brother, if you wish snow to fall at any time, take some hair such as this,”—and he pulled out some of his rabbit fur—“and blow it in all directions; there will be a blizzard.”
Rabbit made a deep snow in this way, though the leaves were green.
At once, Ikto began to pull his own fur and say magic words. Rabbit made a long leap and ran away.Ikto pulled his fur and blew it about. But there was no snow. Then he pulled more fur, and blew it about. Still there was no snow. It was only rabbit fur that made the snow.
Cherokee
North went traveling, and after a long time, and after visiting many tribes, he fell in love with the daughter of South.
South and his wife said, “No. Ever since you came the weather has been cold. If you stay we will all freeze.”
North said he would go back to his own country. So South let his daughter marry him. Then North went back to his own country with South’s daughter. All the people there lived in ice houses.
The next day, after sunrise, the houses began to leak. The ice began to melt. It grew warmer and warmer. Then North’s people came to him. They said, “It is the daughter of the South. If she lives here all the lodges will melt. You must send her back to her father.”
North said, “No.”
But every day it grew hotter. The lodges began to melt away. The people said North must send his wife home. Therefore North had to send her back to South.
Dakota
Apeople had this camp. And there were two women sleeping out of doors and looking up at the stars.
One of them said, “I wish that that large and bright shining star were my husband.”
The other said, “I wish the star that shines less brightly were my husband.”
And immediately both were immediately carried upward, they say. They found themselves in a beautiful country which was full of beautiful twin flowers. And they found that the star which had shone most brightly was a large man; the other star was only a young man. So the two stars married the two women and they lived in that beautiful Star Country.
Now in that country was a plant, the Teepsinna, with large, attractive stalks. The wife of the large star wanted to dig them. Her husband said, “No; no one does so here.”
Then the camp moved. When the woman had pitched her tepee, and came inside to lay the mats, shesaw there a beautiful teepsinna. She said to herself, “I will dig this; no one will see me.” So she took her digging stick and dug the teepsinna; but when she pulled it out of the earth, the foundation of the Star Country broke and she fell through with her baby. So the woman died; but the baby was not injured. It lay there stretched out.
An old man came that way. When he saw that the baby was alive, he took it in his blanket and took it to his own lodge. He said to his wife, “Old woman, I saw something today that made my heart feel badly.”
“What was it?” she asked.
“A woman lay dead; and a little baby boy lay beside her kicking.”
“Why did you not bring it home, old man?” she asked.
“Here it is,” he said. Then he took it out of his blanket.
The wife said, “Old man, let us adopt this child.”
The old man said, “We will swing it around the tepee.” He whirled it up through the smoke hole. It went whirling around and around and fell down, and came creeping into the tent.
Again he took up the baby and threw it up through the smoke hole. It got up and came into the tent walking. Again the old man whirled him out. In came aboy with some green sticks. He said, “Grandfather, I wish you would make me arrows.”
Again the old man whirled him out. No one knows where he went. This time he came back into the tepee a long man, with many green sticks. He said, “Grandfather, make me arrows of these.”
So the old man made him arrows, and he killed a great many buffaloes, and they made a large tepee, and built up a high sleeping place in the back part of the tepee, and were very rich in dried meat.
The old man said, “Old woman, I am glad we are well off; I will proclaim it abroad.” So when morning came, he went to the top of the tent, and sat, and said, “I, I have abundance laid up. I eat the fat of the animals.”
That is how the meadow lark came to be made, they say. It has a yellow breast and black in the middle, which is the yellow of that morning, and they say the black stripe is made by a smooth buffalo horn worn for a necklace.
The young man said, “Grandfather, I want to go visiting.”
“Yes,” said the old man. “When one is young is the time to go visiting.”
The young man went and came to a people, and lo! they were engaged in shooting arrows through a hoop.And there was a young man who was simply looking on. By and by he said, “My friend, let us go to your house.”
So they came to his lodge. Now this young man also had been raised by his grandmother, and lived with her, they say.
“Grandmother, I have brought my friend home with me; get him something to eat,” said the grandson.
Grandmother said, “What shall I do?”
Then the visiting young man said, “How is it, grandmother?”
She said, “The people are about to die of thirst. All who go for water will not come back again.”
Fallen Star said, “My friend, take a kettle; we will go for water.”
“With difficulty have I raised my grandchild,” objected the old woman.
“You are afraid of trifles,” said the grandson. So he went with Star-born.
They reached the side of the lake. By the water of the lake stood troughs half full of water.
Star-born called out, “You who they say have killed every one who has come for water, where have you gone? I have come for water.”
Then immediately whither they went is not manifest. Behold, there was a long house which was extended,and it was full of young men and women. Some of them were dead and some were dying.
“How did you come here?” asked Star-born.
They replied, “What do you mean? We came for water and something swallowed us.”
Something kept striking on the head of Star-born.
“What is this?” he said.
“Get away,” they replied, “that is the heart.”
Then he drew out his knife and cut it to pieces. Suddenly something made a great noise. In the great body, these people were swallowed up. When the heart died, death came to the body. Then Star-born cut a great hole in the side, and came out, bringing the young men and the young women. All came to life again.
So the people were thankful and offered him two wives.
But he said, “I am journeying. My friend here will marry them.”
Then Star-born went on, they say. Again he found a young man standing where they were shooting through a hoop. He said, “I will look on with my friend,” and went and stood beside him.
Then the other said, “My friend, let us go home,” so he went with him to his tepee.
“Grandmother, I have brought my friend home with me,” he said. “Get him something to eat.”
Grandmother replied, “How shall I do as you say?”
“How is it?” said Star-born.
“This people are perishing for wood,” she said; “when any one goes for wood, he never comes home again.”
Star-born said, “My friend, take the packing strap; we will go for wood.”
The old woman protested. “This one, my grandchild, I have raised with difficulty,” she said. He answered, “Old woman, what you are afraid of are trifles,” and went with the young man. “I am going to bring wood,” he said. “If any wish to go, come along.”
“The young man who came from somewhere says this,” they said, so they followed him.
They had now reached the wood. They found it tied up in bundles. He ordered them to carry it home, but he stood still and said, “You who killed every one who came to this wood, where have you gone?”
Then, suddenly, where he went was not made manifest. And lo! a tepee, and in it some young men and young women; some were eating, and some were waiting.
He said to them, “How came you here?”
They answered, “What do you mean? We came forwood and something brought us here. Now you also are lost.”
He looked behind him, and lo! there was a hole.
“What is this?” he asked.
“Stop!” they said. “That is the thing itself.”
He drew out an arrow and shot it. Then suddenly it opened out and behold! it was the ear of an owl in which they had been shut up. When it was killed, it opened out. Then he said, “Young men and women, come out,” so they went home.
Again they offered him two wives. But he said, “My friend will marry them. I am traveling.”
Again he passed on. And he came to a dwelling place of people and found them shooting the hoop. There stood a young man looking on. He joined him as his friend. While they stood there together, he said:
“Friend, let us go to your home.” So he went with him to his tepee.
The young man said, “Grandmother, I have brought my friend home with me; get him something to eat.”
She said, “Where shall I get it from, that you say that?”
“Grandmother, how is it that you say so?” asked the stranger.
She replied, “Waziya treats this people very badly.When they go out to kill buffalo, he takes it all, and now they are starving to death.”
Now Waziya was a giant who caused very cold weather and blizzards.
Then he said, “Grandmother, go to him and say, ‘My grandchild has come on a journey and has nothing to eat; so he has sent me to you.’”
So the old woman went and standing at a distance, cried, “Waziya, my grandchild has come on a journey and has nothing to eat; so he has sent me to you.”
He replied, “Bad old woman, get you home; what do you mean by coming here?”
The old woman came home crying, and saying that Waziya had threatened to kill some of her relations.
Star-born said, “My friend, take your strap; we will go there.”
The old woman interfered: “I have with difficulty raised my grandchild.”
Grandchild replied to this by saying, “Grandmother is very much afraid.” So the two went together.
When they came to the house of Waziya, they found a great deal of dried meat outside. He put as much on his friend as he could carry, and sent him home with it; then Star-born entered the tepee of Waziya, and said to him, “Waziya, why did you answer my grandmother as you did when I sent her to you?”
Waziya only looked angry.
Hanging there was a bow of ice. “Waziya, why do you keep this?” he said.
The giant replied, “Hands off; whoever touches that gets a broken arm.”
Star-born said, “I will see if my arm breaks.” He took the ice bow and snapped it into many pieces, and then started home.
The next morning all the people went on the chase and killed many buffaloes. But, as he had done before, the Waziya went all over the field, gathered up all the meat, and put it in his blanket.
Star-born was cutting up a fat cow. Waziya came and stood there. He said, “Who cuts this up?”
“I am,” answered Star-born.
Waziya said, “From where have you come that you act so haughtily?”
“Whence have you come, Waziya, that you act so proudly?” he retorted.
Waziya said, “Fallen Star, whoever points his finger at me dies.” The young man thought, “I will point my finger at him and see if I die.” He pointed his finger, but it made no difference.
Then Fallen Star said, “Waziya, whoever points his finger at me, his hand loses all use.” So Waziya thought, “I will point my finger and see.” He pointedhis finger. His forearm lost all use. Then he pointed his finger with the other hand. It was destroyed even to the elbow.
Then Fallen Star drew out his knife and cut up Waziya’s blanket, and all the buffalo meat he had gathered there fell out. Fallen Star called to the people, “Henceforth kill and carry home.”
So the people took the meat and carried it to their tepees.
The next morning, they say, it was rumored that the blanket of Waziya, which had been cut to pieces, had been sewed up by his wife. He was about to shake it.
The giant stood with his face toward the north and shook his blanket. Then the wind blew from the north. Snow fell all about the camp so that the people were all snowed in. They were much troubled. They said, “We did live in some fashion before; but now this young man has acted so we are in great trouble.”
But he said, “Grandmother, find me a fan.”
Then she made a road under the snow, and went to people and said, “My grandchild says he wants a fan.”
“What does he mean by saying that?” they asked and gave him one.
Now the snow reached to the top of the lodges, and so Fallen Star pushed up through the snow, and sat on the ridge of the lodge. While the wind was blowingto the south, he sat and fanned himself and made the wind come from the south. Then the heat became great. The snow went as if boiling water had been poured over it. All over the ground there was a mist. Waziya and his wife and children all died with the great heat. But the youngest child, the littlest child of Waziya, took refuge in the hole made by the tent pole, where there was a frost, and so he lived. So they say that is all that is left of Waziya now, just the littlest child.