This happened long ago. In those days the people were hungry. No buffalo nor
antelope were seen on the prairie. The deer and the elk trails were covered with
grass and leaves; not even a rabbit could be found in the brush. Then the people
prayed, saying: "Oh, Old Man, help us now, or we shall die. The buffalo and
deer are gone. Uselessly we kindle the morning fires; useless are our arrows;
our knives stick fast in the sheaths."
Then Old Man started out to find the game, and he took
with him a young man, the son of a chief. For many days they traveled the
prairies and ate nothing but berries and roots. One day they climbed a high
ridge, and when they had reached the top, they saw, far off by a stream, a
single lodge.
"What kind of a person can it be," said the
young man, "who camps there all alone, far from friends?"
"That," said Old Man, "is the one who
has hidden all the buffalo and deer from the people. He has a wife and a little
son."
Then they went close to the lodge, and Old Man changed
himself into a little dog, and he said, "That is I." Then the young
man changed himself into a root-digger, 1 and he said, "That is
I."
Now the little boy, playing about, found the dog, and
he carried it to his father, saying, "Look! See what a pretty little dog I
have found." "Throw it away," said his father; "it is not a
dog." And the little boy cried, but his father made him carry the dog away.
Then the boy found the root-digger; and, again picking up the dog, he carried
them both to the lodge, saying, "Look, mother! see the pretty root-digger I
have found!"
"Throw them both away," said his father;
"that is not a stick, that is not a dog."
"I want that stick," said the woman;
"let our son have the little dog."
"Very well," said her husband, "but
remember, if trouble comes, you bring it on yourself and on our son." Then
he sent his wife and son off to pick berries; and when they were out of sight,
he went out and killed a buffalo cow, and brought the meat into the lodge and
covered it up, and the bones, skin and offal he threw in the creek. When his
wife returned, he gave her some of the meat to roast; and while they were
eating, the little boy fed the dog three times, and when he gave it more, his
father took the meat away, saying, "That is not a dog, you shall not feed
it more."
In the night, when all were asleep, Old Man and the
young man arose in their right shapes, and ate of the meat. "You were
right," said the young man; "this is surely the person who has hidden
the buffalo from us." "Wait," said Old Man; and when they had
finished eating, they changed themselves back into the stick and the dog.
In the morning the man sent his wife and son to dig
roots, and the woman took the stick with her. The dog followed the little boy.
Now, as they traveled along in search of roots, they came near a cave, and at
its mouth stood a buffalo cow. Then the dog ran into the cave, and the stick,
slipping from the woman's hand, followed, gliding along like a snake. In this
cave they found all the buffalo and other game, and they began to drive them
out; and soon the prairie was covered with buffalo and deer. Never before were
seen so many.
Pretty soon the man came running up, and he said to his
wife, "Who now drives out my animals?" and she replied, "The dog
and the stick are now in there." "Did I not tell you," said he,
"that those were not what they looked like? See now the trouble you have
brought upon us," and he put an arrow on his bow and waited for them to
come out. But they were cunning, for when the last animal a big bull was about
to go out, the stick grasped him by the hair under his neck, and coiled up in
it, and the dog held on by the hair beneath, until they were far out on the
prairie, when they changed into their true shapes, and drove the buffalo toward
camp.
When the people saw the buffalo coming, they drove a
big band of them to the pis'kun; but just as the leaders were about to jump off,
a raven came and flapped its wings in front of them and croaked, and they turned
off another way.
Every time a band of buffalo was driven near the
pis'kun, this raven frightened them away. Then Old Man knew that the raven was
the one who had kept the buffalo cached.
So he went and changed himself into a beaver, and lay
stretched out on the bank of the river, as if dead; and the raven, which was
very hungry, flew down and began to pick at him. Then Old Man caught it by the
legs and ran with it to camp, and all the chiefs came together to decide what
should be done with it. Some said to kill it, but Old Man said, "No! I will
punish it," and he tied it over the lodge, right in the smoke hole.
As the days went by, the raven grew poor and weak, and
his eyes were blurred with the thick smoke, and he cried continually to Old Man
to pity him. One day Old Man untied him, and told him to take his right shape,
saying: "Why have you tried to fool Old Man? Look at me! I cannot die. Look
at me! Of all peoples and tribes I am the chief. I cannot die. I made the
mountains. They are standing yet. I made the prairies and the rocks. You see
them yet. Go home, then, to your wife and your child, and when you are hungry
hunt like any one else, or you shall die."
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