Prairie Smoke, A Collection of Lore of the Prairies Part 8

A GROUP OF p.a.w.nEE HYMNS TO CORN

The p.a.w.nee had migrated from the distant southwest into the Plains region, finally arriving at the region drained by the Republican, the Platte, and the Niobrara rivers. Corn was native in Mexico, and had been introduced into the Plains by gradual adaptation in cultivation along the line of migration of the p.a.w.nee nation. These hymns express something of the high value which the people placed upon corn as an item of their daily sustenance. They also reflect something of the scenery of the Plains landscape. These hymns are from an ancient p.a.w.nee ritual which is given entire in the Twenty-second Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, Part 2.

MOTHER CORN

I

Mother with the life-giving power now comes, Stepping out of far-distant days she comes, Days wherein to our fathers gave she food; As to them, so now unto us she gives, Thus she will to our children faithful be.

Mother with the life-giving power now comes!

II

Mother with the life-giving power is here.

Stepping out of far distant days she comes.

Now she forward moves, leading as we walk Toward the future, where blessings she will give, Gifts for which we have prayed granting to us.

Mother with the life-giving power is here!

LEADERs.h.i.+P OF MOTHER CORN

I

The Mother leads and we follow on, Her devious pathway before us lies.

She leads us as were our fathers led Down through the ages.

II

The Mother leads and we follow on, Her pathway straight, where a stage each day We forward walk, as our fathers walked Down through the ages.

The two preceding hymns reflect the fact that corn was introduced by the p.a.w.nee from their more ancient homeland in the faraway southwest in remotely past time into the region of their later residence in the plains. They also reflect the importance which corn had in the everyday life of this people.

The following hymn to Mother Corn as Guide is expressive of the sense of vastness and awesomeness of the great extent of the Plains, and something of its grimness.

GUIDANCE OF MOTHER CORN

I

Looking o'er the prairie, naught our eyes discern there, Wide the land stretches out before us; Then we cry aloud to Mother Corn: "Doth thy pathway lie here?"

II

Heeding now our crying, while our eyes she opens, Mother Corn moveth out before us On the lonely prairie, where we see straight the pathway lies there!

The following hymn of thanks for the corn shows something of the religious feeling of the p.a.w.nee and their grat.i.tude to Providence for the gift of corn.

A HYMN OF THANKS TO MOTHER CORN

I

See! The Mother Corn comes. .h.i.ther, making all hearts glad!

Making all hearts glad!

Give her thanks, she brings a blessing; now, behold! she is here!

II

Yonder Mother Corn is coming, coming unto us!

Coming unto us!

Peace and plenty she is bringing; now, behold! she is here!

THE FORGOTTEN EAR OF CORN

A woman of the Arikara tribe was harvesting her crop of corn, making ready to store it away in a safe place where she might be able to get it for use during the long cold winter. She went along gathering the ears and placing them in convenient heaps so that she could gather them up to carry to the storage place she had prepared. When she had finished her work she started to go, but she heard a voice like the voice of a little child, crying and calling pitifully: "Oh, do not leave me! Do not go away without me."

The woman was astonished at what she supposed was the voice of a lost child. She said to herself: "What is this? Can it be some child has wandered and has been lost in my cornfield? I must go and look for it."

So she laid down her burden of gathered corn, and went back into the field to make search. But she found no child anywhere in the field.

Then she started once more to take up her burden and leave the field.

But again she heard the plaintive little voice crying: "Oh, do not leave me! Do not go away without me."

Then she went back into the field and searched again for a long time.

After diligent search she found one little ear of corn which had been covered by stalks and leaves. It was the little ear of corn which had been crying, fearing to be left to die in the field. So all Indian women are very careful in gathering their crops so that nothing shall be lost or wasted of the good gifts of the Great Mystery, for they are accounted sacred and holy, and it would be wicked to treat them with neglect or indifference.

HOW THE USEFULNESS OF WILD RICE WAS DISCOVERED

_A Chippewa Myth_

Wenibozho and his grandmother, Nokomis, lived together in a lodge by themselves. When he approached manhood his grandmother exhorted him to exert himself, to learn to endure hards.h.i.+p, loneliness, cold and hunger and thirst, for such experience is the proper training for a young man. A young man needs such training so that when overtaken by misfortune he shall be brave and resourceful; so that he may be able to take care of himself and of any who may be dependent upon him.

So, one day Wenibozho told his grandmother he was going away into the wilderness where he had never been before, so that he could be cast upon his own resources to try his strength and courage and wit.

He was gone many days and nights, wandering through the forest and beside streams and lakes. He subsisted upon such fruits, seeds, roots and tubers as he was able to find, and upon the flesh of animals he was able to shoot with his bow and arrow which he had brought with him. One day he came to a lake in which was growing a great quant.i.ty of beautiful, feathery wild rice, swaying over the water in the gentle breeze. From the bark of a birch tree he fas.h.i.+oned a canoe in which he rowed out upon the lake and gathered a quant.i.ty of the wild rice. He did not know the wild rice was useful for food, for he had never seen it before, but he admired its beauty. He took the wild rice which he had gathered to his grandmother. He told her of the beautiful plant which he had found in the lake and that he had brought to her some of the seed of the plant. This seed they sowed in another lake near the place where he lived with his grandmother, for he hoped to have the beautiful plant growing where he might often enjoy its beauty.

Again he went away into the forest so that he might become accustomed to endure hards.h.i.+ps and also that he might learn wisdom from the living creatures, not only from the moving creatures, but also from those other living creatures, the plants of all kinds. While walking he thought he heard a voice saying, "Sometimes they eat us." He stopped and listened and again he heard the words "Sometimes they eat us." This time he perceived that the words came from some bushes near which he was pa.s.sing. Finally he spoke, saying, "To whom are you talking?" He was told that he was the one to whom the bush was speaking, so he dug up the plant and found that it had a long root. He tasted the root and it was pleasant to the taste, so he dug more, and ate a great many, so many that he was made ill. He was too ill to travel, so he lay there three days. Finally he was able to rise and move on, but he was hungry and weak. As he pa.s.sed along other plants spoke to him, but he was now afraid to eat of them. Then, as he was walking along a stream he saw some bunches of gra.s.s growing up out of the water which beckoned to him and said, "Sometimes they eat us." He was so hungry, and the graceful gra.s.s was so tempting, that he was constrained to gather some seeds of it and eat. The taste was pleasing, and its effect upon his hunger was so gratifying that he said, "O, you are indeed good! What are you called?" The Gra.s.s replied, "We are called manomin," which is the name which the Chippewa people call this plant. Wenibozho waded out into the water and gathered the grains by handfuls and ate it, and so continued till his hunger was fully satisfied. From eating the manomin he suffered no ill effects whatever, but was strengthened wonderfully. Finally he remembered the grain which he had discovered on his former journey and which he and his grandmother, Nokomis, had sown in the lake near their home. When he returned and found it growing and compared it with this grain which he had now found to be so good, he perceived that it was the same sort. So he found that this beautiful gra.s.s which he had growing in the lake near home was really manomin, as pleasant to the taste and as satisfying to hunger as it was beautiful to the eyes.

Ever since that time the Chippewas have known how to value the good gift of manomin.

A STORY OF THE SUNFLOWER

_A Story from the Dakota Nation_

Once on a time, long ago, a company of men were going upon a war expedition. And now as they were within the country of the enemy they were proceeding very cautiously. One morning very early they heard what seemed to be the sound of someone singing in a tremulous voice, coming from the direction toward which they were marching. They stopped and stood still to listen.

As they stood thus listening it seemed to them that the singer, whoever he might be, must be a clown, for he was singing a clown song.

There was not light enough to see the singer. But they waited silently and anxiously peering ahead in the direction from which came the sound of the singing. At the first glimmer of the dawn light they were able to make out the appearance of a man walking with an awkward shuffling gait. His robe was ragged and his leggings drooped down slouchingly in wrinkles about his ankles as he walked. He had great circles about his eyes painted a bright yellow and he was singing a clown song in a husky wheezy voice.