Myths and Legends of the Great Plains Part 18

"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 pointed his 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 fas.h.i.+on 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 blowing to 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PETROGLYPH IN NEBRASKA

_Courtesy of the Smithsonian Inst.i.tution_]

QUARREL OF THE SUN AND MOON

_Omaha_

"I am out of patience with you," said Moon to Sun. "Although I bring people together, you scatter them. Thus many are lost."

"I have desired many people to grow," said Sun, "and so I have scattered them; but you have been putting them in darkness and thus have you been killing many with hunger. Ho! ye people!" called the Sun. "Many of you shall mature. I will look down on you from above. I will direct you, whatever you do."

Then Moon said, "And I, too, will dwell so. I will collect you; when it is dark, you shall a.s.semble in full numbers, and sleep. I myself will rule you, whatever you do. And we shall walk in the road, one after the other. I will walk behind him."

Moon is just like a woman. She always walks with a kettle on her arm.

WHY THE POSSUM PLAYS DEAD

_Cherokee_