178 DAKOTA GRAMMAE [Memo ?v<£ a xxiii 



FREE TRANSLATION 



Now! they tell about somebody who considered nothing holy and only tried to succeed by 

 means of his will power. 



A young man said, "I shall go to find food; and when I want some great number of those 

 that walk the ground, I'll fell them to the ground," he said. Then his father said, "O son, it is 

 holy and you say that!" said he. Then (the son) said, "Just in which way will it be holy?" he 

 said. Then again (the father) said, "No, it is holy," he said. Then (the son) said again, "Why 

 is it holy?" Then (the father) said again, "Those are not yours and you say that!" said he. 

 Then (the son) said again, "But whose are they?" he said. — "Well, to whom they belong I do not 

 know, but they belong to something holy," said he. Then (the son) said, "The one to whom they 

 belong, did you see him?" said he. — "No, I did not see him, only with my heart do I think it," 

 said he. — "There it is! How do you know it that you (can) say it. Even if it is a nothing, 

 stretching (your imagination) you take it to be holy; ye indeed see something holy sitting 

 (there)!" he said to him. And, "Yes," said (the father), "Come on! so there is nothing holy; own 

 yourself all those that just walk and also the game animals!" said he to him. Then the youth said, 

 "Of course, those just grow up, who owns them is hardly evident," said he; and so he went 

 hunting. Then an elk he saw; it being so he shot it, but it did not run away. He shot it 

 again, but it did not run away. Now he was tired of shooting, then at last setting (his arrow) 

 against it he shot, but it did not run away and ? He took a stone and was about to strike it with 

 it, then as though he had struck something with bird's down, like that he struck it. Then the 

 youth said, "Ah, it must be that game animals do not just grow up." Then someone said, "It is 

 not good that man tries to own those walking on earth who live," said a man somewhere. The 

 youth came (away) from there and on arriving said, "Father, somewhere the sky, the earth, trees 

 and also grass talk, father, just like we talk. Do you not hear them say so?" said he to him. 

 Then he said, "Yes, I do not know anything, but it is in the thought of certain men that some- 

 thing holy exists, I hear them say so," said he. Then, "Nothing exists that talks as we do, they 

 say undoubtedly," said (the father). — "Father, something exists speaking as we do," said he, 

 "but where that something is I do not understand," said he. Then, "Father, from an elk I 

 learned it," said he. Then his father said, "No son! there is nothing holy ; and ye youths who con- 

 ceitedly talk ; instead of that you are extraordinary," said he to him, "and ye are only able to treat 

 things as nothing. That is the way," said he. 



