Mabqb SO, 1884.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



143 



LIFE AMONG THE BLACKFEET. 



BY ,T. WTLLAED SCHULTZ. 



Fourteenth Paper-Folk-Lore. 



[Concluded.} 



THE CAUSE OF SPOTS OH THE MOON. 



LONG ago there lived a man, who had a wife and son, 

 and his Wife was not faithful to him. She ran away 

 With another man. But the woman loved her sou. and 

 would often disguise herself in men's clothing and go and 

 talk and play with him. Now one day, alter the woman had 

 visited her son, the little boy said to his father, "I think 1 

 know my mother. It is she who comes often, dressed in 

 men's clothes, and plays with me and tells me stories." Then 

 said his father, "When she comes again ask her to make you 

 some arrows and a bow." 



Not long after she came again, and the little boy said, 

 "Oh. my friend, please make me a bow and some arrows so 

 1 can shoot the little birds," and his mother commenced to 

 make them. When she had finished an arrow, the boy's 

 father came in and looked at the arrow and knew that no 

 man made it, aud he said to the woman, "You are my wife," 

 and she was afraid, and did not deny it. Then the man took 

 his knife and cut her to pieces, and threw the pieces out of 

 the lodge; but instead of falling to the ground they went 

 way above and stuck on the moon. You can see them yet, 

 the spots on the moon. 



THE WOLF-MAN. 



There was once a man who bad two wives. They were 

 unfaithful. Very bad were their hearts. So the man left the 

 main camp and lived way out on the prairie with his bad 

 wives. And one of his wives said to the other, "Let us kill 

 our hushaud and go back to the main camp, where we may 

 see our lovers." Now, near where they were camped was a 

 tall butte, and every night when he came home the man 

 would go up ou it and sit. and look all over the prairie to see 

 where the buffalo were feeding and to see if any enemies 

 were coming. Aud on top of the buttc was a buffalo bull's 

 skull, upon which be woulid sit. 



One day, when he was out hunting, the. women went up 

 ou the butte and dug a deep pit in it. Then they covered 

 the mouth of it with small sticks, earth and grass, and 

 placed the buffalo skull on top. When the sun was almost: 

 down they saw their husband coming home, the dogs loaded 

 down with the meat he had killed. ""There he is, there he 

 is," they cried, "let us hurry and get his supper." And 

 when he had finished eating be went up on the butte, and 

 when he seated himself on the buffalo skull the slender 

 sticks gave way aud be was thrown to the bottom of the pit. 

 When his wives heard him cry, they looked, but could not 

 see him, so they knew he was in the pit, and they quickly 

 packed the lodge on the dog travois and moved into the 

 main camp. "Where is your husband?" the people asked. 

 "Three days ago be went out to hunt, and has not returned. 

 We fear he is killed," they replied. 



Now when the man fell down into the pit he cried, and a 

 wolf heard him. The wolf said, "I hear a person crying," 

 and looking about he soon discovered the man in the pit. 

 Then the wolf howled, Ah-Ji-w-o-o-o-o < o-o, ah-h-w-o-o-o-o-o-o! 

 And when the other wolves beard him they came running to 

 see what was the matter. There came also many coyotes, 

 black wolves, red foxes, kit foxes, badgers and mice; the 

 little mice came too. " And wheu they were all come, the 

 •wolf who bad found the man said, "Here is my find. In 

 this hole is a fallen -in-somehow-man ; let us take pity on 

 him and dig him out, and we will have him for a brother." 

 Then all the animals commenced to dig, and' soon had a 

 bole almost to the man. And when they bad dug very close 

 to him, the find-him wolf called out, "Hold on; I want to 

 say something," and when all the animals were listening he 

 said, "Now 1 found this man. We will all have him for our 

 brother, but I claim that be ought to live with us big wolves, 

 for I found him." All the animals agreeing to this, the big 

 wolf went down in the hole, and tearing down the rest of the 

 dirt dragged the almost dead man out. And when they had 

 given him a kidney to eat, the big wolves took him to their 

 holes; and they brought him to the bole of a big blind medi- 

 cine wolf, and the medicine wolf made wolf paws and a 

 wolf head on him. The rest of his body was like a man's. 



Now, in these days the people caught buffalo in pfs-kans,* 

 and all around these pls-kans they made openings and set 

 nooses in them, so when the wolves came to steal meat they 

 were caught by the neck. One niaht the wolves all went 

 down to steal meat, and when they had come close to the 

 pis-kan the man-wolf said; "Sit here all of you, and I will 

 go first and fix the places so you will not get killed," and he 

 went first and sprung all the nooses. Then he went back 

 and called all the wolves and the others, the coyotes, foxes 

 and budgets, and they all went in the pis-kan and feasted, 

 and took meat to carry home. 



In the morning, the people were surprised to find all their 

 nooses drawn out, and they said, "Perhaps it was what?" 

 Many nights were the nooses drawn out and their meat 

 stolen by the wolves. One night when the wolves came they 

 found only bad bull's meat aiid the man-wolf was angry, 

 and he howled out, "Ah-bad-you-give-us-o-o-o-o," and the 

 people heard and said, "It is a man-wolf who has done all 

 this." So they put dried meat, pemmican and tongues in 

 the pis-kan, and many people hid in there. 



The next night when the man-wolf came he saw the good 

 food and ran to it, then the men all jumped up and caught 

 him with ropes, and they took him to camp. When they 

 took him into a lodge \>y the fire they knew him, and said, 

 "Here is the man his wives said was killed," and they 

 brought his wives into the lodge. Then the man-wolf told 

 what his wives had done, and they were immediately killed. 



THE THUNDER BIRD. 



None of the people knew what the thunder was, and the 

 people often talked about it, and said, "Perhaps it is what?" 

 Now, once the people moved toward the Sweetgrass hills 

 after buffalo, and one day when they were traveling two 

 boys found a cjueer bird on the prairie, and caught h and 

 carried it to their father's lodge, and many people came in to 

 look at it, for no one had seen a bird like it, and while they 

 were talking it suddenly arose and flew out the smoke-hole 

 of the lodge, and a great thunder shook the lodge, and 

 knocked the people down, and they knew then that it was 

 the bird which made the thunder. 



The rainbow is called Nap'-T-o-tfj-kah-tcbls, Old Man's 

 lariat; or, more correctly, Old Man's catching instrument. 

 When he wishes the rain to cease he throws out this lariat 

 and catches it ail. 



The constellation Pleiades is termed the E-kit-sf -kQm, 

 even, and the legend is, that a woman once had seven bad 



children, and that one day she threw them up in the sky, 

 where thev were changed into stars. 



Sun-dogs arc said to be tires lighted by the sun to warn 

 the people that danger is near. "When you see the signal 

 tires, watch, for the enemy is coming." 



The. foregoing legends are all that the writer has learned 

 thus far, which may with propriety be printed in a public 

 journal. 



The Blackfoot language is an exceedingly difficult one to 

 master, and the writer has decided to omit any remarks upon 

 it, for as yet he is not sufficiently versed in if to give any very 

 valuable Information regarding its peculiarities. Below is 

 an interlinear translation of the story of the "Wind-maker, ' 

 which will give some information regarding the structure of 

 the language. 

 O-meks iks-ali sam'-Y-au ft-siii -O'-yC-au I'-so-pom-stau 



They hunted saw they wind-maker 



5-tan-wah'-kwo-eau e-tot'eks-so-pwo'-e e-to-nutt'-up- 



chased him they came very wind commenced 



sO-pwo-e e-tCin' uk-o-po-po ki-y ek-au ah-wah-kwo -ye 



wind blown off they chased him 



o-mC o'-muk-si-klm-T e-tuh-pus'-kwo-e-au et-suo-miik-l-ySk 

 That big water chased him toward under ran 



Tt-su-o-wut-sln-I-yek-a u It si k -so-pwO-e KTh'-yT-yf 



saw him no more they ceased wind That's it 



ft-sih-o'-ye-au I'-so-poni-stan I'sO-pom-stan Kish-tsf-pek-se 



saw him Wind maker Wind maker Spotted animal 



niit'-Ot-sf-niun In-o-ye' uhk-so-yis Tn-o-yS' o-to-kTsts 

 like color long his tail long his ears 



Bt-sfn-us'-tse. 

 down hang. 



Free translation: Some hunters once saw the wind-maker 

 and chased him; there came a strong wind which blew them 

 off, but, persisting, they chased the animal into the lake, and 

 as soon as be disappeared under the water the wind ceased 

 blowing. Then they knew that they had seen the Wind- 

 maker. He was a spotted animal, and had a long tail, and 

 long ears which hung down. 



The following: account of the Blaekfeet pis-kan was given by Mr. 

 SehultK in Forest and Stream of June 1, 1882: 



Not so very long ago I happened to be camped with a gens of the 

 Pe-gun-ny, at a place called Willows Round, situated some fifteen 

 miles above here, on the Marias River. Early in the evening I saw 

 old Po-kah-yah-yi, in whose lodge I was stopping, ascend a steep 

 bluff not far off. and, Riving him time to reach the top, I followed, 

 and was soon seated by his side. Directly opposite us across the 

 river were the remains of pis-kan. or, as the white men out here call 

 it. a "buffalo pound." Why so called I cannot say, the literal transla- 

 tion of the word ''pis-kan" beinj; "falling off place." "Now, my 

 amed my breath, "tell me all about that 

 t; how many buffalo did you catch in 

 srs ago did you use it .-" 



The old man's story was as follows: 



"In those days we had no guns, but used to kill many buffalo with 

 bows and arrows; and sometimes we used the pis-kan. When we 

 made a pis-kan, w.e first found a little open glade by the river where 

 the prairie came down and ended in a cut bank as high as a man. 

 From this cut bank we built a strong fence clear around the edge of 

 the glade. We used big trees to make the fence— logs and sticks, and 

 anything that would help to keep the buffalo from breaking out. 

 Then we built two lines of stone piles far out on the prairie, two lines 

 that ever diverged from each other. Then the pis-kan was built. 



"The night before we intended to make a drive we always had a 

 buffalo dance. All the people danced. The medicine men all wore 

 buffalo robes, and sung the buffalo songs. Every one prayed to their 

 secret helpers for good luck. Early the next morning' the people 

 went out, and hid behind the stone piles on the prairie. The medicine 

 man who was going to call the buffalo put on a buffalo robe, hair side 

 out, and sitting down smoked one pipe to the sun. Then lie spoke to 

 his wives and all the women of his lodge, saying, 'You must not go 

 outside until I return. You must not look out of the doorway or any 

 ho*e. Take this sweet grass,' giving it to his head wife, 'and every 

 little while burn a small part of it so that the sun will be glad. Pray 

 that we will have good luck.' Then he mounted a dark colored horse 

 and rode out on the prairie. When he came near a band of buffalo 

 he began to ride quickly in circles and cried out to the buffalo, say- 

 ing, 'E-ne-uh! E-ne-uhP (meaning buffalo). The buffalo were first a 

 little scared ; then they began to follow him slowly, and soon ran 

 after him as fast as they could. Then the medicine man rode into 

 the shoot, and after the buffalo had also run in he jumped out to one 

 side of the stone piles, and the herd passed by. The people behind 

 kent rising up and shouting, which made them run all the faster. 

 The buffalo in the head of the band were afraid of the stone piles, 

 and kept right on in the middle of the shoot; those in the rear 'were 

 Scared by the people continually rising behind them, and so pushed 

 the leaders ahead. When the band had got close to the edge ot the 

 pis-kan, all the people closed in on tnem and with a great shout 

 drove them over the cnt bank into the inclosure. Then with their 

 bows and arrows, the men killed all the buffalo; even the old bulls 

 were killed. The fattest, cows were then marked for the chiefs and 

 medicine men by placing sticks on the tails, and the rest were 

 divided up among the people." 



The above narrative is true in every respect. As late as 18(15 the 

 Pe-gun-ny used these pis-kans on the Upper Marias. Mr. Jos. Kipp, 

 the well-known Indian trader, tells me that in 1864 he saw the Pe- 

 gun-ny capture over seventy-five head of buffalo in this manner. 

 Sometimes three or four drives were made in one day. About seven- 

 ty-five buffalo were the average drive, though sometimes more than 

 a* hundred were taken. 



friend," said I, after 1 had i 

 pis-kau. How did you mal 

 one day; and how many v ! 



MAJOR JOSEPH VERITY. 



SOME OP HIS SPORTING ADVENTURES, AS WtODESTTiT SET 

 FORTn BY HIS OWN HAND. 



Chapter VII. 



ADIRONDA, a vast tract of primeval forest in the midst 

 of a country that has long been settled and "'im- 

 proved," as it is the fashion to term those portions of the 

 earth which have been spoiled by the hands of civilized man, 

 is such a delightful resort for the tired dwellers in cities, for 

 invalids and for those who desire to season their dull lives 

 with a spice of mild adventure, that it is altogether desirable 

 that it should be set apart as a State park, and henceforth 

 saved from the destroying axe of the tree-murderiug lumber- 

 man. A more important consideration than these from the 

 utilitarian point of view, is the dependence of the lives of 

 great rivers on the preservation of this great tract of land - 

 shading and water-slaying woodland. If it were not for 

 this danger to awaken the power that rules, the lovers of the 

 grand old woods might prepare their garments of sackcloth 

 and gather their ashes while there are jet ashes to be 

 gathered, and be ready for the day of mourning. 



It was brought to my mind in speaking of tne lake of the 

 singing fishes, what countless beautiful and curious lakes lie 

 in that region, many of which, I doubt not, have never yet 

 mirrored the form of a white man, while there are many 

 more that but few white men have beheld. One of these in 

 particular I remember, which I neverjhave heard mentioned 

 nor seen one word written of till now. It is a small body of 

 very salt water lying In a rock-rimmed bowl of mountains in 

 the very heart of Adironda, and is very beautiful ; but its 

 beauty is outdone by r the singularity of its saliue character, 

 and its cause. It. is* not fed by salt springs on its shores nor 

 in its bottom, in fact, it has no inlet of any sort; the small 



trout brooks of the surrounding mountains discharging else- 

 where, and it has no visible, outlet — probably lists none. . 



Three hundred years ago, as nearly as Indian tradition in- 

 dicates, the basin that now holds the lake was a dTy valley. 

 On a certain time a great horde of Adirondacs and Abena- 

 kis on the one side and as great a one of all the nations of 

 the Iroquois on the other, met here in a deadly conflict that 

 lasted for several days. Heaps em heaps were slain of both 

 wild armies, but neither was victorious, and both withdrew, 

 leaving their dead upon the field. A month later all the 

 women of the nations engaged repaired thither to weep over 

 their slaughtered braves, and abode there, so doing, for many 

 days, and" at the end of a fortnight their tears had filled the 

 little vale with salt water. And every year, for hundreds of 

 years after, about the anniversary of the battle, the mourn- 

 ing women came there and .wept for nearly a month, thus 

 keeping the lake full. I should be inclined to relegate Ibis 

 tale to the realm of fabulous tradition, if I had not myself 

 seen hundreds of squaws sitting upon the shores and raining 

 clown showers of tears for their moldered ancestors, little 

 salt rivulets trickling down from each group to the lake, 

 through the while sand, composed almost entirely of the 

 crumbled bones and flint arrows and spears of the long-slain 

 warriors. Therefore 1 have no doubt the lake owes its origin 

 to this source. Yet these later comers, not feeling the 

 poignancy of grief which affected the earlier mourners, 

 may have contributed something in a way which is given to 

 those who are denied many tears. 



Some sea fish are found in its waters as well as oysters, 

 clams and the like, the spawn of whhh was doubtless 

 brought by the seafowl that frequently visit it. I thought 

 once that 1 had discovered seaweed there, but found, upon 

 inquiry among my Indian acquaintances, both Iroquois and 

 Abenaki's, chat once upon a mourning time there outbroke 

 a battle between the squaws as to which sorrowed most, 

 when many scalps without skin were clawed off, after the 

 fashion of civilized women, and my seaweed was oniy the 

 water-soaked trophies of that Amazonian conflict. As the 

 mourners grow fewer with the rapid passing away of the In- 

 dian race, the lake shrinks, but becomes no less salt, except 

 in seasons of exceeding wetness, and for those who would 

 have the heart of the wooods in large and the seaside in min- 

 iature in conjunction, I know of no more delightful resort 

 than this sheet of water, which the Iroquios call Kanyatare- 

 Keaheya, the Lake of Death, and the Abenakis, Nebisi Wal- 

 dam-Wogan, the Water of Sorrow, or Lake of Tears. 



If one would visit it from the East, let him leave Lake 

 Champlain at Westport, Essex or Plattsburgh and go toward 

 it till he comes to it, upon doing which he cannot mistake 

 it for any- other lake in Adironda, either by the tests of 

 sight, taste or smell. If one would come to* it from any 

 other point I cannot give him better instructions for doing so. 



It freezes much later than other lakes of that re- 

 gion. I have seen it open at the end of October, when as 

 all know, winter reigns there supreme and undisputed. I 

 have seen in November a polar bear traversing its frozen 

 surface, and have killed more titan one seal there, as well as 

 the blue Arctic fox. Is it not strange that, these animals of 

 the far North should have been led to it so far from their 

 wonted abode? By what light intangible ethereal thread 

 were they drawn? Of this and things akin 1 hope to say 

 something further on. Major Joseph Verity, U.>s.H.M. ' 

 Adironda. 



tttt{nl l§i§toTQ> 



THE DEER OF THE OTTAWA VALLEY. 



11Y WILLIAM PITTMAN LETT. 



[Read before the Field Naturalists' Club of the City of Ottawa, On- 

 tario, Canada, on the 13th day of March. 1884.] 

 [Continued from Page 124.] 

 THE MOOSE. 



THE moose deer (Alas auwrkana) or Alcex malcMs, accord- 

 ing to Linnaeus, is the largest of all deer now existing in 

 the world, although much inferior in size to the ancient Irish 

 elk, which must have been an animal of gigantic propor- 

 tions, if we are to judge from the size and weight of the 

 ponderous antlers found occasionally in the bogs of Ireland. 

 Some of those great horns have been discovered with a spread 

 of twelve feet, which fact will give some idea of the magni- 

 tude of the animal which carried in the old days of the 

 powerful wolfdog such enormous horns. 



The American moose, according to the conclusions of 

 all scientific naturalists, is a true elk, identical with the 

 Scandinavian and Asiatic elks. A full-grown moose of 

 the largest size, when fat and up to its heaviest weight, 

 will weigh upwards of fifteen hundred pounds. A bull 

 moose of this description is as tall as the largest horse. 

 The body and neck, for so tall an animal, are short and 

 stout — the neck unusually so — and is covered with a thick 

 mass of strong, bristly hair rising into a stiff mane, which, 

 when the animal is irritated, stands ou end like the mane of 

 a lion, and gives the infuriated beast a frightful and formi- 

 dable aspect. The legs are long and bony: and although un- 

 gainly in appearance, are as clean cut and as compact as the 

 limbs of a racer. The head is enormously huge, and alto- 

 gether deficient in the points of grace and beauty peculiar to 

 nearly r all the other branches of the deer genus.* The fleshy 

 part of the upper jaw terminates with a long, flexible upper 

 lip, with prehensile powers, used by the animal in seizing the 

 twigs and branches of trees upon which it feeds. The nostrils 

 are long and wide, and the eyes somewhat small in propor- 

 tion to the size of the animal. The hoofs are large and 

 shaped like those of the common deer. The colour of the 

 hair in the summer coat is a dark brown, nearly black, par- 

 ticularly about the head. At this season the coat is short 

 and .glossy. In winter the animal is covered with long, 

 coarse hair, of a brittle nature, and the colour is lighter in 

 hue, a sort of grayish brown tinge prevailing on the sides, 

 with the belly of a somewhat lighter colour. A tuft of hair 

 nearly one foot long hangs under the jaws in the youug 

 moose. Moose is an Indian name, derived from the Algon- 

 quin word tn&uswe, the eater. 



I quote the following description from Billing's "Canadian 

 Naturalist and Geologist" : 



"The gigantic horns of the moose are well known in al- 

 most every town in Europe or America where there is a 

 museum. It is difficult to believe that these enormous solid 

 appendages are the growth of a single season, ami yet the 

 fact is too well established to admit of a doubt. Only the 

 males are provided with them, and no matter how large 

 they may be, they grow to their full size in about twelve or 

 fourteen weeks. On the y r ouug moose, one year old, they 

 are merely short knobs; they increase in size after each 

 annual shedding, and after the fourth year become palmated, 



