FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Feb. 4, 1886. 



TO THE WALLED-IN LAKES. 



IX. — NIGHT IN THE LODGE. 



HPHE wind, which rose again as the sun set, was cold, and 

 as soon as dinner was over we took refuge in the 

 lodge. Sticks were thrown on the smouldering coals of the 

 fire, and Yellowfish, seizing the axe, went out and cut a 

 couple of armfuls of wood, which he brought inside and 

 laid by the door. By this time the pipes and cigarettes were 

 all aglow, and the fire gave out a cheerful warmth, which 

 made the howling gale without, a thiag to be laughed at. We 

 lay back on our comfortable beds, with our feet stretched 

 out toward the fire, and were just lazy and contented. It 

 was too soon after dinner to talk, and we quietly enjoyed the 

 warmth and listened to the raging of the wind, and the rat- 

 tling of the lodge poles and the flapping of the smoke shield, 

 and sent up clouds of fragrant tobacco smoke. The lines of 

 fishes drying above our heads swung backward and forward 

 as the gale increased, but we felt nothing of its fury. 



"Wind Maker is .hard at work to-night, Appekunny," 

 said I. 



"Yes," he replied, as he glanced toward the half breed, "he 

 lives up here in the Upper Lake. Does he not, Yellowfish ?" 



"Ah," replied the Indian, who was staring hard at the fire 

 as he sucked at his pipe. 



"It is rather curious," continued Appekunny in an aside 

 to me, "that the Pegunny seem to have placed the cart before 

 the horse in their belief with regard to this god. You know 

 that Wind Maker lives under the water, at the bottom of 

 lakes." Then louder, "The Pegunny say that when he 

 wishes to make the wind blow, he first makes the waves, and 

 that as they roll along they make the wind. Is it not so, 

 Yellowfish?" 



"Ah," said the Indian. 



"He is strong in these mountains," said I. "All the time 

 the wind blows. We have veiy bad luck. Our medicine is 

 not strong. Tell me, Appekunny," I continued, "about 

 the Medicine Rock on the Marias. How far has it moved 

 since you have known it?" 



"Once," he replied, "it was at the top of the bluff, but 

 that was many years ago. Since I have known it, it has only 

 moved two or three feet. Some years it moves more than 

 others. It all depends on how fast the bluff wears away in 

 the weather. The slope being gradual, the rock moves 

 slowly. The Pegunny think that it is alive, and, as you 

 have seen, make presents to it." 



We had passed this rock on our way from the Marias, a 

 huge, reddish boulder of sandstone, two-thirds the way up 

 the face of a sloping hill on the north bank of the Marias 

 River, and strewn on the soil about it were the decaying 

 remnants of presents that had been made to it in the past. 

 Near it I had picked up a pair of brass earrings, a steel 

 finger ring, a little medicine bottle, and an old war eagle 

 feather, the most recent of the offerings. 



"Down on Milk River," said Yellowfish, "behind [east 

 of] the Sweet Grass Hills, is an other Medicine Rock. It 

 looks like a person sitting down ou top of a bluff. The 

 Pegunny worship it. Always when they go by it they give 

 it presents. Sometimes they give it a shirt, and put it on 

 the rock, and then when you look at it it seems more like a 

 person than ever. Over in the mountains to the west there 

 is a pine tree in which is grown a sheep's horn. It is a very 

 pretty horn. Not so very long ago— may be when my father 

 was a young man — the tree was small, so that a man on foot 

 could touch the horn without lifting his hand above his 

 shoulder. But [as the tree grew] it got higher and higher, 

 until it could hardly be reached by a man on horseback. All 

 Indians gave presents to it whenever they went by, but one 

 day a Nez Perce got mad at it and shot it, and pretty soon 

 afterward he died. Some of the Pegunny have seen this 

 horn, and maybe these Kootenays know about it, too." 



"Speaking of religious beliefs," said Appekunny, after a 

 little pause, "reminds me of what old Red Paint said to the 

 priest over at Birch. The priest had just come into the 

 country, and one night he asked a lot of the Indians over to 

 the chapel on Birch Creek to have a talk with them. He 

 wanted, he said, to get them to tell him some of their 

 religious beliefs, and then he was going to tell them about 

 Jesus Christ and try to convert them. He could not speak 

 Piegan, and asked me to come over and interpret for him, 

 instead of the regular interpreter, so that there would be no 

 misunderstanding of any kind. 



"I went over at the appointed time with a lot of the 

 Indians, and more came after us, so that the chapel was 

 pretty full, for, you see, they all wanted to hear the stories 

 that the priest was going to tell. It was the famine winter, 

 and the people were glad enough of any kind of an excite- 

 ment to keep them from thinking of their starving wives and 

 children and of their own gnawing hunger. Among those 

 present was old Red Paint. He is a pretty good talker and 

 has always something to say. 



"After a little preliminary talk the priest asked them to 

 tell him some of their traditions, for he wanted to find out 

 something of what they believed. And afterward,' said he, 

 flwill tell you of my God, and His power and goodness.' 



"Upon that old Red Paint got on his feet and told the 

 story of the bad man who once cached the buffalo and the 

 other game. He said: 



" 'What I tell you now happened long ago. 



" Tn those days the people were hungry. No buffalo and 

 antelope were to be found on the prairies. The deer and elk 

 trails were covered with grass and leaves; not even a rabbit 



could be found in the brush. Then prayed the people, say- 

 ing: "Oh, Old Man! help us now or we die; gone the 

 buffalo and deer; uselessly we kindle the morning fires; use- 

 less are our arrows; our knives stick fast in the sheaths." 



" 'Then went Old Man 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 the Old Man, Is he who has hidden all the 

 buffalo and deer from the people. He has a wife and a little 

 son.' 



"Then went they close to the lodge, and Old Man changed 

 himself into a little dog, and he said, 'That is me.' Then 

 he, the young man, changed himself into a root digger [a 

 carved and painted stick about three feet long, shaped like a 

 sacking needle, used by women to unearth roots], and he 

 said, 'That is me.' 



"Now, the little boy playing about, found the dog, and he 

 carried it to his father, saying, 'Look 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 pick" 

 ing 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.' 



" 'All right,' said her husband, 'but remember, if trouble 

 come, you bring it on yourself and on our son.' Then he 

 sent his wife and son out to pick berries, and when they were 

 out of sight he went and killed a buffalo cow and brought 

 the meat into the lodge and covered it up, and the bones, 

 skin and offal he threw into the creek. When his wife 

 returned he gave ber some of the meat to roast, and when 

 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 ran the dog 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 so many seen. 



"Then came the man 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 1 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 in 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 grabbed 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 original 

 shape and drove the buffalo toward camp. 



"When the people saw the buffalo coming they made a 

 pls-k&n and drove a big band of them into it, 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 an- 

 other way. Every time a band of buffalo was driven near 

 the pis-kSn, 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 who was very hungry, flew down and began to pick 

 at him. Then Old Man grasped it firmly and ran to camp 

 and all the chiefs came 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 over the smoke hole. 



"With the days the raven grew poor and weak and his 

 eyes were blurred with the thick smoke, and he cried con- 

 tinually to Old Man to pity him. One day Old Man untied 

 him and told him to resume his original shape, saying: 'Why 

 have you tried to fool Old Man? Look at me! I cannot die. 

 Look at me! Of all people 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 child, and when you are hungry hunt like 

 any one else or you shall die.' 



" 'And new,' concluded Red Paint, 'the white men have 

 cached the buffalo, just like this bad man of whom I have 

 told you, and we have nothing to eat; we are starving. OM,' 

 [that's all], and he sat down. 



"The priest had listened attentively, and he now rose and 

 said : 'My brethren, your condition is a very hard one, and 

 I am heartily sorry for you; but although you have nothing 

 to eat, and your people are, as you say, starving, you have 



still Jesus Christ, and I am here to tell you about him.' I 

 interpreted this, and as I finished old Red Paint sprang to 

 his feet, and, raising his hand to enforce silence, he said, 

 sternly, 'That ain't grub,' and stalked out of the room. It 

 was a good while before I could get my face straight enough 

 to tell the priest what he had said, and when I did so he 

 seemed to feel mighty badly about it." 



It was impossible not to see the comical side to this story, 

 and we roared over it until our shouts of laughter drowned 

 even the noise of the wind without. Then I proposed to 

 Yellowfish to tell us another story of the Pegunny, and asked 

 him to relate it slowly, so that Appekunny might translate it 

 literally as it was told, and I could take down the words 

 just as they were spoken. 



In his interesting papers on "Life Among the Blackfeet" 

 Mr. Schultz has indicated the position in the mythology of 

 this people occupied by Napi, or Old Man. This deity is 

 the most powerful of the Blackfoot gods after the Sun, but 

 is at the same time so malicious, and so short-sighted and 

 foolish that he is continually doing mean things to those 

 with whom he comes in contact, and is forever getting 

 himself into scrapes. A little persuasion induced Yellowfish 

 to comply with my request, and, laying aside his pipe, he 

 sat up and prepared to talk. I give his stories as they fell 

 from his lips. He said : 



"That I told you about, far behind. That Old Man. Long 

 ago women told me ; long ago they were apart, women one 

 place, men another. Old Man went about. First place, 

 many men they stayed. He went, Old Man. Found two 

 women, go to buffalo piskan. He found those women. 

 Their lying down. He come there, those two women. 

 Lying down, those two persons, women. He come one 

 woman, take her person. One woman, he take her. When 

 run, hit him nose. Much blood. Other woman run coulee. 

 Far off, let fall one woman. Much hurt him nose, Old 

 Man. When let go one woman hunt other, Old Man not 

 find. Say 'Again lie as before those two women.' Big fool 

 Old Man. OM." 



This is a free translation of the story as told: "What I tell 

 you happened long ago. This story is about Old Man. 

 Long ago the women told me that in ancient times men and 

 women were apart. The women lived in one place, the men 

 in another. Old Man was traveling about, and first he came 

 to a place where many men lived and stopped there some 

 time, and then he went on his way. As he was going along 

 he saw two women going to a buffalo corral. When he came 

 near them they [were very much frightened, probably they 

 had never before seen a man and] lay down flat on their 

 backs. Old Man came up to them and found them lying so 

 [and supposed them dead]. One of them he took up in his 

 arms and carried with him. [She was limp with fright and] 

 as he ran along her knees flew up and struck his nose, and 

 Old Man bled a great deal. When he went away the other 

 woman got up and ran off into a coulee. When Old Man 

 had gone a good way. lie let fall the woman he was carrying, 

 for his nose hurt him very much, and went back to get the 

 other woman, but he could not find her. Meautime the one 

 he had been carrying had got up and run off. So he lost 

 them both. Old Man said, 'Just you lie there again you two 

 women, and see if I don't get you both.' So Old Man was 

 made a big fool. That's all." Yellowfish seemed to greatly 

 enjoy the discomfiture of Old Man and we laughed in 

 sympathy with him as he chuckled over the god's misfortunes. 

 After a little he continued : 



"Going along Old Man came to big lodge, woman's home. 

 Went in. Said women, 'Do you think you have man for 

 marry [us]?' He said, 'Who is chief here?' Woman said 

 [pointing], 'That woman behind, chief." He said, 'To-mor- 

 row come coulee those women. Will be in coulee that 

 Piegan, fine wearing apparel his, like weasel skin trimmed 

 leggings, very handsome his wearing apparel.' Said 

 chief woman, 'Wait. I first chief woman, I first take 

 man.' That woman not nice her person; make dried 

 meat; all bad her wearing apparel. That woman come 

 coulee. Many men. Old Man in middle, fine dressed, 

 weasel skin leggings. That chief woman sees Old Man, 

 she let go, went back women. Said, 'Those persons 

 take; fine dressed man middle, not take, him mine.' 

 Fix nice wearing apparel that woman. Nice her wearing 

 apparel. Went coulee. Went look for man those women. 

 Old Man stay far back. Those women take men, take all 

 men their lodges. One stop yet, Old Man, That chief 

 woman said, 'Old Man, think I fool. Now we make buffalo 

 piskan Old Man, going to [be] pine tree. Now he is fooled 

 Old Man, not woman! When first that way, before find 

 women men, men make buffalo shank moccasins. When 

 women theirs, then make men all good wearing apparel. 



om: " 



Turned into the vernacular this story is as follows: 

 "As Old Man was going along, he came to a big lodge 

 which was the woman's home. He went in. The women 

 said to him, 'Do you think that you have men for husbands 

 for us?' He said, 'Who is chief here?' A woman replied, 

 'That woman behind is chief.' He said to the chief woman, 

 'To-morrow let those women come to the coulee. A Piegan 

 will be there, finely dressed, with leggings trimmed with 

 weasel skin ; very handsome is his wearing apparel. ' The 

 chief woman replied, Let the others wait. I am first chief 

 woman, I will be the first to take a husband.' Now Old 

 Man wanted very much to have the chief woman for his 

 wife, although she did not look nicely. She had been i&ak- 



