THE POOR BOY AND THE MUD PONIES. 123 
31. THE POOR BOY AND THE MUD PONIES.’ 
A long time ago there were no horses. Dogs were the only animals 
that helped the people carry their burdens from one place to another. 
_ In those times there was a very poor boy in the village. He went from 
one tipi to another trying to get something to eat. Sometimes he was 
chased out, but at other times he was taken in and fed. 
Once in a great while he would go into the lodge of the chief, and 
when the chief would see him he would feel sorry for him and sometimes 
he would give him moccasins; at other times he would give him leggings. 
Some people would speak against the boy and try to keep the chief from 
giving him any presents, but the chief would say: ‘‘Tirawa knows that 
this boy is living. As he is growing up he will watch over him and the 
boy may some day rule over us.’’ But the people laughed at the chief 
for saying this. 
The boy had a dream about ponies. He thought that two ponies 
were dropped down from the heavens and that they were for him. He 
so plainly saw the ponies in his dream that he knew their shape, and how 
their tails and manes looked. Often when the people broke camp and 
traveled along he would stay behind and would take mud and make 
ponies. Then he would place the ponies in his robe and follow the peo- 
ple. Before he would arrive at the village he would place the two mud 
ponies outside of the village. He would go into the village and go from 
tipi to tipi trying to get something toeat. Wherever he got a chance to 
stay over night, he would lie down in the tipi. Early in the morning he 
would go to where his mud ponies were. Then he would take the mud 
ponies down to the creek and pretend that they were drinking. He did 
this for many months, until the people had returned to their permanent 
village. Then he took the mud ponies down from where they stood, 
carried them a long way from the village, and stood them by a pond. 
He would go away and stay for a while and then return and make 
believe the ponies needed water. Then he would take them to where 
there was good grass and place them there. 
One night the boy entered the lodge of the chief. The chief gave 
him something to eat and also a place to sleep. That night the boy had 
a dream. He thought that Tirawa had opened the sky and dropped 
two ponies for him. Then he thought in his dream that he heard Tirawa 
singing and he remembered well the song, for when he awoke he went out 
from the lodge and went up on a high hill, and there he sang the song. 
1Told by Little-Chief, Pitahauirat. This is a variant of a well-known Plains 
tale and tells of the origin of the chief’s society. 
