HAWK SLAYS THE FIRE-KEEPER. 199 
being, and took the fire and threw it through the sky in different places, 
saying: ‘You shall do my bidding. Warriors shall carry you and you 
shall help to kill the enemy.’’ All the stars then received light. 
Then the young man went to the east. When he had journeyed all 
over the country the animals cried to him and said: ‘‘ You have done good 
work. The Fire-Keeper is gone. He can not burn us any more.’’ 
When he lay down in the night the owls hooted round him to let him 
know they were guarding him. On the way to his brother’s, birds of all 
kinds gathered together upon a certain hill and waited for him. When he 
came there the birds one at a time spoke to him, and said: ‘‘ You shall be 
always present with the people, for you married among them.- You shall 
also be known as the Warrior-Bird. Your right wing you shall use asa 
club to kill small birds for yourself to eat.’’ Hawk was satisfied with the 
sayings of the birds. 
He returned to his brother’s tipi. He went with his brother to the 
village. They told the father-in-law that when they died the people 
would place their skins in a bundle, so that young men might remember 
to carry the hawk and corn with them when they went out upon the war- 
path. The priests (owls) were always to remain at home to watch over 
the people. 
56. THE SINGING HAWK.* 
In olden times, when the Pawnee first went on a buffalo hunt, it was 
customary for most of the young women of the tribe to go to the priest’s 
tipi and build a grass-lodge for him, for in the grass-lodge were to be 
held meetings by the old men of the tribe. <A grass-lodge was given to 
the first people who were put upon the earth. Whenever a grass-lodge 
was completed it was customary for the young women of the tribe to 
take mush in wooden bowls to the priest’s lodge, so that the old men 
would have something to eat while they sat in their lodge to sing the 
bundle songs and pray that the buffalo might be near. 
It was in these meetings in the grass-lodge that the old people told 
wonderful stories about how the people called the buffalo, or how a coy- 
ote scared the buffalo toward a village. In their story-telling they also 
told of the being who stands in the north and with its breath sends the 
buffalo to the people. They told many coyote stories, for these stories, 
_ although not real, would have the effect of bringing them good luck and 
1 Told by Thief, Kitkehahki. This tale is of special interest on account of the 
song, which really represents a ritual formerly chanted after opening the bundle 
when on a buffalo hunt. The ritual, however, does not form an intrinsic part of 
any bundleceremony. Thetale was simply told along with the chanting of the ritual 
in the hope that it might draw the buffalo nearer the camp. 
